The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality Book 4) (17 page)

“No,” Alain said. “I will ask her.”

“Don’t bother. She’ll wave off the question and say it was no big deal. What happened was that the governor on a lathe was going bad, but the Senior Mechanic in charge of that shop didn’t want to report it because the shop was already behind on a work order.”

Alain nodded, grasping that something had been going wrong but not much more than that.

“Mari,” Calu continued, “stopped by to check on an apprentice she knew. Mari never worked with lathes much but she can tell when a piece of equipment is making a noise that says
Run, you fools
! She heard that lathe making that kind of sound and declared a safety emergency and ordered everybody else out of the shop. The Senior Mechanic showed up pretty soon, mad as could be that Mari had interrupted the work. He walked over, activated the lathe, and the governor failed. The lathe over-powered so much that it blew apart and filled that shop with as much shrapnel as a high-explosive shell. Somehow the Senior Mechanic survived, but if Mari hadn’t done what she did somebody would have died, maybe several people.”

Something bad had happened, but Mari had kept anyone from dying. Alain understood that much. “Did Mari get praise for her wisdom?”

“Nah.” Calu’s grin this time was crooked. “Admitting that she’d saved lives would mean the Senior Mechanics admitting that one of their own had put those lives at risk. Officially, the Guild reprimanded the Mechanic in charge of keeping that lathe working, even though that Mechanic had been warning about the danger for weeks and been ignored.”

Alain felt a concern crystallizing inside, but did not know how to ask about it. Lacking whatever social skill was needed, he fell back on his Mage training. “Mechanic Calu, this one has questions.”

“What?” Calu gave him a confused glance. “Um, sure. What is it?”

“Your description of Mari’s actions. I know she did something important. I know she saved the lives of others. But beyond that I have no idea what happened or why.”

“That’s no big deal, Alain. It’s not like you’re going to be tested on Mechanic knowledge. There aren’t any commons in the world who would understand it any better than you would.”

“But it reminds me that Mari and I have so many differences.”

“I guess you do,” Calu said with a laugh. “But lots of people do. Take Alli and me. We’re both Mechanics, but I’m a basic skills Mechanic at most things. I’d never gain Master Mechanic status at anything, because nothing hands-on clicks for me. I’m a theory guy, and I’m really good at that. But Alli is one of the best hands-on Mechanics out there. She’d have been a Master Mechanic by now if the Senior Mechanics weren’t worried about her knowing Mari. Alli just has to look at a piece of gear and she knows how to fix it and maybe make it better.”

“This is a big difference between you?” Alain asked.

“Huge,” Calu assured him. “The hands-on types think the theory types—and there aren’t very many of us, just enough to keep the knowledge alive—are pretty useless. And my theory instructors tried to convince me that the hands-on Mechanics were just hammer-pounders. That could come between us. But it doesn’t. Oh, we don’t always see eye-to- eye. That’s just life. But we know what we’ve got in each other.” Calu looked at Alain. “You do know what you’ve got in Mari, right?”

“Yes,” Alain said. “But she must know how flawed I am.”

“Everybody has flaws. Mari has her faults, too, Alain. She can be a little short-tempered—”

“More than a little, sometimes,” Alain said.

“Yeah. And she’s pretty stubborn, and impulsive at times. So she’s not perfect. But she is absolutely loyal. If you’re sitting there thinking
Mari’s so wonderful that she’ll leave me for someone better
, you can relax. In her eyes there is no one better, and the only person who could convince her otherwise is you, if you start acting wrong to her.”

“I may have to marry you,” Alli said.

Alain looked up and saw that Mechanic Alli had approached as they talked.

Calu covered his face, embarrassed. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough,” Alli said. “What do you say? I was going to wait, but we’re about to go on another one of Mari’s death-defying missions, so why not get it done? And we’re on a ship, which means we’ve got a ship’s captain to do the legal stuff.”

“You mean get married today?” Calu asked.

“I mean right now, if we can get Mari to leave off pestering the captain long enough for him to sign the document.” Alli pulled a folded paper from her jacket. “Which I happen to have been carrying around for a while, just in case.”

Calu grinned and pulled a similar paper from his own jacket. “If you hadn’t had that, we could have used the one I’ve been carrying around. We’re already on our honeymoon cruise, so why not? We need a witness, though.”

“Alain’s not busy. Come on, Sir Mage. Hey, Calu, we’ll be the first in history to have a Mage as the witness at our marriage!”

Calu helped Alain stand. “I’m afraid this won’t be as glamorous as whatever Mari managed for your wedding, Alain.”

“I did not even know our wedding was happening,” Alain said as he walked with them to the quarterdeck.

Alli gave him a delighted grin. “Oh, I have got to hear that story. No wonder Mari has refused to talk about it much! Hey, Lady Mari, your daughterness! We need to borrow the captain for a couple of minutes.”

“What for?” Mari asked, brushing hair from her eyes and turning away from the captain. “And the daughter thing isn’t funny.”

“Excuse me! The captain just has to sign this.” Alli offered the paper and a pen to the captain. “Oh, you too, Calu. And you, Alain.”

The captain was gazing at the paper, nonplussed.

“Is something wrong?” Calu asked. “You do have legal authority under the laws of Dematr to sign that.”

“Yes,” the captain admitted. “But I’ve never actually done it before! I guess my ship hasn’t been sought out by young lovers prior to this.”

“Young lovers?” Mari bent to look at the paper. “Alli? You and Calu?”

“It’s not exactly a rush decision, Mari,” Alli said. “Calu and I would have gotten married a couple of years ago if the Guild hadn’t kept us apart.”

“I know! It’s easy to forget that you two are a little older than I am. I just…with everything going on…are you sure this a good time?”

Alli reached out to tap Mari’s promise ring with one finger. “Are
you
seriously asking us that?”

“Uh…” Mari shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I guess that would be a little hypocritical of me, wouldn’t it?”

“Just a little.”

Alain watched as Alli and Calu looked at the signed paper, then embraced.

“We’ll get to celebrate our honeymoon by attacking a Mechanics Guild ship,” Calu commented as Alli and Mari wiped tears from their eyes and also hugged.

“Yeah,” Alli agreed. “Nice wedding present, Mari!”

It had taken Alain some time to realize what a joke was, and then more time to recognize one when it was being made, something he still was not good at. He had been confused at first by the way that Mari, and then her friends when he met them, would make jokes before doing dangerous things. But looking at Alli and Calu, he saw the tension in them, and realized finally that the jokes were their means of coping with their fears. Mages were supposed to deny all fear, not even to admit it existed, but Mechanics dealt with it differently.

And of what his fears? He could not joke, but looking at the deck beneath his feet, Alain realized he could deal with them. His vision of Mari lying on a floor made of stone blocks had been very clear. He would know if he saw the type of stone and the shape of the blocks again. And if he did, he would be able to stop that vision from happening.

“Mast sighted!” the lookout called down from high above. “Two points to starboard!”

The captain grinned. “Just about where our prey ought to be. We’ll run in a little closer to be sure he has three masts, and then we’ll know he’s our target. After that, we’ll hold course and gain on him as he has to tack with the wind. By midnight we’ll be ahead of him and well positioned to come over and manage a little meet-up in the darkness before dawn.”

* * * *

Mari stood near the rail of the
Gray Lady
, Mechanics jacket on, her pistol ready and snapped into its holster under her shoulder and her right arm wrapped about the end of a rope that rose up and away to meet the end of one of the great spars holding the largest square sails on the ship. The moon had set some time before and a layer of thin clouds scudding not far overhead dimmed the light of the stars, making the darkness thick enough to feel as though she could reach out and close her free fist over a patch of it.

The only break in the surrounding dark was a light visible just to starboard. Ships, Mari had been told, were required to show lights at night in order to avoid collision. One lantern at the stern, one high up and forward, and two colored lanterns at the sides, red for port and green for starboard. The
Pride of Longfalls
was following that rule, but from this angle only the stern light could be seen. The
Gray Lady
was using it to spot the exact position of her prey.

The
Lady
herself wasn’t showing any lights, and everyone moved with great care in order to make no noise. Aside from a slight sigh of wind in the rigging and the murmur of water flowing along her hull, the
Lady
was both dark and silent as she swept down on the
Pride
.

Mari tightened her grip on the rope and looked over at Alli, who grasped a similar rope leading up to another spar. Alli had worked with the sailors to knot line into something she called slings, which were tied to the Mechanic rifles. One of those rifles now rested on Alli’s back, the sling across her chest.

“I feel ridiculous,” Mari whispered to Alli.

“Ridiculous?” Alli whispered back. “We’re doing the whole pirate thing, Mari. Black of night and swinging over the water and knives in our teeth. This is so great!”

“Well, yeah,” Mari admitted. She couldn’t help smiling. “It’s dangerous! Why does it feel like fun? I’m not Jules!”

“Every kid dreams of being Jules,” Alli said. “Then we grow up and realize Jules is long gone and we have to put on our jackets and be adults every day.” She grinned at Mari. “But not this day!”

Mari looked forward again, her smile fading. Everyone had been very nice to her. No one had berated her for making such a serious mistake in Julesport. She never should have spent time working on the Calculating device there, never should have let herself be separated from Alain. But she had wanted to be back inside that safe bubble again, that place where her training had led her, where she knew everything that needed to be done and exactly how to do it. She had wanted to be just Master Mechanic Mari again, so badly that she had wasted precious time, put Alain at serious risk, and forced the others, Asha and Alli and Dav and Bev, to risk themselves as well to rescue him.

Maybe they all understood that they didn’t have to say anything. Maybe they already knew how much Mari had disappointed herself.

Alain had been a little odd the last couple of days. Probably just an after-effect of the drug the Dark Mages had used. Surely he didn’t blame her for what had happened. He would have had every right to, though.

And his blasted foresight! As useful as that had been at times, Mari found herself wishing that it would disappear as mysteriously as it had manifested so that she and Alain could stumble through life not knowing what was coming, just like everybody else.

“Stand ready, Lady,” a crewmember whispered near her ear, jerking Mari out of her reverie. She nodded, then looked back to where the others waited. Those of the
Gray Lady
’s spars that angled out in the right direction could support sending only four over at a time, so the first group would be her, Alli, Mechanic Dav, and one of the crew. The second group would include Calu, Bev, Mechanic Rob, and another crewmember. Hopefully the third group including the other two new Mechanics and a couple more crewmembers would make it as well.

Alain stood slightly to one side, watching her. She knew how unhappy he was that she was leading this attack without him. But he had accepted that if the Mechanics on the
Pride
saw any Mages they would refuse to surrender. He would have to wait until the others had seized control of the ship.

Or do his best to help the others escape back to the
Lady,
if everything went to pieces.

“Coming up,” the sailor whispered.

Mari could see the
Pride
as a darker blot against the night sky, the only sure mark the lantern glowing on the stern. That lantern was growing closer with unnerving speed as the
Lady
cut silently across the stern of the
Pride
.

“Now!” the sailor said.

Mari nerved herself and leaped into space.

Hurtling into the darkness, Mari felt herself dropping and swinging forward as the rope tightened with a jerk that almost popped her arm. Her stomach insisted that she was doing a lot more falling than swinging, the sea’s surface just barely visible below. Mari fearfully wondered whether the sailors had accurately estimated the lowest swing of the rope. How far down was the bottom of the ocean here? If she fell into it and couldn’t resurface, how far would she sink before reaching the dark and silent mud far below?

The thoughts occupied barely an instant. A moment later, the rope reached the bottom of the swing and began yanking her upward as well as forward.

Part of her was exhilarated by the thrill of it. Part of her was terrified. She tried to ignore both and focus on trying to spot something to grab onto.

The black wall of the
Pride
’s stern suddenly gained detail as Mari neared the farthest edge of the rope’s swing. The stern rail of the other ship appeared before her and just above. Mari swung out her free hand to grab on, frantically fighting to maintain the hold as the weight of the rope began trying to drag her back. If she didn’t get rid of that rope very quickly, it would pull her off the
Pride
as the
Gray Lady
kept going.