The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality Book 4) Page 10

  “Are those…safe Mages?” the captain asked in a worried voice.

  “Mage Dav vouches for them,” Mari said. “If they can’t behave themselves they won’t stay. For now, try to work around them. How soon can we get underway?”

  “We’re taking in the line to the anchor buoy now.”

  Mari looked over the side, seeing that Alli, Mechanic Dav and the fourth new Mechanic were all coming up the ladder. The launch was just pushing off, the boat officer and the rowers pausing to wave enthusiastic farewells.

  Waving back, Mari felt the Gray Lady begin moving as her sails unfurled and began catching the wind.

  “We have the tide with us,” the captain said, “but it’s a long ways out of the harbor. Hopefully any galleys outside the harbor will be caught napping when we leave.”

  “Whoa!” Bev said loudly enough to cause everyone to look at her, and then at what she was looking at.

  Mari saw the cloud of smoke from the Mechanic ship was now lit from beneath by showers of sparks and a few actual flames coming from the stack. “They split their boiler. Lucky it happened before they had pressure up, or half this harbor would have felt the explosion.”

  “Think they’ll lose the ship?” Alli asked, coming up to Mari. “I hope it was all right to let Mage Dav bring those other Mages with us.”

  “Yeah. I trust Mage Dav.” Mari took another look toward the stricken steamship. “The flames seem to be subsiding. I think they’ll save the ship, but it’s not going to be going anywhere soon. Alli, we have to keep everyone alert and ready until we clear this harbor. Get the other two rifles distributed. I’ll give mine to Calu since I have my pistol.”

  “Got it.”

  Mari leaned on the rail, feeling exhausted, grateful that she could depend on Alli to manage the other Mechanics. Calu could do it, too, for that matter. “Mage Asha, can you tell if any Mages are working on big spells?”

  Asha shook her head. “I do not sense such activity near the harbor. The elders have no doubt been surprised. But it would not be wise to give them time to overcome their surprise.”

  As badly as she wanted to run into the cabin to find out how the healers were doing with Alain, Mari held herself at the rail, watching the dark shapes of anchored ships slide by with increasing speed as the Gray Lady tacked through the harbor. They were so close to getting out of Julesport in one piece.

  The Gray Lady glided gently toward the exit from the harbor, her sails drawing well on the light breeze. Of necessity, her course was bringing the Gray Lady close by the largest Confederation warship in the harbor, a three-masted frigate mounting two big ballistae on her deck. Looking like giant crossbows, the ballistae could be pivoted to fire off either side. But Mari saw no reason to be worried about the Confederation warship. She kept her eyes forward, searching for any signs of Syndari galleys near the harbor mouth.

  Her complacency was rudely shattered by a hail from the Confederation warship. “Ahoy the clipper! Shorten your sails!”

  Mari spun to look at the warship, seeing crewmembers running along the deck and up the rigging while others rushed to the ballistae. “I don’t believe it. Why is the Confederation moving against us?”

  Alli was standing beside her again. “Alain’s still out cold, isn’t he?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “Can any of the other Mages do that fire thing?”

  “Asha?”

  “No,” Asha said, her lack of emotion making the single word sound oddly complacent.

  Mari ran through options in her mind and didn’t find any good ones. Without Alain, their ability to defeat the big warship was pretty much nonexistent. “Alli, get our Mechanics lined up and ready to fire. Mage Asha, if you or the other Mages can disable that ship somehow, let me know.”

  “We are on the water. There is little power here.”

  “Of course,” Mari grumbled. “Captain! Tell that warship that we’ve got clearance to leave this harbor! Colonel Faron gave us clearance!”

  The captain of the Gray Lady complied, raising his speaking trumpet. “Ahoy the warship! We’ve got clearance to leave! Courtesy of Colonel Faron of Julesport!”

  Mari watched the crew of the warship continue their frantic activity, bringing up the anchor and loosing sails. Others were swinging out the ballistae. Mari saw her small group of Mechanics at the rail of the Gray Lady, measured them against the number of sailors on the warship, and knew even six Mechanic rifles couldn’t hope to deal with this threat.

  “Ahoy the clipper!” the hail from the warship came again. “Shorten sail now!”

  Chapter Five

  The captain of the Gray Lady shook his head, looking at Mari. “Unless you’ve a miracle handy, Lady, I’d recommend doing as they say.”

  My miracle is still unconscious in a bunk, Mari thought bitterly. “If we don’t comply and that warship opens fire at this range, we’ll be ripped apart. At the least, we need to buy time. Do it!” she yelled at the captain.

  The captain shouted the necessary orders and his sailors raced aloft to pull in the Gray Lady’s sails, reducing the amount of area the wind could strike and therefore causing the small clipper’s speed to fall off. The captain raised his speaking trumpet again. “We’re shortening sail.”

  “Thank you!” the warship called back.

  Alli looked back at Mari. “Thank you?”

  Mari stared at the warship, then gave the Gray Lady’s captain a perplexed look. “Are Confederation warships normally that polite when they’re trying to intercept other ships?”

  The captain looked equally baffled. “Not in my experience. Not polite at all.”

  The voice from the warship called again. “Shorten sail more! You’ll be too far ahead!”

  “I thought that was the idea,” Bev complained. “Aren’t we trying to escape? What’s going on?”

  Once again the captain shook his head to indicate he didn’t know.

  Mari hit her limit. “I can’t fight people when I don’t even know if they’re trying to fight me!” She strode aft and took the speaking trumpet from the captain. “On the warship! Why are you asking us to slow down?”

  After a brief pause, the warship called back. “Weren’t you told?”

  Mari glared around the deck of the Gray Lady. “Was anybody told anything?” Blank stares met her question. She raised the speaking trumpet again. “No! What should we have been told?”

  “The Confederation is tired of the Syndaris harassing shipping. At the request of the Julesport city council, Confederation warships Intrepid and Gallant have been ordered to leave the harbor immediately and prevent any Syndari galleys from interfering with free commerce.”

  “I’ll be damned,” the captain said, for once at a loss for other words.

  “You’re escorting us out of the harbor?” Mari called back.

  “No! We do not see any ships leaving the harbor at this time! There is only open water off of our port side! Whiskey whiskey, nora nora. Please shorten sail more so you don’t get too far ahead of us!”

  Mari lowered the speaking trumpet and looked at the captain. “Whiskey whiskey, nora nora?”

  The captain grinned. “That stands for wink wink, nudge nudge. Sailor talk. They’re pretending we’re not here.”

  “But…why?”

  “Because the Great Guilds would take it very badly if the Confederation rendered aid to you, Lady. But if the Confederation just happens to decide to get tough with the Syndaris at the same time as you’re escaping from Julesport? How could anyone have known that was happening? So sorry, Great Guilds, we didn’t mean it and we’ll never do it again.” The captain’s smile shone in the moonlight. “But as for us, the only ones who have to fear that warship this morning are any Syndari galleys waiting outside the harbor.”

  “This morning?” Mari looked around at the dark sky and the bright moon above.

  “It’s well past midnight, Lady. A new day, if you’ll pardon the term.”

  Mari heard cheering
and stared blankly down the length of the ship. All of the crew and all of the Mechanics were looking at her and applauding.

  “Nice,” Alli approved as she walked up to Mari.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “This.” Alli waved around. “We get in to harbor safe, we get our supplies, we rescue Alain, we pick up some new friends including Calu—and do I ever owe you for that—and now we just got out this mess without a shot being fired!”

  “I did not—” Mari tried to gather her thoughts. “I didn’t do any of that. No. I led the rescue of Alain. But not the rest.”

  “Mari, you’re the most modest friend I’ve got,” Alli said with a laugh, “as well as the most brilliant. Accept the praise. You earned it.”

  “You are all out of your minds,” Mari complained.

  * * * *

  All lights extinguished, the Gray Lady kept to the lee of the two Confederation warships as they charged out at four Syndari galleys drifting near the entrance to the harbor. As the galleys scattered to avoid the frigates, the Gray Lady slipped past unseen and sailed due west until the lights of Julesport, the frigates, and the galleys all vanished beneath the horizon.

  Only then, alone in the wide expanse of the Jules Sea, did the Gray Lady turn south. The sun rising off the port side gilded the masts and sails of the clipper ship as she rode before a freshening breeze that sang through the rigging, cleaving the waters en route the broad, clear reaches of the great Umbari Ocean.

  Mari, staggering with weariness, finally felt free to head down to the cabin. The Gray Lady had begun rolling in the choppy seas, which made her progress even more difficult, but Mari refused to ask anyone for help. She knew she was being stubborn, but she was going to get through this day even if it killed her.

  Holding onto the cabin door for dear life, Mari made it inside, where the two healers were still with Alain.

  She made it to the bunk and sat down on the edge, brushing his forehead with one hand. Alain’s face, relaxed in sleep, looked as young as it had the first time they had met. Her mind, half-delirious with fatigue, generated a powerful vision of that moment, when a panicky Mari had through pure reflexive distrust almost put a bullet into the Mage coming toward her out of the dust clouds. “We’ve certainly come a long way from that caravan in the Waste outside of Ringhmon, haven’t we, my Mage?” she asked.

  Someone cleared his throat and Mari, with a guilty start, looked at the healers. “I’m sorry. Is he going to be all right?”

  The woman named Cas smiled. “Yes. Probably weak, and he may be in pain when he awakens, not only because of the after-effects of the drug but because of this.” She gently raised Alain’s head to indicate a bandaged area.

  “He hit his head?” Mari asked.

  “Something hit his head,” Pol corrected. He looked tired, too, but satisfied. “It looks like the sort of injury caused by a sap arrow.”

  “A what?”

  “A sap arrow,” Pol explained. “A sap is a leather-covered weight that’s used by thieves and kidnappers to knock out their prey. There’s a special arrow for small crossbows that has a sap instead of a point and is fired with less force than a lethal arrow. Only criminals use it. We were told Dark Mages did this?”

  “That’s right,” Mari said. “I mean, it looks like the Mage Guild Hall in Julesport hired some Dark Mages to do it.”

  “Slime-sucking bottom-dwellers,” Cas muttered angrily. “We’ve dealt with the results of their work before. You’re lucky you found him quickly.”

  There was something else important, something that she needed to ask about. What was it? “The drug. Is that going to cause any problems?”

  “Doubtful,” Cas replied. “There’s always a little concern that even someone young and strong could be thrown into addiction after only a single dose of a drug like that, but it’s very rare. It usually takes frequent use to develop addiction and create physical problems. Assuming Mages are like other people, I think it more likely he’ll have developed a physical aversion to this drug based on this experience.”

  Pol nodded in agreement. “Is he…like other people, Lady? We couldn’t find any differences, but Mages—well, you know.”

  Mari almost laughed, but she couldn’t muster the strength. “Alain is like everyone else, and like no one else. He is the most amazing, important…” Her voice faltered. “Thank you so much. I’m sorry. It’s been…a…very…long…day.”

  She had the vague sensation of being helped into another bunk, then fell fast asleep, aware only of the smile on her lips. Alain was all right.

  * * * *

  Mage Alain awoke to find himself in a bunk aboard a ship that was plainly at sea, rolling as it cut through swells. Alain puzzled over that. He knew he was a Mage, but for the moment nothing else came clear to him. He had no memories of a ship leaving port, or of getting aboard a ship. He had been walking down a street in…Julesport. A group of common soldiers about him? Worrying about…Mari. And—

  Mari? Who was—?

  For a moment he was surrounded by dust, hearing the crashing of strange weapons, the blood of commons spattering his robes, the caravan destroyed around him, ready to die but walking as if in a dream toward the last wagon where someone might survive, seeing a figure in a dark jacket appear before him—

  Mari.

  Everything flooded back into him, memories and feelings and emotions that left Alain gasping. A vast emptiness that once had been all he had was suddenly full once more, full because of her, and he felt a sudden rush of worry. What had happened to him? Where was Mari?

  He twisted to look, almost wincing at a sudden pain on the back of his head. But he could see the other bunk, and Mari lashed into it so she couldn’t be tossed out by the ship’s motion.

  This was the Gray Lady. Mari was safe, a trace of a smile on her face.

  Alain sat up cautiously, feeling the back of his head. A bandage. That explained the pain there. But he also felt odd, a roiling of the stomach and an aching of his arms and legs that felt like the after-effects of eating spoiled food.

  What had happened? Alain looked at Mari, guessing that she would know, but tracing with his eyes the great weariness that held her deeply asleep. He had seen her like this before, when Mari had pushed herself too far and too long because she thought she must, because others needed her, because she would not leave anyone behind. If he woke her now she would abandon sleep and get back to whatever tasks awaited. He knew that, and so Alain stood cautiously and moved toward the cabin door as quietly as he could.

  He stepped outside, slightly dizzy and grateful for the door’s support before he closed it.

  “Alain! You’re all right!”

  Alain blinked in confusion at the Mechanic standing before him. He knew that face from somewhere. Somewhere cold. “Mechanic Calu? Friend of Mari?”

  “That’s me.” Calu studied him, looking worried. “Take it easy. You still look a little beat up.”

  “Apparently I have been beat up.” Alain indicated the bandage on the back of his head. “Do you know how?”

  “Only what I was told.” Calu helped Alain sit down on a barrel lashed to the front of the cabin. “You got knocked out by some Dark Mages. Mari led a rescue and found you with Mage Asha’s help.”

  “How was that possible?” Alain wondered. “I will have to ask Mage Asha. Wait. How did you come to be here? You were in Umburan.”

  “Sure was,” Calu agreed. He leaned against the cabin next to Alain, his Mechanics jacket dark against the wood. “But the Mechanics Guild has gotten even more worried about Mari. You remember I got sent to Umburan because the Guild was trying to break up Mari’s old gang? Which wasn’t really a gang, but anyway. The Senior Mechanics have been moving people between Guild Halls a lot more, trying to keep any gangs from forming. That’s how I ended up in Julesport. That’s the official reason, anyway. I suspect the Guild thought Mari might go to Julesport and figured that if I was there she’d try to contact me. They’ve been wat
ching me pretty close, but what they didn’t know was that two of the Mechanics supposedly keeping an eye on me were just as eager to join Mari as I was.”

  “Mechanic Alli was worried about you,” Alain said, still gathering his thoughts.

  “He needs to be watched or he gets into trouble,” Alli said, coming up and putting one arm around Calu. “How are you doing, Alain? You looked pretty bad when we carried you out of that Dark Mage den. The healers said you might be hurting. Are you in any pain?”

  “It is nothing,” Alain said.

  “Is everything nothing with you Mages?” Alli asked. “There’s some pain medication you are supposed to take if you need it.”

  Alain shook his head. “I do not need it. I have endured far worse pain than this.”

  Alli shook her head in turn, then looked at Calu. “Mari has been telling me some things about the training Mages get when they’re—not apprentices…acolytes. It is seriously ugly. Take a look sometime and you’ll see all of the Mages, even Asha, have lots of scars.”

  “I didn’t think you wanted me looking at Mage Asha,” Calu said. “Scars? I saw them on you before, Alain, and I thought maybe they were from that fight in the desert or at Dorcastle. I’m really sorry.”

  “Why?” Alain asked.

  “Because it must have been pretty tough on you, and on the other Mages.”

  “Oh.” He still had trouble grasping the way shadows thought, of how they could care for others while also doing things that harmed others. How could someone like Alli see others as real and yet also be able to point a Mechanic weapon at them? Mari could do the same, but he knew it caused her great distress. Perhaps Alli hid her distress the way a Mage would. “We are heading for Tiae?”

  “Yes,” Alli said. “Though Calu and I have been talking about something that might alter that a bit. We’ll talk to you when we’ve argued it out. In the meantime, you might want to check out our other new friends.”

  He saw some anxiety in her and looked where Alli indicated. Sitting in a circle on the deck were five Mages, not two as he would have expected.

  “Mage Asha and Mage Dav have been with them, but otherwise they haven’t interacted with anybody,” Alli added. “Those three act like regular Mages and—well, it’s a little difficult.”