by Patty Jansen
She was about to turn to the ladder to tell the children to climb up when there was a squeaking sound and the door to the large cabin opened. A middle-aged man in a monk’s habit appeared in the opening. Before he stepped onto the deck, he brought his hand to his pocket, frowned and turned back inside. He’d forgotten something.
Nellie scooted to the side of the cabin, but to her horror, the ropes at the top of the ladder were moving, indicating that someone—one of the children probably—was climbing up.
The monk could not be allowed to see her, or the children.
She grabbed the broom. She could always distract him and pretend to sweep the deck, nonsensical as that would be.
No, he would still see whoever was climbing up.
He now came through the doorway again, closing the door with his back to her.
In her panic, Nellie lifted the broom above her head.
And then, before he could turn around, she swung it high and brought it down with all her strength.
The heavy part of the broom hit him on the side of the head before glancing off onto his shoulder. Nellie tripped and fell backwards.
He turned around, slowly, his eyes unfocused. And then he collapsed against the wall of the cabin.
Oh no, oh no, she’d hit a monk!
Nellie crawled over. He lay sideways on the deck. His eyes were closed, his mouth open. He mumbled some inaudible words.
What to do now?
In the box next to the bucket, she found a handful of rags, which she used to tie his hands and feet together and over his eyes and mouth. The latter not too tightly because she didn’t want him to be harmed.
By the Triune, what were they going to do with him?
Bruno, Ewout and Anneke had come onto the deck. They stood watching with wide eyes.
“Is he dead?” Ewout asked.
“Heavens, no. Only asleep.”
“He doesn’t look asleep to me. I can’t hear him snoring.”
“Come this way, children.” Mina had come onto the deck. She shepherded the children into the cabin while staring at Nellie with wide eyes.
“What did you do to him?” she mouthed, standing at the cabin door while the children filed in.
“I couldn’t help it,” Nellie said.
Mina shut the door. “What are we going to do with him?” she whispered.
“I don’t know. Hide him first and then take him?”
“Well, we can’t leave him here. That looks untidy.”
Nellie and Mina grabbed the monk by the feet and shoulders and half-carried and half-dragged him across the deck into the captain’s cabin.
From within the darkness of the cabin, Nellie could see the crowd on the quay through the windows.
To her relief, Koby was already on the deck. She couldn’t see Gertie, Hilde and Lise, but they were sure to be nearby.
My, there were a lot of people out there. There were people watching even from near the empty warehouses, from the other ships, from the upper floors of the quayside offices.
A wagon arrived. It was a heavy square thing, like a solid wooden box, pulled by four horses. The guards gathered around and a couple let down the back of the wagon, revealing the prisoners crammed together inside. When the back hatch opened, several shielded their eyes against the light.
The guards yelled at them to get out.
None of the prisoners wore shoes and several had trouble walking. They were all tied together with rope—presuming so as not to waste good iron on them.
Nellie recognised Wim. Jantien was also there, and Yolande from the corner shop, helped down the ramp by Josie and Emmie. She hoped that none of the children were watching this.
The last person to come out was a woman with brown curly hair and thick fleshy arms. She was dressed in rags even though she was no commoner.
Nellie couldn’t believe her eyes. Was the Regent going to kill his own wife?
A ripple of disturbance went through the crowd. People elbowed their neighbours and pointed. A woman clamped her hand over her mouth.
The citizens had no love for Madame Sabine. People spoke of her as being out of touch, a foreigner, aloof and selfish, but all of them recognised the horror of the Regent’s actions.
No one cheered as Madame Sabine came down the ramp. No one clapped. No one said a word.
The deathly quiet of all those people was disturbing.
The guards who had come with the wagon led the prisoners to the wooden platform that had been built on the side of the quay.
From her position on the deck of the ship, Nellie could see Floris, Gisele and Agatha in the small boat. The water churned where the sea cows fidgeted in their harness, waiting for the terrible process to begin.
The Regent rose.
“Today, citizens, we gather for a sad occasion. These people you see before you are practitioners of magic and witchcraft and they endanger the fabric of our city and society. We gave them the opportunity to leave, but they chose not to do so. Today, they will end their lives in shame.”
Somewhere in the crowd, a man yelled. Nellie couldn’t hear what he said, but a scuffle broke out in the area. As some guards moved towards him, Nellie saw Henrik, dressed in his shiny uniform, standing to the side of the area where the Regent and shepherd sat.
She was filled with a wave of anger. How could he support the Regent in this cruelty and still sleep at night?
The shepherd, too, was looking on with a hard face, devoid of emotion.
The guards apprehended the man who had yelled and added him to the group. He put his arm around one of the female prisoners. Her husband or brother.
That, more than anything, was a sign of how unhappy people were to let these cruel men kill their families. If they had to die, they would die with their family members.
Now the shepherd rose.
In his left hand, he held aloft an object covered by a black cloth that he pulled away with his right hand.
Nellie knew what it was before the object had been fully uncovered: the ruby skull with red pulsing light glowing from the eye sockets.
Many people would never have seen this fabled object although everyone had heard about it. Those who stood close to the shepherd tried to push away, screaming.
A man yelled at a young woman next to him, “Stop this nonsense. It’s only trickery!”
But people knew what they saw, and it wasn’t trickery.
The shepherd yelled, “Quiet!”
The crowd went silent as death.
Many citizens stared at the ancient relic as if it demanded their attention and wouldn’t let go.
Magic.
Shepherd Wilfridus started speaking in the preaching voice he used to speak of hell and damnation in church services, the voice that would echo through the vast hall and give her the chills. “Today, we make an example of those who disobey the scripture of the Triune. They have sown evil in our community and fear in our hearts. After today, these people will not bother us any more and our hearts will be free of fear. May the Triune be with them and may they be admitted to heaven to atone for their evil deeds.”
At the quayside, the guards ushered the prisoners up the platform.
They were all tied up together, so there was no way that any of them could escape. Once they were in the water, even if one of them could swim, the others would still make sure everyone drowned.
The crowd became very quiet.
Across the harbour, the boat with Floris, Gisele and Agatha was getting ready. The water rippled where the sea cows strained against the harness, keen to get going.
The people on the platform stood in a tight group, holding onto each other, shivering.
The last person onto the platform was Madame Sabine. The rags she wore showed part of her pale-skinned, dimpled thigh. She kept looking at her husband all the time, not saying anything but making sure she did not lose eye contact with him. Her back was straight and her chin in the air.
Nellie now also noticed the Regent’s two
sons behind the upstairs window of the harbourmaster’s office.
Casper was looking straight out the window, while Frederick wiped his cheek with the back of his hand.
She would like to know what they felt. At this stage she wasn’t sure their father had not thoroughly convinced them that their mother was evil.
She would like to think one of them would come to their mother’s aid, but they did not, and in all honesty, what could a sixteen-year-old and a fourteen-year-old do? They stood frozen while, one by one, the palace guards cut the ties that held the platform in place. Henrik was standing to the side of the Regent’s seat.
It was too far away to see his expression.
The guards began to cut the last rope, which strained at the bollard and looked like it would soon either break or rip the bollard out of the ground.
After a few hacks with the guard’s sword, the rope broke with a snap that echoed across the harbour.
Slowly, the platform tilted. A woman screamed, and then another one screamed and tried to scramble to the high side of the platform, but the planks were too slippery because of the wax covering the boards. The platform tilted more and the first woman hit the water. Across the harbour, the peat barge raced full speed out of the barn.
Chapter 24
A LOUD WHINNY came from across the harbour.
Madame Sabine’s white horse ran along the wharf, mane flying. Several people had to duck out of its way.
Nellie spotted Gertie, Lise and Hilde in the crowd.
“The others are here!” she called into the cabin where Mina had settled the children in the benches.
Mina and Nellie helped them up. Nellie sent Lise to Koby at the bow.
Gertie frowned at the monk who lay tied up on the deck. He was wriggling and trying to shout, but there was no time to pay any attention to him.
The peat boat with Floris, Agatha and Gisele had reached the group of people in the water.
Floris and Agatha were pulling people into the boat while Gisele stood at the bow with the reins. The animals had spread out amongst the prisoners. They gave the people something to hold on to.
The shields were up, held by the first prisoners to come out of the water, but the guards were occupied with the chaos on the quay caused by the panicked horse and trying to keep people away from the Regent and shepherd.
Nellie had lost sight of Henrik.
The peat barge came in the direction of the ship. The little boat was so full of people that there was barely room for them to sit. The water reached to a mere hand’s width from the boat’s rim.
Floris called out for the passengers to sit still and hang onto the shield over their heads if they sat on that side of the boat.
The peat boat came alongside.
Koby caught the rope Floris tossed her.
Then Gisele jumped onto the ladder. “Koby! Get the mooring ropes.”
“Already done,” Koby called back.
Floris was undoing the sea cow harness to transfer the team to the big ship. The first prisoners were coming up the ladder and Mina and Gertie stood at the top to pull people up. Nellie was relieved to see Jantien’s face.
“Mama!” Lise called to her mother.
Emmie smiled at her, tears welling in her eyes. She was wet and dirty and still had the rope around her wrists.
The prisoners were coughing, crying and shivering. They needed blankets and dry clothes.
“Nellie!” Jantien stumbled across the deck and hugged her. She was crying. “Oh, thank you. I thought we were all going to die. I thought I’d never see my children again.”
“Go inside and join them. We’re not out of trouble yet.”
Jantien opened the door and was met with shouts of Mammy! when she entered the cabin.
The next prisoner to climb up the ladder was Madame Sabine. The expression on her face was cold, and she didn’t show any signs of hardship. But the lash marks on her arms must hurt.
She met Nellie’s eyes and nodded, once, as if publicly thanking her rescuer caused her physical pain. Then, chin held high, she walked across the deck into the cabin.
There was work to be done. Nellie went to the other side of the ship and the scene of chaos on the quay. Guards were trying to keep the people away from the platform with the Regent and the shepherd, and the people on the quay were shouting and cheering at the empty peat boat , which Floris had pushed off with the shields still up so that people couldn’t see that it was empty.
Several guards aimed arrows, but they fell short. Nellie couldn’t see Henrik in the crowd. A few other guards surrounded Madame Sabine’s horse which kicked at everyone who tried to grab hold of the rope attached to the headgear.
The mooring ropes were indeed loose.
Nellie pulled up the gangplank with all her weight. Oof, that thing was heavy.
The riverboat moved. People on the quay noticed it.
“The monks are getting too hot!” a man shouted.
A couple of people jeered.
Another man yelled, “Those are not monks!”
“Get inside, everyone!” Mina shouted. She and a few others were ready with buckets, in case there were any burning arrows.
Nellie looked over the quay. She was curious what had happened to Henrik. She wanted to see the look on his face when he realised that she had outsmarted his exulted Regent.
People around the order’s ship were cheering. Guards couldn’t reach the ship in time. They were protecting the Regent on his platform and the rest were dealing with the wayward horse.
In the middle of the chaos, Shepherd Wilfridus still stood in front of his chair holding the ruby skull. His mouth moved and his eyes were closed. Nellie didn’t doubt that he had seen her and understood what had happened.
His face was red from shouting incantations even if there was so much noise on the quay that she couldn’t hear his words from this distance.
He pointed the skull’s eyes at the boat.
“Quick,” Nellie yelled to the last remaining people on the deck. In a moment the fire dog would come out.
Someone called, “Nellie!”
And then she saw Henrik. He was pushing through the crowd in the direction of the boat. He called out, “Nellie! Wait!”
No, they weren’t coming back.
He reached the edge of the quay, pushing people aside. “Let me come with you!”
Come? Him? So that he could be the Regent’s puppet and betray them?
The sea cows were pulling the boat, but the ship was so big that it took a while to get going.
Henrik ran along the quay, shouting, “I’m sorry. I had to pretend that I didn’t believe you.”
What?
“Please, I’ll tell you all about it. Throw me a rope.”
The boat pulled further away. The strip of churning water between the hull and the quay grew.
Nellie didn’t have a rope. She dropped to her knees, holding on to the railing with one hand and reaching out as far as she could with the other.
But the boat had already moved a good distance away from the quay. Henrik was not going to get there in time. He was not . . .
He jumped.
His warm hand latched onto Nellie’s, almost pulling her over the side. He grabbed the railing with his other hand and swung himself over onto the deck.
“Henrik! I thought you—”
But in a few jumps, he climbed on top of the cabin, pulled two arrows out of his quiver, set the first to the bow, aimed and released it, while holding the second arrow with his little finger.
The arrow flew across the water and before it had even reached its destination, he shot the second arrow.
The first arrow hit the Regent straight in the chest and plunged deep into the flesh. The Regent’s eyes widened. He looked down at the arrow protruding from his pretty shirt, surprised, and collapsed to the side of his chair.
The second arrow hit a bright glow of magic mere steps away from Shepherd Wilfridus’ head. It burned in a ball of fla
mes.
A man yelled, “Magic!”
People on the quay screamed. Everyone was pushing in all directions. People sheltered under the Regent’s coach to avoid the crush of bodies. One man was pushed into the water in the scuffles.
“Holy heavens!” Henrik jumped off the cabin. “He’s a magician.”
“Quick, hide yourself,” Nellie said.
But Henrik took a bucket out of Mina’s hands. “You go inside with her and look after the poor prisoners.”
Complete mayhem had broken out on the quay.
The guards still loyal to the Regent were shooting flaming arrows at the riverboat, but any that reached the ship glanced off or stuck uselessly in the hull after Henrik extinguished them with the bucket. The strong teams of twenty-four sea cows had already pulled the ship almost out of range.
Nellie held her breath. This risky adventure was over. They had made it.
But then an orange glow erupted from the quayside. Nellie knew what it was before she could see the fire dog running over the water.
She sprinted to the cabin entrance and yelled into the opening. “Everyone! Come up here! The fire dog is coming!”
The ship would be burned with everything inside.
Mina and Agatha came to the deck first. Someone else was with them. A skinny boy on the edge of manhood, dressed in rags with the chafe wounds from the shackles still marking his ankles.
Prince Bruno.
As he had done for the past day, he clutched the dragon box to his chest.
“Open the box!” Nellie called.
He just looked at her, so she ran to him, pulled it out of his hands and opened the lid.
Bruno protested. “No! Mine!”
But it was already too late. The dragon erupted in a shower of sparks and immediately assumed its solid form.
Mina and Agatha ducked back into the cabin.
“Go!” Nellie yelled. “Whatever power you hold, defend us, or we’ll all be dead, including your master. Go! Go!”
Whether it understood what she said or she frightened it, the dragon jumped into the air and flew off, so close that the whoosh from its wings ruffled Nellie’s hair.
