The Pirates of Pacta Servanda

Chapter Six

“Mari was not dead?” Mage Asha spoke softly, just as Alain had spoken to her. She was upset enough to betray the emotion and so both of them were at a rail, facing out to sea.

“She was dying,” Alain managed to choke out.

“But not dead.”

“No.”

“Then she is fated to be badly hurt, but you did not see her dead.” Asha locked eyes with him. “That means even if this comes to pass, you can make a difference.”

“What difference is possible?” Alain asked. “You know as well as I that no Mage can directly affect a shadow. None of our spells can change a shadow in any way, for good or ill. Healing is impossible.”

“Then find a way, Mage Alain! You were not in the vision. That must matter.”

“How?”

“Perhaps if you are there, it will change things. If you are beside her, what you saw will not be.”

Alain stopped to think, breathing deeply. “Mage Asha, that offers hope. But how can I learn a wisdom that has evaded all Mages before this?”

“That is something you must discover,” Asha said. “How did Mari look? Was she older?”

“I could not tell,” Alain said.

“It may have been something that will not happen for years.”

“Not too many years,” Alain said. “Mari looked as I know her.”

“Listen,” Asha said with an intensity that Alain had never heard from her. “If it is known that Mari is to be so badly injured, it will harm what she seeks to do. Mari will be terrified to act, and those who would follow her will hold back for fear she will fail. You must not speak of this to anyone else.”

“I must tell Mari—”

“To what purpose?” Asha demanded. “Mage Alain, she is already haunted by fears. Will you now wave a bloody vision before her?”

“She deserves to know,” Alain said.

“And if such knowing causes her to fail? If such knowing causes Mari to hold back at a moment when she must leap forward? If such knowing causes the Storm to triumph and all to be lost because her fears of failure make the failure come to pass?”

Alain stared out at the sea, where countless whitecaps appeared and disappeared in endless array. “I do not know.”

“Ask yourself this,” Asha said. “If it were Mari who had this vision of you, lying with death on your brow, would you want her to tell you?”

He had to think a long time about that, his thoughts circling around and avoiding the answer. “No,” Alain finally admitted.

“What would Mari do?”

“She would work to… to change things. To fix things so that I would not die, regardless of what the vision shows. That is what she does.”

“Then you do the same,” Asha insisted. “Mage Alain, you are here for a reason, and that reason is not to bear helpless witness to the death of Mari. You are here to ensure that she succeeds in her task, and that she lives through every peril that task places in her path! I do not have foresight, but still I know this!”

Alain shook his head. “All is illusion. I cannot change so much.”

“All cast shadows on the illusion, and such as Mari are fated to cast shadows that change the illusion itself,” Asha said. “Your shadow is intertwined with that of Mari. Your fates are joined, just as your shadows are joined.”

“I feel you are right,” Alain said. “But it will be very hard not to tell Mari.”

“And it would be easy to tell her,” Asha said. “Easy to drop the burden of this foresight upon her even though she could do nothing with the knowledge but let it break her resolve. Should you do what is easy for you, or what is hard?”

“Hard,” Alain said. “Mari would understand.” He hoped that was so. “Your advice is good, Asha. Thank you. I did not know where else to turn.”

“You are welcome,” Asha said with the precision of someone who had just relearned the phrase. “Alain, you would have been my friend had either of us remembered what a friend was. Mari reached out to me when I could see only a shadow before me, and she showed me that I could regain so much I had lost. You and I are friends now because of Mari, and there is a chance that I will become more than a friend with Mechanic Dav because of Mari. I would not advise you in ways that I thought would hurt her, and if the worst comes to pass my grief will be second only to yours. But we will work to ensure the worst does not happen. Mari cannot bear every burden of being the daughter. This part of it must be ours.”

He was sitting on the bunk in the cabin, watching her again, the setting sun low enough in the sky to slant through the windows looking out over the stern, when Mari finally woke up. She yawned hugely, then looked over at him. “Good morning. Is it morning?”

“Almost evening,” Alain said.

“You look worried. Is anything wrong?”

“I am worried about you,” Alain said, feeling bad speaking a half-truth to someone he never wanted to lie to.

“About me?” Mari sat up, wincing at the effort. “I think I pulled several muscles getting you back to this ship. I’ll remind you that I wasn’t the one who got kidnapped by Dark Mages. Where are we? And is there anything to eat?”

Alain produced a platter of meat, cheese, and bread. “The cook prepared this for you. Do you want wine or water?”

“Watered wine,” Mari said around a mouthful of beef. “I see we’re still heading south.”

“There has been a slight change.” Alain explained what Alli had told him about the Mechanic ship Pride of Longfalls.

“Good decision,” she said. “We’ve still got about a day to think about it? Even better. Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I am fine,” Alain said.

“Do you remember anything?”

“Very little,” Alain said. “I was on the street with the soldiers, then I recall nothing until I awoke aboard the ship. As this day has gone on I have had a few blurred memories, if that is what they are and not products of the drug I was told they used on me. There are a few images of a dark street crowded with people, and a woman.”

“A woman?” Mari asked.

“Yes. I felt she was undressing me, which I do not understand.”

“But you did remember it,” Mari said, her voice growing sharp. “Men! Anything else?”

“No,” Alain said. “My head has hurt some, and so has my hand.” He flexed the fingers of his left hand. “The healers explained about my head, but I do not know what caused my hand to ache so.”

Mari’s attitude softened as swiftly as it had hardened a moment earlier. “Your left hand hurts because you are the most wonderful man who ever lived.”

“I… what?”

She stood up carefully, both because of the rolling of the ship and because of the low overhead in the cabin. They had both knocked their heads on the wooden beams more than once. “I think we both deserve a hug. Actually, I need a hug.”

“Then you will have one.” Alain held her, trying not to tighten his grasp too much as the dark image from his foresight came to mind.

“I should get out on deck at least once before sunset,” Mari said with a sigh. “Everybody is going to think I’m lazy.”

“I have heard no one suggest such a thing. The crew have been careful to be as quiet as possible all day to avoid disturbing you.”

“Oh, great. So I’ve messed up their day?”

“That’s not what I—”

Mari was already headed for the door, chewing a last hunk of bread. She stepped out into a gathering that seemed to include every Mechanic on the ship, the group breaking into smiles as they saw her.

“Great timing as usual,” Mechanic Alli said.

“Why?” Mari asked. “What’s happening?”

“We just raised your banner!”

“My—?” Mari looked up, her jaw dropping.

Alain followed, seeing that at the top of the mainmast a new flag flew. It was simple as flags went, just a golden sun with many points centered on a field of light blue.

“It represents the new day,” Mechanic Calu said. “You needed a banner, so—”

“Why did I need a banner?” Mari asked. “A banner? For me? Like I’m some empress or the queen of Tiae?”

“Jules had a banner,” Alli pointed out.

“I’m not Jules! Guys, I really appreciate this, but how is this going to make me look?” Mari demanded. “Like I think I’m so great? Like I need to have my own flag?”

“Mari,” Alain began.

“Did you know about this? Because you should have told them it was really nice but not a good idea.”

“Mari,” Alain said. “I did not know, but I believe it is a good idea. For two reasons.”

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “The first reason being?”

“Your friends are right. You need an emblem that reveals whether someone supports you, or your enemies.” Alain pointed at the group in their Mechanic jackets. “How do you know these Mechanics are your friends?”

“Because I recognize them,” Mari said. “Well, most of them.”

“And if we have a hundred Mechanics? If we stop in a city and the Mechanics there are of different loyalties, how do you know which are loyal to you?”

“All right,” Mari said, “first of all, nobody should be loyal to me.”

“To Master Mechanic Mari or to the daughter,” Bev said. “Whatever you call it. Like it or not, that’s what it comes down to. Are they taking orders from the Senior Mechanics of the Guild, or the elders of the Mage Guild, or some local lord from Syndar, or from you?”

Mari hesitated. “I’m sure there’s a good answer for that which doesn’t require having my own banner. I just need to think of it. Besides, everyone isn’t going to run around carrying my banner. That would be ridiculous.”

“That is the other reason,” Alain said. “Do you remember my vision in Dorcastle?”

She gave him a sidelong look. “The one about the battle we were going to be in? How could I forget that?”

“I told you that in that vision, you and I were wearing armbands of a strange design.”

“Armbands?” Mari’s eyes widened in dismay and she looked upwards again.

“Yes. That was the design, Mari. We were wearing your banner.”

“Then this is your fault,” she said, looking accusingly at Alain.

“Hold on,” Calu said. “Are you saying that you knew we were going to make a banner with this design?” he asked Alain.

“I saw this design,” Alain said. “Several months ago, in a vision I had on the walls of Dorcastle. I did not know what the design meant. Not until now.”

“Do I get any say in my own life?” Mari demanded. “You see us wearing some design and I end up with a banner showing that. You see us married and we end up married. You—”

“Huh?” Alli broke in. “Alain predicted that you two would be married?”

“Guys do that,” Calu said.

“Most guys don’t see visions where you are both wearing promise rings and then months later ask you what the rings mean!” Mari said.

“Is that why you married him?” Alli asked doubtfully.

“No! How can you even ask that? My point is, things keep happening whether I want them to happen or not! Are all of my decisions already carved in stone somewhere and I’m just some puppet living out the script?”

That quieted everyone.

Alain shook his head. “That is not so. Your decisions brought us here. Fate gives us choices to make. There are many points at which different things could have been done, different choices made, and those choices dictate the next set of choices. Had you not chosen to rejoin me in the Northern Ramparts, I would have died there and your actions these last several months would have been much different. My vision was of something that might be. So far, your choices have kept us on that path. But they might change our path at any time.”

“But not all foresight is like that, right?” Mari asked. “If you don’t see yourself in the vision, it’s something that will definitely happen, right?”

Alain wondered if the guilt and sorrow her question triggered showed on his face. “No.”

“No?” Mari looked doubtful. “I was sure you had said—”

“Much remains unknown and uncertain about foresight because the Mage Guild elders have discouraged study of it. I believe that any vision represents only something that might be, and that if we try hard enough we can change what comes to pass.” Truth might not exist, as the elders of the Mage Guild taught, but surely what he said was not false. And the elders had always insisted that any aspect of the world illusion could be changed by a Mage of sufficient skill and wisdom.

Mari bit her lip. “I don’t want to end up fighting in some huge battle at Dorcastle, Alain. I don’t want to fight any battles. I want to build things and fix things. And that banner sort of means there will be battles.”

“Mari, the warlords in Tiae aren’t going to just surrender, and the Senior Mechanics everywhere aren’t going to give up without a fight,” Alli said. “They’ll fight as hard as they can to keep anything from changing, right up until the moment when everything falls apart. Unless we can stop them before then.”

“We.” Mari looked up again. “It’s not really my banner, is it? It’s our banner. It’s about what we’re all fighting for.” She seemed to be comforted by that.

“Symbols are important,” said Mechanic Rob, who had joined them at Julesport. “And I think you’re right that it’s important this symbol be about what everyone wants to happen and not about you personally. The Senior Mechanics are already claiming you just want to set yourself up as the sole leader of a new Guild.”

“There!” Mari said. “See? Someone gets it! Wait. What are the Senior Mechanics saying?”

“That this is just about you wanting to be in charge, becoming some sort of queen of the Guild,” Rob said.

“The banner works against that,” Calu said. “It makes it clear that you and all of us are fighting for something much bigger than some power grab involving the Mechanics Guild.”

“It’s your banner,” Alli said, “but it’s not about you. We could fix that, though. Put a crown on it. A big one with Mari Queen Of Everything stenciled on it.”

“Don’t you dare!”

Alain and Mari found the captain of the Gray Lady in good spirits. “I am confident we’ll run down that Mechanic ship, Lady,” he told Mari. “Not tonight. We may catch sight of her upper masts before the sun sets tomorrow, and we’ll catch her fair before the sun rises on the day after.”

“We’re considering trying to take that ship,” Mari said. “Do you know anything about sneaking up on a ship at night and getting people aboard it?”

The captain scratched his head. “Well, now, I may have heard a few things about that. Just idle talk in the portside bars, you know. But I think I may remember enough to help you out, Lady.”

Alain could easily see the deception in the man, who showed every sign of being extremely familiar with the matters discussed. “The moon will still be bright.”

“That depends on what time we make our approach, Sir Mage. If no clouds come along to aid our concealment in the night, we can move in between the time the moon sinks and the sun rises.” The captain paused, eyeing Mari. “I do feel obligated to point out, Lady, that the matter we are discussing is commonly referred to as piracy.”

“That may be the one crime I have not yet been accused of,” Mari said. “We’ll make some plans tomorrow.”

“Aye, Lady. That will also give my crew time to sew the armbands your Mechanics have asked for.”

“Armbands.” She gave Alain an aggravated look.

“It’s not a problem, Lady,” the captain assured her. “All sailors know some sewing. There aren’t any tailors out on the water to mend rips in clothes, and sometimes the sails themselves require some repairs.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Mari said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow about the plans.”

Alain could see that she was dogged by weariness, but Mari circulated about the ship, talking not only to her fellow Mechanics but also to the common members of the crew, the healers Cas and Pol, and even the new Mages. Her stubbornly determined attempts to converse with the Mages Hiro, Tana, and Dimitri were getting nowhere, though, until Mage Dav intervened and began presenting questions of wisdom to her. His inquiries were posed in terms that Mari couldn’t grasp, so she didn’t realize their purpose. But she gave Alain a look that told him she assumed Mage Dav was acting for a reason, and after a few rounds of questions all three new Mages inclined their heads towards her. “We accept your wisdom, elder,” Mage Hiro said.

Mari’s jaw dropped, and even Alain had trouble hiding his reaction. “Elder?” she asked.

“An elder,” Mage Hiro said in his emotionless voice, “is one who teaches wisdom, or a new wisdom. You have shown a new wisdom to Mage Alain, Mage Asha, and Mage Dav. You will be Elder Mari to us now.”

As Mari and Alain walked back to the small cabin, she turned a baffled look on him. “Elder? I’m nineteen years old.”

“Yes, Elder,” Alain said, unable to resist the impulse.

She glared at him. “You just lost a chance at a warm, happy night, Sir Mage.”

“I… am… sorry?”

“I’ll bet you are.” Mari reached the cabin, looking over the main deck of the Gray Lady. The last vestiges of daylight were fading in the west, the sea a great, dark expanse stretching uninterrupted on all sides, the stars already shining brightly in the vast bowl of the heavens.

“Look up there,” Mari whispered. “One of those stars is the one our people came from. And somewhere the remains of the great ship are still above this world. Do you think it could be one of the twins that follow the moon?”

“Did you not say you could look?”

“My far-seers aren’t powerful enough to tell,” Mari said. “And I can’t divert the efforts of the Mechanics to making a big far-seer just to satisfy my curiosity as soon as possible. That’s not a hard decision to make.”

She fell silent, gazing out over the water. After a long time, she spoke in a wistful way. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, Alain. About how my choices were still driving us toward that battle in Dorcastle, and that I could make other choices if I really wanted to change that. And I remembered the western continent. You and I know where that is now. I could tell the captain of the Gray Lady to point this ship toward it, and I’m sure we could make it, and then we could just stay there. We have plenty of men and women. We would be safe from the Storm. We could just build something new there, and I’d never have to face that battle in Dorcastle.”

She fell silent again, this time for so long that Alain felt the need to prod her. “But you have not done that.”

“No.” Mari looked at him, both sad and determined. “Because what about everyone else? What about all of those people we saw in Altis, and in Julesport? The fathers and mothers and children. Did you see the babies in Julesport? They wouldn’t have a chance. How could I just abandon them to that fate? It’s a choice I have, but it’s a choice I can’t make. I have to keep trying. I have to keep trying to fix things, even if my choices lead us to that battle, and…”

She bit her lip, staring into his eyes. “Even if I lead us into that battle and we don’t come out of it. As long as we win.”

“Mari—” Alain began, once again feeling wracked by guilt.

“No. That doesn’t mean I want to die,” Mari said. “I intend doing my best not to die. And my best to ensure that you don’t die. Because if I lived and lost you then the greatest victory would still feel like a defeat to me. But I need to accept the possibility, or I’ll be so scared of what might happen that I won’t be able to do what we have to do.”

“You know that my foresight shows things,” Alain began, his resolve wavering.

“Yes. We— Do you mean it might show something else? Something… bad? About you or me?” Mari inhaled abruptly, a deep and shuddering intake of breath. “But then we could try to change it, right?”

“Yes.” If he had ever believed in anything, he now believed in that.

“But if you did—” A deeper darkness passed across her face. “If you did.”

“Mari?”

“Alain, don’t die! Do you understand?”

“You have told me before that I am not allowed to die,” Alain said. He was still struggling to figure out what Mari wanted. “I will die, though, if it is the only way to save you.”

“We have been over this!” Mari said in a low growl, pointing her forefinger at him. “You don’t do something stupid in the name of saving me! You especially do not die in the name of saving me! And if your foresight, which I am really beginning to hate, shows you or me or someone else we really care about being badly hurt or… or dying, then we change that. We do not accept it. Am I clear on that?”

“You are,” Alain said. “Do you trust my decisions?”

She held his eyes with her own. “Yes. I may be the Mechanic, the one trained to fix things, but you, Sir Mage, are very good at fixing things as well. I hope you understand how much I trust you. There will be times when we can’t ask each other for input or advice. Like what happened in Julesport. I just had to act. There may be times when you have to do the same thing. I know you’ll decide well.”

“Thank you,” Alain said, the words coming easily this time. He was still uneasy about not telling Mari, but it seemed to be clear that Asha had been right. Mari would not want that information, and she trusted him to decide what to do. “I have known from the first day we met that you make wise decisions.”

“Oh, sure.” She laughed. “Like when I led us into the desert waste? Or went into Ringhmon City Hall all by myself and ended up in the dungeon?”

“Sometimes the choices available to us are not good,” Alain said.

“You don’t have to remind me of that.” Mari sighed and leaned against him, wrapping her arm around his waist. “But I had a choice to save a Mage or think only of myself, and saving someone else was the right decision. I assume that you agree.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go to bed. Keep acting nice and we may find out if two people can fit into one of those bunks.”

“You always make wise decisions,” Alain repeated.

She laughed as she led him inside.

“Hey, Alain.”

Alain nodded in greeting. Mages were not supposed to notice or care about the weather. But along with reminding him of feelings, Mari had shown him how nice a morning like this could feel, with the ship bounding along over following seas and a warm sun and the blue sky merging into the blue water all around. “Hey, Calu,” he said, proud to be able to display what Mari called “social skills.”

The Mechanic sat down next to him, looking up at the sails. “Mari told us to let you rest today since we might need you at full strength tonight. I wanted to see if you needed anything, though. The blow to your head wasn’t that long ago.”

“I need nothing,” Alain said. “Mari will not rest,” he added.

“No. Right now she’s grilling the captain of the Gray Lady on every little aspect of tonight’s fun and games.” Calu smiled at Alain. “Mari’s always been like that. It’s one of the reasons I’ve always liked her. She’ll see that something needs doing and then she’ll go talk to everyone she can find who knows something about it so she can figure out exactly what to do. Mari doesn’t just accept that something that is wrong or broken has to stay that way, and she doesn’t assume she knows enough on her own to decide what to do. Like she’s doing right now, learning all about what’s going to happen tonight. By the time we meet up with the Pride of Longfalls, Mari will understand enough about what is happening and what should happen that if anything unexpected occurs or goes wrong she’ll be able to know what to do or tell others to do. Did she ever tell you about the time she saved several Mechanics at Caer Lyn?”

“No,” Alain said. “I will ask her.”

“Don’t bother. She’ll wave off the question and say it was no big deal. What happened was that the governor on a lathe was going bad, but the Senior Mechanic in charge of that shop didn’t want to report it because the shop was already behind on a work order.”

Alain nodded, grasping that something had been going wrong but not much more than that.

“Mari,” Calu continued, “stopped by to check on an apprentice she knew. Mari never worked with lathes much but she can tell when a piece of equipment is making a noise that says Run, you fools! She heard that lathe making that kind of sound and declared a safety emergency and ordered everybody else out of the shop. The Senior Mechanic showed up pretty soon, mad as could be that Mari had interrupted the work. He walked over, activated the lathe, and the governor failed. The lathe over-powered so much that it blew apart and filled that shop with as much shrapnel as a high-explosive shell. Somehow the Senior Mechanic survived, but if Mari hadn’t done what she did somebody would have died, maybe several people.”

Something bad had happened, but Mari had kept anyone from dying. Alain understood that much. “Did Mari get praise for her wisdom?”

“Nah.” Calu’s grin this time was crooked. “Admitting that she’d saved lives would mean the Senior Mechanics admitting that one of their own had put those lives at risk. Officially, the Guild reprimanded the Mechanic in charge of keeping that lathe working, even though that Mechanic had been warning about the danger for weeks and been ignored.”

Alain felt a concern crystallizing inside, but did not know how to ask about it. Lacking whatever social skill was needed, he fell back on his Mage training. “Mechanic Calu, this one has questions.”

“What?” Calu gave him a confused glance. “Um, sure. What is it?”

“Your description of Mari’s actions. I know she did something important. I know she saved the lives of others. But beyond that I have no idea what happened or why.”

“That’s no big deal, Alain. It’s not like you’re going to be tested on Mechanic knowledge. There aren’t any commons in the world who would understand it any better than you would.”

“But it reminds me that Mari and I have so many differences.”

“I guess you do,” Calu said with a laugh. “But lots of people do. Take Alli and me. We’re both Mechanics, but I’m a basic skills Mechanic at most things. I’d never gain Master Mechanic status at anything, because nothing hands-on clicks for me. I’m a theory guy, and I’m really good at that. But Alli is one of the best hands-on Mechanics out there. She’d have been a Master Mechanic by now if the Senior Mechanics weren’t worried about her knowing Mari. Alli just has to look at a piece of gear and she knows how to fix it and maybe make it better.”

“This is a big difference between you?” Alain asked.

“Huge,” Calu assured him. “The hands-on types think the theory types—and there aren’t very many of us, just enough to keep the knowledge alive—are pretty useless. And my theory instructors tried to convince me that the hands-on Mechanics were just hammer-pounders. That could come between us. But it doesn’t. Oh, we don’t always see eye-to- eye. That’s just life. But we know what we’ve got in each other.” Calu looked at Alain. “You do know what you’ve got in Mari, right?”

“Yes,” Alain said. “But she must know how flawed I am.”

“Everybody has flaws. Mari has her faults, too, Alain. She can be a little short-tempered—”

“More than a little, sometimes,” Alain said.

“Yeah. And she’s pretty stubborn, and impulsive at times. So she’s not perfect. But she is absolutely loyal. If you’re sitting there thinking Mari’s so wonderful that she’ll leave me for someone better, you can relax. In her eyes there is no one better, and the only person who could convince her otherwise is you, if you start acting wrong to her.”

“I may have to marry you,” Alli said.

Alain looked up and saw that Mechanic Alli had approached as they talked.

Calu covered his face, embarrassed. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough,” Alli said. “What do you say? I was going to wait, but we’re about to go on another one of Mari’s death-defying missions, so why not get it done? And we’re on a ship, which means we’ve got a ship’s captain to do the legal stuff.”

“You mean get married today?” Calu asked.

“I mean right now, if we can get Mari to leave off pestering the captain long enough for him to sign the document.” Alli pulled a folded paper from her jacket. “Which I happen to have been carrying around for a while, just in case.”

Calu grinned and pulled a similar paper from his own jacket. “If you hadn’t had that, we could have used the one I’ve been carrying around. We’re already on our honeymoon cruise, so why not? We need a witness, though.”

“Alain’s not busy. Come on, Sir Mage. Hey, Calu, we’ll be the first in history to have a Mage as the witness at our marriage!”

Calu helped Alain stand. “I’m afraid this won’t be as glamorous as whatever Mari managed for your wedding, Alain.”

“I did not even know our wedding was happening,” Alain said as he walked with them to the quarterdeck.

Alli gave him a delighted grin. “Oh, I have got to hear that story. No wonder Mari has refused to talk about it much! Hey, Lady Mari, your daughterness! We need to borrow the captain for a couple of minutes.”

“What for?” Mari asked, brushing hair from her eyes and turning away from the captain. “And the daughter thing isn’t funny.”

“Excuse me! The captain just has to sign this.” Alli offered the paper and a pen to the captain. “Oh, you too, Calu. And you, Alain.”

The captain was gazing at the paper, nonplussed.

“Is something wrong?” Calu asked. “You do have legal authority under the laws of Dematr to sign that.”

“Yes,” the captain admitted. “But I’ve never actually done it before! I guess my ship hasn’t been sought out by young lovers prior to this.”

“Young lovers?” Mari bent to look at the paper. “Alli? You and Calu?”

“It’s not exactly a rush decision, Mari,” Alli said. “Calu and I would have gotten married a couple of years ago if the Guild hadn’t kept us apart.”

“I know! It’s easy to forget that you two are a little older than I am. I just… with everything going on… are you sure this a good time?”

Alli reached out to tap Mari’s promise ring with one finger. “Are you seriously asking us that?”

“Uh…” Mari shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I guess that would be a little hypocritical of me, wouldn’t it?”

“Just a little.”

Alain watched as Alli and Calu looked at the signed paper, then embraced.

“We’ll get to celebrate our honeymoon by attacking a Mechanics Guild ship,” Calu commented as Alli and Mari wiped tears from their eyes and also hugged.

“Yeah,” Alli agreed. “Nice wedding present, Mari!”

It had taken Alain some time to realize what a joke was, and then more time to recognize one when it was being made, something he still was not good at. He had been confused at first by the way that Mari, and then her friends when he met them, would make jokes before doing dangerous things. But looking at Alli and Calu, he saw the tension in them, and realized finally that the jokes were their means of coping with their fears. Mages were supposed to deny all fear, not even to admit it existed, but Mechanics dealt with it differently.

And of what his fears? He could not joke, but looking at the deck beneath his feet, Alain realized he could deal with them. His vision of Mari lying on a floor made of stone blocks had been very clear. He would know if he saw the type of stone and the shape of the blocks again. And if he did, he would be able to stop that vision from happening.

“Mast sighted!” the lookout called down from high above. “Two points to starboard!”

The captain grinned. “Just about where our prey ought to be. We’ll run in a little closer to be sure he has three masts, and then we’ll know he’s our target. After that, we’ll hold course and gain on him as he has to tack with the wind. By midnight we’ll be ahead of him and well positioned to come over and manage a little meet-up in the darkness before dawn.”

Mari stood near the rail of the Gray Lady, Mechanics jacket on, her pistol ready and snapped into its holster under her shoulder and her right arm wrapped about the end of a rope that rose up and away to meet the end of one of the great spars holding the largest square sails on the ship. The moon had set some time before and a layer of thin clouds scudding not far overhead dimmed the light of the stars, making the darkness thick enough to feel as though she could reach out and close her free fist over a patch of it.

The only break in the surrounding dark was a light visible just to starboard. Ships, Mari had been told, were required to show lights at night in order to avoid collision. One lantern at the stern, one high up and forward, and two colored lanterns at the sides, red for port and green for starboard. The Pride of Longfalls was following that rule, but from this angle only the stern light could be seen. The Gray Lady was using it to spot the exact position of her prey.

The Lady herself wasn’t showing any lights, and everyone moved with great care in order to make no noise. Aside from a slight sigh of wind in the rigging and the murmur of water flowing along her hull, the Lady was both dark and silent as she swept down on the Pride.

Mari tightened her grip on the rope and looked over at Alli, who grasped a similar rope leading up to another spar. Alli had worked with the sailors to knot line into something she called slings, which were tied to the Mechanic rifles. One of those rifles now rested on Alli’s back, the sling across her chest.

“I feel ridiculous,” Mari whispered to Alli.

“Ridiculous?” Alli whispered back. “We’re doing the whole pirate thing, Mari. Black of night and swinging over the water and knives in our teeth. This is so great!”

“Well, yeah,” Mari admitted. She couldn’t help smiling. “It’s dangerous! Why does it feel like fun? I’m not Jules!”

“Every kid dreams of being Jules,” Alli said. “Then we grow up and realize Jules is long gone and we have to put on our jackets and be adults every day.” She grinned at Mari. “But not this day!”

Mari looked forward again, her smile fading. Everyone had been very nice to her. No one had berated her for making such a serious mistake in Julesport. She never should have spent time working on the Calculating device there, never should have let herself be separated from Alain. But she had wanted to be back inside that safe bubble again, that place where her training had led her, where she knew everything that needed to be done and exactly how to do it. She had wanted to be just Master Mechanic Mari again, so badly that she had wasted precious time, put Alain at serious risk, and forced the others, Asha and Alli and Dav and Bev, to risk themselves as well to rescue him.

Maybe they all understood that they didn’t have to say anything. Maybe they already knew how much Mari had disappointed herself.

Alain had been a little odd the last couple of days. Probably just an after-effect of the drug the Dark Mages had used. Surely he didn’t blame her for what had happened. He would have had every right to, though.

And his blasted foresight! As useful as that had been at times, Mari found herself wishing that it would disappear as mysteriously as it had manifested so that she and Alain could stumble through life not knowing what was coming, just like everybody else.

“Stand ready, Lady,” a crewmember whispered near her ear, jerking Mari out of her reverie. She nodded, then looked back to where the others waited. Those of the Gray Lady’s spars that angled out in the right direction could support sending only four over at a time, so the first group would be her, Alli, Mechanic Dav, and one of the crew. The second group would include Calu, Bev, Mechanic Rob, and another crewmember. Hopefully the third group including the other two new Mechanics and a couple more crewmembers would make it as well.

Alain stood slightly to one side, watching her. She knew how unhappy he was that she was leading this attack without him. But he had accepted that if the Mechanics on the Pride saw any Mages they would refuse to surrender. He would have to wait until the others had seized control of the ship.

Or do his best to help the others escape back to the Lady, if everything went to pieces.

“Coming up,” the sailor whispered.

Mari could see the Pride as a darker blot against the night sky, the only sure mark the lantern glowing on the stern. That lantern was growing closer with unnerving speed as the Lady cut silently across the stern of the Pride.

“Now!” the sailor said.

Mari nerved herself and leaped into space.