The Assassins of Altis (29 page)

Mari knew that she looked puzzled. “Is what true about Mages?”

“You know. Those things they know. In bed.”

“Things?” Mari asked.

“Come on, Mari! Everybody’s heard about that!”

Mari gave Alli a bewildered look. “I haven’t. What are you talking about?”

“Like you don’t know!” Alli said with a laugh. “Oh, wow. Mari of Caer Lyn, married.” Alli shook her head suddenly, sobering. “We need to talk about the Guild. How much do you know about what’s going on?”

“Not a lot. I haven’t been able to talk to anyone since I saw Calu in Umburan and someone else in Severun. Well, I was talked
at
by a Senior Mechanic on the ship that captured me, but she didn’t seem to be interested in giving me any information.”

“Calu isn’t at Umburan anymore.” Alli saw Mari’s expression. “It’s not that bad. I’m sure he wasn’t sent to Longfalls. But he was transferred somewhere else. There’s a lot of that going on—Mechanics being sent to different Guild Halls, often a long way from their original Halls. Officially, it’s all routine, which everyone knows is ridiculous because of how many transfers are being ordered right now. Unofficially, the Guild is trying to break up gangs.”

“Gangs?” Mari asked.

“Uh-huh. The Senior Mechanics think that there is a traitor behind every tree. That’s one reason they want you so badly. It’s an open secret that they’ve been trying to find you for months with no luck, and after what you did to the
Queen of the Seas—
”
-

“Was that the ship that captured me?” Mari asked. “You’ve heard about that?”

“A report came in on our far-talker a few days ago. You didn’t quite sink the ship, you know,” Alli confided. “Which I guess means you weren’t trying to sink it, because the Mari I know would have done that if she’d wanted to.” Her face lit up with understanding. “The rumor mill was trying to figure out how you escaped. Was Alain with you? And the Guild doesn’t know he’s a Mage?”

“Right, and right,” Mari confirmed.

“Cool. I want all the details someday. What the Guild thinks happened is that some of the Mechanics aboard must have helped you escape, so the whole crew is under suspicion. Anyway, everything you’re doing is making you a symbol for disaffected Mechanics. And after word got around about the mess in Emdin, what the Senior Mechanics were doing to the apprentices there and how the Guild leadership had been covering it up, there are a lot more disaffected Mechanics. And they look at Mari and see someone who is thumbing her nose at the Senior Mechanics and getting away with it.” Alli bent a mock disapproving look on her. “You’re encouraging rebellion by commons and Mechanics.”

“Mages, too.”

“Really?” Alli asked.

“Well, one other Mage besides Alain, at least.” Mari sat back, deciding to tell Alli the rest. “There’s a storm coming.”

“No, the weather’s supposed to be fine for a few days.”

“Not that kind of storm, Alli.” Mari mimed steam escaping from a valve. “Pressure has been building up in the commons for a long, long time. They’re about to blow.”

She nodded, eyes intent. “How bad?”

“Extremely bad. Think Tiae. Only worse, and everywhere.”

“Are you serious?” Alli asked. “How…what’s the relief valve? There has to be a relief valve.”

Mari pointed to herself.

“Oh my stars.” Alli twisted her mouth. “And with the Guild maybe about to blow up, too.”

“What?” Mari demanded. “The Guild is about to blow?”

“Yeah.” Alli leaned toward Mari. “I don’t think this is the first time that’s happened, but the other times the commons weren’t about to blow as well. I have a friend who tried to go through the official Guild records, and he said there were strange gaps, places where lots of stuff had just been yanked out. Like about a century ago. The rosters of the Guild Mechanics suddenly disappear, and when they show up again years later they’re a lot smaller, as though hundreds of Mechanics just vanished.”

It was Mari’s turn to stare at Alli. “Just like that Mechanic who disappeared from the Guild Hall in Caer Lyn when we were apprentices. Remember him? I wonder just how big the prison at Longfalls is?”

“Not that big, Mari,” Alli said. “I was wondering whether my worst suspicions about what happened to all of those Mechanics who disappeared could actually be true, but with what you just told me about what the Guild tried to do to you at Ringhmon, now I think I know.”

Mari found herself looking down at the table, studying the marks in it as if they held great meaning. “Alain told me that the elders in the Mage Guild, who are like their Senior Mechanics, are ruthless in dealing with anyone they think is an enemy of their Guild. I remember thinking, how horrible to just decide to kill people, to kill other Mages just because they are suspected of being disloyal. Maybe the Mage Guild isn’t all that different from the Mechanics Guild that way, though.”

“Maybe not,” Alli agreed. “The Senior Mechanics control what little we learned about history, so it looks like they told us whatever they wanted and left out a lot of other stuff.”

“I wonder…” Mari gave Alli a curious look. “The Guild’s technology has been regressing for a long time. I wonder of purges like that are part of the reason. You can’t kill that many trained people and not have some impact. Think of all the stuff that never got passed down from one generation to the next.”

“I bet it is part of the problem. Remember how we used to complain about short-term solutions to long-term problems?” Alli leaned forward again, her elbows on the table. “So, speaking of long-term solutions, when do we start the revolution, o daughter of Jules?”

“We? Alli—”

“I’m in, Mari. Do you think I want to sit around pretending to be a good little girl until I disappear in some Guild loyalty sweep?” Alli looked to the side, frowning in thought. “Speaking of which, I heard late today that some special Mechanics are arriving here in about a week. The word came in just this afternoon to the Guild Hall by high-priority far-talker message.”

“Special Mechanics? What’s their specialty?” Mari asked, feeling uneasy.

“I don’t know. Officially, they don’t even exist, but the Guild had to make room for them at the Hall, so of course lots of us have heard that they’re coming, and we were told not to talk about it, so of course everybody is talking about it. But no one who knows who they are will say why they’re coming, or what the rush is about.”

Mari took a deep breath. “Maybe you should get out now.”

“No. If I hang in there a little longer I may be able to find out something about them.”

“Alli—”

“You’d better not be getting ready to lecture me on careful behavior, Lady subject-of-arrest-order daughter of Jules who went to Marandur and married a Mage.”

Mari couldn’t help laughing. “You’ve got me there. Alli, I still don’t know exactly what comes next. I’m here in Altis because I think there’s a place that holds some answers I need before I can figure out what to do. The less I tell you about that, the better.” Blinking back grateful tears, Mari reached over and grasped Alli’s hands. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that we’re still on the same team. I’m going to be out of the city for several days at least, but when I get back I’ll get in touch with you again.”

“You’d better.” Alli nodded toward Alain. “Now do I finally get to meet your promised husband?”

“Sure, but if you try to steal him from me you’re a dead woman.” Mari turned to gesture Alain over to them. He came quickly, yet without moving so fast it attracted attention. “Alain, this is Alli.”

Alain bowed to her. “I have heard much of you. You are the Lady Mechanic who makes the dragon-killer weapons.”

“Yeah, I guess I am.” Alli grinned. “I love that title. Someday when I have my own weapons workshop I’ll put Maker of Dragon-Killer Weapons over the front entrance. So, Alain, what attracted you to Mari?”

“Alli!”

Alain eyed Alli for a moment, then Mari saw his small smile. “I was attracted to Mari by her intelligence, her spirit, and her excellent taste in friends.”

Alli stared at him for a moment, then covered her mouth to stifle laughter. “You are the right one for Mari,” she finally said. “No wonder Calu liked you. Does he know about the marriage?”

“Not yet,” Mari replied.

“Good. I would have killed him if he’d known and not told me.” Alli stopped smiling, looking around. “You two had better get what you came for and get out of here. How do we meet again? You said several days. I’ll wait five days and then come back here in the evening. After that I’ll try to come every other day or so, as often as I can without arousing suspicion. Deal?”

“Deal.” Mari reached to clasp Alli’s hand again. “I am incredibly lucky when it comes to friends.”

“You make that luck, Mari. There were a few times when we were apprentices when I had nowhere else to turn, but I knew Mari would be there for me, and you always were.”

“Mari never leaves anyone behind,” Alain said.

“Exactly!” Alli winked at Alain. “Nice meeting you. I always wondered who Mari’s Mister Right would be.”

Alain bowed toward her. “I am fortunate, though I believe that since Mechanic Calu is favored in your eyes he considers himself more fortunate than I am.”

“He’d better,” Alli said with a laugh.

Mari grinned. “Thanks, Alli.”

“No problem. See you at the revolution.” Alli gestured them away. “Stay safe.”

“I’ll try,” Mari promised as she and Alain walked away.

They quickly bought enough food for dinner and for the trail, then left just as a batch of Mechanics came in and called greetings to Alli, who smiled back as if nothing unusual had happened recently. As Mari and Alain slipped out the door, Alli was focusing the attention of the other Mechanics on herself by asking some loud questions about contracts.

#

Mari trusted Alli but still felt extra nervous until they left the city early the next day. There had been too many cases where the Mechanics Guild had managed to locate Mari without any obvious slip-up on her part or Alain’s. Until she figured out what was betraying them, any period of time in one spot left her jumpy.

The first part of their travel wasn’t too difficult: through the city of Altis, then through the outlying portions lying up against the slopes of the mountains rising behind the city. Mari was surprised at how rapidly the city dwindled as they moved inland, the road very quickly changing from a paved street lined with buildings to a dirt lane bordered by sheds and storage huts and then a narrow path lined only by a couple of small orchards before it vanished completely where it met the skirts of a mountain. As Mari and Alain climbed higher into the interior through territory unmarked by human artifacts, she looked back at the city beneath them. “If this tower does exist inland, it’s no wonder nobody but those old mapmakers know about it. Everything on this island seems to be focused toward the sea.”

Alain paused beside her, breathing deeply but evenly from their climb so far. “I thought the same from my study of the map. There are towns and villages elsewhere on the island, but all lie along the coast. The roads follow the coastline, but often end where cliffs going down to the water block their passage.”

Mari looked upward, where the mountains rose amid steep slopes and deep chasms. “The interior of this island is the perfect place to hide something, isn’t it? Even a long time ago people could have figured that out. How the blazes did anyone build a big tower in terrain like this, though?”

Their progress became slower and slower as they struggled through the rough landscape, and when night fell they had to sit wedged on a small shelf overlooking a sharp drop, taking turns sleeping while the one who was awake made sure neither of them slipped off. About midnight a sudden late-winter squall sent freezing rain to lash the mountains, further adding to the misery of the day.

In the morning the sun rose on a rough countryside glittering with an icy glaze. They had to wait for the ice to melt enough for their footing to be safe. Mari consulted the map often in search of landmarks as they went steadily higher and deeper into the island. Difficult climbs alternated with perilous descents, each complicated by scrub brush which all too often bore thorns instead of leaves. Measuring their apparent progress against the map, she felt despair. “It will take us a month at this rate.”

“Perhaps it will get easier,” Alain said.

“Right now I just wish one of those Mage Rocs would appear so we could fly to that blasted tower.”

This time, darkness descended while they were halfway up a scree-covered slope. Unable to keep going in the uncertain footing and poor visibility, they found a patch of bushes they could lie against, hoping the roots would hold until morning. Neither got much rest that night, either.

Mari blinked at the sun as it finally rose over the rocky peaks around them on the third day. “I hate this island. If that tower is empty I’m going to be one unhappy Mechanic, let me tell you. This little hike better prove to have been worth it.”

“We have had worse,” Alain pointed out, looking as worn out as Mari felt.

“Thanks. That makes me feel so much better.” Mari pulled out her far-seer and studied the ground around them, checking all directions. “Bad that way. That way’s worse. Wow. A lot worse. Hey.” She thought she saw something and blinked to clear her eyes, then took another look. “There’s somebody moving over there.”

“Where?” Alain asked, shading his eyes with one hand as he looked in the same direction.

“Along the side of that ridge there. He’s gone now. No, wait, there he is again, on the side of that mountain. All I can see is his head and a bit of his shoulder. How is he moving so fast? There’s got to be a path there even though we can’t see it.”

Alain shook his head. “Without your Mechanic device, I cannot see any sign of this traveler you are watching.”

“Looks like he’s disappeared for good.” Mari lowered her far-seer, thinking. “Suppose the tower does exist, and suppose there are people living there, and those people need to get to the outside world every once in a while.”