C5 Chapter 5

It was in the Mures Pass that he met his travelling companion. There was a big village there where the Mures River flowed down from the heights of Siebenbürgen onto the Hungarian plains.

Heike was hungry, and his provisions had run out. He knew from bitter experience that his appearance tended to scare people off – they would often make a sign in the air that meant “Get thee hence, Satan!” when they saw him. But he had no choice now: he needed some food.

He stood resolutely under the trees at the edge of the village square, but didn’t quite know what he should do. He felt uneasy and hurt by the rejection people displayed when they met him, for he was a friendly soul. Back home in the village everyone had loved him, and he often regretted that he had ever left Planina.

But there was no way around it. Even though he now knew that the journey to the North was going to be more difficult than he had initially thought.

There was a market in the village with booths, livestock and entertainers. Heike looked at all these new things with wide eyes, for Planina had been a very quiet and static corner of the world compared with this place that was full of life.

There was one thing that especially caught his attention. A young man was standing on a small stage, trying to impress the crowd with his magic tricks. Heike liked the look of his face: it was open, intelligent and roguish. His thick brown hair had not been exposed to a pair of scissors for a long time, his eyes danced mischievously, his nose protruded bravely in the air and his mouth was broad and turned up in a grin. The young man jumped around on the stage, performing his various tricks in an exceptionally clumsy way.

The audience was far from satisfied. Rotten tomatoes and other fruits flew through the air and the sound of booing drowned out the explanations that the performer tried to give in German. Finally he was forced to step off the stage.

Heike went hesitantly round behind the tattered drape that made up the back curtain. The young man was sitting there crestfallen, as he wiped off the tomato seeds.

“Well, at least that’s one way to get a little food,” he said sardonically as he licked his fingers.

“Do you need help?” Heike asked.

The young man flinched when he caught sight of Heike. “Who are you?” he asked, moving back a little while stretching out his arm defensively in front of him. “Are you the Devil himself offering your services? What does it cost? My soul, I mean.”

“You can keep your soul,” Heike smiled. “I have nothing to do with the Devil, but if you can get me some food I may be able to help you with a few magic tricks.”

The boy considered Heike’s words carefully but still with reservation. “If you’re a magician, why can’t you get hold of some food for yourself by magic?” he asked very logically.

“I would never dream of it,” Heike answered gently. “And you yourself can see how I look. It isn’t easy for me to make contact with other people: that is why it is hard to find food.”

“The last problem doesn’t only apply to you!”

“No, I have gathered that much. Well, are we going to help one another or not?

“How?” the young man asked.

“Are you going back on stage soon?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure how much I can help because I hardly ever do magic, but I think I can manage one trick with you. You just have to stand on stage and look me straight in the eyes while the audience can’t see me.”

“That’s easy enough,” the boy answered. He had now grown curious. “You can just stand behind the curtain, which we’ll pull aside a little – that way I’ll be looking at you from the side.”

Heike nodded. “Fine. But you mustn’t stand up, you must be sitting down.”

“What do you intend to do? I won’t go along with just anything. Don’t cut me in two, thank you very much!”

“It won’t be anything like that. Let’s see if we can do it and whether you are susceptible to it. We had better go inside the tent before anyone comes.”

“Good! We can share the rotten tomatoes afterwards!”

Heike smiled. He was starting to like the boy.

Shortly afterwards, Peter, as he was called, went back on stage. He was clearly nervous. He had never tried anything like this before! The audience immediately began to whistle to get him off.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” he shouted. “I am now going to try an experiment, and I will ask you to be quiet so that I can concentrate ...”

There were very few who understood his German, but at long last the audience settled down.

Peter sat on the floor with his legs crossed, staring intently at Heike, who was hiding behind the curtain.

Those members of the audience who hadn’t understood what Peter had said were starting to get curious about what was going to happen. An intense silence fell. The worst of the troublemakers had already grown tired of the magician and had left.

A little boy lifted his arm in order to throw a really juicy tomato, but it was held back by the hand of a grown-up. “First wait and see what happens. You can throw it if nothing happens.”

Suddenly Peter’s eyes grew big in surprise and the next moment there was a stir.

A woman screamed.

Peter sat completely still but at the same time he was lifted slowly, very slowly, from the ground, until he was floating in the air two feet above the stage.

Heike was just as astonished. He had never really believed in that trick, and he was in such shock that he completely lost his concentration, leaving Peter to land with a thud on the floor of the stage. Peter got to his feet with a painful expression on his face. Then he waved triumphantly to the audience who were wildly enthusiastic. They tossed coins great and small to Peter and he picked them up carefully.

The audience wanted more but once had been enough for that performance. Peter explained to them that the magic trick was so exhausting that he would have to rest for the remainder of the day.

Then he closed the curtain and the two boys sat down and counted the money.

They hadn’t been sitting there long before a man came rushing in. Heike quickly hid behind the curtains. The man wanted to hire Peter as a full-time performer. They would tour and make a lot of money. Peter, who was quick-witted, asked the man what he intended to contribute.

“I’ll watch out for you, of course,” the man answered. “I’ll watch out and make sure no one takes your money and then I’ll spread the word about your performance.”

“Thanks anyway,” Peter answered. “I’ve managed to take care of myself up until now and am in no need of a hanger-on. Excuse me, but I have to get on with the day’s work.”

The man started to get nasty but Peter said he was very sensitive and was unable to perform if he was upset. The man finally left, cursing as he walked away and threatening to return.

“We have to get out of here right away,” Peter whispered to Heike. “I was on my way east.”

“That suits me well,” Heike said. “Because I was, too.”

They hastily took down the tent and ran away from the square. Peter did not have a horse so they loaded the primitive tent onto Heike’s horse, which they led. They hurried out of the village and before long the road began climbing towards the Mures Pass.

“We can accomplish a lot together,” Peter laughed. “You show me the tricks and I’ll perform them. Would that be all right?”

“Yes, of course. I would never be able to go on stage myself – people will just think that the Evil One himself is playing tricks on them. But now I really am hungry!”

They had reached another little village. Peter ran off immediately and bought bread, meat and milk, which they devoured sitting on a bank.

It was growing dark. The day was over so they could no longer rest but had to press on to a village farther up where Peter knew there was an inn.

“Where exactly are you going?” Peter asked. “I mean, eastwards is a vague term. I myself am going to Klausenburg where I have family.”

“I’m going to Vienna,” Heike said proudly. “That’s where I was born and that is why I can more or less speak your language. But Vienna will just be a halfway stop for me. Afterwards I’ll be going ...”

He suddenly realized that Peter was staring at him.

“To Vienna!” Peter interrupted him. “That’s where I come from!”

Heike stopped. “What did you say?”

“Yes, you’re moving farther and farther away from Vienna!”

“What are you saying? But I was so certain that Sölve and I ... You see, that’s the disadvantage of not being able to ask anyone for directions.”

He sat down on a low mound. “What shall I do now?” he asked dejectedly. “Should I turn back?”

“You don’t have to,” Peter answered. “Only if you have to get to Vienna.”

“I don’t. I have to go far north to a country called Norway and another called Sweden where my grandmother lives. But I don’t even know where they are!” He hid his face on his knees.

“Stop whining, we’ll get you back on the right track. But you can’t turn back alone: it can be dangerous in the mountains. Let’s go to the little village with the inn, then we can sleep on it.”

Heike sighed and stood up. Everything seemed meaningless now. A whole month of riding, for nothing ... and he was farther from his final destination than ever before.

They walked on. It was now dark and it was hard to see the road properly. But they didn’t dare stop: they had to have a roof over their heads that night.

Peter told Heike about himself. He had been a student in Vienna and was very well read, but his family had gone bankrupt and Peter had had to stop studying. Instead he had started on the trek back to his family, who lived in Siebenbürgen. In order to earn his living, he had tried to do a few magic tricks, at which he had completely failed until Heike had shown up.

“I thought you were a real performer,” Heike laughed. “You look like one.”

“Should I take that as a compliment or an insult?”

“I think performers are nice people,” said Heike good-naturedly.

They went on talking. Peter was a sympathetic young man, a true optimist, and he managed to cheer Heike up so that he didn’t see the future in merely bleak terms. He would be able to stay with Peter’s family in Klausenburg until he had worked out a proper itinerary. Suddenly Peter stopped. “That’s strange! According to the directions we got at the last village, we should have reached the inn a long time ago. It wasn’t this far!”

They looked around in the dark, but there was nothing to see but a few jagged mountain peaks outlined against the dark blue sky. A brook was flowing close by, but other than that it was quiet.

“The road is suspiciously narrow,” Peter murmured, bending down. “Do you think we may have been mistaken in the dark?”

“It’s not impossible,” Heike answered.

“What shall we do now?” Peter asked tentatively. “There are so many wild animals here that would be interested in us and the horse if they catch on to our scent.”

Heike looked around. “Don’t be afraid of wild animals,” he said absentmindedly. “I have travelled great distances in wild mountain regions with the wolves howling around me. They won’t touch us or the horse, Peter.”

His friend looked at him quizzically. “Do you have a guardian angel, perhaps? Or a talisman?”

“The latter,” Heike answered calmly.

Peter did not ask further. His new companion was strange, but if he had connections to another realm it certainly wasn’t the kingdom of Satan, and that was all Peter wanted to know!

They stretched the tent canvas under the overhang of a cliff. Then they lay down to sleep as all the predators of Transylvania nosed about in pursuit of prey. But Heike and his friend they never touched, giving the cave under the overhang a wide berth.

“Who are you, Heike?” Peter whispered in the dark.

It was a little while before Heike answered. “I don’t know. That’s why I have to return to the North – to find out. You see, I belong to a family that inherits both goodness and evil. And I deeply hope that the good forces are standing by me.”

“They are,” mumbled Peter before falling asleep.

The following day it became clear to them that they were lost. They had strayed so far from the path that they couldn’t make their way back to it. And how were they to get back to the main road?

They looked for the Mures Pass but could see nothing but a hilly landscape with soft, grassy hills, deep forests and valleys. They were truly lost and didn’t know how far they were north or south of Mures.

“South of the pass is the part of the Carpathians known as the Transylvanian Alps,” Peter explained. “North of it are the Bihor Mountains. I have no idea where we are in relation to them.”

“You know so much!” Heike said, impressed.

“I told you that I’m a well-read man,” Peter laughed, but there was a definite sense of unease in his voice. They knew that if they went in the wrong direction they would get even farther from the pass. They did not even know which side of the river they were on because they had crossed several bridges in the dark and had not kept track of them, fearful and confused as they had been.

“It’s a good thing you bought a lot of food,” Heike said.

“Yes, we made a lot of money from the floating trick. But it hurt when I fell. Don’t do that again. If we even get the chance to perform ever again ... Well, anyway! It’s not hopeless for us yet, as young and strong and damn smart as we are. Right?”

“You’re absolutely right,” Heike smiled.

He was happy to have found a travelling companion. Peter was poor but so was Heike, and Peter was good company. They would just have to take one day at a time.

The mountain landscape seemed endless and there wasn’t a single sign of human habitation anywhere to be seen. But late in the afternoon, when the sun was alarmingly low in the sky and the clouds were growing long and greedy, Peter suddenly let out a shout.

“Look over there! On the next hill! I’ll eat my hat if that is not a road!”

“That’s easy for you to say since you’re not wearing a hat! But you’re right! Come on!”

With renewed courage they plodded on to the bottom of the valley and back up and ... there was a small road! Peter couldn’t help falling down on his knees and kissing the overgrown, yellow grass.

Then they looked around. Heike turned to his companion and asked, “Which direction do you think ...?”

Peter hesitated.

They were standing on the road where the two Frenchmen had ridden earlier that summer. But of course they knew nothing about that.

“This way,” Peter concluded. It was a fateful and wrong decision.

They hadn’t got far before they saw something moving at the side of the road.

“It’s people,” Heike cried out in astonishment. “I had begun to think that we were the only ones left in the world.”

“Me too. There is a girl bent over a man lying on the ground. Come, we had better hurry.”

The girl caught sight of them and came running. “Oh, are you angels coming to me in my time of need?” she asked in German. Then she stopped. Looking at Heike she continued, “No, I don’t believe you are.”

She sounded undeniably scared.

“Don’t be afraid,” Peter smiled. “He is a sheep in wolf’s clothing. If anyone is an angel then it is my friend Heike. Do you need help?”

The girl was no beauty but she seemed straightforward and sympathetic. Perhaps a little boorish and lacking refined manners but what did anyone need those for out here in the wilderness?

“My father,” she said. “He’s dead. We got lost and then he succumbed to his hardships.”

“My condolences,” Peter said, but the girl did not exactly seem weighed down with sorrow.

“Not a word against the dead,” she said curtly. “Will you help me bury him?”

When they came closer, they understood her much better. The man lying on the ground stank of schnapps despite the fact that he had breathed his last. Everything about him seemed sloppy, shabby and vulgar, just like a travelling swindler. He was ostentatiously and sprucely dressed but with a mouth that had probably been slack even while he was still alive, and he was filthy despite all his fancy clothes.

The two young men immediately got to work digging, which wasn’t easy since they had no tools to dig with. The burial took place in silence in respect for the dead. Peter muttered a short prayer, and then they left the place.

The girl’s name was Mira. She had no idea where they were right now. She and her father had come from more or less the same direction as the boys, having been chased out of a little village in the mountains where the father had attempted to scrape a few too many possessions together. To his chagrin the farmers had seized everything he had so honestly and uprightly stolen, so that he and his daughter now owned nothing. She had promised her mother that she would care for her father, a task that she had found exceedingly difficult. Especially because he ordered her around and hit her when he was drunk, which he always was.

“I am sorry to talk like this,” she stopped herself. “He was my father after all.”

Peter smiled a charming smile. “Sometimes it’s all right to lash out about things you’ve kept to yourself for a long time.”

“Yes, but it’s not a good idea ...”

She looked around anxiously. They knew what she meant. If you spoke ill of someone who had passed away, the spirit of that person might start to haunt you.

Peter turned around and walked backwards as he said in a loud and clear voice, “Peace be with you. May you rest in peace!”

Then he made a big, benevolent sign of the cross towards the road, as priests do when they give their blessings. The road disappeared in the darkness behind them.

A few hours later they were on their way in the dark over the same high pass that Yves and his uncle had conquered earlier that year.

“Heavens,” whispered Peter. “Is that forest alive or what?”

It may have seemed an absurd comment but Heike thought it was perfectly appropriate. They stopped and inhaled the dripping, static air floating among the trees. The horse made a whinnying sound from deep in its throat and its ears flattened.

It was late summer now and the decline of the forest was more apparent. Mira shuddered where she was sitting on the horse’s back.

“It smells dead here,” Peter said in a monotone.

“Yes,” Heike murmured.

“Can a forest really be so ...?” Peter began.

He didn’t finish his sentence but Heike knew what he meant.

“As though it had eyes,” he said softly so that Mira wouldn’t hear it.

“Come, perhaps we should turn around?” Peter asked just as softly.

“I don’t know,” Heike said. “There is something going on here ...”

“Why did you gasp?”

“My ... talisman.”

“Yes, what about it?”

“It didn’t like what you said about turning around.”

Peter stared at him. “What in hell are you saying?”

Heike unbuttoned his shirt and showed it to him. “A ... mandrake? Jesus!” cried Peter.

“It has protected me for nineteen years.”

“And it now wants us to continue?”

“I didn’t say that. I only know that it curled up in protest.”

“I don’t understand any of it. “

“I’m afraid,” Mira shuddered. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m chosen for something, Peter,” Heike explained. “Everyone whom the mandrake has chosen to belong to has been selected to fight against evil forces. I don’t know what to do now. I don’t dare defy it.”

“Do you think that the forest is an evil force?”

Heike looked at him with his sulphur-yellow eyes. “What do you think?”

Peter laughed nervously. “Well, it certainly isn’t good!” He sighed. “You’re right. We know nothing about where we will end up if we turn around. And sooner or later we will reach the end of the forest, I assume.”

“Yes,” Heike said quietly. “That is what I’m afraid of.”

“What do you mean?” asked Peter, who was quick to grasp the undertone of Heike’s words.

“I mean, what is it the forest is hiding?” Heike asked.

That left Peter completely speechless. They went on in silence, practically tip-toeing with the reluctant horse between them. Mira closed her eyes in terror.

They felt exceedingly uneasy, much more than the Frenchmen, for these three young people were far more sensitive. In addition, the Frenchmen had been on horseback while the two young men were on foot. And thanks to the high late summer temperatures, there was a rotten stench hovering over the marshy soil. The ivy had acquired a sickly yellow colour and the bog thread moss seemed more leathery than ever.

All this made a huge impression on the boys, especially Heike. Now Mira was also covering her ears with her hands. She did not want to see, hear or know anything.

“There is something sickening about this place, Peter,” said Heike in a low voice.

“You don’t need to tell me that.”

“No, I mean in a deeper sense. There is something else here, something that we cannot see, something much more dangerous. The forest is nothing more than a hiding place.”

“A hiding place? You mean that there is something beneath this horrendous forest floor?”

Heike pondered. “Or inside,” he said slowly. “Inside the forest.”

“And you think it is something that we should look into?”

“Not if you don’t want to.”

“Yes, by golly! You’ve made me very curious! I’m with you!”

They went on a little farther. But then Heike stopped again.

“No, no! I don’t want to drag the two of you into this! We’ll turn around.”

“Over my dead body!” Peter said. “Can’t you see that this syrupy-thick forest is starting to thin out? We’ve nearly reached the end of it and we haven’t come across anything sinister.”

His good spirits infected Heike. “Well, we’ll go on then. Perhaps it is rather exciting after all?”

“The best thing I’ve tried yet,” Peter said. “There seems to be a good chance of experiencing a bit of everything in your company. I shudder to think how I’d fare out here alone.

“I wouldn’t be too keen on that myself,” Heike said in his slow and steady tone. “What’s more, we now have a girl to look out for.”

They exchanged a smile.

But in their hearts they were trembling. They just didn’t want to show their fear and insecurity to one another. The forest hadn’t yet lost its stranglehold on them even though the entire horizon was brightening up in front of them.

They were finally out of the forest and had a view of a small valley. Deep in the bottom of the valley was a village.

“Hurrah!” Peter shouted. “People!”

“Where?” Heike asked.

“Don’t you see it? Down there? A nice little cluster of houses?”

Now Mira also dared to remove her hands from her face and open her eyes. “Can’t you see them, Heike?” she asked. “Thank goodness, we’ve managed to find other people! Thank you, dear mother of God!”

“Oh yes! I see it now!” Heike smiled. “I thought it was just a cluster of rocks. But there’s a church and everything.”

“Come, let’s hurry before it gets dark.”

Halfway down Heike stopped once more. “Did you hear that?”

“No,” said Peter, who was walking a little ahead of them and turned around.

“It’s the flapping wings of a big bird. No, two! But it’s so dark ...”

“Oh!” Mira screamed. “Something struck at me! There was a rushing sound and it was as though something swept across my face. I want to get down!”

Heike helped her off the horse. “They’re gone now,” he said quietly to the girl.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Peter said.

“They were close by,” Heike said.

He wasn’t the only one who was relieved to be leaving the forest.