The Assassins of Altis E-Book

Jack Campbell

• Herausgeber: JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: The Pillars of Reality
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 579

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Trapped within the dead city of Marandur, Master Mechanic Mari and Mage Alain must escape both merciless barbarians and the pitiless Imperial Legion. Beyond those dangers lie the mightiest and most unforgiving powers in the world of Dematr: the Great Guilds that rule the world with iron fists. Mari's Mechanics Guild and Alain's Mage Guild have always been enemies, but they are united in wanting to kill their rogue members before Mari can fulfill the ancient prophecy of being the one who will finally overthrow their power. Mari and Alain must risk those dangers because halfway across their world lies a place where truth has long been hidden. A place that could explain why their world's history begins abruptly, with no hints of what came before. A place where they might learn how the Mechanics Guild came to control all technology and how the Mages manage to alter reality temporarily. A place that might tell them how to achieve a task that appears to be impossible. Never before have a Mage and a Mechanic worked together, and their combined talents offer their only hope. But she and Alain must first survive the deadly and implacable Assassins of Altis.

Leseprobe

The Assassins of Altis

Copyright © 2015 by John G. HemryAll rights reserved.

Published as an ebook in 2015 by JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.

Originally published as an Audible Original in July 2015.

Cover art by Dominick Saponaro.

ISBN 978-1-62567-134-9

ALSO BY JACK CAMPBELL

THE PILLARS OF REALITY

The Dragons of Dorcastle*

The Hidden Masters of Marandur*

The Assassins of Altis*

The Pirates of Pacta Servanda*

The Servants of the Storm*

The Wrath of the Great Guilds*

THE LEGACY OF DRAGONS

Daughter of Dragons*

Blood of Dragons*

Destiny of Dragons*

THE LOST FLEET

Dauntless

Fearless

Courageous

Valiant

Relentless

Victorious

THE LOST FLEET: BEYOND THE FRONTIER

Dreadnaught

Invincible

Guardian

Steadfast

Leviathan

THE LOST STARS

Tarnished Knight

Perilous Shield

Imperfect Sword

THE GENESIS FLEET

Vanguard

Ascendant

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

Ad Astra*

Borrowed Time*

Swords and Saddles*

STANDALONE NOVELS

The Last Full Measure*

* available as a Jabberwocky ebook

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Also by Jack Campbell

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

To

my son James

For S, as always

Acknowledgments

I remain indebted to my agents, Joshua Bilmes and Eddie Schneider, for their long standing support, ever-inspired suggestions and assistance, as well as to Krystyna Lopez and Lisa Rodgers for their work on foreign sales and print editions. Thanks also to Catherine Asaro, Robert Chase, Carolyn Ives Gilman, J.G. (Huck) Huckenpohler, Simcha Kuritzky, Michael LaViolette, Aly Parsons, Bud Sparhawk and Constance A. Warner for their suggestions, comments and recommendations.

Chapter One

The city of Marandur had died more than one hundred and fifty years ago, when the old Imperial capital became a battlefield between rebels and legionaries. No mercy was shown. The city had been crushed between two implacable armies, its many buildings torn and shattered, and when victory was declared the legions withdrew on the orders of their Emperor, leaving the ruined city and its countless dead to disintegrate as a monument to the price of rebellion.

From that time until now, the penalty for entering Marandur had been death. From that time until now, the legions had stood guard outside the city to keep anyone from entering and anyone from leaving, for some survivors of the siege had been trapped in Marandur, their descendants forced to endure life in a city where everything had become monstrous and foreign.

But someone had entered the city not long ago, and now they were about to try to leave it. If they did not succeed, every city would soon share the fate of Marandur, and countless men, women, and children would die in the ruin of everything humans had built on the world of Dematr.

Mage Alain of Ihris stood next to a small gate set into the back wall of the University of Marandur in Marandur. Outside, the ruins of the dead city awaited, along with the threat of the brutish barbarians descended from those few rebels not slain by the vengeful Imperial legions. Beyond the barbarians and the broken wall of the city, Imperial watch towers enforced the quarantine of the old Imperial capital.

If they made it past those obstacles, all that would be left to worry about would be the most powerful forces in Dematr, all of which wanted Alain and his companion either captured or dead.

Master Mechanic Mari stood only a lance length away from Alain, holding a last conversation with the masters of the University and the students Mari had worked with. She had taught Mechanic skills to common folk her Guild claimed were incapable of learning such things, not only giving away Mechanics Guild secrets but undermining the primary justification for its control of all technology. If Mari had not already been marked for arrest by the Mechanics Guild, that act alone would have condemned her.

Snow swirled lightly across a sky the gray color of the metal in the Mechanic pistol Mari always carried under her coat. Alain settled the pack on his shoulders more comfortably and checked the long knife he wore as Mari came up to him with a nervous smile. Like Alain, she wore the trousers, boots, shirt and coat of a common person, her black Mechanics jacket once again concealed in her pack, just as Alain’s Mage robes were hidden within his. “Are you ready?” she asked.

“Yes.” Alain started to walk toward the gate.

Mari flung out one hand to stop him and gave Alain a cross look. She turned to the scholars of the university. “My thanks again for granting us refuge when we were pursued, and for aiding me in other ways whose value I really can’t exaggerate. Because you’ve maintained some order and civilization in the midst of a city that otherwise knows only death and decay, there may be hope for everyone.”

The university students and professors all bowed toward Mari and Alain in response. “It is we who owe thanks to the both of you,” replied Professor Wren, the current headmaster of the university. “You brought the first news of the outside world to us since the city was sealed off by order of Emperor Palan over a century and a half ago. You, Master Mechanic Mari, have made our heating system work again, and trained our students to keep it working. If the thanks of those declared dead by order of the Emperor mean anything, you have ours.”

Mari shook her head. “I can’t make any promises, but if we can figure out a way to get the current Emperor to reconsider your status, we’ll try.” She reached back to indicate her pack. “I’ll carry your petition to the Emperor with me until I find a way to deliver it to him.”

She glanced at Alain, and he read the meaning in her eyes. Assuming that we survive getting out of Marandur. And whatever happens after that.

“Are you sure you won’t let a large force of our students escort you to the walls?” Wren asked.

Mari and Alain once again exchanged glances, then both shook their heads. “A large group would have more chance of being spotted by the barbarians,” Mari explained. “If there is a fight, the Imperial sentries outside the walls will be alerted. Our best chance is to remain unnoticed by anyone.”

“Very well,” Wren said. “We do not know what you took from the materials we guarded for so long, but good luck in bringing them somewhere you can make use of them. The future of our world rides with you, daughter.”

Alain saw Mari flinch at the title. “I’ll…do my best,” she said.

Professor Wren gestured to the students guarding the gate. The heavy beam holding the gate shut was lifted, and the gate shoved open just enough to let Mari and Alain through. They both slipped through the gap, the gate being immediately pulled shut behind them.

They heard the faint sound of the beam being reset behind them as they set off across a wide, open area which had once been part of a park surrounding the walls of the university. Now it was kept clear, burned and cut by the survivors inside the university to prevent any of the savages outside from approaching the walls unseen. The open area ended not far off in the ruins of the city proper, but for now they just had to slog through the dry, brown stalks of dead grass while snow continued to fall in a filmy white veil which helped conceal them as well as the devastation of the ruins ahead.

“It looks like they were right about another storm coming,” Mari said in a quiet voice that would not carry far. “Too bad we couldn’t wait until it hit fully before we left.”

“The university’s inhabitants feared snow drifts would block the gates,” Alain reminded her, “and make the ruins more treacherous than usual by concealing dangerous areas. We must try to reach the city wall before the storm strikes, then use the cover of the storm to escape past the Imperial guard towers.”

Alain searched the ruins ahead of them while they walked. As he and Mari had discovered after getting into the city, the barbarians had proven very good at hiding in the tumbled wreckage of their ancestors’ city. “I see no warning of danger,” he said to Mari.

“I wish that foresight of yours was reliable,” Mari remarked, immediately afterwards giving him an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

He looked at her for a moment. “It does not always provide warning. I too wish foresight was dependable. What did I do wrong earlier?”

“When? Oh, you mean when we were leaving? Alain, when you leave someone, especially people who did the things for us that those people did, the polite thing to do is to say goodbye and farewell and all that kind of thing.”

“I will remember that,” Alain said. Having spent most of his life inside a Mage Guild Hall being taught that other people were only shadows cast upon the illusion of the world, shadows who did not matter in any way, Alain had learned nothing of what Mari called “social skills.”

“One step at a time, my Mage,” Mari said. “Just treat other people like you would me.” She sighed. “And do your best not to let anyone else know about the prophecy.”

“Everyone already knows about the prophecy,” Alain said.

“They don’t know that I’m supposed to be the daughter of Jules that the common folk have been waiting for for centuries to overthrow the Great Guilds!” Mari scowled at the snow before them. “I don’t believe it, but everyone else seems eager to. Why does everyone expect me to save the world?”

“You are not supposed to save the world alone,” Alain reminded her. “The prophecy says that the daugh— says that you will unite Mechanics, Mages, and common folk into one force to change the world.”

“Well, that ought to be easy enough,” Mari groused. “After all, it’s not like the Mechanics, the Mages, and the common folk don’t all hate each other with enough passion to melt high-grade steel.”

Alain puzzled over her words, though of course his expression did not reveal his confusion. Mage acolytes were taught, using the most severe forms of punishment, never to reveal emotion, and Alain retained much of that despite his time with Mari. “They all do hate each other.”

She sighed heavily. “That was sarcasm again, Alain. Thank you, though, for not calling me by that name. Everyone else is going to call me the daughter, but I need you to remember that I’m Mari.”

The wind was picking up, blowing the snow sideways and moaning through the ruins they had almost reached. Alain tried to smile reassuringly at Mari, a very difficult task since any kind of smile was hard for him. “You have already begun to change the world. You have a Mage following you.”

“You don’t count,” Mari said. “You’re in love with me.”

“And the common folk in the university, those we just left. And the soldiers of Alexdria and General Flyn.”

“Who will not last a day if the Great Guilds focus their attention on them!” Mari gestured at the blowing snow. “The longer we keep everyone else in the dark that I’m the— that person, the better. I need time, Alain. Maybe with enough time I’ll even figure out why everyone wants to follow me without knowing whether I’ll lead them off a cliff!” She scowled as the wind gusted. “The storm noise is going to make it harder for us to make out if those barbarians start whistling to call all of their friends after us again.”

“It will also make it harder for them to hear us.” Alain glanced up at the leaden sky. “The university masters do not believe that the barbarians maintain watch of the university very often, and when they do they usually watch the main gate on the other side of the university.”

“I’m still not sure I believe that,” Mari said.

“It is prudent not to assume our foes watch only one place, but I think what the university masters told us is likely, Mari. You saw how thin were the barbarians we encountered before we reached the university. Those creatures can barely survive in this city, and could not afford to have any of their numbers devoted to a task such as watching the university when that would not provide food.”

“I hope you’re right. I don’t want to run into them again. But assuming they’re not watching us is what we want to believe, and Professor S’san always warned me about assumptions that you want to believe. It’s too easy to accept them.” Mari shuddered, but not from the cold. “Alain…” Her hand went to her coat as if preparing to reach inside it, and lines of pain furrowed her brow. “I don’t know if I can…”

“You do not know if you can once again use your weapon against the barbarians?” Alain asked.

“Don’t!” Mari bit her lip. “I’m sorry. You sounded so emotionless when you said that, like it didn’t matter.”

“I am trying to put feelings into my voice again. You have said I am getting better at it.”

“Yes, you are, and I have no right to accuse you of not caring.” Mari swallowed, her expression miserable now. “I haven’t told you, but I am really, really scared of having to draw and fire this weapon at people again. I don’t want to…to…”

“Kill them.” Alain said it not because he did not understand her distress, but because he thought it must be said. “It happened. Not by our choice. You were forced to defend yourself. You know what your fate would have been in the hands of the barbarians.”

Mari shuddered again, more violently than the cold could account for. “I know.” She took a deep breath, her expression smoothing out. “I’ll handle it, Alain. I won’t let you down if you need me.”

“I never doubted that, my Lady Mechanic. I know how difficult those memories are for you. I have similar ones. As General Flyn told me, it is a hard thing to carry throughout a life.” Alain cast about for something to divert her attention from the pain those memories brought, finally remembering something which Mari had mentioned in passing a few days ago. “I forgot to say this earlier. Happy birthday. Is that how it is said?”

Mari gave him a startled look, then laughed softly. “Oh, yeah. I’d almost forgotten myself. I never dreamed that on my nineteenth birthday I’d be sneaking out of a ruined city on my way to try to change the world.”

“With a Mage,” Alain added.

“Right. I keep finding myself with you in very unpleasant circumstances.” Mari smiled wryly as she said that. “But having you along makes those circumstances endurable as well as survivable.” Her smile faded. “Alain, when I turned eighteen I was a Mechanic in good standing. I’d never met a Mage, and I had never questioned my loyalty to the Guild. Now I’m working against the leaders of my Guild and I’ve found out that I’m…that person in the prophecy. It’s been quite a year.” She glanced at him. “That’s not even counting how many times I almost got killed in the last year.”

“I have no gift for you,” Alain said.

“We could always count one of those times you saved my life. You know, on your eighteenth birthday I said the same thing about not having a gift, and you said some nonsense about how my being with you was the greatest gift you could imagine.”

“Yes,” Alain agreed. “You told me I must be easy to please.”

She gave him a sidelong glance. “You didn’t have to remember that. Well, as far as I’m concerned having you with me is the greatest gift anyone could wish for, and I know you won’t accuse me of being easy to please.”

“Because you are difficult,” Alain said.

“I never pretended otherwise, my Mage.” They reached the verge of the ruins and Mari paused next to a shattered wall rearing above their heads, then pulled him close and kissed Alain, holding the kiss a long time before breaking it. “I don’t know when we’ll have our next chance to do that. The other thing that’s happened since I was eighteen was falling in love with you, and yes, that is the greatest gift I’ve ever received.”

She cautiously leaned against the tottering wall while they caught their breath after the fast hike across the open area. “Alain, you need to promise me something. If I die while we’re trying to get out of this city or through the Imperial quarantine, you are to leave and find a place to hide your half of the banned Mechanics Guild texts. Then try to get in touch with Professor S’san or Mechanic Calu. If neither of them can be reached, try Mechanic Alli in Danalee.”

He felt a deeper chill inside at the thought of Mari dying. “I will not leave you. You never leave anyone behind, and I will not leave you.”

Mari gave him a thin-lipped, sad smile. “Alain, I’d never choose to leave you, either, but if I’m dead, I’ve already left you. The best thing you can do at that point is save yourself, because that’s what I would want. If you manage to get those texts to any of my friends, there might still be a chance to change the world, a chance to stop that storm of chaos that will destroy everything. Now promise me.”

Alain looked at her, fighting the emotions he still found unfamiliar and hard to control after so many years of training as a Mage to deny all feelings. The prophecy said that the daughter of Jules would overthrow the Great Guilds and change the world. It did not say that she would survive her victory. “Mari—”

Her face hardened, her voice unyielding. “Promise me, Alain. Promise you won’t throw away your life if I’m already dead.”

“If you die, then my life will mean nothing,” Alain replied miserably.

“Yes, it will! If you continue what I was trying to accomplish. If you love me you will want to finish what I was trying to do. Now promise.”

He finally nodded. “I promise that should you die I will try to bring these texts to safety and contact your friends.”

“Good. That applies if I’m captured, too. You’re not to try to rescue me.”

Alain frowned at her, upset enough that the emotion showed. “I will not promise that. If you are captured, I will try to free you.”

“Alain…”

“No.” He had gotten good enough at putting emotion into his words that his feelings on this must have been clear.

She gave him an aggravated glare, but must have been able to see that he would not bend on that. “Fine. Why did I get involved with a Mage?” Mari shifted her glare to the snow. “I know we’d agreed to go through the ruins because we’d be a lot harder for the barbarians to see than if we stuck to the relatively open ground along the river banks,” she said in an abrupt change of the subject. “Is that still a good idea? This snow is thickening fast.”

Alain squinted up at the sky again. “I think we would still be best going through the city. If this storm continues to worsen, we would catch its full fury on the exposed river banks, but in among the ruins those walls and buildings still standing will help break the worst of it.”

“Unless the storm breaks them first,” Mari observed acidly. As if on cue, a low rumble sounded somewhere in the distance, marking the collapse of one more long-abandoned building. “But you’re probably right. Once we start moving again, let’s not talk unless we absolutely have to so there’s less chance of those savages hearing us.”

She exhaled heavily, then kissed him again quickly. “I’m still unhappy you won’t promise to leave me if I’m captured, but I don’t want to go into danger mad at you. Just use your head, no matter what happens. I love you, my Mage.”

“I love you, my Mechanic,” Alain whispered in reply. It had taken a long time for him to be able say such a simple phrase, so alien was the concept of love to one taught the ways of Mages.

Alain followed as Mari moved cautiously among the wreckage cluttering what had once been a street through the city. Piles of debris blocked streets and other open areas, some dating to the fighting between rebels and Imperial legions a hundred and fifty years ago and some more recent, the result of slow disintegration of the ruins. Vacant buildings stood on all sides, their windows gaping on emptiness within, their walls and roofs broken in places large and small. Scattered everywhere were the remnants of ancient battle: broken and badly corroded armor and weapons and the white fragments of shattered bones from countless unburied bodies left behind after the legions withdrew. Most of the weapons were the swords, spears and crossbows used by common folk, but once in a while they glimpsed a broken Mechanic weapon like those Mari called rifles or pistols. The bone fragments, though, offered no clues as to who their owners had once been in life, whether rebels, legionaries, or helpless citizens caught in the fighting.

“I’d forgotten how very much I hate this place,” Mari mumbled just loudly enough for Alain to hear, unnerved enough to break her own rule.

He was deciding whether or not to reply when a black cloud seemed to drift across the street in front of them, then vanished. Alain’s hand went out to seize her shoulder while he breathed out a soft warning for silence. Mari stopped instantly, waiting while Alain peered into the gray-lit street ahead. Alain studied the area ahead of them, wishing he knew how to bring his foresight to work instead of hoping it would. But foresight was unreliable at the best of times, and now it offered no further signs. He brought his mouth close to Mari’s ear. “I saw a warning of danger ahead,” he murmured in a low voice. “We should go to the left or right some distance.”

Mari looked in those directions, both blocked by piles of debris, and shook her head at facing two equally bad choices. Alain watched as she did an odd ritual with her finger, pointing each way several times back and forth while muttering something under her breath. Whatever she was saying ended with her finger pointing right. Mari beckoned to Alain, then began moving that way even more cautiously.

Despite the danger, Alain felt an irrational glow of satisfaction that Mari did not question his foresight. Even many Mages regarded foresight with suspicion, though in their case mainly because it required an unwelcome personal connection to anyone the foresight offered warnings about. Mechanics simply dismissed it as fortune-telling.

But not his Mechanic. Mari believed in him.

The street to the right being blocked by rubble, they had to cut through the collapsed remains of what might have been a large store. The floor inside was covered with piles of rotting debris. Mari’s foot slipped and she fell sideways as some of the fragments turned under her. Alain grabbed at her arm, catching Mari just before she slid over a drop into a yawning pit which had been a basement. She stood still for a moment, then gave Alain a shaky smile. “Thanks,” she whispered.

They moved on in silence for a while, out back onto the rubble-strewn street, the falling snow helping to muffle the sound of their movement at the same time as it obscured dangerous spots beneath their feet and restricted their vision to all sides. After moving right for a while, Mari paused, looking around, then came close to Alain to whisper again, her breath a welcome warmth against his cheek. “I think I know this street. If the new Imperial capital of Palandur copied this part of Marandur, then if we take that street to our left we should be turning back to the southwest, heading directly for the city walls and moving parallel to the river.”

“Parallel?”

She gave him one of those looks again, the kind Mari used when he did not know something she thought everybody knew. “It’s basic geometry, Alain.”

“Geometry?”

“Alain, how can even a Mage possibly function without knowing any geometry?”

“Since I do not know what geometry is, I cannot answer that. I do function, though.”

“Yes, you do,” Mari admitted. They were very close together, the words they spoke barely audible to each other, the falling snow blocking out vision, as if they were alone inside a cocoon of white. “Parallel means…never mind. What I meant was if we go that way it will be the shortest route to the nearest section of the city walls and we won’t have to worry about running into the river.”

“I see. Why did you not say that before?”

Mari tensed, slapping one hand up to cover her face, then with a visible effort relaxed and lowered the hand. “Every time I start to feel superior to you I have to remind myself that you can do things I can’t even explain.” She pointed to the left and started off.

Alain nodded, following again as they traversed the new route, which was fairly clear until they reached a stretch where the fronts of several buildings had fallen into the street. As they struggled through the rubble, Alain heard a sudden intake of breath from Mari. Alarmed, he followed her gaze, to see that she was looking at the interior of one of the buildings which had lost its front.

Inside, the crumbling shapes of many human skeletons lay in rows, witness to ancient tragedy. Alain wondered who they had been. Citizens of the city who had taken shelter in the building only to be trapped and die, or who had been murdered by the rebels when they first took control of the city? Rebels, captured and executed by legionaries? Or legionaries, taken prisoner and killed, or perhaps badly wounded or killed in battle and taken here only to be forgotten?

Her face saddened, Mari turned away and continued moving carefully across the rubble.

It was hard to tell how much later it was that Mari stopped suddenly, crouching down. Alain went into a crouch, too, without asking why. It was strange, he thought, how good they had become at such things. Then Mari waved him up and pointed.

One of the rough paths made by the barbarians crossed their track just ahead. Alain studied it carefully, then leaned close to whisper in Mari’s ear. “Someone has traveled it recently enough to trample some of the snowfall. But it was long enough ago to allow the signs of their passage to be partly obscured by more snow.”

“Do we go ahead?” Mari whispered back.

“The path runs right across our route. If we do not cross it here, we will have to cross it somewhere else.”

She nodded reluctantly, one hand reaching toward her jacket, then lowering again. Mari moved ahead quickly, crossing the path in a rush.

Alain stayed right behind Mari, but as he watched her, watched where his feet were going and tried to watch the ruins around them through the concealing sheets of snow, Alain also felt for the power in this area. As in most parts of Marandur, the power here was fairly weak, and without that power to augment his own Alain could not alter what Mari called “reality” and which Mages knew to be an illusion that could be manipulated. The power available would have to do, though, so Alain prepared his mind for whatever spells might be needed.

They would have to be offensive spells. Bending light around himself and Mari to hide them would not work in this storm, where the blowing snow would reveal their location anyway. Alain resigned himself to having to use superheated balls of air which he could direct to any spot he could see, a very powerful spell but one which would drain his strength rapidly. He also drew out the long Mage knife he wore under his coat.

Mari had still not taken her weapon in hand as she crept forward. She paused, looking to all sides and listening for anyone coming, then beckoned to Alain and began moving ahead as quickly as she safely could.

Alain followed, but could not avoid letting a larger than usual gap form between him and Mari. Fortune created that gap, however, as it allowed Alain to see a shape rising out of an apparently solid pile of rubble immediately after Mari had passed it. The barbarian was too close to Mari to risk a fireball, so Alain swung the hilt of his Mage knife against the back of the man’s head.

Mari turned at the noise, staring at the barbarian sprawled at her feet. Then her eyes widened as they looked past Alain. He didn’t see her draw out her weapon, but suddenly it was in her hand as she aimed past him. Alain dove forward as the boom of the Mechanic weapon filled the battered street and something made a loud crack in the air over him. He scrambled up beside Mari, seeing another barbarian falling backwards, staggering like a drunkard but with a spreading red stain on his chest. As the wounded man fell, more shapes rose up behind him. Mari aimed again, but even though her finger quivered on the weapon she did not fire the pistol.

“Mari?” Alain asked.

“They’re not attacking,” Mari said, her voice strained.

Alain studied the dark shapes cautiously. “They are small.”

“Small?” Mari jerked, her expression reflecting sudden shock and horror. “Oh, Alain, they’re children. Stars above, what if I had shot again?”

“We have stumbled on a village. I would not assume that it is safe to ignore the children, but we should run if we do not want to kill them.”

“Where are all the other adults?” Mari’s weapon quested from side to side as she searched the falling snow for signs of further attack.

“Perhaps they are waiting in ambush where we would have gone if we had not cut to the right for a while.”

The shapes of the larger children were beginning to creep toward them cautiously. Mari grimaced. “Which means the other adults heard my shot and are probably racing this way right now.”

Chapter Two

Without another word she spun and started running toward the walls of Marandur, her pace reckless in the snow-covered rubble. Alain followed, only occasionally pausing to look back for any pursuers. They scrambled up and down piles of debris, moving hastily through the ruins. Mari cut left, weaving between fallen buildings, and Alain followed, guessing that she was trying to confuse anyone trying to follow.

A dark, menacing shape loomed up before them, causing Mari to swing to one side with a muffled cry and aim her weapon, but then she lowered it with a gasp of relief. “It’s a wrecked siege machine,” she whispered to Alain. He followed her past the crumbling remains of a large Imperial ballista, its outlines vague in the snow so that it seemed almost troll-like.

The snow was coming thicker now, and the sky had darkened as the afternoon drew on. With visibility getting worse by the moment, Mari had to slow down. Alain could hear her gasping for breath, and himself felt the strain of scrambling quickly through the hazardous obstacles after a long day already spent picking their way through the ruins. They struggled through a heavily damaged area where no buildings stood at all, just higher and lower piles of ruin, leaping across occasional gaps that were all that was left of the streets which had run between the buildings.

Mari had slowed to a stumbling walk, so Alain came up beside her. “Can you keep moving, or should we seek a hiding place?”

“They’re after us, Alain,” she wheezed. “If we stop, they’ll catch us.”

“I do not hear the whistling they use to signal each other, but I agree.”

“If they did whistle, at least we’d have some idea how close they are. How are you doing?” Mari asked him.

“Weary, but I can keep moving,” Alain assured her.

“Same here.” Mari was peering ahead. “On this side of the river, the distance from the university to the city wall shouldn’t be nearly as far as we had to come when we sneaked into the city. I have no idea how much distance we’ve covered so far, but it shouldn’t be much farther to the wall.”

Alain put his arm about Mari, supporting and comforting her as they struggled through another badly damaged area. That brought hope to Alain, since they knew some of the areas of worst damage were near the walls, where the rebels had made their initial stand once the walls were breached.

“Stars above, we made it,” Mari sobbed, as the high, thick stone walls which had formerly protected the city of Marandur rose out of the murkiness of the storm and the fading day. Great gaps were visible in the walls, places where Imperial siege machines, Mechanic weapons, and the spell creatures of Mages had broken the mighty stones and tumbled them inward upon the buildings they had once defended.

Mari slowed down, walking very cautiously toward the nearest break in the wall. She reached the wall and stopped completely, breathing heavily as she looked out through the jagged hole in the wall. Even through the thickly falling snow they could spot faint glows in the fields beyond: bonfires burning in front of and on the Imperial watch towers outside the city. “We have to wait here a while. It’s barely dark, and even with the snow I’d prefer waiting until later to sneak through those Imperial sentries.”

Alain nodded, breathing deeply himself. “We have been going very fast. I would like a chance to recover before we try getting past the legionaries. If we have need of spells, I will require my strength.”

“That makes it unanimous.” Mari sat down against the wall near the break, facing in toward the ruined city, her weapon cradled in both hands. She stared at it and closed her eyes. Then her expression took on a grim and reluctant determination and Mari opened her eyes again and lowered the weapon’s front so it rested ready to defend them. “It’s a tool,” she said, as much to herself as to him. “It can be used for bad purposes, or good purposes. I have to ensure that I only use it when I must, and only for the best of reasons. I wish I didn’t need it, but I do.”

Alain sat down beside her, peering into the swirling snow. “Your words are wise,” he told her. “I increasingly feel the same about my spells which can harm.” As nervous as he was about the barbarians tracking them to this spot, he was more worried now about trying to get past the Imperial sentries. “I am assuming there will be a Mage alarm set around this part of the city as well, just as there was where we came in on the northern side.”

“Yeah.” Mari sat silent for a moment. “Maybe the snow and the ruins muffled the sound of the one shot I fired back there and the Imperials didn’t hear it. I don’t see any sign that they’re more alert than usual. Do you sense any Mages anywhere near us?”

“No,” Alain said. “I sense no other Mages at all.”

“Why don’t you sound happy about that?”

“Because there should be some trace of Mages,” Alain explained. “The Imperials employ some Mages to help maintain their quarantine of Marandur. Why can I not sense any even at a distance now, as I did when we entered the city?”

She inhaled with a hiss of breath. “They’re hiding themselves just like you are?”

“I believe so. It would mean they are alert and prepared. The sound of your weapon may have carried far enough to warn them something is happening in the city. We must assume there may be a Mage, or more than one, not far distant. I must be very careful about using any spells at all, or our chance of discovery will become much greater.”

“Wonderful.” Mari sometimes used words when she appeared to mean the exact opposite, such as now. Alain could not think of anything about this situation which he would call wonderful. “If we’re lucky,” she continued, “the Imperials will hole up in their watch towers during the storm. If we’re unlucky, they’ll increase the number of patrols just in case someone’s trying to use the storm as cover to enter or leave the city. Maybe they heard enough noise from my one shot to alert the Mages, but if nothing else happens for a while they’ll relax again and decide the boom was something collapsing. Once it gets dark enough, we’ll find out just how alert the Imperials are tonight for people trying to sneak out of this city instead of trying to sneak into it.”

“Who would be fools enough to sneak into Marandur?” Alain asked. “Who would want to enter a dead city in ruins when the Emperor has decreed that anyone doing so must die themselves?”

Mari looked over at him and grinned despite the worry he could see in her. “You’re getting good at sarcasm, too. I hope I’m not creating a monster. And no, I don’t mean ‘creating a monster’ in the same way you Mages do.” She kept her voice just loud enough for Alain to hear, her eyes going back to searching the ruins for any signs of the barbarians. “But you’re right. Only fools would have done it.”

Mari sounded concerned and weary to Alain, so he moved a little closer, offering his shoulder, and she leaned against it with a happy sigh even though her weapon remained ready and her eyes alert. “But it was a good idea,” Mari continued. “With the technology in the banned Mechanic manuscripts we found, we can really change things. If we have enough time."

"And if we can reach the island of Altis," Alain said, "and find there the tower which is spoken of in those manuscripts. It will be a long journey, filled with many hazards. You are certain we must go to Altis?"

"Yes," Mari said without any hesitation. "The notes on that page of the manuscripts said records of 'all things' are kept in that tower. That note must have been written a long time ago, but old records are exactly what we need. Unless we can learn something about the history of our world, something about how it ended up the way it is, we won't know how to fix things. We have to go to Altis and find that tower, even if it is in ruins now, and learn what we can from any surviving records. People expect me to change the world, to make it better, but I can't fix something that big unless I know how it came to be broken."

"Then we must go to Altis." Alain could feel against his back the edges of the water-tight package in his own pack which held his share of the manuscripts. Mari had shown him some of the Mechanic documents, but he had understood none of them. He did know that Mari was convinced that these texts could change the world, and that was enough for Alain.

“You’re very quiet,” Mari whispered to him. The snow had kept falling, and was now coating them as well as the ruins. “Talk to me. It’s cold and I’m scared. What are you thinking about?”

“I was thinking that none of my fellow Mages would be able to understand what I am doing,” Alain admitted. “They, like me, were taught that the world we see is an illusion and that all people are but shadows on that illusion. We were told that the works of Mechanics were all tricks. They are obedient to the Mage Guild because that is drilled into us as young children. Yet here I am, having thrown off the discipline of my Guild, which seeks my death. I have decided that at least one other person is a thing of a great value, having fallen in love with that person despite my training to reject all feelings, and she moreover a Mechanic, member of a Guild which is the ancestral enemy of the Mage Guild. Other Mages would think me mad.”

In the gathering gloom, Alain sensed more than saw the smile on Mari’s face. “Maybe not every Mage. That old girlfriend of yours was trying to understand.”

“Mage Asha was never my girlfriend. Why do you keep calling her that?”

“Because I don’t believe you, my Mage,” Mari said. “But that’s okay. Asha felt like a good person trapped in a Mage’s teachings, just like you were before I met you and, uh, ‘ensnared’ you. She tried to help us back at Severun. I hope she’s all right.”

“Yes,” Alain agreed. “It would be…nice to have more friends, after so long being alone.”

Mari’s voice took on that slight edge it still sometimes did when talking about Asha. “Just as long as she doesn’t try to get too friendly with you.” She looked out over the dead city. “Alain, if we fail, if we can’t break the grip that your Guild and my Guild have on Dematr, the whole world could end up looking like this.”

“It will end up looking like this,” Alain said. “Within a few years at most. Uncontrolled wars, breakdown of the governments of the common folk, mobs, rioting, the same anarchy that has riven what once was the country of Tiae in the south. The efforts of our former Guilds to control the bedlam will only magnify the chaos, until the Guilds are swept away along with all else.”

“Unless…” Mari drew in a deep breath. “Unless the daughter of Jules stops it by overthrowing the Great Guilds first. Alain, why is it me? Jules died centuries ago. Who knows how many women descended from her have lived since then? And I don’t even believe that she’s actually my ancestor. Why me? Why now?”

“I do not know for certain,” Alain said. “I would say that it must be now, because no more time remains. And I would say it must be you, because there is no one else who could do it.”

“Neither of those conclusions is particularly comforting,” Mari grumbled.

They sat quietly then for a while, listening for trouble, watching for danger, as the darkness grew heavier along with the snowfall. The wind had calmed, and aside from the gentle hiss of the falling snow, nothing moved or made a noise. But Alain distrusted that sense of peace, wondering what moved silently beyond their very short range of vision.

Some pieces of rubble rattled not too far away, a tiny avalanche of debris that brought both Mari and Alain to full alertness. The heavily falling snow made it hard to tell exactly where the noise had come from. Mari stood up very slowly and carefully, trying not to make a sound, snow cascading from her as she rose. Alain waited until she was ready, then he did the same, snow showering off his body with a soft murmur. Perhaps it was just the nearest ruins shifting as they decay. Perhaps. A scraping sound came from somewhere close by, as if something had rubbed up against something else. But I do not believe it.

Alain put his mouth to Mari’s ear, speaking as quietly as he could. “They are out there. I am sure of it. We must go now.”

She nodded wordlessly, then lifted one foot, moved it slowly to the side, brought it down with great care, then slid a little ways along the wall. Alain followed, his eyes and ears straining for any more signs of their pursuers. A fight now would surely alert the Imperial watch towers.

Another rattle not far away. Alain thought it might have come from their left. Mari kept moving as soundlessly as possible, easing right with her back against the wall, almost to the nearest gap now where the wall had been breached long ago.

Alain clearly heard a foot come down in the snow, then the rasping of breath from more than one man. They are almost on top of us. He reached for Mari’s arm and pushed her toward the break in the wall, knowing that only speed could save them now.

Mari jumped, grabbing the edge of a huge, broken stone to steady herself, then vanishing around the corner. Alain leaped after her, hearing the rush of feet and the rattle of debris as their pursuers also abandoned any attempt at stealth. He made the corner, rounding it into the break just as hands grabbed at him. Alain lunged forward and down into the opening in the wall, trying to break the grip and found himself staring up at Mari, who had her Mechanic weapon in her hand and was swinging it like a club instead of firing it. He heard the thud of the weapon’s impact against something, then the hands on him let go and Mari was pulling Alain up and along. The ancient wall was thick here near its base. They had to skid across broken, massive stones slick with snow, not knowing in the murk how much farther they had to go. Then they suddenly dropped into darkness.

Alain had only a moment to feel the fear of the fall before they landed in a snow drift which had piled up on the outside of the walls. He and Mari staggered out of the drift, not knowing whether their foes would try to chase them beyond the city walls. They had not gone more than a short distance before they heard the unmistakable thumps of more bodies landing in the snow drift behind them.

“We’re trapped between two enemies,” Mari gasped. “If we move too slowly those barbarians will catch us, and if we run at the Imperial line they’ll see us or we’ll trip that Mage alarm you warned me about and—”

“That is what we must do,” Alain said as the answer came to him. “We must distract the Imperials, and we have to deal with the barbarians. Or let each side take care of the other for us.”

“What do you—?” Mari got it, her words sounding with sudden enthusiasm. “Use our two problems to cancel each other out? That’s some brilliant math for someone who doesn’t know geometry, my Mage.”

Alain pulled Mari close. “Hold tight to my cloak. Use both hands. And come along as fast as possible.”

Alain went straight ahead, walking as quickly as he could in the snow with Mari at his back. They could hear the sound of others behind them. Then Alain spotted the drifting strands which indicated a Mage alarm. Instead of trying to move the strands aside, Alain walked through them.

He walked a little farther, then paused as he felt a presence not too far distant. “There is a Mage near,” he breathed into Mari’s ear. He heard her muffled curse. “Release me, walk near, and drop flat and motionless when I say to.”

He felt her nod, then Mari was coming along beside him, her face grim. She knew he could not cast a spell now without the other Mage knowing and quickly finding him. But with the snow so heavy and the night aiding them, perhaps they would need no more invisibility.

Alain sensed the Mage coming closer. He or she would be moving with Imperial soldiers, thereby providing a rough picture of where the legionaries were. Then Alain heard the rustling sounds of someone forging through the snow behind them. He dropped, pulling Mari flat as well, and hurriedly brushed snow over her back and his own as best he could, waiting while the snow fell on them.

Someone blundered past them from behind. Alain did not dare move his head much, but he caught a glimpse of shaggy hair and a shapeless mass of rotting old garments before the barbarian moved on a little more without spotting Alain or Mari.

Moments later Alain heard noise from in front and saw the glow of torches through the snowfall. “Stay very still,” he murmured to Mari, his lips touching her ear. Already the snow had laid a thin, concealing layer over them both.

A long line of Imperial soldiers came tramping through the snow, one legionary in five holding a flaring torch aloft and the others with drawn swords. A second line came into view behind them almost immediately, these legionaries bearing crossbows. A yell of alarm sounded and the barbarian Alain had seen earlier came floundering through the snow, trying to make it back to the city. Alain heard the thump of crossbows firing, and the barbarian staggered, standing and swaying for a moment before falling face down in the snow less than a lance length from Alain, a crossbow bolt protruding from his back.

The Imperial soldiers were close enough together to have made it impossible for someone to get past them without being seen, but there were gaps between each legionary, and the soldiers were searching for foes on their feet, not expecting anyone to be concealed under the snow. Alain watched the legionaries coming, tensing in case he had to act, but the mound of snow forming over him and Mari as the heavy snow continued caused the closest legionaries to veer to either side to avoid the apparent drift. There were cries behind and to the side, then shouted orders. The Imperials broke into a trot, chasing the barbarians back to the city, intent on killing every one that they could. Legionaries searching for fleeing enemies before them paid little attention to the snow beneath as they swept past to either side of Alain and Mari, one so close his foot almost brushed against Alain.

Alain waited just a little longer, then staggered up, pulling Mari with him. “Now we walk.”

Her voice was chattering with cold. “Walk? Toward the Imperial watch towers?”

“Yes. The illusion we wish to create is that we are part of the legionary force. We are hard to see in the darkness and the snow, and we do not resemble the barbarians. Walk as if we belong here, Mari.”

“You’re the Mage.” Mari walked along with him, trudging through the snow but trying to look like she was in no hurry as she matched Alain’s pace. “Where’s that other one?”

“Not too far distant. I cannot tell if he seeks me.”

“Then link arms with me so we look like one of us is supporting the other.”

Alain did not ask why, putting his arm about her as they struggled through the snow toward the Imperial watch towers and the large fires burning between them.

The air grew brighter as they neared the Imperial beacons, Mari and Alain aiming between them as if walking toward a watch tower. Behind them, occasional shouts and metal-on-metal clangs told of combat, the barbarians and the Imperials busy with each other. Dim shapes materialized off to their left. “Hey!” someone called from what appeared to be a small group of legionaries. “You guys get nicked?”

Alain had held his breath at the first hail, but he suddenly understood Mari’s idea. In the limited visibility, the soldiers had guessed he and Mari were other soldiers returning from the small battle against the barbarians. But their retreat might have raised suspicions if it had not also appeared that one of them had been injured.

Mari called out a reply, her voice taking on a slightly different accent. “Yeah.”

“How many of them did you get so far?”

Mari did not hesitate before replying. “Ten that I know of.”

“Ha! Hope there’s some left for us! That’ll teach the dead to try to leave that pile of broken garbage. The healer’s in the tower you’re heading for.”

“Thanks.” The shapes of the Imperial soldiers dimmed and then vanished in the snow as the legionaries dashed toward the sound of fighting.

Mari changed their path to angle away from the tower, heading straight out from the city.

“Why did you sound different?” Alain asked as they struggled through the snow.

“My accent?” Mari said. “That legionnaire had a Centin accent. I learned about different Imperial accents from listening to commons when I was at the Mechanics Guild Academy in Palandur. I answered him back trying to sound like I was from Centin, too, because the Empire builds its legions with men and women from the same areas.”

They drew even with the towers, then began to leave them behind. Alain started to relax slightly, then felt his Mage senses tingle with sudden warning. He reached over, grabbed Mari and pulled her down flat into the snow once more. She lay next to him, not moving, waiting to find out why he had acted. Moments passed, the snow falling down to coat them once more with white. Alain could feel the cold biting into him, worse this time, but stayed motionless, his hand still on Mari to urge her to do the same.

Several more shapes came walking out of the storm, their outlines hard to make out as the snow swirled past. Alain could see the helmet plume of a high-ranking Imperial officer. Then he made out the unmistakable shape of Mage robes on one of the other figures. The group trudged past, not speaking among themselves, but just as they were starting to fade into the storm again the Mage stopped.

The Mage turned, peering in the direction of Alain and Mari. Alain did not dare make any preparations for a spell, since that would betray them instantly, but he heard Mari’s hand slide under her jacket to grasp her weapon.

The Imperial officer said something which Alain could not make out, the tones outwardly respectful but betraying the revulsion which commons felt toward Mages. The other Mage did not respond for a long moment. Then the Mage started walking again, not toward Alain but away, vanishing into the storm-driven gloom along with the soldiers.

Alain began breathing once more. He waited a few moments longer, then urged Mari up again.

Mari was shivering badly as she dusted packed snow off of her front. “I r-really h-hate th-this,” she whispered through chattering teeth. “D-did that M-mage s-sense you?”

“I do not know. We must put distance between ourselves and this place in case that Mage returns.” Alain ached to use his powers to warm the air around her, but doing so would instantly tell the other Mage where he was, so instead he took Mari’s arm again and together they walked steadily away from the line of watch towers. The flaming lights of the towers dimmed and then vanished in the storm, and no more noise of battle could be heard as they struggled through the deepening snow.

They crested a small rise and began going down the other side, then both stumbled into a small ditch lying across their path. Alain bent to look. “It is the side of a road.”

“A road.” Mari shook her head. “We can’t risk running into anyone on the road, not this close to Marandur.”

“No. They would surely arrest us on suspicion even if they did not kill us on sight.” Veering sharply to the left, they headed away from the road, staggering occasionally as they hit a deeper drift of snow. “We have been going hard since early this morning,” Alain managed to say, wondering whether he was supporting Mari or if she was supporting him as they trudged onward.“We need to rest.”

“Not until we find cover,” Mari got out between rapid, shallow breaths.

They went onward, Alain feeling exhausted and knowing that Mari was at least as tired. He looked back occasionally, still seeing no sign of pursuit, and noting with relief that their tracks were being filled in by the still-falling snow.

More shapes reared up out of the gloom, causing Mari and Alain to stagger with alarm. “Trees,” Mari said in a worn-out voice.

“If there is even a small group of trees here we can hide among them, allowing the snow to cover our tracks this far.”

“But we’re not that far from the city,” Mari insisted, her voice slurring with fatigue.

“Mari, if we keep walking, we will keep leaving traces of our movement. And we must rest.”

“All right,” she mumbled. They moved in among the trees, not able to make out the full extent of the woods in the limited visibility. It was a fair-sized grove, though. Mari came to a stop, swaying on her feet, where two trees growing close to each other had formed a natural break against the weather. Pulling their blankets out of their packs, they wrapped themselves up together, sharing the blankets and their warmth. Mari buried her head next to Alain, her breathing now deep and slightly ragged. “We made it. I think.”

“I think so, too.” Alain rested his own head near hers, enjoying the warmth of her breath. “But I am afraid tomorrow has come. Your birthday must be over now.”

“You forgot a cake for me, didn’t you? And you invited legionaries and barbarians to the party.”

“Regretfully, yes.” He waited a moment, then heard how even her breathing had become and realized Mari had fallen asleep. Alain stayed awake a little while longer, trying to listen for any sign of danger, but soon passed out from fatigue as well.

He awoke with the sun high in the sky to the distinctive sound of axes thunking into wood. Raising his head cautiously and staring around, Alain could tell the wood cutting wasn’t going on anywhere close by, even though the sound carried clearly in the clean, cold air. The snow had stopped, but the sky was still gray with leaden clouds. Mari was blinking awake beside him. “What is it?” she asked.

“I will check.” Disturbing the blankets as little as possible, Alain crept cautiously toward the sounds. Using the cover of the trees to screen himself as much as possible, he got fairly close before he managed to spot the woodcutting crew working away. But almost as soon as he saw them, a loud voice ordered the cutters to stop.

Gliding slightly closer, Alain could see an Imperial officer berating the man in charge of the woodcutters. The man was arguing back, his hands and arms moving in the exaggerated motions of vehement debate. Alain listened for a little while, then eased back into the woods and returned to Mari. “Woodcutters made the noise, but they were stopped by an Imperial officer who claims they are cutting too close to Marandur. The leader of the woodcutters is arguing that this patch of woods is outside of the Emperor’s ban and has been cut for ages. I saw a bribe pass to the officer, so the matter is probably resolved.”

Mari nodded wearily, running one hand through her hair in a futile attempt to comb it into decent order. “Not our problem, then?”

“Yes and no. The officer asked if the woodcutters had seen anyone heading away from the city. He reminded them of the reward for turning in anyone who tries to leave Marandur.”

She grimaced. “Then they know or suspect that we made it out.”