The Dragon King

by Patty Jansen

  Nellie shuddered and remembered walking in on Casper engaged in a certain activity with Baroness Hestia in the laundry room.

  “Do you think he wrote this well-constructed and eloquent letter?” Adalbert asked Henrik.

  “Two options. If he did, he has obviously sobered up and realised that if he doesn’t start acting like an adult, he will be dead before the year is out. If he didn’t write it, then who did and why? Do you have news that his claim that he’s taken the Regentship is true?”

  Henrik said, “My limited sources say that it is, yes.”

  “And where is Shepherd Wilfridus?” Nellie asked.

  Adalbert Verdonck frowned. “Is the priest important?”

  Now it was Nellie’s turn to be surprised. “You do know what happened in Saardam, right?”

  “Rest assured, I know. I know that the Regent was hit by an arrow in the chest and died instantly.”

  He eyed Henrik while saying this, and frowned.

  “It’s all right, I shot the arrow,” Henrik said. “I don’t want that to be a secret.”

  “I thought it was you. It’s a . . . surprising action, to say the least.”

  “Is it? Would you be happy to stand by and watch while a man drowns his defenceless wife?”

  “She is not defenceless, and she is not innocent. This is why I don’t want her in this house. You’re all taken by the fact that she is a woman, but she is a manipulating harlot.”

  “That’s still no reason to drown her.”

  “He wouldn’t have done that. He would have pardoned her at the last moment.”

  “Except he didn’t. She went into the harbour with the others, while their sons were watching.”

  “What? Is the man mad?”

  “That’s what we asked ourselves, but the question is irrelevant. He won’t do any more mad deeds.”

  Adalbert Verdonck eyed Henrik with an expression of renewed respect. Calculating. Nellie could see the thoughts whirl behind his eyes. Was Henrik mad? Did he speak for others? Did he have a lot of support? Did he have leadership ambitions?

  Adalbert Verdonck was a very calculating man, much more so than his generous father. That was why Henrik and Nellie had been invited here: before he decided to remove this group from his land, he wanted to make sure removing them was in his best interests.

  Although Nellie suspected that the interests of the group of women were somewhat aligned with Adalbert Verdonck’s—they both wanted peace and openness to return to Saardam—she was developing an intense dislike for him. He viewed people as set pieces to be moved to his advantage.

  Henrik asked, “You were not present at the punishment?”

  “I don’t lower myself to attend disgusting spectacles like that. I remained in my father’s room at the palace. But after the Regent failed to return to the palace, there followed a period of expectant silence, as if one knew that something had happened but was unsure what. The guards returned with the body and the palace went into lockdown. The Guard commander ordered all his men into the hall and ordered them to crush down hard on any signs of unrest. The nobles at the palace argued over who should replace the Regent. They made a number of suggestions but that priest vetoed all of them. He had been attacked himself, he declared, and he wasn’t going to appoint any noble until her knew which of them had ordered the attack on his life.”

  Nellie said, “Didn’t anyone tell you what he did at the harbour?”

  “What do you mean, what he did? The priest? The guards told me that the dragon made an appearance.”

  “It did, but that’s not what I mean. Henrik shot two arrows, one of them destined for the Regent, the other for the shepherd. But before the arrow could hit the shepherd, he threw a ball of fire, which then turned into the same fire dog that has been terrorising the city at night. It fought with the dragon.” Was it possible that the people on the quay hadn’t seen this as clearly as she had?

  He gave her a suspicious look. “No, I haven’t heard that. Who told you that?”

  “I didn’t hear it, I saw it. Twice. People in the city have been worried about the fire dog and the magician who owns it. The magician is Shepherd Wilfridus. I have seen him conjuring it twice.”

  He frowned. “Are you saying that the shepherd is a magician?”

  “He is the strongest magician in all the city. I think I understand why he has been chasing magicians, because magicians usually can feel other magicians, and since he is preaching against magic he didn’t want anyone to know that he is a magician himself. He may believe that his magic is good and any other magic is bad, or that you need magic because the church is being attacked by magic, but whatever he says, he’s a very strong magician.”

  While she spoke it was as if a light went on in Adalbert Verdonck’s head. “That makes so much sense. Everything makes sense to me now. My father has always hated that priest. My father has always wanted him to back off from the Regent. Of course he appointed the Regent, but he should not have any influence over the Regent governing the country. But he meddles with everything. He tells the Regent exactly what to do.”

  “All of which is now irrelevant, because there is no more Regent,” Nellie said.

  As she said those words they all realised the horror of the situation.

  Henrik said, “Who is in charge of the city now?”

  “By all indications, it is that very shepherd,” Adalbert Verdonck said. “Who may pretend that this sixteen-year-old boy has taken the position of his father, and has written to me to lure me into this trap.”

  “That was his intention all along,” Nellie said. “He chose Regent Bernard because he knew the man was weak and had few friends. Your father was one of the very few influential friends he had, and this was the reason the shepherd didn’t like him. The shepherd was trying to hide his magic that he uses to make the people believe him and agree with him through the food he gives out from the stores. I have evidence that the shepherd killed your father.”

  The young Lord frowned at her. “A man of the cloth killed my father?”

  “Not with his hand, but with poisoned gin. I know how he did it, because I have seen the evidence.”

  The young Lord put his fist on the table. “The sooner we’re rid of this disease, this horrible church that poisons people’s minds, the better. I never understood why my father pandered to them. Show me this evidence, and I’ll make sure that the proper processes are put in place. My esteemed colleagues will see that it’s a folly to continue to support this church. Most of them are heathens anyway.”

  Except he was talking about the nobles of Saardam who went to the banquets and had their minds poisoned by magic. And getting the evidence would mean going back to the city and unmasking Gisele’s illegal gin business, and that would mean trouble to a lot more people.

  But ultimately, she didn’t want to tell him these things. Because who said that he would use them for the good of everyone? He’d said he looked after his servants, but he almost spoke as if he did this just to show what a good man he was, and expected praise for it, rather than because he believed it was the best thing to do.

  He insisted that Nellie provide proof that the shepherd had killed his father, but he resisted all suggestions that he invite Madame Sabine to look at this letter to see if her son could have written it. He kept calling her “harlot” and wouldn’t use her name.

  “She never deserved to have two sons, for all the lack of care she has given them. Those two boys have never had a proper mother.”

  Nellie agreed with him on that front, but didn’t understand why he said this to them. This was a very dangerous young man, angry with all the world. He continued to call magic “trickery” and called the members of the Science Guild “quacks” whose opinions his father had courted, but whom he would never have taken seriously.

  Henrik asked what he thought the dragon was if not magic, and he declared that “there is likely a rational solution, if one looks properly.” As to where he thought his father had obt
ained the scars on his leg, he said it was a hunting injury, inflicted by a bear.

  He wanted to pay the women to visit the city on his behalf to check out what was happening, but Nellie managed to convince him that the women were much too scared to go back to the city. She was tempted to ask why these people should be asked to risk their lives in order to prove a crime that had no relationship to their lives, but that was not true. If it could be proven to the citizens that Shepherd Wilfridus was a magician and that he had killed Lord Verdonck, the citizens would . . . what, exactly? There was no higher authority in Saardam than the Church of the Triune. And the shepherd ruled the church.

  The situation was bad. Too bad, perhaps, ever to return to the city.

  She told Adalbert Verdonck that they wouldn’t make use of his hospitality for long, that they would find another place, but that while the women were at the Verdonck estate, they would work. And that Madame Sabine wouldn’t be going anywhere.

  “She is not to come anywhere near the house.”

  Nellie had to agree with that condition.

  With that, the meeting was over and Henrik and Nellie walked back to the barn. For the first part of the way, they were silent. Nellie felt uneasy saying less than flattering things about their host while they might still be within earshot.

  Eventually, Henrik said, “What did you make of that?”

  “He give the appearance of being strong and confident, but he’s crazy. I wouldn’t trust him at all.”

  “He is a noble. What do you expect?”

  “I don’t like how determined he is for us to get rid of Madame Sabine. Does he really hate her that much? I don’t like it that he refuses to talk about magic. We’ve tried pretending magic didn’t exist before, and it didn’t work.”

  “What do you think he wants, then?”

  “He might want the Regentship.”

  Henrik laughed. “When he has all this?” The land lay beyond the gesture of his hand in the dark, though they couldn’t see it at the moment.

  Nellie felt heat rush to her cheeks. “Well, if you know so well, why don’t you tell me what you think he wants?”

  Henrik laughed again. “I’m just teasing you.”

  “I’m not in the mood for teasing. This man disturbs me.”

  “I’m sorry. I honestly don’t know what he wants,” Henrik said. “I’ve been with these nobles long enough that I know they’re propelled by money or power, but I can’t see how he can get either out of this. He had few relations with the Saardam nobles, and I doubt they’d support him as Regent. Saarland is not big enough for him to risk his life. Certainly he appears to have been scornful of his father and his involvement with Madame Sabine. He doesn’t like the Regent, he doesn’t like the church, he doesn’t like magic, he doesn’t like the Science Guild. There is not much left for him to like.”

  “I don’t want him in control of our group. We will find somewhere else as soon as we can.” She knew it would not be easy, especially in winter. They might have to split up, stay quiet, and hope no one would ask questions about Prince Bruno or the dragon.

  “What are these possessions of Madame Sabine’s that he was talking about?” Henrik asked.

  “Madame Sabine has an interesting history with the Lurezian army. They’re balloons. Madame Sabine has the knowledge to make them. I think she was injured because she attempted to get the dragon to pull one with a harness, like the sea cows pull the boat.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  Nellie nodded. Noble people did crazy things.

  “Do you think the letter is real?” she asked.

  “Oh, it’s real. Casper wrote it. The seal is real. But I think someone made him write it, probably the shepherd. I think Adalbert Verdonck is right: the purpose of it is to lure him to the city so that someone can kill him, heirless. And then they can fight over all this land and his money, because the palace needs money. If they were already handing out food at the start of winter, the end of winter will be far worse. I repeat what I’ve said before: this estate will be the centre of a lot of trouble. We need to find another place to live.”

  Chapter 6

  * * *

  NELLIE AND HENRIK were almost at the barn when the hoofbeats of a galloping horse came from behind.

  “That horse is going at great speed,” Henrik said.

  They stopped and turned around.

  From out of the darkness came a pale shape. For a moment, Nellie thought it was a ghost horse, but it was making too much noise. It was a grey-white horse, one she had seen before: Madame Sabine’s stallion.

  As they watched, it took a giant leap over the fence of the sheep paddock. It made a sharp turn and ran down the road until it was swallowed by the darkness.

  “Well, I never . . .” Henrik said.

  “Do you think the horse has followed us all the way from Saardam?”

  “Looks like it.”

  They waited for a bit, but the horse had vanished, so they went into the barn.

  While they had been away, Lord Verdonck’s men had delivered a wheelbarrow of winter vegetables: cabbages, parsnips, carrots, beets and dried peas, half a wheel of cheese and some ham. Agatha and Gertie were happily cooking.

  The delivery included bread, even if it was a little bit dry, but they were provided with some real butter, and all the children were very happy about that.

  Looking over the goings-on in the barn, Nellie felt uneasy. She didn’t want to impose on the estate’s hospitality for any longer than necessary. She knew that the young lord had invited them for a purpose, and she didn’t like not knowing what that purpose was. But finding another place would be hard. If Stellem was as unreachable as Adalbert Verdonck had said, they might be stuck here for longer than planned.

  But, for a while, all the talk was about food and the facilities.

  Even Madame Sabine got into it, and now that Nellie knew she had served in some kind of special force, her impression of Madame Sabine had changed quite a bit.

  She was not the pampered noblewoman that Nellie had thought her to be. From what she had heard, she didn’t really belong at the court at all.

  The children asked Nellie to tell her a story before bed, so Nellie sat on the floor and told them a story of a young boy who always wanted to travel, who went with his parents across the sea from the east and came to a country where everyone was very scared of them. The boy had magic, and magic was considered normal where he came from. His family had dragons and no one thought anything of that.

  She was talking, of course, of Bruno’s father Li Fai, who had come with his parents, even though he had been a little bit older than the story suggested.

  Prince Bruno himself was sitting to the side, his knees drawn up to his chest and his arm slipped around his knees. His dark eyes roamed the inside of the barn, alternately looking to the women preparing dinner and the children listening to the story. The dragon box lay at his feet. Sometimes he smiled at Koby, who was helping the women.

  Koby took a piece of bread to him and sat down next to him.

  They started talking, but because Nellie was still telling the story, she couldn’t give it any attention. At any rate, Prince Bruno appeared to be laughing and listening to Koby.

  After dinner, Nellie went with Gisele to check on the sea cows. Gisele stopped at the jetty, peering out into the canal where moonlight softly glinted on the dark water. “We need to remove that wreck from the canal.”

  “Do you have the same urge as I to get out of here?” Nellie asked.

  “I don’t like this place,” Gisele said. “Now, of course, the noble son doesn’t like the church. I’m wearing a habit. It’s quite likely that he has seen me at the palace. Of course he doesn’t like me. But I have the feeling he knows something he’s not sharing, or he wants something and knows we will be important in getting whatever he wants.”

  “Yes,” Nellie said. “I have this feeling that he’s trying to use us against the church. I don’t like it. I don’t want to be us
ed as a weapon against anything. And the church is not bad.”

  They were silent for a while. In the distance an owl hooted in the woods.

  “You were talking about a nunnery? Would it be possible that we could offer our services there?” Nellie asked.

  “They have a farm,” Gisele said. “It’s a farm I like very much. I’ve spent some time there in the past years. The soil is rich and the land produces plenty. It’s a place of solace.”

  “But?” Nellie suspected there was a but.

  “The abbess died last year. She was very old. I would have trusted her with my life, but I don’t know much about the new one.”

  “Could we visit, perhaps, to see if they could offer us a barn in return for our work?”

  “I’ve been thinking this. A few of us could go. If they can’t accommodate us, we might find work in a village on the other side of the nunnery. The only problem is that it’s on the road from Saardam to the ferry to Burovia, so it’s more likely that soldiers and rogues looking for us would be there.”

  “Let’s try the nunnery first.” It sounded like an ideal place to Nellie.

  They walked back to the barn in silence.

  From a distance the sound of children singing drifted on the cold night air.

  When they went into the barn, they found the women seated by the fire, singing and clapping with some of the smaller children. Wim was getting carried away by the game. He still bore bruises and scabs from his time in the dungeons, but otherwise he appeared to be recovering well.

  Mina had made a steaming pot of tea.

  Henrik, and Jantien’s son Ewout, carried wood to the fire, and Henrik showed him how to feed the flames. Nellie knew that Henrik had grandchildren and thought he must miss them.

  Prince Bruno sat with Koby and a couple of the older children, including Anneke. He held the Dragon box on his lap, and let others touch the lid.

  Nellie pretended to go to the sleeping area, so that she could walk behind them. “Can you feel it?” Anneke said.