Read Online Apothecary Melchior and the Mystery of St Olaf's Church by Indrek Hargla - Free Book Online Page B

wooden gate with a narrow entryway at the base of the hill. The town watchmen locked both gates every evening and took the keys to the Town Hall. There was little chance of getting up Short Hill in spring, as it was too steep and slippery with mud. Many men had broken bones attempting the climb, and recently one Order attendant had fallen and broken his neck.
    Reaching Toompea by way of Long Hill was no easy task in the month of May either, as the road was muddy and covered in manure, pitted by large potholes and was so narrow in places so that carts could barely squeeze through. Rocks and rubble constantly tumbled down on to the road from the cliff above, on top of which meandered the Great Castle’s curtain wall.
    One had to pass through two gates to reach Toompea. Melchior knew the way well because one winter he had attended school near the Dome Church. The road went straight as they passed through the stone tower at the base of Long Hill. The rocky base of the cliff loomed to their right, as if it were a protective barrier built by nature itself. To the left yawned a gorge – if anyone were to slip here they would reach the town with ease and very rapidly. Even Melchior’s house and rear courtyard were clearlyvisible from there. At one stage the Town Council had ordered the construction of a railing alongside the road, but it had been damaged a couple of winters ago and no longer provided any security for those scaling the hill. The small, rectangular Short Hill gate tower stood a couple hundred paces above and marked the town’s limits. Anyone ascending the hill was at that point forced to leave behind the free town air and Lübeck law because then they would cross into the dominion of Toompea where the Commander ruled and laws of the Teutonic Order held sway. In front of the timber tower was a heavy double gate constructed from oak, which the Council watchmen locked at sundown. No one could enter Order territory from the town at night-time or vice versa.
    The group walked – rather stumbled – up the slope until the men finally reached the point at which the Short Hill Gate intersected with Long Hill. Melchior mused that it felt as if the stretch between the two gates had been put there for the sole purpose of allowing a citizen a chance to decide whether he really wished to pass beyond the castle walls and hand himself over to Order law; whether he really had the will to abandon his secure town rights and the protection of the Council and step into the stronghold of his country’s overlords.
    They were now within the outer bailey of Toompea, which had a courtyard enclosed by a low wall ringed by a moat. By passing through the bailey one could either go north through Bell Tower Gate to the bishop’s residence or through the main gate leading to the Commander’s grand keep, which loomed a few hundred steps away. Either way the party of town citizens was now on Toompea in the domain of wind, rocks and power.
    The first thing that struck anyone arriving from the town was the sheer might of the walls and towers. Although the Lower Town wall was continually being built higher and stronger and new towers were erected all the time, it did not appear that way when viewed from the heights of Toompea. Melchior walked this path quite frequently, as Toompea did not have its own pharmacy, but he always felt a twinge of isolation and dread when he saw those cold walls and towers rising in front of him. The Order was the Order, and the more time passed the more divergent were the lives in Order castles and the towns that surrounded them. Despite this, the present Commander of the Order in Tallinn, Ruprecht von Spanheim, was a simpler and more gracious man than many of hispredecessors and had even called the town’s apothecary his friend a couple of times.
    The streets of Toompea were not paved as they were in Lower Town, and there was a great deal of mud. The drab outer bailey was no exception.