The Assassins of Altis

by Jack Campbell

  He had not yet felt all the way to the side. He had not seen any wall there. Could he imagine that where he had not felt there was no wall?

  The effort was unexpectedly difficult, like a physical act done in an unfamiliar way, as if he were trying to walk on his hands rather than his feet. But Alain felt the power flow, felt his strength ebb dangerously, then reached out to where the hole should be.

  It was there. Alain felt the edges, then dodged through and caromed right into someone else in the total darkness on this side of the wall. They both fell with muttered grunts, then Alain felt two hands lock on his throat. “Who are you and where did you come from?” Mari hissed.

  It wasn’t easy to talk with Mari’s hands clamped on his windpipe, but Alain managed to get out one half-strangled word. “Alain.”

  “What?” Mari’s hands loosened, then let go of his neck to run over his face and upper body as if trying to see him by touch. “Alain? It’s you?”

  “Yes.” Alain coughed, massaging his neck. “That hurt.”

  “Sorry. I thought I was alone in this little compartment and then— How the blazes did you get here?”

  “I turned myself in,” Alain explained, reaching carefully to touch her. “I could not leave you alone, so I came to find you in your cell when you were imprisoned. It is a kind of tradition with us, is it not?”

  “You big idiot. I love you, but you shouldn’t have gotten yourself stuck on this ship.” Her voice was despairing. “Escaping from this ship will be almost impossible.”

  “I had to come help you.”

  “No, you didn’t! I told you to go and stay safe! I don’t want you in this kind of danger on my account.” Mari’s hands found his face again, then her lips came against his. “Stars above, I’m glad you’re here.”

  Alain wondered if his voice reflected his confusion. “Are you happy or angry that I am here?”

  “Both. You shouldn’t have done it.”

  “You would do the same for me.”

  “That’s not the point!” Mari insisted.

  “It was the only way to rescue you,” Alain pointed out.

  “I’m not rescued, Alain. We’re just in the same cell again, only this time you can’t—” Mari suddenly stopped talking. When her voice came again, it held hope. “You can. You got in here. Where were you locked up?”

  “In a similar room next to this one.”

  Mari stayed silent for a moment, then sighed. “I’m pretty sure there’s a guard out there. We can’t just open the door, even if I could see where the lock was, so we can’t get out like we did in Ringhmon. And the inside of a Mechanics Guild ship will have a lot of Mechanics walking around, so we’d be spotted pretty quick. Why did they bring you here, Alain?”

  “I told you. I informed them that I was the friend of yours they were seeking.”

  “But if they thought you were a common who had been accompanying me, why didn’t they just shoot you on the spot? Surely you didn’t tell them you’re a Mage?”

  “I lied to them. I told them I was a Mechanic.”

  He could hear her disbelief. “You were able to pass as a Mechanic? Alain, that’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever heard.”

  “You are a good teacher,” Alain said.

  “I’m not supposed to be teaching you to be a Mechanic!”

  “I could not help learning how to act like one,” Alain admitted. “You have been teaching me how to show feelings again, and you are the person I look to most often as an example of how to do that.”

  “I take back what I said earlier,” Mari replied. “That is the scariest thing I ever heard. You are not to become just like me. Understood?”

  “No one else could be just like you,” Alain said.

  “That had better be a compliment, but even if it isn’t I have to admit you’re probably right. You came in behind me. How long is it until sunset?”

  “It will be dark soon,” Alain told her. “I assume night is the best time to make whatever escape we attempt?”

  “It should be,” Mari agreed, “but I have no idea how to escape. We need to deal with the guard outside the hatch here, then we’ll have to find my pack—”

  “Our packs.”

  “Find our packs. Right. We can’t leave those texts behind. Then after we recover our packs we need to do something to keep this ship from chasing us and then we need to escape off of the ship. That’s a pretty tall order.”

  Alain shrugged before realizing she would not see the gesture in the total darkness of the room. “It should not be any harder than escaping from Marandur.”

  Mari laughed softly. “I can’t decide if you’re getting confident or crazy as a result of hanging around with me. Listen, maybe—” She stopped speaking as the thud of feet sounded outside the door to the room they both now occupied and the rasping of metal announced a lock being unfastened. “Oh, no. Can you—”

  “Stay silent,” Alain cautioned. He groped his way to the side, then stood up and waited for a moment until the hatch began swinging open. Alain called upon his arts to hide himself, bending the flow of light so that it wrapped around him rather than striking him, hoping he would have the personal strength to hold the spell and that the power in the areas the ship was sailing through would be great enough to help support it.

  Mari had come to her feet as well and was doing her best to look defiant, despite having to shield her eyes from the light. Two Mechanics entered and pulled her out, not even bothering to look around. Alain followed as closely as he dared, trying not to make any noise, but the heavy footfalls of the Mechanics covered the sounds of his own movements anyway.

  A third Mechanic standing outside the hatch stared impassively at Mari as she passed, and two more Mechanics fell in as extra guards. The sentry moved to close the hatch. Alain dodged quickly, but the hatch struck his leg briefly and painfully before closing. The sentry blinked at the hatch, swinging it out and closed again, then shrugged before closing it a final time. “What about the other one?” he asked.

  “Later,” one of the Mechanics replied. “The captain wants to see them one at a time. Stay here and stay on guard.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” The sentry leaned against the hatch to Mari’s prison, looking unhappy with the continuation of his duty.

  The other four Mechanics put Mari between them, the two at the rear prodding her along with their weapons, unaware of Alain following close behind. They walked along short hallways and took stairs upward, climbing into the higher levels above the main deck. Alain caught glimpses of the outside through infrequent small, circular windows, seeing that the sun had almost set and night was coming on quickly. Their small procession passed other Mechanics, who always stood aside. Those Mechanics averted their eyes from Mari with expressions that were trying to conceal emotions, but to Alain’s practiced eye hinted at feelings from curiosity to sympathy to fear to hostility.

  He concentrated on maintaining his spell, grateful for how the ship’s motion kept supplying new reserves of power. And I know for certain that there are no other Mages anywhere near, so I need not worry about revealing myself to them.

  They finally reached a short passageway where one of the escorts knocked on a door labeled captain, then opened it and led the way in. Alain barely managed to squeeze in as well before the door was closed, finding he had precious little space to stand without touching any of the Mechanics. Fortunately, the four Mechanics had herded Mari to stand in front of a desk where a middle-aged woman Mechanic sat, leaving room for Alain to stand back against a wall. Alain barely managed to avoid a small cry of satisfaction as he spotted both his and Mari’s packs sitting in one corner of the room.

  The woman Mechanic at the desk gazed at Mari with obvious dislike. “Former Master Mechanic Mari, now only Mari. Even the Guild makes mistakes sometimes, and you’re the biggest mistake in quite a while. I’ve never looked upon a traitor before.”

  Mari stared steadily back. “Try looking in a mirror.”

  “How
dare you—”

  “You’re betraying everything, every Mechanic, everyone—!” Mari was yelling, when the woman made a gesture and one of Mari’s guards used his weapon as a club, jamming the wide end against Mari’s side and causing her to choke off her words with a gasp of pain. Alain noticed that the other three guards looked uncomfortable at the abuse but did not protest it.

  “You’ll stay silent unless you’re answering my questions,” the woman Mechanic said in a harsh voice. “Why did you go to Marandur?”

  Mari straightened up with some difficulty, then shrugged. “It seemed like a good place to hide. No one would look for me there.”

  “Then why did you leave?”

  “Because I couldn’t stand it anymore. The place is haunted.”

  “Did you go to the Mechanics Guild Headquarters in Marandur?”

  “I went to what was left of it,” Mari said scornfully. “Just a big pile of rubble and rusted-out equipment. There wasn’t anything there that I could use.”

  “You should have had the brains to know that before you went to Marandur. Where were you going on that ship?”

  Mari seemed indifferent as she answered. “West.”

  “Why?” the woman asked with barely concealed anger.

  “For my health. I thought I’d visit the hot springs on Syndar.”

  “Liar.” The woman pointed to a map on one wall. “That ship was going to the Sharr Isles. Where your family lives.”

  This time Mari’s eyes sparked with real resentment that Alain had no trouble spotting. He was sure the Mechanics in the room could easily see it as well. “So what?” Mari spat out.

  “I didn’t think you were going to them,” the woman replied with a cruel smile, “but it never hurts to check.”

  Looking from Mari to the older woman, a thought occurred to Alain. The Mage Guild had tried to sever him from his family by convincing him that his family did not matter. Not as people, and not as mother and father. The teaching left Mages looking only to the Guild for what life they had. From what Mari had said, the Mechanics Guild thought little of commons and yet had never ordered her to stay away from her family. She had broken contact with her family because the family had broken contact with her.

  Or, rather, Mari had been convinced that her family had broken contact with her, leaving her nowhere else to turn but her Guild. Had Mari’s Guild used its own tactics to sever the family ties of those from common origins? And if they had, how could he get Mari to listen to the possibility when she refused ever to talk about her family?

  But that would have to wait. There were more critical things to deal with right now.

  “Who is this other Mechanic you were traveling with?” the woman demanded.

  Mari made a contemptuous noise. “A lovestruck fool who I used to help me. He’s harmless.”

  “We’ll see what he has to say about that.”

  Alain tensed, wondering if Mari would betray knowing that he was aboard, but she was quick-witted enough to frown at the captain’s words. “I left him—” Mari began.

  “On that ship. He turned himself in.” The captain smiled unpleasantly. “We’ll see how much loyalty he has to a traitor.”

  “He doesn’t know anything,” Mari insisted.

  The captain shook her head. “Why would I believe a word you say? I’m glad you’re not wearing the jacket you’ve disgraced. Just in case you’re planning on sleeping easily for the next few days, let me tell you what’s going to happen to you. You’re to be returned to Guild headquarters in Palandur. Hooded and in chains, with a gag in your mouth, so you can’t corrupt any other Mechanics. If you cooperate and answer every question put to you truthfully, you may be allowed to spend the rest of your miserable, traitorous life in a tiny cell in Longfalls. If there’s any question about your truthfulness, you’ll be turned over to the Empire to answer for your visit to Marandur. I’m sure the Emperor will want to make a special example of you, one involving an extended and painful death.” The female Mechanic gave every sign of enjoying reciting the terrible future intended for Mari. “Are there any questions?”

  Mari nodded. “Two questions. The first is, do you actually think that I’m stupid enough to believe that the Guild will still let me live when it has already tried to kill me more than once? The second is, how do you live with yourself, Senior Mechanic?”

  The woman flushed with anger and gestured again. Alain had difficulty restraining himself as the same guard once again bludgeoned Mari with his weapon. “Take her out of here,” the captain ordered, “and make sure she falls down a few ladders on the way back to her cell. Maybe that will bang a little sense into her. Then bring the other one.”

  “Yes, Senior Mechanic,” the leader of the guards said with the eagerness of the type of follower who wanted to impress any superior, then as Alain slid to the side the Mechanics yanked open the door and dragged Mari out between them.

  Once again he had to move fast, and once more his foot caught in the door as one of the Mechanics tried to close it. That Mechanic shoved the door harder, shrugging as it closed without hindrance the second time.

  Mari had noticed, though, her eyes widening briefly before she carefully schooled her expression to reveal nothing but an apparent stoic acceptance of her fate.

  They reached the first of the stairs down, and the Mechanic in charge moved to trip Mari and tumble her down them, but one of the other Mechanics stepped in the way. “She could break some bones going down that.”

  “So? You heard the captain.”

  “We’re not Mages who torture people for fun. This girl is…she used to be a Mechanic.”

  The first Mechanic glared at his companion. “You’re disobeying orders?”

  “Get them in writing,” the second Mechanic insisted. “If you think those orders are all right, get them in writing and show them to me.”

  “The captain’s going to hear about this, Kalif.”

  The other Mechanic wavered, then shook his head. “The Guild wouldn’t allow someone to be treated like that. Now let’s get her back to her cell.”

  “Sure.” The first Mechanic stepped back, glowering. “I’ll let you explain things to the captain when we get back with this one’s friend, and you can ask the captain for her orders in writing.”

  Alain tried to relax. He had nearly leaped at the Mechanics when Mari seemed threatened with serious harm. Now, as Alain followed the Mechanics back toward the places where he and Mari had been imprisoned, he measured his remaining strength, trying to decide what to do. Once they reached the improvised cells, Mari would surely be locked up again—and then the room where Alain was supposed to be confined would be opened. He was already tired from the effort of holding the concealment spell and could not see how his usual weapon, the fireball, would be able to defeat these Mechanics without also harming Mari and causing enough noise to bring more Mechanics running.

  If only he had another weapon, a weapon which did not require his rapidly diminishing spell strength to employ. But his knife had been taken from him, and would have little effect against the Mechanic weapons even if he had it.

  The Mechanic weapons.

  Alain took a long look at the Mechanic weapons the guards were carrying. Impossible. I cannot use them, even if I am pretending to be a Mechanic.

  Do I have to know how to use them? An illusion. They already see me as another Mechanic. If I hold one of those weapons, they will see the illusion of another Mechanic ready to employ it. If the illusion is strong enough, they will act as if it is real.

  They came down a last stairway and walked up to the sentry, the guards almost ready to shove Mari back into her cell. Alain dropped his concealment spell and slammed his elbow into the side of the Mechanic who was farthest back, while reaching with his other hand and grabbing the Mechanic’s rifle, wresting it free from the surprised and staggered Mechanic. As the Mechanic who Alain had attacked reeled into his companions, Alain tried to hold the weapon just as he had seen Mechanics do it. He
was certain that he had the right end pointed at them, and his hands should be in about the right places, but that was the extent of his knowledge when it came to using a Mechanic weapon.

  By the time the other Mechanics turned to look, Alain had the weapon pointing at them. “Do not move,” Alain said in the most menacing voice he could manage, copied from the tones of the Senior Mechanic. “Make no sound.”

  Chapter Eight

  Mari wasted a precious second gaping at Alain. Not because she was surprised by his sudden appearance; she had seen the door catch on something and knew it meant that Alain was close by. What stunned her was seeing the Mage holding a Mechanic rifle as if he intended using it. Fortunately, the other Mechanics were a lot more shocked by Alain’s appearing out of nowhere than she was, giving Mari time to recover and hastily seize another rifle from the unresisting hands of a second Mechanic. Stepping back, Mari leveled the rifle at her former guards. “The rest of you set down your weapons slowly. Don’t make any noise. I know the Guild intends to kill me, so I’ve got nothing to lose by killing you all.”

  The Mechanic who had hit her with his rifle shook his head. “You can’t get away, you idiot. You’re on a ship at sea.”

  “Then there’s no sense in you dying trying to stop me, is there?” Mari answered coolly.

  Mechanic Kalif was staring at Alain. “How did you get out of your cell?” He turned an accusing gaze on the sentry, who mimed bafflement.

  Alain answered calmly, though not as impassively as a Mage would have. “There are things the Mechanics Guild does not know.” Mari could see from the sweat on his brow that Alain had been working hard to stay concealed

  Kalif turned his eyes to Mari. “How do we know you won’t kill us as anyway as soon as we put down our weapons?”

  “Because I never hurt anyone unless I’m forced to,” Mari said.

  “That’s not what we were told.”

  Mari’s laugh mixed sadness with derision. “I can’t take the time to explain how many lies you’ve been told, not just about me but about everything. I won’t let the Guild torture and kill me just because I learned things that the Guild doesn’t want any Mechanic to know. Now put down your weapons and raise your hands, or my companion will start shooting.” It was quite a bluff, considering that Alain probably didn’t even know how to fire a weapon. Mari didn’t dare look, but she suspected that Alain didn’t have a finger on the trigger of the rifle he was holding.