The Master's Apprentice - Oliver Potzsch Page 0,240

as if he’d just returned from a fast ride; his body was brimming with strength and vitality. In the same instant Johann knew that this was the man he’d been looking for all these years.

Gilles de Rais.

“The little finger of the right hand,” said the knight. The image shuddered, and the beautiful face was contorted into a grimace.

“Faites vite. The end and the beginning are close.”

29

WITH A POUNDING heart and a metallic taste in his mouth, Karl ran through the underground passages. He needed to get out of here as fast as possible! He’d left the laterna magica behind—he wouldn’t have any more use for it. What he had seen and heard inside that mockery of a church was so horrific that he thought he might go insane.

After Faust had walked into the underground crypt, Karl had hidden behind the entrance. From the darkness of the cellar he had watched as the leader of the Satanists had kicked Valentin to the ground and handed Johann a chalice. He hadn’t been able to understand much of what was being spoken, but the few words he’d heard made Karl’s blood curdle. Then Faust had collapsed over the baptismal font.

It had taken everything Karl had to prevent himself from crying out loud during the next part of the ceremony. He had almost thrown up with fear and disgust.

With a large, curved knife, the leader had cut off Faust’s little finger and tossed it into the basin.

That had been the moment Karl started to run.

He looked around in panic. The lantern in his hand barely gave off any light; the oil was almost used up. Once it went out, the darkness would swallow him up like the whale had swallowed Jonah. Which way should he turn? He wasn’t sure how many forks and chambers he had crossed by now. Those damned tunnels all looked the same—it was like a labyrinth! Sometimes he thought he could hear the chanting again in the distance, and he ran even faster. He needed to get away from this hellish place of madness! At least he still had Valentin’s key ring, so he could open doors if he needed to. But what good was that if he didn’t know which doors led to the top?

Karl finally collapsed at the next corner. Panting heavily, he cowered down and closed his eyes. This was the end. Well, at least he wouldn’t die of thirst down here—only starve to death slowly. In front of his feet flowed another one of the small streams that crisscrossed the underground like veins of the city.

When Karl looked up, he saw a sign in the flickering light of the lantern.

He cried out with surprise. It was one of the coal marks Faust had drawn on the walls to help them find their way back. Karl had completely forgotten about them in his blind panic. He jumped up and felt his strength return. If he followed the marks from here he would find the exit to the cemetery. From there he could turn west on the highway and leave this cursed place behind for good.

This cursed place and the doctor.

The doctor he loved.

Karl bit his lip. He pictured how he’d left Faust in the crypt. Like a calf at slaughter.

Like a sacrificial lamb.

He’d known the doctor for nearly two years. It hadn’t always been easy with him—Faust was arrogant, cynical, and hot tempered—and yet Karl had learned much from him. The doctor had been almost like a father to him, and much more understanding than his own forbidding father, who had called him soft and never treated him with respect.

But there was more to it. Karl had had several relationships with men in his life. The first one had been at Latin School, but the other boy’s parents sent him to a monastery before the affair came to light. None of his relationships had ever lasted very long—mainly because it was just too dangerous. But it was different with the doctor. The longer Karl was with him, the stronger the bond between them became. Karl thought Faust was somewhat frightening, but he was also fascinating. There seemed to be a deep, inscrutable secret in the doctor’s black eyes. Karl’s love for him consumed and nourished him at the same time. He knew the doctor would be his downfall, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave him. And that was why Karl couldn’t abandon him down here.

Karl leaned his head back and groaned. It was enough to drive