Aubrey closed his fist, crumpling the enspelled drawing of a pistol, and slipped it in his pocket. With von Stralick at his side, he strode along next to the chastened colonel, wanting to get rid of the troops quickly, but also needing to first find out as much information as he could about what had been happening in the village.
‘We came in yesterday morning, as instructed,’ Kirchoff said in a low voice. Two old men were standing on the green a stone’s throw away. One of them was glaring, the other was bewildered. A young woman was with them. She wore a white cap and cried as she held a baby in her arms. ‘We were all in Albion uniforms, and only speaking Albionish.’
‘How did the men handle that?’ von Stralick asked. Aubrey had to admire him. He smiled as he walked, and he asked exactly the sort of questions an eager assistant might ask.
‘Most of them chose not to speak at all, once I’d explained what would happen if they spoke Holmlandish.’
‘I see.’
Aubrey stopped. Smoke was still rising from the mine. ‘The crystal,’ he snapped. ‘How did you transport it?’
Kirchoff rubbed his chin nervously. ‘With none of the miners left, we had to find someone among the old men, someone who knew what he was doing.’
Aubrey stood with his hands behind his back, doing his best to adopt a Tremaine pose of deep and private thought. Carefully, he caught von Stralick’s eye.
The Holmlander nodded. ‘Wasn’t it premature, dispensing with the miners like that?’ he asked Kirchoff.
‘They were my orders,’ Kirchoff said stiffly. ‘No word of the Crystal Johannes find was to leave the village.’
‘Your actions in dispensing with the miners is a rather free interpretation of that order,’ von Stralick said.
‘Free, but effective.’
Aubrey whirled and fixed Kirchoff with what he hoped was a Tremaine glare. ‘I hope this old man knew what he was talking about. If that crystal was damaged…’
Kirchoff began to sweat, a thin sheen just above his eyebrows. ‘We had to bring in our largest lorry, and special timber to crate the slab for its trip to Stalsfrieden. The old man supervised.’
Largest lorry? Slab? Aubrey couldn’t ask the direct question – he was Dr Tremaine, he was supposed to know – but he was bursting to know how big this piece of Crystal Johannes was.
And to know why Dr Tremaine desired it so much that he was prepared to butcher a whole village to keep its existence a secret.
Despite Kirchoff’s penchant for following orders, he was still reluctant to leave what he obviously considered a job half-done. After inspecting the soldiers – a more incurious bunch Aubrey had never seen, none of them showing any interest in their colonel’s visitors – he offered to ‘take care of matters’, as he put it.
Aubrey found it hard to keep the disgust from both Tremaine’s face and voice. ‘I have other plans, Colonel, and I need you and your men to be at a safe distance.’
Kirchoff wasn’t a fool, Aubrey decided, and he knew that arguing with Dr Tremaine wasn’t a pastime that led to a long and productive career. He saluted. ‘How far is a safe distance, sir?’
‘Hollenbruck should be unaffected. I’ll give you an hour.’
22
Kirchoff’s unit broke formation and left with the same cold efficiency they had taken the village. Not a word was spoken after Kirchoff’s orders were given to his officers. The entire stowing of kit and disassembling of emplacements was done silently.
Aubrey and von Stralick were on the side of the road, watching the departure. Kirchoff was in the leading lorry and saluted as it rolled out.
When the last lorry disappeared around the bend, von Stralick slipped into the woods. Aubrey stood where he was, retaining his Dr Tremaine appearance in case Kirchoff returned. He saw the villagers congregating once again on the green, amazed at the turn of events but unwilling to approach him, for which Aubrey was grateful, for it gave him some time to contemplate what it was like to be Dr Tremaine.
So this is what it’s like to be feared, he thought. Once Aubrey – as Dr Tremaine – had confronted Kirchoff, every action of the colonel had been dictated by fear. He was fearful of having done the wrong thing, of not having followed orders properly, of making a mistake. There was a kind of respect in Kirchoff’s eyes, too, but it was the sort of respect a beaten dog gives a capricious master. Keep on his right side! it said. He’s dangerous!
The rain George had been predicting finally began to fall. Gloomily, Aubrey ignored it. He didn’t like the way fear was used to move people. It fostered negativity and distrust. It crushed hope, denied joy.
But it was effective.
Von Stralick, Madame Zelinka, George, Caroline and Sophie came out of the woods. They were all armed, apart from von Stralick. ‘I told them all was safe, but they preferred to believe otherwise.’
‘Just being careful,’ George said. ‘Something I’ve learned, of late.’
Caroline stood directly in front of Aubrey, pistol in one hand, the other on her hip. ‘I don’t like your looks, Aubrey. Can you do something about them?’
‘A pleasure.’ Aubrey dispensed with the Dr Tremaine aspect, casting it aside like a soiled garment. ‘Better?’
‘Much.’
As Aubrey and his friends approached the green, avoiding puddles where they could, the villagers, one by one, came out of their dwellings in hats and heavy coats.
Finally an old gaffer – the one who had spent most of his time glaring at Kirchoff’s troops – confronted them.
‘And who would you be?’
Aubrey hesitated. What could he tell them? ‘Friends,’ he said in his best Holmlandish.
The gaffer shuffled forward. He removed his cap and held it in both hands in front of him while rain pelted on his bald head. ‘What have we done?’ he demanded. ‘To be treated like this?’
Aubrey did his best. ‘It’s the war.’
‘Those Albionites.’ The old man spat on the ground. ‘They were going to kill us, weren’t they?’
‘I -’
‘They killed the miners. The last ten young men in the village and they killed them.’
‘They wanted to join up,’ a woman called, ‘but they weren’t allowed!’
‘They were needed in the mine?’ Aubrey asked. ‘To find the crystal?’
The gaffer eyed Aubrey. ‘You heard of that? Never seen the likes of it, any of us. As big as the church door, it was.’
‘Unbelievable,’ von Stralick breathed. ‘Nothing like that has been found for centuries.’
And Dr Tremaine has happened to fall on the place just after it was uncovered, Aubrey thought.
‘What happens now?’ the gaffer said.
That’s an extremely good question. His deception had undone Kirchoff’s deception, but for how long?
He put up a hand. ‘Kirchoff talked about choosing survivors. He said they were taken away.’
The old man scratched his chin. ‘Survivors? Trudy and her children were tied up and put in the church.’ He pointed at the young woman who had called out.
Survivors. Aubrey gnawed at this. Why would Kirchoff want survivors? Why would he organise survivors before the massacre started?
Aubrey nearly slapped himself on the forehead as the answer came to him. ‘Thank you,’ he said to the old man. ‘You’ll be safe now.’
‘We will? How do you know?’
‘I guarantee it.’
