The Master's Apprentice - Oliver Potzsch Page 0,228

would have guessed that the cloths were hiding a laterna magica and that one of the figures was a famous doctor and magician. Johann was wearing his magnificent star cloak inside out, and it was blacker than a starless night.

Johann had given Karl the choice of coming or staying, and to his surprise the young man wanted to come. Johann felt deeply grateful. He wasn’t sure why exactly Karl wanted to help him—perhaps he still felt indebted to Johann. In any case, he was a good fellow who didn’t deserve a master who treated him as poorly as Johann had. If they came out of this business unscathed, Johann would give him back the letters and pay him handsomely.

But he struggled to believe that they would make it out unscathed.

They had left Little Satan behind at the command, hopping back and forth in Johann’s chamber with his broken foot and probably relieving himself on the floor at that very moment or chewing on the furniture and rugs. The dog had sensed that something was going on. He had been restless and howled when they closed the door.

Earlier that evening, Johann had passed several men in costumes in the streets around the main square. The people of Nuremberg eagerly anticipated the Schembartlauf procession, which would lead through the entire city the following morning. The masked men all wore the same tight-fitting white-and-red garb embroidered with licking flames. They were armed with blunt pikes and wore rings of little bells around their ankles. Their faces were hidden behind smooth masks that made them look like varnished puppets.

“The timing for our plan couldn’t be better,” whispered Valentin to Johann and Karl as they made their way through the dark lanes. “Tomorrow, dozens of those dressed-up jesters will dance through the streets—it’s an old tradition.”

“Are they all hired jugglers?” asked Karl.

“Oh, no! Many of those masks are hiding the faces of wealthy patricians. They’re all from respectable, influential Nuremberg families.” Valentin smiled grimly. “I heard that this year, the hell is going to be an elephant—you know, one of those long-nosed monsters from beyond the sea.”

“The hell?” asked Johann.

“That’s what the Schembart runners call a huge wagon that, at the end of the procession, is stormed by the crowds outside city hall in a mock battle. People sometimes get hurt or even killed. Like I said—it’s a raucous affair.”

A door banged, and someone gave a shrill laugh. Johann looked around suspiciously and saw one of the costumed men dance across the lane and vanish in the darkness of a doorway. A second, younger man with a pike went after him, giggled girlishly, and took a mock bow in their direction. Then he, too, was swallowed up by the dark of night. Only the jangling of their little bells could be heard for a while longer, like the cackling of kobolds. Not for the first time Johann wondered whether it wasn’t those masked men who had brought back his old fear of being followed these last few days. He felt for the knife that—after lengthy deliberation—he had decided to bring. The accursed knife! He was wearing it on a thin string around his neck like he used to, ready to rip it off and throw it at any moment. He didn’t like it, but he knew it was the weapon he could handle the best, especially in narrow corridors and prison cells. He had given Karl the pistol and the sword, but he doubted the student was much good as a fighter.

Johann eyed the dark houses near the city wall. Once again he felt an itch between his shoulder blades as if someone was watching him. But every time he turned around, there was nothing.

Meanwhile, they had crossed the Pegnitz west of the Hospital of the Holy Ghost and were headed toward the main square. Now, in the middle of the night, the stalls of the market women and grocers had been taken down. An icy wind swept across the open space in front of the city hall. Despite the late hour, guards with pikes and halberds were on patrol outside the building.

Johann thought about his daughter, who was just a stone’s throw away. How was she feeling right now? He hoped she was asleep and dreaming something pleasant. If his plan succeeded, he would be able to wrap his arms around her in just a few hours. And if he failed, they would soon see one another again in paradise. Margarethe, Greta, Valentin, Karl.