Kira heard footsteps that sounded like those of crewmembers on the deck over her head, telling her that she was only one level below decks. The footsteps died down over time, as did the sounds of people in the passageway outside her door. Before turning off the lights in her room she moved the chair, wedging it firmly under the door handle so that it blocked the opening of the door. At least she couldn't be surprised while sleeping. With the lights off the room was pitch black, no light coming in from outside. The door must have seals around it.
Feeling her way to her bunk, Kira stretched herself out and began relaxing, using the meditation routines her father had taught her. She needed to rest so she would be ready when the time came to act.
Her mother and father must be doing something. And Jason. He wouldn’t just be sitting around.
* * *
“There was something odd,” Asha said. The female Mage sat opposite Mari and Alain, betraying little emotion but to Alain’s eyes looking very distressed.
“We were able to sense that ten Mages left the ships of the Imperials,” Asha continued. “Four of them did not depart with the ships, but were seen leaving the city separately afterwards.”
“That leaves one,” Alain said.
“Perhaps the one who created the Roc that Kira met outside the east gate.”
“But we still have no proof of anything,” Mari said, her eyes shadowed by worry.
“No,” Asha said. “But why nine other Mages? What was their purpose? Have you spoken to Mages who are frequently in Tiaesun, Alain?”
“Yes,” Alain said. “They can offer nothing.” He paused, thinking. “Nine Mages.”
“Yes,” she echoed him. “I have been to this palace enough to know the levels of power that are normally found here. They are much lower than usual. As if many spells were cast here recently.”
“How could I not have sensed those spells being cast?”
“I do not know. My uncle Mage Dav has heard rumors, though. Rumors of attempts to use the work of one Mage to mask that of another.”
“Nine Mages,” Alain repeated.
“But what does that mean?” Mari demanded. “What could nine Mages, or a hundred Mages, have done to cause Kira to walk out of this palace and climb on that Roc to fly east?”
“I do not know,” Asha said, her distress growing.
Mari looked at her, then got up and went to hug her, remembering the first time she had hugged Asha, ironically in Palandur, and how the female Mage had been stiff and uncomfortable then at human contact. “Asha, I know you’re doing everything that you can. Thank you.”
“I know you would do the same if Devi or Ashira were missing,” Asha said, a small, grateful smile appearing.
“How is your husband?”
Asha’s smile grew slightly. “Mechanic Dav is recovering well. He complains that his collection of walking sticks will soon be useless. How do I thank Doctor Sino for fixing the bones that once healed awry?”
Mari sat down next to Asha. “I already tried. Sino just waves it off and says that’s her job.”
“She is almost as good as a Mage at hiding her pleasure at the thanks she receives,” Alain said.
“Queen Sien gives her anything she asks for,” Mari added, “but the doctor hasn’t asked for much aside from that horse she loves, a place to live, and an office to work out of. Sino laughed when she told me that while Maxim was here the Imperials offered her a palace and all the treasure she wanted if she'd move to the Empire. Her main worry is that some of the components in her med bag will run out before much longer, and we don’t have the means in Dematr to replace them. But Sino can keep teaching our healers as long as she is alive.”
“If only one of her skills could help us find Kira,” Asha said. “How is Jason?”
“About as unhappy as a teenage boy can be, and that’s extremely unhappy,” Mari said. “We almost had to tie him up to get him on the train for Danalee. But he’ll be better off there.” She looked out the window at the sun’s position. “Kira’s been gone for a day and a half. It feels like so much longer.”
* * *
Another day nearly ended, and nothing had happened except for two visits by Lady Elegant to bring her meals, during which someone else emptied the room’s chamber pot. Kira had waited for some sign that the Imperial ships had been intercepted—sudden changes in courses, signs that speed had been increased, shouts of alarm and rushing feet on the deck overhead—but there had been nothing. The swells on the surface of the Umbari must be slightly longer now, altering the slow roll and recovery of the ship, but that had been the only change Kira was aware of.
The lock turned.
Kira stood up, alert, tensing her body to be ready for anything. Had Prince Maxim returned to gloat? Had the Mage detected a trace of her presence again?
But the two people who entered the room were a woman and a man in familiar dark jackets. The jackets that had once advertised their owners as full members of the Mechanics Guild that had ruled the world, men and women qualified in the Mechanic arts and able to operate, build, and repair the limited technology allowed by the Guild. Kira had grown up seeing that kind of jacket on her mother and many of her mother’s friends, because since the fall of the Guild many Mechanics still wore the jacket as a mark of professional skill.
But the gazes of the two Mechanics held no trace of friendship. The woman, who looked to be about Kira's mother's age, had a wooden expression, trying to hide feelings that Kira’s Mage training could still spot. Hate. Contempt. Disdain.
The male Mechanic, younger, openly displayed a contemptuous smile as he looked at her.
Neither said anything. Kira had spent most of her life dressing like her mother, without really being aware of it until recently, so her own clothes almost matched those of the Mechanics. Even her jacket, while not that of a Mechanic, still resembled one. She finally broke the silence. “Why are you here?”
The woman spoke, her accent revealing that she had been raised in the Sharr Isles. “We wanted to see with our own eyes what the daughter of a traitor looked like. I wanted to see the face of a girl whose mother killed my brother.”
“She doesn’t look like much,” the young man said. “Though she does like to dress like she’s playing Mechanic.”
“How does Mari sleep, girl? Does she have pleasant dreams, remembering all the people she killed, all the families she destroyed?”
The woman was using the old Mechanics Guild tactic of deliberately avoiding the use of Mari’s proper title. Kira shook her head, determined to correct that. “My mother, Master Mechanic Mari of Dematr, regrets every death. Memories of the war haunt her. But she hurt far fewer people than the Mechanics Guild did. The old Senior Mechanics killed far more Mechanics than she ever did.”
“She doesn’t know anything except the garbage she’s been fed on a silver spoon,” the young man commented.
Kira didn’t reply, not wanting to let the accusation that she had been raised in luxury get to her again. She knew a lot of people believed that, even those who admired the daughter of Jules but mistakenly thought her mother had accepted riches after the war.
“How many friends of hers did Mari betray?” the woman asked Kira.
“None,” Kira said. “Her friends are with her still. Master Mechanic Alli, Mechanics Calu and Bev and Dav, Master Mechanic Lukas—”
“Those are the survivors,” the female Mechanic interrupted. “Did she ever tell you the name of Hors of Caer Lyn and his sister Jil?”
“No,” Kira said.
“Hors was my brother. Did she ever tell you how we tried to be her friends when we were all apprentices at the Mechanics Guild Hall in Caer Lyn? Did she ever tell you that she shot Mechanic Hors at Dorcastle? Put a bullet in him while he was trying to shield his friends? Murdered him in cold blood?”
“Dorcastle was a battle! It was war!”
“A war she started!” Jil hurled the accusation at Kira. “So she could rule everything.”
“Mother rules nothing,” Kira said. “The Guild tried to kill her. Over and over again. To keep her from learning the truth, and then to keep her from saving this world from the tyranny of the Great Guilds.”
“There was only one great guild,” the young man said. “You even believe that nonsense about Mages, don’t you?”
“Professor S’san and Master Mechanic Lukas believe it. Why shouldn’t I?”
“They’re both old, their minds failing, and they lost their integrity when they joined Mari.” The female Mechanic took a step closer, gazing at Kira’s eyes. “I was your mother’s friend once. I tried to be. But Mari only cared about people who would follow her without question, who could help her in her ambitions. When I refused, she cast me aside.”
“I don’t need to know your history with my mother to know that’s a lie,” Kira said. “That’s not who my mother is.” But she could tell the woman believed what she was saying.
“Watch your mouth around your betters, girl!” the woman warned.
“You're not better than me or anyone else,” Kira said. “I'm very sorry you lost your brother. I know a lot of people who lost family members defending Dorcastle. I know how much those memories still pain them. But the Great Guilds had no right to continue ruling this world. The Mechanics Guild was a fraud to begin with, created by the crew of the great ship!”
“She believes that drivel about the ship bringing people to our world, too,” the young man said.
“Look up at the Twins,” Kira said. “They are parts of that ship. Another ship came from Urth about six months ago! How could you not know about that?”
“And you have proof of that event?” the younger Mechanic mocked.
“Of course I do! Doctor Sino lives in Tiaesun. And my boyfriend…my man,” she corrected, openly claiming him as her close partner, “is Jason of Urth.”
“Your man?” Mechanic Jil mocked. “Are you dreaming of a happy life with some boy? Maxim will show you what a man is.”
“Maxim has no idea what a man is,” Kira said.
“Maybe she’s planning on keeping the boy on the side,” the young man said. “An extra lover for when Maxim is out of town or busy with another.”
Kira gave him a withering glare. “Were you born being a creep or did you have to study for it?” She shifted her gaze to the woman. “And you. Defending the old Guild. Were you an apprentice at Emdin in those days? Did you know any? My Aunt Bev was one of them.” Kira saw that shot had gone home. “Is that what you’re defending? A Guild that could treat boys and girls like that and not punish those responsible?”
“I don’t know anything about Emdin,” Mechanic Jil denied.
“You’re lying.”
Jil’s face tightened with anger. “I might help you. If you help us. Just tell us how Mari did it.”
“Did what?”
“Convinced so many Mechanics to turn traitor. What was her secret? What hold did she have over them?” the woman demanded.
Watching Jil of Caer Lyn closely, Kira could tell there was something lurking under the hostility of the question. Something calculating. Why were these two here? To help Maxim and the Empire? Or to help the humiliated remnants of the Mechanics Guild inside the Empire, whose members still dreamed of regaining past power?
“Master Mechanic Mari didn’t have any hold over anyone,” Kira said. “She just did what she thought was right, treating others with respect, being honest with them—”
“Like she did at Caer Lyn?” Jil scoffed. “I wasn’t surprised when Alli and Calu joined her. Calu was always her lap dog, and Alli tried to hide her incompetence by sleeping with any—”
“Do not speak of her that way!” Kira interrupted, trying to control her rage at the woman’s words. “Master Mechanic Alli is the most respected weapons designer in the entire world! And the most talented! She taught me to shoot! What is your problem? Do you think that hating other people is going to make your life even one tiny bit better?”
“My brother’s life ended because of your mother and her friends!” Mechanic Jil yelled back. “Return him to me, you spoiled little brat, and maybe I’d listen to your self-righteous rants! Can’t your father do that? Raise the dead?” she mocked Kira.
Kira tried again to control herself, noticing that the young man appeared amused by the harsh words that she and Jil were exchanging. “He doesn’t claim that ability. He never has. If he could raise the dead, my own brother would still be in this world.”
“All lies. Mages can do nothing. Admit it!”
“I have seen countless demonstrations of the Mage arts. I—” Kira caught herself. Had she been about to blurt out her own minor Mage skills, goaded into admitting to them? “I don’t have to prove anything to you,” she finished, speaking calmly. “I regret your bother’s death. I know my mother does, too. But he was fighting for the wrong cause, fighting to ensure that this world remained in chains.”
The young Mechanic yawned as if bored by Kira’s words. “She’ll never admit to it. Her mother wanted to sleep with a Mage. Slept with a lot of them, from what I hear. I wonder if she knows who her real father is?”
Kira didn’t get mad, knowing that was what they wanted, channeling her anger this time into a look of icy contempt. “Come a little closer to me and say that again, little boy,” she said, raising one first toward him. “If you dare.”
He tried to maintain his own cool disdain of her, but Kira saw the heat in his eyes. “I thought you liked little boys who you could order around and feel superior to.”
“No,” Kira said. “I love a man who is my equal. If you two don’t have anything to say that’s worth listening to, you should leave.”
“You can’t give us orders,” Mechanic Jil said, mocking Kira. “You’re the one in a prison.”
“I’ll leave this room,” Kira said. “But unless you two abandon what remains of the Mechanics Guild you will never leave the prisons that you’ve made of your own minds and your own lives. I feel sorry for you.”
Those words went home. “Feel sorry for how your mother will react when she sees you sitting at Prince Maxim’s feet, bound to him for life,” Jil spat.
“And feel sorry for your little brother, who that man you think is your father let die for his Mage purposes,” the young man said.
Kira’s vision hazed red with fury. Before she knew what she was doing she had taken two steps, thrown a punch as a feint that the young Mechanic hastily tried to block, then followed up with a knee strike that left the man doubled over in pain. Kira grabbed his throat, pushing him against the door, her free hand menacing Mechanic Jil of Caer Lyn.
“Never come near me again or I’ll rip that tongue from your mouth,” Kira whispered in a voice she didn’t recognize as her own. “My brother’s body was harmed when he was breech born. It was the fault of no one that he died soon after birth. My father would have died to save my brother. He and my mother mourn my brother to this day. I pity you. But I will hurt you if you ever speak to me again.”
The door was shoved open as some of the guards outside forced their way in, responding to the sound of fighting. Kira stepped back, seeing that at least five guards were present, too many to take on even if she had been able to surprise them. She watched wordlessly as the two Mechanics retreated and the door shut, the lock clicking firmly into place once more.
Kira sat down on her bunk, crossing her legs and berating herself. Angry people make mistakes, Aunt Bev had told her time and time again during her self-defense lessons. Don’t let anyone else make you angry and make you do something without thinking.
She had certainly failed that test. She had let those Mechanics and their Imperial masters know that mocking her little brother’s death was a path through Kira’s inner armor. She would have to be very careful not to let that work again.
Kira breathed in and out slowly, rehearsing in her mind the conversation.
“I love a man who is my equal.”
She had said that, not realizing the i
mportance of it at the time. “I love a man.” Jason. Kira looked up, staring at the steel plates overhead blocking her view of the sky. I love him. I do. Why did it take me so long to realize that?
She felt an odd sensation and looked down at herself, spotting what looked like a single strand of spider web running from her body to one wall of her room. Startled, Kira batted at it, expecting to sweep it away, but her hand went through the strand as if it wasn’t there. She squinted down at it. She could definitely see something there, not drifting in the air currents of the room but running straight from her to that point on the wall.
No, not on the wall. Through it. And onward.
A thread that was there but wasn’t there.
Her breath caught as she realized what it was. Like the thread that connected her father to her mother, and the one that Mage Asha had told her she could see leading to her husband, Mechanic Dav. The Mage presence inside her must be strong enough to show the same thing.
Because she knew it did lead to Jason. She could feel that, though she couldn’t explain how she knew. He was there, even though the thread was so thin and stretched by distance that it might not hold much longer.
Kira smiled down at the thread, blinking back tears.
She sensed something else, a feeling of movement. Not here. Where Jason was. He was moving fairly quickly. Was he on a train? Where was he going?
She tried to learn more, tried to gain a better understanding of where he was, what he was feeling…
Worry. Fear. For her.
She tried to send back reassurance and some sense of where she was, but had no idea if that was working. As far as Kira could remember, her mother had never felt or experienced anything as a result of the thread her father could sense.
Kira realized that the distance between her and Jason was growing as they moved away from each other.
She felt the thread grow too thin to be sensed or seen.
But Kira also felt a certainty that it would never completely go away.
* * *
“We lost him.”
“You lost him?” Mari almost yelled, struggling to control herself. “How could you have lost Jason?”
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