The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality Book 4) (25 page)

“Outstanding. You and Mage Asha stay here in case I need to send reinforcements somewhere.”

The two captive Apprentices had been seated on the long bench that spanned part of the back wall of the entry area. Asha walked over and sat down right next to the female Apprentice, who tried to shrink back but was stopped by the presence of the male Apprentice on her other side.

Asha looked at the female Apprentice. “What is your name?”

“A…A…A…A…” The Apprentice managed to swallow. “Apprentice Haru of Dorcastle.”

“I have not been to Dorcastle.” Her stock of social skills apparently exhausted, Asha lapsed into silence.

“Are you guys all right?” Mechanic Dav asked the two Apprentices. “Don’t be scared of Mage Asha. She’s nice.”

“Nice?” Apprentice Haru glanced sidelong at Asha. “A Mage?”

Asha managed a small but real smile. “Thank you, Mechanic Dav.”

More runners arrived, bringing news of more areas successfully seized and more surprised Mechanics taken prisoner.

By the time Mari saw the sun rising over the buildings to the east, the final reports had come in. “You control this Guild Hall, Master Mechanic Mari.”

“I should go check things out in person,” Mari said. “Dav, can you handle being in charge here at the entrance?”

“No problem,” Dav said. “Lady Mage Asha and I can handle anything!”

“Alain, why don’t you stay—”

“I will come with you,” Alain said.

“I’ll be fine, Alain, and you’d be better employed helping to protect this entrance.”

“I will come with you,” he repeated.

Mari gave him an exasperated look. She knew when Alain went all Mage-impassive on her that he wouldn’t give in on an argument. “Fine. Let’s go.”

With the occupants of the Guild Hall held prisoner in various areas, the hallways were oddly vacant at an hour when there should be increasing levels of traffic. Mari went to the dining hall first, concerned about the place where the great majority of the Edinton Mechanics were being held.

She found Master Mechanic Lukas at the entrance and raucous sounds coming from the dining hall. “What’s going on?”

“About two-thirds of the men and woman in there are celebrating being captured by you,” Lukas said, smiling at Mari. “The other third are keeping very quiet. Is what I heard right? No one was injured?”

“Only a few burnt fingers,” Mari said.

“You’ve more than proven your right to be in charge, Master Mechanic. My apologies for doubting you.”

“You questioned me,” Mari said. “If I can’t handle that, I don’t deserve to be giving orders.”

“She said you’d feel that way,” Lukas observed.

“She?”

An older woman in a well-worn Mechanics jacket stepped out of the dining hall. “Is there any chance of parole, Mari?”

“Professor S’san!” Mari embraced her old instructor, feeling tears start. “I was worried about you. We had to leave you at Severun and I was so afraid of what the Guild might have done.”

“Oh, hush,” S’san said, waving off Mari’s concerns. “All the Guild did was place me under Hall arrest and send me here. I think they planned on using me as a hostage to influence you. But even I never expected you to show up at Edinton and take over the Guild Hall. As long as you’re here, and apparently still fixed on changing the world, can you use any more help?”

“I would be honored to have your help,” Mari said. “And you won’t have to take orders from Senior Mechanics anymore.”

“Speaking of which, the Senior Mechanics are being held in their main conference room, as you ordered,” Lukas told Mari.

“Good. Mechanic Ken is leading teams to evaluate how much equipment we can, uh, borrow from this Guild Hall if we use the Mages’ help to create larger openings to the outside. If any of the Mechanics we captured are eager to help, let me know so I can have them vetted by the Mages.” Feeling a little awkward at having given orders to someone of Lukas’s age and seniority, Mari dug in one of the pockets of her jacket and pulled out a spare armband. “Would you wear this, Professor?”

S’san frowned at the golden star on light blue. “Why is this your symbol, Mari?”

“It’s not my symbol. It’s the image of the new day. What we’re fighting for.”

“I doubt your followers see it in the same light.” S’san pulled the band over one sleeve of her jacket. “You were always very practical and down-to-earth , Mari. And correspondingly weak on symbolism. Who convinced you that an emblem of the new day would be a good thing?”

“My friends made it,” Mari admitted. “Alain convinced me it was a good idea to use the image on banners and armbands.”

“They were right, if my opinion still matters to you. So, Lukas here tells me that you have access to banned technology texts. How did you manage that?”

“I can’t tell you yet, Professor, and your opinion will always be very important to me. Master Mechanic Lukas, I’m going back to check things at the front entrance and then drop in on the Senior Mechanics.” Mari led her old teacher through the hallways, Alain following.

“I see the Mage is still with you,” S’san added, looking at Alain.

“He’ll always be with me,” Mari said, holding up her left hand so that the promise ring showed clearly. “I’ve got five more Mages with me now as well.”

“Five more?” S’san walked alongside Mari, shaking her head. “You don’t believe in changing the world slowly, do you, Mari?”

“We truly do not have time to move slowly, Professor.”

S’san shot a keen glance at Mari. “According to the Senior Mechanics, you’re also doing your best to get the commons to revolt.”

Mari had to laugh scornfully at that. “The truth is the opposite. I’m telling the commons to wait. Not to act until things are ready. If they rose up now, cities would be destroyed while the Great Guilds fought back, and the loss of life would be awful.”

“And they are listening to you? Are they so easily convinced?”

“She is the daughter,” Alain said. “The commons can tell.”

“Alain,” Mari said, her voice sharpening. “I’m talking sense to them. They can tell that.” She felt relieved to reach the entry again, where all of the Mages were now gathered along with a few of her Mechanics. “You’re all right?” she asked the Mages. “None of you were hurt?”

To her surprise, not just Mage Dav and Mage Asha but the three newer Mages all acknowledged her question. “There is one concern,” Mage Dav said. “None of us can sense any activity from other Mages in this city. Our spells must have told the Mages and the elders here that we are present, but nothing is happening.”

“They must be preparing,” Alain said.

“Or deciding to prepare,” Mage Dav said. “We will continue to rest and watch for signs of spells elsewhere.”

“Thank you,” Mari said. As she, Professor S’san, and Alain walked quickly toward the Senior Mechanics’ main conference room, Mari gave Alain a worried look. “What do you think the Edinton Mages are doing?”

“It is likely the elders are trying to learn what is happening. If it is seen as merely a dispute among Mechanics, the elders will do nothing. But if they hear that the daughter is in Edinton, and present at this Hall, they will act.”

“Can they…sense me?” Mari asked.

“As if you were a Mage?” Alain said. “No. A Mage must see you to know that you are the daughter. The elders will not want to attack a Mechanics Guild Hall based on the rumors of shadows. They will seek other confirmation.”

“That should give us more time, which we need. Getting that heavy equipment down to the docks is going to take some work, even with the Mages helping.”

“Did the Mages help you penetrate the vaults at Mechanics Guild Headquarters and remove banned technology texts?” S’san asked.

“That’s not exactly what happened,” Mari said. “When we get somewhere where I don’t have to worry about being overheard, I can tell you the truth of where Alain and I got the texts. Somebody else should know in case something happens to me and Alain, but to everyone else it still has to be a secret.”

“I can understand your reasons for that,” S’san said. “I have only one regret at this moment: that I won’t be able to see the faces of the Senior Mechanics and the Guild Master at Guild Headquarters when they hear what you’ve done here.”

“You’ll be able to see the Senior Mechanics here. Is Senior Mechanic Vilma still the Guild Hall Supervisor?”

“Oh, Vilma got sacked months ago, for letting a certain Master Mechanic slip through her fingers instead of ensuring you were safely dead in the service of the Guild. We’ve had Senior Mechanic Tam lording it over us since then. His leadership skills are poor even for a Senior Mechanic, which is saying something. Who are these people?”

They had nearly reached the Senior Mechanics’ conference room, but the hallway was blocked by a group of several Mechanics, two wearing Mari’s armbands and the others apparently new captives. “Master Mechanic!” one of Mari’s Mechanics cried. “We need your instructions. These Mechanics want to help, to join with us, and we need their skills.”

Mari paused in front of the group. “Mage Alain?”

Alain looked over the five Mechanics from Edinton as Mari had them recite the statement about wanting to work with her.

“Hold on!” Mari said as the last of the five came up to her, grinning. “Gayl? Gayl of Daarendi?”

“That’s right,” Gayl said. “Fernan said you’d do something some day!”

“I knew Gayl and Fernan at the Guild Academy,” Mari explained to Alain and Professor S’san. “Where is Fernan? Is he all right?”

Gayl’s smile slipped. “I think he’s all right. He was sent to the Guild Hall in Palla, to break us up.”

“My fault again.” Mari sighed.

“Not this time. A Senior Mechanic took a very close interest in me and thought that if Fernan got sent far, far away I could be convinced to fall in love with someone else.” Gayl’s lip curled. “It didn’t work, so I got sent to Edinton.”

“None of them are lying,” Alain said.

“Welcome to all of you,” Mari said. “Stay with my Mechanics until you get armbands of your own. I very much appreciate your assistance, and it is great to see you again, Gayl. We’ll get word to Fernan so he can join us where we’re going after this.”

“I don't know everything that you want to do,” Gayl said. “Aside from finally breaking the hold of the Senior Mechanics on us all. But you’ve already done the impossible. Tell us what you want and where to go, and we’ll follow you!”

“I’m nothing without people like you,” Mari said, hoping that she didn’t look too embarrassed.

They paused outside the door to the Senior Mechanics’ conference room, which was next to the Guild Hall Supervisor’s office. During her time of exile in Edinton she had been called on the carpet in that office more than once for trivial matters. If she had been the sort to want to settle scores, there would have been plenty of them to deal with here in Edinton.

She felt an habitual urge to knock and await permission. It took a moment to overcome her training and walk in as if she ran the Hall. Which, in fact, she did at the moment. More than a dozen Senior Mechanics were lined up against one wall of the large room along with several other high-ranking Mechanics, two of Mari’s Mechanics standing guard over them all with rifles at ready. Mari came to a halt in front of them, running her eyes over the group, recognizing several of them from the weeks she had spent in Edinton. “Are there any Senior Mechanics missing?” she asked S’san.

“No, Mari, you got them all.” S’san seemed to be quite pleased about that.

Mari’s eyes came to a rest on another familiar figure. “Professor T’mos,” she murmured.

Professor S’san leaned closer to her and murmured back. “He hasn’t been here long. The Guild leadership took it very poorly when Professor T’mos allowed you to slip through his fingers in Palandur. They accused him of either deliberately aiding you or of being too dense to realize you had fooled him.”

Mari couldn’t help a twisted smile. “He didn’t deliberately aid me.”

“I myself thought the second option was more in keeping with dear, prideful T’mos. But he got sent here anyway, either because he was suspect or because he was punished. Maybe both. We haven’t spoken all that much since he arrived, but then we never did.”

“You should have warned me more about his controlling paternalism,” Mari said, aware that the senior Mechanics were watching her with hostile and angry expressions. She raised her voice. “For anyone who doesn’t already know,” she announced, “I am Master Mechanic Mari—”

“Your title was taken from you! Do not sully it!” a Senior Mechanic Mari vaguely recognized yelled at her.

Mari gave the woman a flat, hard stare. “Don’t interrupt me again.” Saying that felt good. Over the years there had been any number of Senior Mechanics she had wanted to say that to, and now she finally got to do it. “If I were you, I’d be spending my time thinking up explanations for how you let this Hall be captured. I imagine the Guild is not going to be pleased with you. Maybe you’ll finally be called to account for your inability to do anything but yell at Mechanics junior to you in the Guild hierarchy.”

Professor T’mos, looking outraged, spoke in the firm tones of a teacher admonishing a recalcitrant student. “Mari, you must cease this immediately. You can’t get away with it. If you throw yourself on the mercy of the Guild—”

Mari felt a surge of anger. She held up one hand, palm out, her expression so foreboding that even someone as self-assured as T’mos stopped in mid-sentence. “I’ve learned all about the mercy of the Guild and the gratitude of the Guild and the morals of the Guild. The Guild that disregarded my loyalty and used me as bait against Ringhmon, hoping that commons would kill me. The Guild that tried to murder me by sending me to Tiae. The Guild who beat me and threatened to turn me over to the Emperor’s tender mercies. The Guild whose assassins I barely escaped in Altis. And of course the Guild that has systematically lied about so much to everyone on Dematr for centuries. The Guild was built on a foundation of lies. That flawed foundation is finally cracking. The Mechanics Guild will fall, and anyone who continues to back it will fall with it.”