Dragonspeaker Chronicles Box Set

by Patty Jansen

  If he had spent so much time in the bottom of the crypt, the days in the palace with his family must seem very far away. Maybe he had even convinced himself that it was all a dream. After all, he had been only four when all these terrible things happened.

  “You’re free now. We will look after you.”

  And because she didn’t know what else to say, she put her hand over his. His hand was cold as ice, the skin dry and flaky. She spread out her free arm, as if she wanted to enclose him in an embrace.

  He didn’t move to hug her. He didn’t withdraw his hand either. He looked small and lonely and frightened.

  Gertie and Hilde came back with some clothes they could spare and helped him to clean himself up and get dressed. He was so skinny and shivered so much that he couldn’t put his shirt on, and he didn’t seem to know what to do with buttons.

  While all this was happening, the children had been sleeping in the storeroom. The dragon was in there with them. Nellie had expected it to show up, but it was still snoring.

  Nellie went to the corner where she slept, found the dragon box, and gave it to him.

  At first he just sat there with it on his knees. His face showed no emotion.

  “It’s yours. Do you remember?”

  He ran his fingers over the smooth wood, a small frown on his face.

  Was it because he remembered something?

  “Open it,” Nellie said.

  He ran his hand along the crack between the lid and the rest of the box until he came to the fastening. He hesitated.

  “Open?”

  “Yes,” Nellie said.

  He slowly lifted the lid.

  The box was empty, of course, and revealed only the beautiful silk interior.

  His frown deepened. He put his fingers inside and felt around in the corners, as if he knew there should be something in it, but couldn’t remember what it was.

  “What?”

  “It’s yours,” Nellie said. “Your father gave it to you. It’s a box of magic.”

  He snapped the lid shut, dropped the box and scrambled away from it.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Th—th—there!” He pointed across the barn.

  The dragon, which only a moment ago had been asleep with the children, poked his head out of the storeroom. He noticed the boy and seemed to freeze.

  This was the time of truth. If any chance remained that this was not Prince Bruno, the dragon would know. He took a step forward.

  Bruno whimpered. He retreated few steps.

  The dragon came another step into the barn.

  Bruno turned around and ran for the door.

  “Hey, wait!” Nellie said.

  He froze, one hand on the latch.

  “He is friendly,” Nellie said. “Let him sniff you.”

  To demonstrate, she walked to the dragon and put her hand on his warm and dry flank.

  Bruno looked at her, eyes wide.

  His mouth moved, but no sound came out. His eyes were so wide that the whites showed on all sides.

  Nellie walked forward with the dragon. Bruno pushed himself with his back against the door.

  “There is no need to be afraid. The dragon is yours.”

  “Magic?”

  Sweat pearled on his forehead.

  By the Triune, what lies had these monks and deacons told this boy?

  One thing was clear: he couldn’t control the dragon or perform great feats of magic with it.

  Nellie might have hoped that he would command the dragon to help them, but in this current state the boy was no use to the group. Only a burden. Magic was a curse unless trained. She of all people should have realised that.

  She said, in a calm voice, “Just let him sniff you.”

  The dragon came even closer. The creature was curious, more curious than he had been about her or any of the others.

  Bruno pressed himself flat against the door, his hands clawing the wood. He would run if there was anywhere to run.

  Nellie took his hand, guiding him forward. The skin felt clammy, and he pulled in the other direction.

  “Why are you afraid of Boots?” came a small voice.

  It was Anneke. When had she woken up?

  She faced Bruno, her head cocked, holding the blanket around her. There was straw in her hair from sleeping in the storeroom.

  “Koby says that you’re Prince Bruno. You don’t look like a prince.”

  “Anneke . . .” warned her mother.

  The boy just stared at her as if he had never seen a child.

  She repeated, “Why are you afraid of Boots?” She patted the dragon’s neck. “See, he doesn’t do anything. Except if he doesn’t like you, then he goes all wraaaa and he spits fire.”

  Agatha said again, “Anneke, leave him alone.”

  “Why? I just want to show him that Boots is friendly.”

  While Anneke had been talking, the dragon slowly bent his head down and arched his neck, while continuing to look at Bruno. It was a strange position which Nellie assumed meant subservience.

  Bruno had stopped trying to run away from the dragon.

  Nellie figured that if magic was visible, it would surround both the boy and the dragon.

  He held out his hand.

  The dragon reached up to the outstretched fingers with his snout.

  At the moment the dragon touched him, the creature exploded in a ball of sparks.

  The women screamed. Agatha grabbed Anneke by the arm and dragged her away. Hilde ducked under the bench along the wall. The other women ran to the door into the storeroom.

  The boy stood in the middle of the barn, with his hand still outstretched. A couple of sparks lay in his open palm. He stared at them, his mouth gaping. Slowly other sparks joined them, casting his pale hand in a golden glow.

  “Give him the box,” Nellie said in a low voice.

  Gisele picked up the dragon box and held it open.

  The flurry of sparks zoomed across the barn and snapped inside the box.

  She calmly closed the lid.

  To Nellie, this was a final proof that this poor, frightened, emaciated boy was indeed Prince Bruno. A feeling of fear and chilling importance overcame her.

  If the citizens of Saardam knew this, they might view the Regent differently. They might demand he step down in favour of the prince.

  Did the Regent know about this? Had the church kept this secret from him? Or did the shepherd see the prince as a rival who he might still need to control the dragon, but whom he would otherwise prefer to kill? A rival he had tried to destroy by locking him up? Was this boy even adequately sound of mind that he could rule?

  Mina and Agatha came out from the storeroom, followed by Anneke, who was crying. Nellie wondered what her mother had said to her.

  Hilde was still huddled underneath the bench, trying to be sure it was safe to come out again.

  Prince Bruno, because she should now call him by his name, stood astonished in the middle of the barn with the box in his hand.

  Gisele was a foreigner, so she had possibly no idea of the importance of this moment.

  The horse continued to stand placidly in the corner. It had gone to sleep.

  And tomorrow, they were planning the dumbest rescue mission ever, which could put them all in danger. Gisele had said she was coming, too—it was as if the enormity of what she had done in helping to free Prince Bruno only hit her now, and she’d grown nervous, especially after Nellie told her what she had seen in the church.

  The smart thing to do was to get onto that ship and disappear now. Everything was ready, the sea cows were all in the barn, the harness was complete, the ladders lay ready, the shields were ready, the supplies waited in the hold of the Guentherite order’s ship. There was no need to stay, except for that one thing.

  Nellie couldn’t live with herself unless she did her best to rescue their friend and the mother of the six children. And she didn’t want to leave without attempting to save the other innocent people from c
ertain death in the cold water of the harbour. The conviction of witchcraft was nonsense and everyone knew it.

  And it was already time for the last preparations for the rescue before too many onlookers arrived at the quay.

  Nellie and the women used carrots to entice the sea cows into both harnesses. They would attach one to the peat barge, the other to the longboat.

  Once the barn doors opened both ships would go out, and one would make for the platform and the other, the longboat with Floris and the children, would make for the Guentherite ship. The children would climb the harbour side of that ship and wait there with Mina and Gertie until the others came with the rescued people.

  Then both teams of sea cows would be tied to the ship and by that time Gisele would have cast off on the harbour side and everyone would jump on board.

  The plan was risky and crazy, but it was all they had. Nellie grew nervous waiting, worrying that things might go wrong, because when they did, she would not survive. And then Saardam would be truly lost, and the dream of restoring the royal family would be forgotten.

  Shepherd Wilfridus would claim all power to himself and everyone would suffer.

  Chapter 23

  THE NEXT MORNING dawned silent and misty, and for a while Nellie despaired that they might not be able to carry out the plan, because surely the Regent would postpone the punishment if people couldn’t see what was happening. The whole point of punishment was that everyone in the city watched it and knew the Regent was serious about it.

  The women waited anxiously, peeping through a crack between the barn doors to check for any activity on the quay.

  Prince Bruno wandered around the barn. He was still insecure on his legs, the skin on his ankles raw from the chafing metal. But he was eating well and carried the dragon box with him everywhere, even if he jumped every time someone opened the main door, and he wouldn’t let anyone touch him, not even to comb his hair, which looked like a bird’s nest.

  Nellie didn’t want to wait any longer, because every day they had to stay here increased the chance that someone would discover them or the dragon, or their supplies on board the Guentherite order’s ship, or Madame Sabine’s horse in the barn.

  But by mid-morning, the mist cleared and people started to gather on the quayside. A couple of palace guards appeared near the platform.

  It seemed the proceedings would go ahead as planned.

  Nellie packed all her possessions into the bag she had taken from the palace and gave that to Floris who stacked it in the longboat that would take the children to the Guentherite ship.

  They held discussions about who would steer that ship. Floris and Gisele needed to be on the rescue boat because they were the strongest people in their group. Nellie said she would take the longboat, and then Agatha argued that because Prince Bruno would be on board, she didn’t want her children to be in the boat, because he will attract magic.

  In the tenseness of the preparations, Nellie snapped.

  “What is your problem, anyway? Haven’t you considered that your daughter might have magic? Can’t you see that this might be useful to us? Don’t you understand that she needs your love, not your rejection?”

  “Oh, she has seen enough, with that sneaky bastard of a father of hers, that’s where she gets it. She knows that he’s no good. I’ll not have my children associate with magic. They will not go on this boat that’s going to be a target for trouble.”

  “And you say this after all the work we’ve done on making shields.”

  “If there is one thing I know about magic, it’s that it doesn’t care about any damn shields made from wood.”

  “You’ve been nothing but a pain since we started this plan. You know what I think? Someone betrayed us to the Regent. Somebody told him about the dragon. I think that someone was you.”

  “How dare you say things like that about me? What are you, anyway, blow-in from the palace? You don’t anything about living in poverty.”

  Mina stepped in Nellie’s field of vision. “Calm down, calm down. Stop this, or we will all be doomed.”

  Agatha snorted. “We should just quit this stupid plan while we still can.”

  Mina held up her hands. “Agatha, if you don’t want to come, then don’t come. You’re free to stay here. I won’t think any less of you.”

  “Yes, you will, because madam over there says I betrayed you.” She glared at Nellie.

  Lise said, “Can we please stop fighting? Please, Agatha? My life is not worth living if I don’t do the best I can to free my mother.”

  “And Josie,” Hilde added.

  Gertie said, “And those poor children need their mother.”

  Anneke said, “Mammy, please? We want to stay with Boots. He looks after us.”

  Agatha snorted again, thunder on her face. “Fine.” She pulled her arms closer about her chest.

  “Thank you, Agatha,” Mina said.

  “As long as she apologises. I did not talk to anyone from the palace. Do you think they would listen to me if I tried? Agatha from the street who was dumb enough to marry a loser magician?”

  “You’re not dumb,” Nellie said.

  “Ha! You think I’m dumb. You think I’m a bad mother for the children—no don’t even open your mouth, I’ve heard it all before. You think I’m a bad mother.”

  “Stop it, Agatha!” Mina said. “We need everyone to make this plan a success.”

  Agatha gave another snort. She leaned against the workbench, her arms crossed over her chest. How much fun this expedition was going to be.

  Nellie suspected that Agatha had always had a brusque personality, and that she didn’t really want to leave the group. She was a strange woman, and Nellie felt sorry for the children, who repeatedly suffered the threat of having the things that brought them comfort yanked away from them through their mother’s obstinacy.

  The Triune help the poor mites.

  On the quay, the guards had cordoned off an area where the proceedings would take place, and placed two seats on the spectator platform for the Regent and the shepherd to sit in.

  The first people had already arrived for the spectacle.

  Floris attached the first team of sea cows to the longboat. Nellie climbed in and helped the children down the ladder. Jantien’s youngest two were far too small to understand what was going on. She put them in the back of the boat and left Ewout and Jette, the oldest two, to keep an eye on them.

  Bas and Anneke came next, watched like a hawk by Agatha.

  “Be nice to Nellie and Mina,” she told Anneke. “Listen to what they say.”

  “Yes, mammy,” Anneke said.

  Nellie looked up into Agatha’s worried face. “Thank you for entrusting me with their safety,” she said.

  Agatha was a strong woman, so she would go in the boat that would try to rescue the prisoners.

  Mina would come with Nellie, and she got into the boat next so that she could help Bruno down the ladder, because he was still quite weak and awkward, not in the least because he was clutching the dragon box so hard.

  Nellie then got all the children to sit on the bottom of the boat, and she spread a sailcloth over them.

  “Phooey, it stinks in here,” came Bas’ voice from under the cloth.

  If they were lucky, the bad smell would be all they needed to deal with.

  Nellie then put on her coat, tucked away her hair under her shawl and met Mina’s eyes. “You’re ready?”

  “As ready as we’ll ever be.”

  They watched as Floris, Gisele and Agatha climbed into the second boat. Floris sat at the front with Agatha and Gisele on each side next to the rolled-up shields.

  The remaining women, Gertie, Hilde and Lise, watched from the side.

  Koby was at the barn doors, giving updates on the happenings. She would go with the women. After some talk, they had decided it would be her task to climb the Guentherite ship from the quayside and cast off the ropes. Gisele had given her the spare monk’s habit, and in the crowd,
she would pass as a skinny monk.

  They waited, listening to Koby’s relays as the quay filled up, the mayor arrived, and the guards freed a path through the onlookers.

  Then she said, “The Regent’s coach has arrived.”

  That was the sign.

  Hilde and Lise opened the barn doors.

  Nellie sat on the driver’s bench, unlooped the sea cow reins and flicked them up so that the leather straps splashed in the water.

  The nine animals jumped into action and the boat shot forward. Nellie almost fell backwards. Whoa, they were very keen indeed.

  The children giggled under the cloth. Mina told them to be quiet.

  It was still a bit misty and from her position low on the water, Nellie couldn’t see much of what was happening on the quay, but the sound of many voices carried over the harbour.

  They must have arrived at the part where the guards asked for three cheers for the Regent because half-hearted shouts of “hurray” came over the water.

  The second boat had also cleared the shed.

  Gertie, Hilde and Lise shut the barn doors again and walked along the quay in the direction of the platform. Nellie hoped they could get through. The quayside looked really busy.

  Nellie let the sea cow team swim at their own pace but occasionally pulled one of the reins to correct their course. Floris had a harder time getting the second team—with the younger and stronger animals—to stay behind. Sea cows lived in small herds and always wanted to follow the other animals.

  They made good progress across the harbour. Already, Nellie could make out the rope ladder Gisele had hung from the harbour side of the Guentherite ship last night.

  It was going well.

  Not much later, they reached that ladder, and the sea cows even stopped when she pulled the reins. Mina tied the boat to the bottom of the ladder in case the animals changed their minds, and Nellie climbed up the wobbly ladder.

  It brought her to the deck of the ship in between the two cabins.

  Since she had been here last, someone had swept the deck and left the broom leaning against the railing. There was also a bucket and a box with tools and bottles of oil, paint or cleaning substances.

  Across the deck she could see the top floor of the harbourside offices. She couldn’t see the quay and the people who stood there. But she heard them shouting. They were not happy shouts.