Page 99 of The Piper's Pursuit

She could hear the hollow sound of Steffan playing his pipe. She followed the music, keeping her hand on the wall. She found a lighted torch and took it with her. Every so often she found another lighted torch. Had Steffan come down here and lit them ahead of time?

She followed the sound of the pipe into the tunnel that led to the deep hole where the children had entombed the guards. She finally saw Steffan on the other side, still playing, as the rats were streaming forward and falling to their doom.

When the last rat had fallen in, Steffan stopped playing and met her eye in the torchlight.

“You did it!” Katerina grinned across the chasm at him.

“All for you, Lady Mayor.”

“Just be careful getting back around that hole.” She watched, holding her breath, as Steffan carefully plastered himself against the wall of the passageway and moved toward her. She breathed a sigh of relief when he was safely next to her and put her arm around him.

“Do you think the rats will be able to get out?”

“It couldn’t hurt to send some men to throw some large rocks in and cover them up. But for now, let’s get out of here.”

“Yes. If I never see this place again, I will not be sad.”

Soon Katerina and Steffan came back down the hill, but without the rats.

Men and women cheered as they entered the gate and walked down the street. They crowded around Steffan and patted him on the back. When they were finally back at her home, Kat said, “You know we have to have a celebration now that the rats are gone.”

Steffan leaned against the wall. “And we should have a festival to celebrate the children being brought back.”

“We could also celebrate that the Beasts of Hamlin are dead.”

“Good idea.”

“So why do you think the rats were here? Why so many of them?”

Steffan sat down in one of the cushioned chairs. “My guess is that the mining drove them out of their homes in the ground and into town.”

“That makes sense, I suppose. But are you sure we should leave all those rats in that hole? The mine will smell like rotting rodent, and then no one will want to work in the mine.”

“At least they aren’t running around town.”

Katerina shook her head. “But how did you know they would follow you?”

“A few of the children said the rats followed Hennek when he played his pipe.”

“I think you need a reward for ridding our town of the rats.”

“Oh yes, I definitely am entitled to a reward.”

But before Kat could say anything else, people were knocking on the door wanting to thank the Rat Slayer of Hamlin.

***

A few days later, a guard knocked at the door and handed Kat a missive.

“What is it?” Steffan, who happened to be there making his report to the mayor as the captain of the guard, came to look over her shoulder.

“The town council wants to present you with a reward in the square for getting rid of the rats, for killing the Beasts of Hamlin, and for saving the children.”

Steffan pointed at the writing, “It also mentions you. You’re getting a proclamation read over you too.”

“The town council agreed that we should have a festival to celebrate the return of our children and the end of the rat plague.”

Another week passed and the marketplace was teeming with musicians, food, and wares. People sang and danced and ate bread rolls made in the shape of rats.