“They probably have orders not to hurt me!” Jules called back over her shoulder. She hoped so, anyway. The Emperor wouldn’t want a badly injured, or dead, reluctant bride and brood mare.
Of course the legionaries might not know who she was even though she was wearing her Imperial uniform. But if she moved, they’d have a clear shot at Mak, and at the woman at the helm. This had all happened because of her. She wouldn’t let someone else take those crossbow bolts, even though her grip on the wood of the quarterdeck’s rail was slick with sweat as she waited fearfully for the impacts that might end her life.
“Get down, you idiot!” Mak yelled.
“No! Get this ship clear!” Jules yelled back, realizing on the heels of her words that she’d just shouted an order to the captain of the ship.
The legionary commander, who must be Colonel Yosef, glowered at her across the water separating them, his anger strong enough that Jules could almost feel the heat even across the growing distance to the pier. “Follow your oath to the Emperor, Lieutenant!”
Jules shook her head. “The Emperor will never have me.”
“He will!” Colonel Yosef snapped orders to his soldiers holding crossbows, who shifted their aim to the sailors in the rigging. But as the legionaries fired, the Sun Queen suddenly yawed, throwing off the aim of the crossbows and making the bolts go wild. Some sailors lost their balance as the masts jolted beneath them, but their shipmates caught them in time to keep any from falling from the yardarms.
Jules glanced behind her, seeing that Mak had ordered the helm jerked over to cause the ship to yaw at the right moment. But the crossbow carriers were reloading again, and the Sun Queen was still well within range of those weapons.
She stood at the rail, shifting her position as the Sun Queen moved and the angle between the legionaries on the pier and their targets behind her changed.
Liv charged up to her and pulled Jules down before she knew what was happening. Jules managed to break away from Liv and stood up again. “Leave me alone!”
“This is even more stupid than walking a gauntlet!” Liv shouted at her, reaching for her again.
“Get down!” Jules ordered Liv as the crossbows readied again.
The Sun Queen rolled, coming around fast, the sails filling, sailors at the lines swinging the yardarms to catch the wind, a flurry of crossbow bolts flying harmlessly past as their targets moved too quickly for good aim. Jules looked around as the Sun Queen steadied out, seeing the legionaries and the pier were now on the opposite side of the ship, off the stern quarter.
She’d only taken one step that way when a furious Mak blocked her. “Don’t! Or I swear that I’ll personally knock you out with a marlinspike and have you dragged below.”
A last volley of bolts chased the Sun Queen, some thudding home in the stern. “Yes, sir,” Jules said.
“You’ll follow orders, Jeri, or you’ll be off this ship!”
“Yes, sir.” Jules nodded toward the south, wondering why her mind felt so calm when her body was shaking. “Don’t forget there’s a galley coming from that way.”
“Get the blazes off this quarterdeck!” Mak told her. “Liv! Get her below deck!”
“Yes, Captain.” Liv took Jules’ arm, leading her down the ladder to the deck. Once there, she paused to give Jules an amazed look. “You’re not hurt? Why didn’t they shoot you?”
“The Emperor wants me alive,” Jules said.
“Blazes, girl, what’d you do?”
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Jules said.
“Sail to the south!” the lookout called.
Jules broke free from Liv and ran to the shrouds, racing up them to the main top. She stood, balancing, one hand on a stay, staring to the south.
One mast. One sail. “It’s the galley.”
Mages were on that ship. Could they tell where she was? She needed to warn Captain Mak.
Liv appeared beside her. “Jeri, if you don’t get your butt down below deck right now, Captain Mak will probably toss that butt off the stern for the Imperials to pick up. And the rest of you with it. He’s that unhappy with you.”
Jules felt herself sagging with exhaustion, her energy suddenly spent. “All right. I’m going. Tell Captain Mak…” How could she pass the message about the Mages through Liv? “Tell Captain Mak there’s something I have to tell him that I can only say to him. But I’m going below deck now because he ordered that.”
She made it down to the deck and staggered toward the closest ladder down, only to have a firm hand grab her shoulder. “What is it?” Mak asked, his expression stony, his eyes still angry.
“Mages on that galley,” Jules muttered. “They knew I was going to be in Saraston. They might, somehow, be able to tell where I am.”
He eyed her, nodding. “All right. Thank you for reminding me. What’s the matter? Did you get hit?”
“No, sir. I’m just worn out.”
“I wonder how that happened. Get below. If we need you to deal with the galley and the Mages I’ll call you.”
She thought maybe Mak was being sarcastic, but wasn’t certain.
* * *
Jules passed out while sitting at one of the mess tables, waking up finally in her hammock where someone had carried her, still wearing the Imperial officer’s uniform. Apparently they had managed to avoid the galley since she hadn’t heard any sounds of fighting. Jules managed to get up to use the head, change back into her sailor clothing, and get some food, planning to go on deck to help work the ship, only to have Ang tell her she was confined below by order of the captain.
All right. She’d disobeyed orders. She could understand being punished for that. Even if she had saved Mak’s ungrateful life.
Her banishment lasted until sunset, passing crew members expressing muted admiration for what she’d done in Saraston. Finally, Ang came down. “The cap’n wants to see you in his cabin.”
“Fine,” Jules muttered. She held up the uniform. “Is it all right if I toss this overboard?”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Ang said. “It came in real handy. We might need it again.”
She dropped the uniform on the table and walked up on deck, then to the door to the captain’s cabin. “Jeri of Landfall, reporting as ordered.”
“Come in.”
He still sounded mad. She went inside, closing the door behind her, but staying standing near it.
Mak, sitting at the table, gave her a glower. “What the blazes was that about?”
“Could the captain be more specific, sir?”
“Everything that happened today. In Saraston.”
Jules held herself at attention. “It was about saving your life, sir.” Let him complain about that. “And repaying a debt.”
“You could’ve easily been killed or captured!”
“You’re welcome, sir.”
He jumped to his feet, coming closer, his eyes almost glowing with anger. “Jeri, this isn’t a joke! Putting yourself between me and those crossbows! What the blazes were you thinking?”
“I knew they wouldn’t hurt me, sir,” Jules said.
“You knew nothing of the kind!”
“I can’t die, sir,” she said, her voice growing rough. “You know that. I have to have at least one blasted child first!”
“You don’t know that!” Mak said in a low growl, his face nearly touching hers. “The Mages wouldn’t be wanting to kill you unless they thought the prophecy could be stopped with your death! So don’t tell me you’re invincible! You’re just as likely to die as any man or woman! And I won’t have your death on me!”
He spun away, walking back to the table, his back to her. When Mak spoke again, his voice held forced calm. “Jeri, I’ve got enough deaths on me. People I should have protected. Don’t make yourself into another memory of failure for me.”
“I wasn’t going to let you die,” Jules said.
“Why not? What am I to you?”
“My captain. And the man who gave me saf
e harbor when I needed it.”
He turned again, his eyes studying her. “Don’t you go thinking I’m more than that to you, Jeri. My life was meant for one woman. I had her, I lost her, and there’ll never be another.”
Jules felt words momentarily caught in her throat. “Sir…I…you mistake my…feelings, sir. It’s not that.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. I don’t… You’re a fine man. I admire you as a leader. But I can’t imagine you…and me…like that. You’re…”
“Old,” Mak said.
“No! I mean, not old. But older. Too old for…”
“A woman your age. We’re in full agreement on that.” Mak finally relaxed. “You scared me, Jeri. Scared me with the risks you took and scared me with what you might be thinking. And feeling.” Mak sat down, running one hand through his hair. “You’re crew, Jeri. I have a responsibility to look out for you.”
“What if I weren’t crew?” Jules pressed.
He studied her again for a moment. “You’d still be a lot less than half my age, and deserving of a man close to your own age.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jules said, feeling her own tension subside. “I’m relieved to know that.”
“Have I given you any reason to think I’d do otherwise?”
“No, sir. You haven’t. Experiences with other men have given me reason. I’m sorry I judged you based on experiences I’d rather not explain further.”
“That’s all right. I’ve probably heard about similar experiences. That’s one of the reasons I resolved not to be a predatory old fool. And I’m sorry I misread your motivation. It seemed far more than I deserved.” He surprised her with a sudden laugh. “But I’ve never heard of anything like today! Stars above! How’d you do it? I saw you walking into that house with a bunch of legionaries answering to you and I thought I must’ve been slipped one of those mushrooms that make the world go strange.”
“Sir, I was just making it up as I went,” Jules confessed.
“Don’t do it again,” Mak said. “I mean that, Jeri.”
Her temper flared as she thought of how he’d gotten into trouble to begin with. “Make me part of the planning next time and I won’t have to! Sir!”
He smiled. “You’ll be part of the planning next time. I guarantee it. And Jeri, my name is Mak. This isn’t the Imperial legions. You don’t have to call me sir.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Get back to work, Jeri.”
* * *
Several years before, a captain named Kelsi had been shipwrecked on the north coast of the Sea of Bakre. She’d made the best of it, getting her badly damaged ship into a natural harbor with an open valley before it. Though hemmed in by the Northern Ramparts mountains, the harbor was a good one, and the valley broad enough for settlement. Kelsi used the wreckage to construct the first buildings there, and within a few years men and women seeking escape from the domination of the Empire had swelled the numbers of her settlement into a small town.
The Sun Queen hadn’t been able to get food or water at Saraston, so Captain Mak had taken them north and west to Kelsi’s settlement, a remote-enough spot that they were unlikely to find any Imperial presence there. The ship had tied up at a newly-built pier that seemed sturdy enough to hold her even if the weather rose. Searching the city from the maintop, Jules didn’t see any sign of Mages or Mechanics. Apparently neither of the Great Guilds had yet taken notice of this place.
“Come ashore with me,” Liv urged her. “I’ll keep an eye on you. Unless you’d prefer I turn a blind eye to whatever you want to get into. You might meet a handsome fella. You never know.”
Jules laughed at the idea. “I’m not into casual encounters,” she said.
“That’s your call. But at least get a drink and maybe a decent meal. It’s not healthy to stay aboard the ship all the time.”
“I was ashore at Saraston,” Jules said.
“Doesn’t count. You were too busy having fun to have any fun.”
“Fun?” Jules said, following Liv off the ship. “Has the captain told you anything about what happened?”
“Just about you ordering around half the garrison in town,” Liv said. “This place looks good.”
The waterside bar didn’t exactly look good to Jules. Rough exterior of reclaimed timber, a couple of small windows, and a door that had come from some other structure. As she stared at that door, she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened the last time she’d walked into a tavern.
But there was no good way to explain to Liv being afraid to enter a bar. And she’d always prided herself on not being afraid to try, on being able to take anything.
Jules set her mouth and walked behind Liv into the dim interior, her eyes taking a moment to adjust after the glare of the late afternoon sun.
There were other sailors in the tavern, scattered at a variety of battered tables that hosted a variety of chairs that looked used and abused. Two of them, Gord and Marta, were off the Sun Queen. Jules and Liv took a pair of seats at the small bar, whose top was an uneven, solid slab of rock. Sawdust covered the floor, giving off a fresh scent to war with less savory smells that were probably reminders of unfortunate outcomes from prior customers who’d overindulged. A girl far too young to actually partake of the bottles behind the bar poured them two glasses of clear liquid and took a coin from Liv in payment.
Liv sniffed the liquid. “Rum. About as raw as it comes. Here’s to freedom and adventure on the great blue sea.”
Jules clinked her glass with Liv’s and took a cautious sip. “Raw” was probably as good a way as any to describe the feel of the alcohol as it ran down her throat. This rum was only one step up from the rotgut sold in the alleys of Landfall, and a long ways down from the booze sold in the respectable bars that she’d visited with other officers in training over the last couple of years.
Liv finished her first glass and ordered another as Jules nursed her drink. “You ever have a serious man, Jeri?” Liv asked as she took a swallow of the second drink.
“Not really,” Jules said. “There was a guy who let me know that if I wanted to be serious, he did, too. Does that count?”
“Not if you didn’t return it. Did you?”
“No,” Jules said, taking a drink, her eyes on the surface of the bar, feeling moody as the rum brought up memories. “I felt bad about that. Ian was a good guy, from a good family.”
“A good family? Did he know you were out of a legion orphan home?”
“Yes.”
“And he let you know he’d still want you?” Liv shook her head. “Why’d you let him go?”
“I told you. I didn’t feel that way about him,” Jules said, draining the rest of her glass in a rush and feeling the alcohol hit her. “Maybe I would’ve, someday, if… I should’ve killed him, Liv. Him and Dara both.”
“What?” Liv stared at Jules. “What’re you drinking, girl? Did you take anything with that? Not those blue pills. Did you take one of those blue pills?”
“No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said…forget it.”
“How many people is it you think you should’ve killed?” Liv asked, as if uncertain whether to be wary or amused.
“Just those two. And that woman on the ship we captured. And maybe Karl the Mechanic. And that Mage.” Jules felt her jaw lock with fear. What had she just said?
“Which Mage?” Liv asked, her voice soft and sympathetic. Encounters with Mages usually resulted in painful memories for anyone who survived. Everyone knew that.
Jules got down off of her chair, stumbling slightly, appalled by how much the drink was affecting her. It was because she was in a bar again, she realized. The unrelieved stress of her last experience in a bar, the Mage staring into her eyes, was rising out of the depths of her mind and hitting her with all the fear and confusion that Jules had been forced to put aside during that first frantic night of flight. “I’m not saying anything else. I need to get out of here. Back to the ship. Right away.”
<
br /> “All right, Jeri, all right. Take it easy. I’ll walk you back safe. You’re in safe hands, sister. You know that.”
“Thank you.” Jules managed to walk to the door without stumbling, pausing to glance down the street and jerking herself to a halt in the doorway so abruptly that Liv slammed into her back.
“What’s the matter now?” Liv asked.
“Two Mages outside,” Jules whispered. “They weren’t out there when I looked before.”
Liv took a cautious look. “They’re way down the street. Three or four hundred lances, at least. We can steer clear of them.”
“They could see me,” Jules said. “Us, I mean. They could see us.”
“From a ways off, yeah.” Liv’s curious look grew concerned. “What’d Mages do to you? Something that makes even the sight of them unbearable?”
“No. I…” Jules tried to think. “Liv, I can’t let them see me. Even from a distance. I don’t know how close they have to be to…see something. To know where I am. Like they did at Saraston, Liv. They knew I was going to be at Saraston. What if they knew I was going to be here?”
“They knew you’d be at Saraston? Jeri, you only had the one drink. You’re sure you didn’t take anything else?”
“Blast it, Liv, those Mages might be after me! If you care for me at all, help me figure out how to get back to the ship!”
“All right. Trust me.” Liv nodded slowly, worried eyes resting on Jules. “Slump over. Act like you can’t stand. I’ll hold you up. Hey! Gord and Marta! Get us a plank to carry Jeri on. She got some bad booze and can’t walk.”
Trusting in Liv, Jules kept her eyes mostly closed, acting like someone drugged who was barely conscious. She felt herself being laid on a plank of wood not really wide enough to hold her, her arms and legs dangling off each side. Liv draped her coat high up on Jules’ chest so that Jules’ face was covered as well. She felt the plank lifted, Liv’s hand keeping Jules from sliding off to one side or the other as Gord and Marta carried the plank back to the Sun Queen. Jules found it very difficult to lie still as the plank jolted under her, sometimes causing her head to rise enough to whack back down painfully hard. The buzz of the alcohol made it worse, dizzying her so that Jules started to wonder if she’d throw up.
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