He backed the chair far enough from her dagger to stand, glaring at her as he swept the gems back into the pouch. “You’ll regret this. You should be honored that I was willing to offer that much money for something a lot of other men must have already-”
Jules lunged, the dagger stabbing. Vlad leaped backwards, clawing at his long sword, but there wasn’t room to draw it in the small, low-ceilinged cabin. Racing two steps to the door, Vlad yanked it open. But instead of continuing to flee, he paused in the doorway, glaring at her. “I’ll have you on my terms someday! You’ll be tied down and begging for mercy! No slut from the streets can-!”
Jules flipped the dagger blade between her thumb and fingers before hurling the weapon, the motions happening so quickly they cut off Vlad in mid-sentence.
Vlad staggered back a half-step, staring at the dagger buried in his chest.
Crossing the remaining distance between them, Jules grasped the dagger and pulled the blade out in one swift yank. “I’m sorry. Did I miss your heart?” She plunged the blade into his chest again as Vlad gazed at her in disbelief, then yanked it free a second time to let his blood flow without hindrance.
“You…you…”
He fell.
Jules took a long, slow breath, trying to regain control of herself. “I need some help here,” she called.
Several crew members came, looking down with mingled surprise and worry at Vlad’s body. Ang came to the fore, his eyes on her. “What happened?”
“He wouldn’t shut up,” she said, stooping to wipe her dagger blade on Vlad’s shirt.
“What do you want done with him?”
“Throw him in the harbor. Wait.” She picked up the gems that Vlad had dropped when the dagger went into him. Prying open his mouth, she shoved the pouch of gems into it. “Now throw him in the harbor.”
“Jeri, this could cause big problems. What-”
Her control snapped again. “NO MAN WILL SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT AND LIVE!”
She saw their eyes on her, wide in the light of the lanterns.
Ang nodded. “You heard her. Toss him in the harbor. Someone get some rags and water so we can clean up this mess,” he added, gesturing to the blood pooling under Vlad’s body. Turning back to Jules, he spoke in a low voice. “Jeri, the crew of the Star Seeker may want revenge for this.”
“Ask me if I care, Ang.”
“What are we supposed to do if they show up looking for Vlad?”
Jules ran her thumb lightly down the blade of her dagger. “Tell them where to find me.”
Chapter Eleven
Jules stood next to the stern windows, looking out at the darkness, until the cabin door opened. She heard the familiar sound of Mak’s boots on the deck as he walked in, waiting for and dreading what he’d say to her.
“I hear we had a visitor,” Mak said. She heard him sitting down in one of the chairs.
“Yes, sir,” Jules said, continuing to face the stern windows, afraid to see the look on Mak’s face.
“What happened?” Mak asked in a calm voice.
“He…” Jules swallowed, trying to prevent herself from yelling again. “He tried to buy me. He wasn’t happy when I turned him down. He…wouldn’t shut up.”
“What did he say?”
“I’m not going to repeat it, Captain, because if I do I’m going to go looking through the harbor until I find his body so I can kill him again.”
“All right.” Jules heard Mak stand up. “I’ll go tell Vlad’s ship.”
Alarmed, she spun about to shake her head at him. “No, sir, you won’t. His crew might take it out on you. I’ll tell them.”
He gazed back at her, not seeming angry, but rather solemn. “You don’t think they’d take it out on you, Jules?”
“I hope they try.”
Mak sighed. “You can’t kill his entire crew.”
“Yes, I can.”
Mak looked at her, rubbing his mouth with one hand as he thought. “Jules, there’s a dark streak inside you. A very dark streak.”
“Really?” she said. “I wonder where it came from.”
“You’d do it, wouldn’t you? Try to single-handedly kill every person on Vlad’s ship.”
“If I had to.”
Mak shook his head, grimacing. “Are you the same young woman who told me how ridiculous the idea was that she personally could overthrow the Great Guilds?”
“That’s different, Captain. That is so different.” Jules paced about the cabin, feeling her nerves jumping, unable to keep standing still. “It’s bad enough that every man in Dematr is lining up hoping to be the guy who impregnates me! But half of them seem to think I should be thrilled at the chance to have them do it!”
“That’s not true, Jules,” Mak said, watching her pace. “There are always jerks. There are always foul-mouthed bottom-feeders who act badly toward others. You’re not the only woman who suffers from their attention.”
“There’s one less of those jerks after tonight,” Jules said. She forced herself to stop pacing, her hands knotted into fists. “Blazes, Captain. I’ve never wanted a lot of male attention. I just wanted the right kind of guys to look at me and say, hey, maybe that girl is the one for me, and treat me with respect, and talk to me like I have dignity, and…” She felt her control slipping again and struggled to calm herself. “Why is that so much to ask?”
“I don’t know,” Mak said. “You shouldn’t even have to ask for it. It should just be that way. But, Jules, flawed as we are, most men try to be the right kind of guys. Don’t judge all of us by what the worst of us do.”
“I don’t,” Jules said. “Obviously. I’ve never stuck a knife in any man on this ship, have I?”
“No, you haven’t, though I understand at least two of them were threatened with worse than Vlad got.”
“They were smart enough to back off,” Jules said. “And one of them was Don, who will get what I threatened if I ever find him. Captain, you’re angry with me, aren’t you? Will you just say it so I don’t have to wait to hear it any longer?”
“I’m not angry with you, Jules. I’m disappointed.”
“I let you down, didn’t I, sir?” Jules was once again unable to look at him, not wanting to see the disapproval there.
“No, you didn’t. I’m disappointed because I didn’t get to kill Vlad. Not if what he said made you this unhappy.”
She turned her head to stare at Mak. “Captain?”
Mak smiled at her. “Let’s go inform Vlad’s ship of his untimely demise. You and me together. You can keep Vlad’s crew from killing me, and I’ll try to keep you from killing Vlad’s crew.”
“All right.”
As they walked off the Sun Queen to the pier, Jules remembered something. “Sir? Vlad had some really valuable gems with him. I doubt that his crew knew about them.”
“What happened to those gems?” Mak asked.
“He ate them.”
Mak took a moment to reply, then nodded. “All right. Hopefully we won’t get asked about that.”
They’d hadn’t walked much farther before Mak spoke again. “We can’t make it go away, Jules. The prophecy. It’s going to follow you, no matter what.”
“Meaning I just have to learn to live with it?” Jules said. “I thought that was what I’d been doing.”
“Meaning that there will be days like this. Or worse,” Mak said. “All your life there will be days like this. I want you to understand that. Harden yourself against the struggle. I think I understand why you have that darkness. A person without it wouldn’t survive what you’ll face. I’ve encouraged you to fight to be known as a person, not just as the woman of the prophecy. But you need to accept that the fight will never end, and some days it may seem like more than you can endure.”
She realized that Mak had put into words the feelings she’d been dealing with since killing Vlad. “Do you believe I can do it, Captain?”
“Yes, Jules, I do. When it seems like too much, remember I said that. And mea
nt every word of it.”
“Thank you.” They reached the end of the gangway leading onto the Star Seeker, both pausing at the bottom.
“On the ship,” Mak called. “Who’s in charge while Captain Vlad is gone?”
After a few moments a woman appeared at the head of the gangway. “That’s me. You’re Mak from the Sun Queen, aren’t you? What do you need?”
“Vlad is dead,” Mak said.
She took a moment to respond. “How? Why? Do you know?”
“I killed him,” Jules said. “Because he insulted me and threatened me.”
“You can’t kill a man for those reasons! Who the blazes do you think you are, girl?” The woman put one hand on the knife at her belt as she came two steps down the gangway to glare at Jules.
“I know who I am,” Jules said. “And I’d take it as a favor if you told every sailor on your ship that I’ll do the same to any man who propositions me the way Vlad did. And the same to any woman who insults me the way he did.”
The woman paused, her eyes on the revolver that Jules wore. “You’re that one. How about if I told the Mages where to find you?”
“What if you did? Go ahead.”
She came another step closer to Jules, shaking her head. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’d be relieved of the burden of the prophecy, and I’d be blamed for your death and the failure of the prophecy.”
“That’s not why she killed Vlad,” Mak said, sounding every inch the captain. “His actions led to his death. You’re better off without a captain who had such poor judgment.”
“That was our decision to make, not yours! He played straight with us.”
Jules laughed. “He played straight with you? Did you know that when he died he had on him gems valuable enough to buy at least two ships like the Star Seeker?”
“Gems?” The woman’s eyes narrowed. “No. Where are they?”
“He still has them. I had his body thrown into the harbor.”
The woman’s anger now appeared to be torn between Jules and former captain Vlad. “And not a scratch on you. When we find that body, will all of the injuries be in Vlad’s back?”
Jules shook her head. “In his chest. Facing me.”
“Captain Mak, you’re well known and well respected. You’re not the sort to stand by one who doesn’t deserve it. But I wonder at your judgment concerning her.”
Mak smiled slightly, confident and calm. “No one would want to be her enemy, but to others there’s no better friend. I’ve never regretted taking her aboard, and she’s well-regarded by the crew of the Sun Queen.”
“So you say.” The woman turned to yell. “Get the boats launched! We need to search the harbor, starting near the Sun Queen!” Lowering her voice again, she addressed both Jules and Mak. “This will lie where it is for now. If we find Vlad, and none of those gems are on him, you’ll hear from us.”
“Understood,” Mak said.
“The gems aren’t in any of his pockets,” Jules added. “But they are on his body. I wanted to make sure he kept his mouth shut in the future.”
Jules didn’t like turning her back on the crew of the Star Seeker, but Mak walked away without apparent concern so she had to do the same.
“I hope you’re not disappointed at not getting to kill them all,” Mak said once they were off that pier.
“I’m fine,” Jules said, hearing the depression in her voice.
“What else is wrong?”
“Nothing,” Jules said. “Except…I’m trouble. We can’t keep this up, can we? Operating so close to Imperial territory? And with the Mages chasing me? Even with the Mechanics trying to use me, the odds are getting worse with every port we visit. Aren’t they?”
“I don’t know,” Mak said.
“Sir, you owe me the truth. Do you think we can keep this up?”
“Yes. How many of those cartridges do you have left?”
“Six. I haven’t used any since the Mechanics gave me more. But some of them might not work.”
Mak nodded. “Sometimes Mechanic devices don’t work. That’s an important thing to know. The supposedly perfect, infallible devices can fail sometimes.”
Jules stole a glance at him. “I know this may be hard for you to talk about, but do you think she knew how important that was when she said it? That she might have been slipping us important information on purpose?”
He didn’t answer for several steps. “I don’t know. The girl I knew at ten years of age would’ve done that. But I don’t know if the woman she is now would do it, not after the Mechanics Guild has had her all these years.”
“I heard her called Verona. Was that always her name?”
“Yes. Verona.” He breathed out slowly. “I’m glad to know she’s still using it.”
“A name is a hard thing to let go,” Jules said. “But hanging on to it means something. I know that.”
“How long are you going to stay Jeri? A lot of people already know your real name.”
“I know. But I feel like I should stick with Jeri a little longer. What are we going to do now, sir?”
Mak smiled. “I think the tavern where the Mechanics get their information is the Old Bones. I may have mentioned in there that we’re heading south again.”
“Where are we really going?”
“East to the waters off Sandurin. Do you feel like going hunting again, Jules?”
“Yes, sir!”
* * *
On a day such as this, handling the helm of the Sun Queen was a workout, human muscles straining to control the movements of an entire ship through the motions of the wheel that Jules grasped with both hands. Turning the wheel turned the tiller ropes wrapped about the wheel’s center spindle, moving the rudder to one side or the other. On any day, the weight of the rudder to be shifted and the force of the water flowing past and the resistance of the ropes made that a task requiring effort. Today it was like battling the sea with her arms and legs and back.
The sun shone down only intermittently between low clouds that scudded past above, the clouds growing in number and size throughout the day. The winds kept shifting as the weather patterns of fall and winter gradually replaced those of spring and summer. And the seas borrowed from the storminess that threatened in the skies, swells racing past capped by white foam as if the Sun Queen sailed among a vast herd of dark horses with white manes and tails.
And yet Jules loved this, not only for the feel of the weather, but also for the feel of the ship. She could place her hand on one of the stays and feel the tensions in the masts. Or set her palm directly against a mast and feel the wind striking the sails. Through her feet, Jules could sense the water moving against the hull, the swells rocking it, the rush of the sea going past.
But only while holding the handles of the helm could she feel it all. All of the tensions and pressures affecting the ship, coming together in the wheel and the wooden spokes of it that joined at the axle, to be felt by the man or woman who gripped the handles. On a day like this it was a constant battle to keep the Sun Queen on course.
Jules didn’t see it as a battle, though. To her, it felt as if the ship and she were working together to ride the elements and use wind and wave. She felt the sea’s movements through the wheel, the wind playing with the ship, and the weight of the ship itself. Those couldn’t really be fought, head to head. Instead, Jules likened it to sword fighting. Feel the movements of the sword, anticipate what the opponent would do, and use timing and careful movements that merged with the flow of the contest to produce that perfect outcome.
She didn’t get to go aloft much any more, or handle the lines herself, because Captain Mak wanted her learning how to give the orders for such things. But he approved of her continuing to stand watch on the helm, saying that would teach her more about the feel of a ship, and how wind and wave could change that feel.
Early this morning they had sighted a small schooner. It had spent a good part of the morning nosing carefully around the Sun Queen like a
mouse approaching what might be a trap. Finally coming close enough to exchange hails, the schooner had requested permission to send someone over in a boat to talk to Captain Mak. In these waters, the boat’s short journey had attracted a number of wagers from the crew on whether it would make the trip successfully or be swamped by the waves.
But eventually a spray-soaked man had come up the Jaycob ladder dropped for him, going into Mak’s cabin. He and the captain would be talking right now, both of them in the stern cabin under the deck where Jules’ feet stood.
Another of the Sun Queen’s sailors, Luke, came up on the quarterdeck. “Hey, Jeri. I’m to relieve you at the helm.”
“Relieve me? It’s early for that.”
“The captain wants you in his cabin. Some sort of meeting. How’s she handling?”
“About as you’d expect on a day like this,” Jules said. “She’s fighting the helm.”
“The Sun Queen can be tough to order around,” Luke said as Jules stepped back from the helm and he stepped forward, grabbing the handles of the wheel. “Stars above, she is giving us a fight, isn’t she?”
“I needed to keep some starboard rudder on constantly, but the amount of rudder needed keeps changing. You got her?”
“Yeah, I got her. Hold this course?”
“That’s it.” Jules went down the ladder to the main deck, flexing her arms to relax them, feeling the weariness in every muscle. Fighting the helm had required the strength of her legs and torso in addition to those of her arms.
Inside the cabin, she found Captain Mak and the visitor dripping salt-water sitting at the table facing each other. Ang and Liv were here, too, standing back and listening. “Reporting as ordered, sir.”
The visitor picked up on her phrasing, recognizing the Imperial training behind it. “Is this girl trustworthy?” he asked Mak.
“More trustworthy than you can imagine,” Mak said.
“Well, if you…” His voice trailed off as the visitor realized that Jules was wearing the revolver in its holster. “That’s her. That’s her, isn’t it?”
Mak didn’t answer him directly. “Jeri, this is Loka of Centin. He has a problem that he’s willing to pay us to try to solve. We need your insight on whether it’s a problem we should take on.”
Pirate of the Prophecy Page 23