Page 47 of Company of Thieves
“If you wish to join the imperator’s forces, he will welcome you. If you want the freedom to pursue your own course, you may do that with my blessing. Those of you who wish to join me in a fight against tyranny are more than welcome to gather under my banner.”
“What banner would that be?” Zand asked.
Alan looked at the men gathered. Most of them he’d known for at least five years, but some had been with him since he’d been a young man, newly put in charge of a small force of men and given trivial tasks to undertake, until his father had deemed him worthy of more responsibility. “Freedom,” he said at last. “Our symbol will be the falcon and the dove.”
The men bustled off to get the last of the items loaded, and Alan, knowing he couldn’t delay it any longer, marched into the big tent, pausing at the guards. His men moved behind him. He waited for a moment, then entered the tent, moving around the screen until he stood next to the bed where his father slept. A woman, one of the prostitutes he had arranged to be available,eeped and slid out of the bed, gathering up her clothing and scurrying into a corner. The movement woke the imperator.
Alan looked at the man who had sired him, for whom he had fought so hard and long, and felt nothing but a sense of regret that he’d wasted so much time. So many lives.
The imperator squinted at him, grunting. “So you live, eh?”
“I do, but your son is dead. You saw to that yesterday when you sold him for a piece of land.”
His father sat up, snarling vicious oaths, his face flushing with anger. “You ungrateful cur! So my son is dead? So be it! I am young yet, and virile still. I will wed the duchess, and beget sons with her, sons who will have the untold riches that Akbar never could have imagined.”
Alan was silent for a moment, shaking his aching head. “The fact that you believe wealth is all I sought simply shows me that Akbar never would have pleased you.”
He left the tent with his father hurling curses at him, sputtering and calling for his guards to come to his aid. Since all four guards were now unconscious, stacked neatly behind the tent, no one came to answer his demands.
Ten minutes later, theNightwinglifted off just as the imperator’s entourage was waking up. Three of Alan’s men had opted to leave his company to follow their own paths, and he had given them a sizable amount of money with which to start their own lives. The other men he also paid ahead of the normal date. “From this time on, we will do things differently,” he told the gathered crew in the mess. “No longer will we be acting for the glory of the empire. We will, if they will have us, join with a small group who devote themselves to profiting from those who would subdue the general populations.”
A word whispered through the crew.Pirates.
“We will take a cut of all profits, naturally, just as the Company of Thieves does, but the bulk will be used to ease those whose lives have been negatively affected by the imperator, the Black Hand, and Emperor William.” Alan felt a lightening of a burden that he hadn’t been aware had bound him so tightly. He wanted badly to explain the feeling to Hallie, pushing down again the pain that threatened to overwhelm him if he let it. “I consider us in a state of war with all three of those entities. We will therefore no longer use any ports or resources friendly to the imperator. Are there any questions?”
There were, and Alan spent another half hour explaining just who the Company of Thieves were, why he had chosen to join his lot with theirs, and what their future held. “As to that, I can’t say other than I will do my best to stand by the code of honor to which we have always held, and if you wish to leave my company, you may do so at any time. Az?”
Az stepped forward, bowed to Alan, then turned to the crew and started roaring out orders for them. There was a stampede, and then Alan was alone with his friend.
“You’re sure about this?” Zand asked him, then made a face and spread his hands. “I sound like I’m trying to talk you out of it, and I’m not, because this means that after seven long years, Safie and I can be together. But are you sure you wish for Akbar to die? Your father’s pride won’t let you ever go back.”
“He swears he will marry Constanza and breed himself a new crop of sons,” Alan said, gently feeling the large lump on the back of his head.
Zand considered that, then shrugged. “I suppose he feels that would give him a claim on Prussia and Bohemia. Are you certain that Etienne is going to Marseilles?”
“That’s what the imperator said,” Alan said, leaving the mess and heading for his cabin. He had letters to write, ones that would be sent at the first refilling stop. “We’re going to need to gather what intelligence we can from our spies. Can you handle that?”
“With pleasure,” Zand said, and, after a moment, clapped him on the shoulder. “She’ll be all right, Alan. She’s a fighter. A poor one, but she has spirit.”
Alan gave a grim little laugh, but he made no reply. Worry about Hallie was uppermost on his mind, and he’d already given the navigator the command to get them to Marseilles by the most direct route, taking as little time as possible with stops to refill the boilers and purchase supplies.
Six days later, mail caught up with him in Valencia, Spain. They were flying up the east coast, still roughly two days out of Marseilles, but he eagerly opened the letter written in a familiar concise hand.
Alan, this is a brief note to acknowledge that we have received your letter of the fourteenth. Jack and I are both horrified that Etienne has acted in such an underhanded manner. Of the imperator, the less said the better. Of course you may count on our assistance. Whatever you need, we will provide. Unfortunately, Robert Anstruther is in Ireland, visiting family. Safie is, as you know, in the north of Italy, but I am sending her a message to meet us in France. We are at present in the south of Spain, but are setting off within the hour for Marseilles. We will likely reach there before you, and you can be assured that we will immediately ascertain the location of Etienne, and the status of Hallie.
Jack, needless to say, is beside himself. I’m afraid, my old friend, that the time is nigh to let him in on your secret. I fear for his sanity otherwise, since he is swearing he will slaughter Akbar for handing his sister over to Etienne. I won’t reveal your secret to him until I have your permission, but please, do not delay in giving it to me. Jack is suffering, and it pains me greatly to keep anything from him.
There is much more I wish to say, but I will close now, so that this may be sent. Have heart, my friend. The Company of Thieves has your back.
Alan felt a modicum of relief from the letter, but fretted nonetheless at the time that was passing. He didn’t expect to be in Marseilles before Etienne, but with luck, theNightwingwould arrive shortly thereafter. His ship was faster, and he had bypassed the normal airship routes in favor of speed.
He stood staring out as the land slid by beneath them, his heart filled with emotions that he couldn’t deal with. He had a strong suspicion what he’d find when he did look into his feelings, but he pushed it all back, and shoved it out of his mind. He had to remain focused.
He would find Hallie first; then he could breathe again.
