Kira slowed her pace, trying to relax her expression. “They were trying to take us unharmed.”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “Maybe your theory about Maxim yesterday wasn’t that far off.”
That memory shoved itself forward in her mind. “He wants me alive to torture.”
“And me alive to help him use those weapons.”
“How could I be so crazy and so right?” Kira asked as they turned a corner. She heard the rapping of hardwood batons on cobblestones as the police in the area sent coded messages to alert their comrades. Absurdly, for a moment her mind centered on that, and on her mother’s sad comment that the spreading use of far-talkers was threatening to make that old police trick a dying art.
They went around another corner. “Do you know where you’re going?” she asked Jason.
“We should be headed toward the road leading down to the port,” he said.
“If we get stopped or recognized, it could be dangerous,” Kira said.
“But we need to get to the port, right? The Confederation warship should still be there, waiting for us.”
“Right.” Kira glanced back and saw a team of police running in the opposite direction. “There’s a Mage over that way. Two Mages. Coming toward us.”
“Kira, suppress your powers. Please.”
“They are suppressed!" She saw his surprise at the vehemence of her reply and tried to control her voice. “I don’t know what’s going on. My powers should be completely suppressed. I didn’t sense any trace of them between the time I suppressed them after waking up and just before we got jumped in the alley.”
“Like they’re responding to danger?” Jason suggested.
“Oh, blazes, those Mages are getting close. Jason, they might be able to tell I’m a Mage if they get close enough. I have no idea if I’m hiding my Mage presence anymore.”
Instead of answering, Jason grabbed her wrist and abruptly turned into a doorway as they reached it. Kira saw that they’d entered some sort of clothing store. Jason slowed his pace to a casual, unhurried stroll, she matching it, as they pretended to browse down the aisles toward the back of the store.
Kira saw the two salespeople in the store watching her and Jason, suspicion clear on their faces. “Jason, they know who we are.”
“Just keep walking,” Jason muttered.
She felt something else. “Those Mages. They stopped outside the door to this place.”
“That’s not good.”
“There has to be a back exit.”
“Will they let us use it?” Jason asked, looking around for signs.
One of the salespeople was approaching, a no-nonsense look on his face. “Hold it, you two.”
“Is something wrong?” Kira asked.
“Another tourist from Tiae? What’s in your backpack?”
She stared at him. “None of your business.”
“I know shoplifters when I see them! We deal with your kind all the time, young people who think they can get away with theft on holiday! Give me—”
Kira, momentarily stunned into inaction at being confused with a teen trying to shoplift, brought out her pistol as she heard the door to the shop opening. The salesperson stopped talking, his mouth freezing open, as Kira held up the weapon. “Take us to the back way out. Right now.” He didn’t move. “Now!” Kira growled as her Mage senses told her the two Mages had entered the shop. She canted the barrel of her pistol toward the salesperson’s face.
The man almost ran toward the back of the store, Kira and Jason following past the startled other salesperson. The door there opened into a back area with a desk and boxes of unpacked goods, then the salesperson halted at another door. “That’s it.”
“Thank you,” Kira said as she yanked open the door. She took a precious moment to glare at him. “We’re not thieves.”
She and Jason bolted out into another alley. A fence ahead blocked their way, but Kira holstered her pistol and took it at a run, grabbing the top and pulling herself up, Jason alongside her. They got over the top and raced down the alley on the other side until they reached the street.
Trying to look casual and get their breathing under control, Kira and Jason once again strolled down the street like two people with nothing to worry about. “Can you tell where they are?” Jason said.
“Still back there. I think we lost them for the moment.”
“They’re tracking you. They know you’re a Mage.”
“No, Jason, you’re the Mage, remember?”
“Oh.” Jason glanced back down the street, then around them. “Over that way. Cross the street and then the next left. Kira, you can tell whether a Mage is a woman or a man, right? If those Mages are sensing you, they know it’s a woman.”
“Yes, but hopefully they won’t believe it can be me. I just waved a pistol around in there, Jason. A Mage wouldn’t know what to do with a pistol. So it can’t be me. It must be you. They’ll decide something about being from Urth makes you feel like a female Mage to them.”
“I hope none of the male Mages ask me for a date,” Jason mumbled as they turned the corner. “Kira, isn’t it time to seriously consider going to the military and getting protection and an escort down to the port?”
She shook her head. “No. What’s happened to every military escort we’ve had on this trip?”
“But—”
“The moment we get the escort, Maxim’s people know where we are. Am I right? The escort will fly that stupid banner that somebody decided I needed and… what did you tell Colonel Anders that armored coach was? Some kind of magnet?”
“A threat magnet,” Jason said.
“Yes. Exactly. And that’s what my banner is, and that’s what you and I are, Jason. Anything, anyone, that’s in the way of threats to us gets run over.”
Jason looked back again. “Kira, I honestly don’t know if what you just said is smart or crazy. All right. Are we still both in agreement that we need to get to the port?”
“Yes. How do we do that without being spotted on the road?”
“You can sense when Mages are getting close? You don’t have to see them?”
“Right.”
“Follow me.” Jason walked faster, Kira keeping up, sensing Mages here and there, none of them apparently coming closer at the moment.
She got a good look at the sun as they came out in the area where streets converged toward the road down to the port. “Look how low the sun is! It’s almost sunset. We both slept most of the day away.”
“We must have needed it,” Jason said, walking toward a wagon with a covered back, drawn by a pair of horses plodding along swiftly enough that they must be expecting a rest once they reached the port at the bottom of the road. “Excuse me!” Jason called. “Can we ride in the back down to the port?”
The driver, a woman old enough to be Kira’s grandmother, turned a disapproving eye on them. “It’ll cost yah.”
Kira dug out a Tiae crown and held it up. “How about this?”
“Sure. Get in. Touch anything and I’ll know.”
The driver didn’t slow down, requiring Jason and Kira to run and jump up onto the back before rolling over the tailgate. Most of the wagon was full of boxes, bags, and barrels, but they wedged themselves together in a narrow space. “We just ride this wagon down to the port?” Kira asked.
“Yeah. It’s moving along, but it’s not in a big hurry. There’s no reason for anyone looking for a couple of people in a rush to get away to be hiding in it,” Jason said. “And if some Mages decide to check out this wagon, hopefully you’ll sense them coming.”
“Hey!” their driver yelled to another driver whose cart was sitting idle alongside the road. “Get these two kids! Too lazy to even walk downhill to the port! Kids these days! It’s like they’re scared of breaking a sweat!”
The other yelled back, sounding like a man not much younger than their own driver. “It’s all those new Mechanic devices. They’d rather sit indoors playing with those than do a hard day?
??s work. If they were my kids I’d be getting work out of them!”
“Bunch of precious flowers, that’s what they think they are!” their driver yelled in reply.
“I didn’t know our money for the ride down also paid for a show,” Jason commented to Kira, grinning.
“You think that was funny?” she complained. As she’d fought and run and worried, her thoughts seemed to be getting both cloudier and clearer at the same time. And nearby objects looked… odd. She couldn’t explain why even to herself.
“‘The morals of children are tenfold worse than formerly,’" Jason said. “Somebody said that hundreds of years ago. Somebody is always saying that. This one guy… Horace? Thousands of years ago. He said every generation is worse than the one before it. Just ask the previous generation. Or something like that.”
“Must be nice not to worry about that,” Kira muttered, feeling resentful.
“Huh?” Jason’s expression changed to concern, “What’d I do?”
“Nothing.”
“Kira, I said something that bothers you.”
She sighed heavily enough to know it sounded theatrical. “The prior generation, with help from the generation before that, freed this world. The daughter of Jules finally came in that generation. That alone makes them special. But they rallied to her and they freed the world. And my generation lives with change and uncertainty and… in the shadow of those who came before.”
“I knew you felt that way about your mom, but you’re saying that a lot of people your age feel that way, too?”
“Yeah.” She kept her reply short, still fighting that feeling of resentment.
“What does your dad think about that?”
Another big sigh. “We all have our roles, and the illusion of the world gives us all challenges, and blah, blah, blah.”
Jason’s shook his head. “I’ve never heard you talk about your dad that way.”
“My father. What the blazes does dad even mean?” She sat leaning forward, her arms around her knees, staring at the street visible between the cover of the wagon and the top of the tailgate as the horses clip-clopped their way toward the harbor. “You’ll never understand, Jason. Just like I hardly ever seem to understand you.”
He took a while to reply, then spoke with such great care that she could almost feel each word being formed. “Are we heading toward a bad place again?”
She took a moment to reply, depression settling over her. “We might be.”
Jason sat, silent, staring anxiously at the street. Every once in a while his lips started to move as if he were about to say something, but nothing came out.
Kira closed her eyes, trying to find her calm center, and the house was there, the only home she’d ever known. Something dangerous lurked in the basement, pounding at the door.
She’d been chased through Altis. Just like her mother.
Was that some form of the thing that Jason called an omen? Her mother had gotten out of Altis safely, destroying a Mechanics Guild ship on the way.
Get out of Altis.
Kira was still fixating on that when Jason spoke to her again. “We can jump out at any time. We’re at the harbor.”
She shoved herself forward and over the tailgate, Jason following. The sun had set, night deepening around the harbor, the traffic headed to and from the ships falling off as sailors settled in at the waterfront bars and other businesses closed. Far off to Kira’s left was the pier where the warship waited for her. And out in the harbor at anchor rested the Imperial-flagged passenger ship, some boats alongside it to ferry passengers to and from shore.
Kira stood still, oblivious to the remaining foot and wagon traffic veering around her and the yelled insults hurled at her. She stared at that Imperial-flagged ship, feeling something like an icy wind coming from it to wash over her.
Hate. That’s what it felt like.
“He’s there,” Kira said to Jason.
“Maxim? We’d better go, then.”
“Yes.” Kira turned and began walking to her right.
Jason came running up beside her. “Kira, the Confederation warship is the other way.”
She glanced at him. “I know. I’m going this way.”
“Why?”
“He’s there,” she repeated. “Waiting for me. We have to get him off-balance, get him to chase us. And if he thinks we’re not protected, he’ll come for us. And that’s how I’ll get him.”
Jason was staring at her, his expression rendered strange by the flowing shadows as they walked past widely-spaced lights. “Is this the plan?”
“The plan? Yeah. It’s working, isn’t it?” Kira nodded to herself. “They’re coming out to get us. Just what we want.”
“No, that isn’t what we want,” Jason said. “Why are we going this way?”
“Mother fought her way out of Altis and escaped the harbor in a boat. We have to do the same.”
“We do?”
“Yes! It’s obvious!” Jason looked like a man in pain. “Did you get hurt earlier and not tell me?”
“No,” Jason said. “Kira, what do I have to do to convince you to turn around and go to the Confederation ship?”
“Why would I want to do that? The plan is working, Jason.” She looked back for a moment. “And there are Mages back there. And on that ship with Maxim. We need to keep going. We need to stick to the plan.”
“Kira! This is crazy!” He ran ahead and planted himself directly in front of her, blocking her path, his arms slightly spread.
“What are you doing?” Kira asked as she stopped walking, hearing the steel appear in her voice.
“Kira, please stop. Let’s go the other way, to the warship, get a good night’s rest, and then talk about this.”
He sounded reasonable. And worried. She should at least think about it. But as Kira considered his words, she felt tension running along her skin like a swarm of ants. And right after that, a surge of fear oddly mingled with confidence. “Back to the warship. To that room on the warship.”
“Your cabin. Yeah.”
“Where I can be locked in.”
“No!”
“You weren’t there,” she snarled at Jason. “On Maxim’s ship, day after day, wondering whether I’d end my life a helpless, mindless slave, drugged and abused and broken into a million tiny pieces. Were you there, Jason?”
He shook his head, looking miserable. “No. I tried to get there.”
Her will wavered, remembering the small boat he’d dared the ocean in, how badly off he was when she found him. Kira, one hand clenching into a fist, relaxed it. “I won’t hurt you again, Jason. Not ever. But no one is going to lock me up again.”
“No one wants to lock you up,” Jason said.
Where did the suspicion arise from? That maybe Jason had been working with Maxim all this time? Waiting for the right moment to betray her? Were the officers of the Confederation warship in on it? Suddenly that seemed all too plausible.
She felt the hate rolling from the Imperial-flagged passenger ship in the harbor, shivering with the cold, merciless intent behind it.
There was one way to know if Jason could be trusted.
She moved forward, not attacking, but feinting to one side, then dodging to the other, lowering and rolling her shoulder at the right moment to avoid his futile grab as she slid past him and started walking along the waterfront again.
Her back tight with tension, wondering if Jason would attack.
His feet could be heard, running. Past her and in front and he was standing there again, spreading his arms. “Kira, please.”
She feinted twice this time, once again sliding past near him as he lunged off-balance to try to stop her. Kira walked on, at a steady pace.
Running. Again. Standing in front of her, his eyes desperate and despairing. “Kira… ”
Kira came to a halt, looking at him. “Why didn’t you try to stop me?”
“I did. I am.”
“You’ve got a knife.”
&nb
sp; Jason stared at her, shaking his head. “No. I won’t even point a knife at you.”
“Take my pistol. Threaten me with that.”
“No! It wouldn’t mean anything! I can’t do that.”
Kira leaned closer. “Hit me, then. Knock me out.”
Jason shook his head again, looking down at the surface of the pier. “I can’t. I can’t hit you. Not even to save your life.”
She felt relief fill her. “I knew I could trust you. Come on.”
Kira walked onward, past a now-passive Jason, following some imperative that led her down a pier lined with smaller craft. Sailboats, all of them. The larger ones were tied up near the end of the pier. She kept going, knowing that Jason was walking alongside her again.
And there it was, a trim sailboat, long and lean, two masts. Even with night fully upon them she could see that it was a boat designed to cross open water with confidence, but small enough for one or two people to handle. “That’s it.”
“That’s what?” Jason asked, his voice dull.
“We’re taking that.”
“Kira, we can’t do that. Why can’t we just go back to the Confederation warship? Or Colonel Patila. She knows your mom. You can trust her.”
She glowered at him. “I thought we’d resolved this. Jason, stop trying to stop me. If you don’t want to come along, you can go back to the Confederation warship and thrill them all with stories about your amazing ship in space.”
“You don’t really want me to leave,” Jason said, gazing at her under lowered brows.
“Yes, I do! Go! It’ll be a lot easier on me.”
He made a face. “Kira, I’ve noticed that when you start telling me to go away it’s always when you really need me there.”
She snapped at him in exasperation. “Is that what your male ego is telling you? That I can’t handle life unless you’re there to do the heavy lifting? Well, guess what? I handled myself just fine for a long time before you ever came to this world, and I didn’t suddenly become helpless when you stepped off that fancy ship of yours! I’m not one of your pathetic little Urth girls waiting to be rescued!”
Jason looked off across the harbor. “Earth girls aren’t like that. Okay, maybe some are. But a lot of them are strong. You shouldn’t talk about them that way.”