“And we’ll try to discover who sent those Mages and why.”
“Isn’t that obvious?” Kira asked . “Your enemies are still after me, Mother, as well as the enemies I’ve personally managed to acquire. Mechanics who want to return to the days when their Guild ruled the world, Mages who want to be able to do anything they want like they could when their Guild existed, former Dark Mechanics, disgruntled Imperials seeking revenge, and regular people hired to do the bidding of those others. That’s not exactly the first time someone has tried to kill me.”
“It is the first time since the ship from Urth left that someone might have tried to capture Jason,” her father reminded her. “If so, that argues that something new is happening. We have to learn what it is.”
Later, when Kira walked with Jason up to his room, she stopped at the door and looked away. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Jason asked.
“You’re not exactly getting a perfect girl. Jason, if you want to reconsider the engagement—”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because… because there might be something seriously wrong inside me!” Kira said, finally turning her head to meet his eyes.
He looked down, obviously uncomfortable and searching for words. Finally Jason looked back up at her. “Wouldn’t that mean you needed me there all the more?”
She found herself smiling at him. “Yes, it would. I’m serious, though, Jason. You didn’t agree to promise yourself to someone who might black out at any time and do things without having any memory of them.”
He shrugged. “On Earth they say for better or worse at weddings. So… yeah… I was thinking that. For better or worse. We’ll get through whatever it is. Together. That’s how we’ve survived everything so far, right?”
“Right.”
“You wouldn’t leave me, Kira, even when I wasn’t much fun to be around. I won’t leave you.”
“Thanks, my Urth demon.” She held him tightly.
“Do you really think I’ll help you find the answer?”
Kira nodded, still holding him and feeling that indefinable sense inside her again. “Yes. It’s not foresight. I don’t know where it’s coming from. But it says you’ll help me figure out what’s happening. Jason, there’s something else you want to say.”
“Having a girl who can spot that sort of thing takes some getting used to. I was thinking… Kira, that guy tried to kill you.”
“As I said to Mother, he’s not the first person who’s tried to kill me.”
Jason looked away, frowning. “I bet Maxim isn’t dead.”
She stared at him, rattled by the sudden announcement. “Why do you say that?”
“Because in vids and games bad guys are always faking their deaths.”
Kira drew back, exasperated. “Jason, how many times have we talked about this kind of thing? Those Urth vid and game things aren’t real.”
“Nothing is real,” Jason said, holding up a forefinger for emphasis. “You and your dad keep saying that. So if that stuff isn’t real, and nothing is real, that stuff is just as real as anything else.”
“Seriously? That is what you’ve learned since coming to this world?”
“Kira,” Jason said stubbornly, “you have a feeling you can’t explain that I’ll help you figure out what’s going on with your powers. I have a feeling I can’t explain that Maxim is still alive. And if he is, he’s going to want you totally dead.”
“Um, yeah,” Kira agreed. “If he is. All right. I’m staying alert. And keeping my eyes open.”
“Yeah,” Jason said, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “Even when we’re, um… ”
“I’m sorry we keep getting interrupted,” Kira grumbled. “You’re my man. We’re engaged. But every time we want to do something we end up being chased by legionaries or attacked by assassins or something. I’m pretty sure most couples don’t have that problem.”
“It’s okay,” Jason assured her.
“No, it’s not! You’re not the only one feeling frustrated! The Imperials think I’m a monster who’s constantly seducing young men to drink their blood, but I can’t even seduce my own man!” She forced herself to step away from him. “There’s nothing we can do right now. After this latest attack we’ll have a dozen bodyguards treading on our heels the instant we step outside.”
He nodded, stepping back as well. “Don’t forget what I said. Be careful.”
“I’m always careful,” Kira said. “All right, I’m usually careful. Don’t worry too much. With the queen coming, security here and in Pacta Servanda is going to be as tight as a drum. Nobody’s going to be able to get to her, or to me.”
“Oh,” Jason said as he realized that “nobody” included him. “Well… good. As long as you’re safe.”
She didn’t have any trouble spotting the disappointment in the first part, but let it go both because of the truth in the second half of his statement and because she was as disappointed as he was, but also trying to hide it for his sake.
* * *
Jason shifted in his seat next to her in the armored coach taking them to Pacta Servanda. This section of road had been paved so the team of six horses drawing the coach didn’t raise dust, and outriders on both sides and ahead were ensuring that no ambushers could strike, so the armored louvered windows were wide open, allowing clear views of the countryside as they neared the city. The fields lay green and sparkling under the sun, dappled with spots of water after a recent rain shower. The remaining rain clouds were fleeing to the west under the push of a brisk breeze. In the distance a rising column of smoke marked a steam locomotive on the main rail line through Tiae, Kira without even thinking about it analyzing the darkness of the smoke for how well the engineers on that locomotive were handling the fuel/air mixture.
Jason shifted in his seat again.
“Too slow?” Kira asked.
“I didn’t say that!” Jan protested.
“But you were thinking it.”
“All right, I’m used to forms of transportation that are a lot faster. But it’s still cool to be in a horse-drawn vehicle.”
“What are you thinking, Kira?” her mother asked. Mari and Alain sat together on the seat at the back of the enclosed coach, while Kira and Jason sat on the seat to the front facing them. “You seem pensive.”
“I was thinking about illusions,” Kira said as she looked out the window at the outskirts of the city beginning to appear along the road. “About how the way we see things reflects the illusion we expect to see. I’ve been to Pacta Servanda a lot when I was younger, but it looks different to me now that we know about those weapons buried under the city.”
“We don’t know for certain the weapons are there,” Jason reminded her. “I thought you were isolated a lot as a kid?”
“Yeah. But for a while I went to a school in Pacta with other kids.”
Her mother sighed. “What Kira isn’t telling you is that we had to pull her out of that school when we discovered a plot to blow up the entire building in order to kill her. She wasn’t happy about that, but we didn’t have much choice.”
“I gave you a pretty hard time, didn’t I?” Kira said.
Mari nodded. “It was one of the many times that you told me I was ruining your life. I’m sorry. You were so unhappy to leave there.”
Kira sighed, keeping her gaze out the window. “I acted unhappy to give you a hard time. The truth is, I was relieved I didn’t have to go back.” She heard the silence that followed her statement, a silence that felt baffled and maybe a little worried, and finally said more. “The others… treated me differently. At play period they often wanted to play Dorcastle. You know, one side plays the bad guys, the Imperials, and the other side plays the good guys. And they’d tell me I had to be one of the good guys, because I was your daughter, and then they’d tell me I had to die, because you did. Every time we played that blasted game I had to die, and then come back to life, while they all talked about my m
other being dead when I was born.”
Mari’s voice held mixed outrage and sorrow. “Why didn’t you tell me or your father? Or one of the teachers?”
“Because I was your daughter, and I was going to be as tough as you were, even if it killed me.” Kira finally looked over at her mother. “One day they tried to make me play an Imperial. As a joke. They thought it was funny. That was the day I tried to walk home in the afternoon.”
Mari unhappily shook her head at Kira. “I remember that. Half of Pacta Servanda got locked down while the police and the army searched for you and whoever might have kidnapped you. You refused to tell me why you’d walked away from your school that day.”
Kira shrugged. “I didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. I was tough enough to fight my own battles. Like my mother.”
“During those years you kept insisting that you weren’t anything like me!”
“I didn’t think I was,” Kira said. “But I wanted to be. I loved you so much and I resented you so much and I couldn’t explain it to anyone. Not even to myself.” She looked at Jason beside her. “And then I met you, and you were all amazed at how wonderful you thought I was because you had no idea how messed up I was inside.”
Jason, who’d been listening with obvious distress, managed a smile. “If we’re going to have a messed up when we met contest, I’d win. It wouldn’t even be close.”
“You were pretty hard to be around,” Kira admitted. “Mother, it wasn’t your fault. Not really. It’s just the way things were, and I needed to learn how to live with that.”
“I still feel guilty about it,” Mari said. “But that’s being a mother. Alain? What are you thinking and not saying?”
Mari’s father bent a cautionary look towards Jason. “Your partner does learn how to know what thoughts you have,” he said. “I believe that the promise rings focus the ability. I was thinking,” he told Mari, “that there had been a time when I wondered if you and Kira would ever be able to talk without arguing.”
“Do you miss that? We can start again. Right, Kira?”
“I don’t want to!” Kira said in her old, put-upon voice, then laughed.
But when the carriage halted at a well-guarded hostel near the center of Pacta Servanda, Kira gave her mother a puzzled look. “We’re not staying with Sien?”
“We will be,” Mari said. “But you’ve got an appointment here first.”
“Just me?” Kira asked. “What’s going on?”
“Just a little surprise,” her mother replied. “Come on.”
Jason came with Kira as she followed Mari out of the carriage, past the sentries at the door, and into the hostel, where Kira saw Mechanic Calu waiting with an oddly impassive expression instead of his usual smile.
“I leave this Apprentice in your capable hands, Mechanic Calu,” Kira’s mother said, her voice also crisp and unemotional.
Kira frowned as Mari left. “I’m not big on surprises,” she said to Calu, who to her surprise gave her another stern look. “Uncle Calu?”
“Mechanic Calu,” he corrected her. “Follow me, Apprentice. Your friend can wait out here.”
“Where are we going? And Jason is not my friend. He’s my man. Anything that I do… ” Kira’s voice faltered under Calu’s flat gaze.
“You sit there,” Calu directed Jason. “And you come along,” he told Kira, walking to a door leading deeper into the building.
Scowling, Kira followed Calu into a larger room. In the center was a desk with a stack of paper and some pens and pencils at the ready as well as some specialized drawing equipment. Beside the desk was a workbench equipped with a variety of tools and parts. Facing the desk and workbench was a long table, behind which already sat Master Mechanic Lukas, Master Mechanic Alli, and Mechanic Dav. All regarded her with the same cool, emotionless expression, as if they were total strangers. As Kira stared about her, Calu sat down next to Dav.
Kira’s mouth fell open as she realized what the setup signified. “Is this an exam?”
Lukas, stern and stolid, rapped the surface of the desk before him. “This examination to test the qualifications, knowledge, and skills of the Apprentice Kira of Dematr is called to order.”
Horrified, Kira stared at the impassive expressions of people she had called “uncle" and “aunt" for as long as she could remember. “A Mechanic qualifying exam? I’m not ready!”
Lukas frowned at her. “We were told that you were ready, Apprentice. Are you questioning the judgment of Master Mechanic Mari?”
“I’m her daughter! I’ve spent my whole life questioning her judgment!”
“Sit down, Apprentice,” Mechanic Calu ordered in a voice that didn’t leave any room for argument.
Kira dropped into the seat at the desk and the exam began.
She never could remember much of what followed, as questions came at her rapid fire and she fumbled to give correct responses or demonstrate her skills. Kira had always known that her examiners were among the most skilled and capable Mechanics in the world, but she had never before been made so painfully aware of how much more they knew than she did.
“The Apprentice will leave the room while the examiners discuss the results of her exam,” Lukas said, his expression still stern.
Kira got up and stumbled out of the room, finding Jason waiting anxiously. “You were in there a long time,” he said. “Are you okay?”
Kira dropped into the seat next to Jason, staring at nothing, feeling as though her life was over. “No.”
“What happened?”
“A qualifying exam to be a Mechanic,” she whispered.
“Really?” His initial enthusiastic reaction changed to wariness as Jason looked at her. “I’m sure you did great,” Jason finally offered.
She groaned. “I didn’t do great. I blew it. I forgot things and misstated things and fumbled around and must have sounded like a total idiot. To think I’ve been wondering for years if they’d go really easy on me because of Mother. I thought that, you know? She’s Mari’s girl, so let’s just ask her some basic questions and then congratulate her. And I was all ready to be upset about that.”
Kira dropped her face into her hands. “They took me apart. It was like facing a panel of Mages. I let everybody down. I’m such a failure.”
“Kira, you’re—”
“At least I have that Captain of Lancers thing to fall back on. Because I’m never going to be a Mechanic.”
“But—”
“I always pretended I didn’t want to be anything like my mother, but I really wanted to be a Mechanic like her and make her proud of me and now that’s never going to happen.”
“I don’t—”
“I can’t believe I messed up that badly!” Kira looked sorrowfully over at Jason. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“I—”
“Because I could really use some words of comfort right now.”
At least Jason seemed unhappy, too. Or maybe that was frustration? But before she could say anything else, Jason looked over to the side. “I think you’re needed again.”
Her heart sinking, Kira looked as well, seeing Calu standing in the doorway, beckoning to her, his visage still stern.
Kira’s temper flared. She might have failed, but she wouldn’t flinch from hearing the results. Standing up and squaring her shoulders, Kira gave Calu a look as stony as his own before following him back into the exam room.
And stared, uncomprehending, at the dark jacket on the exam table.
Master Mechanic Lukas spoke again. “As a result of her demonstrated knowledge and skills, the Apprentice Kira is hereby certified as a Mechanic, qualified in the areas of steam plant and locomotive operations, basic electronic repair and construction, as well as far-talker technology. Congratulations, Mechanic Kira.”
Kira slowly realized that she was standing with her mouth hanging open, staring at the jacket. She finally looked up, seeing Lukas, Alli, Calu, and Dav smiling at her. “But… but… ”
“You did pretty well,” Lukas said, and even though she had trouble believing that Kira could see the truth in him as he spoke. Even if she hadn’t had that skill Kira knew that Lukas would never say such a thing unless someone had earned it. Not even to the daughter of Master Mechanic Mari.
“I did?” Kira finally managed to say.
She realized that Calu had brought Jason in. “Help her put on the jacket,” Calu told Jason. “It’s traditional for a family member or engaged to be promised to do that.”
“But… Mother… ” Kira faltered.
“I’m here,” the familiar voice came behind her.
“Both of you,” Kira said. “Mother, you and Jason.” They helped her pull off the jacket she’d been wearing, somewhat like a Mechanic jacket but not really one, and then Jason and Mari helped Kira put on a real Mechanic jacket. “How could you do this to me?” she whispered to her mother.
“You did fine. I’m proud of you,” Mari said, smiling at her.
Kira nodded quickly, looking away, feeling dazed and uncomfortable. “All right. It’s not a big deal, really.”
Jason stared at her. “What about that stuff you were saying?”
“What stuff?” Kira asked, trying to signal Jason with her eyes.
“About how badly you thought you’d—ow! Why did you kick me?”
“We’ll talk later.” Kira looked at her examiners. “Thank you for pushing me so hard. I’ve been afraid that you’d go easy on me, but you didn’t.”
Master Mechanic Lukas frowned. “You thought I’d go easy on you?”
“That wasn’t very smart was it?”
They all laughed at her, but that was all right. She was wearing, she had earned, the jacket of a Mechanic.
* * *
They didn’t have a long ride the next morning to the site of the digging that had exposed the buried entry. As the armored carriage rolled through the streets of Pacta Servanda, its cavalry escort on alert in front and behind the vehicle, Kira peered out through the mostly closed armored louvers covering the windows, glimpsing the city only in thin strips. At another time she might have commented to her father on how that was sort of a metaphor for how every person viewed things, seeing only a small part of what was, limited by their own preconceptions and perspective.