Swords of Waar (35 page)

Well, I could ease his mind there. “This is Kai-La, who helped the Aldhanan stop Kedac-Zir in his tracks a few months back. She’s one of the good guys, remember?”

Ku-Rho curled his lip. “I do remember. She was given a pardon and a rich reward for her brave actions, and now she is back robbing ships?”

Oh.

Yeah.

I’d been so surprised to see her again that I’d forgot about that part. Kai-La seemed to take it in stride. She laughed.

“Worry not, Captain. I will retire again once we bank these tithes—at least for a time. Now, open your hatches.”

Ku-Rho drew himself up. “I am sworn to protect the imperial tithes against all thieves. You will not—”

“You’re in no condition to protect anything, Captain. Besides, the Aldhanan won’t miss it. He has plenty more where this came from.”

Ku-Rho was getting hotter and hotter as she spoke. I was afraid he was going to pop. I stepped between them.

“Kai-La. The Aldhanan is dead.”

That made her blink. She turned to Lhan like she was expecting him to say it was a joke. He didn’t. She stared.

“Dead? What do you mean, dead?”

I swallowed. “Dead dead. Laid out on a slab dead. The priests killed him. He was traveling with us in disguise. They found out and—” The images of him lying there ambushed me again and I choked up. I pulled my thumb across my neck instead of talking. “Now—now they’re after us ’cause we know they did it.”

Lhan nodded. “They have named us his assassins.”

Burly whistled. “I wondered why priests attacked an imperial ship.”

Kai-La was frowning. “So, this has to do with the kidnapping of the Aldhanan’s daughter and that fool Sai-Far? He went to war over it?”

“Not that alone.” Lhan stepped forward. “He discovered that the priests were guilty of worse crimes, not just against his family, but against all Ora.”

“He asked us to help take ’em down.” I motioned to myself, Lhan, and Shal-Hau and Sei-Sien, who were sitting with the wounded and helping patch each other up. “We hitched a ride on the tax ship so we could go to each of his Dhanans in secret and tell ’em to get ready for war.”

Kai-La smirked sadly. “But there was a spy. You were betrayed.”

I nodded.

She sighed. “I am sorry. He was a good man, as far as Aldhanans go, and did right by us where others would have hanged us.”

“And yet you repay his mercy by robbing him of his gold?” Ku-Rho sneered.

Kai-La gave him a sharp look. “It is his people’s gold. And we will spend it more freely than he ever would have. Instead of sitting in some treasury for a hundred years, it will go right back into the purses of the poor wretches your tax collectors twisted it from.”

Ku-Rho rolled his eyes. “The rationalizations of an outlaw.”

Kai-La grinned. “Then you had best learn them, Captain.”

“What?”

“Come, do we not both sail the same side of the wind now?” She looked around at us all, suddenly serious. “Friends, I have often before offered men the choice between ransom, death, or life as a pirate, but this is the first time fate has made the offer before I, and she has narrowed the choices to only two—death or piracy.”

She grabbed a rope and stepped up on the rail so everybody could see her. “If you have angered the church, if you are accused of killing the Aldhanan, then there is only death behind you. No one will ransom enemies of the Empire—except of course the Empire itself, but they will care not whether you are dead or alive.”

There was a lot of murmuring at that. She waved it down.

“Fear not. Fear not. I’ll not turn you in. They would hang me beside you. What I say is, as you are already outlaw, what objection can you have to joining me? Ora is no longer your home, and the church has a long reach. Fly with me and you will be beyond it. Freedom and chance for vengeance will always be yours. With a ship such as this and the gold it carries, it would be we who were rulers of the air, and the Oran navy who were mere pretenders to our throne.” She threw out a hand. “So what say you, will you sign the articles?”

A lot of the crew looked tempted. Even Captain Ku-Rho was thinking about it. So was I. I’d wanted to sign on with Kai-La and her gang from the first time I’d met ’em. Me and Lhan riding the sky, flying free, living outside of Ora’s stuffy, medieval society—I couldn’t think of a better life. The only reason I hadn’t taken her up on her offer the last time was ’cause they were slaving, criminal fucks. Now, however, they were starting to look like the good guys. I couldn’t think of a single reason why we shouldn’t…

Goddamn it. Yes I could. Two reasons, in fact.

I caught Lhan’s eye. He nodded. I sighed and picked up my sword, then looked up at Kai-La on the rail.

“I’m sorry. We gotta go back.”

She stared at me like I was talking pig latin. “Sister, you are mad. You were born to sail the skies. Why continue to deny it?”

“I swore to the Aldhanan as he was dying that I’d protect Wen-Jhai. I can’t break that promise.”

Lhan stepped up beside me. “Nor can I. Nor abandon Sai-Far. With the Aldhanan dead, I cannot think but that they will be next.”

“But what do you think you can do against the might of the church?” Kai-La was really angry. “You would have died here had I not intervened, and this miserable flotilla was nothing compared to what they can bring to bear. You won’t save your friends. You will only die beside them.”

“Then they will not die alone.” Captain Ku-Rho fell in with Lhan and me. “For I will go with them, and any of my crew who will follow me. I will not allow the church to go unpunished for this assassination, nor allow them another.”

From the rail, Lo-Zhar sneered. “Good riddance.”

Kai-La shook her head. “And what use will you be, though your whole crew goes with you, when I have taken your ship and your gold? You will walk into Ormolu a moon from now to find your friends dead and the church waiting for you.”

I shrugged. “So come with us.”

Kai-La whipped around, eyes bulging. “What?”

“Why not? You don’t like the church any more than we do. Shit, after Toaga, you should hate ’em! And you’d be doing the Empire another solid. They’ll probably pay you twice what you’ve got now if you help us get Sai and Wen-Jhai to safety.”

Lo-Zhar barked a laugh. “Pay us? They’d kill us!”

Kai-La snorted in agreement. “Stick my hand in a vurlak’s mouth to pull its tongue? My thanks, but no. I may hate the church, but I am not ready to sacrifice myself for their destruction. If you wish to fight them I’ll set you down and you may go to your deaths, and good luck to you.”

I tried to think of something to say that would change her mind, but nothing was coming. She was right. She’d have to be an idiot to come with us. It was certain death. I looked at Lhan and Ku-Rho and Sei-Sien. They didn’t have anything either. Then old Shal-Hau shuffled forward, holding a bandaged arm. He coughed.

“Mistress Captain, by your accent I suspect you are from Liaovan?”

She looked at him like he was a bug that had fallen in her coffee. “Aye. What of it?”

“Your parents were perhaps farmers there?”

Kai-La snarled and slapped her flat chest. “
I
was a farmer there. Until it dried up and blew away.”

“Ah. Yes. I thought so. The Great Drought of Liaovan turned many honest farmers outlaw. And what if I were to tell you that the drought was the church’s fault?”

She laughed, as bitter as chewing an aspirin. “Of course it was the church’s fault! They drove the price of water tokens so high none could pay for irrigation. My… My….” She swallowed, then continued. “We could do nothing but watch our ruktugs die and curse the bone-dry sky. Do you think you will change my mind with things I already know?”

Shal-Hau smiled and ducked his head like he was afraid he was going to get hit, but he kept going. “Forgive me, Mistress, but I did not mean the church’s practice of raising prices during a drought, though that of course was a crime as well. What I thought you might perhaps not know, what Mistress Jae-En has only recently brought to light, was that the church caused the drought in the first place. It was they who stole the rain. And, though you did not know it, it was they you cursed when you cursed the sky.”

Kai-La blinked at him. “What? What are you saying?” She looked around at Lhan and me. “Who is this old fool? I know first-hand the power of the church, but they are not gods, no matter what they think themselves. They cannot steal the rain.”

“They can, though.” I leaned on the pommel of my sword. “I saw it. I was inside the Temple of Ormolu, and you know what it was? A big fucking water tank. The whole thing. They use fans and, uh, gifts of the Seven, to suck the moisture out of the air and fill the tank. That’s why Ora is so dry all the time. All seven temples, Ormolu, Modgalu, all the rest, they’re moisture traps. They’re stealing the water from the land and selling it back to you.” I laughed. “You think you’re the greatest pirate in all Ora? You’re not a patch on these fuckers. They’re holding a whole country for ransom.”

Kai-La’s knuckles were white on the rope. She looked me in the eye. I couldn’t look away.

“Do you lie to me? Is this some trick to make me join you?” She pointed at Shal-Hau without looking at him. “Is he a mind reader? Does he know my life? My past?”

I had no clue. “I—I don’t think so. He’s just a professor. He teaches at the university in—”

“My—my husband
died
in that drought. He would not leave the farm. Just kept praying to the Seven to bring the clouds. They never came, so one day he went with some others to steal water from the Dhan.” She fisted her eyes. “They brought his body back and I buried him in the field with the lassi roots that never grew, then I went with the others when the Dhan’s men came for us.”

She raised her head like she was coming out of a dream, then snarled around at us. “But what has that to do with this? You ask me to save a pair of foolish children. In what way will this win me vengeance against the church?”

Shal-Hau bowed again. “It is the first step. Once the Aldhanshai and her consort are out of reach of the church, we can act without fear for their safety. We will be free to plan something more substantial than just stealing their hostages out from under their noses.”

Was he talking rebellion again? I hadn’t promised the Aldhanan anything like that. Or maybe I had. When exactly would Wen-Jhai be safe? Would she ever be safe with the church around? What the hell had I signed up for?

Kai-La was still standing on the rail. Still gripping the rope and staring at nothing. Then a sob choked out of her and she looked over at Burly. “Halan. He was your brother. What say you? What would he have had me do?”

There were tears in Burly’s eyes too. “You know already, sister. All he ever wanted was for the rain to come.”

Kai-La closed her eyes and hung her head, nodding, but before she had a chance to think it out one way or the other, Lo-Zhar pushed forward, snarling like a badger.

“No, Kai-La! You cannot be considering this! We are pirates, not rebels! Listen to these fools and it will Toaga all over again. Let us take their gold and throw them over the side!”

Kai-La gave him a cold look. “You are no crew of mine, Lo-Zhar. You may do as you like. Take a ship, take your share of the spoils, take as many as will go with you. But on my ship, I will make my own decisions, and this is my ship.”

Lo-Zhar glared at her, then shot a glance at her red-ballooned warship, which I suddenly recognized as the church ship she’d taken at Toaga with a new coat of paint. “As always, Skelsha, you claim the best for yourself. Our association cannot end soon enough.” He gave her a tight bow, then turned on his heel and faced the crew. “Well, brothers, will you stay and die for nothing? Or will come with me and live for gold!”

A substantial chunk of the pirates followed him as he strode toward the ship at the back rail, but more stayed, waiting for Kai-La to make a decision.

It was a long wait. She stood there, staring out at the horizon for so long I thought she mighta fallen asleep or died or something, but finally she turned back and looked at Ku-Rho.

“I return your ship to you, Captain. But you are under my command, aye?”

“It depends, mistress, upon your orders.”

Kai-La smiled like a shark. “All sails for Ormolu.”

Ku-Rho squared his shoulders and snapped off a salute that woulda made a drill sergeant come. “With a will, Captain!”

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

BLIND-SIDED!

W
e came in at night, in the full dark, and even then, Kai-La and her remaining ships stayed just the other side of the hills on Ormolu’s west side. The spotters of the Oran Navy weren’t gonna miss a whole fleet coming over the skyline, but one lonely navy ship? Coming in toward the navy base? Nothing out of the ordinary about that, right? It wouldn’t even be too weird if we stopped over the palace. I mean, we’d done exactly the same thing when the Aldhanan had brought us back home after Durgallah.

I still kept my fingers crossed as we sailed in, even though I couldn’t imagine how they’d know what had happened in Modgalu yet.

Ku-Rho kept his ship on the correct flight path until the last possible minute, then drifted west toward the palace and started dropping down. Lhan, Shal-Hau, Sei-Sien and I looked over the palace as we got lower. It all looked pretty normal at first. Quiet, calm, the guards going on their rounds as usual, but then I noticed a lot of orange happening, and my heart seized up.

“Hey, are those paladins?”

Lhan looked closer. “Indeed. There seem to be as many of them as there are palace guards.”

I swallowed. “Does this mean Sai and Wen-Jhai are already—”

“Do not speculate, Mistress. We will know soon enough.”

Ku-Rho trimmed sails and brought us to a stop just over the Aldhanan’s balcony, then dropped a rope ladder.

Shal-Hau bowed to us and crossed his wrists.

“Return swiftly, pupil, Mistress.”

Sei-Sien bowed too, then lifted his chin and looked noble. “And if you do not, be sure that we spread the tale of your bravery to all corners of Ora. You martyrdom will inspire us all.”

Lhan returned their bows, but I shivered and turned away. “Jinxing bastard. Fuck off. We’ll be back in five minutes.”