The Master's Apprentice - Oliver Potzsch Page 0,244

. . Perhaps I will take her with me on Walpurgis Night in a couple of years, and we can share her.

“Damn it!” he swore. “There must be a solution. There always is one!”

But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t find one. Whether he stayed or whether he went—he wouldn’t see his daughter again. He was doomed. Down here in this hell on earth, all his knowledge was for nothing.

“I know a solution,” said Valentin all of a sudden. His voice was firm and determined.

“Which is?”

“You go and I stay.”

“And how is that supposed to help?” said Karl. “They’ll see right away that the doctor has fled.”

“Not if I am the doctor.”

“You the doctor?” With his one remaining eye Johann stared at his friend in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re wearing a bandage that covers most of your face,” explained Valentin. “I’m a fair bit shorter than you, but I don’t think they’ll notice in the dark. Not if I’m wearing your star cloak. We’ll stuff my clothes with straw and put them in the corner. They won’t take much notice of the dummy—most likely they assume I’m already dead. They want you, Johann!”

Johann shook his head. “You can’t be serious.”

“Listen, Johann. I’m dying! I can feel it. My whole body is numb, and the coldness in my limbs is spreading. I was already a cripple beforehand, but that monster broke the last few bones that weren’t broken inside me. Even if I lived—I’d be a living corpse.” Valentin gave Johann a pleading look. “All I have left is Greta! You must find her and save her. It is the last thing I’m asking of you. One last favor as a friend.”

“I’ve let you down before,” muttered Johann. “I might do it again.”

“You won’t let me down, Johann. I forgave you for lying to me and using me all those years ago. But I would never forgive you if anything happened to Greta. You would never forgive yourself, I know that.”

Johann didn’t reply. His head hurt, and his eye socket and his right hand burned like fire. There was a high probability that he wouldn’t survive this. If those lunatics didn’t kill him, fever probably would. He had made sacrifices, but now his friend was going to give his life for him.

“I’m not doing it for you, Johann,” Valentin whispered. “I’m doing it for Greta.”

For Greta.

Johann nodded slowly. Neither he nor Valentin mattered—all that mattered was the girl.

His daughter.

“I’m going to need a new bandage,” Johann said with a heavy voice.

Then, slowly and carefully, he unwrapped the dirty rags from around his head.

30

RUSHING DOWN THE corridor a short while later, Johann felt as though he were trudging through a swamp. His legs kept giving way beneath him, and Karl had to hold him up. Despite the ash he’d swallowed, the poison of the black potion was still wreaking havoc in his body. Shadows would leap at him from the walls, and he thought he could hear the voice of the handsome knight.

Faites vite . . . faites vite . . . faites vite . . .

The only thing keeping him going was the thought of Greta.

Before they’d gone, he and Valentin had embraced one last time, and Johann had sensed that the strength was draining from his old friend’s body. When he looked down at Valentin with his healthy eye one last time, Johann had seen himself on the stone floor. Bandaged head, star cloak, and the shell of a body, nothing more.

He had learned one thing from Valentin: what really mattered wasn’t what could be seen on the outside, nor the blind pursuit of knowledge, of power.

All that mattered was love.

What use was all his cleverness if he couldn’t protect those he loved? Valentin had shown him what love was capable of by sacrificing himself for Greta. In that moment, Johann had realized that it was love alone that gave meaning to life. That was something Tonio would never understand.

It was this revelation that spurred him on now.

Johann staggered more than he walked. He felt as cold as ice. He wore only a thin shirt that reached to his knees; they’d put everything else on Valentin. Somehow he managed to climb up a steep set of stairs that led to another door. With one of the many keys from Valentin’s key ring, Karl opened the lock, and they found themselves in a room that, unlike all the previous ones, had a window. Early morning light fell