The Master's Apprentice - Oliver Potzsch Page 0,235

didn’t kill your drunken friend. Not personally, anyhow—followers of my order did it.”

Johann said nothing. Did Tonio know that Archibaldus had left him a message in blood back then? The powerful arms of the Schembart runners still held him down. He tried to catch a glimpse of Greta on the altar from the corner of his eye. Pain shot through him worse than being stabbed with a knife.

Greta was wearing the same linen dress she had worn in her cell. Her eyes were closed, and her childlike face pale, almost translucent. Johann noticed that her chest was rising and falling ever so slightly. She was still alive. He guessed they had sedated her with some kind of herb or potion. What were these lunatics going to do to her?

Johann struggled against his captors with all his might, but in vain. Furious, he glared at Valentin by the column. The man’s eyes went back and forth between Johann and Greta.

“Goddamned traitor!” snarled Johann again.

Valentin cowered as if he’d been struck. “They are powerful, Johann! What was I supposed to do?” His gaze turned to the unconscious girl again. “Just look at what they’ve done to my dearest treasure. They arranged everything. Greta was only the bait—they were after you all along!”

Johann flinched.

Only the bait.

He felt like punching himself in the face. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen this coming much sooner. He should have noticed when he first arrived at the command. Everything had been too easy. The underground passages leading straight into the prison, the key ring Valentin had stolen without a hitch, the map. It was so obvious—nothing but a cheap farce, and he, the oh-so-clever doctor, had fallen for it. He had followed the bacon like a mouse, and the trap had snapped shut.

“The tower,” he whispered, looking Valentin straight in the eyes. “I told you about a tower back in Heidelberg, but never about its exact location. I only remembered later. There was just one person who could have told you where to find the tower—someone who lives there himself from time to time.”

“You still don’t understand how powerful this man is,” said Valentin in a whisper. He trembled as he looked over to Tonio del Moravia.

“Oh yes, I do.”

I’ve always known. I just didn’t want to see.

He had never truly escaped the master; Tonio had always been one step ahead of him. That explained the prevailing sense of being watched. Tonio had never stopped watching him over all these years. But there must have been a reason for the master to bring Johann back to him now. After seventeen years.

At that moment, Johann understood.

Seventeen years.

Once again, Larua was in the sky, as on the day of his birth and as it had been in the clearing near Nördlingen. The comet was probably over Nuremberg right now. They had chosen this day for a reason. That was why Valentin hadn’t stolen the key ring until now, and that was why Greta had been detained at the prison for so long. They had been waiting for this particular day.

Valentin seemed to read his thoughts. “They wanted you to figure out the plan with the tunnels yourself,” he said in a shaking voice. “If you hadn’t thought of it in time, I would have helped you. But it was more believable this way.” He gave a sad smile. “I always knew you’d find the solution. Now you’re precisely where they wanted you—where he wanted you.”

Johann gazed at the upside-down cross in front of him. Back in the clearing near Nördlingen, he’d thought a horde of lunatics was going to kill him, sacrifice him for some satanic ritual like so many children and youths before him had been. But evidently they had different plans for him.

Something that would come to a close here in Nuremberg.

“Why didn’t you just abduct me and bring me here if I’m so important to you?” asked Johann, looking at his former master. “Why this farce?”

“Well, I thought a farce was appropriate for a juggler and magician,” replied Tonio nonchalantly. “Didn’t you enjoy it? It allowed you to trick and perform and show off your clever mind as you always like to do. But you’re right—that’s not the true reason. The true reason is that you must return to me of your own free will. It is an ancient law, set down in the times before time.”

Tonio studied him with black eyes, his pupils as sharp as needles.

“Back when you drank the black potion, you were