Morbus Dei: The Sign of Aries. Matthias Bauer
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Название: Morbus Dei: The Sign of Aries
Автор: Matthias Bauer
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Языкознание
Серия: Morbus Dei (English)
isbn: 9783709936337
isbn:
XVI
Lieutenant Wolff was riding at the head of his troop.
He kept thinking of the strange oath Antonio Sovino had made him take. He didn’t feel bound by it in the least, firstly because he despised the cleric, and secondly because, though basically a believer, he didn’t see why he should have to subject his faith to an apparatus of power. Any Tom, Dick or Harry could lay his hand on a book and say ‘I swear’ for in actual fact it brought no consequences in its train–neither for the person who broke the oath, nor for the book.
Wolff breathed in the fresh country air. How he had missed it in the city! He loved riding because it helped him to think.
When Tepser had told him he wanted to discuss something about the disease, he had known right away what to expect. Days before he had been informed that a veil of secrecy was to be drawn over everything to do with disease and its eradication. Unlike the plague victims, there would be no memorial column for these poor souls!
If he returned successfully from his mission and Tepser was still in office, he could be confident of receiving a decent additional salary as recompense. But if Tepser had been relieved of his duties in the meantime, he would probably have to look for a new position since he would be unable to explain his absence. He might even have to think about moving to another city. The same would apply to his men of course–and they knew it.
With the gates of Vienna far behind them now, they were making their way through the villages. At the mere sight of them, children were whisked indoors by their mothers, doors and windows hurriedly bolted and there were cries of ‘Look out, the Sulphur Unit are coming!’
The Central Patrol had acquired this colloquial nickname on account of their yellow coat lapels. Why the general population were so afraid of them, however, Wolff could never quite fathom. All they did was carry out orders, no more, no less. No innocent person had ever suffered at their hands and he reserved for himself a certain freedom of decision when carrying out orders. If he thought something was going too far–well, there were a few things he could do about it.
But it was better to be feared for no reason than sneered at with due cause, he thought. Just then the troop rode over the brow of a hill and they spotted a few farms, dotting the valley below them.
Wolff clapped spurs to his horse.
‘No convoy of waggons has passed through here, sir,’ said the old farmer, stretching out his hand.
Wolff looked searchingly at the farmer, then he let out a deep sigh. Why did people always have to make his life unnecessarily complicated by telling lies? All at once, he whipped out his sabre and held it to the farmer’s throat. The man began to tremble. ‘Three days ago, four at most …’ he stammered. ‘Stayed overnight in the plague farm … set off again at dawn … in that direction’ and he pointed with a trembling hand towards the south.
With a deliberately meek smile, Lieutenant Wolff patted the man’s wizened cheeks with his sabre and then dropped it back into its sheath.
The farmer took a step backwards, bowed his head and crossed himself three times.
Wolff swung his horse round and rode off in a southerly direction, his men following behind him.
XVII
After an evening meal of goat’s milk and bread, which a farmer’s family had given, or rather, been forced to give them, they were put up in their barn. ‘Living off of the land,’ one of the mercenaries had called it sarcastically, without taking his eye off the farmer’s daughter who wasn’t yet fourteen.
Elisabeth had felt a shudder go down her spine as she had watched him eyeing the girl. But what could she have done? Even all of them together would not have been able to do anything. And there wasn’t an ‘all of them together’ anymore anyway for the prisoners had started isolating themselves from each other, out of apathy perhaps or an unconscious feeling that there was no longer any point in forging friendships.
An unutterable truth hovered above them like a poisonous cloud: they were heading towards perdition.
But not Elisabeth. She had a plan and Alain was going to help her, even if it meant other people would have to die. She shrank from herself at the very thought of it. She wasn’t sure whether she would recognize her own reflection if she ever looked at herself in a mirror again. What had become of her?
‘Rest time!’ shouted the mercenary with the raucous voice, attaching two oil lamps to the ceiling beams. It always gratified him to see the way the prisoners jumped at his command. For the first time since her capture, Elisabeth had a soft floor to lie on: last autumn’s hay was warm and smelt wonderful and she felt as though she were lying on a bed of clouds.
The others were pleased too when the time came to lie down. Yet if the lamps were to fall on the hay, it would be the last night for all of them.
Elisabeth stretched, rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.
‘Elisabeth!’
She woke up with a start from a deep sleep. How long had she been asleep?
She looked towards the door. It was a pitch-black, moonless night.
‘Elisabeth,’ hissed Alain again. ‘You said you would explain.’
She thought for a moment as she picked some straws out of her hair. Would she be doing the right thing if she let Alain in on her plan?
Yes. And it’s too late now to change your mind.
‘I’ve got an escape plan,’ she whispered.
Alain made a face, as if he had just heard the worst joke ever.
‘We’ll wait until we get to a clearing,’ continued Elisabeth, undeterred, ‘then I’ll pretend I’ve got a pain in my belly and you’ll walk beside me, propping me up, keeping in close to the waggons until we get to the last one where the provisions are kept.’
‘And if they don’t let us?’
‘Then tell them they’ll be answerable to General Lieutenant Gamelin if they don’t. Everyone saw me getting out of his carriage, even they’ve no idea what went on in there.’
‘I was also wondering–’
‘That’s not important now,’ cut in Elisabeth firmly. ‘When we get to the end of the provisions waggon, I’ll snatch an oil lamp, you’ll light it with your piece of tinder, which you’ll have lit beforehand, then we’ll throw the lamp onto the tinder boxes.’ Elisabeth stared triumphantly at Alain’s stunned face. ‘And then we’ll simply march off into the distance, right?’
‘Of course not, but there’ll be a terrible commotion; the mercenaries will be busy trying to put out the fire before the whole lot goes up in smoke and in the chaos we’ll bolt into the forest and–’
‘That won’t work,’ retorted Alain. ‘Not in a million years.’
‘Don’t tell me that a French soldier doesn’t know how to run away!’ taunted Elisabeth. She had heard Johann’s jokes about the fighting spirit of the French often enough, usually accompanied by barbs from the Prussian.
‘There СКАЧАТЬ