C13 Chapter 13

“I can’t take any more shocks,” said Peter, on the brink of tears. “I just want to get out of here! How do we get out?”

That was a good question. They clearly couldn’t stay in that room, but both exits seemed to be blocked. Heike pulled at the doors, first at the one through which they had entered and then at the other. He had to step gingerly over the corpses to reach the second door. As he had expected, it was locked. He leaned up against it and listened.

“What is it, Heike?” Peter asked anxiously.

“Shhh! I sense three things. For one thing, I can hear that subdued, mumbling scratching sound from here. For another, there is a draught coming from below. And the third thing is, there is a very strong and nasty smell. It’s also coming from below.

“Do you think that is where the heart of the castle is?”

“Yes, or the heart of the evil force.”

“Heike, I’m not sure whether I want to go out that way!”

“I’m not sure either. Because that way doesn’t lead to the outside world, but rather to the middle.”

“To hell?”

“You might say that.”

“So how are we going to get out?” Peter asked, once again on the verge of tears.

But Heike was lying on his stomach and looking out through the hole in the wall to see if he could find a possible way out. Peter noticed that he carefully avoided the sticky blob.

Then he crawled back inside again. “It is possible to get out that way,” he said hesitantly. “There’s a ledge just below. But it is terribly narrow.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that. Anything remotely resembling an escape route is worth trying at this point. Is it a long way down?”

“Yes, it is a very long way down, but you can walk along to the side instead. I assume that Anciol hurled herself from the wall above.”

“Would you please stop mentioning that name?” Peter asked with a shudder. “I’m really making an effort not to go completely out of my mind over all this.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking!”

They started to crawl out. Peter went first because he couldn’t bear the thought of being left behind all alone in the horrible castle. He, too, carefully avoided the blob that was the remains of the hair.

Heike helped him until he had a proper foothold on the ledge.

“How are you doing?”

“So far so good,” Peter answered. “But how do we get farther? What do we hold onto?”

“Look for irregularities in the wall. Cracks and ledges, that sort of thing. It isn’t very far now.”

“I’ll just wait for you,” Peter said, who didn’t dare carry out this feat alone.

With a great sense of relief, Heike crawled out and then began the difficult balancing act along the wall, his heart pounding in his throat all the while.

Never had it taken so long to cover such a short distance. When Peter was finally able to jump down onto the sloping ground, with Heike behind him, they silently took one another by the hand and walked over to the plateau in front of the gate.

“How can such a beautiful castle contain so much evil?” Peter wondered anxiously. His face was still marked by the terrible struggle he had just experienced and his voice was shaking.

“Beautiful?” Heike said. “Wait until we’ve fetched the mandrake from the inn, then you’ll get to see what the castle really looks like.”

“If I manage to reach the inn, I’ll never want to return to this place!” Peter maintained with conviction.

“Me neither!” Heike cried, rather surprised. “Me neither. I don’t have the energy for it. But how will we ever manage to defeat the witch? It’s got to be done now. And we can’t go back inside ... the gate is locked and climbing up on the roof is exceedingly difficult. I’m not doing that again!”

Without thinking they started to walk down the path in the cool morning sunlight. They didn’t have the strength to spend one more moment up there.

“What about Feodora, the princess? I just don’t understand it, Heike. Everyone said that Feodora was the witch. But were there two witches? And where is she now?”

“There weren’t two witches, Peter. There were two princesses. Anciol was also a princess, but you and I never thought of that. We just assumed that Nicola was a little innocent village girl. But when Zeno and the others from the village talked about the witch and the princess, they never mentioned Feodora by name. It was Nicola they meant. But we couldn’t have known that!”

Peter rubbed his eyes. “But ... where is she then?”

“Feodora? Haven’t you grasped it yet?” Heike said, gently. “You yourself lifted the curse that had been put on her by Anciol.”

“I did?”

“Yes. When you placed that little cross in her grave. Then she found peace. It must have been Feodora because that was the moment she disappeared from the castle. Wasn’t Nicola concerned about that?”

“Yes. And I who can read and write should have realized who Anciol was. If you rearrange the letters in her name, you get Nicola!”

Heike hesitated because he didn’t know the letters of the alphabet.

“Her age was also more suitable for a bride, wasn’t it?” said Peter, who became suddenly very devout. “Imagine – my little cross was able to save a lost soul! So I managed to do something useful after all.”

“Without you I would never have managed to do what I did up there.”

“Without me you would never have got into this mess,” Peter answered dryly. “But Feodora must have been a ghost, then?”

“Yes, she was a ghost. Anciol is the one who is undead.”

“And what about the coachman?”

“I don’t know. But I’m guessing that he’s entangled in the same dependency relationship as Feodora. He is probably Nicola’s slave.”

“Yes, but what about the ravens?” Peter asked, his gaze following two birds soaring in the sky.

“I don’t know. The expression ‘the wings of the raven’ perhaps referred to the undead’s hair?”

“Don’t remind me,” Peter said, shuddering. “Imagine, I myself gabbled about how her hair shone just as beautifully as ravens’ wings without being able to put two and two together!”

“It was only natural in that particular situation,” Heike said, smiling rather tartly. “No, I think the birds are ordinary ravens. They may possibly be working as spies for Anciol, but that’s only a guess.

Peter nodded. “That could be right.”

Peter was still rather pale, but it was no wonder considering all he’d been through, Heike thought.

“What about the people of the village?” Peter said. “Why do they go on living here in this horrible place? Why don’t they just leave the valley?”

“I don’t think they can, Peter. I don’t think they can get out of the forest.”

“You mean ... that it confines them? That there is no way out for them?”

“That’s how I think it is. There is only one way to enter. The forest is like a sea anemone, rooted on the sea bed. It resembles a beautiful flower and little fish swim in completely unawares, only to be trapped forever by the creature’s tentacles.”

“Don’t be so macabre, Heike,” Peter said gloomily. “How do we get out of here, then?”

“There is only one way and that is by neutralizing the undead. Not only for our own but also for the village’s sake.”

They were now standing on a little plateau halfway down. They stopped and gazed at the majestic castle.

“The undead,” Heike repeated thoughtfully. “I left my iron rod and hammer here when I was walking up to the castle. I intend to use them now in my battle against the witch, Anciol, while it is still daylight and she is powerless.”

“But you said you weren’t going back to the castle!” Peter said, protesting heavily.

“No, not to the castle as we see it now,” Heike answered. “Otherwise we’ll just encounter the lovely Nicola as we saw her yesterday, and when she’s in that state she is invulnerable. No, I must see the castle as it really is.”

“The castle as it really is ... I simply don’t understand what you mean,” said Peter, a little impatiently.

Heike sighed. “I hope the mandrake will be strong enough to suppress the dazzling image. Also I don’t want to ...” He reconsidered for a moment. “What if ...? My followers!” he called softly. “Are you with us? Could you help us here? Do you have the power to remove the veil from our eyes? Are you stronger than Anciol?”

Low, harmonious laughter reached his ears. “We can take a hint!” Sol’s teasing voice could be heard.

“We’ll grant your request,” said Tengel. “But do you think your friend can tolerate the truth?”

Heike tried to get Peter to go back to the inn but he insisted that he would stay and help Heike. He had much to atone for, he claimed.

The plateau on which they were standing, where the road began to wind down to the valley, gave them a clear view of the castle.

“Take a good look at it, Peter,” Heike said. “Because this will be the last time that you will see the beautiful castle. What you are about to see now is the bitter truth.”

“I don’t dare,” Peter said. He was about to turn away, but Heike forced him to stand still. When they looked at the castle a second time Peter let out a loud gasp and grabbed hold of Heike’s arm. Though Heike had seen the shocking sight before he was still deeply shaken.

The sounds in themselves were enough to frighten anyone. It sounded like the screeching cries of numerous, invisible vultures, echoing against the cliff. And below these cries there was another sound that they had heard earlier, but it was much more intense now. The sound of creeping, creaking tree roots that twisted and turned.

And what a sight they beheld!

Peter stared, his eyes wide open. “Good God,” he whispered. “Holy Father, what is this?”

What had undoubtedly seemed a stately castle was now such an inconceivable thing that words could hardly describe it. Before their eyes lay nothing but ruins, and as they looked at it loose pieces of stone and rubble fell down into the valley. Now they could see how long it must have been since the castle had been in use. Several centuries!

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

Out of these low, crumbling and corroded ruins tumbled forth huge amounts of something out of their worst nightmares! It was the forest, the abominable, frightful forest: it grew from here, had its very centre here! It wasn’t as they had originally assumed, that the forest was slowly approaching the castle. On the contrary, it originated here, from where, creaking and moaning, it spread, winding its roots over an increasingly large area. The valley was completely surrounded by it, and it had managed to smother the village below and would probably also soon take over Târgul Stregesti on its endless journey forward.

And then there was the frightful miasma that came from inside the castle! They saw it as clouds of whirling steam and they could smell it. It was a smell of death and rot so nauseating that they instinctively stepped back.

“No!” whispered Peter, whose face had turned completely green. “No, it can’t be true!”

“This is the truth. And I’m going back up there again with the rod and hammer ...”

“No, don’t! Come, let’s hurry out of here!”

“Where would we go? We won’t be able to leave the forest. Or perhaps you’d prefer to die in its stranglehold?”

“Can’t your friends help us out?”

“No, this is something I have to do myself. And what about Mira? And the inhabitants of the village? Are we just going to leave them to suffer their fate?”

Peter straightened his back and swallowed. His eyes were suspiciously glossy. “I’ll go up there with you.”

Heike hesitated. “I might fare better if I don’t also have you to worry about. On the other hand, I will need you, Peter. I feel so helpless when I’m on my own.”

“Well, you’re apparently not really on your own,” Peter murmured. “But I understand what you mean. Come, let’s go!”

Heike took a deep breath and once again they began to head uphill, up towards that horrendous thing.

“Heike, I have a confession to make. I was very jealous of you yesterday because Nicola, oh God, how it disgusts me to say that name ... Because Nicola spoke to you before we left and she asked you to come back to the castle.”

“That wasn’t anything to be jealous of,” Heike said with a crooked smile. “Her sudden interest in me was probably because I was talking about going to the cemetery.”

“Yes, that’s true. She warned us not to go there because evil spirits might take us. It was sheer nonsense!”

“Of course it was. She was afraid that we would find Feodora’s grave and lift the magic spell. Which was exactly what we did!” Heike said.

“Yes, she actually asked me afterwards whether we had found anything at the cemetery but I said no, absolutely nothing.”

“That’s good,” Heike praised him. “And about her wanting me to return to the castle: I think she was uncertain about me. She could feel that there were powerful forces standing behind me and she wanted to know more about them.”

“Probably! But do you remember when we were at the inn and the ladies came the first time and turned back at the door?”

“Yes, that was because of the mandrake. But it also worried me because Feodora was the one who reacted so quickly to it.”

“You’re saying that because you didn’t see Nicola on that occasion. But I did, and she said something sharp in a low tone to her aunt, who then turned around and pushed Nicola out in front of her.”

“I see! So it was Nicola who felt ill at ease in the presence of the mandrake. And ‘aunt’ ... I wonder how they were really related to one another. It would be interesting to know, but we may never find out.”

Now they were up at the castle again and looked despondently at the nasty, tangled wreckage. All those roots growing from the ruins, the stench ...

“I wouldn’t mind having the mandrake with me now,” Heike mumbled.

“Oh, stop complaining you scaredy-cat, you’ve got us!” Sol’s cheerful voice could be heard. “Get on with it now, time is passing. The day won’t last forever!”

They were only too aware of that themselves. The darker it grew, the more the undead would regain their power.

The gate was nothing more than a hole in the wall but it was crammed with winding tree trunks creeping along the ground.

“We can probably get in a little farther on,” Peter said. He had grown calm again, at least on the outside.

Here and there they had to crawl across fallen boulders.

“Oh, rats!” Peter said. “Look at this mess! How are we to find our way at all through this? How will we avoid getting stuck?”

The stench was almost unbearable. The rootlets and the twisting branches looked as though they were alive, as though they might attack and swallow the two young men, skin, hair and all, at any moment.

Heike stopped and considered the situation. “Do you remember that I told you that for a very brief moment I was able to look straight through the castle when I was standing on the roof?”

“Yes, that’s what you said.”

“Do you know what I saw in that room where you lay sleeping? It wasn’t the dazzling image I saw, the one of you and her lying in the beautiful canopy bed. I saw what was there in reality.”

Peter turned around and looked at him with anticipation. “Yes?”

Heike’s mouth quivered nervously. “The first things I saw were your clothes. They were lying on a mossy stone. Then I saw you, you were lying on the ground covered in spruce twigs.”

“No wonder I was freezing, then,” Peter said dryly. “What about ... her?”

“I didn’t get a proper view of her. All I could see was that you weren’t alone in the bed.”

“I see. Are you saying that what we should be looking for is a stone? So that we can at least find that room?”

“Yes. But strictly speaking we don’t have to. We know where we tipped the stone out of the wall. The heart of the castle must be close to that. You know, the closed door with the stairs to the cellar right behind it.”

“Yes. Didn’t Zeno say that Anciol had been buried in the cellar?”

“Yes, he thought so. And it’s her grave we have to find.”

They went on talking as they clambered across boulders and tangled, slimy roots and plants.

“I wonder whether Feodora tried to oppose her evil mistress every now and then?” Peter pondered.

“I’m sure she did. They’ve probably had some real disputes at times. No, this won’t do!” Heike cried out despondently over the chaos of stones and winding roots. “How are we to find a cellar in this confused mess?”

The task seemed impossible. Wherever Anciol was, she had barricaded herself well.

“But that’s typical,” Peter said. “That’s what vampires do, too. Their graves are supposed to be completely impossible to find.”

“Yes, but this is no vampire.”

“It’s similar, though,” Peter muttered, and Heike had to agree.

They felt like giving up. Digging and chopping their way through it all seemed impossible, and it certainly couldn’t be done in one day. But then something most extraordinary and unexpected happened.

Far in the distance they discerned a tall, thin shadow. It was nothing more than a shadow but it seemed to be waiting for them.

It stood deep within the shadow of the wall, as though it was afraid of the strong sunlight. It was like a darker shade of darkness.

“Come, Peter,” Heike said, flatly.

Peter hesitated but then reluctantly followed Heike.

As they got nearer, Peter saw Heike bowing to the shadow. It bowed to Heike in return and with a movement of its hand gestured to a spot among the tangled branches and roots. Then it disappeared.

“Was that a friend or an enemy?” Peter asked in a low voice as they walked to the place the shadow had indicated.

“The coachman,” Heike answered. “I’ll bet my soul that he sees us as his rescuers.”

There wasn’t time to think about it any more. Before them was a narrow hole leading straight down into the abomination.

They looked at one another. Did they really dare?

Heike nodded and began the descent. Peter followed him, completely convinced that the branches would close around them like a trap. He didn’t dare look up.

It wasn’t easy. They had to squeeze their way through a few times, but they didn’t give up. And then suddenly they were down on the ground.

Or rather, when Heike kicked at the marshy surface, a stone floor was revealed.

Peter gasped. “Heike! Look!”

Near them lay the corpses of the two Frenchmen, exactly as they had seen them earlier, but in completely different surroundings this time.

“Well, at least now we know the position of the door,” Heike said. “It must have been where the older man’s hand is.”

“And there’s the staircase leading down,” Peter shouted. “On the opposite side of the door, just as we thought!”

There was a gaping hole in the stone floor. There might have been a staircase there once, but there was nothing now. Only a precipice.

“Are we really going down there?” Peter whispered. “How will we get back up?”

Heike looked around. He didn’t really trust the creeping branches because they had been cursed. “First let’s see if we can hear how deep it really is.”

He fetched a big stone and let it fall. It wasn’t long before it hit the bottom.

“I don’t think we’ll have any problem helping each other back up,” he decided. “Come, hold my hand and I’ll go down!”

Peter moaned with fear but did as Heike told him. Pretty soon he heard Heike’s voice calling to him. “Come on, it’s not so difficult. But it’s really dark! But that’s what you’d expect, I suppose. After all, we’re dealing with creatures who shun the light!”

Peter wished Heike would stop talking in such a disrespectful way down there. Suddenly it dawned on him, “But Heike! I have a tinderbox with me! Should I light a fire up here?”

“God bless you, my friend! But hurry, I’m not exactly enjoying myself down here! I have no idea what’s surrounding me!”

His fingers nervous and fumbling, Peter managed to scrape together a few dry leaves and a twig that didn’t seem to derive from anything devilish. First the leaves caught light and then the twig. “I’m coming!”

He fearlessly let himself drop down through the hole. He trusted that Heike knew what he was doing.

When the primitive torch lit up Anciol’s crypt they stood as if they had been paralysed. Though the room didn’t have a high ceiling, it was nevertheless very large. There was only one object in there, but it was more than enough!

In the middle of the stone floor stood something that had most likely once been a coffin or a sarcophagus made of wood. It stood within an outer coffin made of iron or lead, it was hard to tell which. The lid on this coffin had clearly once been fastened with screws but the seals had been broken – from within! And the lid had been pushed off the coffin and onto the floor.

From the sides of the inner, wooden coffin, grew long tentacles that twisted and creaked in constant movement. This was where the forest originated! This was where the main roots ceaselessly pushed out the spreading stems. They had penetrated the roof and walls a long time ago and just continued to spread, getting their nourishment from the contents of the coffin and ...

A gurgling sound came from Peter’s throat. All around the coffin lay the corpses of men: some were mere skeletons, while others still had the remains of flesh and skin on them. But stuck through them all were the horrendous roots from which the tree trunks grew.

“The forest is living off ...” Peter began, incredulously, his face twisted in disgust.

“Yes,” Heike quickly interjected. “But the two Frenchmen are still fresh enough to be ... used. Come on, Peter let’s get to work!”

He went over to the coffin. Peter had to summon up all his willpower to dare follow Heike.

He shone the light into the coffin when they had made their way past the branches and roots. He started.

There she lay with her eyes closed, his wonderful Nicola. There was just one difference ...

He heard a twittering laugh at his side and realized that it was one of Heike’s companions, the one he had called Sol. It was a sumptuous laugh, entirely uninhibited and very contagious. He saw Heike give a little smile and felt his own lips move slightly. Nicola, or Anciol as she must now be called, lay completely naked in her coffin. Utterly gorgeous and desirable as ever. Except that her hair, her great adornment, was no longer there.

Sol laughed teasingly. “Oh, I’ve never laughed so hard before,” she chuckled. “The femme fatale herself, bald!”

Anciol opened her eyes. She couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything, but her gaze was hard as stone and directed at Sol, who now stepped forward at Heike’s side, together with two impressive-looking men. Peter stared open-mouthed.

“He-he-hello,” he stammered. “Sol ... you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. And what gorgeous hair you have!”

This remark amused Sol even more than she already had been, if that were possible.

“Did you hear that, you old harpie? Yes, yes, if looks could kill I would be in very bad shape now. But, you see, I am already dead, so you can’t harm me. While you ... you are one of the undead, my little friend!”

Peter had nearly forgotten all about the horrible creature in the coffin, he couldn’t take his eyes off Heike’s ancestors. Heike couldn’t either. He stood staring at a man who was his double, but much older.

“Tengel the Good?” Heike whispered.

“Yes, that’s me. You see, you’re not alone in suffering because of your appearance. My childhood and adolescence were difficult periods of my life, like yours. But you will survive and once you gain the respect of other people, it doesn’t hurt so much any more.”

Heike nodded. He and Peter turned their gaze to the other man.

“Is he a demon?” Peter whispered as he instinctively took a step back.

“This is Mar,” answered Tengel the Good. “Shira’s support in life and supreme when it comes to invocations, which we could really use here!”

“Yes,” Heike said, dazed.

All the growing, twisting vegetation around them bubbled, sizzled, creaked and moaned.

“Heike, when this is over and done with, you must hurry away from here! Run as fast as you can!” Tengel warned. “Or you risk getting buried beneath all of this or shut in.”

“We’ll hurry, “Heike said. “But tell us who showed us the way here! It was the coachman, wasn’t it? But who is he?”

“Haven’t you figured it out? He was the man she was once supposed to marry – the man who betrayed her.”

“But he was so old and scrawny.”

“She let him live out his life to the full. Later she took him and forced him to be her servant for all eternity. But hurry now, Heike, you’re the one who has to do this.”

Nervously, Heike took out the rod and hammer. He avoided looking at Anciol for he knew that her gaze now sought his, sharp and deadly. “Peter, don’t look at her,” Heike murmured.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Peter answered. “What are you going to do? You don’t intend to ...?”

Sol assisted Heike in finding the right spot. “Here, Heike, this is where the old hag’s heart is. If she has one, that is!”

Heike took aim. Mar, who was standing at the head of the coffin, started singing his strange, shrill songs.

“This is necessary,” Tengel explained, “because the whole forest is permeated with evil. The only thing that made this woman survive in a kind of afterlife was her thirst for revenge. And that is a terrible and destructive force. It is that atmosphere that Mar is attempting to exorcise.”

Sol teased the undead one. “How gorgeous you’re going to look now, my little friend. Now your age will be fully apparent. And what an age! Two hundred years? Three hundred? Perhaps more? Think of all the impressive wrinkles you’re going to have. Think how all these gorgeous men are going to witness your transformation! What will then become of your notorious power of erotic attraction? You, who just had to have a man with you every waking hour while you were still alive. And you couldn’t stop but had to continue after your death as well! That’s certainly no laughing matter!”

Desperately, Anciol tried to catch Heike’s gaze to gain power over him, but neither of the two young men looked at her. It was also clear that she detested Mar for the invocations he was chanting. They could see that she was trying to move but couldn’t. She was helplessly trapped in her coffin, just as all the undead are during the day. She was unable to conjure up the dazzling visions of Nicola or the lavish castle because they were all able to see through those images. Even the weakest of them all, Peter, was under the influence of the Ice People.

She was helpless! Everyone in the crypt sensed her fury.

Heike took three deep breaths. Then he lifted the hammer.

“Remember: no one is to look at her afterwards!” Tengel warned. “Hurry, run away without giving a thought to anything!”

Heike nodded. Peter was already standing by the hole ready to go, he was now able to see that there were cracks in the masonry where he could place his feet.

Heike took careful aim and struck with all his might, then let go of the hammer and ran for dear life.

A scream, a shriek so frightening that he thought his eardrums would explode, cut through the crypt. Screams could also be heard coming from the plants, which shrivelled up in convulsive death throes and thrashed about on the floor like massive arms. Peter was already on his way up, followed by Heike, but was suddenly severely struck by a flailing root. There was no need for them to worry about the other three Ice People because they were invulnerable and could move about just as they chose.

Above the crypt everything was in chaos. Roots shot out of the ground, toppling over stones and collapsing walls. Trees twisted around one another so that time and again the two young men had to hurl themselves to the side, pull one another free or fight their way out of lethal traps. But once they reached the surface things got a little easier.

They finally got through the gateway and without looking back they ran as fast as they could towards the valley. Peter was limping horribly after having got his leg caught on the root, but he didn’t dare slow down.

The whole valley echoed with the noise coming from the castle. Down in the valley the horses were frightened by the sounds, but Peter still managed to catch them and the two young men jumped on them and rode hastily back to Târgul Stregesti, where all the inhabitants of the village were milling around and welcomed Heike and Peter as heroes.

Mira came running up and threw her arms around Peter, who had completely forgotten about her existence.

“Oh, thank you, Heike, thank you!” she whispered as she sobbed on Peter’s shoulder. “Thank you for bringing him home!”

Heike was frantic. “We have to leave here immediately!” he said. “Do you have all our belongings, Mira?”

She nodded and hurried to fetch everything. Zeno and his wife bade them a touching farewell.

“We’ll finally have peace now,” the innkeeper said as he shook Heike’s hand. “You have no idea what this means to us!”

“Yes, I do understand,” Heike said quietly. For now he knew what it was he should have remembered, something that had happened a long time ago.

As the noise grew louder and spread across the entire valley they quickly rode out of the village, waving at those they passed. Mira rode Heike’s horse and the two men were mounted on the semi-wild horses that had belonged to the two Frenchmen.

It wasn’t until they had galloped up the hill towards the dying forest that Peter was struck with an extraordinary thought. He mentioned it to Heike, who nodded thoughtfully.

Not until now did they realize that they had both been able to understand what Heike’s ancestors were saying, despite the fact that they spoke a foreign language!

Anciol, too, had been able to understand Sol’s words: that had been clear from the tremendous rage the witch had displayed in her coffin.

In other words, they must have been communicating through their thoughts and not through words.

Peter, the scholar, grew almost dizzy at the thought.

When they had almost reached the forest, Peter and Mira reined in their horses. Reluctantly, Heike followed their example. They were now at the very spot where they had stood on the day they arrived and saw the village down in the valley.

“Don’t turn around!” Heike said quickly.

Which, of course, made them turn around immediately.

Mira screamed.

“But,” said Peter, “there’s nothing but a pile of grey stones down there.”

“Ruined houses,” Heike explained matter-of-factly. “Târgul Stregesti is a village that died out long ago. Come, we have to get through the forest as fast as we can!”