The Beggar King hd-3

by Oliver Pötzsch

  With or without him.

  It quickly became apparent that with his rash assertions he’d become a liability, and now he imagined assassins around every corner, the clicks of crossbows behind every door. Death could be waiting for him under his bed or in the privy. Still, they needed him! They couldn’t do without him… or could they? No, not without the most important master baker in the city with customers at city hall, at the Reichstag, and among the most important patricians.

  In retrospect the whole plan seemed an outrageous, scandalous crime, a crime so devilish that everyone involved would roast in hell forever. Haberger considered turning on the others, but his fear of their vengeance was too great. And besides, what would happen to him when everything finally came to light? He heard that traitors were often hanged before they were gutted and quartered. Could the same fate await him?

  Preoccupied with his fears, he didn’t notice that Marie had stopped humming. Her fingers, too, had disappeared. Surprised, Haberger was about to get up when he felt hands on his back again. He sighed in relief. The bathhouse worker had likely just gone for some more olive oil and was now preparing to massage the right shoulder blade. Haberger closed his eyes and tried to suppress bad thoughts and concentrate only on the present massage.

  The hands worked their way up his back until they reached the shoulder blades again. For an instant Haberger had the premonition that these hands were somehow stronger than before, that they lacked Marie’s delicate, feminine touch and their grip on him was harder.

  Much harder.

  As if they were trying to mash his muscles to a pulp.

  “Thanks, Marie,” Haberger moaned again. “But that should be enough. I can’t feel anything in my shoulders anymore.”

  The hands didn’t stop, though, but moved higher until finally they reached Haberger’s throat.

  “What the devil…?”

  Haberger tried to stand up, but unrelenting muscular arms forced him back down to the bench. When he attempted to scream, he felt fingers tighten around his neck, squeezing the life from his body bit by bit.

  The master baker quivered and flailed about like a fish out of water. He tried to slip free, but the strong arms held him down, pressing him hard against the wood like a piece of raw meat. His face turned red first, then blue; his tongue stuck out of his mouth like a slug; then, with a final gasp, he collapsed.

  Just before the world went black, Josef Haberger glimpsed right before his nose an arm with powerful protruding sinews. He saw close-up-almost as if magnified-a mass of curly hair, and he smelled sharp manly sweat.

  Strange. I don’t feel pain anymore, Haberger thought.

  Then he passed into a dark tunnel ending in ethereal light.

  Still enthused by his conversation with Brother Hubertus, Simon left the bishopric around noon with the beer-stained invitation from the bishop’s brewmaster in his pocket.

  They had discussed Descartes, whose Discours de la methode he read as a university student in Ingolstadt. Simon was especially taken with the revolutionary idea that a rational explanation could be found for everything. The Franciscan had kept Simon’s glass brimming with cool, splendid wheat beer, and the medicus felt tipsy now as he wondered how Descartes would have solved the double murder in Regensburg. Presumably the philosopher would have found a simple answer for every riddle. Sighing, Simon had to admit he didn’t have Descartes’s divine intelligence. Just the same, he tried to order his thoughts-though the accursed alcohol kept getting in the way.

  All that beer, however, had one benefit: Simon had temporarily forgotten his quarrel with Magdalena. But now the nagging thought returned that the love of his life was possibly still hanging around with that Venetian dwarf. But then again she might have returned to the catacombs by now, worrying herself sick about him. It served her right! What business did Magdalena have in the dressing room of that vain fop? Simon looked down at his torn, hastily patched jacket, his shredded breeches, and muddy boots and had to admit he himself wished he could spend half a day in a filthy-rich ambassador’s dressing room. But for an unmarried girl that was completely inappropriate! And who knew what else the two had been up to amid all those mirrors, linens, and clothing? Whatever the case, everything would have to be cleared up tonight.

  The marketplace at the cathedral square was filled with noisy, chattering market women, cursing stable boys, churchgoers deep in conversation, and blase patricians. Although the medicus assumed he wouldn’t attract undue attention in the bustling crowd, he pulled up his jacket collar and lowered his eyes nevertheless. He didn’t want to give the bailiffs a second opportunity to identify him as the Wei?gerbergraben arsonist.

  Despite his three or four mugs of wheat beer, Simon tried his best to concentrate. There had to be some connection between the Hofmann murders and the trap set for Magdalena’s father, something he just hadn’t thought of yet, a logical scheme that would bring together all the disparate and bizarre little incidents. Simon hoped fervently that Brother Hubertus could help him analyze the strange powder. By now the medicus was convinced it wasn’t just burned flour. Perhaps it was the key to solving the other riddles.

  A bathhouse owner as rebel and alchemist… What was Hofmann experimenting with anyway?

  Simon suddenly realized there was yet another person he hadn’t spoken with about the matter: the raftmaster, Karl Gessner! The bathhouse owner, like Gessner, had been a leader of the freemen, so it was quite possible Gessner knew something about Hofmann’s alchemical experiments. When they last met on Wohrd Island, Gessner hadn’t said anything about it, but perhaps that was only because Simon hadn’t brought it up.

  The medicus decided to pay a visit to Gessner at the raft landing. While there was some danger in going down to the Danube, where so many city bailiffs were afoot, he was willing to take the risk.

  Simon turned around, hurried northward past the bishop’s court, and entered a labyrinth of small lanes. Finally, between two buildings, he spotted the river flowing lazily by. At the noon hour there was almost no activity on the raft landing. Most freight had been unloaded in the early morning, and the raft attendants and laborers were dozing now in the shadows of crates, bales, and barrels, waiting for the sweltering noon heat to pass. A single rope hung down from a wooden crane over the Danube, swaying calmly back and forth in the breeze. The air smelled of fish, river water, and freshly cut firs, and the stench of the city was not quite so strong here. Simon felt he could breathe freely for the first time in a long while.

  He asked one of the dozing workers where he might find the raftmaster and was directed to Gessner’s office in a small building next to the lumber-loading dock. As he strolled along the fortified jetty, Simon noticed for the first time just how vast the Regensburg harbor actually was. This stretch of river that ran along the city wall extended from the boat landings east of the Stone Bridge almost as far as the western boundary of the city. On his way down to the lumber dock Simon passed the wine-loading dock, dotted with respectable middle-class inns; salt-storage depots as big as barns; and innumerable mooring posts encrusted with mussels. Finally, huge piles of boards and timber came into view. A dozen day laborers were busy stacking planks and wet pieces of driftwood, some as long as a yard, that they had fished out of the Danube. Not far from here stood the raftmaster’s house-a low, lopsided shed built directly onto the jetty that looked as if at any moment it just might collapse.

  Simon was about to knock on the door when he noticed it was already ajar. He carefully pushed, and it swung inward without a sound, revealing a rough-hewn table covered with an assortment of stained documents in the middle of a pleasantly cool room. Shelves built into the back wall overflowed with sealed, rolled parchments. But there was no sign of Gessner.

  Simon was turning to leave when he heard a sudden clatter, a loud crash like the sound of a crate falling. The noise came from the other side of the shelves; evidently there was another room somewhere behind the office, a kind of storage room, he supposed, but in
accessible from the office directly.

  Was there perhaps an entrance around the back of the building? Puzzled, the medicus left the way he came in and walked briskly around the little house. Gessner had to be working in the adjoining room, and when he finished stacking his crates, he’d surely be able to answer a few friendly questions over a glass or two of wine. All of a sudden Simon felt incredibly thirsty. The heat was bringing on a hangover-Brother Hubertus’s wheat beer must have been stronger than Simon first assumed. He had to get out of the sun, now! Where was the other damned entrance? Could he have overlooked it? To be sure, he walked around the building again, with the same result.

  There was no other entrance.

  Simon hurried back inside. Only now did he realize that the size of the little office didn’t correspond to the exterior dimensions.

  It was considerably smaller.

  Simon held his breath, listening closely. He could definitely hear the muffled sound of crates being moved around.

  What in the world…?

  As Simon cautiously approached the wall on the other side of the room, he noticed a gap between two shelves. He reached in, pulled on one of the boards, and to his surprise the entire left wall-with its shelves and everything on them-swung silently away, revealing a windowless room piled high with crates and sacks. Gessner stood with his back to the entrance, building precarious towers of some large containers. By the light of a lantern on the floor Simon could see that some of the crates had been opened. Inside, dried brown leaves were gathered into bundles and tied with fine thread. The medicus instantly recognized the bundles’ scent as one he knew so well from the Schongau hangman’s house, though Simon had never before smelled it as strongly as here.

  Tobacco.

  Now Gessner turned around, his look turning quickly from frank astonishment to outright anger. “What in hell’s name are you doing here, you nosy little quack?” he snarled, reaching for a hatchet on his belt. “I don’t recall having invited you.”

  “Uh… excuse me,” Simon stuttered, “I was looking for you, and the door was open…”

  “Certainly you don’t mean this door.” The raftmaster pushed him rudely aside and slammed the wall of shelves shut behind him. The darkness in the room was now almost palpable, mitigated only in part by the small lantern on the floor. By its flickering light Gessner’s otherwise sympathetic features now appeared very threatening.

  “You’ll keep this little secret to yourself, won’t you?” the raftmaster whispered. “One hand washes the other, as they say. I told you about the patricians’ plans, so you won’t say a word about this room. To anyone. Understood?”

  Simon nodded eagerly. Despite his fear, he couldn’t resist looking around with curiosity. When Gessner noticed Simon’s gaze, he reached into a box for a few of the brown, curled leaves. He crushed them between his fingers and held his hand out to Simon to smell.

  “Expensive West Indian tobacco,” the raftmaster said, taking a seat on one of the large wooden crates. With an impatient gesture, he motioned for Simon to do the same. “There’s no better ware to smuggle right now. Tariffs are higher than ever, and therefore so are my profits.” He shrugged apologetically. “A Regensburg raftmaster struggles to make ends meet. Taxes are eating me alive, lumber thieves steal the privy seat right out from under my ass, and just two years ago a blasted flood washed my whole house clear away. So, I’ve had the new one built to order, so to speak, exactly the way I wanted.” He winked, gesturing toward the wooden partition.

  With a sudden creaking sound, the secret door opened a crack. In the dazzling sunlight Simon could make out only the outline of a very large figure.

  “Is everything all right in there?” a deep voice barked.

  Gessner raised a reassuring hand. “We have a visitor, big fellow. But don’t worry. I’ve got it under control. You may leave.”

  “You sure?”

  The raftmaster nodded impatiently. “Yes, I’m sure.”

  With another soft creaking sound, the door closed again. Gessner reached into another crate and fished out a bottle of brandy, which he proceeded to uncork with his teeth. He took a long swig before offering the bottle to Simon, whose hangover had started bothering him again.

  “No, thanks,” the medicus mumbled. “My head… is a bit thick today.”

  The raftmaster shrugged and took another slug.

  “This is contraband, too,” he muttered, licking his lips. “But tobacco is better-easier to stash away, and there’s more profit in it.”

  He cast a suspicious side glance at the medicus. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are? If I hadn’t recognized you right away, you’d be nailed up inside a barrel, floating down the Danube by now. What are you doing here, anyway? Didn’t I tell you you’d be better off back in your little Bavarian cow town with that little girl of yours?”

  Simon sighed deeply. “As it turns out, that girl of mine just happens to be the daughter of the Schongau hangman, who’s due to be hanged, broken on the wheel, or even drawn and quartered right here in Regensburg. Magdalena is hell-bent on doing everything to save him.”

  “And you, too, I suppose? This girl has you on a pretty tight leash.” Gessner grinned and poked Simon in the chest. “But you can forget about all of that-Kuisl is as good as dead.”

  “There may still be a way out,” Simon said. “Something’s not quite right with your assumption that the aldermen are behind all this.”

  “I don’t see the problem,” Gessner said. “It’s obvious. The patricians want their revenge on us, the freemen, so they had Hofmann stabbed to death and went looking for a scapegoat. And then Kuisl came along at just the right time.”

  “All this trouble to get the Schongau hangman to Regensburg-the letter, the forged will, the trial. Why would the patricians do all that, cook up something so elaborate?” Simon persisted. “Just for revenge?”

  “So what do you, in your infinite wisdom, think happened then?” Gessner asked peevishly.

  Simon shrugged. “I don’t know. Someone who’s obviously trying to get revenge on Kuisl must have set this all up. I have no idea who-perhaps it’s this Weidenfeld who keeps sending these cryptic letters… or perhaps some other complete lunatic. Who knows? But there are still a few things I don’t understand. Did you know, for example, that Andreas Hofmann had a secret alchemist’s workshop?”

  “An alchemist’s workshop?” Gessner frowned.

  The medicus nodded. “We found a secret room in his cellar where some kind of alchemical experiments were taking place. There were traces of a strange-smelling bluish powder that unfortunately, just like everything else down there, has by now been reduced to ash. Did you know about this room?”

  The raftmaster was silent for a long time; he took a long swig of brandy before finally replying. “Hofmann actually was dabbling in alchemy,” he said. “I wasn’t aware of the secret room, but I suspected something of the sort. For years Andreas had been in search of this…” He paused briefly. “Well, of this stone they’ve all been trying to produce.”

  “The philosopher’s stone,” Simon whispered.

  Gessner nodded. “Exactly. He thought he was getting close to being able to turn iron into gold. Naturally, none of us believed him, and truthfully we even made fun of him a bit. It was just such a crazy idea, though perhaps there really was something more to it. A few days before he died he was hinting that he would very soon be a very wealthy man-”

  “So maybe that’s what happened!” Simon leaped out of his chair and paced the little room excitedly. “Hofmann is on his way to creating something very valuable in his workshop-perhaps the philosopher’s stone even. Whatever it is, the Regensburg patricians are very eager to get their hands on it. They question him, but when he doesn’t give them what they want, they kill him and his wife-or have them killed. It’s a delicate matter-there may even be others we’re not aware of, all of whom are after the same thing. So the aldermen have to see to it that not even the slightest suspicion falls
on them. That would explain why they lured Kuisl to Regensburg. They have to ensure everything looks like an ordinary robbery-murder. The whole thing really has nothing to do with the freemen at all!” Simon was worked up now. “Once the Hofmanns are dead, the patricians have the whole house ransacked. But they can’t find the philosopher’s stone, because Hofmann hid it down in his workshop!”

  “So?” Gessner asked curiously. “Where’s this stone now?”

  Simon settled back down on the crate and sighed. “We’ll probably never find out. Perhaps the stone is still down there; perhaps Hofmann hid it somewhere else. The bathhouse is no more than a heap of rubble and no one’s going to find anything there now. But I’m sure the strange powder has something to do with it.”

  The raftmaster thought it over, nodding as he fumbled with his red bandanna. “You may be on to something, and I just may be able to find something in those ruins yet. I have my sources…” He fingered his jet-black beard. “If I learn anything, I’ll let you know. Are you still staying at the Whale?”

  Simon shook his head. “That was too dangerous… for various reasons. No, for now we’re living with the beggars guild.”

  “The beggars guild?”

  “I have an agreement with the beggar king,” Simon replied curtly. “I heal his sick, and in return he guarantees our safety.”

  “Hmm,” Gessner mused. “Not that it’s any business of mine, but does the beggar king know about the alchemist’s workshop?”

  “We told Nathan about it,” Simon replied. “Why do you ask?”

  The Regensburg raftmaster clicked his tongue. “If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t trust him further than I can spit. Nathan will do anything for money. How else do you think he and his people can tramp about here in Regensburg without anyone bothering them?”

  “Do you think…?”

  “I don’t think; I know. More than once I’ve seen Nathan turn someone over to the city officials or pass information to the guards. And you’d better believe some people would pay a pretty penny for such a stone.”