The Assassins of Altis

by Jack Campbell

  Tugging Alain along with her, Mari wedged herself through the crowd, unable to spot the fire exit. “Hey!” another girl protested as Mari accidentally bumped her. “Wait your turn!”

  “We’re just trying to find the other exit,” Mari said, hoping a real local would know.

  “Why?”

  “Uh…this guy…he’s not my boyfriend…and there’s someone outside and…you know.”

  The girl grinned. “Yeah, I know. Guys get possessive. The back door is through there, past that set of shelves. Make sure you go left when you leave or you’ll end up back on the same street as the front entrance.”

  “Thanks!”

  Mari edged in that direction until they reached the shelves, finding a door with a faded “emergencies only” sign painted next to it. Judging by the wear and tear on the door it had been used fairly frequently for “emergencies.”

  The alley outside featured the usual stacks of trash and garbage, leaving a path leading both left and right. Mari took Alain left until they reached another street occupied by many pedestrians. “And, that, my Mage, is how people who aren’t Mages hide themselves from other people.”

  Alain nodded. “You created the illusion of one deceiving her friend.”

  “Yeah. It was kind of embarrassing,” Mari admitted. “I’ve never actually done that. I mean, cheat on a boyfriend.”

  “You have had boyfriends?”

  “I…hey, what kind of question is that?” She smiled at him. “In every way that matters, there was no one before you. Now that we’ve lost that Imperial, we need to leave the city as soon as we can, through the west gate. There are horse-drawn trolleys everywhere, so we’ll grab one and—” She stopped speaking. Alain was staring at her. “What does that look mean? This better not be about that boyfriend thing.”

  “It is not,” he said. “When you mentioned the west gate of the city. Great peril awaits us there now.”

  Mari grimaced. Alain’s foresight. “All right, then, maybe if we take the south gate—” Alain’s alarm grew visibly. “That, too? How about the north gate? Back to the east gate? Are you saying that there’s great peril awaiting us at every gate out of this city?”

  Alain nodded. “Very great peril. Someone watches for us to leave the city. In the time since we entered, something has happened.”

  She took a deep breath, calming herself as she thought. “Did the other Mages sense that you’re here?”

  “I am confident that they did not. If my presence could be detected, the Mages in Palandur would not be watching the gates. They would be coming to attack me.”

  “All right. That’s a good point. But we can’t stay here. We have to get out of this city.”

  Alain shook his head, his face grim enough for Mari to see the emotion. “I agree, but we cannot leave today. Mari, I have never seen such a dark warning from my foresight. It warns not just of peril but of death. We should not have come to Palandur, I think. This city is a trap.”

  Chapter Four

  Mari resisted the urge to punch the nearest wall in frustration. “I wish your foresight had told us that before we got here. It’s not like we had much choice. Every road in this region converges on Palandur, and the Imperials insist on everyone passing through the city security checks. Is there any hope that the threat will be less tomorrow?”

  “It may be. I do not know.”

  She stood looking around indecisively. “There are two other ways out of the city. We can try a boat or ship down the river—”

  Alain shook his head. “Great danger.”

  “—or we can take a train.” Mari paused, but this time Alain only looked concerned. “No warnings from your foresight about that?”

  “No. But Mechanic trains worry me for other reasons.”

  “I know. Alain, someday we’ll take a trip on a train and actually get where we’re going without being attacked or blown up or something. Why wouldn’t the Mages here be watching the train station?”

  He thought about that before answering. “Even though some Mage Guild elders know I used a Mechanic train at least once, on the occasion when they sent a Roc to attack us, it is likely that here they simply did not think of the Mechanic trains when considering ways to leave the city. They have guarded all the ways in which they believe that a Mage would leave the city and do not realize there is another way available to me.”

  Mari grimaced, brushing back her hair. “It never hurts to have an opponent with blind spots, but I don’t want to try the train here unless we absolutely have to. There are way too many Mechanics in Palandur who can recognize me and could easily be passing through the station. It wouldn’t be as dangerous as fighting our way out past Mages, but it wouldn’t be safe, either.”

  “Perhaps one night in Palandur would not be too dangerous, compared to the risks of leaving.”

  “Yeah,” Mari agreed. “I was thinking the same thing. Palandur is a big city, full of people, and with lots of places to disappear. We can go to ground and stay quiet. We spend the night here in one of the cheap hostels where we can get a room, no questions asked, then see how bad things look tomorrow.”

  Alain looked past her, his gaze slightly unfocused. “All I can tell from my foresight is that your plan does not make things worse,” he finally said.

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “You are welcome.” He hesitated. “Was that your sarcasm?”

  Despite everything, Mari couldn’t help smiling. “Yes. And a plan that doesn’t make things worse is probably the best we can hope for.”

  Alain didn’t try to smile back. “I should have foreseen the danger of coming here.”

  “Your foresight is unreliable, Alain,” Mari replied. “That’s not your fault. I think we should be grateful it kicked in when it did, before we got to one of those gates.” That seemed to make Alain feel better, so she kissed him, which made her feel better.

  Mari led the way again, heading for a low-rent part of Palandur where she knew cheap hostels would abound. It wasn’t an area which Mechanics normally frequented, but she had heard some male Mechanics at the academy boasting about brief but memorable stays in the hostel rooms there with some of the many courtesans who plied their trade in Palandur. By the time noon had come and gone, they were dropping their packs onto the dusty floor of a tiny room on the third floor. The smirking desk clerk had asked whether they wanted to pay for the night or for a much shorter period of time. Mari, with an angry look she couldn’t suppress, had paid for the night.

  Alain sat down on the thin mattress of the bed which dominated the room. “It should be very hard to find us here, even if we have to stay longer than one night.”

  Mari sighed, looking around the shabby room. “Yeah. Maybe. Though the idea of spending more than one night in this kind of accommodation is less than appealing. I still want to leave this city as soon as possible. There are way too many dangers here. My Guild’s headquarters. Your Guild’s headquarters. The Imperial police. All the instructors and other Mechanics I knew in my days at the Mechanic Academy. The sooner we’re headed for Landfall, the better.”

  Alain nodded in agreement. “We can try again tomorrow.”

  Mari pulled out of her pack the remnants of the food they had bought on the road. As she did so, her eyes fell upon the petition from the university in Marandur. Mari had a brief fantasy of carrying the petition to the Emperor, of the Emperor realizing the injustice being done to the survivors trapped inside the university, ordering it corrected, and then offering aid to Mari in her own efforts. That fantasy dissolved into an image of the Imperial Center for Truth, the place where prisoners were sent to confess whatever “truth” Imperial authorities wanted to hear. As a Mechanic, Mari had exchanged horror stories about the place with other Mechanics, safe in the knowledge that she would never face Imperial torture designed to produce confessions. Now that assurance of protection from the Imperials had vanished along with a lot of other certainties.

  Nor did she think the Emperor was very
likely to be a reliable or trustworthy ally, even assuming he didn’t immediately sell her to the Mechanics Guild in exchange for some small advantage. The rulers of the common people on Dematr, regardless of whether they were elected by the people or occupied a mighty throne like that of the Empire, actually served the whims and demands of the Mechanics Guild and the Mage Guild. No government, no city or country, could survive if either Guild withheld its services and granted special support to the enemies of that government or country. The support of one of the Great Guilds could also be bought, of course, as long as the price was high enough and the goal sought did not conflict with the aims of the Guilds. The Mage Guild and the Mechanics Guild had a long history of hatred and conflict between them, but they were effectively allies in keeping the common folk slaves to the desires of the Guilds.

  The common folk had long chafed under their servitude to the Great Guilds. Mari knew she would find many allies among the commons, but the Great Guilds could not have maintained their power for centuries without the aid of common allies who would sell out their fellows for power or money. She could not afford to trust everyone, and especially not anyone near the Emperor. There were plenty of stories about Imperial politics, and none of them inspired confidence in the Imperial court.

  Mari carefully resettled the petition in her pack, knowing that it could not be delivered at this time without ensuring her own painful death.

  “Is something wrong?” Alain asked.

  “We need more to eat,” Mari replied, not wanting to talk about depressing things at the moment. “Listen, the Imperial cops and your Guild are looking for two people, right? As far as I know, my Guild has no idea I’m around here, and we're in a part of Palandur where Mechanics rarely come during the day. Senior Mechanics wouldn't expect any Mechanic to stay in a place like this, so they shouldn't be looking here even if they suspect I'm in Palandur. If any Mechanics do show up I'll be able to spot them easily by their jackets and stay out of sight. We need food and a few other things. Why don’t I go alone to the nearest market area and pick stuff up?” Alain eyed her, his face completely impassive. She knew what that meant by now. He was worried and withdrawing into his Mage persona because he couldn’t show his concern. But at least this time his foresight wasn’t setting off any alarms. “Alain, I’m a big girl. I’ll be all right. It won’t take long.”

  “I could go instead and run this risk,” Alain volunteered.

  Mari came close and hugged him. “My love, you can do incredible things and think of stuff I never could, but you still have very little grasp of money and you don’t know how to bargain. An outdoor market isn’t like a storefront business where the prices are set and posted up front. In time I’ll teach you enough about those things that you can get by Right now you’d be cheated by the merchants and maybe get robbed as well, even if the nearest Imperial cops didn’t get suspicious of you. I can handle this. I won’t be that far off.”

  He nodded slowly. “If you think it should be done this way.”

  “Just stay safe here. You can watch our packs and keep them safe. If anything happens to me—”

  “I will come looking for you.” Alain’s voice was calm, unemotional, and unyielding.

  Mari gazed at him and knew argument would be futile. She felt both aggravation and a strong sense of reassurance. “All right.”

  She rattled down the cheap stairs, hoping to get her errands done quickly. As worried as she was about being caught herself, Mari felt even worse at the idea of Alain being caught if he tried to rescue her.

  The nearest market square was easy to find, with sellers shouting out the virtues of their wares and a steady stream of people entering and leaving thearea Mari lounged against a building for a while, studying the scene and watching for anyone who might be watching for her. Nothing unusual caught her eye, just the normal mix of common people going about their business, children darting among the crowd while stressed-out parents tried to rein them in, a few young couples clinging to each other, older folks sitting as they played cards or talked. To one side a street band played string instruments, their regulation street performer license posted nearby just in case any of the ubiquitous Imperial police wandered past.

  Mari sighed as she took it all in. After everything she and Alain had been through in the last several months, the peaceful and familiar scene felt comforting as well as dreamlike.

  But those thoughts led her back to Marandur, and for a moment Mari saw not this market square in Palandur crowded with life, but one of the ruined squares in Marandur, surrounded by crumbling, dead buildings and choked with rubble, rusting weapons and armor, and the splintered bones of the uncounted men, women and children who had died long before.

  She blinked to clear her eyes of the vision and the tears it threatened to bring. Alain and I might have struggled our way through the square in Marandur which was the counterpart of this one. Everything here in Palandur seems so unchanging, like it was always here and always will be. But that’s an illusion. It will vanish, replaced by death and emptiness, and it will vanish soon if I can’t figure out how to do something that no one on Dematr has ever managed. Even the Empire will descend into the same chaos as Tiae if the grip of the Great Guilds isn’t lifted from this world, and all cities will become like Marandur.

  Sometimes the whole prophecy and daughter thing feels overwhelming. Sometimes? Every time I think about it. But Alain is right. We can’t give up and we can’t afford to fail.

  Swallowing and then breathing deeply to regain her composure, Mari

  dove into the crowd of customers, trying to lose herself in her shopping tasks.

  She felt more secure in the crowded marketplace. Without her Mechanics jacket on she was just one more person in the mass of commoners. Surely her and Alain’s enemies would have an impossible problem trying to find one of them in such a place. Mari went from seller to seller, picking up some necessary travel supplies, lingering for while over a jewelry display. She found herself looking at pairs of matching rings. Promise rings. Do I want to marry him? That other vision said it will happen. Might happen. There are no certainties, as my Mage keeps telling me. The stars above know that I could do a lot worse. Did I ever think I’d be looking at promise rings and thinking of a Mage?

  What am I waiting for, anyway? He loves me. He’s risked his life for me so many times already that I can’t keep count. He trusts me. He respects me. He’s never failed me. And I love him. I have no trouble at all imagining myself with him. Mentally and physically. But he’s respecting my wishes to wait. What else do I want in a partner? What else could I possibly ask for? He’s already proposed to me. Why not say yes and promise myself to him?

  And then someday Alain and I can have a daughter, and she can grow up until she’s about eight years old and go off to the Mechanics Guild schools and we can cut her completely out of our lives without a single letter of explanation or a single word of goodbye or any sign at all that her mother and father knew they were ripping out a little girl’s heart

  Mari shuddered, biting her lip so hard she tasted blood, blinking away tears born of old anger and sorrow. You’re over that. Remember? So what if your mother and father cut all ties after you went to the Mechanics Guild schools? You’re grown up now. You’re too strong to let that get to you. They can’t hurt you any more.

  Why? Why couldn’t they have sent one letter?

  I won’t be like that. I could never do that to my child.

  I don’t care what my mother did. I’m not her.

  I could never hate her. Not even now. Doesn’t that mean I’m different?

  But Mother never showed any signs of being like that. None I can remember. How do I know I won’t turn into that?

  Face it, this isn’t about Alain. It’s about my worries about me. Until I resolve those fears, I’ll never know if I’m somebody who might be willing to cast her own daughter aside without a single look back.

  Shaking her head in anguish and confusion over her
feelings, Mari composed herself, then went to the food stalls to buy some provisions for the night’s meal and the journey to Landfall. She had just paid for the last and bent down to pick up her bags of purchases when a soft, emotionless voice sounded next to her.

  “Mechanic Mari.”

  Mari froze, her heart hammering in her chest, then slowly looked up to meet the gaze of a pair of beautiful blue eyes. The eyes were set in an even more beautiful face framed by long blond hair, all it mostly hidden within the cowl of a Mage’s robes. “Asha.” Then her shock subsided enough for Mari’s manners to come back to her. “Mage Asha. Sorry, Lady Mage.”

  “I need to speak with Mage Alain.” Asha pulled her cowl a little higher to better hide her face and hair, but even with her Mage attempts to keep emotion from her voice, Mari could hear a faint note of urgency. Being around Alain had made her much more sensitive to subtle signs of emotion. “Is Mage Alain still safe?” Asha asked.

  “As safe as I am. Which is to say, not nearly enough.” The crowds around them were all edging away, putting distance between themselves and the Mage. A few spared pitying glances for Mari. A pair of Imperial police on a corner were looking in another direction as if unaware of anything going on. Everyone watching thought Mari was a common like them whom a Mage had decided to hijack as a personal servant or to torture or for some other reason inexplicable to normal people. None of them were crazy enough to try to interfere, because no one in his or her right mind invited the attention of Mages. “Let’s pretend you’ve told me to come with you,” Mari said. “Go to your right, out of the market and down that street with the tavern on the corner. I’ll follow looking meek and terrified.”