When they reached the end of the tunnel, Birdie’s breath caught.
The courtyard teemed with people as it had during the pageant, but the shops and stalls were real and the window boxes overflowed with flowers. The intimidating keep soared toward the heavens, gleaming white, its flags rippling in the breeze that swirled up the hillside from the untamed river far below.
Trumpets blared as dawn arrived. Bedraggled villagers shuffled through the main gate, eager to watch the show. Birdie recognized the night watchman and several of the men from the night before.
Friedrich exited the tunnel first. Birdie followed in Raina’s cloak, while the others ducked behind an empty stall along the stone wall.
“I don’t think I can do this, Birdie.” Friedrich slowed abruptly and she nearly ran into him. “Look at all these people. What if they think I’m an imposter?”
“You are an imposter.” Birdie peered at him from under the hood of the cloak. His face had gone ashen. She shoved him toward the courtyard, but he was frozen to the spot.
“Oh, don’t you dare tell me you’re getting cold feet now.” She shook her head slowly. “No way. This is it, buddy. You got what you wanted. You get to return the chess piece.” She shoved him again, harder this time. “Get out there.”
As she spoke, the Rottmeister led Kayla into the courtyard. Her modern clothes had been covered by a plain sack cinched at the waist with a length of rope. Her hands and feet were bound, and she struggled to stay upright as he pulled her along.
“It’s the guard from last night,” Birdie breathed. “He’s leading her out himself!”
That did not appear to ease Friedrich’s mind. He stepped back to stand beside her.
The crowd murmured, growing louder as Kayla passed through them. They yelled at her, spitting as they growled words Birdie was glad she couldn’t understand.
Kayla held her head high, her blond hair flowing loose in the chilly morning air.
When they reached the pyre that had been built for Marielle, the Rottmeister ordered two guards to secure her.
“You must do this.” Birdie faced Friedrich and gave him another push toward the crowd. “If you don’t save her, she will die. And you’ll have to answer to her grandparents. What will you tell them? That you let them murder her like a common witch?”
“If we get back.”
“We will go back,” Birdie said. “But you must return the chess piece. That’s the only way.”
“I am not sure what I would say to her grandparents.”
“Seriously, Friedrich?”
He shook off the thought. “Okay, okay. But if they put an arrow through my heart for this—”
“Just make it good,” Birdie ordered with a final shove.
And make it good he did.
Friedrich regained his composure as he stumbled away from Birdie and into the middle of the courtyard, as if he’d been practicing for this moment his whole life. A ripple passed through the crowd and they hushed. The other prisoners, who’d been chained together and brought up from the dungeon, watched Friedrich in silence.
Louisa was not among them and, when Birdie glanced over her shoulder, she saw that she’d joined the others behind the stall. Raina had done it. She’d freed everyone but Kayla.
Birdie backed toward them.
“Thank God you got out,” she whispered to Louisa.
“You’re telling me.” Louisa gazed at her around the edge of the stall. Birdie could tell she was shaken.
In the center of the courtyard, Friedrich stretched to his full height, raised his chin, and spoke.
“What’s he saying?” Birdie whispered and Louisa translated.
“My liege!” Friedrich cried as he turned in a slow circle to allow every person in the crowd to admire him. “I bring important news.”
Elisabeth and her father had been escorted by their personal guards and were seated on a dais high above the throng. Elisabeth wore a long gown not unlike the one Louisa had worn at the pageant, and her hair was piled high upon her head in elaborate braids set off by an embroidered hood. She was a tiny woman, not more than a girl really, her diminutive size accentuated by her father’s substantial girth.
“And what is this news?” her father asked without standing. He sounded bored and crooked a finger to signal the guards to ready their arrows.
Friedrich lowered to one knee and bowed deeply. “My liege. I bring news of the missing dowry.”
The villagers gasped as both Elisabeth and her father rose to their feet.
“And what is this news? Out with it, boy!”
“’Twas not the lady’s maid who stole the dowry,” he cried. “’Twas another, far more wicked, a stranger from across the mighty Rhine, a stranger who has none other than the evil Loreley by his side!”
The gasps grew louder and longer.
“Who is this stranger of whom you speak?” Elisabeth’s father asked, using his hands to tamp down the noise from the crowd.
At the edges of the courtyard, the guards took a step closer to Friedrich.
“A devil who crossed the river to destroy the fine village of Sankt Goar three fortnight ago.” Friedrich dared a nervous glance at the advancing guards. “Only to be heroically thwarted by the humble baker boys!”
Marielle and Peter appeared at the edge of the crowd, across the courtyard from Birdie and the others.
“They tell me it was the baker boy who aided her,” Elisabeth’s father said. “A common thief!”
“’Tis a lie, sir!” Friedrich cried. “For I have crossed the treacherous waters to find the scoundrel and make the end of him with my own sword!”
He reached into his uniform. As he did the guards around Elisabeth’s father drew their weapons.
“Worry not, I bring no weapon. Only this.”
He placed the chess piece on the palm of his hand, slowly unwrapping the fur that surrounded it. As he did, its brilliant jewels sparkled like a magic token, catching every ray of morning sun.
The crowd gasped again and then, slowly, began to cheer.
Elisabeth sunk back into her seat and clasped her hands in her lap.
Her father nodded to one of his guards, who ran down from the stage and retrieved the chess piece from Friedrich’s outstretched hand.
He examined the piece, holding it to the sunlight.
“’Tis true,” the guard announced. “It is the missing piece.”
“Bring this hero a pint!” Elisabeth’s father called as the crowd cheered and the guard marched across the courtyard to hand him the treasured chess piece. He held it high for the crowd to see. “We have much to celebrate! Now, on with the execution!”
Birdie gasped as the war drums pounded.
The trumpets called again, deafening in their proximity.
Kayla caught her eye, fear passing over her face.
“Do something!” she cried.