Explorer of the Endless Sea

by Jack Campbell

  “Thanks,” Jules said.

  “Oh, not you,” Liv said. “Probably that fool Keli again. He said something against her, mark my words, and the sea is having its fun with us because of it.”

  Keli, walking past not far away, heard. “This isn’t my doing. Not everything is my fault, woman!”

  Through the rest of the day and the night the Sun Queen rested on the eerily peaceful waters while her crew grew ever more restless. As dawn approached on the next morning, though, a breeze finally began to whisper through the rigging. Slowly growing in strength, it teased at the hopes of the sailors until the wind grew strong enough to cause the sails to flap with a noise that seemed thunderous after the quiet of the day and night before.

  Normally, rousing the crew during morning twilight would produce a rumbling chorus of complaints, but this time the sailors swarmed happily to the lines. Her canvas finally filling, the Sun Queen began slowing gaining way, tacking once more to the north as the sun rose into view to paint the sails with golden highlights.

  The moment of glorious relief shattered almost as soon as it began.

  “Something coming up from the south!” the lookout called just as Jules began to relax. “A cloud or…I think it’s one of them Mechanic ships!”

  “Blazes,” Jules murmured, looking up to the sails. They were still scarcely filling, the Sun Queen barely maintaining steerageway. Outrunning a Mechanic ship was nearly impossible at the best of times, requiring strong winds, shallow waters to cut through, islands to hide behind, and bad weather to disappear into. Right now, with the smooth sea offering no hint of shelter and the winds still soft, there wasn’t any hope at all. “They’re after me.”

  “We’ll fight, Cap’n,” Ang said.

  “I know you would. All of you. But it’s hopeless. You’ve seen the big Mechanic weapons on the front of their ships. I don’t want any of you dying for no reason. Keep us on this course. I’m going to get straightened up. When they get closer, if they make it clear they’re in search of us, we’ll put the longboat in the water and I’ll go see them in person.”

  “It’ll be death this time,” Liv said in a despairing voice.

  “That’s what you thought last time,” Jules said. “I made it back that time, and I’ll make it back this time.” She hoped that she at least sounded confident, because she certainly didn’t feel that way.

  She went down to her cabin, knowing that the Mechanic ship could close on the Sun Queen with amazing swiftness compared to the sailing ships of the common people. Wasting no time, she quickly scrubbed her hair and herself, then put on her best shirt and trousers. Her boots got a quick buffing that couldn’t make any impact on the scar down one of them where the Mage lighting had found its path. Jules strapped on the Mechanic revolver, knowing the Mechanics would expect to see it and would take apart the Sun Queen if they didn’t.

  Once back on deck, Jules could see the hull of the oncoming Mechanic ship clearly now, its gray sides gleaming in the light of the morning sun. It had altered course and was clearly heading for an intercept of the Sun Queen.

  “No bearing drift at all,” Ang said in a gloomy voice. “He’s coming right for us.”

  Jules nodded. “Slack the sails and put the longboat in the water.”

  No one argued, though she could tell they wanted to.

  The Mechanic ship was drawing close as Jules stood on the quarterdeck and waved toward it before heading down to the main deck and the ladder down to the longboat. She tried not to look as tense as she felt, waiting each moment to hear the boom of the Mechanic ship’s big weapon as it opened fire on the Sun Queen. As loud as the Mechanic revolver was, how loud would that much bigger weapon be? And how much damage would it do?

  But the roar of thunder she dreaded didn’t fill the air. The Sun Queen was barely making steerageway with her sails slacked as the Mechanic ship came close, gliding along, the bone in its teeth of a big white bow wave diminishing as the Mechanics effortlessly matched the course and sluggish speed of the pirate ship.

  “Let’s go,” she told the sailors at the oars of the longboat.

  “Captain—” Gord began, looking desperate.

  “Let’s go,” Jules repeated. “If you have any faith in me, have it now.”

  The oars hit the water and the longboat began moving toward the Mechanic vessel. Jules sat in the bow, watching the big ship grow steadily bigger as she got closer to it, its metal sides seeming impossibly strong compared to the wood of common ships.

  For a moment her mind wandered, thinking of how easily the Mechanic ship had caught the Sun Queen, and how powerful it was. And the Mechanics Guild had more than one such ship. The Mechanics could have easily swept every pirate ship from the sea if they wanted to. For whatever reason, they’d allowed the pirates to not only exist but to grow in number.

  But those thoughts only distracted her for a moment. She tried to maintain her poise despite panic that threatened to burst out inside her. She had no way out of this except whatever wit she could bring to bear. If the Mechanics aboard this ship even bothered to speak to her before they killed her.

  She saw a rope ladder dropping down the side of the Mechanic ship. They’d let her board the ship, at least.

  The longboat came gracefully alongside, Jules feeling a moment of pride for how well her sailors maneuvered the small craft to touch the Mechanic ship as gently as a mother touching her baby.

  “Good luck, Captain,” Marta called as Jules stood to grasp the ladder.

  Jules went up hand over hand, remembering the last time she’d boarded a Mechanic ship. She’d been barefoot then, instead of wearing boots, and part of her wished she was still finding purchase with her feet rather than the slicker soles of her boots. But at least this time she wouldn’t feel quite so underdressed compared to the Mechanics.

  Reaching the top, she climbed onto the metal deck, the metal sides of the ship’s structure rising above her. Several Mechanics waited, three of them pointing the long weapons they called rifles at her. Many other Mechanics stood farther down the deck or higher up, gazing at Jules with curiosity or malice or disdain and sometimes a mix of all three.

  One of the Mechanics, a hard-eyed woman, pointed to Jules’ holster and gestured soundlessly. Moving slowly and carefully, Jules drew out the revolver and handed it to the woman.

  Only when she had a good grip on the revolver did the female Mechanic speak. “Did you come to beg for your life?”

  “Not for mine,” Jules said. “But the crew of that ship have done no wrong to your Guild. I ask that they be allowed to leave in peace.”

  “We should make her crawl,” one of the Mechanics said, lifting his rifle.

  The woman ignored him. “The fate of that crew is up to you. Follow me.”

  Jules wondered if this was the same Mechanic ship that she’d been on before as she followed her guide through a metal hatch into the housing of the ship. Inside, the passages were as she remembered, walls and decks and overheads of metal, glass-covered light fixtures that glowed with the very bright and very steady radiance which felt unnatural compared to the healthy flames of candles and lanterns, and a low droning sound which seemed to come from everywhere. Maybe all of the Mechanic ships were the same inside, just as they were on the outside.

  Jules followed partway down a passage, her guide then taking a turn deeper into the ship, then another that might lead forward. The similar passages and uniform metal fixtures and surroundings made it easy to get disoriented, even though her guide seemed to have no trouble finding her way around. Perhaps some of the numbers and lettering Jules spotted on the walls were addresses or directions.

  She glanced back once, seeing the other Mechanics following, those with the weapons holding them more casually but still at the ready.

  Had any other common people walked here before her? And what had happened to them after?

  They finally stopped before a door that was made of wood. It didn’t resemble anything Jules remembered from th
e other Mechanic ship she’d been on, so either this was a different ship or they’d brought her to a different place inside it. At least the fine-looking door didn’t seem like that of a prison.

  Her guard opened the door, then stood aside, gesturing for Jules to go in. Nerving herself and trying to calm her heart’s urge to race, Jules stepped through the opening.

  Inside, the room was lined with wood: paneling on the walls, polished planks on the deck, even light wooden panels in the overhead. Instead of being inside a ship, it might have been a fine room at the home of a wealthy person in Marandur. Although not even the wealthiest there had Mechanic lights glowing inside glass domes. Paintings of landscapes and seascapes were fastened to the walls, and a large, wooden desk was fixed firmly to the floor near one side of the room, heavy wooden chairs with fine upholstery set around it.

  Three Mechanics waited in the room, lounging in their chairs on the other side of the large desk like Imperial princes secure in their position and superiority. No, the Mechanics would resent being compared to princes. To the Mechanics, Imperial princes were just as inferior as other commons.

  The woman Mechanic who’d guided Jules set the revolver on the desk before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

  Jules recognized the older man in the middle, the “Senior Mechanic” she’d last seen at Caer Lyn in the Sharr Isles. To one side of him was another male Mechanic, younger, but thankfully not the thuggish one who’d accompanied the Senior Mechanic during that last visit.

  She barely kept from reacting when she recognized the third Mechanic, a woman of early middle age who gazed at Jules intently.

  Mak’s daughter. Taken from him when she was a little girl, raised as a Mechanic, somehow turned against her father as well as other commons. Jules had met her briefly in Caer Lyn months ago.

  Jules stayed wary as she walked to stand in front of the table. She’d already learned that she couldn’t count on any womanly solidarity from female Mechanics, and male Mechanics only seemed to see her in terms of whatever they wanted.

  The Mechanics didn’t offer her a seat, so Jules kept standing as if unaware of the discourtesy. The younger male Mechanic showed a slightly contemptuous smile as he gazed off to the side, as if Jules wasn’t worthy of his attention. The female Mechanic, Mak’s daughter, kept her eyes on Jules, but with a guarded expression as if afraid to reveal anything. The older Senior Mechanic, though, sat watching her with a keen gaze, as if he were trying to see her thoughts. But Jules had long experience with hiding her feelings, and kept her expression as unrevealing as possible.

  “There are many Mechanics who think you should be killed,” the Senior Mechanic finally said. He paused, plainly waiting for her reaction.

  Jules knew she could mock them, or play to their egos. Since they apparently weren’t going to kill her right away, she decided it might be wiser to try the second approach first. “Why am I still alive, Sir Senior Mechanic?”

  “Perhaps because you’re smart enough to remember my proper title,” he said. “Or perhaps because you represent an intriguing puzzle. By all rights, you should have died long ago. Or been imprisoned. Yet you remain free. Either you’re exceptionally lucky, or there’s a lot to you that isn’t apparent from your status as a common person.” The Senior Mechanic paused to gaze at her again. “Most importantly, you recently impressed the right people. That’s why you and your ship haven’t already been used for target practice.”

  “The Mages recently rather smugly let us know that they’d killed you,” Mak’s daughter said. Verona, Jules remembered. That was her name. “Why did they tell us that?”

  “Because the Mages thought they had killed me, Lady Mechanic,” Jules said.

  “Why?”

  She hesitated, deciding that the truth would be better than attempting a lie. She had no idea how much Mechanics knew about how Mages behaved. “I was hit by lightning from a Mage. I went down, and they assumed they’d killed me.”

  The younger male Mechanic laughed. “She doesn’t even try to make her lies believable.”

  “Lightning?” Mechanic Verona asked, her eyes searching Jules. “Where did it supposedly hit you?”

  Jules rolled up her shirt sleeve and showed them the scar. “It struck the cutlass I was holding and went down my side and into the deck of the ship. That’s what we think happened.”

  “Come here,” the Senior Mechanic ordered, grabbing Jules’ arm when she stepped closer. He looked over the scar carefully. “That’s not a fake. It’s the result of a high-voltage burn.”

  “But that pattern…” Mechanic Verona said.

  “It could be a tattoo,” the younger Mechanic objected.

  “How would they know what the tattoo should look like?” the Senior Mechanic demanded. “This is consistent with lightning striking a human body.” He glared at Jules. “You said it went down your side?”

  “Yes, Sir Senior Mechanic,” Jules said, trying to sound calm and hold still when she wanted to yank her arm out of the man’s grasp. “I was wet on that side. Seawater. That might’ve had something to do with it.”

  “Water,” Verona said as if Jules had just explained the inexplicable. “The electrical charge ran down the conductor and grounded into the ship and the sea. Talk about dumb luck.”

  “The lightning must’ve come from the sky,” the senior mechanic said, finally releasing Jules’ arm. “The commons superstitiously believed the Mages had done it, and the Mages were happy to encourage that belief in their so-called powers.”

  Jules stepped back, rolling her sleeve down and trying to commit to memory what Mechanic Verona has said. But she had no idea what it meant. Electial something. Jules knew what it meant to charge an opponent, but how did that relate to what the Mechanic had said? And what was that about the ground, the ship, and the sea?

  She didn’t bother trying to argue with the Senior Mechanic. Her crew had seen the lightning coming at her from the Mages, not from the sky. But like the other Mechanics Jules had encountered, these also thought the Mages didn’t have any real powers. Sometimes it felt like there were three worlds named Dematr. One as seen by the Mechanics, one seen by the Mages, and one experienced by the common people. Unfortunately, the Mechanics and the Mages were really in this world, lording it over the commons. “What does the Mechanics Guild want from me, Sir Senior Mechanic?”

  He regarded her again for a moment before replying. “Important people believe that you may once more be of use to the Guild.”

  Important people? Those Mechanics she’d talked to less than a week ago? What had the male Mechanic said, something about what if she were speaking to the leaders of the Guild? Were he or his wife, or both of them, part of that leadership?

  It was a good thing she hadn’t killed them.

  But what were the Mechanics planning this time? What had that man and woman decided Jules could accomplish for the Mechanics Guild if she wasn’t killed? “Exactly how could I be of use to the Guild, Sir Senior Mechanic?”

  The Senior Mechanic smiled, his lips a thin line. “The Emperor has decided to establish a new city in the north. West of the Northern Ramparts.”

  “West of the Ramparts?” Jules asked, startled. “Beyond Kelsi’s and Marida’s?”

  The Senior Mechanic frowned slightly in warning.

  “Beyond Kelsi’s and Marida’s, Sir Senior Mechanic?” Jules said.

  “Yes.” Satisfied by her belated use of his title, he waved vaguely toward the west. “There’s a river that joins the sea. The Emperor is sending ships to build a town at that place even though the Guild has made it clear we do not approve of such actions.”

  Jules didn’t try to hide her surprise. “The Emperor plans to openly defy the Mechanics Guild?”

  Mechanic Verona made a disdainful snort. “The Emperor believes his little ambition is secret, that he’ll establish this settlement and when the Guild eventually learns of it he’ll be able to present it as an accomplished fact that the Guild will let slide r
ather than make a big deal of it. But of course the Guild knows all about the plan, and isn’t happy at all that the Emperor is ignoring the Guild’s will in this matter.”

  Jules nodded in a respectful manner, which this time wasn’t entirely feigned. She, like all common folk, believed that the Great Guilds had spies among the commons. For the Mechanics to have a source deep within the Imperial court wasn’t surprising, but still impressive given the punishments inflicted on those found to have committed treason, or even sometimes merely suspected of it. But what did the Emperor’s plan have to do with her? “What does the Guild want from me, Lady Mechanic?” Maybe repeating the question a third time would get her a straight answer.

  “The Guild wants to employ the right tool for the task.” Verona smiled unpleasantly before continuing. “That’s you.”

  “It may be you,” the Senior Mechanic said, his voice growing sharper. “There are plenty of Mechanics who question your ability to serve the Guild in this matter. Your life rides on whether you prove them wrong. The Guild wants the Emperor’s effort to fail. But we’d prefer that the Guild not have to flex its might. Directly frustrating the Emperor’s efforts could cause him to refuse to back down rather than be embarrassed before his people. That could lead to…escalation. Wasted resources. There are matters beyond your understanding that we must consider.”

  Jules kept her expression unrevealing, simply nodding as if accepting the casual put-down.

  “I still think slapping him down now will stop him from trying anything in the future,” the younger male Mechanic complained. “Overwhelming force, to make it clear what’ll happen if the commons ignore the will of our Guild.”

  “You’re assuming the commons would react rationally to a display of such force,” Verona objected. “We’d be slapping down their little emperor, hurting his pride and theirs.”

  “If a dog acts up, you let him know the consequences!”