Leo reached for the golem tucked inside his bag, and curled his hand firmly around it. It felt friendly and reassuring, and he fixed his eyes on the stair leading up to the church. The footsteps were louder now; they rang out sharply and in exact rhythm, like a fast-beating heart, and the voices were louder. Leo could not understand what they were saying, but some of the grown-ups pressed back into the shadowy corners as if wanting to hide. Leo discovered he was shivering, but he sat up very straight so no one would know.
It seemed a very long time before the marching footsteps and the voices faded, but eventually they did, and the adults looked at one another and smiled a bit shakily.
The twins’ mother was just pouring coffee for everyone from two large flasks, when the sound of new footsteps reached them – not the hard, frightening ones they had heard earlier, but soft, light steps. Before anyone realized it, a man was standing at the foot of the stairs, a faint shaft of silver moonlight falling over him like a thin cloak. Leo’s father said, ‘Sch?nbrunn. Oh, thanks be that you’ve reached us,’ and went forward to shake the stranger’s hand.
The man called Sch?nbrunn was thin-faced and dark-haired, and although he was somehow very quiet-looking, once he stepped into the room, the clogging fear seemed to vanish, and everyone sat up and smiled and nodded. It’s going to be all right, thought Leo. Whatever was wrong is going to be put right. He’ll put it right.
Sch?nbrunn knelt down in front of Leo and the twins, and the other children, and held out his hand. There were still flecks of silver moonlight in his hair and his eyes.
‘Hello,’ said Sch?nbrunn. ‘I’m glad to meet you all.’ He smiled at Leo. ‘You’re the young man who can speak a little English,’ he said and, when Leo nodded, Sch?nbrunn said, ‘That’s very good indeed. That will be a great help to us.’ He looked at Sophie and Susannah then. ‘And you’re the Reiss twins.’ Leo thought he frowned slightly, as if somebody had suddenly given him a very difficult task, but he only said, ‘I’m particularly glad to find you here.’ He sat back on his heels, and looked at the other children, all huddled into a fearful little group. ‘We’re going away,’ he said. ‘It’s a bit of an adventure and you must promise to do everything I tell you. But it’ll just be ourselves – you’ll have to leave your parents for a time.’
Leo felt a surge of panic, because he knew that people sometimes vanished. You never saw them again, and no one ever said what had happened to them.
Then Sch?nbrunn said, ‘But one day you’ll see your parents and your friends here again, and for the moment I’m going to keep you safe.’ His eyes went to Sophie and Susannah again. ‘You must promise to do what I tell you,’ he said again, and Leo had the impression that he was talking solely to the twins now.
‘We promise,’ said the twins, speaking exactly together.
‘Leo?’
‘I promise as well.’
‘Good. Now, listen, after tonight, you must never trust anyone you don’t know,’ said Sch?nbrunn. ‘You are going to be looked after by people you can trust. But if anyone else – any grown-up you don’t know – should try to talk to you, or offer you a treat, or perhaps a ride in a car, you must refuse. Do you understand all that?’
‘Yes,’ said the twins, staring at him solemnly, and the other children nodded.
Sch?nbrunn smiled. ‘Don’t look so scared,’ he said. ‘It will be all right. I’m going to keep all of you safe.’ He moved slightly and the silver moonlight moved with him. ‘I always keep people safe,’ he said.