Scene 1
A small lake in the sand

Some pull a cart loaded with small stones to a small pool and take off their hats. Below them lies a tombstone made of Swedish granite. A knight with his hands resting on the hilt of his sword smiles up at them from the depths of the pool. The water is that clear here.

Father:
The Crusader’s grave. He founded our clan. He returned from the Holy Land and married the worst looking girl from the fishing village.

Arno:
Poor man, he ended up at the bottom.

Father:
He wanted to be able to see the gulf, but over time the sea came to him by itself. We have to cover him up so that those animals don’t find him…

They begin throwing sand into the pool, and the stone face and the knight’s smile disappear.

Arno:
Now he won’t be resurrected, Dad.

The bottom of the pool settles…snowflakes are beginning to drift in the wind.

Father:
He didn’t die, Arno. And he won’t while we’re alive. Now you are the last in the line of our family…

Scene 2
A lord’s manor

On the wall a shield is lit up by candles like Menetekel, with the same cross as the Knights of the Sword.

Title: WINTER 1939!

The remaining people at the table have begun to look like wraiths, the furniture has been covered up in readiness for their departure.

Mother, reading from the bible:
…in those days people will seek death, but they will not find it, they will long to die, but death will flee from them – John, Revelations, 9…

From outside there comes a gust of icy wind, which almost blows out the candles.

Arno:
What are we waiting for, Dad? They have already knocked out the electricity and have taken over the port. We must flee across the gulf…

Father:
No-one flees from their fate. Why should I meet my death in Viborg, when it is already here in Riga?

Arno:
Mother, this is madness. Now is hardly the time to go to sleep!

Mother:
Put more wood on the fire. They will be here in the morning. They are afraid of the fire and human compassion…they’re like wolves…

Father:
Red dogs! Life to them is as worthless as a glass of water.

Mother unties the small straps on the covers of the bible, the leather has been engraved with the family coat-of-arms and a cross.

Mother:
Come closer, I want to bless you. Here you go, your great-grandfather wore this under his cuirassier when he fought against Napoleon. It will also protect you from bad luck…

The young man reverently clasps the leather reliquary to his chest, leans forward to receive his blessing, then runs of into the night. From the darkness comes the sound of tanks nearby, the ice crunching beneath their tracks.

The parents whisper a prayer:
Merciful Father, protect our son today on his journey and our poor little father Lithuania. Please don’t let night end soon and prevent the morning star, called Lucifer, the bloody Aurora, come out yet. Amen.

Scene 3
A frozen swamp

From our of the white night, when not even people or beasts cast shadows, a tank appears, which is painted white and decorated with a red star, and bloody letters appear on the snow:

Title: Soviet-Finnish War. Karelia.

And with the title can be heard threatening sounds banned under the Tsars.

Jean Sibelius:
Finlandia. Vaterland.

The overture of the hymn is heard for the last time. The Russian tank crew do not guess that it has hit ice under the snow. Arno, holding an axe of the type used by the old Viking carpenters, leaps onto the back of the tank and cuts open the diesel tank. He is wearing a mask to protect against the cold. The beast begins to smoke and flaming begins to fall into the kingdom of ice. Those who try to save themselves are run down like animals. And soon the tank explodes – it is like a miracle, we are on the same plain, but hundreds of years earlier:

Scene 4
Frozen swamp – vision

Instead of enemies there is a pack of wolves running and howling and instead of Arno, the Crusader is fighting against them with a sword and a flaming torch. He stabs the leader of the pack underneath its chest and rips its stomach open all the way along – the pack falters and then retreats, scared

off by the victorious flame.
The Crusader takes off his cloak in order to cover the fallen Arno. But he opens his eyes and looks in wonder upon the knight, in whom he sees himself, a true likeness but with a white beard.

Arno:
Are you Death? Have you come for me?

Crusader:
Not yet, Arno. You still have a task to fulfil in this world.

Arno:
That is a shame. What do you want from me?

The Crusader wipes the frost off Arno’s eyes and lips, then places the burning torch in the snow beside him, the torch crackling with sadness and braving the harsh cold…

Crusader:
Life, boy. Otherwise you would kill us all, end the chain…I have lit the flame and it will never go out. Not yet…

Scene 5
Frozen swamp

Instead of wolves, all around Arno lie the bodies of his enemies. Finnish troops approach on skis, kill of the wounded, the burnt out tank looms up like a mountain of ice. They find Arno and take of his jacket, where they find a piece of shrapnel stuck in the cover of the bible, not far from his heart.

Jost:
This saved his life, sir. He is black with frost already. Should we put him out of his misery.

Officer:
We’ll take him with us, Jist. If it weren’t for him, that iron beast would have finished us off.

Arno (whispering):
Bitte, kameraden…erschiss mich doch…

Jost:
He’s had it. He’s asking for death, sir.

Officer:
Death won’t take anyone until she has flirted with them a bit and made love to them. That crazy whore doesn’t want to have an angel instead of a man…

They put Arno’s body on skis as if on a stretcher and pull him off the plain, as the sound of another squadron of tanks can be heard and then it appears fro out of the white darkness.

Jost:
Red bastard, nothing can stop them now! Short of a miracle, that is!

The officer hefts the piece of shrapnel in his hands and smiles despite everything…

Officer:
Here you see, Jost, that miracles can happen!

Vladimír Körner © 2003
Director : Milan Cieslar