The Assassins of Altis

by Jack Campbell

  “I have seen that Mari will bring a new day to this world,” Alain said. “I have seen that she is the daughter of the prophecy. A great storm approaches which will endanger all of this world, but she can stop it.”

  Mari’s mother sat down again, breathing deeply. “I still see you as my little eight-year-old, Mari. But you’re grown, with a man of your own, and it seems your fate is to be the person this world has long awaited.”

  “Mother.” Mari knelt by her mother, her face anguished. “Please. I’m your daughter.”

  “You’ll always be my daughter,” her mother agreed, once again touching Mari’s face gently. “But perhaps Jules is back there in our ancestry as well.”

  “Mother, I know that must be true, but I really cannot deal with that. I’m just me. I’m trying to fix things. And I will, if I can.” Mari lowered her head. “I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want it. But I have to try. I have to succeed.”

  Kath came up beside them, her mouth still open in surprise. “Mari? You’re the daughter of Jules? Oh, my stars. My big sister is the daughter.”

  Eirene spoke harshly. “And that is the very last time you will say that, Kath. To anyone. If you do, it may mean the death not only of you, but of me and your father as well. Many powerful people do not want the daughter to succeed. They will kill her if they can, and anyone else who they think is helping her.” Kath gazed wide-eyed at her mother, horrified. “Not one word, Kath. Not to anyone.”

  “If I caused harm to come to you,” Mari said, “I couldn’t endure that. Please listen to Mother, Kath. Mother, sooner or later Mechanics will come here, trying to find out whether I’ve contacted you. You have to pretend you never heard from me, that as far as you’re concerned I’m no longer part of this family. Give them their own lie back to them and they’ll believe it.”

  “I will, Mari.” Eirene let fury show. “I won’t have trouble seeming to be angry when they ask about you. Those other Mechanics may think that I’m enraged at the thought of you, but I’ll be aiming it at them.”

  Alain nodded. “Do the same if Mages ask of Mari or me. Mages can tell when a common person lies. But if you form the lie right, they can be misled. Tell them you hate Mechanics and would not help them. Tell them you have not seen a Mage, and think of what you said about me, that I am not any longer what they would consider a Mage.”

  Mari’s mother listened intently. “We can do that. Right, Kath? And of course your father will be able to say that he never saw you and not be lying at all.”

  “Mother,” Mari said helplessly. “I don’t want to leave. Not ever again. But every moment we are here is a mortal danger to you.”

  Eirene stood, reaching to rest her hand on Alain’s arm. “I know you must go, but remember that we’re now your family too, Alain. Assuming that Mari doesn’t change her mind about marrying you, but women in this family tend to be a bit stubborn when they’ve decided upon something, as you may have noticed.”

  He looked down at her hand, feeling something fill him as if he were drawing on power. The sensation staggered Alain for a moment. Then he smiled at Mari’s mother. “Mari has brought me many things, but I did not expect this. Thank you.”

  Mari grinned as she hugged her mother. “Now I have to marry him, don’t I?” Her smile went away. “Take Alain’s advice. If anybody asks you what my plans are, you can honestly say that you don’t know. Oh, stars above, if only Father had been here. But Alain is right, we need to be gone as quickly as possible.”

  Eirene glanced at Alain and sighed. “I wish your father could have met Alain. A Mage in the family may be a hard sell for your father, Mari. Kath and I will work on him, though.”

  “Father really doesn’t like Mages,” Kath agreed. “You should hear him.”

  “Wait here, Mari and Alain, and say your goodbyes to Kath,” Mari’s mother instructed. “I’ll be right back.” She dashed off deeper into the house.

  Mari turned to Kath. “Hey, little sis. You take good care of Mother and Father for me, all right?”

  “Yes, Lady Mechanic.” Kath smiled. “I’m glad you came back.”

  “Thank you. I only wish I had done it years ago. I’m very glad to know I have a sister, and I’m very glad she’s you.”

  “Are you still really a Mechanic, Mari?”

  She thought about that before answering. “Yes. I’m a Mechanic in terms of what I know and what I can do. I’m still proud of that. But I’m not a Mechanic in the other ways, thinking that I’m better than anyone else and that I can do anything I want to other people.”

  “Good.” Kath smiled at Alain, too. “Can you teach me Mage things someday?”

  “It is very difficult,” Alain said. “Perhaps someday we can try.”

  Eirene came back into the room and shoved a bag at Mari. “Here. Take this, you two. We didn’t have much in the way of prepared food handy, but what we did have is yours. Wherever you’re going, I’m sure you’ll need food. You’ll be able to find drink, I trust. Oh, and there were some cookies which Kath hadn’t eaten yet, so I put those in, too. Sorry, Kath.”

  “Cookies?” Mari’s face crumpled up at the word, and she looked like she was about to cry again. “It’s been…so long.”

  “Too long,” Eirene agreed, tearing up as well. “I know you have to go, but don’t let’s wait another ten years before we see you again, young lady.”

  Mari hastily changed out her coat again, concealing the Mechanics jacket in her bag, then checked her weapon. “Kath, remember you have to lie about seeing us and about still hating me. You have to help protect Mother, Father and yourself.”

  “And not one word about you being…you know who.” Kath nodded and gave Alain a serious look. “Take care of my big sister. Mari is depending on you.”

  Despite his growing sense of urgency, Alain took a moment to bow to her. “I will do my best to follow your advice, Lady Kath.”

  Kath bowed back to him. She gestured to Mari, then leaned up to whisper something to her.

  Mari nodded back quickly, then faced her mother, visibly bracing herself. “Mother, there’s a chance we’ll never see each other again. I may not live long enough for that. Know that I will be thinking of you as long as I live, and that I never stopped loving you, even though for far too long I tried to pretend to myself that I had.”

  Eirene reached out to give Mari another embrace. “My hopes and my love go with you, dearest Mari. I’d be lying like a Mage—sorry, Alain—I’d be an awful liar if I said I wasn’t worried, but I’m also very proud. Be careful. Alain, take care of my little girl, and help her do what she must do.”

  “I will,” Alain promised as Mari’s mother led the way to the back door.

  “You’re going to the harbor?” Eirene asked. “Head south along the alley a little way until you reach the access going east, then take the road where it comes out and follow that to the southeast.”

  “All right.” Mari hesitated. “Alain? What’s wrong?”

  He looked out toward the front of the house. “I sense a warning. There is some danger in that direction.”

  “Mages?”

  “I do not sense other Mages.”

  Mari turned a stricken look on her mother. “Mechanics. Coming here already.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Mari hesitated, her expression filled with dismay, for what seemed to Alain to be a long time even though he knew it was actually only for a few moments. “Alain, how bad is it?”

  He frowned, trying to gain a better sense of the danger. “It does not feel as bad as what we have seen in the past. More as if…it were something that may be.”

  “If we’re here when the Mechanics show up?” Mari said. “Mother, we’re heading out fast. Remember my advice, say you haven’t seen us, and everything should be fine. We’ll be watching until we know you’re safe.” She grabbed her mother one more time, holding her tight, then tore herself away. “Come on, Alain.”

  “Be safe,” Eirene called, then turned to Kath. “Ge
t in the bath.”

  “What?” Kath protested.

  “If those Mechanics come here, and you’re in the bath, they won’t think we’ve just had guests of any kind. Get moving, young lady.”

  Alain nodded in farewell to Mari’s mother and protesting little sister, then followed Mari as she hastened up the alley. “You said we will watch?” he asked.

  “There’s a place.” Mari gazed at him intently, but Alain did not think she was really seeing him, instead focusing on her memories. “If it’s still there. This way.” She turned into another narrow way, concealing her pistol under her coat and moving briskly but not so fast as to arouse notice.

  Alain followed a short distance behind, watching for anyone who might be watching Mari as she turned west, then north again, the streets and alleys climbing enough that the slope wore at his pace. Finally she cut south before pausing where a short street came to an end. Catching up with Mari as she crouched behind bushes bordering the barrier halting further travel, Alain saw that they were positioned some distance from the front door of Mari’s old home but could clearly see it down the slope.

  She brought out the Mechanic device Mari called a far-seer, placing it to her eyes. “I’d hide here sometimes,” she whispered to Alain. “When I was little. I’d play spy with my friends and pretend Mother was an enemy I’d been assigned to watch.”

  She swung her head and the far-seer slightly, looking up the street. “Carriage. Two Mechanics. Only two? I can’t see any rifles.”

  Alain could not make out details at this distance, but he could see the open coach carrying the Mechanics halt outside the bright green door. Both of the Mechanics got out, the driver remaining in his seat to control the horses.

  Mari tensed. “I recognize one of the Mechanics. Master Mechanic Samal. I know him. He’s a decent man. Why did it have to be Samal?”

  “Perhaps that is a good thing,” Alain said.

  Samal and the other Mechanic walked up to the green door and knocked, the sound carrying up to Mari and Alain.

  After a short period which served to increase their tension, the door opened and Alain saw Mari’s mother in the same posture with which she had first greeted Mari. Outwardly respectful—but also clearly resentful.

  “If only I could hear them,” Mari muttered fiercely. “They haven’t manhandled Mother yet, though.”

  Alain could see Mari’s mother shaking her head, saying something he couldn’t make out except for the angry tones in which she spoke. The Mechanic with Samal rudely gestured Mari’s mother aside and the two Mechanics entered.

  The pause this time was longer. Mari jerked as a sudden high-pitched cry came through the open door of the house.

  “That is not your mother,” Alain said.

  “No. It has to be Kath. They’d better not—”

  The two Mechanics came out the door, laughing to each other. Another shout came from the house, this one clearly young, feminine and outraged.

  To Alain’s surprise, Mari started shaking with suppressed laughter. “Kath. Mother told her to get in the bath, remember? Those Mechanics must have gone in to make sure we weren’t hiding in there.”

  “Kath sounds upset.”

  “Upset? Alain, don’t ever walk in on a girl near Kath’s age while she’s taking a bath. Upset does not begin to measure the reaction you’ll get.” Mari had relaxed, grinning at the scene through the bushes screening them from view. “Mother did it just right. She must have told them she hadn’t seen me and didn’t ever want to see me, and then Kath provided a great distraction when they searched the house.”

  The Mechanics were getting into their carriage. The one Mari had called Master Mechanic Samal was speaking sharply to the one beside him. “I wonder who that is with Samal?” Mari murmured, the far-seer still to her eyes. “I don’t recognize him, but I get the feeling that he told Samal to do this.”

  “Perhaps now that other is discredited in his eyes,” Alain said.

  “I think so. Samal looks annoyed, and he wasn’t easy to annoy. Believe me, when we were apprentices we tried.”

  “It worries me sometimes when you speak of the things you did as an apprentice,” Alain whispered back to her.

  Her grin widened even though Mari’s gaze remained on the Mechanic carriage which had surged into motion, the clop of the horses’ hooves echoing from surrounding buildings. “If you only knew the whole truth, dear Mage, you might not be so eager to promise yourself to me.” Mari finally looked away from her far-seer for a moment, her eyes on his. “Did that go as well for you and my mother as I thought it did?”

  “I had a strange feeling in your home, Mari,” he said.

  “Strange? Um …it’s understandable that you felt a bit awkward.”

  “No, not that.” Alain tried to put his thoughts into words. “When you and Kath reconciled, when your mother offered me a place in your family, I felt…I felt as if I were in a place where much power was concentrated.”

  Mari frowned at him. “You mean Mage power, the stuff you draw on to do those spells? My family house is located where a lot of that is available?”

  “No.” Alain shook his head, frustrated. “I cannot explain it because I do not understand it. It was if the people there added to the power I might be able to draw upon. This should not be possible, and I am not sure I could have used that power. It was, as I said, strange.”

  She watched him intently for a while. “Let me know if you ever figure it out. You could have knocked me over with your little finger when my mother said it was your family, too. Isn’t she wonderful?”

  “I see where you get it from,” Alain said.

  Mari gave a pained laugh as the carriage of Mechanics turned down another street and was lost to sight. “Still delusional, I see. Wasn’t Kath great? Far Daarendi! Could you believe it?”

  “I would prefer Daarendi to a hidden place deep in the Great Wood,” Alain confided.

  “I remember when I was that age. The romantic fantasies I wove!”

  “Would you tell me some of them?”

  “No! They’d be far too embarrassing now. Ridiculous stuff. You know, meeting some impossibly wonderful man and then we’d go off and have adventures together.”

  “That does not sound so ridiculous,” Alain observed.

  Her smile slowly grew as she looked at him. “No. Maybe it’s not.”

  #

  Alain felt no further hint of warning, and the attitude of the Mechanics as they left Mari’s family home had betrayed no trace of peril, but Alain and Mari kept walking along the road as fast as they could without attracting much attention, hoping to get a ship out of Caer Lyn before the day was out. They saw a few other Mechanics passing on the streets, but none nearby and none showing signs of alertness or alarm. Whatever had caused the Mechanics to visit Mari’s family home had not resulted in any further activity.

  “A routine check,” Mari speculated. “Maybe they hadn’t heard that I’d been captured by that ship and were following earlier orders to see if I had contacted my family.”

  After that, Mari seemed preoccupied during the walk toward the area near the docks where the sailing schedules would be posted and tickets available for purchase. For his part, Alain worried about the ship on which he and Mari had originally set out for Caer Lyn. Mari’s mother had said the Sun Runner had arrived here late yesterday evening, and many commons on that ship had seen Mari. It was one more complication, one more set of people who they would hopefully avoid running into before they got out of this city.

  But despite his internal concerns Alain couldn’t help noticing the way Mari kept giving him looks out of the corners of her eyes. Sometimes the looks seemed appraising, sometimes happy, sometimes worried. “Is something wrong?” Alain finally asked.

  Mari looked startled. “Wrong? No. I was just thinking.”

  “Is it anything I can help with?”

  “Maybe.” She was looking ahead, biting her lower lip.

  “Is it something danger
ous that concerns you? Should I be worried?”

  Mari took a moment to answer. “No, it’s not some danger. The streets feel very calm.” She paused. “So as for whether you should worry, that would depend upon what sort of things worry you.”

  “I have no idea what that means.”

  “I’m just thinking about things! There’s something I have to decide.” Mari looked up at the afternoon sun. “And I think I need to decide soon. Those Mechanics who came to my old home really centered me on the issue of not knowing what each new moment will bring. Will we even live to reach Altis? What if my Guild intercepts whatever ship we get out of here?”

  “I am concerned about that as well.”

  She hesitated before speaking again. “Alain, I want you to be completely honest with me. You told me that when I was transmitting about you Asha couldn’t actually read my thoughts, she just knew I was thinking about you but couldn’t tell any more than that. Is that really true?”

  Having hoped that Mari had somehow miraculously forgotten the issue of Asha being able to detect her when Mari was thinking of him, Alain was not thrilled by the question, but he nodded firmly. “That is true. She knows only that I am the subject of your thoughts. She cannot tell what those thoughts are. No one can.”

  “Not even you?” Mari asked with a half-smile. “Can she…tell what we’re doing when I’m thinking about you?”

  “Asha?” Alain puzzled over the question. “No. She said she could not, and I do not see how she could. At this moment, for example, she could not tell that we were walking. Why do you ask?”

  “It’s just something that I needed to know.” Mari fell silent again.

  Alain gave it up, walking quietly alongside her and gazing ahead for any Mechanics as he also cautiously felt for signs of Mages nearby. Some other Mages were here, but none of them were bothering to hide their presence, a good sign that Alain’s own arrival in Caer Lyn remained unnoticed. Once he spotted the black jackets of more Mechanics in the distance, the Mechanics in a small group and not acting as if they were alarmed at all.