Explorer of the Endless Sea

by Jack Campbell

  “How very generous,” Jules said.

  Ian shot her an angry look before continuing. “Your abilities and accomplishments have been brought to my attention. The Empire would benefit greatly from assigning you a position equal to your skills in command and strategy. Should you agree, you will be promoted to…” He inhaled sharply, staring at the letter.

  “Promoted to what?” Jules said.

  He looked at her, his eyes wide. “Promoted to General of the Legions, second only to the Emperor in military authority within the Empire.”

  She stared back for a moment before laughing again. “General of the Legions? Me? Spawn of a legion orphan home? And a pirate. I’m sure the legions would love that! Think of what the centurions would say! How about you, Lieutenant Ian? How’d you like me to be your boss?”

  “You’re joking about this?”

  “Yeah. So what else is there?”

  After a heavy breath, Ian continued. “All of this contingent only upon your agreement to accept my promise in full marriage, as First Consort to the Imperial throne. Our children will be first in direct line to the Imperial throne when my reign comes to an end.”

  “Wow,” Jules commented. “First Consort and General of the Legions and a full pardon. And all I have to do is lie there while the Emperor does his business on my body, and then pump out the children when they arrive.”

  Ian finally cracked under her prodding. “Blazes, Jules! How can you talk like that?”

  “How?” She finally took a step away from the stern windows and toward him, her jaw tight with tension, her side aflame from the burn. “Just how many nightmares do you think I’ve had since that prophecy was spoken to me? How many times do you think I’ve had to wonder how short my life might be, and what some man like the Emperor might do to me before I died?”

  Ian closed his eyes, clearly struggling to regain control. “I’m…sorry.”

  “Thanks. Give me that.”

  He handed over the letter. She read through it quickly, seeing the fine script that was surely the work of a court scribe rather than the Emperor himself, feeling her anger rising again. What kind of man sent a profession of avowed love that had been written out by someone else? And how stupid did the people who’d worded this letter think she was? “I wonder what the Mages would think if they knew about this offer?”

  “There’s no way they should be aware of it. Even I didn’t know the contents of that letter,” Ian said. “And I was carrying it.”

  “Oh?” She let the single word hang for a moment. “And what methods do Mages have for learning the secrets we keep? Do you know? Because I sure as blazes don’t! They’ve repeatedly shown the ability to know my movements in advance. What else do they know?” Jules shook the letter at him. “My children, heirs to the Empire? The Mages would love that, wouldn’t they?”

  “I’m sure the Emperor intends to protect you, and them, from the Mages.”

  “How?”

  Ian hesitated again.

  “And what about the Mechanics? Their Guild wants me dead, too, or hasn’t word of that reached the Emperor’s ears? The Great Guilds want me dead, and my line cut short. They’ll kill any child I have to try to ensure that the prophecy never comes to pass. How does the Emperor intend standing up to the Great Guilds?”

  “Jules, I don’t know the answer to that.”

  “Yes, you do!” she almost shouted, throwing the letter onto the table. “He can’t stand against them! No one can! Which means he’ll keep our so-called wedding secret, and any royal heirs I produce secret. Maybe he intends tossing me to the Mages after I’ve spawned enough royal babies! Or would he just wait until I’d had three or four kids and then finish me off himself to be sure I wouldn’t have children with any other man?”

  Ian glared at her. “What do you want from me?”

  “Stop being a loyal servant of the Emperor!”

  He straightened, his hair brushing the wooden planks of the cabin’s overhead. “I let you go at Jacksport! I could’ve won great reward by holding you and turning you in. And if it had been suspected that I’d let you go, the punishment would’ve been such that death would’ve been a welcome relief. You know that! Don’t accuse me of betraying you when I put my life on the line to give you a chance to escape!”

  Jules breathed in and out slowly, remembering that night. Finally, she nodded. “Fair enough. I owe you that. You took a huge risk for me.” She ran one hand through her hair. “Doesn’t this bother you? Bringing me this offer?”

  “I wasn’t given an option on whether or not to do it,” Ian said, his own voice calmer as well.

  “Why’d they pick you?”

  His expression grew dark. “Because it was known among our fellow trainees that I was interested in you, and that you might be interested in me. That we were at least friends. You know there were rumors that we were more than that.”

  “I remember,” Jules said. A sudden thought troubled her. “Those rumors said you and I were lovers.”

  “Yes.” He glared at the deck. “I had to swear as convincingly as possible that the two of us had never even kissed. Which I was able to do because it was true. If there had been any evidence that we’d ever slept together, my life would’ve been cut even shorter than yours might be.”

  “I saved your life by rejecting your advances?”

  “So it seems.” Ian studied her. “Jules, you said no one could stand against the Great Guilds. I’d have agreed with you if you’d said that a year ago. But not now. Do you know what people are saying about you? About how you’ve killed Mages? And battled Mechanics?” He looked at the revolver Jules wore in her holster. “That weapon. You’re the first common person to ever have one, to ever use one. Jules, they even say you fought a Mage dragon and lived to tell the tale!”

  “Barely,” Jules said.

  Ian frowned at her in puzzlement. “Barely what?”

  “I barely lived to tell the tale,” she explained.

  His jaw fell open. “You…it’s true?”

  “There was a dragon, and it was after me, and I did fight it,” Jules said. “Not very successfully. But, fortunately, it couldn’t swim, so I got away.”

  “Is a dragon as bad as they say?”

  Jules couldn’t quite suppress a shudder at her memories of the encounter. “They’re pretty bad. I don’t want to tangle with one again.”

  Ian shook his head in admiration that embarrassed her. “Have you really killed Mages?”

  “Yes,” Jules said, feeling uncomfortable to be telling Ian, as if she were boasting to impress him. “Three for certain. Maybe a couple more.”

  “What about Mechanics?”

  “Have I killed any Mechanics? No. Not yet, anyway.”

  He gave her another close look. “Some say you’re an ally of the Mechanics, helping them.”

  Jules grinned. “That’s what the Mechanics thought. That’s how I got this,” she added, tapping the revolver with one finger. She let the smile fade. “But then I spoke my mind to some of them, and as a result at the moment the Mechanics want my hide on the wall just as much as the Mages do.”

  Ian shook his head just as he had when they were trainees together. “How many times did I warn you about speaking your mind?”

  “It’s who I am. You used to like that.”

  “I still do.”

  “Then why did you accept the job of bringing me this offer?”

  Ian sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand in a habit she recognized. “I wasn’t given the option,” he said again.

  “There are ways to avoid assignments,” Jules said. “You told me some of them.”

  He looked straight at her. “Not this kind of assignment. The general who gave me the orders took time to ask how my family was. And to express hope that nothing unpleasant would happen to any of them.”

  Shocked, Jules couldn’t speak for a moment, the cabin silent except for the occasional groan of wood as the ship rode the waves and the hull flexed
. “They threatened your family?”

  He gave her his old, crooked smile. “Oh, nothing so crude and open as a threat. Just an expressed concern for the welfare of my parents and my sister.”

  Jules rubbed her face, feeling awful. “Because of me. Can they get out of Marandur? Move somewhere else where they aren’t so close to the Imperial court?”

  “Nowhere in the Empire would be safe, even if they were allowed to move. They know the eyes of the Imperial court are on them.”

  She stared at Ian. “They know?”

  Ian shrugged. “Of course. One of their high-level so-called friends conveyed the concerns of the court for their safety.”

  “Because of me,” Jules repeated. “Your sister already hated me.”

  “My sister looked down on you,” Ian said. “Now she hates you. But she also recognizes the opportunity you present for the family to gain the good graces of the Emperor. If I convinced you to take the offer, the Emperor’s gratitude would include my family.”

  “Blazes.” Jules, feeling weak from her injury, managed a couple of normal steps to one of the chairs and sat down carefully, waving Ian to the other. “Take a seat. As bad as I feel about this mess you’re in, I hope you understand I can’t accept the Emperor’s offer.”

  Ian remained standing, looking troubled. “Jules…”

  “Do not offer me a reasonable compromise,” she warned him. “You always do that, thinking there’s some middle ground that’ll make everybody happy.”

  “But the way things are… All right. I admit no one else could have survived as long as you did. But the only power on Dematr with any chance of protecting your children from the Great Guilds is the Emperor.”

  “You want me to take this offer?” she asked, not certain that she’d heard right.

  “I don’t want you to!” Ian’s face worked with unreadable emotions. “But to keep you alive, to keep your children alive—”

  “My children? Wasn’t there a time when you hoped they’d be our children?”

  Ian looked down. “You never had any interest in that happening.”

  “I didn’t say I never would have.”

  His surprised gaze rested on her. “That’s impossible now.”

  She shook her head, feeling the cold inside that filled her when she had to make a hard choice. “I decide what’s possible. I’m the only one who gets to decide who the father of my children will be. No one else does. Not the Emperor. And not you.”

  “The man has a say in whether he wants to father your children!”

  “That’s so. But only if I decide the same.” Jules drew her dagger and tapped the blade lightly on the table to emphasize her words. “My life was taken from me by that prophecy. I’m taking it back. And part of that is reserving to myself the decision of who will partner with me to begin my line. I will not be coerced into deciding who that is.”

  Ian gave her a look that mingled anger, frustration, and worry. “The Emperor is giving you a choice.”

  “When there’s only one option given, that’s not really a choice.” She leaned back in the chair, eyeing him. “I’m truly sorry that your family is in danger because of me. There are places outside the Empire that they could go.”

  “Outside the Empire?” Ian gusted a small, sarcastic laugh. “My mother and my sister in a place like Jacksport? Mud and raw wooden buildings and rough food? No. They love being near the Imperial court and all the diversions that Marandur has to offer. And…” He spread his hands. “They trust the Emperor.”

  “After they were threatened,” Jules said.

  “Not by the Emperor,” Ian replied. “By one of his functionaries. Surely, if the Emperor knew, he wouldn’t permit such a thing. That’s almost word for word what my mother told me. My father served in the legions. He can’t even conceive of being disloyal to the Emperor. Meanwhile, my sister dreams of catching the eye of a prince, with the possibility of someday ascending to the role the Emperor has offered you in that letter.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jules said.

  He rubbed his forehead in rough, sharp motions. “You’re sorry. Thank you for that. But the fact remains that my family faces danger that didn’t exist a year ago. As do I. And so do you. Especially you.”

  “Ian, you could disappear. If the Empire thought you were dead, your family would be safe.”

  “Disappear to where?”

  She took a deep breath, realizing how much she hoped Ian would take this offer. “Here. This ship. Or the ships of some friends of mine. If you use a different name, no one could ever—”

  “No, Jules.” Ian broke into her words as if it pained him to hear them. “That’s not possible. If any hint that I was still alive got back to the Empire, my family would pay a terrible price. I want to protect them by doing my best to carry out the Emperor’s wishes.”

  “The Emperor will throw you away the moment he has no more use for you! I’m giving you an alternative,” Jules said, trying not to sound disappointed.

  “It wouldn’t work. It’s too dangerous. The only possible alternative that might ensure the safety of everyone is if you seriously consider the Emperor’s offer.”

  “No,” Jules said, feeling defensive. “None of that is my fault. I didn’t ask for this.”

  “If you don’t care enough about the fates of yourself or me or my family, then what about the crew of this ship?” Ian waved to encompass the area outside the cabin.

  “Are you threatening my crew?” Jules demanded, thinking she must not have heard right. Suddenly, Ian’s Imperial uniform seemed not just out of place in this cabin, but menacing.

  Ian hesitated, startled. “No. I’m just pointing out what might happen if—”

  “Just like that general who expressed concern for your family?” Jules asked, angry again. “Don’t play dumb and virtuous. And don’t threaten my crew.”

  He gave her a look of outraged innocence. “I’m not threatening to do anything. But your presence endangers them. You know it.”

  “I said don’t.”

  He glowered at her. “If I know you at all, I know you care about their fates.”

  She stood up, ignoring the flare of pain down her side, matching Ian’s glare with her own. “They voted me captain knowing the risks! They chose to share this fate with me! Unlike some I could name!”

  “They—” His initial flare of anger went out as Ian stared at her, confused. “Voted? What’s ‘voted’?”

  “Each of them had a choice of who to back for captain, and they all chose me.”

  “But…you’re the captain!”

  “As long as they want me to be captain. They can call another vote and remove me, then vote for someone else.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “No,” Jules said. “That’s freedom.”

  “You can’t run a ship that way!” Ian protested.

  “Can’t we?” Leaning one hand on the table to steady herself, she used the other to make a wide wave encompassing the sea outside. “There are a lot of pirate ships being run that way. Quite successfully, too. And places like Jacksport and Kelsi’s are trying it to run their towns. I think it can work to run cities. A lot of cities. Let the people decide who’s in charge and what the laws should be. Let everyone have a voice in that.”

  “Have you gone insane? Without the firm hand of an emperor or an empress there’d be anarchy! There’s always been an emperor or an empress, and nothing else. That’s the only form of government that has ever existed.”

  “Why is that the only type of government in the world?” Jules asked. “And why hasn’t anything else been tried? Is it because the Great Guilds haven’t permitted it?”

  “It’s because the people can’t decide for themselves what the laws should be!” Ian shook his head like someone trying to wake from a bad dream. “And where would these cities be? Ramshackle settlements like Jacksport? All the land that can support big cities is already part of the Empire.”

  Jules shook her head as well. “T
hat’s not true. Explorers have gone past the Northern Ramparts through a pass and found good lands beyond.”

  “They must have lied. Those are wastelands.”

  “And I think,” Jules said, “that there are good lands to the west and the south as well.”

  “What? Like the Bleak Coast?”

  “No! Beyond that! Mak believed those lands exist and I mean to prove it!”

  “Mak?” Ian paused, looking at her.

  Jules felt her face warming, realizing how fervently she’d spoken of Mak. “The former captain of this ship.”

  “Oh.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing,” Ian said, his face tightening with renewed anger.

  She knew what he thought, knew she should explain, and knew she never would explain if someone else demanded it of her and expected the worst of her. And her side hurt like blazes, the burn seeming to draw strength and patience from her with every throb of pain. “Spit it out, Ian.”

  “Fine! You owe me an explanation, Jules!”

  “I don’t owe you anything! I don’t owe anyone anything!”

  “That’s nice for you!” Ian said, his voice hot. “I have responsibilities.”

  “You have responsibilities? You have responsibilities?” She waved one hand to indicate everything outside the cabin. “Every time I scratch my stomach the entire world pauses to see if I’m looking any bigger! Do you want to swap responsibilities, Ian?”

  “You always—” Ian bit off the words, glaring at her. “Is that how you want this to end?”

  Jules drew herself up stiffly, one hand on the dagger where it rested on the table, knowing that she’d taken it too far but refusing to back down. “Yes. I think it’s time you left, Lieutenant.”

  The muscles along his jaw stood out as Ian breathed harshly like someone struggling internally. Jules shifted her grip on her dagger, wondering what orders Ian might have been given to carry out if the offer was rejected. Would he try to carry out orders like that? Against her?

  She wished she could dismiss her worries. But who could she trust anymore? And Ian had already made it clear that his family’s safety rested on him doing what the Emperor demanded. Jules unobtrusively readied her dagger, knowing she couldn’t risk trying to disable Ian. If he attacked, she’d have to kill him with her first strike.