Dragonspeaker Chronicles Box Set

by Patty Jansen

  Henrik snorted. “Here I was, thinking about retirement.”

  “I’ve been wondering about that too.”

  “The winters get colder every year, and it becomes harder to get out of bed. Especially when I’m on duty very early.”

  “I have nowhere else to go.” But that had been her fear when she lived at the palace. She had nowhere else to go when she worked in the palace. Now that she didn’t work there anymore, she was already at the nowhere that she didn’t have to go to. It was strangely liberating. She had nothing left to lose.

  Henrik said, “I’m still thinking I might join another army, but I may be too old. Otherwise, one of my daughters may have to put up with me.”

  And then they both laughed, because being sad about not having anywhere to go in old age was just a strange thing.

  He continued, “I have some savings. I was thinking I might be able to work for a landowner family or something like that.”

  Nellie said, “I would really like a small house somewhere where I can grow my own food and have some chickens and then maybe sell some eggs and some vegetables or pickles or embroidery.”

  By now, they had come to the outskirts of the city. Saardam was not a fortress city, and while a past king had built a wall with a gate, it had since become obsolete because people had built outside the old city walls, and no one patrolled the gate any more. In short, people were leaving the city and no one cared very much about who came into the city. The Regent had never had enough guards to patrol the gates very closely.

  They took the cart and the horses to a stable where they paid for some hay. Then they went into the city.

  Nellie was surprised how perfectly normal the streets were. There was no sign of any disturbance. She listened for gossip on the street, but the talk was all about normal daily things. In fact, it was disturbing how normal everything looked. When she had come back while the Fire Wizard was ruling the city, the signs of fear and destruction had been everywhere. She had expected the city to be somewhat like that, but nothing could be further from the truth.

  In the marketplace, there were even more sellers than there had been when Nellie was still in the city. It seemed as if some people had deemed it safe to come out. Maybe they were desperate for money. “They probably just come because of the better weather,” Henrik said.

  That could be true, too. The weather had been dry, even if sometimes misty, but the snow was gone.

  In winter, people did pick the best times to make the journey to the city.

  They walked across the market square, looked at the produce and listened to the gossip, but what they heard was all about trivial things: annoyances, weddings, deaths, that sort of thing.

  Then Nellie came across a cheese seller who was talking to someone at a neighbouring stand.

  “And then, according to my friend, he said bring all the staff into the audience room. And when they came, he made them all kneel on the floor and bow their heads to him as he walked between them telling them how useless they were.”

  “I have heard that he does this all the time.”

  “It’s a disgrace and an embarrassment. They should send in some adults to sort them out.”

  A customer came to the stand and the conversation turned to cheese.

  Nellie and Henrik continued, and Henrik said to Nellie. “Casper is making himself very popular, I hear.”

  But there was no word of where Bruno might be.

  In between the market stalls they could see the palace gates, and although it was the middle of the day, the gates were closed. A few guards stood there, and Henrik knew them, so he didn’t want to go too close.

  A man went up to the guards and proceeded to argue with them, with much waving of hands. Nellie went closer to listen, but Henrik didn’t like it.

  “Those men are trained to know everyone who walks through the palace gates. They will know and recognise you.”

  So Nellie had to stay in between the market stalls, and caught only shards of the conversation, which appeared to be about some prearranged business the man had in the palace that he was now prevented from entering.

  “Why?” He wanted to know. “I’ve known the young lord since he was a little mite and have made trousers for him since he was a little boy. What is happening behind those gates that can’t see the light of day?”

  To which the reply was that the guards had detected the activity of traitors, and that the housekeeper had ordered the gates closed so that they could conduct a search of the palace.

  That was nonsense. Nellie knew that the housekeeper was just a servant and had nowhere near that level of authority.

  So. Casper had ordered the gates closed? No, because the guards would have said so.

  The shepherd had ordered the gates closed?

  Regardless of the influence of magic, Nellie liked to think that the citizens of Saardam would have a problem with the shepherd ordering anything.

  The question remained: what had happened that had made someone—possibly the shepherd—order the gates closed and all visits cancelled?

  No mention of Bruno anywhere, of course. And they weren’t here to investigate the palace’s problems.

  “If you had to make a guess, where would you expect him to go?” Henrik asked.

  “The shepherd’s house, the church, maybe the houses at the back where the monks are staying.”

  “Well then, why don’t we go to the church?”

  Chapter 14

  NELLIE HAD FEARED they would end up having to go to the church.

  By now, little was left of the institution she had loved. She feared meeting the shepherd, and she had never considered the main church to be welcoming in the first place. With the things in the crypts, with the scenes she had witnessed under its vaulted ceiling, the church had become a daunting place to visit. It felt wrong.

  A steady trickle of people were going in and out through the open church doors. Mothers with children, a group of young men, two older women.

  To be honest, Nellie had never seen many people visit the church during daytime. Yes, the doors were always open, but the only people who came in regularly were older women coming to light a candle for sick relatives.

  Especially unusual were the young men who now walked down the steps and turned into the street that ran past the side of the church.

  Nellie felt the wrongness the moment she and Henrik stepped into the dark vestibule. First was the smell of burnt wood. Then, so many people were here who normally would never come. They all either walked down the centre aisle to or from the altar, or they stood in front of a line of wooden chairs with a rope strung between them that closed off an area around the altar. They were looking at something. They knelt to pray.

  “What’s going on?” Nellie whispered to Henrik.

  But Henrik, being only a casual church visitor by virtue of his job, had no idea.

  Walking down the aisle, the first thing Nellie noticed in addition to the scent of burned wood was that little was left of the wood panelling of the pulpit. The pretty dark wood had burnt to ashes, and the flames had made sooty black marks on the pillar behind the pulpit all the way up to the ceiling.

  The cupboards and shelves against the back wall—where the Shepherd would put items to be used in the service, carried to the altar by young boys—were also burnt, as well as the carpet, part of the table where the candles and the goblet with wine would stand and indeed part of the altar itself.

  The contents of some of those cupboards lay on the ground: thick, leather-bound books with half-burned pages.

  In big sooty letters was scrawled across the back wall, The King Will Come.

  A young woman with a little girl came to stand next to Nellie. She didn’t know the woman.

  “Look,” the mother said. “That’s where the evil creature tried to take the shepherd.”

  “Is the evil creature going to come back?” the girl asked.

  “No. The shepherd defeated it.”

  Nellie
turned to the mother. “Excuse me, I’ve been out of town. What happened here?”

  “Well, the day before yesterday, we were woken up with this terrible screeching and, when we went to have look, we met a man who said he saw the good shepherd fighting off a flying fire demon. He said the fire demon attacked the shepherd when he came into the church for the morning service and the shepherd fought it off by writing on the wall.”

  “What does it say?” the little girl asked.

  “It says, ‘The King Will Come’. The king is the Holy Father.”

  “And the demon was so afraid that it fled?”

  “Yes.”

  Nellie nodded her thanks to the woman and walked along the rope barrier.

  A big group of people came in, and Nellie jerked her head at Henrik. The two of them made their way back to the vestibule.

  “What do you think happened?” Henrik asked her.

  “I don’t know, but that woman’s story is rubbish. The shepherd would never scrawl on the walls of his own church. He’s spent all his life trying to be completely normal.”

  Henrik agreed. “Scrawling on walls is the sign of a madman. He’s too smart to do that.”

  “So what did happen? Any ideas?”

  “I think there was a fight,” Henrik said.

  “With Bruno?”

  He sighed. “I don’t see who else would be involved. I know he never stopped talking about punishing the shepherd for locking him up.”

  “The question is: did he win or lose the fight?”

  Henrik shook his head. “It’s not looking good. I heard someone say that the flying demon, presumably the dragon, dragged itself out of the church.”

  “And where is he now? No mention of a boy?”

  He shook his head again.

  They had left the church and were standing on top of the church steps. From here, you could see over the market stalls. The palace, with its closed gates, was directly opposite the church entrance.

  Nellie had seen the dragon when it had spent all its magical energy, leaking sparks. It could not have gone far.

  The King Will Come.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if Bruno wrote on the church wall,” she said. “I think he considers himself the king, and a king belongs in the palace. What if he went across from the church to the palace? And the shepherd locked the gates pretending nothing was wrong, because the dragon can’t defeat the fire dog, but the dog can’t win the fight, either.”

  Henrik nodded, slowly. “I’d love to know what’s going on behind those gates.”

  “I can probably find out. I could pay a visit to the kitchens. If anyone knows any gossip, it’s Dora.”

  At first, Henrik would hear none of it. He protested. “I don’t want you to endanger yourself.”

  “Then we should have stayed where we were. Of the two of us, you have already admitted that it’s too dangerous for you to go into the palace—”

  “But I’ve sworn to protect the boy.”

  “What do you think about me, then? I looked after that boy for the first years of his life. He may not remember or appreciate me, but I owe it to his mother’s memory to make sure he is safe.”

  Henrik glared at her and she glared back at him and said, “I can get into the palace through the back gate. They still need to eat and people will still work in the kitchens. I have brought my apron.”

  “But the people will recognise you.”

  “That’s the point. They’re my friends.”

  And then she realised that Henrik’s former friends with the guards were no longer his friends, since they were still sworn to protect the palace, even if there was no longer a ruler to protect.

  Henrik still didn’t like it, but he saw no other option.

  So they went to the palace’s back gate, and found it attended by a young guard Henrik knew, but Nellie didn’t.

  “He’s a good kid. I don’t think he’d let me through, but if you put on the apron and tell him you’re coming to work in the kitchens, he’ll let you through. Just don’t stay away too long.”

  Nellie took off her coat and shawl and replaced them with the apron and a scarf. It was good that she didn’t have to walk far, because it was cold in this outfit.

  Henrik took her coat and shawl and promised to wait for her in a street opposite the palace’s back entrance, out of view of the guard.

  Nellie went up to the guard, told him she’d been asked to come and work in the kitchen and he let her through. She proceeded into the back yard, past the noisy pigs. Her heart was hammering and her hands were sweaty.

  She climbed up the back steps and opened the door.

  “Nellie!”

  Dora had been standing at the stove, and when Nellie came in, abandoned her pot and ran to the door. She swept Nellie up in a strong hug that smelled of hearty cooking.

  “Where have you been? We heard all kinds of stories about you escaping the city and saving people who were about to be drowned. I could barely believe those stories, but apparently they were true. I said, is this really the quiet Nellie I know?”

  “I know it sounds crazy, and I’m not the only one in the group. We have thirty-five people.”

  “Anyone I know?”

  “Wim is with us,” Nellie said.

  “So it’s true? And I heard that you even saved Madame Sabine.”

  “Yes, that’s true, although she doesn’t seem to be very happy about it.”

  “She doesn’t like living at a farm, right?” Dora laughed.

  “I think she would prefer to live in luxury.” It was a very odd conversation, strangely distant. Dora’s world was so different from hers these days.

  “Oh no, she wouldn’t dare come back. The guards would have her killed.”

  “So who has replaced the Regent?” Nellie hated playing innocent with Dora, but there were many other people in the kitchen who could overhear what she said, so it was best not to put anyone else in danger.

  “It’s the most ridiculous thing. We get to serve a boy.”

  “His son? But he is only sixteen.”

  “Tell me about it. He is the most insolent brat I know. Of course, he makes us do ridiculous things, and he holds the stupid meetings where he screams at the nobles and demands that they do all kinds of things for him and give him whatever he wants, including their daughters.”

  “And do they actually do this?”

  “They have to. Because he has a lot of guards and they put anyone who doesn’t listen to him in prison.”

  “And the guards have no problems with this?”

  “The guards are terrified. I don’t quite understand why, but they don’t seem to want to stop him at all.”

  Nellie understood well enough.

  “Is that what’s going on at the moment? I noticed the gates were closed.”

  “Oh, no. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but there was a fire in the church one night and I’ve been told the shepherd blames Casper or his ill-behaved friends. Apparently they wrote all over the church walls. The shepherd was livid, and Casper told him to get out, and that’s where we’re up to now. The youngsters are all in the ballroom, where apparently Casper holds a court, and the other kids are his councillors. We don’t get to go in. We just have to put the food outside the door and they take it inside.”

  “Do they sleep in there?”

  “Yes. They’re all together and won’t talk to any of us.”

  “Can’t the guards go in?”

  “The shepherd says for them to wait.”

  “And the shepherd? Is he doing anything else about this? He would be the person people look up to. He should talk to them.” More lies. Nellie hated it.

  “The shepherd has been told he’s no longer a court advisor. He comes to the palace sometimes, but he only speaks to the guards. He certainly doesn’t come to dinners like he used to. In fact, most of the banquets have finished. We haven’t had one since you left.”

  “That also explains why it’s so quiet here.”<
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  “That, and a lot of people are just too afraid to come here any more. The only ones you’ll see in the kitchen are those who have nowhere else to go.”

  “Does Casper get any advice from an adult?”

  “Some nobles have tried. But all of them have been insulted and sent away by the brat, like the mayor and church deacons.”

  “Did he give reasons?”

  “None that he would mention to us. But this is all so depressing that it makes me want to tear my hair out. What about you. How are you coping?”

  “We’re fine.”

  “Are you coming back to live here at all?”

  “It’s too dangerous at the moment.”

  “I understand. But life must be hard out there in the country. Do tell me where you are, because I would love to send you a package with goodies, like sweets and dried fruit.”

  “We’re fine, truly.”

  “And I would like to visit you when I can.” What was it with this insistence that she tell Dora where they were staying?

  And all of a sudden Nellie grew cold. When she came here after having fled from the palace with the dragon, she had told Dora where they were, and then the guards had shown up. And Dora did the main part of the cooking for the banquet.

  Had Dora told the city guards where they could find the dragon? Was Dora now trying to find out where the women were staying? Had Dora helped the Shepherd spread magic-infused food. Why hadn’t she though of this before?

  It grew too hot in the kitchen. She had to get out of here as quickly as possible but without raising any suspicion.

  Corrie joined them at the table. Her ankle had healed, but between the cheerful replies, Nellie saw that her face was lined and she looked tired and worried. The other people in the kitchen were not working as hard as before. It was quiet and cold in here.

  “What about the two sisters Els and Maartje?” Nellie asked.

  Dora said, “I haven’t seen them any more either. Not that it really matters, because we have no more work for them.”

  Nellie had what she wanted. She bade Dora goodbye, and left the kitchen again as quickly as she could.

  While she was in the kitchen, it had started to get dark outside.