The Assassins of Altis

by Jack Campbell

  “I see no sign of Imperial searchers,” Alain said, “but if they were small cavalry detachments I do not think their signs would stand out on this road.”

  “That’s probably right,” Mari agreed. “We’re a long way away from…you- know-where. Let’s make sure from now on we act like normal citizens out for a walk. Nothing to hide, and nothing to fear from any Imperial authorities.” Mari patted the pocket in her backpack in which she kept their false Imperial identification papers.

  They spent a few hours following the road to the west as the sun set. The sky was now clear of clouds, and the stars and a brilliant moon provided good light. Then the road joined with a larger highway which showed signs of even more use.

  Alain guessed that it was about midnight when they reached a major, paved road, which even at this late hour had occasional traffic. An inn with a coach stop sat nearby, its lights promising food, warmth and comfort. Mari reached over and hugged Alain with one arm. “We made it, my Mage. We made it.”

  “We are still far from Altis,” Alain pointed out, bringing his own arm around her.

  “You didn’t need to tell me that. I’ll worry about Altis tomorrow. For tonight, all I want is a warm meal, a warm bed, and you beside me in that bed.”

  “I want that, too,” Alain said. Tired as he was, he could not help noticing how good she felt as he held her with one arm.

  “Good.” Mari gave him an amused look. “Watch your hand. Get it higher. Not that high. You know where my waist is. In case you’re wondering, we’re still keeping our clothes on once we get into that bed.”

  “I did not mean to touch you in the wrong places,” Alain said.

  “The problem, my Mage, is that they’re the right places, and your touch felt way too good. That’s why we’re keeping our clothes on.”

  #

  Mari yawned as she watched the walls of Palandur grow steadily nearer through the windows of the coach. After all the walking they had done through wind and weather she had felt justified in paying for seats on a coach, even though that was a bit of a luxury for two people on the run with no way of knowing when they would get more money or how. But she still had a decent amount of cash from what she had brought with her and from the money which General Flyn’s troops had insisted she take.

  Mari still felt guilty over that last source of money, which supposedly had been in exchange for a horse. In truth the soldiers had given generously because they believed her to be the long-foretold daughter of Jules. Mari had thought the idea ridiculous, and still could not believe it.

  But Alain had seen it. One of the Mage elders who was different from most of the others had told him what his vision meant: that Mari was that daughter, and that he must protect her because the world would fall into ruin if she failed.

  No pressure, Mari thought for about the thousandth time.

  The time they had spent in ruined, dead Marandur felt almost like a dream now, or rather like a strange nightmare which contrasted with the simple normality of the world around them. Common folk attending to routine errands and travel, a horse-drawn passenger coach, a quiet countryside unmarred by ruins, and the walls of a living city growing rapidly nearer. If not for the watertight package in her backpack containing texts of technology long forbidden by the Mechanics Guild, Mari might have questioned whether she ever had actually been in Marandur.

  The coach lurched to a halt, the doors opened, and all of the passengers stumbled out, stiff from the hard, cramped seating. Waiting for them were an even half-dozen of the Empire’s internal police, seated behind a table which was obviously a regular fixture at the coach stop. The Imperial citizens lined up without question. Mari pretended to need to retie her boot laces while she watched the first few citizens get questioned. Seeing that the police weren’t searching any packages, she beckoned to Alain and they joined the line as if they, too, were used to this sort of thing even though as a Mechanic and a Mage they had never been bothered by the demands placed on common folk within the Empire.

  When they finally reached the head of the line, Mari handed over the two sets of forged Imperial identification papers she had acquired months ago before going to find Alain. The Imperial officer studied the papers with a frown. “Two of you together?”

  Mari nodded. “Yes. We’re students at the university in Palandur.”

  “I can read,” the officer replied, pointing to Mari’s papers. “Why were university students traveling outside Palandur?”

  She might not have been bothered by Imperial checkpoints in the past, but Mari had been required to answer plenty of similar questions by Senior Mechanics and other supervisors, especially when she was an apprentice. She put on the same outwardly respectful attitude as she answered. “We wanted to try hiking in the winter.”

  “Pretty stupid if you ask me, walking around outside in the winter.” The other officers grinned at their comrade’s comment.

  “It was pretty cold. We won’t do it again,” Mari agreed, trying to appear meek.

  “Where did you go?”

  “A lot of it was cross-country. We went through Sinda, and stayed one night at the inn at Kolis.”

  “Northeast of here, eh?” The officer handed Mari back her papers. “Did you see any other hikers? Coming down from the north? Maybe some in very old clothes or rags? Two of them?”

  “Old clothes?” Mari asked as if totally puzzled by the question. “Like beggars?”

  “Yes. They could’ve been men or women.”

  Mari shook her head. “No. We didn’t see anyone like that on the road.”

  Another officer spoke up. “Or it could have been a young woman, very good-looking, dark hair, with or without a young man. She might have been wearing a Mechanics jacket.”

  “A Mechanic?” Mari put disdain into her voice. “No, we didn’t see any of them and I’m glad of it.”

  “I didn’t say she was a Mechanic, citizen. I said she might have been wearing one of their jackets.” His gaze shifted to Alain. “She’s someone you might have noticed, young man. Any attractive women like that catch your eye?”

  Alain shook his head in denial.

  Mari didn’t have to feign unhappiness at the question. “He’s got a girl.”

  The officer grinned at her reaction. “How about Mages? Maybe one, traveling with a common girl?”

  “No.” Mari pretended revulsion this time. “Why would a common girl–—? Ewww.”

  The officer nodded, smiling knowingly. “Some girls like that sort of thing. Are you sure you didn’t see anything? There’s a reward. A big one.”

  “We could use a big reward,” Mari admitted. “But I didn’t see anyone.”

  “What about tracks in the snow?”

  She couldn’t very well deny seeing those. There were tracks everywhere. “We did see some tracks.”

  “Where at?” the officer asked, his eyes brightening. “North of Kolis?”

  “Yes. In the fields there.” If she denied that, and such tracks had been reported already, it could unravel her entire story.

  “Which way were the tracks headed? What kind where they? Boots?”

  Mari shook her head, looking regretful. “We couldn’t tell. They were just big tracks in the snow and there had been some melting.”

  “One or two sets of tracks?”

  Pausing as if trying to remember, when in fact she was trying to recall how much she and Alain had walked side by side instead of one behind the other, Mari finally nodded. “Two. I’m pretty sure there were two.”

  The officer regarded her for a moment, then smiled briefly. “Thank you, citizen. The Emperor appreciates your assistance.” Pulling out a silver coin, he tossed it to Mari.

  She caught it with a delighted grin, then she and Alain walked toward the gates of Palandur. Alain looked around to see if anyone was close, then spoke in a quiet voice. “And I thought I was a good liar.”

  “It’s for a good cause,” Mari said. “They think whoever got out of Marandur was most like
ly two of the barbarians. No one would ever mistake you and me for two of them. Of course those other questions mean they have some idea that a rogue Mechanic and Mage might be in the area, though if they keep searching for a ‘very good-looking’ girl they won’t look twice at me. I figured it didn’t hurt to throw them off the track.” Mari gave him a sidelong glance. “Do you think they’ve heard about you and me meeting up in the Northern Ramparts? It sounded like it.”

  “It did.” Alain paused. “It is never wise to assume that someone in authority has told you everything they know.”

  Mari felt her self-satisfaction ebbing away. “What do you mean?”

  “The Mage who was with the Imperial guards around Marandur. He or she surely knew I was not one of the barbarians. That could be why the officers asked about a Mage.”

  “Yes, but— Yes. Couriers on horseback would have been here days ago. Maybe the questions about the barbarians are just cover for them asking about you and me?”

  “It is very possible,” Alain said. “If you had betrayed knowledge of why the Imperials were asking about someone in rags, those officers would not have let us depart.”

  “Fortunately, I thought of that before I answered. But if they’ve heard something about us, why are they searching for a ‘very good-looking’ woman?” Mari wondered.

  “I believe that you are very good-looking,” Alain said.

  “Yes, but you’re crazy,” Mari retorted. “Those Imperial officers and whoever tipped them off aren’t in love with me. If it was Asha they were after, I could understand that description, but no one who saw Asha could think she was dark-haired. Those soldiers in the Northern Ramparts could have passed around that I have dark hair, but they saw enough of me to know I wasn’t beautiful.”

  Alain shook his head. “Illusions can take many forms.”

  “Oh, even you admit that anyone calling me beautiful would be seeing an illusion?”

  “No. But perhaps to the soldiers with General Flyn, the one who had saved them, the one they thought to be a certain special person, would appear attractive for those reasons as well as for her appearance.”

  “Hmmm. Stranger things have happened, I guess. At least if the Imperials are looking for some beauty they won’t focus on me.” Mari looked around casually. “However, if you judged those officers correctly, they might have someone following us anyway, just because we sort of match what they’re looking for.”

  “Yes. What will happen if they check with the university to see if we are enrolled there?”

  “We’ll be in trouble. If they find us again.” Mari walked on a few more steps, then pretended to have a problem with one of her boots. Turning as she knelt on one knee, Mari fumbled with the laces again as she swept her gaze across the people behind them. Standing up, she nodded to Alain as they started walking once more. “One of the officers is behind us. Not close, but he was there, just sort of strolling along.”

  “Why would he do this?”

  Mari glanced at Alain to see if he meant the question seriously. “He’s following us to see where we go.”

  “But if you wish to find a Mage in a city, another Mage can try to do so using his or her Mage senses.”

  She sighed. “Alain, the rest of the people in the world don’t work that way. They can’t sense people at a distance, so they do things like following them without being noticed. We need to lose this cop so the Imperials don’t know where we are.”

  “Lose him?”

  “Throw him off our track.”

  “Oh, like a military force seeking to conceal its movements from enemy scouts.” Alain studied the street ahead. “I recommend we look for this university and ‘lose’ him near there. It will match our story.”

  “All right. I think I remember how to get to the area.” Mari looked up at the massive east gate in the walls around Palandur, feeling an odd sensation. “Alain, I left this city several months ago, the youngest person ever to qualify as a Master Mechanic in the history of my Guild, not knowing that the Guild’s Senior Mechanics had already decided to set me up for kidnapping and murder by the scum who run the city of Ringhmon. It feels so strange coming back here now, with everything looking the same, and yet everything is different.”

  “Are you different?” Alain asked.

  She looked at him, surprised by the question, then thought about it. “Am I different? I’ve been through a lot. I’ve fallen in love. So much of what I was taught to believe I now know to be a lie. I’ve been told I’m…someone. Does that make me different?”

  “When I sense you near me,” Alain said slowly, “your presence burns brighter than before, but it is still the same, just brighter.”

  “My presence.” Every once in a while her Mage would say something totally strange like that. “I thought you could only sense other Mages.”

  “I can sense you as well,” Alain said as if that was unremarkable.

  “That thread thing, you mean,” Mari said.

  “Yes, that thread which connects us, but also you. You are very bright, and warm, like a fire.”

  That felt kind of nice, Mari thought. Also kind of weird, though. A male Mechanic would have said something like that to her as a form of exaggerated flattery, but Mari had no doubt that Alain meant literally what he said, that she was somehow a fire to his Mage senses. “Do I get…warmer…when I’m angry?”

  Alain shook his head. “No. There are times when your brightness becomes more intense, but that happens when you are thinking hard on something.”

  “Really? So you’re actually admiring my mind?” Mari laughed out loud with delight at the idea, drawing looks from the nearest commons on the street.

  Mari gazed at the buildings around them as she and Alain went through the gate. She had known Palandur, but now she knew Marandur as well, and the similarities between the dead city and living one were disconcerting enough to drive the laughter from her. At some moments everything felt unreal, as if what Alain had said the Mages believed really was the way things were, and she was walking through some kind of illusion in which dead city and living city were both here at the same place and time. Mari reached out to grip Alain’s hand, comforted by that solid presence. “I’m pretty sure I know the way to the university from here. It’s near enough to the Mechanics Guild Academy that I saw it a few times.”

  Mari began edging to the south, trying to remember the layout of the Imperial capital. She found another pretext to search the crowds behind them, confirming that the Imperial police officer was still sauntering along within eyesight. “He’s definitely staying with us.”

  There were a good number of Mechanics in Palandur, swaggering down the streets with commons giving way as expected of them, so no one thought it unusual for Mari and Alain to avoid those Mechanics by wide margins. Mari tried to discreetly study them to see if she recognized any, but wasn’t able to tell through the crowds and the distance she had to put between herself and the Mechanics for safety’s sake. “There are probably Mechanics here who would help me,” she muttered to Alain, “but the academy is full of others who would turn me in without a second thought.”

  “Are we going to that Mechanic Academy?” Alain asked.

  “No. I don’t dare go near it, and isn’t that ironic for a girl who was one of the stars of the academy several months ago?”

  Mages were here, too, in relatively large numbers, moving silently among the commons like wraiths avoided with fear and loathing. Alain seemed unconcerned about being recognized by any of them in his common clothing, and Mari recalled him once saying that no Mage would bother looking at a common.

  When they reached the area of the university, Mari’s relief at finding it was submerged in a moment of shock and recognition. “Alain, I was right. When the Imperials built Palandur they copied Marandur. The university here is identical to the one in Marandur. Or rather identical to what the university in Marandur looked like before the city was destroyed.” There was the same open stretch of land separating the wa
lls of the university from the city around it, here a well-maintained park with clipped grass and trimmed trees ending in a brick wall standing about the height of two people. But the gate they could see in the wall stood wide open and no sentries stood guard over the students and other citizens wandering in and out. The city buildings facing the wall across the open area were bright, clean and tall, instead of the crumbling ruins which had menaced the university in Marandur, and crowds of people went about their business under the gaze of assorted Imperial police and officials.

  Alain was looking around, too. “It is strange to see here how the other place once was.”

  “Isn’t it?” Mari looked up, seeing the buildings rising above the top of the wall and easily picking out the mirror images of the offices where she had spoken to the masters of the university in Marandur, the structure where she and Alain had been given rooms, and the top of the big building which contained the steam boiler which provided heat to the university buildings. “It’s like seeing a very old person you knew who has suddenly become young again. It really brings home what was lost. I hated that city, the way it felt haunted, but now I just feel like crying over the waste of it all. We…Alain, we have to stop that from happening here, and in other cities.” She took a deep breath. “But we can’t gawk at this or we’ll be noticed. How should we lose this cop who’s following us?”

  Alain indicated an area where buildings housing sellers of food and drink had attracted a large gathering of students and other city dwellers. “We go there, enter a crowded place, and try to mislead the officer when we leave.”

  “And maybe we’ll get something to eat while we’re at it? All right.”

  Mari aimed for a bar which appeared to defy the laws of physics by having more people inside than could actually fit. Once inside, she slid sideways instead of moving toward the counter, pulling Alain with her as she hugged the wall. Mari caught glimpses of the officer as he entered, shook his head, then faded back out the door. “So much for that idea. He’s going to wait outside and pick us up when we leave.” She scanned the crowd. “But this is Palandur. Imperial codes say that any business has to have two exits. Where is the other one?”