by Patty Jansen
She crossed the muddy yard, where the pigs shuffled in their pen, and went through the lane out the gate. She pulled her scarf as far forward as it would go so that her face was in shadow and scooted past the guard. He wasn’t concerned with people leaving the palace.
She met Henrik in the street opposite the gate. He stood waiting on the corner with his hands in his pocket and his collar drawn up around his neck. His breath steamed in the light of a lantern a bit further down.
He looked up when he heard her footsteps, and his face split into a grin when he recognised her.
“I wasn’t gone that long,” she said.
“No, but things are afoot in the city. I don’t like the thought of you being out there by yourself.”
“I know where I’m going. But yes, I agree, things are not good.” And she told him that Casper and his friends had locked themselves in the ballroom and no one was sure what was going on inside.
“Bruno could still be there,” Henrik said.
“He could be, but I expect Dora would know about it if a strange boy who damaged the church had sheltered in the palace.” Or was Dora lying? It hurt her to think like this. She’d considered Dora a friend.
“It sounds a terrible situation, and the boys must be desperate.”
“Or they could be smart.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know how Adalbert Verdonck showed us the letter Casper had written to him asking for support? Casper obviously watched his father really well. He must have gotten some support, and it could well be that he figured out the shepherd was trying to use him, and now he’s barricaded himself into the ballroom with his friends.”
And then she told him about Dora. “I always thought that Zelda betrayed us, and she always insisted she didn’t. She might be right.”
That didn’t mean Nellie was now going to trust Zelda, because Zelda was not the kind of person she wanted to trust, but maybe Zelda’s herb trade was less dangerous than Nellie had assumed, except to the pockets of the rich.
The thought made her sick, as if everyone used the situation to benefit themselves. “So. We still don’t know for sure where Bruno is. If only we could figure out how to get into the palace while remaining undetected, when the guards are controlled by magic and the shepherd prowls with his fire dog, and the only thing that could possibly defeat the fire dog—the dragon—is either inside, injured or weak.”
“Pretty much,” Henrik said. “But there will be plenty of talk about this. It’s dark now, and we won’t find anything else tonight. Let’s go and find something to eat.”
Chapter 15
THEY WALKED ON for a little while in silence. Their footsteps echoed in the empty streets.
Nellie expected to be followed, or for someone to spring from the shadows at every corner or porch they passed, but the streets remained quiet.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I said we were getting something to eat.”
“But isn’t your daughter’s house over on the other side of town?”
“We’re not going to her house yet. I’m taking you to a favourite place of mine.”
“Here? In the harbour?” She didn’t think Henrik would visit sailor’s taverns and whorehouses, but she didn’t know of any reputable guesthouses in this area of town.
“Trust me. It’s very respectable.”
A moment later he turned into a narrow alley that went past the back of the houses. It was very dark here, and they had to be careful not to trip over uneven paving.
At the end of the alley, they came to a small courtyard with a couple of doors. Nellie guessed these were the backs doors of shops, through which the people who lived above the shops entered.
Henrik knocked on one of the doors. It opened, revealing a dimly lit room, and a man whom Nellie could see only in silhouette.
“Who is there?” the man said, his voice pleasant.
“I’m an old friend,” Henrik said. “We are weary and cold in the night.”
The man open the door further without another word.
Henrik stepped into the room beyond, and Nellie followed him.
The hall was only lit by a single oil lamp standing on a tall table against the wall.
By its light, she saw that the man who had opened the door wore a uniform in the colours of the city guard.
He said, “We thought you would never return. Some people even said that you were dead, drowned in the harbour.”
“They can’t get rid of me as easy as that,” Henrik said.
“How did you get back? Where are you staying? Somewhere safe, I hope?”
“We’re fine for the night. I was hoping you would be able to help us with a meal.”
“Of course, my dear friend. Are you hungry?”
“Always.”
And then Henrik stepped back and the man looked at Nellie. “Why, it’s our Dragonspeaker.”
Nellie smiled uneasily. The dragon had escaped with Bruno. “I don’t deserve any heroic names. I’m Nellie.” She held out her hand, and he shook it.
“You are welcome Nellie, to the humble abode of the Guard Guild. My name is August, and I work for the city guards.”
“I didn’t know that a Guard Guild existed.”
“Officially, it doesn’t,” August said. “The members who meet here do so at great risk to themselves and their families, and even most guards don’t know about this place. If they did, we’d all be jailed, if not worse.”
“Why?” Guilds were a good idea, because they helped tradespeople. Her father had been a member of several, including the semi-legal Science Guild, and had dealings with several more. They were respected organisations, and some even had their own premises.
“Where would be an easier place to arrange an armed uprising than where armed men get together?”
Nellie frowned at him. “So who made it illegal? Or was it always so?”
He chuckled. “It’s too cold in this hall to get into a detailed history of our organisation. Let’s go somewhere warm.”
He preceded them down a dark corridor, where the floor creaked and their footsteps sounded muffled on greasy carpet underfoot. He opened a door.
In this room it was warm and a number of people, both men and women, sat on easy chairs while a lusty fire burned in the hearth.
The first thing Nellie noticed was a big portrait of King Roald above the hearth. If she was right, this portrait used to hang in the king’s small audience room, which had been divided into two guest rooms since Regent Bernard moved into the palace.
It seemed Nellie had not been the only one to rescue things from the palace stores.
Several of the men rose when Henrik came in and greeted him with cheers and claps on the shoulder. Some of them wore palace guard uniforms, and others were city guards. Nellie wasn’t sure what the few women in the room where doing there. They didn’t look like servants, and they were not noblewomen—at least, she didn’t think so.
Meanwhile, August yelled to someone in the next room, “Bring us two plates and some good food.”
He gestured to some empty tables and seats. “Sit down.”
Nellie and Henrik sat.
A number of the men came to join them, and one of the women, too. They wanted to know what had happened, and Henrik told them his version of events.
They looked at Nellie with admiration. Henrik said several times that the prisoner escape plan had been her idea, and that he had only watched from the shadows. “But I knew that once they were out in the open, they needed a big distraction to let them get away.”
August nodded. “It was a big distraction all right.”
“The Regent’s death has caused quite a lot of trouble, even if I can’t fault your action,” another man said. “I’ve been itching to shoot that man. How can he betray his own wife like that? And then to drown her in front of his sons. No wonder the boys misbehave.”
August said, “Yes, but one way or another this has probably hasten
ed the process of finding a permanent solution. The boy regent won’t last.”
Everyone around the table nodded.
“Now we only have to make sure that it’s a permanent solution that’s to the benefit of the citizens.” The man who said this sounded cynical.
Another man said, “At this point, anything except the brat will do. Someone needs to take him down.”
An older man said, “He’s a brat, but he doesn’t deserve to die. It’s our task to protect him and we will, until such time as he commits crimes, or sins against his family or advisors.”
Several people laughed. One said, “What advisors? A bunch of adolescents who hold drunken meetings on how best to screw each other, with live demonstrations? There are women in this room, but I could tell you things—”
“I assure you, Cees, there is nothing you can say that I don’t already know,” one of the women said from near the hearth. Her voice was quite dark.
Nellie knew the man. He was also a guard at the palace.
“That still doesn’t make it right or appropriate to discuss the details. Believe me, people don’t need to know anything except that the young boy has become utterly corrupted by his obsession with pleasures of the flesh.”
“As do most adolescent boys,” the woman said.
The man gave a snort. Nellie realised she also knew the woman. She had been one of the long string of women the Regent had burned through while finding a governess for his sons.
The woman continued, “I just hope that it can be resolved without too many deaths or people losing their homes.”
“Is there anyone left in the palace who has influence on Casper?” Henrik asked.
The guard Cees said, “The Shepherd could control him, if he wanted, but instead, he appears to be egging him on, bringing books about obscene subjects, and the boy is just lapping it up.”
By the Triune, he was talking about the books from the secret library in the crypt. Nellie felt sick.
Not only that, it didn’t fit with the picture she had formed from Casper’s polite and well-written letters to Adalbert Verdonck asking for help.
What if Casper was much smarter than he let himself appear? He had spent the past ten years watching his father and the nobles of the city do a delicate dance with the shepherd, and losing the fight at each step. He might even, because of Lord Verdonck, be suspicious of the shepherd. Coming from Burovia, where magic was much more common, he might suspect that magic was involved.
He had watched the spectacle in the harbour from an upstairs window. He might have seen the fire dog and recognised it for what it was.
But Nellie didn’t say anything about this to these people.
August was saying, “The brat is not the issue. His days are probably numbered, with the way he behaves. It’s all by design that he is allowed to behave like this. Several people have tried to steer him into more adult behaviour, but the shepherd won’t let anyone near him. He lets the boy free reign. He can misbehave however he wants. He has proven throughout his short life that he’s well capable of upsetting a great number of people. He is ill mannered and rude to everyone, from the servants to the nobles to the rulers of the neighbouring countries. He doesn’t know or doesn’t understand how to behave. The shepherd is allowing this to take place, because he knows that Casper will make himself so hated that someone will kill him soon enough. And then, when the country descends into chaos, when all the nobles are fighting each other over who is going to sit on the throne, the shepherd will step up as the saviour of the town. I know that a lot of us have experience with who the shepherd really is, and what he does, but he is still enormously popular with a lot of the people who go to the church and are happy to follow his teachings. The church is full whenever he preaches. The people lap up his sermons about the evil of magic, because they like to blame someone for their situation. They don’t know any of the things that we know.”
Several people gave solemn nods.
A young man came out of the other door, carrying two plates with fresh bread, fried eggs and ham and pieces of roast vegetables. It smelled heavenly.
“Your own produce?” Nellie asked.
“The family of one of our members has a farm. This food is as fresh as you can get it.”
That wasn’t the reason Nellie asked. The food was also untouched by magic.
While they ate, the men talked about Casper’s recent tricks, which included teaching the noble son who the boss was by letting him run naked in the palace forecourt.
“If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny,” August said.
The door opened and a man came in. He was very tall, wore dark clothing including a long cloak, and had his grey hair in a ponytail.
Several people rose and offered him their seats.
“Henrik.” The man crossed the room and clapped Henrik on the shoulder.
Henrik made the introductions. “Nellie, this is Master Thiele, secret guild master. This is Nellie Dreessen, the Dragonspeaker.”
“Please, you’re embarrassing me,” Nellie said.
“Not at all. You have brought us many steps forward. We waited and observed for years, wondering how we were going to get into the crypt to rescue the boy.”
“Surely, you could have just cut through the metal?”
“We could, but without reasonable cause to do so, we would be committing a crime and incur the anger of the church which, in turn, would anger the citizens; and it might have led to ugly situations, both for ourselves, for the boy, and for the city. We always do what is in the best interests of the greatest number of people, which isn’t always the same as what seems right.”
“Well, we have a problem now,” Henrik said. “Because our prince has gone missing.”
“Yes. And when you’re finished eating, you must come to my office and we can talk.”
Nellie and Henrik quickly finished eating, and then the two of them followed Master Thiele out of the room back into the dark corridor and up the stairs into another corridor where it was very cold.
He opened a door and let them into a firelit office. The room was quite large and well appointed with a big desk, a couple of easy chairs around the fire, and many bookcases full of big, heavy leather-bound tomes.
“Sit down,” he said, gesturing at the chairs.
There were only two, and Nellie felt a little embarrassed to take the last one, but he pulled the chair from behind his desk and sat on that one.
“Now tell us what has happened,” he said.
Henrik told in a few sentences how they had fled with Bruno, but how he had been impatient and angry and Henrik had been unable to control him.
“I am sorry. I have failed. The boy is strong willed and it’s not easy to subdue his impatience. I fear I may have endangered all of us.”
Master Thiele folded his hands. “This is what we know so far, but the picture is incomplete. Two days ago, in the early morning, the boy must have arrived in the city. Nobody has come forward to tell us how he arrived. It happened in the very early morning when citizens were asleep. The first records we have that anything was amiss were reports from merchants arriving at the markets that there was a black sooty trail across the pavement leading from the open church doors. It became weaker the further away from the church it got, but appeared to lead to the palace. Not a single person has come forward who knows how this trail was made.”
“What about what happened in the church?” Henrik asked.
“We know little. The church has always preferred to keep church matters to itself. None of the city guards ever got to investigate the cause of the fire in the crypts, for example. They don’t like officers pouring over their affairs.”
“But you’ve gone inside and looked at the damage, I’m sure?”
“Oh, we have, but although I have ideas about what may have happened, we have no witness accounts, and it’s not in our interest to speculate.”
“So how did you know Bruno was in the city?”
“On
e of our members spotted him in the palace with young Casper and the other young nobles before the guards were no longer allowed inside and the doors were locked. He said . . .” Master Thiele reached out to his desk and grabbed a piece of paper. “He said that he saw a boy, fourteen or fifteen years of age, thin and pale, with night black hair and dark eyes. He sat at the table next to Casper, holding a wooden box of some sort on his lap. His cheek was bruised and the skin on his right hand bore blisters.”
Nellie nodded. “We suspected Bruno might have fled into the palace.”
“What do you think happened?” Master Thiele asked. “You know him better than any of us.”
Henrik sighed. “I was training the boy because I felt it was a good idea, because he needed to do something. He was still quite weak and by no means ready for any kind of fight. Frequently when we were training, he would ask me questions about the palace and the church and when we were going back there. He told me a few times that the first thing he wanted to do was to was to punish the church for locking him up. So we assume that he went to the church and there was a confrontation between him and Shepherd Wilfridus, which he lost, after which he fled to the next place he wanted to go: the palace.”
“Has anyone seen the shepherd since that day?” Nellie asked.
Master Thiele shook his head. “From what I understand, the services in the church have been suspended until they can clean it up.”
Nellie asked, “How many people understood what they saw in the harbour that day? We were at the water, and the fight between the dragon and the fire dog happened quite close to us, but I understand that many people on the shore couldn’t see what was happening. They blame us for the magic.”
“They do, and to be sure, I have heard no reliable reports on what happened from people on the shore.”
“I thought it was clear to all who witnessed it that the shepherd is a very strong magician.”
Master Thiele shook his head. “Not clear at all. We strongly suspected it, and we have been very careful, but we haven’t seen irrefutable proof that will stand up to the scrutiny of a full session of the court of nobles.”