“Thank you,” Jules said, and knew that he understood those words were about much more than this one conversation.
“Try not to give me too much work,” Keli said. “That’s all the thanks I need.”
* * *
The smoke and the erratic sound of shots stopped as the morning wore on.
Light flashed on the cliff tops, everyone looking that way. “They’re putting more legionaries ashore,” Ang said.
In the middle of the afternoon, two distant sounds of thunder announced the next Imperial attack going in and the defenders shooting back. Jules stared toward the town, wishing again that she could see more. Three more columns of dirty smoke rose into the sky, one first and then two in quick succession.
Marta, like the others, stood watching and listening as the group of free ships slowly tacked back and forth west of the harbor, only the tops of the masts of the closest Imperial ships in sight from the deck of the Sun Queen. “I can tell when each attack goes in,” she said to Jules. “Funny, huh? I only had a few weeks of legion training before I deserted.” She shook her head, frowning. “I could be there, one of the legionaries storming that wall. Instead of here, hoping they don’t take it.”
“Choices matter,” Jules said.
“I suppose. Though when I deserted I wasn’t thinking of any future like this.”
“Who’s the best crossbow shot on the ship, Marta?”
“Not me.” She nodded toward the forward part of the ship. “I’d say Gord.”
“Gord?”
“Yeah. He doesn’t let on much, because then he might get extra work, but he’s a good shot. A really good shot.”
Through the rest of the afternoon they waited, listening and wondering, dreading the sight of the rapid flashes that would report the wall had fallen. But all through the afternoon the occasional sounds of a Mechanic weapon told of the fight continuing.
The sounds of battle had once more subsided, the sun sinking in the western sky, when Kyle, who’d taken over as lookout, called down. “Captain! Those Imperial warships are doing something!”
Jules went up the rigging fast, stopping only when she reached the maintop, gazing to the east.
“See?” Kyle said. “The sloops are coming alongside the galleys.”
Jules looked, hoping this meant her plan was working. “We’re too far off to tell if they’re transferring legionaries to the galleys. Watch to see if any of the galleys go into the harbor.”
“Sure thing, Captain. Once the sun sets I doubt I’ll be able to tell, though.”
Jules went back down the rigging, looking about at the ships surrounding the Sun Queen. The closest sloop was Storm Queen, which suited her fine. She went onto the quarterdeck. “Bring us closer to the Storm Queen,” she told the sailor at the helm. “Within hailing distance.”
Sun Queen angled slightly to port, closing the distance at a steady pace until the ships were less than ten lances apart.
“Captain Lars!” Jules shouted, cupping her hands about her mouth. “I have need of a ship to sneak closer to the harbor once it gets dark. I need to know if the war galleys have gone into the harbor or are still outside.”
Lars listened, then raised one hand in acknowledgment. “We’ll find out!”
Clouds had gathered during the afternoon, light patches of rain falling over the water and inland. As the sun neared the horizon and light faded, one rain storm wandered over the free ships, lowering visibility a bit more. Storm Queen took advantage of that to head east toward the harbor.
Jules looked around again, seeing Star Seeker not far off. “Captain Hachi! Pass the word to other ships! If Storm Queen finds the Imperial galleys are inside the harbor, we’re going to move east tonight and attack at dawn!”
As it grew darker, three lanterns were lit and fastened to posts on the Sun Queen’s quarterdeck, so other ships would know this was Jules’ ship in the night. Another lantern was set high near the bow. The other free ships also lit lanterns, one forward and one aft, so they could stay together in the dark and not risk running into each other.
There were no more sounds of fighting, and no more pillars of smoke could be seen rising against the starlit night sky. With no distractions left, Jules went into her cabin, standing at the stern windows, fear for Ian and fear for what might happen tomorrow gripping her.
Someone came in. “I brought you something to eat,” Liv said.
“Thanks,” Jules said without turning around.
“You need to eat and then if we’re to attack at dawn you need to try to rest,” Liv said. She gripped Jules’ arm and steered her to the table. “Go ahead.”
“I’m not really hungry,” Jules said, sitting down and picking at the plate. “Liv, what if we lose? What if tomorrow is a disaster and everything was for nothing?”
Liv sat down as well, leaning her elbows on the table. “For nothing? Those twins are out there somewhere. The prophecy will come to pass some day. As for now…” She paused to think. “I’m no farmer, but I’ve listened to them. They talk about planting seeds, but sometimes that doesn’t mean farming. Sometimes they mean thinking of something new. And you’ve done that. Not just any seeds. Weeds. Weeds that the Great Guilds and the Emperors and the Empresses won’t be able to ever pull up. You’ve cast them far and wide and this world will never be the same, no matter what happens tomorrow.”
Jules looked at Liv, thinking. “What sort of weeds?”
Liv sat back, her eyes distant. “For as long as anyone knows, the commons of this world have accepted their fate. The Great Guilds ruled all, and the Emperor ruled beneath them. That’ll never happen again, Jules. Common people here in the west will never again simply accept being ruled. They’ll demand a voice in things. They’ll fight in every way they can. Oh, they won’t go to war with the Great Guilds. They’ll know they need that daughter of your line to win. But they’ll resist. And it’s because of the ideas you’ve planted.”
“I didn’t come up with any of that on my own,” Jules protested. “The free ships, the different ways of ruling a city using votes, lots of people have given me their ideas.”
“But you put them together and you showed them to everyone,” Liv said. She looked east. “Now the Empire, whoever’s left there might keep the old bargain, trading any trace of freedom for the chance to feel safer, but I think even the Empire is going to have its problems at some point. The world has changed, and it changed before this night.”
“I hope you’re right.” Jules looked east as well. “What if Ian is dead?”
“Then we will go on,” Liv said in a soft voice. “As you and I and Ang went on after our mothers and fathers died, and as we all went on after Mak died. What else can we do? You won’t stop fighting, will you?”
“No,” Jules said. Suddenly feeling hunger, she stabbed a piece of meat. “I’ll never stop fighting.”
* * *
She’d lain down in her bunk, not expecting to get any sleep, but was awakened by Ang. The ship felt quiet, the wood creaking gently as swells rolled under it, deep night showing outside the stern windows. “Cap’n, Storm Queen is back. Captain Lars says as near as he could tell, all of the war galleys are inside the harbor, alongside the piers. All he saw outside were Imperial sloops, and they all seemed to mistake his ship for one of their own.”
Jules sat up, breathing deeply. “Let’s start moving slowly east. I want to be right on top of the Imperial sloops when it starts to get light. Tell the crew to be ready for a fight at dawn, and pass word to other ships.”
“Aye, Cap’n.”
As she came out on deck, Jules could hear word of her plans being shouted from ship to ship. She glanced at the sky, seeing that it was just past midnight.
The rest of the Sun Queen’s crew came on deck and swarmed up into the rigging, setting more sail, the ship turning to tack eastward.
All around her, lights floating above the water that marked other ships kept pace with the Sun Queen, the three lanterns still burning
on the stern providing a clear marker. In the night, the free ships might’ve been a ghost fleet, their shapes vague and little seen except for the phantom lights of their lanterns.
An early meal was prepared so everyone could eat before dawn, Jules approving a serving of rum for the whole crew.
Artem and her other guards had put on their armor again, ready early for the fight.
Jules got the rifle from her cabin. “Gord!”
He came over, squinting at her in the low light. “Yes, Captain?”
“I hear you’re our best shot with a crossbow.”
“Well, I wouldn’t—”
“I want you to use this during the fight,” Jules said, offering the weapon to him. “It’s a Mechanic rifle.”
“Me?” Gord stared at the weapon, his eyes so wide the whites could be easily seen.
“This is the trigger. Don’t put your finger on it until you’re ready to shoot.”
“Just like a crossbow,” Gord said.
“Just like a crossbow,” Jules repeated. She showed him the workings of the weapon, as much as she’d been shown by the Mechanics anyway. “Practice aiming it. Steady it on a railing or against a mast, as you would a crossbow. If we see Mages, try to hit them.”
“Mages.” Gord inhaled sharply. “Yes, Captain. Never thought I’d take aim at a Mage.”
“Can you do it?”
“Sure thing. I’ve done a lot dumber things in my time than threaten Mages, or try to kill them. They do die?”
“Gord, you’ve seen the bodies of the Mages I’ve killed on this ship,” Jules said.
“That’s so. I’ll go practice my aim.”
“Don’t drop the weapon,” Jules added as Gord turned to go. “You only have ten shots.”
She’d long known a night could pass very slowly. Those first nights in the orphanage had lasted eternities, as she wondered where her mother had gone. Much later, nights spent on the helm or on watch, as nothing happened for so long it felt as if the world had ceased to move. But this was the longest night of all, adjusting the sails, bringing the Sun Queen and all of the ships guiding on her onto another tack, trying to adjust their progress just right so that as the sun neared dawn and morning twilight began to lighten the dark, the free ships would be in perfect position to pounce on the Imperial sloops.
As the night began to lighten almost imperceptibly, Jules stood on the quarterdeck, her revolver at her hip, extra cartridges in her pockets, her dagger in its sheath in the small of her back and a cutlass riding on her other hip. Her hair, tied back, drifted in the breeze. She looked down at her hand, barely able to make out the strange flower pattern of her Mage lightning scar that began there. Hold on, Ian. We’re on the way to end this fight.
Near her stood Gord, the rifle held tightly in both hands.
Around the edges of the quarterdeck were five of her guards, armor on and swords ready. Five more stood on the main deck. Every sailor on the Sun Queen had a weapon ready to hand except for Keli the healer, his knife intended not for fighting but for trying to save lives.
Jules could barely make out the dark shapes of the ships around the Sun Queen, sails pale against the stars. Lanterns had been put out except for the three at the stern of the Sun Queen, which were now shielded so they could be seen only from astern and the sides. But she knew every other ship was ready as well. Only the sloops had real distance weapons, the single ballista each carried, so everyone knew that this fight would be decided hand to hand on decks that would soon run wet with blood.
“I’m glad that you didn’t go away,” Ang suddenly said, his voice low but easy to hear in the hush covering the sea.
“When was that?” Jules said.
“When you tried to come aboard in Jacksport, saying you had to speak to the cap’n, and I told you to go away. Instead, you insisted on speaking to Cap’n Mak.”
“I’ve brought a lot of trouble to this ship,” Jules said.
“Yes,” Ang said. “You have. But I’m glad that you didn’t go away.”
The sky was definitely growing a little lighter, though the stars still fought for dominance overhead. The partial moon had long since set, the twins racing it themselves near the horizon.
“I can see masts ahead,” Gord whispered.
Jules strained her eyes, seeing straight, dark lines rising against the sky. And then along them, the paler shapes of sails.
The air grew a little lighter.
The free ships had spread out a bit as they approached the harbor, the three pirate sloops off to port of the Sun Queen. Jules heard the sudden thunk of ballistae shooting to port, followed quickly by the crash of a rock striking wood.
She heard faint shouts erupt ahead as the crews of the Imperial sloops awoke to their peril. The crews of the free ships stayed silent, grasping their weapons, waiting.
Another volley of ballistae, followed this time by the sustained cracking of a mast giving way. She hoped that was the mast of an Imperial sloop and not one of her ships.
The light kept growing. One moment she could barely make out the vague shapes of masts and sails, the next she could see ahead three Imperial sloops, crew running about their decks and into the rigging to make more sail. Off to port was the fourth enemy sloop, its mainmast lying across the deck in a ruin of rigging.
Jules jumped up on the railing. “At them!” she shouted as loudly as she could.
A full-throated roar answered her as the sailors shouted their defiance of the Empire that had once ruled unquestioned.
The free ships swept down on the three sloops ahead as they tried to turn away, penning them in and chasing them toward the harbor entrance.
Two free ships came alongside the fourth Imperial sloop, wallowing helplessly with its mainmast down, and the sound of swords clashing carried across the water.
The surprised Imperial sloops were trying to get up more speed, but had been forced to turn away, slowing them and allowing the free ships to sweep around them. Jules saw Storm Rider sliding even with one the sloops ahead, then coming over hard. The sloop got off a ballista shot that passed harmlessly above the Storm Rider’s deck, then the two ships collided with a thump and screech of wood. As the crew of the sloop tried to stave off the Storm Rider, the Bright Morning came in from its other side, smashing side to side into the sloop.
“Get that one!” Jules ordered Ang, pointing to a second sloop ahead that was veering off to avoid the tangle where its comrade was fighting off Storm Rider and Bright Morning. The mass of ships was approaching the harbor mouth, ships swerving to avoid each other and avoid running aground, but Ang took the Sun Queen cleanly through the chaos. Sun Queen rammed into the starboard quarter of the sloop, jarring both ships. As they spun into the waters of the harbor, Star Seeker came from port and hit the sloop as well, crew pouring over the bows of both ships and onto the sloop, cutlasses clashing on Imperial short swords, crossbows shooting at close range.
Jules held herself on the quarterdeck despite a powerful urge to race forward and join the attack. That wasn’t her job this day, at least not yet.
Western Pride, which like the other pirate sloops had bypassed the Imperial sloop whose mast had been knocked down, came in fast on the last Imperial ship. The Imperial warship managed to come about just in time to avoid Western Pride’s dash, but that slowed him so much that Storm Queen, Second Chance, and Moon Chaser surrounded him.
“Here they come!” Liv called, pointing toward the town.
Jules looked, seeing the Imperial galleys casting off from the pier, their oars rising into the air to come down and strike the water. “They didn’t wait to get any of their legionaries back aboard,” she said, grinning viciously. “And in the restricted waters of the harbor, they won’t be able to get up speed to ram.”
She heard the boom of a Mechanic weapon, realizing that it had come from inland. The legionaries ashore, perhaps still unaware of the peril facing their ships, were launching another attack on the wall.
She couldn’t s
pare any attention for worries about Ian. This fight had to be won if he was to live. Jules jumped onto the rail again, waving her cutlass so it caught the light of the sun that had just risen above the cliffs to the east. “The galleys! Get them!”
One of the galleys was racing toward Sun Queen’s starboard side, away from where she was locked to one of the sloops. In the light of the sun’s rays lancing across the harbor, Jules saw a cluster of Mage robes on the galley’s quarterdeck. “Gord! On deck!”
Gord knelt by the rail, resting the rifle on it. The Sun Queen was rocking and twisting a bit, but with so many ships locked together as their crews fought she wasn’t moving much.
The rifle thundered, the sound carrying across the harbor.
One of the Mages fell backwards.
Gord had already worked the lever of the rifle and was aiming again.
Another thunder, but this time nothing could be seen of a hit.
He worked the lever again, shot again.
A second Mage fell as the galley neared the Sun Queen. Jules could only see one other Mage standing on the galley’s quarterdeck.
And the front half of Gord’s rifle disappeared as if it had never been.
He stared at it in shock as the galley’s oars rose straight up to allow it to smash into the Sun Queen.
Jules pulled out her revolver and pointed it at the last Mage, who was still gazing fixedly toward Gord. She aimed, pulled the trigger, aimed, pulled the trigger, and aimed and shot a third time just before the galley slammed into the side of the Sun Queen, rocking everyone on their feet. The last Mage reeled backwards, falling to the deck.
With a collective shout, the oar handlers on the galley grabbed swords and climbed aboard the Sun Queen. With many of her crew already fighting the sloop’s crew forward, the Sun Queen didn’t have a lot of defenders left aft.
Jules’ five guards on the main deck retreated up the ladder to the quarterdeck. Gord had dropped the useless half-rifle and picked up a sword, as did Ang and Liv and Cori, who’d been on the helm. Together with Jules’ other five guards, they formed a shell about Jules, fighting viciously as scores of Imperial sailors from the galley crew swarmed onto the quarterdeck.
Fate of the Free Lands Page 31