Pirate of the Prophecy

by Jack Campbell

  PIRATE OF THE PROPHECY

  Copyright © 2020 by John G. Hemry

  All rights reserved.

  Published as an eBook in 2020 by JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.

  Originally published as in Audible Original in March 2020.

  ISBN 978-1-625675-02-6

  Cover art by Dominick Saponaro

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Also by Jack Campbell

  To

  Lieutenant (“Leftenant”) Commander Julie Vitali, Royal Navy,

  who would’ve made one hell of a pirate,

  and who wrote the book on Yankees.

  For S, as always

  Acknowledgements

  I remain indebted to my agents, Joshua Bilmes and Eddie Schneider, for their long- standing support, ever-inspired suggestions and assistance, as well as to Krystyna Lopez and Lisa Rodgers for their work on foreign sales and print editions. Many thanks to Betsy Mitchell for her excellent editing. Thanks also to Robert Chase, Kelly Dwyer, Carolyn Ives Gilman, J.G. (Huck) Huckenpohler, Simcha Kuritzky, Michael LaViolette, Aly Parsons, Bud Sparhawk and Constance A. Warner for their suggestions, comments and recommendations.

  Chapter One

  Jacksport had a lively nightlife for a place that wasn’t supposed to exist. Lanterns and candles lit up the taverns fronting on the harbor, many blazing through sheets of colored glass, causing the waterfront to resemble a cheap courtesan displaying fake jewelry in hopes of attracting more customers. Most of the buildings had been thrown up quickly using raw timber hewn from the inland forests, but even near the rickety piers extending into the water there were sturdier structures being built of stone or brick. Those who were coming to Jacksport clearly meant to stay. But for now muddy paths passed for roads and sidewalks, and dark corners abounded for those who wanted to offer unsavory services or prey on unwary victims.

  Breezes coming down off the inland mountains carried the bracing scent of forest, a welcome competition to the fouler smells of the new town. Above, thousands of stars shone down on the world of Dematr, as well as the Twins, endlessly chasing the moon across the sky, far enough behind their quarry that some argued the moon was chasing the Twins.

  “Why would anyone come here?”

  “They want freedom,” Jules of Landfall replied to her friend Ian. The two lieutenants-in-training stood on the wooden deck of the Imperial galley Eagle Talon, recently tied up to one of those new piers. “They’re common people like us, tired of being slaves to the Great Guilds.” Anyone not a Mechanic or a Mage was a “common.” From the Emperor or Empress down to the lowest gutter dweller, they were all on equal social footing as far as the Mechanics Guild and the Mage Guild were concerned.

  “The commons aren’t slaves,” Ian said. “We’re all citizens of the Empire.”

  “Who have to do anything a Mechanic or a Mage tells us to do.”

  “Why flee the Empire, then?” Ian demanded. “The Emperor protects his people.”

  Jules couldn’t help a low laugh. “The Emperor wants servants, and he knows better than to cross the Great Guilds. No one really protects the common people.”

  Ian shook his head, frowning at her. “Jules, be careful what you say. You’re already…”

  “Already looked at askance because I came out of an Imperial orphan home,” Jules finished for him. “I fought for this,” she added, touching the officer insignia on her dark red uniform. “Just like I’ve had to fight for everything since I was five years old. I earned this.” Maybe the goal she’d set her mind on years ago, to reach for the highest prize within her reach, an Imperial officer commission, no longer felt right for her. But that goal had been her way of proving that she, an orphan raised on the Emperor’s charity, was as good as anyone else. She couldn’t give that up, couldn’t accept failure, because the world held nothing else she had any chance of grasping that could replace it as a mark of success, as an achievement that would force others to admit Jules of Landfall was their equal.

  Not for the first time Jules wondered at how small an entire world could feel. But then as far as people were concerned, the entire world was confined to the eastern part of the Sea of Bakre and the lands there, all of which had been controlled by the Empire for as long as history went back. Granted, history didn’t go back very far, only to the time a few centuries ago when the first emperor, Maran, was credited with ending a period of chaotic barbarism and founding most of the world’s cities. Jules was far from the only person to have noticed that the histories made no mention at all of the Mechanics with their strange devices and the Mages with their mysterious powers who together ruled the world. But the inescapable fact remained that for commons the Empire was all there was, and advancement through Imperial ranks was the only option for those like her who wanted to better themselves.

  “Yes, you earned it, and you can still lose it,” Ian warned. He gestured toward Jacksport. “Don’t start thinking like the people who believe they’ve escaped the Empire just because they’ve made it to the Sharr Isles. Don’t start thinking you can defy the Empire.”

  She felt a surge of the old, familiar anger that had driven her since the death of her parents. “It’s the Empire. It’s all there is, so I have to do what I’m told. But nobody can tell me what I’m allowed to think.”

  “I wasn’t—” He sighed. “Jules, there’s a reason the Emperor hasn’t yet moved against the people who’ve established settlements in places like Jacksport. No one will talk about it openly, but everyone thinks it’s because the Great Guilds have told him not to. Why are the guilds doing that? To let people have freedom? Does that make sense to you?”

  “No,” Jules admitted. “The Great Guilds are playing some game of their own, using the common people as pawns.”

  “Just like always,” Ian said in a low voice. “Pawns who’ll be used and killed.”

  “Maybe I’m tired of being a pawn. Maybe all of us can be more than just tools for the Emperor or the Great Guilds to use in their games.”

  Ian’s reply was forestalled by a shout from the quarterdeck. “Officers assemble!”

  Jules followed Ian along the deck, past the single mast rising from the center of the galley, its sail furled, past the oars carefully stowed inboard, past the rows of crossbows and swords neatly racked and ready for use, around the after ballistae on its mount, and past the crew of legionaries who watched the young officers in training with looks bearing mischief under the required respect. Mounting the short flight of steps to the quarterdeck, Jules and Ian took position behind the line of full officers as they were joined by Dara, the third and last trainee officer aboard.

  Captain Yvette usually appeared to be both smug and unhappy, a combi
nation that Jules believed reflected Yvette’s self-satisfaction with having climbed her way to higher rank by stepping on anyone in her way as well as the discovery that achieving her goal in that manner hadn’t brought her any sense of accomplishment. This night was no different. Yvette glared at the officers before her as if waiting for one of them to utter an incautious word. “We’re here to make it clear to these fugitives that the eye of the Emperor is still on them, and that the hand of the Emperor can reach them. Make sure every person you encounter ashore knows that!”

  “Are we going to take control of this nest of criminals?” Lieutenant Franz asked, secure enough in the knowledge that he was one of the captain’s favorites to risk asking a question. “Just because the Great Guilds are allowing some commons to set up new settlements outside of the Empire doesn’t mean the Emperor has to tolerate it.”

  Yvette scowled. “The Emperor does not choose to take such action at this time. Most of the crew will remain aboard. The officers will go ashore in groups of two to impress our presence upon the locals and keep an eye on each other.” Her eyes came to rest on Jules and a thin smile appeared on her lips. “Except you, Lieutenant-in-Training Jules. You’re familiar with this sort of coarse environment, aren’t you? You’ll be assigned two legionaries and will patrol the taverns, ensuring those inside know the Emperor’s eye is on them.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Jules said, keeping her voice flat, knowing that Yvette was once again needling her in hopes of provoking a reaction.

  A few minutes later, as Jules buckled on her sword belt, Ian paused by her, his expression troubled. “Jules, be careful. I overheard Franz saying that you’re going to be assigned a couple of difficult legionaries. If you take those two into any taverns with you they’ll find a way to sneak drinks, and you’ll get hammered for it when you get back.”

  “Thank you,” Jules said. “I figured the captain was trying to set me up again.” She settled the scabbard of her straight sword on her left hip and checked her dagger, sheathed on her right. “She’d like nothing better than to have grounds to fail me in my training evaluation.”

  “The Great Guilds are here,” Ian continued. “At least, a few Mechanics have been seen on the streets, and one Mage has been spotted as well.”

  “The Mechanics will be watching to make sure we’re not breaking any of their rules,” Jules said. “If someone wanted to try making something new, they’d head for a place like this where the Mechanics might not notice.”

  “It’s not as if commons have any chance of learning how Mechanic devices work,” Ian said. “Their weapons, those ‘trains,’ and everything else seem as mysterious as Mage spells to me.”

  “Those devices are what let Mechanics rule the world,” Jules said. “As for Mages, who knows why they do anything? Are they even human? I mean, they look human, sort of, but...”

  “But they don’t act human,” Ian said. “And they’re even more dangerous than Mechanics.”

  “I’ll try to avoid all of the Mechanics and any Mages,” Jules said. “Just like any smart common. I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier. Thanks for being a friend I can say things like that to.”

  He shrugged. “If that’s all I am, I’ll do my best at it.”

  She smiled at him despite her exasperation. “I never said that’s all you’d ever be to me. I said I needed more time. I’m probably doing you a favor. Imagine how your parents would react if you brought them a girl from a legion orphan home. Especially one with opinions like mine.”

  “Jules, you can’t change the world. No one can. Nothing ever changes. That’s just the way it is. The Great Guilds don’t permit it. And nobody can fight the Great Guilds.”

  He was right. She knew it. But it wasn’t in her to simply accept what was. “I was also told someone with my background couldn’t qualify for an officer’s appointment. Nobody knows what the future holds, Ian.”

  “Mages do,” Ian said. “They sometimes speak those prophecies.”

  Jules felt an odd sense of foreboding that she shrugged off. “That doesn’t have anything to do with me. I’ll be fine.”

  Back on deck she found the ship’s centurion waiting with two legionaries in armor, one armed only with a short sword but the other also carrying a crossbow. Jules recognized both of them, troublemakers just as Ian had warned.

  “Your escort,” the centurion told Jules.

  She waited, her eyes on the centurion.

  “Your escort, Lieutenant,” the centurion said.

  How much of such testing of her was due to her status as an officer in training, and how much to the disdain with which those from the homes were treated? Jules couldn’t tell. She’d already shown the crew her willingness to push back when tested, but it hadn’t stopped, probably fueled by the captain’s open scorn. “Come on,” she told the two legionaries.

  Once on the pier, though, she stopped them. “Let’s get one thing straight. I know that in combat unpopular officers sometimes suffer accidents, getting stabbed by one of their own legionaries.”

  The two legionaries exchanged grins.

  Jules drew her dagger, the broad blade that curved to a point at the end glinting in the light of the lanterns on the galley behind them. “It’d be a shame if anything like that happened to either one of you,” she said. “If I get too upset, if any trouble occurs, I might get confused and stab the wrong target. But as long as you don’t give me any trouble, and obey all orders, you probably won’t suffer from any accidents.”

  The smiles on the faces of her two legionaries faded as they stared at her and the dagger.

  “Are we clear?” Jules said.

  “Yes, Lieutenant!” the legionaries chorused. Their postures, which had been relaxed, straightened into attention.

  She led the way down the pier, no longer quite as worried to have those two at her back.

  Just before leaving the pier to step onto dry land, Jules looked up at the stars again. She hadn’t told anyone, but it was her twentieth birthday. Jules had been tossed out of the orphan home the day she’d turned eighteen, and like just about every other man and woman ejected from one of the homes had walked straight to a legion recruiting office. But instead of enlisting, she’d been able to pass the rigorous tests giving her a chance for an officer appointment. After two years of training covering everything from how to fight, how to march, how to handle a ship, and how to climb the rigging, she got to spend her birthday leading a pair of unhappy legionaries through the mud and dark corners of Jacksport.

  The taverns were only a short way back from the waterfront, lined up ready to separate the unwary from their money in exchange for various legal and illegal entertainments. Jules walked past the doors of the taverns, feeling self-conscious in her Imperial uniform. Except for some of the insignia, her fleet officer uniform was the same as that of the Imperial officers who commanded legionaries ashore. The armor of the legionaries following Jules was different, not as heavy as that of legionaries who fought on land, but it still carried the same menacing message to those who saw it.

  The sounds of revelry grew subdued as Jules passed, growing again in her wake, as if Jules were some sort of Mechanic device or Mage spell that suppressed celebrations. “You’d think we were Mages,” one of the legionaries remarked.

  “If we were Mages,” the other legionary said, “they’d be doing a lot less. No one wants a Mage to notice them.”

  “Saw a guy get noticed by a couple of Mages once,” the first legionary said. “A man and a woman, I think. It’s hard to tell sometimes in those robes they wear, and they had their hoods up. Those two cut that guy to pieces. Just because they could. Didn’t look like they cared. Or like they was having fun. They just did it.”

  The second legionary gave an angry snort. “At least when Mechanics spit on you they look at you like you’re a person, not a bug.”

  “That’s enough,” Jules said, thinking that she ought to stop the chatter. “They’re the Great Guilds. We’re the commons. Everybody k
nows it.”

  “The Emperor ought to-”

  “That’s enough,” Jules repeated, putting more force into the words. It’d be awkward if those legionaries openly wondered why the Emperor who reigned in Marandur didn’t act. Because the only truthful answer was that the supposedly all-powerful Emperor had to do what the Great Guilds demanded.

  The two legionaries subsided for only a moment. As they walked past a particularly garish entry with the sounds of drunken gaiety coming out, the first legionary spoke up again. “Lieutenant, are we going into any of the bars?”

  “I am,” Jules said. Not that she was looking forward to that. “You two have to stay outside.” She ignored the low groans of despair from the legionaries which confirmed that Ian’s warning had been accurate. If those two got into a tavern they’d find ways to sneak drinks, and she’d get blamed for it when the three of them got back to the ship.

  A shout came from someone safely anonymous inside a bar as they passed. “Go away! We’re free here!”

  Free. Jules glanced inland, where the Mechanics Guild had already begun construction of one of their Guild Halls, demanding the work of local laborers and artisans.

  “Freedom? I saw some Mechanics here already,” the second legionary said, unknowingly echoing Jules’ thoughts. “Swaggering around in their dark jackets like they own the whole world.”

  “They do,” the first legionary said. “Don’t know why Jacksport would welcome them and give us the fisheye.”

  Jules knew the answer to that, too. Jacksport would welcome the Mechanics and provide forced labor to build that Guild Hall because, as much as the common people detested Mechanics, they wanted the technology only the Mechanics could provide, and the people here knew that the only power on Dematr that could keep the Empire away was the Mechanics Guild. If it wanted to.

  The Mage Guild could do that as well, of course, and the Mages would also come here, because Mages went wherever they wanted to go. But no one chose to interact with Mages, and no one could predict what they’d do. Except for the certainty that Mages regarded the lives of common people as worthless.