by Patty Jansen
Nellie looked around the warehouse, but Agatha had gone out to get more firewood. It wasn’t that strange that the women was angry with the dragon and wanted him to go away. If the dragon had kept quiet—but, then, he had reacted to Jantien’s screams. Another thought: would the dragon have known Jantien was the mother of most of the children? The dragon had listened to her when she spoke of Prince Bruno, and he had seemed to be looking for affection. From her, from children and animals.
She wished the dragon would just have gone back into the box. It would have saved everyone so much trouble.
Nellie went out again after breakfast, and walked through the snow-covered streets that were rendered in hues of white and grey, reflecting her mood.
At the marketplace, she ran into a big group of people congregated around the church steps. They were merchants and ordinary citizens listening to an announcement by the town crier. He had just finished and was rolling up his piece of paper.
People were throwing him angry comments.
“I’m sick of this,” a man said. “If someone broke into the stores and stole food, then they should find the thief, not blame us for it.”
“It doesn’t surprise me one bit,” another man said. “I haven’t noticed the Regent cutting down on his banquets. They eat pheasant and duck and exotic spices and dried fruit. People in the city are hungry. It’s no wonder that some of them take what they need.”
“Yes, that’s right. Blame the poor because they can’t fight back.”
The town crier came down the church steps, clutching his roll of paper, not looking at any of his former audience.
Someone in the crowd yelled, “Oy, do we get a say about what we think of this Regent? He’s got less sense than my ten-year-old son.”
Someone else said, “Yeah, Queen Johanna would never have feasts in the winter. She knew life is hard for us when the boats can’t come. She would share from the stores, not put guards in front of the door to stop us getting the food that we paid our taxes for.”
Several people cheered.
Nellie wrestled through the crowd. She was keen to get out because the situation might get nasty. The atmosphere hummed with anger. “Hand us the thief or the whole city suffers,” was hardly the best way to deal with theft from the stores. These types of thieves were not dumb. Food thieves were the lowest form of thieves, and if people knew who they were, they would have told the guards long ago.
The streets away from the market place were a lot quieter, especially at the harbour. The winter weather had stopped most of the activities here. Only a few ships still came in from the ocean at the best of times, and the quayside where they normally moored lay empty. Of course right now most of the harbour was taken up by ice.
Nellie walked along the snow-covered quay. The closer she came to the end of the wharf, the less disturbed the snow. At the end, the only footsteps that disturbed the pristine white were the prints of ducks.
Beyond the end of the pier that sheltered the harbour with the white-painted lighthouse at the end, the broad delta of the Saar River was grey with mist. In summer, you could see the apple orchards on the other side, but today the shore was barely visible through the mist. The water was calm, with little patches of ice floating downstream.
This place had been the beginning and end of a lot of her adventures.
Only a few weeks ago, she had come to the office on the other side of the harbour to receive the box and her father’s book that had been the beginning of this new episode in her life.
If she thought about all the adventures she’d had, she might be forgiven to think it was her destiny to help great people change things for the better.
Even in the way the dragon trusted her, he acted like he knew she might lead him to someone who could make a difference. Mistress Julianna had even said so, no matter how much Nellie didn’t believe in superstition and fortune telling.
Except she was all out of ideas now. All the people she loved had been killed or could not help her. She didn’t even understand what she felt towards Henrik any more. She hated to think he would support the actions of the guards in the last few days, dragging all these poor people to the prisons. What in all the heaven’s name had Jantien done that justified taking her away from her children? The poor little mites.
What was the Regent trying to do, kill this town with his ridiculous rules about magic?
She stopped abruptly. She felt like she was being watched.
In the middle of the harbour was a small area of open water. Something disturbed the surface, a dark glistening creature that made the water ripple. It was too large to be a fish.
The head of a sea creature came up from the water, its whiskers glittering with drops. It had a blunt snout and small, beady eyes. A sea cow.
She didn’t believe the sea cow was what she’d felt watching her, but she was glad to see it. Some wild herds lived amongst the muddy seabeds of the Saar river delta, lazily grazing on the weeds that grew in the shallows. You could sometimes see the herds swim across the river as they raised their heads or flippers above the surface.
The river traders, like the Brouwer Company, used to keep flocks of them to pull their ships up the river. Some boats still went up and down the rivers, and some traders still kept small teams of sea cows to pull the vessels, but the large companies had gone, and most of their animals had been set free.
The Brouwer Company, owned by Mistress Johanna’s father, had a shed and sea cow barn at the end of the wharf. In the company’s heyday, their two riverboats, the Lady Sara and Lady Davida, were often moored there. The Lady Davida had been sunk during the struggles when the Fire Wizard invaded the city, but the Lady Sara had taken many trips up and down the river even when Johanna was Queen and after her father had sadly passed away. After the Queen’s death, leaving the Brouwer Company without an heir, the ship had lain idle in the harbour for a few months, before being sold to a river trader in Aroden. The barn itself had been abandoned, and this was where Nellie was headed.
Most of this part of the wharf was now in disrepair, with the warehouses alongside falling to pieces. Repeated fires either from magic or accidentally lit by sailors had not helped matters.
Something moved in the corner of her eye, but when she turned her head she saw nothing.
By the Triune, who was spying on her? The quay behind her lay deserted. The quayside was too high for most of the river ships.
Across the harbour lay the beautiful river ship of the Guentherite order. The curtains of the cabin windows were closed and the sea cow harness neatly stowed on the deck.
She remembered that somewhere along this part of the wharf, she and Mistress Johanna had fished Prince Roald out of the water after the palace had burnt. At that time, Mistress Johanna’s father had still occupied the warehouse, and Nellie, Mistress Johanna, Mistress Johanna’s mad friend, and the Prince had sailed upriver to find help. They had needed to go quite a distance before they found anyone alive, and it had been a desperate time.
The memories chilled her. And she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her.
When she went into the main door of the old Brouwer Company sea cow barn, she could see out the roof in a few places where the roof tiles had been blown off. Light streamed through these holes into the dusty space.
A workbench along the wall would once have held tools but, over the years, various people had removed those and presumably sold them. The leather straps for the team harnesses still hung on hooks above the bench, all covered in a thick layer of dust.
The wooden harness itself had only partially survived people scavenging for firewood. Only the rear beam—the heaviest of all—was still intact. She mentally looped the leather straps through the eyelets and could almost feel the weight of the thing when lowering it into the water.
Looking after the sea cows had been one of the things she learned when travelling upriver with Mistress Johanna on that frightening flight from Saardam.
The ba
sin in the middle of the barn was still the home of a couple of sea cows. The creatures stuck out their heads when she walked along the edge. Maybe they hoped she would toss some cabbage leaves into the water. They would stick their broad, bristly snouts above the surface, and would slurp and slobber while they ate.
But Nellie hadn’t come here to reminisce. There was work to be done.
She judged the roof good enough to keep out most of the rain.
The workbench would make a nice table and the barrels could be chairs, and the storeroom—
But what was that?
The dust on the paving bore scuffmarks that looked recent. A couple of carrots lay on the ground. Fresh carrots, because if they’d been here even overnight, they would have been frozen to mush.
This barn was already someone’s hideout.
“Is anyone here?” Nellie asked.
The sound of her voice died in the silence.
She looked around for other signs that people lived here: bedding, a tin of water, a bag with possessions. Other than the carrots, she saw nothing.
It was strange and eerie, as if she was entering someone else’s house, someone who was very careful about not leaving anything behind when he went out.
Except carrots.
Maybe in the storeroom.
It lay off the side of the barn separated by a rickety wooden door that creaked terribly. Faint light filtered through the tiny window in the top corner. The floor was covered in sawdust that gave out a musty scent.
In the past, this room had been used to store items related to ships and their maintenance. There had been barrels of oil, coils of rope and spare parts like leather straps and eyelets for harnesses and other such things. Some barrels remained on the shelves. Probably they would need to be recaulked before being useful again.
There was also some rope, but it would probably break as soon as someone tried to use it.
In the corner stood a couple of newer items: a bag with carrots, a basket with smaller bags of beans and flour, a cooking pot, and a collection of mismatched cups and bowls, all clean. There was also a stack of horse blankets, neatly folded.
The sawdust on the floor bore no signs of recent disturbance.
As if these things were put here just for her and her group. It was eerie.
But the place was dry, and it was away from the searching patrols in the artisan quarter.
Nellie measured out the space by taking big steps across the room. The group had nine children and six adults. It would be a tight squeeze to all fit in the room when they needed to hide or when it got cold, but it was better than the warehouse in the artisan quarter where everyone knew where they were—or it would be, if it weren’t for those abandoned supplies and the feeling that someone was already using this space.
Nellie went back into the main warehouse. As she did so, a number of sea cows plopped their heads under the water.
Two of the sea cows were crunching carrots. Did they have the carrots before? She couldn’t remember.
Could sea cows climb out of the water? She had never seen them do so.
Two cats hid under the benches, crouching down. In the old times, there used to be a lot of cats here, because the captains often caught fish on the way down the river. But that was a long time ago. There hadn’t been any fish scraps to be scavenged here for many years.
Curled up in the remainders of wood shavings under another bench lay a puppy, undisturbed by either the cats or the sea cows or Nellie’s presence.
Poor thing. Was it sick?
But when she crouched, the puppy raised its head and wagged its tail. A sprinkle of sparks trailed over its fur.
Magic.
Nellie whirled around, only to hear more sea cow heads plop back under the water. A carrot rolled across the paving and then over the edge. It landed in the basin with a splash.
A puff of magic sparks trailed the water’s edge. She had seen those sparks before. The dragon. She knew for sure now. That was what had been spying on her.
Nellie rose. “Come out, there’s no need to be afraid of me.”
Her heart thudded.
There was no reply, but she could see a little spark of magic in the corner.
“Come on.” She held out her hand.
Of course she hadn’t thought to bring the box. Maybe now that he was hiding, the dragon would be happy go back. Who knew what dragons thought?
“All right, you can go and be silly. I am not happy with you because you gave us away and now we are in a lot of trouble. But if you want, you can make it up and help us.”
The little trail of magic sparks oozed along the ground and disappeared under the workbench next to the cats. One of them batted a paw at it.
“Have it your way. But we are going to come here anyway.”
This was the safe place to take the children.
Chapter 9
* * *
LATER THAT DAY, Nellie and Mina walked across town with the children. They wore all their clothes, and each carried a pot or a stack of chipped bowls or cups with broken handles. Nellie had told them to collect everything that was theirs and carry as much as possible with them. She didn’t want to go back a second time. Guards were everywhere, and she had spotted one of the men talking to Zelda.
The children had asked where they were going, and whether they would see their mother.
Nellie couldn’t bring herself to lie as Mina suggested. Koby and Ewout were old enough and wise enough to see through that. So while they walked, she told them about the shed and that it had belonged to the Queen’s family, and when she said that sea cows were hanging around in the barn, Bas said, “Whoa! We can tie them to a boat and go anywhere!”
“Except we have no boat,” Koby said.
And Mina added, “And there is nowhere to go. It’s winter. The water is cold and there will be ice floating down the river.”
But there were a few towns just outside the city, and Nellie had cousins in one of those towns. And what Ewout had said was true: they could catch sea cows and tie them to any boat. The barn even contained the necessary harnesses.
To get to the harbour, the group needed to cross the marketplace. As it had become a regular occurrence, many people had gathered around the bottom of the church steps to read the notice on the church door.
“What are all those people doing?” Anneke asked.
“The Regent has made a declaration,” Nellie said.
“What is a declaration?”
Nellie and Mina looked at each other over the children’s heads.
It would be easy to say something like That is only for adults, or You’ll find out later, but that was a sure way for the children to know that something was up. The children were not crazy. They had lived in hardship for the past six months. Koby, especially, was almost old enough not to be considered a child anymore.
“The Regent is going to hold a court to see which prisoners are witches.”
“Is Mama going to be there?” Jantien’s oldest daughter Jette asked.
“Maybe.”
“Our mother is not a witch,” Ewout said.
“We know that, but the Regent doesn’t.”
“So he will see that she is not, and he’ll let her go.”
But if the Regent so determined, all of them would be witches, because all of them were there to be made an example of. Because how did they determine that someone was a witch? Men in power had many different ways, and some of them were as simple as deciding they didn’t like the prisoner’s face. There was no reason to believe the Regent would use genuine ways to determine witchcraft.
But Jette kept asking questions. “And after they say that mammy is not a witch can she come back to us?”
“I don’t know.”
And Nellie didn’t, though she didn’t think many people who were put into the prisons ever came out again. But she couldn’t bring herself to tell the children any of this because she didn’t understand the reasons either. Jantien had done nothing wr
ong.
Mina and Nellie gave each other another look. The situation was bad, and there was nothing except the extraordinary that would change anything.
Nellie wished she could fix the terrible situation. She wished she knew someone who could find Jantien and let her out, with the apology that it had been a mistake. She wished the dragon would come back and listen to her, and she could tell him to frighten everyone away, break down the doors to the prison and set the prisoners free.
The group walked to the end of the wharf.
“In here,” Nellie said, opening the door to the sea cow barn.
To her surprise, a waft of warm air came out. A fire burned in the fire pit.
“You were mistaken that this is a safe place. Someone is already here,” Mina said.
“We can ask if we can stay with them,” Hilde said, and she walked into the barn.
“Hello?” Agatha called out.
There was no reply except the crunch of a sea cow grabbing a carrot from under the water. So who made the fire?
“Where did all these carrots come from?” Mina asked.
A whole bagful sat on the floor. The side of the bag bore an emblem: that of the city stores. What was that about thieves? By the Triune.
Anneke walked around the fire, holding her hand up as if she was running her fingers along an invisible object. Her eyes were distant.
“It’s because Boots is here. He’s watching us.”
“Boots!” her brother called.
They both looked at the ceiling. A faint trail of sparks crept over the underside of the beams that held up the roof.
But no matter how much the children called, the dragon wouldn’t show himself. Anneke had even brought the little kitten which she picked up and held in the air so that its legs dangled down from her hands.
The sparks drifted closer. The kitten looked at them, but then one of the women said something in the storeroom, and the sparks scooted back up to the ceiling.
“He’s afraid that we’re angry,” Ewout said.
“I think he’s scared of the fire dog,” Anneke said. “He doesn’t want to come out, but he still wants to help us.”