Explorer of the Endless Sea

by Jack Campbell

  Ian slowed his breathing, speaking in an almost calm voice. “The Emperor will want to know your response to his offer.”

  “That’s all?” Jules asked, her voice soft.

  He frowned in puzzlement. “I told you my orders. Deliver that message and get your answer.”

  “Fine.” Perhaps the Emperor had been so certain that she’d accept his offer of marriage and royal rank that Ian hadn’t been given orders for what to do if she said no. “Tell the Emperor he can…” She stopped to think, realizing that there was no need to set this bridge afire behind her when it might offer advantage at some point. “Tell the Emperor that when you found me I’d been badly injured by a Mage attack, and was too weak to consider his offer at this time.”

  “You expect me to lie to the Emperor? Knowing what the cost of that lie could be to me and to my family?”

  Jules narrowed her eyes at Ian but said nothing. Steadying her balance, she reached with her uninjured arm to roll up the other sleeve as far as it would go, exposing the strange fern-like burn streak along the length of that arm. She held it for Ian to see. “That happened yesterday. And it hurts like blazes today. I was injured by a Mage attack.”

  His anger vanished, replaced by shock. “What did that?”

  “Mage lightning.”

  “You…you were struck by Mage lightning?” Ian’s eyes widened again in amazement. “How could you…?”

  “I was lucky,” Jules said, fighting to control her temper over having to discuss it. “That burn, that pattern, goes all the way down my body and my leg. Do you need to inspect its entire length to satisfy you that I was really attacked by Mages yesterday?”

  “No. Jules—”

  “You won’t be lying if you say I was injured by a Mage attack. Tell your Emperor that I’ll think about his offer. It’s what he’ll want to hear, and it makes you still valuable to him.”

  Ian gritted his teeth, looking around the cabin. “That’s it, then?”

  “Does your mission require anything else?” Jules asked, letting her voice go colder, her grip firm on her dagger.

  “No.” He looked about him one more time, finally settling his gaze on Jules. “There was a time when I would’ve brought home a woman raised in a legion orphanage, and told my parents and my sister that they either accepted her and loved her as I did, or else they could bid farewell to both me and her. I would’ve given up everything for that woman.”

  “Fate has spared you that,” Jules said. She wanted to say something else but she wasn’t sure what, as the words stayed locked inside her.

  “Maybe,” Ian said.

  He turned and walked out of the cabin before she could ask what he meant.

  * * *

  Jules waited a short time before following, regaining her composure, seeing when she finally came out on deck that the Imperial longboat was already on its way back to the sloop, the stiff back of Lieutenant Ian still visible in the boat.

  “I’m guessing from your expression that things didn’t go well?” Liv said.

  “He conveyed the Emperor’s offer,” Jules said, her words clipped. “I said no. He left.”

  “Seems like you were having a fairly loud discussion about it,” Liv said. “You know that guy?”

  “I…knew him. An old…friend.”

  “Friend?”

  Jules rounded on her. “I told you what happened! Now lay off, Liv. I lost my mother a long time ago. I don’t need a new one.” Turning to Ang, she gestured up at the masts. “Let’s put on more sail. We’ll head east until we lose sight of them, then head north.”

  “North?” Ang asked.

  “Yes, north! The pickings are too slim here, and too many people are looking for me, for us, in the south. We’re more likely to find some decent prizes to the north.”

  But as she looked in that direction, Jules felt something else awaiting her to the north.

  “Am I allowed to ask why you’re staring that way for so long?” Liv said from nearby.

  Jules jerked herself out of her reverie, turning an apologetic look at Liv. “Would it help if I said I’m sorry?”

  “Try it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Sure you are.” Liv looked north. “What’s there? What’re you spending so much time looking at?”

  “I don’t know,” Jules said. “Just a feeling. There’s something there.”

  “Not more Mages, I hope.”

  The wind shifted again during the day, so the Sun Queen went from a beam reach as she headed north to being close-hauled, the wind off her port bow. But she still made decent progress, the ship’s bow cleaving the waters of the Sea of Bakre, her lookouts alert to any sign of sail that might mark a new quarry. There weren’t any sightings during the day, but Jules kept her confidence as night fell. “In the morning,” she told her crew. “I can feel it. Be ready.”

  Chapter Four

  The morning dawned clear and bright, the rising sun painting the sails of a merchant ship with a golden tint that hopefully foretold a rich haul aboard. Jules raised her fist in triumph as the Sun Queen caught sight of the other ship. “What did I tell you? An easy catch! Let’s get him!”

  The Sun Queen’s crew scrambled to set more sail and swing the ship about into a chase. The merchant ship, as surprised as the pirates, responded slowly, setting more sail gradually as it turned away.

  “They’re making it easy. It might be another trap,” Liv warned.

  “There aren’t many sailors in the rigging!” the lookout called down.

  “Maybe he doesn’t have a full crew,” Jules said. “But he does have people in his rigging, so it’s not like that Mage-haunted ship. Let’s get closer and see if there’s anything else odd about him.”

  The chase was short, the Sun Queen quickly overhauling the other craft. Jules shouted across for them to haul in their sails, and the other ship slowly complied. This close, it was easy to confirm what the lookout had said. The crew seemed to be about half of what a ship that size should have. Aside from that, nothing else seemed odd or dangerous about this encounter.

  Ang brought the Queen alongside, pirates throwing grapnels over the railing of the other ship to lock the two ships together.

  Jules stood atop one railing, facing the other ship, hoping her still-recent burns wouldn’t cause too much trouble. Keli’s salves had done a lot to take the sting out of the burns, but he still wasn’t happy to see her leading the boarding of another ship so soon. “It’s what I’m supposed to do,” Jules had reminded him. Her boots polished and her cutlass gleaming, the Mechanic revolver at her hip, she did her best to intimidate the other crew so there wouldn’t be any ill-advised resistance.

  As the ships touched, Jules jumped across along with a dozen of her sailors.

  The jar of her feet landing seemed to roll in a throb of pain up her leg and side, but she clenched her teeth and stood straight, eyeing the frightened sailors on the ship.

  One man, dressed in better clothing than the others, including a worn but still serviceable pair of boots, walked slowly toward her, his empty hands held out. “I’m Aravind of Dunlan, captain of the Prosper. I yield my ship to you.”

  “Get your entire crew lined up,” Jules directed. “If no one gives us trouble, none of you will be harmed, on my word. What are you carrying?”

  “A mixed cargo,” Captain Aravind said, his voice and body conveying the resignation of a man who knew he had no choice. “Mostly lumber. I have the manifests in my cabin.” He looked around. “Get everyone lined up against that railing!” he called to one of his crew. “Their captain promises no harm to us!”

  “Help the captain retrieve his cargo manifests,” Jules told Gord. Until the ship had been searched, it would be foolish for her to go inside the cabin or below decks.

  Gord smiled and gestured with mock politeness to Captain Aravind, who led the way toward the stern cabin.

  Jules waited, impatient, watching the five sailors who apparently made up the entire crew form
a nervous line. “Is that all of you?”

  The sailors looked at each other. “Ron’s not here,” one said. “He was up earlier, helping with the sails.”

  Was the missing man hiding in terror, or up to something else? “Liv! Take a half-dozen of our people and help a couple of these sailors find Ron.”

  The captain came back with the cargo manifests as the group went off to search the ship.

  Jules only glanced at the manifests. “Why do you have such a small crew, Captain Aravind?”

  He looked toward the small group of sailors. “I could only afford to pay this many.” His gaze turned bitter as it switched back to Jules. “We were hit by pirates on my last voyage as well. They took a lot. I was able to sell the cargo that remained to me, but that left only enough for purchasing a new cargo.”

  “You’d have been in trouble if you’d run into rough weather,” Jules commented.

  “I had no choice,” Captain Aravind said.

  A commotion at the ladder leading up from the cargo hold drew everyone’s attention. Jules saw her sailors hauling along a man who seemed to be fighting for his life.

  As they got closer, she recognized him.

  The sun seemed to dim, and coldness filled her.

  “Stop fighting them, you fool!” Aravind told the captive. “They promised not to harm anyone if we didn’t fight!”

  “This is a special case,” Jules said, her voice low.

  Captain Aravind gave her a startled look, his eyes filling with fear as he looked at her.

  Jules stepped forward as the captive was hauled to a stop, one of her sailors holding him firmly on each side. He stared back at her, breathing rapidly.

  “Not Ron,” Jules said. “No. His name is Don. How have things been, Don?”

  He didn’t answer, staring at her as if seeing death coming for him.

  Which, Jules thought, was pretty much true.

  “You don’t have anything to say, Don? No words for your old shipmates?” Jules asked. “You left the ship without even saying goodbye, and now you’ve nothing to say to us? I haven’t seen you since just before the ship pulled into Jacksport that time. Remember, Don? I was hiding along the coast and the Imperials came for me, just like they knew exactly where to find me. How do you suppose that happened?”

  Don looked about, his panicky gaze flicking from one sailor to another. “I demand trial by the crew! That’s my right!”

  Liv answered, her voice heavy with contempt. “Trial by crew is the right of members of the crew. You lost that right when you left the ship.”

  “I did nothing!”

  “Nothing?” Gord spat at him. “The last time we saw you, you had a lot of gold for someone who’d done nothing.”

  “You sold out a shipmate for money!” Kyle shouted.

  “I was trying to save you!” Don cried, sweat running down his face. “She’s death! You know it! If the Great Guilds don’t kill you, the Emperor will! I was trying to get her off the ship so you’d be safe!”

  “That’d be the first time you made much of an effort for anyone else in the crew,” Liv said. “You were always most concerned for yourself.”

  “That’s right!” Gord yelled. “And the legionaries could’ve come after us after you told them we were her shipmates! They could’ve killed us all to make sure no help would come to her.” He raised his cutlass. “By rights, any of us could make you pay for that.”

  “His crime was first against Jules,” Liv said. “It’s her choice and her right to decide his fate.”

  Don, his eyes searching everyone else in vain for any sign of support, finally looked back at Jules, his eyes wide with terror.

  “Have you got anything else to say, Don?” Jules asked, her voice low and calm. She wasn’t feeling anything inside except the cold that filled her.

  “Mercy!”

  “You know me, Don. I show people the same mercy that they’ve shown others.” Jules drew her dagger, sensing the stillness on deck as all eyes stayed on her, waiting with dread or anticipation for her to render the killing stroke.

  But instead of a stab to the heart, she pulled one of Don’s arms out from the grip of the sailor holding it. “I’m always fair, Don. I won’t kill you straight off, because I was able to get away when you betrayed me and your other shipmates. It was hard, though. Very hard. So I’m going to give you a chance to get away, too. But it won’t be easy. The Sharr Islands are west of here, some ways over the horizon. It’s a long swim, but a strong enough sailor could make it, I think.”

  Jules drew the point of her dagger down along Don’s arm, drawing a grunt of pain from him, the cut immediately welling blood.

  “But, since you also made it easy for the Imperials to find me, I’m going to make it easier for the sharks to find you.” Jules cut another long line down Don’s other arm. “Have a nice swim.”

  Don fought furiously as the sailors holding him hauled him to the railing. “No! Please!”

  The sailors mercilessly pushed Don onto the top of the rail, pausing as Jules walked up to them. At her gesture, they let go of him. “Goodbye, Don.” She jabbed with her dagger, and as Don flinched back he overbalanced, falling with a despairing scream that ended with the sound of a splash.

  Jules wiped clean the blade of her dagger and turned back to see Captain Aravind gazing back at her with almost as much fear as Don had shown.

  But he stepped toward her despite the warning cutlass that Liv raised. “On your word, none of us were to be harmed.”

  “On my word if you gave us no trouble. He fought,” Jules said.

  Aravind glanced at his remaining crew, then back at Jules. “If you mean to do the same for all of us, I beg that you take out your wrath on me, and spare the rest.” He had to swallow before being able to say more. “Take…my life…and spare my crew.”

  Jules shook her head as she looked at the captain, feeling the cold begin to leave her. “Why would I harm any of the rest of you? Have you done me wrong?”

  “Not that I know.”

  “He,” Jules said, pointing toward the railing where Don had briefly sat, “betrayed me and the rest of his shipmates. He earned his fate. You, Captain, have just earned my respect. I wish only to know if you were aware of his true name.”

  “No,” Aravind said. “He came aboard as Ron of Centin. He agreed to work for his passage rather than as formally part of the crew because I couldn’t pay him. He said he needed to get to Landfall.”

  “Then you are blameless in this.” Jules looked toward Liv. “Anyone else aboard?”

  “No,” she said, her eyes studying Jules.

  “Then let’s go over those manifests,” Jules told Aravind, leading the way to the stern cabin.

  The cabin was sparsely furnished, supporting Aravind’s claim of hard times on the badly-named Prosper. He brought out the ship’s money chest, opened it, and showed the contents to her.

  There wasn’t much to see. “You have no other money on the ship?”

  He reached into a pocket and dropped a single silver coin into the money chest. “Some of the crew might have a little, their own personal funds.”

  “I see. Why didn’t the owner of the ship help you out?”

  “I am the owner of this ship,” Captain Aravind said, his gaze on her both proud and defiant.

  She paused to think about that, looking once more at the meager amount in the money chest. “You’ll not be the owner for much longer if this chest is any measure. This isn’t enough to pay the bribes the Imperial inspectors at Landfall will demand.”

  “I…was hoping to make an arrangement with them.”

  “That’s a false hope. Imperial customs officials have small hearts with no room for mercy, and large wallets that need to be filled,” Jules said. “Show me your manifests.”

  The Prosper’s cargo was a mixed lot indeed, though mostly lumber as the captain had said. “I’m guessing this is best you could afford to buy.”

  “That’s right. Lumber is cheap in
the Sharr Isles as they clear land for new buildings and fields.”

  “None of this cargo will fetch high returns in Landfall. You’ll be lucky to clear expenses even if the customs officers forgo their bribes.” Jules tapped the manifests, thinking. Perhaps she could solve more than one problem here. “I know somewhere you can get much greater return for it.”

  “Where?” Captain Aravind asked, watching her warily.

  “Have you heard of the place to the west where Dor is building a new settlement on the south coast?”

  “Not much. Just rumors. That’s…an illegal settlement, isn’t it?”

  “In the Emperor’s eyes,” Jules said. She reached out and closed the money chest. “You still need this to pay your crew.”

  “I don’t understand,” he replied, staring at her.

  “There are too few decent men in this world,” Jules said. “Let me offer you a deal, Captain Aravind. There’s not much profit on this ship for my crew, even if we stripped you bare. Lumber from the Sharr Isles is too heavy and too bulky to make good trade for us. But…” She pointed west. “That lumber would be very welcome at Dor’s settlement. Here’s the deal. You take your ship to Dor’s, sell the lumber there along with all else you have, because out there all of these things are needed and are in short supply. When we meet again, you pay this ship two tenths of what you profit from the sale.”

  “Two tenths?” Aravind shook his head in disbelief. “That would still leave me in much better shape than I am now, if what you say of Dor’s settlement is true. You could take everything if you wanted.”

  “I could. Would you work for me, Captain?”

  “For you?” He took a deep breath. “I heard you called Jules.”

  “That’s my name.”

  “You’re…” Aravind saw her tense and wisely changed the subject, shaking his head again. “Lady Pirate, sailing that far west with such a small crew would be very risky.”