by Patty Jansen
Was the dog perhaps a spirit that had escaped from the tree?
And why did the guards worry about petty magic when that thing was running around?
He squinted at her. “You seem to know a good deal about this magic thing. Do you know what else it could be?”
“The creature is a dog. I think fire apparitions normally belong to a magician who needs to conjure them. I don’t know if any of these apparitions can live by itself. I have no idea who it belongs to, but it can’t just be someone using wind magic. It has to be a powerful magician.”
“So there is a powerful magician in town, even after the Regent has spent years banning all magic? Who would have thought?”
“Maybe the guards are looking for this magician.”
He laughed. “Then they’re looking in all the wrong places, and they’re not asking the right people. They should be asking those trinket-sellers. Are you sure you don’t have magic?”
“I don’t, but several in our group do. That’s why we want to leave town, to tell you the truth. My cousins will help us. We want to go there. I need a boat.”
“You humour me. I’ll help you. On the other side of this wharf is a big longboat that no one is using in winter. It’s a cargo ship, and they can’t go into the frozen canals. It’s not much good going downriver, mind, because the sides are too low for going anywhere near the ocean. You’ll want to go upriver.”
“Yes, that’s what we want. I think I can get a team of sea cows together. We need to fix a harness.”
“Don’t take it too lightly, mind. The river is swollen at this time of the year. There may be ice coming down, and you want shelter for when it rains.”
“Oh no, this one is not for going far. We’re going just out of town.”
He frowned at her.
“Are you sure about all this missy? It seems to me that it’s all very odd, and I don’t know that you understand what you’re getting yourself in for. It’s not as though women like yourself handle boats a lot.”
“I was on a boat with Queen Johanna when she had to flee. We did all the handling and steering ourselves. It was one of my tasks.”
He gave her a concerned look.
Nellie asked him to show her the boat he had in mind.
It lay on the other side of the wharf, a sturdy low vessel that would transport heavy things across the harbour.
“It’s very heavy,” Nellie said.
“It’s stable. If you have children in the group, their frolicking about won’t upset the boat at all.”
“It would be slow.”
“And quiet.”
But Nellie wasn’t looking for slow. “I’m more after something like that.” She pointed at a much lighter rowing boat.
“You can’t use that. That’s only for inside the canals. That little thing would capsize the moment you took it out of the harbour and it got hit by an ice floe. With all the will in the world, I couldn’t let you take that thing out of the heads. I’m a good man, and that would be murder.”
“I still don’t want a heavy boat.”
“That’s madness. How many of you are there?”
“You have some magic, right?”
He frowned at her. “What’s that got to do with it?”
“A lot. You’re not on the Regent’s side.”
“By the Triune, no. Though I wish he’d plant his fat arse on the throne, so someone in Burovia or Aroden could be properly offended and send mercenaries to kill him.”
“You must also be concerned about the Regent’s order that no magic is allowed in the city.”
“Not so much for myself. I got nothing left here. If they come calling, I get in my boat and sail off somewhere else. To Anglia if necessary. But yeah, I’m concerned for the folk who can’t do that.”
“Several people got arrested in the artisan quarter the day before yesterday. The Regent has decided that they will be drowned.”
“I heard about that. That’s foul business.”
“We need the boat to rescue them.”
His frown turned into a wide-eyed look. His mouth fell open. “But that is a dangerous thing to do. The harbour will be full of guards. They’ll use crossbows.”
“One woman is the mother of six children in our group. She’s done nothing wrong.”
He rubbed his chin with his hand. “That’s not right, that is.”
“We have to help her and the others.”
“All right. I can help you with the boat. You’ll be wanting to get across the harbour fast. There is a little barge on the other side that will do just that. It’s a stable flat-bottomed thing, and useless for sailing, pretty useless all around, because it gets carried sideways in a current. I believe people used it to get peat. I can attach hooks so you can put the rig onto the front. I can help you replace your beam. I can even help you sell it. But I am not keen on weapons because those guards will have bows and arrows. I wouldn’t count on the Regent not wanting to harm women.”
“But what if we put up a shield?”
She remembered seeing building materials in one warehouse. Surely there was something they could use to protect themselves against any arrows.
He took her around to the other side of the wall where the peat ship lay. As he had said, it was a plain flat-bottomed thing, and she was a bit concerned with how flimsy it looked.
He showed her how he could fasten hooks at the front to attach a team of sea cows. Nellie told him she wanted to attach the big harness of fifteen.
“You’ll have to watch those animals, because they’ll be feisty.”
“I need a lot of speed,” Nellie said.
“You’ll be dealing with young untrained animals. They might not stop in time. And what are you going to do when you’ve rescued these people? That little boat will be heavy, and won’t be as fast when it’s low in the water.”
“I have a plan for that, too. That’s why I need the second harness.”
To her ears, it all sounded like a ridiculous plan. After all, what did she know about boats? But he didn’t tell her so. In fact, he promised that he would help get the boat across the harbour and drag people into safety. Because you will need a strong man’s hands.
He didn’t ask her what she wanted to do after the rescue, and she didn’t tell him about the Guentherite ship.
Next she needed to find something to use as a shield. She found a stack of wooden slats in the next warehouse. With the rope in the barn, they could be tied together into a flexible shield.
To get a new beam for the sea cow harness, she needed a carpenter.
The fisherman knew someone who lived one street back from the harbour, and he took her to the workshop where pieces of furniture stood in various stages of completeness, surrounded by wood shavings and sawdust. Two apprentices were sanding back a large table for revarnishing.
The carpenter listened to what she needed and said he could make another beam, but he wanted payment. She offered to fix his clothes, but he had a wife and three daughters who could do that.
“I have no money,” Nellie said. “Is there nothing we could barter? I could bring you some ham.”
It would mean asking Dora for an extra donation, and eating carrot soup for a few nights, but they’d survive.
“Hmmm. Ham and a cask of wine or beer would do.”
Nellie didn’t have either of those, but then she had an idea. “Gin. Would you accept gin?”
His eyes widened. “Would I accept it? That would be more than adequate.”
Ham and gin it was, then.
“You surprise me, missy,” the fisherman said while they walked back. “You’d not be the kind I expect to deal with gin.”
“I’m not, but I know people who do.”
“Tell me, once we rescue those people from the water, what do you plan to do?”
Since he was now in with the plan, she might as well tell him all. He might have useful and life-saving tips.
“I have another plan for that. You said the other
day that there was never anyone at the Guentherite ship.”
His eyes widened. “You’re kidding?”
“No. We make sure we sneak the little ones on board and attach the second team to the ship before the rescue, and then when the rescue boat comes back, it will take the prisoners to the harbour side of the ship and we’ll be ready to cast off.”
“That is the most daring plan I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s all we’ve got.”
“You’d need the large team on that ship,” he said. “And the nine-animal team on the small boat.”
“I thought the other way around. I wanted the large team on the small boat because we need to be faster. Then when we rescue the people, we take them to the order’s ship and hook up both teams.”
“So we’ll want twenty-six animals?”
“That was the plan.”
“That should do, but how are we going to get the sea cows? No one has that many animals anymore.”
“They come into the old Brouwer Company barn. We have carrots they seem to like. Once we fix the harness, we’ll try to lure the animals in. Most of them have probably worked before and will be used to wearing a harness, although the younger ones might be a bit feisty.”
“You really have thought about this.”
“I have—wait, earlier, you said we?”
“I have nothing left to lose. My wife is dead, my children grown up. I’m just existing from one day to the next, waiting for the Regent’s men to come around and accuse me of having magic. If they’re going to arrest me, I might as well give them a proper reason.” He grinned.
“All right.” Nellie was glad for his offer because he seemed capable and experienced in all the things she was not. “As long as you’re happy to leave the city with us.”
“I am, as long as there is water for me to go fishing.”
“I didn’t catch your name.”
“It’s Floris.”
“I’m Nellie.”
“Nice to meet you, Nellie. I’ve heard about you from a friend who used to work for the Brouwer company.” He gave her a fishy handshake. “I was wondering if it was you. I knew your father. ‘Nellie’ doesn’t sound right. You should call yourself Cornelia. A lot of the common folk are talking about you, because you’re one of them. In some places they call you the Dragonspeaker.”
Nellie laughed. “Well, if there is a dragon to be spoken to, it’s sure not speaking to me.”
Nellie wasn’t sure that she was comfortable with so many people talking about her, but it was to be expected. Soon, few places in the city would be safe.
“You still have the dragon?”
“The dragon is not mine. I can’t command him, but he follows me around when he feels like it.”
But still, she chuckled to herself when walking back to the barn. The trail of sparks followed her along the quayside, and she had no means to call the dragon to return to his solid form; but to be called the Dragonspeaker—that was silly and impressive at the same time.
Nellie the Dragonspeaker.
Chapter 12
* * *
NOW THAT SHE HAD A PLAN, they had a few days to carry it out.
First, Nellie needed to secure ham for the carpenter. So the next morning, she went on another trip to the palace. It was risky, and she didn’t need to go for leftovers because they still had the carrots and beans that had been left in the barn, and they now had a supply of fish, but there was no other place that Nellie could get ham.
She got up before the others, wound the shawl around her head and collected her basket with pots to disguise herself as a spice seller.
She stumbled through the dark barn to light the fire and turn up the wick to the old oil lamp and set a pot to boil so that there would be porridge and tea when she came back.
Two sea cows popped their heads above the water, and Nellie tossed them some carrots, which they ate with much crunching and slobbering, attracting even more sea cows. She guessed at least twenty animals called the barn home.
The number of cats had increased to six, the puppy still came to sleep under the workbench at night, and Anneke had pointed out that a handful of bats hung in the rafters during the day. The dragon’s presence attracted other creatures.
Nellie made her way along the dark quay. Floris was still at home, his fishing boat tied up and nets neatly stowed on the deck.
In the palace forecourt a lone boy was walking a beautiful white and grey horse held by the reins. Those horses were Madame Sabine’s. When she went into town, she would either ride one, or two of them would pull the coach. They were beautiful, tall animals with dappled grey fur, white manes and tails, white fetlocks and pale blue eyes. The stallion, which the boy was taking for a walk, had the reputation of being a cranky animal, but rumours also went that it was worth a lot.
When she walked past the stairs to the palace’s main entrance, the sounds of angry voices drifted down from inside the foyer.
By the Triune, what was going on there?
Nellie looked over her shoulder. The guards at the gates had gone back to watching the market square. The stable boy was taking the horse back inside. Nobody could see her sneaking up the stairs.
Nellie stopped at the door, in the shadow of the porch, from where she could see into the palace foyer.
A surprising number of people stood in the foyer, especially considering the time of day.
The Regent’s housekeeper was up at this time but he would be bustling about getting breakfast ready. The palace guards were up, but they’d be standing silently by the doors. The palace’s domestic staff would be doing the washing and cleaning, not standing on the stairs and the edges of the foyer watching a commotion.
The centre of the attention was Lord Verdonck’s son Adalbert.
The housekeeper was speaking. “And my master has assured us that anyone who has anything else to do with this dreadful affair will also be arrested.”
Lord Verdonck’s son said, “I don’t believe you. None of the food produced here was poisoned. Someone came to my father’s room and poisoned him, just him, no one else. Your suggestions that he was killed by a dragon are ridiculous.”
“You haven’t seen those scars,” the housekeeper said.
“Rubbish. You speak lies. My father has had those scars for a long time, longer than you’ve been alive. You’re trying to cover up for whoever amongst these pathetic nobles in this so-called court of yours has killed my father. If you continue to make no effort to unmask the murderer, I will withdraw my funding from this ridiculous excuse of a kingdom and you can all come to our estate on your knees begging for forgiveness and money. And let me tell you this: I’ll take extreme pleasure in saying no to your fat, pampered faces.”
“My master assures me we are hot on the trail of the dragon—”
“Stop your ridiculous suggestions. The dragon did not kill my father. The food at the banquet was not poisoned. The wine was not poisoned or if it was, your beloved monks would have something to do with it, and you wouldn’t want to admit that now, would you?” The housekeeper stepped back. Nellie knew the man from her time working in the kitchen. He was a nervous, easily upset character and no match for the young noble’s power of argumentation. He stammered, “The Regent has instructed the guards to arrest this person. Surely the Regent knows best.”
Which person? Had anyone been arrested?
“It is nonsense. Just like your city raids are nonsense. The talk about the dragon is nonsense. All you will achieve is that you will sow discord amongst your people. None of the staff have done anything wrong, and your master knows it.”
The housekeeper sniffed. “I will not take this treatment any more. I will complain to my master.”
“Do that. I will enjoy arguing with him.”
The housekeeper gave him a rude prick look, turned around and strode up the stairs, followed by the guards.
Adalbert Verdonck strode in the direction of the guest quarters, uttering a snort that sounded
like, “Idiots.”
The housekeeping staff dispersed and Nellie scurried down the steps before anyone could ask what she was doing there.
She sped past the side of the palace into the servants door to the kitchen.
The moment she opened it, several people gasped.
“There she is,” Corrie said, seated at the table. “We were just talking about you, Nellie.”
Dora stood at the stove, stirring a pot. “Quick, hide yourself before the guards see you.”
Hide herself? “Whatever is wrong?” Nellie asked.
“The guards were just here looking for you. You’re to be arrested to be accused of the murder of Lord Verdonck.”
“Me?”
But Nellie felt cold inside. She had expected that this would happen at some point when no clear culprit could be found.
Corrie explained, “Yes, they say because you visited him in his room, and because you got herbs for him, you must have poisoned him.”
“Well I didn’t, but I guess that is no argument.”
“No, and you must leave as quickly as possible. The guards wanted to know if we had heard anything from you since your last visit. Apparently, they went to the warehouse where you were rumoured to be, and didn’t find you there.”
Nellie’s heart jumped.
Had Zelda had been spying for the guards? Really? There was no way that the guards would otherwise have known where she was. The ones who had come into the warehouse had been city guards who didn’t know her, and had enough to deal with, like a big dragon in the hayloft.
“I can see it’s becoming dangerous. I won’t come back here after today. At least not for a while, but I need to get some ham.”
Dora laughed. “You’re getting picky now?”
“I promised someone. It’s a trade.”
Dora went into the pantry and came back with a hessian bag full of bread and cheese. She put it on the table in front of Nellie.
“Here is your ham. I put in a little bit more than usual. If you let me know where you are, I’ll try to come out there and bring it to you, or I’ll send one of the young ones. We have to be very careful. They’ll punish me if they know where I’m going.”