"Stephen. Gawain. ”

The tax collector Fiobis grunted, and wrote the name of the apparently barbarian in the Greek script of the roster.

Peter walked up to Gawain with a sad and uneasy face, "You are my armed squire, if you serve the army of the Roman Empire in the place of this village, then how can I return to the land of the Franks?" ”

"There is no way around it, and doesn't the Lord also demand justice and righteousness? You must not watch all the people of this village be destroyed at the hands of this shameless and odious tax collector. To be honest, Gawain also made this decision out of some impulse, but he felt that in this situation, he was the only one who could save everyone, and he did not have any remorse.

"You can only save them for a year, not even less, this village will be destroyed sooner or later, whether it is the exploitation of the emperor's tax collectors, famine and pestilence, the plundering of the Turks, or the decline of nature, may the Lord have mercy." Peter sighed, drawing a cross on his chest, "Then I can be your retinue, go with you to the barracks, and wait for the end of this war, if our fate is great, and then return to the land of the Franks, and answer the call of the Lord to make an armed pilgrimage to the holy place of dreams, a long-cherished wish of a lifetime." ”

Hearing this, Gawain couldn't laugh or cry a little, he really couldn't understand the fearlessness and persistence of people like Peter in these years, "You are old, you might as well stay in this village and help the villagers complete the icon painting, I am a person with a big fate, and when the battle is over, I will come back to you, and I will never break my word." ”

At this moment, there was a sharp and murderous roar, and everyone was stunned, and they turned their eyes to look, but saw that above the high ridge behind the village, a black shadow quickly swept over the white peak, rushed to the sky above the village like an arrow, and then circled twice over the heads of the people, and then fell lower and lower, and landed very lightly on a rafter that stretched out from the church, and closed its wings like a samurai with a cloak.

The bird turned its head in an instant, its pale gray eyes were incomparably sharp, and looked condescendingly at the poor creatures standing under the church, its dark feathers spread out like swords, like kings in the air, and the fowls in the village instinctively felt the coming of predators, and screamed noisily, and soon they all fled into the chicken coop, not daring to make a sound again.

In the cold wind, Gawain saw that it was an extremely beautiful and solemn falcon, and he saw the eyes of this most proud bird, and he was completely fascinated by it.

"Quick, go grab some meat, come and entertain the envoy of this noble man's flat feathers, it must have been raised by some grand duke or high nobleman!" Fiobis shouted excitedly, waving the whip in his hand, urging the villagers that he would not miss any opportunity to climb to the top, that some terrible general or bureaucrat had come to inspect the terrain of Prusa with a marching party, and that he must do his job of hospitality.

"But," said a young villager, trembling and pointing to the proud falcon, "I went to the Emir of Nicaea's grange last year to secretly do a day labor, and the lock of white feathers on the head of this eagle seems to be the eagle of Emir Zahas!" ”

"What!?" Feobis screamed, Zahaas's eagle actually flew here, could it be that this emir had already pounced with his army? The tax collector no longer spoke of hospitality, but flew into his brick house, and never came out, as if to pack up his slack, and prepare to flee to the city of Prussa, with its towers and walls, which was much safer than this poor country.

"It's coming, it's coming." Another villager pointed to the winding mountain road overhead, and under the flying hoarfrost, a group of men in gray-black cloaks, riding horses also clad in cloth armor, were hurrying towards it, and the gravel kicked by the horses' hooves kept rolling down the hillside, making the sound of a squirrel.

"Take out the meat from the cellar and the well." When a few villagers took out the meat according to his instructions, the elder immediately divided the meat, one table was filled with fresh meat from the well, and the other table was filled with cured meat stored in the cellar, and then the elder immediately put on the crumpled formal dress and led all the villagers to kneel down in front of the falcon, "Hey, you guys go quickly!" Take advantage of the cavalry to come here, run to Prusa as soon as possible, don't worry about us, the Turks will not kill those who have scriptures at will, not to mention the eagle that pleases the emir is to please the emir himself. ”

"Hurry up, hurry up." The Pecheneg cavalryman and Peter both took Gawain by the arm and urged him to hurry on the road, and one of the villagers ran to bring Peter a little donkey.

But Gawain's eyes were fixed on the group of men and horses that came in a hurry, and then he broke free from the pull of the two, brought a ladder, and quickly climbed to the top of the church, and the falcon standing on the rafters turned his head to see Gawain who was close at hand, and thought to himself, how could this person be so bold and dare to approach the noble me? Then he angrily chirped and intimidated, "Go down, go down!" Standing obediently with those ignorant creatures with the same legs as you, I don't need you to come and worship, my lord, it's so close to me, it's really presumptuous. ”

But Gawain ignored it, which made it lonely for a moment, Gawain carefully stepped on the tiles, held on to the gable of the church, and then he shouted, "You can see clearly, the horses and cloaks of those people are embroidered with the shape of a cross, it should not be the Turkic cavalry of the Crescent Religion, let's not run away indiscriminately!" ”

Half an hour later, the horse, with the bridles of their mounts, came slowly to the entrance under the church in the village, and then the leader jumped off his horse, stood in place and drew a cross with his hand in front of the church, and then shouted in a somewhat stiff Greek language, "Is there a priest, we need to worship." ”

Then in the wind, the leader made a move, and the falcon on the rafters made another long cry, and flew down obediently, and landed on the leader's arm, causing him to laugh, and then with his other hand he lifted his cloak and hat, revealing the deer hair fluttering on his shawl, and the shining armor, the man had a very fair face, deep sunken eyes, a high nose, hair and beard of that crimson color, and cold and deep eyes.

"We are all pilgrims to the Holy Land, Normans from Taranto." He introduced himself as he said so.

Then the cavalry behind also dismounted, lifted their hats, some were bareheaded, some had shaved off the hair of the back half of their heads, and some were covered with loose hair, all with scars, half soldiers and half bandits, with sharp swords on their belts, and chain mail hidden under their cloaks, which jingled.