Morbus Dei: The Sign of Aries. Matthias Bauer

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      The landlord cleared away the soup pot and there they sat, exhausted, each with a full belly and a tankard of wine in front of him. Why the landlord was so emaciated-looking was a mystery to Johann for the meal had been really delicious, perhaps the man was consumptive.

      The tension Johann had felt the evening before in Deutsch-Altenburg, which had made him drive himself on so relentlessly earlier that day, had lessened and now he felt unexpectedly calm. He knew he was on the right path and that it could only be a matter of a few days before he would be holding Elisabeth in his arms again.

      The greater his longing for her, the less he could understand how the Prussian had been able to get over the death of Josefa.

      ‘Isn’t that right, Johann?’ repeated the Prussian

      Johann came out of his musings. ‘Yes, it is,’ he bluffed.

      ‘We’ll soon see if you’re as good as you say,’ said Hans, pulling a much-thumbed pack of cards out of his jacket and banging it down on the table. ‘Sixty-six it is, gentlemen! Every time you lose a point, you have to pay a kreuzer. And once we’ve got enough money together we’ll buy another round.’

      ‘I think I’ll get some kip,’ said Johann, getting to his feet, but the Prussian grabbed him by the sleeve. ‘Come on, he who can ride like a hussar can afford to lose a few card games, can’t he?’

      Johann sank back onto his chair with a sigh.

      XII

      There was a clap of thunder and Elisabeth woke from her dreamless sleep with a start. She looked about her at the other prisoners, who were lying huddled together on the rotting straw, gently snoring. In the dim light cast by the swaying oil lamps, the guards were making their rounds.

      The first raindrops began to pitter-patter onto the roof of the ramshackle barn, slowly gathering pace, until they pelted down like clay beads spilling onto a stone floor.

      Elisabeth sat up and peered through a chink between the planks of the wall. She could just make out the black silhouette of one of the mercenaries standing sentry. He cursed under his breath at the rain, straightened the collar of his coat and pulled his hat further down over his face.

      Johann still hadn’t come.

      Have confidence.

      What if something has happened to him?

      It can’t have.

      What if he doesn’t come at all?

      Elisabeth pressed her hand against the chink in the wood, harder and harder, trying to drive out her despairing thoughts and her spiralling doubts and fears until a sharp pain in her palm made her quickly withdraw her hand. She had a splinter in her thumb.

      Gingerly, she pulled it out, put her thumb into her mouth and sucked it. The iron taste made her think about her own flesh and blood; about the responsibility she was carrying inside her; about the child that for her was all that remained of Johann.

      Perhaps it was time she stopped wishing and hoping and started acting.

      She peered again through the chink in the wall. The rain was streaming down in sheets.

      ‘Actually I love the rain,’ said a man’s voice, and she jumped.

      ‘I didn’t mean to startle you,’ said Alain, sitting up.

      ‘You didn’t,’ she retorted gruffly.

      ‘In the rain you discover the world afresh, nothing is the same as it was before. Everything’s more vivid: the colours, the smells, life itself,’ continued Alain.

      ‘As long as you have the freedom to enjoy it,’ retorted Elisabeth.

      ‘Yes, as long as you have that,’ agreed Alain, thoughtfully.

      ‘Where to?’ asked Elisabeth softly, moving closer to Alain, whose face was dimly lit by one of the oil lamps.

      ‘Where to what?’

      ‘Where are they taking us?’

      ‘I don’t know. All we’ve been told is to that we’re to escort you towards the south,’ replied Alain.

      Elisabeth believed him. ‘But there isn’t a ‘you’ anymore’ she whispered. ‘You’re one of us now–whatever happens to us happens to you too.’

      ‘I’m still a French–’ Alain broke off, realising how ridiculous his assertion would sound under the circumstances.

      ‘Even if you were the King of France, you’ve got the disease and that means you’re one of us,’ declared Elisabeth.

      Alain lowered his gaze.

      ‘And as one of us,’ continued Elisabeth, ‘you’ll also share our fate.’

      ‘If СКАЧАТЬ