by Patty Jansen
A question came to her, which she was afraid to ask, and she was fearful of hearing the answer. What about all those people, like Jantien’s husband, who had left the city and who had been unable to contact their families? Had they all been killed as soon as they ran into these men?
Henrik squinted at the riverbanks.
“If they’re your husband’s men, we should avoid engaging with them. They might not know he’s dead.”
“I’d say they wouldn’t.”
Henrik crossed the deck to the bar where all the sea cow reins were tied up. One by one, he began to loosen them.
“What are you doing?” Nellie asked.
“We’re turning around.”
“But you just said—”
“Yes, but that was before I knew about these men. We won’t go back far. We passed the Rede River, and we can go up there.”
“But my family lives along the Saar River.”
“We won’t go far, just until they’ve gone.”
He pulled the reins off the bar, one by one. To the cows, it was a sign that they could graze. Because they were travelling against the current, the ship would start drifting backwards soon.
Nellie didn’t want to go up the Rede River. That’s where they’d gone last time with Mistress Johanna, only to find more death and destruction. Her memories were still full of ghosts and haunted castles and other terrible things she had seen.
“How do you know that the men will leave?” she asked.
“I don’t. But I can’t see what else we can do.”
True. Having these mercenaries invade their ship was no solution either. They couldn’t even pretend they were innocent river traders. For one, proper river traders would know how to get past these mercenaries, probably by paying bribes. But they would have no chance, not with this beautiful ship that everyone knew.
Soon enough, the ship started to drift back down the river. Henrik pulled the reins back in so that the sea cows pulled the ship straight. It felt wrong to go in this direction. The soft breeze came up, carrying wet mist over the river. It was cold up here.
Gisele called out from the back of the ship.
They all went to join her, to find she was pointing at the strip of land with the willow trees. And indeed, Henrik had been right. Three ships upstream had come into the middle of the river and were coming in their direction.
A chill went over Nellie’s back.
She would have walked right into that trap. She wouldn’t have seen them until it was too late.
“They’re faster than us,” Henrik said.
For a while, they drifted downriver. Nellie knew they shouldn’t expect too much of the sea cows because it would be hard enough for them to turn back into the current later.
Then Madame Sabine yelled, “There. They were not alone.”
Indeed, they were not. Two more ships were coming up the river. These had snuck up from behind and one of them was already so close that Nellie could see the men on the deck, and a glint of light on a weapon or a shield.
“It’s a trap,” Gisele said.
Nellie ran into the cabin.
As Henrik had ordered, the main cabin was empty, and everyone was below the deck in the sleeping cabins.
Nellie called at the top of stairs, “Bruno.”
A muffled voice responded in the darkness.
Nellie told him, “Get your dragon.”
He came up the stairs carrying the dragon box under his arm.
“Do you think he is strong enough to help us?” she asked.
He looked at her blankly.
She explained to him, “There are soldiers out there. We need the dragon to defend this ship.”
He opened the box a crack. A couple of sparks glowed within.
“Come on.” Nellie grabbed him by the arm and dragged him onto the deck. He didn’t exactly protest, but he didn’t seem keen either.
Henrik had collected his bow and arrows, but by himself he would be no match for the men on the other ship. They were in full armour, at least ten of them.
Madame Sabine and Gisele had collected an array of projectiles: bottles, jars, pots, tools. Gisele had lit two torches and filled the bottles with oil. She and Madame Sabine were speaking to each other in Lurezian, and it was as if they were old friends who had worked together before in similar situations.
By the Triune, what was Madame Sabine’s history?
The ship was not within reach yet, but fast approaching.
“If you have any magic, now would be a good time to use it,” she said to Prince Bruno.
He didn’t respond, his face pale and terrified. Of course, if he’d had any powerful magic or known how to use it, he would have escaped captivity long ago.
“Come on, let the dragon go free.” It would take the dragon a while to assume his solid form.
Prince Bruno set down the box and backed away, his gaze on the armoured men on the other ship.
Nellie picked it up and opened it. A shower of sparks came out and leapt into the air, whirling around. It was bright, even in daylight.
The men on the other ship saw it, too. They shouted, but the sound of their voices faded over the water and Nellie couldn’t hear what they were saying. But the other boat came ever closer, and a few more men in dark clothing with big swords came to the deck. Nellie wondered who these men worked for. They didn’t wear uniforms and she couldn’t imagine that the church hired men like this. Look at the disgusting long hair and beards on them. These were savages.
How were the women supposed to survive this? They had no weapons. If they were boarded that would be the end of this adventure.
Gisele pulled on the sea cow reins to make the animals swim faster. Maybe they could escape between the riverbank and the other ship. A reed bed might stop the cows and the water might be too shallow, but they had to try.
On the deck, the sparks coalesced into a luminous shape. That dragon had better hurry, or there would be nothing left for him to fight.
All of a sudden, it sprang into the air. Its wings flapped, blowing air over Nellie’s face.
The men on the deck of the other ship shouted.
One man put an arrow to his bow and pulled back, but didn’t release it. They were still too far, arrows were scarce, and they couldn’t harm the dragon.
Prince Bruno had taken shelter inside the door of the cabin. The dragon landed in front of him, stretching out his neck.
Prince Bruno patted the scaled skin. His eyes were still wide and his face pale. He looked so frail.
Nellie called, “Come on, make it scare them off!”
She had directed her comment at Prince Bruno, but the dragon lifted his head, gave her an alert look and took off, swooping low over the water.
He made straight for the other ship.
The mercenaries dived for shelter behind anything they could find. The dragon hissed fire over the ship. A section of the railing and a nearby coil of rope burst into flames.
One man ran onto the deck with a bucket to put it out.
“Come on!” Gisele shouted.
She held her burning torch to one of the bottles until the oil caught fire and threw the bottle, burning and all, to the other ship. It hit the top deck, the glass shattered and burning oil spread across the wood.
Meanwhile, the dragon flew across to the next ship.
“Quick,” Gisele said. She was pulling on the sea cow reins, and the animals strained against the harness. They might have noticed the dragon and, being friendly to him, have been whispered into action. They might simply be scared of fire.
Whatever the case, they were tired and would not go far, but they would try.
The sun broke through the clouds ahead, turning the river into a wide expanse of silvery water. To the left was the entrance of a canal. Willow trees stood on both sides of the banks.
Gisele steered the boat in this direction, and the sea cows swam at full speed.
“What are you doing?” Nellie asked. “We can�
�t turn around in that narrow canal. We’ll be trapped.”
“At the end of this canal is an estate where we can find safety.”
It was too late anyway, because three ships were now in the canal behind them. Two were on fire. Men ran around on the decks, trying to put the fire out.
The canal was narrow, and with the sea cows going at full speed, the banks whizzed past. Nellie kept checking over her shoulders, seeing the flames spread over the first ship. It slowed and receded ever further as the crew became more occupied with saving themselves and less with continuing the pursuit.
The dragon swooped down and landed on the deck. Gone were the sparks that would leap from his body, gone was the rich red colour of the skin. The creature was ethereal and almost translucent. Prince Bruno opened the dragon box, and the dragon went inside without protesting.
He shut the lid.
Nellie hoped that they wouldn’t get a hostile reception at the estate, because there would be no dragon to help them. He would need to gather strength first.
She met Bruno’s eyes. That was the main thing he had been able to get the dragon to do so far—get him back into the box—but even that skill had eluded Nellie.
How much control did he have over the dragon? She was sure the dragon only pretended to listen to her out of habit. She had looked after him, and the creature understood loyalty.
Ahead, the estate’s house was coming up. The silhouette of a windmill stuck above the low-hanging mist. A row of trees surrounded the main house, a sprawling building surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge.
The canal opened out into a square pond where two boats lay moored alongside a wooden jetty.
A couple of men in dark green livery waited there.
Nellie recognised the colour. This was Lord Verdonck’s estate. And so they had ended up exactly where Nellie didn’t want to go. It was almost as if Madame Sabine had ordered it that way.
Not only that, but a man in the company of two guards now walked across the drawbridge.
“It looks like we have visitors,” Gisele said.
Chapter 3
* * *
THE MEN ON THE JETTY didn’t move to either help or deny the ship access to the mooring posts and, since they didn’t seem hostile, the women busied themselves with the practicalities of getting the ship to the jetty.
“There is no current here, so use the light ropes only,” Gisele said.
Koby went to do as Gisele asked.
Nellie pulled the individual cow leads to release the animals from the harness so that they could graze.
Gisele and Henrik had tied up the ship by the time the Verdonck estate party reached them.
Nellie recognised neither the man on the horse nor the two guards with him. The man wore a cloak with the coat of arms of the Verdonck estate. She guessed he was the master of the estate in the lord’s absence. Adalbert Verdonck had been at the palace when she left and was probably still there.
The man surveyed the ship full of ragtag women with suspicious eyes and then looked at the pursuing ship which burned back in the canal. The smoke hung close to the ground, but the silhouettes of men running from the wreck to another ship were visible.
“What is this, then?” the estate master asked. His voice sounded as haughty as that of Adalbert Verdonck himself. He turned to Henrik because apparently one could not possibly talk to a woman.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” Henrik said. “We’re a group of women, children and a few men who have fled from Saardam, and we are looking for a safe place. We won’t stay long.”
“Yes, you will be staying long. We will have to clear the canal first.”
“We can help with that.”
The man sniffed. “What help are women going to be? Where did you come from anyway? How did you get that ship?”
A clear female voice said, “I will explain everything.”
Madame Sabine.
The man stiffened. His face twisted into a snarl. “I doubt my lord will consider you a welcome guest here.”
“Did you hear me ask to be your guest?”
He gave her a hard stare, and she stared back.
“Is your master home?” Her voice was ice cold.
“Not yet. I expect him home later today. He will send all of you on your way with your stolen ship, I have no doubt.”
“Man, have a bit of common decency,” Henrik said. “We’re refugees, mostly women and children. Allow us to stay here while we help you clear the canal.”
“My master will have the final word about that.”
“Let’s wait for that, then.” Under his breath, Henrik said, “No matter how stuck up Adalbert is, he’s twice the human being you are.”
Nellie stifled a chuckle.
The man said nothing further, and Gisele and Koby put out the gangplank, ignoring him while he looked on from the shore.
The flames of the ship in the canal were dying because the wreckage sank further and further into the water. It was clear that the pursuers had fled in another vessel.
So they didn’t like getting close to the Verdonck estate, huh?
Because the women had planned for a longer journey, there was plenty of food aboard the ship. Agatha and Mina suggested that they cook a meal, and Nellie walked along the deck to collect firewood.
The men on the jetty left.
“That won’t be the last we’ve seen of them,” Henrik said. “The old Verdonck had a habit of employing obstinate, distrusting characters. They travelled with him, but whenever he was at the palace, they would never come inside.”
“As it turned out, they had good reasons,” Madame Sabine said, referring to her lover’s poisoning.
Maybe, but Nellie wasn’t comfortable discussing it any further with Madame Sabine present. It became ever clearer that she had been working for someone else or in some other capacity. Was she her husband’s victim, or evil in disguise? It was hard to tell.
For the next while, they busied themselves with cooking the midday meal and looking after the weakest and the ill. Jantien’s children were well behaved and carried bowls of Agatha’s thick soup to everyone and then back to the kitchen for cleaning. Standing at the door to the galley, Nellie did a quick headcount. Not including Yolande the shopkeeper, who had not reacted well to imprisonment and being dunked in the harbour and was coughing, they numbered thirty-four. Wim was also not well, but at least he was out of bed, if looking old and frail.
Brother Martinus, the monk who had accidentally come on the journey, had ensconced himself in the study room.
Nellie met with Gisele and Henrik on the top deck after they finished eating. Gisele had found a map of this section of the river in the wheelhouse. She spread it out over the bench.
She pointed. “This is where we are.”
They weren’t far from the corner called the Bend, where the water flowed faster, where the river was a little narrower than other places and where, when the water was low, one could cross on a horse that was a strong swimmer.
Lord Verdonck’s estate was marked on the map with all its orchards, two driveways and several sheds and staff houses. Apparently, a road from the other side of the estate led to the main road to the city. It went through an area of forest and more buildings on the other side.
“What are these?” Nellie asked.
“A nunnery,” Gisele said. “They have extensive farms and they sell their produce to the traders who come past on the road. They’re not far from the road, as you can see.”
Nellie knew little about the villages that were on the road, other than that some of them had tolls for people to pass through and maintained the roads in return. She knew that people complained about the tolls a lot, and that Lord Verdonck’s estate had something to do with it.
She had never heard of the nunnery, but that wasn’t surprising. The church was run by men, and if the monks were poor, the nuns were even worse off. The most important function they had was to look after fallen girls who had illegitimate
children or other problems that caused the parents to put them in the nunnery, or no parents at all.
“The estate is quite big,” Gisele said.
Yes, Lord Verdonck was considered one of the rich citizens of the country. “So, what are we going to do? I don’t think we can stay here.”
“That will depend on the lord’s mood, I guess,” Gisele said.
“I don’t think we should stay here,” Henrik said. “Adalbert will not rest until he has found out who poisoned his father. If he doesn’t get any answers that satisfy him, he will demand that his loans to the Regent be repaid, or he’ll withhold his produce. He could starve the city if he wanted to. This estate is going to be the focus of a lot of attention and violence. I don’t think we want to be in the middle of all that. As far as I’ve seen, we’re nowhere near strong enough to undertake any kind of plan, and we need to be safe for the winter so we can gather strength.”
Nellie said, “But if guards are on the river, then we can’t keep going, and I don’t want to go up the Rede River because no one there can help us.”
“I was thinking we might offer to work as farmhands.”
“But we know nothing about farming.”
“We have a good number of healthy workers.”
“Who wants women to work on their farms? If there is even any work, because it’s winter.”
Gisele said, “The nuns won’t mind that we’re mostly women.”
Nellie looked at Gisele. She hadn’t considered that, and it made perfect sense.
She was about to say something, when she heard the clop-clop of a horse’s hooves and a man said, “Hello.”
While they had been talking, the man had come down the path from the house. This time, Nellie recognised the young Lord Verdonck.
“Well met, my Lord,” she said.
He narrowed his eyes and squinted up at her on the deck of the ship. “Aren’t you the same maid who came into our room at the palace?”
“I am.”
He gave a dry chuckle. “The one accused of killing my father.”
Nellie shuddered. “I thought they were blaming the dragon.”
“Yes, but failing a dragon, a maid will do. You made the most daring escape from the city. With the monks’ boat, too.” Did he sound bemused?