by Patty Jansen
That might well be true, but then where did those carrots, blankets and other supplies come from?
But no matter how carefully they looked, they could find no evidence that someone had used this barn for a long time. It was almost as if someone had come here to set up the shelter with food and blankets just for their use.
Whether these items were set there for good or ill, the women could do nothing but use them. The storeroom was snug and dry, and the carrots and beans made a thick soup that kept everyone warm. For now, no one knew where they were.
* * *
The judgement of the prisoners was held the next day.
After a brief cold snap, the snow had melted again, and now it was raining. The city looked grey and colourless. The snow had been reduced to large areas of slush. They were slippery and made for cold wet feet when Nellie and a couple of the women made their way along the deserted quay. They had left the children in the warehouse because they didn’t need to see this.
A great crowd of people had gathered in the marketplace for the open court session. During the morning, carpenters had erected an installation. Three chairs stood atop a platform. A strange contraption was placed at the front of the platform. The part she could see over the heads of the crowd consisted of a horizontal beam atop a pole. A chain hung down from one end of the beam.
The ornate chairs with red velvet cushions were still empty. A couple of guards stood at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the platform.
One of them was Henrik.
He stared over the square, his face unemotional.
An ugly wagon stopped in front of the mayor’s house, pulled by a team of strong workhorses. The driver sat at a wooden bench at the front of the heavy wooden box on wheels, with a row of tiny windows near the top. It was the prison wagon.
Two guards opened the door at the back, and the prisoners were marched from the wagon like a flock of sheep.
There were quite a few of them, old men and women. Nellie recognised Emmie, Josie and Jantien helping Yolande, the old owner of the shop on the corner opposite the warehouse, and quite a few other people including the baker, the herb seller and others. She was glad that Jantien’s children were still in the sea cow barn.
All the prisoners had been tied together with a rope around their wrists so that none of them could escape without tripping up all the others. They were dragged to the bottom of the platform and told to line up facing the crowd. So many of them were women. There were only a few men, including Wim, who used to work as taster in the palace kitchens. What had he done wrong?
Normally, when the Regent held an open court for serious criminals, people in the city would jeer, but everyone in the crowd was silent. That was the fear the Regent had sown into the hearts of the citizens.
The prison wagon left and was replaced with a shiny coach in the red colour of the Carmine royal family, but lacking the royal standard at the back. This was the same coach that Queen Johanna had used to travel around the city. It was disgusting that this self-important man now used it for this purpose.
When the coach came to a halt, the coach driver jumped off, walked around the side and opened the door after folding out the steps.
From where she stood, Nellie could see into the interior of the coach.
For a while nothing happened, and then a booted foot appeared in the entrance, followed by the ornate trouser leg of the Regent himself. Compared to the scruffy clothing of the townsfolk, his blue cloak looked magnificent. The Regent rarely left the palace, so it didn’t get much use.
A few people at the front of the crowd gave a lacklustre cheer. He waved at them, but didn’t look further into the crowd. The Regent was not a popular man, and he knew it. The guards at the front ordered people to applaud, but beyond the first few rows, few people could be moved to follow their example.
The Regent stepped stiffly out of the carriage, assisted by a guard, and made his way between the two lines of guards up the steps, before sitting down in the middle of the three seats on the platform.
The next person to come out of the coach was the Shepherd Wilfridus. He wore his full cream-white robes and used his shepherd’s staff to assist his descent, refusing the help from the guards.
The crowd fell silent. Maybe, like Nellie, they remembered his wide-eyed, red-faced rant against magic and evil.
He walked straight-backed between the two lines of guards and sat down on the seat furthest from the steps. His face was blank, and he stared over the heads of the crowd.
Who would take the third seat?
Certainly not Madame Sabine? In the past Nellie could remember the spot having been taken by the mayor, but his mop of white hair that always looked windblown peeked up from the gathering of nobles to the side of the platform.
Someone else moved inside the coach. Nellie recognised the hideous blue trousers before the owner came fully out of the coach. It was the Regent’s son Casper.
What was that brat doing here?
He emerged from the coach and strode between the two lines of guards with his head held up as if he owned the world. He climbed the stairs to the platform and sat down in the third seat, looking over the gathered crowd.
Nellie always prided herself on being a forgiving person. She didn’t like to keep grudges and preferred to forgive people for missteps and move on, but the hatred that welled up in her when seeing that ill-mannered brat in the position where he would decide over the lives of people sickened her. That spoilt piece of—no that would be inappropriate language. She would not lower herself to using that when describing people.
But oh, she was angry.
One of the guards called the others to attention, and the town crier came up the platform. He faced the audience, ringing his bell. Then he held up a piece of parchment and read, in his pompous voice:
“Let the proceedings begin! The Regent announces that one of his personal guests in the palace was murdered through evil witchcraft. He has made it his mission to find and eradicate all peddlers of witchcraft and protect the people of this city.”
A few people cheered, but the sound died away quickly.
He stepped aside so that Nellie could see the strange contraption at the front of the platform.
A platform hung from the chain, and the other end of the beam was attached to a second chain with a hook on the end. A couple of hessian bags sat to the side.
“By the order of the exulted Regent, we will be weighing these witches,” the town crier said. “When they weigh less than two sacks they are obviously held up on this world with the aid of magic, and they will be proven to be witches. The shepherd and the Regent’s noble son are here to be witnesses and the shepherd will make the final declaration.”
The first woman climbed the platform. Nellie didn’t know her. She must have been in the prisons for quite some time, because her skin was deathly pale, marked with red sores. She was thin as a skeleton and barely strong enough to hold herself up.
The guard lifted up the first sack and hung it on the hook. The platform wobbled. The woman grabbed onto the chain to stop herself falling.
When he added the second sack, the platform with the woman shot up.
The Regent nodded. Casper nodded, looking self-important.
People around Nellie gasped.
The town crier called out, “A witch! She is a witch.”
The woman fell to her knees. “I am not a witch. I have a husband and three children who need me. I have an old mother who is sick and I need to look after her. Please.”
The Regent’s face remained unemotional. He flapped his hand to indicate that the guards take the woman off the platform.
Two guards grabbed the thin woman under her arms and dragged her off, still wailing.
“What will happen to her?” a woman next to Nellie asked.
“Nothing good,” Mina said.
“Yeah,” the woman said. “The Regent will be making some grand announcement that we’re all safe thanks to him. But she�
��s done nothing wrong, that one. All she did was lose her husband and camp in the church because she thought helping the poor meant that the shepherd would look kindly on her. They’ll be sentenced to burn on the stake, mark my words.”
Nellie felt cold.
The next woman was much bigger. Nellie didn’t know her name, but recognised her face from the markets. She was of sturdy build and quite tall. She took her place on the platform and crossed her arms over her chest, looking directly at the Regent and the others facing her. The Regent’s son had jammed his hands between his knees and studied his feet. The Regent said something to him, and the boy straightened. But the woman was still staring at him and he turned his gaze down again.
The crowd was utterly silent.
The guard hung the first sack on the hook where it swung back and fro a few times before coming to a rest. The platform sat solidly on the ground. Surely the next sack would not come close to lifting the platform off the ground?
But as the guard hung it on the hook, Nellie noticed that another guard was putting his foot underneath the platform where the woman stood.
With the tip of his boot, he lifted the platform off the ground. It floated briefly before settling back onto the ground.
“She is a witch!” the town crier shouted.
The woman stuck her chin in the air.
Several people in the crowd yelled out. The guards all sprang into alertness, including Henrik, who held his hand on his sword hilt.
He wouldn’t turn on his own people, would he?
Nellie’s heart thudded.
Mina next her said, “Did you see that? He cheated.”
The blood roared in Nellie’s ears.
But the crowd calmed, and the guards returned to their positions. The woman was taken off the platform to join the other one who had been weighed.
And so it went on with all the prisoners who had come out of the wagon. Big, small, young, old, man or woman, every one was declared a witch, even the ones who pleaded to the Regent for forgiveness.
Jantien, Josie, Emmie, Yolande and Wim all followed the second woman’s example and remained stoic, but none of them were set free.
The shepherd looked on but only spoke once or twice. His face was determined as he watched people fall to their knees and plead for their lives, and he did nothing. He had to know that the guard at the platform cheated by putting his foot under the platform. Was he so blinded by his hatred for supposed magic that he would allow this to happen in front of his eyes? A man of the church that called itself compassionate and claimed to care for the common people?
Nellie could barely think for her anger.
All this was a farce. She bet it was done by the order of Shepherd Wilfridus, who was a mean man. The Regent knew it and he played along with it. Maybe the shepherd told him that if he wanted to be king, he had to do what the church said. Casper knew it and also knew that if he lied as much as much as these men were doing at home, he’d probably cop a strap across his backside.
He still sat with his hands jammed between his knees, but stared ahead as his father ordered the women to be taken away. His expression was distant.
Henrik . . . she hoped to heaven that Henrik saw this and next time she met him, she would give him even more of her mind than she had last time and she would not be sorry about any of it. Or apologise.
When all the prisoners had been weighed and found to be witches or wizards, the Regent announced that they were to be drowned in the harbour as soon as there was enough open water for the final test to be carried out.
“Any person who floats is a witch and will be shot by our archers. Any who sinks deserves to die for scaring the populace and pretending to be a witch or consorting with peddlers of witchcraft.”
The proceedings concluded, the Regent, his son and the shepherd rose from their seats and made their way into the waiting coach while rumbles of discontent rippled through the crowd. None of the protests were too loud but, away from the platform and out of earshot of the guards, Nellie didn’t hear one word in favour of the Regent.
Nellie and Mina returned to the sea cow barn.
Now that the weather had turned warmer, they had just a few days to save the Jantien, Emmie and all the other people from certain death in the cold water of the harbour.
Chapter 10
* * *
WHEN NELLIE AND MINA walked back to the barn, it was getting dark. It had rained a bit, and already a layer of water covered the ice.
“There will be no ice left within a few days,” Mina said, her voice dark. “The Regent can hold the witch drownings by week’s end.”
“What are we going to tell the children?”
Mina shrugged and shook her head. Her eyes glittered before she wiped them with the back of her hand.
Nellie said, “We’ll tell them we will have a plan.”
She had no idea where that came from. She didn’t have a plan.
Mina turned to Nellie. “What sort of plan? What can we do? We’re just a bunch of poor women. No one will listen to us.” Her voice cracked.
“No idea yet, but we’ll make a plan. We’ll do something.” Mistress Johanna had always done something even if the situation seemed dire. Nellie wanted to believe they could do something. They had to try at the very least.
“Do you believe it?”
“Coming here is part of the plan. We’re safe for now, we’re dry, we have food to eat. That was the first part of the plan.”
Mina snorted. “I can’t see how we can do anything at all that will defeat a bevy of heavily armed guards.”
“We can’t defeat them. We need to surprise them with something smart.”
“I’m not smart. If I was, I’d have married a rich man and wouldn’t be in this position.”
“We have to think of something.”
“I don’t know what, and I don’t know why you keep saying that.”
Nellie tried to shut out Mina’s whining. Yes, things were bad, but that meant they had nothing left to lose. That meant they could do something utterly reckless.
“We have a dragon.”
“We don’t have it. It won’t do as we say and won’t even show itself.”
“We could use him to scare people.”
“In all the ways we don’t want it to. Look, I know that you can’t help it, but Agatha is right in saying that we never had any trouble before you came. You helped us and that was good, but I think it’s better if you went back to the palace.”
“Do you really think I could do that?”
Mina looked at her.
“Do you think it’s that simple? Do you think anyone who watched me being dragged out the door by that dragon is just going to forget about it? There are whole armies looking for that dragon. Everyone in the palace is looking for him. Some people say he has killed a man, and they want either the dragon, or me, to be guilty. I can’t just pretend he wasn’t there.”
“What were you doing with it anyway?”
“I hope you don’t mean that as it sounds.”
“I mean it however you take it. If you were doing stuff with that dragon, then heaven help you.”
“I wasn’t. My father worked for the church and he knew the church bought that dragon box. Someone stole it from the church and I wanted to return it to its rightful owners.”
“Maybe you should just stop worrying so much about what is right and think about the people you’re with. If that dragon hadn’t come out of the hayloft, then we would have been fine in the warehouse.”
“So now it’s my fault? I’m a horrible person?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You implied it.” Nellie let out a long breath. If it were possible, she would go back to the palace, since these people were so ungrateful. “The dragon is a creature with his own will. He’s no more mine than he is anyone else’s, except maybe prince Bruno’s, if he’s still alive. He cursed me with his presence. So stop blaming me for what he does. I’m trying my best, but no o
ne here seems to appreciate what I do—”
“Nellie, please, we do appreciate what you do, but can you please agree with me that the dragon is dangerous to us?”
“Only if you can agree with me that I can’t tell him what to do and I’m still not going to let that stop me from trying to do something for Jantien.”
Mina shook her head and then smiled and hugged Nellie. “You’re crazy. You have this thing where you’ll tell everyone you’re just a maid, but then you’ll travel to Florisheim and serve the Queen and the next moment you’re working in the kitchens, all without complaining.”
“Well, I didn’t ask for the kitchen job.”
“No, but you did it, just the same.”
“Because life goes on, and you make the best of it. That’s how I was brought up. Complaining gets you nowhere.”
They arrived at the barn where the others waited. Disappointment was clear on the children’s faces that their mother hadn’t come back.
But they had few questions. Maybe Agatha, in her great bluntness, had found a way to tell the children that their mother would probably never come back.
Well, that wouldn’t be true if Nellie had anything to do with it, and the more she thought about it, the more determined she became.
If they blamed her for Jantien’s imprisonment, she would try to free Jantien. If they blamed her for killing Lord Verdonck, she would prove her innocence. Because out of all the things her father said, one determined her very essence: the truth always has the longest breath.
No matter how bad the lies, the truth always won. Hopefully before people died.
They prepared a simple meal, but because it had been so busy in the marketplace due to the platform for the judges being set up, Nellie had not been able to go to the palace for the leftovers.
Dinner was nothing more than a dried out hunk of bread and soup made from the carrots that had been mysteriously left in the barn. Nellie knew she would be hungry in the middle of the night, and that it would be very cold.
Maybe she should open the dragon box to see if the dragon would show himself, for all the trouble it would cause. At least they would be warm.