The Hangman's Daughter

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.

“Mmm, what a tasty morsel your girl is,” a voice said right above her. “A hangman’s wench, you say? And the playmate of that spindly quack…Oh, she’ll be delighted to make the acquaintance of true men for a change!”

“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?”

“Shh.”

In spite of the darkness, Simon could now distinguish the hangman’s massive form directly in front of him. It seemed oddly stooped over.

“I got him…the lunatic. Think he isn’t…quite dead yet. Have to be…silent…”

Jakob Kuisl spoke haltingly and with difficulty. Simon felt something warm dripping onto his left upper arm. The hangman was injured. He was bleeding, and it wasn’t just a small cut.

“You’re wounded! Can I help you?” he asked, trying to feel for the wound. But the hangman gruffly brushed the physician’s hand aside.

“There’s no…time. The devil can…be here any moment. Oohhhh…” He was holding his side.

“What happened?” Simon asked.

“The devil followed us…stupid fools that we are. I…put out his light and fled. But I also whacked him a couple of times with my cudgel. Dirty bastard, damn him. May he go back to hell, where he came from…” The hangman’s body shook. For a moment Simon thought he was trembling with pain, but then he realized that the huge man was laughing. Suddenly, the hangman fell silent again.

“Sophie?” Jakob Kuisl asked in the darkness.

The girl had been silent up to now. Now her voice came out of the darkness right next to Simon.

“Yes?”

“Tell me, girl, is there another exit?”

“There…there is a tunnel. It leads away from this chamber. But it’s fallen in.” Her voice sounded different, Simon thought. More composed. She sounded like the orphan girl he had gotten to know on the streets of Schongau—a leader who was capable of mastering her fear, at least temporarily.

“We did start clearing away the rocks, because we wanted to know where the corridor went,” she continued.