The Brotherhood - Part 1 and 2 E-Book

F. A. Brodbeck

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 301

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The Königsberg monastery suffers under the repressive measures of the ruling king. After a series of monastery fires, the abbot realizes that only recourse to an ancient right can preserve the monastery. In order to demand this in the imperial city, the monastery student Laurin and his dreamy, ingenious teacher Pipin, who is always good for a surprise, are sent on a secret mission.

Leseprobe

F. A. Brodbeck

THE BROTHERHOOD

Part 1

Chapter 1

The evening desert winds slowly set in. The city of Königsberg was bathed in a yellowish, dusty light, most of the inhabitants had retreated to their homes as usual.

Only a few traders could still be seen tidying up their stalls and stowing their goods. A few guardsmen were still standing guard in sheltered places, but the city was empty.

The roar of the wind had increased, you could hear the grains of sand pattering against the walls and visibility was getting worse and worse.

You could barely make him out as he struggled up the monastery hill, leading his horse by the reins. He wore a gray-blue cloak, like those often worn by traveling scholars, and his face was covered with a jallah. The horse was only loaded with light luggage and always balked when a particularly strong gust of wind blew over the monastery hill.

The guards, who were guarding the monastery on the king's orders, only saw him when he had almost reached the monastery entrance. The officer on guard shouted: "Stop, stop!" - but the cloaked figure only seemed to be spurred on even more by this and hurried towards the monastery gate.

They shouted "Stop!" once more, then the officer gave the order to shoot. The figure fell to the ground, hit in the back by several shots, but managed to throw a message cylinder over the monastery gate with the last strength before lying motionless on the ground.

The officer cursed and ran closer with a few guardsmen. They took the last few steps carefully and the officer tentatively nudged the motionless figure with his foot. Only when there was no reaction did he push harder. But the bullet holes in the back and the blood-stained robe left no other conclusion than that a dead man must be lying on the ground.

They turned him around and pulled down his jallah.

The shock ran through their limbs. The guardsmen turned around and quickly kissed their amulets. "By the gods, a brother. We've killed a brother!"

***

When Laurin crossed the monastery garden the next morning, he had no idea what had happened the previous night. He was on his way to his morning lesson with Brother Pipin.

Brother Pipin was not actually a real brother, as he had not yet passed the brotherhood examination despite three attempts. But as he had been in the monastery for decades, he was automatically called a "brother".

He was always very absent-minded and busy with highly important experiments.

Brother Bonifaz had once told Laurin that he had also failed his exams because of his absent-mindedness. He had been asked who the first abbot of Königsberg Monastery had been - a question that every child could answer: Salpinaster, of course - and what he knew about him.

He replied: "The monastery was built 2250 years ago by Sal..." Then he got that familiar absent-minded look, threw up his hands, exclaimed "... yes ... of course!" and hurried back to his experiment.

The abbot and the examination committee of fellow brothers looked at each other helplessly, then the abbot just sighed deeply and stopped the examination again.

Pipin was a difficult teacher, as he often digressed from the subject, but Laurin liked him best of all his teachers. Perhaps it was also because Pipin was the only person who had ever seen Laurin's mother when she dropped him off at the monastery gate, wrapped only in diapers and a blue cloth.

He entered the old monastery wing, where Pipin had been assigned a workroom, wisely far away from other rooms in use. Even from a distance, Laurin could hear Pipin hammering and knocking on something.

"There, that should do it," Pipin said just as Laurin entered the room.

Pipin looked at him briefly with an absent gaze and said without greeting, "Here, hold this."

Laurin said, "Good morning, Brother Pipin," as Pipin pressed a bowl of an indefinable grayish-blue substance into his hands.

Behind them, a reddish liquid bubbled in a test tube, from which Pipin hastily took a sample with a long pipette, mixed it with a yellowish powder from an old tin can on a dish and then, with slightly shaking hands and a highly concentrated face, added a milky white liquid drop by drop from a cylindrical metal container. The liquid took on a raspberry red color, then a caustic smell began to spread. Pipin snatched the bowl from Laurin's hand, emptied the liquid over it in one go and then mixed it with a ladle made of ironwood.

"Ah ... so," he said with satisfaction. Then he turned over an hourglass on his work table, sat down on a wooden stool and carefully placed the bowl on the table in front of him.

The gray-blue color had now taken on an orange tint and began to glow.

Pipin pulled a sticky handkerchief from his robe and dabbed the beads of sweat from his forehead.

Laurin had often wondered how old Pipin might be. He estimated him to be between forty and fifty years old. As he wasn't yet a real brother, he didn't have a tonsure or a tattoo above his left eyebrow like the other monks. He had tousled, blond hair that hung down to his eyes, was of medium height, a bit corpulent and had a square face with friendly, sometimes somewhat confused gray eyes. At the moment, they were looking intently at the hourglass, which was only half full.

"Only half a minute left..." he mumbled to himself.

Laurin was still standing motionless next to the door. Long experience with Pipin had taught him to remain absolutely still, as Pipin was completely unpredictable in his behavior and movements, especially when he was busy with some kind of experiment.

The mixture in the bowl began to bubble and smoke and took on a bright green color.

Pipin jumped into the air. "It worked - it worked!!!" he shouted with joy.

Then his eyes took on a hurried expression. He let them wander around the room, for a moment Laurin was scrutinized like a piece of cattle, then his gaze continued to wander as if he was looking for a victim. After searching the whole room, he looked rather disappointed. He opened a drawer and took out a long knife. Then he pulled back the left sleeve of his robe and cut his forearm deeply with the knife.

Laurin stared in amazement and shock at Pipin, whose face had turned pale and distorted with pain. Pipin had gone mad.

"Aaaah!!! What did you do, brother Pipin!!!?"

The blood was now spurting rhythmically from Pipin's forearm and dripping onto the tabletop.

Pipin grew paler and paler and slowly sank off the stool. Laurin was a strong boy for his fourteen years and just managed to catch Pipin before he hit his head on the floor.

Pipin was slowly losing his senses. He just managed to stammer, "Quickly ... apply the paste ...".

Laurin found a spoon on the table and used it to scoop some of the green paste out of the bowl. By now Pipn’s whole forearm was covered in blood. Laurin took Pipin's crusty handkerchief, which was lying on the table, and wiped the wound a little clean, then spread the paste over the wound with the spoon.

It started to steam and bubble, the wound glowed reddish, then the bleeding stopped. When the glow stopped, the wound looked like a cut would look after a few days. A scab had formed.

Brother Pipin was still lying unconscious on the floor. Laurin gently patted his cheeks and kept calling out "Brother Pipin!" until he finally blinked slowly and opened his eyes.

"So, did it work?" were his first words.

"I don't know - see for yourself."

Pipin sat up in a daze and looked at his forearm in disappointment.

"Could be better," he muttered. "Perhaps I should increase the concentration of the hare's bane a little more ... Give me some more of that paste, my boy."

Laurin gave him a spoonful of the paste. Pipin applied it over the wound again. It bubbled and steamed again, you could see a reddish glow, but the wound looked exactly the same afterwards. He shook his head, a little disappointed.

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful, except that Brother Ambrosius, the abbot of the monastery, popped in just before lunch.

He asked them to come to his office after lunch.

Laurin was surprised. What did the abbot want from them?

He had only seen the abbot's office once before. That had been a few years ago, when he had played a trick on Brother Anselm and had been caught. Brother Anselm was already the fattest monk in the monastery back then. There were hardly any creases in his habit and the fabric was quite worn in certain places.

It had been the night before the big Midsummer Night’s Festival, where there was always a huge feast, when Laurin secretly snuck into Brother Anselm's room and changed his belt for a slightly tighter one. When Brother Anselm tried to put on his belt the next day, he could only do so with his stomach tucked in. So, he spent the whole day walking past all the delicacies on the table with a bright red head, waving away every time someone offered him a taste.

The abbot noticed the strange behavior and soon found the culprit. Laurin was also summoned to the abbot's office at that time. He could only dimly remember it, but somehow it had been eerie.

The lunch bell called them to eat. He went with Pipin, who was still a little wobbly on his feet, to the monastery's large dining room. It was in a vaulted room adjoining the kitchen and the vegetable garden. The monastery had originally been built for a thousand brothers, but today there were only 53 brothers and eleven pupils living in the monastery. Most of the huge vaults were therefore empty.

The brothers had set themselves up in a corner of the vault near the passage to the kitchen with some long monastery tables and benches. There was a special table for the abbot and the brothers of the administration and then further tables for the garden and herb brothers, for the field, forest and meadow brothers, and so on. A little further away was the table for the monastery's pupils.

As Laurin approached the table, he could just hear Elvira saying in her spiteful way: "... he doesn't even know who his father or mother is." She was pushed by her friend Alice and said: "What's wrong...?" Then she saw Laurin, fell silent and suddenly concentrated on her food.

His friend Pankraz beckoned him over. "Over here, Laurin, I've reserved you another piece of roast ... What took you so long?"

Laurin began to tell his friends about his adventure with Pipin. When he got to where he was describing brother Pipin's blood-splattered forearm, Elvira suddenly turned very pale and could only say with one hand over her mouth "I think I feel sick..." and then she ran towards the toilet, which was near the exit next to the entrance to the kitchen.

Pankraz snorted with glee. Elvira was not very popular.

All the students had been living in the monastery for two years without direct contact with their parents, apart from the occasional letter. Two years ago, King Sigismund, the ruler of Salvatia, had ordered the monastery to be sealed off from the outside world for security reasons, as he put it. Of course, this was only a pretext. What he really wanted was for the brothers to lose contact with the population of the town and their fellow brothers in the other monasteries.

Just as he had closed the temples of the gods a few years ago by making all the priests work in the fields so that they could carry out their beneficial work, as he said, for the good of the community in Mother Nature. Now - without priests in the temples, the citizens could no longer go to pray and worked longer hours. He then levied a special new tax to maintain the temples. Of course, the revenue was never used for this, so the temples slowly fell into disrepair.

Officially, he would never have dared to speak out against the Brotherhood or the gods, as some of the other seven kings or the Truchsess, the governor of the imperial house, would not have been thrilled.

Half the town of Königsberg belonged to the monastery. The monastery walls surrounded the actual monastery property with its forests, fields and ponds. In addition, the entire Königsberg mountain was transferred to the brothers by Emperor Anastasius I for their exceptional support of the emperor and they were granted the perpetual right to sit on the Council of Kings - at least that's what Brother Pipin Laurin explained in one of his history lessons.

Laurin concentrated on his piece of roast again.

A gong sounded. The brothers stood up.

Laurin quickly stuffed a bite of roast meat into his mouth before rising to pray with the other pupils. Brother Ambrosius, the abbot, was very strict in these matters. He always told them: "When we pray, we stand before the face of the gods, so behave like it." So, they stood around their tables with reverently bowed heads and listened to the abbot's midday prayer. It was short but refreshing and some of those praying felt as if a little divine spark had been kindled in them.

Strengthened by the meal and prayer, the brothers and their students left the dining room while the kitchen brigade was already collecting the plates and bowls.

This was actually Laurin's favorite time. The two hours after lunch were free for all pupils. When the weather was nice, they went swimming together at the monastery lake or played in the monastery forest. Only today Laurin had to go to the abbot's office. Brother Pipin was already waiting for him at the exit and together they made their way to the oldest wing of the monastery, where the abbot's office took up the entire top floor.

The old part of the monastery was somehow scary. Whenever Laurin had to go there, he felt like he was being watched. It seemed to him as if the statues on the pillars were following him with their gazes, indeed, he could have sworn that they even moved slightly, which was of course completely ridiculous. Or was it?

That's why he was glad that he had Brother Pipin by his side. Although he was strangely taciturn today. Normally, he would babble on about some moth he had seen in the vegetable garden or rave about his favorite flower, the extremely rare "Queen of the Night" - for hours on end. Only today he seemed a little downcast. Laurin looked at him out of the corner of his eyes.

There it was. He had actually seen one of the stone snakes move on the pedestal of St. Titocletian.

He stood rigid and open-mouthed until Pipin pushed him towards the entrance. "Don't stop in front of the statues," he muttered. "You should know by now that they were put up to defend the monastery."

"In defense?" asked Laurin, completely surprised. "Statues?"

Pipin smiled slightly. "Not just statues, you can take my word for it ..."

They came to the grand staircase that led to the abbot's floor.

Everything was laid out very magnificently, but you could see that the monastery had lost its influence in recent decades. It looked a little yellowed. Only now Laurin noticed that there were statues everywhere. There must have been hundreds throughout the building.

"Now come on, we can't keep Brother Abbot waiting." Pipin pushed him lightly up the stairs again.

Brother Meinardus, the abbot's secretary, was sitting in the antechamber as usual and was probably engrossed in important documents, at least he only looked up when Pipin cleared his throat.

"Ah, Brother Pipin and Laurin." He smiled kindly at them. "You're already expected. Just go on in." He nodded his head towards the large, dark, magnificently decorated ironwood door behind him.

Pipin gently pushed Laurin towards the door and opened it.

It had been several years since Laurin had been in the abbot's room, and somehow he hadn't been able to remember the surroundings back then, he had been far too nervous.

One part of the huge room was almost in darkness, as the shutters there were closed. Nevertheless, you could see that everything was very sumptuously furnished. Old, gold-framed pictures hung on the wall and there were a few small hand drawings above the seating area, which was arranged around a small, elegant table.

A huge cupboard with lots of decorations and figures that moved ... That moved? Laurin looked at it a second time. He must have been mistaken. He could have sworn that the monk with the sword had just moved his head. He shook his head and noticed that Pipin had already moved closer to the abbot's old desk, which was in the other, brighter part of the room. He hastily followed him and stood next to him to greet the abbot.

The abbot stood up and took them in his arms one by one, which was highly unusual, at least Laurin had never seen that before.

Seen in the bright light, Laurin noticed how worried and pale Brother Ambrosius' face was. An abbot had a heavy burden to bear, the responsibility for the whole monastery, but Laurin had never seen him in such a bad state before.

"Please take a seat, my dears." He pointed to two comfortable chairs near the desk and sat down behind it. Pipin and Laurin sat down obediently and looked at Ambrosius expectantly.

"I don't even know where to start," he said, looking out of the window towards the herb garden and the lake beyond, looking somewhat distraught and absent-minded. Apparently he managed to gather himself, at any rate he continued: "I have some very bad news." He swallowed and wrung his hands. "Last night we received a message from an old friend who, I understand, has since been shot by the king's guards, who tried to prevent him from entering the monastery.

He managed to throw a message cylinder over the monastery walls with the last of his strength. In any case, the cylinder was found this morning by the gardener Brother Plantanius and brought to me."

Pipin and Laurin looked at each other in shock. In the meantime, the abbot had poured himself a glass of an indefinable liquid with shaky hands and was sipping it carefully. The drink seemed to calm him down a little and some color returned to his face.

"Ooch, Brother Konrad, I will miss you very much, my good old friend. We've been through so much together, you and I, and now you've returned to the eternal cycle." A tear ran down his cheek, he wiped it away almost carelessly and organized the documents in front of him.

"Sorry for my emotional outburst." Pipin and Laurin nodded, saddened. "But it's as if a part of me died yesterday. We were blood brothers, you must know, Konrad and I." He just sat there for a moment and seemed to be listening to an inner voice. Then he said: "We owe him a lot. He sacrificed his life to bring us a warning." He sipped his glass again.

"In addition to the censored letters authorized by the king, we received news from the outside world about once a month. We managed to maintain contact with the other monasteries through various channels. But this message was the worst I ever received." He took a big gulp. "Apparently, the Brotherhood's main monastery in Lavinia has been destroyed completely. Burned to the ground by the king's guardsmen. None of the monks, not even our Archabbot Felizius, survived the fire." He shook his head.

"The guardsmen claimed that they were trying to put out the fire, but in reality they ensured that it continued to eat its way into the monastery. The large monastery was one of the oldest monasteries ... and was largely made of wood. Nevertheless, something like this should never have happened. There were certain protective devices that only an initiate could have switched off. We must assume that a traitor informed the guardsmen how they could gain access to the monastery."

He looked out of the window again.

Pipin and Laurin sat tensely in their chairs.

"But it gets worse. We have it on good authority, that three other monasteries in the same region have also been destroyed by fire. I don't know anything about their inhabitants, but I think we have to assume the worst. This means that only eight of our twelve monasteries in this country are left, and we don't know whether other monasteries have been destroyed in the meantime.

As abbot of the largest remaining monastery, I am now the new archabbot of the brotherhood, an office I would have gladly relinquished, believe me. I am responsible for all the remaining monasteries."

He stood up with a groan and staggered over to the huge cupboard. He seemed to be constantly muttering something to himself and stroking the carved figures with his hands. Then he opened the cupboard door and Laurin could no longer see what he was doing. All he could hear was him muttering to himself and finally closing the cupboard door again and returning with a large old document folder. He placed it carefully on his desk and sat down. He undid the clasps and opened the folder. Almost reverently, he leafed through the documents until he found what he was looking for.

"Here it is, our only chance." Laurin took a closer look at the document. The seven smaller seals and the large seal, which were attached to the bottom of the document with colored ribbons, were striking. "You must know that this is a fairly unknown document, only a few people still know about it today. Many know that we have the eternal right to attend meetings of the King's Council, but only a few know that we also have the eternal right, like the Emperor or a majority of Kings, to call a meeting of the King's Council." He paused and looked at the document again in awe. "The document of Emperor Anastasius I, look at it, it looks like it was written yesterday, yet it is 2250 years old. A spell has been cast on it to protect it from decay." Laurin was fascinated.

"You'll be wondering what all this has to do with you." He held up his hands. "I'll get to that in a moment." He took another larger sip from his glass, then looked at them.

"I would like to ask you on behalf of the whole brotherhood ..." Laurin and Pipin looked at each other a little embarrassed, normally the abbot was ordering, not asking ... The abbot saw them exchange glances "... yes, ask, because I cannot ask you to put your lives at risk without your consent."

Laurin heard Pipin swallow nervously.

"My request to you, or your mission, would be to take this document secretly to the old imperial city of Palmina and hand it over to the Truchsess together with this letter" - he pointed to a thick envelope bearing the seal of the monastery on the desk - "and call a special meeting of the royal council." He looked at them questioningly.

"Of course, Brother Abbot," Laurin said immediately and enthusiastically. Pipin's voice was less joyful and somewhat weak.

"But why us?" asked Laurin.

"There are various reasons for this, but two are quite obvious. Pipin is the only adult in the monastery who is not a real brother and therefore has no Kabila, the half-moon tattoo of the brotherhood, over his left eye and also no tonsure. And you, my dear Laurin, are the only one who has no family outside the monastery who would miss him, if he went on a longer journey. The families of the other students would notice, if they stopped answering their letters. So, you would be the least conspicuous."

Laurin leaned back in his chair, somewhat disappointed. He had hoped that the abbot might ascribe a special ability to him, but still. Leaving the monastery for the first time sounded very, very exciting.

"But how will we get out of the monastery?" he asked anxiously.

"Well, I have some ideas. But I don't want to keep you from your lunch break any longer, Laurin, we'll talk about it again later. We'll need a few days to organize everything. But promise me one more thing, don't tell anyone about the reason for your trip. You can tell your friends... ehmm, what would be a good explanation... well, that you're going to accompany Pipin on a pilgrimage to the Mountain of the Gods." Laurin nodded and Pipin blushed.

They stood up, made the sign of the eternal circle as usual and wanted to leave the room.

"Not you, Pipin, I still have something to discuss with you."

Laurin saw a disappointed Pipin sit down again and left the room.

Brother Meinardus was still bent over various documents and only jerked up when the door slammed shut.

"Oh my goodness, I completely forgot, Brother Abbot wanted to sign another order for Brother Tailor."

He took a sheet of paper and opened the door.

Laurin heard the abbot just say to Pipin "... and under no circumstances do I want you Laurin ...", then the door was closed again and a moment later Meinardus came back beaming with the signed sheet, pressed it into his hand and explained to him that he should go to the tailor after the lunch break.

Laurin thanked him mechanically, wondering what it was that Pipin should not under any circumstances ... hmm, perhaps tell him or perhaps do to him or give to him? Laurin was so deep in thought that he only realized that he had already left the old monastery building when he heard a loud whistle.

It was Pankraz, who was waiting for him a short distance away in the shade of a tree and was now waving to him. Laurin forgot everything else, ran over to his friend and excitedly told him that he was going on a journey with Pipin. That he was leaving the monastery for the first time.

"What's the world like out there, Pankraz? You used to live outside with your family. What's so different there?"

Pankraz puffed up his chest. "Well ... there are lots and lots of people, huge buildings and ... well, it's not that much different, it's just much wider and you can go wherever you want. There are no walls." Laurin was hanging on to his lips, everything was so exciting for him. For the first time in his life, everything would be new.

***

The next few days flew by. At the monastery, the brothers began to prepare for the Midsummer Night's Festival, which was celebrated every three years, with almost frantic activity on the abbot's orders.

The abbot had written to King Sigismund asking him to relax the "security barriers" around the monastery so that visitors from Königsberg could attend as usual. The highlights of the celebrations were the elaborate firework displays, for which the brothers were known far and wide.

He was still waiting for an answer.

Chapter 2

"Your Majesty, please excuse the interruption." The old chamberlain Gregor threw himself on his arthritic knees in front of King Sigismund. Oow, how that hurt, but he had to pretend it did’nt, otherwise the king would dismiss him immediately. So he gritted his teeth, took a deep breath and remained in his usual bowed position until the king deigned to take notice of him.

That would probably not happen so quickly today, because the ambassador from Cessinia, Countess Lollaluna von Hohenfels, had appeared to the audience with the king and handed him a letter from King Miroslav IV of Cessinia.

And Gregor had to admit that she was an extremely attractive woman.

Apparently, the king enjoyed her presence. She was dressed in a fluffy, in Gregor's opinion a little too airy, lemon-yellow summer dress with small buttons all down the front, suspiciously many of which were open.

In any case, her swelling breasts were shown to their best advantage, especially when she leaned forward, as she often did, and smiled charmingly at the king.

She just said in her somewhat exotic accent, "Oh, but please Your Majesty, I don't want to keep you from your business ..." and playfully tugged at one of the open buttons.

"How, what ... oh ..." Only now had the king noticed him and hissed at him: "What do you want again, Gregor? You can see that I'm busy!"

"I humbly beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but this letter has just been delivered by the Ra... I mean by Staff Officer Kümmerling. It is urgent ..." With a bowed head, he held out the small silver plate with the letter to the king, who accepted the letter with an apologetic glance at the ambassador.

Staff officer Kümmerling, or "the rat" as everyone called him, was the head of the secret service. His nickname was no accident. He had a few shaggy whiskers, googly eyes and a drooping chin, and he was also a greasy, unpleasant fellow.

Everyone hated him.

The king got up from his throne and took a few steps to open the sealed letter and read it.

"Excellent" was all he said. Then to Gregor: "Tell him to expect me in the blue salon in half an hour."

"As you command, Your Majesty." Gregor pulled himself up gratefully and groaned and moved away.

"Problems?" asked the ambassador sweetly.

"Oh no, on the contrary," the king smiled pensively for a moment. "But please, Countess, where were we ...?"

The ambassador smiled seductively at him, gave herself a jerk and drank a tiny sip of the disastrous wine that the king called his favorite.

"Hmmm, a special drop."

"Does it taste as good to you, Countess?"

"Really excellent, I just wish I could drink more of this delicious wine, but I have to watch my waistline, you understand." She slowly stroked her hands down from her breasts to her slim waist. The king followed her with his gaze, fascinated.

"But Countess, your waistline is ... hmmm, excellent," said the King, after his eyes had wandered up to her breasts again.

The countess was satisfied with her tactics. She had thought long and hard about what to wear and how to move in it. She had spent a few hours in the embassy in front of the mirror, practising the most effective gestures before appearing for the king's audience. Then she had sprayed herself with the most beguiling perfume she knew.

She absolutely had to conclude the contract for the water rights with Salvatia or she would never see her husband and two children again. King Miroslav had told her in no uncertain terms in one of his letters that she was cordially invited to the coronation jubilee in six weeks' time. He would like her husband and her lovely sons to be there too, but that depended entirely on the signing of the treaty in Salvatia.

As she knew Miroslav, that meant ... deliver or I'll have them killed. Miroslav was an even bigger monster than Sigismund, but at least Sigismund could be charmed by women. In any case, her plan seemed to be working quite well so far.

"As far as signing the contract is concerned, Your Majesty, I don't want to rush you, of course. We still have a few weeks before I have to pay my respects to King Miroslav, but I wish I had a little more time to get to know your beautiful country AND its people a little better." She leaned forward invitingly.

"But of course, my dear Countess, this contract is only a minor matter, I'll sign it right away..."

"Siiiggiiilein!!!" A resolute older lady with gray-blue hair entered the audience hall.

"Ooh, sorry, I didn't know you had a visitor, my boy." She eyed the countess suspiciously from top to bottom, especially the top few buttons, and didn't sound as if she was apologizing at all.

"Mom, please, I'm in a meeting with the ambassador from Cessinia." The king looked at her like a little boy who had been caught sinning.

"From Cessinia, aha, how do you do, Your Excellency?" She shot the countess a venomous look. "And what gives us the honor of your visit?"

"Mom, please, this is my business."

His mother stood still and waited until the king said: "The water rights."

"Very interesting and very important."

The countess bit her teeth and closed some buttons of her fluffy blouse. The tables had just turned. The Queen Mother was an old dragon and was not so easily duped. Or was there perhaps still a possibility?

***

A little later, King Sigismund ended the audience. His mother had spoiled all the fun for him. He adjourned the treaty negotiations, whereupon the ambassador took her leave, rather taciturn and disappointed. He then dutifully asked his mother why she had actually been looking for him.

"Oh, I just wanted to ask you for your advice, Sigi. Should I rather have the gentian tulips or the moss ranunculus planted next to the pond in the park?"

The king was seething inside, but he hardly let it show. He knew that his mother had certainly not come to him to ask his advice concerning the flowers. "I really don't know enough about that, mother, you're the expert."

"Well, maybe the gentian tulips after all." She rushed off again and the king walked to a secret door through which he entered the blue drawing room.

The ‘rat’ was already waiting for him and jumped up when he entered, throwing himself on his knees in front of him.

"Your Majesty."

"Get up, Kümmerling. An interesting letter from the abbot. I never thought the monastery would ever be so accommodating. They shall have fireworks - like the others before them ... Hahaha." He laughed maliciously, rubbing his hands triumphantly.

***

In the meantime, preparations for the Midsummer Night's Festival were in full swing at the monastery. The monks were divided into working groups by the abbot. The alchemists were responsible for the famous fireworks, and a group of old monks were received by the abbot for secret meetings. Laurin only heard someone say that it was about defense measures.

Another group of monks had built a wall to separate the entrance area from the actual monastery. All kinds of delicacies were prepared for the feast in the monastery kitchen.

Laurin and Pipin were busy with their travel preparations. The day of the celebration was approaching and had finally arrived. Laurin didn't know how he should feel. On the one hand, he was really looking forward to the adventure that awaited him, finally getting out of the monastery. On the other hand, he was sad to leave all his friends, especially Pankraz, and his familiar surroundings behind. But the latter comforted him. He should just come back quickly, he could hardly wait to hear how he had enjoyed his pilgrimage to the Mountain of the Gods.

Shortly before the Midsummer Night's Feast, the abbot had asked them to join him once more and handed them final instructions, letters and money, which Pipin hid in a secret compartment of his leather bag.

But Laurin just sat there, oblivious to what the abbot expected of them. His thoughts were with his friends and he missed them even before he had set off on his journey.

He was only startled when he heard Brother Ambrosius say: "... and as for Laurin, you know your task, Pipin."

Pipin nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, enough for now. It's time to wish you a safe journey. I will miss you both, but I am sure you are the only ones who can still help our monasteries at this time."

Pipin blushed slightly and Laurin swallowed, moved.

Ambrosius gave them his personal blessing and wished them a long life and good luck on their mission in the sign of the eternal circle.

That was it - the time had come to say goodbye. Laurin and Pipin hugged everyone in the monastery and then waited for the moment when the big old monastery gates were opened.

It was early evening when the abbot finally gave the order.

A huge crowd had gathered outside the monastery walls, eagerly waiting to see what the brothers had prepared for them for this festival.

When the large gates were opened, the crowd murmured and most people said "Aaaaaah" when they saw the delicacies set up on huge monastery tables, or the monks dressed up as jugglers, entertainers and magicians.