The Pirates of Pacta Servanda

Chapter Nine

“I swear that Guild Hall is receding from us as we try to get closer,” Alli muttered, fingering the rifle she held in both hands.

“It’s not much farther,” Mari encouraged everyone.

The group finally reached the outside wall of the Guild Hall, everyone pushing up against it to minimize the chance of being seen from any windows overhead. “I can’t hear any alarms sounding inside,” Calu commented.

Several of the Mechanics studied the wall they were at, looking up and around to orient themselves, using their hands to trace lines on the blank surface. “The alarm line should run along here, right?”

“A little higher.”

“There ought to be a junction about… there.”

“Where’s the internal floor level?”

“There’s a dividing wall inside. Is that… no… here. Right?”

Eventually, one of the Mechanics looked at Mari. “This is where we need a door, Master Mechanic.”

“Trace it for Mage Alain,” Mari said.

The Mechanic ran his forefinger along the wall, outlining a squat rectangle.

“Any problem?” Mari asked Alain.

“It should not be,” Alain said. “But once I use this spell, and the other Mages with us begin using spells as well, the Mages in Edinton will know we are here and may be able to identify some of us.”

Alain took on the intense concentration familiar to Mari, while most of the Mechanics looked on skeptically.

The opening appeared. “Do not take too long,” Alain said, keeping his eyes on the spot.

Mari and her friends hustled the rest of the Mechanics inside, everyone ducking to get through the low opening, while Mage Dav ensured that the Mages entered. The walls here at the base were so thick that the opening was much more of a tunnel than a door. Alain came last, relaxing once he was inside and slumping back against the once-more solid wall. “Are you all right?” Mari murmured.

“Tired,” Alain said. “Is it what you call ironic that the area around us has a good supply of power to use?”

“Power for Mages around the Mechanics Guild Hall? Yes, that is ironic.” Mari looked around. With the illusion of a hole in the illusion of the wall gone, the group was crowding a hallway so dark it took a few moments for their eyes to adjust. “Are we where we’re supposed to be?”

“We need light,” someone complained.

Mari brought out her portable light, as did Bev and a few other Mechanics. As they switched on, Mage Hiro moved close to Mechanic Ken and gazed closely at the light. “How is this done? You are changing the illusion of dark to that of light, but there is no power being used.”

“We’re using power,” Ken assured Hiro. “These have batteries.”

“Different power,” Mari told Ken. “It’s so different from what the Mages use that they can’t sense it.”

“That makes me feel better,” Ken said. “Sir Mage, after seeing one of you Mages make an instant tunnel through more than a lance-length of reinforced concrete and masonry, it’s nice to know that some of our Mechanic skills impress you.”

“This one is… interested…” Mage Hiro said without feeling or expression. “Not… impressed.”

“He means that well,” Mari whispered to Ken. Then, more loudly but still quietly, “Isn’t this hallway on the roving watch route?”

“Sure is.” Alli checked the time. “But the watch won’t be by here for half an hour.”

“The armory is this way,” another Mechanic said. They went down one of the narrow hallways that ran next to the outer wall, passing an armored emergency exit with thick steel bars locked in place across it to protect against anyone breaking in. “We need to go up to the next corner, then left.”

Just short of that corner, Bev held up a warning hand. “Hold it! I heard something.”

The group shuffled to an irregular halt. Once they did, the sound of footsteps became clear. Whoever was walking didn’t seem to be in any hurry, but was coming their way. “I know that slow, dispirited shuffle,” Calu commented in a whisper. “That’s an Apprentice on roving watch.”

“Either they’re off-schedule or the schedule here at Edinton has changed!” Alli whispered back.

Mari realized that everyone was looking at her, waiting for her to tell them what to do. Could she convince the Apprentice that this was just some routine group of Mechanics who were out at an odd time?

“Wait,” she murmured. “If we were a regular group of Mechanics…”

“Mari?” Alli questioned.

“Everybody else stay here.” Mari gestured the others back, then came around the corner.

Partway down the hall, an Apprentice was making his rounds, meandering along in the bored fashion Mari remembered from her own days having to fulfill such duties. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be watching for trouble of any kind, the teenage Apprentice took a while to notice Mari wearing her dark jacket in the dim hallway. Finally he did, stumbling to a sudden halt.

Mari saw that unlike the security patrols she was used to, this Apprentice was equipped with a pistol in a holster on one hip. She beckoned imperiously, adopting the worst kind of Master Mechanic attitude. “Get over here.”

Even in the dimly lit hallway she could see the Apprentice’s worry as he doubtless wondered what this full Mechanic was about to chew him out for. He hastened up to Mari. “My pardon, Lady Mechanic, I was—”

“Never mind that,” Mari interrupted harshly. “Let me see that revolver.”

“Lady Mechanic, my instructions are not to remove the revolver from the holster unless—”

“Did I ask you what your instructions were?” Mari broke in, letting her voice grow even harsher. “Don’t you think I already know what your instructions are? Hand me that weapon for inspection!”

The Apprentice hastily removed the pistol from the holster and handed it to Mari.

She looked it over. “Five chambers loaded. Safety on. Very good. Where is your alarm signal?”

“Here, Lady Mechanic.” The Apprentice pulled a large whistle from one of his pockets.

“Give it to me.”

“Yes, Lady Mechanic.” As the Apprentice did so, the first traces of a different kind of worry crossed his face. “Lady Mechanic, I was told not to—”

“Relax.” Mari smiled reassuringly at him. “It’s a drill,” she said, remembering what the Apprentices aboard the Pride had thought. “Pretend you’re a prisoner.”

“Y-yes, Lady Mechanic.” The Apprentice stared as the rest of Mari’s group came around the corner. “M-m-m-mages? Lady Mechanic, why are some of them dressed as Mages?”

“You’re not questioning your instructions, are you?” Mari asked as one of the other Mechanics took custody of the young man. “Now, quiet. You’re a prisoner, remember?”

“Yes, Lady Mechanic. Are you going to take Mechanic Ilya prisoner too?”

“Mechanic Ilya?” Mari heard more footsteps approaching.

“My watch partner. He was just resting for a moment.”

“Watch partner?” Calu asked. “They’ve teamed full Mechanics on the roving watches with Apprentices? I’ll bet that hasn’t helped morale in the Guild Hall any.”

“You didn’t know—?” the Apprentice began with a puzzled expression.

Mechanic Ilya came around the turn, huffing slightly from trying to catch up. “Who’s talk—?”

“Shhh,” Alli said, pointing her rifle at him.

Ilya, facing at least four rifles, stopped and held his hands up. “Wha—?”

“It’s a drill,” the Apprentice said.

“You idiot! This isn’t—”

“Shhh,” Alli said again, walking forward to pull the Mechanic’s revolver from his holster. “Noise makes me nervous,” she said, holding her rifle with the barrel in Ilya’s face, “and my finger twitches when I get nervous.”

Not resisting, Mechanic Ilya stared over Alli’s shoulder. “Master Mechanic Mari? I remember you from when you were here early last year. What are you doing back in Edinton? The Senior Mechanics have a shoot-on-sight order out on you.”

“I know. I want to have some words with the Senior Mechanics,” Mari said. “How is Mechanic Abad?”

“He got sent to Debran. After you left and word got out that you’d been ordered into Tiae, there was all kinds of hate and discontent here. Even more than before, that is. They sent off anybody considered a dissident, and then shipped in a lot of other people considered dissidents who were internally exiled to here.”

“Brilliant,” Calu said.

“But now—” Mechanic Ilya looked over the group before him. “You’re really doing it, aren’t you? You really are. Give me back my revolver and I’ll help!”

“He speaks the truth,” Alain said.

“Why,” Master Mechanic Lukas demanded, “did the Senior Mechanics put someone like you, who was sympathetic to Mari, on a security watch?”

“To punish me!” Ilya said. “For my bad attitude!”

“Just when you think the Senior Mechanics can’t get any more stupid,” Alli observed, “they prove you wrong again. Putting people with questionable loyalty on security watches to punish them. That’s just awesomely dumb.”

“We’re on our way to get more weapons,” Mari said.

“The armory? That’s on our roving watch route. You shouldn’t run into anyone else at this hour.”

“Mechanic Ilya?” the bewildered Apprentice asked.

“These Mechanics are all right,” Ilya assured him.

They hurried, Mari checking the time remaining until the official day would begin in the Guild Hall and the Mechanics and Apprentices would begin waking up. Everything needed to be done before then.

The entry to the armory loomed before them, a steel door set into a steel frame with multiple massive steel locks set through heavy steel hasps.

A female Mechanic knelt to one side of the door. “All of the walls are alarmed,” she said. “Except for this spot.” She traced an area low on the wall. “I’ve been telling the Senior Mechanics for fifteen years that they needed to run an alarm wire across here, and for fifteen years they’ve sent my every report back with demands for further justification for deviating from established design. Open this up like you did the outside wall, and I can get in and disarm the alarms from the inside.”

“Mage Asha, will you do this?” Alain asked.

“I will,” Asha said.

“Mechanic Dav,” Mari added, “you and Asha go inside as well in case your assistance is needed in getting the door open from the inside.”

The female Mechanic’s eyes widened as the area she had outlined vanished. She slid through the hole, followed by Mechanic Dav and then Mage Asha.

The hole vanished.

“What did I just see?” Mechanic Ilya asked, sounding fascinated as well as horrified.

“You’ll get used to it,” Alli told him. “Well, actually you won’t get used to it. You just won’t worry about it as much.”

A rapid tapping sounded on the inside of the door. “Mage Dav?” Alain said.

“With your assistance, Mage Hiro,” Dav said, pointing to the locks, “I will cause the illusion of the top half of this one to be replaced by nothing.”

“I will do the same to the other,” Hiro said.

The upper halves of both heavy locks vanished, leaving them to thud to the floor with a noise that made Mari wince and berate herself.

The massive door swung open on its hinges under the pull of Mechanic Dav and the female Mechanic. “You are not going to believe this,” she said.

Mari crowded forward, her eyes widening in shock. Instead of the ten or twelve rifles she had expected to see, there were piles of rifles below the racked weapons. “How many are there?”

“About fifty, I think. And nearly twenty revolvers. Plus a whole lot of ammunition.”

“Tiae,” Master Mechanic Lukas said as he surveyed the weapons. “I remember seeing the orders when the Guild pulled out of the Guild Halls in Tiae. They were told to bring anything that could be easily moved and destroy everything else.”

“And rifles could be easily moved,” Alli said. “The Guild must have stacked them all here instead of distributing them elsewhere. Ugh. Look at some of these. It’s going to take some work to get the rust off. But we’ve got at least thirty immediately usable weapons. Mari?”

“Pass them out,” Mari said.

The Mechanics quickly took one rifle or pistol each, only the captured Apprentice remaining unarmed. With a few weapons left, Alli moved to give a rifle to Asha, who stared back blankly.

“She has no idea how to use that,” Mari said.

“She can point it,” Alli said.

“No. Not consistently. Don’t give guns to the Mages, Alli. They’re dangerous enough without them.” Mari looked around, knowing that she was about to give another critical order, one that would no longer allow her to exercise direct control of everyone else. But she either trusted these others to be able to do their assigned tasks, or she didn’t. “It’s time to split up. You’ve all got assigned targets, and those of you who might encounter locked doors will have Mages with your groups. The Mages have agreed to listen to requests for their assistance from the Mechanics they know. Mechanic Dav, stay with Mage Asha. Bev, stay with Mage Hiro. Alli, keep Mage Tana with you. Calu, you stick with the group including Mage Dav and Mage Dimitri. Mage Alain will stay with my group to help take the front entry.”

“They’ve got six people on guard at the front,” Mechanic Iyla cautioned. “Two Apprentices and four Mechanics.”

“Do any of them have bad attitudes?” Mari asked.

“At the front? No. The Apprentices are… Apprentices. Regular watch rotation. But the Mechanics aren’t the sort just to give up.”

“You come with me, Ilya. Everybody else, remember to send a runner to the front to let me know when you’ve taken your objectives. We’re running low on time, so don’t waste any of it!”

She took off at a run, hearing others doing the same. The group split and split again, going up stairs and down hallways as each section headed for its assigned objective.

If she allowed herself time to think, it felt bizarre. To be running through the empty passageways of the Guild Hall, a pistol in her hand, a Mage alongside her, knowing that others under her command were doing to same. Not simply to defy the Senior Mechanics, but to defeat them in this one place and time. It would not topple the Mechanics Guild. It would only begin that process. But it was a beginning.

It was a long way through silent, darkened hallways from the armory to the main entry of the Guild Hall. Mari led her group unerringly in the right direction, her pistol held in a ready position. Thanks to the identical floor plan of Guild Halls everywhere she knew every corridor, every stair and every turn, yet there were differences in furnishings and decorative items that made the way seem familiar and strange at the same time. At one moment she might have been back at the Guild Hall in Caer Lyn, while a moment later Mari saw something that clearly said this was Edinton.

Mari slowed down as the small group still with her approached the front entry. “There will be an Apprentice sitting at a panel of alarms on the, uh, right side as we get to the entrance,” she told Alain. “The Apprentice can’t be allowed to touch anything. No one should touch anything on that panel.”

“Can you deceive this Apprentice as you did the one near the armory?” Alain asked.

“No,” Mari said, grateful that Alain’s Mage training made him impassive at times like this. He appeared to be totally unconcerned, which helped keep her own worries under control. “The front entry will be lighted. The Mechanics at the entry will probably recognize me the moment I stick my head in there.”

“I will stop the Apprentice from touching anything,” Alain said.

“Without hurting the Apprentice?”

“Without hurting the Apprentice,” Alain agreed. “Pause here.” He took several deep breaths, then vanished.

Mari waited, pretending not to notice the shock on the faces of her fellow Mechanics. After she guessed that Alain must have reached the Apprentice at the alarm panel, she led the others forward.

They stepped into the light of the front entry. It was set for night levels, lower than during the day but the open space still felt bright after the dimness elsewhere in the Guild Hall. Mari saw four Mechanics lounging to the side, two of them playing cards, while one Apprentice stood watch at the port that gave a view of the plaza outside and the other sat next to the alarm panel.

Alerted by the sound of her footsteps, the four Mechanics were already scrambling to their feet, rifles in hand. The two Apprentices turned their heads to look towards Mari.

She was leveling her pistol at the Mechanics when the first shout rang out. “It’s her! Sound top alert!”

“Freeze!” Mari shouted in return, but the Apprentice at the alarm panel quickly raised her arm to slap the top alert switch.

And hit instead Alain’s chest. He had dropped the concealment spell and stood between the Apprentice and the alarm panel.

The Apprentice felt the unexpected barrier, turned to look, and fell backwards away from Alain, her eyes wide and mouth wider.

The Mechanic on the far left levered a round into his rifle, ready to fire at Mari from the waist.

She saw the metal of the rifle suddenly glow red and the Mechanic dropped it with a yelp.

Mari waited for a long moment to see if the heat would make the ammunition in the rifle explode, but as the rifle rapidly cooled she spoke with deadly seriousness, her pistol backed by the rifles of the three Mechanics with her. “That was a warning. The only one you’ll get. Drop your weapons.”

“You’ll never get away with this,” one of the Mechanics on guard said.

“Then there isn’t any sense in you dying to try to stop me, is there?” Mari said.

First one, then the other Mechanics put down their rifles. The fourth was blowing on his slightly burnt hands.

Mari checked over the two Apprentices, but neither had pistols. Both were watching Mari with expressions of horror.

Mari couldn’t help sighing. She remembered tales of famous outlaws who had gloried in being recognized and the fear such recognition generated in others. As far as Mari was concerned, there was nothing pleasant about bringing fear to anyone who figured out who she was.

“How can you do this?” the male Apprentice asked as the four Mechanics were tied up one by one by Mechanic Ilya, who was apparently enjoying the task.

“Maybe I’m not doing what you’ve been told I’m doing,” Mari said.

“You’re trying to destroy the Guild!”

“That I am doing,” Mari admitted. “For some very good reasons, which can be summarized for the moment by saying that aside from your technical training, just about everything else the Guild has ever told you is a lie.” Ensuring that all of the alarms had been silenced, she had one of her Mechanics open the front entrance and wave a signal to the sailors who had been watching. They came across the plaza, accompanied by the healers Cas and Pol. “Notify Captain Banda that so far everything is going all right,” she told one of the sailors.

“I’m afraid we have little for you to do,” she advised the healers.

“That’s not a bad thing,” Pol said, looking around curiously. “I’ve never been even this far inside a Mechanic Guild Hall. Are your Mechanic lights everywhere inside?”

“You mean electric lights? Yes.” Mari moved to cover the main hallway leading to the front entrance as running steps sounded from the interior of the hall. To her relief, it was one of her Mechanics, easily identified thanks to the armband with the sign of the new day on it. She would have to apologize, again, for doubting that would be needed, Mari thought.

“We have control of the kitchens and the dining hall,” the Mechanic reported. “All of the Mechanics and Apprentices are being brought to the dining hall to be held under guard.”

“Good,” Mari said. “Make sure they know that no one will be harmed unless they try to harm one of us. And as long as you’re heading back that way, help one of my guys escort the four Mechanics who were on guard here back to the dining hall.”

She had barely finished saying that when Mage Asha and Mechanic Dav showed up. “We’ve got the far-talker,” Dav reported cheerfully. “No warnings or alerts got sent before we gained control.”

“Outstanding. You and Mage Asha stay here in case I need to send reinforcements somewhere.”

The two captive Apprentices had been seated on the long bench that spanned part of the back wall of the entry area. Asha walked over and sat down right next to the female Apprentice, who tried to shrink back but was stopped by the presence of the male Apprentice on her other side.

Asha looked at the female Apprentice. “What is your name?”

“A… A… A… A…” The Apprentice managed to swallow. “Apprentice Haru of Dorcastle.”

“I have not been to Dorcastle.” Her stock of social skills apparently exhausted, Asha lapsed into silence.

“Are you guys all right?” Mechanic Dav asked the two Apprentices. “Don’t be scared of Mage Asha. She’s nice.”

“Nice?” Apprentice Haru glanced sidelong at Asha. “A Mage?”

Asha managed a small but real smile. “Thank you, Mechanic Dav.”

More runners arrived, bringing news of more areas successfully seized and more surprised Mechanics taken prisoner.

By the time Mari saw the sun rising over the buildings to the east, the final reports had come in. “You control this Guild Hall, Master Mechanic Mari.”

“I should go check things out in person,” Mari said. “Dav, can you handle being in charge here at the entrance?”

“No problem,” Dav said. “Lady Mage Asha and I can handle anything!”

“Alain, why don’t you stay—”

“I will come with you,” Alain said.

“I’ll be fine, Alain, and you’d be better employed helping to protect this entrance.”

“I will come with you,” he repeated.

Mari gave him an exasperated look. She knew when Alain went all Mage-impassive on her that he wouldn’t give in on an argument. “Fine. Let’s go.”

With the occupants of the Guild Hall held prisoner in various areas, the hallways were oddly vacant at an hour when there should be increasing levels of traffic. Mari went to the dining hall first, concerned about the place where the great majority of the Edinton Mechanics were being held.

She found Master Mechanic Lukas at the entrance and raucous sounds coming from the dining hall. “What’s going on?”

“About two-thirds of the men and woman in there are celebrating being captured by you,” Lukas said, smiling at Mari. “The other third are keeping very quiet. Is what I heard right? No one was injured?”

“Only a few burnt fingers,” Mari said.

“You’ve more than proven your right to be in charge, Master Mechanic. My apologies for doubting you.”

“You questioned me,” Mari said. “If I can’t handle that, I don’t deserve to be giving orders.”

“She said you’d feel that way,” Lukas observed.

“She?”

An older woman in a well-worn Mechanics jacket stepped out of the dining hall. “Is there any chance of parole, Mari?”

“Professor S’san!” Mari embraced her old instructor, feeling tears start. “I was worried about you. We had to leave you at Severun and I was so afraid of what the Guild might have done.”

“Oh, hush,” S’san said, waving off Mari’s concerns. “All the Guild did was place me under Hall arrest and send me here. I think they planned on using me as a hostage to influence you. But even I never expected you to show up at Edinton and take over the Guild Hall. As long as you’re here, and apparently still fixed on changing the world, can you use any more help?”

“I would be honored to have your help,” Mari said. “And you won’t have to take orders from Senior Mechanics anymore.”

“Speaking of which, the Senior Mechanics are being held in their main conference room, as you ordered,” Lukas told Mari.

“Good. Mechanic Ken is leading teams to evaluate how much equipment we can, uh, borrow from this Guild Hall if we use the Mages’ help to create larger openings to the outside. If any of the Mechanics we captured are eager to help, let me know so I can have them vetted by the Mages.” Feeling a little awkward at having given orders to someone of Lukas’s age and seniority, Mari dug in one of the pockets of her jacket and pulled out a spare armband. “Would you wear this, Professor?”

S’san frowned at the golden star on light blue. “Why is this your symbol, Mari?”

“It’s not my symbol. It’s the image of the new day. What we’re fighting for.”

“I doubt your followers see it in the same light.” S’san pulled the band over one sleeve of her jacket. “You were always very practical and down-to-earth , Mari. And correspondingly weak on symbolism. Who convinced you that an emblem of the new day would be a good thing?”

“My friends made it,” Mari admitted. “Alain convinced me it was a good idea to use the image on banners and armbands.”

“They were right, if my opinion still matters to you. So, Lukas here tells me that you have access to banned technology texts. How did you manage that?”

“I can’t tell you yet, Professor, and your opinion will always be very important to me. Master Mechanic Lukas, I’m going back to check things at the front entrance and then drop in on the Senior Mechanics.” Mari led her old teacher through the hallways, Alain following.

“I see the Mage is still with you,” S’san added, looking at Alain.

“He’ll always be with me,” Mari said, holding up her left hand so that the promise ring showed clearly. “I’ve got five more Mages with me now as well.”

“Five more?” S’san walked alongside Mari, shaking her head. “You don’t believe in changing the world slowly, do you, Mari?”

“We truly do not have time to move slowly, Professor.”

S’san shot a keen glance at Mari. “According to the Senior Mechanics, you’re also doing your best to get the commons to revolt.”

Mari had to laugh scornfully at that. “The truth is the opposite. I’m telling the commons to wait. Not to act until things are ready. If they rose up now, cities would be destroyed while the Great Guilds fought back, and the loss of life would be awful.”

“And they are listening to you? Are they so easily convinced?”

“She is the daughter,” Alain said. “The commons can tell.”

“Alain,” Mari said, her voice sharpening. “I’m talking sense to them. They can tell that.” She felt relieved to reach the entry again, where all of the Mages were now gathered along with a few of her Mechanics. “You’re all right?” she asked the Mages. “None of you were hurt?”

To her surprise, not just Mage Dav and Mage Asha but the three newer Mages all acknowledged her question. “There is one concern,” Mage Dav said. “None of us can sense any activity from other Mages in this city. Our spells must have told the Mages and the elders here that we are present, but nothing is happening.”

“They must be preparing,” Alain said.

“Or deciding to prepare,” Mage Dav said. “We will continue to rest and watch for signs of spells elsewhere.”

“Thank you,” Mari said. As she, Professor S’san, and Alain walked quickly toward the Senior Mechanics’ main conference room, Mari gave Alain a worried look. “What do you think the Edinton Mages are doing?”

“It is likely the elders are trying to learn what is happening. If it is seen as merely a dispute among Mechanics, the elders will do nothing. But if they hear that the daughter is in Edinton, and present at this Hall, they will act.”

“Can they… sense me?” Mari asked.

“As if you were a Mage?” Alain said. “No. A Mage must see you to know that you are the daughter. The elders will not want to attack a Mechanics Guild Hall based on the rumors of shadows. They will seek other confirmation.”

“That should give us more time, which we need. Getting that heavy equipment down to the docks is going to take some work, even with the Mages helping.”

“Did the Mages help you penetrate the vaults at Mechanics Guild Headquarters and remove banned technology texts?” S’san asked.

“That’s not exactly what happened,” Mari said. “When we get somewhere where I don’t have to worry about being overheard, I can tell you the truth of where Alain and I got the texts. Somebody else should know in case something happens to me and Alain, but to everyone else it still has to be a secret.”

“I can understand your reasons for that,” S’san said. “I have only one regret at this moment: that I won’t be able to see the faces of the Senior Mechanics and the Guild Master at Guild Headquarters when they hear what you’ve done here.”

“You’ll be able to see the Senior Mechanics here. Is Senior Mechanic Vilma still the Guild Hall Supervisor?”

“Oh, Vilma got sacked months ago, for letting a certain Master Mechanic slip through her fingers instead of ensuring you were safely dead in the service of the Guild. We’ve had Senior Mechanic Tam lording it over us since then. His leadership skills are poor even for a Senior Mechanic, which is saying something. Who are these people?”

They had nearly reached the Senior Mechanics’ conference room, but the hallway was blocked by a group of several Mechanics, two wearing Mari’s armbands and the others apparently new captives. “Master Mechanic!” one of Mari’s Mechanics cried. “We need your instructions. These Mechanics want to help, to join with us, and we need their skills.”

Mari paused in front of the group. “Mage Alain?”

Alain looked over the five Mechanics from Edinton as Mari had them recite the statement about wanting to work with her.

“Hold on!” Mari said as the last of the five came up to her, grinning. “Gayl? Gayl of Daarendi?”

“That’s right,” Gayl said. “Fernan said you’d do something some day!”

“I knew Gayl and Fernan at the Guild Academy,” Mari explained to Alain and Professor S’san. “Where is Fernan? Is he all right?”

Gayl’s smile slipped. “I think he’s all right. He was sent to the Guild Hall in Palla, to break us up.”

“My fault again.” Mari sighed.

“Not this time. A Senior Mechanic took a very close interest in me and thought that if Fernan got sent far, far away I could be convinced to fall in love with someone else.” Gayl’s lip curled. “It didn’t work, so I got sent to Edinton.”

“None of them are lying,” Alain said.

“Welcome to all of you,” Mari said. “Stay with my Mechanics until you get armbands of your own. I very much appreciate your assistance, and it is great to see you again, Gayl. We’ll get word to Fernan so he can join us where we’re going after this.”

“I don’t know everything that you want to do,” Gayl said. “Aside from finally breaking the hold of the Senior Mechanics on us all. But you’ve already done the impossible. Tell us what you want and where to go, and we’ll follow you!”

“I’m nothing without people like you,” Mari said, hoping that she didn’t look too embarrassed.

They paused outside the door to the Senior Mechanics’ conference room, which was next to the Guild Hall Supervisor’s office. During her time of exile in Edinton she had been called on the carpet in that office more than once for trivial matters. If she had been the sort to want to settle scores, there would have been plenty of them to deal with here in Edinton.

She felt an habitual urge to knock and await permission. It took a moment to overcome her training and walk in as if she ran the Hall. Which, in fact, she did at the moment. More than a dozen Senior Mechanics were lined up against one wall of the large room along with several other high-ranking Mechanics, two of Mari’s Mechanics standing guard over them all with rifles at ready. Mari came to a halt in front of them, running her eyes over the group, recognizing several of them from the weeks she had spent in Edinton. “Are there any Senior Mechanics missing?” she asked S’san.

“No, Mari, you got them all.” S’san seemed to be quite pleased about that.

Mari’s eyes came to a rest on another familiar figure. “Professor T’mos,” she murmured.

Professor S’san leaned closer to her and murmured back. “He hasn’t been here long. The Guild leadership took it very poorly when Professor T’mos allowed you to slip through his fingers in Palandur. They accused him of either deliberately aiding you or of being too dense to realize you had fooled him.”

Mari couldn’t help a twisted smile. “He didn’t deliberately aid me.”

“I myself thought the second option was more in keeping with dear, prideful T’mos. But he got sent here anyway, either because he was suspect or because he was punished. Maybe both. We haven’t spoken all that much since he arrived, but then we never did.”

“You should have warned me more about his controlling paternalism,” Mari said, aware that the senior Mechanics were watching her with hostile and angry expressions. She raised her voice. “For anyone who doesn’t already know,” she announced, “I am Master Mechanic Mari—”

“Your title was taken from you! Do not sully it!” a Senior Mechanic Mari vaguely recognized yelled at her.

Mari gave the woman a flat, hard stare. “Don’t interrupt me again.” Saying that felt good. Over the years there had been any number of Senior Mechanics she had wanted to say that to, and now she finally got to do it. “If I were you, I’d be spending my time thinking up explanations for how you let this Hall be captured. I imagine the Guild is not going to be pleased with you. Maybe you’ll finally be called to account for your inability to do anything but yell at Mechanics junior to you in the Guild hierarchy.”

Professor T’mos, looking outraged, spoke in the firm tones of a teacher admonishing a recalcitrant student. “Mari, you must cease this immediately. You can’t get away with it. If you throw yourself on the mercy of the Guild—”

Mari felt a surge of anger. She held up one hand, palm out, her expression so foreboding that even someone as self-assured as T’mos stopped in mid-sentence. “I’ve learned all about the mercy of the Guild and the gratitude of the Guild and the morals of the Guild. The Guild that disregarded my loyalty and used me as bait against Ringhmon, hoping that commons would kill me. The Guild that tried to murder me by sending me to Tiae. The Guild who beat me and threatened to turn me over to the Emperor’s tender mercies. The Guild whose assassins I barely escaped in Altis. And of course the Guild that has systematically lied about so much to everyone on Dematr for centuries. The Guild was built on a foundation of lies. That flawed foundation is finally cracking. The Mechanics Guild will fall, and anyone who continues to back it will fall with it.”

“The Guild fall?” another Senior Mechanic blurted out. “You’re insane, girl! Just as the Guild has warned us! Absolutely insane! The Guild has always been here and always will be!”

Mari shook her head. “No. The Guild’s days are numbered. I have no wish for bloodshed, unlike the Senior Mechanics who keep trying to kill me, but I will break the hold of the Mechanics Guild on this world. Believe it or not, I’m doing you a favor. If the Guild succeeded in keeping Dematr in chains, that victory would last a very short time before the commons finally rose and drowned everything in blood and fire.” She didn’t think these Senior Mechanics could be convinced, didn’t think they would believe her or join her, but they would report what was said, and many eyes would see those reports. Some of those eyes might become future allies.

“How would you know such a thing?” Senior Mechanic Tam asked contemptuously.

“The Mages have seen it—”

“Mages!”

“And I would say that any fool who walks among the commons can feel it, but you obviously haven’t.” Mari paused while Tam purpled with rage. “This world will be free. Mechanics will be free as well, and everything you have tried to control will slip through your fingers.”

“Nothing will change except that you will die,” another Senior Mechanic said in a very cold voice. “And your lies will die with you.”

Mari managed to smile despite the tightness in her gut at the threat. “I don’t think so. Things are already in motion that will survive even if I don’t. I have a job to do, and I’m going to see it done.”

Some others had entered the room behind Mari, and she turned to see Bev standing close by. Bev had her eyes fixed on the row of Senior Mechanics, her face rigid.

She brought the barrel of her rifle up and started walking toward the captives. Mari almost flung out a hand to stop her, but Alain shook his head. “She must handle this,” he said in a very low voice.

“What’s going on?” S’san whispered to Mari.

“I don’t know exactly. I assume it has something to do with when Bev was an Apprentice at Emdin,” Mari whispered back.

“Blazes! What is she going to do?”

Mari looked at Alain again. “She must know she has the power to shape her world,” Alain said.

Her rifle in a ready position, Bev halted directly in front of one of the Senior Mechanics, a man Mari didn’t recognize. Nobody was saying anything, the silence almost oppressive.

Finally Bev spoke, her voice sounding almost as dead as a Mage’s. “Senior Mechanic Sodo.”

Sodo, a man of average height and a bit too much weight, stared back at her wordlessly, his terrified eyes going from the barrel of the rifle to Bev’s face and back again. The Senior Mechanics next to him were edging away, plainly almost as frightened as Sodo.

“Aren’t you happy to see me again, Senior Mechanic Sodo?” Bev asked in that same emotionless voice. “Aren’t you?”

With shocking suddenness, Bev swung the butt of the rifle around and forward, slamming it into Sodo’s groin. The Senior Mechanic gasped in pain, his legs giving way.

“Aren’t you?” Bev demanded, her voice finally tinged with rage. She brought the rifle barrel forward again and jammed it against Sodo’s teeth, forcing the Senior Mechanic’s head back against the wall and preventing him from falling to his knees.

One of the Mechanics standing next to Mari looked to her for guidance, his face anxious, but Mari just shook her head and made a restraining gesture. From what Alain had said and the little Mari knew of the events at Emdin, she understood what was going on. “Mechanic Bev decides how this ends.”

Bev paused as she heard Mari’s words, then leaned in closer to Sodo, her eyes blazing. “Don’t you have anything to say, Senior Mechanic Sodo? No lectures on an Apprentice’s duty to the Guild? No instructions on the importance of an Apprentice doing anything that she is ordered to do? No threats of what might happen if an Apprentice spoke out of turn? Now you have nothing to say, Senior Mechanic Sodo?” She jabbed with the rifle barrel, drawing a grunt of pain from Sodo and a trickle of blood from his lips and gums.

“How does it feel, Senior Mechanic Sodo? How does it feel to know that I can do whatever I want to do to you? How does it feel to be helpless?” Bev’s lips drew back in a snarling smile. “But you know what, Senior Mechanic Sodo? Not only are you a sorry excuse for a Mechanic, not only are you a sorry, pitiful, and pathetic excuse for a man, but you’re also a lousy teacher. Lucky for you, because if I had become what you tried to make me, you’d be dead.”

Bev jerked her rifle away, letting Sodo drop to his knees as he grabbed at his mouth in agony. “Listen to me very closely, Senior Mechanic Sodo. You’re going to live this time, because I won’t let what you did to me destroy me. But if you ever, ever hurt anyone else, I will find you. You will never know what door I might be behind, what corner I might be waiting around, with a pistol and a knife, to ensure that you die a slower and more painful death than you can possibly imagine. Do you understand, Senior Mechanic Sodo?”

Sodo nodded frantically, and Bev turned away, walking back to Mari, leaving the Senior Mechanic on his knees.

Bev reached Mari and nodded to her, breathing deeply and looking oddly relieved. “Thanks, Mari. Thank you, Mage Alain. I’m good now.”

Mari reached up to squeeze her shoulder. “We trust you.”

Bev put her own hand over Mari’s. “More importantly, you just showed everyone that you trust me. Do you want me to beat up anyone else?”

Mari couldn’t help glancing at Professor T’mos, who was staring at Sodo in shock, but she shook her head. This was… too pleasant. Getting revenge, being in control, scaring people who couldn’t fight back… She saw an ugly path ahead, a path that would lead to her becoming like the Senior Mechanics she now faced. Unless starting right now she made a major effort to turn her course in another direction. “Once we’ve taken all that we need from this Guild Hall,” Mari told the Senior Mechanics, forcing her voice to sound in control but not threatening, “we’ll leave. No one will be harmed if I can help it. I am truly sorry it came to this. I don’t want bloodshed, I don’t want fighting. If the Guild leaves me alone, I won’t attack any more Guild Halls. If the Guild attacks me, then all bets are off. Tell the Guild’s leaders that. They have a choice.”

“More lies! You’ll hang in Palandur when your lunacy and pride take you back there!” shouted another of the Senior Mechanics. “You’re a traitorous slave of the Mages, you filthy—” His voice broke off as his face suddenly flushed red and sweat sprang out on his forehead. The Senior Mechanic seemed to have trouble breathing for a moment, staggering back against the wall.

Alain spoke softly, but his voice held the dead quality that was terrifying to anyone who heard it. “That was a warning, just enough heat in the air to make you very uncomfortable. Speak of Master Mechanic Mari again in such a fashion and the air around your head will set you aflame.”

“Alain,“ Mari said, “their words can’t hurt me.” Which was a lie, but she knew she had to get used to being called worse than a slave of the Mages.

“But why should they be allowed to speak those words?” Alain asked.

“Because not allowing someone to speak is what they do,” Mari insisted. “Because I can’t say I’m doing to this to free everyone and then act as though I have the right to tell everyone what they can and cannot say. Even if what they say is about me.”

Alain hesitated, then nodded. “Your wisdom exceeds mine.” Then he frowned slightly, looking over to one side as if seeing through the walls between him and the outside.

That didn’t look good. Mari eyed the Senior Mechanics, thinking that no one with any brains would try anything while being covered by rifles and with the Guild Hall occupied by a hostile force. But these were Senior Mechanics, used to being able to do what they wanted with impunity. Overestimating their ability to judge the situation might be a mistake. “Bev, I want you in charge of watching these guys until we leave.” Mari addressed the Senior Mechanics again. “I’d be on my best behavior if I were you. As you have already seen, Mechanic Bev wouldn’t mind shooting any Senior Mechanic who gives her trouble.”

Mari turned to go, passing close by Bev. “Try not to actually shoot any of them, all right?” she muttered.

“Can’t I shoot just a few?” Bev asked loudly, her eyes glinting.

“If you have to,” Mari replied just as clearly.

“I can maim them if they make me shoot them, right?”

“If you want to.” Mari lowered her voice. “I hope you’re kidding.”

Bev nodded. “I think so. But I’m having fun scaring them.” She gave Mari a rueful look. “After this I need to be good, though. The last thing I want is to fall into the habit of being cruel to people who are at my mercy.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Mari agreed.

Beckoning to Alain and Professor S’san, Mari left the room, oddly deflated by what should have been a triumphal experience. At least none of the Senior Mechanics had noticed the promise rings she and Alain were wearing. She was getting tired of explaining them, especially to a hostile audience. “Did you sense something while we were in there, Alain?”

“A spell—” he began.

Mage Asha came running down the hall, long hair flowing behind her in a way that caused male Mechanics to stop and gape. “Fortunate that I could find you quickly,” she advised Mari. “Mechanic Dav says you must be told. We have sensed a mighty spell being cast. Mage Hiro and Mage Dav both believe the spell is one to create a dragon.”