The Dragons of Dorcastle (40 page)

“Are you really?” Mari asked, her eyes searching his. “Stars above, you are. I’ve messed up everything.”

She seemed to need some praise, some commendation to make her feel better. Alain, who had been taught as an acolyte never to say nice things, cast around for anything, saying whatever he could think of. “You do not mess up all things. You have defeated the dragons of Dorcastle.” She almost smiled. He could see it. What else to say? Discuss her abilities, just as if she were a fellow Mage. “You are a very dangerous person, Master Mechanic Mari.”

Mari finally turned a sad smile on him. “Maybe I’m more dangerous than I ever realized. I never thought of myself as the sort of girl who could ruin a guy’s life. Didn’t anyone ever warn you that girls can be dangerous, Alain?”

“I have often been warned lately how dangerous girl Mechanics can be.”

“You’re dangerous, too. In all the good ways and all the bad ways.” She shook her head. “Alain, we’re talking about a relationship that endangers your life.”

“It endangers yours as well. That is more important.”

“No, it isn’t.” Mari covered her face with both hands. “I really have to think. Not here. Not now. Alain, you need to get back to your Guild Hall so you don’t get tied into this, and I need to call my Guild Hall so they can get some Mechanics down here to take over what’s left of the warehouse. There’s no telling what Mechanic devices might have survived the explosion.”

“And your fellow Mechanics will get to see the dragon,” Alain added, still desperately trying to make her feel better.

“Yeah.” Mari managed another smile. “Those Dark Mechanics were pretending to be dragons, and an actual dragon came in and whomped them. How’s that for poetic justice?” She sighed, reaching into her jacket. “Good thing I had this in a waterproof pack. I hope the shock of the boiler explosion didn’t break it. Um, you’re not seeing or hearing anything, all right?”

Alain nodded. “Yes, Mari.”

Bringing out a dark box as long as her lower arm, Mari held the box near her mouth, then spoke as if talking to someone. After waiting a while, she talked into the box again. Finally Alain heard the faint sound of someone answering her, as if that person was in the box but also far away. Mari and the box voice talked for a while, then she put the box away. “That’s it, my…Alain. You need to be gone before the other Mechanics get here.” She sounded very weary as well as sad now.

“How will I know you are safe? If I see someone coming, how will I know they are your friends?”

She thought about that. “Go somewhere where you can see me. I’ll stay here. If I see the people I expect to see, I’ll wave. So when you see that wave, you’ll know everything’s fine.”

“I will do as you say.” Alain felt a terrible reluctance to leave, overpowered by emotions he had forgotten how to deal with, or never learned to deal with. For a moment, Mari’s status as the daughter of the prophecy meant nothing. For a moment, only she mattered. “Mari, I did not know that I could ever feel like—”

“
Don’t
, Alain.
Please
.” She saw his face. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ve been so selfish. I wanted you around because I trust you and because you make me happy and now…”

“I make you happy?” Alain asked, unable to believe what he had heard.

“We can’t— Yes.”

Alain hesitated. “You do not seem happy.”

“I’m unhappy because you make me happy,” Mari sighed. “If I wasn’t so glad to be around you I wouldn’t be so upset.”

“I do not understand.”

“For once, I don’t blame you,” she said. “I feel very confused, too. I need a little time, Alain. You need…you need some girl who can fly on a giant bird with you.”

“Why cannot you be that girl?” he asked.

“Firstly, because I think it’s impossible for a bird that big to actually fly, and I can prove it using equations, and secondly, because your fellow Mages will kill me. After they kill you.” Mari made a confused gesture. “This is just like me. I can’t fall in love with some regular guy, a Mechanic or even a common. I have to fall in love with a Mage. But sometimes love means giving something up, Alain. And we may have to do that. I need to think and I need to see how my Guild reacts to what’s happened tonight and what I learned. When I can talk, I’ll leave my Guild Hall and be somewhere on one of the walls. Can you still find me?”

Alain nodded, wondering why his insides felt so heavy. “Always.”

“Always.” She repeated the word softly, staring into his eyes, then took a deep breath. “We…we’ll talk. I promise. I have to… What am I going to do? I don’t know yet. I’ll be on the walls somewhere, in a day or so. Maybe three. I promise. Maybe by then…” Mari shook her head. “Tell your Guild that the dragon problem should be solved. That should make you look good, right? Now you’d better go. I don’t know how long it’ll take the other Mechanics to get here.”

“You will be safe?” he asked.

“I’ll be very careful,” Mari said. “I promise.”

He hesitated, looking at her, wanting to say more, but Mari bit her lip and shook her head again, and Alain turned and walked away, turmoil filling him. He walked fast, trying to outrun something even though he did not know what it was, until he reached a place where two adjacent warehouses left a shadowed gap between them. Alain went to the gap, sliding into the deeper darkness and gazing back at where Mari waited.

He finally had time to think. He had not worn his Mage robes, but he had been forced to use some spells. Someone in that warehouse might have seen enough to realize that Mari had a Mage working with her. Did Dark Mages know enough of the prophecy to realize what that would mean? Did the Mechanics Guild?

Mari stood on the deserted road, the dark of her Mechanics jacket blending into the raven of her hair and both matching the shadows so that she seemed to be fading into the night. Time passed slowly, but eventually Alain heard the sounds of numerous people approaching through the otherwise silent area. Moments later, a group of Mechanics came into view, moving quickly.

Mari raised her arm and waved slowly and deliberately, holding her arm aloft an extra-long time before letting it fall.

He stayed a while longer, watching as the Mechanics reached Mari, waiting until the entire group headed back toward the ruins of the Dark Mechanic warehouse. As the last Mechanic vanished from sight, Alain pulled out his Mage robes, soaking wet inside his bag, and put on the dripping garment. It would dry on the long walk to the Mage Guild Hall, and the wetness and the cold might help distract from the strange sensations filling him.

Mari had said she loved him. Why had it made her sad? Alain knew emotions and relationships only as negatives, as distractions which his elders had sought to drive from the spirits of every acolyte, the greatest error any Mage could fall into. But even though he felt terrible right now, he also felt a remarkable sense of joy. Love was very bizarre.

Alain paused in the street, held his hand before him, and concentrated. Intense heat flared above his palm. When its power had peaked he sent the ball of fire high above to vanish into the sky over Dorcastle.
Is this strange feeling actually love? I believe that it is. But I have not lost my powers. I feel instead strength beyond anything that I had before. What road is this I have found?

How can I do what is right to protect the daughter of the prophecy, to stop the storm, if all I can think of is Mari?

He struck off for the Mage Guild Hall through a night which seemed darker than before, wondering how he would explain knowing that the dragons of Dorcastle had been vanquished.

By the time the next morning that Alain found himself standing before another Inquiry, he still had not come up with a good explanation. He could not make out the shadowed faces of the three Mage elders, but he was certain the old female Mage was not among their number.

“We have confirmed your report that the Mechanics were involved in this dragon incident, Mage Alain,” one of the elders said in a voice that held no warmth, no approval or gratitude, just the emotionless tones of a Mage.

A second elder spoke, her voice actually emptier of feeling than that of the first elder. “How did you learn of this?”

“I was at the inner harbor last night, having spent much time in meditation.” If he was going to make up a story, it might as well be one that cast him in a good light. “I saw Mechanics fighting among each other, and thought more knowledge of this incident would be important to the Mage Guild. I used a concealment spell to move among them and saw one of their creations which could have done the damage lately attributed to dragons.”

“How fortunate that you were in the proper place to do this,” the third elder said dispassionately. “Were you in the company of a female that night, Mage Alain?”

Alain paused. “A common.–She—”

“You were in the company of this same female through much of the day.”

Had they been watching him? Or was it a guess? He had best assume they knew. “Yes.”

“You wore the clothes of a common, Mage Alain. Why?”

They had been watching him. But he still had an acceptable explanation to offer. “I desired physical companionship, the company of a female.”

“We do not doubt that part of your story, Mage Alain.” The elders spoke very quietly among each other, so that Alain could not hear, then the first addressed him again. “Physical needs can distract from wisdom, especially in young male Mages. We know this. The Guild accepts that Mages must find means to satisfy physical distractions. But we also know that this female common resembled the Mechanic you were with in the desert and in Dorcastle.”

They knew a great deal more than he had expected. Alain’s attempts to fabricate a story were diverted by speculations about how badly he might be punished. About whether he would leave this room alive. It surprised him not at all that the overriding worry in his mind was not fear over his own possible death but rather fear that he might not be able to tell Mari what had happened to him. What if she thought he had lied, had decided to walk away from her? “The female did resemble the Mechanic,” Alain finally said.

“Do you desire that Mechanic, Mage Alain?”

Lie. Lie better than he ever had before, or see himself dead before this day ended. “No.” Had the single word been as emotionless as it sounded to him? “She is a Mechanic.”

“Exactly. A shadow, an enemy of our Guild, a creature who no doubt seeks to destroy your powers. Do you understand this, Mage Alain? You have sought a taste of that which is forbidden, using a female common as your vessel. In one so young such behavior will occur, but it must not occur again. It could lead you into the arms of the Mechanic herself, and if once she ensnares you then you will never be free again, and your powers will dwindle to ashes. Do you understand?”

Alain fought to keep elation from showing. The elders had misinterpreted what they had seen. “This one understands.”

“And the Dark Mages?” one of the elders asked. “You saw their dragon?”

“Yes, elder. Its remains were in the warehouse used by the Mechanics.”

One of the elders let some glee into his voice. “A perfect opportunity. We will tell all that the dragon was used by our Guild to halt the schemes of the Mechanics.” The other elders made noises of agreement.

The woman’s voice held no hint of feeling as she once again addressed Alain, though. “You saw the devices of the Mechanics?”

“I did.”

“You say you understood them?”

“No, elder.” At least this did not call for a lie. “I saw items which resembled the claws of dragons. But the other Mechanic devices I could not understand at all.”

“You studied these devices?” another elder asked.

“No. They made noise. They created heat. That is all I know.”

“It is all any Mage needs to know,” the elder declared. “The Mechanic tricks might have harmed you, but in that at least you acted wisely by avoiding them. Despite your errors, your service to the Guild has been valuable, Mage Alain. But an issue remains.”

He waited, trying to reveal nothing.

“You have been about Mechanics often of late. You have revealed a fascination with one of their females. Our inquiries show that this female may be young, but she is still very dangerous.”

It felt strange to hear the elder using the same words which Alain had employed last night, but not with the intent of praising Mari. Alain confined himself to a nod, not sure what his voice might reveal.

“You are to inform your elders immediately,” the elder continued, “if this Mechanic attempts to attach herself to you again, or if you see her even at a distance. If she proves to be a danger to our Guild, if she once again seeks you out, then she will be eliminated as a warning to the Mechanics. They will have no proof, but they will know who did this thing.”

Alain surprised himself, his voice sounding so very, very unemotional as he heard a conditional death sentence uttered against Mari. “This one understands.”

“Mage Alain,” the third elder said. “The Guild will not tolerate dangers to it, in any form. No Mage must tolerate the presence of a Mechanic. Do you understand?”

“This one understands.” That had been a direct warning to him, and perhaps a veiled reference to the prophecy. Obey, or else. Stay away from Mechanics, or else. He remembered one night a few years ago, a rebellious acolyte driven past endurance who had tried attacking an elder, long knives flashing in the night, another elder warning Alain:
“All enemies of the Mage Guild must be dealt with.”
But now he feared for himself less than he did for Mari.

“You are dismissed.”

Alain walked from the room, part of him noticing with some surprise that his gait was steady despite the tremors he felt inside.
They will kill her if they see her with me. Even if they do not realize she is the daughter. They cannot know that yet, or I would not have left that room alive. But if we are seen together again, they will suspect, and if they suspect then they will kill her. Mari was right. I must leave her. Not to protect myself, but to protect her. She cannot bring about the new day, she cannot stop the storm, if she dies. No matter what pain it brings me, I must ensure Master Mechanic Mari is safe. And the only way to do that is not to be anywhere near her until my Guild ceases to watch me.