That was what she had been taught as an apprentice. That was what she had once believed. Now, every certainty had been replaced by distrust.
Mari and Alain lurked in a shaded area until they saw Calu appear, strolling along until he entered the bookstore. “Do you see anything?” Mari asked.
“No. Nor does my foresight warn of danger.”
“Good.” She paused to look at him. “Thanks for putting up with me when I get hard to live with.”
Alain bowed toward her. “I know that I am not always easy to live with, and I understand the no pressure you are under.”
“You mean the pressure I’m under,” Mari said. “No pressure means, uh, pressure…never mind. Thank you.”
I will watch,” Alain said. “Go meet your friend. What would be appropriate for me to say to him?”
“Uh…that you were sorry you had to stay out here keeping a watch for danger and couldn’t say hello in person.”
“Say that to Mechanic Calu for me,” Alain said.
“Sure.” Smiling despite her worries, Mari walked across the street and down to the bookstore with as casual a gait as she could manage. Her inability ever to manage the swagger employed by most Mechanics was a good thing, since it meant she didn’t have to remind herself to walk like a common.
Partly-filled bookshelves lined the walls and ran down the center of the store. Calu was standing to one side, screened from the view of the owner by a wall of shelves. Mari walked up next to him as if wandering through the store. “Hi, Mechanic.”
Calu glanced over at her with a relieved expression. “You made it. Where’s your, uh, Alain?”
“Outside, keeping an eye out for trouble. He said he was sorry he couldn’t say hello in person.”
“Did he really?”
“Yeah.” Mari couldn’t help grinning. “He really is trying to be human again.”
“Good for Alain.” Calu regarded her solemnly. “You need all the friends you can get right now, Mari. The alert on you has been upgraded to an arrest order.”
“An arrest order?” She had been expecting it, yet it still felt like a punch in the gut. “Any reason?”
“For the good of the Guild.” Calu snorted in derision. “And allegedly for your own good. We no sooner got back here after the blizzard than the Guild Hall supervisor called us in and asked us if anyone had seen or heard anything of Master Mechanic Mari of Caer Lyn.”
Mari made a pained sound. “Senior Mechanics always pretended to forget to call me a Master Mechanic, but now that they’re trying to get me arrested, they remember.”
“The Senior Mechanic said that you had last been seen in Alexdria.” Calu shook his head. “They also said that an expended weapon believed to have been in your possession was found in a pass leading into the Empire, so they thought you might’ve come this way. That’s why they asked us if we had seen you.”
“An expended weapon?” Mari winced. “Alli’s dragon killer.”
“Yeah, although needless to say the Senior Mechanic didn’t mention finding a dead dragon near it.”
“They just found one weapon?”
“Yup.” Calu pretended to be examining some of the books before him. “But they also found a large group of Alexdrian soldiers, who first claimed not to have seen you. But they had a horse with them which matched the one you had bought in Alexdria, and when confronted with that and the evidence of the weapon they admitted they had seen a Mechanic heading south toward Kelsi. She was alone, these soldiers swore, and had traded horses for one of theirs since hers was worn out. They also said this Mechanic had asked them how hard it was to get a ship to Farland from Kelsi or Marida at this time of year.” Calu glanced at her again. “I used to think that commons were so afraid of Mechanics that they’d always tell us the truth. Now I’m never going to talk to commons again without wondering whether or not they’re lying to me.”
Mari breathed a thank-you to General Flyn. Farland was as distant as any place on the Sea of Bakre could be, and almost the exact opposite direction from the way she had actually gone with Alain. She had a mental vision of General Flyn earnestly, politely, and oh-so-respectfully lying his head off to the Mechanics who had questioned him. “The Guild thinks I’m trying to get to Farland, then?”
“Yeah. We were asked if any of us knew anyone you might know there, and whether we’d gotten any letters from you.” Calu took a book, pretending to look at it and shaking his head. “Mari, we got word of all this as soon as we got back here, which means somebody found out this stuff quickly enough to have it sent by long–distance far-talker and then relayed here. There must have been some Mechanics pretty close behind you.”
Mari stared at the books before her, not focusing on their titles. “They must have been real close. Not much more than a day behind, I’d guess. I thought I had done a decent job of throwing off any potential trackers before I left Alexdria, but if I hadn’t been moving fast they might have caught up to me before I reached Alain.”
“Any idea why they didn’t catch you after that?”
“Well, the commons lied to them, and Alain and I headed off the main pass, taking a small hidden route to the north. Anyone sent on east through the pass wouldn’t have found us.” She gave a heavy sigh of relief. “We thought we were just avoiding any legionaries ahead of us at the mouth of the pass, but we ended up sidestepping Mechanics coming up behind us, too.”
“Lucky,” Calu commented. “But it means the Guild was following you pretty well.”
“I was wearing my jacket after I left Alexdria,” Mari admitted. “I thought in Free Cities territory I’d be safer traveling alone as a Mechanic than as a common.”
“Wrong.”
“Yeah,” Mari agreed. “Hopefully the commons and the detour and the blizzard threw the Guild off my track.”
“I think so,” Calu said, “since the Guild is asking everyone where you might be. But that means a lot of people will be looking for you, and the Guild is obviously keeping an eye out for you here in Imperial territory as well as elsewhere. The Senior Mechanics were all saying the Guild is worried about you, that you had gotten hurt in Ringhmon, hit on the head, and now might be irrational and in need of care.”
“That’s funny,” Mari grumbled. “They weren’t too worried about the lump on my head while I was still at Ringhmon.”
“So,” Calu continued, “you might say crazy things or believe crazy things, but if any of us saw you we were to either talk you into coming back to a Guild Hall with us or else go immediately and get some Mechanics to bring you back.”
“I feel so warm and happy knowing how much the Senior Mechanics care.”
He turned his head to face her. “Oh, they’re worried about you, Mari,” Calu assured her. “But what they’re worried about is what you’re doing. This is serious.”
“I know. They tried to get me killed, remember?”
“I guess I was hoping you were wrong about that.” Calu thought for a moment. “As far as I can tell without asking, they don’t know about Alain. They think you’re alone, but they’re obviously worried about some other Mechanics joining up with you. They kept coming back to that, where your friends were and whether or not you’d be going to see them.”
Mari sighed again, shaking her head. “I hope nobody gets in trouble just for knowing me. Did you tell them that you’re a friend of mine?”
He gave her a sidelong wink. “I told them I used to know you. I figured they’d hear that quickly enough, anyway. I said it had been a long time since I’d seen any letters from you, though, which was true enough.”
“Calu, I don’t know how to thank you for telling me all this, but please don’t stick your neck out anymore.”
He made a face. “I’m not sure how much more I can do. The Senior Mechanics said we’ll be getting a list of Mari’s known friends soon, so I guess at that point they’ll really get suspicious of me.”
“My friends?” Mari leaned her forehead against the books in front of her
. “Why do they have to be singled out?”
“You’re not doing it, Mari, and I’m the only one of them who actually knows anything, right?”
“At the moment, yeah, but I got that weapon from Alli.”
“Uh-huh.” Calu made another face. “You didn’t know it might get her in that much trouble, and you needed that weapon. Alli’s a big girl, Mari. She can take care of herself. And if she needs help, I’ll find a way to get to her.” He paused again. “Can you tell me anything more about what you’re doing?”
“You know where I’m going,” Mari said, “and that’s probably more than you should know for your own protection.”
“Yeah, but what are you going to do, Mari? What the Guild is doing to you is wrong, the way innovation and technology are being suppressed is wrong, hiding the truth about Mages and these guys you call Dark Mechanics is wrong. Something has to be done.”
She stared at the books before her, gaze unfocused again. “I don’t know. I need to talk to Professor S’san. I need to learn more. I can’t make decisions without more data, without having a better idea of what the results will be and what outcome I need to aim for. And to be honest, I’m not sure what I can do even once I find out what I need to know.”
“Something has to be done,” Calu repeated. “Did you know the long-distance far-talker in the Umburan Guild Hall is busted? I didn’t mention that at the inn. They haven’t been able to get it working for over a month now.”
A Guild Hall long-distance far-talker broken and unrepairable. Mari shook her head in amazement. “A while back I heard the far-talker at another Guild Hall was out of commission for a couple of weeks. A month?”
“Yup. The Guild Hall in Umburan is dependent on written communications. We got that report on you by courier from the Guild Hall in Pandin.” Calu gave Mari a look as if he didn’t expect to be believed. “They’ve told us here in Umburan to be ready to shift to continuous wave communications for good. You know, not voice, but that dot-dash code. The gear’s less complicated. Did you ever meet a Mechanic named Yasmin? Yasmin of Westport. She’s pretty sharp. Just one step shy of Master status herself. Anyway, her specialty is stuff like far-talkers. She came up with this idea for getting Umburan’s big far-talker working, but when she presented it to the Senior Mechanics they took her notes and plans and told her to forget it. Yasmin was really unhappy.”
“I’ll bet,” Mari agreed. “I know how she feels. Do you know why the Senior Mechanics killed her idea?”
“Because it involved a design change for some of the circuits. Innovation. All she wanted to do was alter some circuits to get the equipment working again, but that’s prohibited. It’s by the book or we don’t do it at all.”
Mari nodded slowly. “The Guild doesn’t want change, but something has to change. Something big has to change.”
“There’s plenty of Mechanics who believe that, or are worried about it, but they can’t get organized. They need a leader.” Calu glanced at Mari again.
“Don’t look at me! Why do people keep doing that? Why have people always been doing that?”
“There must be a reason.” Calu grinned lopsidedly. “When you decide what to do, you’ve got your gang backing you up.”
“Thanks. I’ve got a general, too. No army, but I’ve got a general.”
“Really? I wish I had a general.” Calu grinned again but the expression shifted back to a serious look. “The Guild Hall here could find out that I’m a known friend of Mari any day now, and then meeting with you will be too risky because they’ll probably put a watch on me. You need to get out of Umburan as soon as possible. Avoid Guild Halls and see what this professor can tell you. I’m going to pretend I’m a naïve young Mechanic who believes that garbage about the Guild wanting to help you, and maybe that way I’ll be able to find a little of what the Guild is doing and maybe lead them astray from finding you.”
“Calu, please don’t,” Mari said. “If they find out you’re doing that you could get in serious trouble.”
“What was that? I don’t copy you.”
Mari tried to glower at him despite the elation his friendship brought her. “Alli will kill you if you get hurt playing spy against the Guild. Then she’ll kill me for letting you get hurt. For both of our sakes, be careful.”
He nodded. “Will do. Say hi to Alain for me. Tell him I’m counting on him to keep you safe.”
“Calu…thanks. For everything. I was so afraid of what you might think of him.”
“Alain? That guy will die for you, Mari. How can I dislike somebody like that?” Calu swung one hand out low toward her. “Good luck. Get the blazes out of this city.”
“All right.” She clasped his hand tightly for a moment. “See you. Stay safe. Don’t take any risks.”
“Yes, Lady Master Mechanic. I won’t be anything like you.”
She stuck her tongue out at Calu, he grinned once more, then Mari turned and walked out of the bookstore, trying to calm her nerves.
Alain waited until she rejoined him. “You are more worried now,” he said.
“Yeah. I’ll tell you everything he told me, but first we need to see how fast we can get out of Umburan.”
* * * *
Another nerve-wracking day later, passage out of Umburan was reopened to civilians. There was a Mechanic rail line running southeast to Pandin, but given what Calu had told them that was simply too risky at this point. Instead, Mari and Alain stood in a long line to purchase tickets on one of the horse-drawn coaches making regular runs between the cities. The coach was noisy, cramped, bumpy and slow. Mari endured it, feeling guilty for forcing Alain to put up with the trip as well. She had noticed how uncomfortable he remained with human contact. Most human contact, anyway. He was getting much more comfortable with her touch, which was one of the few bright lights in her life at the moment.
But even the most tedious trip ends eventually. It was late afternoon when they reached Pandin. Mari stepped off the coach, wondering if her body would ever stop feeling stiff again. If she wasn’t being put through heavy physical stress like hiking through a snowstorm, she was being forced to sit inactive in a hostel room or a crowded coach for hours on end. Her muscles kept getting completely different workouts and were expressing their confusion in uncomfortable ways. “You know what, Alain?” she whispered. “Life as a common is no fun at all.”
“I was trained to endure hardship, but I agree.”
She and Alain stopped to hoist their packs, waiting while the other passengers went past them and a few people came forward to meet some of the arrivals. Mari ignored them all, knowing no one should be expecting them in Pandin. A moment later, her expectations proved wrong.
“Lady Mechanic.”
It took Mari a moment to realize that the man who had walked up to stand nearby had addressed her in a voice just loud enough to be heard by her. Then it took another moment to recall that she wasn’t wearing her Mechanics jacket. She looked directly at him, not speaking, ready to run or fight if he proved to be from the Mechanics Guild. “Are you talking to me?”
Alain moved slightly to one side, giving him a clear shot at the man. Mari noticed him tensing the way he did before casting one of his spells. She glanced around, trying to spot any other people who might be working with this man, but couldn’t see any.
The man smiled slightly. “I know you. I know you’re a Mechanic. Let’s not play games.”
“Are you with the Guild?” Mari asked calmly. She searched the area again for signs of Mechanics ready to arrest her, looking for possible escape routes. Her hand twitched, wanting to reach for her pistol in its shoulder holster under her coat, but she held it down at her side. It seemed best not to reveal that she was armed, not until she understood what was going on.
Alain was waiting silently. Mari knew that if the man made a wrong move, Alain would strike.
The man shook his head. “No. I’m not with your Guild. If you’d like to know how I know you, and what I can do for you, come
along.”
“Why should I trust you enough to come along with you?”
“You wouldn’t like the alternative.” The man’s smile was unpleasant this time.
Mari thought quickly. She and Alain were very exposed out in the open. If anyone had crossbows, or rifles, trained on them, both she and Alain could be killed very quickly. “All right. I’ll follow, but you won’t like what happens if you try to betray me.”
The man looked over at Alain. “I saw you talking to him. You were with him at Umburan.”
They had been watched for a while, it seemed, but whoever this man represented hadn’t tried anything at Umburan. The Mechanics Guild wouldn’t have hesitated, meaning this man didn’t work for the Guild. “That’s right,” Mari said. “We’re partners.”
“Trying to build your own mob?” The man showed his teeth in a derisive smile. “Fine. We can always use another Mechanic.” The man tilted his head to one side. “This way.”
Mari glanced at Alain, trying to convey that he should pretend to be a Mechanic, and the Mage nodded back, indicating he would follow her lead.
Mari let the man lead her and Alain out of the large courtyard where carriages dropped off and picked up passengers. Once surrounded by buildings, she casually checked out the windows looking down on their path, trying without success to spot any snipers.
They followed the man all the way down the street, around a corner, across the next street, and into a restaurant with a discreet sign advertising its presence. Looking around offhandedly as they walked upstairs to the second floor, Mari realized that this was one of those places which catered to people who wanted privacy. Dining booths lined the walls, each having solid backs going up to the ceiling and each boasting a heavy curtain which could be drawn if desired. The man led her and Alain all the way to a booth against one back wall, then sat down.
Alain halted Mari as she started to follow, instead sliding in first so he was against the wall. Not certain why he had done that, she sat down next to Alain, looking coldly at the man. “What’s this about?” she asked in a quiet voice.