Hayo.

  He seemed very different from Martin. His tanned, hawk-like face exuded authority, but also hinted at impatience. His black uniform shimmered. Gustav was sure that it was made of silk, which explained why he didn't seem to be sweating in the oppressive heat.

  "That's him," Gustav whispered, though he knew Anike must have recognized him, too.

  Anike didn’t even nod.

  They slowed to better see what was happening in the courtyard.

  "Careful with that!" Hayo shouted, rushing to something Gustav couldn't make out. "You know what's in there. Do you want to kill us all?"

  What on earth are they dragging?

  "Come on." Anike seemed to be just as curious.

  They took advantage of the distraction and stepped through the gate. The yard was filled to the brim with all sorts of items. Valuable carpets, silver candlesticks, heavy furniture, boxes full of dishes and clothes. Even a peacock strutted around. Gustav’s eyes fell on what the feldsher had warned his apprentices about. Two upright rectangular iron boxes, about as tall as a man and two strides wide, freshly unloaded from one of the carts.

  "What's that?" asked Anike, puzzled.

  Gustav had to swallow before he could answer: "Demon cages."

  "Hey," a deep voice called from behind them. "What are you doing here?"

  23

  Demon Cages

  Anike fell backwards, pretending to faint. Hopefully Gustav will understand what I'm trying to do and catch me.

  The boy's strong hands caught her back. One even strayed briefly onto her left breast. Annoyance flickered through her, but she kept her face limp. Knowing Gustav, it had been an accident anyways. He wasn’t the type of man to take advantage of such situations. No, he was much too good for that. Too good for me. Anike was glad that nothing more had happened between them last night. Gustav had already fallen head over heels in love with her, and if she were being honest with herself, she liked him too. But eventually she would hurt him. There was no question about that. Last night she had been selfish, not thinking about the consequences of her actions. It would not happen again.

  "The heat of the afternoon does not agree with my wife, dear sir. She is in fortunate circumstances, you see …"

  Now he is going a bit far.

  "I wonder if you would be able to provide a drink of water and a cool corner for a moment so she can regain her strength?"

  "What's going on there, Helmhart?"

  Anike recognized Hayo's imperious tone.

  "This woman is pregnant and fainted. They want to rest here."

  "No wonder, with the ridiculous layers she's wearing."

  Looks like this strange garb helped us after all.

  "Well, go ahead help those two country bumpkins. You're just as much a feldsher for humans, Helmhart, although I have a feeling you've almost forgotten that by now." Malicious laughter rang out and was echoed back by the high walls of the courtyard.

  Helmhart grumbled in annoyance, but said, "Come on. There’s a fountain in the back, you can rest there. But don't get in anyone's way and don't get any ideas of stealing anything, that wouldn't serve you well at all."

  "Of course," Gustav responded with such humility that Anike almost believed him herself.

  "Come on, I'll help you, boy."

  Anike noticed the tart smell of sweat from the stranger—Gustav never smells so disgustingly of sweat—and felt herself being carried.

  "That's enough, I'm about to drown," Anike hissed at Gustav, who held the wooden cup to her lips for the umpteenth time and tried to pour water into them.

  "Sorry," he mumbled without looking at her, carelessly spilling the contents of the cup. His gaze was riveted on the large iron boxes.

  Anike straightened up with a groan, hoping she looked confused enough for all the bystanders to fall for her little act. "Don't stare like that. They'll realize something is up. What are demon cages anyway?"

  Gustav took so long with his answer that Anike thought maybe he hadn't heard her. "They're for locking up captured demons. They don't let daylight in, and the iron prevents the demon from returning to the earth with the rising sun."

  Anike was shocked. "Do you think there are two demons in those boxes at this very moment? Here with us in the courtyard, like chickens in a cage?"

  Gustav nodded, still staring, rapt, at the containers.

  "What does Hayo need them for? That's terribly dangerous, isn't it?" Loud thunder swallowed the last part of her sentence. A glance at the dark sky told Anike it was about to start raining.

  "Come on, let's go!" Gustav grabbed Anike's hand and pulled her to her feet. "Thank you for your help, my wife is feeling much better," he called out to no one in particular and maneuvered Anike out onto the town hall forecourt. Their hosts were so busy getting the feldsher's belongings inside before the rain began that they didn't notice.

  Dark spots spread across the cobblestones of the square. First a few, then more and more until the ground disappeared in a sea of damp darkness.

  It poured and before long, Anike and Gustav were wet to the bone. It seemed as if the sky wanted to make up all at once for what it had held back in the last weeks. The sky turned dark as night and a sharp wind rose. The temperature dropped. Her heavy clothes were soaked, plastered to her skin and Anike shivered, her teeth chattering. Apart from her and Gustav, no one else was on the streets of Osnabrück. A lightning bolt forked the sky and thunder deafened them.

  Gustav seemed to be oblivious to all of this. He braced himself against the wind and rain and pulled Anike with him toward the Barfüßer Quarter.

  We’re still holding hands, she realized. She pulled away from him and stopped. "We have to find shelter somewhere or we'll get hit by lightning or the wind will blow a roof tile onto our heads."

  "No time," Gustav shouted and kept running.

  "Why not? We have all the time in the world. The musty house and Martin aren’t going to run away from us."

  "But they don't have time. It torments them. It hurts them. They're going crazy in there."

  "Who?"

  "The two demons."

  "What?" Anike had to yell to drown out the thunderstorm. A willow on the banks of the Hase bent dangerously in the storm. The otherwise lazy river had turned into a raging torrent.

  Gustav waved his hand. "You don't understand."

  Anike stared at him while they ran, unwelcome emotions clogging in her throat. Her earlier determination crumbled, and she felt herself slipping, falling. For Gustav. For this boy who could feel compassion even for two murderous demons. She pulled on his arm, stopping their flight, and turned him to face her. She stroked the wet, black hair off his forehead and held his eyes. "Explain it to me, but not here. Someplace drier."

  They looked and found a simple shed in one of the gardens on the higher bank of the Hase. Inside it was warm and smelled of wild garlic. They maneuvered around the gardening equipment stored inside and began to strip off their wet clothes, heavy with rain.

  "It's like this …" began Gustav, tugging on one of his boots, but Anike sealed his mouth with a kiss.

  Passionately, he returned it. His hands ran over her damp body, wrapped only in her undershirt. Greedily he groped for her bosom. Her nipples were erect due to the coolness of the water and stood out clearly through her wet shirt. When Gustav tenderly stroked them with one finger, a sigh escaped her.

  Anike wanted to feel more from him as well. She pressed her body against his. Gustav's excitement was clearly visible. She fiddled with the ridiculous bow to pull down his trousers.

  Gustav held her away, teasing. "I thought we were going to talk about demons."

  Anike bit his lower lip. "Later." His trousers finally down, she began to caress his throbbing shaft with her hand.

  Pleasantly exhausted, they lay on a dusty pile of bags after their lovemaking. Anike rested her head on Gustav's chest, listening to his heartbeat, and feeling the rise and fall of his breath. She had been sure that Gustav was still a virgin until today. If that was the case, he had just proven himself to be a natural at love making. His stamina was impressive. Three times in total.

  Still waters …, she thought with a smile. She knew about the virility of young men, even if out of pragmatism she had had mostly older lovers so far. But she’d been amazed at how quickly Gustav had recovered each time to try another position with her.

  "That was nice," he said dreamily, and there he was again—the old Gustav, who seemed to have little in common with the fiery lover who had just pampered her so much. She liked him all the more for it.

  "I thought so, too." Anike kissed him on the nipple. "Was it your first time?"

  He blushed. "Y-y-yes," he stuttered. "Was it obvious? Did I do something wrong?"

  She stroked his cheek soothingly and covered his mouth with a kiss. "No, no. Quite the opposite."

  He sighed in reassurance and closed his eyes.

  "You were actually going to tell me about the demon cages." She allowed herself to laugh at her own joke.

  Gustav sprang up like he’d been stung, rolling Anike off to the side.

  "Hey, that's no way to treat a lady whose, well, you know, I’m still …" She winked at him, but his gaze had returned to the rapt expression from the courtyard of Hayo's villa.

  "We have to go tell Martin! What Hayo is doing is not only dangerous but designed to undermine the whole peace negotiations."

  "How so?" Anike grabbed her shirt. It was still wet and stuck to her skin as she yanked it into place, but Gustav had already put his shirt back on, and she didn't want to lie exposed in front of him.

  "He uses the power of the demons imprisoned in the cages to increase his own powers. This enables him to see or hear better, for example. He may get physically stronger." Gustav struggled into his boots with a squelch. "He may even have supernatural—call it magical—powers through the creatures, which he could use to trump and betray the other participants in the peace negotiations."

  Anike left off the hoop skirt and corset. Undershirt, shirt, and doublet would have to do. "How do you know all this?"

  "Because I can do some of it myself when she’s here."

  Anike trudged, restless and barefoot, through her still much-too-warm room. Martin had reacted with concern and his usual prudence to the news Anike and Gustav had brought him, sending them to their rooms to resume their studies because, as he said, knowledge was the best way to counter evil. Shortly thereafter, he had left the house without informing his apprentices of his destination or his return.

  She flipped through her collected edition of Tacitus' texts, wearing only an old shirt and trying to catch the breeze from her open window. She was supposed to be searching for possible references to demon sightings in antiquity—a pointless and torturous task, given Tacitus’ notorious penchant for fabulous storytelling. Although, even if it had been the cursed Codex Daemonum, she would not have been able to focus on it. Her thoughts were occupied with what had happened between her and Gustav.

  All the way to the crooked house and in the house itself, everything between them had been the same as before, as if the garden shed had never happened. Gustav seemed even more distant. Was he just unsure? Did he want to keep it a secret from Martin or was he ashamed of having given himself to Anike? Self-doubt rose in her. Normally, once she had been in bed with a man, he was hers for good. With Gustav it seemed to be almost the other way around.

  Is he thinking about me too, or does he only have his stupid Latin vocabulary in his head? It was enough to drive her out of her mind. This boy ignored her, even though she was only one flight of stairs away and the surgeon was out of the house. You can't expect him to pay attention to you or—even better—repeat his performance in the shed.

  "What nonsense," Anike said to the empty room. And yet it was the truth. The boy and his pleasant games had almost bewitched her. "I'll go down to him," she decided aloud, already imagining how she would throw him on his bed to find out if he could work a miracle again that day.

  There was a timid knock at her door. Anike allowed herself a triumphant smile. Perhaps things were back to normal. "Come in, Gustav." She pulled her shirt a little higher to show more leg.

  Shyly, he entered. "Hello, Anike …"

  "Hello," Anike breathed, hoping it sounded seductive.

  "I need your help."

  I need yours, too. Anike felt the excitement growing in her loins, yet she said with an innocent smile, "Gladly. What can I do for you?"

  "I need you to help me figure out how to summon a demon."

  All her excitement fell away. "You want me to do what?" Anike glared at Gustav. What was wrong with this boy that he would dare to reject her like this?

  He closed the door and began pacing back and forth. "It's like this. Our master needs to know what special skills Hayo has in order to bring negotiations to a successful conclusion. And I think I can find out for him."

  "How are you going to find out? Ask one of Hayo's dimwitted apprentices, or ask the feldsher himself?"

  Gustav shook his head as if he had not heard the mockery in her words. "No, of course not. I need to bring someone there who can communicate with the demons in the cages."

  Anike's mouth opened in astonishment. "Your demoness. You want to summon her and take her there."

  "Yes." He looked down at the floor, ashamed. "I can't ask Martin for help, so I'm asking you. We need to figure out how to summon a demon. Until now, she has always just appeared randomly, and I haven’t been able to figure out why or how. So far, all I've found out is that there is a way for people who have bonded with a demon to summon it."

  "You're connected to that beast?" Anike dropped onto her bed, exhausted. The thought that she had wanted to have fun with Gustav there until a few moments ago now seemed completely absurd to her.

  "Yes!" Gustav told her the whole story.

  "Oh my gosh, and that means if you die, she dies and vice versa."

  He just nodded.

  "My sincere condolences. I can hardly imagine a worse fate."

  "Thanks for that." He snorted. "Will you help me now?"

  Anike gave an exaggerated sigh. "What do you want from me?"

  He rolled his eyes in annoyance, something Anike really hated. How had she been able to sleep with this urchin? She resolved that it would never happen again.

  "We need to break into Martin's room, find the Codex Daemonum, and read how to summon her."

  "You'll never find it," Anike said without thinking. "Believe me." She bit her lip, realizing her mistake too late, but Gustav didn’t pick up on it.

  "Don't worry, I'll find the book. You just have to help me with the Latin."

  "Why would I do that?" asked Anike smugly.

  He looked at her fixedly. "You could do it for the tens of thousands of lives we’ll save if our master can successfully contribute to a peace treaty."

  Anike yawned playfully.

  "Or you could do it so I won't tell the master that you've already been to his room three times looking for the Codex Daemonum."

  You little rat.

  24

  Blood and Ashes

  "Now, do what you usually do to break into people's rooms," Gustav ordered. He saw by the look on Anike's face that he had hurt her. He felt bad about that, but time was of the essence. They didn’t know when Martin would return, and negotiations were set to begin in just a few days. He had to act now, or all would be lost. His land deserved peace. He no longer wished anyone such a terrible fate as his own. He thought of his family and was shocked to realize that his memories were fading.

  "Do you know that you can be a real asshole, Gustav Hansson?"

  The words stung. He couldn’t get the image of Anike, naked in front of him, out of his head. Again he tasted her, felt her. The desire to touch her, kiss her, to confess his love to her consumed him, but he forbade himself. This was more important than his personal wants. "Do you have anything that could serve as a lock pick? Because we can't break down the door, he would notice and …"

  "Don't need it, smart guy." Anike pushed past him, her breast brushing Gustav's arm. He couldn’t tell if the move was on purpose or accidental, but the touch of her body rekindled the fire from the shed.

  "He doesn't lock the door because he trusts us." With a haughty look, she let the door swing open.

  "After you." Gustav let her go first. Not to be chivalrous or because he was afraid, but so that she wouldn’t notice his erection.

  "How nice. Cowardly, too." She tossed her long hair over her shoulder and went into the room.

  Like a beaten dog, Gustav also stepped over the threshold and into the inner sanctum of his revered master. He was already ashamed of what he was doing. He had not yet been in Martin's room in this house, but it was not very different from the one in Leipzig. The bed was made, and the pillow had even been creased down the middle. The room smelled sweet. Martin had placed a bouquet of wildflowers from the overgrown garden on the old parlor table that now served as his desk.

  "Didn’t expect that," remarked Anike, whose gaze had fallen on the flowers at the same time as Gustav's. She stroked her finger across the volumes in the bookshelf. "Exactly the same boring texts as in Leipzig. He even sorted them the same. His organization makes no sense to me. Vergil before Aristotle, who would do that? Anyway, the wretched Codex isn't here." Sighing, she stood up and gave Gustav an I-told-you-so look.

  He couldn't help but notice how beautifully her eyes sparkled and how her lips shone as she moistened them with the tip of her tongue. He threw himself into the search so as not to be betrayed again by his body. "It has to be here. Feldshers are required to always have it with them, and each copy is different. In fact, throughout their professional life, individual masters will add their experiences and secrets they discover to it. They don’t even show those to their colleagues."

 

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