Pirate of the Prophecy

by Jack Campbell

The searcher closest to this side would probably spot the marks she’d made running up that steep slope. They’d have to decide whether she’d kept going inland and higher, or if she’d turned left or right. That meant sending someone up to the ledge. She’d barely made it, as lightly dressed as she was and carrying only the revolver and a cutlass. The legionaries had the weight of their armor to contend with.

  Jules paused, looking out over what she could see of the water through the tops of the highest trees growing between the cliffs and the beach.

  Was that the same ship? Returned because they’d already realized that she’d doubled back?

  No. That was Mak on the quarterdeck. It had to be. And the sloop of war coming into view from behind the ship wasn’t flying an Imperial flag.

  Taking the risk of standing tall, Jules looked back along the way she’d come, making out the masts of the ship that had been chasing her.

  Shouts from that direction. Not as calm and confident as they had been. The legionaries had found her path up the slope and realized their prey had found an escape path.

  She had to get down to the beach. Climbing down looked too hazardous to risk.

  Jules still had wrapped about her waist the length of line she’d used to tie herself into the tree at night. She unwrapped it, wishing that she’d taken a much longer length. There wasn’t anything to tie it to. She drew the cutlass and using both hands plunged the sword straight down into the surface of the ledge, putting her weight behind it. It only sank about a third of its short length, but that would have to do. Tying off the line on the cutlass grip, Jules went over the side of the cliff, sliding down as quickly as she dared.

  Her fist encountered the knot on the end of the line far too soon, but she was at least even with the tops of some of the trees growing up from the bottom of the cliff. She felt the line jerk as the cutlass slid a bit from its anchorage in response to her weight. No time to hesitate. Jules kicked herself off from the cliff toward a sturdy-looking tree, letting go of the line and grabbing frantically as she hit the tree to stop herself from falling. The first branch she grabbed broke, she dropped, the second branch broke, she dropped…the third held.

  Jules tried to look down just far enough to see the branches right beneath her. Fortunately, her experience in the rigging of sailing ships helped her keep her head despite the height.

  She went from branch to branch, dropping through them much faster than she could have climbed. Her descent made noise as leaves rustled and twigs snapped, but right now speed was far more important than stealth.

  The final drop to the ground was far enough to worry her, but Jules rolled when she hit and got up with only a twinge in one ankle. The legionaries were calling orders a ways back the way she’d come. No hurry. She walked toward the beach, limping slightly, coming out of the trees to see the second legionary longboat already in the water and rowing west toward the other longboat and the ship that had launched both. The small boat from the Sun Queen was still there on the beach, though the branches concealing it had been pulled aside.

  The Sun Queen herself was standing in closer to the beach, her longboat in the water and headed this way.

  Far down the beach, Jules saw legionaries come out of the trees, looking her way. They started running, but she knew it would take them too long to get here.

  Jules went the edge of the water. “It took you long enough!” she called to Ang as the longboat got close.

  “You don’t look like you’ve had any trouble,” he called back.

  “I lost my cutlass,” Jules said. “And you can see that company is coming. Ang, somebody talked. They knew I was here.”

  “Yeah, we think we know who it was.” The longboat grounded lightly. “You two, go get the small boat and row it back,” Ang ordered a couple of sailors.

  “What about them?” one of the sailors protested, pointing toward the legionaries running this way.

  “Do it fast,” Ang said. “Get in, Jeri.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, climbing into the longboat and wincing as she put weight on the hurt ankle. “You think you know who told the Imperials I was here?”

  “Yeah,” Marta said as she and the others began rowing the longboat back to the Sun Queen. “It was Don.”

  “Don?” Jules looked back at the beach, where the frustrated legionaries had slowed to a walk as it became obvious they had no chance of catching her. “Are you sure?”

  “He was flashing a lot of money last night. Claimed he won big at dice. And this morning, no sign of him when it was time to sail.”

  “He might’ve been mugged and murdered for that money,” Jules said. “Why would he betray the ship?”

  “We asked, and no bodies were found this morning,” Ang said. “That’s when we got worried for you. Didn’t I hear you and Don going at it pretty angry the night before we got to Jacksport?”

  “I don’t know how angry we were,” Jules said. “He pushed things, I told him to back off, and he did.”

  Marta laughed as she pulled on her oar. “Pretty sure I heard a never in there during that talk you and Don had, and also something about him losing a hand if he ever tried that again?”

  “Yes,” Jules admitted. “He was pretty aggressive, and I didn’t like it.”

  “He was talking to those Imperials on the captured ships before we left them,” Ang said. “He might’ve heard something.”

  About her. Jules made a face as she realized that should have been obvious earlier. “Yeah. I’ll bet he did.”

  “The cap’n has some other things to talk to you about,” Ang added as the longboat pulled alongside the Sun Queen.

  Mak gave her a relieved look as she came up the job ladder. “The Storm Queen is keeping your friends off our backs, but we still ought to leave this area.”

  “The Storm Queen?” Jules asked, following Mak to the quarterdeck, favoring her ankle as she walked.

  “That’s the name we decided on for the captured sloop,” Mak explained. “As if it were the offspring of the Sun Queen and the Storm Rider. We also decided to give command of her to Lars, one of Captain Erin’s sailors. Some of the Queen’s crew went to her, and some from Erin’s ship. The rest of her crew is made up of sailors who were in Jacksport and looking for work.”

  Jules heard a loud thunk coming from over the water and turned to see that the newly named Storm Queen had launched a rock from her ballistae at the big ship coming back in their direction. The ballistae, resembling a giant crossbow, canted back on its mount as the crew worked to tension its cord and load another rock.

  “They were definitely after you?” Mak asked.

  “Yes, sir. Padded clubs instead of swords.”

  “Blazes.” He watched the longboat and the small boat being hoisted aboard. “While we were in Jacksport, three Mages came aboard at three different times. We were told that’s become common the last few weeks, Mages going aboard ships stopping at Jacksport, searching the ships with particular interest in any women aboard, then leaving. The only ships safe from that treatment are those flying the flag of the Mechanics Guild.”

  “Maybe we should get one of those flags,” Jules said.

  “You might ask your friends about that next time you see them.”

  “They don’t actually ask my advice or about what I want,” Jules said.

  Thunk.

  She heard the distant sound of splintering wood as the Storm Queen’s ballistae put a rock into the side of the Imperial ship, which veered off in response to the attack. “They were in Jacksport, too?” Jules gestured at the Imperial ship as it wore about to retrieve its longboats, ceasing to close on the Sun Queen.

  “Yes,” Mak said. “When we saw this morning that they’d left before dawn, it worried us, so we got here as quickly as we could and made sure the Storm Queen came with us.”

  “They have legionaries aboard, sir. I wonder why they didn’t try to retake the sloop while it was in the harbor?”

  “They probably have orders to pursue o
nly one target,” Mak said with a glance at her. “Did Ang tell you about Don?”

  “Yes, sir.” Jules leaned on the railing to take weight off of her ankle, looking aft at the far-off legionaries boarding their longboats. “I should’ve realized he’d learned who I was. That must be why he pushed me hard on the way to Jacksport for us to become really close shipmates. When I made clear to him that’d happen sometime between never and not a chance, he must’ve decided to cash in on what he knew by telling the Imperials. But why did they have that ship at Jacksport waiting? And the Mages searching ships? It’s like they all expected me to come back there.”

  “If so, you out-thought them.” Mak eyed the other ship. “What would you do now?”

  “After escaping this? If I was smart,” Jules said, “I guess I’d run and hide.”

  “And if you were Jeri the pirate?”

  “I’d go see what kind of ships might be left unguarded near the Imperial coast while the Emperor’s eyes are trying to find me farther to the west.”

  Mak grinned. “That’s a good plan. The crew already voted for it. The Storm Queen will keep that ship from tailing us while we go to meet up with the Storm Rider south of Caer Lyn.” The smile faded as he looked at her. “How was it before we got here?”

  “Boring for a long time,” Jules said, “then too exciting for a little while. I kept my head, though. I planned things out. But I lost my cutlass.”

  “Cutlasses can be replaced,” Mak said. “You look like you’ve been rolling in some dirt.”

  “Thank you, sir. I missed you, too, sir.”

  * * *

  A week later, so close to the Empire’s shores that the land showed clearly on the horizon, the Sun Queen and the Storm Rider ran down their prey.

  Their quarry was one of the largest types of sailing ships, bound to have a large cargo but also a large crew to defend it. The two pirate ships came at the big merchant ship from opposite sides, Captain Mak and Captain Erin expertly timing their approaches so that the two ships reached the port and starboard sides of their target at almost the same time.

  At Captain Mak’s suggestion, Jules stood high on the shrouds as the Sun Queen approached her target, cutlass and revolver prominently displayed. It felt fake to her, like an act to impress people. But the show seemed to inspire the pirates aboard the Queen as well as frighten the defenders of the other ship.

  Jules led the Sun Queen’s boarding party over the merchant ship’s starboard rail, the defenders falling back rather than fighting. As the pirates swarmed aboard from both sides, the crew put up only a little resistance before dropping their weapons. “Something odd’s going on,” Ang commented to Jules. “Crews usually try to put up at least a decent show of resistance so the ship’s owner can’t fault them for not trying to fight off pirates.”

  “Between us and the Storm Queen’s crew, we did outnumber them a lot,” Jules said.

  “It’s not about whether there’s a chance of winning,” Ang said. “It’s about collecting some cuts and bruises to prove they put up a fight.”

  “Maybe they hate their captain?” Liv wondered. “Didn’t want to die for her?”

  “Let’s get her here and see what she’s like,” Jules said.

  The captain was hauled before her, middle-aged, looking more like a bureaucrat who’d gotten lost and ended up on a ship rather than the commander of a ship at sea. “Do you yield?” Jules demanded.

  “Yes,” the captain gasped, her eyes looking around the deck as if searching for something.

  “I’m the one you’re talking to,” Jules said. “Who are you looking for? Ang, are we sure there aren’t any people hiding below deck? Maybe some legionaries who plan to surprise us?”

  “There are no legionaries aboard,” the captain protested, her gaze still roaming the deck. “It’s…them.”

  “Them?”

  The captain’s eyes looked past her, fixing on something behind Jules and growing wide with fear. Jules felt silence spreading rapidly around the deck, both victorious pirates and cowed defenders shrinking in fear.

  At something behind her.

  She still had the revolver in her hand. Jules gripped it tightly as she turned.

  A Mage stood on the deck just outside the stern cabin. His hood was down, revealing a man whose age could be anywhere from his twenties to his forties. Something about him gave a sense of the younger side of that span, though. In the bright light of day, Jules could see a patchwork of scars on the Mage’s face, marks of old injuries. A small part of her remembered seeing similar signs of injuries on the Mage she’d come face to face with in Jacksport. As she stood watching the Mage, Jules wondered what the significance of those scars might be.

  The Mage looked slowly around the deck, his gaze finally centering on her. With a slow, deliberate motion he drew from beneath his robes the long knife that Mages were infamous for. Jules could see his eyes as they rested on her, see the death they promised with cold, passionless certainty. He’d recognized her, either by her description or through some Mage talent beyond normal human understanding.

  The Mage began walking toward her, his long knife out, expressionless face somehow malevolent. Why wasn’t he using one his spells against her? Was this a Mage’s way of saying that she didn’t merit that amount of effort, a last insult? Did he feel so safe that he wasn’t worried about she might do? He had a right to feel that way, Jules knew. Common people were aware of the strange powers of Mages and that they couldn’t be killed by normal weapons. His inhuman lack of emotion combined with the fear that Mages inspired held everyone silent and unmoving.

  Jules felt that fear, too, felt it freezing the blood in her veins, but she had the revolver in one of her hands. In case she encountered Mages. Jules raised the Mechanic weapon, aiming the barrel at the Mage, who kept coming without any visible reaction. She realized that her hand was shaking and tried to steady it, pointing the barrel at the center of the Mage’s body. Don’t miss. Don’t miss. Wait until he’s close.

  The Mage was almost close enough to strike her with his knife when Jules pulled the trigger with a spastic jerk of her finger.

  The boom of the weapon filled the sky and the sea.

  The Mage staggered backwards, still showing no feeling. A hole had appeared in the front of his robes. A trace of a frown appeared on his face. He took another step toward her.

  Despairing, Jules held her ground and pulled the trigger again. The hammer came back, slammed forward with a metallic click, and…nothing.

  Had the Mage done something? A spell to keep the Mechanic weapon from working? Had she done something wrong?

  Her heart almost stopped with fear, Jules quickly pulled the trigger again.

  This time she was rewarded with another crash of thunder, the revolver bucking in her hand.

  The Mage jolted again with the impact of the projectile. He stopped moving, his unfeeling eyes fixed on her, a second hole in the front of his robes.

  Jules held her revolver aimed at him, her hand steadier despite the fact the Mage was still standing, still apparently a threat. Maybe she had one cartridge left, if the one that hadn’t shot worked on a second try. Maybe she no longer had any cartridges that could work.

  A trickle of blood came from one side of the Mage’s mouth.

  The crashes of the two shots had dulled Jules’ hearing, so that the world about her felt unnaturally silent as she waited to see if she’d have to shoot again, and whether even a third shot would stop a Mage. Was that why the Mechanics had given her four cartridges? Because she’d need that many to kill a Mage? But she’d wasted one of those cartridges shooting Shin. And one of them hadn’t worked the first time she’d tried. As the Mage stared at her, Jules raised the revolver to look at it, rolling the cylinder back to where the hammer would fall on that third cartridge again when she pulled the trigger. Then she waited.

  The Mage finally staggered to one side, his eyes still fixed on her, then fell, blood pooling under him.

  Jule
s inhaled convulsively, not even having been aware that she was holding her breath.

  A low murmur sounded around her.Ang stepped up beside her, looking ashamed. “I couldn’t move. I was scared.”

  “That’s all right,” Jules said, feeling numb. “I could barely move.”

  “You killed a Mage, Jeri. Without anyone’s help. Just you and him. You killed a Mage.”

  She inhaled deeply again, tasting the odd, acrid smell from the smoke created by the Mechanic weapon. Jules looked about, seeing her pirates and those from the Storm Rider grinning at her in disbelief and wonder.

  The crew of the captured ship still looked scared.

  Jules pivoted to face the captain again. “Why are you all still frightened?”

  “There’s another,” the captain said, almost breathless with fear. “Another Mage aboard. He’s…he’s still in the cabin.”

  Jules followed the line of the captain’s pointing finger, which visibly shook as she indicated the stern cabin.

  A hush had fallen over the deck again as the captain’s words were repeated among the two pirate crews, the only sounds the sigh of the wind and the water alongside the ship while everyone looked toward the cabin. And looked back to her.

  Jules looked down at the weapon she held. One cartridge left. If it would work this time. That would have to be enough.

  “We’ll go in with you,” Ang said, Liv beside him, both of them with cutlasses at the ready. “You won’t face a Mage alone this time.”

  “No,” Jules said. “You’d just get in the way. I need to kill him with this.”

  Her mind screamed at her to run the other way, but Jules began walking toward the door of the cabin, which the dead Mage had left open. She wasn’t thinking, just acting. Captain Mak would be angry that she wasn’t planning. But she knew that if she really thought about this, she’d never get her feet into motion. She’d stand paralyzed, waiting for the second Mage to come out of that cabin and attack her.

  The open door to the stern cabin loomed before her like a dark portal.

  Blinds must be drawn closed across the stern windows. No lanterns were lit to dispel the gloom inside.