Mari had always been unhappy with being talked down to, but willing to tolerate it. After all, Mari had been inexperienced, her instructors were indeed the best in their fields, and her knowledge of the world had been second-hand, since she had been kept within Mechanics schools since being forced to leave her family at a young age.
But she wasn’t that inexperienced girl any more and she had seen a great deal of the world in the last several months. “Professor T’mos, how can you tell me something that you know isn’t true? Do you honestly believe that the Mechanics Guild is right to deny truth solely so that it can maintain its hold on power? Aren’t you alarmed by the way the technology used by the Guild is deteriorating, regressing as we lose the ability to make and do certain things because anything that might be considered innovation or change is prohibited? You’re a smart Mechanic. Surely you can see that the road the Guild is following is a dead end.”
T’mos smiled sadly. “Mari. Always the questioning one, aren’t you? If there are things you think you know, then you need to lay them out before the Guild so—”
“I did.” Mari spread her hands. “And I was put under a Guild interdict and sent into great danger.”
“No.” T’mos displayed an annoyance at being interrupted that Mari recognized. He always had treated her like a child of his, hadn’t he? “You’re under an arrest order because you didn’t listen, because you jumped without thinking. How many times did we discuss your impulsiveness? And now here you are! You and whoever it is you’re traveling with.” He glanced around, studying the other people in the waiting area.
So the Guild now knew or suspected that she had a traveling companion, but still didn’t know who it was. Mari, sensitized to spotting subtle emotions by being with Alain, thought she detected another layer of aggravation beneath the professor’s annoyance. Maybe, as Professor S’san had suggested, T’mos really had once thought that he and she would end up together as something much more than professor and student, though still authority figure and obedient follower. The thought made her stomach clench with sudden nausea. “The Guild thinks that I’m traveling with someone?” Mari asked, hoping to learn more of whatever the Guild knew and get T’mos’ attention back on her.
Professor T’mos shook his head and sighed with disappointment. She recognized that, too, and was ready when T’mos tried his next approach. “The Guild knows a great deal more than you give it credit for, Mari. You’re a Mechanic. Descended from those who came from the stars themselves. So am I. This other Mechanic…I assume he’s a Mechanic…”
Mari knew she was probably flushing in anger a bit at T’mos’ tone, but it wouldn’t be hard to make the professor think that her reaction reflected embarrassment. “You don’t think that I’d take up with a common, do you?”
“Of course not, Mari,” T’mos said, smugness tingeing his words. He apparently thought that he had tricked her into confirming something. “This Mechanic, whoever he is…?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“All right, Mari, but he doesn’t have your best interests at heart.”
“He…seemed all right,” Mari suggested.
“Can’t you trust me more than some romantic fling you’ve picked up? Is he behind this? Is he driving it? Controlling you? Listen, the Guild can protect you. We’re your true comrades. Turn yourself in, young lady. For your own sake.”
Mari pretended to think about it. T’mos appeared to believe that his old manipulations would get through to Mari, as if she hadn’t changed in the least since leaving the academy. Is he “controlling” me? Does T’mos believe that I can’t think or act on my own? All right, then. Perhaps I need to give my old professor another illusion to play with so Alain and I can get out of Palandur in one piece. “Professor,” she whispered, “I am worried. I never meant things to go this far.”
T’mos smiled encouragingly. “It’s not too late. Trust me.”
“I will.” Recalling the old saying about lying like a Mage, Mari looked around with a nervousness she didn’t have to feign. “I’m meeting someone here. He’s supposed to arrive this afternoon. I’m staying at one of the old hostels in the Devjin District. Tonight I’ll get him to come with me to Empress Tesa Square. We’ll go to the café facing the fountain of the Empress. You know the one.”
T’mos nodded, easily recognizing the name of an area in Palandur near the Academy where Mechanics often went for food or drink. “The Rakesh café?”
“Yes! I won’t let…my friend… know what’s going on, but I’ll bring him so you can talk to him, too.”
The professor nodded again, his lips curving into an approving and confident smile. “And you’ll be ready to turn yourself in?”
“I don’t know,” Mari temporized. “Why don’t you come alone and talk to both of us? Is that all right, Professor?” For a moment, she worried that she had overdone the innocent young student act, but T’mos apparently didn’t think that she was acting.
“Of course, Mari,” T’mos said soothingly. “Of course. I’ll come, we’ll talk with this man you’re traveling with, and we’ll get things resolved, eh? But you must ensure he comes along with you. I want the chance to reason with him as well.”
Mari nodded, looking at his eyes and seeing, just as she had expected, that Professor T’mos planned on arriving in Empress Tesa Square with an army of Mechanics at his back, intending to scoop her up along with “this man.” “That’s a good plan. I’m so glad you’ve helped me think this through.”
Surely Professor T’mos couldn’t believe that she was that naïve. But T’mos merely smiled with benign approval, showing no sign of doubting her apparent lack of sophistication.
“Now, please, Professor,” Mari said, “you must go. If he sees you when he gets here, he might get suspicious and may not agree to go to Empress Tesa Square.”
“That’s what we will do then.” T’mos reached out to grasp her upper arm, holding on and squeezing lightly with every sign of affection. “I’ve missed you, Mari. I’ll do what I can to straighten out this mess, and maybe we can work together again. That assistant teaching position is still available.”
Mari managed to fake another smile as her guts knotted again. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
T’mos nodded a final time, and with a knowing wink started away, but then turned back, causing Mari to catch her breath for fear that he had seen through her. “Empress Tesa Square, the Rakesh café, tonight,” T’mos said. “What time?”
“Three hours after sunset.”
“That’s fairly late, but I’ll be there.” With another wink, T’mos left. Mari watched him go, wondering why she had never noticed before that the professor strutted when he walked.
She waited a little while, knowing that Alain was still discreetly watching, then slowly walked toward the door the professor had used, gazing out at the increasing number of people rushing to and fro, yawning and reluctant, as the work day and workers woke to life. T’mos was barely visible down the street, striding along with no sign of special haste, apparently confident that Mari would do as she had said. Mari studied the entire area, but could find no indication of other watchers, though she could see a wide plume of smoke still rising in the direction of the Gorgan district.
Finally going back to the bench, she sat down next to Alain without looking at him. “That was an old professor of mine,” she murmured. “You have permission to say, ‘I told you it wasn’t wise to go over there, darling.’”
“I told you it was not wise to go over there, darling,” Alain repeated tonelessly.
“You’re right, dear.” Mari sighed heavily.
“The meeting did not seem to go well on your side,” Alain spoke softly to her. “But this old teacher of yours departed looking very satisfied.”
“Right. He thinks I’m going to hand myself over to the Mechanics Guild on a silver platter tonight”
“He does not think you are leaving?” asked Alain an uncharacteristic amount of surprise noticeable
in his voice. “Even though you are here where the Mechanic trains leave?”
“No, he doesn’t.” Mari looked toward the door by which Professor T’mos had left. “I told him I was waiting for someone to arrive, and he wants to catch that someone even more than he does me. I guess he couldn’t conceive that I’d be clever enough to lie to him. It’s strange, Alain. When I met Professor S’san again she was everything I remembered, and she treated me like someone she respected who had grown since I’d last seen her. But Professor T’mos turned out to be a bit different from what I’d remembered, and he acted like I was still a snot-nosed youth trying to figure out which end of a hammer to use. It’s funny how sometimes the world turns out to be like we expect and other times totally different.”
“It is all just an illusion,” Alain assured her. “This Professor T’mos sees the shadow of you he wishes to see, even though it is not you.”
“Sometimes I wish I believed it was just different illusions,” Mari said. “That nothing is real. When things seem really bad, believing that must be comforting.”
“Sometimes,” Alain said. “Other times it makes you question why you should try. If nothing is real, then what difference does anything you do make?”
Mari smiled and looked at him. “You’ve made a very big difference for me. You’ve never let me down, and I think of you more often than I probably should because it usually makes me happy to do so. Hello, Asha,” she called softly to the air, feeling a little giddy after her narrow escape from T’mos. “I’m transmitting again! How’s the bonfire?”
Alain looked baffled once more. “You find that amusing now?”
“Yeah.”
“But a short time ago you were very upset by it.”
Mari nodded. “Yes. What’s your point?”
“Then you have decided this transmitting is humorous?” Alain asked, relieved.
“No,” Mari informed him. “Next time it comes up I might be upset again.”
Alain sat quiet for a while before speaking slowly. “So any time this transmitting comes up you might find it amusing, or you might find it upsetting?”
“Yeah.”
“How am I supposed to know in advance whether you will laugh or get angry when the subject comes up?” Alain asked.
“You can’t.” Mari gave him a barely apologetic look. “Sorry.”
“I see.” Alain nodded, bewilderment showing in his eyes.
“I said I was sorry. That’s just the way it is.”
Alain scratched his head, then gave her one of his small smiles. “Then I will just think of it as another adventure.”
“That’s the spirit.” An apprentice came through the room, calling out that boarding was now permitted for the train to Landfall. “Thank the stars. What a time we’ve had here. I feel better about leaving Palandur than I did about leaving…that other city.” Stars above, she had almost said Marandur out loud. Mari shook her head, wondering if her carelessness was going to get both of them killed.
Despite Mari’s fears, they managed to board the train without anyone recognizing her, partly by keeping Alain between her and any Mechanic who passed by. She waited with increasing nervousness after they sat down in one of the coaches intended for common passengers, worrying that T’mos would tell some other Mechanics of her presence at the station.
But apparently she had judged him rightly as wanting to ensure that her “friend” was captured as well. The train pulled out of Palundur on time and was soon rolling uneventfully through the gentle countryside of the central Empire. The only problem was that Alain sat by her side, unusually tense, looking around constantly for danger. “Relax,” Mari told him for at least the tenth time. “I admit our earlier train trips have included some unfortunate events, but nothing is going to go wrong this time.”
“The Mage Guild in Palandur—” Alain began.
“Is still trying to sort out what happened last night and whether or not that troll tore you into tiny pieces and stomped on them. You still haven’t sensed any other Mages nearby, right?”
“I did not last night, either,” Alain said, peering suspiciously out the window at a distant speck in the sky. “I do not think that is a Roc, but I will keep an eye on it.”
“Fine. Enjoy yourself.” Mari settled back, trying to relax. The city of Landfall was a long way off, but the train made excellent time over the even terrain. After the adventures of the previous night, Mari found herself dozing off, waking once after sleeping for some time, and then insisting that Alain get some rest while she stayed alert. “Yes, I promise to watch for Rocs.”
Mari glanced at the setting sun as the express train finally slowed again to pick up passengers and cargo at the big station where the roads from Centin in the north and Alfarin to the south joined with the road between Palandur and Landfall. Alain had awakened when the train stopped. She grinned at him. “I can’t help wishing I could see the expression on Professor T’mos’ face when he realizes I’m not going to show up in Empress Tesa Square. Though I think he’s going to be more disappointed at not getting his hands on you.”
Alain frowned at her. “You said something like that before. Why would this old teacher of yours have any feelings against me?”
“It’s a long story, and to be perfectly honest it sort of makes me sick to my stomach to think about it now, so if you don’t mind I’ll fill you in at some future time.”
The stop was long enough to make Mari have to fight off fidgeting. They were so close now to getting out of the Empire. So close to avoiding the death sentence mandated for anyone who entered the forbidden city of Marandur, and so close to embarking for Altis to search for the mysterious tower that might hold a lot of answers that she needed to have.
An alert would go out once she didn’t show up in Empress Tesa Square, transmitted through the big far-talkers in the Mechanics Guild Halls. But it would be a few more hours before that happened, and by then they should be much closer to Landfall. “We’ll have to figure out how to leave this train before it reaches the station in Landfall,” Mari murmured to Alain. “My Guild will have sent out word by then that I might be aboard. The train will have to slow down a lot when it reaches the outskirts of Landfall, though, so we should have plenty of chances to jump off.”
His gaze on her was intense. “Jump off? As we did last time?”
“Well, no,” Mari said. “That time the train was going a lot faster and we had to fall farther and we couldn’t see what we were jumping into. This time should be a lot easier.”
A few new passengers came into their carriage and took seats nearby as the train finally lurched back into motion, gathering speed slowly. “What were all those cops doing?” one asked another.
The question was met with a shrug. “Checking all the people getting off. Another security alert, I suppose. A lot of the police got on the train, too, did you see? In the first passenger carriage. I guess they’re looking for someone again. An escaped convict, maybe.”
The first man spoke in a lower voice. “I heard the police are looking for two people who left Marandur. There’s been legionaries and police all over the roads back east of here.”
“Really? Anyone fool enough to go to Marandur gets what they deserve.”
“Well, some folk say whoever came out originally went in a very long time ago.” The man lowered his voice as he whispered to the other.
Mari turned to Alain. “Imperial police are on the train. They’re in the front cars and moving back, looking for us.”
He nodded, looking out the window beside him. “I heard.”
“Any ideas?” she asked.
“Not at the moment.”
The train kept gathering speed. Mari gazed bleakly through the window at the landscape rushing by, then ahead to where the Imperial police were undoubtedly methodically checking every passenger before moving back to the next passenger carriage. She had seen Imperial officers conducting searches and knew just how efficient they could be. Their packs would be s
earched, and what was in them would ensure that she and Alain were recognized and arrested. “Hiding won’t work and fighting would be hopeless. We could overcome the cops on the train, maybe, but hundreds of others would converge on wherever the train stopped.”
“Yes,” Alain agreed.
“That only leaves one alternative.”
“I was afraid that you would say that.”
Chapter Six
Alain waited for Mari to explain exactly what she was going to do, thinking as he waited that it had indeed been a mistake to try traveling on a Mechanic train again. Night had fallen completely, so that once they had left the lights at the Mechanic train station the inside of this coach had become as dark as the outside.
Mari leaned back and whispered in Alain’s ear. “Time to go.”
That was a bit worrisome, given the speed with which the land outside was rolling by.
Straightening herself up, Mari spoke in a tired but nonchalant voice just loud enough to carry a bit. “I think there are more seats in the next carriage, so we can lie down to sleep. Do you mind moving?”
Alain stood, pulling Mari’s pack down from the shelves that ran over their heads, then his own pack as well. “We can attempt it.”
She led the way out the rear door of their car and onto a small platform that led to the similar platform on the front of the next car on the train. Walking across the small gap between the platforms would bring them to a door leading into the front of the next car. Instead of proceeding to the door, though, Mari went to the railings on the side and looked out and over, squinting her eyes against the wind created by the motion of the train. Leaning back again, she made a helpless gesture. “I can’t see far enough ahead in the dark to spot any good places to land, and we don’t dare wait to jump anyway.”
The Assassins of Altis Page 11