Sure enough, the horseplay settled down quickly. Sailors used to walking decks and streets had trouble getting used to marching through high grass that concealed bumps and holes on land that had never been leveled and tamed by humans. The fields that had looked pleasantly flat and regular from the sea proved to be very uneven underfoot. The sun, which had been pleasantly warm when on the water, seemed much hotter here. And as the sailors began to sweat, insects swarmed out to annoy and pester.
“I’m remembering why I chose to go to sea rather than stay on land,” Erin commented as she shoved aside a thick shock of grass rising up to nearly her neck.
Jules looked back, seeing that the sailors behind them had begun to straggle, some lagging farther and farther from the front. “We’d better assign some reliable people to bring up the rear and make sure we don’t lose anyone.”
“Should we make them keep up?” Lars asked, wiping sweat from his face.
“There’s no need for that. We should have a long wait for full night once we get close enough to the town. That’ll give everyone time to catch up and rest.”
Once the task of assigning rear guards was completed, there was nothing else to do but continue to trudge toward the town. “You did this sort of thing during your training with the legions, didn’t you?” Lars asked.
“Yes,” Jules said. “The initial training. We did all the marching and drilling the ordinary legionaries do.”
“Did you like it?” Lars asked.
“Blazes, no. But it was what I’d set my mind on,” Jules said. “The proof that I was as good as any of them. That’s why I didn’t want to quit. How about you?”
“Me?” Lars laughed. “I was apprenticed to a lawyer.”
“That sounds easy.”
“Blazes, no!” he said, mimicking Jules. “I decided that if my life was going to be that bad, I should at least get to see a little of the world and feel the sun every once in a while. So I ran off to sea. Whenever things got really bad, like one time we got becalmed and ran short on water, I’d just think of being back in that lawyer’s office and I’d be happy I’d escaped that fate for a better one.”
Jules slapped her cheek to get an insect that had landed there. “The Mechanics told me once they thought maybe if I’d been tested as a little girl they might have taken me. As bad as the orphanage was, I’m happy I escaped that fate.”
Erin, trudging along nearby, laughed briefly. “You wouldn’t have wanted to be called Lady Mechanic and be able to look down on all of us commons?”
“No,” Jules said. “Those people, the Great Guilds, they’re no different than the people who run prisons. All they do is control others and tell them what they can’t do. If people look up to me, I want it to be because I fought for freedom, for their right to do things and make things and go new places.”
“It’s hard to believe that freedom will ever happen,” Erin said. She looked ahead toward the scouts. “Though you’ve attracted some fine followers. That big fellow knows his stuff.”
“Shin? He was in the legions for, I guess, about ten years before deserting to join me.”
“Oh? Lucky you. He’s a fine-looking one.”
Jules felt her face warming a little more than it already was from the sun. “Shin was like a real brother to me when we were growing up in the orphanage. I can’t even think about him any other way. It’d be too weird.”
“And folks say pirates have no morals!” Erin gave Jules a look. “What’s it like living with the prophecy? Has it gotten any better?”
Jules shrugged, looking down at her feet as they plowed through the grass. “It sucks. I guess maybe I’ve gotten somewhat used to it. But that girl has messed up my life in all ways, and in romance perhaps most of all.”
“‘That girl’? The daughter of your line?”
“Yes.” Jules managed a smile. “Aren’t daughters supposed to be born before they cause so much trouble?”
“That’s the usual way of it. Have you thought what you’re going to do?” Erin asked.
“Of course I have. But the one idea that seems like it might work…is something I don’t want to think about.”
Erin nodded, brushing more bugs away from her face. “If you ever want to get drunk and talk about it, I’ll listen and keep my mouth shut afterwards.”
“Thanks.”
They fell silent again for a while, the only noise the swishing sounds of men and women forcing their way through the apparently never-ending grass, the buzz and whisper of bugs and gnats forming an escort for the sweating sailors, and the occasional audible grumble from one of the sailors following their captains. None of the captains had noticed when the grumbling began, so they decided to declare the bet a tie.
As the sun fell low enough to cast painful glare into their eyes, Jules began to worry that she’d miscalculated the distance and the time needed to cover it. How much farther was it to the town? How much longer would they have to walk?
She squinted into the low-hanging sun to be sure she could still see Shin. There he was, his head a darker blot against the grass.
As Jules watched, Shin raised one hand. “Hold it!” she called to everyone with her.
“Did they see something?” Lars asked, breathing a bit heavily and rubbing his sleeve through the sweat on his brow.
“I think so.” Jules watched Shin coming back, the two other scouts also coming into view.
Shin reached them, apparently not tired in the least even though like everyone else he had sweat dripping down his body. Jules realized that she found that sight distracting and hastily looked away. “What did you see?”
“One spire, Captain, from a taller building, and masts. Two ships, I think.”
One of the sailor scouts joined them. “Two ships for sure. From what I could see of the masts, one’s the Star Seeker or her twin, and the other’s a sloop like the Storm Runner.”
Jules looked west to where the town lay. “Any sign of sentries or patrols?”
“Not from this far out,” Shin said. “I saw no signs in the grass that patrols might have passed recently.” He turned and pointed. “There is a…pinnacle. That is the word, right? A pinnacle of rock there. It would make an excellent lookout post, but I have seen no sign of a sentry up on it.”
“Could you spot a sentry from this distance?” Lars asked.
“I would see the sun glinting on the sentry’s armor,” Shin said. “And the only way to pass messages from the top of the spire to the town during the day would be by mirror. I would’ve seen those flashes as well. I’m confident there is no sentry up there yet, though the legionary commander is doubtless planning to establish one once the town is sufficiently secure.”
“Good.” Jules shifted her gaze out to sea. The Storm Runner and the Storm Queen had held back, but the Sun Queen had put on more sail and was forging steadily west. She was about even with the sailors on the shore, and would soon pass them. “Ang’s timing it right. At that speed they should pass the town just a bit before sunset.” She shaded her eyes to see more. “That red shirt we put on Cori really stands out with the sun so low. She makes a great decoy.” It had required a fair degree of persuasion to get Cori to wear the flaming red shirt to play the part of the supposedly-flamboyant pirate Captain Jules.
“We can go a little closer,” Shin said. “But not beyond that yet. Not until it gets dark.”
“Go on ahead and stop where you think it’s safe,” Jules said. “Come on, everyone. Just a little ways more and then we get to rest until full night.”
The straggling group of sailors perked up at the news that the march was almost over. When Shin signaled a halt almost all dropped gratefully to lie in the shade of the grass. Shin himself stayed standing, watching their surroundings, and the other two scouts followed his lead. The bugs were still a problem, but the breeze from off the sea began to freshen as the sun dropped to the horizon, providing some relief.
“There are the masts,” one of the sailors who’d been a scou
t said, pointing. “Star Seeker’s to the right and just a little farther off, I think, and the sloop a little to the left there.”
Jules looked that way, seeing the straight tips of the masts projecting just into view. “Can we see the town from here?”
“We are just a little too far off,” Shin said. “There is the spire atop what must be the tallest building.”
Which was doubtless where she’d find the Imperial commander of this town, Jules thought. The Emperor might have appointed a mayor to deal with civil issues, but real authority in the town would rest with the senior Imperial military officer. “All right. Relax, everyone.”
The sun had dropped so low it was sinking into the surface of the endless sea of grass to the west when Gord called out. “Captain? The sloop’s moving.”
Jules got up beside him to look. “Any sign of the Sun Queen’s masts?”
“No. We lost sight of her just a little while back. She’s a bit farther off from us, but I think she should be passing by that town about now.”
“Yeah. And you’re right. The sloop is definitely moving,” Jules said as she saw the tops of the sloop’s masts slide to the left above the stalks of the tall grass. “He took the bait.”
Jules dropped back down to sit and talk to Lars and Erin. “So far, so good.”
“Says you,” Erin said as she irritably swatted another insect. “I’m surprised the legionaries haven’t come to investigate these vast swarms of bugs seeking to feast on us.”
“If they’ve noticed, they probably think something died,” Lars said.
“I don’t smell that bad.” Erin looked upwards where the sky continued to darken, the stars beginning to shine through. “It’ll be a little while yet. There’ll be sentries posted, some watching the Star Seeker, some watching for anything coming from outside the town, and some watching to make sure whatever workers they brought stay in their places and don’t try to escape or make mischief.”
“With only fifty legionaries, that adds up to a good part of their strength,” Jules said. “I’d guess a minimum of ten sentries?”
“Maybe twelve.”
“If it isn’t ten, it’ll be fifteen,” Jules said. “The legions always try to break assignments down into groups of five.”
“Then we need to count on fifteen,” Erin said.
“Can your man Shin take out sentries quietly?” Lars asked.
“He’s not my man,” Jules said. My man was the term a woman used to describe someone in a relationship with her.
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“That’s all right. I’ll ask.”
She wondered how Shin would react to the idea of killing his former legion comrades, but he didn’t seem rattled when she asked. “I am not the quietest, though I do have practice. Are there others among the crews who would be good at sneaking up on sentries?”
“Yes,” Jules said. “Like Kyle. He worked the streets as a pickpocket when he was a kid. He can move very quietly to get close to someone. Do you think we’ll face ten or fifteen sentries?”
“It depends on their centurion,” Shin said. “We should assume fifteen.” He paused to think. “Five watching the Star Seeker. Five patrolling the perimeter of the town, but with more of an eye toward any laborers trying to escape than with any outside danger. And five either watching the laborers or patrolling the inside of the town.”
“We can leave the ones watching the Star Seeker to Hachi’s crew.”
Shin nodded slowly. “Do we know how long they have been here?”
“Not too long. A few weeks, at a guess.”
“That’s good,” Shin said. “Long enough to get bored with sentry duty in a place where no one else ever comes and nothing ever happens. They will be…what is the word?”
“Complacent?” Jules guessed.
“Yes. Not as alert as they should be. Give me four good sailors such as Kyle. We’ll clear the way into the town.”
“Good,” Jules said, realizing that Shin, apparently without realizing it, had requested a group of five to lead the way into town: four others and himself. Legionary training instilled habits. “I also need a clear path to wherever the town commander is. If I can take him or her prisoner and make them surrender the town, we won’t have to fight the legionaries even if they get alerted in time to form up.”
By the time Kyle and three more sailors had been assigned to Shin, the sun had sunk below the horizon. Jules squinted at the moon, a fair ways above the horizon. The “twins” that chased the moon from far behind weren’t visible yet. “I think we should advance once the twins rise.”
“That feels about right,” Lars said.
“Maybe a little early,” Captain Erin said. “But rounding up this bunch and getting them ready for the fight will take a bit of work, so it’s smart to add in some extra time.”
With the sun down, the air grew cooler and the insects diminished. Jules, like the others tired from the long afternoon walk, felt her eyes drooping, but didn’t want to risk a nap.
Most of the sailors were lying down in the tall grass and couldn’t be seen, but the sound of deep breathing and the occasional snore told of sailors doing what sailors did when they got a chance, catching quick naps.
Even Shin yawned, but jerked to alertness as something small and fast scurried past through the grass. He smiled at Jules. “Remember when you were little, and sometimes we would sit up and look at the stars?”
“That seems like a long time ago,” Jules said. “I remember having to drag you outside sometimes. Why did I insist you had to be there?”
“You were scared of Mara. On a night like this,” Shin added, pausing to listen to the wind whispering through the grass, “even I am a little unnerved thinking of her.”
“Mara?” Jules remembered and laughed. “Mara the Undying. Who was it who told those stories about her?”
“Stev. The staff caught him once and punished him badly.” Shin’s smile turned rueful. “You know how the Imperial court feels about Mara stories.”
“Who’s Mara?” Erin asked.
“You never heard of Mara the Undying?” Jules asked in turn.
“Can’t say that I have. She sounds like she’d be handy in a fight, though.”
“Where’d you grow up?”
“A small town on the coast well north of Sandurin,” Erin said. “Halfway to the Ramparts.”
“The stories are better known in the south,” Shin said. “But lately new legion recruits from the north seem to have heard them, too. When Jules was little, the stories were mostly told by children to other children, but they seem to be more popular with adults these days.”
“So who is she?” Erin asked.
Jules pointed in the general direction of Marandur. “Maran was the first emperor, and his consort was Mara, right? Supposedly she was very beautiful, and wanted to stay that way. Shin, was it Maran who approached the first Mages or the Mages who approached him?”
“The stories vary,” Shin said.
“Anyway,” Jules continued, “a deal was struck to keep Mara eternally young and beautiful, but only if she seduced young men and drank their blood. Some stories say she knew that would be the price, and others say the Mages tricked her and Maran. But she’s supposed to still be out there, still looking young and lovely, roaming the nights, finding young men, and luring them to beds they never leave.”
“I should have been more afraid of Mara than you were,” Shin said to Jules.
“If that Mara was real, you’d have been a victim for sure,” Erin said, grinning.
“It’s just a ghost story,” Shin said. “Something to give people a little thrill when nights are dark. I admit I don’t really like the stories. There are enough true dangers in the dark that I’ve never understood the need to dream up imaginary ones.”
Something about his voice caused Jules to look closely at Shin, wondering what dangers he might fear, but he’d already turned and stood up, looking west toward the Imperial town. “
Lights are burning,” he said.
She stood up as well, seeing the pale glow rising from where the town was. “It’s time we started. How much lead do you want, Shin?”
“Wait until you’ve lost sight of my group, count slowly to fifty after that, then follow.”
“All right.” As Shin gathered the four sailors who’d help him take out sentries, Jules looked at Erin and Lars. “Let’s get our people ready. It’s time to take this town out from under the Emperor’s thumb.”
Chapter Eight
The silence of the night shrouded the pirates as they moved as quietly as possible through the tall grass. Moonlight glinted on the bare steel of cutlasses carried by many of the pirates. Those with crossbows held them tightly, their cords loose, having been told not to tension and load the bows until ordered. The snap of a crossbow accidentally releasing might alert the defenders, or at the least bring any bored sentries to full alertness before they could be taken out.
Jules walked steadily, her eyes on the glow of light ahead, seeing the town’s lights illuminating the masts of the Star Seeker. She worried that the sloop would give up chasing the Sun Queen and return at any time, but no other masts appeared. The walk took longer than she’d expected, but this time none of the pirates complained. Occasional looks back told Jules that all of the sailors were staying close, their faces set with both nervousness and determination, following their captains.
Who were following her.
The weight of destiny had been riding on her shoulders long enough that sometimes Jules could almost forget it was there. But tonight it redoubled, pressing down like iron bars. If this attack succeeded, it would set the stage for so much more. It would shatter the aura of invincibility, of inevitability, that the Empire had worn for as long as anyone could remember.
But if it failed…
Don’t think about that, Jules told herself. Think only of what you have to do to make this attack succeed.
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