The Assassins of Altis (38 page)

Bev shook her head. “Total careerist and backstabber. On his way to Senior Mechanic status himself.” Dav and Alli nodded in agreement.

Mari focused on the Senior Mechanic and the Mechanic again. “Remember what I told you,” she said in as menacing a tone as she could manage, then stood up to gaze down the street. “It’s all downhill to the landing, right? Let’s see what kind of pace we can maintain.” She began walking quickly down the hill, a feeling of urgency growing within her.

The road down to the low port was as unused at this hour as Mechanic Dav had predicted. Mari felt her hopes rising, but unexpectedly another barricade loomed out of the dark just short of the port. Mari slowed her walk, grateful for the chance to rest a little and knowing her companions also needed the break. “Bev, Dav, Alli, what is this? Any idea?”

“No.” Bev came up beside Mari, her breathing coming fast. “I’ll find out.”

“Wait! You could get killed!”

Bev smiled humorlessly at Mari. “There are worse things than death.” Bev spun and started jogging ahead, running right up to the barricade. As she reached it, a bright light flared. A portable electric light, spotlighting Bev. She held up both hands. “I’m from the city! The Guild sent me down with a message!”

Three figures appeared, all holding Mechanic weapons. One aimed at Bev, while the others pointed toward Mari and the rest of her followers. “Anyone coming down this road is to be disarmed and held for inspection,” someone at the barricade called out.

“Asha, Mage Dav,” Mari said in a low voice. “Can you destroy that light somehow?”

Mari had expected a Mage spell, but to her shock a long Mage knife was thrown from behind her, spinning end over end overhead. The knife slammed into the light, which went out with a loud popping sound.

“That worked,” she heard Alli say as they all broke into a run.

One of the Mechanics at the second barricade fired at Mari, his shot whipping past her. Bev had grabbed the weapon of the man facing her, and as they struggled Mari and her friends arrived. Mari kept running. She ducked as her closest opponent awkwardly swung her rifle like a club, then came in under the swing and rammed her elbow into the other’s stomach. Her foe doubled over and fell back, dropping her rifle, as Mari staggered to one side. A moment later Mechanic Dav had that Mechanic’s arms pinned behind her.

Mari looked around. Between her Mechanics and her Mages, all of the Mechanics at the barricade had been disarmed and restrained. “Is anybody hurt?”

“Do you mean us or them?” Bev asked, her voice gleeful.

“Us. Is anyone hurt?” No one answered, and Mari counted six others standing beside herself. “These certainly aren’t the trained killers we fought up in the city. Where did these guys come from?”

“They’re not anyone I’ve seen around the Guild Hall. Who are you guys?” Mechanic Dav asked.

The three captured Mechanics stared back at him with mingled hostility and confusion. “We’re—” one began.

“Don’t say anything!” another interrupted.

“They must be from the ship in the harbor,” Alli guessed. “Just the three of them. I guess they were supposed to be a last-ditch defense against Mari getting away.”

“No,” Alain corrected. “Their ship will fill that role.”

“Oh, right.”

Mari looked at the three Mechanics, brushing back her hair in worry. “I don’t like fighting other Mechanics.”

Alli nodded. “I know, Mari. But in some ways we’ve been fighting other Mechanics all of our lives.”

“I guess.” She addressed the three Mechanics. “We don’t know you so we don’t know if we can trust you, but we won’t hurt you. You’ll be tied up, but you won’t be harmed.”

Mage Asha had pried her knife free of the broken light as if the task were an everyday occurrence.She and Mage Dav began walking down to the landing. Mari stayed at the barricade for a moment, watching as the three Mechanic crew members were tied up as quickly and efficiently as possible. She finally went down to the landing proper, where the lapping of the small swells in the harbor sounded peaceful and relaxing after all the chaos she had endured so far this night. This far from the city, the destruction still being wreaked in the warehouse area sounded as muffled rumbles and echoes. The Mages were waiting at the landing alongside a skiff that looked like it just might carry everyone. Two commons wearing the clothing of sailors stood to one side, watching everything with wide eyes.

"These shadows brought us here and will return us to my ship," Mage Dav said.

"Hi," Mari said, knowing that Mage Dav and Asha would not offer any other introduction or acknowledgement of the two sailors. "We're in a big hurry."

The other Mechanics joined her and Mari gestured for everyone to board, though Alain insisted on waiting beside her. Finally she got in, too, worried as she saw how heavily laden the boat appeared. Alain followed, the boat wallowing in the water as the sailors cast off with worried looks and cautiously began rowing out into the harbor. Even though an occasional boom still echoed from the city, the port remained dark except for a scattering of lights in what Mari assumed was the entertainment district for sailors. “Where’s the Mechanic ship?” she asked the sailors. “Steam and sails, deck gun, arrived within the last few days.”

One of the sailors nodded. “Aye, Lady Mechanic. That ship lies off to starboard there. Is that where you wish to be taken instead of to the
Gray Lady
?”

“No. Thank you,” Mari answered in a dry voice. Mage Dav, though the owner of the ship, didn’t seem interested in telling anyone what to do. “We need the
Gray Lady
. Then we need to get out of this port as fast and quietly as possible.”

The sailors grinned knowingly. “Trouble with the authorities?”

“Right,” Mari assured them. She pointed back to where the sounds of destruction still rumbled. “That’s going on because they’re after us.”

The sailors exchanged looks and then bent to their oars, driving the boat ahead at a faster rate.

Despite Mari’s fears and an occasional larger swell that slopped a small amount of water over the side of the skiff, they made the
Gray Lady
without sinking. Mari climbed aboard the small clipper-rigged ship, delighting in the trim shape it showed in the starlight. Some machines were clunky and some were sleek. This particular sailing machine was a thing of beauty.

A man with a nicely trimmed beard approached Mari and Mage Dav, his manner deferential but not servile. “Sir Mage, we’ve been watching and hearing the events up in the city. Where and when do we sail?”

Mage Dav simply indicated Mari.

“I guess I’m still in charge,” she said. “You’re the captain? We need to leave port now without anyone noticing.”

“We can do that. The harbor guard won’t know we’re gone.”

“I’m more worried about the Mechanic ship.” Mari pointed out the silhouette of the much larger Mechanic vessel.

“Mechanics fear a Mechanic ship?” The captain rubbed his chin, eyeing her, then the other Mechanics and the Mages. “You wouldn’t be the daughter, would you?”

“Yes,” Mari admitted. It was easier to say this time. “But call me Lady Mari. Is there anybody on Dematr who hasn’t heard about me?”

“Not on this ship, anyway. Some months ago every tavern on the waterfront of Marida had men and women telling how they’d seen you in the Northern Ramparts and what you’d done there.” The captain bowed. “It’s an honor to sail with you, daughter. But that Mechanic ship has a big weapon on her deck.”

“I know. If they open fire, try not to get hit by it.”

The captain grinned. “I never thought to meet a Lady Mechanic after my own heart. You heard Lady Mari, you tars,” he ordered his crew. “Get anyone still sleeping up here now. It’ll be dawn soon and we need to be gone before then even though we’ll have to fight the tide.”

Alain had remained amidships at the rail, leaning on it and looking weary. Mari came back to stand by him. “We’re almost out of here.”

“Yes,” he agreed, then frowned noticeably, a sign of how tired he was. “Something is missing.”

“What?” Mari had learned not to question Alain’s judgment in a crisis.

Alain looked back and up. “The city lies silent. There is no more sound of Mechanic warfare.”

Mari followed his gaze, trying to fight off another wave of anxiety. “Then they’ve figured out that we’re not where they’ve been blowing up stuff. Or maybe they think we’re there, but dead and buried under rubble.”

“Or they have found or heard from the Mechanics at the first barricade we went through—which means they will soon find the second barricade we took.”

“Which means they’ll know we’re on the water,” Mari finished. “Captain! Get this thing moving!”

The clanking of the capstan announced the anchor coming up and other sailors rushed upward to spread and trim the sails. The
Gray Lady
wore round
under her sails, gently gathering headway under the soft breeze which was all they had to work with. “We won’t be going anywhere fast fighting that tide,” the captain announced.

Mari met the gazes of her followers: Alli grinning, confident beyond reason; Mechanic Dav chewing his lip as he stared at the dark shape of the Mechanic ship; Bev standing by the rail with a worried expression; the Mages Asha and Dav as apparently unworried and unemotional as ever; and Alain right beside her. Mari felt totally worn out as she swayed slightly with the movement of the ship and wondered how Alain was able even to stand after his exertions earlier in the evening and then the long trek down to the harbor. “We’ve got four rifles. Alli, Mechanic Dav and Bev take three of them and line up at the rail with me facing the Mechanic ship so we can shoot if we have to.”

“Rifles against that?” Mechanic Dav asked, pointing to the Mechanic ship. The tide was forcing the
Gray Lady
closer to the Mechanic vessel as she tried to beat her way out to sea, so that the shape of the deck gun was now possible to make out as a dark, deadly silhouette between the masts of the large sailing ship.

“It’s what we’ve got,” Mari said, trying to sound firm and confident.

“They’ve got a far-talker on board. Once they hear we were at the landing…”

“They’ve already heard,” Alli interrupted, pointing.

Mari stared through the nigh, seeing the dim, distant shapes of sailors rushing along the deck of the Mechanics Guild ship to the big deck gun, pulling off its canvas covering. The
Gray Lady
had been borne by the tide so far to starboard that they were within hailing distance of the Mechanic ship, and a moment later a voice came to them faintly over the water, magnified by a speaking trumpet. “Ahoy the ship! Heave to and await our boat!”

The captain gave Mari a questioning look. “Tell him we’re on official business for the Mechanics Guild,” Mari suggested.

Shrugging in a why-not way, the captain hoisted his own speaking trumpet. “Ahoy the Mechanic ship! We’re on official business for the Mechanics Guild, and the Mechanics aboard will not allow me to heave to.”

Unfortunately, that bought far less time than Mari had hoped. A reply came almost immediately. “That is a lie! Heave to in the name of the Mechanics Guild! No ships are allowed to leave this harbor by order of the Guild!”

The captain lowered his speaking trumpet. “Any more suggestions, Lady Mari? If I announce that the daughter is aboard, every other ship in the harbor will likely come to our aid.”

“And be sunk,” Mari added grimly. “They couldn’t get here in time to help us, anyway.”

The big deck gun on the Mechanic ship was training around to point at the
Gray Lady
. The sky was beginning to brighten in the east, making the Mechanic ship a little easier to discern but making the
Gray Lady
an easier target as well. “We’ll dodge, as you suggested, Lady, but we’re making little headway and our turns will have more in common with the sway of an old drunk than with the swerve of the barmaid evading his grasp,” the
Gray Lady
’s captain advised.

Alli was shaking her head. “Do you realize there’s no action around their boat at all? They’re just planning on blowing us away and hope we’ll stop so we’ll make an easier target for that cannon. Oh, I wish I could build a gun like that.”

Mari found herself momentarily struck by the absurdity of the comment after Alli’s all-too-likely assessment of the Mechanic ship’s intentions. “Alli, if we get out of this, I’ll let you build guns a lot better than that one. Heavy artillery that will fire over the horizon.”

“Really? That’ll be so
cool. I can’t wait.” Alli shook her head again as she looked at the Mechanic ship. “I hope we survive.”

“Me, too,” Mari said. “Everybody, rifles up.” She pumped the lever on the rifle she had acquired at the barricades, then brought it to her shoulder, aiming at the figures of Mechanics on the other ship. Mechanics wearing the same jacket she wore, maybe people she had known in other places, studied beside as an apprentice, worked beside as a Mechanic. “I don’t want to do this,” she whispered to Alain.

“You may not have to.” Alain was standing at the railing, facing the Mechanic ship. “Is it made of wood?”

“Is what made of wood?” Mari asked, sighting toward the person aiming the deck gun.

“The Mechanic ship,” Alain explained patiently.

“Yes, sure. That ship has a boiler, you can see the stack, but it also depends on sails. Only two of the remaining steam-powered ships are made of metal, and they don’t have masts like that, and you and I almost sank one of those a few weeks ago anyway. Even though this one probably has some metal hull plating for armor, the decks and the hull underneath are all wood.”

The voice from the Mechanic ship called again. “This is your final warning! Heave to now or we will fire upon you! There will be no warning shots!”