The Assassins of Altis

Chapter Seventeen

The Gray Lady was running almost due south, coasting before the spring winds, bow slicing through the long swells before her with a rhythmic pounding that Mari found oddly soothing. The white spray occasionally being tossed over the bow shone under the light of the half-moon.

Mari sat on the deck, leaning her back against the railing, staring up at the sails and beyond them the stars. Mage Asha came by, looking down impassively at Mari. “Please join me,” Mari offered.

Asha nodded and sat carefully, then uttered a most unmagelike sigh. “We are all so weary, even after a day’s rest.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I did,” Asha replied. “You wish me to say it again?”

Mari grinned. “That’s just an expression, Lady Mage.”

“I see. Why do we go to Julesport?”

“We’ll need to take on food and water. The Captain believes that’s our safest destination even though the Great Guilds will lean heavily on the Confederation to attack us. He’s also worried about the Syndaris, who he says would sell out their own mothers if the price was right.”

“If they find we are there,” Asha said tonelessly, “the Great Guilds will not depend on commons but mount their own attacks as well. Can we… ? I do not know the word. How do we know the shadows in Julesport will not betray us?”

“Can we trust the common people there, you mean?” Mari shrugged. “I think so. I only passed through there once, so I don’t know much about the place personally, but the captain told me that Julesport still takes after the person who founded the city.”

Asha nodded. “Jules?”

“Herself. Explorer, pirate and hero of the Confederation. She didn’t exactly live by the rules.”

“My uncle has told me that sailors hold her name in awe to this day,” Asha said.

Mari remembered the way the sailors from the Sun Runner had reacted to her when they believed she was the daughter of Jules, and the way the sailors on this ship looked at her. She didn’t look forward to seeing those gazes constantly aimed at her. “That may be true. Anyway, the captain says that Julesport has never strayed all that far from its origin as her home. They have a fairly lax attitude toward laws and don’t ask a lot of inconvenient questions. At the least we can resupply ourselves there and decide on the next destination.”

Asha gazed across the dark waters. “If the leaders of Julesport learn that the daughter of Jules is among our number, perhaps they will greet her as a long-lost and long-sought-for relation.”

Mari stared up at the stars, wondering which of them was the sun that warmed Urth. “We’ll tell them if we have to. It’s… uncomfortable for me to call myself that.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s as if I’m suddenly someone else,” Mari explained. “As if Mari of Caer Lyn was never real, that who I always was is just…”

“An illusion?” Asha asked.

“Yes. Exactly. And, really, I don’t feel like I’m all that special. On top of which, the daughter has got the biggest job in the world, and if she screws up the entire world goes to blazes, and we don’t know how much time we have to work with, but we do know it’s very limited.” Mari sat quietly for a while longer, wondering at the way she could feel companionship with a female Mage who betrayed no feelings. Maybe it was because Mari’s association with Alain had taught her how to see the woman beneath the mask. “Asha, there’s something I have to know. About me.”

“You have a question about yourself that I can answer?”

“Yes.” Mari steeled herself. “About my bonfire.”

“Ah. It is remarkable.”

Mari gritted her teeth. “You said it had gotten brighter.”

“Very much so.”

“I just…” Mari buried her face in her knees. “How much can you tell from it?”

“I can tell where you are.”

“No. I mean, about other things.”

“Other things?” Asha asked.

“What I’m… what Alain and I… are doing.”

“Nothing.”

Mari jerked her head up, turning to stare at Asha. “Still? Nothing at all?”

“Nothing,” Asha repeated.

“But you said it got brighter after Alain and I got married and started, uh…”

“You need not give me details. I know what passes between men and women.” Asha’s lip twitched in what passed for a Mage smile. “Lady Mechanic Mari, I must explain. The bonfire represents the feelings you hold at the core of your being. They do not change by the day or the week or the month, they do not change based on what your body experiences, but only when there has been a great alteration in your thoughts. Or, if you had taken great harm, then it would weaken. Nothing else affects it.”

“So my bonfire only got blinding because I married Alain? Not because of anything we were doing after that? Anything we did that night?”

“When you married him, yes, and committed yourself truly and completely to him, as Alain tells me he has also to you. I believe that is what brightened your feelings. Perhaps the physical sharing you have enjoyed has contributed to the fire within, but if so even that, I think, was fed by the feelings you share. I have seen those who shared their bodies and nothing else. There is no brightness there, nothing that lasts. What I have seen in you was one of the things which caused me to see the importance of the emotions I was taught to deny.”

Mari closed her eyes, feeling a wave of relief wash over her. “That is so good to hear. You have no idea how good that is to hear.”

Asha nodded. “I can guess now that you have shared your worry. I am a woman, beneath these Mage robes.”

“Asha, there is no man in the world who needs to be told that, and I’m pretty such most of the women can figure it out, too.”

The female Mage seemed to be trying to smile again. “You and Alain have given much to each other.”

Mari grinned. “I think I get more than he does, but he’s been nice enough not to complain much.”

“A Mage and a Mechanic,” Asha mused. “The Mechanic Dav seems interested in me.”

“Oh, you’ve noticed that, have you?”

Even under the starlight Mari could see the humor dancing in Asha’s eyes. “Yes. It is nothing I have not seen many times before. But… he feels oddly appealing, this Mechanic, and he acts very nice toward me. He took a great risk to aid you and Alain, even when he did not know you, and he acts brave. Are he and the Mechanic Alli close?”

“No. Alli’s got a guy back in Umburan. Well, he was in Umburan. Neither of us is sure where he is right now.”

“And the Mechanic Bev has not gone to him for companionship. So perhaps I will see.”

Mari grinned again, thinking that Mechanic Dav might soon be happy beyond his wildest dreams for at least a little while. She heard Alain’s voice and looked over to see him speak briefly to Bev, who was sitting a little way off on the quarterdeck gazing out to sea. Then Alain came down the deck, pausing before her. “Am I welcome?”

“Why wouldn’t you be?” Mari said, patting the deck next to her on the side opposite Asha.

Alain sat down, but still looked cautious. “There was something you wanted to discuss with me once things calmed down.”

Mari frowned at him. “There was?”

“In the warehouse. You said we must speak later.”

“Oh, yeah. The bonfire thing.” Mari waved it off. “Never mind.”

“Never mind?” Alain had the look of a man facing a firing squad who had just received a reprieve and had no idea why.

“Right. That’s all taken care of. I forgive you.”

Alain nodded cautiously. “I am still not sure why I needed forgiveness.”

“I’ll fill you in some day. How’s Bev doing?”

“She is moody.” Alain looked back at the quarterdeck. “I think that one bears a deep wound.”

Asha nodded in agreement. “She tries to hide it as a Mage would, but she hurts greatly inside.”

“Alli said Bev had been an apprentice in Emdin,” Mari noted. “Something happened in Emdin, but I don’t know what. Something the Guild covered up. I need to corner Alli in some private spot and find out just what sort of things were done to the apprentices in Emdin at the hands of the Senior Mechanics there. There’s some very ugly possibilities that I hope didn’t happen.”

“But,” Alain replied, “that you fear did happen?”

“Exactly. Especially given the way Bev is acting. Like you say, the girl’s been hurt badly.” Mari looked up at the stars again. “What now, Alain? We’re going to Julesport, but we can’t stay there. You’re our best long-term planner. What does the daughter do now? Where do we go next?”

Alain nodded toward the south. “I have given it some thought. I recommend we keep going south.”

“What, to Edinton? I’ve been there, and let me tell you, it’s an end-of-the-world sort of city. They even call it that now. End-of-the-world Edinton.”

“But Edinton is not the end of the world. I suggest that we go farther south.”

Mari puzzled for a moment. “Tiae? Are you serious?”

“Yes.” Alain pointed east this time. “We want to be as far from the resources of the Empire as possible. Our Guilds will surely try to enlist the Empire’s aid if your strength grows too much, and the Empire itself seeks us because of our visit to Marandur. Yet I think even the Confederation and the Western Alliance could be forced by the Great Guilds to aid action against us, though they would surely be sympathetic to your goals. Syndari is too mercenary to trust. That leaves Tiae or the Free Cities, and the Free Cities are far too close to the Empire despite the protection offered by the Northern Ramparts.”

“If there is any place that needs fixing in this world,” Asha observed coolly, “it is certainly Tiae, the Broken Kingdom.”

Mari looked from Alain to Asha. “A place with no central authority? A place with no armies to muster against us? The Great Guilds have pulled out of Tiae because it wasn’t safe even for them, so it’s the one place in the world where neither the Mechanics Guild nor the Mage Guild has a presence. Nobody goes to Tiae. It’s been that way for years. It would take a while for the Great Guilds to hear we were there, and even longer for them to figure out what we were doing. Valuable breathing space to use those banned texts to start manufacturing things that will give us advantages over the Mechanics Guild and any army of commons. We could find someone decent, some commons trying to rebuild a bulwark of civilization against the anarchy in Tiae, and help them.”

“This was my thought,” Alain agreed.

“But it’s more than that,” Mari said, as new ideas came to her. She stared into the darkness. “The unraveling of this world started at Tiae. The authorities in Edinton were scared of it spreading into the Confederation, and you tell me that’s just what will happen.”

“The storm of chaos,” Alain said, nodding.

“So we stop the break there, at the origin,” Mari said. “We start fixing Tiae, and the rot won’t spread as fast elsewhere. People everywhere will hear that Tiae is rebuilding itself, regaining order and… and freedom, because the Great Guilds aren’t there to try to reassume control as soon as that is possible. We’ll hit that storm where it’s strongest, and we’ll beat it.”

Mari wrapped her arms around Alain. “My darling, brilliant Mage. The second smartest thing I ever did was not to shoot you in the waste outside of Ringhmon.”

Asha had been looking south, but now turned her head to gaze at Mari, her long hair rippling like liquid silver in the starlight. “Not shooting Alain was the second smartest thing you ever did, friend Mari? What was the smartest thing?”

“Marrying him, of course!”

“I see.” Asha nodded, her voice still betraying no emotion. “Though you could not have married Alain if you had shot him earlier.”

“At the least, it would have made me think carefully about doing such a thing,” Alain agreed. Then he gazed at Mari. “Tiae will hold many dangers. I have advised going there, but what you say is true. That is where the storm has begun, and where it is strongest.”

“It’s not as though anywhere is safe for me,” Mari pointed out. “For the first time since you told me about being… the daughter, I really believe I can… we can… do this. But it’s going to be hard getting to Tiae and building a foothold there. We’ll need a lot more Mechanics, and I wouldn’t mind some more Mages, and commons, lots of them willing to learn and fight for us, and the Great Guilds are going to be after you and me as soon as they figure out where we are and… have I forgotten anything?”

“It will be a dangerous road and a hard road,” Alain said. “It is fortunate that you always prefer the harder road.”

She punched his arm, surprised that she had that much energy. “Don’t forget that you’ll be walking that road too, my Mage. Thank the stars above that we’ll be together. The daughter isn’t going to be able to do this without your brains, your courage, your skill, and your love. Alain, I’m glad we’re not going to Dorcastle. I’m not ready to face the possibility of that big battle your foresight showed you.” Mari looked up again as Alli walked over.

“Hey, Mari, you got anything to read?” Alli asked.

“How about some banned technology manuals?” Mari said.

“Oh, yeah! Give me some of that!” Alli’s grin faded into a questioning look. “So, how long will this trip be? What’s our next move after Julesport?”

“We’re going to Tiae.”

“Tiae!”

“That’s right.”

Alli shrugged, then nodded, sitting down to join the group. “Sure. We’re Mechanics. We fix things, and Tiae needs to be fixed.”

Mari nodded as well, feeling better than she had since boarding the caravan for Ringhmon a year ago. “That’s what we’re going to do. We’ve got a world to change, a storm to stop, and some Great Guilds to overthrow, and we’re starting there.”