by Patty Jansen
The man walked to the table and put his hand on the teapot. Yes, it was still warm.
He kicked one of the bricks that surrounded the makeshift fire pit.
Koby retreated, giving him a suspicious look.
“Leave her alone,” Mina said.
The other men spread out around the warehouse. They picked up and threw aside the bags that the women were using as mattresses, sometimes finding little items of interest; but because the women had hidden all their valuable possessions under the cobbles, they didn’t find too much.
One of them found Zelda’s collection of herbs.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Chamomile tea,” Zelda replied, her face defiant.
“And what do you know about chamomile tea?”
“We use it because we cannot get real tea.”
Something in her attitude must have irritated him because he pulled her up by her shawl. “You’re a herb woman?”
“I am a woman who uses herbs sometimes. Because they grow in the field and they’re free.”
“Indeed. You’re a herb woman. You use magic to deceive and betray people. Where are you from?”
“From nowhere. I’ve lived in this town for over ten years.”
“But you are not from here, anyone can tell that. You are a foreigner with magic, trying to subvert the people of this town.”
“I’ve done nothing that bothers you.”
“Haven’t you? Then tell me about these things.” He held up his hand. “Stealing. Bothering citizens. Selling stolen goods. Cajoling the bereaved into giving up their possessions. Selling poisonous concoctions to nobles.”
He counted on his fingers.
Zelda looked at him, her face hard. “You’re looking for people with magic. I did not hear you accuse me of magic.”
He snorted. “We’ll be watching you.”
“You’re welcome. I can do exotic dances for a very good price.”
“And you’re a filthy whore, too. Tell me why I should want to watch your old and wrinkled arse.”
One of his mates laughed.
Another man was questioning the other women. They stood in a group, and Agatha’s voice drifted through the hall.
“We don’t have anything like that.”
The man gestured at the mattresses in the space under the hayloft, and his fellows searched through it. One man was walking from one side to the other side of the sleeping area with a metal stick and two handles. With his big and heavy boots, he stomped across the hay-filled mattresses.
Nellie wondered what he was doing. She had seen people use this device when she was in the forests of Burovia where people would divine for magic.
“Ah!” His face lit up.
He pointed down. A colleague dug in the straw at his feet.
A moment later, he came up with Jantien’s bag.
She clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Was there anything magical in there?” Nellie asked.
Jantien shook her head.
The man found a tatty singlet with pearl buttons. He waved his metal rod over it, then tossed the box to his colleague.
Jantien called out, “No, you can’t have that. It belongs to my mother.”
“This is an item of magic.”
“It’s just a singlet!”
“It’s an item of magic. You are arrested in the name of the Regent.”
“You can’t do that. I have six children to look after. Let me go. Let me go!” She tried to twist herself out of the man’s grip.
“The Regent says no magic, and he means no magic.” He jerked at another colleague who grabbed Jantien’s free arm. “Take her to the others.”
As she was being dragged out, one of her children, in the hayloft cried out. “Mama! No! Mama!”
One of the guards looked up. He nodded to his colleagues.
“Check up there.”
Oh no.
Two men climbed the ladder.
Nellie held her breath. The first one reached the top of the hayloft and called down, “Hey, there’s a bunch of children up here.”
And then he gasped. “What’s that? It’s a—”
A giant roar interrupted him.
“A dragon!”
The man clambered onto the hayloft, pulling his sword.
The children screamed, and the dragon roared again.
Agatha yelled, “Get down here, kids!”
But two men were climbing the ladder, so that was impossible.
And then a fireball burst through the door of the warehouse with such force that the half-rotten wooden plank exploded.
It slid to a halt on the floor. It unfolded four paws, a snarling head with vicious teeth.
The women screamed and ran.
Nellie hid behind the barrel of water, peeping in between the barrel and the wall.
In the middle of the warehouse stood a fire demon in the shape of a mean guard dog with a strong, square-jawed head and powerful shoulders. Its eyes were red as glowing coals, moving from one side to the other as it took in the women cowering in the corner. The guards gripped their swords, pale-faced, knowing they were about to die.
A big ball of fire erupted from the top of the ladder.
Oh no, the dragon. He stood with his mouth open, hissing a spout of fire. No, he would set fire to the entire building.
The guard halfway up the ladder jumped down and drew his bow, aiming at the hayloft.
The other men in the warehouse shouted. A couple surrounded the fire dog, swords drawn, as if swords could do anything against a magical creature. It let out a low growl and crouched as if getting ready to attack.
The dog wasn’t interested in the men at all, but only had eyes for the dragon.
Nellie didn’t think. She grabbed the bucket that stood next to the water barrel, dunked it into the ice-cold water and threw the water over the fire dog.
The stream of water hit the burning figure with a hiss of steam. The creature shook itself. Its fire-laced fur issued steam into the cold air. It turned its head to Nellie. The look from its red eyes burned with evil.
Nellie jumped behind the water barrel with a squeak.
That was dumb. Now it would attack her.
Next thing, the dragon sailed from the hayloft, his claws outstretched. He hit the fire dog in the back. It screamed. The two rolled over the floor, scattering burning wood from the fire.
Nellie yelled, “Stop it, stop it!”
But she wasn’t sure what she would do if the two creatures stopped fighting. She was just afraid that the dragon would be injured. The dragon had his claws dug into the fire dog’s sides and the dog held the dragon’s throat in its jaws.
The dragon shook his head, billowing fire. The dog yelped, letting the dragon go. The dragon jumped into the air, ran through the middle of the fire pit, scattering a shower of sparks. The fire dog jumped after him, but missed, because the dragon’s wing hit it in the face. It rolled over the ground, setting fire to the random bits of straw.
The dragon took no
notice. He ran across the floor, straight through the fire, and launched himself into the air. The sound of his wingbeats receded in the distance. The fire dog shook itself and vanished in a puff of sparks.
Within moments, a big group of guards came running into the warehouse, shouting, swords at the ready.
“Arrest everyone!” the patrol leader shouted.
There was no time to make a plan. It was everyone for themselves. No time to find the children or take any possessions.
Nellie ran across the floor. A door in the back of the warehouse led to a path that ran along the canal. She didn’t think; she ran past the back of warehouse, past people unloading stock from the low barges that could navigate the canals, past the brewery and the city’s food stores, until she could no longer hear the shouting.
Then she hid in an alcove, catching her breath.
It was cold. The day was misty and the humidity of the air seeped into her
clothes. She only had the clothes she wore. She was still hungry.
The dragon was nowhere in sight.
Chapter 6
IT WAS COLD in the misty morning along the canal.
Nellie stared over the surface of the water, disturbed only by two ducks paddling across an area near the opposite side, which was free from ice.
There was nothing to do, except to return to the warehouse and gather what she could salvage after the raid, find the people who were still there and then . . . start again and struggle to survive.
The thought of going back to the palace crossed her mind. Now that the dragon had escaped, the proof that she had stolen him had become irrelevant. Hopefully, the dragon was smart and had gone back to wherever dragons came from. Still, she had the box, and she would forever be afraid that the dragon would turn up. And there would be questions, most likely from Madame Sabine. And lacking a dragon would make it more likely that the Regent would blame her, and not the dragon, for Lord Verdonck’s death. That threat would always hang over her head any time she came near the palace.
When Nellie entered the warehouse, she found Mina, Gertie, Hilde and Lise with Koby and Jantien’s children, all standing around crying and hugging each other.
They turned to the door as soon as Nellie came in. Faces lit up.
“Nellie! You’re alive.”
Koby ran to her and gave her a hug, and Mina followed.
Zelda sat on an upturned bucket in a corner, giving the group an evil look. Agatha sat with her, with Anneke and Bas at her feet, and so the lines in the sand were drawn.
“Where are the others?” Nellie asked. A few faces were missing from the group. Gertie and Hilde were there, but Josie was not. Emmie was also missing.
“They took Jantien,” Koby said.
Yes, that was another missing face.
“The children,” Mina said.
All six huddled together, the youngest only four. By the Triune, the poor things. How were they going to
survive? Nellie crouched next to them.
“When is mama coming back?” Jette asked.
Nellie couldn’t bring herself to
say what she feared. “We’ll look after you. You won’t have to be alone, and you won’t have to go hungry.” It was all she could say.
“Boots was really angry at those guards. He will get mama.”
Nellie couldn’t bear to tell the children that their dragon was also gone.
From her spot on the upturned bucket, Zelda said, “Go on, be a hero. Just remember why we’re in this trouble in the first place.”
“It is not her fault!” Mina shouted.
Zelda snorted. “She brought the creature in here. And then dared accuse me of being dishonest.”
“We are all in this together. We need each other to survive. If you don’t want to be here, then leave, because—”
Gertie interrupted. “—Stop it, Mina. Bickering won’t get us anywhere.”
Zelda continued, “We were fine until she came, stuck-up bitch from the palace, thinks she’s better than us.”
“Stop it!” Gertie and Hilde shouted at the same time.
Zelda crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Nellie.
Nellie’s ears glowed. Nobody had ever said things like that about her. She had given so much just to help people. How dare this witch suggest that she . . .
But as usual, when she got angry, she lost the capability of making sensible replies. She just froze up.
Mina said into the tense silence, “What has happened has happened. There is not much point in arguing who was at fault or why this happened—”
“It was because the guards were looking for people with magic,” Koby said. “I heard them say so.”
“Leave it, child,” Mina said. “It’s done. We can’t change what happened. We need to all help each other and do what we can to find the others. We’ll need everyone to respect each other. Please don’t fight because it only weakens us. Are you all with us?”
Gertie and Hilde nodded. Nellie nodded, too, and so did Koby, and Emmie’s daughter Lise.
Agatha, seated next to Zelda, did not.
“Mama?” Anneke said. “I want to stay.”
Mina turned to Zelda, who said nothing, but pulled her arms closer about her chest.
“Agatha?” Mina asked. “Can we count on you?”
Agatha glanced at her daughter, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She blew out a breath. “Oh, all right. I have the little ones to take care of.”
“Thank you,” Mina said.
Anneke clapped her hands. “Yes! I don’t want to go anywhere else. Thank you mama.”
“Zelda?” Mina asked.
Zelda said nothing, and Mina said nothing either for a while. They glared at each other.
“We appreciate your knowledge and your free spirit, we really do,” Mina said.
Finally, Zelda spoke. “Yeah, because that’s what this is about: I know where to find things you can use and eat. But, no, thank you. I know when I’m not welcome.”
Zelda picked up her bag and walked out of the warehouse. She left behind a tense silence.
“Who will get us the tea and the beans?” Anneke asked.
“Don’t even ask,” Mina said. “It’s bad enough that this had to happen.”
“I only tried to help,” Nellie said.
“It’s not your fault. You did well bringing us the leftovers from the palace.”
“I can keep doing that.” Nellie cringed. She didn’t want to go back to the palace, but she had to, just to help these people.
“Thank you. We appreciate it.”
Gertie sighed. “It is a pity though. Together we stand much stronger than divided. She did know a lot of useful things. With winter coming, surviving until it’s over will be our main problem. We’ll see about all the other stuff, like finding a better place, and maybe going somewhere else in spring.”
The women fell silent. Some of them nodded, and Hilde hugged Agatha.
Then Nellie said, “How about we try to free Jantien and the others?”
Mina snorted. “If you know how we, a group of ragtag widows and children, can do that, I’d be happy to hear about it.”
Nellie didn’t know. It was always Mistress Johanna who had the brilliant ideas. But it wouldn’t hurt to find out where the people had been taken. Then, once she knew that, maybe an idea would come to her—
—An idea that involved a dragon—
—That had probably left the city a long time ago.
She needed to make a plan, but plans were not her strong point.
After making sure that the guards had gone, Nellie ventured into the street. She needed to think, away from the immediate concerns of survival. They still had enough food for a day, two if they stretched it.
The main street through the artisan quarter was a chaos of discarded and broken household items and people trying to recover those items. Groups of men stood in the street, arguing about the raids. The talk was of ruined stock and possessions stolen from houses.
A group of merchants hotly debated who these guards worked for. Nellie stopped to listen.
“They were not in proper uniform,” one man said. “They’re mercenaries paid by the Regent to search the houses of people they suspect of hatching plots against him.”
“Why would he send them in here? All the people who conspire against the Regent are in the palace already. They’re all nobles and their hangers-on, all the fat cats who get invited to the banquets. These men were looking for something.”
“They said they was looking for magic,” said another man. “The Regent put the rules on the church door that there was to be no magic allowed.”
“That’s what they say. You never know what it’s really about.”
“Yeah, the Regent wants himself crowned king. He’ll be wanting to shut up any that don’t agree with him.”
“In the artisan quarter, man? Who in this crappy part of town wo
uld have the money to stick in his craw that much?”
“The Science Guild, that’s what.”
“The—what?”
“You don’t know about them? They’re the ones who meet at the back of Jacques de Ruyter’s house. They’re no friends of the Regent’s, or the church for that matter.”
The men went into gossip about who did or did not belong to this group that Nellie had never heard about, so she continued walking.
She suspected that this was about finding a dragon. Someone had tipped off the guards she was in this area. It could have been someone who had watched from a darkened window when the dragon had tumbled into the street. It could have been a neighbour. It could have been Zelda, or Agatha.
Further down the street, people gathered around a woman who wailed about the arrest of her daughter.
“She was just fifteen, never done nothing wrong!”
The coldness in Nellie’s heart grew. What sort of guards took a young girl away from her family?
How could the Regent order this?
Signs of destruction were everywhere. The men had bashed in doors and destroyed shops when searching for magical items. They had even ransacked the markets. The contents of a herb seller stall lay on the ground. Several of the man’s jars were broken, the contents spilling in the snow. A lot of the stallholders had already started to pack up, many of them angry, saying they were leaving, never to return.
A group of people stood on the steps to the church, looking at a second piece of paper on the door.
Nellie joined the group and shuffled forward until she could read the text.
It said:
In our efforts to rid the city of the evil practitioners of magic, we will conduct an open court for people who have been charged with performing or being in possession of items of witchcraft. The session will be held in the marketplace, and people from the church will preside over the proceedings.
The date was only two days from now, and none of the onlookers knew what would happen to people who were judged to be magicians or how those judgements would be made.
Nellie rushed back to the women in the warehouse and told them about the declaration.
“What does it mean—there will be a process?” Hilde asked.
