But no one jumped in to deny the idea, instead watching her and Jason closely.
“No,” Kira said as calmly as she could. “No. My mother wouldn’t do that. Even if it was some diplomatic thing that could have happened, it wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t do that. Why would I do that?”
Some of the officers exchanged looks. “To keep Dematr safe,” one suggested in the manner of someone repeating a common belief.
“What, like I’m sacrificing myself to save the world?” Kira asked. “By going to a wedding bed instead of holding the wall like my mother did?” She felt her anger building, barely able to keep it under check, hearing her voice tremble. “Stars above, who could think such a thing? Who could think such a thing of me?”
She’d thought it was bad that the Imperials believed her to be an unnatural offspring of her supposedly undead mother, but at the moment that paled before the idea that others thought she’d be traded like a commodity, that her body and self could be currency for a political deal.
Silence had fallen in the wardroom, the officers and Mechanics avoiding her gaze.
The captain stood up, coming to attention, her tones formal. “Lady Mechanic Kira, dragon slayer, and we understand Captain of Lancers for your valor against the Imperial legions, please permit me to apologize in the strongest possible way on behalf of everyone present for the thoughtless words uttered here. No one should question your dignity or purpose. It was ill-considered and impolite to suggest your impending marriage is the product of anything but the love and commitment you feel toward each other.”
Kira got her anger under control. She knew what her mother and father would expect her to do. She hoped that wasn’t the only reason she was doing it. Kira took a long, deep breath before standing as well. “Captain, I accept your apology on behalf of you and the others here. I do not for one moment believe that there was any ill intent or… disrespect intended. Forgive me for having difficulty dealing with something I was unprepared for. I know that being who I am, the daughter of the daughter, makes me a bit different in the eyes of everyone. But I hope you all will understand that in many ways I’m like everyone. My mother and father raised me to be like everyone, no different and certainly no better. Please… ” She fought for the right words, looking down and over at Jason, who was watching her with a somber expression. “Please do not doubt my love for Jason. It was hard-earned by him, and couldn’t be better justified. He is of Urth only by name now. He has no other connection. And when we are married he will be fully of Dematr, and will defend this world as strongly and bravely as any of us born to it.”
She sat down, feeling awkward and tongue-tied, wondering if she’d made a fool of herself. But the officers and other Mechanics stood, and with slow, rhythmic claps applauded her words.
And after telling everyone how like everyone else she was, her Mage powers naturally chose that moment to surge outward. Kira hid her inner struggle under the guise of modesty, looking down at her lap, as she fought to confine them again, grateful that there weren’t any Mages aboard who might detect her unruly powers.
* * *
She pulled Jason into her cabin when they got back from dinner. “Stars above, how was I? Did they really think I apologized well?”
He nodded, smiling. “I know I did. Man, I was sitting there listening to you talk about politics and what the Empire was doing and all and thinking what an amazing girl you are.”
“Oh, yeah,” Kira scoffed. “Amazing. They actually seemed to think it was somehow great of me to give myself away to defend Dematr by becoming your wife! Why didn’t they see how insulting that was?”
“It would’ve been a big sacrifice,” Jason said, then laughed to show he meant it as a joke. “I mean, if you didn’t like me.”
“Jason, how could I ever like someone I was forced to marry as part of a deal?”
“I don’t know,” Jason said, his laughter dying. “Is that sort of thing common on this world? I haven’t heard much about it.”
Kira waved an angry hand. “Oh, there are always powerful families that want their kids to marry into other powerful families. Combining fortunes and influence. In the Imperial court, who ends up with who is almost always about politics. That’s why they kept trying to get me to marry one of their princes, and why Maxim kidnapped me. And the old Mechanics Guild wanted Mechanics to marry other Mechanics instead of commons but didn’t insist on it.”
“What about Mages?”
She stared at him. “Mages? Mages didn’t marry. Have we never talked about that?”
“I guess not. I know people didn’t like them.”
“No. They… we never talked about that?” Kira sighed. “Mages… you know they were taught that other people didn’t really exist. Just shadows, who didn’t matter. And any sort of feelings or emotions were wrong. So they were never supposed to marry, not even other Mages. And if they wanted sex, they were either supposed to have meaningless physical encounters with other Mages, or else they were supposed to… take a common person and use them.”
“Rape?” Jason stared at her. “A lot?”
“Yeah. People hated them. They feared them, but they also hated them. Because that’s what Mages were taught was all right to do to people. I guess that’s why no one talks about it much, except people who still hate all Mages, and there aren’t nearly as many of those people as there used to be.”
Jason shook his head, bewildered. “I can’t believe your father—”
“I’m not talking about my father! How could you think I’m talking about my father?”
He flinched back from her. “But you said—”
“Father was taught that but he never did it! Even before he met Mother he still felt it was wrong even though he’d been told it was all right!” Kira calmed herself with some effort. “Jason, if he’d tried to force himself on Mother when they met, she’d have… well, maybe she wouldn’t have killed him. Probably would have. But she never would have fallen in love with him. Never.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Jason said. “But I can see why you guys don’t talk about that.”
Kira sat down in the one chair the narrow cabin boasted. “Do you think they believed me? That you and I are marrying for love and nothing else?”
“I believed it!”
“Yeah, well, you’ll believe anything I say. What can we do to show them that’s how we feel? I mean, that doesn’t involve those public-affection displays like we had to put on in Tiaesun that time.”
Jason flinched again at the memory. “Just be nice to each other, I guess.”
“I have to be nice to you?” Kira pretended to complain.
He grinned. “Only if you want to.”
She got up and put her arms about him, managing a smile at Jason. “Maybe I could have fallen for you even if it had been some arranged deal.”
Jason shook his head. “No. If it had been arranged, if you thought you were being forced into it, you never would have given me a chance. I’d have been dead to you. Forever.”
“Ummm… yeah, actually that’s true. I wouldn’t have given you a chance. You do know me, don’t you? Are you sure you want to marry me?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “But I thought you thought I wanted to marry you because I was delusional and wasn’t seeing the real you.”
“Oh, I’m still certain that you’re delusional,” Kira said, looking into his eyes. “But your delusion has shifted. Now you know who I really am, but you’re delusional enough to think you can live with that.”
He smiled at her. “How could I ever live without it?”
There were times when being able to tell with certainty whether or not people were lying or telling the truth, Mage skills her father had taught her, had brought Kira no joy. But this time, being able to see with absolutely surety that Jason meant every word was a very good thing. She hugged him tight, laughing softly.
“What’s so funny?” Jason asked, his lips near her ear.
“Th
at’s not something’s funny laughing,” she said softly into his ear. “That’s stars above I’m so happy laughing. I love you.”
Kira wished that somehow this moment would never end, that she would always be this happy. But in a few more days they’d be at Altis.
* * *
Early on a crisp, sparkling morning, Kira stood with Jason along the portside railing of the warship as it entered the harbor of Altis. Rocky headlands that protected the harbor slid past on either side, new cannon having replaced the ballistae that once fortified the headlands against attack.
She’d been afraid of being bored on the trip, but instead regretted that she wouldn’t have more time to visit with the Mechanics aboard and learn about their work. Jason seemed to have enjoyed that as well.
“That’s where your mother sank a Mechanics Guild ship,” a passing officer told Kira, pointing off to port.
“Thank you,” Kira called in reply. “But as my mother would be the first to tell you, it was my father who set that ship afire with his heat spell.” She sighed as the officer hurried onward. “You know, Jason, I used to think Mother encouraged people to think she’d done everything. But she always tells people how important Father was and the specific things he did. People don’t want to hear it, though. He was the helper, she was the hero. That’s what they’re comfortable with.”
“And your father’s comfortable with it, I guess,” Jason commented, leaning on the rail. “That takes a big person.”
“What about you?” Kira murmured.
He knew what she meant. Except for brief bursts of interest, attention had remained centered on her during the voyage. “I’m okay. As long as you think I’m special.”
“It’s not fair.”
“Life ain’t fair. Some big ancient philosopher on Earth said that. Plato, maybe. Or Heinlein. One of those people.”
Kira looked out over the harbor, uncomfortable talking about it and deciding to change the subject. “Aunt Alli says, when Father set the Mechanics Guild ship on fire it lit the whole harbor. It was at night. And the high city up there was burning because the Guild assassins had done so much damage. I guess the low port didn’t get damaged too much. But Alli says it was quite a sight.”
“And Altis was cool with that?” Jason said. “Like, okay, you’re the daughter of Jules so no problem if you trash our city and harbor?”
“Pretty much, yeah. They were so desperate for freedom, Jason. Some cities to the south had already suffered bad rioting. People were finally losing all hope.” Kira looked up at the high city looming above the harbor on its plateau against the inland mountains. “Mother gave them hope.”
“And then she gave them freedom.”
“A lot of people did that, as Mother will also be the first to tell you,” Kira said. “Without them, the daughter of Jules couldn’t have accomplished anything but dying.”
“Kira, is everything okay right now?” Jason asked cautiously. “Have there been any more problems since that first time on the ship?”
“No,” Kira said. “Once I was rested, that problem seemed to go away.”
“That problem?”
Oh, blazes. Why had she said it that way? “My Mage powers keep trying to break out,” Kira admitted. “I have to keep tamping them down. I’m trying to make their, um, cage smaller so I can make the barriers around it stronger. That’s how I think of it.”
He nodded, obviously worried but not pushing it. “That’s sort of funny, huh? You’re so worried about being confined, but you keep trying to build a stronger cage for your powers.”
He was joking. She could tell. But Kira felt a jolt of anger at the statement. “It’s not the same thing. Not even close.”
He heard the edge in her voice and dropped the subject.
* * *
At the pier, what looked like a half-troop of cavalry from Altis’s small army waited along with a group of dignitaries. Kira tried not to grimace as she spotted “her banner” being carried by one of the cavalry. After a quick series of farewells, she left the ship, meeting the officials on the pier.
One of them, an officer, jerked in surprise as Kira got close. “Is there anything wrong?” Kira asked.
“No! I’m sorry,” the officer apologized. “I’d heard you looked a lot like your mother, but I was startled to see how much you resembled her as she was when I met her on her first trip to Altis. I’m Colonel Patila, commander of the Altis High City garrison. If there’s anything you need, ask and you’ll get it.”
“Patila,” Kira repeated. “Mother reminded me about you before I left, and how you’d been among the first to help her. Thank you. She sends her best.”
Colonel Patila smiled broadly. “That’s just like the daughter, to remember me. Major Char commands this detachment, which will escort you to the tower of the librarians.” She indicated a solemn-looking major, who nodded in greeting. “Since we were told your mission is an urgent one, they’re ready to leave immediately.”
“Maybe we’d be a little less conspicuous if they weren’t carrying that,” Kira suggested, pointing to her banner.
“I have orders,” Colonel Patila said, sounding apologetic once more.
“Everybody has orders,” Kira muttered, focusing her attention on a government official who had hurried up. “What’s wrong?”
“We have word from Tiae,” the official advised breathlessly. “Via a Mage message. There was an assassination attempt on the daughter and her Mage at Pacta Servanda. Both assassins were killed. Your parents are fine.”
Kira nodded, relieved. “Thank you. Could you send a reply for me? Just let them know we’re here safely at Altis and on our way to the tower.”
“Of course. I’m… surprised you’re taking this news so calmly!”
“Oh, it happens all the time.” Kira noticed the official staring at the scar on her neck. “I’m just glad that they’re all right.”
“We don’t know what we’d do without the daughter,” the official said. “If anything happened to her… ”
Kira hesitated, trying to find the right words. “You’d do all right. Mother tells me that all the time. Without others, without good, strong people willing to do what’s right, she couldn’t do anything.” Kira pointed up to the city that looked down on the port. “Mother has told me about Altis, about the fight here. Mother says she never would have survived the attacks of the Mechanics Guild assassins if not for the help of the people of Altis, and friends of hers like Sir Mechanic Dav, Lady Mage Asha, and Master Mechanic Alli. Friends like Colonel Patila!” Kira added, turning back to face the colonel, who smiled again.
“Thank you,” Patila said. “The day will come when the daughter leaves us. We all know that. But I’ll be the first to admit that it’s reassuring to know the daughter of the daughter seems to share many of her mother’s gifts.”
Did no one ever listen? Kira looked at Jason, who replied with a look that showed he understood her frustration. She returned a polite nod to the colonel and the other officials. “We should get going.”
The column of cavalry had to take the winding road that led up from the low port on the harbor to the high city above. As they neared the top, about to enter the city, Kira turned in her saddle to look back at the harbor spread out before her, the sight as spectacular as she remembered from her last visit to Altis years before.
She saw a large sailing ship that had been fitted with steam propulsion as well, the stack rising from the deck between the masts with their sails, a common enough thing in a world still trying to cope with the kind of change that had been banned for centuries. A breeze caught the flag on the ship, revealing enough of the colors for Kira to see that it was an Imperial-flagged vessel, from the look of it a passenger ship carrying many people. There wasn’t anything unusual about that, either. The ship bore no visible weapons, no sign of threat, nothing to mark it as unusual.
But Kira stared at it, wondering why her Mage senses had suddenly begun jangling in warning as soon as she lai
d eyes on it. Anyone who was on that ship was well behind them and couldn’t be a danger to her or Jason on their way to Altis.
Chapter Eight
The once-narrow, hidden road inland to the secluded valley where the tower of the librarians stood had been widened and improved in the decades since the fall of the Great Guilds. Kira remembered the last of that work still underway during her last visit, carving a broader road out of the living rock as the path wove along the flanks of mountains. Off the road, the terrain was extremely rugged and rarely level. Kira glanced to the side as the cavalry column rode, thinking of her mother and father struggling though that rocky maze before they discovered the secret road of the librarians.
This was so much better, riding a mount so well trained she barely had to touch the reins. She saw Jason using his, perhaps employing a bit more force than he had to, and resolved to spend more time teaching him to handle a mount in the gentlest way possible, and primarily with seat and legs rather than bridle.
One of the officers riding near Kira and Jason dropped back slightly. “Is everything well, Lady Mechanic?”
“We’re fine,” Kira said. “You can call me Captain instead. We’re all soldiers here.”
“Very well, Captain. I’m Vanza. Also a captain as you see,” she said with a smile. “Let us know if you or your man need anything.”
Kira noticed Jason smiling as Vanza rode a little ways ahead. “What?”
“It’s just cool being your man,” Jason said.
“It’s only fair since I’m your lady.” She looked around at the rough terrain again. “The last time I rode this way, I never expected that the next time I went to see the librarians I’d be engaged. Or that I’d have escort like this.”
“You didn’t have a big escort?”
“No. It was just me and a half-dozen bodyguards.”
“Why’d your parents send you here alone?”