Jack Campbell - The Dragons of Dorcastle

“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.