The Assassins of Altis

by Jack Campbell

  “Then why—” Kath began, anger rising again.

  “Quiet, young lady!” Eirene ordered. “You will listen now. Mari was eight years old when she was taken from us, just a little girl younger than you, and that Guild lied to her and deceived her and made her believe that we had cut her off. They kept all of our letters from her and they kept all of her letters from us. Mari has spent ten years believing that we wanted nothing to do with her. We are not the only ones who were hurt.”

  Kath stared at Mari again. “You still could have tried.”

  Mari nodded. “You’re right. And I should I have tried. But I was too scared,” she said in a small voice. “Too scared of what I might find if I came here. If it hadn’t had been for Alain…” She gestured toward him and smiled.

  Off balance, Kath focused on Alain. “Who is he? Another Mechanic?”

  It was Eirene’s turn to be uncertain. “I don’t know if he is or not. Mari and I were so busy talking to each other that I didn’t ask about her friend. I suppose he is another—”

  Alain bowed slightly toward Eirene. “I am not a Mechanic.”

  “Oh,” Kath said. “So you’re her servant? The great and wonderful Lady Mechanic can’t go anywhere without a servant to attend to her.”

  “I am servant to no one.” Alain looked at Mari and saw her flinch, then nod reluctantly. “I am a Mage.”

  The room went totally silent, Eirene and Kath gaping at Alain. He could feel no other Mages anywhere nearby, so Alain risked a tiny spell, creating a very small ball of heat and then on a whim pointing his finger at a candle on the table next to Kath as he directed the ball of heat to be there. The wick of the candle burst into flame and Kath flinched back, staring at the candle as if it were a snake preparing to strike.

  Mari took a quick step toward Alain, seizing his arm. “Mother, it’s true that Alain is a Mage, but he is not—”

  “A Mage?” Eirene asked, her voice dazed and dismayed.

  “He’s not like other Mages, Mother!” Mari cried desperately. “He is honest, he is brave, and he is kind. I know this. I would be dead by now if not for him. I told you that. The first time we met he saved my life.”

  Alain looked over at Mari. “I recall that you saved my life first.”

  “Fine! We saved each other. The point is, Mother, this is a very good man. This is the most wonderful man I ever met, and he treats me with all of the respect and concern I could ever ask for. Please get to know him before you judge him.”

  “Mari,” her mother said, “the way you’re talking about him. It almost sounds as if—”

  Mari’s grip on Alain’s arm tightened. “I love him. He loves me. We haven’t exchanged promises yet, but we’re engaged to be wed.”

  Eirene’s eyes widened, then she didn’t so much sit down as fall into the nearest chair. “A Mage?” she whispered. “You want to marry a Mage, Mari?”

  “He’s different, Mother! Please get to know him, please trust me,” Mari pleaded.

  Kath had finally taken some steps forward, gazing at Alain. “You don’t look like other Mages.”

  Alain bowed to her. “I am not like other Mages. Mari has given me back my feelings, and my life.”

  “Do you really love Mari?” Kath asked.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Isn’t your Guild mad about that?”

  Alain nodded. “My Guild seeks my death.”

  “Oh, wow.” Kath looked at Mari. “What about your Guild? Aren’t the other Mechanics upset?”

  “Yes, Kath,” Mari said dejectedly. “The Mechanics Guild is very unhappy with me. They’re trying to capture me. We narrowly escaped them on our way here.”

  A big smile slowly spread across Kath’s face. “You’re on the run. Fleeing from your Guild because the man you love is a Mage. The two of you are giving up everything for each other! How incredibly romantic!”

  Mari stared at her little sister in disbelief. “It is?”

  “Oh, of course it is! You have to make sure they don’t stop you from marrying the man you love! I’ll bet you’ll get married in some hidden place deep in the Great Woods! Or maybe far Daarendi! Fleeing lovers go there all the time.”

  Mari was laughing and Alain felt himself smiling, noticing Eirene watching him with wonderment. Mari looked from her mother and then back to her sister. “I haven’t really thought about where we’d get married, Kath. We just got engaged a short while ago.”

  “The important thing is not to get caught,” Kath cautioned.

  “I will remember that, Kath,” Mari replied, her lips quivering as she suppressed another laugh.

  “What if they catch you? Can you defend yourself? You pointed something at me when I came in. Was it a Mechanic weapon?”

  “Yes, Kath.” Mari smiled at Alain, then brought out the weapon slowly. “Would you like to hold it?”

  “Mari!” Eirene cried. “Those are deadly!”

  “It’s all right, Mother. I’ll unload it. It will be perfectly safe.” As Mari’s mother watched anxiously, Mari drew the weapon, did something that Alain had never been able to figure out which caused part of it to fall into her hand, pulled back the top and peered into it, then gave the weapon to Kath. “It’s called a pistol. A semi-automatic, clip-fed pistol. You won’t see many like this. Most Mechanic pistols are revolvers. Don’t worry. It can’t fire. I took the bullets out.”

  Kath held the weapon awkwardly. “It can kill people?”

  Mari flinched, then nodded, biting her lip. “Yes, Kath, it can kill people when it’s loaded.”

  “Have you killed anyone with it?”

  “Kath—!” her mother began.

  But Mari gestured to her mother. “It’s all right. Yes, Kath, I have.” Mari’s voice was weighed down with sorrow. “I had to. I hope you never have to.” Kath swung her arm, pointing the weapon at Alain. “Wait, Sister! Never point a weapon at someone unless you wish to harm them, and I hope you never wish to harm Alain.”

  Kath lowered her hand and stared at Alain. “You’re really a Mage? Have you ever rescued Mari from a dragon?”

  Alain shook his head. “It was the other way around. Mari rescued me from a dragon. In the Northern Ramparts, after my battle with an Imperial legion.”

  “You fought Imperial legions?” Kath asked, awed. “And Mari killed a dragon?”

  Mari made a dismissive gesture. “It wasn’t all that big a dragon.”

  “It was huge,” Alain corrected her. “The largest I have ever seen, and you killed it with one blow from your weapon.”

  Kath stared down at the pistol in her hand with a dumbfounded expression.

  “I didn’t kill it with that,” Mari assured her, gently retrieving the weapon. She put the smaller part back into the handle, pulled the top of the weapon backwards and let it slide forward again, pushed something on the side of the weapon, then returned it beneath her jacket. Only then did Mari notice how her mother and little sister had been watching her. “What?”

  Eirene smiled. “You really are a Mechanic. Just watching you do that, I felt so proud of my little girl.”

  “She is not a little girl,” Kath insisted. “She’s older than me, and I am not a little girl, either.”

  “You tell her, Kath,” Mari said with a grin. “Anyway, I didn’t use my pistol to kill the dragon. It’s too small to hurt a dragon.”

  “As we discovered at Dorcastle,” Alain agreed. “You had to slay that dragon using another Mechanic creation.”

  “Right, but we killed that dragon, Alain.” Mari noticed Kath staring at her again.

  “My big sister has killed two dragons?” Kath asked.

  “So far,” Alain answered, earning himself a narrow-eyed look from Mari.

  “Alain,” Mari said, “you’ll have my family thinking I’m dangerous.”

  “You are dangerous,” Alain said. “You told me so yourself, and so did my Guild elders, though I think they failed to understand just how dangerous you can be.”

  Mari shook her
head and laughed.

  Her mother gave Alain a questioning look. “I have never before seen a Mage smile, and now you not only do that, but you seem to have just made a joke.”

  “He’s different, Mother,” Mari said once more.

  Kath reached up tentatively for Mari’s hand. “Would you like to see my room?” Mari nodded and was instantly tugged along into another part of the house, leaving Alain and Eirene standing alone.

  “Sir Mage,” Eirene began.

  Alain held up one hand to halt her. “To the mother of Mari, as to her friends, I am Alain.”

  “I’m glad you’re not wearing your robes…Alain.” Eirene shook her head. “This is all hard enough to accept as it is. I didn’t think that Mages liked other people.”

  “Mages are taught that other people do not exist, that they are only shadows who merit no interest or concern.” Alain nodded his head in the direction which Mari and Kath had gone. “I met Mari, and it became clearer and clearer to me that other people were real, and that she was real, and that feelings should be accepted, not rejected. What I told Kath is what happened. Mari gave me back my life.”

  Eirene watched Alain closely as he spoke. “She’s certainly done something. I’ve seen Mages converse, and it’s very strange because they seem so inhuman. But you’re far from that.”

  “It has been difficult to relearn how to show feelings, to accept feelings. Mari sometimes calls me a long-term project.”

  This time Eirene laughed. “Every man fits that description. I’m sorry I was so taken aback, but I hope you understand. There’s been so much in such a short time. It’s so wonderful that Mari is back with us, and that she’s grown into such a splendid woman, don’t you agree?”

  “There is no other woman like her,” Alain said, earning himself a smile from Mari’s mother. “But Mari was right when she said that we cannot stay long. Mari did not wish to alarm Kath, but her Guild does seek her and wants to bring about her death. My Guild seeks to kill both of us, as do the Imperials.”

  “Given the sentiments that Mari expressed, I’m proud but not surprised that the Mechanics Guild is unhappy with her. The Mages and the Imperials also want to kill her and you?” Mari’s mother took a deep breath. “There have been a lot of rumors lately among the common folk, stories claiming that someone like no one else has appeared. You heard Kath, what she started to say. Have you heard of the daughter of Jules, Alain?”

  Alain hoped his Mage training successfully hid his reaction to the question. “I have heard of the prophecy.”

  “The rumors say a young woman has been seen, in the Northern Ramparts, one who has the heart of a common person, the soul of a hero, and the skills of a Mechanic, and who is traveling with a Mage.” Mari’s mother speared Alain with her gaze. “That’s an odd coincidence, isn’t it? A Mechanic traveling with a Mage. Who would have expected two such pairs in the world at the same time, and both of them not long ago in the Northern Ramparts, especially since no such pair has ever before been seen?”

  “It is amazing,” Alain agreed in as noncommittal a voice as he could manage.

  “And the rumors say this woman slew a dragon with one blow. They also say the woman was called Mari, something that struck me as a painful coincidence when I heard it. Moreover, a ship came in late yesterday from Landfall, with the passengers claiming that Mechanics had captured the daughter of Jules and taken her to their ship. They also named her Lady Mari and said she was a Mechanic.” Mari’s mother looked away, closing her eyes and showing distress. “I cannot imagine how you escaped. You have tried to spare my feelings as well. Mari must be in incredible danger.”

  “As are you,” Alain said in a low voice. “If either of the Great Guilds should suspect that she has reconciled with you and once again cares for you, then you will be their next target. You must keep this hidden, must not let anyone know that Mari once again accepts you and you accept her.”

  “That is wise advice.” Mari’s mother let out a long, slow sigh. “You are protecting her?”

  “I will die before I let harm befall her.”

  She looked at Alain again and smiled slightly. “I believe you. Is Mari actually going to try to overthrow the Great Guilds?”

  Alain struggled for an answer he could tell her. “I cannot speak of that.”

  “I know that Mari is my daughter, Sir Mage. But according to legend the children of Jules were scattered and hidden after her death to protect them from the Great Guilds, because already the rumor was spreading about her daughter. Now no one knows who carries the blood of Jules. Do you believe it is Mari?”

  Alain stared at the floor, unable to think what else he could say. “I am bound not to speak on this matter.”

  “Why not? Something to do with your Guild?”

  “I have made a promise. Not to my Guild.”

  Eirene studied him, then smiled in a tight-lipped way. “I see. A promise to Mari?”

  “I am not even certain I can confirm that,” Alain said, “without being called to account.”

  “Oh. Mari has a temper?”

  “In the same way that the sea has water, yes.”

  Eirene grinned. “She got her temper from me, you know.”

  “I would not wish to offend either of you, then.”

  This time Mari’s mother laughed. “Oh, yes. Now that I’m over the shock and have had a chance to speak with you, I think Mari did choose well. You are a very different Mage.” The levity died. “But I won’t put you in the position of being torn between my questions and your promise to her, even if it seems I will be your mother-in-law someday.”

  Alain felt one more small smile form. “Her temper is not all that Mari got from you, it seems.”

  “You are good, aren’t you? And another smile for a moment. I wish I could meet your— You spoke of the memory of your parents. Are they dead?”

  “Yes.” Here, surrounded by another family, that should have hurt more, but instead it seemed to make the past easier to bear. “Both my mother and my father died six years ago, at the hands of raiders from the shores of the Bright Sea. I have seen their graves and I know this did happen.” He paused, then blurted out, “I was not there when they needed me.”

  Eirene eyed him, then nodded in sympathy. “Sir Mage—”

  “You must call me Alain.”

  “I’m sorry, Alain. You’re about Mari’s age, I guess. Yes? So, six years ago you would have been twelve? And you’d been taken by the Mages just as Mari was taken by the Mechanics, locked up in their Guild Hall? Alain, you may be powerful now, but six years ago you could have done nothing.”

  “I could have tried.”

  “Alain, listen to a mother.” He met her eyes, and Eirene nodded again. “Your mother would far rather that you lived, instead of that you died trying to defend her and your father without hope of saving them. Your father would feel that way, too, I think. You could have done nothing then. But now you are strong, and you may be doing something very great. I know I would be proud of you, and glad that you lived.”

  He stared downward again, then forced out the words. “But I am a Mage.”

  “You have a Mage’s powers,” she replied softly. “You may call yourself a Mage and you may have been trained as a Mage. But you are not a Mage when it comes to your heart. That much is already very clear to me. Now you are a man who I believe will make my daughter a good husband, and that is something any man could take pride in. If your parents can somehow see you now, they will be happy with you. I do believe this.”

  Alain squeezed his eyes shut tight to hold back tears, then nodded. “It is odd how destiny works. I brought Mari here so that she might find peace with her past, and I too have found something of that here.”

  “Would it be all right if I touched you, Alain? I have heard how Mages are…“

  He nodded silently.

  Mari’s mother came closer and held Alain for a moment. He had to force himself to relax at the contact, feeling a different kind of peace fro
m that which he felt in Mari’s arms. “Keep my daughter safe, Alain,” Eirene murmured. “She’s going to need someone like you beside her, and if you need a mother still, I will always have enough room in my heart for someone who loves her.”

  “Thank you.”

  “She taught a Mage to say thank you?” Mari’s mother laughed as she stepped back. “What a girl I have.”

  A short time later, Mari and Kath returned. Kath was wearing the Mechanics jacket now, the overlarge garment hanging on her smaller frame in a way that Alain found to be oddly touching. “Are you two getting along?” Mari asked in outwardly light tones, but Alain could sense the worry beneath them.

  “If I wasn’t married to your father, I’d try to steal Alain from you,” her mother teased. Then Eirene’s expression saddened as she caught sight of Kath in the jacket. “Dearest, I know that’s meant well, but…”

  “I’m sorry.” Mari hastily took back the jacket. “I know how you must feel about my having been taken by the Guild.”

  “I couldn’t bear to have Kath taken as well. There’s been more than one nightmare about that in the years since you left.” Her mother gazed at Mari. “When were you going to tell me about the daughter of Jules thing?”

  Mari stopped moving, then her expression turned furious as she glared at Alain. “You told her?”

  “No,” Alain denied.

  “I guessed,” Mari’s mother added. “Your man here did his best not even to let me know that I’d gotten warm. He still won’t tell me anything because of a promise he made to someone.”

  “He told you about the promise, then,” Mari grumbled, her anger shading into stubbornness.

  “I had to pry that out of him, too. Let him tell me, Mari.”

  “No! It’s not safe! The less you know—” Mari’s face reddened. “The less you know, the more danger you might be in. I’ve been so angry at Senior Mechanics for hiding the truth, and here I am trying to keep the truth from my own family.” She looked from her mother to her little sister, then exhaled in frustration. “Fine. Tell her.”