Dark Empress

by S. J. A. Turney

  “The world has repeatedly promised you great things but never quite delivered them. You lash out when this happens and the result is often that you fall further away from your goal. You are beginning to believe that you are owed a great deal and are determined to squeeze the world until it pays.”

  That was a bolt from the blue for Asima. It was horribly, cuttingly accurate and yet news to her; she had never realised this was the case.

  “Stop.”

  The old woman smiled.

  “Everything happens for a reason, lady. You will achieve your destiny, but you must not fight it. Each time you fight it, your destiny pulls away from you. You need to follow the path you are now on and stop trying to change it.”

  Asima frowned.

  “I do not believe in Gods, or fate, or fortunes, old woman. A clever mind sees past the trickery. You are merely insightful and a good judge of character… but not a great one. If you were, you’d have steered well clear of me.”

  The old woman laughed merrily.

  “You do not believe? You who have murdered lords and ladies? You who have bought and sold souls and lives to climb the ladder of success? You who have sat with kings and worn jewels that were worth more than M’Dahz has to offer? You who cannot stop yourself?”

  “Stop!”

  There was something in Asima’s voice that made the sergeant frown; a great deal of irritation and anger, of course, but also a note verging on panic.

  “Never, lady. You have taken a wrong turning at some point on the path of your life. You would have been poor but loved as a nobody. Sometimes you realise that and it makes you sad, but not sad enough to turn you away from the path you have chosen…”

  “Stop!” Asima barked.

  “Instead, you seek power at the expense of love. You care not what people think of you except when it is necessary to achieve something. You will not stop until you can look down on the gods you deny and it matters not that the world will hate you for it.”

  Asima made a lunge for the woman, but the sergeant still had a tight grip on her wrist and held her back, turning to the fortune teller.

  “I think you’d best take the rest of the money and leave, woman.”

  “Momentarily” the old crone said quietly.

  “Lady, I said I would tell you your fortune. I have only told you your past and the contents of your heart. I would be remiss, having been paid, not to perform my duty.”

  Asima glared at her coldly, an angry rumble somewhere deep in her throat.

  “I said that you are a woman of destiny. You may believe in what you wish, lady, but I have the sight and the knowledge and I know beyond doubt and past certainty. You are destined, for better or for worse, to reach the dizzy heights that you seek. Before the next year cycles around, you will be acclaimed an empress. You will rule with absolute power, uncontested, yet unloved. No one will sing your praise or welcome your accession, though I fear you care little about that.”

  She smiled a humourless smile.

  “You will be an empress, lady, and as dark an empress as ever walked beneath the heavens. I shudder to look further, so I must take my leave. May the sand devils grant you safe passage on your journey.”

  With a smile, she wrapped her fingers tightly around the copper coins in her hand and shuffled off back toward her fire and tent.

  The sergeant relaxed his grip.

  “I’m not sure whether I’m glad I heard that, or not.”

  He examined the young lady by his side. Asima had an unreadable expression.

  “Come on. Get into the coach, so we can get underway. If your highness is going to be an empress, I’d as soon it wasn’t in my country.”

  Shaking her head, Asima picked up her feet and walked off toward the coach, frowning as she went.

  Behind her, the crooked old scarecrow woman in the tattered black pocketed her treasure and shuffled out of the open back to her tent. As the cavalry and their vehicles prepared to get underway, the old woman passed between two tents into the shelter of a couple of palm trees and scrub plants. Taking a quick glance between the shelters to make sure she was out of sight of the lady and her escort, she straightened, rubbing her back while sucking in air between her teeth. Grinning, she stretched and laughed quietly.

  Samir was right. This girl was a real piece of work, and clever too. She was almost clever enough to have seen through it all, but Samir’s insight had apparently been uncanny enough to throw her off kilter.

  She laughed once more as she set off back toward the town walls and the secret way in that even few of the criminal underclass of M’Dahz knew existed.

  In which Tain leads the way

  Ghassan peered over the top of the crates a final time and then turned back to the men crouched behind him, each armed with a cudgel and a fierce and determined expression.

  “Remember the rules: take them down as necessary, but I want to avoid killing wherever possible, and Samir would back me up on this. Any man I see killing someone when there is an alternative, I will leave for the authorities to deal with. Is that clear?”

  There was a chorus of subdued agreement. Ghassan nodded with satisfaction. It did appear that despite their chosen path in life, these men of Samir’s suffered the effects of a conscience and that made them the sort of people that Ghassan could use. Must have taken some work identifying men like this and manoeuvring them over the years until they formed the crew of the Empress.

  Taking a deep breath, he beckoned to the man he’d selected earlier. It had been a simple choice. Most of the crew were long-time pirates with tattoos, long unruly hair, jewellery and piercings. There were few among them who matched the presentable manner expected of a military recruit. Young Tain was perhaps the only man among those around him that could do this. Fortunate they were that Tain was also fearless, well-spoken, clever, and as devious as a boy could be.

  The young man, only a member of the crew for two years, left the crowd of his shipmates and approached Ghassan, picking and scratching irritably at the stolen guard uniform he wore.

  “Ready?”

  The young man laughed quietly.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be. I’d as soon go now ‘n’ get it over with, so’s I can get this itchy crap off me!”

  “Any moment now” Ghassan smiled.

  He glanced back across the port from where they lurked in the shadow of a dock-side warehouse, hidden from the jetty by piles of crates and barrels. He’d listened tensely and heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the midnight bell ring out. Since then he’d rarely taken his eyes off the dark roofs of the warehouse district and the guard compound that lay hidden among them.

  The young sailor turned and cast his own gaze back there.

  A few heartbeats passed and Ghassan grinned.

  “Did you see that?”

  “See what?”

  The commander pointed into the dark distance and his young companion squinted.

  “Can’t see a thing, sir.”

  “There’s flames. Just small and just starting, but Ursa’s in. It’s begun.”

  “You’s got bloody good eyesight! I can’t…“

  His voice fell away as what had been a miniscule flicker of yellow, barely visible from this distance, suddenly exploded into a column of flame that reached up above the roofs.

  “Do I go now?”

  Ghassan shook his head.

  “Count to a hundred slowly and steadily and then go. You need to leave enough time to have legitimately got here. They won’t believe you flew.”

  The boy shrugged.

  “Never counted t’a hunderd. Is it long?”

  Ghassan blinked at him and had to readjust his thinking. Just because the boy was clever didn’t mean he was educated. Probably couldn’t read either.

  “Do you know the song ‘Sharri the Mermaid?’”

  The young boy grinned and nodded.

  “Rude version, tho’”

  “Hum four verses to yourself, then go” Ghassan replied
with a grin “It’ll be about right.”

  He laughed quietly as he watched the lad concentrating on the song and noted a few of the more socially unacceptable of the lyrics in the rhyme as they formed silently on his lips.

  “Get ready.”

  A minute more and the young sailor grinned at him and nodded, standing and straightening his uniform. With a deep breath, he turned and ran back among the warehouses.

  Ghassan returned his gaze to the jetty beyond the crates. The governor was taking no chances with this prize. The Dark Empress wallowed in the dock, tied fore and aft to the end jetty, the boarding plank pulled up on board. He would be willing to lay money on the oars having been taken away and impounded just in case, which is why they’d raided a storehouse earlier in the evening and brought a number of replacement oars with them to this spot. There were three of the port guard on duty at a brazier at the near end of the jetty, denying access to any possible visitors. Four men stood in position along the jetty itself with many more on deck. Ghassan had counted at least ten and estimated three times as many were aboard.

  The sound of pounding feet from off to the left made him smile. Here came Tain.

  Ghassan made several hand gestures to the men with him and watched as they split into three distinct groups.

  “Fire!” came the warning.

  Tain suddenly burst into the open in front of the jetty, having run like the wind around the back of three warehouses and arrived, panting, from the correct direction for a runner from the compound. The three men at the brazier readied their weapons. These soldiers were truly alert and prepared.

  “Halt!” the leader barked.

  Tain came to a stop, dropping his hands to his knees and breathing in deep gasps. After playing up the weariness a little, he straightened.

  “Sir… Sarge at’ barracks said he needs ya… Bin attacked at ammo store and… place’s on fire… All pris’ners got out ’n’ all!”

  “Shit.”

  The officer at the brazier turned to one of his companions.

  “Take a dozen men and go help.”

  Tain straightened and saluted before doubling over with a very impressive hacking cough.

  “And you’d better stay here ‘til you can breathe, lad.”

  The young man nodded and shuffled over to a cleat to sit down. As he continued to breathe in deep lungfuls of air, he watched the second in command as he shouted to his men on board. A dozen guards came to the rail, dropped their spears over onto the jetty and then leapt the six feet down and across onto the wooden floor, some of them barely making it. Tain smiled to himself as he noted the random rope snaking away from the cleat upon which he sat and across the jetty. With a deep breath, he leaned back and began, surreptitiously, to move the rope an inch at a time with his foot.

  Moments later, the guard detachment was away and marching through the port toward the now-obvious column of flame that marked the location of the ammunition store.

  Ghassan made a single gesture with his hand and watched the groups with him burst into silent life. The first ran quietly along behind the piles of crates and barrels until they reached the end wall of the port.

  Here the wall rose up behind warehouses, to nowhere near the height of the town walls, but high enough and with a walkway. The guard that patrolled the top would be looking outward if he were paying attention at all. Likely he was now somewhere further inland, gazing toward the rising flames. Inside the perimeter, the first harbour was framed by the port wall and the jetty, the high sides of the Empress reaching up from the dark, glassy surface within.

  The first group, silent and swift, crossed the space between the crates and the shore and disappeared into the black water with hardly a splash. Ghassan bit his lip, his heart pounding as he turned to the other two groups. The men at the near end had taken position in the cover of the barrels, close to the end of the jetty and just outside the circle of orange light cast by the brazier.

  The third group, only eight men, but hand-picked by their companions for their abilities, remained with Ghassan at the centre.

  He’d have liked, given the opportunity, to have gone with one of the main assault groups, but, no... He was in command and it was the job of a captain to direct and guide and from here he could continue to monitor what was going on until they were certain enough of the success of the plan that he could rush in and join them.

  He turned his gaze back to the group in the water and watched, anxiously, as they slid through the black until they reached the ship. They disappeared from view at this angle as they moved along the far side of the hull and Ghassan took a deep breath, counting almost silently.

  “One… two… three… four… five… six…”

  Turning, he gestured with his thumb at the group near the jetty.

  “Go!”

  With a roar, the main party of pirates rushed out from their cover toward the two men by the brazier who reacted more professionally than Ghassan had expected, bellowing warnings and commands to the men behind and on board. Perhaps the officer had been prepared for something like this? If that was the case then Ghassan had to hope he’d out-thought the man.

  As the raiders bore down on the jetty and Ghassan prepared for the next step, he almost laughed as he saw Tain, seated on a cleat, pull a rope by his feet until it tightened. The coils he’d been carefully manoeuvring with his foot straightened at the ankles of the two men by the brazier and, with a squawk, the officer and his companion were swept from their feet, the former landing on his back on the jetty, while the latter disappeared into the water with a splash.

  With a wave to the small group beside him, Ghassan climbed to the top of the pile of crates. From their slightly elevated position, they had a better view of what was happening on deck.

  The soaking pirates who had swum across and climbed the ship’s side using the well-designed hand holds Samir had had carved for situations just like this finally reached the rail at their side and began to clamber over, just as most of the soldiers on board had rushed over to the jetty side to aid their comrades below.

  “Now!”

  Beside Ghassan, the men of his third party began to swing their slingshots and bolas and let the missiles fly at any target aboard that presented itself. Several men standing at the jetty-side rail were caught unawares as the small stones pounded them. One man, unfortunate indeed, was the recipient of a thrown bolas that caught him at the knees, tying up his legs just as a small, smooth stone caught him a glancing blow on the forehead. Unconscious even as he fell, the guard toppled over the rail, alongside several of his companions. The men variously fell to the jetty with a thud or disappeared with a splash.

  The distraction of the main charge was enough. The men who’d swum across and climbed the far side were now spreading out on the deck and disappearing into the doorways. It would all be over in a few minutes. Then would begin the difficult part: getting away from the dock intact.

  With a nod of satisfaction, he noted that the assault group on the jetty had reached the far end, downing or pushing into the water anyone who resisted. Two men on board began to lower the boarding ramp as the others dealt with the remaining defenders.

  Turning to his missile troops, Ghassan grinned.

  “Alright lads. Let’s fetch the oars and get on board.”

  As they dropped down from the higher crates and rushed to collect the piles of long oars from the side of the building where they’d been stacked, Ghassan looked up when someone shouted his name. With a smile, he recognised Ursa and a number of men rushing down the main thoroughfare of the port and making for the Empress.

  “Glad you could join us, mister Ursa.”

  “Well, sir. You know how hard it is to leave a comfy fireside and come out in the cold.”

  Ghassan laughed as the escaped pirates began to swarm across the jetty and up to the ship, preparing to get her underway. Ursa stopped amid the commotion and addressed his commander.

  “Hope you’ve got something up your sl
eeve still? There are four navy vessels in port and they’re all as fast as us. We’re not away free yet…”

  Ghassan smiled.

  “We’ll see, mister Ursa.”

  In which paths diverge

  The carriage rattled slowly and uncomfortably along the track toward Pelasia. Despite the fact that this was the closest she had managed to regaining what she had lost, Asima sat brooding and seething in the rickety vehicle. The encounter with that uncanny bitch at the staging post a couple of hours ago had sent her into a deep sense of disgruntlement and every time she tried to calm her mind or sleep, visions of that unholy ragged desert witch and her keen insights insisted themselves once more upon her thoughts.

  “To hell with her.”

  Many years ago, as an ‘innocent’ girl, she had travelled this very road in just such a coach with vapid, pointless companions on the way to Akkad. Strangely, that time she had been a virtual slave with an uncertain future and yet she had been relatively at peace. Now, while she was an adult with a sense of purpose, her destiny in her own capable hands and travelling on her own, something gnawed at the edges of her consciousness and made her unsettled. With a sigh she sat back heavily.

  Ridiculously, this carriage was so old and dreadful that it was entirely possible it was the same damn coach she’d been sent in that first time.

  Everything would be better when she got to Pelasia.

  Another deep sigh and she realised that she was staring angrily at the empty seat opposite her. Reaching to her side, she pulled back the black curtain to see one of the cavalrymen riding alongside on escort duty.