by Patty Jansen
“I don’t want him in control of our group. We will find somewhere else as soon as we can.” She knew it would not be easy, especially in winter. They might have to split up, stay quiet, and hope no one would ask questions about Prince Bruno or the dragon.
“What are these possessions of Madame Sabine’s that he was talking about?” Henrik asked.
“Madame Sabine has an interesting history with the Lurezian army. They’re balloons. Madame Sabine has the knowledge to make them. I think she was injured because she attempted to get the dragon to pull one with a harness, like the sea cows pull the boat.”
“That’s crazy.”
Nellie nodded. Noble people did crazy things.
“Do you think the letter is real?” she asked.
“Oh, it’s real. Casper wrote it. The seal is real. But I think someone made him write it, probably the shepherd. I think Adalbert Verdonck is right: the purpose of it is to lure him to the city so that someone can kill him, heirless. And then they can fight over all this land and his money, because the palace needs money. If they were already handing out food at the start of winter, the end of winter will be far worse. I repeat what I’ve said before: this estate will be the centre of a lot of trouble. We need to find another place to live.”
Chapter 6
NELLIE AND HENRIK were almost at the barn when the hoofbeats of a galloping horse came from behind.
“That horse is going at great speed,” Henrik said.
They stopped and turned around.
From out of the darkness came a pale shape. For a moment, Nellie thought it was a ghost horse, but it was making too much noise. It was a grey-white horse, one she had seen before: Madame Sabine’s stallion.
As they watched, it took a giant leap over the fence of the sheep paddock. It made a sharp turn and ran down the road until it was swallowed by the darkness.
“Well, I never . . .” Henrik said.
“Do you think the horse has followed us all the way from Saardam?”
“Looks like it.”
They waited for a bit, but the horse had vanished, so they went into the barn.
While they had been away, Lord Verdonck’s men had delivered a wheelbarrow of winter vegetables: cabbages, parsnips, carrots, beets and dried peas, half a wheel of cheese and some ham. Agatha and Gertie were happily cooking.
The delivery included bread, even if it was a little bit dry, but they were provided with some real butter, and all the children were very happy about that.
Looking over the goings-on in the barn, Nellie felt uneasy. She didn’t want to impose on the estate’s hospitality for any longer than necessary. She knew that the young lord had invited them for a purpose, and she didn’t like not knowing what that purpose was. But finding another place would be hard. If Stellem was as unreachable as Adalbert Verdonck had said, they might be stuck here for longer than planned.
But, for a while, all the talk was about food and the facilities.
Even Madame Sabine got into it, and now that Nellie knew she had served in some kind of special force, her impression of Madame Sabine had changed quite a bit.
She was not the pampered noblewoman that Nellie had thought her to be. From what she had heard, she didn’t really belong at the court at all.
The children asked Nellie to tell her a story before bed, so Nellie sat on the floor and told them a story of a young boy who always wanted to travel, who went with his parents across the sea from the east and came to a country where everyone was very scared of them. The boy had magic, and magic was considered normal where he came from. His family had dragons and no one thought anything of that.
She was talking, of course, of Bruno’s father Li Fai, who had come with his parents, even though he had been a little bit older than the story suggested.
Prince Bruno himself was sitting to the side, his knees drawn up to his chest and his arm slipped around his knees. His dark eyes roamed the inside of the barn, alternately looking to the women preparing dinner and the children listening to the story. The dragon box lay at his feet. Sometimes he smiled at Koby, who was helping the women.
Koby took a piece of bread to him and sat down next to him.
They started talking, but because Nellie was still telling the story, she couldn’t give it any attention. At any rate, Prince Bruno appeared to be laughing and listening to Koby.
After dinner, Nellie went with Gisele to check on the sea cows. Gisele stopped at the jetty, peering out into the canal where moonlight softly glinted on the dark water. “We need to remove that wreck from the canal.”
“Do you have the same urge as I to get out of here?” Nellie asked.
“I don’t like this place,” Gisele said. “Now, of course, the noble son doesn’t like the church. I’m wearing a habit. It’s quite likely that he has seen me at the palace. Of course he doesn’t like me. But I have the feeling he knows something he’s not sharing, or he wants something and knows we will be important in getting whatever he wants.”
“Yes,” Nellie said. “I have this feeling that he’s trying to use us against the church. I don’t like it. I don’t want to be used as a weapon against anything. And the church is not bad.”
They were silent for a while. In the distance an owl hooted in the woods.
“You were talking about a nunnery? Would it be possible that we could offer our services there?” Nellie asked.
“They have a farm,” Gisele said. “It’s a farm I like very much. I’ve spent some time there in the past years. The soil is rich and the land produces plenty. It’s a place of solace.”
“But?” Nellie suspected there was a but.
“The abbess died last year. She was very old. I would have trusted her with my life, but I don’t know much about the new one.”
“Could we visit, perhaps, to see if they could offer us a barn in return for our work?”
“I’ve been thinking this. A few of us could go. If they can’t accommodate us, we might find work in a village on the other side of the nunnery. The only problem is that it’s on the road from Saardam to the ferry to Burovia, so it’s more likely that soldiers and rogues looking for us would be there.”
“Let’s try the nunnery first.” It sounded like an ideal place to Nellie.
They walked back to the barn in silence.
From a distance the sound of children singing drifted on the cold night air.
When they went into the barn, they found the women seated by the fire, singing and clapping with some of the smaller children. Wim was getting carried away by the game. He still bore bruises and scabs from his time in the dungeons, but otherwise he appeared to be recovering well.
Mina had made a steaming pot of tea.
Henrik, and Jantien’s son Ewout, carried wood to the fire, and Henrik showed him how to feed the flames. Nellie knew that Henrik had grandchildren and thought he must miss them.
Prince Bruno sat with Koby and a couple of the older children, including Anneke. He held the Dragon box on his lap, and let others touch the lid.
Nellie pretended to go to the sleeping area, so that she could walk behind them. “Can you feel it?” Anneke said.
The little girl who had her hand on the box shook her head. “He isn’t really in there.”
“He is so,” Anneke said. “You can feel the magic in the lid. The same as when you touch Boots.”
“He is only warm,” the other girl said.
“No, it’s magic,” Anneke said.
Meanwhile, the adults were talking while seated around the fire.
Nellie listened with half an ear to how some of the women wanted to stay here because it was warm and dry, and how some others didn’t like being guests of a noble family.
“Before we know it, we’ll be drawn into servitude,” Agatha said.
“What do you want then, to freeze to death out in the forest where there is nothing? I have no interest in being a martyr for some sort of noble cause.”
“You don’t understand what the
se rich people can do to you,” Agatha said. “And what they can do to your children.”
She glanced at her daughter and son, who were still with Bruno and Henrik. Anneke was still arguing with the other girl about whether you could or could not feel magic. Prince Bruno had moved to the other side of the group, glaring across the barn with his arms crossed over his chest.
Nellie left the group of adults, and went to him. “Did the children say anything to upset you?” she asked.
“They know nothing.” His voice sounded angry.
“Nobody can know everything. They are only young children.”
“This is my dragon.”
“No one ever said he was anyone else’s.” She tried to make her voice soft and soothing, but he didn’t even look at her.
“They said he was yours.”
“He’s not. I looked after him, but he’s yours.”
“He listens to you better than he listens to me.”
“Maybe you need to give him time to get used to you.”
“He has to listen to me. I want to use him to punish those who punished me.”
“Punishing is not always the best thing to do.”
“Not even when they hit me for no reason at all, and they made me sit in the chapel without clothes on in the middle of winter until I was so cold that I fainted? Not even if they made me cite the Book of Verses off by heart and lashed me each time I got something wrong? Not even if they killed my mother and stepfather and told my father to go away and never come back?” His voice was shrill. “And they killed my sister and said she was evil, and this stupid fat man sits on the throne where my stepfather should be, and he talks to the priests that hit me, and pretends they are good people. Shouldn’t those people be killed?”
“Punishment is only good if it teaches people a lesson. If those people won’t do it again—”
“They won’t if they’re dead.”
“Or if other people can see it and they know the punishment was just and they know that whoever ordered the punishment is a just and not a vengeful person.”
“I think it’s fair. I suffered for many years. They will only suffer for a short time.”
“But if they’re dead, they can never apologise or tell other people how wrong they were.”
He had to think about that for a while. “You said yourself that the priests should be punished. Why are we here in this barn listening to the stupid man in the big house up the lane when we should be in the city fighting the stupid monks? I want the dragon to kill all of them.”
“The dragon is a gentle creature. He won’t kill someone just because you say so.”
“See? He listens to you, not to me.”
“He listens to himself and decides what is right.”
“That makes no sense. He has to listen to me.”
His anger disturbed her. Sure, she would be angry if she had been locked up, but he had gone from an injured, timid boy to a really angry adolescent in a very short time.
“We will go back to the city and you will get your revenge, I promise.”
He pressed his lips together, but said nothing.
“We need to get ourselves better organised, because there is no way we can escape the guards with just this small group. We need to wait until spring when we’re all strong again.”
He still said nothing, so she suggested that he go to sleep, although that wouldn’t solve anything. But morning made everything so much better. She would know what to say to him in the morning. Tonight, the Triune would touch her in her sleep and tell her what to say.
Bruno sat down in the straw, and when the children asked him to play a game he played with them.
Nellie was somewhat reassured by this, but to be honest, he didn’t really belong with the children anymore, if he ever had. He seemed to like Koby, so maybe she should talk to Koby about keeping an eye on him.
Nellie returned to the fire with the adults, where people discussed what they should do next.
Jantien wanted to travel to Florisheim to see if she could find her husband. “Now that the Regent is dead, he’ll be coming back to Saardam and if he finds us gone, he’ll be beside himself with worry.”
“You could go back to Saardam,” Agatha said. “A couple of us want to go.”
“You can’t ask Jantien to go back there,” Floris said. “She almost got killed.”
“I’ll go back,” Yolande said from where she lay in the straw. Her voice was rough and, after she had spoken, a hacking cough racked her body. “I’m dying anyway. I’ll die on the bastard’s doorstep and he can dispose of my body. Which is easy because I’ll be in the church anyway.” She chuckled and her voice faded in another coughing fit.
“I think Yolande is the reason we should stay here,” Hilde said. “She is too ill to travel. I don’t understand why you’re all so keen to leave again. Lord Verdonck is friendly, he is happy to have us stay, the barn is comfortable, it’s warm here and we have enough food. What more do you want?”
“He says that if we want to stay here, Madame Sabine can’t stay here. Since we rescued her and she has come here with us, I think we should all either stay or go. I don’t want to make any exceptions.”
“If you wish, I can go with Sabine and take her to one of the order’s monasteries,” Brother Martinus said.
Everyone turned to him. He rarely said anything.
Hilde spread her hands. “See? The solution is easy.”
But Nellie didn’t want that at all. She was sure that if Brother Martinus reached any of the monasteries along the river, he would tell them where to find the missing ship and there would be all kinds of trouble. Besides, she didn’t trust either him or Madame Sabine not to betray the group.
So she told the women what she and Gisele had already discussed, that a few people would go to the nearby nunnery to see if they could house a group of thirty-five people for the winter in return for work.
Gisele then explained what sort of place this nunnery was, that she had been there and that it was very comfortable and not very far.
And finally everyone agreed that it was at least worth investigating. Gisele said that she would ask the groundsman for a wagon tomorrow.
Chapter 7
“I’VE BORROWED A HORSE and cart,” Gisele said at breakfast the next morning.
Nellie had just risen, her head still fuzzy from sleep, and she sat on one of the hard benches in the fruit picker’s kitchen, eating porridge. As usual when she worried, she’d lain awake until well into the small hours, listening to Yolande’s coughing; but, unlike Yolande, she couldn’t sleep in.
Gisele looked far too awake, her cheeks rosy from the cold.
“It’s not far to the nuns’ farm,” Gisele said. “There is a forest in between the Verdonck estate and the main road. The farm is just the other side of the forest.”
They could easily visit in a day.
Next was the question of who should come. Nellie, obviously. Gisele, to introduce them and steer the cart. She wanted to take Henrik, but he said it would be best for him to stay in case there was trouble. That could be trouble from outside as well as within the group.
Bruno ate at the table by himself, with his dragon box, still with an angry expression on his face. Apparently he wanted to come.
Henrik had to promise him to teach him to shoot with a bow and arrow.
“I can come,” Brother Martinus said.
That was the second time now that he’d offered to do something that took him away from the group. No, he was definitely staying here.
Nellie chose Wim as their last companion. He had found a heavy cloak with a sheepskin lining on the ship. It was so big that he almost disappeared in it. Despite tasting all the Regent’s food, Wim was a skinny man.
The cart stood outside the barn, a simple flatbed affair with a single bench and a tray. The horse was very big and looked dopey.
Nellie, Gisele, and Wim got in. Gisele took the reins, Nellie sat next to her and Wim climbed into t
he tray.
Just as they were about to leave, Koby came from the barn.
“Oh, Gisele, can I come, please?”
“Come on then, hop on.”
Koby climbed into the tray with Wim, and they were off.
First they travelled through the estate’s fields, now fallow because it was winter. A frosting of ice dusted the stubble on the ground. It would probably thaw out later, but for now the world was frozen in silence. The cows moped over a soggy pile of hay and the sheep nosed around in the dead grass. Not a single bird gave a peep.
They crested the low ridge. Ahead lay a grazing field—the grass now brown—interspersed with corpses of willow trees. The road wound through this field, occasionally avoiding wet marshy areas. They came to the edge of the forest.
For Nellie, having travelled through the forests of the east, this was not a real forest. The willow trees were not very tall, and the leafless branches let through plenty of light.
In the middle, they passed another marshy area surrounding a pond, where a number of deer took flight. It was quite soothing and pretty.
Only some of the willows were harvested, to make baskets from their supple branches. Most of the trees had their natural shape. Being winter, the branches bore no leaves, and the grass between the trees was dead.
It was because of this sparse vegetation that Nellie spotted what looked like a hut in the middle of the forest. And then another one. She also thought she could see a wagon, and a grazing horse.
She pointed. “What’s that?”
Gisele squinted. “I don’t know. The map said nothing about a village.”
She unrolled the map on her knees just to be sure. “Oh, I see. It’s a water mill. I guess the miller keeps some horses.”
They could now see the house as well. A plume of smoke rose from the chimney.
“All this land belongs to the church,” Gisele said. “Adalbert Verdonck is not happy about it, because his mother gave it to the nuns when she found out that his father was cheating on her.”
“With Madame Sabine?”