The Devil's Opera(93)

Chapter 37

Simon closed the door to Das Haus Des Brotes behind himself as he stood on the top step. He heard whistling, and looked up to see Hans leaning against the next building over, hat tilted back on his head and hands in his pockets. Simon tucked his roll into his pocket and trotted down the steps to meet his friend.

“So, is the new ring finally ready?” he asked, eyes alight with eagerness.

Hans broke off his whistling. “Yah.” He nodded.

“And are you on the list, the…” Simon searched his memory for the word, “…the program?”

“Yah.”

Simon grinned. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

Hans grinned back, and pushed off the building. They had taken a few steps down the street when Simon stopped and said, “Wait!” Hans looked on in puzzlement as Simon looked up and down the street. After a moment, the boy shrugged, reached into his pocket to tear a piece off his roll, and bent to lay it on the ground right in front of the wall of the building.

“There.” He stood and brushed his hand off on his pants leg. “Now we can go.”

Hans grinned for a moment, then turned and led off down the street again. “You know, you care more about that dog than you do for people.”

Simon caught up to the big man and settled into place to Hans’ left. That left his crippled arm between them, and kept his left arm to the outside. He never really thought about it when he did it; that was just his preferred way to travel with company. He tucked his good hand behind his belt and swaggered a bit.

“Not more than for you and Ursula, and not more than Frau Zenzi and her husband.” He shrugged again. Well, maybe Pastor Gruber, too. “At least Schatzi’s never tried to hurt me.”

“Rough day?”

“Yah.”

Hans grunted. After a few steps, he said, “Sounds pretty lonely to me.”

Simon swallowed the lump that suddenly appeared in his throat.

“Yah.”

Hans reached over and wrapped his arm around Simon’s shoulder. Simon leaned into it, savoring the wordless contact.

They reached the intersection with the road that led to the bear-baiting pit, and Simon started to turn into it.

“Hoy!” Hans called as he continued straight through the intersection. “This way, remember?”

“Right.” Simon wanted to smack himself for forgetting they were going to the new location, but he focused instead on catching up to Hans. “So, are you ready for this fight?”

“Yah.” Hans looked over with a wide grin. “Very ready. It’s been too long since the last one. I’ve been about to tie myself in a knot for the last few weeks.”

“Yah, I know.”

Simon ducked as Hans took a slow swipe at the back of his head. That big strong hand just barely ruffled his hair; he was thankful that it was just in jest. Having seen Hans fight for real, he knew that a real blow from the fighter would have left him crumpled and broken.

They bantered back and forth as they walked to the new site for the fights. It was a bit farther out from the Old City than the bear-baiting pit had been. The owners of the land the pit was on had sold it when someone had offered them more for the rights than they would ever see from the various fights that got staged there. That had put the fight promoters on the hunt for a new site, and it had taken a while to first find it, and second, negotiate for the rights to build a ring. Then they had to build it, and getting the funds raised for that hadn’t been the easiest task in the world, either.

Although Hans had seen the ring, Simon hadn’t yet, but he knew that even though they called it a ring, it wasn’t round. Another weird thing that up-timers did, he supposed.

“And there it is,” Hans said as they crested a bit of a rise. He pointed to the ring, which sat between the small hillock they stood on and another one on the other side.

There was a roof of sorts over the ring itself. Hans started down the slope. Simon followed in his steps. As they drew nearer, he could see more details about the ring: rectangular, almost square but not quite; sturdy posts in the corners, three courses of heavy ropes suspended and stretched along the sides between the corner posts, floor painted red.

There were already people milling around the ring. A genial outcry began when they spotted Hans descending the hillock.

“Stark Hans! Stark Hans!”

Hans waved at them as he drew closer. Simon could see the big grin on his friend’s face when men stepped up to him and slapped him on the back or grabbed his hand to shake it. They finally made it to the side of the ring, where they were greeted by Todd Pierpoint.

“Hans! Good to see you, man! Come this way.”