The bloody brand

A wealthy Venetian merchant was murdered in the Golden Goose Inn in the Horse Market. Jakub Protiva, the tax collector, discovers a strange bloody mark on the body of the dead man, which probably means something. The search for the perpetrator or perpetrators of this murder takes the New Town mayor and his friend Blasio far beyond the walls of Prague to a castle on the Sázava River. Since their arrival, strange things have been happening. How are they related to the dead Venetian? And what are these mysterious riders that appear in the surrounding woods at night? According to the castle's chaplain and a former classmate of Blasio's, the castle's owners, whose ancestor once took part in the Crusade to the Holy Land, have a family curse. Is it just a rumor, or does it have a kernel of truth?