“Just a little unfair, isn’t it? You with your saber, me with my club…”
The devil shrugged.
“All of life is unfair.”
“I don’t think it has to be that way,” said Kuisl. “As long as we have to fight, then at least under the same conditions.”
And with that he blew on the lantern’s flame and extinguished it.
His face was swallowed in darkness. He was no longer visible to his opponent.
In the next instant he threw the lantern at the devil’s bone hand. The soldier cried out. He had not counted on such an attack. Desperately he still tried to pull away his hand, but it was too late. The lantern landed on the white bones and ripped the torch from its anchor. It fell to the ground where it hissed and went out.
Blackness was so total that the hangman felt as if he had sunk to the bottom of a bog. He caught his breath and then threw himself with all of his strength on the devil.
CHAPTER 15
MONDAY APRIL 30, A.D. 1659 ELEVEN O’CLOCK IN THE EVENING, WALPURGIS NIGHT
Magdalena, too, could see nothing but darkness. Her mouth was filled with the musty taste of the gag, and the ropes were cutting into her wrists and ankles, so that all she could feel was a slight tingle. Her head wound still hurt but had apparently stopped bleeding. A dirty linen rag prevented her from seeing where the men were carrying her. She was slung over the shoulder of one of the soldiers like a dead animal. On top of all of this, the continuous swaying was making her quite nauseous.
The last thing she could remember was that this morning she’d left the town through the Kuh Gate. Where had she been before that? She had been…looking for something. But for what?
The headache returned. She had the feeling that her memory of it was just beyond her reach, but every time she tried to grasp it, the headache struck her forehead like a hammer.
When she had awakened the last time, the man her father called the devil was stooping over her. They were in some barn, and there was a smell of straw and hay. The man placed a piece of moss on her forehead to stem the bleeding, and with his left hand, which was strangely cold, he was caressing her dress. She pretended to be unconscious, but she could hear the soldier’s words quite clearly. He had bent down and whispered into her ear: “Sleep well, little Magdalena. Once I return you’ll be praying that all this may be no more than a dream…Sleep while you still can…”
She had almost screamed with fear but had successfully continued feigning unconsciousness. She kept her eyes firmly shut. Perhaps that would give her a chance to escape.
Her hope vanished when the devil bound and gagged and finally blindfolded her. Obviously he wanted to avoid at all costs her waking up and seeing where he was taking her. Slumped across his back, she had traveled through the forest for quite a while. She smelled the pines and the firs and heard the call of a screech owl. What time might it be? The cool air and the call of the screech owl made her assume that it must be night. Hadn’t the morning sun been shining before she was captured? Had she been unconscious for a whole day?
Or longer, perhaps?
She was trying to stay calm and not tremble, but she was beginning to panic. The man carrying her mustn’t notice that she was awake.
At last she was rudely dropped on the forest floor. After a while, she could hear the voices of men approaching.
“Here’s the girl,” said the devil. “Take her to the assigned meeting point and wait there for me.”
Someone had brushed over her dress with a branch or something similar and pushed it up. She didn’t move.
“
“You leave her alone, understood?” the devil thundered. “She belongs to me. She’s my personal revenge on her father.”
“Her father killed Andre,” another deep voice said. “I’ve known Andre for five years. He was a good friend…I want to have fun with her as well.”
“Right,” the first one piped up again. “You’re going to slit her open anyway. So why shouldn’t we get to play a little before that? We’re entitled to taking our revenge on that dirty cur of a hangman as well!”
The devil’s voice took on a threatening undertone.
“I say leave her alone. When I come back we’re all going to have fun. I promise. But until then, hands off her! She might know something, and I’m going to tickle it out of her. We’ll meet no later than daybreak at the assigned place. And now shove off.”
She could hear footsteps crunching across the forest soil, slowly becoming fainter. Then the devil was gone.
“Crazy idiot,” one of the soldiers murmured. “I don’t know why I keep standing for that sort of thing.”
“’Cause you’re scared, that’s why,” the other one said. “’Cause you’re afraid he’ll beat you up just like Sepp Stetthofer and Martin Landsberger! May God have mercy on their black souls…We’re all of us afraid.”
“Afraid! Nonsense,” the first one said. “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do, Hans. We’re going to take the girl and clear out of here. Let Braunschweiger dig for his goddamned treasure by himself.”
“And what if he does find it, eh? Let’s stay till dawn. What have we to lose? If he doesn’t return, so what? And if he shows up with the money, we’ll pocket it and leave. No matter what happens, I’m not going to travel with that chiseler anymore after tomorrow morning.”
“Right you are,” the second man growled.
Then he picked up Magdalena, who was still feigning unconsciousness, and flung her over his back. The swaying continued.
Now, dangling from the man’s shoulders, Magdalena was racking her brains. What had happened before the devil knocked her out? She could recall having gone to market to buy food and drink for her father and Simon. There had been a talk with children in the street, but she couldn’t exactly remember what it had been about. After that, all that was left were shreds of memory. Sunlight. People gossiping in the streets. A ransacked room.
Whose room?
The headache returned, and it was so severe that for a brief moment Magdalena thought she’d have to vomit. She swallowed the pungent taste and tried to concentrate on where they were going. Where were the men taking her? They were walking uphill, she could tell that much. She heard how the man beneath her was panting and cursing. The wind was stronger now, so they must have left the forest. Eventually she heard ravens cawing. Something was softly whistling in the wind. She was beginning to have an idea.
The men stopped, dropping her like a bundle of sticks. The ravens were cawing quite close by. Magdalena knew now where she was. She didn’t need to see it at all.
She could smell it.
The black shadow flew toward Simon, putting his hand over his mouth. Simon struggled, trying to free himself. Where was his stiletto, damn it? Just a moment ago he’d struck it against his flint, but now it was lying somewhere out there in the dark and beyond his reach. The hand on his mouth was pressing harder, so that he could hardly breathe anymore. Alongside him, Sophie began to scream again.
Suddenly he heard a familiar voice right at his ear.
“Shut up, for Christ’s sake! He’s right nearby!”
Simon twisted and turned under the strong arm, which finally released him.
“It’s you, Kuisl,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“
In spite of the darkness, Simon could now distinguish the hangman’s massive form directly in front of him. It seemed oddly stooped over.
