Pirate of the Prophecy

by Jack Campbell

  Another blow to her left shoulder knocked Jules into the sailors on the right side of the gauntlet. She shoved off of them, getting back to her feet in time for another hit to hurl her to the left.

  She kept walking, trying to keep her eyes on the quarterdeck as her body rocked under repeated blows. The sailors had been cheering when Jules had entered the gauntlet, but had fallen silent as she walked between them and endured hit after hit.

  Another strike in the back knocked her down to her hands and knees. Jules, breathing heavily and hurting all over, got one knee up and then the other, managing to get to her feet again. She could taste blood in her mouth, feel blood on her arms and legs where strikes had broken skin. One eye felt swollen, limiting vision that was already bleary.

  Almost there. She staggered onward, a final strike knocking her against the ladder leading up to the quarterdeck.

  She held on to the ladder, trying not to fall.

  “You have to get up the ladder,” a familiar voice told her. Liv didn’t have to speak loudly to be heard. The crew was watching silently.

  Jules pulled herself up the ladder step by step, breathing heavily, leaving bloodstains on the steps. At the top, she couldn’t get up to her feet, dropping to her hands and knees again on the quarterdeck.

  She could barely make out when Captain Mak knelt beside her, a blurry image to one side. “Are you that crazy, then?” Mak asked.

  Jules had to spit a gob of blood and saliva before she could answer. “I don’t…give up…I don’t…quit.”

  “You’ve made that clear.” Mak’s hand grasped her arm, pulling Jules to her feet. She stood, wavering, hoping that she wouldn’t throw up, as the captain yelled to the crew. “Does she pass?”

  The crew roared its approval, the men and women who’d just beaten her rushing up the ladder to grab Jules and cheer.

  * * *

  Jules clenched her teeth in pain as the bucket of sea water splashed across her back and rolled along her arms and legs, salt stinging in the cuts, the cold somehow making the developing bruises feel worse.

  “Doesn’t look like any broken bones,” someone said. “This girl must be made of iron.”

  She was rolled onto her back, someone’s hands going over her limbs with firm and sure movements.

  Liv’s face came into Jules’ view. “This is Keli, our healer. He’s not going to feel any parts on you he shouldn’t.”

  Jules nodded slightly, not wanting to move her swollen lip and sore jaw.

  Keli was an old man, Jules saw, but his hands were strong and his gaze still keen as he looked closely into Jules’ eyes. “No sign of brain trauma. Doesn’t look out of her mind, either, though why anyone in a right mind would walk a gauntlet instead of running it I don’t know.”

  “She’s a sister,” Liv said. “Landfall Legion Orphanage.”

  “Oh. That makes ’em tough or breaks ’em, doesn’t it? Is that where you learned to walk a gauntlet, girl?”

  Jules nodded slightly again.

  “Did you think the crew’d go easy on you because you were walking?” Keli pressed.

  Jules shook her head. “I can…take it,” she whispered.

  Keli leaned closer to her, speaking slowly and clearly. “You can also get harmed for life, hurt so bad you can’t think straight any more or use your legs. You’re young, girl, not invincible. That body of yours can take a lot of punishment, but too much and it’ll break. Next time run the blasted gauntlet.”

  “She’s proven herself,” Liv said. “You don’t understand, Keli. A girl out of the orphan homes, no matter what she does, there’re those who say she only got it because she traded her body for it. I know how Jeri feels. She didn’t want anyone to be able to question that she passed that gauntlet test. And no one can question it. She won’t have to run another.”

  “Ha!” Keli stood up, pointing to Jules. “That one? I know the likes of that one. She’ll spend her life running gauntlets. Or walking them. Trying to prove she’s as good as anyone no matter what it costs. Sometimes folks like that grow into fine people. Usually they end up dead long before their time.”

  Jules thought about that, about risking death, when the Great Guilds already wanted her dead and the Emperor would want her as his slave. Despite the pain she smiled at the absurdity of it. She saw the others staring at her, but Jules kept smiling.

  * * *

  It took two days before Keli let her get up. By then her bruises had all blossomed and her joints stiffened, so that every movement brought twinges of pain or worse. Liv and Ang helped Jules up on deck, where the fresh air was a welcome respite from the stuffiness below decks.

  She sat on the deck with her back against one bulwark, looking up at the sails. “Tell me the truth,” she asked Liv and Ang. “Is this ship a pirate vessel?”

  “Depends what you mean by that,” Liv said, grinning.

  “Do we sometimes relieve other ships of cargo and money?” Ang said. “Yes. Do we smuggle items ashore in the Empire, or out of it, without paying the taxes the Emperor’s many hands demand? Yes. But we’ve got rules.”

  “Such as?” Jules asked.

  “No rape,” Liv said. “No murder. If someone fights us, we can do what we need to. But no killing beyond that. No taking from them that are worse off than us.”

  “We’re a free ship,” Ang said. “We’ve all escaped Imperial rules, but that doesn’t mean we’re lacking rules. That’s what they claim, isn’t it? Without the rules and laws of the Emperor we’d all run amuck and chaos would rule, right? We want to prove that wrong, that men and women can have the right to make their own decisions and still make good decisions.”

  It sounded very strange, but Jules nodded, wincing slightly as her neck muscles protested the movement. “I can get behind that. What if I hadn’t?”

  “After your walking of the gauntlet? We’d put you ashore someplace safe.”

  “How’d you end up in the orphanage?” Liv asked. “Me, my father died of a fever, and my mother supposedly died in an accident. But I was old enough to know an Imperial official had his eye on her, and she didn’t want to play. Maybe it wasn’t such an accident. But she was dead and I was alone, so into the orphanage I went.”

  “My mother died in childbirth,” Jules said. She didn’t have any trouble talking about it. The orphans had their secrets, but always shared the reasons they’d ended up alone. “I was five years old. All I knew was she went into labor, and the next day they came and told me something had gone wrong and she and the baby had both died. They never even told me if the baby had been a brother or a sister to me. I was handed off to another family in the legion camp because my father was on campaign, but when we heard that he’d died in the Northern Ramparts it was off to the orphan home for me.”

  Jules paused, remembering. “The funny thing is, my mother and my father died on the same day. I didn’t know until we received the news about Father.”

  “A Mage killed my mother,” Ang said. “Mechanics killed my father. I don’t know why. Maybe he said the wrong thing when they gave him an order.” He gazed at the sails above them. “The Great Guilds made me an orphan. I hate them worse than most people do.”

  Jules looked up as Captain Mak approached.

  He stood, looking down at her as if once more appraising her. “Can you walk, Jeri of Landfall?”

  “I can walk,” Jules said, but she needed a little help from both Liv and Ang to stand before following the captain into his cabin beneath the quarterdeck.

  Mak waved her to one of the chairs at the small table, sitting down in the other and watching her lower herself into the seat with careful movements. “I’m trying to decide if you knew what you were doing,” Mak said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that walking the gauntlet was the sort of act that gave you status. Do you know that? You’re not just a new member of the crew. You’re that girl that walked the gauntlet.” Mak finished speaking, watching her again in a way that made Jules unco
mfortable.

  “Is that why you wanted to talk to me?” Jules finally said.

  “No.” Mak waved off to the south. “Back in Jacksport, something happened. We have a rule, that no one needs tell of why they came this ship. But I’ve talked to some who were ashore that night. Some just heard rumor of a Mage prophecy as being behind the uproar. But a few heard the words of the prophecy.”

  He paused again.

  Jules tried to shrug as if unconcerned, an effort undone by the muscle aches that caused her to wince with pain. She hoped her that the accelerated beating of her heart wasn’t obvious to Mak. “Why…do you mention that?”

  Mak leaned forward, his forearms resting on the table between them, his eyes on her. “Because, Jeri of Landfall, what those few heard was that a Mage had looked at a young woman in Imperial uniform and prophesized that her daughter would overthrow the Great Guilds.”

  “A daughter of her line,” Jules said. “Not her daughter. That’s what I heard.”

  “Oh. That’s a vast difference, is it?”

  “It is,” Jules said, feeling the frustration and anger come into her voice. “That means it could be a long time before that happens.”

  “I see,” Mak said. “But that young woman has to live with the burden of it, even though she’ll never benefit from it. Is that what you mean?”

  “I guess. I mean, yes, sir.”

  The captain sat back in his chair, his eyes still on her. “I’m thinking that the Mages will kill her if they find her. Do they know who she is?”

  “No, sir,” Jules said. “I don’t think so.”

  “Both Great Guilds? That daughter of her line will overthrow both? So the Mechanics wouldn’t want her to live, either.”

  “I guess not. I don’t know how Mechanics think.”

  “I’m wondering what sort of woman could have such a daughter,” Mak said. “The sort who walked a gauntlet, maybe. The sort who came aboard this ship with an Imperial officer’s uniform hidden in a bag.”

  Jules sighed, meeting his eyes and dropping all pretense. “My life is in your hands, sir.”

  “Your life?” Mak got up, walking a couple of steps to look out the windows that gave a view over the stern of the ship. “The Great Guilds rule us all. They do what they please, and we have to endure it. They’d pay a lot for that young woman, I’m guessing. But could they pay enough? Because someday a girl born of her line will free the children or grandchildren or great-grands that I and every other common person on Dematr might have. How much would their freedom be worth? You tell me that.”

  “I can’t,” Jules said.

  “Why didn’t you run to the Emperor?”

  “I knew what he’d do to me.”

  Mak snorted. “There are advantages to growing up in a hard place. It wears off illusions and any belief that ideals will protect you from those without ideals. A girl who’d been raised in a happy, whole family might well have trusted in the Emperor.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” Jules said, hearing the cold come into her voice.

  “I would.” Mak kept his eyes out the windows as he spoke. “My daughter was taken from me by the Mechanics when she was ten years old. They said she had the inherent skills they needed. The Emperor I’d trusted to protect me and my family did nothing. My wife fell ill after. The healers said it was a sickness the devices of the Mechanics might be able to heal, so I wrote to my daughter and begged her help. I never heard a word back from her. And my wife died. Of a broken heart at losing her daughter as much as any other ill, I’ve always believed. And then, with my wife dead and me as good as dead to the girl who’d been our daughter, I knew I’d been lied to, and I went West.”

  Jules watched him, hearing the old pain in his voice. “I’m sorry.”

  Mak shook his head. “Sorry doesn’t bring back what’s lost.”

  “What are you going to do, sir?” Jules asked.

  “About what?”

  “About me.”

  He looked at her again. “I don’t remember anything special about you, Jeri of Landfall. Nothing at all. You’re just another member of the crew. Right?”

  “Yes, sir,” Jules said.

  “I don’t know what course you’ll have to steer. You’re sailing a path no one else knows. But you have nothing to fear from me.” Mak jerked his head to indicate outside. “There are some in the crew, men, who might try to force their way into that prophecy, if you know what I mean.”

  “Yes,” Jules said. “The same sort of thing the Emperor would do, but without any façade of legality.”

  “Just so. The rest of the crew would see them hanging from a yardarm afterwards, but that might be scant comfort to you. And there are some women in the crew who might see the profit that betrayal would bring. Keep it close for now. Once you’re really part of us, after you’ve been aboard a while, the odds that anyone would cause you harm will be much less. And I’ve already mentioned in passing to everyone that you came aboard early enough that you couldn’t be that woman the Mage saw.”

  Jules got to her feet despite the pain that caused. “Thank you, Captain Mak.”

  “I’ve done nothing as far as anyone but us two is concerned. To others I just wanted to see if you’re all right,” Mak said. “Healer Keli says you’re doing fine.”

  “Healer Keli knows what he’s doing, but I’m not sure ‘fine’ is the right word for how I’m feeling at the moment.”

  Mak grinned. “Tell Keli to give you a shot of rum at bedtime for the next few days. That’ll help a little.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Jules headed for the door but paused when Mak spoke again.

  “Jeri.”

  “Yes?”

  “Live, girl. Have your children. For all of us.”

  “I’ll try,” Jules said, for some reason not wanting to disappoint this man.

  * * *

  Within another day Jules was working alongside the rest of the crew, still hurting with almost every movement but knowing she had to keep stretching and using the muscles or they’d stiffen on her.

  With the winds coming out of the uncharted west, the Sun Queen sailed north on a beam reach that was nearly at right angles to the wind. Without the need to tack against the wind, the crew only had to adjust the angle of the yardarms occasionally to best catch the wind as it shifted about.

  Captain Mak had called the crew together, putting down on the deck between the foremast and the mainmast a map that was partly a chart in the eastern portions and mostly guesswork in the west. A cutlass held down the head of the chart and a pair of wooden marlinspikes weighed down the bottom corners. As everyone watched and listened, Mak pointed to the chart. “We’re heading up toward the north shore of the Sea of Bakre because there’s word of another settlement along the coast that could use the cargo we’re carrying. The people I talked to in Jacksport say a woman named Kelsi is running the place.”

  “Kelsi of Sandurin?” Ang asked.

  “Maybe. You know of her?”

  “Met someone who sailed with her. Mostly smuggling runs.” Ang thought as he balanced on the shrouds to look down on the map. “Sharp captain, he said. Not someone you’d want to cross.”

  “But a fair dealer?” Mak said.

  “Yes, Cap’n. As far as I heard.”

  “Good enough.” Mak pointed to the western part of the Sea of Bakre. “There’s a chance we’ll encounter a ship going to or coming from Altis when we cross the waters between there and Sandurin. If it looks like a decent prize, we’ll get close enough to judge if we want to take it.”

  “Altis is way out there? How’d a city get so far west?” another sailor asked.

  “Don’t ask that of me,” Mak said. “I’ve no knowledge of it.”

  Keli spoke up. “Altis has always been there. It’s as old as Landfall.”

  “But the Emperor hasn’t taken over Altis,” Mak said. “Which means the Great Guilds have told him hands off. It also means we check out any ship from Altis closely to make sure there’re
no Mechanics or Mages aboard before we capture it. We don’t need the Great Guilds putting us on their agendas. Any more discussion? No? Ang, call the vote.”

  “All in favor of the course of action proposed, raise your hand and say aye,” Ang shouted.

  Jules, watching and listening in amazement, raised hers along with everyone else. “Aye.”

  “The course of action is approved by vote of the crew,” Ang told Mak.

  “Thank you,” Mak said, rolling up the chart/map.

  Baffled, Jules watched the captain walk back to his cabin. “We all had a voice in that? The captain really can’t do whatever he wants just because he’s in charge?”

  “That’s right,” Liv said, smiling as if amused by her confusion. “We all get to say whether we support his plan or not.”

  “But, that’s…what is that?”

  Ang laughed. “It’s nothing you’ll see on Imperial soil, where those in charge don’t have to worry about what those under them think. People who’ve escaped the empire…and we’ve all done that, haven’t we? They always have trouble believing it.”

  “What happens if we see a ship?” she asked Ang and Liv. “Do we vote again on whether to attack?”

  “No,” Liv said. “We’ve approved the captain’s plan, so he’s responsible for making it work. If we see a ship, he’ll make the call on whether to attack it.”

  “So sometimes he’s the captain, and sometimes he needs to ask the crew if he can do something?”

  “Pretty much,” Ang said.

  “That seems a little bizarre,” Jules said.

  “Nah, not really. We want to control what happens to us, so we get to vote on the big plan. But we know someone has to be in charge when things are happening, so we let the cap’n have that authority. It’s, uh, what do they call that, Liv?”

  “A compromise,” Liv said. “Sometimes compromises make sense.”

  Jules leaned back against the lower shrouds, looking out at the restless waters. “Sometimes they don’t, though.”

  “Right. Sometimes they don’t. Hey, if we might face some trouble, you need to practice with a cutlass. You ever used one?”