Max's Fateful Journey

“Is this the way to Castle Mauer?” I ask.

The old man raises his head, his face illuminated by the candle in his hand. Shadows dance on his hollow cheeks. His eyes look like two deep black holes. He stares at me for a long time, then reaches for something behind him. The wooden chair creaks under his weight as he sits down heavily. He grunts with the effort, and when he’s done a small cloud of dust rises up from it.

I stare at him, waiting for an answer. He looks back at me with a curious expression, like a child studying an insect, and then opens his mouth. A loud rattle comes out, followed by a stream of saliva that lands on his lap.

I jump up onto my feet and instantly regret it as pain shoots through my right leg, forcing me back down again to sit cross-legged on the floor. I try to hide my grimace but I don’t think I did a very good job. I wish that damn wound would heal faster.

The old man just chuckles and points at my leg with one shaky finger. It takes me a moment to realize he wants me to take off my bandage so he can have a look at it. I flex my fingers, trying to forget about the pain and start unwrapping the filthy cloth that covers half my thigh before deciding not to bother with it anymore. The wound is too deep for anything else but getting rid of the rot inside is nearly impossible without modern antibiotics or proper surgical tools. The old man should know better than wanting to see it; most people say they don’t want to be bothered with it either when they see the sight of my bloodied flesh up close.

He leans forward and inspects the dark purple crater that was once a deep gash in my leg, ogling it like a piece of meat hanging in front of him in a butcher shop window. Then he turns towards me and asks if it still hurts. I shake my head; it doesn’t hurt as much as it used to but that doesn’t mean I can ignore it either way. It feels like someone is rubbing sand inside there constantly; if I look carefully enough, I can see some grains moving around under the skin still seeping blood from the open edges of the wound. And then there are the other wounds – on my arm mostly – where small fragments of shrapnel broke through the skin during our last battle when we were ambushed by mercenaries hired by King Eric III himself (a stupid move on their part because when you hire mercenaries you have no control over them). They didn’t do much damage except for these few minor wounds which scabbed over pretty fast but occasionally sting whenever I use magic. The real problem is that using magic weakens me more every time I do it so even though those wounds aren’t very big they slow me down quite a bit – especially when fighting against someone who wants to kill me, like Eric’s men did last time they attacked me while I was trying to sneak into Castle Mauer alone during one of our nightly patrols because nobody knows how many scouts they have stationed across all villages around here or how alert they are (except maybe our leader Vierter who always manages to get information somehow). That said, we already managed to get into Castle Mauer once and since then we haven’t been able to enter again because they always find us before we can break in again; nobody understands why King Eric hates us so much although everybody agrees that he does hate us because otherwise he wouldn’t send all these soldiers after us and risk losing them all before their training is complete (and two months ago we heard from some of those mercenaries that most of them wanted to quit but couldn't because their families were being held hostage somewhere unknown). But our leader Vierter says we have no proof so we might be wrong about that; anyhow, whatever Eric's reason might be I know only too well why King Eric wants to get rid of us: because he believes Magdalena is dead (which she is) and has nothing left anymore (which she does) except her son Max and her fortress which he wants for himself (which is true). So he sent out several groups like ours – led by Vierter – across Germany to find Max and put an end to Magdalena's legacy once and for all (which hasn't happened yet). And now King Eric has managed to corner us into this tiny village near Castle Mauer from where we barely manage to escape every night without getting caught – which means neither Vierter nor anyone else can sneak into Castle Mauer anymore – which means Magdalena's legacy will die with us if nothing changes soon!

The old man suddenly interrupts my thoughts by taking hold of my leg again and starting to wrap it up in fresh linen bandages while telling me that everything will be alright now because he lives here in this village called Stolzenberg in Lower Saxony near Castle Mauer and knows all kinds of interesting things about its surroundings including maps – but nobody knows exactly where Magdalena's son Max lives (except maybe King Eric) because Magdalena died before she could tell anyone where she placed her son after fleeing from her husband's castle (more than thirty years ago)!