The Assassins of Altis

Chapter Four

Mari resisted the urge to punch the nearest wall in frustration. “I wish your foresight had told us that before we got here. It’s not like we had much choice. Every road in this region converges on Palandur, and the Imperials insist on everyone passing through the city security checks. Is there any hope that the threat will be less tomorrow?”

“It may be. I do not know.”

She stood looking around indecisively. “There are two other ways out of the city. We can try a boat or ship down the river—”

Alain shook his head. “Great danger.”

“—or we can take a train.” Mari paused, but this time Alain only looked concerned. “No warnings from your foresight about that?”

“No. But Mechanic trains worry me for other reasons.”

“I know. Alain, someday we’ll take a trip on a train and actually get where we’re going without being attacked or blown up or something. Why wouldn’t the Mages here be watching the train station?”

He thought about that before answering. “Even though some Mage Guild elders know I used a Mechanic train at least once, on the occasion when they sent a Roc to attack us, it is likely that here they simply did not think of the Mechanic trains when considering ways to leave the city. They have guarded all the ways in which they believe that a Mage would leave the city and do not realize there is another way available to me.”

Mari grimaced, brushing back her hair. “It never hurts to have an opponent with blind spots, but I don’t want to try the train here unless we absolutely have to. There are way too many Mechanics in Palandur who can recognize me and could easily be passing through the station. It wouldn’t be as dangerous as fighting our way out past Mages, but it wouldn’t be safe, either.”

“Perhaps one night in Palandur would not be too dangerous, compared to the risks of leaving.”

“Yeah,” Mari agreed. “I was thinking the same thing. Palandur is a big city, full of people, and with lots of places to disappear. We can go to ground and stay quiet. We spend the night here in one of the cheap hostels where we can get a room, no questions asked, then see how bad things look tomorrow.”

Alain looked past her, his gaze slightly unfocused. “All I can tell from my foresight is that your plan does not make things worse,” he finally said.

“Gee, thanks.”

“You are welcome.” He hesitated. “Was that your sarcasm?”

Despite everything, Mari couldn’t help smiling. “Yes. And a plan that doesn’t make things worse is probably the best we can hope for.”

Alain didn’t try to smile back. “I should have foreseen the danger of coming here.”

“Your foresight is unreliable, Alain,” Mari replied. “That’s not your fault. I think we should be grateful it kicked in when it did, before we got to one of those gates.” That seemed to make Alain feel better, so she kissed him, which made her feel better.

Mari led the way again, heading for a low-rent part of Palandur where she knew cheap hostels would abound. It wasn’t an area which Mechanics normally frequented, but she had heard some male Mechanics at the academy boasting about brief but memorable stays in the hostel rooms there with some of the many courtesans who plied their trade in Palandur. By the time noon had come and gone, they were dropping their packs onto the dusty floor of a tiny room on the third floor. The smirking desk clerk had asked whether they wanted to pay for the night or for a much shorter period of time. Mari, with an angry look she couldn’t suppress, had paid for the night.

Alain sat down on the thin mattress of the bed which dominated the room. “It should be very hard to find us here, even if we have to stay longer than one night.”

Mari sighed, looking around the shabby room. “Yeah. Maybe. Though the idea of spending more than one night in this kind of accommodation is less than appealing. I still want to leave this city as soon as possible. There are way too many dangers here. My Guild’s headquarters. Your Guild’s headquarters. The Imperial police. All the instructors and other Mechanics I knew in my days at the Mechanic Academy. The sooner we’re headed for Landfall, the better.”

Alain nodded in agreement. “We can try again tomorrow.”

Mari pulled out of her pack the remnants of the food they had bought on the road. As she did so, her eyes fell upon the petition from the university in Marandur. Mari had a brief fantasy of carrying the petition to the Emperor, of the Emperor realizing the injustice being done to the survivors trapped inside the university, ordering it corrected, and then offering aid to Mari in her own efforts. That fantasy dissolved into an image of the Imperial Center for Truth, the place where prisoners were sent to confess whatever “truth” Imperial authorities wanted to hear. As a Mechanic, Mari had exchanged horror stories about the place with other Mechanics, safe in the knowledge that she would never face Imperial torture designed to produce confessions. Now that assurance of protection from the Imperials had vanished along with a lot of other certainties.

Nor did she think the Emperor was very likely to be a reliable or trustworthy ally, even assuming he didn’t immediately sell her to the Mechanics Guild in exchange for some small advantage. The rulers of the common people on Dematr, regardless of whether they were elected by the people or occupied a mighty throne like that of the Empire, actually served the whims and demands of the Mechanics Guild and the Mage Guild. No government, no city or country, could survive if either Guild withheld its services and granted special support to the enemies of that government or country. The support of one of the Great Guilds could also be bought, of course, as long as the price was high enough and the goal sought did not conflict with the aims of the Guilds. The Mage Guild and the Mechanics Guild had a long history of hatred and conflict between them, but they were effectively allies in keeping the common folk slaves to the desires of the Guilds.

The common folk had long chafed under their servitude to the Great Guilds. Mari knew she would find many allies among the commons, but the Great Guilds could not have maintained their power for centuries without the aid of common allies who would sell out their fellows for power or money. She could not afford to trust everyone, and especially not anyone near the Emperor. There were plenty of stories about Imperial politics, and none of them inspired confidence in the Imperial court.

Mari carefully resettled the petition in her pack, knowing that it could not be delivered at this time without ensuring her own painful death.

“Is something wrong?” Alain asked.

“We need more to eat,” Mari replied, not wanting to talk about depressing things at the moment. “Listen, the Imperial cops and your Guild are looking for two people, right? As far as I know, my Guild has no idea I’m around here, and we’re in a part of Palandur where Mechanics rarely come during the day. Senior Mechanics wouldn’t expect any Mechanic to stay in a place like this, so they shouldn’t be looking here even if they suspect I’m in Palandur. If any Mechanics do show up I’ll be able to spot them easily by their jackets and stay out of sight. We need food and a few other things. Why don’t I go alone to the nearest market area and pick stuff up?” Alain eyed her, his face completely impassive. She knew what that meant by now. He was worried and withdrawing into his Mage persona because he couldn’t show his concern. But at least this time his foresight wasn’t setting off any alarms. “Alain, I’m a big girl. I’ll be all right. It won’t take long.”

“I could go instead and run this risk,” Alain volunteered.

Mari came close and hugged him. “My love, you can do incredible things and think of stuff I never could, but you still have very little grasp of money and you don’t know how to bargain. An outdoor market isn’t like a storefront business where the prices are set and posted up front. In time I’ll teach you enough about those things that you can get by Right now you’d be cheated by the merchants and maybe get robbed as well, even if the nearest Imperial cops didn’t get suspicious of you. I can handle this. I won’t be that far off.”

He nodded slowly. “If you think it should be done this way.”

“Just stay safe here. You can watch our packs and keep them safe. If anything happens to me—”

“I will come looking for you.” Alain’s voice was calm, unemotional, and unyielding.

Mari gazed at him and knew argument would be futile. She felt both aggravation and a strong sense of reassurance. “All right.”

She rattled down the cheap stairs, hoping to get her errands done quickly. As worried as she was about being caught herself, Mari felt even worse at the idea of Alain being caught if he tried to rescue her.

The nearest market square was easy to find, with sellers shouting out the virtues of their wares and a steady stream of people entering and leaving thearea Mari lounged against a building for a while, studying the scene and watching for anyone who might be watching for her. Nothing unusual caught her eye, just the normal mix of common people going about their business, children darting among the crowd while stressed-out parents tried to rein them in, a few young couples clinging to each other, older folks sitting as they played cards or talked. To one side a street band played string instruments, their regulation street performer license posted nearby just in case any of the ubiquitous Imperial police wandered past.

Mari sighed as she took it all in. After everything she and Alain had been through in the last several months, the peaceful and familiar scene felt comforting as well as dreamlike.

But those thoughts led her back to Marandur, and for a moment Mari saw not this market square in Palandur crowded with life, but one of the ruined squares in Marandur, surrounded by crumbling, dead buildings and choked with rubble, rusting weapons and armor, and the splintered bones of the uncounted men, women and children who had died long before.

She blinked to clear her eyes of the vision and the tears it threatened to bring. Alain and I might have struggled our way through the square in Marandur which was the counterpart of this one. Everything here in Palandur seems so unchanging, like it was always here and always will be. But that’s an illusion. It will vanish, replaced by death and emptiness, and it will vanish soon if I can’t figure out how to do something that no one on Dematr has ever managed. Even the Empire will descend into the same chaos as Tiae if the grip of the Great Guilds isn’t lifted from this world, and all cities will become like Marandur.

Sometimes the whole prophecy and daughter thing feels overwhelming. Sometimes? Every time I think about it. But Alain is right. We can’t give up and we can’t afford to fail.

Swallowing and then breathing deeply to regain her composure, Mari

dove into the crowd of customers, trying to lose herself in her shopping tasks.

She felt more secure in the crowded marketplace. Without her Mechanics jacket on she was just one more person in the mass of commoners. Surely her and Alain’s enemies would have an impossible problem trying to find one of them in such a place. Mari went from seller to seller, picking up some necessary travel supplies, lingering for while over a jewelry display. She found herself looking at pairs of matching rings. Promise rings. Do I want to marry him? That other vision said it will happen. Might happen. There are no certainties, as my Mage keeps telling me. The stars above know that I could do a lot worse. Did I ever think I’d be looking at promise rings and thinking of a Mage?

What am I waiting for, anyway? He loves me. He’s risked his life for me so many times already that I can’t keep count. He trusts me. He respects me. He’s never failed me. And I love him. I have no trouble at all imagining myself with him. Mentally and physically. But he’s respecting my wishes to wait. What else do I want in a partner? What else could I possibly ask for? He’s already proposed to me. Why not say yes and promise myself to him?

And then someday Alain and I can have a daughter, and she can grow up until she’s about eight years old and go off to the Mechanics Guild schools and we can cut her completely out of our lives without a single letter of explanation or a single word of goodbye or any sign at all that her mother and father knew they were ripping out a little girl’s heart

Mari shuddered, biting her lip so hard she tasted blood, blinking away tears born of old anger and sorrow. You’re over that. Remember? So what if your mother and father cut all ties after you went to the Mechanics Guild schools? You’re grown up now. You’re too strong to let that get to you. They can’t hurt you any more.

Why? Why couldn’t they have sent one letter?

I won’t be like that. I could never do that to my child.

I don’t care what my mother did. I’m not her.

I could never hate her. Not even now. Doesn’t that mean I’m different?

But Mother never showed any signs of being like that. None I can remember. How do I know I won’t turn into that?

Face it, this isn’t about Alain. It’s about my worries about me. Until I resolve those fears, I’ll never know if I’m somebody who might be willing to cast her own daughter aside without a single look back.

Shaking her head in anguish and confusion over her feelings, Mari composed herself, then went to the food stalls to buy some provisions for the night’s meal and the journey to Landfall. She had just paid for the last and bent down to pick up her bags of purchases when a soft, emotionless voice sounded next to her.

“Mechanic Mari.”

Mari froze, her heart hammering in her chest, then slowly looked up to meet the gaze of a pair of beautiful blue eyes. The eyes were set in an even more beautiful face framed by long blond hair, all it mostly hidden within the cowl of a Mage’s robes. “Asha.” Then her shock subsided enough for Mari’s manners to come back to her. “Mage Asha. Sorry, Lady Mage.”

“I need to speak with Mage Alain.” Asha pulled her cowl a little higher to better hide her face and hair, but even with her Mage attempts to keep emotion from her voice, Mari could hear a faint note of urgency. Being around Alain had made her much more sensitive to subtle signs of emotion. “Is Mage Alain still safe?” Asha asked.

“As safe as I am. Which is to say, not nearly enough.” The crowds around them were all edging away, putting distance between themselves and the Mage. A few spared pitying glances for Mari. A pair of Imperial police on a corner were looking in another direction as if unaware of anything going on. Everyone watching thought Mari was a common like them whom a Mage had decided to hijack as a personal servant or to torture or for some other reason inexplicable to normal people. None of them were crazy enough to try to interfere, because no one in his or her right mind invited the attention of Mages. “Let’s pretend you’ve told me to come with you,” Mari said. “Go to your right, out of the market and down that street with the tavern on the corner. I’ll follow looking meek and terrified.”

Asha’s face offered no clue as to whether she thought that was a wise plan or not. She nodded with no visible emotion, then turned and began walking, while Mari hastened to pick up her packages and follow, not entirely feigning worry since a lot of people were watching her now and that was the last thing she had wanted.

A woman at a stall she passed called out in a low voice. “Is there anyone we should tell of you?”

Mari shook her head. “I’ll be all right. She just wants some of the food I bought.”

“Blasted Mages. Take care, girl!”

Once far enough down the road which Mari had indicated, she called quietly to Asha. “The hostel is to our left, about three blocks. If you turn at that next corner we can make a few more turns along the way to see if anyone is following.” Mari took a moment to be glad that Asha had kept her eye-catching beauty concealed behind her robes and cowl. That would have attracted an extra measure of attention.

Mari directed Asha though some more turns, even doubling back at one point to ensure no one was shadowing them. Unfortunately, with so many people on the street at this time of day she couldn’t be certain that no one had followed, but it seemed unlikely. Asha followed Mari’s directions without comment or protest, her expression when Mari could see it unreadable. Finally, Mari brought them to the hostel and ducked inside. Fortunately, the desk clerk was momentarily busy with other customers, two men with two courtesans who were falling out of the tops of their dresses. The eyes of the desk clerk and the two men were locked onto the cleavage of the courtesans, and the courtesans kept their own eyes on the wallets of the two men, so no one noticed Mari lead a Mage up the shaky stairs.

She rapped softly. “It’s Mari.” A moment later Alain opened the door. Mari was fleetingly surprised that Alain didn’t seem startled to see Asha.

“I sensed you approaching,” Alain told Mari, “and that Mage Asha was with you, though Mage Asha conceals herself well.”

He was doing it again: reverting to that expressionless, emotionless Mage voice and face. Already unsettled by Asha finding her, Mari glared at him as she shut and locked the door. “Act human, blast you. I’ve put a lot of work into getting you to show feelings and I don’t want to see that go to waste.”

Alain, startled, nodded before turning to Asha. “Mage Asha, I am happy to see you.”

Asha raised one eyebrow the tiniest amount. “Happy?” she asked without feeling.

“Yes, Mage Asha. You are my friend.”

“You still think of me as friend?” Asha gave Mari a glance from those gorgeous eyes.

Mari fervently hoped that Asha couldn’t sense all of her feelings right now.

Asha nodded at Alain. “I have been trying to remember what ‘friend’ meant. Helping is involved. Helping with no obligation.”

“Like you did at Severun,” Mari said. “Warning Alain and misleading those other Mages. We’ve both been worried about you since then.” It felt good to say that, because it was true, and because her pangs of jealousy still bothered Mari.

“Worried?” Asha asked. “Is that what I have sensed in myself when I think of Mage Alain and you?” She looked full on at Mari. “Do you still say that you… love Mage Alain?”

“Yes.”

“Do you already carry his child?”

Mari felt her face getting hot. “Excuse me?”

“My questions discomfort you? Why is this?”

Mari took a deep breath, remembering her attempts to explain privacy to Alain. “Why don’t we all sit down?” She and Alain sat on the edge of the bed while Asha took the room’s one chair. “No, I do not carry Alain’s child. That has to wait, even if I decide to do that.”

“You do not want Alain’s child?”

Mari’s face got hotter. “Yes, I do. Maybe. I don’t know.” She wasn’t even completely ready to discuss that with Alain, let alone with another woman she hardly knew. “But not now.”

“You are not happy because of my question.” Asha blinked at Mari, then looked at Alain. “What are the words?”

“I am sorry,” Alain said.

She nodded and turned to Mari once more. “I… am… sorry. I… try to understand how you see him, even though I am still attempting to be aware of such feelings once more. But I know that you think of him very much.”

“How do you know that?” Mari asked, not certain that she should be asking, but curious that a Mage would say such a thing.

“When you think of Mage Alain,” Asha explained dispassionately, “your self blazes clearly to my senses even across great distances. This is how I found Mage Alain, knowing that you would be with him.”

Mari suddenly realized that what she had felt before was not embarrassment. Not compared to what she felt now. “You can tell when I’m thinking about Alain?”

For his part, Alain had developed an anxious expression at Mari’s reaction. “This is an unusual thing, Mage Asha.”

“I had never heard of it from other Mages,” Asha replied without emotion. “Yet even now Mechanic Mari’s presence flares before me very brightly. She must be thinking of you.”

“Oh, yes,” Mari said, struggling to keep her voice under control. “I’m thinking about Alain right now, yes, I am. Can you tell what I am thinking, Alain?”

“You… are unhappy.”

“Yes, Alain, I am unhappy. I thought you told me that Mages can’t read minds.” Mari’s words came out sounding only partly strangled with emotion.

“They cannot,” Alain said quickly. “I do not know what this thing is which Asha can see from you.”

“She knows what I’m thinking about you! Do you have any idea what some of the things I’ve— Oh, blazes,” Mari gasped, wondering if anyone could possibly feel this humiliated.

Asha was watching Mari with visible curiosity. “You are not happy to know another can sense your thoughts of Alain?”

“Happy,” Mari said with all of the restraint she could manage, “is not quite the right word.”

Watching Mari and looking more alarmed by the moment, Alain leaned toward Asha. “This thing you sense from Mari, it is like that from a Mage?”

“Yes,” Asha agreed. “Like when a Mage casts a spell. The presence is clear, even though it is different from that of a Mage.”

“Then,” Alain said, choosing his words carefully as he looked at Mari, “Asha does not know what you are thinking of me. She only knows that you are thinking of me.”

Mari glared at him suspiciously. “Just that? Nothing else? No… details? No… pictures?”

“Pictures of what?” Alain asked.

“Nothing! Not a blasted thing! Now answer the question!”

Alain, looking like he had the time they faced a dragon in Dorcastle, turned back to Asha. “Do you see any pictures?”

“No.” Asha switched her gaze from Alain to Mari and back again, betraying no reaction at all. “What pictures should I be seeing? Perhaps if I focus on attempting to see such pictures—”

“NO!” Mari paused to get control of herself. “Please do not, Mage Asha.”

Asha suddenly revealed a tiny measure of understanding. “You are concerned that I may be seeing your imagined manifestations of physical desire for Mage Alain.”

Mari stared at Asha. Mari’s face was so hot now that it felt like it was on fire. With nowhere to hide, she buried her face in her hands, wishing with all her might that a hole would appear beneath her and allow her to fall deep into the Earth.

“Master Mechanic Mari.” Asha’s voice was very low, and very close. The female Mage must be kneeling beside her. “I saw nothing. I will see nothing. Yet I have done something to cause you to conceal yourself. I do not know what should be done now.”

That probably was the closest a Mage could come to an apology. In fact, it was a remarkable act for a Mage. Mari concentrated fiercely on what Asha had said and managed to lower her hands enough to see Asha. “Can you imagine how I feel right now?”

Asha stared back blankly. “How… you… feel? You?”

“Me.”

“Shadows… feel?” Asha looked over to Alain for confirmation and must have received some. “But it is usual to imagine having physical relations with others. Why does this distress you?”

Mari shook her head. “We really need to talk, Mage Asha.”

“We are talking.”

“No. Alone. Without Alain here.”

“Why?” Those beautiful blue eyes in that beautiful face looked back at Mari with no trace of feeling or understanding. “Is this a secret from Mage Alain?”

“No.” Mari forced her hands back into her lap, though she still couldn’t look toward Alain. “It’s just… some things are very private. Not to be shared.”

“Like Guild secrets?”

“Um… yes. Sort of. But just for each person. Personal secrets.”

Mage Asha was thinking so hard that a slight furrow appeared on her brow. “Why does it matter what others know? They are but shadows.”

“It matters,” Alain said. “I still do not know why, but it does matter. Mari calls it having social skills. I have never before heard of a Mage being able to track someone who is not a Mage, except for the thread I sense that connects Mari with me.”

“A thread?” Asha asked, her Mage tones making her sound uninterested in the answer.

“It does not exist, but it does exist, running invisibly between us. I do not know what it is. Could you sense Mari even more strongly than I do?”

“I do not know,” Asha said. “I asked careful questions of elders, but saw their suspicions rise quickly and could gain no answers. It seems some tie exists between me and Mechanic Mari now. As the feelings I cannot admit to have become stronger inside—a sense of… wanting to… share… life, of not being the only real thing in a world of illusion populated by shadows—I am able to sense her more strongly.”

Mari buried her face in both hands again. “Just one big happy threesome,” she mumbled. “Alain, we need to talk.”

“We are talk—”

“Alone! Do you Mages always have to do that?”

His hand touched her shoulder very gently, so Mari lowered her hands and glared at him as Alain spoke with great care. “There is no other for me but you.”

“Me and my blazing bonfire of love, you mean?” Mari glanced over at Asha, who to Mari’s surprise was betraying discomfort and confusion. “Mage Asha? Is something wrong?”

“Mechanic Mari,” Asha said, “it is hard to explain. I have… a brother and a sister. I saw them when I left Ihris. They saw me. I could say nothing, show nothing. I was taught they… mean nothing. They showed… what other shadows reveal when they look upon Mages.” Asha paused for a long moment. “I saw their expressions, and I told myself they did not matter, but I lied. Then I met you, and for the first time since I left the Guild Hall as a Mage, for the first time since I became an acolyte, someone looked at me and… and… smiled. No one smiles on a Mage, Mechanic Mari. I had not known how much I missed seeing a smile when another looked upon me, shadow or not.”

Mari’s embarrassment vanished as the female Mage’s words hit home. She reached to grasp Asha’s hands, barely noticing the shock in the female Mage at being touched. “Call me Mari, Mage Asha. That’s why you feel a connection to me? Because I smiled at you? I thought you didn’t care. You didn’t react at all.”

Asha gazed into Mari’s eyes. “We are taught, in many ways, harsh ways, never to show what we think, what we feel.”

“I know.” This close, Mari had no trouble seeing the scars on Asha’s hands and face, the same sort that Alain bore, the marks of the discipline that Mage Guild acolytes suffered. Some of the scars were so old that Asha must have been just a little girl when they did some of those things to her.

Asha looked down at Mari’s hands holding hers, but she didn’t try to withdraw them, instead seeming oddly vulnerable to Mari. She wants me to like her, Mari realized. She’s been alone for years, since she was a little girl, and now she’s trying to find herself again. Asha sees what has happened with Alain and she wants the same for herself, but she doesn’t even know how to ask. Instead of being envious of Alain, she’s been helping him. And I’ve been jealous and angry and suspicious of this woman. “Mage Asha, please say you will still be my friend.”

Asha stared at Mari for a long time, then nodded. “I would be… happy… if that were so.” Her mouth twitched, as if it were attempting to remember how to smile. “I have been trying, since I met you and Alain. Trying to remember.” She looked at Alain. “I have an uncle who is a Mage also.”

He nodded to her, Alain’s eyes distant with some memory. “You once spoke of him.”

“So long ago, it seems.” Asha looked into a corner for a moment, then refocused on Alain. “He and I have talked a little. He… remembers, too, I think, but is not ready. I am not certain.”

Asha took a long, slow breath. “I am remiss. I think of myself when there is much to warn you of. Alain, I must tell you of the danger here in Palandur.”

“You know of this danger?” Alain asked. “I know only that my foresight warns of great peril at all gates from the city.”

“Then your foresight spoke well. When I arrived at the Mage Guild Hall in Palandur this noon, I was told that one of the Mages there had also received foresight, seeing that sometime this day Mage Alain would leave this city.”

“This Mage knew me?”

“Yes.” Asha said. “Mage Niaro, who as an acolyte envied your early success.”

“I remember Niaro,” Alain said in the emotionless way of a Mage, giving Mari no clue as to what he felt about that other Mage.

“The envy of Mage Niaro perhaps provided the connection needed to see your future actions,” Asha continued. “The Mage Guild Hall sent every Mage available to watch the gates and the waterfront, but there was some concern because Niaro had seen himself in the vision. I do not know what this means.”

“It means he saw something that might happen, not something that will happen,” Mari explained, then realized that she, a Mechanic, had just had the gall to enlighten a Mage about foresight. “Alain told me about that.”

But Asha took Mari’s knowledge in stride. “That explains it. Alain’s foresight warned him not to leave, so the vision of Niaro did not take place. The elders believe that you must be in the city, though, and I understand this certainty now, for only if you were here could Niaro’s vision have had any chance of happening. However, Niaro himself is mistrusted, for the elders see the emotion which ties him to you, and they care little for foresight.”

“Will the Mages remain on guard tomorrow?” Alain asked.

“I was told to be ready to help guard the gates this night. They will watch for days beyond this one, I think.” She nodded to Alain. “Your ability to hide yourself from other Mages is very strong now. Even I could not have found you as I did before. Only Mechanic Mari led me to you.”

“Then we will be safe in this city,” Alain said. “We can wait until the Mages tire—”

“Hold on,” Mari cautioned. “Mages aren’t the only ones looking for us, remember? The Imperials want us, and the Mechanics Guild wants me.”

Asha studied Mari. “Why do they seek you? The Mage Guild elders say that Alain may be with one he knew before, that he must die before he betrays the Guild to this woman, who may be the daughter spoken of in the prophecy made long ago.”

“They know of this?” Alain asked. “They know that Mari is the daughter?”

“Yes,” Asha said. “I do not know how, but I did learn more of the prophecy. It was made by a Mage who encountered the one called Jules in centuries past. He did not know who she was when he saw her, and it took many years before the Guild discovered the identity of the woman.”

Mari slapped her forehead. “That’s why Jules had time to hide her children among other commons.”

Asha’s eyes went back to Mari. “You are that one? The daughter?”

“I…” Mari stared at the floor. “Maybe.”

“She is,” Alain said. “I had a vision which revealed it.”

“Some other Mage must have had a vision of her as well,” Asha said. “Her time comes, and more feel her presence. The Mage Guild will kill Mari as soon as it can.”

“I will not let them kill her,” Alain said. “Did they elders tell the Mages here of the storm?”

Asha shook her head slightly.

“Many Mages have seen this,” Alain explained. “A storm approaches swiftly, born of the anger and frustration of the commons you and I were taught to see as shadows. They have lived in chains too long. The commons will rise, losing all reason in a frenzy of destruction, striking at each other and at the Mage Guild and the Mechanics Guild, destroying everything.”

“This will happen?” Asha asked, her expression still completely impassive.

“Only the daughter can prevent it,” Alain said.

“Can even the daughter do so much? Many already seek her death.”

“We know this,” Alain said. “She must succeed—”

“Hello!” Mari burst out. “I’m sitting right here! How can so many people be wanting to kill me and you two be ignoring me?”

“Your own Guild seeks your death as well?” Asha asked without apparent emotion. “Why?”

Mari waved one hand with mock flippancy. “Oh, associating with a Mage, betraying Guild secrets, treason, the daughter thing… Professor S’san told me that my Guild wants to take me alive so they can question me, but I have no doubt what they’ll do when they’re done asking questions.”

“The Mage elders wonder if the Mechanics Guild seeks to use the daughter against the Mages,” Asha said. “I sense in many elders and Mages a disbelief. They know of the prophecy, and they know that this Mechanic is foreseen to be the one who fulfills the prophecy, but they do not accept that this may happen, because Mari is a Mechanic. The elders will not accept that a Mechanic could triumph over the Mage Guild, which is too powerful and has wisdom on its side. How could any Mechanic prevail against Mages?”

“Their own illusions blind them. The Guild will not act with its full force?” Alain asked.

“I do not think so, not until the daughter has more fully revealed herself.”

“Revealed herself?” Mari asked. “Revealed herself?” With every word spoken the conversation was getting harder for her to listen to.

“Openly proclaim who you are,” Mage Asha said.

“Not going to happen,” Mari said.

“But it must,” Alain said.

“No.” Mari glowered at him. “I will find whatever answers that tower on Altis holds. I will use the banned Mechanics Guild technology to change this world. I will do everything I can to stop that chaos storm. And I will do my best to stay alive while doing all of that. But I will not stand up in front of the world and say look at how special I am, everybody!”

Alain looked at Asha. Asha looked back. “She is a Mechanic?”

“She is,” Alain confirmed.

“All Mechanics believe they are special.” Asha looked seriously perplexed, which meant even an average person might have seen it in her expression. “Even the Mage Guild says that Mari is special, not like the other shadows. But she does not?”

“No. Mari often denies—”

“Will you two stop talking as if I’m not here?” Mari demanded. “Exactly what have I done that is so special?”

“You have slain two dragons,” Alain said. “Few ever slay even one.”

“You have helped Mage Alain to find a new wisdom,” Asha said. “And perhaps you shall show me that path as well.”

“You have a general sworn to your service,” Alain added. “As well as at least two other Mechanics, the one named Calu and your elder S’san. And a Mage who follows you.”

“Two Mages,” Asha said.

“You have entered and escaped from Marandur,” Alain said. “And you told me you were the youngest ever to become a full Mechanic and the youngest ever to become a Master Mechanic.”

Mari stared at them. “All right. That… might… sound… a little… special. But that doesn’t make me better than anyone else. I just have a… bigger job to do. A much bigger job. And to answer the earlier question more specifically, the last thing I need to do is give the Empire any more reasons to get their hands on me and Alain. So, no revealing.”

Asha studied Mari for a few moments before speaking again. “Why does the Empire already seek you? Is it because of the prophecy again?”

“I hope not,” Mari said. “Unless your Guild told them, they shouldn’t know.”

“The Mage Guild does not want to give hope to the shadows it treats as nothing,” Asha said.

“However,” Mari said, reluctant to admit the truth, “Alain and I both are under death sentences from the Empire. Because we went to Marandur.” She whispered it, not wanting to risk being overheard.

“Marandur. Mage Alain spoke of this,” Asha said. “Why?”

“There was something important there,” Mari said. “It’s hard to explain to a Mage, because you do things so differently from Mechanics. Basically, I think the Mechanics Guild doesn’t believe in the prophecy of the daughter either, because the Senior Mechanics who run it can’t conceive that anyone could overcome the Mechanics Guild. The same as you said the Mage elders are thinking. And the Senior Mechanics are right that defeating them would be impossible if I only had access to the same tools that they have. But I found—that is, Alain and I found—ways to build new Mechanic tools. Tools that will give us a chance to defeat the Mechanics Guild.”

“Tools?” Asha asked.

“They are like Mage spells,” Alain explained.

“No,” Mari said. “Tools aren’t spells. Tools are how we make spells. Did I just say that? It’s a good thing Professor S’san didn’t hear me. Anyway, it’s things like semi-automatic rifles, assembly lines, better far-talkers, food preservation, medical equipment, better steam propulsion systems. That kind of thing.” Asha was staring back at her blankly. “Better weapons, better ways to make them, better ways to talk over long distances, better ways to do everything.”

Mari frowned as she thought about her last statement. “That’s not true. Even with the new Mechanic knowledge I found, all of the technology in those forbidden texts, I couldn’t do what Mages do.”

“Wisdom from a Mechanic,” Asha murmured. “She is special,” Asha told Alain.

“Yes,” Alain agreed. “She is.”

“You’re doing it again,” Mari said. “I’m still here and part of this conversation. Alain is special, too, you know,” she added.

“Mage Alain.” Asha looked at him, her eyes revealing some deep emotion. “I learned something more concerning you. By what elders have told me, and by what they did not say, I have learned that Mage Alain was to be humiliated by failure on his first contract. If he also died, that would have been a matter of welcome to the elders.”

“Do you mean Alain was set up, too?” Mari demanded. “The Mage Guild knew he was going to run into serious trouble?”

“The elders at Ringhmon knew more of the plans of the shadows there than they revealed to Mage Alain,” Asha continued. “They were not surprised that the caravan he guarded was attacked, nor that the attack was so powerful as to be beyond any Mage’s ability to counter. They did not expect him to survive, believing that either in the attack or afterwards, alone in the waste, he would die.”

Mari stared at Asha, aghast, but Alain simply nodded, his expression perfectly calm. She could see him withdrawing a bit into his Mage state to deal with the ugly news.

“This explains much,” Alain said tonelessly. “I wondered why the elders in Ringhmon were unconcerned with the fate of the caravan but acted much distressed over my arrival. All of their questions centered on the Mechanic who had accompanied me in escaping the ambush and the desert waste.”

“Just so,” Asha said. “She had not been anticipated. This also I learned, Mage Alain. Your suspicions regarding the attack in Imperial territory were correct. The plan was again that you should fail in your task, and this time surely die in the process. Your fate would not be left to the efforts of commons or chance. Some Mages would be ordered to ensure you did not escape, and if possible the common military force that you accompanied would be eliminated completely, leaving no witnesses and ensuring the magnitude of your failure would be as great as possible.”

“I had wondered why so many Mages were in the force that attacked the Alexdrian soldiers, and how those Mages could have known so surely where I and the Alexdrians would be,” Alain said. “If not for Mari’s arrival, I would surely have ‘failed’ again just as the elders planned. But I was ordered to the Free Cities from Dorcastle. Do you say the plan had already been decided upon at that time?”

“Yes, Mage Alain, your fate had already been decided before you left Dorcastle.” Asha paused. “I was able to learn much because the elders themselves are asking many questions, and in the questions asked, answers can be found. The elders do not understand how you escaped the dragon in the north. They know no single Mage could have defeated that spell creature, nor any force of commons.” Her eyes went to Mari. “The elders do not even consider the possibility that one of the toys of the Mechanics could have accounted for the dragon.”

Mari, stunned by what she had been hearing, managed to nod. “They’re partly right. If my friend Alli hadn’t designed those special weapons, I couldn’t have nailed that dragon.”

Alain had let some puzzlement show. “Could you learn why this decision was made, Mage Asha? To humiliate me and see my death before ever I met Mari? I had assumed my errors after coming to know Mari had led to the decision that I must be eliminated as a threat to the Guild.”

“I cannot be certain,” Asha said. “But the elders do now openly declare you to be in error, ensnared by the wiles of a seductive young female Mechanic whose charms you could not resist.”

“Oh, give me a break!” Mari burst out. “Just who is this irresistible, seductive young female Mechanic?”

“You have ensnared me,” Alain pointed out.

Not in the mood for joking about that, Mari glared at him so strongly that Alain visibly flinched. “Any time you want to be free of my snare all you have to do is ask, Mage Alain. Did you learn anything else, Asha?”

“Yes,” Asha replied. “Mage Alain, you are not the youngest ever to have been declared a Mage. A century ago, one was declared a Mage at the age of sixteen. She died before she became seventeen, in a failed contract. The records say she had neither the experience nor the skills of a Mage, despite having been declared so by several elders at the Mage Hall in Cathlan. Forty years before that, one gained Mage status at twelve. He died at the age of thirteen, also on a failed contract, and also because of a lack of skills and experience, the records say. I suspect that the records lie. I found records of a few other young Mages who did not die, but failed in major tasks and were returned to acolyte status.”

“That’s an interesting and disturbing pattern,” Mari agreed.

“Why?” Alain asked. “Why must young Mages die, Mage Asha? Could you learn that?”

“No one admitted to deliberately seeking the elimination or discrediting of those judged too young. You know what we were taught: that skill and wisdom alone determine whether one can be a Mage. No physical issue such as age should have any bearing on the matter, for all is illusion,” Asha explained. “Instead, I was told, sometimes those given Mage status are unwilling to accept guidance from their elders and thus lack sufficient wisdom. Sometimes they have yet to become themselves, their nature still in flux. Sometimes they are more prone to feelings, lacking enough self-control.”

“How could those arguments be aimed at me or other young Mages?” Alain asked.

“Focus not on the illusion of the words but on what they conceal,” Asha advised. “Turn those points about and you see what the elders reject. Who questions the wisdom of elders, Mage Alain? The young. Who changes the most in a short time as they age? The young. Who feels the changes of the body the most strongly as it grows, making self-control indeed more difficult? The young. Unpredictable. Questioning. Prey to the emotions given extra strength by the changes in their bodies.” Asha shook her head. “You, like other Mages deemed too young, were judged too likely to err, too likely to seek new answers, too likely to challenge the elders. And this is what you have done, though perhaps that only happened under the force of the elders’ attempts to eliminate you.”

“Self-fulfilling prophecies,” Mari said, seeing both Mages turn questioning looks upon her. “That’s a saying for when you create the conditions that make a prediction come true. Your elders said that young Mages would fail, and then set them up to fail. Your elders believed that Alain would deviate from what they call wisdom, and they forced him into circumstances in which he did just that. So they were correct, because they did things to make themselves be correct.”

Alain nodded to Mari. “Wisdom which justifies itself.”

“But why not just admit those concerns?” Mari asked. “Why not say you need a certain level of maturity before you can be a Mage, whether it’s true or not? My Guild has done that, setting experience requirements in place that mean in the future no one else can be promoted as fast as I was, regardless of how well they master Mechanic arts.”

This time Alain shook his head. “The elders cannot admit such a thing. As Asha said, a fundamental aspect of the wisdom they teach is that the physical is irrelevant. Nothing is real.”

“Wow,” Mari commented. “We’ve gone days without you saying nothing is real, and I haven’t missed it at all.”

“But it is so by the wisdom Mages are taught,” Alain said. “If nothing is real, to say that the physical body in fact creates conditions which prevent anyone from being a Mage would be to undermine much of what they teach.”

“As Mage Alain said in Severun,” Asha added, “the wisdom we were taught is lacking. The elders should examine where the errors lie and make changes, but instead they cling to what they know.”

Mari couldn’t help a short, sardonic laugh. “Just like what Professor S’san and I talked about with the Senior Mechanics who control the Mechanics Guild. Different wisdom, but the same refusal to contemplate changes.”

“Mari,” Alain said with a visibly surprised look, “the reasons Mage Asha gives for my elders moving against me are in part the same reasons your professor gave for your Guild’s hostility to you. There also we see similarities.”

“You’re right.” Mari sat back, trying to think. “Do you remember one of the first things we talked about after we met? How your elders and my Senior Mechanics seemed to have a lot in common? I wonder if every group of managers who becomes used to being in charge, who is dedicated to nothing more than keeping things the same and themselves in power, ends up acting in the same ways even if they use different justifications? They don’t want anyone questioning their decisions or their authority.” Something else occurred to her then. “Questions. Asha, you must have asked a lot of questions to find out all of this. You took some serious risks.”

“I have attracted the attention and disapproval of the elders,” Asha said, the lack of feeling in her voice providing no clue as to how she felt about that. “However, I have attracted such attention and disapproval before.”

“You have?”

Alain gestured toward Asha. “I have told you, Mari, that Mage Asha could never appear other than attractive.”

Mari stared at Asha. “You actually got in trouble because you were beautiful? Seriously?”

“My appearance,” Asha said, “must surely be my fault, must surely reveal a lack of wisdom.”

“What were you supposed to do about it?”

Asha’s shoulders twitched very slightly in what might have been a Mage shrug. “I could have shorn my hair, scarred and damaged my skin, broken things to make them heal in misshapen ways—”

“No!” Mari burst out, horrified. “That would be so wrong. Hurting yourself that way? Maiming yourself? Please don’t ever do that.”

Asha gazed at Mari for a long moment before replying. “I have been hurt before, Mari. It is nothing. But to harm my features would have served no purpose. To strike at my appearance would have been proof that I took note of it, and would have condemned me in the eyes of the elders just as much as how I look now.”

“No matter what you did, you’d be wrong?” Mari asked. “You know, back when Alain and I first met, I was really surprised that a Mage and I could have something in common. Now I’m learning that a female Mage and I have something in common, too. I’m glad you never hurt yourself. I’m sorry I freaked out earlier. I know I’m a little weird at times and I’m sorry. I just…” Mari hesitated, her voice sinking to a whisper. “I love you so much, Alain. I don’t want you to be hurt. Especially not because of me. And sometimes thinking about that makes it hard to handle everything else. I’ve got a world to save, but it wouldn’t mean anything if I lost you.”

“It must be difficult to see others as real instead of as shadows,” Asha said.

“It is difficult,” Alain agreed. “There is much pain to be found in such seeing. But there is also much joy.”

“Joy?”

“You will know it when you feel it,” he assured her. “I begin to suspect that none are shadows, but all are real for good or ill.”

Asha nodded, her eyes intent. “I will think on this, and look upon the shadows who cross my path. Do your powers diminish yet, Mage Alain?”

“My powers grow, Mage Asha, even as my love for Mari grows.”

Mari felt her face getting warmer again, but this time her blush came along with a smile.

“Your powers do not just remain as they were? They still grow?” Asha’s astonishment was clear to Mari.

“There is no doubt. I was able to test them in Marandur, and was forced to use them there to a greater extent than ever before. I am more powerful now.”

“Then you do learn a different wisdom, and perhaps a better one as well, Mage Alain. Perhaps the elders were right to fear you.” Asha looked around. “It is not safe that I stay here. The Guild Hall will expect me back to help watch the gates for your departure, Alain. If I can, I will tell you when it is safe to leave this city.”

Mari leaned forward, touching Asha again on the hand, pleased and surprised when Asha did not recoil. “You don’t have to keep risking yourself for us.”

“Is that not what a friend does?”

“Yes.” Mari smiled. “And you are a friend. But friends also worry, and hope that their own friends are safe. Please be careful, Asha.”

“Please?”

“It means I’m asking you if you’ll do something, not telling you.”

“I see. Please. I will remember this word, but not use it around Mages.” Asha stood up, bringing her hood up around her head, then turned to go without another word.

Mari waited until she had left, then rose and locked the door again. “You could have said goodbye, Alain.”

“It did not occur to me when speaking with another Mage,” Alain admitted.

“Then next time I’ll remind you. Did Asha really suffer a lot more from the elders because she’s beautiful?”

“She did,” Alain said, his eyes once more getting the distant gaze of someone looking into their memories. “Asha was often berated as an acolyte for being too attractive. Some thought that meant she was too closely tied to the false world of appearances. This caused her distress, which was reason for more attacks on her by the elders for showing emotion. I know that as an acolyte Asha considered her appearance a true burden, and it was.”

“But you helped her at least once, right?”

“Only once,” Alain said. “The punishment was severe enough to dissuade me from trying any further, and I could see in Asha that she would avoid being helped again so as to protect me from more such punishment.” He paused, dredging up a memory. “I remember that once Asha did speak of changing her appearance. An elder spoke with her, and later that same elder told us that any attempt to damage Asha’s appearance would show a greater flaw than her beauty.”

“An elder convinced her not to mutilate herself?”

“Yes.” Alain shook his head. “Did that elder act out of kindness? I had never suspected such before, but today I wonder.”

Mari stared out the grimy window of their room. “I guess even the Mage Guild has some elders who care about people.”

“Perhaps. One elder I spoke with in Dorcastle cared about me, the one who told me what my vision meant, and that you were the daughter. She cautioned me to tell no one else and to protect you. How many Mages have kept hidden the feelings they were supposed to have forgotten? I had thought myself alone in that, but there may be many Mages who have remained silent, who keep their feelings concealed, but who would welcome a different path.” Alain gave an impression of subdued distress. “The wisdom the Mage Guild now teaches requires a very difficult path, one with much hardship.”

“Alain, I’ve seen the marks it left on you. It must have been horrible.”

“It was what it was,” Alain replied in a low voice. “Acolytes learned to deal with it. We had no choice.”

“I couldn’t have done it.”

He gave her his most serious look. “Yes, you could have. But I am glad that you did not have to endure what Mage Asha and I did.”

Mari looked out the window again. “As hard as things are, I guess we can be thankful that they weren’t worse. We’ve made it this far, and even though I feel at times like it’s us against the world, we’ve got friends like Asha. Oh, stars above, I forgot that I went out for food. You’re probably really hungry. Let’s get something to eat from what I bought in the market and pack up the rest just in case we have to leave in a hurry.”

Their involuntary day in Palandur drew to a slow close, Mari watching the shadows shift as the sun fell lower in the sky. By the time the sun set, she was restless and nervous. “Hopefully, the way will be clear to escape this city-sized trap in the morning. Maybe the Mages will give up quickly.”

“Mages can be very patient,” Alain said.

That made her laugh briefly. “I should know that by now. They’ll wait, you think?”

“Perhaps for several days. If they believe I am in the city,” Alain added, “they may search for me inside it as well. Do you think we should take watches tonight?”

Mari gave another worried glance out the dirty window. “Yeah, I do. I can’t sleep right now, so you go ahead. I’ll wake you about midnight.” Mari didn’t bother lighting the candle on the room’s small, rickety table. She sat near the grimy window, staring out at the night sky barely visible between other buildings. For a while, there were lights outside, torches illuminating the fronts of a few taverns, but as the evening wore on those were extinguished and the night grew darker. Early in the night, too, there was constant traffic on the hostel’s stairs, the creaking and clattering easy to hear as courtesans and their customers went to and from rooms. Mari tried not to listen to the sounds coming from the rooms next to hers and Alains, and eventually those quieted along with the dwindling of the noise from the stairs.

She wondered what the next day would bring. Some danger, if the past was any guide.

Despite her nerves, the long day after many long hard days wore on her, and Mari began to get drowsy as the hostel and the streets outside grew silent. Her head kept sagging, her eyes closing, mind fuzzy with fatigue.

The headache came out of nowhere, dispelling sleep as Mari winced at a sudden stab of pain. She came to full alertness as another stab, more painful than the first, made her head throb. Mari pressed her hands against the sides of her head, trying to guess the cause of the pain. She rarely had headaches, making this one even more bizarre. A third stab hit, more intense yet.

Mari bent over, screwing her eyes shut against the last blast of pain. She waited, bracing herself for another shock.

But no more stabs came. Mari cautiously straightened up again, trying to find any trace of unusual pain in her head and finding none. She looked around, judging from the silence outside and inside the hostel that it must be close to midnight.

Wood creaked somewhere, a tiny sound that she probably wouldn’t have noticed when drowsy. Now, fully alert, Mari perceived it clearly in the stillness that otherwise enveloped the hostel. Mari held her breath, listening as intently as she could. Leather mattress supports squeaked in one of the adjacent rooms. Someone in that room muttered something that could barely be heard through the thin walls.

Wood creaked again. The staircase. Who would be so careful coming up it? Those who had used it earlier in the night had clumped up or down without caring who they bothered. But now someone was trying not to make any noise.

Trying to sneak up stairs.

Trying to get up here without anyone hearing them.

She got up, trembling with the need to move both as quickly and as quietly as possible. Reaching for Alain, she shook him awake. Alain stared at her as Mari held a finger to her lips to signify the need for silence, then pantomimed danger. Alain rolled out of the bed, the rustling of the sheet sounding huge in the night. He pulled on his boots and reached for his pack. Mari did the same, blessing their habit of sleeping fully clothed in case of emergency.

Another soft sound, from the short hallway outside of their room. A footstep, perhaps. Someone was approaching very cautiously.

Mari edged to the window to peer out and down. Imperial building regulations called for a fire escape ladder out there, but there was no telling what shape that ladder was in. She gestured to Alain that they should go through the window. He nodded.

The door to their room exploded.