Jack Campbell: The Hidden Masters of Marandur

Mari nodded, trying her best to look calm as her worst suspicions were confirmed. “What about a lot of riders, or foot soldiers, getting ready to head south? Have you heard anything about that? It might have been kept secret.”

“Hah! Secret they can say, but it would be well known, Lady.” The stable owner spoke more freely as Mari listened attentively to his words. “There’s been nothing like that.”

“Ships? Do any of those go south?”

The stable owner pursed his lips in thought. “Not many. Not anymore. I remember when Tiae was whole, and commerce with them made a lot of people wealthy. Now only a very few ships poke around the southern coasts in search of some quick trade while they try to avoid pirates. There would be a great deal of gossip about any ship or ships heading south with a lot of soldiers. Everyone would have heard. No, Lady, no one in their right mind goes into Tiae, not unless they have an army with them.”

Mari nodded slowly. “Thank you.”

“Lady?” The stable owner stared at her, startled by the small and simple courtesy from a Mechanic. He hesitated as a restive mount was led out toward them by a stable-hand who was trying to hide a smile. “Hold on, there, Gazi. This Lady might prefer a steadier horse.”

Gazi the stablehand looked puzzled. “But we always give Mechanics—”

“Not this one. If you can wait but a little longer, Lady, I can get you a steadier mount.”

A short time later Mari settled into the saddle, grateful that the stable owner had provided a more sedate mount for her. Some people were natural riders. Mari wasn’t one of those people. She loved horses, but she had never been that good at riding them.

She headed out through the city streets toward the southern parts of Edinton, but as the crowds thickened Mari dismounted to lead her horse and make herself harder to spot amid the multitude, weaving on a crooked path that bore more west than south, bending gradually north. If there were Mages watching, then even invisible Mages would have trouble getting through the crowded streets Mari chose. Dark Mechanics should be equally hindered, as well as anyone sent by the Senior Mechanics of her own Guild to ensure that Mari went toward Minut. Glancing back quickly at irregular intervals, she didn’t spot anyone nearby trying to keep up with her.

Finally reaching the city wall, Mari paused at the entrance to an alley to remove her Mechanics jacket and stuff it into her pack, replacing it with a coat like those the commons wore. Then she remounted and rode out the nearest gate, heading northwest.

In the last several months, since her adventures in Dorcastle, she had learned a lot of things about surviving that weren’t taught at the Mechanics Guild Academy in Palandur. Mari had thought for a while that the way to survival followed a path of doing exactly as she was told, but that route hadn’t satisfied the Senior Mechanics, who seemed to view her every move as an act of possible rebellion. Now, continuing on that path of obedience would lead her to Tiae and near-certain death. I no longer have any choice. I’m not taking the Guild’s way any more, not until I find out what the blazes is going on. No. This is my way, and it doesn’t lead to Tiae.

She didn’t spot anyone obviously trailing her along the road, though the number of other travelers still provided plenty of cover for someone like that. Stopping before sunset at a tavern alongside the road, Mari led her horse to the watering troughs set out to attract travelers. As her horse drank, Mari listened to the commons talking around her. Anonymous without her Mechanics jacket, she heard the commons saying things they never would have spoken around a Mechanic.

“You’ve come lately from Julesport? Have they relaxed the curfew there yet?” one trader asked another.

The stout woman shrugged in response. “No. Officially, the curfew is still in effect. Ask me if the city is enforcing it, though.”

“But do you need to bribe the city watch to move around?” the questioner pressed.

“No,” the woman repeated. “It’s not being enforced, except around the Mechanics Guild Hall in Julesport. The city leaders have kept the curfew on the books, but only because the demon-spawn Mechanics have insisted on it.”

The traders and several other commons spat to one side at the mention of Mari’s Guild. Mari stayed silent and kept her face turned toward her horse to hide her reactions.

“Dematr would be a better place if every Mechanic died tomorrow,” someone growled.

But that caused the woman to shake her head. “We need what they have, blast them all. Imagine a world where every Mechanic device broke and could never be used again. And if the Mechanics were gone, who would be able to counteract the Mages? Who wants the Mages as undisputed rulers of Dematr?”

“Better both vanished then.”

“And how will that happen?” another traveler taunted.

“The daughter.” Tense silence fell as the one who had said that looked around cautiously. “Have you heard about Dorcastle?”

“I’ve heard rumors,” the woman trader admitted.

“Rumors? She was there. The Mechanics and Mages were fighting among themselves, grinding Dorcastle and the city’s people between them, and the daughter showed up and stopped them both.” He paused to bask in the attention his words gathered. “I heard from one who was at Dorcastle. He saw it. An entire warehouse reduced to ruin, a dead Mage dragon and a bunch of broken Mechanic devices inside, and a young woman seen leaving just as people came to see what had happened. The Mechanics showed up quickly enough to get rid of the evidence, but everyone in Dorcastle knows of it.”

“I’ve heard something the same,” another traveler admitted. “But that doesn’t prove the daughter did it, that she’s finally come.”

“Who else could have done such a thing? Defeated Mechanics and Mages? That’s the prophecy, isn’t it? The daughter of Jules will appear someday, and she will overthrow both of the Great Guilds and free us all. That young woman seen in Dorcastle slew a dragon . You ever seen a dragon?”

“Only at a great distance, and that still too close,” someone else said. “But I’ve heard of what happened at Dorcastle, and it’s the same as you said. A dead dragon and a whole mess of Mechanic devices shattered, and the Mechanics sealing off the place as soon as more of them got there. There was for certain something they didn’t want us knowing.”

Quiet fell for a moment, broken only by the wet noise of horses drinking at the troughs and the sounds of travelers passing on the nearby road.

“I won’t believe it,” the woman trader finally said in a low voice. “It would hurt too much to believe and then learn it was a false hope. But if she truly came at last to free us all, if my children could grow up without Mechanics and Mages lording it over them, that would be the greatest day ever seen.”

“Bless her wherever she is, and may she come soon,” another said, and the other commons murmured in agreement.

“It has to be soon,” one of the travelers muttered, her voice despairing. “The madness in Tiae is spreading.”

“Not into the Confederation—”

“No? There have been riots in Julesport and Debran.”

“And there was some kind of civil disturbance in Emdin that a legion had to be called in to suppress,” a man said. “Citizens of the Empire acting up! They haven’t done anything like that since the great revolt that destroyed Marandur over a century ago.”

“Some people went crazy in Larharbor last month,” a man said.

“I heard that, too. I heard that they killed a Mage before they died,” one of the other men said. “What would make people just snap like that?”