The Master's Apprentice - Oliver Potzsch Page 0,237

the help of science, knowledge, inventions—you don’t need a God, because you are gods yourself! Men can create paradise right here on earth. Starting from Nuremberg, our movement will conquer the world. The rebirth of man begins here!”

The masked men cheered, and Johann looked around with wonder. Who were those people? Lunatics? Followers of some dark, satanic sect? But then he remembered what Valentin had said about the participants of the Schembartlauf parade.

They’re all from respectable, influential Nuremberg families.

Could that be true? Were all those masks hiding the faces of Nuremberg patricians? That would explain the lack of guards at the prison. Some powerful people had arranged for the cells to be cleared for him to walk into the trap. Who might belong to this creepy order? Patricians, merchants—perhaps even the burgomasters? And who was to say the Teutonic Knights weren’t also part of this plot?

Johann wondered what Tonio was getting out of all of this. Johann had fought for science all his life, for reason and rationality instead of bigotry and dull-witted superstition, just like he had been taught by Conrad Celtis, Jodocus Gallus, and Archibaldus. He had seriously believed that a new age was dawning: independent thought instead of dogma, a society created by men instead of an angry God whose outdated rules were set down for all eternity. And now Tonio was perverting all those ideas that Johann had always championed with fervor. The rebirth of man celebrated as a satanic mass—what a mockery! Tonio was showing him a nasty caricature of man celebrating himself as God.

Homo Deus est.

Did these people truly believe that the age of God was coming to an end? Could anyone be so stupid? A horrible thought struck Johann and slowly became certainty: the lunatics surrounding him must be behind all those horrific child murders in Nuremberg.

Perhaps not only here in Nuremberg, but all over the empire?

But whether or not these madmen believed the world was coming to an end and killed innocent children—they had his daughter. He had walked into their trap like a donkey following a carrot.

Now Tonio addressed Johann from the pulpit. He was leaning down to him over the banister, smiling encouragingly with his pointed teeth. A wolf on the hunt.

“My dear Johann, the hour you’ve long been waiting for has finally arrived. Now you shall learn the truth—the truth that has been written in the stars since the day of your birth. I read it in your palm then. You were born on the day great prophets are born. Your mother also told you about that, remember? And she was right. You are the great prophet!”

The crowd clapped and cheered while Johann gaped at Tonio. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You are the wizard Solomon’s testament speaks of! You are the prophet who arrives with Larua and who we’ve been waiting for. Because you’re the son of a great sorcerer yourself.” Tonio raised his voice as if reciting some ancient text. “And when the day arrives and the great beast awakens, give it a coat. And a wizard will come when the sun and Jupiter are in the same sign, and he will be that coat. And he must give himself willingly and make the three sacrifices. Then the beast will come and no god can stop it.”

Johann sat in the pew as if he’d turned to stone while Tonio gazed down at him with genuine affection. It was the loving gaze of a father upon his long-lost son. “This is your destiny, Johann. You are the wizard we have been waiting for. Many times I thought I’d found him, but every time, I was mistaken. Children who turned out to be false promises. We had almost given up hope—but then you came along! You needed more time, and I let you go. But now the moment has finally arrived—it is written in the stars! Larua, give us the strength for the three sacrifices!”

“You . . . you’re insane!” gasped Johann. “I’ve always had an inkling. You’re nothing but an insane fool!”

“Am I? A fool? Well, why not?” Tonio bared his teeth, climbed down from the pulpit, and walked to the still body on the altar. His spidery fingers brushed over her dress and slowly pushed it up over her knees.

“She is pretty, no doubt. I would love to mount her like a ram, despite her young age. It is the same as with lambs—the younger, the better tasting.” Tonio licked his lips. “Perhaps I will take