Page 77 of The Piper's Pursuit

“Bürgermeister Hennek Grymmelin is an old friend, and he sent word to me. Did you not know?”

“You have to wait here.” Otto turned and went inside the house, locking the door with a grinding of metal on metal as soon as he closed it.

Steffan hurried to the corner of the house and turned down the narrow alley, where there was just enough room between the house and the one next to it for three men to walk abreast. And at the other end of it were Albrecht and Klaus.

Steffan tried the latch on the first window he came to. It wasn’t locked and turned with ease. He looked inside and saw a small sitting room that appeared empty. He climbed in, knocking over a small table and all that was on top of it, making a loud crash.

Albrecht handed him the loaded crossbow through the window. He already had his sword strapped to his back under his cloak.

Heavy footsteps approached, then crashed through the door. Steffan used both hands to aim and fire the crossbow.

The heavy bolt speared two men, one behind the other, sending them backward to the floor. When two more guards stepped over them to get to Steffan, he wielded his sword, clanging blades first with one, then the other, then leaping to the side to avoid being run through by one while crossing blades with the other as he placed the second guard’s body between him and the first one.

Hennek’s voice boomed through the house, “What is happening?”

Steffan aggressively thrust forward and stabbed his opponent in the neck, but took a cut to the arm in the process. He didn’t have time to think about that as the other guard began attacking. But Steffan could see fear in his face as he beat the coward back against the wall and managed to take his sword away from him. The man’s face turned ashen, and he fell to the floor as though dead.

Fainted. How could he kill an unconscious man? He turned away from him.

Hennek arrived in the doorway with Otto. “Get him!” Hennek shouted.

But at the same moment, a man’s voice from the other side of the house cried, “The children are escaping!”

The plan had been for Albrecht and Klaus to sneak in the back during the fighting and commotion and help the children escape. They must have succeeded.

Hennek ran back the way he had come. Otto looked after Hennek, as if unsure whether to follow him or attack Steffan. Steffan looked down and saw that the crossbow had been reloaded. Klaus and Albrecht must have done it before they went to get the children.

Steffan snatched up the loaded crossbow as Otto roared, unsheathing his sword. But when he saw Steffan take aim, he turned and ran down the corridor.

Steffan ran after him, but the big, burly guard was faster than he looked. Steffan was afraid of missing him. He saved his arrow for when he would have a better shot, as Otto disappeared around a corner.

Steffan proceeded cautiously, lest another guard be waiting to ambush him at the end of the corridor, but no one was there, and the house was eerily silent. Then he saw the servants on the floor. They were tied up and knocked unconscious, it appeared.

He hurried out the back way, hoping to catch up with Hennek and Otto—and hoping they were not catching up to the fleeing children.

He lurked around the back alleys looking for Hennek and Otto. He had left his sword back at the house, having dropped it when he picked up the loaded crossbow. He had only the one arrow and a dagger hidden in his tall leather shoe.

He hurried down one alley and then the next, avoiding the main streets. The only house he knew of was Frau Goschen’s, and since that was where Albrecht and Klaus were taking the children, he decided to head there and be sure they were safe.

He brushed past a woman pouring out a pan of dirty water into the street.

“Pardon me, Fräulein, but did two men pass this way?”

“I haven’t seen anyone.” She eyed his crossbow, but he hurried down to the corner and turned into an alley that followed the town wall. And just ahead was an old tower built into the wall.

The gate just inside it was open. He climbed the steps to the top, where he was able to look down on the streets of the town. There below him, not far from the tower, were Hennek and Otto. They were standing in an alley and peeking through a window into a house. He could only see the roof of the house from his vantage point, but if he was not mistaken, it was Frau Goschen’s.

Steffan ran down the steps, his heart pounding and sweat trickling down his face. He shrugged out of his cloak since he no longer needed a disguise.

He rounded a corner and there was Otto, sword drawn in one hand, his other hand boosting Hennek through the window. Otto turned and saw him just as Hennek disappeared through the window.

“It’s Steffan!”

Steffan aimed the crossbow at Otto. A drop of sweat dripped into his eye just before he pulled the trigger mechanism and shot the bolt.

He blinked away the offending drop in time to see Otto dodge to one side and the bolt sail past him, landing in the middle of the town square, harmlessly on the ground.

Otto charged him. Steffan turned, dropped his now-useless crossbow, and ran.