“Not really,” Jules admitted. “I do know a straight sword.”
“Forget all that, sister,” Ang said. “Straight sword is like that dueling stuff. Fancy games. Cutlass work is different.”
Jules soon learned what he meant. Unlike the nicely balanced straight swords she’d learned to use during Imperial officer training, the cutlasses had shorter but heavier blades. Holding it straight out, the blade pulled at her wrist, the tip dipping. And precise moves suited to a well-balanced sword either didn’t move the clumsy cutlass enough or resulted in over-corrections as the weight of the cutlass blade threw off her movements.
“Hack and slash,” Liv said. “This isn’t a dance. Keep your feet grounded, put your strength into the blow, let the weight of the blade knock aside your opponent’s defense, and bury it in their head or neck or arm or whatever. Try not to get it stuck, though. You get your cutlass lodged in someone’s bone and it’ll get yanked from your hand when they fall, leaving you with empty hands facing their friends.”
But there was still skill involved, Jules discovered. Just like normal sword work, anticipating your opponent’s moves let you counter them, and a well-timed, strong parry would knock aside your foe’s blade and leave them open to your attack. She’d always been good at that, reading her opponent’s intentions and figuring out how to negate their strengths while optimizing her own attacks. “You have to get inside their heads,” she explained to Liv after surprising her with a blow that could have been deadly if Jules hadn’t pulled it at the last moment. “I can do that.”
“How?” Liv asked, massaging her shoulder where the flat side of Jules’ blade had hit.
“I don’t know. I learned it at the home, to defend myself. I just look at their eyes and watch them move, and after a little while I can tell what they’ll do.”
Captain Mak spoke from behind her, startling Jules. “Can you do that with a ship?”
“Do what?” Jules asked, turning to look at him, letting her cutlass drop to point at the deck.
“Watch another ship maneuvering, and anticipate his next move.”
Jules hesitated, thinking. “I don’t know, sir,” she finally said.
“Find out,” Mak told her. “Ang, next time we’re around any other ships, keep Jeri off the sails and the lines. I want her watching those other ships and seeing if she can tell what they’ll do next.”
“All right, Cap’n,” Ang said. “That’d come in handy, wouldn’t it?”
“It would,” Mak said.
“I can’t see the eyes of whoever is commanding another ship,” Jules protested.
“Maybe you can get inside their head anyway,” Mak said. “You can sense wind and wave, right? Any good sailor can. Could knowing those be like seeing the eyes of that other captain?”
“It might,” Jules said. “I’ll try.”
“Sail to port! Four points off the bow!” the lockout called down.
“Destiny has sent us a chance to find out,” Mak said. “Follow me up, Jeri.”
She scrambled up the shrouds behind Mak as he climbed to the maintop where the lookout stood pointing to port. When she reached the top, Jules held on tightly to the nearest stay, only one foot on the small top platform that was already crowded by Mak and the lookout, her other foot hanging out over the deck more than a dozen lances below them.
Mak squinted to port, where Jules could see the barely visible vertical lines that marked the tops of two masts. “I wish we could get our hands on a Mechanic far-seer,” he commented.
“A far-seer?” Jules asked.
“I saw one once. Didn’t get to look through it,” Mak added, shading his eyes with one broad, flat palm. “Supposedly they make distant things look close. Some Mechanic trick. What do you think, Jeri? How’s that other moving?”
Jules squinted as well, trying to get a feeling for the movement of the other ship relative to the Sun Queen, a task complicated by the swaying and rocking of the Queen that was exaggerated by her position near the top of the mainmast. “On this course we’re going to pass behind them,” she finally said.
“I think so, too,” Mak said. “What’s your recommendation?”
Jules spent a few more moments watching those distant masts, judging their movement. “I think we should come two points to starboard to meet them up ahead.”
Mak nodded. “What if you’re wrong? What if we cross their course ahead of them?”
“If we’re ahead of them?” Jules looked again. The Sun Queen was still headed nearly north. The other ship, which must be coming from Altis, was traveling east, running with the wind. “We’d have to back down. Or come about a full circle. Or furl some sails to lose speed and drop us back to a slower meet-up with him.”
“Yeah. And those are all bad ideas, to lose speed when you’re trying to close on another ship. If we did any of those things and he maintained his own speed, he could maneuver around us while we’re wallowing.”
“I see.” This was just like training in the Imperial fleet, though without the scorn that normally accompanied pointing out mistakes. “We want to be sure we close on them from their beam or just aft. How fast is this ship?”
Mak and the lookout grinned. “She’s fast,” Mak said. “We’ll aim for the beam of that one. A point and half to starboard of our current course?”
“Yes, sir, I think so.”
Mak yelled the course change down to the quarterdeck. By the time Jules had followed him back down to the deck the Sun Queen was already on the new course, breasting the swells as if eager to catch her quarry. “We’ll see what he’s like!” Mak called out to the rest of the crew. “And if he seems overly burdened with valuable cargo, we’ll be good citizens and relieve him of some of the weight!”
As the crew laughed, Mak turned to Jules. “Jeri, you don’t need to call me sir. This is a free ship.”
“I’d feel weird not calling the captain sir,” Jules said.
“Suit yourself,” Mak said, walking aft to the quarterdeck.
“How does he find time to train everyone like that?” Jules asked Liv, who was leaning against the mainmast.
Liv laughed. “He doesn’t. You’re getting that attention.”
“I am?” Jules looked toward Mak again, a heavy feeling in her gut. “He’s…interested in me?”
“Not that way,” Liv assured her. “Mak’s a forthright type. I’m sure if he wanted to be your man, he’d say so upfront and let the dice fall as they may. I haven’t seen him acting that way around you, sister. No, he’s seen some talent in you and he’s trying to find out what you’re good at and how much better you can get. That’s part of how he got elected captain, by paying attention to people and figuring out who was good at what, and who could be good at something with a little work. That’s a skill a captain needs.”
“That’s true,” Jules said, relieved. “You’re sure Mak isn’t giving me special attention?”
Healer Keli answered her as he walked past the mast. “Captain Mak lost his wife before he came west. He says she was the only one for him. When it comes to the heart, I’ve never seen him look at another woman.”
“Some men are like that,” Liv said. “I hope I find one before I’m too old.”
“I’m always there for you,” Keli said.
“I know what you want, and it’s not a wife! Get away from me, ya shark!”
“Jeri!” Mak called from the quarterdeck. “Get back up to the top and help keep an eye on that ship!”
Even though the second climb tested her still-sore body, Jules went up as fast as she could until she stood once more next to the sailor on lookout. Ferd, who’d already been sitting up this high most of the morning, gave her a nod. “He’s keeping to course, I think.”
Jules squinted at the masts again. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Jeri, mind if I ask a personal one?”
“Depends what it is.”
“Why’d you walk the gauntlet? I mean, you impressed us all. But I don’t think that
’s why you did it. I saw your face when you walked it and it seemed you was doing it for you, not for anything to do with us.”
Jules shrugged, a gesture that almost didn’t hurt by now. “Truth is, I was trying to be sure I earned what I got. I mean, if I was to be accepted as one of the crew, I didn’t want anyone questioning that I’d earned that.”
“Why didya think anyone’d question you?” Ferd asked. “You’re not some lazy lout.”
She glanced at him, judging the older man’s face and sincerity. “Because I came out of a legion orphan home. Hadn’t you heard?”
“Yeah. So?” He must have seen her puzzlement. “I’m not what they call socially aware. Or so I’ve been told. I don’t get things, you know? I guess other folks know something about them orphan homes that I don’t?”
“They think they know something,” Jules said. If Ferd was lying, he was better at it than anyone else she’d ever met, so she decided to be candid with him. “It’s what other people think of us who came out of the orphanages. The boys are all thieves and predators, you see, and the girls like me are all sluts and predators. Just about all of us go into the legions or the Emperor’s fleet because no one else will take us.”
Ferd’s already wrinkled forehead creased further in a frown. “Ang and Liv are out of those places, too, I heard. There’s nothing wrong with you three.”
“Thanks,” Jules said. “But you’re judging us as who we are, instead of because of what we are.”
“Oh, I get it. Well, Jeri, ain’t no one on this ship doubts you earned being a member of the crew. Blazes, if I was half my age I’d be hitting on you, I would! But you’ve nothing to fear from me these days. A girl like you doesn’t need an old wreck like me.”
Jules gave him another glance, this time accompanied by a smile. “I’m sure there are plenty of women nearer your age who’d like you.”
“Point them out if you see them!” Ferd gazed out to sea, wistful. “I expect in a few more years when I get too old for a ship I’ll find a place ashore with some girl from the bars who’s also too old for her trade. We can keep each other company once no one else wants us.”
“It wouldn’t bother you to be with a woman who’d worked the streets her whole life?” Jules asked.
“Why would it? She wouldn’t have had a trade like that if not for men like me. And I’m no pure flower, Jeri. I’ve done my share of wrong, I have. You stay away from men like me, you hear me? We’re no good. Not until we’re too old to be bad.”
“I’ll remember that,” Jules said, her eyes once more on those distant masts, which showed a little higher above the horizon as the two ships slowly drew closer to each other. “You don’t seem so bad to me.”
“I won’t talk of things that would make you think different. Jeri, some ships are bad, full of people you couldn’t trust at your back. But the Queen is a good ship. We keep it that way. Just a few days before you came aboard we let a fella off the ship who’d been thieving from his shipmates. Caught him after he tried forcing himself on one of the girls, who broke his nose.”
Jules gave him another quick look. “He attacked one of the women, you caught him stealing from other crew members, and all you did was let him off at Jacksport?”
Ferd grinned. “We was a coupla days short of Jacksport when we let him off. Gave him a short walk off the side and a long drop to the water.”
“You killed him?”
“Could’ve killed him. Gave him a chance, though. Small chance, with no land in sight, but better than someone who betrays their own shipmates deserves.” Ferd’s voice went pensive. “The one who broke his nose didn’t want him put off, said she’d already given him his due by that, but the thieving sealed his fate. Women are like that, aren’t they? They might be as forgiving as a gentle rain, or as vengeful as the stormiest sea. A wise man doesn’t risk finding out which he’ll face.”
Jules laughed. “Is that what women are like?”
“Yes! You, too! We’ve all seen it. Fella said to me, anyone who crosses that girl better be ready to pay the price. She’ll rip out their heart and eat it while they watch, she will.”
“That’s what people think?” Jules asked, surprised.
“That’s what we see,” Ferd said.
She didn’t reply, squinting again as the distant masts moved, seeming to come closer together. “He’s turning.”
Ferd shaded his eyes, studying what could be seen. “Yeah. Turning away, I think.”
“Yes,” Jules agreed.
“Fool. If he’d put on more sail he could have run with the wind and might’ve outpaced us. But he’s hoping we haven’t seen him yet and is trying to open the distance enough to lose us. Heading north will bring him up against the coast before long. We’ll have him.”
“Why would he run when he had no idea who we were?” Jules asked.
“Must have something good aboard him!” Ferd said, grinning. “And that’d mean some guards, too. Maybe former legionaries hiring themselves out. You ready for a fight, girl?”
“Yeah,” Jules said. She kept her eyes on those distant masts as Ferd called down to the quarterdeck about their quarry’s change of course.
Chapter Three
Jules stood by the bow rail of the Sun Queen, cutlass by her side. Other crewmembers stood nearby, some with cutlasses and a few with crossbows, though most were crouched down so they couldn’t be seen from another ship and all kept their weapons out of sight below the rail. The easterly wind coming from nearly dead astern tossed her hair lightly. Occasionally the bow broke through a swell in a welter of foam that tossed spray high enough to wet Jules’ lips with the taste of salt.
After a long day’s chase, Ferd’s prediction had proven true. They’d caught up with the other ship as it reached the northern coast of the Sea of Bakre and been forced to turn east again. Both ships had every sail set, catching all the wind they could, but the Sun Queen had better legs and drew steadily closer to her prey.
Behind them to the west, the sun was close to setting, casting a long, long shadow of the Queen and her masts and sails ahead of the ship. The top of that shadow was nearly even with the other ship.
“Why are we still hiding most of the crew and our weapons?” Jules asked Ang. “It’s obvious that we’re chasing them and they’re running from us.”
“Got to play the game right,” Ang said. “We don’t want them getting so worried they do something crazy, like run their ship ashore to avoid us. We want to let them think that even if we catch up they’ll still be able to beat us.” He pointed upward. “He’s flying the flag of a rich merchant from Sandurin, so we know he’ll have some choice cargo aboard. Of course, that also means the crew is likely to put up a fight.”
She gazed ahead at the deck of the other ship, at the men and women gathered there, swords and crossbows openly displayed in warning.
There had been brief moments in the last few days when thoughts of the prophecy had been momentarily forgotten. Very brief moments. But as Jules looked at those armed defenders, she wondered again about it.
Could she die? If the prophecy would come true, didn’t that mean she was fated not to die before she had at least one child? Or were Mage prophecies things that might happen, but could be changed by accidents of fate? It wasn’t like she could ask a Mage. No one else could, either. Only Mages knew. Jules felt certain that no matter what Mages believed of their prophecies, they’d do their best to change this one. People were like that, fighting even the seemingly inevitable. And Jules had looked into the eyes of a Mage and seen the person that Mage tried to hide. Despite what she’d heard, Mages could still feel, were still human. They just kept it hidden, perhaps even from themselves.
The Queen rode up a swell and down the other side, her bow digging into the trough and flinging up spray as her bowsprit came even with the stern of the other ship. The two ships were now perhaps five lances apart, the narrow strip of water between them churning.
Captain Mak called from the quart
erdeck, cupping his hands about his mouth to project his voice. “Ahoy the other ship! Drop your sails and let us aboard and none will be harmed! You have my word on it!”
The shouted reply came back, faint against the wind and the sound of the water rushing past two hulls. “If you come aboard you will be harmed! You have my word on that! Break off!”
“Stand up, sirs and ladies,” Mak told the crew. “Let them see the odds now that we’re too close for them to get away.”
The rest of the crew stood, crowding the rail, brandishing their weapons. The two ships were close enough that Jules could see the expressions of the defenders of the other ship, seeing the resolve in them as well as the uncertainty.
The Sun Queen’s bow had reached the midships of the other vessel as they overtook it. Jules judged the movement of the two ships, thinking that Mak would wait until the bow was a bit ahead of the other ship’s bow before swinging the two ships together.
“Surrender and none will be harmed!” Mak shouted again.
“Go to blazes!” the shout came back.
Jules grabbed the rail as the bow of the other ship suddenly swung to starboard, angling to collide with the Queen.
“They mean to ram!” Ang shouted. “Hang on and get the grapnels across!”
Both ships shook as the bow of the other slammed into the side of the Sun Queen, the wood of their hulls groaning, the bowsprit of the other ship stabbing over the rail of the Queen, one of the other ship’s stays close enough to Jules for her to grab.
She did, reaching up and seizing the stay, feeling herself lifted off the deck of the Sun Queen as the other ship’s bow rocked a little higher, hearing the spang of crossbows firing on both ships, the thud of a bolt hitting the foremast behind her, seeing lines being hurled across the gap between the ships, metal hooks on their ends latching onto the rails of the Queen’s prey.
Jules pulled herself the rest of the way onto the other ship’s bowsprit, drawing her cutlass as she balanced and ran forward. She hoped other members of the crew were following her, and more attacking over the side, but couldn’t pause to look around. Noise filled her world, men and women yelling and screaming, wood screeching and cracking, another crossbow firing somewhere close ahead.
Pirate of the Prophecy Page 5
