Alain considered the large object. “Burying it would take a long time. It is too heavy for us to haul into the brush ahead, and covering it with brush on the beach would only make it more obvious. It is painted white, so at least it does not stand out too clearly against the sand.”
“We could set it on fire. I can’t see any sign of people nearby, and it shouldn’t generate much smoke.”
Alain looked out to sea. “Is there any chance the Mechanic ship we damaged will see it and come here?”
Mari grinned in a wicked way as she considered his question.
He had seen that expression before, when she was watching the smoke rising from the ruins of the Ringhmon City Hall. Alain realized that Mari looked unusually attractive when she was contemplating the results of major sabotage she had committed against people trying to imprison her. That probably ought to concern him, but it did not.
“No, there’s no chance of that,” Mari finally said. “As far as we could tell before we lost sight of it, the ship didn’t sink. That ship is very valuable, so there is no way the Mechanics aboard would abandon it unless they had no alternative. But that boiler isn’t going to be working for quite a while. I’m guessing that, being Mechanics, they rigged some sails on their masts and are painstakingly making their way either here or back to Landfall. Most likely Landfall, since they last saw us headed that way and the Mechanic repair facilities are probably a lot better there. With the big far-talker on the ship out of order, they’ll be dependent on their hand-held far-talkers, which means they’ll have to get close to shore to tell anyone what happened. So, short answer, there’s no way that ship could be close enough to see any smoke.”
“In that case, I agree that we should burn the boat. Sooner or later someone will find the remains, but it will take time to identify them and by then we will be long off the island.”
“Sounds good to me.” Mari pulled her pack out of the boat while Alain got his, then she hefted both Mechanic rifles, looking resigned. With a grimace, she took one by the front, whirled it around in a wide swing and hurled the weapon out into the surf. A moment later the second weapon followed it, disappearing with a splash into the incoming waves. “Let me spare you extra effort for once, especially since a spell might alert other Mages that you’re on this island.” She gathered some dry wood, pulled down the sail and bundled it on the bottom of the boat, then used her Mechanic fire-starting device, clicking it so that sparks flew onto the wood and the sail. Alain watched, fascinated, still unable to understand how the thing Mari called a flint worked to create sparks. In a short time a fire was rising in the center of the boat, the flames pale in the bright sunlight and only a thin thread of weak smoke rising into the sky.
“Good bye, little boat,” Mari said in a guilty voice. “Thanks for getting us safely here, and sorry we had to do this.”
Alain gave her a surprised look. “You speak as if the boat is alive.”
“Well, maybe it is in some way. Maybe it’s just a Mechanic thing, but we tend to think of what we create as having some sort of life.” Seeming embarrassed, Mari hoisted her pack, then turned and led the way through the undergrowth on the far side of the beach. “Unless things have changed a lot, there should be a coastal road running just inland from here. We should be able to catch a ride into Caer Lyn proper pretty quick.”
“They will not wonder who we are, out here with these packs?” Alain asked.
“No. Our clothes have dried. We’ll tell them we’re students from the college in Caer Lyn who were backpacking through the upcountry. I think students did that when I was young, because I recall my mother talking about it a few times.”
“Your mother worked at this college?”
“I guess maybe she did. When you’re eight years old, you don’t really notice all that much about your parents.”
Mari’s prediction proved to be accurate. They reached the road within a very short time and not long afterwards waved down a horse-drawn wagon heading south toward the city. “How far are we from Caer Lyn?” Mari asked.
The driver scrunched up his face in thought. “Not too far. We’ll be there well before noon. Looks like you two have had kind of a rough time. Been out a while?”
“Um, yeah,” Mari agreed, accepting Alain’s hand up into the back of the wagon.
Alain sat down among the parcels in the back. “There should be time for the visit.”
Mari nodded, her expression tense. “If I try to change my mind, don’t let me.”
“I have promised to drag you to your parents’ house.”
“You might have some trouble doing that, but I’ll try not to fight you too hard.”
He thought she needed something to lighten her mood. A joke? Alain tried one. “As long as you leave no new scars on me.”
That earned him a startled look, then a sad look, then some puzzlement. “Why did you say that? Every time I see your scars I think of what they did to you when you were learning to be a Mage.”
“I thought it would…relax you,” Alain said.
“Oh. Um…all right.” She gave him a smile that was obviously forced and then lay back, gazing up at the sky.
He decided it would be wiser not to attempt any more jokes.
It was just short of noon when the wagon dropped them in Caer Lyn. Mari spoke with the driver briefly, then came back to Alain as the wagon drove off. “He gave me directions to…where we need to go. It’s not far, so we have time.” Linking her arm in his, she started off down the street, breathing slowly, her tension radiating so clearly that Alain could feel it. After walking for a while, they reached a winding street that wove its way down a low hill, the roadway lined with narrow two-story houses set side-by-side, every house presenting brightly colored doors to the world. “It’s a custom in the Sharr isles,” Mari explained, her voice too fast and too high in pitch. “They paint the doors bright colors, for luck and…and…other things. This is the street we want. About halfway down. The…the door was green. I remember how pretty it was.”
As they walked down the slope, Mari began dragging back, her steps slowing, but Alain held her arm in his and kept her moving. Looking over at her, Alain could see Mari’s eyes darting about as if trying to spot landmarks from a memory dimmed by too many years away. “I was only eight when the Mechanics took me from here,” Mari murmured as if she had never told Alain before. “I can still see my parents in my memory, though, standing in our doorway as I was taken away. I could never forget that.”
They reached a short walk ending at a vivid green door to a modest, two-story town home standing wedged between its neighbors. Mari came to a total halt, staring at the door, her arm shaking in his, her face rigid. “Mari?” Alain asked, thinking that she looked as upset as she had when he had told her she was the daughter.
Mari glanced at him with a jerky movement of her head, then breathed deeply and slowly in an obvious attempt to calm herself. Alain began walking and after an initial resistance Mari followed, her arm clamped on his now. Reaching the door, Alain let go of Mari’s arm, then gestured toward the door. “I am here, but this is your moment. I am beside you, but you must do this.” Since his Mage training led him to be impassive in the face of stress without always realizing it, Alain made sure he showed a smile to reassure her.
Mari stood there for another moment, looking as nervous as Alain had ever seen her, even counting the time a dragon had been chasing them in Dorcastle. She reached a decision, pulling off her commons coat, then diving down into her pack to haul out her Mechanics jacket and put it on. Settling the jacket on her, squaring her shoulders and brushing back her hair with both hands, Mari took one more deep breath and then rapped firmly on the emerald-green door, the sound of the knocks echoing down the quiet street.
Several moments passed before a middle-aged woman opened the door, her eyes taking in the dark Mechanics jacket and then lowering their gaze respectfully. Looking at her, Alain could see the tension in this woman, too, though hers was a barely re
pressed hostility. He could also see the ways in which Mari resembled her, not least in the raven-black hair which on the older woman now showed streaks of gray. “Yes, Lady Mechanic?” the woman said in a formal and cold voice which also betrayed to the Mage enormous resentment and anger.
Mari was unable to speak for a moment, visibly trembling and blinking rapidly. She swallowed, then got out one word in a whisper. “Mommy?”
Chapter Ten
Alain heard the little-girl sound in Mari’s voice, her use of the child’s term for her mother, and knew that an eight-year-old girl was finally speaking again to the mother she had lost more than a decade before.
The woman froze, then drew in a ragged breath. She looked up, hope warring with disbelief in her expression, finally gazing directly at Mari’s face. “Mari? Is it really you?”
“Mommy!” Mari gasped again. She threw her arms around the woman, who after only a moment’s hesitation gripped Mari with equal fervor, sudden tears wetting her face as Mari managed to speak a few more words. “Oh, Mommy, I’m so sorry.”
Seeing tears running down Mari’s own cheeks, Alain took a step away. His work was done and he thought this was what Mari would call a private moment. “I will keep watch outside while you—”
“You’ll do nothing of the kind!” Mari interrupted through her tears, taking one hand away from her mother long enough to drag Alain back. “You’ll come inside and share this joyous moment you caused to happen!”
Joyous? Alain wondered, seeing the amount of tears flowing from both women. But he yielded to Mari’s grasp, coming along as her mother led the way inside.
Once the door was closed, the two women stood looking at each other. Mari’s mother reached out one hand to touch her daughter’s face. “It’s been so long.”
Mari’s face twisted in misery. “They lied to me. I was too young to know what they were doing. I thought you didn’t care. I never got any letters. You never got any of my letters, did you?”
“You sent letters?” Her mother’s eyes spilled tears again. “I knew it. I knew you must have tried to send letters. For ten years I have believed that and now I know I was right.”
“How can you ever forgive me?” Mari whispered. “I didn’t know what they had done, but I should have tried to talk to you before now. I am so, so sorry, Mommy.”
“Did you think I couldn’t forgive my own daughter? Even if you had been at fault?” Mari’s mother wiped tears from her face with both hands. “And I believe you that you weren’t at fault, that you didn’t know what they had done.”
“I thought horrible things about you. I thought…I thought…” Mari shook her head, quivering with sobs. “I’m so sorry.”
“Come sit down, Mari.” A smile lit her mother’s face. “How long have I dreamed of saying that again? And here you are at last.”
Mari and her mother walked a short distance to the left into a front room with a couch and chairs. Alain followed, even though he felt at the moment as if he were using his invisibility spell, so thoroughly were the two women focused on each other.
Mari and her mother sat close to each other, their knees almost touching. Mari took a shuddering breath. “Can you really forgive me?”
“Of course I can, Mari.” Her mother sighed. “Just to be able to say your name and not feel an ache of loss is so wonderful. I see you are a Mechanic now, and I know you can’t spend much time with common folk, but—”
“No!” Mari leaned forward, her face working with emotion. “You’re my family. I was lied to and deceived into thinking the Guild was my family, but now I know how terrible a lie that all was, and I will never reject you again.” Mari wiped her nose. “I must look like a mess. I’m sorry. We had a very difficult trip here, what with fighting the Mages and their troll in Palandur and then having to jump off the train and evade Imperial patrols and police, and then my Guild captured us and we had to just about sink the ship to escape and steal a lifeboat to get to this island.”
Her mother just stared at Mari, then shook her head. “It seems we have even more catching up to do than I had expected. Wait. We.” She finally looked at Alain. “My manners. I’m Eirene, Mari’s mother. But you already know that, don’t you?”
Alain inclined his head toward her. “I am Alain. Alain of Ihris.”
Mari leaned in toward him and held Alain’s arm. “I wouldn’t be here if not for Alain. He’s the one who realized that my Guild had deceived me about you, and he gave me the strength to come here despite my fears. And…well, he’s also saved my life a few times. I mean, literally, he’s saved my life.”
Eirene turned a wondering look on Alain. “How can I ever repay you?”
Mari laughed. “That’s one of the first things I said to him, too. Oh, Mommy…Mother. I need to call you Mother. Is that all right? There’s been so much I need to tell you about.”
“The journey here seems to have had enough to talk about for days,” her mother replied. “Mages? Trolls?”
“One troll,” Alain said.
“I knew Mages hated Mechanics, but I didn’t know they still attacked them.” Eirene frowned. “But you also said your Guild captured you. Are you in trouble with your Guild?”
Mari bent her head. “You might say that.”
“But you’re a Mechanic.”
Alain spoke again. “A Master Mechanic. The youngest one in the history of her Guild.”
Eirene’s face lit with pride. “That’s my girl. But why would your Guild—?”
“Mother, I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that if I told you why my Guild is angry with me, if I told you the things I have learned, it could result in your own death.” Mari clenched her fists, staring at the floor. “It’s not my Guild now.”
Her mother reached out to clasp one of Mari’s fists in her own hand. “Whatever has happened, you are family. Your father will be so happy to see you again. He won’t get home until sunset, but—”
Mari gave her mother an anguished look. “We can’t wait that long. Not nearly that long. It would be far too dangerous for you.”
“It’s that bad?” Eirene asked. “It’s fortunate that I wasn’t teaching today, if your visit must be short. But if the danger is so great, maybe we shouldn’t tell Kath about this.”
“Kath?”
“Your little sister. Kath was born the year after you were taken from us. I was already carrying her when you were taken, though I didn’t know it yet.”
“My little sister?” Mari seemed ready to cry again. “I have a little sister? I never knew…where is she?”
“At schooling. She should be home soon. But if it’s so dangerous…”
Mari turned a pleading look on Alain. “It would be all right to see her, wouldn’t it?”
“I believe so,” Alain answered. He had his doubts about the wisdom of bringing Mari’s newfound little sister in on the secret of their visit, but Mari obviously wanted very badly to see her.
Eirene sighed again, heavily this time. “Mari, you need to know that Kath doesn’t think much of her big sister. Kath believes you abandoned us. She has taken that very hard.”
“I don’t blame her for that.” Mari shuddered with anger. “I’m going to change things, Mother. I don’t know all of the details yet, but once I get some more data I’m going to make some decisions and change things so no more little girls or boys get torn from their families. Not ever again. The Great Guilds will not be allowed to continue that, or a lot of other things. I’m going to stop them.”
Her mother’s face reflected amazement. “Stop the Great Guilds? Mari, you sound like the daughter of—” The door slammed open.
Mari was on her feet and had her pistol out in a heartbeat, leveling the weapon at the door.
Alain had stood, his right hand before him, already preparing to draw power for a spell, his left hand gripping the Mage knife he had drawn from beneath his jacket.
A young girl stared back at them.
Eirene got up slowly, her hands
out in a calming gesture. “Kath, please close the door. Don’t say anything. It’s all right. Just close the door quietly.”
The girl’s stare went to her mother. Then she nodded, turned with slow movements and closed the door softly.
Mari, looking embarrassed, had returned her weapon to its place under her jacket. Alain relaxed himself, returning the Mage knife to its sheath under his coat, then stood waiting.
“Kath, come here,” Eirene said gently. “Do you know who this is, Kath?” she asked, gesturing toward Mari.
The girl stared at Mari and her face hardened, going from anxiety to anger. “No. She’s just some Mechanic.”
“This is your big sister, Kath. This is Mari.”
“I don’t have a big sister!”
Mari took a step forward, her face working again with emotion. “Kath—”
“Don’t you say my name!” Kath yelled furiously. “You have no right! Not after what you did!”
Eirene came forward, too, her voice soothing. “Kath, please listen—”
“Listen? Mother, I’ve spent my entire life watching how sad it made you whenever anyone mentioned her, or whenever you thought about her. I’ve spent my whole life listening to how sad you and Father were whenever you talked about it. This…this…Lady Mechanic hurt you! How can you even let her in our house?”
Mari tried again. “Kath, I didn’t know—”
“I thought Mechanics knew everything! Well, you don’t! There’s a lot you don’t know, and when the daughter of Jules gets to Caer Lyn I hope she—”
“Kath!” Eirene’s voice cut across the room like the crack of a whip and Kath finally subsided, looking worriedly at her mother. “You know you are never to speak of such things, you know how dangerous it is to talk about them, especially in front of a Mech—” She bit off the last word. “I’m sorry, Mari.”
“No,” Mari replied. “You’re right. Saying that in front of a Mechanic, another Mechanic that is, would be very dangerous. Please, Kath, listen to your mother…” Mari gave Eirene a stunned look. “I mean, listen to our mother. I don’t want you to be hurt.”
The Assassins of Altis Page 19