by Patty Jansen
“We have all the refugees here, my Lord, but we ran into some problems, and we came in here.”
He snorted. “Call the problems by their names. Pirates. Filthy, uncivilised, murdering, raping pirates. Never travel upriver from here alone.”
His eyes went to another part of the ship, and his face turned dark. “What is she doing here?”
Madame Sabine had come to the deck. She stood with her chin in the air.
“Her husband was going to drown her.”
“Good riddance. The cheating harlot.”
“Adalbert, my dear, always so welcoming,” Madame Sabine said.
“If there is anyone I hold responsible for the death of my father, it’s you and that husband of yours. Cheating two-timers. These people are welcome to stay here.” He made a gesture at the boat. “But you are not. In fact, I want you to remove all your rubbish from my sheds, or I will burn it.”
“You wouldn’t dare. You know how much your father invested in it. He’d be rolling in his grave.”
“My father was a good man, but his delusion about you knew no boundaries.”
Nellie said, “Please, all we ask is to be allowed to be moored here for a short time until we can clear the canal, and then we will leave.”
“Hmph. Where will you go?”
“I have family in Stellem.”
“That’s around The Bend. I can’t allow you to go there. There are rogues all along that stretch of the river. I couldn’t live with myself knowing I’d sent you into trouble.” Madame Sabine was obviously another matter. “I don’t want to leave any of this group behind. We’re few enough as it is. We risked our lives to rescue these people from certain death and it wouldn’t be right to abandon them.” That included Madame Sabine.
He snorted. “Hmph.” And then he said nothing for a while and snorted again. “Very well. You can use the barn.”
“Thank you very much,” Nellie said.
She expected a protest from Madame Sabine, but none came.
He continued, “But I still want her gone as soon as possible. I will look for other options, and I also want to see both of you at the house for dinner.”
“Me?” Nellie met Henrik’s eyes. “Us?”
“You heard me. I’ll send my housekeeper. Be ready.”
He turned around and made his way back to the house with one of the guards, while he left the other to show Nellie to the barn.
Nellie watched him with a feeling of astonishment. “Why would he want to see me? I’m not a noble lady.”
“Why do you always talk yourself down?”
“It’s true. I’m just a kitchen maid. Why would he want to see me?”
“You have a lot of experience and what you’ve done is astonishing. He would be stupid not to want to talk with you. In the city, with all the other nobles, people have their own groups of influence. In the country, anyone can be a friend or an enemy, and you have to make sure you know where everyone stands.”
True, but it still disturbed her. She didn’t like to be put in a position where she had to speak for other people.
Nellie and Henrik went with the guard to the barn, a building visible from the deck of the ship. They walked along a tree-lined lane with fallow fields on both sides. The guard said that, in summer, the estate would grow wheat and barley here.
Barn was too humble a word for the solid stone building at the end of the lane. It didn’t look like any animals had ever slept there, but instead it was a building for storing hay and other produce. Bales of raw wool lay stacked in the main room, and one of the smaller rooms in the building held a weaving loom and two spinning wheels.
The guard told them that the estate kept sheep and goats for shearing, and a few of the workers’ wives would spin wool and weave fabrics.
Nellie was reminded that this was possibly the richest family outside the city, and from the way the man spoke, it was clear that people were proud to be part of it.
The space where they could sleep was dry and comfortable. It held a small stove used by the weavers, hay to sleep in and a rainwater barrel outside.
Nellie said they could cook aboard the ship, but the guard showed them into another room which had a complete kitchen with rows of tables. A stack of wood lay next to the fireplace, pots and pans stood on the shelves, spoons hung on a rack above the stove and shelves contained jars and pots with stoppers of the type Dora used in the kitchen for sugar and salt.
“The fruit-pickers use this room in autumn,” the man said. “You should still find some of their supplies on the shelves. They haven’t been gone long.”
“Thank you so much,” Nellie said again, and she meant it.
He left, and Nellie and Henrik walked back along the lane to the ship.
“Do you know what his disagreement is with Madame Sabine?” Nellie asked.
“They don’t like each other,” Henrik said. “That’s all I know.”
“I’d like to know if there is a reason other than that they don’t get along. What’s this ‘stuff’ he was talking about that he was going to burn?”
Henrik shrugged. “At the palace, she spent a lot of time in her room and going out after dark. The guards told each other lots of rumours about what she did, but none of them were ever proven true.”
Ever since she had gone into Madame Sabine’s room, Nellie had wondered where Madame Sabine stood and what her motivation was for stealing the dragon. She had never asked, because it was not her place and because she wouldn’t have trusted the answer. But the time was coming when she would need to know. She didn’t look forward to the discussion.
Chapter 4
* * *
BACK AT THE SHIP, Nellie and Henrik told the women to collect everything they needed and come with them to the barn.
Nellie kept a close eye on Madame Sabine. She didn’t know what to think anymore. From any other noblewoman, she would have expected a protest, but again it didn’t come.
Madame Sabine simply collected what meagre possessions she still had and then went to the kitchen to ask Agatha whether she needed to carry anything. Agatha gave her a stack of bowls, with the words, “I don’t know if there is enough kitchenware.”
Agatha then raised her eyebrows at Nellie while Madame Sabine left the kitchen. She mouthed, What’s up with her?
Strangely, Nellie had the feeling that Agatha was happier if Madame Sabine made silly demands and argued with her.
They walked from the ship along the lane in a long file. Some children had been asleep and were cranky at having been woken up to brave the cold air.
The day had turned overcast and dreary. Everyone was tired. It could just be that no one had energy to argue because they realised they’d gone from one difficult situation to the next. Nellie wanted to speak to Madame Sabine, but people kept asking her questions.
First, Gisele wanted to know what the guard had said. “Did he want us to work for accommodation?” she asked.
“He didn’t say. I said we would stay for a few days. It seems he doesn’t want us to stay at the estate while his father’s former lover is in our group. And I’m not sure if she is worth our protection.”
“Madame Sabine has been quite good at hiding her real identity. She is not your average noblewoman.”
“I figured as much. Have you known her long?”
“Known of her, yes, but I don’t know much about her. She keeps her history private. I will tell you the few things I do know.”
“You’ve known her for a while through the Science Guild, haven’t you?”
“Yes, but even there she rarely talks about her history or anything that might let us know about her family or other activities. She says she comes to the meetings because she wants to foster business, but it’s a particular type of business she’s after.”
“That would be magical business?”
“No, but something fairly close to it. Let me start at the beginning. This is what I know to be true: Madame Sabine is a cousin of the Lurezian king.
Her mother was cast out from the royal family when she left her husband. This is very much frowned upon in the Belaman Church, but he was a cheater. Even after she had confronted him with evidence several times, he did not mend his ways. In that particular marriage, her mother was also the most powerful one. Her husband had come from a minor noble family who had sought to marry up. But in marrying Madame Sabine’s mother, the man had not bargained for her strong personality and her interests.”
“I am guessing it is these interests that all this is about?”
“That is correct. Her mother was interested in the sciences. Madame Sabine is interested in ways to make people fly.”
Nellie laughed. “People can’t fly. They are not birds.” Unless they’re sitting on top of a dragon.
“I know, but the time of people trying to fly by jumping off mountains with wings strapped to their arms is over. Many people now make a giant structure called a balloon out of fabric, fill it with hot air or gas and tie a basket to the bottom. Those will fly short distances. They will fly further once all the problems with keeping the hot air inside the bladder have been solved.”
“I’ve never heard of that. Have you seen this?”
“I have, once. I was with the monks at the wedding of Prince Pascal of Lurezia. He’s the king’s youngest son, a lout and miscreant.”
“Like Casper?” Nellie said. She had never heard of Prince Pascal.
“Much worse, because he’s older. Anyway, he likes extravagant things, so the king had invited a group of balloonists to show their flight. They took off and almost landed in the palace pond. Everyone was so drunk that they all tried to get into the basket, and a big brawl started because one of the guests said that the flying balloon was trickery. The problem is that this type of thing is not yet very reliable, and one of the reasons that Madame Sabine comes to the Science Guild is to find ways to make these balloons fly in the direction we want them to go. She’s interested in everything the men report, and often asks them to come and work for her later.”
Nellie now realised something else. Madame Sabine had been interested in the dragon not because he was magic, but because he could fly. “But whatever is the use of flying? It’s a frivolous thing for the rich people to spend their money on, but why spend so much effort on it?”
Gisele shook her head. “Not so frivolous. A part of the Lurezian army is looking at building these balloons. That way they can fly over an enemy city or a camp and drop things on them from the air where arrows can’t reach them.”
By the Triune.
Nellie felt cold. Part of why she had been so disturbed by Madame Sabine’s actions was that she had never looked like a noblewoman with refined ways. Madame Sabine had always reminded her of a soldier.
She was a soldier. She was a Lurezian spy.
And Nellie had expected a story about wanting to trade magic and sell it to the church, which had already proven itself irrelevant because the Shepherd was a magician. Or that Madame Sabine wanted magic, that she disliked the church and had been trying to increase Lord Verdonck’s influence over the Regent, and things like that. What Gisele told her changed everything.
She would have allowed Madame Sabine to stay as long as she found out enough about why the young Lord Verdonck hated her so much, but this moved her opinion towards banishing her from the group altogether.
Still, Nellie didn’t want to do that.
Koby came to talk to Gisele, and Nellie continued walking by herself, deep in thought.
They arrived at the barn and installed themselves inside. Mina was delighted with the kitchen. “We will make sure we use our own food and clean everything as much as possible,” she said. “I don’t want to give any of these people the opportunity to say bad things about us. We may be poor, but we are not savages.”
So much needed to be organised. Some of the women rolled out mats and blankets for sleeping in the hay, and they needed to close the door to the weaving room so the children wouldn’t play there and damage the loom.
“I guess she told you all about me,” Madame Sabine’s voice said behind Nellie.
She turned around. If Madame Sabine was a cousin of the Lurezian king, she didn’t look it. She looked just as worn out as everyone else. “Come, I need to talk to you.”
Nellie preceded her outside. She didn’t want any of the other women listening to this conversation.
The open area outside the barn was for carts to stop and turn around after having delivered or picked up produce. A horizontal wooden beam for tying horses rested on two posts. There was also a water trough—now empty. To the side of the barn stood a small shed, open on three sides, that contained neatly stacked firewood and a chopping block.
Even though it was only mid-afternoon, it was already getting dark.
Nellie began, “The young Lord has said we are welcome here, but you are not. You’ve been with us for a few days, and I need to know your position. I don’t mind arguing with him on your behalf, but I need to know that you’re not going to betray us.”
Madame Sabine snorted. “I can argue for myself.”
“Henrik and I have been invited to the house. Are you coming as well?”
She knew that Madame Sabine had not been invited, of course.
Madame Sabine laughed. “You have been invited?”
“Yes, he wants us to come to dinner.”
“Well, well, fancy that.”
“There is no need to talk down to me. I used to live in the room that’s now taken by your youngest son. I spent all my days upstairs with the king and queen. You may not like me or trust me or think much of me, but don’t tell me I don’t know how to behave in noble company.”
Madame Sabine gave her a suspicious look. “You’re a strange one for a maid.”
“You’re a strange one for a noble lady.”
Madame Sabine lifted her chin.
In fact, the more Nellie got to know her, the less she looked like a noble lady. Everything about her was scandalous and designed to be that way. Madame Sabine made a point of annoying people. “So, then, why doesn’t Adalbert Verdonck like you?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“It is. We saved you. Adalbert Verdonck wants us to abandon you—”
“Then why don’t you?”
“Because I’m not the type of person who abandons people, no matter how unfriendly or prickly they are to me.”
“And you think I am, huh?”
“I don’t know what you are. That’s why we’re here. I need to know if I should worry about protecting you. Why does Adalbert Verdonck want to see you leave?”
Madame Sabine shrugged. “Because he doesn’t like Lurezians? Because I take the place of his mother? Who knows?”
“Or could it be because of the things you know?”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Why, for example, do you have dragon scars on your back? Why did Lord Verdonck have dragon scars on the back of his leg? Why indeed did you have the dragon box?”
“Would you want the church to sit on this treasure? It’s been very useful to us already, hasn’t it?”
“That was not my question. The reason I took the box from the chest was that my father wrote about it in his diary, which I received, and he warned about its powers.”
“Oh yes, your father was always so good at knowing what to tell people to do.”
Much as she wanted to defend her father, Nellie had to admit that this was right. And she was very good at telling people what to do, herself. So father, so daughter.
What little confidence she had in herself or her ability to lead fled her now. She was just becoming another preacher. People would hate her like they had hated her father. “I removed the box, because my father told me about people trying to abuse it. It had been owned by the church and I considered that the safest place for it to be.”
“But you were wrong.”
“Yes, but that is beyond the point. I took it because I was going to return it to
the church. I need to know what you were going to do with it. If you intended to give it back to someone who legally owned it, like Prince Bruno, you wouldn’t have opened it. And since you did open it, why did the dragon attack you? I opened the box, by accident, and the dragon did not attack me at all. Which makes me wonder what were you trying to do with him?”
“You would really like to know that, wouldn’t you?”
“I would. And I will go even further. If you don’t tell me, I will tell the Lord Verdonck that we have no further interest in protecting you and that he is free to send his guards to remove you from our group.”
“You wouldn’t do that. You would regret it.”
“Maybe I would, but I will take utmost satisfaction from doing it anyway. Or you can just be nice and tell me. We are a group of very different people, but we have escaped from a great injustice that was being carried out by your husband and the church. We might as well try to survive together because we will have a better chance. If we have the dragon and the ship and all these people, we may see the next summer, and then we can consider our options.”
Madame Sabine was silent for a while. They had stopped walking, and she was looking over the fence into the paddock where a couple of dopey horses grazed.
Nellie continued, “All right, since you are not very forthcoming, I’ll tell you what I think. I think you’re a spy for the Lurezian king or the Belaman Church.”
“Lies. All lies. I don’t spy for anyone. Those men accept your help and then when you have helped make them richer, they turn around and betray you.”
“Then tell me what the story is.”
“You’re not going to give up, are you?”
Nellie shook her head. “We have all risked our lives getting here. I won’t risk my life any further by supporting someone who may betray me.”
Madame Sabine let out a breath. “I’m sure Gisele has told you all the sordid gossip about my family, about my cheating father and my brave mother.”
“Some of it, yes.”
“Soon after she left her husband, she fell ill and died. I was alone, sixteen, and my mother’s family didn’t know what to do with me, so they married me off to an old man. He owned the house where the Science Guild first met. He also forbade me from ever talking to anyone who visited, or ever going into the room where he kept all his experiments. He was not bad to me—he wasn’t interested in me in any kind of way—he simply needed a wife to look after him. I secretly went into his room and looked at all the things he was doing. He was working on balloons. Unfortunately, he was old and died soon after. Some people in his family didn’t like me. They said I was too outspoken for a woman, and they blamed me for his death. I had nowhere left to go, so I dressed myself as a man and went to the army because they were recruiting. It took them about a year to figure out that I was a woman.”