Escape from the Past Read Online Free PDF

“He’s the Lord. You don’t
talk
to the Lord,” he jeered. “You do his bidding.” He stopped in mid-air. “What is a cool dude?”
    I tried a grin. “Something like a nice man.” Bero didn’t seem to think it was funny and resumed wielding the stick. “What about your sister?” I continued. “Maybe she can put in a good word for you with her lady.”
    Bero kicked the straw that covered the floor of the hut. “Lady Miranda is vile. Juliana would fancy serving someone else. She really wants to come home, but
Mutter
doesn’t allow it.”
    “What’s wrong with your mother?”
    “Nothing,” Bero barked, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. “
Heiliger Wendelin.
You don’t understand how it is.”
    Holy who,
I thought. “Right,” I said instead, suddenly angry. I’d been thrown in the middle of a downtrodden miserable life…game with no idea how to get myself out of the mess. And here I was giving advice. What I needed was time alone—away from annoying Bero. “I need air,” I mumbled and headed for the door.
    Deep in thought, I wandered down the path. A dozen customers sat in the courtyard of the
Klausenhof.
The heavenly aroma of roasted meat wafted across. Man, I was hungry. And I didn’t have a dime. Wait a minute. I remembered my wallet. It was still in my back pocket and contained twenty Euros my mother had given me for the weekend. I shook my head. They wanted Heller and not Euros.
    I stuck my hands in my pockets, making contact with my watch. The wristband had broken, but someone may give me a few coins. What if they arrested me instead? I glanced at myself. I was looking more and more like Bero, my T-shirt gray and myformerly white Nikes covered in dust. Still I had to look weird and totally out of place. I swallowed the saliva and kept walking.
    The road narrowed and climbed. Above me the castle loomed. I’d take a closer look. Distract myself. Maybe I’d missed some sign of how to end the game. The path got steeper and I began to pant. On the south side, right below the castle, more huts squatted against the mountain. That had to be Rimbach. Except for the church, the houses looked like shacks a strong wind would flatten. I ignored the few villagers working in their gardens and headed uphill.
    The path grew steeper and I noticed one of the two towers. They looked impossibly high as if they could pierce the clouds above. I shivered. There was supposed to be a restaurant and parking lot to my left and a gate along the path, inviting tourists to pay an entry fee to see the ruins. There was no such thing—just perfect castle walls and vertical cliffs.
    I kept walking, the trail now so sheer that I had to lean forward to keep my balance.
    “You, there, state your business.” The guard had appeared out of nowhere and rammed a spear into the ground, barely missing the tips of my shoes. The man squinted. He was clad in chainmail and a leather vest. His visor-less helmet didn’t fit well and compressed his cheeks upward, giving him the appearance of a chipmunk. Despite the threatening figure, I had to suppress a grin. But when I saw the man’s eyes, I lowered my gaze.
    “Sorry, sir, I was lost. I didn’t mean to…” I looked past the guy toward the humongous castle, the two towers and the keep. I’d never felt smaller in my life.
    The guard zeroed in on my shoes and whistled. Another sentry approached through a door in the wall.
    “This lad is
lost,
” the first guard said. “Unlikely tale. Take note of his outlandish robes, the boots. He speaks a foreign tongue. And what respectable man other than a ruffian has hair like that?”
    “Ugly.” The second guard drew his sword. “He looks suspicious, an escaped prisoner perhaps. We shall seize him for questioning. The Lord will know what to do.”
    I watched in horror as the tip of the blade made contact with my chest.

Chapter 5
    I tried leaning away from the sword, but the thug held me by the arm. I felt the metal through the thin