Swept Away (22 page)

“Yes, lord,” Dojo said, fear creeping into his bones.

“And a simpleton? The size of a giant and wearing a priest's frock?”

From the convent
. Dojo bowed his head in silence.

“Lift your head, Dojo,” Axel snarled. “That I may look into the face of my father's faithful servant. The traitor who allowed the bitch nun's assassin into my bed chamber and then to escape.”

Bravely, Dojo lifted his face to the monster's rage.

“
K
rüger and Axel
are planning on murdering Prince Karl III Philip's head Catholic dude at the monthly market fair week after next.”

“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.

G
reta 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.

L
ater 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.”

T
he 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.
“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.

“
Wechet ihn auf
!” Axel was screaming. “
Wechet ihn auf
!”

Within seconds someone threw water in Rowan's face. He woke up and realized his nose was broken. He was pressed firmly against the wall. Axel stood beside him and looked into his face. He was smiling, and in his hand, held so that Rowan could see, was the fiery branding iron.

“
Oh gut, sie leben noch
,” he said. “
Meine Frage ist: Wo sind die Nonnen
?”

Rowan licked his lips. He was pretty sure he didn't have enough saliva left to spit in the face of this bastard.

“
Ja
?” Axel said. “
Ich Weiss dass Sie können mich verstehen. Wo sind die Nonnen
?”

“It may not be the answer you're hoping for,” Rowan said, his voice just a whisper.

Axel frowned and brought his face nose to nose with Rowan's. “
Was
?”

“But, go fuck yourself.” As soon as he saw the confusion on Axel's face at the unfamiliar language, Rowan smashed his head into Axel's mouth. Axel dropped the hot poker and put both hands to his face. Blood immediately spouted between his fingers.

“
Verbrennet ihn
!” he screamed.

All three men grabbed Rowan and pinned him again with his face to the wall. He saw one of them pick up the fiery poker.

He closed his eyes.
I love you, Ella
, he thought fervently.
I love you, girl
.

When the brand touched his left shoulder, he smelled burning flesh before he registered the pain. Then the agony in his shoulder exploded in a vortex of intense sensation that emanated in all directions at once. So invasive and complete was the severity of the pain that it screamed through every part of his body. With Ella's name still on his lips and in his mind, Rowan fainted.