26

The fire in the pit seems to have gone out several days ago. Only a light dusting of snow lies on the ashes, showing how well protected the site is. You see no cooking utensils or other supplies near the fire, but what you do see is extremely disturbing.

"Human arm bones," you note, poking the humerus with the toe of your right boot.

Zhu bends down and examines the bones more closely. When he glances up at you, he looks unwell. "There are cuts on the bones," he says, so quietly that his words are almost swallowed by the wind. "Signs consistent with…with butchery. Like the flesh has been stripped for meat."

You glance back at the frozen corpse on the rock behind you. That's one mystery solved.

It is impossible to guess how long ago this person was killed: the low temperatures have preserved his flesh, and his frozen blue skin offers no clues through lividity.

You and Zhu study the severed arm for a few moments. "There's some blood on the snow near the mutilation," Zhu says after a while. "That indicates that the arm was removed here. However, there's not much blood. That indicates that the arm was removed postmortem."

There seem to be no other clues around the body.

As you and Zhu study the scene, you become aware of a sound from within the tent. It is low, hushed, otherworldly, but it sounds like…singing?

You listen closely. It is a German nursery rhyme sung in a halting, broken voice, the same two lines repeated over and over again.

"Abends will ich schlafen gehn,

Vierzehn Engel um mich stehn."

You and Zhu exchange an unsettled look.