“This guard has volunteered to assist you,” Matthias said. “I am trusting that you are a noble man of honor, and that no more than that is necessary.”
Hans seemed unsurprised to see Erich, and Erich in turn did his best to control himself.
“It will be sufficient.”
Matthias led them out. Outside on the grounds was the man with the babe, who handed it to Hans. Matthias shook Erich’s hand.
“Good luck. I pray you return with my daughter.”
“As do I,” he replied truthfully.
As Erich struggled with what to do, the two of them walked out of the castle and started down the road to the town.
“I know about Ariel and Astrid,” Hans said quietly. “That is why I volunteered to help.”
“You alone?”
“All the other guards are afraid of the witches.”
“I am not sure what we are supposed to do. I know more than I let on here, but I cannot see how we can find this witch.”
Hans looked down at the babe. “Matthias told me we are to—”
Then he gasped, pulling up short. Erich stopped as well. Hans was staring down at the child in shock. He brushed her hair away from her forehead.
“What?”
Finally Hans looked up, face pale.
“I know this babe. This is no changeling. It is the daughter of a girl who works in the kitchens.”
“How do you know?”
“The birthmark. I have seen it. She carries the child around in a sling. I met her on the walls yesterday. I remember seeing the mark.”
“You’re sure?”
Hans gulped. “I think so. I met her only once.”
Erich looked back at the castle. “Why would the witch take this other child, yet put this one in its crib?”
Hans did not answer him right away.
“I don’t think it was the witch.”
“What do you mean?”
“Last night, I overheard some of the guards talking. They mentioned taking a child from the kitchens. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
Erich’s head swam.
“This makes no sense. The guards took this child . . . then the witch took the other one . . . and now we . . .”
Erich had enough. He needed Ariel and Astrid’s help with this, but how was he to get it?
“Do you know where Ariel and Astrid are being held?”
“Yes. They call it the White Tower. It’s in the back of the castle. It’s the dungeon.”
“Can you get me in there?”
Hans’ face went pale. For a few moments, he said nothing. Then his eyes lit up.
“I’ve got an idea.”
WHEN HANS led them back to the gate, he explained to the other guards that he had forgotten his cloak and needed to retrieve it. Matthias and the others had disappeared back into the castle, and no one paid them any attention. Erich followed Hans around the back of the grounds and into a different doorway. They went down a narrow hall, through several doors, then down a flight of stairs. Now they were down in the basement of the castle, passing storerooms and a wine cellar. Erich could smell the kitchen up ahead.
Hans pushed Erich into one of the rooms along the hallway and handed the babe to him. “Wait here.” Then he left.
Erich stood there for several minutes, not sure what to do. The babe was fussing again. He sat on a low barrel and tried to calm it, cradling the girl and rocking her as he had seen women doing with their children.
Hans was gone for longer than Erich expected, and he grew worried—for Hans, for himself, for his wives, and for this babe, which he had no idea what to do with if something went wrong.
Finally, he heard Hans’ voice coming back up the hall. “Please, it’s just a bit further, I promise . . .”
The door opened, and Hans appeared with a young girl about his age. She might once have been pretty, but her eyes were swollen red and her face was lined with grief.
Then she took one look at Erich, cried out, and threw herself at the babe. Erich surrendered it willingly.
The girl held her daughter tightly, sobbing and shaking. She sat down on another barrel and rocked back and forth crying quietly.
Hans looked over at him. “This is Julia.”
Erich glanced out into the hallway. No one was there, so he shut the door.
It was several long minutes before the girl finally looked up them. She glanced at Hans, then Erich.
“Who are you? Why did you have my baby?”
Erich pondered how best to answer this. “It’s a long story. I am not quite sure myself.”
“Did the guards take her last night?” Hans asked.
“Yes,” Julia said.
“Do you know why?”
“No. They just said to forget her. As if I possibly could.”
“Do you know the story of the witches’ covenant?” Erich asked.
Julia nodded. “Of course.”
“It seems they took a child last night,” he went on. “Somehow your daughter was put in its place. And today, the Landgrave engaged me to retrieve this other child, using yours. They seem to believe it is a changeling.”
Julia’s face went white.
“Whose child did they take?” she asked softly.
“The daughter of the Landgrave’s guard captain.”
“Matthias? Erika and Matthias’s baby?”
“Yes.”
Her jaw dropped. Julia’s anguish over recovering her daughter was replaced with plain shock. Finally her eyes lifted to Erich’s.
“You know something,” Erich said. He could see it in her face.
Julia swallowed weakly. “I only know what I have heard. People in the castle . . . they have been saying Erika’s daughter is . . . odd. That strange things happen around her. Erika will let no one see her.”
All at once Erich saw it.
“She was the one the witches wanted. But Philip would not hand over the daughter of his guard captain, for fear of causing a mutiny. So they took yours, I suppose intending to give it to the witches. But the witches saw through the subterfuge and took the other anyway.”
“Which does not explain why they think this one is a changeling,” Hans said.
Erich shrugged. “They may not have recognized it. Perhaps the witches blinded them to this fact somehow. It could be anything.”
“I know why,” Julia said softly.
Erich and Hans looked at her. Julia’s eyes were wide and unfocused. Finally she looked up.
“This is Philip’s daughter. He wants to be rid of her.”
Neither of them could say a word. Julia went on, voice flat.
“I used to work as a chambermaid. One night he forced himself on me. It went on for months. I conceived. When I gave birth, and he learned it was a girl, he cast me out. I have been in the kitchens ever since. He wants nothing to do with us. I am sure he did this simply as a means of getting rid of his bastard.”
The room was silent for several long moments.
“Well,” Erich said at last. “This complicates things. Quite a bit.”
But it was Hans who eventually remembered why they had come down here.
“Julia, we need your help.”
She looked up, confused. “With what?”
“You are friends with Constantine?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Erich. “His wife and sister are confined in the dungeon. They are accused of being witches, of being responsible for this whole thing. But you can see now how this happened.”
“Yes. But what can I do?”
“Can Constantine help us get them out? Can you talk to him about it?”
Julia gasped softly. She said nothing for a moment or two. Then she looked down at the babe in her arms and took a deep breath.
“I do not know. But I will try.”
29.
ASTRID SAT in the cell trying not to be afraid, and failing. She was surrounded on all sides by rough stone. Leather sacks had been tied on
to her hands, she assumed to prevent her from casting spells, and she had been chained to the wall behind her.
Worse, it was pitch dark. The cell was in the lowest level of the tower and had no windows. They had been led down a steep staircase and locked inside. When the door shut, she and Ariel were bathed in darkness.
She could see with her wolf-sight, barely, but only vague shadows were visible. Still, that was preferable to what she saw when she closed her eyes.
It was the effigy of her mother, burning in the street outside their house in Weilburg. The chants she had heard that day were as fresh in her mind now as they were a decade before.
None of the townspeople in Marburg had called for her to be burnt, but she could see it in their eyes. They were afraid, and frightened people were dangerous.
“Astrid?”
Ariel was chained to the other side of the cell about ten feet away.
“What?”
“What do you think will happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“This is becoming a pattern with us, isn’t it?”
Ariel was trying to lift her spirits, but Astrid wanted none of it.
“Are you blaming Erich?”
“No! Of course not.”
“He told us to stay in the inn. Why did you lean out the door like that?”
Ariel didn’t answer her right away.
“I just wanted to see what was going on.”
“That’s always how it is with you,” Astrid snapped. “‘I wanted to see.’ That’s how you destroyed Father’s resonance cube. So many things have happened because you cannot control your curiosity. Now we are to be burnt at the stake because of it.”
“Fine! Blame me for everything! I’m always the one who gets in trouble. I want to learn things, to do things, while you just want to think and talk about them. You’re just like Father.”
Astrid closed her eyes.
“And you’re just like Mother. That’s why you were her favorite.”
Ariel didn’t answer her right away.
“Is that what you think?”
“It’s the truth. You were.”
Again Ariel was quiet for several moments.
“She used to scold me. Tell me I should be more serious about things. That I should be more like you.”
Astrid looked up now.
“She did?”
“Yes. Many times.”
Astrid sighed, not knowing what to say to that.
“Now you’re going to tell me I’m Erich’s favorite as well,” Ariel said.
Astrid groaned. She had thoughts about this subject, but did not want to share them.
“Astrid?” Ariel said after a few moments.
“What do you want me to say? That you are the one who always wants to bed him, so he must be more enamored of you?”
“You’ve said as much.”
“So you think I would rather not bed him? You think I somehow detest it?”
“Do you?”
“No! I love Erich! But you are always ready for it whether I am or not. You never give me the chance to do anything. So instead I must always be the one to deny my husband the fruits of his marriage after you have dangled them before his eyes.”
The cell was silent for a while.
“I’m sorry,” Ariel said. “You’re right.”
Astrid sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”
“Don’t say that. Erich will get us out of here.”
“I am sure he will do it or die trying. I am just not sure he is capable of it. He is one man and there are so many in this castle.”
“I can’t imagine they will burn us. Surely they will see we are innocent.”
“They nearly burned Mother.”
“What do you mean?”
Astrid told her the story of what she had seen that day after their mother had died.
“Why did you never tell me that?” Ariel said when she was done.
“I was frightened.”
“Do you really think they would have burned her? Father would never have allowed it.”
“I am certain there were those in the town who wanted to. She was fortunate there were enough who knew her good nature. We have no such advantage here.”
TIME DRAGGED by in the darkness. The world seemed to have shrunk to the narrow cylinder of stone they were confined in.
“What if they torture us?” Ariel asked a while later. “To make us confess? I have heard they always torture witches, that is the only way to free their tongues from the Devil’s grip.”
“I don’t want to think about that.”
“I can’t help it. I keep thinking of all those horrible things in Wilhelm’s dungeon. What he was going to do to us.”
Wilhelm had intended to do more than torture them, Astrid thought. She had seen clearly in his eyes that he meant to rape them as well, rape them in front of Erich.
At least they did not have to worry about that this time. She hoped.
“I don’t want to die,” Ariel said.
“Neither do I.”
“Do you hate me for this?”
“No.”
“You sound as if you do.”
Astrid put her face in her hands.
“I am frightened. Both for us and for Erich.”
“I am trying to be hopeful. We found a way out of Wilhelm’s dungeon. Erich will find a way to save us.”
“I hope so.”
“If we get out of here, promise me we won’t quarrel like this again. I will let you decide when we bed Erich.”
Astrid sighed. “You don’t need to let me decide. Just please do not act as annoyed as you have been doing if I do not always share your enthusiasm.”
“All right. That is fair.”
Astrid laughed to herself. “If Erich were here now, I think I would like to bed him more than anything in the world.”
Ariel returned the laugh. “So would I.”
“Let us hope we have the chance again.”
JULIA LED them around the back of the castle to Constantine’s tower. When Erich saw it, he had to steel himself against the knowledge that Ariel and Astrid were locked up inside, under conditions he did not want to think about. He had been jailed, sometime for weeks, more than once himself, and he did not think it was an experience the girls were ready for.
But it had only been a few hours. With luck, they would be out shortly.
Julia knocked on the door. “It’s Julia!” she called.
The mage came to the door shortly, his clearly incipient pleasure at seeing Julia fizzling when he saw Erich and Hans.
“Oh—hello. What can I do for you, my dear?”
“Can we come in? It’s very important.”
Constantine wavered for a few moments, then nodded. “Yes, yes, come in.”
Erich followed him into a workshop that reminded him of Walther’s back in Weilburg, except that there were fewer animal automata and a great deal more birds.
“This is Erich and Hans,” Julia said. “They helped me with something, but they need your help in turn.”
Constantine turned to Erich and noticed him looking at a brass falcon on its perch on the wall.
“My specialty. Flying automata. Getting the balance correct is most challenging.”
Erich nodded.
“I am going to be frank. The women in the dungeon below you are being held as witches. They are accused of being responsible for what happened last night, but they are innocent. I know because I was with them when these events occurred. I need your help getting them out.”
Constantine’s eyes widened. “Getting them out of the dungeon?”
“Yes.”
He blinked. “I am not in charge of the dungeon. I am the Landgrave’s artificer. What do you mean by this? Who are you?”
“The women are my wife and her sister.”
“Constantine, please,” Julia asked, “is there nothing you can do?”
The mage sat down on a stool.
“You wish me to break them out of the Landgrave’s dungeon? He is my patron!”
“You are a mage,” Erich said. “You know what gross misunderstandings there are around magery, how common people accuse all of you of being witches, when they understand nothing about what that means. My wife and her sister are naturalists. Their father is an artificer like you. They could not have done these things if they wanted to.”
Something pricked Constantine’s interest.
“Their father is an artificer?”
“Yes.”
“What is his name?”
“Walther, of Weilburg.”
Constantine shot to his feet. “They are Walther’s daughters?”
“You know him?”
“Know him? He is one of my oldest friends. We attended university together, in Köln. Saints preserve us!” Then he dashed for something on his desk, a small roll of paper. “This is what Johannes’s letter must have been about. I was so busy with the fool and the ball and everything last night I never had time to read it!”
He unscrolled the letter and scanned it rapidly.
“It is! Good Lord! We must get them out of there at once. Come.”
Constantine led them rapidly out of his rooms and down the stairs.
“The jailer will let me in. He knows me. He is always coming up to borrow coal for his fire. You will need to deal with him, but I will get us inside.”
Back at ground level, he led them to a stout wooden door around the side of the tower. Constantine rapped on it several times.
“Ingomar!” he called out. “Are you there? It’s Constantine.”
After a few moments, there was the sound of the door being unlatched. With a creak against the stone frame, it opened. A rough, dirty man in leather armor appeared.
“Yes, what is it?”
As soon as the door was open far enough, Erich threw his shoulder against it, shoving his way inside. The jailer lost his balance, falling backward. The rest of them rushed in behind him, shutting the door. Erich drew his war knife and held it at the man’s chest.
“I mean you no harm, but I mean to remove those women from your dungeon. Where are the keys?”
The jailer pointed toward the wall behind him, where a ring of heavy iron keys hung.
“Get them,” Erich said to Hans. The boy ran over and picked them up. “Now tie him up.” Hans found some rope, and in a minute or so, the jailer was securely bound and gagged.
The Witches' Covenant (Twin Magic Book 2) Page 20
