The Master's Apprentice - Oliver Potzsch Page 0,236

almost mine. But then you got away at the last moment. Finding your daughter in Nuremberg was a stroke of luck. I’d only wanted to speak with your old friend here. I knew his name from the list at Heidelberg University.” Tonio pointed his finger at Valentin, whose scarred face had lost all color. “He was very talkative. No one wants to undergo torture for a second time, do they? All we needed to do next was lure you to Nuremberg, this resourceful city where I have the most followers in the empire. And finally we needed to get you here, into the womb of the beast. I knew you wouldn’t abandon young Greta. Not after what you did to her mother.” Tonio smiled coldly and took a step toward Johann. “You had to come of your own free will, and now you’re here. Right time, right place.”

“Where are we?” asked Johann.

“Directly underneath the Sebaldus Church, one of the city’s oldest churches. The original building was dedicated to Saint Peter.” Tonio smirked. “How appropriate, considering good old Peter founded the Roman Church. We’ve been using this buried crypt as a gathering place for a few years now. I’ve had the hall renovated, bit by bit, whenever I stopped here on my travels. Every mass needs the right setting, don’t you think?”

“And what do you want with my daughter?” asked Johann. “If you want to take revenge on me—for whatever—then—”

Tonio waved dismissively. “Your daughter is unimportant. We want you.” He leaned down close enough so Johann could smell his sweetish breath. “I want you.” Tonio sniffed at him and shuddered with lust. Almost lovingly he stroked Johann’s cheeks. “You’re the right one, Johann. I sensed it back in Knittlingen when we first met—when you were just a little boy. Everything happened just the way it was foretold.”

Johann turned his face away with disgust. He realized where the smell on Tonio’s breath came from.

It was the smell of fresh blood.

“I have a suggestion for you, Johann,” said Tonio. “You sit down among my disciples and behave. And then I will tell you how you can save your daughter. It isn’t difficult—it’s entirely up to you. Are you going to behave and listen, Johann? Are you?”

Johann nodded, and the Schembart runners dragged him over to the front row of the pews, where they sat him down in their midst. Valentin had also been brought there, and he trembled and shook as he sat between two masked men. Johann looked at the empty, smooth masks around him. Now he was grateful that Greta was unconscious and didn’t have to see this horror show.

Meanwhile, Tonio had walked over to the column with the pulpit and took the narrow, winding stairs to the top. When he stood beneath the black canopy, he paused for a moment, drinking in the ecclesial atmosphere, which was heavy with anticipation. Then he addressed his followers.

“You’ve been waiting for a long time,” he shouted into the hall, looking like an angry, emaciated preacher. “But now the time has finally come. The reign of God ends and the age of man begins! Homo Deus est!”

“Homo Deus est!” chanted the masked men.

Johann winced at the words he’d heard again and again over the years without really understanding their full meaning. Magister Archibaldus had known who was hiding behind those words, and he’d had to die for this knowledge. It took Johann a moment to realize what Tonio’s tone reminded him of. It was the same tone of voice the sorcerer had always used to seduce the crowd at the market squares.

“For hundreds of years, the church led us to believe that there was but one truth and one teaching,” Tonio went on. “The church forbade you to read books and, yes, even to think! The church tried to lull you to sleep and condemned any scientific progress as heresy. They placed their obstinate, narrow-minded God at the center of the universe instead of man—but enough is enough!”

“Homo Deus est, Deus homo est!” chanted the masked men. Several of them had risen to their feet.

“Why has this city come so far? Why is it wealthier and more glamorous and better known than any other in the empire? Why is all the world praising Nuremberg wit and Nuremberg cleverness?” Johann could tell how much his former master and teacher enjoyed himself in the role of the zealous priest; his eyes gleamed with relish. “Because you have recognized that you can achieve greatness by yourselves! With