The Riverwoman’s Dragon

15 Revelations

It seemed a sign of grace when Captain Archer offered Einar the chance to help deliver Alan into the hands of the king’s men. But while he stood on the riverbank he had caught a movement on Magda’s roof, the dragon moving its head as if beckoning him across the water.

Brother Michaelo was asking him about his sudden appearance on the forest track.

Einar answered vaguely as he stared at the dragon. Once again it beckoned to him. ‘I must see to Asa,’ he said.

‘But the wagon,’ said Michaelo, ‘the abbey.’

Einar waved him off. ‘I trust you and the captain.’

He waded into the river, muttering a curse as he discovered the current strong with the tide. As the water deepened he began to swim, all the while arguing with himself. It was mad to think a dragon masthead could move, could beckon him. But he’d seen it do so. As he pulled himself onto the rock he heard in his head, On the far side. The boy cannot hold her much longer. He scrambled to his feet, pausing to shake off some of the water. Hurry! the voice – a female voice – said in his head. Glancing up as he passed the dragon, he swore she nodded. And then he heard the boy.

‘Dame Asa, you must not do this.’

The fear and weakness in Twig’s voice cut to his heart. Einar sprinted to them, dropping to his knees and taking hold of Asa’s shoulders. How had she the strength to pull so?

‘You can let go now, Twig, I have her. Bless you.’ Einar leaned down to whisper in Asa’s ear, ‘Forgive me. Forgive me for not telling you all I knew about Bernard.’ He felt her hesitate and used the moment to pull her away from the water, falling onto his back with her above him. She blinked, bringing her eyes away from whatever had been calling her.

‘Forgive?’ she whispered.

He eased her to one side and rose, bending to lift her in his arms. He carried her into the house, nodding to the dragon as he passed. She nodded in response.

Twig stoked the fire and heated water. He helped Einar settle Asa on the bed. The bandage on her hand was soaked, of course, but with blood as well as river water.

Einar set about fixing a calming draught for her and told the lad to pour himself a bowl of ale.

‘Mother will not like to smell it on my breath.’

‘Tell her I insisted you drink it for warmth and calm after you saved a woman’s life and almost fell into the water yourself,’ said Einar. He smiled as the lad drank. ‘You are a hero this day, Twig. All will hear of this. You have rewarded Dame Magda’s trust in you a hundredfold.’

‘I’m no hero. I was afraid.’

‘That’s part of being a hero. You followed your heart, not your head. Your heart told you that her life was worth saving, fear be damned.’

The lad beamed. Einar patted his back. ‘Now. I must change her bandages and I will need your help. Are you sufficiently recovered?’

A flash of alarm as the boy glanced at the bloody bandage, but he straightened, puffing out his chest. ‘I am.’

Asa’s moans pierced Einar’s heart, and as he worked his remorse over his betrayal of her consumed him. Only when the mangled hand was freshly wrapped did he notice Twig’s distress.

‘Too much blood?’ he asked softly.

The lad shook his head. ‘I’m not brave. I saw something and never told anyone because I should not have been where I was. And a man died.’

Magda stepped away as the friars lifted the dying man into their cart. They would take him to a building at the friary where they tended those dying of the pestilence, including their own. Time at last to return to Asa in this quiet moment before the Death revealed itself among the folk on the river. They had been touched. Weakened by poverty, many would succumb. Too many.

‘Dame Magda,’ Twig’s mother called to her as she pushed through the onlookers, the lad stumbling to keep up as she pulled him along behind her. ‘My son has a confession to make.’

At last. Magda had been aware for a long while that the lad held something inside. She guided them toward the riverbank, and the coracle. Another with much on her mind waited there. Lettice Brown.

‘I watched Einar’s encounter with Captain Archer and his men,’ said Lettice. ‘They had Gavin Wolcott, Bernard the leech, Gemma Toller, and the men from the warehouse. They can no longer harm me. I am ready to tell the captain all that I know.’

Gemma Toller among them. Magda nodded to herself. She looked to Twig. ‘Dost thy confession pertain to the Wolcotts and the Tollers?’

The boy mumbled a yes.

‘He saw the men grab Sam Toller and toss him into the flood,’ said Twig’s mother.

‘Go together to the captain,’ said Magda. ‘It is time he heard all.’

Returning from the castle late in the afternoon, Owen stopped in the apothecary to see how Jasper was coping. No line of customers in the lane, a few in the shop. Jasper glanced up as he spoke loudly to an elderly man who cupped his ear to hear his instructions and gestured toward the workroom.

Owen found Lucie there, crushing roots in a mortar.

‘Back at work so soon? What of Beatrice?’

‘Edith, the midwife, is with her.’

‘How did she become involved?’

‘I sent Luke Ferriby with more of the unguent and a message that I might need her advice about Beatrice. She returned with him. With her arm still immobile she cannot deliver babies, but she wants to help and suggested she sit with Beatrice. They are up in the guest room.’

‘This is for Beatrice?’

‘A purgative.’ Brushing her hands on her apron, Lucie drew him to the bench near the garden door, well away from the shop. ‘Jasper and I tested the contents of the jar the maidservant gave you. We found rue and feverfew, which Edith agreed would cause the excessive bleeding and cramping. But there is something far more dangerous I did not mention to her – hemlock.’

‘So they were poisoning Guthlac.’

‘And then Beatrice, yes. I had put her soiled clothing in a sack and brought it here in case we might salvage any of it. She had worn a sleeveless surcoat over her gown, and beneath it was a stain smelling strongly of the mixture in the jar. I will not call it a physick, it is such a jumble, as if Alan added anything that might cause harm.’

‘Bless you.’ It was just the proof Owen needed to hang Gavin if Alan Rawcliff and Beatrice Wolcott pointed the finger at him. Would they cooperate? He stood up, rubbing his face. ‘I pray you get some rest.’

‘And you. We thought we would shut early. None of us have eaten since early morning.’

Owen stepped out to see whether Jasper needed help. He was talking quietly to Twig and a woman who must be his mother, nudging the lad forward, kindly but firmly. Behind them stood the missing Lettice Brown. All three were out of breath.

‘Lettice!’ Lucie rushed to her, taking her hands. ‘God be praised.’

‘Dame Magda took care of me, body and soul,’ said Lettice. ‘And now, knowing what Captain Archer did today, I feel I can speak out without endangering my family. But first I pray you allow this young man to speak. His heart is heavy.’

‘It will be best if we go to the house,’ said Lucie, guiding them through the workshop and across the garden.

Kate looked up with surprise. ‘More for late dinner?’

‘We will not be long,’ said Twig’s mother. She drew her son down onto a bench by the fire. ‘He’s a good lad, my Twig. Saved a woman’s life today. But he’s confessed something you need to hear, Captain Archer. Said nothing before because he was where I had forbidden him to go, you understand. But it’s been gnawing at him.’

‘Well?’ Owen asked. ‘You know you can trust me, Twig.’

The lad nodded, but Owen could feel the fear rolling off him.

‘You are brave to come forward. And I am grateful for anything you can tell me that will help bring the murderers to justice.’

‘We sneak into the city some nights when the tide is out. We find things stuck in the mud. But we all know we shouldn’t be there. Folk drown.’

A tsk from his mother.

‘Go on,’ said Owen, crouching so they were eye to eye.

‘I saw a man hit on the head and tossed into a boat. The men rowed him upriver for a while and then threw him overboard, rowed back.’

‘When was this?’

‘The night that man went missing, the one fetched up on the bank, the one Dame Magda found.’

‘Where was he when they came upon him?’

‘Under Ouse Bridge. We watched it all, me and my mates. Swore to each other we’d say nothing.’

‘Would you know the two men if you saw them?’

Twig shook his head. ‘It was too dark. But they were big.’

‘Thank you, Twig. This is important. But that’s not all, is it? Your mother says you saved a woman’s life today?’

‘Dame Asa. She meant to go in the river. I held her till Einar came.’

‘That was brave of you. When you’re grown, if you need work, come to me. I can always use a man of honor and courage. Till then, no more walking the mud flats at night, eh?’

‘I swear.’

Owen rose, looking to Lettice.

‘I would speak with you alone,’ she said.

‘What would you say to speaking with me and Bailiff Hempe? Gemma Toller is in his custody. I would like her to hear what you have to say as well.’

Her face drained of color. ‘I pray you, not the castle jail.’

‘I would not ask that of you. She is at Hempe’s home, being tended by Dame Lotta.’

A small smile. ‘I will go. Yes.’

While Lettice had told them all she had confided in Magda and spoke of her fear for her children and their families, Gemma Toller silently wept.

‘I know this is painful to hear, and harder still to admit having a hand in it,’ Owen said to Gemma, ‘but I would know how you thought to escape punishment.’ He looked to Hempe, who had questioned Gavin and the others at the castle. ‘Do we know that Gavin gave the order for Sam’s death?’

‘He confessed to that after the two men spoke at length of their orders, how they had followed Sam to Magda’s and back home that night.’ Hempe looked at Gemma. ‘Do you see the full extent of your lover’s vile plan?’

‘How will you live with this?’ Lettice murmured, as if to herself.

Gemma stared down at her hands. ‘I saw only his love for me, dreamed of how it would be when we were together. I believed Beatrice and Sam had betrayed me, that her two children were Sam’s. Now– God help me, I remember how Gavin seeded my suspicion. He would begin to say something, then shake his head as if he had forgotten and look on me with sad eyes. Soon I was begging him to hide nothing, tell me the worst.’

‘And did he?’ Lotta Hempe asked. ‘Did he accuse them outright?’

‘Yes.’ Gemma’s voice shook as she faced her own willful destruction.

Lotta looked to Owen and her husband. ‘Might it be true?’

‘We hope to wring a full confession from him,’ said Hempe. ‘And the leech may know much.’

‘Or Dame Beatrice, when she can speak,’ said Owen.

Lotta asked Lettice if she needed a place to stay. Thanking her, Lettice said that for now she had a home, and people who needed her.

Magda rowed back to the rock with a heaviness and sat for a long while beneath the dragon, thinking of what Twig had witnessed. Until the dragon touched her arm, urging her to attend her daughter.

Asa lay on the pallet with eyes closed, her breathing ragged. Einar held her uninjured hand. Magda mixed a soothing tisane for herself, and sat down by the fire, sipping and waiting for her thoughts to calm. Holda climbed onto her lap, turning and turning until she settled in a graceful curl, her purr cloaking Magda in stillness. She reached down with her thoughts, sensing the solidity of the rock beneath her home.

Einar spoke into the silence. ‘We almost lost her.’ His voice was as ragged as Asa’s breath. ‘Twig held on to the end of his strength. Did he tell you?’

‘He did.’ Magda watched Einar stroke Asa’s curling gray hair, evincing a tenderness absent until now. Plucking Asa from death might have reminded him she was as vulnerable as anyone else. Or something had shifted for him in the glade.

‘My fault,’ he said. ‘I might have warned her of the leech’s treachery, but I saw no benefit for myself.’

While he spoke Asa’s breathing changed.

‘Art thou certain she did not know who he was?’

‘It must be so.’

Setting the kitten in her basket, Magda gathered cushions. ‘If thou wilt assist.’

As he lifted her upper body so that Magda might place the cushions beneath her, Asa opened her eyes.

‘Better?’ Magda asked.

‘Easier to breathe,’ said Asa.

Magda rested a hand on her daughter’s chest, feeling the waves of anger, resentment, confusion, despair. ‘To speak the truth oft brings ease of heart. Is he right, Asa? Were you unaware that the leech was Alan Rawcliff, servant to the prince’s poisoner?’

A tear appeared. Another. Asa’s lips trembled. Magda held a cup of soothing tisane to her mouth. She drank a little.

‘She might need–’ Einar began as he rose.

But Magda hushed him and motioned for him to sit.

Asa turned her head, looking to Einar. ‘In Lincoln, one of the king’s men came to me with an injury. As I attended him I asked about the man he sought. By then I knew enough, guessed more. All seemed to fit him. When we arrived in York and Bernard – Alan – sent me away,’ a deep, shuddering breath, ‘I went to the sheriff. Told him all, and to write to the bishop of Lincoln if he doubted me.’

For a moment, Einar said nothing, looking round the room as if searching for an explanation, then back at Asa. ‘I cannot believe–’ He reached out as if to hit her but caught himself, withdrawing his hands. ‘You knew all that time?’ He kept his voice soft, but his eyes accused her.

Asa whispered a yes.

‘Is it thanks to thee that the king’s men are here now?’ Magda asked.

‘Sir William called the guards to remove me. I was nothing to him. Why should he believe me? I meant to return with the knives. The king’s man had drawn the French traitor’s mark for me and there it was, on Alan’s knives. On yours as well, Einar.’

‘You searched my things?’

Asa was quiet a moment. ‘I am glad they have come. Now he will face his doom.’

‘You are consumed by resentment,’ said Einar.

‘And you by greed.’

‘I have changed.’

‘Have you?’ Asa’s words were cut short by a moan.

‘Unlike you I can learn,’ Einar said.

‘So you strut now. Cock of the walk? But you are the one who might have warned me when you first came to Lincoln. You might have warned the bishop, the sheriff.’

‘You have no right– Even if you were my mother. Another lie. You do nothing but lie.’

‘We traveled as mother and son. Have you forgotten?’

‘But you thought to fool Dame Magda?’

Asa turned her head away, and in her silence Magda sensed that Einar had filled a void for her daughter.

‘You are all lies.’

‘No son of mine would so betray me,’ Asa whispered.

‘Betray you?’

‘Silence!’ Magda commanded. ‘Bickering like two selfish pups fighting over a bone.’ She took the cup of tisane to her worktable, adding milk of poppy to the mix. Rest and an easing of the pain were all she could do for Asa at present. When the pain receded she would look beneath the bandage to assess the harm her daughter had done herself. She did not look forward to what she likely must do.

As they prepared for bed, Owen told Lucie the version of the story Gavin chose to tell.

‘He claims Guthlac urged the leech to attend her, fearing she was unwell. Denied any knowledge of what procedure Alan might have performed or what medicines he administered. Claimed he did not know Beatrice was with child until Gemma told him of the blood in the bed. Sam’s children, all of them, he swears, and poor Gemma, so betrayed, had pushed her husband into the Ouse in a moment of anger.’

‘He denied that Gemma was his mistress?’

‘No. He says she was so distraught about her husband’s affair with Beatrice. He’d gone to comfort and quiet her and fell in love.’

‘But quite ready to accuse her of murder. How bittersweet.’

‘The two men caught with him swear he hired them to follow and kill Sam. Gavin tried to wriggle out of that, but failed.’

‘What now?’

‘Find out what Beatrice and Alan have to say. Do you think she will talk?’

‘I pray she does.’

While Asa slept, Magda listened to Einar’s account of his day, in his hesitations and long pauses witnessing his confusion, his doubt, but also a hunger to understand.

‘Was it a test?’ he asked.

She placed one of her hands on his and held his gaze for several heartbeats.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Tasting thine experience of the glade.’

‘You can do that?’

‘Art thou not able to feel another’s heartbeat with a touch?’

‘Yes, but …’

‘Much the same.’

He shook his head. ‘You made it clear I might not find the glade. Why is that?’

‘It is protected from all but a few. Those abiding there would not have found it without Magda.’

‘A spell?’

‘Some would call it that.’

‘Your spell?’

‘No. Magda found it so.’

‘Are they able to leave?’

‘Lettice Brown left, did she not?’

‘Can she return?’

‘If accompanied by one of us. Magda will escort her in the morning.’

‘I would be happy to do so.’

‘A kind offer from the penitent. But soon thou shouldst take thy leave of this place.’

Her words saddened him, as she had known they would.

‘I hoped to stay here and learn by your side.’

‘Thou art not yet ready.’

‘I found the glade. You said others would not. Not without you.’

‘That is true. Thou hast proved thy blood. Yet that is but a small part. Hast thou the will? The heart? Thou must seek the answer. Discover thy heart’s yearning. Watch thyself. Learn where thou art called, and for what.’

‘A quest?’

She smiled. He was young, his head stuffed with tales, ballads of noble deeds, quests of honor. ‘Of a kind.’

‘Is that how you came to healing?’

‘By following the heart’s inclination. Magda was younger than thou art now when she left her village and walked north, into the forests, though the moors were all she knew. But she could not resist the call. Long she walked, moving deeper and deeper into the trees.’

‘Alone?’

‘Yes. One day her scent was caught by a bear clan.’

‘How far north did you walk?’

‘How far, or into when? The years remain a mystery to Magda. She heard them coming for her and scrambled up a tree.’

‘But bears–’

Magda nodded. ‘She learned. They climbed up now and then to see where she was, but stopped far short of her perch. Each time she climbed higher. They seemed content to wait beneath while she grew weaker and weaker. She had climbed as high as she dared, until the limbs swayed in warning that they could not hold her long. The next time one climbed up to her, snuffling and grunting, his scent stronger and stronger, she could do nothing but close her eyes and cling to a branch murmuring spells of protection, honoring the trees, asking for their help. At long last the limb shook with the weight of another and she looked at her attacker. She would face him down. But on the limb, so close she could hear his heart beating slow and steady despite such a climb, was a man. He reached out a hand and assured her she had nothing to fear.’

‘A shape-shifter?’

‘Or did a frightened girl expect a bear?’

‘You don’t know?’

‘Does it matter?’

‘I want to understand.’

‘Would it make thee kinder? Wiser? Life is a mystery, Einar, a thing of wonder. Honor it, and it will treat thee well.’

He was quiet, and she sensed him thinking back to the glade, moving through it, tasting it, feeling it. The blood was strong in him.

‘Was that Sten, my father’s mother’s father?’ he finally asked.

‘Yrsa’s father, yes. And Odo’s, her twin brother.’

‘I never heard of Odo. What happened after Sten found you?’

‘His people took Magda in. They followed old ways, so much forgotten on the moors, their healing skills beyond anything Magda had ever thought could be. She stayed and learned, at first from Sten, later from the women of the village. In time they quarreled. He did not like what they were teaching Magda, how she was changing, choosing to work for the good of others, not herself. One day he left, taking Odo with him. Magda stayed a while, but Yrsa begged to go in search of her twin and her father. The women encouraged Magda to take Yrsa away, to bring all that they had taught Magda to her people on the moors. There Yrsa might forget her loss when she met her kin. So Magda went. But nothing ever truly consoled Yrsa. She wed young and moved away.’

‘Meeting Sten’s people and staying to learn from them, that is what your heart chose.’

‘And then to use what they taught as a healer.’

‘I should go north. To the forests.’

‘If that is where thy heart takes thee.’

‘Coming here was not enough?’

‘Remember what called thee here. Thou hoped to seize Alan Rawcliff and earn the prince’s gratitude.’

Einar took a deep breath. ‘Greed brought me here.’ He rose. ‘I need air.’

Magda waited, drowsing by the fire.

‘What of Asa?’ he asked when he returned.

‘Each person follows their own path, for good or ill. Crossing Asa’s path brought thee here. But thou must find thine own.’

‘I will go to Old Shep’s,’ he said.

She said nothing, letting him go away to take in all she had said. It was good.