Jack Campbell - The Dragons of Dorcastle

“Yes. The things that you learned may be useful again.”

“I hope not. I don’t want to run into any more dragons.”

His voice tensed. “There are many dangers you must face. Dragons may not be the worst of those. You know this.”

She shook her head, staring out the firing slit again. “You could be a little more comforting. I don’t know nearly enough, Alain. So many things are wrong. I have to do something, try to fix things. But I don’t know what to do.”

“You will learn.”

She laughed, the sound soft and bitter. “I can learn. But I will have to play by my Guild’s rules while I try to figure out what to do next. Blazes, Alain, how did I mess everything up so badly? I must be the biggest idiot that Dematr has ever seen. Thank you for not blaming me, but you’d probably be happier if we’d never met.”

“No. That is not so,” Alain said. “My world is brighter. Every shadow seems more real now.”

“You mean other people?” Mari asked. “Won’t that— Can you still do that spell stuff?”

“So far,” Alain assured her. “I do not know why. The thread that connects us gives me a new strength, a strength which I believe saved us in Ringhmon and perhaps here at Dorcastle. Wisdom says this cannot be.”

Mari exhaled heavily. “I’m beginning to suspect that a great deal of the wisdom you and I have been fed isn’t all that wise, though I can’t imagine how something that isn’t there can make you stronger.” She swallowed and looked away, not able to stand seeing him there, so close, knowing he would be gone soon. “You ought to go. Before we get caught, before somebody sees us together.”

“Be careful, Mari. You know the storm that threatens. I would not leave if it were not the best way to protect you for now. But even though the thread between us will fade with distance, even if it becomes too weak to sense at all, still I will find you again when the suspicions of my Guild have subsided.”

“What?” Mari glared at him through her tears. “I’m trying to say goodbye to you! Forever. Because otherwise you would be in too much danger. Don’t come looking for me. Don’t die because of me.”

Alain looked down, then back at her. “You are more important than I am.”

“ Don’t ever say that! It is not true! ”

“You know it is,” Alain replied.

“I don’t know any such thing,” Mari said, her voice still fierce. “Why do you keep saying things like that?”

“You know why. We both know why it must not be spoken of. Farewell, Master Mechanic Mari of Caer Lyn. Until next we meet.”

“No! Go away and stay safe! Farewell, Mage Alain of Ihris!” I love you. She heard him begin to move away, but kept her gaze fixed stubbornly out to sea.

Then he stopped. “Mari.”

“Get out of here, blast you! This is already too hard!”

“I see something.” She spun to look at him. “My foresight,” Alain continued, staring into the shadows of the turret. “You and I are on this wall, again, not inside this fortification, but along the parapet. Time has passed. A few years, I think. We are older, but not by much. It feels as if a great deal has happened. We stand side by side and a mighty battle rages around us.”

Mari looked into the darkness but saw nothing. “What else? What else is there?”

“We wear similar armbands of a strange design.” Alain blinked. “The vision is gone. The way we stood with each other spoke of much history between us. We…we stood together against the storm of battle,” he said, the last words coming out slowly.

Her heart seemed to pause, then beat rapidly. “What are you saying? That we’re certain to be together again?”

Alain shook his head. “There is no certainty. I saw myself in the vision as well as you. The vision is but a possibility, a chance that something may come to pass, should we make the decisions which lead to it. Should we both live long enough to reach that place and time.”

“What decisions? When?”

“I do not know.”

“ You don’t know? Oh, that’s just great !” Mari burst out angrily, then pointed an accusing finger at him. “I’m ready to break my heart and say goodbye forever to the only man I have ever loved, and then one of your blasted Mage spells shows up and tells me maybe something could happen if we both do the right things, but there’s no telling what those things are. Do I get that right?”

“Yes, but— ”

“Thanks for nothing!”

“Mari, it shows that we can survive that long. The chance exists, despite all perils. We were together, and you were still alive, still fighting. There is hope.”

“I don’t want to fight!” Mari said.

“But this vision tells us that our decision today is the right one,” Alain insisted. “It sets us on the path to that day.”

“To that battle?” Mari drew in a shuddering breath. “Who were we fighting?”

“The storm,” he replied, as if that answered everything.

“Fine. We were together. So I want that future, Mage Alain. A future with you.” She took a step closer to him, then managed to halt herself. “You were right, I guess. I will see you again. Someday. Somehow. You had better make the right decisions, do you hear me?”

He looked at her. “We will face many choices, any one of which made wrongly could bring an end to that possible future I saw. I will do my best. I also want that future with you, and you will have need of me in the new day you must bring to pass.”

“I already need you,” Mari said, “but I keep getting the feeling that you and I are talking about two different things sometimes. What new day? What storm?”

Was that a flash of puzzlement that appeared in Alain’s eyes? “But you said—” His voice broke off as Alain suddenly looked down and to one side, then over in another direction. “Mages approach. They seek me. They must not find you. I must go now to lead them away.”

“Alain, what—”

But he was moving, gliding silently through the shadows and out the gate, leaving Mari glaring at the empty shadows inside the turret.

You blasted Mage! Why do I keep thinking there is something you’re not telling me? No. It’s more like something you think I know, but I have no idea what it is. Fine. Right now I have to leave to keep you safe, so I’ll do that. But I will see you again, and we will be together, and I will find out what this “new” day stuff means, and I will fix the problems that I am finding, no matter what any of those things take, and no matter what I have to change.

I’ll change the whole world, if that’s what it takes.

Mari gazed once more at the chipped stone of the firing slit and felt a shiver run through her as she remembered Alain speaking of them being in a battle. She tore her eyes from the token of old wars and looked out over the harbor again, past the works of humans and on to the restless waters of the Sea of Bakre.

To the north, she could see storm clouds forming.