by Patty Jansen
The ice-cold air bit into her skin. Shivering, she found her overdress and stockings and pulled them on.
Henrik opened his eyes.
“Don’t look.”
He smiled. “Is there anything I haven’t seen?”
“Not in the daylight. This is so embarrassing. What is your family going to think?”
“Nothing they haven’t thought from the moment we came to the house together.”
And those looks had been uncomfortable and questioning. They would be even more uncomfortable now.
Not only that, it was late and they needed to start looking for Bruno. “We were supposed to be at Master Thiele’s already.”
He pushed the blanket off. “First breakfast. You can’t walk around the city all day on an empty stomach.”
Clara was in the kitchen cooking porridge for the children. A maid had also turned up, and she was warming water for washing.
The young girl’s presence was probably why there were no uncomfortable questions over breakfast. And Nellie knew Henrik was right: she did worry far too much about what other people thought of her, but that was a hard habit to break. She happened to think it was important, because the way you treated other people influenced what people said about you, and that said a lot about whether people would trust you, or whether you could trust another person.
Nellie and Henrik ate quickly and then went back to the guild’s hideout. Four men and one woman were already in the room downstairs.
The air was bitterly cold. A servant had just lit the fire but, as yet, it did little to warm the room.
Nellie didn’t know any of the other people except for August, but she had seen their faces while they stood guard at the palace gates or in the streets. The woman was a cousin of the mayor’s. She had no husband or children, but she was extraordinarily good with numbers and Saardam’s bookkeepers would pay her to check their accounts. The men were the guards who protected the palace, but they would spank a little apple thief across his eight-year-old bottom rather than put him in jail. They would trust the mayor’s cousin with the accounts.
Master Thiele had spread out a number of documents on the table, maps mostly, from what Nellie could see.
On one paper, she could make out the streets of the city, with the church and the palace clearly marked. Someone had divided the city into four parts, each a different colour.
Two more men came in to be greeted with solemn nods, and then Master Thiele judged that everyone had arrived.
“Welcome here at this early hour. You are my most trusted people. I realise I’m asking a lot from you, and I may ask you to act against your orders. I’m definitely asking you to face great danger. It has come to the point that we are the protectors of fair Saardam. Everyone else, including your colleagues, is the enemy. They are unaware, but they have been corrupted with magic through the food they eat. We are gathered because we need to secure the safety of a young boy who is the key to all our efforts to restore fairness and peace in Saardam. We’re asking you to protect Prince Bruno.”
In a few sentences, he explained the situation as Nellie had explained it to him yesterday. The five men and one woman listened, their faces displaying nothing except the fullest attention.
“Obviously we can’t just walk into the palace and demand to be taken to the ballroom,” Master Thiele continued. “First we need to make sure that we have enough people to push the palace guards aside and get into the room. Exactly how we act depends on the number of people we can recruit. Please note that I’m not looking for a violent struggle unless we meet violence. Our faces are familiar to many of the guards, and I hope that violence will not necessary. I’m also not looking to usurp power, merely to instate a council that will take action and solve the succession problem considering all the facts, not just some people’s agendas.”
He put his hands on the table, on top of one of the maps.
“We need to find support. To this extent, I have brought this map. Some of you will be very familiar with it, but to explain to others”—he looked at Nellie—“this is the map the guard commanders use to allocate parts of the city to different patrols. The coloured sections are called quadrants. We will be using the same boundaries, because it’s easy; and we don’t have to explain to our members because they will be familiar with where the boundaries are. You will divide into groups. Each group will be given the names of potential supporters. We will visit them and ask for their support. Explain to them what I have just said and that time is of the essence.”
But what about the magic? Nellie grew increasingly frustrated. Again, these people pretended magic didn’t exist even while warning about it.
“This would be so much better if we could give these people a remedy against magic first,” she said when Master Thiele had finished speaking. Right now, with most of the people members of the guards, it was a matter of chance whether they struck someone who hadn’t been eating the shepherd’s handed-out food. Even then, the person could go back to the palace, eat there and betray the group.
“There is no time for that,” Master Thiele said.
Nellie disagreed, not because she thought time unimportant, but because she knew that, without a remedy against magic, the plan was doomed to fail.
Nellie and Henrik ended up in a group with a young man called Adrian whom Henrik knew through the palace guards. Henrik explained that Adrian had a delicate stomach and never ate the palace food because it made him ill.
Next, they all spent time dressing up. They were to look like ordinary citizens, but also wanted to be unrecognisable, especially Henrik. To this end, they went into a very cold, musty room next to the main living area that was full of wardrobes with various types of clothing.
Henrik chose a dark cloak and hat. The fact that he’d grown a beard since leaving the palace helped his disguise as a well-off citizen.
Then it was Nellie’s turn. “Hmm, I think you should dress as his wife.”
He gave her a long woollen coat that was much nicer than anything she had ever owned. It smelled a bit musty, but the moment she slipped it over her shoulders, it felt warm and comfortable. He also found her a pair of nice shoes with metal buckles, and replaced the tatty shawl she wore over her head with a very fashionable hat.
Adrian, who was young enough to be their son, got a slightly more flamboyant outfit such as a young merchant’s son would wear.
They went out into the misty morning, mingling with the citizens on their daily business and listening for gossip.
Since Nellie had been here last, even more shops in the artisan quarter had been boarded over, their owners gone from the city. The only shops that seemed to be doing a good trade were those selling second-hand items. Plenty of things were for sale, since people leaving the city didn’t want to take all their things with them: the most exquisite tableware and furniture were available in big quantities, and so was luxurious clothing in the latest fashions. The elaborate dresses hung in rows on racks, and the prices were low.
Nellie almost wished that she were young and careless and just married, and had a house to furnish. There was so much for sale.
Slowly, they made their way through the main street towards the market square.
When they came to an address on the list, Henrik and Adrian would talk to the person named by Master Thiele. Sometimes Henrik would go alone and sometimes Nellie would come. They would ask to speak with the person on Master Thiele’s list, and when this person came to the door they would ask a few questions to establish their loyalty.
Half the time, this was enough to know that it was probably not a good idea to continue. They ended up getting confirmations from only fourteen people. Enough to continue with Master Thiele’s plan, if the other groups found an equal number of people, but too few for Nellie to believe they would succeed.
The main street through the artisan quarter joined the square at the north side of the church. The block behind the church consisted of buildings related to the church: the s
hepherd’s residence, the old, no-longer-used seminary where monks visiting from out of town would stay, and the chapel of the Holy Mother that was a relic from the Belaman church but used for private services, mainly baptisms and funerals. There was also a school where young boys would learn the Verses if they were interested in joining the ranks of the monks or becoming a shepherd.
As Nellie, Henrik and Adrian walked past the complex, a tall man in a flapping robe crossed the courtyard. Nellie had assumed that Shepherd Wilfridus was in hiding, based on what Master Thiele had told her last night, but the figure she spotted walking across the courtyard looked very much like him. Because of his height, he always walked bent over. He held his robes at the front with one hand to shield himself from the cold. He held his head bowed and walked with deliberate strides in the direction of the chapel.
Nellie stopped walking and turned to Henrik. “Do you see that? I wonder where he is going in such a hurry.”
“Only one way to find out,” Henrik said.
The area behind the church was open to the public so citizens could pray in the chapel when no services were held.
The three of them walked across the courtyard and up the steps of the chapel.
It was a simple but elegant building with a domed roof. Pillars lined the front, where two marble steps led up to the entrance. The door stood open, but it was dark and cold inside.
From the steps, you could see across the entire courtyard.
“There,” Adrian said.
Shepherd Wilfridus had met a monk at the entrance to the seminary. The monk spread his hands as if in apology, and the shepherd pointed his finger at the man’s chest. His voice carried across the courtyard, but the men were too far to hear what was being said.
Henrik pulled something out of the pocket of his coat and gave it to Adrian. “Your ears are better than mine.”
Adrian unfolded the thing into a funnel-shaped contraption made from whalebone and fabric, not unlike a corset. There was a thin tube on one end which he put to his ear, and directed the wide mouth of the funnel at the seminary.
They stood in silence.
The shepherd yelled and the poor monk barely got a word in.
Adrian listened. Nellie didn’t dare say anything because he might miss important information.
Eventually, the shepherd went down the steps, strode across the courtyard to his residence, went in and slammed the door behind him.
The monk wiped his face and went into the seminary.
“What was all that about?” Henrik asked.
Adrian packed the funnel away and gave it back to Henrik. “Come. We need to tell the others.”
He didn’t speak again until they were in the street.
“Something has happened in the palace,” he said in a low voice. “I didn’t get all of it, but the shepherd blamed the monks for allowing it to happen. He said that Casper is now out of their control and it was all the monks’ fault and that his only option is to kill them all. The monk felt it was against the spirit of the church and the Shepherd asked if he would like to be ruled by evil magic instead.”
Nellie felt cold. What was the bet that it had something to do with the dragon?
Maybe Bruno had shown Casper his dragon and maybe Casper, being desperate, had invited Bruno to do whatever necessary to get rid of the palace guards outside the door.
They walked back to Master Thiele’s house.
The other groups returned shortly after.
The group whose area had included the harbour district had picked up rumours in the taverns. One rumour that repeated a few times was that the youngsters had a ceremony where they placed a boy on the throne that had been untouched for ten years.
Several people gasped at this news. Not even Regent Bernard had dared sit on the throne, even if he had declared his intention to become king. According to several people, Casper was an insolent lout who needed a strong father.
None of Master Thiele’s people had seen Casper’s letters to Adalbert Verdonck. To them, he was just a lout.
“He has gone and declared his own successor to the throne,” Henrik said in a low voice to Nellie while outraged protests rang through the room. “Would Casper hand the leadership to a rival?”
Nellie said, “Is Casper really Bruno’s rival? They’re both young men badly let down by those around them. They realise they need to be smart, because otherwise neither of them will survive. They’re stronger when they work together. If Casper is smart, and I think he has become smart in a hurry, he knows he will never be king. The next best thing is to be a king’s friend.”
While she spoke, the people in the room had fallen quiet, and all listened to her.
Master Thiele said, “If that is true, we have a dragon king.”
“And Shepherd Wilfridus is going to kill them both.”
Everyone in the room was silent.
Into this silence, Nellie said, “We need to get into the palace and we need to show the people what is really happening.”
Master Thiele nodded. “That’s why we’re here. But it’s easier said than done. We are not terribly many, and the entire citizenship of the city is controlled by the shepherd.”
“So we do what Lord Verdonck has done all these years: we eat food that contains remedies against magic. We hand it out to the people. Then we go to the palace.”
“We’d need an army that we don’t have. We’re not poor but we can’t afford to hire an army.”
“No, we don’t need an army. We need a circus, and we’re going to have the biggest party to end all parties.”
Chapter 18
ALL THE SECTIONS of the most daring plan she had ever come up with had come together in Nellie’s mind. She explained her thoughts.
“If Bruno is with Casper in the palace, and the guards are intent on keeping the boys there, those guards are controlled by the shepherd, and he is stepping out of the shadows to take control. I doubt he planned to do that just yet. He might have wanted to wait until Casper did something that made him so disliked that the people would support the shepherd in removing him from the palace. But Bruno is a snag in his plan, because the shepherd doesn’t know what Bruno will do. Bruno can tell the people a story about his imprisonment, and it is all true. One thing the shepherd hasn’t been able to erase from the citizens of Saardam is the love for the king and queen. Bruno will not play nicely and he will never do what the shepherd says. And Bruno is a magician—not a very good one, but he has magic. So things are likely to get nasty. As I said, we will have to get into the palace.”
“Have you seen how many guards are at the gate?” a man said.
“We’re not going to use an army or weapons, because we don’t have an army and we can’t pay for one, and if we could find someone who said he would, we couldn’t trust him. Ever since I’ve been old enough to remember, powerful men have fought over the throne in the palace. No one rich enough who’s prepared to buy us an army is going to give up a victory for a fourteen-year-old boy; he’s going to grab the throne for himself.”
Master Thiele said, “That describes Adalbert Verdonck.”
“I doubt he’s the only one,” Henrik said.
“It’s not about the person with the most weapons or power,” Nellie continued. “Weapons are no use against magic. It’s about who controls the citizens. Shepherd Wilfridus does that. He gives out magic food from the stores. He has been giving out magic food to the guests who come to the palace and to the Regent and now his sons. We can’t be successful unless we break the magic and we can’t do that with weapons.”
“You’re suggesting we need a magician?” Master Thiele said.
“No; besides, we don’t have one. We need to give the people a remedy that stops magic. The type of magic that’s used on the food is not very strong and a concoction of common herbs will do it. Lord Verdonck used it.”
“I don’t know if you noticed that Ronald Verdonck is dead. Didn’t work so well on him.”
“Yes, but the m
agic only poisoned him when it was strong. For years, when he ate at the Regent’s table, he was not affected by the magic that made everyone agree with the Regent and think he was wonderful.”
“I never ate much at the palace either,” Henrik said. “My family preferred that I came home as much as possible.”
“And I never ate much at the palace because of my stomach,” Adrian said. “I noticed how some of the other guards would raise questions about the Regent, only to say those questions weren’t important later.”
Master Thiele said, “So what are these remedies and how would we get them to people? Forgive me, but I’m a man of arms.”
“There are herbs we can use, many of which are commonly grown in this area.”
“But it’s winter and nothing grows.”
“We can get dried versions. A number of shops in the city sell the things we need.”
“And how are you going to get them to the people?”
“By giving them something they like. Do you remember Yolande’s sweet shop?”
“The one that used to be in the artisan quarter?”
“Yes, that one. Yolande was one of the people we rescued from the harbour. She has not been well, but is recovering. However, our group also has a number of women who are good at cooking and I’m sure Yolande would be happy to tell us how to make sweets if we can get enough sugar.”
“I can get sugar,” someone said in the back of the room.
“And how would you get the sweets to everyone?”
“We will drop them from a balloon.”
He frowned. “A—what?”
“Madame Sabine is also with us. She used to be with the balloon division of the Lurezian army. She has a balloon in Lord Verdonck’s shed.” At least Nellie hoped it was still there.
“You’re just going to drift randomly over the city to drop sweets from a balloon?”
“No, we’re going to come into the city with a parade. A circus parade with exotic animals. And the balloon will be tied to the elephant. All the people will come out to watch, and we’ll give the sweets to them. Then, when we get to the palace, we ask for an audience with the Regent and promise a private show. Madame Sabine says her son is very fond of sweets. We’ll all be dressed up. Who is going to refuse entry to a circus troupe? Especially with the promise of a feast and a private parade of animals?”