Summary: The trio finds an opportunity to continue their journey towards Czechoslovakia and promptly take it despite the insistance of some that they should stay. It is time to see if this was the right choice.
Notes: Yesterday's update was skipped because I discovered my two previous works suffered from massive textual issue and so I have been slowly going through them and rewritting it slightly to remove the various misspellings or adding missing words. Otherwise I would only like to note that the almost cavalier manner, in which the trio's border crossing is discussed at the end of the chapter, is the consequence of the interbellum border between Czechoslovakia and Germany and its Cold War version are complete opposites - before 1936 the border was mostly guarded by people from the Ministry of Finance to ensure payment of tolls. A specialized State Defense Guard was founded only in 1936. If you look at a map of the area there a bunch of forest paths that criss-cross the border with little care. The crossing is thus not the difficult part, it is not getting caught by authorities at any point after doing it without valid documents. Next time Harrer finally arrives and the trio joins in some Christmas celebrations in Eisenstein/Železná Ruda.
Two days after St. Nicholas' Day, the past two weeks of constant manual labour caught up with Edward. "What are you doing here so early," Noah asked as both brothers walked into the pub half an hour before noon. "We've been sent home early. We'll take the afternoon shift to compensate," Alphonse explained. "Is there not enough work?" "No," Edward groaned and used his left arm to take his right one and plop it on the table, which it flopped down on like a piece of wet cloth, when he let go.
"It turns out almost twenty days of constantly shovelling is not a good idea for someone with artificial limbs." He tried to move it and the whole thing looked like it was trying to shake itself apart. "From the sound of it, several components probably gave way in quick succession," Al added. "Do you want to have something to eat or are you going back to our room?" Both boys wagged their head. "We'll switch out my arms for the backup first."
Due to limited space, Ed had been forces to sell his large collection of replacement prosthetics and only ended up carrying one piece to swap out with either of the ones he already had on when they left München. "Also, I had an idea to go and buy a little gift for you," the elder brother suddenly told their friend. Noah blinked for a bit. "What kind of gift?" "Either a notebook, a dairy or something in that category. I think it would be a good idea to start recording all your visions as they come and go."
Alphonse hummed. "You know what, that does sound like a good idea. Most of them appear for an instant and then vanish just as quickly." "Did you not describe them as something you expect to hear from a drugged person," Noah reminded him. "I did, but from what I heard of the people that claim to have visions, that is unfortunately the only form those things come in." "Well some do. Your dreams are usually a lot clearer, when they decide to pull me into them," she corrected Al.
"Also, if you want to buy something for her," Al started saying and nodded towards the window, "I suggest you go quickly." The other two looked in that direction and saw that it had started snowing again. "Oh dear, I hope that is all there's going to be," Noah muttered. "Well now that you said it, it definitely will not be everything. I have enough experience to know that is an automatic jinx," Edward replied as he turned to her with a slight frown.
Indeed, that Friday, the heavens above the Bavarian Forest opened. During the first day there was light snow fall for hours. The sky was completely overcast and the clouds were thick enough to make it impossible to determine, where exactly the sun was hiding due to immense light scatter. Edward and Alphonse did not have a lot of complaints about that kind of weather. Light snowfall did not cause problems with shovelling coal.
But as Friday came to a close, the snow still had not stopped. By the next morning, the overcast sky itself was no longer visible in the fog induced by the now absurd amount of precipitation. It looked less like individual snowflakes flowing, but more like entire snow drifts descending upon Regen at once. That day there was very little work for them. Although on the railways Saturday was not a day of rest and often Sunday was not one either, in this situation most carts did not manage to reach the station to pick up coal.
In the end, they were called to a part more towards the east and helped unload coal at one of the attached industrial plants, which was valiantly trying to not have its workers freeze to death by continuously filling all their heaters with coal. "Why can't the damn coal wagons have a roof," Edward muttered. As each new layer they uncovered quickly changed colour from black to grey and then white. "Because they would be harder to fill," Alphonse reminded him. "I know! That was a rhetorical question."
"Also, isn't this exactly the sort of weather we are looking for," Al quietly whispered. "Yeah, but that is assuming the tracks don't get snowed at the wrong time and there is a train we can jump," Ed replied at similar loudness. After a few more shovels, they heard another train coming into the freight yard. At first, it appeared like it was another coal train, but then they noticed it was not lignite, also known as brown coal, but instead it was tens of wagons of haematite.
"You know, there is something funny about bringing iron ore through here," Al noted. "You also noticed what the stations before and after Elisenthal are called?" "Yeah, I did. I guess the two Eisensteins were named that before they ran out of their own supplies of iron ore." Edward looked up after they finished clearing out their assigned wagons and the train was still there. He looked towards the eastern head of the station and noticed all the signal arms were down.
"I think the line did get snowed in," he noted, and his brother looked in the same direction. "Maybe they are just sending through a lot of trains from Zwiesel," Alphonse suggested. "I didn't see any. Did you?" "Well, no, but I was not exactly paying attention to movements on the other tracks. Like you, I was trying to ensure I won't freeze from exposure or screw up the job we were supposed to be doing." "Ease up on the sass, Al. I think an opportunity might be coming for us to take our leave."
"Well, if there was a time we could take a risk, it would be now," his brother assessed as he touched his chin with his left hand. "Tomorrow is Sunday, so we could safely make it back in time if we decided it was bad timing after all." Edward nodded. "Let's go for lunch now, so we can talk with Noah about it. The moment they clear the path, a backup of trains will be forced through, and we can abuse that for our purposes."
"But where are we going to hide? Most railway wagons that we meet are opened at the top and filled to the brim anyway, so we would have to sit on the little metal bars above the brake attachments." They passed by the main station building and noticed a passenger train was standing on one of the tracks, but the attached engine was not smoking. "Did they cancel you," Ed asked as they passed it. The engineer looked at him for a moment with a confused look, but eventually he nodded.
Today, the lunch served at the pub included goulash. "Here you go," Noah said as she sat down next to them with three plates. "Mr. Krüger allowed me to take a lunch break, because we have enough food prepared for now," she explained. Indeed, the pub was half empty, since there was too little work to justify the workers from the more distant district to walk here. "Would your boss mind if we were to suddenly vanish," Edward quietly suggested.
"You think it's time to head out again," she replied with a whisper, and he nodded. "He did suggest that we might not be opening tomorrow until later in the day, unless more people actually show up," she added after taking a spoonful of her goulash. When her boss started walking about, they gestured for him to join them. "Is there a problem," he asked as he took to one remaining unoccupied chair.
"Mr. Krüger, we thank you for being so kind to us, but," Alphonse began, and the man gave a frown. "Are you planning on leaving the city? I understand you always considered this but one stop on your journey, but I have enjoyed your presence greatly. Must you really leave us so soon?" "I apologise, sir, but we cannot stay in one place too long. We have annoyed powerful people and doing so would risk coming back to their attention," Noah diplomatically explained as she tried to avoid a confrontation.
"If you manage to find a replacement for you, I will not argue too much. However, I want to be assured my livelihood will not suffer if I let you go," the pub owner argued and Ed swallowed the urge to start complaining about him not only giving Noah lower than deserved payment, but also acting like she was an important piece of his property. "I will try," Noah told him, and neither brother knew whether she meant it or not.
"Thank you, I would rather not give some of those rude men unwarranted validation," the old man said and fortunately missed the withering stares both brothers gave him, since he was looking at Noah directly. After he got up, Alphonse leaned forward. "I am not the only one, who heard the subtle 'do not validate gypsy stereotypes' attitude in that last sentence, right?" Edward firmly wagged his head. "No, I heard it too. If he thinks we will honour him for emotional manipulation, he's got something coming to him."
"Are you really going to search for your replacement, Noah," Al asked, and she gave a shrug as she swallowed. "I feel like I really should, but I assume we do not have long to decide whether to leave or not." "We really don't," Ed confirmed. "Besides, we told him we are just travelling through, so he should have expected we might suddenly get going again and leave Regen. I guarantee that the only reason he appears to be emotional about this, is because he is afraid of losing a good asset," Alphonse pointed out.
"Darn right! He only cares about you because you make him money. You deserve better than that, Noah. If people can't love you for yourself, but only for the work you do for them, then they do not deserve you," his brother told their friend, who sighed and looked down forlornly at her plate. "Do we need to prepare anything before we leave," she finally asked. "Nothing besides making sure everything important is in our suitcases. I will set the alarm clock for us, and we should reach the border before the afternoon," Edward promised. "I'll hold you to that," Al muttered.
Shortly after they ate their own lunches, Prime Minister Švehla asked part of his cabinet to meet at Beneš's main office. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs currently resided in the building known as the Tuscan Palace, which stood opposite to the main entrance into the Prague Castle. "Before Mr. Udržal arrives, do we have any interesting news from abroad," Malypetr asked as he sipped from his cup of coffee.
"I believe Mr. Novák will be relieved, when he joins us. Our Consulate has sent us a report on the preliminary result of the British General Election," Beneš announced. "I assume that means Stanley Baldwin did not win the popular mandate he sought out," Bečka suggested. "Well, that depends on your definition of "winning an election," Mr. Bečka," Beneš corrected. "The Conservative Party is expected to win the most seats. Most recent counts and predictions place them somewhere in the high 250s out of 615 without anyone favourable to working with them getting any of the other ones.
That means that the Labour Party and the Liberal Party that currently seem to have better relations between themselves than with Mr. Baldwin will have a majority and power to keep him out of power until the next election." "Ah, so it is a Pyrrhic victory," Švehla commented. "There is a common view among the military, Mr. Švehla. A pyrrhic victory is just a really fancy name for a defeat," Udržal said as he entered with Novák. "Mr. Beneš, are our men expecting that Ramsay MacDonald will take the position of Prime Minister," the latter asked. "Indeed."
"Then I want all information about their intents with the Rhineland. It is currently an important source of imports, and such a sudden change needs to be prepared for." Bečka gave a dismissive wave. "It will take weeks for them to establish a stable government. By that point, our economy will have taken off sufficiently. By that point, it will achieve some resistance to sudden changes in global economic conditions." Beneš's secretary entered the room with his another coffee and some tea for Švehla.
"Do any of you, gentlemen, want something to drink." "Mineral water will suffice," Novák answered. "Some dark coffee for me if you would," Udržal added. "We can discuss the issues of the Rhineland later and with our other colleagues, gentlemen," Švehla ended the previous discussion and turned to Udržal. "Is there any news about Mr. Harrer from your subordinates?" The Minister of National Defence took some papers from his briefcase.
"He has yet to cross our borders despite receiving our approval for his visa. So far, our agencies have received news that a reservation under the name of 'Karl Harrer' has been placed for a room at the Golden Goose Hotel on Wenceslaus Square." "Ah yes, what a completely normal thing for a journalist and researcher to do - getting one of the most expensive rooms in the city," Malypetr noted with sarcasm.
The Golden Goose Hotel was built in the late 1900s as an art deco construction made of reinforced concrete. The architect Emil Králíček also built Prague's City Museum, that Harrer also planned to visit, and currently made building under the influence of cubism. Calling the place an expensive hotel was something of an understatement. It was one of three hotels alongside the northeast side of Wenceslaus Square and all of them were expensive as befitted buildings in such an important locality.
"Indeed. He claims to have few resources, and then finds enough money for a fancy room in an expensive hotel on one of our main streets." "Do we know who gave him such a generous donation," asked Švehla. The sound of paper rustling filled the room for a few second as Udržal flipped through his reports. "The name was given as Erwin Torre. Preliminary research has not discovered, who that name belongs to. There is a chance it is a fake alias" "Of course," Beneš groaned.
"Yes, apologies, gentlemen, but if it is not an alias, we are having trouble locating that person." "Is the name Torre not Italian," Beneš asked. "We have already thought of that and tried to look up whether the House Della Torre is associated with them and may be providing a bridge to the Italian Fascists. Thus far we have not found any hint. We did check both branches of their relatives in the House of Thurn and Taxis, which took some of their titles as well, but nothing has been found there either. It is difficult to search outside our borders, I'm afraid."
"Mr. Udržal asked me to send requests to our Consulates in Berlin and Vienna to try and find more information. They have since reported back that the Thule Society is unfortunately very secretive and, much worse, they have since managed to catch the attention of the German Government, so any investigation on our end would potentially cause us to look suspicious as well. I have agreed that they should keep their distance," Beneš added.
"What about Vienna," Švehla asked, and Beneš gave him a half-frown grimace and a so-so gesture. "There is evidence that one of the same donors to the National Socialist Party, Ernst Hanfstaengl, is currently in Salzburg. However, he seems to have never taken an interest with the Thule Society and as such he is currently not suspected of being 'Erwin Torre'," explained Udržal.
"So far I am hearing a bunch of really important and deep question and not a lot of answers. Hypotheses are not something I wish to base my judgements on," loudly grumbled Malypetr. "It is too early, Mr. Malypetr," Udržal argued. "When Mr. Harrer crosses the border, then we will be able to follow him without raising suspicion with our neighbours. For now, there are only a few other reports," he added.
"He is seeking access to various records. The National Museum, several Archives and even some private collection have been contacted." "Are any of them suspicious," Švehla immediately inquired, "Given the statement of his visa request the only one particularly odd is the request to access various buildings in the Old City, but the exact meaning behind those requests is currently unclear." Malypetr massaged his nose in annoyance. "Have you not heard from the President," Beneš suddenly inquired of Udržal.
The man looked at him with a confused frown. "What do you mean? We have spoken about some things..." "He told me that Mr. Harrer requested to see some of the parts of Prague Castle outside the Presidential Suite. He seeks to access those parts that were actively used by the individuals that sought patronage from Emperor Rudolf II such as the Golden Lane," the Minister of Foreign affairs explained and now both Švehla and Malypetr felt an oncoming headache.
"Ah, because that is not suspicious at all," the latter loudly complained. "President Masaryk has allowed it." The sudden literal whiplash that Malypetr did at that admission from Beneš nearly gave him back pain. "With all due respect, is His Excellency certain that is a good idea?" "The request did not seem odd in and of itself, so it was accepted as being genuine," Beneš told him.
"Also, Mr. Malypetr, it is not within our prerogative to question decisions of the Presidential Office in private matters," Prime Minister Švehla reminded the Minister of the Interior, who did not seems at all happy about this. "Are there any other reports," Švehla asked, and Udržal wagged his head. "Then I would like to hear if there is any other foreign news. Mr. Beneš." "There are two reports about important votes and one about international relations between Germany and the United States."
"Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré of France has managed to pass his electoral reform bill after he presented it as a confidence vote (408 – 127)," he read a report from the Consulate in Paris. "That is good news, indeed, since Mr. Poincaré's government is currently predisposed to helping us," Udržal noted and Mr. Novák nodded along. "Our Consulate in Berlin sent two notes alongside their apology for being unable to track the Thule Society.
Wilhelm Marx has called a vote to institute an enabling act allowing him to take emergency economic and welfare measures. Meanwhile, their ambassador Otto Wiedfeldt and United States Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes are expected to sign a treaty of friendship tomorrow in Washington, D.C. They also discuss Mr. Novák's concerns regarding the Rhineland. Mr. Marx seems pleased with Mr. Baldwin's Pyrrhic victory and hopes Mr. MacDonald will help his country convince the French to leave."
The trio woke up shortly after six thanks to their one alarm clock. Before Edward did anything else, he checked the weather outside and found that the snowfall from the previous days had finally abated. This was a good sign as it meant it was likely that the railway track would be cleared soon and may even before there was much light. "Should we finish that fruit aspic? I am a bit concerned about having the can open for too long," Noah asked. "Honestly, I would like something sweet today," Al told them as they sat down for breakfast.
As soon as they were finished eating breakfast, all three dressed into their travel clothes rather than work clothes - if you could call those rags clothes - and took their suitcases along as they walked to the train station. Though they could pay for three passenger tickets to take them to Elisenthal Station, it would almost certainly cause them to be quickly noticed by the border guards, which was dangerous on account of lacking documents and visas. Instead, they walked into the freight yard and hid between the many stopped trains, using the lack of light to their advantage.
While there were some electric lamps around the place, there were not a lot of workers present this early in the day. "Noah," Ed called to her. "Yeah?" "Come here, I want you to try out getting on top of the cargo wagons," he explained and pointed out a stepladder attached to the end of one of the iron ore wagons. "It looks simple enough," she said as she put her suitcase on the metal bar and put her right foot on the lowest steps. She had to hold on as she climbed. The brother followed her up with greater ease.
"That's one attempt, and you could do it at your own pace," Alphonse noted. "If the train starts moving before we are in the right place, you will need to pay attention and account for the speed and acceleration," he pointed out and she nodded. "That makes sense, I guess, but that can't exactly be trained just yet." Before Edward could say another word, he looked around and quickly started to shuffle towards the other side with a look of concern.
"What's wrong?" "Someone is actually bothering with checking the train consist for once," Al explained as they shuffled to the other side and climbed back down. They carefully walked around from the right side for a moment as they heard occasional metal impacts from the wheels opposite. A man was walking around and whacking the brakes with a special hammer to hear a sound, which would indicate the presence or lack of material failure by the nature of the resulting noise. Occasionally he would also release the hand brakes.
Shortly after seven, the line to Zwiesel was finally cleared of snow by an engine with an attached plough. The moment the signal for the line that the iron ore train sat on was cleared to proceed, Edward called to the others. "Let's go! We'll get on the back bar of the second to last wagon," he whispered as they ran around the right side. Every time they approached a gap between the individual wagons they would slow down, duck to hide themselves behind the brake pipes and other attachments and then resumed running.
It was being somewhat difficult due to the presence of light snow cover, causing noises as they moved along. Fortunately the trains had to blow the horn before starting to move and then the crunching of snow was covered by the creaking of releasing brakes and the whooshing of the air as the pressure inside the breaking system was altered. By the time they got to the back, the train was already moving, although you could still walk faster than it.
Noah put her leg on the small stepladder first. "Ah," she nearly yelled as the acceleration made her fall backwards. Both brothers caught her and helped her straighten out back on top. After she sat down, she slowly moved towards the middle and the brothers followed her up the ladder. "And now for a little act of deception just in case," Alphonse declared and pulled out one of their brown blankets. They moved around a bit to make sure their legs avoided the cocks attached to the breaking system's hoses.
None of them had to talk quietly anymore, since the axles were now loudly screaming. The idea with the blanket had been Al's. He intended to abuse the awful weather conditions to improve their hiding spot. At close range, it was blatantly obvious that some were trying to use a blanket to very unsuccessfully make themselves invisible. However, it was before sunrise in December, it was snowing, and they were at the back of the second to last wagon, which was likely not to be thoroughly checked by guards anyway.
After seeing the work of their now-former colleagues, they soon discovered the people responsible for checking the integrity of trains before their departure would happily flunk their job. For one thing, they were supposed to check the entire consist before it left because it had been stopped for a while. Of course, they could not bother with more than a basic brake check and instead acted in a way they believed would ensure a restoration of service as fast as possible.
They definitely could not be bothered checking that odd lump of cloth on the back of one of the wagons. The trio hid for a moment until they heard very loud metal banging, which indicated the train had reached the bridge over the Schwarzer Regen River. They poked their heads out and saw a group of children ice-skating below the bridge. "Well, at least someone gets enjoyment out of this weather," Noah said as they were slowly carried away from the city.
They were lucky because when they got to Zwiesel the train was allowed to simply pass through. "Looks like we don't need to worry about that," Alphonse announced as they hid themselves again. "People sometimes complain that profit is preferred over safety, but honestly, I am not complaining," Noah noted, and Edward nodded his agreement despite the fact this resulted in the blankets visibly moving on the outside. "This way, we'll reach Elisenthal soon."
The moment those words left his mouth, the train began to break. "Ah, the trademarked Elric jinx strikes again," Al noted with audible concern. His brother slowly moved to the edge of the bar and looked around the corner of the wagon to try and see the railway signaling. "We just got a yellow signal," he announced as the mechanical caution signal passed them, with the caution signaling circle in a vertical position.
The train ended up stopping in a left-turning curve. "Where are we," Noah asked as she leaned forward to look down from the bridge their wagon came to a stop on top of. "If I remember the map right," Edward told her, "we should be somewhere short of Ludwigsthal. I wonder if we reached the back of a line of trains trying to pass across the border." "Should we wait," she inquired. "I doubt that they would walk the train this far back. But we could always start walking northeast towards the border," Alphonse suggested, and he slightly shifted to a better sitting position.
"We could," his brother admitted, "but the trail we would have to follow passes through a place called Zwieslerhaus and, from my consults with some of the local maps, that is not an easy path even in the summer, let alone after a two-day snowstorm in early December." "So we wait until we are almost at Elisenthal and then bolt it like hell," Noah asked and received a nod back. "Yep, we bolt it to the right of the track and hide in the woods for a bit.
That side of the valley is less steep. Unless plans change, of course." The train stood still for almost half an hour before they heard the whistle, and it started to slowly move again. As the hills along the track started rising, a forest path came close to the railway line and started following it.
"Do you think we could use that path now that we are almost there," Noah asked as the train started to slow down again. This time, the wagons were standing only atop a small pile of ballast. "That's probably the best choice. Get ready to jump down as soon as I give the word," Ed told them both, and they slightly shuffled towards the edge. The train came to a stop, and after a few seconds, Edward loudly said, "Now!"
They jumped off the side and slid down the side of the ballast on their rears. At least there was some snow cover, so it did not feel as bad as sliding on uncovered gravel. "Oof," Noah grunted after falling down a bit harder and slightly hitting her rump. Edward gave her a hand so she could get up. "Are you good?" "Yeah, just a bit more rough than I was expecting." In the meantime, Alphonse had looked ahead along the track.
"Since I assume that is Bayerisch Eisenstein, I would suggest we take the path uphill from that crossroads," he declared weakly, pointing in the direction the train engine was in. The others looked forward and noticed a railway signal in the stop position, standing just before a bunch of houses built alongside the left side of the tracks. After a few seconds, the signal was cleared for a diverging indication, and the train blew its whistle. "Definitely," Ed agreed, and they started to slowly walk in that direction.
After about a quarter of an hour of slowly climbing the valley wall, they reached a path parallel to the side of the hill and followed that along before it suddenly turned abruptly right and started rising. "It can never be easy," Edward groaned, but they had to keep going. By now, it was too late to turn back. About half an hour later, the path started to be really jagged, and they reached a crossroads with an arrow pointing towards a small hill. "Hochfels," Alphonse read. "Well, it is a high rock," Noah agreed. "Do you think it's a lookout," Al asked his brother.
After they climbed up, they found out that indeed it was. "Wow," came three voices in quick succession, and then all of them snickered at that fact. Although they could not really see the valley itself, they could see the surrounding mountains. "You know... This is so beautiful, I almost wish we could stay and just live here," Edward told them as he watched the snow covered peaks of the Grosser Arber and Hindenburgfelsen on the other side of the valley.
"Are either of you opposed to having our lunch here," Alphonse asked. "No." "Not at all." They sat there for a good while before finally tearing their eyes away from the natural beauty and heading back towards the East. After almost an hour, they started coming across small rocks marked from one side with the white and blue checkerboard pattern of the Bavarian flag and with a white lion on red that was used for Bohemia. Just beneath Drähberg Hill, they finally crossed over into Czechoslovakia.