The Knowledge Stone (31 page)

It was abundantly obvious that her brother had changed and Kati knew it would be best if she kept out of his way: ‘From now on, I’ll just ignore him,’ she resolved, ‘anyway, I have other important problems to deal with. Maybe later he’ll lose his new-found power then I’ll deal with him and his precious clock or whatever it is.’ In fact, Kati’s “other problems” were twofold and she now concentrated her whole mind on these.

First, there was the problem of the pendant. Clearly, if her mother was able to examine the gold chain, she would identify it as belonging to the medallion. In that event, Kati knew that the truth would follow inevitably and she would be fully exposed as the thief. Although in fact the medallion had never been stolen, Kati’s utter selfishness and disregard for her parent’s property would brand her forever as unworthy of her position as a loved and respected daughter. She had spent many hours trying to concoct various explanations to fit the facts of the medallion “theft” but, in the face of what had happened, she knew that none of these were remotely plausible.

‘The only solution is to lose the chain,’ she thought, ‘and I have already said I have done that.’

So Kati decided that she should act immediately to dispose of the chain. However she was unsure about the stone; should she keep it or throw it away with the pendant?

After making sure that no-one could see what she was doing, Kati retrieved the pendant from its hiding place and removed the chain from the stone, experiencing once again that odd jolt as she handled it. She looked at the stone speculatively: ‘Maybe this is a magic stone,’ she thought. ‘Maybe that’s why it makes you feel funny when you touch it. Not many people have a magic stone; I think I’d better keep it, just in case.’ So she wrapped the stone in a piece of cloth and put it into an obscure hiding place in her room. Then she took the gold chain and left her room to walk from the Manor House down to the river. Here, she walked a little way upstream and looked around carefully to see if anyone was in sight. Seeing no-one, she quickly took the gold chain from her pocket and, bunching it into a tight little ball, hurled it into the middle of the river. The chain made no sound as it disappeared into the swiftly-flowing water. Kati smiled: ‘That’s one problem permanently solved!’

Returning to her room, Kati now began to address her second problem – what to do about the stable boy. Her wishes for his punishment had not been fulfilled and she was determined that he was not going to get away with a mere whipping, even although it had been enjoyably severe, plus only 24 hours in the stocks. Kati had attempted to apply proper justice to the situation but her hired assassin had failed to carry out the deserved execution; someone (she knew not who) had prevented her solution from being applied and, as a consequence, the boy was still alive and well. This was completely unsatisfactory and needed to be corrected. She knew she had to act quickly because now that the boy was a convicted criminal, he would surely move away from the area to seek a new life elsewhere. In fact, there was not a moment to lose.

Some hours later, a comprehensive plan had been formulated: ‘This time, I’ll deal with it myself but I still need others to be involved to prepare the stable boy for his meeting with me.’ Kati smiled at the ingenuity of her plan. It took two days to put all the arrangements in place. Kati had been very busy, going several times into the town in the light wagon. At last, the plan was ready to be executed.

So it was that the stable boy received a letter the very next day. Not being able to read, he took it to a kindly shopkeeper and learned that the writer of the letter wished to meet him on the riverside beside the Manor House stable yard at midday the next day. This meeting would be very much to his advantage, the letter said. There was, however, no indication of who the writer might be.

‘Well,’ the stable boy said to himself, ‘I have nothing to lose, have I? Maybe this is someone who can offer me work, perhaps on a remote farm, or somewhere like that.’

The next day, scrubbed clean and dressed in the best clothes he had, the boy walked from the town to present himself at the riverside alongside the wall of the stable yard where he used to work. He arrived there in good time and sat down on a fallen tree trunk to wait for the writer of the letter. He looked sadly at the high wall, remembering how happy he had been when he had worked there. As tears welled up in his eyes, he thought: ‘All that is over. Now I am a criminal convicted of a dastardly crime and no-one wants to have anything to do with me.’

The boy was so engrossed in his reverie that he failed to notice four men approaching from the direction of the town. Suddenly, his arms were pinioned from behind and blows began to rain upon his head and body. The boy was strong and fought back as best as he could but he was soon overcome by the ratio of four to one. Systematically, the men beat him unconscious, stripped him and tied him securely to a tree adjacent to the wall of the stables. Then, having placed a gag in his mouth and fastened it tightly, they disappeared, leaving him totally alone and defenceless.

Time passed. The boy stirred, groaned inaudibly because of the gag and began to regain consciousness. As his eyes opened, he saw a pretty girl sitting on a fallen tree opposite him: ‘I must be dreaming,’ he thought hazily and closed his eyes again. As his consciousness increased, he began to recall what had happened and became aware that he was securely tied to a tree. Looking down, he realised he was naked. Now he looked up again and, sure enough, there was the girl. With considerable shock, he now realised who it was. Miss Kati! He would have spoken the name aloud but could not because of the gag. Kati was watching the boy closely and was pleased to see recognition in his eyes. She rose to her feet and came to stand directly in front of him: ‘Well, my little stable boy, now that you are awake I’m going to punish you properly.’

So began the first part of Kati’s carefully worked-out plan. With long years of practice on the body of her brother, she was of course an expert in pain. The boy’s cries were almost inaudible although, just once, the gag slipped and the boy’s hoarse cry rang out before being cut off by the gag’s rapid replacement. However, Kati was rather disquieted by the way the boy’s eyes never left her face, no matter how much she was hurting him.

There was a disquieting power in these eyes: ‘I could blind him so that he couldn’t look at me. It would be easy enough to do.’ Kati considered this seriously but decided she wanted him to see and be able to anticipate the whole process of his punishment. Thus the boy’s eyesight was saved.

Eventually, Kati’s appetite for torture was sated and she was ready to move on to the second and final part of her plan: ‘Now I am going to kill you, little boy. I’m going to cut your neck and you will bleed to death. It will take a while and I’ll sit here and watch you. You deserve this for the crime you committed against me. Afterwards, I’ll throw your body in the river and it will be carried away downstream. When your body is found, no-one will care that you have died, because you are just a convicted criminal. And certainly no-one will ever suspect me.’ Kati now produced a small knife and twisted his head around to expose the area of the neck below which his carotid artery pulsated strongly.

‘Stop!’ an authoritative voice roared. Having heard the single cry when the gag slipped, the Head Stableman had recognised the boy’s voice and had come through a small door that led from the stable yard to the riverside. Fortuitously, he had been working in the stable yard close to where the door was situated. It took the man only an instant to assess the situation: the naked boy tied to the tree like a sacrifice, the body bruised and bloody in many places – Miss Kati holding his hair with one hand and clutching a small razor-sharp knife with the other, his neck taut and ready to receive the slashing cut that would sever the artery and begin the expiration of his life.

‘No, Stop,’ the Head Stableman repeated as loudly as he could.

A silence of suspended animation as Kati looked directly into the eyes of the Head Stableman. Then a rapid movement of her hand as she drove the knife into the boy’s neck, releasing a powerful spurt of blood.

The scene exploded into action.

The Head Stableman rushed forward with a hoarse cry. Kati dropped the knife and streaked away towards the riverside entrance of the Manor House, plunging through the deep undergrowth beside the stable yard wall. The bound boy strained at his bonds with blood pouring from the ugly wound in his neck. The ground was turning dark with his blood.

The Head Stableman reached the boy as quickly as he could. With one hand, he jerked the gag from his mouth before tearing at the ropes that bound him to the tree. His other hand pressed on the gaping wound in his neck.

‘Lord God, let it not be cut.’ A prayer thought, not spoken. The man knew if the carotid artery was severed, the blood flow could not be stopped and the boy would die.

Releasing the boy from the ropes, the man lowered him to the ground and immediately examined the wound minutely. To his great relief, he saw that both the carotid artery and the jugular vein were intact. Although the wound was deep, by good fortune the knife had not caused fatal damage. Gratefully, he cradled the boy in his arms and said: ‘You will survive. She did not succeed in cutting your artery. You will recover from this.’

‘She did it. Now I remember.’ The boy was whispering in an urgent tone.

‘What are you saying, boy?’ The Head Stablemen spoke gently.

‘She wounded the horse. Below the saddle. There was an old block of wood with long rusty nails driven deeply into the horse’s back. I saw her lifting the saddle and pulling the nails out, all dripping with blood. I saw her throwing the nails over the stable yard wall. It was horrible. She did it. That’s why the horse was out of control. It was wounded and in very great pain. She had caused that pain deliberately.’ His voice faded away as his consciousness diminished.

After some time, the Head Stableman managed to diminish the blood flow from the boy’s neck and it became possible to move him. The man stripped off his own tunic and shirt and wrapped them around the slight body to keep it warm. Then he lifted the boy in his arms and began to walk towards the riverside gate to the Manor House, where he would seek help. As he walked, he suddenly heard the sound of weeping and, peering through the deep undergrowth in front of the stable yard wall, he saw Kati sitting on the ground.

‘Miss Kati,’ he called, ‘what has happened to you?’ Kati stopped weeping: ‘You,’ she called imperiously, ‘Never mind about that stupid criminal boy, he does not matter. Drop him there on the ground. Go immediately to the Manor House and bring my nanny here to me. If you do not obey me immediately I will tell my father to whip you severely.’

The man stepped closer to the girl and was able to see exactly what had happened. As Kati ran through the undergrowth next to the stable wall, she had trodden heavily on something that was concealed in the deep grass. Now the spikes of two very large rusty nails protruded from the top of her right shoe, having entered the sole of the shoe and been driven by her own weight right through the foot it contained. The nails were fixed to a very old and rotten piece of wood, which was now fastened snugly to the sole of her shoe.

The Head Stableman was an intelligent and loyal man who had worked for the Master for many years, starting as a boy and rising to the highest position in the stables. He had always been unfailingly grateful to the Master for his tutelage and support. He had developed a strong belief in obedience towards his superiors and he applied this not only to his direct employer, the Master, but also to the other members of his family and any guests who visited the Manor House. Even the extraordinary nature of what he had just witnessed today would not have altered these deep-seated beliefs. Thus, there is no doubt that the Head Stableman, in loyalty to his employer, would have obeyed the commands of his daughter, no matter how rude and unpleasant she had been to him.

But something had happened. Something that had changed him radically. As the Head Stableman had approached Kati, he found his normal thought processes altered. Looking at her impassively, his brain processed the recent series of events at lightning speed: It was obvious that Kati, the daughter of the Master, had arranged for the stable boy to be attacked by town ruffians hired by her, beaten unconscious, stripped, gagged and tied to a tree in a remote area where few people walked. Clearly, these assailants had been given very precise instructions about what they were to do. – after he had been left alone, trussed up and unconscious, she had come to him and, when he had recovered consciousness, subjected him to an extended period of extreme pain and severe torture. The man knew this because he had heard the boy’s cry when the gag slipped; also, the ugly bruises, abrasions and cuts on his body were clear proof of what had happened to him.– she had then attempted to murder him by cutting the artery in his neck. He had seen this with his own eyes. Had she not been interrupted by his call, it is very likely she would have succeeded; she would have kept hacking away within his neck until the artery was severed.– in her flight, she had badly injured her foot by standing on large rusty nails which were protruding dangerously from an old rotten piece of wood. He now knew that these were the same nails she had used to injure (and indirectly kill) her horse. He remembered the pattern of the wounds on the horse’s back and linked this positively to what the stable boy had told him a short time ago; after pulling the wood and nails from the horse’s flesh, the boy had said she had thrown the horrific item over the stable wall; it would have fallen into this exact area of undergrowth.

The Head Stableman had experience of many people penetrating their flesh with rusty nails. This was recognised in the community as one of the main hazards of life. It was common knowledge that these accidents led to the “lockjaw”, a serious and extremely unpleasant illness from which most infected people died. Before death, they suffered weeks of severe illness, during which their bodies were often locked in agonising rigidity. The physicians and barber surgeons who tended to the ills of the people in these days recommended immediate action when such injuries occurred; the sooner the penetrating item was removed from the flesh, the greater the chance of survival.

For many centuries, it was thought that the illness was caused by the action of rusted iron within the wounded flesh; indeed, five more centuries passed before nineteenth century scientists found the cause to be a type of anaerobic bacteria which are able to develop and live in such environments; once transferred to a wound, the bacterium multiplies rapidly and the neurotoxins it releases cause the symptoms of tetanus (lockjaw) to develop.