Fate of the Free Lands

by Jack Campbell

  “Lady,” the older of the men said, smiling. “I am T’mos. This is Jani, and Bors,” he added, indicating the woman and the younger man. “We haven’t forgotten you from Sandurin. How is Captain Mak?”

  “Captain Mak died a while back,” Jules said. “Killed by Mages.”

  “Oh.” T’mos’ face fell. “We’re very sorry.”

  “It wasn’t anything you could have helped,” Jules said. “So you did found a settlement on those plains to the west of the Northern Ramparts?”

  “Yes, Lady,” the woman named Jani said. “We named it Ihris, after one of our leaders. She died not long after we reached the spot.”

  “Ihris.” Jules remembered that woman, tall and willowy, but with the shadow of some serious illness on her. Mak had guessed she didn’t have much longer to live. “I’m sorry to hear that. How are you governed?”

  “Governed?”

  “Is your settlement ruled by all of the people there making decisions, or does one person rule?”

  The visitors from Ihris exchanged looks. “We’ve been using a group of people who everyone respects to make decisions,” T’mos said. “But it’s still sort of informal. Shin has been telling us about voting. I think our leaders will be happy to hear of that.”

  “Good.” Jules smiled at them. “I’m glad you escaped the Empire. You know a lot of other people are doing the same these days. We just brought another group of them here.”

  She was surprised to see wariness appear in the eyes of the visitors from Ihris. “We don’t know much of what has been happening outside Ihris,” Jani said.

  “A lot of new settlements are being founded in the west,” Jules said. “That’s good for you. Markets for whatever goods your town can produce, and other free people to support you in the face of danger.”

  “We have leather, and livestock herds,” Bors said eagerly. “Cattle. Horses. We’ve been gathering them from wild herds. And planting crops.”

  “That’s good,” Jules said. “There’ll be ready markets for those. Can you provide any support to Western Port if danger threatens?”

  “Why would danger threaten us?” T’mos asked.

  Why did these people seem to be drawing back from her even though they weren’t actually moving? “The hand of the Emperor has tried reaching beyond the borders of the Empire,” Jules said. “Western Port was going to be an Imperial outpost. If that had succeeded, you would’ve have legionaries controlling this river.”

  “But it didn’t succeed,” T’mos said. “The people here are free.”

  Jules glanced at Shin, who was frowning in puzzlement at the altered attitudes he was seeing. “You do know that this town was freed by fighting, don’t you?” she said. “Three free ships came here and defeated the legionaries. My ship was one of them.”

  The three from Ihris nodded politely, but said nothing.

  Jules decided to be as direct as possible. “If the Empire attacks Western Port, will Ihris send men and women to help defend this town?”

  “We cannot make such a commitment,” Jani said.

  “But you can tell us the sentiment of your people,” Shin said. “And you can carry our proposal for mutual assistance back with you.”

  T’mos seemed to be looking everywhere in the room but at Jules and Shin. “We are not soldiers,” he said. “We have no soldiers among us.”

  Shin frowned. “What if the Empire captures Kelsi’s and sends legionaries through the pass to your city? What if Western Port is captured? What will you do?”

  “There is much land to the west,” Jani said. “We’ll head that way and found another settlement.”

  “You’ll hit the ocean eventually if you keep fleeing west,” Jules said. “What about the towns being founded in the Northern Ramparts? And Kelsi’s? Do you have any agreements with them?”

  “We haven’t contacted anyone to the east since we left Kelsi’s,” Jani said.

  “I’m confused,” Shin said. “Do you think you can live separate from all others? All of us in the west have common interests in freedom.”

  “Then no one should object to us doing what we want.”

  Jules looked at the three. “Do I understand that if your free neighbors are in need of help, you will not offer any aid?”

  “We…have a policy of…not getting involved in the disputes of others. That seems safest for us,” T’mos said, unable to meet Jules’ eyes.

  She gazed coldly at him. “How fortunate for you that I didn’t follow that kind of policy when you were locked up in Sandurin.”

  T’mos didn’t answer.

  “It was nice meeting you again,” Jules said, hearing the ice in her voice. “If you’ll excuse us, Shin and I have other matters to discuss.”

  Mumbling farewells, T’mos and Jani left.

  The younger man, Bors, hesitated at the door. “Lady,” he blurted out, “not everyone in Ihris agrees with those ideas. The older ones fear being caught again, hauled back to slavery in the Empire, and want to avoid anything that might risk that. Do you remember Aron?”

  “Of course I remember Aron,” Jules said. “Are he and Lil all right?”

  “Yes, Lady. And they speak of you! They remind others of what risks you ran for us, and shame those who want to hide rather than help others. Don’t judge our town too harshly. Not yet. Ihris may always stand apart, but not all of us have forgotten what we owe a stranger who came to our aid when all seemed lost.” Ducking his head in apology, Bors ran off after the other two.

  “So much for gratitude,” Jules said, hearing the bitterness in her voice.

  Shin shook his head, his mouth tight. “They were indentured laborers on an agricultural estate, you said? The older ones must have been beaten down by such a life.”

  “I know all about being beaten down. So do you, because we were raised in the same Imperial orphanage. But being beaten down doesn’t make you beaten in life.”

  “Are you sorry you saved them from that prince at Sandurin?”

  Shin had a way of asking just the right question. Jules shook her head in turn. “No. I had to do it for reasons that had a lot to do with me, not them. I know that. And the example of their escape has motivated a lot of others to flee the Empire. It was the right thing to do. But I’m still disappointed.”

  “When you make someone free to act as they wish, they may act in ways you wish they would not,” Shin said.

  “Look at you,” Jules said. “The orphan legionary philosopher. I hope you’re writing down things like that.” She ran one hand through her hair, her mood darkening at the memory of causing the death of Ian’s father in this building. “Shin, how about you and Western Port? Will you send help if I call?”

  “Why do you even ask this?” Shin said. “Of course we will send you aid if you call for it. Do you have any idea yet where and when that aid will be needed?”

  Jules walked to one side of the room, where Shin had posted one of the new charts. “I think where is pretty definite. Ultimately, the Emperor wants access to all the lands in the west, especially those in the rich southern lands. That means the Empire will attack Dor’s Castle.”

  “To secure his lines of communication,” Shin said, nodding. “Yes. His eye will be on Julesport, because you have frustrated him so often, but getting to Julesport means taking Dor’s Castle.”

  “Which won’t happen,” Jules said. “Because we’re going to defend it.”

  “When do you think the Emperor’s patience will end?”

  “The Mechanics think it’ll take about a year. The Empire isn’t used to failure mattering, so the Emperor and his advisers will keep trying to capture me while protecting their main port cities of Landfall and Sandurin. And no one is going to want to tell the Emperor it’s not working, because they’ll fear taking the blame. But the Emperor will eventually realize his advisers are lying to him about what I’m doing and where I am, and that while he’s been chasing me his Empire has been bleeding refugees to found new, free cities in the west.”


  Shin made a face. “I would not want to be one of the advisers when the Emperor’s patience finally runs out. But after he has them killed, he will look at a map and see Julesport on it.”

  “And that’s when Dor’s Castle will need help,” Jules said. “Have any Mechanics or Mages shown up around here?”

  “One of the big metal Mechanic ships sailed past one day,” Shin said. “But it didn’t stop and no one got off. No Mages have been seen, either.”

  “That’s strange,” Jules said, looking at the chart. “The Mechanics have some kind of internal dispute going on that’s taking a lot of their attention, but the Mages know I’m spending a lot of time in the west. And before this they’ve shown an occasional ability to know where I am and when I’ll be there. Where are the Mages?”

  Shin had no answer.

  Chapter Ten

  Wherever the Mages were, Jules knew she had to keep moving. But she had other reasons to travel from place to place for as long as she could.

  The founders of the settlement north of the Strait of Gulls were calling it Farland. The town was less than a month old when Jules brought the Sun Queen by for a visit. As she dressed to see Farland’s leaders, Jules received another daily reminder that she herself was now five months along.

  “Girl,” Liv warned when Jules walked up to the Sun Queen’s quarterdeck, “you’re showing. Keep that long coat on and don’t stretch or stand in a way that makes your belly obvious.”

  “I know. It’s probably time to be thinking of that long voyage to Pacta Servanda,” Jules said, leaning on the railing and reluctant to move her feet.

  “Can you handle not having much to do while you’re there?”

  “Liv, I’ve spent the last few months bouncing all over the Sea of Bakre, and out of it a few times, showing my face everywhere, never stopping anywhere long enough for Mages to show up, and talking to every new settlement and the older ones about standing together when the Emperor finally realizes what he’s doing isn’t working. I’m exhausted.”

  “You have seemed really tired at times.”

  “Yeah. Having nothing to do for a while sounds like fun.” Jules winced as she straightened. “And that’s not counting this. My feet hurt, my back hurts, and it feels like my guts are slowly being pushed up into my stomach, which does not like that, by the way.”

  “It’s only going to get worse,” Liv said.

  “Thank you. I really needed to hear that.”

  She’d scheduled the meeting for after dark, just to make it a little harder for anyone to spot the swelling of her mid-section. For now, Farland consisted of a few tents, some improvised shelters, and a couple of half-finished buildings of wood cut from the seemingly inexhaustible forest stretching inland. The population of a couple of hundred were settling down for the night around outside fires where dinner was being cooked. “We’ll have an oven soon,” one of Farland’s leaders told Jules. “And that means bread!”

  “Is everything else going well?” Jules had declined an offer to take a seat around the fire where the “town leaders” were gathered, fearing that sitting on the ground would expose her awkwardness. Behind her stood four of her guards, wearing the better armor that she’d bought for them using Mechanic gold. She’d feared at first that common people might be intimidated by the presence of her guards, but they instead seemed to find them reassuring.

  “It’s a little spooky at times,” one of the women said, waving toward the darkness gathered under the dense woods outside the area cleared for the town. “That forest is so big, and full of eyes. Animals. A lot of them. It’s easy to imagine legionaries or Mages lurking in there ready to pounce.”

  “Or Mara the Undying,” one of the men said with a grin.

  “You probably know why I’m here,” Jules said. “The Emperor is going to reach his hand this way sooner or later. When he does, will you send aid if I call for it?”

  The leaders of the town exchanged glances, their emotions hard to read in the flickering light of the fire. “What kind of aid?” one asked Jules.

  “A ship if you have one. Men and women who can help crew ships, or help fight the Emperor’s legionaries.”

  “We don’t have that many,” the woman who’d spoken earlier said. “We couldn’t send much.”

  “And don’t we need them here?” the man said. “If the legions come, we’ll need our defenders here.”

  Jules, having heard that argument in every new settlement in the west, nodded in understanding. “The Emperor will have to attack Dor’s Castle first before he can risk attacking anywhere else in the west. If Dor’s Castle holds, the Empire can’t threaten you here. And if Dor’s Castle doesn’t hold, ask yourselves this. Suppose a couple of Imperial galleys sail to this spot and put a century of legionaries ashore. What could you do?”

  A pause, then the woman answered. “We couldn’t beat a hundred legionaries. We’d either have to surrender or try to escape inland.”

  “How about fifty legionaries?” Jules said. “Same answer, right? Because the few fighters that you have can’t, on their own, stop such a force of soldiers. But,” she said, pointing to the southeast, “some of your fighters, added in to fighters from other towns throughout the west, can hold the wall that Dor is building. It’s big and strong. If occupied by enough defenders, even the Emperor’s legions won’t be able to take it. And then the legions will never come to Farland.”

  The town leaders looked at each other again. “If we defend Dor’s Castle, we’ll be defending Farland,” one said. “I see what you mean. But how do we know Dor will make good use of our people? That they won’t be needlessly sacrificed? And if Dor becomes powerful enough, what if he sends soldiers here to make Farland part of a new empire?”

  Once again, she’d heard those worries before. “Because I’ll be there, and I’ll never let Dor, or anyone else in the west, try to gain that kind of power over others. The west is free, and it will remain free,” Jules said. “That’s my promise to you. I can’t finish the job. I can’t stop the Great Guilds. That’ll be up to the daughter of my line when she comes. But I’ll do all I can to smooth the waters for her.”

  They heard her out, nodding. “Your promise is worth more than gold eagles,” the man said.

  “That went well,” Artem said as they walked back to the beach to take their boat to the Sun Queen. The night sky seemed filled with stars, the forests on either side murky and filled with eyes, the water washing up on the pale beach dark and mysterious.

  “Unless something happens to me before the Empire attacks,” Jules said. “No one else can rally the free lands. There’s something wrong when this is all dependent on me being there.”

  “That’s how things are in the Empire,” Artem said. “The Emperor or the Empress makes things happen.”

  “I don’t want the west to be like the Empire,” Jules said. “I don’t want one person to be in charge, or one person able to do whatever they want. Like on a free ship. Elect the captain, and let the captain make a lot of decisions, but if the captain is wrong, or dies, someone else can be elected captain.”

  “Can cities work that way, though?”

  “I hope so,” Jules said, looking across the water to the dark silhouette of the Sun Queen riding at anchor. “I really hope so.”

  “Where are we going from here?” Gord asked as the rowers drove the longboat back to the ship.

  Jules looked down at herself. “Dor’s. There’s someone I have to see.”

  * * *

  The day before the ship reached Dor’s, with nothing but empty sea visible around them, Jules called the crew to a meeting. Everyone gathered on deck or the lowest spars and rigging, looking toward the quarterdeck where Jules stood. “There’s an open secret on this ship,” Jules said. “One all of you surely already know from the looks of me. You know how important this is to the future of our people. I have to establish a line or the prophecy can’t come true. But if word gets out that I’m expecting, the Mages will go be
rserk, and the Emperor will likely do the same. The Mechanics might also try to kill my child, or take it for their own uses.”

  She paused, hating to think of the possible futures her child might face. “That’s why it’s so important that none of you breathe a word of this to anyone. This has to be a secret kept to the crew of the Sun Queen. Don’t speak of it to others. Don’t speak of it among yourselves if you’re off the ship, or where any others could hear. I can’t demand this of you, but I beg that you do as I ask. I know it’ll be hard to stay quiet about such a thing, but if you do, you’ll be able to someday tell people that each of you, personally, had an important part in helping the prophecy to come to pass. That daughter of my line when she comes will owe her life to you as much as to me. Keep your silence, and someday when it comes out you’ll be able to boast of your part in it.”

  For a long moment no one said anything, the only sounds the waves alongside the ship’s hull, the creaking of wood, and the sigh of wind through the rigging.

  Then they cheered and applauded, while Jules felt her face warming with embarrassment.

  “We all knew,” Marta called out. “And we’ve been quiet, because we’re smart enough to know what you just said, that it has to stay a secret. But there’s one question we all have. Is the man responsible among us?”

  Her first instinct was to tell Marta and the crew that it was none of their business, but that would just set the rumors flying. “No,” Jules said. “No disrespect intended to the men of the Sun Queen, but I never considered any of you for that.”

  “I told you!” Liv said. “She has too much good sense to fish for a man in these waters!”

  The men in the crew let out a groan of disappointment that was so loud and theatrical that even Jules couldn’t help laughing. “Sorry. You’ll do it, then? Hold your words?”

  Kyle shouted a reply. “For our hatred of the Great Guilds, for the sake of our children, for our loyalty to our ship and our crew mates, and for the honor of our captain, we’ll keep it among ourselves!”