The Copper Sign (30 page)

“I killed it with my slingshot,” he explained. Tying the dead animal to a branch, he removed one of its eyes to make it bleed. Then, starting from the hind legs, he gutted it and buried the remains in order not to attract wolves. Finally, he drove a long stake through the body and laid it over two forked branches he had stuck into the ground on either side of the fire. Soon the air was filled with the aroma of roasting meat.

Ellen did not even have an onion with her, but just as she had shared her pony with Madeleine, the two of them now shared their bread and the roast with her. After the meal, Madeleine curled up like a small child and at once fell asleep.

Ellen and Jean sat together in front of the crackling fire.

Suddenly and in a soft voice, Jean began his story. “I wasn’t even ten years old yet,” he said, “when it happened. I was in the forest gathering mushrooms.” He stared into the fire as if it were evoking memories from his past. “Madeleine was around twelve.” He swallowed hard. “I can’t even remember the name of our village, or the county it was in, and neither can she. I had been in the forest since dawn when suddenly I caught sight of a thick, black cloud of smoke in the sky and ran home. The entire village was in flames, and there was a disgusting bittersweet stench in the air.” He swallowed again, then resumed his tale. “The odor came from burning human flesh. At the town well there were many men from our village piled one on top of each other. They must have been trying to defend their families and were all slaughtered like animals. It began to rain, a fine drizzle, and I thought,
God is crying because He is so sad.
Their blood mixed with the rainwater to form little streams. I was afraid and ran to our house. It wasn’t burning and looked very peaceful, but I was afraid just the same. Though my knees were shaking, I went in.” He wiped his face with his hand. “In one corner my mother was lying. Her head was smashed and her face almost unrecognizable. Lying underneath her was my little brother. They were both dead. I started to cry, though my father always had forbidden me to do that. And then I discovered him, too, and it seemed like my heart stopped. He was such a big, strong man, and they had taken him to the goat pen and hung him up on two iron hooks. His eyes were bulging and staring directly at me, his stomach was slit open, and his entrails hung down. I rushed out and vomited again and again until there was nothing left in my stomach. Later I ran to the other houses that were not completely destroyed, and I called and cried but no one was there. They were all dead.” Jean fell silent for a moment.

Ellen was at a loss for words. She could so clearly feel his pain, as hardly a day went by when she herself did not think of the moment she had found Jocelyn dead. Never would she be able to forget this horrible sight.

“And then I saw Madeleine,” Jean continued in a soft voice. “Suddenly she was standing on the path in front of me holding a bouquet of meadow flowers—she reminded me of a little elf. She understood what had happened a lot faster than I did. The chickens and goats were gone, and even the carpenter’s dog as well as the cats were lying there dead in the mud. We couldn’t stand the sight and the odor of death any longer and fled into the forest.” Jean stirred the embers that had almost gone out and put a branch on them to make the fire burn a bit longer.

The night was dark and clear. Ellen felt cold and was grateful for the fire. She took her coat and spread it out on the ground so she would have something to sit on.

“We hid in the forest, but the robbers discovered us anyway. We realized by the things they were carrying that they were the same men who destroyed our village. One of them wanted to kill us right away. He put a knife to Madeleine’s throat, but another one restrained him. ‘Let’s first have a little fun with the girl,’ he suggested. I was too young to understand what he meant, but I saw the fear in Madeleine’s eyes and thought of my father with his belly slit open. In my anger I forgot my own fear and kicked the fellow in the shins as hard as I could.”

“Oh, my God,” Ellen cried out.

“You’re right, that was really stupid—I was much too little and no match for him. He socked me hard, grabbed me by the hair, and kicked me. He probably would have killed me, too, but then Marcondé, the leader of the gang, came over, and the robbers stepped back. At first I hoped he might let us go, but then I saw the dried blood on his dirty shirt—perhaps it belonged to my mother or my father!” He stopped for a moment and swallowed. “I became his servant and whipping boy, but my fate was bearable compared with what Madeleine had to go through. They jumped on her like horny goats, day after day from morning to night, and so many times!” Jean buried his head in his hands. “She used to be a completely sensible girl, do you know what I mean? She wasn’t…crazy, not at all, and it’s the fault of those fellows; they tortured her until she flipped. They made her into an animal, threw food at her as if she were a dog, and cheered when she crawled over on all fours to pick it up. They heated their knives over the fire and pressed the glowing blade into her flesh until she was able to bear that, too, without screaming. She was the only person I had left, and they drove her mad.”

“But how, for heaven’s sake, did you ever manage to escape?” Ellen asked, horrified, glancing over at the peacefully sleeping girl. Madeleine’s forehead was a bit wrinkled, and her hands were clenched into fists.

“I could have fled many times, but I couldn’t leave Madeleine alone. I would have killed Marcondé if it would do any good, but there were so many of them.” He looked at Ellen and suddenly began to smile. “We learned from the robbers how to ride a horse. Sometimes we spent the whole day on a horse and dismounted only to pee and to sleep. We even ate on horseback. I liked these days best of all because then the men were too tired to attack Madeleine. For months they took us along on their raids, and finally one day we got the chance to flee that we had been waiting for so long. Marcondé and his men attacked a little settlement, massacred the men, and assaulted the women and girls. Afterwards, they celebrated, got drunk, and didn’t notice that we stole two horses from them and took off. Because we knew they were good at trailing people, we sold the horses as soon as we could and actually managed to shake them off. I still can’t believe how lucky we were that day, but even now my hair stands on end and I start shaking with fear whenever I hear a group of men on horseback. I only feel safe at the tournaments because bandits avoid them like the plague.”

It was already very late, and although Jean knew from experience how little security was afforded by the presence of other people, Ellen was happy to know, after hearing the grisly tale, that the merchants they had been riding with were not far off.

“Madeleine is so lucky to have you here for her,” Ellen said softly, and went to get a second blanket that Nestor was carrying. She moved closer to Jean and Madeleine and wrapped it around herself and the other two as best she could. Since fleeing Orford, Ellen was fearful of the sounds coming from the forest at night. Neither she nor Jean could forget the experiences of the past, and every time she heard a rustling or crackling in the forest, she jumped and listened. This time, too, it took a long time for her to drift off into a deep sleep.

The morning sun dazzled her, even with her eyes closed, and woke her up. Ellen stretched, looked around for Jean and Madeleine, and was shocked. They were both gone! It didn’t seem they had been taken away forcefully, and it was hard to believe that robbers would have left Ellen sleeping peacefully while they dragged Madeleine and Jean away. She looked over at the tree where she had tied Nestor, and he, too, was gone! Furious, she jumped up. Had she been deceived again and taken in by two imposters? Helpless and disappointed, she was considering what to do next when she heard a crackling in the underbrush.

“Hello!” cried a female voice brightly, and Ellen turned around.

“Madeleine, Jean!” she exclaimed with relief.

“We took Nestor down to the brook for a drink, and we filled up the water skins,” Jean explained.

“The others are getting ready to leave,” Madeleine said, pointing to the clearing where the traveling merchants had spent the night as she danced around as if she urgently needed to relieve herself.

“Madeleine is right, it’s better for us to leave. Our trip will be safer if we stay with the others,” Jean said.

Ellen nodded. “It’s fine by me, I’m just going down to the brook for a moment.” She kicked ashes over the fire to extinguish the embers that were still glowing, and ran off. “I’ll be right back!”

A short time later they were following along behind the others and considering how Ellen might find work with one of the armorers during the tournament.

Jean didn’t hold out much hope: “That won’t be easy, because you’re not a man!” he said.

“Don’t think I haven’t considered that, but I’m good and women can be paid less, so that could be an advantage. If I just get a chance to show what I am able to do, I’m sure I can convince them all.”

“But as I see it,” Jean said, frowning, “getting the chance is actually the hardest part.” He knew a lot about the tournaments, and usually they encountered the same tradespeople there. The armorers all had a pretty high opinion of themselves. Jean himself had tried once to get work from one of them, but the smith laughed at him and called him a little squirt. “You’re pretty big for a woman,” Jean said, “but compared with one of the smiths, you aren’t. And you don’t have a back like an ox, either, so how can you have the same endurance as these big guys?” It was clear Jean doubted she could.

Ellen grinned. “Technique, Jean, it’s all a matter of technique! My master was a short man, and slender, too, for a smith. You can wield the hammer in different ways: with wide swings so that it comes crashing down with full force, or with short little strokes one right after the other. The rhythm, too, is important, and naturally as a striker you have to know how to hold a sledgehammer properly. A man who has no experience as a smith can’t wield a hammer properly, even if he’s as strong as an ox.”

“Oh, là, là! You’re beginning to scare me,” Jean teased, but he changed his tune when he saw Ellen scowling at him. “All right, it’s probably the case, if you say so. I’ll surely think of a way to get the smiths to try you out,” he mumbled half to himself.

“Look over there—what’s that?” Ellen said, pointing to a bush at the side of the road. A few branches moved, and there was a whimpering that sounded almost like that of a small child. Ellen walked over, bent down, and discovered a little dog with a bedraggled coat and bleeding front paw.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” she whispered in a gentle voice.

The dog cringed and growled softly.

“Don’t get any closer, you never know…he is injured!” she warned Jean and Madeleine. She gestured to them to stop.

“If it’s mad, it will first act docile, and then it will bite,” Jean warned her. “My father’s brother died of a bite like that—it was dreadful. He suffered for a long time. First he went crazy, then foam started coming out of his mouth, and then he fell over dead.”

“It doesn’t look like he has been bitten,” Ellen said, looking at the paw. “It looks more like a cut.”

“If it were a good dog, the owner wouldn’t have abandoned it,” Jean grumbled. He evidently had no desire to care for a dog as well.

Without heeding Jean’s objections, Ellen continued to talk to the dog and try to calm it down. “I’ll take care of your paw, put some herbs on it and a little bandage, and soon you’ll be fine again.” She turned around looking for Madeleine, but she had already run off to get what Ellen needed.

Jean gave a shrug of resignation. “It’s tough enough trying to cope with one woman, but two…?” He sighed and waited.

As autumn was approaching, it got dark earlier, and already in the afternoon the merchants started seeking a place for the night. “I’ll walk ahead a bit and look for a quiet place for us near the others. I suggest you come along when you’re done with all this,” he grumbled finally, taking Nestor by the reins and heading off.

Ellen didn’t take her eyes off the dog. His shaggy grey coat was as soft as down feathers. “You’re still pretty young, aren’t you?” She sat down alongside the little fellow and looked deep into his eyes, and he put his head on her knees.

“Maybe he ran away,” Madeleine said sympathetically and petted him gently. “Here are the herbs for him.”

The little dog kept licking Ellen’s hand while she carefully tended to his wound.

“His paw has been really injured, and it doesn’t look like it will heal so soon.” Ellen fondled his ears. “I bet you’re hungry, aren’t you?”

As if he had understood her, he raised his head and pricked up his ears as best as he could with his shaggy, hanging ears.

Ellen smiled. “There’s still a piece of bread in the saddlebag.”

Madeleine jumped up. “Oh, darn! Jean has the pony!” Angered, she sat back down on the ground and continued petting the dog.

“We’ll take him along!” Ellen decided and put her arms around his little body to pick him up. “He’s a lot bigger than I thought,” she concluded. “He’ll be a big fellow and can keep an eye on our things when he’s grown up.”

“Jean will be angry,” Madeleine said, but Ellen’s only response was a look of disapproval.

“Jean doesn’t tell me what to do. I do what I think is right.” Ellen knew how difficult it would be to look after a dog. He had to eat, after all, and he wouldn’t be able to earn his keep. Jean would surely have lots of good reasons why they couldn’t keep him. And probably he would be right, but she just couldn’t resist the trusting gaze of the little puppy.

Ellen was surprised that Jean didn’t grumble as much as she expected. Maybe he was moved by how shaky the little dog was on its feet. He looked like a shaggy foal on legs that were much too long and wobbly. Or maybe Jean just had sympathy for the pup because it was as poor and forsaken as he and Madeleine were.