Mari nodded. “I understand.”
“Then I declare this matter closed,” the woman said. “No one here is to speak of anything which we have discussed.”
The woman gave Mari a polite smile, as if Mari had just entered the room. “I have good news for you.” She pushed a sheet of paper toward Mari.
Mari managed to pick it up without revealing her tension. “A contract. On such short notice.”
“Yes. We knew you would be pleased at this opportunity to further serve your Guild. Fair travel, Mechanic Mari.”
“Master Mechanic Mari.”
“Of course. Master Mechanic Mari.” The woman indicated the contract. “You’ll notice that your services are needed on a priority basis, so you will have to leave Dorcastle as soon as we can make travel arrangements.”
Mari looked down at the contract. “Thank you. I look forward to leaving Dorcastle…so I can continue serving my Guild.” If they had noticed her brief pause, they gave no sign. The woman indicated that Mari could leave, and the three Senior Mechanics began talking in low voices.
Mari stood up, opening the heavy door and walking out into the hallways of the Guild Hall. Familiar hallways, following the standard floor plan for every Mechanics Guild Hall. She had walked down essentially identical hallways countless times.
Not since she had been eight years old and newly arrived at the Guild Hall in Caer Lyn had Mari noticed just how restricting those hallways could feel, how instead of giving a sense of security could create a sense of being confined. How the shadows and the alcoves could easily hide someone watching, or someone waiting with a weapon at hand. It was funny how the world around her could alter even when its outward appearance hadn’t seemed to change. Alain would tell her that it was just a matter of how you looked at an illusion.
Mari squared her shoulders and walked steadily down the halls, determined not to show any sign of fear. Who could she talk to? No one here, that was for sure. Any Mechanic possibly sympathetic to her would be watched, and every Mechanic here had doubtless been warned again about associating with Mari.
But if any Senior Mechanics plan on taking down Master Mechanic Mari, they’ll find that I’m not that easy to stop. Everything else I once thought true may now be in doubt, but I still believe that. I still believe in myself.
And I still believe in doing the right thing even when it costs me. Things need to be fixed. I need to fix them if no one else will. But first I need to play nice for a while, get the Senior Mechanics off my back and find more people I can trust.
Someone I can trust.
What am I going to tell Alain when I have to say goodbye?
* * * *
Mari stood inside a turret on the battlements of one of Dorcastle’s walls, leaning on the edge of a narrow firing slit. She looked down to the sea, where ships were once again leaving harbor, riding low in the water with their holds packed full of cargo. The wind blew hard from along the coast, buffeting flocks of sea gulls screaming over scraps of food. Picking the lock on the gate leading into this bartizan hadn’t been too difficult, and no one could see her in here, concealed by the darkness inside the turret.
A chip knocked out of the stone fortification marred one edge of the firing slit. The chip had weathered to the same appearance as the rest of the stone, only its imperfections revealing its origin. A crossbow bolt, or maybe the bullet from a Mechanic rifle, had struck here a long time ago, during one of the those battles Alain had spoken of, while Imperial legions and Confederation soldiers were spilling each others’ blood in the streets below. Mari stared down at those streets, wondering how many commons had died across the centuries for the purpose of maintaining the stability the Mechanics Guild desired.
Wondering how many might die within a few more years, if this world were indeed heading for some kind of horrible crack-up.
A footstep sounded nearby, and Alain was beside her, appearing out of the shadows so suddenly that Mari wondered if he had used that concealment spell. The Mage’s face, which she had come to know as unrevealing of feelings, reflected concern now.
“Hi, Mage Alain,” Mari said softly, fighting an urge to wrap her arms around him and hold on tight. If you hold him, if you kiss him, you’ll never be able to let him go. For his sake, Mari, keep yourself under control.
Alain bowed his head toward her. “Greetings, Master Mechanic Mari. You have chosen a good place to meet. We will not be seen here.”
“It’s nice to know I made one good decision in the last few weeks. Is your Guild spying on you?”
“Yes,” Alain said. “We have been watched, but this time I came carefully.”
“Yeah, I’m certain that my Guild is watching me, too. Like I’m a criminal.” Mari shook her head. “Are you all right? With your Guild, I mean?”
Alain considered the question. “They suspect me of being attracted to a Mechanic. They are right, but so far lack proof. They do not suspect that I love you, or who you are, but I have no doubt of what they will do if they discover either of those things.”
“Oh, blazes.” Mari lowered her head to rest her brow against the cool stone of the fortification. “I have ruined your life.”
“You have given me back my life.”
She straightened up, swiveling her head to stare at him. “I have to leave. I have a new contract. I’m not allowed to back out of it and…and I really think it’s for the best anyway. I have to lie low for a while.” Mari couldn’t see his eyes clearly enough to tell what emotions might be revealed there.
Alain’s voice stayed steady, though. “You are right. The Mage Guild is watching you. It would be unsafe for you if we were seen together. They would know what that meant.”
She let out a long, slow breath. “I’ve found a man who keeps telling me that I’m right, and I have to give him up. Are you staying in Dorcastle?”
“No. I must leave soon as well. My own contract is far to the north, in the Free Cities.”
“The Free Cities,” Mari repeated, her own voice tight. She seemed to be having trouble breathing, but she got her next words out. “Alain, you must promise me that you’ll take care of yourself. I don’t want to see you hurt. Not physically and not…any other way.”
“It is too late for that,” Alain said. “I once again feel such hurt. I do not regret that, because it also brought me the ability to feel the happiness that you brought me.”
She looked at him again, blinking away tears, as Alain actually tried to smile reassuringly at her. He didn’t do a very good job of it, but he was trying. “At least I learned a few things about dragons, right?”
“Yes. The things that you learned may be useful again.”
“I hope not. I don’t want to run into any more dragons.”
His voice tensed. “There are many dangers you must face. Dragons may not be the worst of those. You know this.”
She shook her head, staring out the firing slit again. “You could be a little more comforting. I don’t know nearly enough, Alain. So many things are wrong. I have to do something, try to fix things. But I don’t know what to do.”
“You will learn.”
She laughed, the sound soft and bitter. “I can learn. But I will have to play by my Guild’s rules while I try to figure out what to do next. Blazes, Alain, how did I mess everything up so badly? I must be the biggest idiot that Dematr has ever seen. Thank you for not blaming me, but you’d probably be happier if we’d never met.”
“No. That is not so,” Alain said. “My world is brighter. Every shadow seems more real now.”
“You mean other people?” Mari asked. “Won’t that— Can you still do that spell stuff?”
“So far,” Alain assured her. “I do not know why. The thread that connects us gives me a new strength, a strength which I believe saved us in Ringhmon and perhaps here at Dorcastle. Wisdom says this cannot be.”
Mari exhaled heavily. “I’m beginning to suspect that a great deal of the wisdom you and I have been fed isn’t all that
“Be careful, Mari. You know the storm that threatens. I would not leave if it were not the best way to protect you for now. But even though the thread between us will fade with distance, even if it becomes too weak to sense at all, still I will find you again when the suspicions of my Guild have subsided.”
“What?” Mari glared at him through her tears. “I’m trying to say goodbye to you! Forever. Because otherwise you would be in too much danger. Don’t come looking for me. Don’t die because of me.”
Alain looked down, then back at her. “You are more important than I am.”
“Don’t ever say that! It is not true!”
“You know it is,” Alain replied.
“I don’t know any such thing,” Mari said, her voice still fierce. “Why do you keep saying things like that?”
“You know why. We both know why it must not be spoken of. Farewell, Master Mechanic Mari of Caer Lyn. Until next we meet.”
“No! Go away and stay safe! Farewell, Mage Alain of Ihris!” I love you. She heard him begin to move away, but kept her gaze fixed stubbornly out to sea.
Then he stopped. “Mari.”
“Get out of here, blast you! This is already too hard!”
“I see something.” She spun to look at him. “My foresight,” Alain continued, staring into the shadows of the turret. “You and I are on this wall, again, not inside this fortification, but along the parapet. Time has passed. A few years, I think. We are older, but not by much. It feels as if a great deal has happened. We stand side by side and a mighty battle rages around us.”
Mari looked into the darkness but saw nothing. “What else? What else is there?”
“We wear similar armbands of a strange design.” Alain blinked. “The vision is gone. The way we stood with each other spoke of much history between us. We…we stood together against the storm of battle,” he said, the last words coming out slowly.
Her heart seemed to pause, then beat rapidly. “What are you saying? That we’re certain to be together again?”
Alain shook his head. “There is no certainty. I saw myself in the vision as well as you. The vision is but a possibility, a chance that something may come to pass, should we make the decisions which lead to it. Should we both live long enough to reach that place and time.”
“What decisions? When?”
“I do not know.”
“You don’t know? Oh, that’s just great!” Mari burst out angrily, then pointed an accusing finger at him. “I’m ready to break my heart and say goodbye forever to the only man I have ever loved, and then one of your blasted Mage spells shows up and tells me maybe something could happen if we both do the right things, but there’s no telling what those things are. Do I get that right?”
“Yes, but— ”
“Thanks for nothing!”
“Mari, it shows that we can survive that long. The chance exists, despite all perils. We were together, and you were still alive, still fighting. There is hope.”
“I don’t want to fight!” Mari said.
“But this vision tells us that our decision today is the right one,” Alain insisted. “It sets us on the path to that day.”
“To that battle?” Mari drew in a shuddering breath. “Who were we fighting?”
“The storm,” he replied, as if that answered everything.
“Fine. We were together. So I want that future, Mage Alain. A future with you.” She took a step closer to him, then managed to halt herself. “You were right, I guess. I will see you again. Someday. Somehow. You had better make the right decisions, do you hear me?”
He looked at her. “We will face many choices, any one of which made wrongly could bring an end to that possible future I saw. I will do my best. I also want that future with you, and you will have need of me in the new day you must bring to pass.”
“I already need you,” Mari said, “but I keep getting the feeling that you and I are talking about two different things sometimes. What new day? What storm?”
Was that a flash of puzzlement that appeared in Alain’s eyes? “But you said—” His voice broke off as Alain suddenly looked down and to one side, then over in another direction. “Mages approach. They seek me. They must not find you. I must go now to lead them away.”
“Alain, what—”
But he was moving, gliding silently through the shadows and out the gate, leaving Mari glaring at the empty shadows inside the turret.
You blasted Mage! Why do I keep thinking there is something you’re not telling me? No. It’s more like something you think I know, but I have no idea what it is. Fine. Right now I have to leave to keep you safe, so I’ll do that. But I will see you again, and we will be together, and I will find out what this “new” day stuff means, and I will fix the problems that I am finding, no matter what any of those things take, and no matter what I have to change.
I’ll change the whole world, if that’s what it takes.
Mari gazed once more at the chipped stone of the firing slit and felt a shiver run through her as she remembered Alain speaking of them being in a battle. She tore her eyes from the token of old wars and looked out over the harbor again, past the works of humans and on to the restless waters of the Sea of Bakre.
To the north, she could see storm clouds forming.
THANK YOU FOR READING
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