Jack Campbell: The Hidden Masters of Marandur

“I am certain that you will think of some new ones.”

“That’s right. It’s good to know that you have such confidence in me.” Mari smiled wearily. “Thanks for the food. I need to get back to work.”

“I will be back with dinner.”

Mari did not answer. She was already absorbed in the text in front of her. Alain watched her for a moment, wondering what secrets she would find, just what weapons and other devices might be hidden in those old texts. The possibility of change seemed to be filling the air around them, but he felt the tug of urgency again. “Mari?”

She looked up, blinking at him as if having to refocus on the world around her. “What?”

“Are these the tools your elder spoke of?”

“My elder? Oh. You mean Professor S’san.” Mari grimaced, thinking. “Yes. I think so. But Alain, I can’t just walk out of here, wave a magic wand, and have these, uh, tools appear for use. It will take time and resources and trained Mechanics and lots of other things.”

“How much time?” Alain asked.

“I don’t know. I truly don’t.” She looked down at the open book before her. “All we can do is hope it won’t be longer than we have before that chaos storm hits.”

Two small stacks of books and papers rested on the table where Mari had spent the last couple of weeks. Her entire body was weary, eyes aching, head pounding from all the reading of faded texts for hour after hour, day after day. She gestured toward them. “That’s it. I don’t know how I managed to winnow it down to that.”

Alain, tired himself from days spent on watch in the hallway, judged the stacks and nodded. “I have asked the masters of the university. They have said they can make watertight parcels to hold these, so even if our packs are wetted again the documents you have chosen will remain safe.”

“Alain, you’re a lifesaver.” Mari smiled crookedly. “Usually literally saving my life, but you know what I mean in this case.”

“You have saved mine a few times.” Alain sat down. “Where do we take these? Back to your elder in Severun?”

“No,” she answered with a yawn. “Even if my Guild hasn’t yet arrested Professor S’san, they’ll have her under a tight watch by now. No, we’re going to Altis.”

“Altis? Why a city on an island far to the west?”

“This is why.” She took the top book off of her stack and opened it. “I told you the texts down here didn’t have history in them. Nothing to explain where the technology in them came from, or why it was suppressed to begin with. Nothing to explain where we came from, for that matter. Alain, I’ll be nineteen soon. Only nineteen. I’m not qualified to decide what’s right for the world when I don’t know who made these other decisions and why. I’m pretty sure my Guild is just about power and wealth, but what if there was something else behind the way the world is now, some awful event or crisis that people thought could only be solved by having something like the Great Guilds controlling everything? Before I start making changes to a machine, I need to know why it was designed the way it was to begin with, what its purpose is. That’s the only way I can know all of the changes that need to be made.”

Mari paused, distress visible. “And if what I’m going to do is going to cause more death, more people having to fight and…and kill, then I need to have a better idea of what to do. I have no right to start…a war…if I don’t know that no alternative exists.”

“That storm approaches,” Alain said. “War will come, regardless of what you do.”

“Then I will try to make sure it’s the right war being fought for the right reasons with the right goals!” She laid the book she held in front of Alain. “Look. Somebody took a lot of notes in this one. See this drawing?”

He studied the sketch in one margin. “It is a tower of some kind.”

“Yes. A big tower. I think these are supposed to be people standing near it. And right here it says The tower on Altis, where records of all things are kept . Altis is the name of the island as well as the city, Alain. I checked with the masters of the university. They have some ancient texts of their own that mention in a couple of places the same tower somewhere on that island, though they give only vague clues as to its purpose. It was a really old tower even then, though. The professors here don’t know who lived in the tower or what they did, but they thought the hints they had pointed to some kind of record-keepers, so that fits. Maybe whoever kept all of those records is still there. Maybe it’s abandoned or in ruins, but some records might still remain intact, even if they’re just pictures on a ruined wall.”

Alain looked at the drawing again. “You wish to go to Altis to try to find the reasons for what the Mechanics Guild did long ago.”

“Yes. Why was this technology suppressed? Was there a good reason? Maybe the people in that tower also have some answers to that question of yours about where we came from. Maybe they can point to a star our ancestors called home. All of our ancestors, not just the Mechanics. We need to get those answers as soon as we can. If they exist.” Mari smiled at him, then winced and massaged her aching head with both hands. “It won’t be easy, getting to Altis. Getting out of Marandur alive isn’t going to be simple, and then we’ll have to get out of the Empire without any of the emperor’s goons figuring out we’ve been to Marandur. My Guild and your Guild are going to be looking for us. If the Great Guilds have heard anything linking me to that prophecy, they’ve probably been going crazy trying to figure out where we disappeared to. The Dark Mechanics surely want me silenced for good now. Did I leave out anyone?”

“Dark Mages,” Alain suggested. “I do not know of any reason they would want to capture or kill us, but they could always be hired by someone who did.”

“Fair enough. At least we’re running out of really powerful groups who can become new enemies or want to kill me on sight.” Mari wondered when she had started being able to joke about something like that. “Anyway, I need to see what’s at Altis. If those old Mechanics had a good reason for what they did, I need to know before I unleash some of this stuff. Before I start changing things.”

“Mari.” Alain pointed upward. “The rooms above us are warm even though a winter storm rages outside.”

“It does? The storm?” Mari blinked, and her sudden apprehension faded. “Oh. Just a regular storm. I need to get some fresh air. I think I’ve been in this basement too long.”

“The point is, you have already set changes in motion. You have begun to fulfill the prophecy.”

Mari yawned again. “Bringing about the new day that will save the world, after I overthrow the Great Guilds for my great-great-however-many-times-grandmother Jules? Yeah, sure. You just keep believing in that. I’m afraid you have to do the believing for both of us.”

“I can do that. Am I not in Marandur with you?” Alain asked. “Am I not going to Altis with you?”

“I hoped you would, but I don’t have any right to assume you’ll just keep walking with me from danger to danger,” Mari said. “I’ve asked so much of you already.”

“I will stay with you,” Alain said. “I will protect and assist you, because it is you, and because I too wish you to succeed. Besides,” he added, “you have also promised me someday a night I will never forget. I would like to be there when you feel that night has come.”

“Oh, please,” Mari scoffed. “I’m sure there are plenty of courtesans in Palandur who could show you a whole lot better time than I could.”