The Assassins of Altis

by Jack Campbell

  Alain came up next to her. “Can we get out without being spotted?”

  “If we’re lucky.” Mari edged her way to the main door. As she expected, it was locked, but the lock wasn’t keyed from this side. Breathing a silent prayer of thanks, Mari slowly turned the latch until it clicked open with a sound that seemed to fill the silent store. The noise outside had probably covered the sound from being heard by anyone out there. Mari pushed down on the lever. “We walk out smooth and calm, like everything’s normal and we’ve every right to be here. Clerks working late or something. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Alain agreed.

  Mari put her pistol into the shoulder holster under her coat, closed the coat to hide the weapon and holster, then stood up, pushed open the door and stepped out onto the street, Alain right behind her. Some of the nearest bystanders gave them curious looks, but Mari calmly closed the door, then turned to Alain and pointed away from the hostel. They started walking steadily through the crowd, trying not to seem fearful or in a special hurry.

  Mari caught a glimpse of a Mechanics jacket to one side, but the owner was fighting his way through the crowd toward the hostel, yelling insults at the commons who were too caught up in trying to find out what was happening to be aware that an exalted Mechanic was demanding they make way for him.

  They reached the end of the street and crossed quickly, heading up into the city and walking into the relative sanctuary of a quieter cross street, where they could still hear echoes of Mechanic rifle shots bouncing from building to building. Behind them the sound of fire bells was resounding, and a faint flickering against low clouds told of a spreading fire. The fire in the crates must have spread to the surrounding buildings.

  Mari realized that her hands were shaking again and hastily gripped Alain’s arm. “That was too close.”

  Alain nodded. “How do you suppose they found us?”

  “I can’t imagine. I haven’t talked to anyone since we got back to the city. No one knew we were there. We didn’t even know we’d be there until we picked the place. Could Mages somehow be helping my Guild and detecting you?”

  He shook his head. “Had Mages been present, they would have attacked us as well. They would not have any confidence in the ability of Mechanics to kill me.”

  “I guess you’re right.” Mari felt a prickling of alarm as she realized something. “Hey, the shots have stopped. They’ve already figured out where we aren’t.”

  Alain just nodded and began walking faster. They dodged from corner to corner, crossing streets and changing direction as they put more distance between themselves and the hostel. The crowds had long since been left behind; they saw only an occasional other person on the darkened streets. Finally Mari pointed to a small bar on a street corner, still open this late in the evening. “Let’s go in there, rest a little and figure out what to do next.”

  The dimly lit bar had only a few patrons, all of them drinking with the grim efficiency of those for whom alcohol was not a diversion but a constant companion. Mari and Alain took a table against one wall, gazing at each other and catching their breath. Before she could say anything, Alain frowned. “I have tried to sense the amount of power available here. It is very small. There is not enough power to support even a single spell, even if I put all of my own strength into it as well.”

  “Then we’d better get the blazes—” Mari broke off in mid-sentence as she turned, staring at the small window next to the door. A shadow had flickered across it, as if someone had moved quickly and stealthily there.

  Alain caught Mari’s worried look and turned to stare that way. “There is danger,” he announced. “Darkness lies that way.”

  Alain’s foresight had kicked in again, but perhaps too late. Mari turned toward the back of the bar, getting out of her chair only to have Alain grab her arm. “That way as well.”

  “Alain,” Mari hissed, “you can’t get us through a wall here, can you?” He shook his head. “That means front and back are the only directions we’ve got!”

  “Both are deadly,” Alain repeated, his face worried.

  Mari looked around. Aside from the flimsy tables, the only cover in the place was offered by the actual bar itself, a fairly substantial-looking piece of furniture anchored to the outside wall and with a sturdy load-bearing brick interior wall behind it, extending most of the way across the room. The brick of the wall next to them, which must be shared with the next building over, went all of the way up to the ceiling. Opposite them, the outside wall was made of brick up to about waist high, but above that were thick wood planking and beams, hinting that this place had once had a far grander occupant. It also had no windows at all except the small one near the front door, no way of getting out through.

  With nowhere else to go, Mari tugged Alain toward the bar, coming around the end to confront the bartender, a wiry elderly woman who would have looked grandmotherly if not for the aura she carried of having spent a good portion of her life in prisons. The woman scowled at Mari. “No one behind the bar but me.”

  Mari whipped out her pistol and pointed it at the woman. “Can’t you make an exception in my case?”

  The old woman stared, then rolled over the top of the bar with surprising agility, dropping off the other side to the floor. Before the bartender could scramble to her feet, the front door exploded open, fragments spraying the room. Mari brought her pistol around, squeezing off a couple of shots as dark-jacketed figures burst into the room, themselves firing rifles into the gloom of the bar. The few patrons hurled themselves to the floor.

  Mari tried to aim at one of the attackers, but a volley of shots shattered bottles and glasses behind her, spraying fragments of glass in all directions. She dropped behind the bar, shoving Alain down against the outside wall and crouching between him and the opening at the end of the bar. More bullets hit the top of the bar, sending splinters flying, as others thudded into the front of the bar. From the other side, Mari could hear the thunking noise of bullets plowing into the brick wall behind her, sending out spurts of pulverized brick dust to drift downward. Armed Mechanics must have burst through the back door as well.

  Some of the lanterns in the room had been knocked over, their flames now catching on the floor and tables to brighten the dimness and give Mari a decent view of the open end of the bar. Someone in a dark jacket appeared at the opening and Mari aimed and fired in one motion, making the figure jerk back and away.

  We’re trapped. No way out this time. It’s over. Mari felt fear filling her again, but along with that fear was a powerful certainty that overrode everything. “Stay down,” she said to Alain over the sounds of gunshots and the impacts of the bullets. “They won’t get to you while I still live.” The conviction she felt was an odd thing, separate from her terror and utterly unyielding. She might soon die, but all that mattered, the only thing that mattered in all the world, was trying to save Alain even though she knew it was hopeless.

  Mari felt a sudden rush of fatigue and her arm drooped. She was raising her weapon again when Alain’s hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled backwards. Off-balance and surprised, Mari yielded to his tug even as she wondered where he had found room to get farther back.

  An instant later she was stumbling onto the street outside, staring at a once-again solid wall and at another Mechanic who was staring back at her with a dumbfounded expression. Mari recovered first, swinging her pistol to club her opponent senseless. A shout from the corner drew her attention and she saw another Mechanic there, yelling and pointing at her. Mari brought her weapon up again and fired, sending splinters flying as the shot hit the wall near him. He dodged behind the corner, still yelling.

  Mari looked around, seeing Alain propping himself up against the wall, ashen-faced with fatigue. She put one arm around him. “Lean on me!” Moving as fast as possible while supporting Alain, she staggered across the street. Shots rang out behind them and bullets went snapping past. Mari hit the corner of the next street and swung them behind it as another
volley tore holes in the bricks and wood of the structure there. She leaned out and fired, sending Mechanics diving for cover, then waited despite the shots still coming her way and fired again to discourage pursuit for a few more seconds before swinging back and supporting Alain once more.

  “Run, blast you!” she urged Alain, who was still having trouble getting his feet under him. Mari supported as much of his weight as she could. She would carry him if she had to, but she knew they had to move faster if they were to get away again. They reached the next street and Mari crossed immediately, then went down the next side street and took the next corner as another shot took a chunk out of a window frame near her.

  She staggered with Alain down a short side street, her heart pounding with fear and fatigue, her legs wobbly with effort, and saw an open-top horse-drawn cab there, the driver looking with a puzzled and worried expression toward the sound of the gunshots growing closer. Seeing Mari, he shook his head. “I’m not taking any fares. I’m leaving.”

  “Not without us.” Mari tossed Alain into the cab with a strength she hadn’t known she possessed, then jumped in as well and stuck her pistol in the driver’s face. “Go!”

  Mari wondered just how deadly her expression must have looked as the driver paled and whipped his horse into motion. The cab thundered down the street, scattering a few pedestrians who stopped to hurl insults their way. Mari rested her free hand on Alain, rising up enough to look back and see Mechanics running out onto the street, then leveling their rifles at the fleeing cab. More shots rang out and the pedestrians scattered again, this time not stopping in their flight.

  “Turn, you idiot!” Mari yelled, pivoting to stick the muzzle of her pistol against the driver’s back. The cab swung wildly, tilting onto two wheels as it took the next corner going full out. The cab settled back onto four wheels with a jarring crash while Mari tried to figure out where to go next.

  “Left,” Alain mumbled from the seat where Mari’s free hand was holding him in place.

  “Turn left at the next corner!” Mari commanded the driver. “And slow down a little or I’ll blow your head off!”

  They took the corner with less danger that time and the cab rumbled down a long straight stretch before Mari ordered it to turn left again. As it settled onto the new street, she saw a city park to the right and pulled back her weapon. “Stop the cab.” The driver reined in his foam-flecked horse. It was hard to tell which one was staring with wider eyes, the horse or the driver. Mari hopped out, pulling Alain with her. Before she could say a word, the driver whipped his tired horse back into motion. By the time Mari had dragged Alain into the cover of the park, the cab had vanished.

  She kept going until they reached a bench well concealed by bushes from the street they had left, then dropped Alain onto it and collapsed beside him. Cursing her trembling hands, she pulled out some bullets and refilled the clip in her pistol, fumbling with the rounds as she tried to force them into place.

  “Where are we?” Alain looked around wearily.

  “I think we’re at the boundary of the industrial areas,” Mari guessed, angered by the way her voice wavered from stress. “That’s where the parks are. What happened back there? You told me you couldn’t get us through a wall because there wasn’t enough power.”

  “There was not,” Alain confirmed, breathing deeply and staring upward. “There definitely was not. But then, while we were behind the bar, the power was suddenly there.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that could happen?” Mari asked crossly. It didn’t make sense to be angry at Alain, but her nerves were jumping crazily.

  “It cannot happen. Power can be drawn down by the work of Mages, but then can be renewed only slowly. It cannot spike as the power did there. It came from somewhere, Mari.” Alain’s expression suddenly shifted and he stared at her. “It came from you.”

  “What? Alain, that’s totally ridiculous.”

  “But it happened. I do not understand it at all, but it came from you. With what you provided and my own strength, I was able to get us through the wall.”

  Mari stared back at him, remembering the strange burst of tiredness she had felt. “No. It must’ve been something else. Not me.”

  “Mari, I have been noticing this for a while. I am becoming more aware of a power that people carry, that strong emotions can create.”

  “I didn’t give you power! Knock it off, Alain!” She didn’t know why, but the idea frightened her. On top of other events so far this night, it was simply too much to handle.

  He seemed surprised by her reaction. “I will not speak of it again for a while then.”

  “How about not speaking of it ever again?” Mari growled. She looked around them. “How did they find us at that bar? First the hostel, then the bar. What’s going on?”

  “I have no idea.”

  Mari stood up, offering Alain her hand. “Let’s go. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

  Alain stood up, nodding. “I can walk now.” Then he turned his head toward the street.

  Mari did, too, hearing the sounds of horse hooves, of carriages rattling to a halt, then of boots hitting the pavement. No. It’s impossible. But she grabbed Alain’s hand and they both took off through the park, running as fast as Alain’s tiredness would permit. Mari heard a command shouted and saw the flash of light from a rifle shot, then heard the shot and its passage through nearby bushes. They dodged to one side, then dodged again, hitting a slope and almost falling down it before reaching another patch of shrubbery and racing through it.

  They stumbled out onto a wide street which looked deserted, stretching off in both directions with no cover. On the other side of the street was a wall easily half again as tall as Alain. Mari spotted a gate in the wall and urged them that way. It was locked, of course, but with a big lock, easy to pick for someone skilled. Mari hurriedly pulled out a lock pick and quickly clicked the lock open. Pushing the gate ajar, Mari pulled Alain inside and pushed the gate closed again, relocking the gate as she did so, then leading them into a warren of large buildings that loomed high on all sides. “The warehouse compound,” Alain got out between breaths. “I remember it from the city maps.”

  Mari nodded wordlessly. She was feeling more and more like a hunted animal, chased from place to place, running out of endurance and options while the hunters closed in relentlessly. High, narrow windows with heavy bars on them stared down at the fugitives as they raced down the alleys between warehouses. Finally they reached a dark corner and collapsed next to each other. Please, please, don’t let them find us again. The other gates out must be locked, too, and they’re too easily guarded. Alain’s too tired to take us through another wall. This looked like a good place to hide but I’ve trapped us in here.

  She heard boots running toward them and almost groaned with despair. It sounded like only one Mechanic, but even one Mechanic would force her to fire her weapon and bring the others down on her.

  “Mari! Don’t shoot!”

  She was swinging her pistol around to bear on the person who had called her name, her finger quivering on the trigger. Somehow Mari managed to control her overstressed nerves and kept from squeezing off a shot. “Alli?”

  Alli came closer, her Mechanics jacket making it hard to see her clearly in the dark. “Yeah, it’s me.” A moment later Alli dropped down next to them, breathing heavily from her run. “Thank the stars I found you! They know you’re in here somewhere but I managed to get away from the others and sneak in ahead of them. Mari, listen, you’ve got—”

  “What are you doing here?” Mari cried. “They’ll kill you, too.”

  “Will you please shut up, Mari?” Alli demanded. “Listen. The Guild is tracking you.”

  “What? How?”

  Alli fumbled at Mari’s pack. “Your far-talker. You’ve got a far-talker with you.”

  “Yeah. I thought I should hang on to it.” Mari hastily began aiding Alli, digging for the far-talker she had faithfully lugged across half the world despite the freque
nt temptation to drop the heavy object down a deep hole. “How did you—? What about—?”

  Alli seized the far-talker. “We’ve got to rid of this! Fast!”

  “Why?”

  “A friend helped me plant a far-listener in the office of the Guild Hall supervisor so I could hear what they were saying. Yeah, I know how illegal it is to bug a supervisor’s office, and you’re in no position to be lecturing me about it anyway. I was worried about you and about me. And do you know what I heard them talking about? Portable far-talkers send out a low-powered signal even when they’re off, Mari. The Guild can use that signal to find you. That’s how they’re locating you. That’s how they knew you were on that ship when the Queen of the Seas captured you, and that’s how they realized you were in Caer Lyn and that you had come here.”

  “A homing signal?” Mari stared at the far-talker. “But I know the Guild lost track of me at times.”

  “I told you it’s low-powered, Mari, so no one would suspect their far-talker was operating even when supposedly powered down. They could only find you if you were close enough for them to pick up the signal. Whenever you got close enough to a Guild Hall with the far-talker, they could tell where you were. These killers they sent to get you have several portable devices that give them bearings on your signal, so they’re able to locate you pretty precisely and pretty fast no matter where you are.”

  “Blast!” Mari pointed her pistol at the treacherous far-talker, feeling an irrational urge to execute the traitorous device, then restrained herself with an effort. “Alain, this is how they’ve been able to find us! When a far-talker is sending out a signal it isn’t directional, but by using different timed bearings or multiple intercept stations they can—”

  “Mari,” Alain interrupted. “I appreciate your attempt to keep me informed, but since I am not understanding a single thing you are saying to me, is it really wise to spend time doing this?”