Voyager of the Crown

by Melissa McShane

  “If I wanted to start a war, sure. I still care enough about my family not to want to hurt them. I suppose I hope someday they’ll come to their senses, or at least understand my point of view. Were you ever married?”

  “What?”

  “Sorry, I thought it was your turn to answer.”

  “Have you always been this persistent?”

  “It’s a doctor’s most important quality. Well, no, the most important quality is the ability to cure your patients. But persistence is part of that.”

  Zara couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Yes. I was married once.”

  Ransom was silent. “What, no more questions?” Zara asked.

  “I just realized,” he said, his voice somber, “how that story must have ended. I’m sorry.”

  His sudden seriousness left her wordless. “Thank you,” she finally said. “It was a long time ago. He never knew the truth.”

  “What were you planning to do?”

  “I didn’t have a plan. I loved him, and I wanted a normal life. He died in an accident before it became an issue.”

  “I see.”

  “You think I was wrong.”

  “It’s not my place to judge you.” He turned to look at her again. “I’m serious about that. I can barely imagine what your life must be like.”

  “It’s…not so bad.” Was it so bad? She’d had so many moments of happiness, it seemed wrong to dwell on the negatives. “I’ve seen a lot. Two wars, the growth of three countries. Changes in Devisery. I was—” She could tell him this, it didn’t give anything away. “I remember the first telecoders. They were huge, and it cost a fortune to send messages. Now they’re the size of a shoebox and people use them as casually as breathing.”

  “See, that’s exactly what I meant,” Ransom said. “You’ve seen so much and you’re going to see so much more.”

  “I suppose. I try not to think about it. It’s hard leaving people behind.”

  “That, I can imagine.” Ransom dug his toe in the soft sand. “You really should try to get some rest.”

  “I will. Good night, Ransom. And…thank you.”

  “For pestering you with impertinences?”

  “For reminding me my life doesn’t have to be tragedy.”

  His blond hair shone in the moonlight. “I suppose,” he said without turning around, “it depends on what you do with it.”

  His voice, always deep, had taken on a somber tone again, and she wondered what he was thinking, but decided they’d had enough of a heartfelt conversation for one night. Admit it, she told herself, you like talking to him, and telling him things is a release. She fell asleep thinking of Longbourne without sorrow.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The moon had set by the time Arjan roused Zara for her watch. She stood at the edge of the water, straining to see the pirate ship, and listened to the raucous nighttime noises of the jungle. Ransom was right: if anything dangerous came near—anything large, probably—all those smaller animals would go still. Even so, after realizing there was no way she’d see the ship move until dawn, she paced the edge of the jungle, breathing in its moist warmth that smelled of humus and green and slapping away insects. Getting out on the ocean in the morning was going to be a huge relief, if only to get away from the bugs.

  When the sky began glowing pale pink, she prodded everyone awake, then stood watching the eastern seas. The ship was still there, its sails catching the dawn light like pale white membranes against the lowering haze of morning. It took Zara a moment to realize what that meant, and then a chill shot through her. “The ship is on the move,” she said. “We have to leave immediately.”

  “We have to gather food, Rowena,” Belinda said. “It’s still a day or two to Goudge’s Folly.”

  “But they don’t have to stop,” Theo pointed out. “We can’t afford to either.”

  “All the more reason to gather food enough to last,” Ransom said. “But hurry.”

  There wasn’t much to gather without spending too much time going inland. They piled up mangoes, papayas, and wild bananas with their enormous seeds, so unsatisfying, but better than nothing, and arranged things in the little boat as best they could. Then Arjan and Theo shoved the boat into deeper water, and Ransom at the tiller guided them westward. Zara sat beside him, now and then glancing back. She couldn’t tell if the pirate ship was drawing nearer, but it felt as if it loomed over them, waiting its moment to blast them with cannon fire.

  “We should stay in the shallows,” she said, “where they can’t follow us.”

  “It a bad idea is,” Cantara said from her position in the bow. “We slow here are. We need the current us to Manachen to carry, and that far from shore is.”

  “The motive force is definitely weaker now,” Ransom said. “But I think it will get us where we’re going.” But Zara was looking at him as he spoke, and his mouth was set in that grim line again.

  “I suppose we can always row,” Theo said, sounding hopeful. No one said anything.

  They made their way slowly along the coast, carried along by the current and the Device. Zara stopped looking behind them at noon. There was no point, when it was clear the pirate ship was gaining on them. She ran her fingers in the rushing water and tried not to see how hard Ransom had to steer into the waves to keep from being thrown off course. He must be regretting the impulse that had led him to throw in his lot with theirs. Not that any of them had suspected pirates, when this all began.

  “How close do they have to be before they begin firing their cannons?” Belinda asked.

  “They won’t use the cannons,” Ransom said, “not if they want to retrieve that Device. They’ll shoot us—” He closed his mouth abruptly and put his hand on the wheel of the Device as if he could turn it up past full, where it already was. Belinda hunched her shoulders.

  Sunset came, and Zara risked one glance at the following ship. The pirates were no more than a mile behind them, their sails once again catching the light of the setting sun. “We can’t afford to stop,” she said to Ransom.

  “I know. We’ll have to take our chances with the current, and hope the moonlight is enough.”

  “The moonlight will help them, too.”

  “Why don’t we focus on the positive?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Well, there could be snakes in here with us.”

  Zara chuckled. “Let me take the tiller,” she said to Ransom. “You sleep for a while.”

  “I can manage,” Ransom said.

  “I know, but Cantara will need to steer once it’s full night, and she’s sleeping now,” Zara said, pointing to where Cantara and Arjan were curled up together. “I’ll take a turn for an hour or so.”

  “I don’t know how they can bear to sleep,” Belinda said. She’d taken Cantara’s seat in the bow and was clutching the gunwale as if to keep herself upright.

  “We’d all better find ways to rest, because we can’t stop.” Ransom handed Zara the tiller and settled himself. “Wake me if the pirates come,” he said with a smile.

  More time passed. Zara handed the tiller to Cantara and napped fitfully amidships, her head on Belinda’s leg. She dreamed of being rocked to sleep in her mother’s arms, though she was an adult and her mother was a giant with blond hair like Alison’s. Then she dreamed of Hank and woke herself with tears running down her face, though she couldn’t remember the dream or if they were happy or grieving tears. Finally dawn came, and she woke to find Ransom back at the wheel and the pirate ship closer than ever. Close enough for rifle fire? It depended on what kind of Devices they had. She judged the distance. If they had black powder rifles, they might have begun shooting already; their range was still longer than the new rifle Devices, according to Telaine. So they were still safe—for now.

  “Rowena, take over,” Ransom said. He had the expression of a man who’d been chewing over some unpleasant truths and come to an unpleasant conclusion. “I have an idea.”

  “What is it?”

 
“I think I can get the Device to give us more speed, but it won’t last long. Possibly enough to get us to Manachen, but maybe not.”

  “How far are we?” Theo asked.

  “Half a day, at our current speed. Those pirates will catch us in an hour if they continue as they’ve been doing. I think I can give us maybe half an hour’s boost in speed, which should be fast enough to take us most of the way to Manachen. Certainly enough to outpace the pirates. Then we can row the rest of the way. But, if I’m wrong, they’ll catch us when we’re dead in the water.”

  Zara looked at her friends and saw nods and gestures of assent. “Do it,” she said.

  She kept the boat as steady as she could while Ransom leaned over the back with his head dangerously close to the thrashing Device, which had been turned to low but still moved. “They’re—” Belinda began, then shut her mouth. None of them needed a reminder.

  Ransom sat up and took the tiller. “When I give the word, turn the wheel to full,” he told Zara, who gripped it tightly. The Device was making strange clunking noises along with its usual throaty purr, and the boat shuddered, then shuddered again, like a bull trying to shake off a persistent fly. Everyone grabbed hold of something. Ransom twitched the tiller one way and then the other, holding out his free arm and sighting along it. “Now,” he said. Zara spun the wheel to full.

  The boat jerked, the Device roared, and then they were flying across the waves, bouncing as they crossed them. Everyone except Ransom and Zara screamed, Ransom because all his attention was focused on keeping a straight course, Zara because the wheel was trying to spin out of her hands. It was terrifying, and exhilarating, and Zara looked back once, briefly, to see the pirate ship receding at an incredible rate. Then she had to focus on the wheel again. “I can’t hold this for long!” she shouted over the noise of the Device.

  “Find something to tie it off with,” Ransom shouted back, “a strap or something.” His knuckles were white on the tiller, and she could see the tendons in his neck standing out.

  “How long can you hold on?” she said, leaning closer.

  “As long as you don’t insist on conversation,” he replied, but he gave her a tight smile that blunted the harshness of his words.

  Zara looked around, didn’t see anything that might work for a strap, and called out, “Belinda! Take off your belt!”

  “What?”

  “Your belt, give me your belt!”

  Belinda crawled back to her and worked her belt free. “Why?”

  “Need to hold the wheel steady.” She directed Belinda in tying the wheel into the “full” position, then sat back and rubbed her sore wrists. “Let me take that!” she said to Ransom.

  “You’re not strong enough,” he said. It looked as if his hands were shaking.

  “Then Arjan!”

  She changed places with the Eskandelic, and with some jerking of the boat from side to side, Arjan took Ransom’s place. Ransom immediately collapsed into the bottom of the boat and began laughing. “Is there something funny about all this?” Zara asked.

  “I can’t believe that worked,” he said, gasping for air. “There was a good chance it would explode and take all of us with it.”

  “You could have said that!” Theo exclaimed.

  “It was a risk of death versus certain death if they caught us.” Ransom sat up and ran his hands through his hair, scratching his scalp. “In a few minutes we’ll slow enough that it won’t be so hard to stay on course. Fifteen or so minutes after that, we’ll be out of fuel and have to row.”

  Zara looked back at the pirate ship, which was once again a speck on the horizon. “Let’s hope it’s enough.”

  ***

  Half an hour later, the Device sputtered, and its purr dwindled to a hum and then went silent. They all sat for a moment, listening to the sound of the waves striking the boat and the sea birds calling to one another. Then Arjan reached into the bottom of the boat and unearthed an oar. “Time to row,” he said, and he and Ransom fitted the oars into the oarlocks.

  Compared to the speed with which they’d sailed across the waves, rowing seemed to get them nowhere. Zara sat in the bow once again and watched the coastline slip past, so slowly it was barely noticeable as progress. She didn’t look back at the pirate ship more than once. It was closer than it had been, and she didn’t need the knife-edged dread of seeing it get closer still. A tiny island slipped past them on the right, just one of many dotting the curve of the coast. None of them were large enough to give them shelter or be anything but a trap.

  The water was dark and warm, and she dipped her hand in it and sniffed the salty brine. How long had it been since she’d stood on the deck of the Emma Covington and contemplated snowy Longbourne? She’d almost lost count of the days. So much had happened it felt like an eternity.

  She turned around to look, not at the oncoming pirate ship, but her fellow fugitives. Ransom and Arjan had removed their shirts and were pulling smoothly in tandem. How would things have been different if they’d all gone west instead of east when they first landed? The pirates might not have been able to catch them before they reached Manachen and Goudge’s Folly, and would have followed them into the city, and who knew how many people they might have killed in their attempt to retrieve the Device?

  And they would never have met Ransom. Would never have drawn him into this mess, more to the point. Funny how he no longer seemed to mind, given his initial reluctance to help them. His shoulders were starting to redden, though no doubt he could heal sunburn easily enough. Not that she was looking. She turned her back on him and tilted her head to let the breeze cool her cheeks.

  “They’re closing in again,” Belinda said.

  “They have the wind,” Cantara said, “and this current helps them as well as it does us.”

  “I could take a turn,” Theo said.

  “We’re fine,” Ransom said with a grunt. “Not much longer.”

  “How can you tell?” Zara said.

  “I can’t. I was being optimistic.”

  “We’re coming to a promontory,” Zara said. “I can’t see beyond it.”

  “Then I’m not just being optimistic. The Bay of Avizi is around that promontory.” Ransom wiped sweat from his forehead. “We might actually make it.”

  “The Bay of Avizi…that’s where Goudge’s Folly is?”

  Ransom nodded. “If we’re lucky, we’ll be far enough ahead of our pursuers to make it to the island. If not, we’ll have to land in Manachen and take our chances there.”

  “How dangerous is that?” Belinda said.

  “Depends on who we talk to. Some of them are more…unfriendly than others. But they’ll just harass us before sending us on. They don’t like foreigners in their country.”

  “Isn’t Goudge’s Folly their country?” asked Theo.

  “It a…I do not know the word,” said Arjan. “Our countries pay to be there.”

  “You mean a lease,” Belinda said.

  “Yes. A lease. Part Veribold, part Eskandel, part Tremontane. A lease for fifty years, but Dineh-Karit can revoke it if they choose. They do not choose because it brings them wealth.”

  “It’s strange, having a piece of Tremontane all the way out here,” Theo said.

  “Not stranger than if we had an embassy in Dineh-Karit. That would be a piece of Tremontane too.” Belinda stretched. “I feel so much more optimistic. How about something to eat?”

  Zara and Theo took the oars while Ransom and Arjan ate, then traded places. Eventually they came around the point of land into a bay big enough to hold a fleet of ships the size of the Emma Covington. A city lay like a scruff of rusty moss on the curve of the bay, bisected by a river larger even than the Kulnius, with peaked red roofs catching the noon sunlight. Nobody spoke, but Zara could feel the relief coming off everyone, including herself. Arjan and Ransom rowed faster. Zara took one last look back at the oncoming pirate ship before the promontory blocked it from view. Surely they were fast enough, even rowing, to make
it to safety.

  Fifteen minutes later, she said, “Why are we slowing?”

  “We fighting the current are,” Arjan said. His voice was tight and breathless.

  “Oh, heaven, there they are,” Belinda said, once again gripping the gunwales. Zara didn’t turn around, feeling irrationally if she could only keep the distant city in her sights, they would make it. They’d come too far to lose at the last minute.

  “Keep pulling,” Ransom said to Arjan. His voice sounded tense, too.

  Zara twisted her hair up and tied it in a knot that would probably fall down in a few minutes. She made herself breathe slowly, in and out. She listened to the slap of the oars against the water and the quieter sound of the waves striking the boat, the louder cries of sea birds flying in and out of the harbor, and, more distantly, the hum of a bustling, thriving seaport. The wind carried with it not only the briny smell of the ocean, but the more distant smells of wood and stone heated by the sun, the smell of civilization.

  Goudge’s Folly was visible to the right, a gently peaked rock covered in buildings that looked similar to those of Manachen. That was a surprise; she’d expected northern architecture. Maybe Dineh-Karit had evicted its citizens from Tammerek in order to give it to the northerners. That suggested they wanted northern trade and weren’t as averse to dealing with foreign savages as she’d thought. She shook her head violently. They were facing death, and she was thinking about politics and trade? She had very skewed priorities.

  She turned to face the oncoming pirate ship. It was so close she could see pirates clinging to the ropes and even standing at the rail, looking back at them. She needed to have a plan. If she gave them what they wanted…no, they’d just kill all of them. And she didn’t want that Ghazarian woman to have the Device. She could throw it overboard—she’d be breaking her promise to Alfred, but better that than letting the wrong person have it, and he’d as much as said it was crucial that didn’t happen. There was a way to get everyone free, but it depended on Ghazarian’s greed outweighing her hatred of Zara…still, it was better than nothing.