The Assassins of Altis

by Jack Campbell

  By the time they actually reached the area near the waterfront, the afternoon was far gone. Mari led them to the wall boards on which sailing schedules were posted, hastily studying the list. “There. The White Wing. That’s the one we need. It sails on the tide, which isn’t that long off, but it gives us enough time.” She hesitated. “Just enough time, maybe. Can you get us tickets while I take care of something else?”

  Alain nodded. “I have bought tickets before, so I can do the same here, but what—?”

  “One cabin!” Mari called, already heading off up the street at high speed. “Make it a good one if we can afford it, and make sure it’s private!”

  “But—”

  “One cabin!” By that time Mari was far enough away that Alain gave it up and went to the agent to purchase the tickets.

  The White Wing proved to have a few cabins left. Alain looked at the costs, regretting once again that Mage training paid little attention to such practical issues as how to handle money. Mages could stay or go anywhere they wanted since no one dared refuse them, but such extortion would draw far too much attention to him right now even if he hadn’t developed a most unmagelike conscience. Now, without Mari on hand, Alain was not certain how much he should pay.

  The agent noticed him hesitating, and smiled encouragingly. “You want the White Wing? Tell you what, since she’s about to sail and needs to fill those cabins, I’ll give a good deal on one.” He named a price, then looked expectantly at Alain.

  Alain tried to look like he was considering the offer, while wondering if it was actually a good price. “That is for two?”

  “If you’re sharing a bed.”

  “Yes.” There was something else Mari had said was important. “It is private?”

  “Absolutely!” the agent beamed, then winked at him.

  What did that mean? But at least Alain was certain this man did not conceal ill-will, just a false sort of friendship probably aimed at convincing Alain to buy what the man sold. “All right.” Alain nodded to the agent, then counted out money slowly enough to watch the agent and know when there was enough.

  “You’d best not waste any time getting to the landing,” the agent advised. “There have been some rumors about the harbor being closed soon.”

  Alain stepped back out onto the street and looked around for Mari, feeling a pang of worry when she was not immediately visible. But a moment later she came into view up the street, beckoning him. “Hurry!” she called.

  “But the ship—”

  “I know! Come on!”

  Shaking his head, Alain trotted to join her, only to have his hand grabbed as Mari urged him along faster. “In here.” He found himself in a plain office-type room, facing a disinterested-looking woman seated at an unadorned desk. Mari seized a piece of paper on the desk and thrust it at him along with a pen. “Sign this right here.”

  Alain looked at the indicated place. “What is this?”

  “Just sign!”

  They had been in plenty of situations before where one of them had to trust in and immediately follow the instructions of the other. Alain awkwardly scrawled his signature, wondering if anyone else would actually be able to read it. Penmanship had not been a major concern of Mage training. As soon as Alain finished, Mari scooped up the document and passed it to the woman at the desk along with several coins.

  The woman glanced at the paper, counted the coins, then looked at Mari as she recited in a bored voice. “Do you make this promise of your own free will, with no thought of deceit or reservation?”

  Mari nodded. “Yes.”

  The woman looked at Alain. “You?” she asked in the same bored tone.

  Alain stared at her, then at Mari who was nodding vigorously at him. “Uh, yes.”

  The woman signed the paper, picked up a stamp and slammed it down on the document, slammed the stamp down on another document which she handed to Mari, then without looking at them spoke again in her jaded, monotone voice. “Congratulations on behalf of the people and city of Caer Lyn. May your lives be filled with the joy of this day.” She tossed the first document into a file nearby. “And now we’re closed, so please do any celebrating outside.”

  Mari took Alain’s hand again, pulling him out and back down the street toward the docks as she stuffed the paper she had been given into one of her coat pockets.

  “Mari,” Alain asked, “what is that paper? What just happened in there?”

  She looked back at the place they had left, her expression shifting, walking so fast that Alain had trouble keeping up. “In there?”

  “Yes. In there. What did I sign and what did we just do?”

  Mari’s face worked with indecision. “We, um, we…”

  “Mari?”

  “We got married,” Mari forced out quickly, not looking at him.

  “What?” Alain asked.

  “We got married,” she repeated. “You said you wanted to. You proposed to me back at that inn west of Umburan.”

  “Yes, but—”“And I said yes last night and gave you my proposal, too, and you accepted that. So we got married.”

  Alain stared at her. “I had expected a marriage to be a little different.”

  Mari nodded, smiling brightly but still looking straight ahead as she kept walking fast. “I know wedding customs in Ihris probably aren’t the same as they are here.”

  “Mari, I know nothing of customs for marriages in Ihris or anywhere else, but I had thought that no matter where a marriage occurred, the man would know when it is taking place.”

  “Well, I admit that is usually done.” Mari glanced very quickly and anxiously at Alain, then down at the ground as they walked. “It was just a civil ceremony. I’m nineteen and you’re eighteen so it’s perfectly legal and will be recognized anywhere, though of course we won’t be telling people our true names. We did use them on the marriage document but without our Guild titles it’ll just be one more piece of filed-away paperwork that our Guilds will never locate. We can do something bigger and more formal later if you want. Invite guests. That sort of thing.”

  “That is hardly the point, Mari. Such an important event, such an important decision—”

  “We did have a guest, you know,” she added, still keeping her eyes averted. “You said destiny would be there, and I know it was. It felt very special for me. I felt very special.”

  “I was simply confused and doing what I was told,” Alain replied.

  “From what I’ve heard, that’s not all that unusual for men at weddings.” Mari stopped abruptly, turning to face him, looking directly at Alain with a pleading expression. “We only had a few moments. They were closing. There wasn’t time to explain. You said you wanted to marry me.”

  “I do.” Alain rubbed his forehead, trying to absorb what had happened. “I mean, I did. I just did not expect it now.”

  Mari took a deep breath, closing her eyes, apprehension in her expression and her voice. “Alain, you and I have cheated death a number of times already. In some cases only luck saved us. There are plenty of powerful enemies still trying to kill us. Our luck could run out any day. Any moment. We talked about that.” She opened her eyes to look directly into his, her face suddenly calm. “I realized something after we left my family’s house. If I die tomorrow or next month or even today before the sun sinks any more in that sky, I want it to be as your promised partner in this life.”

  “I…” It finally sank in. For only the second time in his life, the first being while the caravan he was protecting was being blown apart around him, Alain felt completely unable to think. “I…”

  “I know it was selfish of me. I should have given you a chance to say if you wanted it that way, too.”

  It was just so hard to grasp. Alain’s mind stayed stuck. He could not speak.

  Her face started to crumple up in sorrow. “You didn’t really want me, did you? You’re unhappy.”

  The thought of her tears somehow got his brain moving. “Mari, I am very happy. We will
be together always now?”

  She nodded, wiping at her eyes. “Mostly, at least. I hope.”

  “Then this is the most wonderful as well as the most unforeseen day of my life. But at the moment I am also very, very overcome with feelings. I do love you, I do want you, but I cannot find any other words right now.”

  Mari gave him an unsteady look. “Then you’re not mad at me?”

  “I do wish I had known what was going on.”

  “She only stayed as long as she did because I bribed her!”

  Alain laughed. For a moment, every day of his life as an acolyte and a Mage, detached from all other people, seemed like a long, bad dream from which he had only just been awakened. “You told me you are impulsive. I should have taken the warning and been prepared for something like this.”

  “Exactly,” Mari agreed, grinning. “You should have expected this. I don’t know why I should have to explain it.” She tugged at him again, getting them back into motion toward the docks.

  Mari leaned in to kiss his cheek as they walked rapidly toward the docks. “I’m so happy. Even though there are still lots of people trying to capture or kill us. You’re going to be happy, too. I just know it.”

  “I am already happy,” Alain protested. “Completely overwhelmed and very surprised, but happy.”

  She put her mouth near his ear and whispered. “Don’t you remember the night you’d never forget that we once talked about? Well, now we’re married, and I have some things I picked up to make sure I don’t get pregnant, and by the time the sun sets we’ll be in our private cabin on the ship taking us to Altis.” Mari pulled back and gave him a worried look. “You did get a private cabin, didn’t you?”

  Alain felt his breathing stop and only got it going again with difficulty. “Y-yes.”

  “See, you are happy, aren’t you?” she teased.

  “Yes,” Alain repeated. He swallowed, looking over at her. “Do we have to wait until sunset?”

  Mari laughed. “Men. One thing at a time, love. Let’s get to the pier before the boat to the ship casts off.”

  They were almost to the pier, looking for the boat to the White Wing, when Mari and Alain passed a group of sailors trudging up from the harbor. One of the sailors glanced at them as they passed, then Alain heard a shocked exclamation. “It’s her! She got away from them!”

  Mari had turned toward the sound before Alain could warn her, and as he turned, too, Alain could see the entire group of sailors had come to a halt and were staring at Mari. “The daughter,” a female sailor whispered in awed tones.

  Another sailor pointed at Alain. “That’s her friend, the one that went to help her. Her Mage.”

  Mari had that horrified look on her face again and seemed momentarily lost for words, so Alain spoke for them. “You are from the Sun Runner? It is important that no one know we escaped and arrived here.”

  The startled sailors all made noises of agreement, but as Alain saw the excitement in them he wondered how long their promises to keep quiet would hold.

  Finally finding her own voice, Mari spoke quietly as she looked around for anyone else who might be close enough to hear. “Please do as my Mage says. I need to keep the Guild guessing as to where I went.”

  “Is there anything we can do for you?” one of the sailors asked eagerly, generating more agreement from his fellows. “It was terrible hard to let the Mechanics take you. But we did what you and your Mage said, and now we’ll do anything you ask.”

  “Are you going back out to sea?” another asked. “Aren’t you worried about that metal ship coming after you again?”

  Mari shook her head. “That ship isn’t going to be giving anyone else any problems for a long time to come.”

  “You stopped that ship?” All of the sailors looked at Mari in awe, which Alain could see startled her.

  “When are you going to move against the Great Guilds?” the first sailor asked again.

  “I don’t know yet. There are things I have to do first,” Mari said.

  “How long?” the female sailor pleaded. “Years?”

  Mari gazed back at her. “No. Months. Maybe a year.”

  “And then we’ll be free?”

  “Free.” Mari looked down, then back up at the sailors. “I hope so. Nothing is certain. But I’m going to do my best. The Great Guilds are very powerful, and I need to be ready to confront them. Spread the word for everyone to…to stay calm, and wait to hear. They will hear when I start doing things. Change is coming. Now, thank you, but please, we have to hurry.”

  The sailors straightened up as if someone had commanded them, then the eldest brought his hand to his brow in a salute that the others copied. “May the stars shine on you, Lady Mari.”

  Mari blinked in surprise, then smiled quickly again and tugged at Alain. “Thank you. We have to go. Please say nothing.” Pulling Alain along, Mari fled down toward the pier.

  Once out of earshot of the sailors, Alain looked back to see them in a group talking together excitedly. “We must hope that no one else noticed them all saluting you, but by nightfall some of them will be drunk and speaking of seeing you here.”

  “I know,” Mari groaned. “How did they know my name?”

  “The Mechanics who arrested you used it, and the commons on the Sun Runner heard. Some of them spoke your name in my hearing before I was taken from the Sun Runner. Your mother told me that the rumors from the north have also carried the name Mari with them.”

  “Oh, great. Lady Mari.” She sighed heavily as they rushed on toward the pier. “From you I like that, but if everyone is going to be using it as some sort of title I’d almost rather be called the daughter.”

  The conversation reminded Alain of something else. “Who is Mara?”

  Mari turned a perplexed look on him. “Where did you hear that name?”

  “On the Sun Runner. Someone said you might be Mara, whoever that is.”

  Mari was looking straight ahead. “I’m not Mara. That’s all you have to know. And don’t you ever, ever call me that. Understand?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “How did they know that you’re a Mage?”

  “I had to reveal that to keep them from charging the Mechanics after you went down the ladder.”

  “Lady Mari and her Mage,” Mari sighed. “To think once I was just Master Mechanic Mari. What ship are we looking for again?”

  “The White Wing.” They were at the waterfront now and rushing toward a boat where the sailors were already untying the lines holding it to the pier.

  “Hold on!” Mari cried, then she and Alain ran the last distance to the boat.

  A ship’s officer who wasn’t trying to hide his annoyance looked at their tickets, then waved them aboard before shouting at his crew to get moving.

  As Mari and Alain settled in on some seats, an older couple facing them nodded in greeting. “Good thing you made it,” the man commented. “The sailors heard something a little while ago about the Imperials or one of the Great Guilds wanting to shut down this harbor. They wanted to be sure their ship got out before that happened.”

  Mari spoke in the puzzled voice of an innocent traveler. “Why would the Imperials or one of the Great Guilds want to close this harbor?”

  “Who knows? There has been a lot strangeness going around these days. Rumors, you know.” The older man glanced around for Mechanics or Mages within earshot, then nodded with grim satisfaction. “She has come at last. The masters know their days are numbered.”

  His wife smiled in anxious agreement, then bent a concerned look at Mari. “You look a bit like the descriptions we’ve heard of her,” the woman whispered. “Best be careful of any Mages or Mechanics you see. They might mistake you for her.”

  Her husband frowned at Mari. “She doesn’t look anything like her.”

  “I’m sure you’re right, dear,” his wife said with a conspiratorial wink to Mari.

  Mari winked back, then smiled at Alain.

  The wife smi
led wider. “I know that look. Newlyweds?”

  “As of about twenty minutes ago,” Mari replied.

  “There, you see?” the husband said. “She couldn’t be the daughter. No one ever said the daughter would be married.”

  “No one ever said she wouldn’t be,” the wife rejoined. “Congratulations to you both. Perhaps your children will be free.”

  “They will be,” Mari said with a calm certainty that drew looks of surprise from both man and woman.

  The wife gazed at her with a sudden suspicion dawning, then smiled again, this time proudly. “I am very glad to have met you.”

  The boat had no sooner pulled alongside the White Wing than the passengers were hustled up the accommodation ladder and the boat itself hooked up to its davits and raised into position. Mari and Alain were still walking across the deck when a whistle sounded and sailors raced into the rigging above them to unfurl sails. The White Wing lived up to her name as brilliant expanses of white canvas filled in the breeze, catching the wind and bringing the ship around as the anchor was rapidly hauled in.

  Mari brought Alain to the rail, where they watched as the ship bore across the harbor, tacking once to clear the breakwater, and out into the open sea. The sun was setting now, dropping in the west behind the mountains of the largest of the Sharr Isles. In the harbor some other merchant ships were also scrambling to get underway, but Mari pointed past them. “Look at the sailors going up into the rigging on those Imperial warships. They’re getting ready to move. And those people on the breakwater, I bet you that they’re preparing to raise the chain across the harbor mouth.”

  “This might have been the last ship to get out of the harbor,” Alain observed.

  Mari sighed. “Even though it almost caused us to be stuck here, I don’t regret taking the time to marry you before we left. Do you think we’ll ever be back here?”

  “Perhaps not, since these islands are dominated by the Empire. But we can see your family again even if we never return here. They may need to leave for their own safety.”

  Her hand tightened on his. “Our family, Alain. Remember? It’s official now that we’re married.”

  “I have felt it was so since your mother spoke those words.” Alain looked at her, trying to smile. “This day I have gained a wife and a family.”