Maria shuddered as she passed beneath the strange words. She pulled hard on Paulus’s lead and looked anxiously at Pieter.
The town was fairly large, though not nearly so large as Marburg. It was protected by massive stone walls and many high towers that overlooked the three rivers that converged just beyond its northern gate. Coming from the southwest flowed the Fulda and from the southeast, the Werra. Together, these two rivers joined to flow north as the River Weser.
Inside, the town was much like every other town of its time: crowded by narrow, crooked streets and filled with a varied collection of houses, workshops, sheds, barns, coops, and churches. The streets were clogged with groaning two-wheeled carts, oxen, and swaybacked palfreys. The air was filled with the stench of urine and manure, made all the more pungent in the summer heat.
Pieter’s group included Maria, Katharina, and Otto, as well as the two animals. The four were assigned the task of buying salted pork and cheese. It was at the butcher’s shop that Maria became frightened once more.
“Strangers, eh?” asked the butcher. He was a large, menacing character wearing a skullcap and leather apron.
“Pilgrims, my son,” answered Pieter.
The mole-faced man bent low and stared into Maria’s face. He was toothless and his breath was horrid. The girl recoiled. “Ha! Ha! My deary. Best be on yer best whilst here! Are you one of them crusaders come home?”
“I said we are pilgrims,” snapped Pieter. “Now sell us some pork!”
The man picked his nose and smiled wickedly. “Hmm.” He stared at Maria a bit longer. “See there, little girl?” he pointed to a tower under construction at the town’s edge.
Maria nodded shyly.
“Well, if you look up about six rods or so … near the top of the scaffold, you’ll see the face of a child in the stone.”
Maria was puzzled and all eyes strained.
“No, y’fools. You’ll not see it from here! You needs get close.”
“Why is it there?” asked Otto.
The butcher looked the lad over. “You, boy. You’ve the look of one of them crusaders.”
Otto spat. “Can y’not answer m’question?”
The butcher grinned. “A child was put in the wall just months past. A little blond one, like her … only it was a boy, a real screamer.”
Pieter stiffened.
The butcher carved a ham from a hanging swine. “Ja, I can still hear him. The priest said it’d keep the ghosts away.”
“What?” barked Pieter. Solomon bared his teeth.
“The lord of the town captured four lads who was lost. He says they was in the crusade, but they said not. I don’t think it mattered much. They were strangers here. He locked three up in the jail over there.” He pointed to a squat stone building. “Aye, we’ve had some bad time with spirits coming from the river mists more than ever. Two priests died at Easter; a midwife was slain by a dragon born from a strumpet. Aye, we’ve had a bad time of it. So the lord says we ought quiet the spirits. He locked the three away and let ‘em starve. They never said much. Just went quietly. We buried them where they lay in the jail, though some say they hear them groaning at night.
“But the boy in the wall was different. He cursed the priest with a blasphemy and spat upon the altar. So he was mortared into the wall—alive. Now we see his face in the wall, and the lord’s lady claims his ghost prowls the great hall.”
Pieter was dumbstruck. He looked at his companions in astonishment and then turned a hard eye on the butcher. “Keep thy meat, y’wicked devil. I pray the God of Abraham will release the demons of the Pit to raise the rivers high enough to swallow you and this evil place!” He shook his staff with whitened knuckles. “A curse on thee! A curse on thee and thine!”
Otto spat at the butcher and kicked over his table. A gathering crowd murmured as the butcher shouted for the guard. Solomon barked wildly and kept the man at bay, while a cursing Pieter led Maria in a hasty retreat across the market square.
“Run, Papa Pieter,” the girl squealed. “I don’t want to be put in that jail!” She leaned forward with all her might to drag Paulus through the streets.
The four did their best to vanish in the alleys, but Otto looked back and saw a deputy being pointed in their direction. “Quick, we needs get out of the town!”
“Where? We can’t go back through the main gate!”
Otto thought hard. Pieter answered. “Over there. We can get through the far gate and hide. The guards won’t be looking for us yet.”
With that, the four hurried through winding alleyways until they came to the town’s north gate. All was calm and quiet. “Perhaps they’ll just let it be,” grumbled Pieter.