“Oh, great,” Mari groaned. “We have to worry about Imperials tonight, too.”
The two Imperial police walked at a leisurely pace as they approached, but when Mari and Alain were close one of them held up a restraining hand. “A bit late to be out, citizens. Papers.”
Mari tried to look meek as she handed over the fake identity papers. The officer scanned them slowly, while Mari wondered how close behind various pursuers might be. “Palandur,” the Imperial officer finally said. “Why are two citizens from Palandur wandering the streets of Severun at night?”
“We’re visitors seeing your city,” Mari said.
The two police officers exchanged glances and both smiled in a smug way. “This looks suspicious, don’t you think?” one asked the other.
“Definitely,” the second agreed. “You two will come with us for a little talk down at the local station.”
Mari had no trouble understanding what the Imperial cops were doing. It was the same sort of thing which she had seen certain apprentices and Mechanics do to more junior apprentices on a whim, using their power to enliven an otherwise dull period of time by harassing someone unable to resist. One of the trade-offs which Imperial citizens suffered for their sense of security was dealing with police who had few practical limits on their powers.
She tried smiling beseechingly at the two officers. “Please, we’re just passing through the city and will leave soon. Two fine officers such as yourself—”
“Resisting us?” one of the officers asked the other. “She’s resisting answering questions.”
“Yup,” the second agreed.
Alain gave Mari a look. She knew that his spells could handle these officers, but that would betray his location to the Mages coming in from the lake. Her pistol could also deal with the officers, but the noise of it would draw the Mechanics chasing her. Mari looked over the Imperial police officers again, in their leather chest armor, each armed with a short sword and a hardwood club. There didn’t seem to be any alternative to threatening them with her pistol and hoping they wouldn’t force her to fire.
Mari nodded to Alain, then gave the two Imperial officers a pleading look. “I’m sorry, I forgot. There’s something else I need to show you.” She raised her hand toward the pistol concealed under her coat. If she could overawe them with that weapon, keep them quiet while Alain tied them up—
Her hand had closed about the grip of the pistol, but before she could draw the weapon a series of rapping sounds resounded from far down the street in the direction of the hostel Alain and Mari had fled. Both of the Imperial officers focused their attention down the street, listening. “Mechanics?” one questioned, then pointed a finger at Mari and Alain. “Did you two see any Mechanics up to anything down that way?”
“We saw some closed carriages go past us moving quickly,” Mari replied. “Really quickly. They almost ran us down.” She managed to inject some righteous indignation into her voice along with the meekness expected of Imperial citizens speaking to anyone in authority.
The first officer turned on his companion. “I told you we should’ve checked on that! Now there’s a bunch of Mechanics in the Viryen District breaking into houses and hostels down there!” He shoved the identity papers back at Mari. “You two get the blazes out of here.”
Mari stuffed the papers back into one of her pockets, grabbing Alain’s arm as they walked rapidly onward.
Alain looked back to see one of the officers kneeling, hardwood club in hand, to rap out a reply to the first message on the stones of the street. Then the two Imperial police set off running toward the lake. “I had not realized before that commons employed such methods to communicate over distances,” he remarked.
“I didn’t know about it, either,” Mari said. “I’ve heard that kind of rapping at times, but I haven’t been out among commons that much and when I was I never paid attention. It’s a clever system, using those clubs to tap out simple coded messages that carry a long distance, especially at night when there’s not as much background noise. I wonder how many Mechanics know that commons keep track of our movements using systems like that? In any case, it got us out of that mess before I had to use my weapon. There was no way I was going to let us be hauled in so some bored Imperial cops could practice interrogation techniques on a couple of citizens from out of town.”
Despite her hold on him urging Alain along, Mari felt Alain pausing again. She spun to tell him this was no time to wait around and saw Alain looking steadily to the north.
“The Mages are moving…that way,” Alain said. “Along the lake. I just sensed Asha again. She must be more cautious in her attempts to warn us. The Mages with her will surely notice that she is dropping her defenses for brief periods.”
“That way?” Mari swung her arm along that direction. “West. Why are they going west?”
“We must assume that something, or someone, has caused them to search in that direction.”
“Asha,” Mari said. “You were right. She’s helping us.”
Alain frowned very slightly as Mari got him walking quickly south again, a sign of how deeply he was concerned. “The Mechanics knew not only that you were in the city, but in which part of the city as well. From what the Imperial police officers said, the Mechanics are breaking into the hostel where we were staying or somewhere near there. Can Mechanics sense the presence of other Mechanics, just as Mages can sense Mages?”
“No,” Mari said. “I have no idea how they found us, which is very worrying. I don’t believe that Professor S’san betrayed us, and even if she had she didn’t know where we were staying tonight. Maybe we gave ourselves away by how we acted, or maybe some Mechanic we didn’t notice recognized me and followed us.”
“If they believe you are in this city,” Alain suggested, “then they will also be going to the home of your elder. They will believe you came here to see her.”
“Stars above, you’re right.” Mari aimed an anguished look in the direction of S’san’s home. “We can’t go warn her. They’re probably already there. Oh, Alain, what am I doing to my friends?”
“You are doing nothing to your friends. These are the actions of others. The blame for those actions does not rest with you.”
“No matter how many times you say that, I won’t believe it.” They reached a high point in the street and looked back a final time toward the lake. Mari bit her lip, gazing north in distress. “Is there anything else from Asha?”
“No. I sense nothing now from any other Mage.”
Mari pulled her far-seers from her pack and focused them to the north, then pivoted to look south in the direction they were going. Nothing was visible in either direction but darkened streets and buildings dimly illuminated by streetlamps burning coal. In one place behind them to the north, a few more lights were visible, but it was impossible to see anything in detail. “Far-seers,” she explained to Alain. “They have lenses in them which make far-off objects much easier to see.” She was putting them away as she spoke. “It’s risky for me to use them when anyone else might see me, because only a wealthy common or a senior military officer could afford far-seers, but I wanted to see if anything was visible.”
“I saw these with the Alexdrian soldiers,” Alain said. “I do not understand the Mechanic spell which makes them work, but the commons found them valuable. Did you see the Mechanics?”
“Not directly. There are some more lights down there, but the lights are staying around where we were. The Mechanics are probably searching every possible hiding place in the area of that hostel and the buildings around it.” Mari bent her head in thought. “Since my Guild knows or strongly suspects I’m in this city, it wouldn’t be safe to try heading south by train.”
Alain actually revealed relief at her words. “I would prefer not to risk a train again.”
“Trains really are usually safe, Alain.”
“Your Guild and mine may be watching the horse-drawn coaches from Severun as well.”
She ble
w out an exasperated breath. “You’re probably right. We’ll have to walk until we’re well clear of the city and then try to get rides on passing wagons again. That’s the only way to avoid being spotted at the coach stations, and the Senior Mechanics will never suspect that anyone would be willing to walk when they could ride.” Mari settled her pack. “Let’s go. It’s going to be a long walk tonight.”
They had been trudging along for a while, having reached the southern stretches of the city, when Mari gave a brief laugh as an incongruous thought struck her. “Jules was a sailor. If I’m a daughter of Jules, why do I have to walk everywhere?”
“Do you enjoy sailing?” Alain asked.
“I’ve hardly ever been on the water.” Mari shrugged. “Alain, no offense, but I will never believe that I’m actually descended from Jules.”
“What you believe is less important than what others believe,” Alain suggested. “The illusion they see is very powerful.”
Mari sighed. “I haven’t exactly spent my life to this point aspiring to be a powerful illusion.” She noticed Alain looking back north again. “What’s the matter?”
Alain didn’t answer for a few moments. “I am…worried about Mage Asha. Her attempts to warn us and misdirect our pursuers could have placed her in great peril.”
Mari turned to him, guilt and gratitude mixed inside her. “Alain? I hope she’s all right.”
“Your professor?”
“Your friend. Asha. It was very brave of her to risk herself for us that way.”
Alain’s voice held a note of wonder that she had rarely heard before. “I have two friends?”
“Yes,” Mari said, “if you mean Mechanic Calu and Mage Asha. I am more than a friend.”
“You are much more than a friend, my Master Mechanic.”
Feeling tremendous relief as they walked past the indifferent guards at the south gate of the city and out into the open country beyond the city walls, Mari couldn’t help a brief giggle. “Alain, you, and only you, are allowed to call me just Mechanic.”
* * * *
A little before dawn, and with the city well behind them, Mari and Alain found an area not far from the road which was sheltered by a large stand of trees. Staggering with weariness, they made it well into the trees and then collapsed onto the ground next to each other. By the time Alain awoke, the sun was well up in the sky. He sat up carefully, trying not to disturb Mari, then went back toward the road, seeing that it was now covered with considerable traffic. Being one of the main roads within the Empire, the route was paved with massive stone blocks and stretched wide enough for wagons to pass each other and the foot traffic with no difficulty. Even if he could not have seen the road he still would have known it was near from the scent of the manure from the various draft animals baking in the sun’s heat.
Mari came up beside him, looking haggard. “Any sign of trouble?”
“No. We should not have difficulty blending in with so many foot travelers, wagons, and carriages using the road.”
She yawned, then winced. “Do your legs hurt as much as mine do?”
“I do not know. How could I know?”
Mari closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “That’s another rhetorical question, Alain.”
“A question which is not to be answered.”
“Yes. And yes, that is kind of an odd thing, now that you’ve pointed it out. Let’s see if we can find a wagon that’ll let us pay for a ride, preferably a wagon with cargo we can hide ourselves among.”
Alain looked north, watching the sky. “Do you feel the wind? Winter comes marching from the north, but we remain a step ahead of it.”
Mari shivered. “They don’t have blizzards down here as severe as they do up north around Umburan. I would have noticed if anything like that hit Palandur. But I’m not thrilled at the idea of slogging through a regular snowstorm, either. Those can be plenty bad enough. Let’s try to get to Marandur before then.”
“We must not mention our destination again,” Alain cautioned.
“Fine. You’re right. Let’s go.” She walked out toward the road and Alain followed, seeing that their appearance attracted little attention from the passing traffic.
About noon they managed to buy seats in the back of a big wagon hauling freight southward. Mari wedged herself and Alain between some of the crates so that they were almost invisible to anyone on the road, then fell asleep.
Alain stayed awake longer, watching for danger, but finally succumbed to tiredness himself.
He awoke much later in the afternoon when the wagon rolled to a stop. Gazing out cautiously, Alain saw an inn offering water and food. “Need anything?” the driver leaned back to ask. “I’m just getting something for me and watering the mules, then we’re off, so make it quick.”
Awakening Mari, Alain got his aching body out of the wagon, grateful for the moment for his Mage training at enduring hardship. “I sense no Mages nearby, so I will go first to see if it is safe.” He went into the inn, buying some wine and travel food, and finding an irrational pleasure in knowing how to do such a simple task for commons. But as he turned to walk back to the wagon, Alain saw two Mechanics lounging near the passenger coach stand. Both carried the large Mechanic weapons that Mari called repeating rifles. The commons were either ignoring the Mechanics or casting worried glances their way, so Alain also pretended not to be aware of them.
“The station is watched,” he warned Mari, describing the Mechanics.
She glared at him. “How the blazes am I supposed to relieve myself?”
“I…do not know.”
Mari had to wait until the wagon was well down the road, jumping off to dart into a patch of bushes, then running to catch up to the wagon again as Alain watched anxiously. For some reason she appeared to blame him for her inconvenience, but the wine and food Alain had purchased put her in a better mood. “We’ll have to stock up on supplies before we leave the road for…our destination,” Mari remarked. “I don’t think we can count on finding anything there.”
He thought about that as the wagon rumbled through the last light of day. What would a city destroyed and then abandoned for more than a century be like? The thoughts brought no comfort, and Alain was glad for the distraction when the wagon turned into a drover’s station for the night. He and Mari got a tiny room in the drover hostel and slept in each other’s arms. So much human contact had taken some getting used to, but now he found himself wishing he could hold her more. It sometimes took great effort not to move his hands to places where Mari had told him not to touch her. But as Alain lay, feeling her breathe in her sleep next to him, he remembered her distress in Severun, and how badly he had wanted to help, and how little he could do. Being told that she was the daughter of the prophecy had been a hard thing to take, an awesome responsibility to be told of.
In some ways, Alain realized to his sorrow, Mari would always be alone, no matter how closely he held her or how hard he tried to help.
* * * *
Even with frequent purchases of rides on wagons going in the same direction, the need to rest at night and keep an eye out for Mages or Mechanics or Dark Mechanics meant it was still close to two weeks before they reached the place where Mari could see the Imperial road taking a wide turn toward the new capital of Palandur. At that turn, the old route to Marandur was easy to spot, though the paving had been buckled by more than one hundred and fifty years of deliberate neglect. Grass, shrubs, and trees were intruding on the old road, some of the trees quite tall now, but its path remained obvious.
So did the Imperial watchtower at the place where the old road and the new diverged. Unlike the watchtower on the northern plains which Alain had described seeing, this tower was of stone, looking stout enough to stand for a thousand years. The sentries on the tower looked bored, but they kept their eyes on the road traffic.
Standing next to the tower was a huge stone, the side facing the road cut flat and polished. Deeply engraved on the stone were words formed of letters s
o large as to be easy to read from the road. “To All Who Pass,” Mari read out loud to Alain, “Know The Price Rebellion Will Pay. Only Death Lives In Marandur Now, And Death Will Claim All Who Go There Or Dare To Raise Their Hand Against Their Emperor. Palan, Emperor.”
“Death lives in Marandur?” Mari remarked despite the knot in her stomach the words brought. “The emperor could’ve used an editor.”
“Were I the emperor’s editor,” Alain replied, “I doubt I would find much to criticize in the emperor’s writing.”
Mari and Alain walked on past the turn-off with idle glances at the old road, then went back to watching their fellow travelers for signs of danger. Over the last week sightings of Mechanics on watch along the road had lessened as they went farther south, and then ended except for infrequent sightings of Mechanics who were clearly traveling to destinations in comfortable carriages and paying no attention to others on the road. As hoped, Mari’s Guild apparently had not expected her to come this way, but Mari covertly watched the Mechanics as they passed, her feelings by turns wistful and worried. She should have been one of them. Now they were hunting her.
The occasional Mage had passed them as well, but Alain must have become very good at hiding himself from other Mages because none of them paid any attention to him. Had Asha succeeded in making the Mage Guild believe that Alain had gone west from Severun? Mari felt another guilty twinge at the thought. Despite his advice to Mari that she should not feel guilty for the dangers faced by others, Alain himself clearly felt responsible for anything that might happen to Asha. One time he had tried to talk about that to Mari, but she had been moody and the conversation had ended quickly, Alain appearing let down and Mari mentally kicking herself. The next day she brought it up, let Alain talk out his worries, and they both felt better afterwards.
It seemed that they had thrown their Guilds off of their track, at least temporarily. But that still left the Imperial troops enforcing the ban on traveling to Marandur.