59: Till Death do us Part

Erhardt went to his mysterious master at the college to deal with Blaug, as he was not sure who else he could trust. If he heard what happened to him, or what information the college managed to extract from the traitor then he didn’t tell us. He did, however, reveal that Sieglinde was killed, ambushed on the road from Middenheim, just as we had been. But she had been on her own, and I imagine, never stood a chance. Solvej had promised to tell Sieglinde’s family if we ever found out what happened to her, and so she was considering travelling back up to Adelsbrueck to let them know. That would have been a considerate and selfless journey for someone like Solvej, so I imagined that, in the end, she wouldn’t bother. But, given her preference for the forest over the city, that would give her a good excuse for a trip.

Erhardt shared out the twenty crowns he got from the college, for the job, presenting us with nice pouches with our names embroidered on them. I threw mine straight in the collection tin (after making sure he had given me my fair share).

I had doubted that Solvej and Kurtis were serious about getting married, but they both said they wanted to go through with it. I couldn’t work out whether this was a business arrangement disguised as a matter of the heart, or a matter of the heart disguised as a business arrangement, or something else. Nevertheless, I managed to get the use of one of the chapels at the temple for the afternoon, to hold the ceremony.

Solvej had it all organised. I think she was enjoying the romance of it more than she let on. I imagine it is every Norlander little girl’s dream to grow up and get married in a temple in Altdorf to a rich and handsome adventurer. But she had to make do with Kurtis. And I suspect, he did not have as much money as he was pretending to have.

She appointed Otto as the usher, and I think Otto tried to make a cravat for Schnitzel. Erhardt was employed to make fireworks. And I, for my sins to Shallya, was expected to preside over the ceremony. There was no sign of Ursula. Perhaps she was jealous. Konrad Pfungziger was the only guest. I think Kurtis had employed him to look into his inheritance and the estate of his family back in Pfeiferberg, and then seemed to be avoiding him for a while. Now he had been paid by Erhardt, he had been able to pay Konrad in turn, and perhaps they were friends again, or perhaps he wanted someone with a bit of legal knowledge to witness proceedings.

I had my misgivings about the whole thing, and so shortly before they were due for the ceremony, I prayed to Shallya for guidance. She sent me a vision of two doves flying though a blood red heart. This was promising, but then suddenly the doves veered away from each other and flew around chaotically. They both followed very different courses, and sometimes they would converge, and fight each other, and then fly off again. This was not a good sign.

And so, while Kurtis was waiting at the altar, I pulled him aside and told him that Shallya was not pleased about the wedding, and that we should call it off. Kurtis got a bit angry and accused me of simply being jealous of him and Solvej and told me to sort myself out and do the ceremony, or else. And so, may Shallya forgive me, I did as he said.

During the ceremony, Solvej thanked Kurtis for bringing safety and stability to her life, and Kurtis thanked Solvej for being his rock and for leading hm along the right path. This must have all happened while I wasn’t watching, because I don’t recall either of them bringing any of that. And then I pronounced them man and wife and told Kurtis he could kiss the bride, and there was a bit of awkwardness and a quick kiss on the forehead. I couldn’t help the nagging feeling that this would not end well.

We went down the Stag and Hounds for a drink. Otto told me how happy he thought Kurtis looked. I didn’t agree but Otto explained how happy his wife made him, when he was nowhere near her. Solvej etched Kurtis’ name on an arrowhead. She told him that as everyone knew there was always an arrow with their name on it, possessing the arrow would keep them safe. I thought it was a nice wedding gift, but Solvej didn’t give it as a gift at all, but kept it for herself, which was very sinister.

Kurtis told Solvej that she could now have the big bedroom and would be allowed to boss around Aunt Clara. Solvej made sure Kurtis would be moving to the smaller bedroom. Kurtis told Solvej that they could have fifty years together, and it was lucky they met so young, at which, I think I saw Solvej flinch.

Anyway, in the morning, Solvej was gone and had taken all her stuff. I knew she didn’t feel at home in the city and didn’t want to be cooped up, but I thought she might last longer than one night of marriage. Perhaps she went up to Adelsbrueck. Perhaps she went back to Ubersreik, or Nordland, or back to the farm.

For the next three weeks I worked at the temple. I was waiting to hear from the Order of the Chalice and couldn’t work out why they hadn’t contacted me, but I prayed for patience. Then, at last, I got a message, but it was only from Kurtis asking me to come up to the house.

Otto and Erhardt were there, too. I asked about Solvej but Kurtis told everyone never to mention her name again in his presence. But if it was an emergency, we could use the codeword ‘mice.’ He also thanked me for coming to visit him every day since she had left, which was very sarcastic, but I have better things to do for the people of Altdorf than listening to Kurtis whine about his love life.

He had received a letter, which smelled heavily of incense, from Eloise Dehnert, someone I had never heard of, saying “Dear Sir,

There are rumours of your adventures and strange companions, and I require such skills. Please attend lunch at the Dehnert house to discuss business, which will include discreet investigation. Expenses will be paid for.

Eloise Dehnert.”

He thought we should all go, but he also thought, seeing as we didn’t know much about her, we should also rope Konrad in, because finding out that sort of stuff was his business.

Despite his grumpiness, I think Kurtis was glad to have someone other than Otto to talk to. Otto’s dead rat sign was still stuck to the front door which made me think Kurtis hadn’t been out since the wedding. Kurtis insisted he wasn’t grieving, but perhaps Otto was right, and that he had taken it very badly. Otto seemed to think Kurtis needed his constant presence to help him get over it and he had even started wearing Kurtis’ clothes. He had certainly made himself at home.

So, Kurtis sent a message to Konrad, and he soon turned up. I remembered I had caught a brief sight of him a few weeks ago, when Kurtis must have been employing him to investigate his family. I recognised him, though I think he had gone out of his way to look as non-descript as possible. Kurtis was going to introduce us all to him, but Konrad told us he knew who everyone was already, which sounded a bit creepy.

Kurtis asked him about Eloise and he said he knew that Markward Dehnert had died a couple of weeks ago and she was his widow and she had a large house in the Palast District. He had also heard that she was a very eccentric lady, and there were rumours that she was a witch, and recently there were rumours of awful wailing coming from her basement. But he didn’t bother to tell us any of that at the time, because, I guess, in his line of business knowledge is money, and Kurtis didn’t have very much, of either.

So Konrad brought us to an elaborately decorated town house in the south of the city and Kurtis knocked on her ornate peacock doorknocker. A young, skinny servant girl admitted us into the reception and then into a banqueting hall. The place was dimly lit and had any stuffed animals, birds in cages, and lots of odd displays and the place smelled strongly of incense.

Eloise Dehnert was sat at the table and greeted us. She looked quite regal but was also tanned, which is unusual for the idle rich. Kurtis told her he had brought everyone like she had asked. Eloise said she had heard Kurtis was a bit rough around the edges and wanted him to tell her all his stories. He asked whether she wanted the one about the three trolls or the daemons, and then proceeded to tell her all about our adventures, leaving out all the bad bits, which was most of it. I got the impression Kurtis, and the rest of us, were being gossiped about among Eloise’s friends.

She interrupted Kurtis to tell Sine, her servant, to bring in the food, and she called her an idiot. Sine brought in a silver platter for each of us with a lamb’s head on, and the top of the skull had been removed allowing us to eat the brain. I had a bit of lamb’s brain, and it was alright.

Kurtis told Eloise that he wanted to prove he wasn’t rough around the edges, but the way he said it and the way he speaks generally isn’t going to fool anyone. I grew up in the slums of Ubersreik, and it didn’t fool me. And all the time, I got the impression that Eloise was laughing at him, and all of us.

Eloise told us she now uses her ‘Haendler’ maiden name, but her husband, Markward Dehnert, had recently deceased. He was a lot older than her. His body had gone missing from the garden of Morr, and she wished us to retrieve it for her. He was the love of her life and deserved respect, she insisted. We asked how he had died, but she didn’t seem to know. She didn’t seem to care, really. But she didn’t want her friends to gossip about it.

Noticing Otto was wearing one of Kurtis’ ill-fitting shirts, Eloise offered to let him have one of her late husband’s and Sine fetched an extravagant patterned one for him.

Then we heard a strange noise coming from the basement and Erhardt asked if he could go and talk to Sine, which Eloise was fine about. Erhardt found Sine in the kitchen looking a bit frightened and asked her about the noises. She said that it had been happening since Markward died. It didn’t happen all the time, but mostly for about eight hours from lunch time. Erhardt asked what Markward had been like, and Sine said he had been nice and worked hard, while his wife was extravagant and had lots of nice things.

By the time Erhardt got back to the dining room, Kurtis had his shirt off, showing off his tattoo, whatever it says, and recounting the time he killed all the trolls at the Battle of Pfeildorf. Kurtis was loving it, and so was Eloise, but not for the same reasons, I suspected. She had him entertaining her like a performing animal but not even Schnitzel looked that dumb when doing tricks.

Erhardt said he had heard Eloise had a great collection of artefacts, and she was only too pleased to show it off, so we all made our way down into the basement. There was an array of strange objects, an unusual suit of armour, stuffed creatures, and skulls, but our attention was immediately drawn to the large sword in a display case that we were familiar with. It was the Kemri blade that had been a wedding present for Karl-Heinz Liebwitz and Natassia von Saponatheim, the one that had so frightened Graf Wilhelm von Saponatheim. The last we knew of it, according to Gulgad, was that it was in the possession of Glimbrin the gnome.

The sword was surrounded by shifting wisps of smoke that seemed to form a face and then dissipate, while making a strange moaning sound. Erhardt asked Eloise whether she realised the sword contained a spirit. She said that she did, but it was perfectly safe as it had been blessed by witch hunters and priests.

We asked where she had got the sword, and she said it was from Uhlmann’s Antiques and Artefacts, but she wondered why this was relevant to our job as she had acquired it after her husband had died. Otto suggested she send it back to Kemri, but she told him to think before he spoke.

Now, I’m not saying that’s not a bad suggestion. Otto certainly should think a bit more before he speaks, or even think a bit more and not bother speaking, but Eloise had been annoying me since the moment we set foot in her weirdy house for the way she only regarded Kurtis as a figure of fun for daring to hob nob with nobs. She may have a point on both counts but that doesn’t mean she should be so smug about it, so I suggested that Shallya might say Otto was not the only one who should think before they speak. Eloise asked if I meant her, and I told her I couldn’t possibly, as Shallya didn’t have time for drinking and gossiping with her friends so wouldn’t be able to comment on such a lifestyle. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who annoyed me so much as Eloise Dehnert.

On our way out, Erhardt went to fine Sine to put her mind at rest. He told her he didn’t think Eloise was a witch and that she had nothing to fear from the moaning sounds coming from the basement, and she should just let the sword scream a bit, and he paid her a shilling for her help.

Eloise wished us goodbye and told her she would send us all invitations to dinner. I think she probably meant everyone except me. And once we left Kurtis told me off for jeopardising the job. I tried to explain, diplomatically, that Eloise was laughing at him, but he didn’t get it. I said that she expected the lower classes to behave like morons and so he and Otto were just fulfilling her expectations. Otto thanked me for the compliment.

Otto and Kurtis headed to Uhlmann’s Antiques and Artefacts to see what they could find out about the sword. They spoke to Theobald Uhlmann the proprietor and Radegundis his assistant. They were reluctant to give any information claiming customer confidentiality, but they seemed quick enough to offer the information for sale. They showed Kurtis and Otto their ledger showing Eloise Dehnert had bought the sword four days before, but the seller had paid to have their name removed, although they could see where it was rubbed out, that it might begin with G. They immediately thought of Glimbrin. They also bought a book on Kemri weapons.

I went to the garden of Morr with Konrad and Erhardt. The priests there, Diethard and Wilfred, seemed happy enough to tell us about Markward’s body and were much easier to get along with than most Morrites I had met. The first thing they mentioned was that the body had been left in the mortuary for a few hours, and it had been mutilated with a number of wounds, and a finger had been cut off and placed on a thin ceramic dish. The priests had managed to make the body presentable again and then buried it, with the dish.

This obviously piqued Konrad’s interest because he began questioning the priests at length and we went to inspect the grave. At some point, we realised Erhardt was missing and assumed he had sloped off in his unnoticeable way to have a look round the chapel.

The gardener showed us the grave and said they had noticed his grave had sunk and dug him back up again to see if he was still there, but he had disappeared. He hadn’t been there, the other gardener had dug him up. These missing bodies had been happening a lot and he pointed out a number of sunken graves dotted around the garden. The gardener said the rumour is that there are a number of tunnels under the garden like a rabbit warren. Konrad got down into the grave and discovered the casket had been clawed at from the outside, and he found the fragments of the ceramic saucer the priests had mentioned. He got out a sketch book and started drawing it and replicating the inscription. Konrad definitely seemed to be in his element, so I left him to it. He found a narrow hole leading away from the grave and digging around it and following it discovered it led to a wider tunnel and there were scrape marks on the wall of that tunnel, too.

Erhardt turned up but hadn’t discovered much of interest. We decided that the Morrites wouldn’t like us digging their garden up anymore, but we thought about coming back that evening to see what we could find. We knew that the gardener who dug the grave originally would be there in the evening, too, so we could talk to him, then. And we needed Otto’s help as he was expert in crawling around tunnels, although we decided not to tell him about the rumours of flesh-eating ghouls and pretend it was a rat infestation problem.

So we went back to Kurtis’ to get ready for the evening. I think this sort of thing would have left me apprehensive a few months ago, and it would have probably taken all of us some convincing to get us to dig up a graveyard in the middle of the night on the trail of the mysterious dead, but these days it seemed like exactly the sort of thing we did.