The Assassins of Altis (12 page)

“Rumors, Mari. Surely you don’t believe the sort of nonsense that commons speak against the Guild.”

“Some very experienced Mechanics confirmed that it happened that way, Professor.” Well, one had, anyway, but Professor S’san was worth a hundred regular Mechanics in Mari’s estimation.

“Politics,” T’mos snorted. “The Guild would never harm any Mechanic, and you shouldn’t listen to those who claim otherwise. I don’t know who you’ve talked to, but that’s what got S’san. She was forced to retire for meddling in politics, Mari. You need to rethink anything she taught you unless you want to end up sidelined yourself, which would be a great shame given your potential.”

Mari felt her temper rising, which had always been a problem during T’mos’ lectures to her. The difference now was that Mari didn’t try as hard to keep her temper in check. “Never harm a Mechanic? The Guild ordered me to go unescorted to Tiae. You know what Tiae is like now. Total anarchy. I’d have been enslaved or, if I was lucky, simply killed.”

“The Guild must’ve had a good reason for ordering you to Tiae,” T’mos assured her. “Unescorted? That wouldn’t happen. There would have been an escort.”

“No, Professor, I confirmed that there would be no escort even though I was assured one would be there.”

“Hmm.” Professor T’mos shook his head, then changed the subject slightly. “Analyze that, Mari, and you’ll see the flaws in your concerns. What possible reason do you think the Guild would’ve had to send you on a suicide contract?”

Mari spoke quietly, but kept her voice firm. “I had learned about those who call themselves the Order, those who aren’t of our Guild but have the skills of Mechanics. I knew Mages could actually do things beyond our understanding. Not tricks, but actual temporary changes to reality. Even though I’d promised to stay quiet, those things were apparently enough to condemn me in the eyes of the Guild’s Senior Mechanics. That and some belief of theirs that I would threaten their control of the Guild someday.”

T’mos made an irritated gesture. “The so-called Order is a tiny bunch of tinkers who’d be lucky to fix a broken pot. The Mages are very good frauds, though, and I’m not surprised they fooled even you given your lack of experience. But Mari, I know much more than you. What you say you thought you knew wasn’t true. Why would the Guild have tried to silence you for that? And frankly, whoever told you that the Guild feared your abilities as a leader when you’re still this young is a fool. The Guild encourages good leaders.”

Mari had always been unhappy with being talked down to, but willing to tolerate it. After all, Mari had been inexperienced, her instructors were indeed the best in their fields, and her knowledge of the world had been second-hand, since she had been kept within Mechanics schools since being forced to leave her family at a young age.

But she wasn’t that inexperienced girl any more and she had seen a great deal of the world in the last several months. “Professor T’mos, how can you tell me something that you know isn’t true? Do you honestly believe that the Mechanics Guild is right to deny truth solely so that it can maintain its hold on power? Aren’t you alarmed by the way the technology used by the Guild is deteriorating, regressing as we lose the ability to make and do certain things because anything that might be considered innovation or change is prohibited? You’re a smart Mechanic. Surely you can see that the road the Guild is following is a dead end.”

T’mos smiled sadly. “Mari. Always the questioning one, aren’t you? If there are things you think you know, then you need to lay them out before the Guild so
—
”

“I did.” Mari spread her hands. “And I was put under a Guild interdict and sent into great danger.”

“No.” T’mos displayed an annoyance at being interrupted that Mari recognized. He always had treated her like a child of his, hadn’t he? “You’re under an arrest order because you didn’t listen, because you jumped without thinking. How many times did we discuss your impulsiveness? And now here you are! You and whoever it is you’re traveling with.” He glanced around, studying the other people in the waiting area.

So the Guild now knew or suspected that she had a traveling companion, but still didn’t know who it was. Mari, sensitized to spotting subtle emotions by being with Alain, thought she detected another layer of aggravation beneath the professor’s annoyance. Maybe, as Professor S’san had suggested, T’mos really had once thought that he and she would end up together as something much more than professor and student, though still authority figure and obedient follower. The thought made her stomach clench with sudden nausea. “The Guild thinks that I’m traveling with someone?” Mari asked, hoping to learn more of whatever the Guild knew and get T’mos’ attention back on her.

Professor T’mos shook his head and sighed with disappointment. She recognized that, too, and was ready when T’mos tried his next approach. “The Guild knows a great deal more than you give it credit for, Mari. You’re a Mechanic. Descended from those who came from the stars themselves. So am I. This other Mechanic…I
assume
he’s a Mechanic…”

Mari knew she was probably flushing in anger a bit at T’mos’ tone, but it wouldn’t be hard to make the professor think that her reaction reflected embarrassment. “You don’t think that I’d take up with a common, do you?”

“Of course not, Mari,” T’mos said, smugness tingeing his words. He apparently thought that he had tricked her into confirming something. “This Mechanic, whoever he is…?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“All right, Mari, but he doesn’t have your best interests at heart.”

“He…seemed all right,” Mari suggested.

“Can’t you trust me more than some romantic fling you’ve picked up? Is he behind this? Is he driving it? Controlling you? Listen, the Guild can protect you. We’re your true comrades. Turn yourself in, young lady. For your own sake.”

Mari pretended to think about it. T’mos appeared to believe that his old manipulations would get through to Mari, as if she hadn’t changed in the least since leaving the academy.
Is he “controlling” me? Does T’mos believe that I can’t think or act on my own? All right, then. Perhaps I need to give my old professor another illusion to play with so Alain and I can get out of Palandur in one piece.
“Professor,” she whispered, “I am worried. I never meant things to go this far.”

T’mos smiled encouragingly. “It’s not too late. Trust me.”

“I will.” Recalling the old saying about lying like a Mage, Mari looked around with a nervousness she didn’t have to feign. “I’m meeting someone here. He’s supposed to arrive this afternoon. I’m staying at one of the old hostels in the Devjin District. Tonight I’ll get him to come with me to Empress Tesa Square. We’ll go to the café facing the fountain of the Empress. You know the one.”

T’mos nodded, easily recognizing the name of an area in Palandur near the Academy where Mechanics often went for food or drink. “The Rakesh café?”

“Yes! I won’t let…my friend… know what’s going on, but I’ll bring him so you can talk to him, too.”

The professor nodded again, his lips curving into an approving and confident smile. “And you’ll be ready to turn yourself in?”

“I don’t know,” Mari temporized. “Why don’t you come alone and talk to both of us? Is that all right, Professor?” For a moment, she worried that she had overdone the innocent young student act, but T’mos apparently didn’t think that she was acting.

“Of course, Mari,” T’mos said soothingly. “Of course. I’ll come, we’ll talk with this man you’re traveling with, and we’ll get things resolved, eh? But you must ensure he comes along with you. I want the chance to reason with him as well.”

Mari nodded, looking at his eyes and seeing, just as she had expected, that Professor T’mos planned on arriving in Empress Tesa Square with an army of Mechanics at his back, intending to scoop her up along with “this man.” “That’s a good plan. I’m so glad you’ve helped me think this through.”

Surely Professor T’mos couldn’t believe that she was that naïve. But T’mos merely smiled with benign approval, showing no sign of doubting her apparent lack of sophistication.

“Now, please, Professor,” Mari said, “you must go. If he sees you when he gets here, he might get suspicious and may not agree to go to Empress Tesa Square.”

“That’s what we will do then.” T’mos reached out to grasp her upper arm, holding on and squeezing lightly with every sign of affection. “I’ve missed you, Mari. I’ll do what I can to straighten out this mess, and maybe we can work together again. That assistant teaching position is still available.”

Mari managed to fake another smile as her guts knotted again. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

T’mos nodded a final time, and with a knowing wink started away, but then turned back, causing Mari to catch her breath for fear that he had seen through her. “Empress Tesa Square, the Rakesh café, tonight,” T’mos said. “What time?”

“Three hours after sunset.”

“That’s fairly late, but I’ll be there.” With another wink, T’mos left. Mari watched him go, wondering why she had never noticed before that the professor strutted when he walked.

She waited a little while, knowing that Alain was still discreetly watching, then slowly walked toward the door the professor had used, gazing out at the increasing number of people rushing to and fro, yawning and reluctant, as the work day and workers woke to life. T’mos was barely visible down the street, striding along with no sign of special haste, apparently confident that Mari would do as she had said. Mari studied the entire area, but could find no indication of other watchers, though she could see a wide plume of smoke still rising in the direction of the Gorgan district.

Finally going back to the bench, she sat down next to Alain without looking at him. “That was an old professor of mine,” she murmured. “You have permission to say, ‘I told you it wasn’t wise to go over there, darling.’”

“I told you it was not wise to go over there, darling,” Alain repeated tonelessly.

“You’re right, dear.” Mari sighed heavily.

“The meeting did not seem to go well on your side,” Alain spoke softly to her. “But this old teacher of yours departed looking very satisfied.”

“Right. He thinks I’m going to hand myself over to the Mechanics Guild on a silver platter tonight”

“He does not think you are leaving?” asked Alain an uncharacteristic amount of surprise noticeable in his voice. “Even though you are here where the Mechanic trains leave?”

“No, he doesn’t.” Mari looked toward the door by which Professor T’mos had left. “I told him I was waiting for someone to arrive, and he wants to catch that someone even more than he does me. I guess he couldn’t conceive that I’d be clever enough to lie to him. It’s strange, Alain. When I met Professor S’san again she was everything I remembered, and she treated me like someone she respected who had grown since I’d last seen her. But Professor T’mos turned out to be a bit different from what I’d remembered, and he acted like I was still a snot-nosed youth trying to figure out which end of a hammer to use. It’s funny how sometimes the world turns out to be like we expect and other times totally different.”

“It is all just an illusion,” Alain assured her. “This Professor T’mos sees the shadow of you he wishes to see, even though it is not you.”

“Sometimes I wish I believed it was just different illusions,” Mari said. “That nothing is real. When things seem really bad, believing that must be comforting.”

“Sometimes,” Alain said. “Other times it makes you question why you should try. If nothing is real, then what difference does anything you do make?”

Mari smiled and looked at him. “You’ve made a very big difference for me. You’ve never let me down, and I think of you more often than I probably should because it usually makes me happy to do so. Hello, Asha,” she called softly to the air, feeling a little giddy after her narrow escape from T’mos. “I’m transmitting again! How’s the bonfire?”

Alain looked baffled once more. “You find that amusing now?”

“Yeah.”

“But a short time ago you were very upset by it.”

Mari nodded. “Yes. What’s your point?”

“Then you have decided this transmitting is humorous?” Alain asked, relieved.

“No,” Mari informed him. “Next time it comes up I might be upset again.”

Alain sat quiet for a while before speaking slowly. “So any time this transmitting comes up you might find it amusing, or you might find it upsetting?”

“Yeah.”

“How am I supposed to know in advance whether you will laugh or get angry when the subject comes up?” Alain asked.

“You can’t.” Mari gave him a barely apologetic look. “Sorry.”

“I see.” Alain nodded, bewilderment showing in his eyes.

“I said I was sorry. That’s just the way it is.”

Alain scratched his head, then gave her one of his small smiles. “Then I will just think of it as another adventure.”

“That’s the spirit.” An apprentice came through the room, calling out that boarding was now permitted for the train to Landfall. “Thank the stars. What a time we’ve had here. I feel better about leaving Palandur than I did about leaving…that other city.” Stars above, she had almost said Marandur out loud. Mari shook her head, wondering if her carelessness was going to get both of them killed.

Despite Mari’s fears, they managed to board the train without anyone recognizing her, partly by keeping Alain between her and any Mechanic who passed by. She waited with increasing nervousness after they sat down in one of the coaches intended for common passengers, worrying that T’mos would tell some other Mechanics of her presence at the station.

But apparently she had judged him rightly as wanting to ensure that her “friend” was captured as well. The train pulled out of Palundur on time and was soon rolling uneventfully through the gentle countryside of the central Empire. The only problem was that Alain sat by her side, unusually tense, looking around constantly for danger. “Relax,” Mari told him for at least the tenth time. “I admit our earlier train trips have included some unfortunate events, but nothing is going to go wrong this time
.”