They waited in surprisingly comfortable silence. Akella glanced around, taking in the wood-paneled bookcase across from her, the silk tapestries, the heavy desk that dominated the back half of the room. An ink pot rested on it, a quill jutting out at an angle. Next to that was a stack of parchment paper and a stamp that looked like it was used to press a seal into hot wax. Akella bet this was the kind of place royal proclamations were written.
She wanted to get up from the divan and do a bit of exploring – read the titles on the spines of the books filling the shelf, wander behind the big desk and open a few drawers to see what was inside. But she suspected her black clad companion would not take too kindly to her curiosity.
So Akella decided to do the next best thing: sleep. After all, she’d been woken rather rudely and had been up late the night before. She slouched low on the divan, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing them at the ankles, closed her eyes, and let her chin droop onto her chest.
That was one of the things that Preyla, goddess of the sea, had blessed Akella with – the ability to fall asleep absolutely anywhere, under absolutely any circumstances. Within seconds, Akella was already dozing off, a rowboat drifting upon gentle waves.
When the sound of the heavy wooden door opening came, it registered only vaguely. The sound of a woman’s voice was also only a slight drone heard from a great distance. But finally there was a hand on her shoulder, shaking her roughly awake. And then, just when Akella was sure her morning could not possibly get any stranger, she opened her eyes to the face of a stern-looking Terintan woman only inches away from her own.
“Wake up, Captain Akella,” the woman said.
For the second time that morning, Akella was jolted into wakefulness. She sat up as the Terintan, black clad like her previous guard had been, straightened to her full height and glared down at Akella as if she had been the one unpleasantly woken twice already.
Another woman stood just behind the black-armored Terintan, and to Akella’s eyes, she was the mirror reflection of the Terintan. Where the Terintan was dark and serious – black hair to match black eyes to match black armor – this second woman was an array of bright colors. Blonde-red hair pinned up into a conservative bun, green eyes made almost blue by a long silk dress the color of the ocean, set off with white freshwater pearls on her neck and at her wrists. She was, quite possibly, the most beautiful woman Akella had ever laid eyes on.
And judging by the regal bearing, and by the way her presence filled the entire room, Akella guessed this had to be the Empress.
Well,Akella thought. I knew she was young, but I didn’t know she was that young. She’s got to be at least five summers younger than me.
“Stand,” the Terintan woman commanded. “You are in the presence of Empress Natasia I, Mother of the Four Realms.”
Akella almost said, Why should I? I’m Adessian, not Imperial. She’s not my Empress, but there was the matter of Preyla’s Vengeance still anchored in Port Lorsin’s harbor, and since not all of its cargo was precisely legal, Akella decided she shouldn’t give the Terintan woman, who seemed accustomed to people obeying her, any further reasons for anger.
Akella pushed to her feet, causing the gold earrings dangling from each ear to let out an alarmed jingle. She ignored the head rush the sudden movement caused and bowed slightly – not as deeply as an Imperial subject would bow, but enough to be respectful.
“Empress Natasia,” she said. “Nice to make your acquaintance. I am –”
“Rizalt Akella ock Hanyon of the Island of Perrintot. I know,” said the Empress.
She swept past Akella with hardly a glance and sat down in a high-backed chair behind the huge desk. The Empress unfurled and then flattened a roll of parchment before her, smoothing it with both hands. The Terintan took up a place between the desk and the divan, her back to the bookcase, her stance such that Akella guessed the woman’s three blades – no, four, she had a boot dagger fairly well concealed on her right ankle – were not merely for show.
The Empress’s eyes were on the parchment, the Terintan’s eyes appeared to be on nothing at all, but Akella had a feeling they saw everything. Since neither looked at or spoke to Akella, she flopped back down onto the divan. This earned her a narrowing of the eyes from the Terintan, but Akella didn’t care.
Whatever she’d gotten herself into, there was nothing to do about it at this point, so she might as well let it play out.
“According to this information,” the Empress finally said, but without looking up from her parchment, “you’ve raided at least five Imperial trading vessels within the past year.”
Akella shrugged. It was more than five. It was more like a dozen, maybe fifteen. Akella had lost track. But she didn’t think it wise to offer a correction at the moment.
“Five trading vessels that we know of,” the Empress amended. “From those vessels, you’ve stolen at least two score barrels of wine bound for the Gifford Peninsula, twelve bolts of silk en route from the Adessian Islands to Negusto, and four bales of cotton heading from Gifford to Port Lorsin.” Now she finally looked up, meeting Akella’s eye. “Most recently, just before your trip here, in fact, you took captive an entire crew that had been sailing to the West from Paratheen. Their current whereabouts are unknown, but we suspect you sold them in one of the Adessian slave markets.”
She stopped and leaned back in her chair, letting go of the parchment on her desk. Akella watched as it coiled back up into a loose spiral. The Empress said nothing more, but Akella could feel those green eyes boring into her.
At last she asked, “Did you … want me to admit to something, Empress?”
“You don’t need to admit to anything,” the Empress said. “I already know your crimes. I could have you hanging on Death’s Hill before sundown if I liked.”
Akella didn’t like games. Well, she did, actually, but she only liked the kinds of games where she knew the rules and the object before she started to play. But she didn’t like whatever game this Empress was playing.
“And yet there is no noose around my neck so far,” Akella said, spreading her hands. “So why don’t you tell me what’s so important that I had to be dragged out of bed this morning and marched down here by short-necked goons to talk about it?”
“You will use a tone of respect when you address the Empress,” snapped the Terintan.
Akella rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you tell me what’s so important, your Imperial Highness?”
The Terintan’s jaw muscles clenched.
“Captain Akella,” the Empress said coolly, “if you intend to leave this room with all your body parts still intact, I would strongly suggest you do not provoke the Commander of my palace guard.”
The Commander of the Imperial Palace Guard was a woman – a Terintan woman? Akella had heard this Empress was something different from her predecessors; now she had to admit she was intrigued.
“You are here, Captain, because you owe the Empire a rather hefty debt. Slaves and stolen goods aside, piracy itself is punishable by death. And you? From what I hear, you’ve taken more Imperial lives than most other Adessian pirates put together.”
Akella grinned, only barely stopping herself from saying, Why thank you.
“Justice demands you give your own life to the Empire several times over,” the Empress went on. “Even if I didn’t hang you, I could send you to the Zaris Mountain mines for the rest of your life to pay back with labor all that you have stolen. And even then, I do not know that the accounts would balance.”
Akella spun a finger impatiently. “Yes, yes, my life is in your hands. Will you please just tell me what you want?”
The Empress cocked her head, studying Akella for a moment before replying. “You have something more valuable to me than your neck or your labor. From what I understand, you have sailed further east than almost any other Adessian captain.” She paused. “All the way, they say, to the Kingdom of Persopos.”
If there had been any trace of last night’s drunken revelry still in Akella’s system before, the Empress’s unexpected words drained it out of her swiftly. Akella was stone cold sober now and, for once, deadly serious.
“What do you want with the Kingdom of Persopos?” she asked the Empress.
“I want to go there,” the Empress said simply. “With an army. And I want you to guide my fleet.”
“No. I’ll pay my debt with my life instead.”
“Such fear in the voice of an Adessian rizalt,” the Terintan said. She waved a hand at Akella’s face. “I thought the more tattoos a rizalt had earned, the more fearless they were supposed to be. A myth, I suppose.”
Akella glanced down at the tattoos of open eyes that covered the backs of her hands, the only two of her tattoos that she could see at the moment. They stared back at her, Preyla’s watchful eyes, ever observant. Akella felt condemnation in their gaze. She crossed her arms against her chest so she wouldn’t have to look at them anymore.
“There is a difference between courage and foolishness, nomad,” she said to the Terintan. “Only a fool jumps into blood-filled waters when sharks already circle. And I am not a fool. Which is why I will never sail to the Kingdom of Persopos again.”
The Empress leaned forward on the desk. “What is so terrible about the Kingdom of Persopos that even you would refuse to return?”
“Everything about Persopos is terrible.” Akella’s eyes grew distant, remembering. “It is a nest of sea serpents. I lost an entire crew there. Should’ve lost myself. But Preyla spared me for some reason, washed me back to the islands.”
The Empress was quiet for a long moment. She didn’t blink, didn’t move her eyes off Akella’s. Akella managed not to look away, but it wasn’t easy. The woman might be young for an Empress, but there was a power to her.
“Maybe you were spared so that you could help me save the people of my Empire from the Kingdom of Persopos.”
“I doubt that, Empress.”
“I am responsible for the lives of well over a million citizens, spread out across this continent from the Sunrise Mountains to the Western Sea,” Tasia said. “My father’s late military advisor was convinced that the Kingdom sought to destroy this Empire, and we’ve found evidence recently that finally confirms his theory. Evil is bubbling forth from that nest of sea serpents, and those serpents want to poison my Empire and my people. I need to confront the Kingdom.” She folded her hands atop the desk. “If you don’t want to be poisoned by a snake, you cut off its head. But sailing there blind will only get me bitten.”
Akella snorted. “And you think I will agree to be your eyes?”
“Yes, I rather do.”
“I will not sail to the Kingdom of Persopos again,” Akella said firmly. “And if by some chance you are not the fool you seem to be, neither will you.”
The Empress raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. “As you wish.” She turned to the Terintan. “Escort Captain Akella to our dungeons, please.”
Akella laughed bitterly. “You think you’ll change my mind by throwing me into one of your holes? There’s nothing you could do to me that would be worse than going back to that place.”
“As I said, Captain Akella, you owe the Empire a debt. You will pay that debt one way or another.”
The Terintan crossed from her place against the bookshelf to stand in front of Akella, gesturing for her to stand. When Akella made no move to get up, the Terintan grabbed one arm and roughly yanked her to her feet.
“Keep your hands off of me,” hissed Akella, yanking her arm free. “I have had enough hands on my arms this morning.”
“Then walk,” the Terintan said.