But the sound of the tall grass moving as the pirates advanced sounded like a current of barely audible laughter, as if the world itself was laughing at her ambitions and her dreams, and at her.
How long had they been walking? It felt like a very long time, as if the sun would begin to rise at any moment, even though it probably wasn’t yet the middle of the night.
Jules came to a sudden halt as she realized the light of the town ahead had changed. It didn’t cast as strong a glow into the sky, and as Jules watched the light dimmed yet again.
“They’re putting out their lanterns,” Gord said from nearby. “Settling down for the night.”
“Good,” Jules said. She started walking again.
A man shoved through the grass in front of her, drawing a startled gasp from Jules.
“Hold on,” he said. “I’m Yuri, off the Storm Runner! Shin sent me back to warn you!”
“What is it, Yuri?” Erin lowered the blade that she’d raised when he appeared.
“Ahead, there’s a cleared field before the town. Maybe twenty lances deep. And then a wall. A wooden wall.”
“They’ve already got a wall up around the town?” Jules said.
“They probably brought pre-cut lumber,” Lars said, his angry gaze turned toward the town. “How do we get through a wall without alerting everyone?”
“Shin thinks the wall isn’t finished,” Yuri said. “He’s moving to the right along it, going inland. When he finds a good spot, or an unguarded gate, he’ll go through.”
“All right,” Jules said, hoping that Shin was right about there being openings in the wall. “When we get to the edge of the cleared area, we’ll turn right as well and move around the town until we find where Shin went through.”
“And if there’s no opening? If the wall’s finished?” Erin asked. “By the time we get all the way around that wall it’ll be dawn and we’ll be in trouble.”
“There’ll be an opening,” Jules said.
Erin looked skeptical and Lars appeared troubled, but neither openly disagreed. Both waved their crews forward as Jules started walking again.
It wasn’t much farther on that they reached the end of the grass. All the grass and other vegetation that might allow someone to approach under concealment had been cut short all the way to the wall. The wooden planks of that wall reared up a good two lances, Jules guessed, and since this was Imperial construction those planks were probably thick enough to withstand many blows from swords or knives. It wasn’t hard to understand why Shin had gone around the wall in search of a way in rather than trying to force his way through.
Jules turned right and began walking with just a thin remaining screen of grass between her and the wall. She kept looking that way, trying to spot any sentries posted, but saw nothing. To her left lay the open ground before the town, and to her right the crews of the three pirate ships, following Jules around the wall.
She wondered how far they’d follow her if no openings appeared.
They hadn’t been walking long, though, when Jules saw another one of the pirate scouts standing right by the wall. She waved to catch his attention, and he waved her toward him.
As she got closer, Jules could see it was Kyle. “What’ve you got? A way in?”
“Yes, Captain.” Kyle pointed to the wall. “There’s a sally gate here. That’s what Shin called it.”
“Yeah,” Jules said. “If the town is attacked, the defenders could launch a surprise counterattack by coming out through this gate.”
“We are attacking the town, aren’t we?” Kyle said.
“Yeah, we are. Is the gate locked?”
“No. Shin, and Elli from the Storm Queen, stood against the wall so I could climb up over them. I got over the top and down the other side, and opened the gate. Shin and Elli went on to search for sentries but left me here to make sure you knew where the gate was.”
Jules peered at the wood, surprised at how hard it was to see the lines where the gate joined the rest of the wall. “Somebody did a very good job on this.” She looked back, seeing the other pirates coming her way. “I’ll go on through. Send the others as they get here.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Kyle shoved the unlocked gate open just far enough for Jules to slide through.
She edged inside, listening for any sign of trouble. A street ran inside along the wall, offering an easy way to rapidly shift defenders from one part to another, and for wagons or mules to bring supplies. On the other side of the street, buildings rose into the night, their facades hidden by the darkness. “All ri—”The thump of feet and the rattle of armor provided only a moment of warning before an Imperial patrol turned off a nearby side street and headed their way.
Jules had an instant to decide what to do. Attacking the patrol would raise the alarm for certain. The five legionaries were still moving at a laggardly pace, obviously not alert and obviously not having seen her yet. But squeezing back through the gate would take time and show her against the wood of the wall.
“Patrol! Shut the gate!” Jules hissed at Kyle, then leapt away from the wall, dashing into the night shadows of the nearest street.
She paused in the darkness, listening, while the gate swung closed with an admirable lack of noise. Kyle knew how to be sneaky, all right.
Hearing the patrol stroll closer, Jules retreated up the street away from the wall to avoid any chance of being seen. Like all Imperial towns, the streets had been laid out in a rigid grid, every cross street at right angles to the streets it met. That made it all too easy for someone to see down the street, even in the dark. She moved a good five lances, pausing next to an unfinished building whose wooden bones rose into the night.
The patrol reached the street that Jules had retreated down. And themselves turned toward her.
Her hand tightened on her dagger, but the legionaries were still moving with all of the lack of speed and efficiency of tired, bored soldiers who didn’t expect any officers or centurions to show up and witness their lackadaisical patrolling.
But, sloppy as they were, the legionaries would still likely spot her if she stayed where she was or tried moving ahead of them down the street.
Jules stepped through a wall that had only a frame to hold it together. She moved cautiously, watching for anything that if tripped over might create noise, but had to keep up her speed to ensure she wouldn’t be in sight when the legionaries reached this building.
She made it through the skeleton of the building and out the other side, trying to control her breathing in case anyone else was nearby.
Blazes! The pirates at the hidden gate would be watching, waiting for the patrol to get well away from the gate before anyone else entered the town. She was already separated from everyone else, with no idea where Shin was or…
Looking about the street she was now on, Jules saw it led to a two story building. Unlike the other structures she could see, which were in various stages of construction, it was completely finished, topped off by the tall spire she had seen earlier. And that told her which building that was.
The Imperial commander’s home and headquarters.
If she could take the commander out before an alarm was raised…
It’d be risky, but with that patrol wandering about the alarm might be raised at any time. Shin and the one sailor left with him would have very little chance of taking down five legionaries without a lot of noise.
Maybe it was an opportunity. Maybe it was a temptation.
“Hey,” one of the legionaries said, his voice carrying through the frame of the building. “We forgot to check the gate.” His comrades grumbled in response. “What if the centurion left a note on it or something else that’ll tell him we didn’t check it? Come on. It’s not that far back.”
That settled things. The alarm would be raised as soon as they found the sally gate unlocked. Jules ran toward the commander’s home.
She slowed her pace when she reached the steps leading up to the wooden porch
, moving carefully to avoid making any betraying sound. The door wasn’t locked. Jules opened it and eased through, peering into the deeper dark inside the building and listening, but no sentry was in the reception room beyond the front entry.
There had to be a sentry, though.
Jules tightened her grip on her dagger and went up the indoor stairs as quietly as she could, every moment dreading to hear the sound of the alarm being raised.
Reaching the head of the stairs, she moved her head just enough to see down the upstairs hallway. Moonlight streaming in through an open window provided more light up here than downstairs, giving her a good look at a sentry posted outside one door. Only the town commander would have a sentry specially assigned to his bedroom.
The sentry’s head drooped, although she could tell he wasn’t asleep, just drowsy. Instead of standing alertly at attention, he’d leaned his back against the wall next to the commander’s door, doubtless taking care to ensure he made no sound in doing so.
Jules readied herself.
The sentry yawned mightily, his eyes closed for a long moment. Jules covered the distance from the stairs before those eyes opened again, one of her hands going across the sentry’s mouth as her dagger went into his throat. A heart strike would’ve been surer, but legionary chest armor was good enough to divert a dagger thrust.
The sentry didn’t die at once, shuddering and struggling a bit, making enough of a fuss to worry her.
Jules drew her cutlass, tested the door, found it unlocked, and went through in a rush.
Two windows let in enough moonlight to allow Jules to see the gleam of a naked blade as it sliced toward her. She parried the blow with her cutlass, slamming the guard of her sword into the body of her attacker.
He staggered back far enough for the light coming in through a window to show him clearly. Jules’ mind registered each important point in turn. Her opponent held an Imperial officer’s straight sword which was already being raised for a second strike at her. His feet were shifting to regain his balance, taking on a standard fighting stance. Clearly, this man wasn’t someone who’d risen through the ranks as an Imperial bureaucrat, but a veteran of the legions. The noise made by the sentry’s death throes hadn’t given him enough time to don armor, so he was still in bedclothes. His night clothing looked fine in the moonlight, which together with the officer’s sword told her this was indeed the commander of the settlement, whose killing or capture would take more effort, time, and noise than she’d wanted.
Jules closed in, side-stepping a blanket trailing on the floor from the bed, feinting with the dagger in one hand and following up with a slash from the cutlass.
The commander caught the cutlass strike on his own blade, letting it slide off and thrusting his point straight at Jules.
Her dagger knocked the sword tip away as Jules stepped closer and swung the cutlass at his side.
The commander took a hasty step back, standing ready for her next move, sword held at waist height, his breathing harsh in the confines of the room. But he had enough breath to spit out some words. “Traitor. Assassin. I was given this command by the Emperor himself, so whatever gain you hope for will never appear. You and anyone helping you will die.”
Jules, side-stepping a little more to come at the commander again from his unguarded side, paused as she heard the man’s voice. It sounded shockingly familiar.
The commander shifted his stance, his face becoming visible in the light from the nearest window.
Oh, blazes.
She stood, indecision freezing her muscles and her mind. “Dar’n of Marandur?” Jules said in a low voice.
The commander also stopped moving, peering through the dimness at her. “You came to kill me yet you’re surprised to see me?”
“I didn’t know you were in command here. I know you because your son and I trained together.” Ian’s father had visited him a few times, showing obvious if understated pride in his son, and had been rigidly polite when introduced to Jules.
Jules heard a sudden intake of breath, the commander leaning toward her to see better.
“You,” he said.
Her mind finally started moving again. “Drop your blade, surrender the garrison, and no one else needs die,” Jules said, flexing both of her own weapons slightly to emphasize her words.
He laughed in a way that sounded enough like his son to send a stab of pain through her. “And then what? I was ordered on this mission to prove my loyalty to the Emperor. What do you think will happen to my family if I don’t fight you to the death?”
Jules clenched her hand tighter on the hilt of the cutlass. “I don’t want to kill the father of Ian.”
“How nice of you,” Dar’n said, his voice dripping with anger. “And I cannot kill you, because the Emperor insists on having you alive. No matter what you want, I must die or I must capture you.”
“No.”
“If I live, and you remain free, I will have failed the Emperor. That will mean disgrace and the slow, painful deaths of my wife, my daughter, and my son Ian, who was fool enough to think you a worthy companion. You do not have honor, but I do. I will not buy my life with theirs.”
“I won’t kill you,” Jules hissed at him. “Nor will I let you destroy me! Wake up! The Emperor sees you as a useful slave. Why serve a man who’d kill your family if you fail here? Why die for him?”
“If you do not understand honor, I cannot teach you,” Dar’n said, now contemptuous. “But even though I can’t harm you, the same isn’t true of whoever you came with. Somebody must have brought you here and gotten you inside this town. They will all die.” He turned toward the window, his mouth widening to shout a warning.
Jules lunged forward, slamming the cutlass guard into Dar’n’s face before the surprised commander could react.
He parried her next blow, trying a move to disarm her which Jules easily countered. Her next move nearly tore the sword from his hand, but he managed to maintain his grip.
In every fight that lasted beyond the first few clashes of blades, there always came a point where one of the combatants realized the other was better and their own chances growing less with every moment. Jules wasn’t the best sword fighter in the world, but she knew a lot of tricks, and could handle both her cutlass and the dagger in ways someone trained in Imperial sword drill had trouble countering.
She saw the look come into the commander’s eyes as he realized that she was going to win, saw his posture shift from offense to defense, and knew it was time to end this.
Ducking under his blade as her dagger diverted it upwards, Jules punched the guard of the cutlass into Dar’n’s gut.
As the commander fell to the floor, his sword came up point-first in the only countermove available to him, but stopped in mid-motion as he remembered that he couldn’t kill Jules.
She stepped inside the blade’s reach, setting her feet for another blow to knock him out.
Dar’n’s eyes met hers, a strange mix of fatalism and resolve in them. “I can’t win, but I will not lose.” His free hand came up suddenly, grabbing her dagger hand. Her training and experience told her that he’d try to push aside the blade or twist it out of her grip, so Jules braced herself to resist those moves, and was unprepared for what the commander did next.
Instead of trying to counter the threat of the dagger, the commander abruptly pulled her hand straight toward him.
As Jules stared in horror, the dagger she held went deep into his chest.
“Why?” she whispered, realizing the blade had pierced the commander’s heart.
Dar’n’s smile was twisted into a grimace by pain. “For…for…” He blinked as if trying to stay awake, then his face went slack and his last breath sighed upward.
Jules staggered back, her dagger coming free from the body of the commander, blood forming a dark sheen on its blade.
She’d just killed Ian’s father.
His hand had done the work, but it had been her dagger, held in her hand.
> A sudden noise jerked Jules out of her shock. She spun to face the door, both blades at the ready.
“Captain?” Kyle, out of breath and worried. “Captain Erin sent me here to look for you. We had to fight a patrol to keep them from locking that gate again. It made a lot of noise. We think—”
The rapid clanging of someone ringing an alarm bell resounded through the night.
“Blazes.” Jules tried to shake herself out of her shock. She had work to do, and people counting on her. Wiping the dagger’s blade clean on the bedding, Jules ran out of the room.
The town still felt ghostly in the night, but now the ghost was loud and angry, the alarm echoing off of any structure walls that had been completed. Jules saw a large group nearby, their cutlasses visible, and ran to them. “Who’s here?”
“Lars,” he called back, running to meet her, followed by the pirates with him. “Erin headed toward the legionary tents to see how many she could take out before they armed and armored themselves.”
“Where are the tents?” Jules asked.
“Over there, we think.”
“Let’s go help Erin kill legionaries.”
They ran down otherwise empty streets. “Where are the citizens?” Lars panted as he ran beside her.
“You know the rule when alarms sound in Imperial towns,” Jules said. “Everybody stays where they are and waits for orders. Unless they panic and start fleeing, which can happen. These citizens are staying in their tents. If the legionaries watching the laborer encampment leave their posts, some of the laborers might try to bolt, but they won’t be a threat to us.”
Dashing into a plaza facing the waterfront, Jules saw half-armored and armored legionaries forming into a line under the bellowed orders of a centurion.
“There’s about thirty,” Jules guessed. “A few less.”
A rattle of swords and the twang of crossbows sounded from where the Star Seeker sat moored as Hachi’s pirates attacked the legionary sentries watching their ship.
The centurion let out a couple of impressive obscenities, ordering some of his legionaries to run to help the sentries fighting the Star Seeker.
Explorer of the Endless Sea Page 15