"Look! Open your eyes and look!" Gustav's voice echoed across the square, drowning out the surrounding clamor. "This is your former master! Your official lord! Usually he strutted around like a decent man, throwing his weight around! He scraped the fat from our land and drank our blood! And now? He's kneeling in front of me like a dead dog!"
A wave of laughter, cheers, and curses rose all around. Many of the ragged, sallow-faced "Righteous Army" who had just been through slaughter and looting, along with the civilians forced to gather there, had complicated lights flickering in their eyes: the delight of hatred finally repaid, fear of violence, and a twisted excitement, as though they were seeing their "natural enemy" trampled underfoot.
Henry kept his eyes shut in agony, tears mingling with snot as they streamed all over his face, his body shaking like a dead leaf in the wind.
Gustav let go, allowing him to collapse limply to the ground.
He took a step back and patted nonexistent dust from his hands, as if he had just touched something filthy.
He swept his gaze around, over faces that were frenzied, numb, or fearful, until at last it landed on the noble banner trampled in the mud.
He slowly raised his foot, then brought it down again, heavily and viciously!
This time, he put his whole body into it, grinding the exquisite Griffin Emblem, together with the frozen earth beneath the flagpole, into the foul mixture of mud and snow!
"From this day on!" he shouted with all the breath in his chest, his voice like a broken gong, yet carrying a savage, unquestionable force as it exploded over the square thick with blood and fire.
"Fellan Bridge belongs to me, Gustav! The grain and valuables here all belong