The Hidden Masters of Marandur

Chapter Ten

Asha’s eyes stayed locked on Alain’s for a long moment as the carriage drove past. Then Asha leaned back and let the curtain drop.

He waited, barely able to believe that Asha had not betrayed him to the Guild and the Imperials. But there was no alarm, no variation in the steady pace of the marching column, as the carriages of the Mages moved away down the road. Though Alain strained his senses, he could feel no sign that any of the Mages within the carriages were preparing spells.

Mari turned and gave him a worried look. “What happened? One of the Mages looked out and you suddenly tensed up, like you expected trouble.”

Alain relaxed himself with an effort. “One of the Mages in the second wagon saw me and knew me,” he explained in a low voice. Mari’s eyes flared in alarm. “But she did nothing.”

“The Mage who looked out toward us? Wait a minute.” Her tone of voice went very quickly from alarm to umbrage. “Blond. Beautiful. Was that Asha?” Mari demanded.

“Yes, that was Asha.”

“That was Asha.”

“Yes,” Alain repeated, wondering why he felt so worried by the way Mari looked at him.

“She has blue eyes,” Mari said, pointing her forefinger at Alain. “You didn’t tell me that she had blue eyes. And you didn’t tell me she was beautiful.”

“I told you she was very attractive. I did not mention the eyes because I did not think that was important.”

“Not important?” Mari glared at Alain. “How old is she?”

“I do not know exactly. I believe she is perhaps two years older than me.”

“Oh! Great!”

Alain watched Mari, unable to understand what was wrong. “She did not betray us, Mari. There is no need to be concerned.”

“I’m not concerned!” Mari growled back at him.

“But—” Alain decided he should stop trying to explain. Mari was staring at the last of the Imperial forces marching past, her face unyielding. Alain watched them, too, wondering why Mari was so unhappy and why Asha had not betrayed him. Two women acting in ways he did not understand. Nothing in his Mage training had prepared Alain for this.

The last ranks of foot soldiers passed. Bringing up the rear came wagon after wagon, most being driven by farmers or merchants who had been pressed into service along with their vehicles and draft animals. Inside the wagons lay soldiers too badly wounded to walk or ride, sometimes moaning as the wagons jolted them. Mari leaned back to murmur to him. “They didn’t get off easy either, did they?” Her bad mood seemed to have passed as quickly as the storm.

Alain just nodded. He wondered why he felt neither pride in having hurt so many of the enemy, nor revulsion in the harm he had caused to save the Alexdrians, just a melancholy at the sight of the suffering. “The Free Cities and the Empire have been waging war for centuries, to no purpose. Men and women die, but nothing ever changes.”

“What a waste,” Mari said. “But their deaths do accomplish something. They die to keep the world stable, so that the Great Guilds can continue to rule.” She stared at the last wagons full of wounded as they passed. “What are you thinking now?”

“I am thinking that within a few years such deaths, such suffering, will occur on a scale so vast that all this world will be filled with it,” Alain said. “And there will be no safe refuge for the injured or any others. Unless this world does change. That is its only hope, that one person can bring about change.”

She looked over and back at him, somber and subdued. “Remember that ‘no pressure’ thing I mentioned? Why me, Alain?”

“I do not know.”

“I already know how delusional you are concerning me,” Mari told him, “but why does everyone else seem to think I’m either their great hope or really dangerous?”

He had no answer to that. Mari nodded resignedly to him, then gripped his hand. Together she and Alain joined the mass of commons once again clogging the road to Umburan in the wake of the legion.

It took close to the week Calu had predicted before Mari and Alain reached Umburan, walking almost all the way since few wagons passing them had room for riders. By the time they limped into the city, Mari was rethinking her opposition to more horseback riding.

Mari had planned to pass through Umburan as quickly as possible. After she had learned about Alain’s battle, that desire had been reinforced by worries about lingering too close to where the engagement had been fought. There were Imperials in Umburan who could conceivably have seen the young Mage accompanying the Alexdrians, and there were those eight Mages who might have been passing through or might live in the city’s Mage Guild Hall.

But now she had to try to meet with Calu, and in any case by the time they reached Umburan the Imperial troops who had marched by them had already had plenty of time to monopolize all outgoing transport for the next few days. With no way out of the city except by walking—making them too slow and too easily intercepted by anyone looking for them—Mari decided it was just as well that they were planning to stay a while longer. Few would be leaving Umburan until the horses, wagons, coaches and other forms of transportation which had been requisitioned by the Imperial military were freed up for use by civilians again.

Alain, though, wanted to increase their risk. “I should go closer to the Mage Guild Hall to see if I can detect the presence of the Mage Asha,” he argued.

“Why are you so eager to find this Mage Asha again?” Mari demanded, fighting off the aggravation she felt every time the name came up. “Catching up on old times is dangerous, and according to you she wouldn’t be interested in that anyway.”

“She may have important information,” Alain said.

“I’m sure.”

“Why does Asha concern you?” Alain asked.

“She doesn’t concern me. Your old friends are no business of mine. All that I’m worried about is the danger to us.” The small room they had rented in a hostel had thin walls, so they kept their voices low and tried to ignore the sounds that leaked in from the rooms around them.

“Your feelings do not match your words,” Alain said.

“My feelings? My feelings are none of your business!”

Alain watched her for a moment with a puzzled air.

Normally Mari got joy out of spotting expressions on his face, but not right now. She schooled her voice to sound as reasonable as possible. “I don’t think it’s wise to seek out other Mages, particularly other Mages who were part of a group which recently tried to kill you. If there’s going to be contact between you and other Mages, I would just prefer it happen a little farther down the road.”

Alain sat silent for a little while, then nodded. “I do understand. It is hard for me to explain why I believe that Asha can be trusted.”

“It’s not all that hard to understand,” Mari grumbled, thinking of the female Mage’s hair, eyes and face.

“Perhaps you can explain it to me, then,” Alain suggested.

“I don’t think so.” Mari checked the time. “I need to go meet with Calu.”

Alain stood up. “I will watch from outside the bookselling place while you meet with him, to ensure no one approaches. There is a chance he is being watched by your Guild just as you were in Dorcastle.”

“That’s right. Thanks.” Mari felt another of those pangs of guilt. She had been sniping at Alain over an old girlfriend of his, yet Alain was being perfectly reasonable about Mari’s need to see Calu. “I’m sorry I’ve been a little on edge.”

“A little?”

“Watch it.” She unbent enough to explain. “I’m worrying about so many things: about the dangers to you and me, and what to do, and how to get to Severun, and…to be honest, I’m also dealing with some pretty powerful emotions that I haven’t ever felt before, either. Sometimes I think they make me a little crazy.”

They found the bookstore without too much trouble. Mari paused on the street, staring south to where the usual large plaza opened out around the Mechanics Guild Hall. Mechanics Guild Halls had been her homes since she was a small child. They had been her safety and sanctuary against the outside world, they had been where her friends and co-workers were. She had been educated and trained in them. To have those Guild Halls be a place where enemies lurked was very disturbing, as if a long-trusted friend or a stern but loving parent had changed inside to be a deadly foe. Mari could sometimes go for long stretches now without being conscious of not wearing her Mechanics jacket, but this close to a Guild Hall she suddenly felt naked without it. She belonged in that Guild Hall, she should be wearing her jacket, and there should be no doubts or fears within her.

That was what she had been taught as an apprentice. That was what she had once believed. Now, every certainty had been replaced by distrust.

Mari and Alain lurked in a shaded area until they saw Calu appear, strolling along until he entered the bookstore. “Do you see anything?” Mari asked.

“No. Nor does my foresight warn of danger.”

“Good.” She paused to look at him. “Thanks for putting up with me when I get hard to live with.”

Alain bowed toward her. “I know that I am not always easy to live with, and I understand the no pressure you are under.”

“You mean the pressure I’m under,” Mari said. “No pressure means, uh, pressure…never mind. Thank you.”

I will watch,” Alain said. “Go meet your friend. What would be appropriate for me to say to him?”

“Uh…that you were sorry you had to stay out here keeping a watch for danger and couldn’t say hello in person.”

“Say that to Mechanic Calu for me,” Alain said.

“Sure.” Smiling despite her worries, Mari walked across the street and down to the bookstore with as casual a gait as she could manage. Her inability ever to manage the swagger employed by most Mechanics was a good thing, since it meant she didn’t have to remind herself to walk like a common.

Partly-filled bookshelves lined the walls and ran down the center of the store. Calu was standing to one side, screened from the view of the owner by a wall of shelves. Mari walked up next to him as if wandering through the store. “Hi, Mechanic.”

Calu glanced over at her with a relieved expression. “You made it. Where’s your, uh, Alain?”

“Outside, keeping an eye out for trouble. He said he was sorry he couldn’t say hello in person.”

“Did he really?”

“Yeah.” Mari couldn’t help grinning. “He really is trying to be human again.”

“Good for Alain.” Calu regarded her solemnly. “You need all the friends you can get right now, Mari. The alert on you has been upgraded to an arrest order.”

“An arrest order?” She had been expecting it, yet it still felt like a punch in the gut. “Any reason?”

“For the good of the Guild.” Calu snorted in derision. “And allegedly for your own good. We no sooner got back here after the blizzard than the Guild Hall supervisor called us in and asked us if anyone had seen or heard anything of Master Mechanic Mari of Caer Lyn.”

Mari made a pained sound. “Senior Mechanics always pretended to forget to call me a Master Mechanic, but now that they’re trying to get me arrested, they remember.”

“The Senior Mechanic said that you had last been seen in Alexdria.” Calu shook his head. “They also said that an expended weapon believed to have been in your possession was found in a pass leading into the Empire, so they thought you might’ve come this way. That’s why they asked us if we had seen you.”

“An expended weapon?” Mari winced. “Alli’s dragon killer.”

“Yeah, although needless to say the Senior Mechanic didn’t mention finding a dead dragon near it.”

“They just found one weapon?”

“Yup.” Calu pretended to be examining some of the books before him. “But they also found a large group of Alexdrian soldiers, who first claimed not to have seen you. But they had a horse with them which matched the one you had bought in Alexdria, and when confronted with that and the evidence of the weapon they admitted they had seen a Mechanic heading south toward Kelsi. She was alone, these soldiers swore, and had traded horses for one of theirs since hers was worn out. They also said this Mechanic had asked them how hard it was to get a ship to Farland from Kelsi or Marida at this time of year.” Calu glanced at her again. “I used to think that commons were so afraid of Mechanics that they’d always tell us the truth. Now I’m never going to talk to commons again without wondering whether or not they’re lying to me.”

Mari breathed a thank-you to General Flyn. Farland was as distant as any place on the Sea of Bakre could be, and almost the exact opposite direction from the way she had actually gone with Alain. She had a mental vision of General Flyn earnestly, politely, and oh-so-respectfully lying his head off to the Mechanics who had questioned him. “The Guild thinks I’m trying to get to Farland, then?”

“Yeah. We were asked if any of us knew anyone you might know there, and whether we’d gotten any letters from you.” Calu took a book, pretending to look at it and shaking his head. “Mari, we got word of all this as soon as we got back here, which means somebody found out this stuff quickly enough to have it sent by long–distance far-talker and then relayed here. There must have been some Mechanics pretty close behind you.”

Mari stared at the books before her, not focusing on their titles. “They must have been real close. Not much more than a day behind, I’d guess. I thought I had done a decent job of throwing off any potential trackers before I left Alexdria, but if I hadn’t been moving fast they might have caught up to me before I reached Alain.”

“Any idea why they didn’t catch you after that?”

“Well, the commons lied to them, and Alain and I headed off the main pass, taking a small hidden route to the north. Anyone sent on east through the pass wouldn’t have found us.” She gave a heavy sigh of relief. “We thought we were just avoiding any legionaries ahead of us at the mouth of the pass, but we ended up sidestepping Mechanics coming up behind us, too.”

“Lucky,” Calu commented. “But it means the Guild was following you pretty well.”

“I was wearing my jacket after I left Alexdria,” Mari admitted. “I thought in Free Cities territory I’d be safer traveling alone as a Mechanic than as a common.”

“Wrong.”

“Yeah,” Mari agreed. “Hopefully the commons and the detour and the blizzard threw the Guild off my track.”

“I think so,” Calu said, “since the Guild is asking everyone where you might be. But that means a lot of people will be looking for you, and the Guild is obviously keeping an eye out for you here in Imperial territory as well as elsewhere. The Senior Mechanics were all saying the Guild is worried about you, that you had gotten hurt in Ringhmon, hit on the head, and now might be irrational and in need of care.”

“That’s funny,” Mari grumbled. “They weren’t too worried about the lump on my head while I was still at Ringhmon.”

“So,” Calu continued, “you might say crazy things or believe crazy things, but if any of us saw you we were to either talk you into coming back to a Guild Hall with us or else go immediately and get some Mechanics to bring you back.”

“I feel so warm and happy knowing how much the Senior Mechanics care.”

He turned his head to face her. “Oh, they’re worried about you, Mari,” Calu assured her. “But what they’re worried about is what you’re doing. This is serious.”

“I know. They tried to get me killed, remember?”

“I guess I was hoping you were wrong about that.” Calu thought for a moment. “As far as I can tell without asking, they don’t know about Alain. They think you’re alone, but they’re obviously worried about some other Mechanics joining up with you. They kept coming back to that, where your friends were and whether or not you’d be going to see them.”

Mari sighed again, shaking her head. “I hope nobody gets in trouble just for knowing me. Did you tell them that you’re a friend of mine?”

He gave her a sidelong wink. “I told them I used to know you. I figured they’d hear that quickly enough, anyway. I said it had been a long time since I’d seen any letters from you, though, which was true enough.”

“Calu, I don’t know how to thank you for telling me all this, but please don’t stick your neck out anymore.”

He made a face. “I’m not sure how much more I can do. The Senior Mechanics said we’ll be getting a list of Mari’s known friends soon, so I guess at that point they’ll really get suspicious of me.”

“My friends?” Mari leaned her forehead against the books in front of her. “Why do they have to be singled out?”

“You’re not doing it, Mari, and I’m the only one of them who actually knows anything, right?”

“At the moment, yeah, but I got that weapon from Alli.”

“Uh-huh.” Calu made another face. “You didn’t know it might get her in that much trouble, and you needed that weapon. Alli’s a big girl, Mari. She can take care of herself. And if she needs help, I’ll find a way to get to her.” He paused again. “Can you tell me anything more about what you’re doing?”

“You know where I’m going,” Mari said, “and that’s probably more than you should know for your own protection.”

“Yeah, but what are you going to do, Mari? What the Guild is doing to you is wrong, the way innovation and technology are being suppressed is wrong, hiding the truth about Mages and these guys you call Dark Mechanics is wrong. Something has to be done.”

She stared at the books before her, gaze unfocused again. “I don’t know. I need to talk to Professor S’san. I need to learn more. I can’t make decisions without more data, without having a better idea of what the results will be and what outcome I need to aim for. And to be honest, I’m not sure what I can do even once I find out what I need to know.”

“Something has to be done,” Calu repeated. “Did you know the long-distance far-talker in the Umburan Guild Hall is busted? I didn’t mention that at the inn. They haven’t been able to get it working for over a month now.”

A Guild Hall long-distance far-talker broken and unrepairable. Mari shook her head in amazement. “A while back I heard the far-talker at another Guild Hall was out of commission for a couple of weeks. A month?”

“Yup. The Guild Hall in Umburan is dependent on written communications. We got that report on you by courier from the Guild Hall in Pandin.” Calu gave Mari a look as if he didn’t expect to be believed. “They’ve told us here in Umburan to be ready to shift to continuous wave communications for good. You know, not voice, but that dot-dash code. The gear’s less complicated. Did you ever meet a Mechanic named Yasmin? Yasmin of Westport. She’s pretty sharp. Just one step shy of Master status herself. Anyway, her specialty is stuff like far-talkers. She came up with this idea for getting Umburan’s big far-talker working, but when she presented it to the Senior Mechanics they took her notes and plans and told her to forget it. Yasmin was really unhappy.”

“I’ll bet,” Mari agreed. “I know how she feels. Do you know why the Senior Mechanics killed her idea?”

“Because it involved a design change for some of the circuits. Innovation. All she wanted to do was alter some circuits to get the equipment working again, but that’s prohibited. It’s by the book or we don’t do it at all.”

Mari nodded slowly. “The Guild doesn’t want change, but something has to change. Something big has to change.”

“There’s plenty of Mechanics who believe that, or are worried about it, but they can’t get organized. They need a leader.” Calu glanced at Mari again.

“Don’t look at me! Why do people keep doing that? Why have people always been doing that?”

“There must be a reason.” Calu grinned lopsidedly. “When you decide what to do, you’ve got your gang backing you up.”

“Thanks. I’ve got a general, too. No army, but I’ve got a general.”

“Really? I wish I had a general.” Calu grinned again but the expression shifted back to a serious look. “The Guild Hall here could find out that I’m a known friend of Mari any day now, and then meeting with you will be too risky because they’ll probably put a watch on me. You need to get out of Umburan as soon as possible. Avoid Guild Halls and see what this professor can tell you. I’m going to pretend I’m a naïve young Mechanic who believes that garbage about the Guild wanting to help you, and maybe that way I’ll be able to find a little of what the Guild is doing and maybe lead them astray from finding you.”

“Calu, please don’t,” Mari said. “If they find out you’re doing that you could get in serious trouble.”

“What was that? I don’t copy you.”

Mari tried to glower at him despite the elation his friendship brought her. “Alli will kill you if you get hurt playing spy against the Guild. Then she’ll kill me for letting you get hurt. For both of our sakes, be careful.”

He nodded. “Will do. Say hi to Alain for me. Tell him I’m counting on him to keep you safe.”

“Calu…thanks. For everything. I was so afraid of what you might think of him.”

“Alain? That guy will die for you, Mari. How can I dislike somebody like that?” Calu swung one hand out low toward her. “Good luck. Get the blazes out of this city.”

“All right.” She clasped his hand tightly for a moment. “See you. Stay safe. Don’t take any risks.”

“Yes, Lady Master Mechanic. I won’t be anything like you.”

She stuck her tongue out at Calu, he grinned once more, then Mari turned and walked out of the bookstore, trying to calm her nerves.

Alain waited until she rejoined him. “You are more worried now,” he said.

“Yeah. I’ll tell you everything he told me, but first we need to see how fast we can get out of Umburan.”

Another nerve-wracking day later, passage out of Umburan was reopened to civilians. There was a Mechanic rail line running southeast to Pandin, but given what Calu had told them that was simply too risky at this point. Instead, Mari and Alain stood in a long line to purchase tickets on one of the horse-drawn coaches making regular runs between the cities. The coach was noisy, cramped, bumpy and slow. Mari endured it, feeling guilty for forcing Alain to put up with the trip as well. She had noticed how uncomfortable he remained with human contact. Most human contact, anyway. He was getting much more comfortable with her touch, which was one of the few bright lights in her life at the moment.

But even the most tedious trip ends eventually. It was late afternoon when they reached Pandin. Mari stepped off the coach, wondering if her body would ever stop feeling stiff again. If she wasn’t being put through heavy physical stress like hiking through a snowstorm, she was being forced to sit inactive in a hostel room or a crowded coach for hours on end. Her muscles kept getting completely different workouts and were expressing their confusion in uncomfortable ways. “You know what, Alain?” she whispered. “Life as a common is no fun at all.”

“I was trained to endure hardship, but I agree.”

She and Alain stopped to hoist their packs, waiting while the other passengers went past them and a few people came forward to meet some of the arrivals. Mari ignored them all, knowing no one should be expecting them in Pandin. A moment later, her expectations proved wrong.

“Lady Mechanic.”

It took Mari a moment to realize that the man who had walked up to stand nearby had addressed her in a voice just loud enough to be heard by her. Then it took another moment to recall that she wasn’t wearing her Mechanics jacket. She looked directly at him, not speaking, ready to run or fight if he proved to be from the Mechanics Guild. “Are you talking to me?”

Alain moved slightly to one side, giving him a clear shot at the man. Mari noticed him tensing the way he did before casting one of his spells. She glanced around, trying to spot any other people who might be working with this man, but couldn’t see any.

The man smiled slightly. “I know you. I know you’re a Mechanic. Let’s not play games.”

“Are you with the Guild?” Mari asked calmly. She searched the area again for signs of Mechanics ready to arrest her, looking for possible escape routes. Her hand twitched, wanting to reach for her pistol in its shoulder holster under her coat, but she held it down at her side. It seemed best not to reveal that she was armed, not until she understood what was going on.

Alain was waiting silently. Mari knew that if the man made a wrong move, Alain would strike.

The man shook his head. “No. I’m not with your Guild. If you’d like to know how I know you, and what I can do for you, come along.”

“Why should I trust you enough to come along with you?”

“You wouldn’t like the alternative.” The man’s smile was unpleasant this time.

Mari thought quickly. She and Alain were very exposed out in the open. If anyone had crossbows, or rifles, trained on them, both she and Alain could be killed very quickly. “All right. I’ll follow, but you won’t like what happens if you try to betray me.”

The man looked over at Alain. “I saw you talking to him. You were with him at Umburan.”

They had been watched for a while, it seemed, but whoever this man represented hadn’t tried anything at Umburan. The Mechanics Guild wouldn’t have hesitated, meaning this man didn’t work for the Guild. “That’s right,” Mari said. “We’re partners.”

“Trying to build your own mob?” The man showed his teeth in a derisive smile. “Fine. We can always use another Mechanic.” The man tilted his head to one side. “This way.”

Mari glanced at Alain, trying to convey that he should pretend to be a Mechanic, and the Mage nodded back, indicating he would follow her lead.

Mari let the man lead her and Alain out of the large courtyard where carriages dropped off and picked up passengers. Once surrounded by buildings, she casually checked out the windows looking down on their path, trying without success to spot any snipers.

They followed the man all the way down the street, around a corner, across the next street, and into a restaurant with a discreet sign advertising its presence. Looking around offhandedly as they walked upstairs to the second floor, Mari realized that this was one of those places which catered to people who wanted privacy. Dining booths lined the walls, each having solid backs going up to the ceiling and each boasting a heavy curtain which could be drawn if desired. The man led her and Alain all the way to a booth against one back wall, then sat down.

Alain halted Mari as she started to follow, instead sliding in first so he was against the wall. Not certain why he had done that, she sat down next to Alain, looking coldly at the man. “What’s this about?” she asked in a quiet voice.

The man shook his head, waiting until the waiter had asked for an order, then waiting again until wine arrived. He poured from a single bottle into glasses before himself, Mari, and Alain, then sat back. “I first saw you in Dorcastle,” the man remarked.

“Oh?” Mari tried to look disinterested, pointedly ignoring the wine glass in front of her. “Were you a dragon?”

“I was helping with that little plan, yes,” the man answered in a placid voice. “It was working pretty well, but then something happened to the warehouse we were using.”

A Dark Mechanic, then. If nothing else, this contact confirmed for Mari that the Dark Mechanics had been watching her since at least Dorcastle. “Too bad it didn’t work out for you.”

He smiled back at her, but it was a thin-lipped smile lacking in any humor. “Yeah. Some nosy Mechanic found our barge, then some Mages attacked, then the whole warehouse blew up. But you wouldn’t know anything about that.”

“I might,” Mari admitted, saying nothing else.

“We haven’t figured out how the Mages found us,” the Dark Mechanic continued, “but we think you were somehow involved in that, too. We lost some of our members and a lot of equipment. There were plenty of people who just wanted to get rid of the Mechanic who caused us so much trouble. You understand.”

“I do. A couple of them took shots at me in Edinton.”

Another insincere smile from the man. “They got disciplined for trying to nail the Mechanic without orders, and for missing their shots. Sometimes you can’t win. But even though we had plenty of reasons to get rid of that Mechanic for good, a number of people thought that somebody with her smarts and her guts might be a very useful member of our organization, especially since she’s having some problems with her own Guild.”

“Problems?” Mari asked.

“Arrest order, as I’m sure you’re already aware. It’s funny to think that I could pick up a nice piece of change from the Mechanics Guild for hauling you to them.”

Mari gave the man her own artificial smile. “If you tried, you might find that earning that reward isn’t all that easy. You want me to join your organization?”

“It would be a mutually beneficial decision,” the man observed, studying his fingernails.

That she hadn’t expected. A recruitment offer. Mari wished she could look at Alain to catch his reaction, but didn’t want to take her eyes off of the Dark Mechanic. “What organization is this?”

“The Order.”

“The Order of what?”

The man shook his head. “Of nothing. Just the Order.”

“And what does the Order do for a living besides tearing up things while making ransom demands?”

“Protection,” the man explained smoothly. “We were asking for Dorcastle to pay us money to protect them from dragons or…other problems. There were negotiations under way with the city. The city was getting ready to pay a very nice sum when you ruined everything.”

Mari gave him another insincere smile. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am. You were blackmailing Ringhmon, too, weren’t you?”

“That cost us a lot. We were ready to pay you back after you messed up our deal in Ringhmon. It’s a shame our attempt to eliminate you failed.”

“An attempt involving a wrecked train trestle?” Mari asked, thinking of how close the locomotive she was riding had come to going off the destroyed bridge. “I’m not that easy to eliminate.”

A glint of anger showed in the man’s eyes. “No, you’re not. The Order decided to give you a chance to work with us instead of against us. You might want to give it serious consideration.”

Mari nodded, thinking furiously about how to learn as much as possible from this man before trying to get out of this restaurant in one piece. “I’d need to know more about you. What does this Order do? What’s its reason for existence?”

The man shrugged. “We’ve been over that. Profit.”

“That’s it?”

“What else?”

Mari grimaced. “If this Order truly knows the Mechanic arts, you could do a lot of good.”

The man gave another one of his humorless smiles. “We do plenty of good. For ourselves.”

“And no one else?”

“Are you trying to make me laugh, Lady Mechanic?” The man leaned back, giving her a scornful look. “Mechanics are taught to look out for themselves. We’re just doing the same thing, only the Order is willing to do a few things your Guild won’t. Or maybe I should say your former Guild. And now you’re obviously getting ready to set up your own outfit, infringing on the Order’s territory. Did I mention that doing that would be a very big mistake?”

“No,” Mari replied in frigid tones, “you didn’t. So, anything goes as far as the Order is concerned? Anything that might turn a profit? No matter the cost to someone else?”

The man looked as though he were pretending to think about her questions. Then he grinned. “That’s right.”

“And you expect me to join with you in this?”

This time the man shook his head, even though his nasty grin didn’t waver. “No, Lady Mechanic. I don’t expect you to agree to join the Order. I expect you to turn us down. I’m actually hoping you turn us down. It wasn’t my idea to make you this offer, but I got outvoted.”

Mari nodded, tensing and wondering how quickly she could draw the pistol under her coat. “What happens if I say I want to think it over?”

“You’ve got all the time you want,” the man assured her. “Just as long as you’re not planning on leaving this booth before you decide.”

“I see.” Out of the corner of her eye, Mari was noticing that several of the booths on the opposite side of the restaurant had curtains drawn. How many of those might hold other members of the Order? What weapons might they be armed with? The man’s attitude made it clear that if she didn’t agree to join the Order she wouldn’t leave this room alive. But agreeing to go with him, even if she didn’t mean it, would require placing herself totally in the power of the Order. That felt very dangerous.

Mari took a long, slow breath, then looked at Alain. “Have you made up your mind?”

He nodded, his face revealing nothing. “I am ready.”