The Copper Sign (44 page)

“Thibault!” she growled.

“No, not him again,” William groaned.

Ellen summoned up all her courage and said, “I am Alan, not his sister, and Thibault knows. He threatened to tell you all that if I don’t do what he wants. I told him to go to hell and said I would tell you myself who I am. Now he has found another solution in order to put pressure on me and kidnapped Jean.” She had been talking nonstop, but now she turned silent.

“And now?” William asked, calmly.

Ellen looked at him, distraught. “What do you mean by ‘and now’?”

“What shall we do, I mean, to help Jean?”

“Didn’t you understand what I said, that I am Alan?”

“Of course I understood that, Ellen. Do you seriously believe I hadn’t noticed that a long time ago? Just the fragrance of your skin! Until this very day I can’t understand how you were able to fool the others for so long. Thibault, too! On the very first Sunday back then in the Tancarville forest I already suspected, and by the time we had met the third time I was certain.”

Ellen gasped for breath and stared at William.

“You…you knew it all along?” She rose in front of him. For a moment she forgot all her grief and could scarcely control her anger.

William shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

“And so what if I did…?”

Ellen was seething. All the stories he had told her to torment her about women and his suspicions about Rose were just trickery. She gasped for air. “I can’t believe you were making fun of me the whole time!”

“Would you have preferred that I had let your secret out?” he asked with irritation.

Ellen didn’t know how to answer. Of course she was grateful to him for keeping her secret, but how wonderful it could have been if it had been a shared secret.

“Do you want to keep reminiscing about our past, or should we go and try to release your friend before Thibault does something crazy?” William asked impatiently. He was excited about the possibility of foiling Thibault’s plan.

Ellen could only grunt and fetched Athanor from her tent. “You stay here and wait for us,” she told Madeleine in a strict voice. “Don’t move from this spot for any reason, do you hear me?”

William turned to leave, ready for a fight.

“You don’t have to come along.”

“I know how good you are with a sword, Ellen, but Thibault by now has a lot more experience than you do. Also, he is more devious. I can’t stand him, in any case, and Jean has nothing to do with that. It is a question of defending my honor as a knight.”

“Bah, honor!” Ellen exploded.

William carefully ignored her remark.

“It would be best if I just pretend to pay a visit to Thibault, a friendly visit, so to say. And you…”

“I’ll sneak around the back, try to free Jean, and flee without being noticed,” Ellen interrupted. “No wonder they call you the great tactician of Tancarville!” And she was at once annoyed at herself because she sounded like a loudmouthed washwoman. What complaint did she have against William? After all, he had not lied to her any more than she had to him. “I know that’s the best solution if we want to make certain Thibault doesn’t become suspicious right away. If we can avoid a fight, all the better,” she added, in a more conciliatory tone.

Night had fallen, but William had pointed out to Ellen exactly where Thibault’s tent was. As they got closer, they separated, and Ellen moved furtively through the tent grounds. Torches were burning all around. In front of the tents a few watchmen were sitting alongside bonfires, preparing something to eat and celebrating boisterously. Ellen watched William from a distance.

He proceeded toward a red and green tent where the watchman on duty greeted him and let him pass without hesitation. It appeared William was viewed as a friend.

For a moment Ellen wondered if he was leading her into a trap. “Jean, you must think of Jean!” she mumbled to herself and approached the tent from the rear. Everything was quiet. The horses were tied up not far from her, grazing contentedly, and seemed to take no notice of her. Rose was nowhere to be seen. Ellen listened carefully, trying to overhear William and Thibault, when she felt someone tugging on her dress. Startled, she turned around, ready to fight. It was Rose, holding her finger to her lips and beckoning. Ellen followed her quietly to a long opening on one side of the tent.

Rose climbed through first. Without thinking about what might await her there, Ellen also entered and looked around. She was standing in a small, comfortably appointed side tent. This feudal bed decorated with pillows, blankets, and furs had to be Thibault’s.

Jean was crouched on the bare floor. His head was pressed against his knees, and he was completely motionless. Ellen poked at him and was surprised when he lifted his head. He had been beaten so badly that his entire face was swollen and his eyes looked like tiny slits. Because he could hardly see anything, he recoiled for fear of being beaten again.

“It’s me, Ellen. I’ll get you out of here,” she whispered.

Jean nodded with relief. His hands were tied behind his back, but he was able to raise them a bit. Ellen took her knife and cut the rope, then took off the shackles around his feet.

William and Thibault seemed to be having an animated conversation, but suddenly their voices became loud.

Then Ellen heard a woman’s voice. She stood up and listened. “Oh, God, no, Madeleine!” she whispered; then she heard Thibault’s piercing laughter.

“Jean! She wants Jean!” he screeched loudly. “And I want Ellen,” he screamed at her.

Ellen pulled Athanor out of its scabbard.

“Get Jean out of here; we’ll meet at the tent,” she whispered to Rose as she pulled back the tent flap. When Thibault saw her standing there with Athanor, he pulled his own sword.

“What are you doing, Thibault? Are you going to fight a woman?” said William, trying to divert him.

“Don’t try to fool me. I know you and she…” Thibault laughed loudly. “But she belonged to me first.”

William seemed not to understand what Thibault meant, for he just shook his head.

Out of the corner of her eye Ellen saw a page rushing toward Madeleine. Acting with presence of mind, Ellen ran to help. She fought better than the page and drove him back until William could get to him. Then she pulled Madeleine away and tried to reach the exit, but Thibault stood in her way.

“Just let them go!” William said, trying to sound conciliatory, but Thibault merely glared at him in contempt.

Ellen took advantage of this distraction and lunged at Thibault, cutting him on his right arm. It was the second time she had injured him in the same spot. Thibault winced in pain and reached for his arm. Blood flowed out and colored his hand and shirt red. He had had no intention of letting Ellen and Madeleine go, but now he had to lower his sword.

“Go now! I’ll attend to him,” William ordered, nodding at Ellen.

Madeleine stood behind her, one arm around her waist as if she had to keep herself from falling apart. Ellen pulled her out of the tent. The watchmen were still celebrating noisily and didn’t notice her. Only the man who had let William in looked at the two of them in astonishment.

“Don’t let them escape!” Thibault finally screeched. The anxious-looking young man tried to block their way, pulled out his short sword, and threatened them with it. Apparently he had not noticed that Ellen was also holding a sword. With eyes open wide, he stared at her as she brought Athanor down on his shoulder, splitting it. Then, with an unbelieving look, he fell to the ground. Madeleine whimpered as the blood spurted on her, and Ellen quickly pulled her away.

“He would have killed us!” Ellen said in a flat voice. She felt miserable. It was the first time in her life that she had killed anyone. Naturally, swords were meant for fighting, and winning, but even during her hours of practice with William she had never thought she would ever have to do it herself.

Even though Madeleine kept stumbling, they ran as fast as they could back to the tent, where Jean and Rose were already waiting.

Following Jean’s instructions, Rose had already begun loading Nestor with their most important belongings.

In no time at all, Ellen had taken down the tent and collected the tent pegs. Madeleine’s face and dress were smeared with blood, and the poor child stood there pale and trembling, unable to do anything. Greybeard had been roaming around, and Ellen whistled for him to come and get moving. Immediately behind the tournament grounds was a dense forest. It wasn’t a safe place in the dark, but they had no other choice. No doubt Thibault and a few other men would be heading out in pursuit soon. Ellen tugged at Nestor’s harness. “Rose, take Madeleine and Jean by the hand. You can’t stay here any longer either. If he catches you, he’ll kill you on the spot.”

Rose dejectedly followed Ellen’s instructions.

Jean stumbled along beside her, tripping over every hole and root in the ground because he could see hardly anything with his swollen eyes.

Madeleine walked slowly with measured steps alongside Rose as if she had to concentrate in order to put one foot in front of the other.

Fortunately, the moon was almost full. The beech and oak trees had long ago cast off their foliage, and the branches, which seemed to be reaching out like skinny arms to the heavens, allowed enough moonlight to pass through to light their way. Only when they were passing through the pine groves was the night pitch black and impenetrable. Ellen stopped for a moment to listen if someone was pursuing them, but all they could hear was a deathlike stillness and the faraway cry of a screech owl in the night. “We’ll go as far as we can, then rest a bit, and as soon as daylight comes we’ll move on. If Thibault finds us…” Ellen didn’t finish her sentence. They all could imagine what would happen then. “We must in any case not light a fire, as that would attract their attention at once,” Ellen warned them, when they finally stopped to rest. They pulled their coats tightly around them and wrapped themselves up in blankets they had brought along. Greybeard lay down right next to Madeleine and whimpered softly.

“It’s all right, nothing happened,” Ellen said, trying to calm the dog down, but he remained skittish.

As morning arrived, Rose woke with a start. Greybeard was standing in the little clearing nearby, snarling. A half-starved wolf had approached their campsite, and Greybeard growled furiously, not letting it out of his sight. Rose shook Ellen’s arm, and suddenly she, too, was wide-awake. When Ellen saw the wolf, she jumped up, ripped her sword from its scabbard, and advanced toward the animal. It looked famished, probably had been rejected by its pack, and was ready to do anything to finally get something to eat. It seemed to have picked out Madeleine, who was lying there motionless and with bulging eyes. Greybeard stood in front of her, ready to defend her to his last breath. The dog was somewhat larger than the wolf, but that didn’t scare off the beast.

“Ho, he!” Ellen shouted, trying to drive the wolf away. It backed off a bit but didn’t give up.

Now it moved closer to Greybeard and Madeleine, snarling.

Their faithful dog was about to charge the wolf when Ellen jumped up and with a single blow chopped off its head.

“Everything is fine, Madeleine!” she called back over her shoulder; then she chopped off a pine branch and laid it over the dead animal.

“Ellenweore!” She heard Rose’s suppressed cry, and turned around in panic.

“She’s…she’s dead!” Rose stammered, kneeling down in front of Madeleine and holding her hand. It was not just Madeleine’s dress that was spattered with the young soldier’s blood, but blood was also streaming from her belly.

“How could she hide that from us!” Ellen stammered. “I didn’t notice that she was…” She collapsed and started to cry. “Why didn’t she say anything?”

“It wouldn’t have changed anything.” Jean seemed calm and composed. “She may have been a simple person, but she has lived long enough with the fear of death. There is little we could have done for her with this enormous wound. I imagine she knew she would just slow us down and endanger us.” Jean’s face was still swollen, and the reddened skin under his eyes was bathed in tears.

“And I am responsible for all of this,” Ellen mumbled in despair.

“No! If I hadn’t betrayed you back then, none of this would have happened!” Rose cried.

“Now just stop. We must bury her. She didn’t have a good life, but she at least deserves a decent resting place,” Jean demanded.

With much effort they dug a shallow hole, placed Madeleine in it, and covered her with earth and a row of stones they had collected nearby.

“Please, Lord, take her into your hands!” Jean prayed, since he didn’t know how to ask for eternal life for her soul.

“We must move on, or all our bravery will have been in vain.” Ellen didn’t want to press them, but she was certain Thibault had already started out in pursuit of them.