The Hidden Masters of Marandur

Chapter Fourteen

Fortunately, packing required nothing more than throwing a few things back into their packs and then heading for the door. The room had been paid for already, so Alain just had to wait while Mari tossed the key into a slot at the owner’s door, then they both hastened out of the hostel. “We go south,” Mari said. “Marandur is that way, and neither one of our Guilds will expect us to go south from here.” She felt dazed from the many emotional ups and downs of this day, which obviously had not ended.

The daughter? Her? How could she possibly be that person? Mari shook her head violently, trying to drive the thoughts away. Focus on here and now, on getting away from my Guild here, or that prophecy might end badly in a few hours.

Alain looked back for a moment, toward the waters of the lake, and came to a momentary halt. “I see a black haze when I look to the north. Danger comes from the lake.”

“Mechanics?” Mari asked, tugging Alain back into motion and increasing their pace.

“No. Mages, I think. It feels like that. They must be coming to Severun on one of the lake ferries or ships.”

“Blast! My Guild seems to have figured out we’re here, and so has your Guild. How did they find us?” Mari looked around. “More importantly at the moment, how do we throw them off our track?”

“Asha,” Alain said suddenly.

“What? Do you think she betrayed—”

“No,” Alain said. “She is close to those on the lake. Her presence shone brightly for a moment. She must have been ordered to assist the Mages coming here, but she deliberately let her presence show so strongly. She has tried to warn us that the other Mages are coming.”

Hearing the clop of hooves and the rumble of wheels on the paved streets, Mari looked ahead to see a carriage approaching at a rapid clip along streets nearly deserted at this late hour. She took Alain’s arm and pulled him into the nearest doorway, waiting in the shadows there as the carriage rattled past. “They’re in a hurry to get somewhere. Let’s– Get back!” Mari pushed Alain into the shadows again as a second carriage appeared and rushed down the street past them. “We can’t run without drawing too much attention, but let’s walk as fast as we can. I couldn’t see who was in those carriages, but the drivers sure looked like Mechanic apprentices to me.”

Alain stayed with her as they walked, but glanced back once. “Why would your Guild have warned you if they were sending Mechanics to take you?”

She frowned at him. “That’s a good question. That message tipped me off. It was pretty dumb of someone to—” Mari paused, looking straight ahead now as she thought. “Maybe that wasn’t a mistake. Maybe someone warned me just like Asha warned you.” Who did she know in Severun besides Professor S’san? If Calu had been sent to Umburan, perhaps some of her other old friends had been sent here.

Or someone she had never met? Like the Mechanics who had confided in her their own doubts and worries about the Guild?

The two- and three-story shops and homes on either side of the road were mostly dark or with only a single window showing light from a lantern or candle inside. They had made it a fair way along the street, the road still climbing along the long slope leading down to the lake behind them, when Alain held out a cautioning arm. “I see police ahead.”

“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 blew 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 so 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.

Later in the day they passed a roadside stand selling food and watered wine, so they filled their packs before moving on. They walked until darkness fell and made sure no one was observing them, then turned left off the new road and headed straight for the old, making their way carefully through the night.

They were moving across an open area between patches of woods when Alain grabbed her arm and forced Mari down flat in the grass. Though uncut, the grass here grew not much higher than their ankles, leaving them far too exposed even when hugging the ground. Mari lay unmoving as the muffled clatter of armor and weaponry merged with the soft rustling sounds of legs striding through the grass. The half-full moon provided plenty enough light to see the shapes of the Imperial legionaries trudging by maybe fifty lance-lengths to one side of her and Alain.

Mari held her breath, one hand on her pistol under her jacket. If I have to use this, we’re dead. The sounds of the shots will draw every legionary within thousands of lances. The legionaries didn’t seem to be searching, though, instead slogging wearily along with the attitude of soldiers who have done the same thing too many times with nothing ever happening. None of them glanced in the direction of Mari and Alain, and after some heart-stopping moments the patrol was past its closest point to them and moving away.

Finally drawing a breath, Mari lowered her face to the soil. “This is going to be a long night,” she barely whispered to Alain.

“They cannot patrol the entire area between here and Marandur in strength,” he said. “Even the Empire does not have sufficient troops or wealth to keep such a large garrison in place. Once we get past this band of defenses we should find areas that are less well guarded.”

“I hope you’re right, my Mage.”

They dodged another patrol before dawn, then holed up in a shallow ravine cut by a stream, huddled against the raw earth of the banks as they tried to get some rest, one of them always awake and on watch as the other dozed.

No Imperial patrols disturbed their day, though, and as the sun sank to the horizon Mari and Alain started out through the dying light, quickly stumbling across the old road. Mari came to a halt on its verge, seeing that the road showed no sign of use for several decades at least. “They have troops around Marandur itself enforcing the quarantine, but they’re not using the old road to supply them or move them.”

Alain gazed at the old road, his expression uncharacteristically somber. “The emperors believe they have the power to force their illusions on all others. This is part of that. The road itself is declared dead, never to be used, and no one dares dispute the Imperial will.”

“Not much better than the Great Guilds, is it?”

“No, I do not think so. When you seek allies among the commons, Mari, I believe you should look to those who do not blindly accept the authority of their leaders.”

“Too much failure to accept authority and you end up with anarchy, like in Tiae,” Mari pointed out.

“That is so,” Alain agreed. “But as you told your elder, there is much that lies between total control and anarchy. The leaders of our Guilds and the rulers of the Empire would have us believe that only those two extremes exist, but I have been among the Free Cities and you have been in the Confederation. Their governing systems are not perfect, but they work while still allowing their people freedom.”

“Freedom?” Mari turned to Alain, surprised. “I’ve never heard you use that word. Hardly anybody uses it.”

“I was taught that freedom is an illusion, only one more illusion which distracts from the path of wisdom.” A flare of some deep emotion showed in Alain’s eyes. “But I have felt freedom, Mari, as I walked the road beside you, and I know it is no illusion. The will of the Great Guilds, of the Emperor, those things are illusions, and their images will not endure.”

She stared at him. “At times like this I really remember why I fell in love with you. You know, since you told me about…about the prophecy, I’ve been thinking more about overthrowing the Great Guilds, and I’ve realized that’s not a goal. That’s just something you do on your way to somewhere else. But where? What is the goal, what is it that would replace the Great Guilds? And you just said it. Freedom. To think, to act, to do new things and to make what we do matter. All my life I’ve wanted that. I bet most other people do, too.”

“A new day?”

Mari looked away, feeling uncertainty fill her. “I still don’t see how I can do that, Alain. And I have to wonder why things are like this. It’s been bothering me all the way down here from Severun. You may noticed I’ve been a little preoccupied.”

“I have noticed,” Alain said.

“Aren’t you the diplomatic one,” Mari said. “I have to wonder. Was freedom tried and did it fail? Is that the history before the history we know? Or has it ever been? Why are things as they are now? Is there a reason? Would freedom be a mistake?”

His brow creased ever so slightly, the equivalent of a major frown from a non-Mage. “I cannot believe it would be. I have been a servant to those who demand absolute obedience, and I am now free. I know which is better.”

“Me, too. But does that give me the right to make that decision for others? Do entire societies, do worlds, work better that way? I need more data, Alain. That’s one of the reasons we’re going to Marandur. Maybe along with the banned technology there will be some banned histories.” She frowned at him. “I know that not-a-look of yours. What are you thinking and not saying?”

“I…” He struggled with a word before getting it out. “Hope. I…hope you decide that freedom is the answer.”

Mari gave him her best reassuring smile. “No matter what we find, Alain, I will not believe that the answer is anything like the Empire.”

His eyes rested on hers, concern easy to see. “There may be many who want you to become an Empress.”

“Oh, please!” Mari laughed at the absurdity of the idea. “I will guarantee that is never, ever going to happen. Can you see me on a throne?” Her laughter died as an awful thought struck her. “Have you? Have you seen me on a throne?”

“No,” Alain said. “I have never had such a vision.”

“If you ever do,” Mari said, “that is one future we will ensure does not happen.”

They veered off from the old road and a bare path alongside it that revealed the trail sometimes used by the legionaries. After getting far enough away from the road, they turned to walk parallel to it, watching constantly for more Imperial troops. The road to Marandur cut across a series of slight hills and shallow valleys, so as Mari and Alain traveled they caught sight of the old city while on the higher ground and then lose the view as they moved down into the low areas. The result was to create a series of images, each offering a slightly closer view and more detail than the next.

When first they sighted Marandur the city looked almost beautiful, gleaming in the distance under the last rays of the setting sun. From far away, the city could have been intact. Only the lack of any kind of haze over the city hinted that no people lived or worked there. A living city was always crowned by a haze made up of smoke from fires to heat and cook and work, and from the dust thrown up by the movement of people and animals, just as a living creature breathed out warmth. But the sky above Marandur was almost crystal clear, like that above a vast cemetery where no one moved or drew breath. Mari felt a chill at the sight, and she moved to walk a bit closer to Alain. “Hold on.”

She stopped walking, pulled out her far-seers, and studied the city. Under the magnification of the far-seers, gaps became apparent in the great walls. Towers were truncated, the upper stories fallen into the streets below. The huge gates lay sprawled next to the entrance they had guarded, an entrance with no traffic and lacking any sign of life. Mari moved the far-seers slowly as her head turned, spotting the ragged walls of lesser buildings standing vacant. In all the great city, it was hard to find any place where a roofline or a wall or even a window presented lines unbroken by damage.

Mari shifted her gaze to the area just outside the city. A watchtower stood a few bowshots outside the gates, the reflected glint of the setting sun on the armor of sentries easily visible. “There are towers all the way around as far as I can see,” she told Alain, “close enough to each other that even at night I bet they can spot us if we tried to walk between them. There are sentries walking rounds between the towers, too. It’s a very good security barrier. I tell you, Alain, the Empire is a bloody-handed and despotic state, but they sure know how to build things right. How are we going to get past those sentries?”

“We must not linger on the higher ground,” Alain cautioned. “It will make us to easy to see. We must get close enough to study the defenses and spot any weaknesses.”

“Fine with me.” Mari stayed close to Alain as she put away the far-seers. They went down into the next low area and quickly lost sight of the dead city.

There were more rises, and even though Mari and Alain stayed low and moved quickly across the crests of the high areas, each successive look gave them a better view of the city as the moon rose, its pale rays shining on the dead metropolis.

Outside the city, watch fires had been set at regular intervals, illuminating the ground and the outside of the broken walls. “I can’t see any gaps in the Imperial defenses,” Mari whispered to Alain. Even though they were still a few thousand lances from the Imperial watchtowers, she felt very exposed. She glanced up at the sky, where the stars were paler and the moon was close to setting. “It’s not long until dawn. I don’t want to try anything in daylight.”

Alain pointed toward a small patch of trees to one side of them. “That is wise. Those trees will offer a little cover during the day. We can lie among them, observe the Imperials, and make plans.”

Mari looked. “Why haven’t the Imperials cleared those trees?”

“It is a small patch, merely saplings, and more than a long crossbow shot from the towers. Still, the Imperials will probably clear it sometime during the winter to provide a little extra wood for their fires.”

They moved cautiously toward the small stand of trees, constantly watching for any sign that some Imperial sentry had glanced backwards and seen them. At one point, Alain came to an abrupt halt and stared into the darkness. “I sense a Mage, but he or she is distant, somewhere else among the defenses.”

“You can hide from that Mage?”

Alain nodded. “I believe so. The other Mage is not attempting to conceal his or her presence, and is so far off that I think a low-level spell would not be spotted, or if spotted the Mage could not reach here in time to know who had been casting it or why.”

“A spell?” Mari asked. “What spell?”

“My spell that bends light. If you hold me tightly and stay close to me, it will protect you as well. If we wait until night falls again, then use it only when we reach the area where the fires show everything, we should be able to get past the patrols without giving the distant Mage enough time to react.”

“You want to make us invisible? Even though I’ve seen you do that, it’s still hard to believe that’s possible. Are you sure that other Mage won’t know it’s you doing the spell?”

“Yes. Not at that distance.”

“I don’t see any other way in, so I guess we’ll have to risk it.” She looked over and grinned at him. “Your plan requires me to hold you tightly all the way into the city? Shame on you, Mage.”

Alain gave her a slight smile back. “I am not saying I will not enjoy it, despite the danger.”

They reached the saplings and lay down close to each other, screened as well as possible from anyone coming from the Imperial lines around the city. “I can just see the top of the Imperial watchtowers while lying down,” Mari said. “We’re going to have to stay as still as possible when daylight comes.”

It was a very long day. The thin patch of woods offered little cover, and the ground was scattered with drying leaves, making it hard to shift position without causing the leaves to crackle in a way that sounded far too loud. Mari managed to fall asleep now and then, only to awaken with a start of fear that she had been making noise. “Do I snore when I’m sleeping?” she finally whispered to Alain.

He didn’t answer.

“Alain? Are you awake?”

“Yes,” his reply finally came. “I just do not know which answer would be right.”

“Just tell me!”

“Sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Mari moved her eyes enough to glance at Alain. “Loud or soft?”

“Sometimes.”

“Does it ever bother you?”

Alain hesitated again. “Sometimes.”

“Are you going to give me any plain yes or no answers to this?”

“Not if I can avoid doing so,” he replied.

“I guess you’re learning social skills.” Mari watched an insect clambering across the dead leaves in front of her nose. A chill breeze was coming down from the north again, but she was afraid even to shiver for fear the motion might be seen from one of the guard towers. “I wish we were talking about this in bed. A nice warm bed in a nice warm room and nobody trying to capture or kill us.”

“That would be nice,” Alain agreed.

“Do you remember the first time we slept nearby each other? On that ledge looking down on the wreckage of the caravan to Ringhmon?”

“I will never forget that.”

“Would you have stayed there if you had known you’d end up with me here?”

His voice was barely audible. “If I had known I would end up with you, no matter where, then I would have known that night what happiness was.”

She smiled despite the situation they were in, then tried to get some more sleep as the distant calls of the Imperial sentries echoed off the walls of the dead city.

They waited in the small patch of woods for full night to fall and the bustle of activity involved in lighting the watch fires to diminish, then waited a while longer for the sentries to lapse into the boredom of another night of guarding a dead city. Finally, Alain rose into a crouch. “The other Mage remains far from us in another part of the Imperial lines, but we should wait to use my spell until we must. The less time I am revealing my presence, the better. But remain close.”

“Not a problem,” Mari assured him, wincing as she tried to stretch out stiff and sore muscles. As night had fallen, the eerie silence and emptiness of the city had become more unnerving. Alain’s presence was even more comforting than usual. “Let’s head for that gap in the city wall there. It’s about equally distant from the guard towers on either side, and looks like it extends low enough for us to climb in easily.”

They went out into the open, hunched over, moving slowly and carefully toward the guard towers. All of the Imperial sentries, their postures relaxed, were once more facing toward the city. She wondered at that, since it implied that the Imperials were more worried about someone leaving Marandur than they were about someone entering. Why? But the open ground and the fires between the towers and the walls made it almost impossible for anyone trying to enter as well, so in practical terms the sentries’ focus inward made little difference.

As Mari and Alain got closer to the towers, they began to hear snatches of conversation. The legionaries were talking about their homes, their families, their girlfriends and boyfriends, how bad the food was, and what they would be doing once they got off guard duty. Mari listened, realizing how human these Imperial men and women were, yet also knowing they would not hesitate to kill her and Alain in the course of following their orders.

Alain stopped short of the guard towers, beckoning Mari over. She wrapped one arm tightly around him. “Both arms,” Alain breathed at her.

“You’re doing this on purpose,” Mari mumbled under her breath, but she brought the other hand around and hugged him with that as well, clinging to his back as tightly as she could.

Alain held still for a moment, then Mari saw her view blur slightly. He started walking slowly so that Mari could keep pace and her hold. It was awkward walking with both arms around Alain, but the sight of the watch fires burning ahead was enough to keep Mari clinging to the Mage. They reached a point from which they could watch a patrol walking between the towers. Mari held her breath, staring straight at a legionary who seemed to be looking right at her. No, right through her. The Imperial soldier showed no sign he had seen Mari. The patrol passed, then Alain went ahead again. Mari found herself breathing as shallowly as she could, trying to make as little noise as possible, even though the Imperial soldiers made plenty of noise themselves tramping through the grass.

She relaxed a bit once they had gotten past the line of fires, then almost fell when Alain stopped abruptly. He bent his head over and back to breathe his words in her ear. “Mage alarms. I do not see any way around them. We will have to go through. It will be difficult to avoid the alarms and maintain my spell to keep us hidden. Do not distract me.”

Mari waited, trying not to do anything distracting. It was very hard not to move while holding Alain tightly, very hard to keep breathing shallowly so the motion of her chest rising and falling against Alain’s back wouldn’t be too obvious to him. She could feel his own breath coming more heavily. Was that because her body was pressed tightly against him, or because the exertion of maintaining the spell was wearing on Alain? There wasn’t much she could do about it if Alain was being distracted by her, but as Mari thought about it she doubted that was happening. She had seen how the often-brutal training Alain had undergone as a Mage acolyte had taught him how to block out physical discomfort and distractions. More likely he was being tired out by the Mage spell. Despite Alain’s attempts to explain to her, she had never been able to grasp exactly how tiring doing spells was for a Mage. But she knew it took work, and she wished right now that she could lend some of her strength to him instead of just standing here uselessly.

“Now,” Alain whispered, and started moving ahead. She kept locked onto him, matching his slow steps with her own as Alain moved through alarms which Mari couldn’t see. Alain had described them to her as looking like gossamer spider web strands drifting through the air but confined in one area. Getting through them undetected required Alain to use his mind to move the strands enough to each side to allow him to pass through the gap that created, without pushing so hard that it alerted the Mage monitoring and maintaining the alarm.

Their progress felt agonizingly slow. The grass and brush here were a bit higher, impeding their progress. To Mari it felt like the noise they made as they moved through the vegetation must be echoing loudly enough for the Imperials to easily hear, but the crackling of the watch fires must be hiding the sounds Mari’s and Alain’s motion made, and the flickering shadows would make the movements of the grass harder to see.

Mari’s back itched, anticipating the impact of a crossbow bolt or, ultimate irony, a Mechanic-made rifle bullet.

Alain stumbled and she almost fell, barely catching herself, managing not to drop and pull the Mage down with her. He stood a long moment, his breathing louder and more strained that it had been before, then carefully moved ahead again. She concentrated on anticipating and matching his movements, her head resting against his back while she tried to will some of her strength into him.

There finally came a moment when Alain stopped, wavering where he stood. “We are through the alarms,” he gasped. “We must get through the gap in the wall.”

“I’ll help hold you up. Keep moving.” Mari did her best to support Alain now, as the two of them staggered the rest of the way to the wall. Once there, at the foot of the break in the wall that they had aimed for, Alain leaned against the broken stone.

“I will hold my spell while you climb over me. It will help hide you in part until you get inside. Then I will follow.”

She hated to do that, but recognized the wisdom of Alain’s instructions. Mari unwrapped her arms from about him, her joints and muscles stiff with the effort she had been expending, then took a deep breath and scrambled up his back and into the gap in the wall. Once screened from being seen from the outside, Mari turned. For a moment, she could see only the gap and the reflected flames of the fires beyond, then Alain popped into view most of the way inside the breach in the wall.

Grabbing his arm, Mari helped pull him inside, listening fearfully for any sounds which would show that the Imperials had spotted Alain. But no shouts or trumpet calls resounded, and after crawling over broken stone fragments and rubble they reached the inner side of the wall and dropped down to the forbidden streets of Marandur.

“There are no sentries inside the walls,” Alain gasped in a low voice. “We can be sure of that much.”

Mari stared at the jagged ruins poking their battered faces into the night sky. If ever a place seemed right for haunting by the restless spirits of the dead, it was Marandur. “What could have created this wreckage?” Mari panted, worn out from mental strain and physical effort. “This much damage? It can’t all be due to Mechanic weaponry, though after so much time and neglect it’s hard to tell.”

Alain slumped down to a seated position, his back against a solid portion of the wall. “There were trolls employed. They are awful creatures. And dragons. The destructive power of Imperial ballistae and catapults cannot be ignored, either.”

“I’m not happy to be here now, but I’m sure glad I wasn’t here then.” Mari sat next to him, putting one arm around Alain again, staring into the dark ruins. A little light from the Imperial watchtowers came through the break in the wall, but it only served to illuminate enough of the old wreckage to emphasize their spookiness. “Alain.”

“Yes, Mari?”

“I want you to be honest with me. Do Mages know anything about ghosts?”

“Ghosts?” She couldn’t see his expression in the dark. “Mages are taught that this world is a dream, Mari. When we die, my elders said, we go on to another dream. Ghosts are but the memory of those who have gone on.”

“So…are you saying they do exist? Or they don’t?”

Alain sat quiet for a minute. His breathing was steadying, but he still sounded worn out. “You know Mages can change the illusion if they believe they can. As far as I know, even memories can appear to live if one believes hard enough.”

She shivered, even though the wall behind them blocked the breeze from the north. “Are they dangerous?”

“Not unless you believe they are.”

“Blast it, Mage!” Mari hissed. “I want you to reassure me! This isn’t something I can fix with a hammer or a slide rule!”

“Oh.” It was somewhat comforting to be able to hear the regret in Alain’s voice. His outward emotions were displaying more clearly the longer he was with her. “I did not understand,” Alain explained. “The dead cannot harm us, Mari, unless we give them the power to do so. Then they act out their worst impulses through us, guiding us to do things which hurt ourselves and others. This is not Mage teachings. It is the lesson of the history I have read.”

Somehow that wasn’t as calming as she had hoped for. “I for one have no intention of letting the dead force me to do things that hurt us. We can’t move through this debris at night. It would be too dangerous. We’ll have to wait until daylight.”

He nodded, the gesture betraying how tired Alain was. “Resting would be wise in any case, I think. We will need our strength.”

Mari rested her head on Alain’s shoulder and tried to sleep, but the slightest sound would jerk her awake. She knew the ruins had to be home to many wild creatures, from mice up to feral dogs, but that didn’t make it any easier on her nerves when she heard a pebble roll somewhere or the soft pattering of tiny feet. When she finally fell asleep for a while, she did so with one arm around Alain and one hand on the grip of her pistol.