The Assassins of Altis

by Jack Campbell

  “Great,” Mari groused. “So even in Caer Lyn we’ll have to worry about the long arm of the Empire. Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  “What bridge is that?”

  One moment he was explaining geo-politics and history to her, and the next he was confused by something simple and everyday. Mari closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then looked at Alain. “That is a figure of speech. It means we will deal with that situation when we encounter that situation.”

  He nodded back, his expression serious.

  “The ferry is the Sun Runner,” Mari continued. “Let’s go get the tickets. I’ll go first, with you in line behind me, and you can just copy what you see me say and do. All right?”

  The plan worked without any problem, though the length of the line to get past Imperial customs and border control worried Mari when she saw how close it was getting to the Sun Runner’s sailing time. The line moved slowly, everyone waiting with the stolid acceptance of official inconvenience that marked life in a state such as the Empire. When Mari finally reached an official, that woman eyed Mari’s papers with disinterest. “Traveling alone?”

  “Yes.” An Imperial customs official just wasn’t as intimidating as a troll.

  “Purpose of travel?”

  “I spent a few years in Caer Lyn as a child.” Alain had taught her that lying by telling a misleading truth was far less likely to be apparent to any questioner than telling a complete fabrication.

  “Emdin,” the officer commented. “You came straight from there?”

  “Yes,” Mari replied. “Through Alfarin.”

  “Have you been north or east of Alfarin?” the officer pressed.

  That called for a flat-out lie. “No. I went from Emdin to Alfarin and then here.” Mari tried to look and sound like a rustic girl who didn’t have much experience in the wider world. “Should I have gone another way?”

  “No,” the officer replied, sighing in the manner of someone tired of dealing with the public. “Did you see any unusual travelers? A pair of them, one an uncommonly attractive young woman with dark hair, the other a young man? They might have been claiming to be students at the university in Palandur.”

  “I saw many other travelers, but none that seemed unusual,” Mari said, wondering again at why the Imperials seemed focused on an “uncommonly attractive” young woman. “I didn’t meet anyone who looked like that.”

  The officer glanced at Mari’s pack. “Are you carrying any contraband?”

  “No.” Not by Imperial definitions, anyway. It was the Mechanics Guild which had banned the ancient texts in Mari’s pack, manuscripts which the Imperials didn’t even know existed.

  “Pass.” The official handed back Mari’s papers and gestured her onward.

  Mari went up the gangway onto the Sun Runner and leaned on a rail, looking down at the pier where Alain was just reaching another Imperial official to be interviewed. She wasn’t too worried about how well Alain would handle that. The ability of Mages to lie without any sign of misgiving or deception was legendary.

  Sure enough, after a very brief interview Alain was waved onward and came up the gangway. He glanced at Mari, then once aboard took a place at the rail nowhere near her but still within eyesight.

  It wasn’t too much later that whistles sounded and sailors began taking in the gangway and the lines holding the Sun Runner to the shore. Commands were shouted from the high quarterdeck at the stern of the ferry where the ship’s wheel rested. More sailors ran up into the rigging and along the spars, and soon sails unfurled on the masts above the ship, shining white against the blue sky. Mari felt the ferry lurch beneath her as the sails caught the wind. The Sun Runner swung out away from the pier and into the harbor, then began gliding across the water toward the harbor entrance.

  Mari watched the city of Landfall and the territory of the Empire slowly recede, thinking about when she had entered the Empire with Alain months ago and far to the north from the mountains of the Northern Ramparts. We made it. Through the heart of the Empire, through the forbidden city of Marandur itself, and out through the Empire’s oldest and largest port.

  Maybe Alain and I can actually sleep in peace tonight, without keeping one eye open for danger. I’ve forgotten how that feels.

  Several commons were talking in low voices nearby, just loudly enough for Mari to catch the conversation. She had been trying to ignore them, but then Mari heard something about Jules and listened closer.

  “She was seen in the Northern Ramparts,” a woman insisted. “Just a few months ago. The daughter of Jules. Wearing a Mechanics jacket, she slew a dragon single-handed to save some commons, wouldn’t take any payment, and healed a dozen badly injured soldiers with the touch of her hand.”

  “Nobody wearing a Mechanics jacket would care about commons,” a man grumbled.

  “She did, but she didn’t act like a Mechanic except that she fixed all of their Mechanic weapons, too. And then,” the woman added, “a Mage showed up and swore allegiance to her and they went off together. People saw it. Some say she’s on her way to see the Emperor, to ask him to let her lead the legions against the Great Guilds.”

  Mari pressed the palm of one hand against her forehead, closing her eyes to try to block out this latest development. Blasted soldiers. I save their lives and this is the thanks I get, them telling everybody who I am!

  Stars above. I thought “who I am.” Not “who people think I am.” Am I starting to accept it? Am I starting to believe that I really am the daughter? I don’t want to be her. I don’t want that responsibility. But…she’s needed.

  Caught in the internal discomfort of her thoughts, Mari barely noticed the second man shaking his head, but when he started speaking his words immediately caught her attention again.

  “I don’t doubt she’s trying to get to the Emperor,” the man said in a low voice. “I’m sure she wants back in the palace again, after all these centuries.”

  “What?” the woman asked in anxious tones. “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve heard of Mara, haven’t you?” the second man whispered. “Consort to the first emperor, Maran himself? So incredibly beautiful, they say she bewitched Maran and almost ran the Empire for a time.”

  The first man nodded. “I heard about that. She never wanted to get old, so she made a deal with the Mages to keep herself young forever. But it’s just a story, isn’t it?”

  “Some say it is, some say it isn’t.”

  “How could even the Mages keep someone young forever?” the woman asked.

  “I don’t know,” the second man said. “It must be pretty hard, or pretty terrible, but she had the entire Imperial treasury to pay them off, and Maran’s hand backing her.” The man lowered his voice so much that Mari had to strain to hear it. Not that she wanted to hear it, but her curiosity was too strong by this point. “She doesn’t age, because she’s not really alive and not really dead. Mara drinks blood, they say, to keep herself looking young, the blood of young men. She has no trouble seducing them to their deaths because Mara is still as beautiful as she was when Maran reigned. And after all these centuries she knows more magic than any Mage. They say the Emperor Palan himself sealed her into a tomb in the old Imperial capital when the city was destroyed, but there are reliable stories that somebody or something came out of Marandur recently. You must have seen how the police have been extra vigilant lately, checking anyone traveling. Word is they’re looking for whoever left Marandur, where Mara has been imprisoned in her lair for more than a century. Someone woke her up. Someone freed her. She’s come out now. That’s what’s trying to get to the Emperor and back in the palace again. Mara the Undying.”

  A hush fell over the three commons, while Mari stared at the waves, aghast.

  “But,” the woman finally asked, “what if she really is the daughter of Jules and not Mara?”

  “Believe what you like, but if I meet her I’m going to be looking to see if her teeth have sharp points,”
the second man said.

  “I’m not so young anymore,” the first man remarked, “so I guess she wouldn’t want my blood, and I’m not a citizen of the Empire, so it doesn’t matter to me whether she’s Mara or the daughter of Jules, as long as she does in the Great Guilds.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” the second man muttered.

  The small group wandered off past Mari, who stayed leaning on the rail, hoping her expression didn’t show how appalled she was. I thought it was bad enough being the daughter of Jules. But that’s a lot better than having people think I’m an undead, vain, blood-drinking seducer of emperors and young men.

  At least it explains why the Imperials keep asking about a very good-looking dark-haired young woman. They actually think Mara might have been the one who left Marandur? Granted, if any place would be a suitable lair for the undead it would be Marandur. I suppose the only good thing about that rumor is that no one is likely to recognize me from it. Incredibly beautiful? That’s about as true as the sharp teeth.

  Though now she felt an irrational urge to find a mirror and check how her teeth looked.

  Mara the Undying. Stars above. I’ll take being the daughter of Jules any day over that.

  #

  Alain blinked against the late afternoon sun as he looked forward along the deck, then aft. The Sun Runner was sailing slightly south of west to reach Caer Lyn, with an easy breeze filling her sails and a pleasant sea sending gentle swells to meet her. They had been at sea for a while now, the Imperial coast had long since vanished beneath the horizon, and even though he and Mari had been on the alert for anyone watching them, no one seemed to be paying them any particular attention.

  But Mari had insisted on waiting to go to their cabins. “If anyone on the Sun Runner is pursuing us, I want to see them before they find out which cabin we’re staying in tonight. Who knows how many Imperial agents are aboard this ship. We can’t afford to be trapped in a room.”

  He had recognized the wisdom of that, and so had waited while Mari joined him for periods and then left, to see if anyone followed her. After what had happened in Palandur, that sort of concern was only prudent. “There are no Mages aboard as far as I can tell,” he had told Mari, which was one thing to be glad of. But he was tired of hauling his pack around, tired of standing at the rail, and was looking forward to tonight, when he and Mari would be catching up on their sleep in an actual bed in one of their cabins.

  That was all they would be doing in that bed, of course. Alain remembered Mari joking about how her legs looked, and tried to think about something else.

  “Hey.” Mari came toward him after her last attempt to check for anyone following her, yawning again. “I can’t wait to find one of our cabins and take off this pack. I’m thinking if anyone aboard was after us, they would have betrayed themselves somehow by now. Still no foresight warning?”

  “No, but you know that does not mean danger does not exist.”

  “It’s something, though.” Mari yawned hugely this time. “Stars above, I’m tired. It’s been a long trip from you-know-where. We should turn in soon. Do you know some people always sleep at night and stay awake during the day? I think they’re called normal.”

  “How boring,” Alain responded. “They probably also never get attacked by trolls or dragons.”

  “I haven’t decided which I like least. Dragons are definitely faster, though. I prefer enemies I have a chance to run away from.” Mari leaned on the railing with her arm touching Alain’s, sighing happily. “Do you realize how long we spent inside the Empire? It’s great to at least feel free again. And aside from Asha, whom I’m doubtless transmitting to at this very moment, we shouldn’t have to worry about anyone from our Guilds locating us until we reach Caer Lyn.”

  “Asha will not tell any elder where we are. She is in as much danger from the elders now as are we. But even if there are no agents on this ship, the Imperials in port will be checking people arriving at Caer Lyn,” Alain cautioned.

  “We’ll just do the same thing we did when we got on the ship. Once we’re both off this ship, we’ll find a ship headed for Altis and get right on it. I don’t want to spend an instant longer in Caer Lyn than we have to. For safety.”

  “For safety,” Alain repeated in a neutral voice. He knew she was not being honest with herself, and she knew she was not being honest with herself, but Alain thought that he had pushed her enough on that for now. He wondered if Mari would feel any differently when she actually saw once again the city she had once called home.

  “You know,” Mari added thoughtfully, “we really need to plan things out more instead of just rushing into them. Develop a nice, detailed plan and then carry it out, just like we did when we got on this ship. We should try to do that every time from now on.”

  Alain was about to reply when he heard whistles sounding and looked up. Sailors were rushing into the rigging again, and soon the motion of the Sun Runner altered, the gentle rolling turning into a slow wallow as the sails were furled overhead and the ship glided to a stop. Mari stared at Alain, then at the empty sea before them, then back at the deck house blocking their view of the other side of the ship. Together, they rushed to the nearest passage across the deck.

  Alain caught up with Mari as she came to the rail on the other side of the ship. Mari did not say anything, just pointed, face rigid. Another ship had approached, a ship with only short, stubby masts and no sails visible. A stream of pale smoke rose from a huge tube rising out of the center of the strange ship, which was almost completely made of metal. On the front of the other ship, something which looked like a very large version of the Mechanic weapons Alain had seen was mounted on the deck and pointing at their own ship. A pair of large boats were already in the water, being rowed over toward the ship Alain and Mari were on, the dark jackets of the Mechanics crowding the boats easily visible.

  Chapter Seven

  “The Mechanics Guild,” Mari breathed. “That’s one of their steam-powered ships. There are hardly any of those left working any more, but they’re so much faster than sailing ships that they must have caught the Sun Runner easily. How did they know I was on board this ship? How did they know to intercept this ship?”

  “What do we do?” Alain asked.

  “We can’t jump off like we did the train.” Mari rubbed her forehead, her face frantic. “Our only chance is to try to hide somewhere below deck.”

  Mari turned, starting to fight her way through the crowds of passengers boiling out onto the deck to point and stare and wonder what had led the Mechanics Guild to stop this ship. Alain stayed close to her, frustrated by the slow progress they were making. The crowd on deck had become so dense that it was hard to move at all even though ahead of him Mari was shoving hard.

  Suddenly a group of Mechanics wedged their way between Alain and Mari, using the butts of their weapons to strike at anyone in their way. Alain had to stagger back a half-step to avoid having one of the weapons strike him, then found himself separated from Mari. He lunged forward, disregarding the cries of anger from commons he was pushing aside. Alain made it through a knot of commons, then maybe a lance length farther, and suddenly found himself at the edge of a small area of deck cleared of commons.

  He stopped, gazing at the scene within that area.

  Mari was standing still, facing several Mechanics. Two had Mechanic weapons pointed at her. One middle-aged male Mechanic reached forward and roughly jerked back Mari’s coat, checking the area under her shoulder. “Not carrying the pistol today, Mari?” he demanded.

  “It’s in my pack,” Mari answered. “Honored Senior Mechanic,” she added in the kind of voice which Alain had learned meant sarcasm.

  The Senior Mechanic’s hand rose, but he stopped before hitting Mari. “Where’s your friend?”

  “I have no friends,” Mari replied in a voice now emotionless.

  “That’s probably the only thing you’re going to say that I’ll agree with,” the Senior Mechanic noted coldly.
“But the Guild knows that you were traveling with someone. Where is he?”

  Mari shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Answer me! Is he on this ship?”

  Alain could see Mari’s mocking smile. “We split up a while ago. Doesn’t the Guild know that?”

  Another Mechanic took Mari’s pack. “Should I search it?”

  “No!” the Senior Mechanic barked. “Don’t look in there. It will be searched later, by authorized Senior Mechanics only.”

  Alain could see the resentment in the other Mechanic at the Senior Mechanic’s haughty tone, but he stood obediently holding Mari’s pack.

  At a gesture from the Senior Mechanic, a female Mechanic stepped forward and patted her hands all over Mari’s clothing, then stepped back. “No concealed weapons,” she reported.

  “Good. Get her to the ship.” The Senior Mechanic led the way as the others grabbed Mari and pushed her along, the commons splitting to leave a free path for the Mechanics.

  Alain watched, shoving his way through the crowd to keep the Mechanics in sight, trying to figure out what to do. In this dense a crowd, invisibility would be a hindrance, not an aid. Simply attacking the group of Mechanics around Mari would do no good. His heat might just as easily harm Mari as her captors, his knife was no match for their weapons, and even if he somehow triumphed without hurting Mari, the metal Mechanic ship with its big weapon would still remain.

  But he became aware of a rumbling noise from the crowd of passengers, slowly rising in volume as more and more commons joined in. It took Alain a few moments to make sense of the words, then the intensity of the noise rose again and he heard them clearly. “It’s the daughter!”

  “The Mechanics have the daughter of Jules!”

  “They’re taking the daughter!”

  The different cries merged into a welter of shouts in which only the words “daughter” and “Jules” were clear, but that was enough. As Alain watched with growing concern, the crowd surged forward toward the Mechanics, the commons yelling and seizing anything that might serve as improvised weapons.