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next night was Reini's turn. That also allowed me to ask each of them the same
questions, to see if they gave the same answers."
She smirked. "Neither of them is the man you are, Kurt, in any respect. But
when someone has a deep thirst and there is no beer, water will do. They told
me why the cellar is forbidden us: Dynamite is stored in two of the rooms. In
this wing! Enough to level the building and leave a hole in its place. They
said it was brought here for the Voitar a year ago, but neither of them knows
why."
She fingered his nipple, then they kissed, and she began to fondle him. "Do
not be jealous, dear Kurt. Next to you they are boys. You are the man. And I
do not plan to come here again with them." They were sitting on the sofa, and
now she pushed him down, straddling him. "I learned something else, too. The
Voitar have women from time to time." She leaned over him, her hard-rippled
breasts brushing his chest, and kissed him again.
"Women?" he said. "The Voitar?"
"That is more interesting than dynamite, is it not? There were three Jewesses
last summer, or six if you believe Robert. They were brought here from a labor
camp. Then, supposedly, the Voitar had them taken to the top ofder Hexenkamm,
where they were raped and sacrificed to the Devil at the full moon."
She slid down onto Macurdy's thighs and began kissing his chest, then paused.
"Two months later, or maybe only one, it was two German girls-Robert said two
nuns-and a gypsy. And last Sunday night, they both told me, it was a German
woman, tall and blond, a real aristocrat according to Reini, the sort of woman
that might marry a general or aReichsminister " She grinned. "Maybeder
Kronprinz is screwing her this minute, having his fun before the moon is full.
Although cooped in this rock pile, I don't know what phase the moon is in."
She chuckled, her voice husky. "Have you seen the Voitar's ears? They remind
me of goats, and you know what goats can do in their season." She slid down
further, and purred: "But I prefer a German man with meat on his bones. And
between his legs!"
When they'd finished, they cleaned up and went back to their rooms. Before
going to bed, Macurdy went to the window and parted the heavy curtains. The
clouds were broken, scattered. Through the gaps he saw stars but no moonlight.
He knew the story about the explosives was true, or mostly true. The
explosive wasn't dynamite, but that was a detail. The story about the women
might also be true, he supposed.
But sacrifices on the Witches' Ridge? How would the guardsmen know that?
He decided it was time to snoop the south wing. Tomorrow night.
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Then, on an impulse and despite the risk, he slipped into the corridor again,
to the rec room, and looked at the calendar. It was pastmidnight, a new day so
to speak, and below its date was the symbol not of the full moon, but of its
exact opposite, the new moon.
Nonetheless it gave him chill bumps.
The next evening he slipped into the corridor and went to the sorcerers'
wing. On his own floor, the second. Third floor main was where classes were
held, and he assumed that third floor south was where the Voitar were
quartered. He'd never seen or heard of them being on any other floor. Nor was
he prepared to snoop their living space. He was more interested in the other
south-wing floors. If they lived on third, what use, if any, did they make of
the first and second?
As always, the ell was guarded. Beyond it no bulb burned. The only light
encroached from the main corridor.
Barefoot as usual in his nocturnal trips, Macurdy slipped past the sentry,
wondering if the Voitar had an alarm system. It seemed to him they did; he
could feel an energy. In the dimness three meters past the ell, he perceived a
faint rose field, like barely visible pink cellophane blocking the corridor.
He might well have missed it, had he not been looking for something like it.
Stopping, he examined it, and as he looked, it became more visible, emanating
from what seemed to be a gray line in the ceiling, as vague as the screen
itself.
How to get past? How might the sorcerers do it? On an impulse, he told it
mentally to move aside-and it retreated upward into the gray line! Tentatively
he walked through, then stopped and looked back. The screen was in place
again, faint as before. The sentry, who faced away, had noticed nothing.
Macurdy went on, pausing to listen at doors; there was no sound. Nor any [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]