The Brotherhood

What was he to do now? He didn't want to go back to the monastery or even to try to get around it. There was no reason to go to Türbingen. But as far as he knew both the count and his master in Rottenburg would be looking for him—with intent to do him harm. He know now why young men disappeared in the forest of Höllewald. Who was to say that his master hadn't knowingly supplied young men for Die Bruderschaft ritual in the past?

He raised his head and looked around. There, in the near distance, was a small town—Missinger, he realized. And in Missinger was Paul, the priest he'd lain with at the waterfall, the man who had asked him to return to Missinger with him.

Paul would give him shelter—at least until Alfons could decide where to go from here. Paul had told him just to ask for the village priest and he'd be led to Paul. He did that when he rode into Missinger and he was sent to a church, with a cottage next to it—the rectory. No one answered the door at the cottage, but Alfons had nowhere else to go that he could think of at the moment. So he tied the mare to a fence post and let her graze on what little grass there was in the plot in front of the cottage and he wearily lowered himself to the cottage stoop.

Paul, riding into the village on his own horse, saw Alfons from a distance. He pulled his horse to a stop. Alfons hadn't seen him yet. The priest turned to the side to check his saddlebag—to ensure that the black monks' habit and the gold horned goat mask were well hidden in his saddlebag where Alfons wouldn't see them before he could get them hidden in the cottage. Then he formed a beatific smile on his face and resumed riding toward the cottage, ready to heartily welcome his young prey.