Dragonspeaker Chronicles Box Set

by Patty Jansen

  “And you could make more of these pills?”

  “Probably. We have with us a woman who used to run a shop selling sweets. I’m sure she knows how to make pills.”

  “But how would we get them out there and how would we let people know that they should take these pills?”

  “I don’t know. I’m just making this up as I go.” Then, thinking of Zelda, she added, “We could pretend to be medicine women, although you’ll find it hard to get many in my group to go back to Saardam. Most of them are terrified of being recaptured. Maybe your soldiers could enter the city and hand out food like the shepherd does.”

  “We don’t want the poor people to eat it. We want to reach the nobles. We have to put it in the food that’s served at the banquet.”

  “In that case, I don’t know. I’m not at the palace anymore and it’s too dangerous for me to go there.”

  “I agree it would be dangerous to go into town. You’ve made me think, though.”

  Hopefully he’d think for long enough to see that taking an army into the city was a bad idea. Maybe he’d heard the fire dog rumours from his friends. Who knew what sort of contacts these rich men had?

  Meanwhile, Henrik continued, “We actually came here today because a boy from our group has gone missing. In the past few days, he appeared homesick and we think he’s either hiding somewhere or he has gone to Saardam. We would like your assistance in trying to find him. Anything you can think of, but most of all, we would like you to tell your men to look out for a skinny young boy, fourteen years of age, with dark hair and dark eyes.”

  “This boy came with you on the ship?”

  “Yes.”

  He gave both Henrik and Nellie a sharp look. Did he suspect this was Bruno? And then a horrible thought: Adalbert Verdonck considered himself eligible for the throne. What if he had recognised Bruno and made him disappear?

  But it was clear from the tracks in the frozen grass that Bruno had left on the dragon’s back. And certainly the dragon wouldn’t allow Bruno to be captured.

  While Nellie struggled with her suspicion, Henrik said that they wanted only to borrow two horses and a cart. He explained it was for himself and Nellie, because the two of them were the people the boy knew best and trusted most.

  “All right,” Adalbert Verdonck said. “If you want I can lend you some men to search for him. I have a house in the city that is currently empty. You can use it if you want. There are three permanent staff in the house.”

  Henrik bowed. “Thank you very much, but the latter is not necessary. I have family in Saardam.”

  Nellie and Henrik left the room, walked across the hall and out the front door. It was not until they were halfway down the lane that Henrik spoke.

  “That sneaky bastard. I think he intended to storm into the city, depose Casper and take the throne for himself.”

  “Do you think we shouldn’t have told him about the magic?”

  “No, because it offends me to send fellow soldiers to their deaths, and I think he may hesitate sending his men now that he knows about the magic.”

  “I think he might know about Bruno,” Nellie said.

  “Probably, although Bruno definitely left of his own will, or that dragon would have made such a ruckus that all of us would have been awake.”

  That confirmed Nellie’s thoughts on the matter. “But what if he promised Bruno something?”

  “That would have required him having spoken to Bruno, and no one came near the barn, not even when you were away.”

  “Do you think he would do Bruno any harm?” Nellie’s heart was thudding. She did and didn’t want to hear the reply to this question, but she had to know whether Adalbert could be as bad as her fears made him out to be.

  But Henrik shook his head. “I don’t think so. He doesn’t seem that type of man. Although he may stand by the side while we look for him and probably won’t mind if we don’t find him. I suspect there are a great number of people who will object if Adalbert makes a grab for the throne, and it’s probably why the church has never made haste determining who the rightful heir is, anyway. They can’t reject him too publicly, because of his loans to the city, so they’re doing this careful dance instead.”

  “Does he have any claim to the throne?”

  “The joke goes that there isn’t a noble in all of the lowlands who doesn’t have a claim to the throne, no matter how distant. If there was a line for the throne, however, he would be somewhere at the back.”

  “You think that’s what the mercenaries were for?”

  “It’s possible that he only had a friend visit him, but in my experience, these men don’t have friends. They have associates and business partners. If Master Emmel was here, he was here for a reason. Either to protect Lord Verdonck on a trip, or to get rid of bandits, or protect the estate. But there is no danger that requires an army of men.”

  “He could just be nervous.”

  “Not him, I don’t think. He’s the bold and loud type. He dislikes spying and scheming.”

  Nellie said, “I don’t think he’s a bad man, just very impatient.”

  “No, he isn’t, but he’s a very brusque person and will have everyone in Saardam fighting before he even gets there to assume power that isn’t his to take. We won’t be using his house, and we won’t be using any of his people. We will use his horses, because at least horses can’t talk. We are going straight to the city now before he can warn anybody. We’ll find Bruno without his help and meddling.”

  “I don’t like leaving the others here, though,” Nellie said.

  “They should be safe. He’s not interested in paupers. They’re better off here than at that nunnery. It’s only when we find Bruno that he will become more dangerous. There is only one thing you can do with men like him.”

  “And that is?”

  “Use them. Be smart and get them to do what you need done while letting them believe it was their idea and they’re doing it to benefit themselves. I bet that, right now, he’s going through his father’s bedroom to find those pills. What’s the bet he’s going to come to the barn to ask for the women’s assistance in figuring out what’s in these pills? That was quite smart, the way you mentioned how magic affects the nobles.”

  “It was an accident. It was just a thought. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it at all. That man frightens me.”

  “He frightens me, too. That’s why we need to use him.”

  Chapter 13

  NELLIE HAD BEEN prepared to go back to the city to find Bruno accompanied only by Henrik, but she was unprepared for the reaction they got at the barn. It was time for the evening meal, and Agatha and Mina were putting out plates. The smell of hearty cooking was heavenly. Nellie had sent Ewout and Bas to get some rabbits from Mustafa. It was a long time since they had eaten meat.

  “Of course, we won’t let you go alone,” Mina said. “We’ve come with you all this way, and done all those crazy things with you. Do you think we would give up so easily?”

  “I think you should all stay here, especially people with children,” Nellie protested.

  “And let you go by yourself?” Wim said.

  “I’m in much less danger than you.”

  Gertie said, “You escape the palace with a dragon, and people call you the Dragonspeaker, and you’re in less danger than any of us?”

  “I was never in jail and wasn’t going to be drowned.”

  “It’s dangerous for all of us,” Henrik said. “But it’s more dangerous not to know where Bruno is.”

  “But I’m not missing any of the action,” Agatha said. “I can come. I’ve done nothing wrong. They can’t prove anything against me. I’m just a poor woman. They don’t care about poor women.”

  Nellie did not want Agatha on this trip. “Please. It’s going to be a very quick trip, just to find Bruno. We’ll all go back to Saardam later, when we have a plan.”

  Whatever that plan would be, and if Adalbert Verdonck wasn’t going to take the throne by
force with a hired army first, in which case any plan would be irrelevant.

  “You saved all of us,” Wim said. “You risked your life, and you didn’t need to do that. You risked your life for Bruno. And as many of us as possible will go to help you now.”

  “Yes, I haven’t come all this way to let this boy turn me into an exile,” Gisele said.

  Jantien said nothing, but when Nellie met her eyes she said, “I have to think of the children. They are far too young to do anything, but believe me if I didn’t have them I would come with you.”

  “I believe you,” Nellie said she was close to tears with all the support she was getting. She had not expected this at all.

  In fact, the only one who said nothing was the only person Nellie thought would have a very good reason to visit Saardam: Madame Sabine.

  She sat in the corner of the fruit-picker’s kitchen in the barn, cradling a cup of tea. She didn’t look up or show any sign that she heard what was discussed.

  Nellie didn’t understand her. She had to know about the situation her sons were in without their father. Did she really care nothing for two vulnerable boys, no matter how poorly they behaved?

  Henrik assured the women that they’d be careful, and told them that on this trip, more people wouldn’t be a help. The two of them would be safer on their own, but there would be plenty of time for the others to help Nellie later.

  But first she and Henrik needed to find Bruno and bring him back or make sure that he was otherwise in a safe place in Saardam.

  The idea of the dragon being with the prince clamped a cold hand around Nellie’s heart. What would he order it to do? She knew the dragon couldn’t defeat the fire dog by itself. It might need Bruno’s magic to help it, and as far as Nellie knew, magic was worth little when untrained.

  Nellie ate while Henrik told the group that they would leave in the morning the next day and would be back as soon as possible.

  One by one, the women finished eating and left the kitchen. Mina had insisted that they work for their keep, so Lord Verdonck’s housekeeper had brought a large basket with items that needed mending, mostly men’s clothes that needed to be made smaller. Nellie suspected they were the father’s clothes needing to fit the son.

  Only a few people were left in the room when Madame Sabine slipped into the seat opposite Nellie. In the low light, her face looked haunted.

  “Did he say anything about the boys?”

  So she did care. “Nothing more than I’ve already told you. Casper has assumed the position of Regent. He seems to be supported by the church.”

  “That filthy priest.” Her face twisted into a snarl. “He had my husband around his little finger. I don’t suspect my sons have anything to say against him. They’re just as weak as their father.”

  “Wouldn’t you want to help them?”

  She laughed. “As if they would listen to me. Nobody listens to me. I can’t even arrange a ride out of this place. Their father has spoiled those boys rotten. What can I tell them? Study science. Work hard. They’re not interested in any of that. They want easy lives sucking on the teat of the church.”

  Unfortunately, Nellie had to agree with her, but she didn’t want to say anything bad about the boys in front of their mother. If even a mother couldn’t find it in her heart to love her children, then things were very bad indeed.

  She had finished her meal and made to get up from the table when Madame Sabine said, “Sweets.”

  Nellie stopped. “Excuse me?”

  “Sweet. They love sweets.”

  “Sure.” Which person didn’t love sweets?

  “If you need to get into their rooms, offer them sweets. I used to do it all the time, until they figured out that when I gave them sweets, I wanted something in return and it stopped working.”

  All right. “Thank you for letting me know.”

  Nellie had no intention of trying to see Casper or Frederick.

  “I used to worry about their teeth,” Madame Sabine continued.

  Nellie thought, Used to?

  Madame Sabine didn’t follow it up with more information, so Nellie picked up her plate again. When she turned away, she noticed the glitter in Madame Sabine’s eyes.

  Madame Sabine noticed that Nellie had seen it and turned away.

  Nellie gave her plate to Koby who was helping Agatha with the washing up and went to the main part of the barn. It was much colder here and the women who had gone to work on Lord Verdonck’s clothes sat around the fire with blankets over their legs.

  Nellie would have joined them, but since she and Henrik were leaving early in the morning, she needed to pack her meagre possessions for the journey. Henrik had said they could stay at the house of one of his daughters and Nellie wanted those people to have a good impression of her. She might be a pauper right now, but that didn’t mean she had to look like one.

  Walking past the door to the kitchen, she heard voices.

  Was Agatha really talking to Madame Sabine?

  True to his word, Lord Verdonck sent a stablehand to the barn with two horses and a cart the next morning. Nellie and Henrik had packed up—not that there was much to pack.

  Most of her clothes, she wore, and the rest could fit into a small bag. She debated whether to leave her father’s book behind, but she didn’t know if she would be back here, and they might need it. She even packed her copy of the Book of Verses, although she had debated giving it to one of the children who needed it more than she did.

  Nellie and Henrik sat on the driver’s bench and the tray remained conspicuously empty except for the blanket that Bruno had used when he slept in the barn.

  Nellie and Henrik travelled through the countryside, following the road that Zelda must also take to the city. It was the only road, and it led past the front of Lord Verdonck’s estate. They went down the long lane and then turned right to go to the city. This early in the morning, a few people travelled along the road on their way to market with their produce or crafts. They sat on their carts huddled in their coats and barely acknowledged Henrik and Nellie whose cart—being empty—was much faster.

  The cart trundled along the cobblestones. Henrik asked her if she wanted to ride for a while, but it was a very long time since Nellie had ridden and she remembered how sore her backside had been back then.

  The sun was up and provided only a tiny bit of warmth to their cold bones. The frost was just starting to melt and the low hanging fog did little to increase the temperature.

  Gradually they encountered more houses and more people with carts and horses coming the other way, and people mending fences and doing other farm work.

  The Verdonck estate was not very far from the city, and on the same side of the river, and gradually, little settlements dotted the countryside.

  People greeted Nellie and Henrik along the way, and occasionally a bored guard waved them through a checkpoint. They looked like peasants going to the market. But Henrik said that they weren’t bothered because Adalbert Verdonck controlled this land and the Verdonck seal adorned the horses’ headgear.

  “We’re so close to Saardam,” Nellie said. Already, she could see the spire of the church tower poking above the horizon.

  So pretty.

  “I hope we will find it as peaceful as it looks,” Henrik said.

  “I hope nothing bad has happened to Bruno. If he’s been caught and locked up, I’m not sure I could get him out again.”

  “That boy is a danger to himself.”

  “I hope he isn’t a danger to others.”

  And with that they had arrived back at the subject that Nellie dreaded. Having seen how King Roald was unsuited to govern, she wondered if it took a particular type of person to become a good ruler. You couldn’t assume that just because someone was born into a family, he or she was a good match for the job. And if Bruno wasn’t a good match to be king, who would take the position?

  So many people were waiting in line to take over. They could appoint another Regent—they woul
d have to because Bruno was only fourteen—but would the people of the city accept the new Regent knowing what a disaster the previous Regent had been?

  The closer they got to the city the less certain she was that this would all work out. They were rushed into doing things, they would be discovered, they would all be thrown in jail and that would be the end of the royal family.

  “I don’t know what we’ll do any more,” Nellie said. “It seems that, wherever we turn, people try to take advantage of each other and of us. When we came to that nunnery I thought we had found where I would be happy to spend the rest of my days. Then Zelda came in, and it turns out that they’re in with the same plot.”

  “You’ve seen all the things that different families do when they’re in power and when they want to have power. Nothing should surprise you any more.”

  “It doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t disappoint me.”

  And then they talked of all their memories of old king Nicholaos and of the time that they had to flee the city. It turned out that Henrik had been commandeered to work for the Fire Wizard, and had managed to get away with being placed with the city guards.

  “That was a crazy time,” he said. “Of course, I was much younger then, but part of me wonders whether, if the time ever came back, I would be swayed as easily as I was then to do as I did. I was no hero. But Martha and the girls needed me, and I had seen what happened to people who went against the Fire Wizard’s word.”

  “We were all much younger,” Nellie said. “I was very naive back then. I truly thought that only if everyone went to church they would know what was good and bad. It never occurred to me to think that people in the church could be bad. Misguided, yes; but evil, no. Because otherwise the Triune would never accept them, let alone allow them to rise to important positions in the church.”

  “The Triune doesn’t allow people to do things. The church is made up out of people who allow other people to do things, and people are fallible.”

  That was true, too. Her father’s experience had made that clear.