Broad continues: Outside Briar Castle

Dear Grandmama

To the most admirable member of the most admirable of all species : the dragon kind! Salutations and love from your most humble granddaughter.

In spite of all the work I should be doing, I went to hear and record Broad’s story. I hope that it may divert your friend and her formidable (in so far as any member of such a puny species can be formidable) husband.

When we were all settled, and Minsky had promised to be good, Broad began:

We should go back a bit in that fateful day, the day when the stasis spell was accomplished. We saw what happened in the pleasure dome, but other things were happening in the Castle.

Mid-morning a village lad arrived, and panted out a garbled tale. There was news – a fisherman had seen old Nellie! but he came back kind of dazed, so it was hard to be sure where . . . he’d been fishing at a bend of the river, just above the Marsh, so that would be the place to start looking . . . if the guard could come quickly, they might finally catch her!

Their Majesties had long ago instructed that any news of old Nellie should be brought directly to them, and so it was, however inconvenient the time. Well, the King was not about to send out the Royal Briar Guard. They had to keep the Castle secure, on this day of all days! The had to impress the visiting royals, who had brought their own guards, and might be tempted to some foolish adventure if his Guard was not there to counter them. The Queen agreed meekly, and proposed to send her Guard, on the off chance that they might be lucky.

So the Queen’s Captain marched the Queen’s Guard out of the Castle, and down the Royal Road towards Maresdeath Marsh. They were halfway there when the tremor struck. “That’ll be it, then,” said the Captain. “Take 15 minutes; then we’ll start back. No, I can’t tell you what’s happened. Most of us are from Thorn Village; we’ll be there inside the hour. No point in galloping back and arriving all sweaty and out of breath; they’ll be safe. You’re from Briar Village? Your family didn’t get the word to move? Old gaffer wouldn’t budge? Well, they’re probably safe, too, one way or another.”

Thorn Village was safe, if bewildered. Its population grew by a half that day. Folks from Briar Village that weren’t actually on duty in the Castle had found errands of various kinds to do, mostly in the direction of Thorn. When they learned that the whole of Briar Hill was inaccessible behind the stasis field and its outer packaging, the madly growing briars, there was grief, for sure. But there was gratitude, too, for the hospitality Thorn was prepared to offer.

The presence of the Queen’s Guard calmed things that first night. Next day everyone met in the common, and the Guard made sure it was orderly.

When people asked, “What are we going to do?” the Queen’s Captain asked them, “What did you do before?”

When they said, “We don’t know how we’ll live,” the herb-woman asked them how they lived before?

When they said, “This isn’t our village any more,” the blacksmith said, “Fine, we’ll rename it. With so many more folks here we’re a town now, Thornville, let’s call it. And Thornville doesn’t pay taxes to that thieving lot of parasites on Briar Hill!”

“But we pay taxes for the things we need,” said the baker, thumping her rolling pin in her hand for emphasis. “We still need the roads mended, and the wharves kept in order. And we’ll need a school for the children – all the children, not just the few whose parents have the coin put by for it.”

“But aren’t we stirring ourselves up for nothing?” asked one of the mill hands. “Won’t one of the neighbouring kingdoms take us over, and be telling us what to do and wanting another set of taxes by the end of the fortnight?”

The herb-woman looked at the Queen’s Captain, and said, “You tell them, nephew.”

“I think you should tell, it, Auntie – but if you like . . . No, the neighbouring kingdoms won’t take us over, because their royals all came to the party at Briar Castle! They’ll be snoring up a storm with our royals for the next century. That was part of Aunt Nellie’s plan, that’s why her spell was to trigger at a big party they’d all be bound to be at. The people in their villages are having a little chat together this morning just like we are doing here, and none of us are going to invade the others. Besides, we’ll keep up the guard here, and they’ll keep up theirs, the lads they had practising to invade us, so’s we can keep order and defend against any robber bands from the hills.”

A pedlar woman patted the nose of her boney horse, and said, “Maybe that would work, for a bit. You know the folks in the neighbouring dukedoms; your kin, like as not. But there are other kingdoms that you don’t know, over the mountains, across the desert, on the north coast. They’ll hear, and in a year or three they’ll be on your doorsteps, with swords and fire. You weren’t worth the bother to them, when your dukes were ruling you and keeping your noses to the grindstone. But let the word get out that you’re ruling yourselves and spending your own taxes, they’ll be here. They’ll not want their own serfs hearing that sort of rumour, you know. They won’t only take you over, they’ll wipe you out to the last man, woman and child, the last careful mole in the garden and the last crazy weasel in the treetops, just to be sure the idea doesn’t spread. You better find some poor relations of your royals and stuff them into your castles and pay them taxes and forget this nonsense, or there’ll not be one of you left on the green side of the grass five years from now – not one!”

“There’s sense in what you say,” the herb woman admitted, “but we’ve got a bit of time before the news spreads to the far kingdoms – and meanwhile, we’ve got a Plan!”

Broad reached for his ale-pot, and poured a gallon or so down his throat. “Well, I have to get to work in the morning, so I’d better get some shut-eye. I’ll be seeing you!”

I told my little passenger I’d been practising shooting flames over my shoulder – any more chomping on scales and Minsky would be ashes, blowing in the wind.

Minsky just grinned, climbed up my arm and jumped onto my shoulder. It wanted to circle Briar Hill on the way home, so we did that. As we were approaching it got all excited and squealed at me to look there; look there! Well, ‘there’ is a pretty big place, and by the time I figured out which ‘there’ it wanted me to see, it was too late. One of the watchmen had left his post when nature called, and kept right on walking – into the briars! He disappeared through them before I was near enough to flame him – must have been a prince; must have descended from some obscure royal, somehow, sometime, and so the blooming briars let him in!/p>

Minsky squealed at me to fly over the princess’s dome, now! I asked it how I was supposed to find the dome, under the briars and through the stasis spell.

Minsky told me to use my third eye (how did he know about that?). So I did, and found the dome. I found I could also see the edge of the stasis field, so I climbed above it, heading toward the dome in the lake.

“Wait for me by those twin pines – find Venus – now down to the horizon, and 5 degrees north – see?”

I saw. It didn’t make any sense, but before I could ask, I crossed over the dome and Minsky rolled off my back. I nearly got whiplash reaching for it, but still missed, and then had to buy sky fast if I didn’t want to try surfing the skin of the stasis field – which, believe me, I didn’t.

So I’m finishing my letter to you, Grandmama, beside Minsky’s twin pines, and wondering what will happen and why I so often end up doing what that fuzzball wants? Like now, for instance, when I should be home sleeping, or in the office reading documents for the next awful case.

With greatest love and respect,

Yours, Toby