Birdie and the Hennesseys reached camp winded from the final trudge up the curved sidewalk that connected the trailhead to the fortress gate. Frau Hamel sat erect at her post in the ticket kiosk, sporting a purple Burg Rheinfels polo and black pants. She frowned as she watched them pass.
“Back to the dungeon,” Raina grumbled as they reached the open storeroom doors and descended the stone steps.
Friedrich and Louisa were already there, heads bent behind the stacks of costumes at the end of the long table. They were poring over the clipboard, and Birdie wondered if they expected more campers. She slid into the chair beside Louisa and saw that it wasn’t the attendance sheet tacked to the clipboard, but two roughly drawn maps of the fortress grounds.
“Friedrich drew these last night.” Louisa tapped the map at the top of the page. “This is Burg Rheinfels today, or what’s left of it, anyway, and this is our best guess of how it looked when Marielle was here.”
Rich rested his hands on the back of their chairs and peered over their shoulders. “Not bad.” He reached into the back pocket of his jeans, unfolded a piece of notebook paper, and spread it flat next to the maps that Friedrich had drawn. “Almost as good as mine.”
Louisa smiled up at him. “Close.”
Raina rolled her eyes and pulled out a chair at the far end of the table.
“I used a picture of the map in the museum as a starting point. It was drawn about two hundred years before Marielle’s time, so I imagined what would have changed in the intervening years. I wasn’t sure about the moat. It looks like it flowed right through this storeroom.”
“It’s hard to say,” Louisa said. “The storeroom was definitely part of the moat at some point, but then it was drained. Or it dried up.”
“It was dry yesterday – that’s how I knew roughly what time period we traveled back to.” Friedrich glanced from his map to Rich’s and back again. “We must assume it was the late 1400s or early 1500s.”
Birdie leaned in to get a better look at the drawings. “When the aventurine sent us back in Bruges, we thought we were in about 1500 too. The town was past its high point and trying to hold on.”
“So, why do we need a map?” Ryan plopped down across from Birdie just as Sam and Sophia trotted down the stairs.
Louisa glanced at Friedrich. “You might as well tell them what we were talking about.”
He pushed his chair away from the table and stood tall to address them. “If we decide to help Marielle find the missing chest, we will need to plan a route.”
“Wait a minute.” Birdie opened her hands on the table. “I thought you called it a wild goose chase last night.”
Raina perked up. “You guys hung out last night?”
“We all did.” Sam sat down next to Birdie. “We ran into Friedrich at the—”
Friedrich cleared his throat.
“Er, in town,” Sam finished.
Birdie ignored them. “Why the change of heart, Friedrich?”
Sam faced her. “Who cares why? Don’t you think it would be cool to find the chest?”
“Or we could stay here all day.” Ryan motioned to the storeroom. “That sounds fun. Not.”
Birdie shook her head. “It’s too dangerous to go to Marielle. We don’t belong there. The guards found us, remember?”
Sophia squeezed between Friedrich and Louisa and picked up Rich’s map. “I agree with Birdie about it being dangerous to go back. Maybe there’s a way to avoid that.”
“How?” Friedrich asked.
“Well, according to the legend, they never found the chest, right?”
“Correct.”
“That means it could still be here somewhere – hidden or buried in the present – at Burg Rheinfels or across the river.”
Raina snorted. “You honestly think you’ll find a wooden chest some villager hid like five hundred years ago? You’re crazy.”
“I’m not crazy. And you shouldn’t say that.” Sophia glared at Raina before continuing. “Anyway, it might be worth exploring across the river before we decide to put ourselves in danger again.”
“Okay, so let’s say we cross the river and find the chest,” Sam countered. “We’d have to take it back to Marielle, anyway.”
“We would,” Sophia agreed. “You’re right. But we wouldn’t have to wander all over the fortress to do it. We could get to the cave and give it to her there.”
Ryan rocked back in his chair. “Assuming she didn’t get tagged by those guards.”
Raina slapped the table. “You know this is all a trick, right?”
“I wish it were a trick.” Louisa sat up straighter in her chair. “We have to do something. I found news about Marielle. That’s why we’re here with these maps.”
“What kind of news?” Sophia asked.
“Bad news. They executed her.”
Sophia stepped back. “How? I saw nothing about that in my research.”
“I read it this morning. On a website about Rhine legends. The whole story was right there. The website was in German, so maybe it didn’t come up for you?” Louisa shuffled the papers in front of her. “Anyway, Marielle wasn’t mentioned at all in the original stories. They must have decided she was innocent and her name wasn’t significant enough to include in the legend.”
Sophia collapsed into the chair next to her brother. “What happened to her?”
“They convicted her of being a thief, even though the chest was never found, and of something far worse.”
“What could be worse than a thief?” Ryan asked. “A murderer?”
Understanding dawned on Rich’s face. “A witch. They thought she was a witch.”
“Exactly.” Louisa leaned forward. “The legend said Marielle summoned a ghost army in the cave and the guards had to vanquish it.”
“There were no ghosts in the cave,” Ryan scoffed. “We were there. We would have seen them.”
Rich turned to his brother. “They were talking about us. We must have looked like ghosts to them.”
Sophia met Louisa’s eyes. “What did they do to Marielle?”
“Burned her at the stake, along with Peter, who, until then, had been a village hero.”
Rich raked his hands through his hair. “We changed history. They weren’t supposed to die.”
Sophia sucked in a breath. “I read about the village heroes.”
“That means Peter really was one of the boys who saved Sankt Goar with the beehives.” Birdie turned to Louisa. “There’s a statue of him and the other boy – Nikolaus – in town.”
Louisa shook her head. “The statue is missing. I looked for it on my way here today. It’s gone.”
“Gone?” Birdie thought back to her walk across Sankt Goar that morning. She’d been so busy watching the villagers she hadn’t noticed the missing statue.
Movement on the stairs startled them all.
“Hey, campers.” Kayla crossed the storeroom. For the first time since Birdie met her, she was wearing sneakers with her shorts. “Let’s get this party started.”
“You’re late.” Friedrich pointed to his watch.
Kayla shrugged. “So sue me.”
“Anyway,” Louisa continued, “it’s more important than ever that we find the chest. Marielle and Peter were not the only ones who died. They killed their families, too, to make sure the evil line didn’t continue.”
“Whoa,” Ryan said. “That’s wicked.”
“Very,” Sophia agreed.
“It’s more than wicked.” Rich rounded the table and sat down next to Ryan. “If they both ceased to exist, and their families are gone, too, then there could be all kinds of things that change, including whole families that never existed. Friedrich and Louisa could have friends who descended from those people and when they go back to school, it will be like they never lived.”
“Because, without Marielle and Peter and their families, they never did,” Sophia said.
The room fell silent.
“Sophia’s right,” Rich finally said. “We should cross the river and see if we find anything. If we do, we can bring it back here and return it without being seen.”
Friedrich snatched the clipboard. “We must consider how to do this. We may not leave the fortress during camp hours. And we must be ready for the festival tonight. They expect us to train this afternoon for our positions.”
“Then we’ll have to work fast.” Sophia flattened her hands against the table. “And get past that lady at the ticket kiosk without raising her suspicions.”
“That’s true – Frau Hamel will be watching.” Louisa glanced at Friedrich.
Birdie shivered. “She’s always watching.”
“Yes, and she was watching us. She stopped me this morning to ask why we ran past from outside the gate yesterday,” Friedrich said.
“What did you tell her?” Rich asked.
“I said we hiked in the woods to see how big the fortress was.”
“Did she believe you?”
“I am not sure.”
“We could take a tunnel.” Louisa pointed to Rich’s map. “There’s still one under this pitch hole. We may have to crawl again, but we can get out of the fortress without being seen.”
Birdie swallowed.
“Where does it come out?” Sophia squinted at the map.
“Here, below the fortifications. We’ll be halfway down the mountain.”
“I noticed a door in the hillside on the trail from town this morning,” Rich said. “I figured it was a gardening shed.”
“No, that’s it.” Louisa tapped the map. “That’s where the tunnel exits the fortress.”
“So, let’s say that works and we get out of the fortress without Frau Hamel seeing us. We still need to cross the river,” Sam said.
“I considered that.” Louisa turned to Friedrich. “What do you say, head counselor?”
“If we get caught they will fire us both.”
“I’ll risk it.”
Friedrich gritted his teeth. “We will take the ferry. But if we get caught it is on your head.” He glared at Birdie. “And for the record, I do think going across the river is a wild goose chase.”
“Then why are we going?”
“Because it’s our only idea.” He wagged his index finger at her. “But leave that glass here. We cannot be on the other side of the river and go back to Marielle’s time. It would be a death sentence.”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t bring it.”
Kayla started. “What do you mean you didn’t bring it?”
“After what happened yesterday? You really want to take that risk again?”
“Never mind the aventurine.” Louisa scooped up the maps. “We can’t worry about it right now. We have a plan that doesn’t require it. We don’t have much time. Grab a flashlight. Is everyone in?”
Each of the campers nodded, except for Raina, who hugged her arms to her chest.
“Come on, Raina.” Rich met her gaze from the other end of the table. “It won’t be that bad.”
“And we’ll be outside instead of cooped up in this musty storeroom all morning,” Ryan added.
She released her arms and shoved away from the table. “Fine. I’m in.”
They reached the end of the sloped tunnel quickly, sliding several feet down a rocky incline to the door. Louisa hoisted the wooden beam that held it closed, then shoved it open on creaky hinges. They ducked through the doorway one by one, spilling out into the sunshine and fresh air far below the fortification wall. Friedrich wedged a broken hunk of ancient brick into the doorjamb to ensure it stayed open for their return.
They followed the path Birdie and the Hennesseys had taken less than an hour before, past the overgrown gardens, through the small gate to the hostel, across the train tracks, and down to the public parking lot. Her mom’s car was long gone, replaced by idling tour buses.
“You may be disappointed,” Louisa warned as the boatmen threw heavy ropes to lash the ferry to the dock. “The Loreley is a tourist trap. They built a visitor’s center on the bluff and put a small statue down by the water.”
Friedrich checked his watch. “We have exactly two hours. The ferry takes fifteen minutes each way. That leaves an hour and a half to search.”
Birdie followed Louisa aboard, catching her sea legs as she swayed down a narrow walkway that bordered the inside cabin. She jostled past a group from a tour bus, then lined up with the other campers along the railing, watching the river slosh beneath the square hull as the boat lumbered away from the dock. Heavy rocking punctuated the ferry’s slow pace as it cut through the choppy current, pausing for minutes at a time to let barges continue their trip to the North Sea.
Sam tilted his head at Raina. “Are you okay? You look a little green.”
“Are you going to puke?” Ryan eyed his sister with amusement.
Louisa grabbed a paper bag from a holder near the door to the inside cabin and shoved it into Raina’s hands. “Here. Breathe into this. And if you have to, puke into it instead of onto the floor.”
“Or onto us.” Kayla curled her nose at the younger girl.
Raina wrapped the bag around her lips and closed her eyes as it expanded and collapsed with her breath.
Across the river, Burg Rheinfels loomed like a battered giant, a sentinel above the constant activity on the water. Tiny Sankt Goar hugged the riverbank below it.
As they pulled up to the dock on the opposite bank, Rich patted his sister on the shoulder. “Come on. It’s time to get off.”
Raina opened her eyes and followed him. She breathed into the bag until they’d all disembarked and moved beyond the dock, their feet steady on dry land, except for the latent sway of the boat in their bones.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Louisa swatted at the bag. “You’ll hyperventilate. Just hold onto it for the return trip.”
When Raina lowered the bag, she looked far less green.
“Okay, where to?” Kayla peered up a flight of steep steps that led straight up the bluff.
Raina followed Kayla’s gaze. Her eyes narrowed as she considered the long flight of steps. “Does anyone want to see the statue instead?”
“This isn’t a sightseeing trip.” Louisa started up the stairs. “We’re here to search for the chest.”
Raina groaned.
Louisa turned around and faced the group. “We can visit the statue if we have time before the ferry returns, but for now, we better focus on what we came to do. These stairs lead to the visitor’s center, but we’re not going there. We’ll turn off onto an old trail that goes to the top of the bluff, and then lose the trail altogether. My grandfather told me a story about an abandoned village up there. That’s where we should start.”
The name Loreley derives from the Old German words for “murmuring” and “rock.” The enormous bluff looks indestructible, jutting out from a sharp bend in the river that is, even now, impossible for sailors to see around. Today there are signaling lights to warn boats of oncoming traffic, but in the long sweep of history that is a new invention.
—Marty McEntire, Europe for Americans Travel Guide