Fate of the Free Lands

by Jack Campbell

  “Captain Lars said we could find ships in need of escort west in the waters around Marida’s,” Jules told Ang. “We’ll pick up some easy money that way. But we have to be sure we don’t get too close to Sandurin, where the Imperial patrols are thick.”

  “No problem, Cap’n.”

  Jules went back down to her cabin, yawning, thinking it must be nearly the middle of the night. Liv followed her. “So, no difficulties with the Mechanics?”

  “No,” Jules said. “They were…” She sat down, rubbing her forehead. “It was strange. A couple of times it felt like the Mechanics I was with were just regular people. Like other commons I was working with or talking to. Only for a few moments, though, and then I’d remember who and what they were and it’d be over.”

  “What, like they were friends of yours?” Liv said, taking another chair and kicking back.

  “Almost. Strange, huh?” Jules looked out the stern window, where little could be seen of the dark, restless waters. “The prophecy says the daughter of my line will have Mechanics helping her. I wondered how she could do that, but I think I caught glimpses of it tonight. I can’t do it, though. The Mechanics will never respect me enough, and when I think about what they’ve done I hate them.”

  “Of course. You’re a common.” Liv pointed to the small wooden box. “What’s in that?”

  “You’ll never believe it.” Jules opened the box, canting it so Liv could see inside. “Twenty cartridges. These are worth an Emperor’s ransom. Or they would be if I tried selling them.”

  “Twenty? And you still had, what, three others you said?”

  “Yes,” Jules said, suddenly realizing that she’d turned in those three cartridges along with her original revolver. “Blazes, I had three more.” She pulled out the new weapon, looking to see if it had any cartridges.

  And stared. “This is a new weapon,” she told Liv. “They had me swap them out. It’s got five cartridges in it.” Jules dug out the second new revolver and checked it. “This one has five, too. Stars above, Liv, I’ve got thirty cartridges and two Mechanic revolvers!”

  “You’re practically a legion all by yourself,” Liv said dryly, acting unimpressed. “Why do you suppose the Mechanics were so generous?”

  “They need me, Liv. They need us. They need what we can do.” Jules glanced at the small chest. It was sturdy, with metal strapping over what looked like thick hardwood. “I never did find out what was in that. Senior Mechanic Grace had the ship give it to me.” She leaned over, working the latch and opening the top.

  And stared again.

  Liv, looking as well, let out a low whistle at the sight of the gold coins. “Imperial eagles. How much is in there?”

  “A lot.” Jules put one hand in among the gold eagles, moving them to see if all of the coins were the same. “There aren’t any silver galleys. They’re all eagles.”

  “What are you going to do with it?” Liv asked.

  “What do you mean? It belongs to the ship.”

  “The ship didn’t earn it,” Liv said. “You were given it. I wouldn’t want to consult a lawyer in the matter, but I think most would say you’re under no obligation to share.”

  “Then most would be wrong.” Jules shut the chest. “I’ll count it later, but some will be shared with the crew. They’ve foregone other chances at gold on my account, and run risks on my account as well. I won’t withhold this from them.”

  “What do you suppose the Mechanics think you’ll do with it?” Liv gave Jules a concerned look. “You didn’t promise anything, did you?”

  “No,” Jules said. “I just talked about doing what I was going to do anyway. I did make it sound like I was doing it for their benefit, though.” She paused, remembering the conversation. “They think we’ve got about a year before the Emperor snaps and orders an attack on the western settlements. That’s just enough time for me to get something important done.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I think I’ll be able to tell you soon.”

  * * *

  The next morning she counted the gold, finding enough to share an eagle with every member of the crew with plenty left over for future needs. The crew lined up to receive their eagles, cheerful at the unexpected pay and at the prospect of a stop at Marida’s, whose waterfront bars were gaining a reputation among sailors for good times.

  Marida’s harbor had added two more piers and a lot of buildings, as well as some defensive fortifications facing east toward the Empire. The Sun Queen anchored out, her crew taking the boats in for some good times ashore while Ang sought business from anyone wanting an escort west. Jules stayed on the ship, trying to remain out of sight to anyone on other ships or ashore. Aside from not wanting to attract Mage attention, her escape from the Empire still wasn’t widely known, including to Imperial authorities who were still searching for her inland as well as at sea. There wasn’t any sense in advertising where she was. The crew had been told not to mention ashore that she was back, and hopefully would keep their mouths shut even after downing a number of beers and other forms of booze.

  Ang found a merchant ship packed with escapees from the Empire that was willing to pay for protection and guidance to Western Port. The Sun Queen left Marida’s harbor after a day and half, her crew poorer but happier, Jules relieved to get out without being noticed.

  The day before they got to Western Port, Jules threw up again.

  She sat in her cabin, gazing morosely at her chamber pot.

  “Problem?” Liv asked when she stopped by.

  “I’m sick again this morning,” Jules said, reluctant to come right out and say it.

  “I’ll get Keli. Maybe it’s something you ate. You stayed aboard at Marida’s so you shouldn’t have picked up any bugs there.”

  “It’s not something I ate,” Jules said.

  “You sound like you know what it is,” Liv said, giving her a curious glance.

  “It’s been about seven weeks since we left Dor’s last.”

  “Seven weeks?” Liv stared at her. “Are you saying—”

  “Get Keli and Ang. We need to talk.”

  When Liv came back with the other two, they sat around the table. Jules looked down at the table, facing a moment that she’d dreaded. “I’m having morning sickness,” she said. “I’m sure of it. There are some things we need to plan out.”

  Keli looked at Liv, who nodded. “If one of the men on the ship also needs to be involved…”

  “It wasn’t one of the men on the ship,” Jules said.

  “Ah. Do you know who he was, then?”

  She glared at him. “Of course I know who he is! Blazes, Keli, who do you think I am?”

  “A woman facing a very unique set of problems,” he said, “as well as a common condition. This needs to be kept quiet. If word gets out, the whole Sea of Bakre will boil.”

  “Yes,” Jules said. “That’s one thing. We need to try to keep as many people as possible in the dark, including every Mage and Mechanic and servant of the Empire.” She was trying to sound as if this was just one more voyage being planned. Nothing too difficult, and nothing to get alarmed about. “Liv, how long before I start to show, do you think?”

  “Most women, it’s three to four months the first time,” Liv said. “With your build, you should match that.”

  “So we’ve got at least a month and a half before I start showing,” Jules said. “We have to ensure people see me until then.”

  “Loose clothes, a long coat left open, will help hide it for a while after that,” Liv said. “But there’ll come a time when it’ll be obvious to the most casual observer.”

  “Maybe a long voyage might be a good idea,” Ang said. “Say you’re exploring. The crew would know. But we don’t have any among us who’d betray you.”

  “It’s not just me personally,” Jules said. “Any child of mine will be a target for a lot of people. We have to minimize the number who even know a child is coming.”

  “You could go to that P
acta Servanda place for the last few months,” Keli said. “No Mages, no Mechanics, and no way for the news to spread.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Jules said. “But that’s the other thing we have to plan. The hardest thing. When I get close, I’ll need to be back in these waters.” She paused, unable to force the words out.

  “Why?” Ang asked.

  “It’s a good idea to be where good midwives can be found,” Keli said.

  “I don’t think that’s her reason,” Liv said. “What is it, Jules? You look like you’re watching a loved one die.”

  “That’s how it feels,” Jules said. She looked toward the drawing of Severun that was her sole memento of Mak, unable to meet their eyes. “The child, when it comes, will only have one chance to survive. There’s only one way to give my child a chance at life. Because if anyone knows who that child’s mother is, the Mages will not stop until they find it and kill the child. As a young adult, I’ve barely survived. A baby wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  “A foster family?” Keli said.

  “A foster family would know,” Ang said. “You don’t mean an orphanage?”

  “No!” Jules said, remembering her own harsh upbringing in an Imperial orphanage. “I want a family. But…I can’t know. They can’t know. No one can know. If anyone knows, the Mages might find out. Even I can’t know.”

  Silence, finally broken by Liv. “Even you?”

  “You know I’m right. I need you guys to set it up. The moment the child is born and safe, you need to take him or her, and pass the baby somehow through enough people that no one can trace the path afterwards and the family who ends up with the child has no idea who the mother is. So no one looking for that child can ever find him or her.”

  “The moment the child is born?” Keli said. “Don’t you want to—?”

  “Of course I want to!” Jules fought to control herself. “Don’t you understand? If I hold the child, if I even see the child, I won’t be able to do it. I’ll never let him or her go. And that means they’ll die.” Silence again. “You know I’m right. I have to do this to save my child’s life.”

  “Girl…” Liv said, sounding as if she was about to cry.

  Keli nodded slowly, his expression tragic. “You’re braver than even I thought. I’m sorry, girl. I’m sorry the prophecy did this to you. But you’re right. It’s the only chance. Otherwise the Mages, or someone else who means the child ill, will find him or her and then it’ll be the end.” He paused. “You know who the father is. What of him?”

  “He doesn’t know,” Jules said. “He won’t know.”

  “But—”

  “It’s my responsibility. The decision is mine. I will bear the blame and the guilt for it. He shouldn’t have to endure either of those.”

  “I think you’re wrong about that,” Keli said.

  “Your disapproval is noted,” Jules said. “Can we do this?”

  Ang nodded with clear reluctance. “Anything that people want, there’s an underground market for it. There’ll be people who trade in getting babies to those who want them badly enough.”

  “A fake mother, a fake history,” Keli said. “What do they call it when you pass something through more than one person?”

  “A cutout,” Ang said. “Like when we want to sell a special bit of cargo whose origin we don’t want traced. It passes through more than one set of hands, each set knowing less of its origin that the one before.”

  “But we’re talking of doing this to a baby,” Liv said. “Your baby, Jules.”

  “Do you think I’m happy about it?” she whispered. “Please think of an alternative that offers that child a chance at survival. I’d be very, very grateful if you did.”

  Silence, in which only the muffled sounds of sailors on deck could be heard.

  “Why did you decide to go ahead with it?” Keli asked. “Why now?”

  “Because events convinced me I might not live long enough to get it done if I kept putting it off,” Jules said. “And I wanted to be in control of who the father was. Can we do this?”

  “It can be done, I think,” Keli said. “Ang and I will share our collective knowledge and start to work on the second part of things.”

  After Keli and Ang left, Liv lingered, eying Jules. “This is hitting you hard. I understand, and yet I think there’s something more behind it.”

  Jules clenched her fist on the surface of the table, feeling the pain as she tightened it, her fingernails digging into her palm. “While I was growing up in that Imperial orphanage, I vowed that if I ever had a child, I’d be the best mother any kid could ever want. I’d never leave them and I’d never see them hurt. And now I have to plan to send my child to strangers, unable to ever know their fate.”

  “That was a foolish vow,” Liv said. “I’m a child of the orphanages as well, so it’s easy for me to see how a young girl there would’ve made such a promise. But no woman, no mother, can count on keeping such a promise. We can’t keep hurt from those we love, and our own mothers didn’t leave us because they wanted to. They had no choice. Just as you have none.”

  “That’s true,” Jules said. “But it still hurts. I’m afraid for how much it’ll hurt when I actually have to give up the child.”

  Liv sighed. “We’ll be here for you. What about the man? Having him here might offer comfort as well.”

  “Why do you think he’s someone I’d want here?” Jules scoffed.

  “Because I know you. You would’ve waited a dozen more years if you hadn’t known a man you thought would be a worthy father.”

  “I’m not telling him, Liv. It’s best for him this way.”

  Liv shook her head. “Girl, he was man enough for you to choose him. Do you think such a man will accept you deciding for him what’s best? You owe him a voice in it.”

  “The world owes me a child to raise,” Jules said. “People don’t always get what they’re owed in life.”

  * * *

  The next morning they reached Western Port, Jules throwing up early enough that she could be on the quarterdeck as the Sun Queen reached the pier with no one the wiser. The merchant ship they’d brought this far, the Fair Dani, tied up on the other side of the pier. As soon as the Dani’s boarding plank was down, escapees from the Empire began streaming off, gazing with hope at the town.

  Jules saw the stream of refugees reach the end of the pier and encounter not only some members of the new town militia who got them lined up, but also what appeared to be various officials of the town.

  She came down onto the pier to find Shin waiting, smiling broadly.

  “Jules! Welcome back!” he cried, engulfing her hand in two of his. “I’ve been doing as you ask. Can you see?”

  “I see,” Jules said. “What’s your official title?”

  “Mayor of Western Port.” He turned to point to those meeting the escapees from the Empire. “Police, of course. And she is head of the town schools. And he arranges places to stay. And she keeps track of skilled artisans or apprentices so we know what we have and use it best.”

  “That’s a lot more than I would’ve thought of,” Jules said.

  “You would’ve done the same,” Shin said with a laugh. “Experience in the legions, you know. If we don’t learn anything else, we learn how to organize, right?” He looked up onto the deck of the Sun Queen, his smile growing broader. “Marta!”

  Marta leaned on the railing, grinning at Shin. “Are you busy tonight?”

  “That’s up to your captain. She might have jobs for me,” Shin said.

  “I don’t need Marta sulking around,” Jules said. “Go ahead and make a date.”

  After Shin had made social arrangements for that night, he and Jules walked down the pier. “You need to see how things have come since you were here last,” Shin said. “We’ve finished many of the buildings, thanks to the foresight of the Imperial planners who provided precut lumber and everything else we needed.”

  “Have you had any problems?” They were
walking past where the new arrivals were lined up, and Jules was trying not to notice how many of them were looking at her and speaking excitedly to each other. She heard a few words. Prophecy. Great Guilds. Daughter. To many commons, those defined her.

  But she also heard words like pirate, explorer, and captain. It was nice to know she’d managed to make those words stick.

  “Problems? A few,” Shin said with a dismissive wave of his hand as they left the pier, their boots crunching on the gravel of the waterfront streets. “Mostly people not understanding that being free doesn’t mean no rules exist. We’re not trying to use the Imperial legal code, but we do have laws because we need laws.”

  “I hope you don’t have any laws against piracy,” Jules said.

  “Why?” Shin asked with a grin. “I don’t know any pirates. Oh, there’s someone you must meet. Your guess that the people who came through the Northern Ramparts from Kelsi’s might have settled somewhere up this same river was correct. They sent a boat down to explore. It got here three days ago. Over there. See?”

  Jules looked at the craft drawn up on one bank of the river. It had a frame of bent wooden branches, over which leather hides had been stitched together to form a watertight hull. “I’m guessing they don’t have much lumber north of here. That boat’d be pretty light, though.”

  “Very light,” Shin said. “Three people came down the river in it, riding the current. They are going to walk back, carrying the boat to use as shelter each night by overturning it.”

  “Clever.”

  “They should be waiting for us in the mayor’s home, which right now is my home,” Shin said as he and Jules reached the former town commander’s house. He opened the door and led Jules inside. “When we saw the Sun Queen coming into port, I asked those who came in the boat to be here to see you.”

  Two men and one woman stood in the reception room on the ground floor, looking awkward and anxious. Their clothing was worn by long use, except for leather articles that were clearly newer. As their eyes fell on Jules, she heard gasps of recognition.