The Dragon Prince

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

THE CLANG OF A GONG echoed through the hallway of the palace, a strange, foreign-sounding noise that made the hairs on the back of Johanna’s neck stand up.

In slow, deliberate strides to the low beat of a drum, the visiting party from the ship of the eastern traders entered the Red Reception Room.

Upon hearing of Li Han’s intended visit, Johanna had made sure that the room, unlike the rest of the palace, was in a state suitable to receive and impress a foreign visitor. For the past few days, a small army of people had been scrubbing the floor, polishing the chairs and fixing patches in the patterned wallpaper. They had gathered any furniture they could find that didn’t have fire or water damage, and selected the cleanest rugs and the freshest, least damaged curtains.

But the group of people that came through the door looked so splendid that all that effort seemed akin to trying to dress up a donkey as a coach horse.

First came two mountainous soldiers in grey uniforms carrying a wooden chest on a platform with handles on both sides. From the way they walked, Johanna—seated on the ornate but otherwise quite ordinary chair that functioned as makeshift throne—judged that whatever it contained had to be heavy. They progressed about halfway into the room, set down their load, bowed in unison and retreated to both sides. Behind them came two soldiers in leather armour. They wore the same grey shift and loose trousers as the porters—Johanna judged them to all be guards. They also bowed and stepped aside.

This allowed Johanna to see the elderly couple in the middle of the group. The old man was dressed in a blue robe. He was finely built, quite short and thin in comparison with the guards. His weather-beaten skin displayed a landscape of wrinkles and sunspots, especially around the curiously shaped eyes. He had tied his greying hair in a bun at the top of his head.

Next to him stood a woman of similar age with a wizened face. Her hair was more white than grey and also tied at the top of her head. Her face was round, and she looked around the room with eyes narrowed to slits. She wore a knee-length robelike garment woven from shimmering green silk and a broad embroidered belt around her waist, with trousers of the same colour.

Women wore trousers?

The young man behind them was much taller. He wore simple black with leather armour over the top. An empty scabbard hung at his waist. Like the soldiers, he had left his weapons at the door.

Behind him were two more soldiers and then four people with an assortment of curious-looking drums. One of them carried the gong, a big metal disk suspended from a frame.

The entire party came to a halt and bowed as one. The gong made a soft noise as it swung against the side of the frame.

The old man said in a strongly accented voice, “We bow to the king and queen of Saarland and the dignified people of the King’s Council.”

Those wise men of the council, including Father, sat to Johanna’s left. The king, of course, wasn’t present, not even in spirit. He was in the garden chasing frogs. Father had even taken his chair away to save Johanna the embarrassment of having to explain his absence.

Johanna said, “I return your greeting. Rise and tell us your names and your business in our fair town.” Her hands felt sweaty and the smell of polishing wax that hung around her chair made her feel ill.

The old man straightened. “My name is Li Han, brother prince of the Dragon Emperor. This is my wife Wen Mei and my son Li Fai. The Dragon Emperor, my brother, has sent us here to trade. We bring silk and spices, cloth and beads. Tobacco, cocoa, tea. Everything from all parts of the known lands and from the lands at the edge of the southern ocean. We buy cheese, wool, rugs, wood products, baskets, furniture. We trade with Phoenicians, Anglians and the tribes of the western horn. We trade all over the known world and explore the unknown world. Today I bring my son, Li Fai. He wants to make office in this city.” He gestured to the younger man in black, who again bowed, his hands pressed together in front of his chest.

When he straightened, Johanna met his eyes. They carried a sharp, intelligent expression. His skin was bronzed, his lips full and dark.

She said while returning his gaze, “So you want to have an office in Saardam?”

His father replied. “Yes. Office. Warehouse. We bring goods. We sell them. River traders bring them to all the river towns. They take other things back for us to buy. Cloth, shoes, cheese. We buy them and sell elsewhere. People of Phoenicia really like cheese.” He glanced at Father as he said that. Father of course had met Li Han before during his years of travelling on the river sloops. He would speak of meeting him in Lurezia where the river was deep enough for the sea traders to come a good distance inland if the wind was right.

“We have our own sea traders in Saardam,” said Joris Decamp, mayor of the city and in charge of all matters dealing with the seaport. “They will not like foreigners coming in, taking their positions.”

There were some nods at this in the King’s Council, the group of twenty men at Johanna’s left. Apart from Father and Master Deim and the shepherd of the Church of the Triune, most of them were nobles wearing their brocade and silken finery.

Someone at the back of this group said, “The Nielands could use a kick up the backside, if you ask me. Yes, we have sea traders, but they still haven’t done anything about rebuilding the ocean ships they lost. Tea is getting mightily scarce. I say let him have his office.” This was Hendricus Franzen, and Johanna made a mental note of his comment.

“Old Nieland will not like that at all,” repeated Joris, and that comment met with some approval.

Johanna licked her lips. What Li Han asked was no small thing. Before the fires, the Nielands had a good fleet of seafaring vessels. Many of them had been destroyed in the fire, one had never returned after a mutiny and the rest were damaged, but nevertheless, the family must be planning to repair and rebuild those ships. Li Han was a major competitor.

Johan Delacoeur cleared his throat and asked Li Han in his usual blunt manner. “Never mind the tea, spices and trinkets. They’re women’s things. What I’d be interested in is this: do you sell those iron ships of yours? Because there would be a long line of people wanting to buy them.”

It became very quiet in the room. Everyone was keen for the answer to the question.

Li Han bowed to Johan. “We do not sell ships. We sell goods. We use ships. If we sell ships then we cannot trade anymore.” He chuckled, not entirely convincingly. He had to be aware of the failed efforts of various groups in the lowlands to try to build their own iron ships, and the fact that a war had been fought over control of the port because of these ships.

Johanna asked, “If you get an office, are you going to bring more iron ships into the harbour?”

“We may. Or we may not. In the future. Not now.”

Johanna glanced at Father. Did Li Han just sound coy or was he actually coy? Not wanting to reveal if this was their only ship or if they had more than one?

Father smiled at her. Well that was most unhelpful. She could use some help in deciding what to do about this delegation.

Johanna said, “One of the problems with your request is this: many people in town are suspicious of the iron ships. They are afraid and don’t understand why they can move without sails.”

That was an understatement. Ever since the ship had come into the harbour, rumours had run rife about the motivations of the eastern traders, the size of their fleet hiding in a secret location waiting to pounce on Saardam and occupy the city, and also about the size of the fire dragon that—according to many—lived in the belly of the ship.

Li Han bowed again. Was he going to keep doing that every time he said something? “The people do not need to be suspicious. The idea for the iron ships came from someone from this part of the world. One of your countrymen made the first drawings for the steam machines. His name is Rinius. He is a man of great ideas.”

“Rinius is a heretic!” called Shepherd Victor from his seat in the King’s Council. “It is not just the Church of the Triune that considers him so. Even the Belaman Church—and they’re not usually known for making wise decisions—have condemned him. He was banished to a small island off the coast of the Cape, and hanged there.”

Li Han said, “Your king speaks well of Rinius.”

There was a small uncomfortable silence after this.

Yes, Roald rarely shut up about Rinius and his books. It was one of the reasons that no one was keen to pressure him to come to meetings anymore. But how did Li Han know this?

A couple of men in the King’s Council were keeping an eye on the shepherd; others suddenly found their knees very interesting. The outburst they feared from the shepherd did not follow, however.

Li Han continued as if oblivious to the tension, “If we have office and warehouse, we will pay the sons and fathers of this town to work for us.”

“Do you think we have no work for our own men?” This was Johan Delacoeur.

The shepherd said, “Do you think our citizens will want to work for someone with magic who supports the greatest heretic of all time?”

Thomas Kloostermans, a fervent supporter of the Belaman Church said, “Yeah. I don’t usually agree with him, but that man wrote a great many things that are an insult to any church, not just his—” He glanced sideways at the shepherd. “—band of lunatics.”

The shepherd called out a protest at the same time as Johanna said, “Gentlemen.”

They fell quiet.

That was the division in the city: those who supported the Church of the Triune and those who said it had gained far too much power.

“The eastern trader’s office in our town will be an opportunity for all involved, but . . .” She met Li Han’s eyes. “I’m afraid that a number of our buildings are not in a very good state. Quite a few were damaged by fire. Many were abandoned, and we may not be able to trace the owners to transfer a lease or ownership. Other buildings are damaged beyond repair.”

Li Han nodded. “We can fix. You find building. We pull down and build or fix. We bring gold to pay for office.”

He said something to the two mountainous guards in his own language. It sounded sharp and unpleasant.

The guards lifted the lid of the chest that still stood on the platform in front of the delegation.

Gold indeed, in the shape of coins.

There was so much of it!

Johanna still remembered the shock of walking into the king’s vault when she and Roald moved into the palace and looking at the empty shelves. Somehow she had expected there to be at least some money.

Father had talked about how King Nicholaos had given a fortune to the Church of the Triune when he believed they could resurrect his daughter the crown princess Celine, and when they couldn’t, to the necromancer Kylian. In panic, the king had wanted to sell his only asset—his child-like son who was utterly unsuitable for the throne—to the richest merchant’s daughter to raise money. Somehow, though she’d known all that, she still hadn’t realised how bad it was until she looked in the treasury.

And now the family’s only hard asset—the palace—had been looted and damaged in the fires.

Johanna had already borrowed money from Father and Master Deim for the essential repairs, but she didn’t want to accept too much of their generosity, because she didn’t think the palace would be in any kind of position soon to pay back the loan.

Li Han’s money would go a long way towards solving her problems.

If she let Li Han’s son have his office.

Noticing her hesitation, the eastern trader’s son took a handful of the coins and crossed the room holding them on his open palm. While he came to Johanna, she met his eyes. They were black and the shape of them was unusual but not unattractive. The rest of his face was pleasant to look at, his lips expressive, his nose broad and quite flat, not at all like the big honkers that people from the south often had. His skin had a slight yellowish tinge and was soft like that of a girl. He had no beard or moustache. His hair was black and glossy like a raven’s feathers. He wore it tied at the top of his head.

He bowed and held the coins out to her. She took them. The skin on his hand was pleasantly warm and dry. His nails were neat and clean.

“It is Phoenician gold.” His voice was warm, not as heavily-accented as his father’s. Johanna made a show of examining the sample of gold. The coins were very heavy and carried a foreign inscription on one side and a likeness of some god on the other. Of course Johanna had seen these before. Many deals with foreigners were paid for in Phoenician gold. “Yes, I have no doubt that they’re real.”

She gave the coins back to him, again touching his palm. He tossed them back into the chest with a clink.

From inside his cloak, he produced a parcel wrapped in a silk cloth. “To show our appreciation, this is a personal gift to you.” He handed the parcel to her. Johanna had to struggle to keep meeting his eyes. His expression was so intense and she didn’t know why he looked at her like that, whether that was customary where he came from, but the intense gaze made her ears burn. She didn’t want to stare back because that would be inappropriate. She heard that in some foreign lands morals were very loose.

Johanna laid the cloth on her knees and unwrapped it, glad for the distraction. The fine fabric slid through her hands. If these people used silk to wrap things, they must be very rich indeed.

Inside the parcel she found a piece of honey-coloured wood carved into a long-tailed creature. It had a big snout with two large, open nostrils. Its mouth was open, showing a forked tongue.

“It’s a dragon,” he said. “This is the blue dragon. It is the symbol of our house. It’s a present to you.”

“Thank you. It’s very pretty.” Johanna traced the exquisitely carved scales on the dragon’s back with her fingertips. “You speak our language well.”

There was a brief flash of a smile in his eyes. “I have studied much. The office will be mine while my father travels on the ship. I have to make deals with traders in your town. I cannot expect them to know my language.”

“No, that’s true.”

He chuckled. Had he attempted to make light-hearted conversation? “Maybe one day I can teach.”

“Yes, maybe. Thank you,” she said again, aware that the men of the council were looking at her.

He bowed and retreated.

By the Triune, her cheeks were burning. He had magic of some kind. There was no doubt about it.

But what about his request for an office?

She wanted to accept it.

In the past, Saardam had always been an accepting place, where people from all walks of life and parts of the known world had come together.

If someone was going to dominate the sea trade on which Saardam’s wealth had relied in the past, it would be those with iron ships. It could be the eastern traders, who already had the iron ships, or the Baron, who had not succeeded in building them yet. Even without knowing Li Han well, she knew who she’d rather deal with. Father was an infallible judge of character and he had always spoken well of the eastern trader.

Yes, there was probably magic involved in the building of a successful iron ship.

Yes, many people in town would view him as a major competitor.

Yes, allowing him to settle would bring a war with the Baron a step closer simply by keeping Saardam independent.

A little voice inside her said, Wasn’t this war going to happen anyway? Because the baron did not just want to use the port, he wanted to erase Saarland from the map. He wanted to kill the royal family and eradicate its church.

Wouldn’t Li Han be a powerful ally against the Baron and his necromancer son?

“This request takes me by surprise, but I’m quite interested in your offer. I would like some time to consider possible offices that you could occupy.”

There were several gasps in the King’s Council. One of the men made a protesting sound, but another shushed him.

Li Han bowed. “Thank you, thank you. We come back in a few days, right?”

“Yes. Do come back.” There was a seed of an idea forming in her mind but she needed a bit of time to work it out.

“Thank you, thank you.” He bowed again.

The two mountainous men picked up the chest of gold and Li Han and his party shuffled backwards to the door, leaving behind a thick silence. The gong sounded again when they were in the corridor.

Johanna did not dare look at the men to her left.