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The Dragon Prince

Page 17

by Patty Jansen


  The red glow vanished from the room.

  Phew. That was almost too simple. Li Fai blew out a breath.

  “Give me something heavy to put on top.” The lid hummed under her hands with the power of the thing inside.

  Li Fai picked up the first thing within his reach: a stack of books, which he slammed onto the lid. The pale mist surrounding the shepherd’s head had vanished.

  Johanna crouched next to him, shaking his shoulder. “Shepherd, shepherd.” She shook harder. “Master Willems?”

  He groaned.

  Thank the Triune, he was still alive.

  But now she became aware that something else was happening in the room. The books that Li Fai had put on the lid had caught fire. Flames licked the leather covers and the corners of the pages. One of the titles was an abridged edition of the Book of Verses, the other two were also religious titles. Li Fai’s dragon danced around, trying to stamp out the flames. Smoke blew from cracks between the lid and the crate. Li Fai had retreated to the door, his mouth open. The glow of the fire turned his face orange.

  “What’s going on, Your Majesty?” Anton had come up the stairs. He held his sword raised, but one look into the room and he resheathed it. He took off his jacket instead and flung it over the burning books. The dragon jumped on the jacket and it seemed to have put out the flames.

  “Careful. Get out of here!” Li Fai called at him.

  “Come on, get up.” Johanna pulled the shepherd’s arm. He was too heavy for her, so she yelled at Anton who was still staring at the dragon. “Help me take him out of the room.”

  Anton took the shepherd’s other arm and they dragged him backwards to the door.

  The crate was still blowing smoke from the cracks. The smoke smelled acrid and foul, like the burning of waste.

  The little dragon was now trying to fold itself around the crate, closing off the gaps by putting Anton’s jacket in front of the openings with its paws or tail. But there were too many gaps, and when something went poof inside the crate, the creature scuttled off to its master.

  Li Fai held his dragon on the palms of his hands. He blew on its back, as if blowing out a candle. The dragon shivered. It glowed brighter. It grew.

  A sibilant voice whispered in her mind, Without wood, there cannot be a fire. Without wind, there cannot be a fire. Without fire, there cannot be dragons. The voice sounded like Loesie’s, but that was impossible, of course.

  Johanna understood it now. That was the hierarchy of magics. Wood, wind and water were basic magics without which the others could not exist. In order to reach for the power of dragon magic, there needed to be wood to fuel the fire for the dragon to use. Without wood, fire, water and air, a dragon was nothing.

  The crate was made of wood. Johanna had once made broom and shovel handles grow. Could she do that again?

  Johanna opened her bag and took the box out. She had touched it so much last night that it barely still showed her possible futures. That future was now in her own hands.

  The little tree unfolded itself when she opened the lid. A breeze sprang up and made its branches wave. It brought humid mist that made little droplets on the leaves, which ran down the trunk.

  The tree grew a root over the edge of the box, and down over her hands and another one on the other side. Both roots reached the table one after the other. A third root wrapped itself around the crate, with side-roots creeping over the wooden surface. It secured the lid in place. The wood sprang little buds and bunches of pine needles. It grew and grew.

  The lid cracked, releasing a gush of thick smoke. Red light pulsed within the depths of the box, two ruby-coloured eyes, accompanied by the whoop, whoop, whoop of the soul-sucking heartbeat.

  Little flames sprang up around the gap where most of the smoke came out. They crept over the tree’s bark in an ever-expanding patch.

  The air whirled around, fanning the flames. Johanna had to do her best not to run. The smoke made her cough.

  Something large and warm brushed past her. Li Fai’s dragon had grown so large that it almost didn’t fit into the room. It pawed the gaps between the tree roots where the smoke came. It held its nostril at a gap and exhaled with a gush of air. Flames leapt out the other side of the tangle of roots.

  The relic hummed, and a flash of red light blew outwards. The dragon growled. Smoke trailed over the floor. The shepherd lay there, his eyes still closed. The smoke didn’t touch him. The wind that whirled through the room kept the smoke away from him. In fact, the breeze was coming from him. It was the voice of his wind magic.

  The breeze grew stronger and the flames grew bigger. The smoke curled up around the dragon’s legs. The wind tugged at the smoke and when it didn’t budge, grew stronger, and stronger, and stronger. The tree’s branches waved. The roots still grew thicker, crushing the crate into an ever-shrinking space, which caused more smoke to come out. The fire grew and grew.

  The dragon nosed it, blowing flames in and out of its nostrils. It inhaled, drawing in flames and exhaled, fanning them. Inhaled and exhaled. The fire roared. It inhaled and exhaled, and inhaled—

  And all the flames were gone.

  The wind still tore around the room, tugging at the smoke, but by itself, it would never get rid of all of it.

  The dragon sat very still. It occasionally blinked an orange eye. When it breathed, a puff of smoke came from its nostrils.

  Then it slowly lowered its head. It stuck its snout into a gap between the tree roots. It roared. A gout of fire spewed from its mouth.

  Johanna screamed.

  She retreated, but the growing tree had not only crushed the box, it had grown twisted and interlaced roots all over the floor. She tripped over one and fell on her backside, losing her grip on the wooden box. She could barely still see what was going on and could barely breathe.

  A strong gust of wind tore through in through the door. It whistled in the tree’s branches. It blew aside the curtains. The windows blew open. Smoke billowed into the fresh air, and dissipated into the night. The tree had enclosed the entire crate in a mass of twisted roots.

  The wooden box lay at Johanna’s feet, empty except for a few sparks.

  “Close it,” Li Fai said in the silence. He still stood at the door and didn’t appear to have moved at all.

  His dragon gambolled through the air, having shrunk to its former size. It jumped onto his arm. He scratched it under the chin while it held its head up.

  Chapter 22

  * * *

  ANTON AND THE SERVANTS, as well as some people Johanna didn’t recognise who might be neighbours, stood in the hallway, staring into the room. Several people gasped and uttered exclamations of surprise.

  “What in the Triune’s name is going on here?”

  “Look at the tree.”

  “Oh, the poor shepherd.”

  “It’s the Queen!”

  Johanna heaved herself up, brushing dust off her dress.

  Her fall didn’t seem to have had any effect on her child. Women always said that you shouldn’t fall when with child, but like so many of these warnings that old women loved to give people, that was probably a fable. Maybe she should try to ride a horse next.

  The shepherd groaned, pushing himself into a sitting position. His shirt was soaked through with blood and stuck to his back. His hair hung down in dirty strings soaked with blood and sweat. But his expression was clear. He frowned at the mass of interlaced tree roots that covered the table and surrounding floor. The tree was a strange thing, made up of part willow, part oak and part pine.

  Then he frowned at Johanna.

  He inserted his hand under his shirt. It came away wet with blood. “What have I been doing?” He looked around. “What happened to my spare room? Where is Greetje?”

  “She is safe.”

  His frown deepened. Then his face took on a horrified expression. “I want to see her. I have to apologise.”

  “Yes, but I have to talk to you first.”

  Johanna met his e
yes. Then he looked down. His cheeks grew red.

  “Wind magic,” she said. She had strongly suspected for years, but had never heard it out of his mouth.

  He nodded, like a little boy caught with his hand in the sweet jar.

  “So much wind magic that it burst free of its constraints.”

  The shepherd said nothing. He had contained more than twenty years’ worth of wind magic. That might be why he spent so much time here in this room and he had become so obsessed with dealing with the relic without any help.

  “Because it finally broke free, we could encase this evil thing. I don’t think it’s gone. It’s still there under the tree.”

  “I guess I’ll have an interesting spare bedroom.”

  Johanna shook her head. “I wouldn’t stay in the same house with that thing. Who knows when it is going to come back to life. You can come and live in the palace until we know what to do next.” There were a good number of people there already. One extra family wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

  He protested weakly, “But this is my parents’ house.”

  His parents had died in the fires. “It’s not to be helped. You can return once the evil has been destroyed completely. Maybe it would have been better not to take the crate home.”

  “And have this evil thing in the church?”

  It was telling that he considered the church, or his standing in the church, to be more important than his family.

  “Do you know who sent you the crate?” She thought of what Li Fai had told her about the monk who didn’t want to have his name recorded in the ship’s log. It now made even more sense than it did when Li Fai said that it was common that senders chose to remain anonymous.

  “Someone in the Belaman Church who hates us, who would be familiar with the power of this thing. I’m not convinced that the Most Holy Father Severino knew anything about it.”

  “Is it a known, proper church relic?”

  “It’s a relic of a church. The Church of the Triune doesn’t hold much value in relics or other holy objects. This clearly demonstrates why. Objects are nothing. At most, they’re symbols for the real thing.”

  Johanna knew differently, but clearly, the shepherd was not ever going to change his mind or his attitude towards magic. And to be honest, he had always been like that.

  * * *

  Not much later, Johanna took the shepherd to the palace in the coach with the white horses. He sat opposite her, where Li Fai had sat before, but the silence between them was cold. It was very late or very early, depending on your point of view, and she felt exhausted. The scent of fire and blood still hung around her.

  She thought of all the times she had ached to speak to him about magic, and all the times he had either ignored her remarks or questions or had actively denied them.

  With the box—Li Fai had assured her that it would grow a new tree next time she opened it—she understood far more about magic than she ever had.

  Not so long ago, she had even considered marrying Master Willems because of his magic. What a miserable marriage that would have been.

  More miserable than her own marriage in the last few months? Of course she had not fought with Roald, but he had been unwilling to do anything she asked.

  She should be more demanding, not take no for an answer. Same as with the King’s Council, she should speak up and tell people how it was going to be done, not wait until they approved, because they never would.

  She would write the letters and send them.

  She would answer any questions they had, and lead the meeting when the leaders of countries and cities arrived.

  If the King’s Council had objections, she would address them, and then go ahead and do whatever she planned.

  Johanna witnessed an awkward visit of the shepherd to his wife. Greetje still sat in the bed, although she looked healthy and happy. He seemed reluctant to hold his son, as if he was still afraid that he was contaminated, or that he would contaminate the boy.

  She didn’t think that the problems between them were restricted to what had happened with the crate. According to the servants, they had always fought.

  While he went back home to collect some clothes and other items, Johanna went to her office. It was cold and dark in there. Her eyes were gritty with fatigue, but she lit a candle and, by its light, completed the letters she was going to send tomorrow. One to King Leopold of Burovia, to the regent of Lurezia, to Baron Uti, to the Aroden family, to King William, to Li Han, to the mayors of the major towns on both the Rede and Saar Rivers. The pile grew. She was going to face all of Saardam’s enemies and make peace with them.

  When she was finished with the letters, she wrote out more details about the investment plan. There was a meeting of the King’s Council tomorrow, and nothing and no one would keep her from attending.

  By the time she finished, the sky on the horizon was starting to turn light blue.

  Johanna blew out the candle and walked quietly through the hallway to the royal bedroom.

  She had almost reached the door when a dark figure came out of the shadows.

  Johanna gasped. “Who goes there?”

  A man’s voice said, “Forgive me, I cannot sleep.”

  It was the shepherd.

  Johanna blew out a breath.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you at this time. Now that . . . I’ve acknowledged my . . . gift, I keep seeing things wherever I go. When my wife breathes out over my skin, I see her deepest wishes.”

  Ouch. In his case, that couldn’t be anything except painful.

  “I promise myself and her that I will do everything to make her happy. But she is asleep, so I can’t talk to her yet. So I go and stand in front of the window, but the breeze from outside tells me stories, too.”

  “Hasn’t it always done that?”

  “Not like this.” His voice was barely a whisper. “I’ve seen . . . on the wind . . . the Red Baron is coming. King Leopold is coming. King William is coming.”

  “I know that,” Johanna said. “I’ve invited them.”

  A Word of Thanks

  THANK YOU very much for reading The Dragon Prince. The story is not finished here! In book 6, The Necromancer’s Daughter, all stakeholders to the rebuilding of the port come to Saardam, and Johanna juggles their egos, disagreements and murder attempts.

  As author of this book, I would appreciate it very much if you could return to the place where you purchased this book and leave a review. Reviews are important to me, because they help readers decide if the book is for them.

  Also be sure to put your name on my mailing list, which I use to notify subscribers of news and new fiction. For everything else, please visit my website at pattyjansen.com.

  About the Author

  * * *

  PATTY JANSEN lives in Sydney, Australia, where she spends most of her time writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her story This Peaceful State of War placed first in the second quarter of the Writers of the Future contest and was published in their 27th anthology. She has also sold fiction to genre magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Redstone SF and Aurealis.

  Her novels (available at ebook venues) include Shifting Reality (hard SF), The Far Horizon (middle grade SF), Charlotte’s Army (military SF) and Fire & Ice, Dust & Rain and Blood & Tears (Icefire Trilogy) (dark fantasy).

  Patty is on Twitter (@pattyjansen), Facebook, LinkedIn, goodreads, LibraryThing, google+ and blogs at: http://pattyjansen.com/.

  More by This Author

  * * *

  In the Earth-Gamra space-opera universe

  The Shattered World Within (novella)

  RETURN OF THE AGHYRIANS

  Watcher’s Web

  Trader’s Honour

  Soldier’s Duty

  Heir’s Revenge

  The Return of the Aghyrians Omnibus

  The Far Horizon (For younger readers)

  AMBASSADOR

  Seeing Red

  The Sahara Conspiracy

&nbs
p; Raising Hell

  Changing Fate

  Coming Home

  In the For Queen and Country universe

  Whispering Willows (short story)

  FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY

  Innocence Lost

  Willow Witch

  The Idiot King

  Fire Wizard

  The Dragon Prince

  For Queen and Country Omnibus (Books 1-3)

  In the ISF-Allion universe

  His Name in Lights (novella)

  Charlotte’s Army (novella)

  The Rebelliousness of Trassi Udang (short story)

  Shifting Reality (novel)

  Shifting Infinity (novel)

  Epic, Post-apocalyptic Fantasy

  ICEFIRE TRILOGY

  Fire & Ice

  Dust & Rain

  Blood & Tears

  The Icefire Trilogy Omnibus

  Short story collection

  Out Of Here

  Shorter works

  Looking For DADDY (absurd horror novella)

  This Peaceful State of War (Writers of the Future winning novella)

  Visit the author’s website at http://pattyjansen.com and register for a newsletter to keep up-to-date with new releases.

 

 

 


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