There were no weapons displayed on the walls, either, even though some alcoves seemed designed for that. Every available weapon had been pressed into the defense of the town.
The near side of the long table was bare, but on the opposite side three men and three women sat facing Mari and her group. Mari ran her gaze across them as she walked forward, trying to read their attitudes and determine who would be most open to her proposals. The three women ranged in age from an elderly common with a sharp face and a sharper gaze to a young woman who looked only several years older than Mari. One of the three men was also old, the other two middle-aged like the remaining woman. All were keeping their expressions composed, betraying little, but their eyes were suspicious and wary. They were all lean, even those with stouter builds betraying years of barely sufficient food. Aside from a sword one man wore at his side, none of the city leaders were armed with anything more than a dagger. Mari wondered whether other weapons were hidden beneath the table.
Mari stopped a couple of paces from the table, standing opposite the leaders of Pacta Servanda. She felt her youth more keenly under the gaze of the older commons, but with her jacket on and other Mechanics at her back as well as her Mages, Major Sima, and the captain of the Gray Lady, Mari also felt confidence. She nodded toward the group, trying to address all six of the commons without seeming to single any one of them out. “Greetings. I’m Master Mechanic Mari of Caer Lyn.”
The elderly woman nodded back, her eyes glinting. “Greetings, Lady Mechanic. Were you sent to bring us a message from your leader?”
“Lady Master Mechanic,” Mari corrected. “I am the leader.”
“Then explain your presence at Pacta Servanda,” the oldest man demanded. “Why did you sail your ships into our harbor, flying a pirate’s banner?”
“It’s not a pirate’s banner,” Mari said. “It’s the banner of the new day.”
“You are not pirates?”
“Technically…yes. But our only targets are the Great Guilds.”
The old man made a scoffing sound. “The Great Guilds left Tiae a long time ago. If you have come for payment from them or from us, you will be disappointed.”
Payment?” Mari asked.
“For aiding in the repulse of the barbarians attempting to breach our wall.”
They were being blunt, so Mari decided to do the same. “If you’ll forgive me for saying so, anyone seeing this town would know you don’t have spare money lying around. We did not aid you in the expectation of payment.”
“Then what do you seek?” the middle-aged woman asked. “There is nothing of value in Pacta Servanda.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Mari saw Alain and the other three Mages shake their heads. A lie? What could be here that was of value? Perhaps some artifacts of the kingdom, maybe even some jewels or whatever remained of the crown of Tiae. Nothing that mattered to her, Mari was certain. “There is something here of value to us,” Mari said, “but we demand nothing. We want to discuss what we can give you in exchange for what you can provide us.”
“Words are cheap enough to exchange,” the youngest woman said. “And what do the Mages seek?”
Alain indicated Mari. “The Mages follow Lady Mari.”
The oldest man spoke again, despair apparent in his voice. “The Mage Guild and Mechanics Guild have openly allied?”
“No,” Mari said. “We are not here as representatives of our former Guilds. We are dedicated to overthrowing those Guilds and bringing change to this world.”
Her words didn’t seem to reassure the leaders of Pacta Servanda at all. Another of the men spoke, his voice rough. “You wish to change the world, so you came here? Lady Master Mechanic, whatever you seek, Pacta Servanda does not have it.”
“On the contrary,” Mari corrected, keeping her voice commanding but polite, “your town has exactly what we seek. We want—”
The youngest woman’s voice was low but firm, her face as hard as that of the officer on the landing. “What you want matters little to us who have so little. We will fight before we will allow any outsiders to enslave us. We will destroy this town fighting from every building before we give it to you. Every one of us will die trying to kill one of you. You would conquer only ruins inhabited by the dead. Do not doubt the price you would pay to seize Pacta Servanda, Lady Master Mechanic.”
Mari gazed back at the young woman, seeing the suspicion and anger in her, but also the strength and determination. “I don’t doubt you at all. I have seen such a place. My Mage and I have been to Marandur. I don’t think even you can imagine the horror of that city. It is our goal to avoid such a fate for any other place in Dematr.”
“Marandur?” the third man asked. “Is it no longer forbidden? Why did the Emperor permit you to visit?”
“He didn’t,” Mari replied dryly. “He’s actually really upset about it, which is why Mage Alain and I have avoided every opportunity to personally discuss the matter with Imperial authorities.”
“You’re under an Imperial death sentence?” the oldest woman asked. “And seek to hide here? You’ve made a poor choice.”
“Looking at you, and listening to you,” Mari said, “I am convinced that we made a good choice. I hope you will also make a good choice: to accept what we can offer.”
The youngest woman answered her again. “Beware the gifts of Mechanics, for their price will always be beyond your means. Have you heard that saying, Lady Master Mechanic?”
Mari gave her a flat look, annoyed by the way these commons were deliberately overemphasizing her full status and grateful that that level of sarcasm had never infected the ranks of unimaginative Senior Mechanics. “I’ve heard worse than that. Why not listen before you make up your minds? This town is clearly a bastion of order and decency in a land where such things have become rare. Tiae was given too little aid and too little consideration by the Great Guilds, who were more concerned with trying to limit the spread of anarchy than they were with helping those who needed it. But alone you can’t hold out forever, and alone you can’t return Tiae to what it once was. We’re prepared to offer our weapons and our skills and our power to help you defeat your enemies and expand the area you control. We will help you to return order to Tiae.”
“And in exchange?” the oldest man inquired in the silence that followed Mari’s words.
“In exchange you give us what you have, and what we need. A secure place to operate from, a place to set up workshops, access to raw materials, and a labor force willing to work for us.”
The oldest woman nodded slowly. “Now I grasp why you’re here. The Great Guilds are beginning to crumble just as the Kingdom of Tiae did. You seek a place where you can build up enough strength to challenge your Guilds.”
Mari wasn’t sure she liked the way that sounded, but she had to admit the truth of it. “Yes.”
“You wish to place the people of Pacta Servanda, the people of Tiae, in the middle of a struggle between the Great Guilds and renegade members of those guilds? Has Tiae not suffered enough?”
Mari liked the way that sounded even less. “The people of this town, the people of Tiae, won’t be in the middle.” How to say it right? “They’ll be alongside us.”
“Alongside?” the youngest woman asked with broad skepticism.
“Yes. We’ll defend you just as we’d defend ourselves.”
“As you rebel against the authority you were sworn to obey,” the oldest man said. “As you lead forces against them and overthrow them and…then what? We have seen this. We have lived through this. Many others did not. Why should we aid any warlord, even if she wears the jacket of a Mechanic and has Mages at her command?”
Mari wondered if her expression conveyed how much the charge had shocked and hurt her. She stood wordless for a moment, struggling with anger.
Alli’s voice rang out. “How dare you? Mari’s trying to gain freedom for this world, she’s trying to gain freedom for every Mechanic and Mage and common, and you accuse her of being a warl
ord?”
“She’s never asked anything for herself,” Calu added, his voice brimming with outrage.
“Lady Mari,” said Alain, his Mage voice revealing a cold fury, “does not seek gain or glory. She does not seek to harm. Her goal is to prevent the Storm that approaches this world, a Storm which has been foreseen by the Mages and which will turn all of Dematr into a place of death and ruin. Tiae was the forewarning of the Storm that the Great Guilds have tried to ignore. If the Storm is not stopped, Tiae represents only the beginning of the destruction to come.”
“I would follow no warlord,” the captain of the Gray Lady spat. “I follow her. I follow the daughter. You know not who you insult.”
“The daughter?” The oldest woman blurted out the name, her eyes wide. “Impossible. She did not come when Tiae needed her. She will never come.”
Mari’s anger faded as she thought about all of those who had waited, and hoped, and died. “I’m sorry. I…I was born when I was.”
The youngest woman leaned forward, studying Mari. “You claim to be the daughter? What insight led you to know that about yourself?”
“The sight of Mages,” Mage Dav said. “We see her, and we know. We see the Storm approach, and we know.”
“She did not want this of herself,” Alain added. “She did not want the burden.”
“The burden.” The young woman looked at Mari again. “Is that how you see it?”
“Yes,” Mari said. “It’s a very tough job, and a great many people want to kill me, and quite a few of them have already tried. I wouldn’t have volunteered for the job, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“And yet you are a Mechanic,” the oldest woman said. “And you partner with Mages. Neither have been friends to common folk. Mechanics consider us beneath contempt. Mages do not consider us worthy of any concern or notice.”
“We’re different,” Mari said. “Do you think that if I felt that way I’d be here talking to you? That I’d be giving you an offer for a deal that will help Tiae instead of an ultimatum to do what I ask, or else? And my Mages have spoken to you. Have you noticed? They admit you exist. Well, not all of them yet. But we’re working on that. I have commons here who can tell you that they are treated with the respect they deserve, because all of us, including me and Mage Alain and even Master Mechanic Lukas and Professor S’san and Mage Dav and Mage Hiro and Mage Alera and Mechanics Alli and Calu, we have all been treated with contempt by others. Those others are the leaders of the Great Guilds. And we realize that the only way to earn real respect is to really respect others.”
“I could believe it,” the middle-aged woman said. “It could be her.”
The young woman was resting her chin on one fist as she eyed Mari. “Tiae has no ruler. The royal family has been wiped out.”
Mari once again saw Alain shake his head slightly. The woman was lying. But why?
“You come seeking to help,” the woman continued. “Suppose every word you say is true, suppose you provide the means to rebuild Tiae. Then what?”
“Then we defeat the Great Guilds,” Mari said.
“That’s not what I mean. Who is in charge of Tiae?”
Mari shrugged. “I don’t know. Whoever you decide should be in charge.”
“You?”
“Me?” Mari physically recoiled at the suggestion. “No. Absolutely not.”
“But the daughter could unite our people again,” the oldest woman said. “You could found a new royal family. The daughter of Jules would bring a proud and mighty lineage to replace that of the old royal family, which was destroyed in these years of revolution and lawlessness.”
“I said no,” Mari insisted. “That will not happen. Tiae finds its own leaders, and its choices do not include me.”
“Suppose we insisted, as a price for cooperation?”
Mari shook her head. She wanted to look back, to gain some insight or advice from the expressions of Professor S’san and Alain and her other friends, but that would be too obvious. And her own feelings were clear to her. “Then we have no deal. We’ll go elsewhere, try to find another place where we can begin to rebuild Tiae and stave off the Storm. My job, my only job, is to build up enough strength to overthrow the Great Guilds, free the common folk from being vassals to the Guilds, and allow change to come to this world so that the Storm won’t destroy it. What commons and their governments do with their freedom is their decision. I will not be a party to substituting one set of rulers for another, even if one of them is me. No, that’s not strong enough. Especially if one of them is me.”
“Your words are full of promises and ideals,” the young woman said. “But they are words. Mechanics have been known to lie. Mages are infamous for lies. Is there any proof great enough to demonstrate the truth of your words, Lady Master Mechanic?”
Mari nodded. “I understand why you would be skeptical. Someone once told me that nothing he could say would convince me he was being truthful. All I could do was judge his actions. And I do have that kind of proof available.” She turned to Alain and reached out. He gave her the text she had asked him to carry, and then Mari carried it to the table and set it down in front of the young woman. “Do you know what this is?”
“No,” the woman said, puzzling over the words on the cover. “Demeter Projekt?”
“This a text of Mechanic technology,” Mari said. “Technology that even the Mechanics Guild has for centuries banned Mechanics from seeing or using. Now I show it to you. Go ahead and read it. You may read anything in it. You may copy it and share those copies with anyone.”
The woman’s gaze dropped to the book again, her expression shifting to amazement. “I don’t believe it.”
“You wanted proof,” Mari insisted. “There it is. We’re ready to teach Mechanic skills to any person in this town. Any person in Tiae. We’re ready to install equipment here and build workshops. To build Mechanic devices faster and in larger quantities than anyone has seen before. Better devices, too. What would you say to a promise to provide every single one of your soldiers with a Mechanic rifle that fires faster, farther, and more accurately than anything the Mechanics Guild has offered? Along with all of the ammunition they can carry? And small devices that let those soldiers talk to each other across long distances. And medical devices that can save those who now die of their wounds. We will give you the means to rebuild Tiae. We’re ready to help, if you’ll let us.”
“Why would you do this for common folk?” the woman asked. “Why would you do this for anyone?”
“Because the chaos the Storm will cause began here, and we will heal that damage where it began to keep it from spreading. Because the Mechanics with me believe that our Guild has done a disservice not only to us but to everyone. They believe we’ll all, Mechanics and common folk alike, benefit from change. They don’t want to run the world. They want to be able to build and design new things. They want to be free, too.”
“And the Mages?”
“The Mages believe that the wisdom they were taught is lacking. They’re looking for a new wisdom which has more room for…well, for being human.”
The young woman looked at Mari, looked down at the text, then passed it to one of the middle-aged men.
The man looked it over slowly, page by page, then nodded and spoke in a wondering voice. “It looks real. This all looks real.”
Master Mechanic Lukas spoke for the first time, looking at the man. “You’re a Mechanic.”
“I used to be,” the man said. “When the Guild pulled out of Tiae, I…I had a family here. A woman I loved. One of the common folk. I decided that this was my home, and I stayed where my wife and children were.” He shrugged. “I stopped wearing the jacket when it became obvious how big a target that made me. I’ve done what I can to help people, but that hasn’t been much.”
“You can do more now,” Mari said. “You can call yourself a Mechanic once again, if you wish. If we can reach agreement.”
The young woman leaned back, tapping he
r chin with one finger as she thought. Mari realized that the dynamic in the room had shifted. When she and her friends had entered, the six leaders of Pacta Servanda had seemed to be equals. But now Mari felt a strong sense that the young woman was the true leader, with the others deferring to her and following her lead. “There would have to be someone in charge,” the woman observed. “You say that we will command Tiae? Then who directs the larger effort?”
“Only the daughter can do that,” Alain said. “Only she can command Mages, as well as Mechanics, and has the trust of the commons throughout Dematr.”
“Your words are wise, Sir Mage. I’ve never talked to a Mage before. I can barely remember seeing any. But I know of their reputations, which are unpleasant to say the least. Except in one case.” The young woman looked closely at Alain. “A small ship from the north visited us months ago, carrying mostly weapons and armor but also rumors. Rumors of the daughter appearing in the Northern Ramparts, slaying dragons, and accepting no payment for saving commons. The rumors said a Mage accompanied her, a Mage who was willing to sacrifice himself to save commons. Are you that Mage?”
Alain nodded.
“What makes you different?”
Alain gestured toward Mari with one hand. “She has changed me.”
“Because she is the daughter?”
The Pirates of Pacta Servanda Page 28