“I don’t know. But it would be…well, we’d kill them, right? Not because we had to, but because we wanted to. We can get away from them easily enough. If we wait here just to kill them when they get close…” Mari shook her head. “It feels wrong.”
Alli gave her a searching glance. “You’ve got a good feel for that sort of thing, Mari. Maybe sometimes when your gut tells you something is wrong, what it’s really saying is that something is more dangerous than it looks.”
“That could be,” Mari said.
The Gray Lady shifted course, swinging closer to the Pride. Mari saw the Lady’s captain raise a speaking trumpet to his mouth. “Those boats are bait!” he yelled across to the Pride. “I was warned of this. They’ll provoke us with crossbow fire in hopes we’ll chase them and end up closer to shore. They’ll prolong the chase until the sun sets, then under cover of the dark many of their friends will swarm out in other boats to overwhelm our crews.”
“It’s amazing what you can learn in waterfront bars,” Alli commented. “Maybe I should spend more time in them.”
“You’re joking, right?” Mari said as she waved an acknowledgement to the Lady’s captain.
“We’re all pirates, aren’t we? And I know Calu would love to show off his scar and boast about it. Aye, there we were at Edinton, dragons on all sides and assassins charging from the front. I’ll hold them off, I said, while the rest of you get to the ships with the loot.”
“Aye, the spirit of Jules was with us that day!” Mari said, and laughed. “Let’s hope that spirit is also with us at Pacta Servanda. Jules managed to found a city and help cobble together the Confederation. We’re going to need those kinds of skills.”
She stayed at the rail for some time after Alli went below decks. She watched the pirate craft come closer, loose a few crossbow bolts at long range, then lose ground increasingly as the Gray Lady, the Pride of Longfalls, the Worthy Son, and the Dolphin put on more sail and left the pirates of Minut in their wakes.
* * * *
Three days later the small fleet arrived off the town of Pacta Servanda. Mari saw everyone on the ships staring at the land of Tiae as the ships wore into the small harbor. For as long as she could remember Tiae had been the Broken Kingdom, a place of anarchy and violence. Like everyone else on the four ships, Mari had never expected to see Tiae, let alone choose to go there.
She raised her far-seers, spotting the green and gold banner of Tiae still flying over the town. “Our information was correct. Pacta Servanda still considers itself to be part of the kingdom.”
“A kingdom that no longer exists except for this town,” Captain Banda commented. “What is happening there on the left?”
Mari swung her far-seers to view that part of the defensive wall. Pacta Servanda occupied a small peninsula which both shaped the town’s harbor and limited the land approaches to the town. The wall guarding the town was still intact, but where Banda had indicated Mari could see a mass of armed fighters surging at its base, trying to put up ladders that would get them to the top. Behind them a single ballista was hurling rocks against the city and the wall. “Pacta Servanda is under attack,” Mari said.
Captain Banda had been studying the situation through his far-seers as well, and now shook his head. “There aren’t nearly as many defenders on that wall as there are attackers trying to get in. It looks bad.”
Alain declined Mari’s offer of her far-seers as he always did, having a Mage’s discomfort with Mechanic devices, instead shading his eyes to view what he could from this distance. “We may have arrived just in time.”
Mari took another look at the battle, and at the attackers in a variety of cast-off armor and clothing swarming at the walls. This was no army deserving of the name. One of the warlords who had caused so much suffering in Tiae was trying to extinguish the last vestige of the kingdom. “Or we may have arrived just too late.”
Chapter Thirteen
“We have a hundred soldiers with Major Sima,” Mari said. “If we send them into the city to reinforce the walls…what?”
Alain shook his head. “The people here know nothing of us. If they see us landing soldiers on the waterfront, they will assume we are also attacking the town.”
Captain Banda nodded in agreement. “And if they think they need to defend the waterfront, they’ll strip some troops from the walls, weakening their defenses there and possibly ensuring the city falls.”
“We’ve got to do something!” Mari said. “We can’t just sit here and watch that town fall because we didn’t arrive a half-day earlier!”
“We have the Pride’s deck gun,” Captain Banda said. “It’s a light-caliber weapon, but still ought to impress anyone we fire on.”
“Your gun has enough range to reach the attackers?” Mari asked hopefully.
“We’ll have to get closer to ensure accuracy, but yes.” Banda grimaced apologetically. “We are low on shells, though. The Guild has allowed us only ten rounds.”
“Ten?” Mari felt like yelling in frustration. “If the Senior Mechanics were going to pay to put a light gun on this ship, why wouldn’t they pay the much smaller sums to provide it with a decent amount of ammunition! What else can we do? Alain, can you or the other Mages do anything without getting close to the fight?”
Alain frowned in thought. “We are still on the water and have access to little power to change the world illusion… An illusion. That is something that can be done without the use of Mages. We do not have enough soldiers to assault those who are attacking the town. But the attackers do not know that. If the ship Dolphin moves as if preparing to land soldiers outside the town, and our soldiers are seen on the deck, it will look to anyone watching as if we are readying a powerful strike against those attacking the walls.”
Calu had joined them, his arm still bandaged. He nodded. “They’ll have to break off the attack. Have the Pride’s gun go after that ballista first, and if we knock it out drop some shells on the guys just outside the walls.”
The Pride and the Dolphin moved slowly closer to the coast, feeling their way through an unfamiliar harbor, while Mari tried not to scream with frustration at how long it was taking. She kept hauling out her far-seers to check on the defense of the town, seeing the thin ranks of those on the wall repeatedly throwing back attempts by their attackers to reach the top.
“The guys holding that wall are tough,” Calu commented from the rail to Mari’s right. “They’re not giving any ground at all.”
“But there aren’t enough of them,” Alli said. She was standing next to Alain, who was just to Mari’s left. “Just imagine what those guys could do if they all had rifles. If they all had the new rifles we’re going to make!”
Mari, worriedly watching the fight near the town wall, was surprised when a sudden boom announced the firing of the Pride’s deck gun. She could see the shell fly out in a flat trajectory toward the ballista that was firing on the wall. The shell struck and exploded, throwing up a fountain of dirt and grass a dozen lances from the ballista.
She saw Mechanic Deni making adjustments to the deck gun while it was reloaded. Deni stood back and pointed at the gunner, who fired again.
This time the shell struck only a few lances from the ballista.
Those attacking the wall had been absorbed in the fight, but the sounds of two explosions had drawn their attention. Mari saw some of the attackers edging away from the wall, pointing out to the ships in the harbor and shouting words impossible to hear from this far away.
A third boom, a third shell flying out, and an explosion right next to the ballista that sent its crew flying away. Some of the ballista’s crew got up and ran, but others lay still.
“Shift your target to the soldiers in front of the wall!” Captain Banda called from the quarterdeck.
The next shell exploded in the rear ranks of the attackers, blowing apart a new ladder being brought up as well as those carrying it.
“Dud!” the gunner yelled.
Mari watc
hed the gun crew yank open the breech and hastily pull out the shell that hadn’t fired. Two carried the shell to the edge and tossed it as far from the ship as they could, the unexploded shell making only a large splash as it hit the water.
“Only five rounds left,” Mari said.
“The Dolphin is in position,” Alain pointed out.
From this angle Mari could see how thin the ranks of soldiers on the Dolphin’s deck were. But from the shore those ranks should look deep and solid. The Dolphin’s crew was making an elaborate production out of preparing the ship’s boats for lowering.
Another shot from the Pride’s gun slammed into the force outside the town wall.
The attack collapsed, those who had been trying to breach the wall now running away from it in a confused mass.
“Cease fire!” Banda called. “Well done! That will teach those scum not to mess with Mechanic artillery!”
“It’s a good thing they don’t know we only have four shots left,” Alli commented. “Now what? Pursue the beaten enemy?”
“I would not advise that,” Alain said. “There is too much we do not know. The size of this warlord’s forces, the nature of the land, what other threats might be near, and how the townspeople would react to us landing soldiers even outside their walls.”
“I’m with Alain,” Calu said.
“Far be it from me to argue,” Alli said.
Mari nodded and turned to face the quarterdeck. “Captain Banda, tell the Dolphin to break off the fake landing and move back into the harbor. I’m going to need a boat to take a group ashore to talk with the town’s leaders.”
“Yes, Lady Master Mechanic,” Banda replied. “I hope you are not assuming the town’s leaders will be grateful.”
She looked through her far-seers at the section of wall that had been most fiercely attacked and most fiercely defended. The men and women atop the wall were not celebrating victory, not cheering or raising weapons high. They stood, weapons at ready, all facing toward the four ships that had entered the harbor of Pacta Servanda.
The warning she had received from the captain of the Gray Lady came back to her. The defenders of Pacta Servanda looked uncomfortably lean and wolfish as they unflinchingly faced what they must see as another threat.
* * * *
Mari had kept the landing party small but hopefully impressive. Herself. Mechanics Alli and Calu. Master Mechanic Lukas and Professor S’san. All of the Mechanics were impossible to mistake in their dark jackets. Alain, Mage Dav, Mage Hiro, and Mage Alera in their robes. Major Sima and a couple of his soldiers. The captain of the Gray Lady and a few sailors.
The only sound as they were rowed to the town landing was the splash of water as oars dipped and rose. Mari could see abandoned buildings along the waterfront. She could also see groups of people silently watching the approaching boat. Something about the way they stood waiting made Mari grateful for the pistol holstered under her jacket.
Calu shifted his grip on his rifle as he stared back at the silent watchers. “This feels like one of those stories where everyone is yelling at the characters, ‘Don’t go into that town!’ Doesn’t it?”
“No one warned me of any cannibalism in Pacta Servanda,” the Gray Lady’s captain remarked cheerfully. “I’m sure they would have mentioned that if it was anything to worry about.”
A detachment of soldiers awaited the boat as it reached the landing. The soldiers wore the green and gold of Tiae on their uniforms, the colors faded and the fabric worn and patched from age and use. Their armor and the weapons they carried were battered, but in good repair and without a trace of rust.
“These soldiers remind me of some others,” Alain murmured to Mari.
“I was thinking the same thing,” she replied. The inhabitants of the university in Marandur, holding things together within their small portion of the world but showing the strain of being under constant threat and having to make do with the leavings of the past.
The officer in command stood at the edge of the landing, waving off the sailors on the boat who tried to tie up. The sailors took one look at the soldiers behind her, their weapons drawn and ready, and settled back to wait for their superiors to handle things.
Mari didn’t blame them. The soldiers had the grim look of professionals who combined experience with fatalism. Facing a pack of wolves would probably have been less intimidating.
“Why are you here?” the officer demanded, her voice as harsh as her expression.
Mari stayed seated in the boat as she tried to sound both confident and nonthreatening. “We want to meet the leaders of Pacta Servanda.”
“If you seek ransom or an opportunity to pillage, you are wasting your time. The only things of value left in Pacta Servanda are our weapons, and those we will only give you point first.”
“We don’t want a ransom,” Mari said. “We just helped drive off the people assaulting your wall. We are here to help this town. We are here to help Tiae.”
The officer smiled incredulously. “To help Tiae? Are you not a few years late in that task, Lady Mechanic?”
“Yes,” Mari said. “But hopefully not too late. Do you speak for the town? We have an offer for your leaders. Not threats. An offer. Are you authorized to reject that offer?”
As Mari had hoped, the officer had vast experience with confronting physical threats but not much familiarity with diplomacy. “Your ships fly the flag of no country. I will not allow pirates to land in this city.”
“Don’t you want to know whose flag they do fly?” Professor S’san asked, unintimidated.
“Let us talk to the leaders of Pacta Servanda,” Mari insisted. “It doesn’t take a genius to tell that this town is on its last legs. Our help can make the difference for you. But what we bring is an offer, not any type of ultimatum.”
Alain spoke up, using his Mage voice. Mari knew he was aware of how little she liked that voice, so he must be using it for the effect it had on the officer and her soldiers. “If you want to change the fate of this town,” Alain said, “and the fates of everyone in it, and the fates of everyone in Tiae, you will not stand in our way. The choice is yours.”
The officer eyed them, slowly lowering the blade of her sword as she did so. “I know what those are,” she said, using the sword to point at the rifles held by Alli and Calu. “I have never seen one in use, but I have heard what they can do.”
“Then you know,” Mari said, “that if we wanted to we could sit here and kill you and all of your soldiers without risk to ourselves.” That was an exaggeration, given how close the boat was to the landing and the crossbows carried by some of the soldiers, but Mari thought the white lie was justified in this case. “We’re not here to threaten or harm you. We are here to offer a deal that will benefit you and us.”
“A deal?” The officer nodded, as if finally understanding. “We are familiar with trade-offs, Lady Mechanic. You will leave those—” she said, using her sword to point again at the rifles held by Alli and Calu—“and come with me.”
Apparently the officer’s knowledge of Mechanic weapons did not extend to pistols, which wasn’t surprising given how long it had been since the Mechanics Guild had a presence in Tiae. No one suggested searching Mari or the other Mechanics.
But from the way the officer and her soldiers watched the Mages, they had heard plenty of stories about them. Mentally, Mari sighed, hoping that the worst of Mage excesses had been forgotten in the years since the Mage Guild had abandoned Tiae.
The boat tied up and most of Mari’s group disembarked, Sima’s soldiers and the sailors remaining at the dock. The officer led the way into the town, her soldiers forming two lines, one on either side of Mari’s group.
The walk through Pacta Servanda showed Mari more of the town. As at the waterfront, some buildings were empty, usually those devoted to businesses. Living accommodations tended to be occupied, though. The commons she could see wore a variety of clothes that implied both townsfolk and refugees from the countryside. Mar
i had the overwhelming impression of a town that existed only to survive. Trade and business and crafts had all given way to the most basic need.
Professor S’san leaned close to Mari. “There is no trash in the streets,” she murmured. “Just like in the Empire.”
Mari nodded in silent reply. The Imperial government kept the streets clean, which was a sign both of how efficient the Imperials could be and of how much emphasis they placed on maintaining order. The leaders of Pacta Servanda were also keeping it clean, displaying an obvious sign of a government which had the power to fulfill basic functions.
The city hall they eventually reached was a stout building with a worn but well-built façade. Graceful curves marked doorways and rooflines, and vines grew along the front, almost masking the ravages of too many years with too few repairs. The commander of the soldiers escorting them brought Mari’s group to the doorway. “You must wait here.” She entered the building, leaving Mari and others guarded by the soldiers of the town.
S’san glanced around, annoyed. “Waiting on the whims of commons,” she grumbled just loudly enough for Mari to hear.
A crowd was forming at a small distance, silently watching Mari and her companions. “Even the babies aren’t crying,” Mari heard Alli whisper to Calu.
Mage Dav and Mage Hiro walked to Mari. “There is no fear in them,” Mage Dav said. “Not even when they look on Mages.”
“Something has been burned out of these shadows,” Alain agreed in a murmur.
“Can it be relit?” Mari asked.
The Mages looked at her, even Mage Hiro revealing a tiny degree of surprise at the question. “I do not know,” Mage Dav said.
“We’ll have to try.”
The officer stepped out of the building, her eyes sweeping across the group. “You will be allowed to enter,” she said, making the concession sound like a warning.
Mari followed the officer, leading her group into the city hall. Just inside the door was a big entry area with a high ceiling. The entry was vacant of furnishings or decoration, but traces on the walls and floor showed where such things had once been found. After ascending a wide staircase, Mari and her companions were brought into a large room dominated by a long table. In some ways it echoed the room in which Mari and Alain had met some of the city leaders in Julesport, but here there were ample signs that the past glories of Tiae had been sacrificed to today’s necessity. Darker areas on the walls marked where tapestries had doubtless once hung before being sold. Aside from the table, there were very few furnishings for such a large room, leading Mari to suspect most of those had been sold off as well. She knew what kind of prices furniture and tapestries from Tiae were commanding around the Sea of Bakre these days, and wondered how much of those inflated prices had actually gone to the people here who needed the money the most.
The Pirates of Pacta Servanda Page 27
