The Knowledge Stone

by Jack McGinnigle

  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, peer
ing 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.

  Although this procession of thoughts through the Head Stableman’s brain took only an instant, Kati was screaming at him again: ‘Go! What are you waiting for, you stupid man? I will certainly have you whipped for this. I will tell my father to cast you out of the Manor House. I will see to it that you die a beggar.’

  Still the man did not move, his eyes fixed on hers: ‘No.’ This single word spoken quietly.

  ‘What!’ Kati was dumbfounded. ‘You disobey my command? Now you are finished here. I will speak to my father immediately I see him.’

  Silence. Then the man spoke again: ‘You may do what you wish, Miss Kati. When I see the Master, I will certainly tell him what you have done today.’

  With that, the Head Stableman turned around and, with the boy in his arms, walked to the riverside gate and disappeared within.

  The following weeks and months were times of exceptional trauma at the Manor House. On that first day, the Head Stableman took the injured boy to his rooms at the stables and sent for a physician to attend to his injuries. That evening, it was discovered that Kati was missing and an extensive search commenced. When it became clear that she was not within the immediate grounds of the Manor House, the search extended to the areas outside the gates and it was then that Kati was found, still lying in the undergrowth beside the stable wall, unable to move because of the severe injury to her foot. The physician and the surgeon barber were summoned to the Manor House and, in due course, the nails were removed from her foot.

  Despite the application of the best medical treatments, Kati began to show the symptoms of lockjaw five days later and this developed into the full-blown disease. She spent the next weeks in various stages of horrific rigidity as the disease took its course. However, because she was a young, strong girl and perhaps because she was receiving the best medical treatments that fourteenth-century medicine could devise, eventually she began to recover slowly. Nevertheless it was many weeks later before she could begin to walk and it was then apparent that the lockjaw plus the injury to her foot had left her with a serious limp. Meanwhile, the other young patient continued to be in the care of the Head Stableman and some trusted workers at the stables. The boy healed quite quickly but was left with a large ugly scar on his neck.

  The trauma at the Manor House was not confined to injury and illness. The day following the awful events on the riverbank, the Head Stableman requested a meeting with the Master and intimated that he needed to discuss a series of very serious matters. The spur for this initiative was the presence of the injured boy in his rooms; if the boy was to recover there, he must seek the Master’s permission. After all, in the eyes of the law, the boy was convicted of a serious assault crime against his Master’s daughter. However, the Head Stableman remembered that the Master had promised to support his plea for lenience in Court; this suggested that he was sympathetic towards the boy. Of course the man was unaware of the Master’s unsettling conversation with his daughter which was the true origin of his note to the judge.

  The Master received the Head Stableman in his private room that evening.

  ‘Master, I am sorry to bring this report to you,’ the Head Stableman began, ‘but it is right that you should be aware of the truth of the terrible events that have happened here. Will you permit me to speak the truth?’

  ‘Yes, you may speak and I would welcome the truth, however terrible.’

  So the Head Stableman spoke of the events of the previous day; how he had heard the boy’s cry, how he had investigated, what he had seen and what had happened thereafter; how, by good fortune, the wound had not been fatal. He told how he had eventually been able to stem
the flow of blood. He had then brought the boy to his own livings and called for medical help. Finally, he produced Kati’s blood-stained knife and placed it on the Master’s table: ‘This is the knife she used, Master. She dropped it on the ground as she ran away.’

  There was silence as the Master looked sadly at the knife. Then the Head Stableman spoke once more: ‘Master, I seek your permission to keep the boy with me until he is well.’

  ‘I give you that permission,’ the Master said, ‘and thank you for all that you have told me. You may leave me now. We will speak further about the boy after he recovers.’

  The Master sat at his desk for a long time with his eyes closed. At last, he stood up and went to the room of his young son and found him studying by the window. ‘You have heard what has happened?’

  ‘Nanny told me that Kati is injured and in danger of the lockjaw illness.’

  ‘This is true. She stepped upon some rusty nails on the riverbank and now she is in the hands of the physician. But this is not why I came to speak to you, Son. I have some questions to ask you.’

  ‘Ask, Father, and I will tell you the truth if I know it.’

  ‘My questions are about Kati, Son. When you were younger, did she ever attack you, hurt you?’

  The boy was silent for a time, head bowed, his mind racing with memories. Eventually he replied, speaking hesitantly: ‘Yes Father, I regret to say that she did. Often. When I was very little and learned to speak, no-one would believe me when I said she hurt me; in fact my nanny and sometimes my Mother punished me for suggesting it. So I soon learned to take the hurt and say nothing.’