by Patty Jansen
Agatha said, “And you want to have a feast to stop this?”
“Yes, because that’s what people do at a feast: they eat. It’s our best chance. We must get the entire city looking at the palace for the magnificent parade, and enjoying the sweets we’re going to give them. We’re all going to disguise ourselves as part of the royal party.”
Mina said, “But I am no royal. And I have no royal clothes.”
“The clothes are all in the cart,” Nellie said. “Everything we need, I got while I was there. I used to work for Queen Johanna, so I know what’s involved in dressing people up.”
They all wanted to have a look, and Nellie showed them the chests with the dresses. They marvelled over the frills and the extravagant hats.
“Do people really wear this?” Koby asked.
“They do, to banquets and balls,” Nellie said.
“I really like this dress. Come on, Gisele, have a look at these dresses.”
“I’d rather be a monk.”
But Nellie had considered Gisele. “You don’t seem the type to wear dresses, so I brought you this.” She held up a dark-green velvet men’s suit. “You just need to cut your hair a bit and you can make a fine young man.”
Gisele grinned.
“Oh, look, there’s a box we haven’t opened,” Koby said, pointing at Master Thiele’s wooden box.
“That one needs a key to open,” Hilde said, holding a pink dress over her arm.
“There are no clothes in this one.” Henrik picked up the box and put it aside.
Nellie wondered what was in it. She could ask later. First there were things to do.
Apart from the outrageous dresses, Nellie had brought one that was a bit more civilised for herself. It was dark red, quite modest and, most importantly, suitable for winter.
She dressed herself, made an attempt to do her hair, and went up to the house.
She found Adalbert Verdonck in his study, where he sat at his big wooden desk, writing with a feather pen on piece of paper.
When the servant knocked on the open door to announce he had a visitor, he looked up.
“Come in.” He pushed aside a piece of paper Nellie recognised: the letter from Casper. Was he replying to it? Was he still considering what to do?
Nellie went into the room and sat on one of the richly covered chairs.
He looked her over from top to bottom. “It seems I was mistaken. I thought you were a maid.”
“I have been everything in my life. Once, longer ago than you may remember, I was a member of the court of Queen Johanna. I’m not of noble descent, but my family are honourable people. Cornelius Dreessen was my father.”
His eyes widened briefly.
“You knew my father?”
“Everyone in the Science Guild does.”
“Are you a member?”
“My father was. I am, too, but I haven’t attended any meetings for a long time. There have been some . . . differences in opinion. I need not bore you with the details. Why have you come?”
“I have a plan, and was hoping you would be able to help.”
“And what sort of assistance? I presume you want money?”
That was something only a noble would say. “No, actually, I would like to borrow a coach. And some horses to go with the coach.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Would you know how to handle a coach?”
“If you have any doubt about it, I would gladly borrow a coachman, too. As long as he’s not afraid of anything.”
Adalbert laughed. “Here are you—what?—old enough to be someone’s grandmother, telling men of arms not to be afraid?”
“Afraid of magic.”
His face closed.
“I am not a witch, as I’m sure you know already. But there is great magic in the city, and there is no other way to fight magic other than with magic.”
He laughed again and let an uncomfortably long silence lapse. After a while, he said, “My father dabbled in magic. I’m sure you saw the scar on his calf.”
“I did, and madame Sabine also explained to me how he received it. It was not through magic, but through wanting to use the dragon with the balloons.”
He snorted. “It’s all magic to me. It’s unnatural for people to want to fly.”
“But surely you recognise the value of being able to fly over a city, even to arouse the curiosity of the people?”
“I want none of it here, and I need the barn. I have told my father’s mistress that she should leave. Any time now, people will arrive to take all her stuff off my land.”
“As far as I know, yes, although all her balloon stuff may have been taken off. Frankly I would’ve wanted to burn it.”
“I think that would be unwise.”
He looked at her curiously.
Nellie continued. “For all the time that I worked for the royal family, all the time I’ve been in the palace, and all the time I’ve gone to the church and attended services, I have seen people who wanted to pretend that magic doesn’t exist, and that ignoring it will make it go away. I have seen how young children who have magic get ignored and end up harming themselves and those around them because they were never taught properly how to deal with magic. This is what happened to Princess Celine. I have seen how the church became so afraid of magic that they drove from the city a huge number of people who are useful. Our city has become a ghost town. And now we have in the city a magician who wants to rule all of it, and cannot be challenged, because we have no one left who is able to challenge him. This is what we are about. This is why I want to use every new thing possible. And I want to do it not through arms but through convincing the people. We know about the magic. We know that much if it comes through food. Your father knew this. We know that the shepherd wants to rule the city by himself and that it would be a terrible thing once he pushes aside poor Casper who is just caught in his plan. Now Casper and Prince Bruno have holed themselves up in the palace, and what do you think the shepherd will do? He will starve them, and then he will move in and kill both of them, and we will have lost the only chance we have of getting our old city back. You do a lot of business with the city. What would you do if they stopped buying your food?”
“They won’t, because there is no other place to buy it close by.”
“They will stop buying it, because there will not be as many people in the city.”
His face worked. In his eyes Nellie thought she could see the warring emotions of wanting to come to the city as a saviour and being crowned the king or simply surviving and getting praise and money without the crown. She didn’t really understand what he wanted, but although he was not very pleasant, she didn’t think he was a bad man.
He agreed that she could borrow a coach. He also agreed to send a group of capable men.
She asked whether those guards were the men camped in the horse paddock.
He said those were mercenaries returning from a mission. What they had done, he didn’t say and she didn’t feel it appropriate to ask. He stressed that the men did not work for him.
Somehow, Nellie didn’t believe him.
Back at the barn, Henrik told Nellie that they might be a danger more than a blessing, but there was no option other than to accept his help, because they couldn’t do it alone and because without Lord Verdonck’s support, Saardam was nothing.
“I’m sure the nobles will have a lot of bad things to say about allowing him back into the city,” he said.
This was all very much more complicated than Nellie had assumed, and it was turning into a game she wasn’t well equipped to play.
“I meant to ask you before: do you know what’s in that box Master Thiele put on the cart?”
“I think I might, but he hasn’t told me so I can’t be certain.”
“Do you have the key?”
“I know where it is.” Which wasn’t an answer.
“Do you think they’re weapons?”
“Of a kind, but without opening it, I can’t tell, an
d I don’t want to start rumours.”
“Don’t you know I hate it when you’re mysterious like this?”
“I do, but if the box contains what I think it contains, then the fewer people who see what’s inside, the better.”
Chapter 21
NELLIE WENT TO SEE what Madame Sabine had been up to. The door to the shed was locked from inside, but she could hear Madame Sabine’s voice inside. She knocked.
The voice fell quiet and then said, “Who’s there?”
“It’s Nellie. I need your help.”
A moment later, the door opened. Madame Sabine peeked out. She wore a man’s outfit, a pair of overalls belted at the waist. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail and wore a shawl around her head to keep it warm.
“Yes, what do you want?” She didn’t sound terribly friendly.
“I have a plan, and I would like your involvement, because this is about your sons.”
Madame Sabine gave her a suspicious look. “What do you know about my sons?”
“They’re holed up in the palace. Don’t you want to help them?”
Madame Sabine said nothing, just stared at Nellie as if she had said something dumb.
Nellie’s frustration boiled over. “I don’t understand you. Do you care nothing for your sons? I understand that you don’t like the way their father raised them, but I’m sure you must care something for them? They need you now.”
“They don’t need me. I just get in the way of their parties. I’m just a boring woman.”
“Did they tell you that? Did you see their faces in the upstairs window in the harbour when your husband was going to drown you? Did you read the letter they sent to Adalbert Verdonck?”
Madame Sabine said nothing, which, Nellie was sure, meant that she hadn’t seen the letter.
“Casper wrote a letter asking Adalbert Verdonck for men to help him secure his position as Regent.”
“Him? That’s ridiculous.”
“Tell me: what should he have done instead?”
“He should have done what I have told him to do many times: go to his aunt’s estate in Burovia and learn some civility and manners before attempting to do such ridiculous things as seize the throne of a foreign country at the age of sixteen.”
“Then why didn’t you order a coach and tell both of them to get in?”
“You know how many times I’ve tried that already? They don’t listen to me. I don’t know how many times I have to explain. They don’t listen. Their father fills their heads with nonsense.”
“Their father is dead. They’re in the ballroom surrounded by guards. They need you.”
A flicker of concern crossed her face. “They don’t. They told me they don’t need me or want me. They never listened to me when I was with them. Why would they listen to me now?”
“Because they know everyone else is out to get them? Because they might think you’re brave, doing your own work and not pandering to the shepherd or the nobles?”
She snorted. “I’m not brave.” But Nellie could see the thoughts whirling behind her eyes. Then she added, “And you come here just to tell me that I should tell my sons to behave?”
“No, but I would appreciate if you could tell them that as well. I’m planning a parade into the city, and it would mean a great deal for me if you were to be there.”
“What? To be laughed at?”
“No, to be marvelled at, because of your balloons. I presume you have one here that we can use?”
She frowned. Then she opened the door further. “Come in, so you can explain what this is all about.”
Nellie went into the shed, where she noticed that Madame Sabine had unpacked all the crates with the balloons again. Obviously, finding transport out of the area in the winter was not so easy.
Maybe it was just an empty threat she was making. After all, a Burovian noble receiving her letter with request for a coach to take her elsewhere might just laugh and throw it in the fire.
As Nellie had already known, Agatha was also in the shed. She was sitting at a table, sewing together two lengths of fabric. She gave Nellie a defiant look.
If the situation weren’t so dire, Nellie might have asked why the two of them seemed to think that the world conspired against them. The fact that they worked together was a strange development, because they had seemed so hostile to each other, but Agatha had not survived on her own with the children by being dumb.
Being a fly on the wall in this shed might reveal some interesting conversations, though. Both women were all prickles.
In the uncomfortable atmosphere, Nellie went on to explain her plan, and how she thought Madame Sabine’s balloon would help distribute the sweets and draw attention to the parade.
Madame Sabine listened with interest. She asked questions, ones Nellie couldn’t answer because she didn’t know whether any of the nobles Madame Sabine asked about were involved. She thought not, but she didn’t know what Master Thiele was doing in the city and who he had involved in this. She thought his contacts were mainly guards. She didn’t know if Adalbert Verdonck planned to send any of the men camped outside in the horse paddock along with them.
“It’s a big plan and it involves all the people in the city. It involves trusting that they will see what the shepherd is doing and that they don’t him to become another Fire Wizard. I can’t control what individuals will say or do.”
“There are too many points of danger in this plan of yours,” Madame Sabine said.
“Does that mean you won’t be involved?”
“Not necessarily, because I would love to teach that stupid priest a lesson, but in order for my commitment, I want to command my own group of people. You understand that with my history, I am not exactly well loved in the city, and several of the powerful people would rather see me dead. I have to protect myself.”
Nellie agreed that she could keep working with Agatha, and that she could select a number of other people to look after the balloon. Nellie suspected she would ask for Gisele and maybe Wim or Floris the fisherman.
Fortunately, getting Mustafa’s cooperation was a lot of easier. He wanted to return to the city, because it was his only source of income. Getting money from visitors to his animal park would allow him to have more animals, which was what he really wanted.
“What is the use of having the talkative parrots if the children can’t come to laugh about their bad language?” he said over a couple of cups of far-too-strong tea in his barn. “I need visitors because I need money to pay for food for the animals.”
He was happy to bring his animals for the parade. He would bring his wagon, too.
“I don’t know that Esme would be happy to have something tied to her collar, but we could tie the balloon to the wagon. It’s big and heavy. There are metal cages in the back. Maybe you can dress some children as gnomes and put them inside. People love looking at gnomes. I can put Lila on top of the cage, so it looks like she has caught the gnomes.” He stroked the leopard over her soft head while he said this.
And that left just getting the herbs.
Nellie and Henrik had come to Mustafa’s place together, but had decided that just Henrik would go down to see the nuns, because they had not seen him before, and his plea to buy herbs to cure someone who was ill at Lord Verdonck’s estate would probably sound plausible.
Dandelion, blackberry and anise could be used. If they didn’t have those, he might have to ask for more outlandish ingredients like amaranth, and that might arouse suspicion, but Nellie hoped he wouldn’t have to go that far down the list she had given him.
Nellie waited with the cart at the top of the driveway and watched him go to the buildings.
It took Henrik quite a long time to return. But finally she saw him coming up the driveway. He walked a bit faster than she thought was good, but he did appear to be carrying something.
“Come on, let’s go,” was the first thing he said when he reached Nellie with the cart and the horses.
“What
’s going on?”
“A group of soldiers are staying at the nunnery. They’re all mercenaries hired by the Regent. I served with some of them. Word has gotten around that the Regent is dead, and they’re scouting for paid work. Apparently, they came to the nunnery because the nunnery posted a notice in town stating that the church needed armed men to defend the honour of the shepherds. They didn’t see me, but it was a near thing.”
By the Triune, no. Did Shepherd Wilfridus want to start a war? “Did you get the herbs?”
“I did, because I wasn’t game to show my face back here without them.” He grinned. “But I hope no one recognised me and they don’t know that we’re here.”
“They’ll know that we’re here very soon if they don’t already,” Nellie said. “But Lord Verdonck has his own army, and they won’t want to come here to risk confrontation.”
Henrik nodded. “Though I’m not sure how long that’s going to last. I have a feeling that from now on, time is going to be essential. We have to move as quickly as possible.”