Dragonspeaker Chronicles Box Set

by Patty Jansen

  She judged the roof good enough to keep out most of the rain.

  The workbench would make a nice table and the barrels could be chairs, and the storeroom—

  But what was that?

  The dust on the paving bore scuffmarks that looked recent. A couple of carrots lay on the ground. Fresh carrots, because if they’d been here even overnight, they would have been frozen to mush.

  This barn was already someone’s hideout.

  “Is anyone here?” Nellie asked.

  The sound of her voice died in the silence.

  She looked around for other signs that people lived here: bedding, a tin of water, a bag with possessions. Other than the carrots, she saw nothing.

  It was strange and eerie, as if she was entering someone else’s house, someone who was very careful about not leaving anything behind when he went out.

  Except carrots.

  Maybe in the storeroom.

  It lay off the side of the barn separated by a rickety wooden door that creaked terribly. Faint light filtered through the tiny window in the top corner. The floor was covered in sawdust that gave out a musty scent.

  In the past, this room had been used to store items related to ships and their maintenance. There had been barrels of oil, coils of rope and spare parts like leather straps and eyelets for harnesses and other such things. Some barrels remained on the shelves. Probably they would need to be recaulked before being useful again.

  There was also some rope, but it would probably break as soon as someone tried to use it.

  In the corner stood a couple of newer items: a bag with carrots, a basket with smaller bags of beans and flour, a cooking pot, and a collection of mismatched cups and bowls, all clean. There was also a stack of horse blankets, neatly folded.

  The sawdust on the floor bore no signs of recent disturbance.

  As if these things were put here just for her and her group. It was eerie.

  But the place was dry, and it was away from the searching patrols in the artisan quarter.

  Nellie measured out the space by taking big steps across the room. The group had nine children and six adults. It would be a tight squeeze to all fit in the room when they needed to hide or when it got cold, but it was better than the warehouse in the artisan quarter where everyone knew where they were—or it would be, if it weren’t for those abandoned supplies and the feeling that someone was already using this space.

  Nellie went back into the main warehouse. As she did so, a number of sea cows plopped their heads under the water.

  Two of the sea cows were crunching carrots. Did they have the carrots before? She couldn’t remember.

  Could sea cows climb out of the water? She had never seen them do so.

  Two cats hid under the benches, crouching down. In the old times, there used to be a lot of cats here, because the captains often caught fish on the way down the river. But that was a long time ago. There hadn’t been any fish scraps to be scavenged here for many years.

  Curled up in the remainders of wood shavings under another bench lay a puppy, undisturbed by either the cats or the sea cows or Nellie’s presence.

  Poor thing. Was it sick?

  But when she crouched, the puppy raised its head and wagged its tail. A sprinkle of sparks trailed over its fur.

  Magic.

  Nellie whirled around, only to hear more sea cow heads plop back under the water. A carrot rolled across the paving and then over the edge. It landed in the basin with a splash.

  A puff of magic sparks trailed the water’s edge. She had seen those sparks before. The dragon. She knew for sure now. That was what had been spying on her.

  Nellie rose. “Come out, there’s no need to be afraid of me.”

  Her heart thudded.

  There was no reply, but she could see a little spark of magic in the corner.

  “Come on.” She held out her hand.

  Of course she hadn’t thought to bring the box. Maybe now that he was hiding, the dragon would be happy go back. Who knew what dragons thought?

  “All right, you can go and be silly. I am not happy with you because you gave us away and now we are in a lot of trouble. But if you want, you can make it up and help us.”

  The little trail of magic sparks oozed along the ground and disappeared under the workbench next to the cats. One of them batted a paw at it.

  “Have it your way. But we are going to come here anyway.”

  This was the safe place to take the children.

  Chapter 9

  LATER THAT DAY, Nellie and Mina walked across town with the children. They wore all their clothes, and each carried a pot or a stack of chipped bowls or cups with broken handles. Nellie had told them to collect everything that was theirs and carry as much as possible with them. She didn’t want to go back a second time. Guards were everywhere, and she had spotted one of the men talking to Zelda.

  The children had asked where they were going, and whether they would see their mother.

  Nellie couldn’t bring herself to lie as Mina suggested. Koby and Ewout were old enough and wise enough to see through that. So while they walked, she told them about the shed and that it had belonged to the Queen’s family, and when she said that sea cows were hanging around in the barn, Bas said, “Whoa! We can tie them to a boat and go anywhere!”

  “Except we have no boat,” Koby said.

  And Mina added, “And there is nowhere to go. It’s winter. The water is cold and there will be ice floating down the river.”

  But there were a few towns just outside the city, and Nellie had cousins in one of those towns. And what Ewout had said was true: they could catch sea cows and tie them to any boat. The barn even contained the necessary harnesses.

  To get to the harbour, the group needed to cross the marketplace. As it had become a regular occurrence, many people had gathered around the bottom of the church steps to read the notice on the church door.

  “What are all those people doing?” Anneke asked.

  “The Regent has made a declaration,” Nellie said.

  “What is a declaration?”

  Nellie and Mina looked at each other over the children’s heads.

  It would be easy to say something like That is only for adults, or You’ll find out later, but that was a sure way for the children to know that something was up. The children were not crazy. They had lived in hardship for the past six months. Koby, especially, was almost old enough not to be considered a child anymore.

  “The Regent is going to hold a court to see which prisoners are witches.”

  “Is Mama going to be there?” Jantien’s oldest daughter Jette asked.

  “Maybe.”

  “Our mother is not a witch,” Ewout said.

  “We know that, but the Regent doesn’t.”

  “So he will see that she is not, and he’ll let her go.”

  But if the Regent so determined, all of them would be witches, because all of them were there to be made an example of. Because how did they determine that someone was a witch? Men in power had many different ways, and some of them were as simple as deciding they didn’t like the prisoner’s face. There was no reason to believe the Regent would use genuine ways to determine witchcraft.

  But Jette kept asking questions. “And after they say that mammy is not a witch can she come back to us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  And Nellie didn’t, though she didn’t think many people who were put into the prisons ever came out again. But she couldn’t bring herself to tell the children any of this because she didn’t understand the reasons either. Jantien had done nothing wrong.

  Mina and Nellie gave each other another look. The situation was bad, and there was nothing except the extraordinary that would change anything.

  Nellie wished she could fix the terrible situation. She wished she knew someone who could find Jantien and let her out, with the apology that it had been a mistake. She wished the dragon would come back and listen to her, and she could tell him
to frighten everyone away, break down the doors to the prison and set the prisoners free.

  The group walked to the end of the wharf.

  “In here,” Nellie said, opening the door to the sea cow barn.

  To her surprise, a waft of warm air came out. A fire burned in the fire pit.

  “You were mistaken that this is a safe place. Someone is already here,” Mina said.

  “We can ask if we can stay with them,” Hilde said, and she walked into the barn.

  “Hello?” Agatha called out.

  There was no reply except the crunch of a sea cow grabbing a carrot from under the water. So who made the fire?

  “Where did all these carrots come from?” Mina asked.

  A whole bagful sat on the floor. The side of the bag bore an emblem: that of the city stores. What was that about thieves? By the Triune.

  Anneke walked around the fire, holding her hand up as if she was running her fingers along an invisible object. Her eyes were distant.

  “It’s because Boots is here. He’s watching us.”

  “Boots!” her brother called.

  They both looked at the ceiling. A faint trail of sparks crept over the underside of the beams that held up the roof.

  But no matter how much the children called, the dragon wouldn’t show himself. Anneke had even brought the little kitten which she picked up and held in the air so that its legs dangled down from her hands.

  The sparks drifted closer. The kitten looked at them, but then one of the women said something in the storeroom, and the sparks scooted back up to the ceiling.

  “He’s afraid that we’re angry,” Ewout said.

  “I think he’s scared of the fire dog,” Anneke said. “He doesn’t want to come out, but he still wants to help us.”

  That might well be true, but then where did those carrots, blankets and other supplies come from?

  But no matter how carefully they looked, they could find no evidence that someone had used this barn for a long time. It was almost as if someone had come here to set up the shelter with food and blankets just for their use.

  Whether these items were set there for good or ill, the women could do nothing but use them. The storeroom was snug and dry, and the carrots and beans made a thick soup that kept everyone warm.

  The judgement of the prisoners was held the next day.

  After a brief cold snap, the snow had melted again, and now it was raining. The city looked grey and colourless. The snow had been reduced to large areas of slush. They were slippery and made for cold wet feet when Nellie and a couple of the women made their way along the deserted quay. They had left the children in the warehouse because they didn’t need to see this.

  A great crowd of people had gathered in the marketplace for the open court session. During the morning, carpenters had erected an installation. Three chairs stood atop a platform. A strange contraption was placed at the front of the platform. The part she could see over the heads of the crowd consisted of a horizontal beam atop a pole. A chain hung down from one end of the beam.

  The ornate chairs with red velvet cushions were still empty. A couple of guards stood at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the platform.

  One of them was Henrik.

  He stared over the square, his face unemotional.

  An ugly wagon stopped in front of the mayor’s house, pulled by a team of strong workhorses. The driver sat at a wooden bench at the front of the heavy wooden box on wheels, with a row of tiny windows near the top. It was the prison wagon.

  Two guards opened the door at the back, and the prisoners were marched from the wagon like a flock of sheep.

  There were quite a few of them, old men and women. Nellie recognised Emmie, Josie and Jantien helping Yolande, the old owner of the shop on the corner opposite the warehouse, and quite a few other people including the baker, the herb seller and others. She was glad that Jantien’s children were still in the sea cow barn.

  All the prisoners had been tied together with a rope around their wrists so that none of them could escape without tripping up all the others. They were dragged to the bottom of the platform and told to line up facing the crowd. So many of them were women. There were only a few men, including Wim, who used to work as taster in the palace kitchens. What had he done wrong?

  Normally, when the Regent held an open court for serious criminals, people in the city would jeer, but everyone in the crowd was silent. That was the fear the Regent had sown into the hearts of the citizens.

  The prison wagon left and was replaced with a shiny coach in the red colour of the Carmine royal family, but lacking the royal standard at the back. This was the same coach that Queen Johanna had used to travel around the city. It was disgusting that this self-important man now used it for this purpose.

  When the coach came to a halt, the coach driver jumped off, walked around the side and opened the door after folding out the steps.

  From where she stood, Nellie could see into the interior of the coach.

  For a while nothing happened, and then a booted foot appeared in the entrance, followed by the ornate trouser leg of the Regent himself. Compared to the scruffy clothing of the townsfolk, his blue cloak looked magnificent. The Regent rarely left the palace, so it didn’t get much use.

  A few people at the front of the crowd gave a lacklustre cheer. He waved at them, but didn’t look further into the crowd. The Regent was not a popular man, and he knew it. The guards at the front ordered people to applaud, but beyond the first few rows, few people could be moved to follow their example.

  The Regent stepped stiffly out of the carriage, assisted by a guard, and made his way between the two lines of guards up the steps, before sitting down in the middle of the three seats on the platform.

  The next person to come out of the coach was the Shepherd Wilfridus. He wore his full cream-white robes and used his shepherd’s staff to assist his descent, refusing the help from the guards.

  The crowd fell silent. Maybe, like Nellie, they remembered his wide-eyed, red-faced rant against magic and evil.

  He walked straight-backed between the two lines of guards and sat down on the seat furthest from the steps. His face was blank, and he stared over the heads of the crowd.

  Who would take the third seat?

  Certainly not Madame Sabine? In the past Nellie could remember the spot having been taken by the mayor, but his mop of white hair that always looked windblown peeked up from the gathering of nobles to the side of the platform.

  Someone else moved inside the coach. Nellie recognised the hideous blue trousers before the owner came fully out of the coach. It was the Regent’s son Casper.

  What was that brat doing here?

  He emerged from the coach and strode between the two lines of guards with his head held up as if he owned the world. He climbed the stairs to the platform and sat down in the third seat, looking over the gathered crowd.

  Nellie always prided herself on being a forgiving person. She didn’t like to keep grudges and preferred to forgive people for missteps and move on, but the hatred that welled up in her when seeing that ill-mannered brat in the position where he would decide over the lives of people sickened her. That spoilt piece of—no that would be inappropriate language. She would not lower herself to using that when describing people.

  But oh, she was angry.

  One of the guards called the others to attention, and the town crier came up the platform. He faced the audience, ringing his bell. Then he held up a piece of parchment and read, in his pompous voice:

  “Let the proceedings begin! The Regent announces that one of his personal guests in the palace was murdered through evil witchcraft. He has made it his mission to find and eradicate all peddlers of witchcraft and protect the people of this city.”

  A few people cheered, but the sound died away quickly.

  He stepped aside so that Nellie could see the strange contraption at the front of the platform.

  A platform hung from the chain, an
d the other end of the beam was attached to a second chain with a hook on the end. A couple of hessian bags sat to the side.

  “By the order of the exulted Regent, we will be weighing these witches,” the town crier said. “When they weigh less than two sacks they are obviously held up on this world with the aid of magic, and they will be proven to be witches. The shepherd and the Regent’s noble son are here to be witnesses and the shepherd will make the final declaration.”

  The first woman climbed the platform. Nellie didn’t know her. She must have been in the prisons for quite some time, because her skin was deathly pale, marked with red sores. She was thin as a skeleton and barely strong enough to hold herself up.

  The guard lifted up the first sack and hung it on the hook. The platform wobbled. The woman grabbed onto the chain to stop herself falling.

  When he added the second sack, the platform with the woman shot up.

  The Regent nodded. Casper nodded, looking self-important.

  People around Nellie gasped.

  The town crier called out, “A witch! She is a witch.”

  The woman fell to her knees. “I am not a witch. I have a husband and three children who need me. I have an old mother who is sick and I need to look after her. Please.”

  The Regent’s face remained unemotional. He flapped his hand to indicate that the guards take the woman off the platform.

  Two guards grabbed the thin woman under her arms and dragged her off, still wailing.

  “What will happen to her?” a woman next to Nellie asked.

  “Nothing good,” Mina said.

  “Yeah,” the woman said. “The Regent will be making some grand announcement that we’re all safe thanks to him. But she’s done nothing wrong, that one. All she did was lose her husband and camp in the church because she thought helping the poor meant that the shepherd would look kindly on her. They’ll be sentenced to burn on the stake, mark my words.”

  Nellie felt cold.

  The next woman was much bigger. Nellie didn’t know her name, but recognised her face from the markets. She was of sturdy build and quite tall. She took her place on the platform and crossed her arms over her chest, looking directly at the Regent and the others facing her. The Regent’s son had jammed his hands between his knees and studied his feet. The Regent said something to him, and the boy straightened. But the woman was still staring at him and he turned his gaze down again.