Heidelberg Effect (29 page)

“Who?”

“It’s a guy named Eric
Reicher,” Ella said. “
Earlier this year,
the Prince gave the Church of the Holy Spirit exclusively to the
Catholics for their use which really pissed off the Protestants in
town.”

Rowan frowned.

“Rowan, don’t you see? This
is so much better than just some whacko anti-papist trying to kill
Catholics. By planning to kill the Prince’s man,
Krüger
has
committed
treason
.”

“It’s good,” Rowan said.

“Are you kidding?
It’s
great
. But
you’re right. How do we prove it? I mean, without letting this
Reicher guy bite the big one next week?”

“Was
Krüger
telling his plot to only
Axel?”

“That’s right. They
outlined their plot to kill the highest ranking Catholic in the
country and then
Krüger
swore Axel to secrecy. He instructed Axel to kill
the guy himself.”

Rowan was staring out the high window in
their room. “First thing we do,” he said, “is have Axel spill the
beans big-time to the world.”

“Axel’s gone, remember?”

“Trust me, he’ll be back.”

“Well, okay, then how do we have him spill
the beans?”

“We don’t have
him
do it,” Rowan said,
smiling. “We have him
appear
to do it.”

“Explain please.”

“Krüger
swore him to secrecy, right? So Step One in our discrediting
Axel and getting him dumped from the Daddy-Loves-Me-Best platform
is to make it look like he can’t be trusted. Plus, the more people
who know, the less likely
Krüger
will go through with the
assassination.”

“So what are you thinking?”

“We have Axel tell the world his big
secret.”

“He would never do that.”

“Perception, Ella. Remember? It’s all
perception.”

Comfortable in their belief that they now
had all the time in the world, Ella and Rowan curled up in their
small bed and, for the first time in 1620, slept in blessed relief
from fear.

Less than an hour after they blew out their
bedside candle, the attack came.

Chapter Eighteen

Greta had finished her prayers and crawled
into bed when she heard the hooves of many horses pounding through
the garden on the rough uneven stones of the convent’s courtyard.
She froze in disbelief. Assuming there was no one else besides Axel
to fear, she had spent her first evening in years without bracing
for the invasion she had always expected. As she hesitated just
long enough to pull on slippers, she heard the rough voices of many
men outside the convent walls. She grabbed her cloak and ran to the
door of her chamber. Immediately a flaming torch crashed through
the bedroom window behind her. Not bothering to beat out the
flames, she bolted from her room and ran for the novices’
dormitory.

“Awaken! Awaken!” she screamed as she ran
down the hall, pounding on the bedroom doors of the older nuns
along the way. Many were already awake. They emerged from their
rooms and followed Greta to the novices’ chamber.

Once there, Greta pulled open the door to
the first bedroom. Four girls slept on straw pallets under coarse
woolen blankets on the floor.

“Get up!” she screamed. “We must leave now!
Get up!”

As Greta turned to the hall that led to the
kitchen, she ran into Rowan who had his trousers on but was bare
chested. He held his Glock, pointed at the ceiling, with both
hands.

“Anybody see how many?” he asked.

“I think twenty, maybe more,” Greta said,
pulling her cloak around her.

“Shit,” he said. “All of you need to stay
together and get ready to move when I tell you to.”

The hall lit up with a fierce orange light
as a fireball exploded in the dining room of the convent.

“Have they breached us yet?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Any minute now.”

“And Ella?” Greta said, looking behind
him.

“Don’t worry about Ella, Mother,” Rowan
said. “Wait for my signal,” he said, and disappeared down the
hall.

Greta entered the room full of frightened
women. “Listen to me,” she said. “You must be ready to run when the
word is given.” The nuns huddled together for support and murmured
“Yes, Mother.” As Greta returned to the hallway, she heard the
battering ram as it splintered the front door.

Dear Lord, is this how it all must end?

A lithe figure darted down the hall toward
her. The smoke from the fires that were burning throughout the
convent made it difficult to see Ella until they stood face to
face.

“You guys okay?” Ella said. She was wearing
a pair of loose pants and a shirt several sizes too large for her.
The mail pouch she had brought from the future was slung over her
shoulder.

“Yes,” Greta said. “What is happening?”

“Is there a back way out of the convent?”
Ella asked. Her face was streaked with soot from the smoke she had
run through. The shouts of men were closer now. They were coming
from inside the convent.

“There is an entrance to a tunnel in the
garden,” Greta said. “But we will be seen.”

The sounds of gunfire
filled the air and Greta saw the controlled fear etched on Ella’s
face. “That’s our cue,” Ella rasped. “Let’s go. Lead us, Greta.”
She pulled out her Taser and shoved Greta toward the door ahead of
the other nuns. “We need to go
now
!”

Greta shouted to the women, “Follow me!
Everyone run!” She ran down the hall away from the gunfire and
screams. When she swung open the outside door, the sight made her
stop. There were at least fifty soldiers in the courtyard and
surrounding the garden. There were many bodies on the ground, some
twitching, and some still. Looking back she could see that fire was
slowly consuming the convent.

Ella pushed her forcefully from behind.
“Greta, go!” she urged. Greta ran to the garden and opened the
gate, then ran down the path toward a metal grate hidden by the
grass. The grate covered a portal leading to the city’s sewers and
to the surrounding countryside. Ignoring the screams of her nuns
behind her and the soldiers’ shouts, she fell to her knees and
pried the grate free and moved it aside.

“Get in!” she said to the elderly nun who
was gasping for breath behind her. The woman plunged into the hole
without hesitation. One by one, the group followed her. Greta
looked around the garden and thanked God for the black robes which
hid them so well in the night. As the last nun went down the hole,
Greta strained to see Ella at the rear. But Ella was not there.

Ella ran back down the hall of the convent.
The smoke was worse now and the heat was nearly unbearable as the
fire spread, eating up the ancient wood furniture and the heavy
cotton window curtains. She ran to the last place she’d seen him
and prayed he was there still. The fire raged on both sides of the
hall.

When she emerged from the wall of smoke, she
saw that four men had their hands on Rowan. Because she hadn’t
heard any more gunshots, she knew that he must be out of bullets.
Axel held Rowan’s gun and brought it down hard, smashing it into
his face. Rowan dropped to his knees. Ella could see the blood
streaming down his chin.

“Rowan!” she screamed.

One of the men drew his sword. He took two
steps toward her and she raised the Taser in front of her.

“Ella, no!” Rowan shouted.
“They’re only
taking
me. Go!”

She hesitated and then, tucking her head,
fled into the wall of smoke where she hoped they wouldn’t
follow.

She could hear Axel screaming: “After her!
After her!” She kept her Taser out as she sprinted down the hall.
The dense smoke made it impossible to see even inches ahead of her.
She ran blindly until she burst into the garden. Immediately, she
spotted Greta, crouching by the entrance to the tunnel.

Her eyes burned and she cursed Greta for not
leaving with the others and thanked God she hadn’t. She brushed by
her and jumped down the hole. As she scrambled down the tunnel, she
could hear Greta putting back the grate behind her.

They moved silently down
the tunnel for a half an hour, the scent of damp earth and death
surrounding them, until Ella smelled fresh air. The other nuns had
already emerged from the tunnel and were standing about in the
faint predawn light. Ella pulled herself out of the tunnel and
looked around. They were in an open field in the countryside. Once
out of the tunnel, Ella threw down her mailbag and Taser. Behind
them, in the distance, she could see the bright orange blaze of
the
Kloster St. Josef
as it burned to the ground.

She sank to her knees and stared at the fire
on the horizon. Then she put her head in her hands and wept.

Later that morning, Greta and Ella sat alone
in the interior of a large cave carved into the side of the hill.
Everyone had escaped the attack without harm.

Everyone but Rowan.

One of the novices who had been saved by
Rowan from the goat abduction approached Greta.

“A word, Mother,” she said meekly.

Greta nodded, her face a mask of
exhaustion.

“I request permission to go to the
monastery.”

Greta shook her head. “You are too young,”
she said. “It would not be proper.”

The girl looked at Ella. “Will he die?” she
asked. “Will Herr Marshal die in the castle?”

Ella wanted so badly to
say
Hell, no!
but
she just looked at the young girl and felt the tears welling up in
her eyes. “I pray not,” she said.

“I am not afraid,” the girl said. “I will go
to the monastery. I will find where they are keeping him. I will
bring the monk you need to deliver your messages.”

“I am grateful for your help,” Ella said,
“But we have nothing to deliver. Everything was destroyed in the
fire.”

“Not everything,” Greta said.

Ella looked at her. “The birth
certificate?”

“Yes,” Greta admitted. “That was lost, but
the letter to Herr Schwartz, the Protestant Magistrate accusing
Axel of witchcraft…”

“You have it here?” Ella looked around the
camp.

“I
sent
it. Yesterday. Although clearly
it had no effect. That was my task, was it not?”

“Yes, yes. I’d forgotten. That’s good,
Greta.”

Ella saw the young girl’s
hands were bandaged.
This was the one who
was grabbed,
she thought. “What is your
name?” Ella said.

“Alice.”

“Okay, Alice. Go to the monastery and bring
back the monk…”

“Brother Albert,” Greta said to Alice. “No
one else.”

Alice nodded.

“And, Alice,” Ella said. “Thank you.”

“He saved us all,” Alice said, and left the
cave.

“She’s right,” Ella said, staring at the
barely visible skyline of the town. “We can’t give up. We have to
go on without him.” Just saying the words made her want to throw
up. She reminded herself that he was alive and that was all that
mattered. He wouldn’t stay that way long, she knew. Things would
have to come together quickly if she was to write the end to this
story in a way that didn’t have her in therapy for a very long
time. That is, if she even lived to go into therapy.

Greta put her hand on Ella’s knee. “You have
done your best, my friend,” she said. “And we are alive.”

“For now,” Ella said.

“Yes,” Greta said, smiling sadly. “For
now.”

The dungeon was a cavernous, windowless pit
in the basement of the castle. The door to the cell had a small
window criss-crossed with a grille of iron in the center of it.
From the cold stone floor on which he lay, Rowan could see shadows
flit past the grille in the hallway outside, but the window was too
high up on the door to afford a glimpse of anyone walking by.

Axel stood over him.

“Ach, sie sind nicht ein
Gärtner
,” Axel said. He squatted next to
Rowan so that they were eye to eye.

Rowan’s hands were tied behind him. He was
pretty sure his ribs were broken from the rough handling during
transport to the castle, and he could feel a loose molar from where
this asshole had hit him with his own gun. Rowan was surprised by
how little fear he was feeling. What he did feel was a rage at the
power of this one man to hurt innocent people and kill without
consequences.

Rowan glared at Axel, hoping the bastard
would come just a little closer.

“Wer schlafen Sie
mit
?” Axel said, his face smiling and
relaxed. The two men flanking Axel laughed.
Do<br/>you fuck the nun? MACROBUTTON
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“Ficken Sie die
Nonne?”

Axel barked out a quick order over his
shoulder without breaking eye contact with Rowan. He placed his
hands on Rowan’s bare chest. Rowan flinched at his touch. Axel let
his gaze crawl the length of Rowan stretched out on the filthy
dungeon floor.

Rowan felt the heat from a stove he hadn’t
realized was there when one of the men standing behind Axel shifted
position. He caught a glimpse of the red, violent flames as the
oven door opened and closed. When he looked at Axel again, he could
see he wanted him to know what was coming. He watched as Axel’s man
held the glowing white hot poker up and away. Waiting.

“Haltet
ihn
!” Axel ordered. Someone grabbed Rowan
by both arms and started to haul him to his feet. Before he was
fully steady, Rowan smashed his head into the man’s chin and lashed
out with his foot toward Axel. But his reflexes were slow. His foot
met only air. Another man materialized from nowhere holding a large
wooden bat. He swung at Rowan. Rowan dodged it but not completely.
In the back of his mind, he could hear Axel shouting, and then the
lights in his brain went out in a dizzyingly sickening swirl of
pain and darkness. Before he could sink to the floor, hands grabbed
him and slammed him face first into the rock wall of the
dungeon.