been watching all sides of the castleâweâd have seen her,â Franco said.
âThen sheâs down there.â
One cottar, dressed in a ragged tunic not warm enough for the cold, handed his torch to a fellow flunky, who dropped his pike to hold two torches. The first cottar stuck his long pike into the moat, poking around, jabbing for the hag.
âWork your way right to circle the castle,â Franco called to them. âWeâll keep watch on the areas youâve covered.â
They wordlessly acquiesced and continued their dirty work.
âIf your men saw the hag fall into the moat, then they certainly saw what sent her there,â Otto said.
Franco, watching the cottars while addressing Otto, knew not to be flippant with the giant knight for fear that doing so would mean joining the hag at the moatâs bottom.
âThis devil-man with the chain, yesâhe turned tail and retreated for the forest. Weâve not seen him since.â
âDo you believe me? Do your men believe what they saw?â
âMy men witnessed something that was somehow bigger than you whip that witch into that mire. I canât say what exactly they saw because I wasnât present. I donât doubt that you saw a man covered with furs.â
âThen why the antlers, the horns?â Otto said.
âIâve got something!â one of the cottars yelled, sparing Franco from having to answer.
âWhat is it?â the burgmann said.
âA body, it must be!â answered Fritz, the cottar whose pike touched on something soft and lumpy. While his long weapon had a spear tip, it also featured a sharp hook curved toward the wielder. Fritz fidgeted the hook to snag clothing or a rib or a sturdy body part.
The young cottar gulped when the mass jiggled the prodding pike tip. The three remaining cottars joined Fritz. Two held torches while the third man used his pike to help Fritz hook and haul.
The hook caught hold of something.
âGot it,â Fritz said. Maybe I looped the hook under the armpit? he thought. He tightened his grip and stepped backward, straining to lift the mass to surface.
Fritz inhaled, his jaw trembling. Whatever heâd snagged squeezed the pikeâs shaft and jerked it into the moat. The other men saw him lurch forward.
âDonât be such a bed wetter!â Fritz heard the jibe from above. âItâs an old woman! Lift her, damn it!â
âMaybe itâs a snake,â Fritz said. The cottars noticed a quiver in his voice. âYes, a snake has slithered around the pole, upset that Iâm taking away its dinner.â
The torchlight illuminating where the pole breached the murk showed only slight ripples as Fritz tried easing up his catch. Then the pole spasmed.
âItâs alive!â
The archersâa few of the nervous ones, anywayâreleased arrows into the moat.
âHold your fire!â Franco said, and then to the second pike-wielding cottar, âHelp him!â
The second man dropped his weapon and grabbed part of Fritzâs pike. Now the two men played tugâofâwar with the unseen. But both felt the bending and crunching of wood, and then they fell backward, bringing with them a broken pike, the spear and hook snapped from the shaft.
She exploded from the moat and corkscrewed to send filth in every direction, to repulse whoever it hit. She eyed the cottars at her apex and threw the pikeâs blade into Fritzâs diaphragm. He collapsed, grotesquely gasping, while the other three cottars retreated across drawbridge for the castleâs protection. Perchta landed opposite the castle, next to Fritzâs writhing body. She glowered at the bewildered archers aiming at her. Brown sludge oozed its way down her faceâs wrinkles, filling them like water down dry river arteries.
âFire!â
Arrows flitted toward her throat and stomach, but she was too quick and bolted toward the
Phil Jackson, Hugh Delehanty