Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A

FTER SHE FINISHED

her porridge, Nellie left the cabin and went back into the cold air outside. She walked along the side of the ship to the stern where Gisele and Koby were still talking. They turned around as Nellie joined them.

“Your turn for breakfast,” Nellie said.

Gisele took the opportunity gladly, but before Nellie sat at the bench behind the beam where the reins were tied, Koby insisted on explaining everything about the cows and what they had done since the break of daylight.

Nellie knew most of these things, but she let Koby talk. Looking after the cows and being given a responsibility had brought out the life in Koby. For the first time since meeting her, Nellie noticed a spark in her eyes.

“Have breakfast,” Nellie reminded her.

“Oh, but I like it here,” she said. “Someone needs to look after the animals.”

“I can look after them. You can come back, but first I want you to have breakfast. I have no idea what else will happen today, and I want you to be well fed.”

Koby left, and Nellie busied herself for a while studying how the harness was tied up and how the cows were doing.

They had slowed down and were going at a steady pace upriver, sticking to the sides where the current was not as strong.

The poor things must be tired.

She let her eyes roam over the water, looking for a place to rest for a while. The mist hung close to the tops of the riverbanks, shrouding trees in a foggy blanket, although bits of blue sky peeped through here and there.

She knew there were no houses along the river because of the regular spring floods, but still it was disturbing not to see anyone. It was as if the world had been abandoned. She thought of the first time she had fled like this, with Mistress Johanna and Prince Roald, and how, when they had walked up the riverbank, they had found burned out farmhouses where all the people had been killed.

The memories gave her the shivers.

“Back again?” a male voice said.

Nellie turned around.

Henrik came walking past the side and sat next to her on the bench.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asked.

“It’s better now than it was earlier this morning,” he said.

Which didn’t answer her question. “There is breakfast if you want.”

“Maybe later.”

Whatever he was waiting for, he didn’t say. His eyes studied both sides of the river, constantly checking and being vigilant.

“Have you seen anything?” she asked. He unsettled her a bit because it looked as if he expected some evil to spring out from behind a willow tree at any moment.

“No, and that disturbs me.”

“Why?”

“Because a few times during the night, and again just now, I’ve heard the horse’s hooves, so I know that someone is following us, but I can’t see them.”

“One horse, or many horses?”

“It seems only one. At first I thought I was dreaming, or hearing sounds that I’m unfamiliar with. But there is definitely a horse somewhere on that side.”

He gestured to the right, which was the side of the bank Saardam was on.

Nellie peered at the riverbank, but couldn’t see anything either.

Yet it was only to be expected that someone would keep checking them out. The boat was going at a speed slow enough for a horse to keep up. The vessel was big and heavy, made of solid wood, and with more people on board than it was designed to comfortably carry.

“What do you want to do about this follower?”

“I’d shoot him if he came close enough.”

Nellie remembered how he had shot the Regent and tried to shoot the Shepherd at the same time. This was a dangerous man.

“And will he come close enough?”

“If he is smart, no. I expect him to be smart. He hasn’t shown his face all night.”

Now Nellie understood why he didn’t want to go inside. He was the only person on board the ship who had any skill with weapons.

“Do you want me to get breakfast for you?”

“That would be nice.”

So Nellie made her way back to the cabin, because the sea cows looked like they were behaving themselves.

Inside the galley, Agatha was still stirring the pan.

“Have you had any breakfast?” Nellie asked her.

“Not yet, but when this is done, I’ll leave the cleaning up to the kids, and I’ll have a good bowl.”

Agatha knew how to look after herself.

“I’d like a bowl for Henrik.”

“Of course. I expected him to come in. What is he doing out there?”

“He says someone is following us, and he’s waiting for them to show themselves.”

“Following us?”

“On the riverbank. On a horse.”

Agatha looked worried, but she took a bowl and filled it to the brim with thick steaming porridge. She gave it to Nellie. “Tell him we’re working on the sugar.”

Nellie carried the bowl outside where it steamed even more. “Here you are, eat it up quickly before it gets cold.”

Henrik took the bowl and spoon from her with a grateful expression on his face. He sat down on the bench to eat.

For a while, Nellie watched him, and then she watched the sea cows which were still slowly swimming up the river.

“How familiar are you with this section of the river?” she asked.

He couldn’t answer because his mouth was full.

She continued, “We need to rest the cows somewhere. They need to graze.”

He nodded, swallowed and said, “Hopefully we’ll find a safe spot around the Bend.”

The Bend was a loop in the river where the water flowed strongly, flanked on one side by fertile farmland and on the eastern side by impenetrable marshland. According to rumours and stories, ghosts and other evil creatures inhabited those marshes.

Some smaller towns were also around that area. Her family lived further up the river.

Henrik had almost finished his porridge when all of a sudden he jumped up.

Nellie had been leaning on the railing and got a fright from the sudden movement.

He flung down his bowl—the spoon fell to the deck—and climbed on top of the cabin roof in a couple of agile leaps that belied a man of his age.

“What’s the matter?”

Henrik looked over the surrounding countryside. He pointed. Nellie expected something about the horse, but he said, “There is a ship up the river.”

Nellie peered into the mist. She thought she was seeing something, but it was difficult to tell.

Ahead in the river was a tongue of land where some willow trees grew. They were all bare and lifeless now, but the stand was quite thick, and could easily hide people, a wagon or maybe a boat.

“What are you seeing?”

He pointed again. “There are people on that side, too.”

The other side of the river was more open, but Nellie still couldn’t see what he was talking about. His eyes must be better than hers.

Henrik jumped off the cabin. “We must stop here.”

“If the cows stop swimming, we’ll drift to the riverbank.”

“Could be, but there is a trap waiting for us. We must be extremely careful.”

“Should we turn back?”

“No, because it’s likely people will be behind us, too. Even if there aren’t, these people will be suspicious and suspect we have something to hide.”

True. “So what will we do?”

“We have to keep going. I suggest we go carefully, because if we come in too fast, that will cause problems, too. We should stick close to the banks so they can’t surround us on all sides.”

“What about the person on the horse?”

“The other bank.”

But that side was low and marshy, a misty landscape with ghosts. Nellie shuddered. “What do you want me to do?”

She had no idea how he knew all these things about the people she couldn’t yet see, but it was not her place to question someone with much more experience.

“Go and warn the others. Tell them to stay inside, preferably below the deck so it looks like there are only a few people on the ship. Make sure they have something to defend themselves with if we are boarded.”

But Nellie was sure that if bandits or soldiers boarded the ship, all would be lost anyway.

She went back inside, taking Henrik’s bowl and spoon as a matter of habit. She looked over all the people in the cabin and hated how she would disturb the peace. At least they’d had a decent breakfast.

Nellie put the bowl and spoon away and called for attention. “Henrik says there are two ships waiting for us further up the river. He’s going to take us to the riverbank to see if we can lure them out. He wants us to stay in the cabin, or go below deck, and grab hold of anything we can use as weapons.”

Nellie had expected a lot of complaints, but heard none. The women understood the threat and acted quickly, gathering up their things, children and friends, and filed into the sleeping cabins.

Nellie, Agatha in the kitchen, and Madame Sabine were the only ones left in the cabin.

Of course Madame Sabine wanted to take charge.

“Didn’t you hear what Henrik told us to do?” Nellie asked.

“Hiding won’t do any good,” Madame Sabine said. “If these are my husband’s men or bounty hunters, we need someone who knows how to talk to them.”

And clearly Madame Sabine thought she was that person. “I don’t think they’ll be in the mood for talking.” Heaven knew, they might even want to capture Madame Sabine and ransom her.

“Just in case they are. We arm ourselves in case they are not in the mood to talk. I don’t presume this ship has weapons on board. Monks defend themselves with words and prayer, not swords.”

She could be oddly practical.

“Failing that, as far as I know, the next best weapons are in the kitchen.”

Madame Sabine walked past Nellie into the galley and came back a moment later with a few knives. She dropped them on a table and stuck the biggest one in her belt.

“Take one,” she said, pushing the remaining knives in Nellie’s direction.

Something about her movements said to Nellie that she was no stranger to this kind of action.

Such an odd woman.

Nellie weighed up which of the remaining knives would be the most suitable, and she settled on a small but sharp knife used to carve meat. The hilt felt warm in her hands, as if it had already been used.

Nellie slipped it in her pocket, hoping she wouldn’t have to touch it.

Gisele came out of the passage to the sleeping cabins carrying her weapon of choice: a hammer. If Nellie remembered correctly, she also had a knife in the pocket of her habit.

She glanced at Madame Sabine, and some unspoken words went between them. They were both members of the Science Guild. Maybe some part of the group was about a lot more than science. Madame Sabine had called Nellie’s father old-fashioned, as if she questioned his involvement and didn’t agree with him. Had she even been in the Science Guild when her father had started the group? How did she know what he wanted? Why did she assume that she knew everything?

Nellie pushed her annoyance aside.

She did feel better knowing Henrik was not the only one who had any experience in fighting and talking their way out of difficult situations. She just wished that Madame Sabine didn’t act like she was the natural leader of the group.

And where was Prince Bruno and his dragon box? Would the dragon have gained enough strength to scare off bandits or the Regent’s soldiers?

The ship had almost come to a halt.

Nellie followed Madame Sabine and Gisele onto the deck. Henrik still stood there, peering at the horizon.

“Have you seen them yet?” Nellie asked.

“Three ships,” he said.

“Mercenaries,” Madame Sabine said.

Henrik gave her a sharp glance. “It’s only a rumour that they’re in this area.”

“The rumour is true.” Madame Sabine stuck her chin into the air.

“Who would hire them, though?”

“My dear husband.”

“But he has no money.”

“The church does.”

“Why would the church be interested in hiring armed men when he’s already got guards out here?”

“Those men are here to make sure no one enters the city and no one can leave it safely either. They patrol all the ways by which people leave or enter Saardam.”

“Yes. They’re groups of city guards looking for particular people or stolen items,” Henrik said. “They have to do a posting here as part of their training and then again if they face punitive action.”

Madame Sabine shook her head. “These are my husband’s private men, placed under his name by the church.”

Henrik frowned at her. The disturbed expression in his face made Nellie’s heart jump.

A question came to her, which she was afraid to ask, and she was fearful of hearing the answer. What about all those people, like Jantien’s husband, who had left the city and who had been unable to contact their families? Had they all been killed as soon as they ran into these men?

Henrik squinted at the riverbanks.

“If they’re your husband’s men, we should avoid engaging with them. They might not know he’s dead.”

“I’d say they wouldn’t.”

Henrik crossed the deck to the bar where all the sea cow reins were tied up. One by one, he began to loosen them.

“What are you doing?” Nellie asked.

“We’re turning around.”

“But you just said—”

“Yes, but that was before I knew about these men. We won’t go back far. We passed the Rede River, and we can go up there.”

“But my family lives along the Saar River.”

“We won’t go far, just until they’ve gone.”

He pulled the reins off the bar, one by one. To the cows, it was a sign that they could graze. Because they were travelling against the current, the ship would start drifting backwards soon.

Nellie didn’t want to go up the Rede River. That’s where they’d gone last time with Mistress Johanna, only to find more death and destruction. Her memories were still full of ghosts and haunted castles and other terrible things she had seen.

“How do you know that the men will leave?” she asked.

“I don’t. But I can’t see what else we can do.”

True. Having these mercenaries invade their ship was no solution either. They couldn’t even pretend they were innocent river traders. For one, proper river traders would know how to get past these mercenaries, probably by paying bribes. But they would have no chance, not with this beautiful ship that everyone knew.

Soon enough, the ship started to drift back down the river. Henrik pulled the reins back in so that the sea cows pulled the ship straight. It felt wrong to go in this direction. The soft breeze came up, carrying wet mist over the river. It was cold up here.

Gisele called out from the back of the ship.

They all went to join her, to find she was pointing at the strip of land with the willow trees. And indeed, Henrik had been right. Three ships upstream had come into the middle of the river and were coming in their direction.

A chill went over Nellie’s back.

She would have walked right into that trap. She wouldn’t have seen them until it was too late.

“They’re faster than us,” Henrik said.

For a while, they drifted downriver. Nellie knew they shouldn’t expect too much of the sea cows because it would be hard enough for them to turn back into the current later.

Then Madame Sabine yelled, “There. They were not alone.”

Indeed, they were not. Two more ships were coming up the river. These had snuck up from behind and one of them was already so close that Nellie could see the men on the deck, and a glint of light on a weapon or a shield.

“It’s a trap,” Gisele said.

Nellie ran into the cabin.

As Henrik had ordered, the main cabin was empty, and everyone was below the deck in the sleeping cabins.

Nellie called at the top of stairs, “Bruno.”

A muffled voice responded in the darkness.

Nellie told him, “Get your dragon.”

He came up the stairs carrying the dragon box under his arm.

“Do you think he is strong enough to help us?” she asked.

He looked at her blankly.

She explained to him, “There are soldiers out there. We need the dragon to defend this ship.”

He opened the box a crack. A couple of sparks glowed within.

“Come on.” Nellie grabbed him by the arm and dragged him onto the deck. He didn’t exactly protest, but he didn’t seem keen either.

Henrik had collected his bow and arrows, but by himself he would be no match for the men on the other ship. They were in full armour, at least ten of them.

Madame Sabine and Gisele had collected an array of projectiles: bottles, jars, pots, tools. Gisele had lit two torches and filled the bottles with oil. She and Madame Sabine were speaking to each other in Lurezian, and it was as if they were old friends who had worked together before in similar situations.

By the Triune, what was Madame Sabine’s history?

The ship was not within reach yet, but fast approaching.

“If you have any magic, now would be a good time to use it,” she said to Prince Bruno.

He didn’t respond, his face pale and terrified. Of course, if he’d had any powerful magic or known how to use it, he would have escaped captivity long ago.

“Come on, let the dragon go free.” It would take the dragon a while to assume his solid form.

Prince Bruno set down the box and backed away, his gaze on the armoured men on the other ship.

Nellie picked it up and opened it. A shower of sparks came out and leapt into the air, whirling around. It was bright, even in daylight.

The men on the other ship saw it, too. They shouted, but the sound of their voices faded over the water and Nellie couldn’t hear what they were saying. But the other boat came ever closer, and a few more men in dark clothing with big swords came to the deck. Nellie wondered who these men worked for. They didn’t wear uniforms and she couldn’t imagine that the church hired men like this. Look at the disgusting long hair and beards on them. These were savages.

How were the women supposed to survive this? They had no weapons. If they were boarded that would be the end of this adventure.

Gisele pulled on the sea cow reins to make the animals swim faster. Maybe they could escape between the riverbank and the other ship. A reed bed might stop the cows and the water might be too shallow, but they had to try.

On the deck, the sparks coalesced into a luminous shape. That dragon had better hurry, or there would be nothing left for him to fight.

All of a sudden, it sprang into the air. Its wings flapped, blowing air over Nellie’s face.

The men on the deck of the other ship shouted.

One man put an arrow to his bow and pulled back, but didn’t release it. They were still too far, arrows were scarce, and they couldn’t harm the dragon.

Prince Bruno had taken shelter inside the door of the cabin. The dragon landed in front of him, stretching out his neck.

Prince Bruno patted the scaled skin. His eyes were still wide and his face pale. He looked so frail.

Nellie called, “Come on, make it scare them off!”

She had directed her comment at Prince Bruno, but the dragon lifted his head, gave her an alert look and took off, swooping low over the water.

He made straight for the other ship.

The mercenaries dived for shelter behind anything they could find. The dragon hissed fire over the ship. A section of the railing and a nearby coil of rope burst into flames.

One man ran onto the deck with a bucket to put it out.

“Come on!” Gisele shouted.

She held her burning torch to one of the bottles until the oil caught fire and threw the bottle, burning and all, to the other ship. It hit the top deck, the glass shattered and burning oil spread across the wood.

Meanwhile, the dragon flew across to the next ship.

“Quick,” Gisele said. She was pulling on the sea cow reins, and the animals strained against the harness. They might have noticed the dragon and, being friendly to him, have been whispered into action. They might simply be scared of fire.

Whatever the case, they were tired and would not go far, but they would try.

The sun broke through the clouds ahead, turning the river into a wide expanse of silvery water. To the left was the entrance of a canal. Willow trees stood on both sides of the banks.

Gisele steered the boat in this direction, and the sea cows swam at full speed.

“What are you doing?” Nellie asked. “We can’t turn around in that narrow canal. We’ll be trapped.”

“At the end of this canal is an estate where we can find safety.”

It was too late anyway, because three ships were now in the canal behind them. Two were on fire. Men ran around on the decks, trying to put the fire out.

The canal was narrow, and with the sea cows going at full speed, the banks whizzed past. Nellie kept checking over her shoulders, seeing the flames spread over the first ship. It slowed and receded ever further as the crew became more occupied with saving themselves and less with continuing the pursuit.

The dragon swooped down and landed on the deck. Gone were the sparks that would leap from his body, gone was the rich red colour of the skin. The creature was ethereal and almost translucent. Prince Bruno opened the dragon box, and the dragon went inside without protesting.

He shut the lid.

Nellie hoped that they wouldn’t get a hostile reception at the estate, because there would be no dragon to help them. He would need to gather strength first.

She met Bruno’s eyes. That was the main thing he had been able to get the dragon to do so far—get him back into the box—but even that skill had eluded Nellie.

How much control did he have over the dragon? She was sure the dragon only pretended to listen to her out of habit. She had looked after him, and the creature understood loyalty.

Ahead, the estate’s house was coming up. The silhouette of a windmill stuck above the low-hanging mist. A row of trees surrounded the main house, a sprawling building surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge.

The canal opened out into a square pond where two boats lay moored alongside a wooden jetty.

A couple of men in dark green livery waited there.

Nellie recognised the colour. This was Lord Verdonck’s estate. And so they had ended up exactly where Nellie didn’t want to go. It was almost as if Madame Sabine had ordered it that way.

Not only that, but a man in the company of two guards now walked across the drawbridge.

“It looks like we have visitors,” Gisele said.