"Eternal Light" by Andrzej Sapkowski, summary

The pages unfold a grim picture of the decline of the Hussite movement, where the ideals of the reformers are drowned in the filth of robbery, greed, and brutal reprisals. This historical novel with mystical elements was published in 2006. The author dedicated the narrative to the memory of translator Yevgeny Weisbrot.

This book is the third volume of the Reynevan Saga trilogy. The series began with the novel "The Tower of Fools," continued with "God’s Warriors," and concluded with this work.

Curse and running in circles

In early 1429, Bishop Konrad of Wrocław excommunicated Reinmar of Bielawa. The clergy declared the physician a heretic. The former student had secretly entered Wrocław to rescue his kidnapped fiancée, Jutta Apoldowna. Canon Otto Beess advised extreme caution among spies and informers.

In the city bathhouse, Reynevan was captured by the inquisitor Lukáš Božičko. After bloodying him with a razor, the envoy forced the fugitive to persuade field commander Jan Královec to lift the siege of Strzegom. Reynevan arrived at the Hussite camp. The Czech warriors had indeed broken camp due to winter fatigue.

City guards tracked Reynevan down at Salt Square. The stranger feigned plague and scared off the guards by spitting blood. Reynevan ran to rescue the gifted steed, falling into the clutches of Gebhard Ungerath’s mercenaries. The captive was taken to the Olsa River to be exchanged for the captured knights.

A fight broke out at the crossing. The Moravian lord Jan of Kravare suddenly defected to the Chaša faction, capturing Ungerat’s mercenaries. Reynevan gained his freedom thanks to the Hussite intelligence commander, Urban Horn.

Secrets of Sovinec Castle

Gorn’s detachment escorted the captive Bruno Schilling to the mountain fortress of Sovinetz. This cutthroat belonged to the Black Company of the sorcerer Birkart Grellenort, who had killed Reynevan’s brother. That night, a scout suddenly slashed Reynevan’s ear with a knife.

Horn interrogated the captured mercenary in the castle chambers. Schilling gave a detailed account of the Sensenberg stronghold, his use of hashish, and the magical poison "Perferro," which kills its bearer with any wound from ordinary iron. The scout confessed to a blood feud with Bishop Konrad for the burning of the Beguine mother. Reinmar refused to participate in someone else’s vengeance.

Horn decided to lock the healer in the basement. Charley and Samson Medok appeared. The friends overpowered the guards and freed Reynevan. Outside the gates, the fugitives were intercepted by Heitman Prokop the Naked. The Supreme Leader was suffering from a severe attack of lumbago. Reynevan treated the leader’s back with healing ointments and charms, receiving orders to accompany the preacher Bedřich of Strážnice to secret negotiations in Upper Silesia.

Road through ashes

Bedřich led a detachment through Ratibor disguised as Prussian merchants. Representatives of the Fugger banking house agreed to grant the Hussites a huge secret loan in exchange for burning Saxon mines. In a dark alley, Reynevan was overtaken by the inquisitor Božičko. Suddenly, a black-haired horsewoman, Rixa Cartafila de Fonseca, emerged from the shadows, revealing herself to be the royal informant of the Polish monarch, Władysław Jagiełło.

In Hłohówk, Prince Bolko Voloszek solemnly swore allegiance to the Four Articles of Prague of the Hussites. The delighted ruler received communion with bread and wine.

On the way back, the detachment encountered Bruno Schilling, who had fled Sovinets. A brief skirmish ensued. Without hesitation, Charley hacked the assassin to death with a heavy falchion.

Reynevan and Rixa went to Jawor to see Rabbi Maisel Nachman. That night, the house was besieged by stormtroopers from the Magdeburg Inquisition. An old Jew brought a clay golem to life, which tore the attackers to shreds. The rabbi delivered important news. A similar massacre of an undesirable girl had previously occurred in Bolesławiec, from where traces led to the Marienstern Monastery.

Reinmar rode to Bolesławiec. The city was stormed by the Taborites of Jakub of Březowice, who carried out a monstrous massacre of the inhabitants. The widow of Mayor Wirid confirmed Jutta’s presence at the Lusatian monastery. Reinmar rushed to Marienstern, a full month late.

Date at the Windmill

In the winter of 1429–1430, a massive Hussite campaign unfolded across the lands of Saxony and Thuringia. Jutta was able to leave the Kronschwitz monastery with her companion, Veronica von Oelsnitz, thanks to the young scholar Nicholas of Cusa.

The Hussite troops approached the full-flowing Mulda River. Božičko surprised Reynevan at the wagons, demanding the exact crossing point under threat of immediate execution of the captive. Reynevan named Kessern. The Czech vanguard, led by Jan Zmrzlík, crossed the river and routed the Lusatian knights. Božičko passed on a note with the girl’s true hiding place.

Reynevan, Sharley, Samson, and Rixa rushed to search. Grellenort tracked Jutta to the abandoned village before the rescuers. The sorcerer inflicted a deadly corpse infection on her neck with the claw of a mummified demon’s paw.

The friends arrived and burst into the barn. Samson uprooted a supporting beam, burying the enemy horsemen beneath the collapsed roof. Dutsu von Puck was sucked into the windmill’s gears. Grellenort flew away as a black bird.

Jutta was dying painfully from plague wounds and internal fever. Samson performed the Cathar rite of forgiveness over the dying woman. Reynevan pressed a magical amulet of an easy death to his beloved’s temple, sparing her from hours of agony.

The Fall of Ideals

In February 1430, the assault on the city of Cheb began. A piercing child’s cry came from a burning hut. Samson threw himself into the flames and rescued ten terrified orphans. Warriors on both sides stood frozen in profound respect before the giant’s feat. A sudden shot from a window ended Samson’s life. The giant’s body collapsed in the mud. Reynevan sank into complete despair.

Two months later, Reinmar joined the gang of Prince Feodor Ostrogski. The bandits carried out a sacrilegious raid on the Pauline monastery on Jasna Góra in Częstochowa. The bandits plundered the treasury and smashed the miraculous icon of the Mother of God for its gold frame. Reinmar attempted to defend the relic, receiving dozens of sabre blows from his accomplices.

Krakow Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki arrived at the ashes with his retinue. The prelate slashed the Virgin’s face twice with a cleaver, creating a bloody symbol of the people’s hatred for heretics, after which he hid the mutilated Reynevan in the dungeons of Lełow Castle.

The prisoner spent exactly four years in the damp darkness. Rixa and Charley ransomed the prisoner in the spring of 1434 with gold from the captured Fugger convoy. Charley left for the East.

Reynevan set off for Bohemia for the final battle. At the Battle of Lipany on May 30, 1434, an army of moderate Chalice-keepers and Catholic lords utterly routed the Taborites. Prokop the Naked fell among the wagons. Reynemar fled the battlefield.

The fugitive obtained a complex toad poison in Prague to exact revenge on Grellenort. On a bridge in Wrocław, young Sibylla, the daughter of the murdered Peterlin, suddenly shot the sorcerer with an iron bullet from a squeaker. The Perferro poison in the sorcerer’s veins instantly activated. The dying executioner fell into the waters of the Oder like a misshapen bird.

Reynevan finally renounced violence and came to the Skalka estate to see Elenche Stetenkron.