“Not for a long time,” Alain replied. “The only change in recent history has been the sundering of the Kingdom of Tiae as it fell apart in a succession of civil wars. The parts of the former kingdom remain in anarchy. For centuries the Empire has dominated the east, trying to expand into the lands along the northern or southern coasts of the Sea of Bakre, only to be stymied time and again. The Bakre Confederation, the Western Alliance and the Free Cities are almost as old. There have been no great changes since the days when Jules led the founding of the Confederation in the west.”
“What if things are starting to change?” Mari said. “What if what happened in Tiae is a warning that our world is going to see major changes? That the system under which the Great Guilds control the world is accumulating stresses that will cause it to crack like old metal?”
“When metal cracks,” Alain asked, “does it happen slowly or quickly?”
“Quickly,” Mari explained. “The weaknesses build up gradually, but the warning signs aren’t always easy to spot. One moment everything seems fine, and the next it comes apart.”
“But someone who sees the metal weakening can do things to save it? To keep it from coming apart?”
“Well…yes,” Mari said. “But it can be hard, especially if the damage has accumulated for a long time. It can reach the point where saving the metal is extremely hard and you’re better off replacing it.”
Alain nodded. “And if our world was this metal?”
“If our world— ?” Mari let that sink in. “That’s scary. Why would the rest of the world crack like Tiae?”
“I have a memory,” Alain said. “From before the Mages took me for training. A pen had been made for the animals on my parents’ land. They had been placed within it, many of them in a small space, and something caused them to begin to rush about. Some panic or pain.” He paused, recalling the terror with which a little boy had watched the scene. “There was no room, but still the animals tried to rush from side to side, trampling those who fell. The fallen…screamed as the others crushed them. But still the panic grew, and my father, I think it was, broke open the pen and let them run, because otherwise they would have killed themselves.”
Mari stared at him, saddened. “That must have been awful to watch. An animal pen. A cage. A box. Like that man in Ringhmon talked about. Is that what you think might be happening? The commons have been penned in for so long and…”
She shook her head, frightened by the visions that idea had created. “Alain, I haven’t been able to figure out why the leaders of Ringhmon kidnapped me and did some things on . . . a Mechanic device, things that they knew were absolutely forbidden by my Guild. The risks were insane. And suppose someone did try to destroy that locomotive to get rid of me? Overkill. That’s what Mechanics would call that. Using far more force than made sense. It’s as if people are starting to act that way, like those animals you remember, panicked and pushing against the walls confining them.”
“They would need someone to break the pen open,” Alain said.
“I don’t break things, Alain. The Mechanic rule is repair and replace. That’s what we would have to do, but repairing and replacing a world? I think that is beyond the capability of Mechanics.”
“But if Mages and commons also help,” Alain said, “you could do this.”
“Me? Oh. Sure. Mari’s going to save the world.” She laughed shortly. “I’m…what’s her name? That daughter of Jules! Is that why you’re hanging around with me?”
“I thought you did not want to speak of—”
“You’re right. I don’t.” Mari took a deep breath, glaring across the harbor, upset that she had introduced the topic of their relationship into the discussion. “Alain, I can’t fix anything unless I get someone to listen to me. Someone besides you, that is. I need proof. I need…I need a dragon.”
“I cannot—”
“Not a real one, and don’t say it! One of the fake dragons that is doing this damage. Would you like to go dragon hunting with me? Tonight?”
Alain nodded without hesitating. “A friend helps.”
Mari smiled. “Yeah. But it might be dangerous.”
“Then I must be there with you.”
Stars above, if only this could work. It can’t. You know that. Focus on the job, Mari! Remember what happens to him if he’s caught with a Mechanic. You can stay just a friend with Alain and help him change enough that he can meet some girl who can be a lot more than that to him without also endangering him. She ignored the pang of distress that thought brought to life. “All right. Let’s go case the job.” Alain gave her a questioning glance. “That means look around the barge area before it gets dark.”
She stood up and they started along the waterfront once more, just as some sort of loud argument erupted nearby. Ignoring the debate, Mari nonetheless heard it quickly escalate into a fight. A crowd swelled in the area with amazing rapidity as laborers rushed to see the combatants, so that before she knew it Mari was struggling through a dense mass of people trying to rush past her and Alain.
A powerful arm suddenly came around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides, while another arm came around from the other side to clap a hand over her mouth. She gripped her bag. Alain had vanished in the mass of humanity. Mari felt herself being lifted and pulled back with the flow of the crowd toward the buildings and alleys that lined the waterfront, barely able to struggle and unable to cry out.
Chapter Fifteen
Mari tried to elbow her captor in the side but couldn’t get her arm free. She tried to bite the hand over her mouth but a stout leather glove protected it. She kicked backwards, getting in some jabs to the ankles of whoever had grabbed her, but he was wearing heavy boots that protected his shins. Mari’s kicks made him stumble, but he kept a firm grip on her.
They were fading into the crowd. Mari lost sight of where she had been. She had no idea where Alain was. Then they backed through a doorway. The door started to close, caught on something, then slammed shut, leaving Mari and her captor in the dimness of a room illuminated only by a heavily curtained window, the sounds of the brawl outside now muffled.
“Get her,” someone grunted. Hands grabbed her own, forcing her arms back as her captor released his grip slightly. The bag dropped from her hand. Mari twisted, slipping one hand free and swinging a punch that caused one of the kidnappers to back away hastily.
The big man’s grip tightened again. Mari felt a sense of despair. There were at least two other men in here, and she had no way to get in a good blow at any of them. Once she was tied up she would be helpless.
“She’s supposed to have a gun,” the big man stated. “Search her.”
One of the others placed his hands on Mari, pawing her and grinning as he saw Mari’s outrage. “What’s the matter, girl? Not used to men feeling around? Maybe you’ll like it.”
That did it.
Mari twisted again, surprised at her own strength and surprising her captors. Her leg came up and she planted her boot in the gut of the man who had been trying to search her. As he fell backwards with a grunt of pain, the other men shouted angrily, but under their cries Mari heard a familiar voice whose tones conveyed calm and confidence even though they carried no emotion.
“Close your eyes.”
Hope blossoming inside her, Mari squeezed her eyes tightly shut. A moment later bright light flared in the room, dazzling even through her eyelids. The cries of the men holding her changed to distress. A thudding noise resounded, then the arms of the big man holding her finally relaxed as he fell, almost pulling her down with him.
Mari spun, her angry gaze fixed on the third man, who was stumbling around blinking. Mari pivoted on one foot, leaning back and bringing her other leg up in a kick that slammed into the man’s stomach and bent him over, gasping for breath. A moment later she landed a hard kick on the man’s head, snapping him back and to the side, where his head struck a wooden beam. He fell and lay still.
That left at least one. But as
“You couldn’t get a good shot at him?” she asked, trembling with reaction, fear, and anger at the kidnapping attempt. She stared at Alain, who appeared to be completely unfazed by the recent crisis.
“I could easily place the heat upon him,” Alain said. “I chose not to, even though he is nothing. I did not think you would want me to.”
She got control of her breathing, remembering the bodies of the bandits in the Waste who had been struck by Alain’s heat. “You’re right. For a moment there I did want to hurt him, even after he stopped being a danger to me—to us,” Mari admitted. “But that would have been hard to live with. Where did you come from?”
“Later. We must leave this place. These three might have more companions nearby.”
“Right. Good thinking.” Mari looked down at her captor as she bent to pick up her bag. He was a big man, as she had guessed, wearing common laborer’s clothes and now lying unconscious on the floor. “Did you do that? What kind of spell was that?”
Alain held up a paving stone from the street. “I made use of part of the illusion.”
She couldn’t help grinning. “You used an imaginary rock to hit my imaginary captor on his imaginary head?”
“Exactly. You are learning much wisdom,” Alain said with absolute seriousness. “It is important to see the illusion around you and employ it in the service of your goals,” he said as if reciting a lesson. “Do you know that shadow who held you?”
“No,” Mari said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him. I didn’t recognize the other two, either.”
Alain yanked open the door and Mari followed him out. The fight seemed to be spreading and overwhelming the city guards in the area. There would be no timely help from that quarter. Turning, she and Alain ducked and dodged their way along the front of the buildings until out of the mess, finally getting clear of the riot and hastening down the waterfront before stopping to rest in a place where they could see if anyone else was coming at them. But no pursuit could be seen.
Mari realized she was shaking with reaction again and tried to calm herself. “Nobody told me Dorcastle had a kidnapping problem.”
“No one told me of that, either,” Alain observed, his totally emotionless voice sounding inappropriate rather than confident now.
“I doubt that anyone tries to kidnap Mages,” Mari said. “Not more than once, anyway. I, on the other hand, seem to have started attracting kidnap attempts like a magnet.”
“What is a mag-net?”
Mari fumbled for an explanation for something she had never needed to explain. “It’s a piece of metal that attracts other metal using invisible lines of force.”
Alain actually betrayed a flash of interest. “It employs power to bring other objects to it? I did not know any part of the illusion could do such a thing.”
“No,” Mari said. “It’s not Mage stuff. It’s electromagnetism, which is an invisible force that…uh…makes things…happen. Why does something that’s part of Mechanic training and knowledge sound so much like what you’ve said about your Mage work? That’s weird. But a person can’t employ electromagnetism directly just by…thinking about it. We need equipment to do that. Um…what did you do? How did you get into that room without being seen?”
He shrugged. “A protection spell. I used it at the caravan, if you recall, when getting water. It causes the light to bend around a Mage instead of revealing the Mage. The door almost caught me coming in, but no one seemed to notice.”
“Bending light. Sure. Why not? And that flash of light?”
“Another spell,” Alain replied. “Changing the darkness to an equal measure of light.”
“Sort of the opposite of what you did at Ringhmon? Thank you, Alain. I don’t know what that man and his friends were planning, but I’m very grateful you stopped them. You’re the most wonderful— ” Stop it! Stop it! Don’t say it! He’s a friend, that’s all he can be! He just saved you again and you can’t repay that by clinging to him at the cost of his own well-being!
Her thanks seemed to embarrass the usually impassive Mage. “I am very…happy…I was there to stop them, though it would be important to know why they wanted you.”
“There are a couple of obvious possibilities.” How could she be speaking so calmly about this so soon after the event? Alain must be wearing off on her. But she couldn’t pretend any longer how much safer his presence made her feel. And for good reason. He had just proven again how cool and capable he was in an emergency. Just thinking about that made Mari want to smile at Alain. “They might have been after any girl for purposes I don’t want to think about,” Mari continued. “Or they might have been after me. They took advantage of that fight to grab me.”
Alain shook his head, frowning slightly in thought. “The sudden fight, the rapid growth in the crowd, the swift development of a riot, singling you out quickly. I see in the illusion a pattern of planning. I think it more likely that it was all arranged to cover your capture.”
She stared at him. “That would require a lot of work, and I assume a fair amount of money. Do you think they know who I am?” By now Ringhmon could have hired agents to try to kidnap her again, though this time for purposes of vengeance.
“If they knew who you are,” Alain said, “they would have used more shadows to ensure your capture.”
“Alain,” Mari said, “if you’re trying to reassure me, or compliment me, you’re doing a terrible job. No one tried to get you?”
“No. I believe some commons tried to block me as I saw you being taken. I would have lost sight of you quickly if they had succeeded. But once I bent light to hide myself, they could not see to obstruct me and I easily got past them. I did not fail this time. Those in the caravan died, but I saved you.” He hadn’t talked about the caravan since they had left the site of its destruction, but unless she was mistaken, what he had just said meant a great deal to the Mage.
“Of course you did,” Mari replied. “And you also saved me from that dungeon in Ringhmon, if I may remind you. You don’t need directions to act, you can take charge in an instant when you need to, and you think through what you’re doing even during a crisis. You’re really good at saving people, Alain.”
“As are you.”
“I guess. When I’m not getting them into situations where they need to be saved. Now what? Do you think we should hide?”
The Mage shook his head again. “If they know who you are, they will search and lie in wait. It is better to go on the attack, to gain and use the initiative, rather than let them set up another attack on us.”
She grinned. “Are you still game to go dragon hunting?”
“Yes.” Then Alain turned swiftly and stared out into the city. “I sense Dark Mages.”
“Sense them?” Mari asked, looking around quickly.
“Yes. I told you that a Mage can feel when other Mages are not too far away. We are taught ways to hide our presence from other Mages, but it is not my strongest skill by any means, and when I cast those spells it would have advertised my presence very clearly.”
“But you didn’t think Dark Mages were involved in this dragon stuff.”
“No,” Alain agreed. “But they could be in the city, and attracted to the violence as a possible source of profit. They might even strike at me to weaken my Guild, or attempt to kidnap me to extort ransom from my Guild. Or they could be hired to threaten you.”
Mari nodded, running one hand through her hair and wondering how many other threats against her would materialize. “Maybe I shouldn’t have burnt down the city hall in Ringhmon. But you can tell when a Dark Mage is close?”
“I should be able to, yes.”
“All right. That’s one more thing we have to keep an eye out for. Let’s get out of here before someone else attacks us.”
* * * *
The barges which floated down the Silver River into Dorcastle, carrying the crops grown on the farms of the Bakre Confederation and the goods built in the workshops of Danalee, rode the last stage of their journey through a series of locks which carried them past the rushing waters where the Silver River plunged down past Dorcastle into the harbor. Once safely at sea level, the barges went to an inner harbor surrounded by warehouses. There they tied up alongside lengthy piers, offloading their cargo and awaiting imports from the sea-going ships arriving at Dorcastle. Once loaded again, the barges would undertake the long, arduous journey back up the Silver River, completing the circle of trade that enriched Dorcastle and much of the Bakre Confederation.
But that circle had been broken lately, as the ships already there remained in Dorcastle’s harbor and new ships stayed away for fear of the dragons terrorizing the city. The warehouses were packed to the brim with cargo waiting to go out to sea, and nothing was coming in to go back up the river. As a result, the number of barges had grown steadily, until the inner harbor was filled with them and their increasingly restive crews.
Alain and Mari had chosen a place on top of a flat-roofed two-story building where they could sit unobserved and watch the inner harbor area. As the sun sank, the workers at the warehouses left for their homes, leaving the sailors on the barges where they lived. Some of the sailors who still had a little money to spend wandered into town, looking for entertainment in the nearby inns, but most stayed on their boats, huddled around small cooking fires in the boxes of sand that served as the barge kitchens. Alain could hear Mari muttering angrily to herself occasionally as the night wore on and the sailors sat up talking, gambling, and singing. She had been on edge ever since the attempt to kidnap her. In a Mage that would have been improper, but since Mari was a Mechanic, Alain could not fault her. And if someone in Dorcastle already knew or suspected who Mari was, that she was the daughter named in the old prophecy, her reactions actually displayed great composure in the face of such a threat.
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