“This way.” She turned and led Jules up the stairs to a hallway and door that gave way to a room that must be used by Dor himself in more normal times. The bed had someone lying in it, and a healer Jules didn’t recognize standing by the bed along with someone Jules knew.
“Maeve?” Jules got out, struggling for breath.
Maeve turned to see Jules, and after a moment beckoned to her.
Jules walked to the bed, barely noticing her guards finally arriving and halting in the doorway. She reached the bed and stared down at Ian, whose eyes were closed, his face drawn with pain. A moment of heart-stopping fear eased as she saw his chest was rising and falling. Too shallowly and too slowly, but he was still breathing. “Maeve, tell me true, will he be all right?”
Maeve sighed, exchanging a glance with the other healer. “We owe you honesty, Jules. I don’t know. No one could tell you that. He was badly hurt this morning. Not many would’ve survived this long.”
“But he’s still alive now!”
“Yes,” Maeve said, her voice soothing but not encouraging. “Because he has lived this long, he has a chance. If he lives through the night, he’ll probably recover. But…I have to tell you that his chances of living through the night are less than half.”
“Less than…” Jules paused to breathe, suddenly aware of her dirty, blood-stained clothes and the weapons at her belt. “There’s something I have to do right now. Please stay and witness it, Maeve.” Jules knelt beside Ian’s bed, gently touching one of his hands. “I made a vow and I’m going to keep it. Now before these witnesses I make my promise to this man, to keep him beside me in all things, to remain faithful and never betray him, for all my life and beyond.” She looked at Maeve. “You witnessed it, so it’s legal. Whatever happens, he’s my husband from this moment on.”
“I witnessed it,” Maeve said. “And surely he heard you. If anything will get your Ian through the night, it might be those words. Will you come with us now? There’s nothing else anyone can do.”
“I’m staying here,” Jules said. “Until tomorrow. My fight isn’t over, and neither is his. I won’t leave him while he’s still fighting.”
“Good luck,” Maeve said. She reached to touch Jules’ hand. “But we must go. There are other patients to see.”
“Yes. Go ahead. I’ll be here.” Jules looked to her guards. “One of you please tell the Sun Queen where I am. I’m going to be here until…until morning.” A chair rested near a desk. She pulled it over against the wall next to the bed, and sat down, one hand barely touching Ian’s shoulder. Exhausted as she was, Jules knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep.
* * *
She had no idea how late it was when someone came into the room. Dor’s oldest daughter, still a young child and looking very tired, but also determined. “Captain Jules,” she said, “there are some people who need to talk to you. For just a little while. I’ll stay here with your man as long as you’re gone.”
Knowing she had to at least use a chamber pot, Jules yielded to the request. “I’ll be right back, Ian,” she whispered to him.
Painfully getting to her feet, sore muscles, and bruises, and cuts, and stiffened joints protesting every movement, Jules staggered out the door of the room.
The house’s main room was filled with men and women. She blinked at them in the low light of a few candles, recognizing all of them, but her bleary mind not able to pull up their names. There seemed to be people here from every part of the free lands.
“Captain Jules,” one of the men said. He was from Edin’s Town, and was holding some battered papers. “We know you are engaged in a serious vigil, but if we could have just a few moments of your time.”
“What is it?” Jules asked, brushing her hair back with one hand.
“Your proposal,” one of the women said. She was from Gull’s Haven. “Is this a firm concept for how our settlements can work together?”
“It’s a starting point,” Jules said. “Something to start from, and talk about, and make changes that people want. You’re all here. You’ve seen firsthand what we can do when we work together.”
“Those of us from north of the Strait of Gulls might not want to join ourselves to the places south of the strait,” a man from Cape Astra said. “But we’d still like to use these ideas.”
“It’s not about forcing people,” Jules said. “It’s not about a new Empire out here. It’s about ways to live and work together, and help each other, that will keep these lands free. We won their freedom today. If we’re to keep it, we need to try to have peace among us.”
“You’ll help, though?” a woman from Julesport asked. “If you take charge of meetings to work this out, I think everyone will trust you. You’ve…well, you’ve given us freedom from the Empire, and someday the daughter of your line will give us freedom from the Great Guilds.”
“I’ll help work things out,” Jules said. “As long as everyone understands that I gave you nothing. You earned what you have. And, someday, your descendants will join with the daughter of my line to overthrow the Great Guilds, and they will earn complete freedom for our people at last. No one will give it to us. We will earn it. I’m sorry I can’t stay. I have to get back.”
“But you’ll be here for a while,” Dor said. There he was, sitting in a corner, his injuries obviously wearing on him. “You’ll help us figure it out.”
“If you need me,” Jules said. “Please, I need to get back to Ian.”
* * *
A night could be very long when a life hung balanced on a razor’s edge.
Jules watched him, sometimes talking about things they could do and places they’d go someday. “The western continent. I bet there really is one. Maybe we could go looking for it.”
But mostly she stayed quiet, because he seemed to be sleeping and she didn’t want to disturb his rest.
She watched his face, and the rise and fall of his chest, dreading the moment when it might fall and never rise again.
When it first began to get light outside she refused to believe it, fearing that together they’d get so close to the line and then Ian not cross it with her. But eventually the sky became light enough that it was clear dawn was on its way.
She felt as if her heart stuttered when Ian opened his eyes, looking about, searching, until they rested on her.
“We made it,” Jules said to him. “Good morning, Ian. It’s morning. They said if you made it through the night, you’d be all right. And you did, so you can’t die on me now. Do you understand?”
He didn’t try to speak, but she could see the understanding in his eyes.
Jules blinked her weary eyes at the growing light outside. “We won. Did you know? Did you hear me yesterday? I promised myself to you. When you can speak, you can give me your vow. But we already know, don’t we? I mean, you already said yes.”
His eyes stayed on her as Ian opened his mouth slightly, then closed it. He nodded very slightly, but enough to see, a faint smile slowly forming.
“You need to get well,” Jules said. “It turns out there are still some things I have to do. Difficult things. I’m going to need a good man beside me, and there’s no better man in this world than you. That daughter of my line will probably never give me my life back, but I think the Mages are going to stop trying to kill me. For a while, at least. They know it’s too late to stop the prophecy that way now. So you should be safer from them, too.”
Jules smiled at Ian. “The free lands will remain free of the Empire, until the daughter descended from us frees them from the Great Guilds as well. Why don’t you sleep some more? I’m also going to rest a little. I’m a bit tired, and there are still a few things that need doing.”
Remembering another promise, Jules looked to the west, where his spirit would surely be. “Mak? I got it done. Part of it, anyway. I hope your girl made you proud.”
She fell asleep, her hand on Ian’s shoulder, her head drooping.
Outside, the sun rose on a new day, its light
gradually banishing the stars and chasing the dark from the land.
ALSO BY JACK CAMPBELL
THE PILLARS OF REALITY
The Dragons of Dorcastle*
The Hidden Masters of Marandur*
The Assassins of Altis*
The Pirates of Pacta Servanda*
The Servants of the Storm*
The Wrath of the Great Guilds*
THE LEGACY OF DRAGONS
Daughter of Dragons*
Blood of Dragons*
Destiny of Dragons*
EMPRESS OF THE ENDLESS SEA
Pirate of the Prophecy*
Explorer of the Endless Sea*
Fate of the Free Lands*
THE LOST FLEET
Dauntless
Fearless
Courageous
Valiant
Relentless
Victorious
THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER
Dreadnaught
Invincible
Guardian
Steadfast
Leviathan
THE LOST STARS
Tarnished Knight
Perilous Shield
Imperfect Sword
THE GENESIS FLEET
Vanguard
Ascendant
Triumphant
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Ad Astra*
Borrowed Time*
Swords and Saddles*
STANDALONE NOVELS
The Last Full Measure*
* available as a JABberwocky ebook
THANK YOU FOR READING
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Fate of the Free Lands Page 33