The Dragon King

by Patty Jansen

  What were they to do?

  After they finished eating, Nellie went to clean the bowls in the ice-cold water of the basin that they had set up outside for that purpose.

  She tried to lead this group but she wasn’t sure she was cut out for leadership. You’re too nice and forgiving, Mistress Johanna would say. Well, if she had to be nasty in order to be a leader, she preferred not to be a leader. Let them split up, let each person go their own way. At least they had survived this far because of her. Now they could look after themselves.

  But that wasn’t how she wanted things to be. She’d dreamed of the time when she was with Mistress Johanna and Prince Roald and they had come back to the city to oust the Fire Wizard.

  They had a group; they had a prince. They even had a dragon. So why was everything wrong?

  The door to the barn opened, letting out a strip of golden light in the gathering dusk. Henrik came out.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, his voice kind.

  “I never knew how frustrating it is to get a group of people all to do the same thing.”

  He chuckled. “My family helped me get over that hurdle.”

  That hit home with her. “You must miss them very much.”

  “I miss Martha, but she is never coming back. I’m glad she doesn’t have to see me like this. My daughters are grown up and married. They can look after themselves. I’m sure we’ll get back to the city and I can visit them.”

  But as the man who had shot the Regent, that might not be so simple. Nellie still didn’t understand quite why he had done it, because it had destroyed his comfortable life. He had said that it was because the Regent was going to kill his own wife in front of his son’s eyes, but there had to be more to it.

  “What do you think we should do?” she asked.

  “I’m going to make this about Bruno. I’m worried about him, and we need to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. He’s the best chance we have of getting rid of these power-grabbing tyrants.”

  “I’m worried about him, too,” Nellie said. “He’s very impatient and asks disturbing questions.”

  “He does. I need to be stronger with him.”

  “It’s not your fault. He’s lived locked up for ten years, and spent the most important years of his life in a dark prison. Of course he’s angry.”

  “We have to make sure he uses that anger in a good way, though. He seems to think that everyone is trying to hold him back. He wants the dragon to take him to see his father, and he thinks we know where Li Fai is. He also thinks that you have turned the dragon against him, because it won’t listen to him the same way it listens to you.”

  Nellie snorted. “The dragon listens to me? That’s news.”

  “It listens to you better than it listens to anyone.”

  “No. He follows animals better than he follows people. He attracts animals, too.”

  “Anyone human I mean. Like this afternoon, you told it to stop trying to set fire to the barn, and it did.”

  He was right, she realised with a shock. “I don’t mean to take that away from Bruno.”

  “I know, but the dragon seems to have an opinion of who to follow and what’s right and wrong.”

  A phrase bubbled up in Nellie’s memories. “The Great Just Dragon.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not sure. It came into my mind—wait, it was a story that Mistress Johanna told the children. I think it was an eastern story. It was about how a dragon saves a village. The dragon refused to obey its master because the master was the village mayor and made unreasonable demands of his villagers.”

  “Maybe there is some truth in it somewhere that dragons will follow sensibility over orders.”

  “And I am the pinnacle of sensibility,” Nellie said in a mocking voice.

  “You are. You always have been. I’m not joking.”

  The idea that the dragon should choose to listen to her over Bruno disturbed her. The boy seemed so fragile, and it wasn’t right to take what he considered his. If it continued, he would only get more disturbed and angry.

  “How can I make sure the dragon knows he belongs to Bruno?”

  “I suspect Bruno will have to earn the right to command the dragon.”

  “Could you possibly start training him in fighting and swordcraft?”

  “He’s still really young and not very strong.”

  “I know, but it will give him something to do and stop his brooding over all the things he can’t do. He’ll feel involved and active, even if he may still be too weak to be any good at it.”

  Henrik let a small silence lapse. “I don’t have any equipment.”

  “I’m sure we can make a fake sword out of stuff we find in the barn. I’ve seen lengths of wood lying around. I’ll show you.”

  She picked up the stack of bowls and walked to the door of the barn. It would be cold tonight, because the air already bit into the skin of her face.

  But Henrik remained at the bench.

  “Is anything wrong?”

  “Nellie, you always so perfectly manage to steer the conversation away from yourself.”

  “What do you mean? This isn’t about me.”

  “I know, but I asked if you were all right.”

  “You didn’t. You asked about Bruno.”

  “No, I came out here because I wanted to know if you are all right. It was the first question I asked.”

  “I don’t like talking about myself.” As Nellie spoke, she realised just how true it was. “This expedition isn’t about me. I could have stayed in the palace just fine.”

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  “Why did you shoot the Regent?”

  “See? You’re doing it again. We do the things we do, because we believe they are right. How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine.”

  But she didn’t think he believed that.

  Chapter 10

  * * *

  WHILE NELLIE LAY IN the straw trying to sleep that night, the conversation played in her mind many times.

  Henrik made her uncomfortable. Whenever she spoke to him, it was as if he held up a mirror to her face and forced her to look into it. And she didn’t like what she saw: that she was self-righteous, that she didn’t know anything about other people’s lives, even if she thought she did, and that she was hopeless at leading groups of people, always having been in the shadow of much more powerful leaders. She simply couldn’t be like Mistress Johanna. She could only be herself.

  If the group couldn’t agree about what to do, they would split up; and Nellie would never be able to break the stranglehold over the city held by the shepherd, a man who, curse his soul, used the cover of the church to propel himself into the leadership over Saarland, because “there is no clear heir to the throne.” Yes, there was, and he’d lived in the church dungeons for ten years.

  The shepherd, a man who forbade magic because “it is evil”, and then made sure that no one in the church found out he had magic. He punished citizens who had small amounts of magic “for the safety of the citizens” while in truth he did it to drive his rivals away.

  That was the only thing he’d done: make sure that no one who would ask pointy questions or challenge him came near.

  And she would make sure that this evil man didn’t destroy the city and the church she loved, so all these women and their husbands could go back. So all the foreign merchants who had left came back to the city, so the ocean ships returned with their trade. So magic would be taught to children. And so Shepherd Adrianus could return.

  Her mind went around and around in circles, and while she lay there she wasn’t sleeping. Everyone else had been exhausted, including the dragon, who was snoring loudly.

  She was exhausted, but the worry consumed her mind.

  The next morning, as he had promised, Henrik started Bruno’s sword training. He got up early, and then had some trouble waking Bruno.

  “Can we go bit later? It is still so cold.”

 
“If you want to learn, you have to do the work. Soldiers get up early and don’t complain.”

  Bruno sprang up, and got dressed, even if in low morning light, Nellie could see that he was shivering. She hoped that Henrik would not be too hard on him.

  They both went outside. Not much later Nellie got up as well, and started the preparations for

  breakfast. She wondered where Koby was, because usually she helped.

  But then she discovered Koby outside, watching while Henrik and Bruno were lifting pieces of firewood in the first pink light of the

  dawn. Henrik’s piece of wood was much bigger than Bruno’s, but Bruno scrunched up his face and lifted his piece above his head and then let it drop again and lifted it again and let it drop again.

  “What are they doing?” Nellie asked.

  Koby said, “Bruno wanted to be trained to be a fighter.”

  “Yes, I understand, but I would think they might do something useful, like practice fighting moves.”

  As she said this, Henrik took off running up the road. Bruno took a little while to figure out that his mentor had gone, and then dropped his wood and followed him. At the end of the laneway, Henrik turned around and came running back again. His face was red from the cold and exertion. Nellie thought it was amazing that he was still this strong and healthy at his age.

  When they were back at the barn, Bruno seemed much more exhausted then Henrik was.

  “Are you coming to have breakfast?” Nellie asked them.

  “Is it ready?” Henrik said.

  “Almost.”

  Henrik held up his hand when Bruno joined him to stop his pupil running down the lane again. They were both breathing heavily, but Henrik seemed the one who was actually enjoying himself.

  “How is he doing?” Nellie asked Henrik when he came inside.

  “He could use a lot more training, but he seems quite keen. Although he’s very impatient. He asked me several times whether he could use a weapon. He will have to learn a bit of patience to be a good fighter.”

  “Good luck with that. I think you’ll have to watch him closely.”

  “Well, we can’t train with a weapon, because I don’t have a training weapon, and we don’t have any money to buy one either.”

  “Thank goodness for that.”

  They all sat around the fire eating breakfast and drinking tea. Bruno’s face was red, and his eyes were bright.

  “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?” Nellie asked him when she handed a bowl of porridge to him.

  “Of course I enjoyed it. Anything that teaches me how to kill that evil man.”

  A chill went over Nellie’s back. Even if she thought the shepherd was evil, she didn’t think about killing in such a glorified way.

  “You’re not very strong yet.”

  “But I will be, soon, and then we can go to the city, and we will get rid of all these evil men.”

  “They will always be more evil men.”

  “But then we can go to the palace, and the palace is mine, and I will bring peace. And then my father can come back, and everything can be good again.”

  Nellie didn’t think it was going to be quite as simple as that. For one, not everyone in town would be happy to see the eastern traders in a position of power. Li Fai was in Anglia, and a return would bring Anglian people they might not be happy to see.

  “Tell me how many rooms the palace has,” Bruno said.

  What a strange question. “I’ve never counted them.”

  “What did my mother do with all those rooms?”

  “They are all different, and only a few of them are for the family to live in. Most of them are public rooms, for holding audiences and dinners and meetings and music performances.”

  “Audiences, that’s where people come to bow to the king and ask him favours, isn’t it?”

  The way he said that made Nellie feel cold. This boy needed to be taught a lot of manners, preferably before he came anywhere near the palace.

  “An audience is where people from the general citizenship can come to have their problems heard. They will discuss it with the ruler, the king or queen or regent, and the ruler will then make sure that something is done about it, especially if a lot of people ask for the same thing, and if it is at all within their power to give.”

  “But it is where people come to ask for things, isn’t it?”

  “It is where common people come to discuss their problems,” Nellie repeated, more forcefully. “The king or queen who doesn’t listen to the voice of the people will not last very long.”

  He gave her a blank look. “And how many of these citizens are there?” As if citizens were sheep or horses.

  “I haven’t counted them. Thousands, tens of thousands? I don’t know. A lot. A lot more than any king or queen wants to make angry.”

  “But if they are angry, the king has guards?”

  “Yes, he does. But, like Henrik, they are people who will sometimes also have problems, and they have families who will have problems, so the guards might actually agree with what the common people coming for an audience are saying.”

  His frown deepened. “But aren’t guards supposed to listen to the King?”

  “They are, and they will, for as long as the king looks after the guards, by listening to their problems and attempting to fix them.”

  “Oh, but I would feed them well and make sure that they are never cold.”

  “And the guards have families who live in city.”

  “I would look after the families as well.”

  “And the families have neighbours, who might be jealous when they see how much the guards’ families are getting.”

  “I would bring all the families in the palace.”

  “I don’t think the palace is that big.”

  “But you said it was very big.”

  “Well, it is very big, but the palace is still not on an island, and if the citizens of the city don’t like it, they can rise up and burn down the palace, because there are many more citizens than any number of people who will fit in the palace.”

  He had to think about that for a while, and the chill that Nellie felt grew into a blizzard.

  Whatever was going on inside the head of this boy, he was assuming that everything was his far too soon. What had these priests and monks done to him?

  She mentioned this to Henrik after breakfast, when he had sent Bruno with Wim to collect firewood.

  “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He’s a young boy, and so he’s very impatient,” Henrik said. “Believe me, I was once that young boy. I was going to protect the king all by myself. I was going to slay the fire demons, even if I had no idea how to do that or even what a fire demon looked like. I was going to protect my king from the evil Red Baron, and when I finally saw the Red Baron, even though he was much taller than me and twice the width I thought I could fight him. It is a very common thing for young boys to think like this. He wants to prove himself. He’s angry, and I can’t blame him. To me, it’s a wonder that his ordeal hasn’t turned him completely crazy.”

  And Nellie wasn’t so sure it hadn’t. The mad King Roald was not the boy’s father, but there were some disturbing similarities.

  But she had to trust Henrik’s judgement. She kept an eye on the two of them as they continued their training during the day.

  The day was sunny but cold and frosty, and by the time the light turned golden and Henrik and Bruno came back inside, even Henrik looked tired.

  “I hope you look after yourself,” Nellie said.

  “Don’t worry about me.”

  During dinner, Nellie noticed that when Bruno had finished eating, he could barely keep his eyes open. His cheeks were bright red, and he sat with his arms looped around his knees, trying to be brave and stay awake. He didn’t even listen to Koby’s chatter, and his eyes kept falling shut.

  Everyone was tired, and they went to bed early. For a change, Nellie slept well because it was quite warm in the barn, and she didn’
t have to worry about people invading.

  Throughout the day, groups of people had still been talking about what they would do, but whichever way she thought about it, Nellie thought it would be better to stay here rather than go to the nuns and risk the mercenaries from the city finding them again.

  She couldn’t imagine that Casper had anything intelligent to say about what needed to be done with the undesirable people the mercenaries found outside the city. From what Henrik had said, the Regent probably had little influence on these men anyway. And Casper would be far too busy making sure he didn’t get killed.

  If the women were betrayed, the guards would find everyone in this group, throw them in jail and burn them at the stake. Once, there would have been citizens in the city who would rise up and protest, but by now they were all kept quiet with the shepherd’s magic.

  Over the next few days, it became clear that it was not just Bruno who was impatient. Madame Sabine sent Jantien’s daughter Jette—who was enamoured with Madame Sabine’s curls—to the house to ask for pens and parchment. She demanded the right to correspond with acquaintances who could “help her escape this dreadful situation”. No word of thanks to Nellie for rescuing her. No word, either, about her sons.

  Nellie hoped this didn’t mean that she didn’t care about the boys, just that she didn’t want to ask the group to help rescue them.

  She remained a strange and very closed woman.

  As for Nellie herself, it was hard to imagine that she could feel any worse about the situation. They may have saved the lives of the prisoners, but no one seemed to know what to do next, and they lived as virtual exiles, without the ability to organise themselves or to do anything about the dreadful situation in the city. With winter coming, it would be a long time before the weather was good enough to travel back, and then there didn’t seem to be any reason to do so.

  Nellie mostly kept these thoughts to herself as she watched Henrik and Bruno do their regular training, and as she watched groups of animals congregate outside the barn.

  The dragon was growing stronger, and had once been let out of the box so that he would keep the children warm at night.