It frightened her worse than the troll had.
This time it was Alain who urged her back into motion. “Where are we going?” Alain got out as he also struggled for breath.
“The train station. We can’t risk the gates or the water with the Mages watching those ways, so we’re taking the blasted train.” She had to pause and inhale deeply several times. “It’s too blasted dangerous to stay in this city with the Mages out to kill us both. There’s a risk I’ll be recognized, but at least we won’t run into any trolls at the train station.”
“Assuming the Imperials kill this one before it finds us again.” They reeled to a halt as what looked like half a cohort of Imperial legionaries hauling a ballista came at quick-step down the street with a mounted officer urging them on. “But it seems the Imperials will make every effort to finish the creature,” Alain added as they crossed the street in the wake of the legionaries. “Enough hits from a siege machine will stagger even a troll.”
Behind those legionaries came the rest of the cohort, expressions grim. Mari wondered if they were going to battle the troll, or the mob of Imperial citizens.
Mari held onto Alain as she led the way, zigzagging through the streets while trying to keep a bearing on the Mechanic train station, looking back occasionally where the glow of the fires lit the night and echoes of fighting still resounded.
The waiting area for common folk at the Mechanic train station was uncomfortable at the best of times. Mari had sent Alain to buy two tickets to Landfall after coaching him on exactly what to say and how much money to give the apprentice occupying the ticket window. The Mage, who could walk through walls, foresee the future, and create heat out of nothing, had come back visibly proud of having successfully handled something that complicated.
They sat on hard, narrow seats in one corner of the waiting area, heads lowered as if they were sleeping while awaiting the departure of their train, which also served to keep Mari’s face partly concealed. As the morning wore on, more and more Imperial citizens waiting for the same train took seats, too, providing more cover for Mari when the occasional Mechanic sauntered through. Fortunately, as usual, the Mechanics made a point of ignoring the commons. Mari, who had often been annoyed when some of the Mechanics she was with flaunted such attitudes, now felt only gratitude for the arrogance which helped render her invisible.
“Will the Mechanic train run?” Mari heard one Imperial woman ask another. “The city council has closed the gates.”
“The Mechanics are not affected by the city council’s actions.” The second woman had the look of a high-ranking Imperial bureaucrat, her suit and accessories as precisely arranged and selected as if it were a uniform. “They will do what they want.”
“Arrogant and uncivilized,” the first woman complained. “What happened in the Gorgan District, anyway?”
Mari strained her ears to listen to the reply.
“Officially, no one is saying anything,” the Imperial bureaucrat replied. “But I’ve heard from those who’ve seen all the reports that it was an all-out fight between a large group of Mechanics and a large group of Mages. An absolute, pitched battle with Mechanic weapons and Mage spells ravaging the entire district. Four buildings were totally destroyed and several others damaged.”
“You’re not serious!” the first woman gasped. “In the heart of Palandur?”
“Gorgan isn’t exactly the heart of Palandur,” the second woman replied dryly. “Some of the buildings that burned should have been torn down years ago. Still, it’s pretty frightening, isn’t it? The city guard couldn’t handle it all, so they actually called out part of the city legion to deal with it. Some sort of Mage monster had to be destroyed. Imagine being caught in the middle of that. The fires still haven’t been completely extinguished.”
Mari sniffed cautiously, hoping no scent of smoke still clung to her, and tried to suppress a guilty feeling. It’s not my fault that buildings I’m in keep getting burned down. Well, the one in Ringhmon was my fault. But not these.
“What about the rioting?” the first woman asked.
“What rioting?”
The first woman paused, as if uncertain what to make of that question. “In Gorgan. There are rumors that hundreds have been injured, large numbers of stores and homes destroyed—”
“Imperial citizens do not riot,” the Imperial official said in a tone of voice that both warned and reprimanded. “Anything that happened in Gorgan involved Mages and Mechanics and no one else.”
Mari could almost hear the first woman gulp nervously before speaking again. “Of course. You’re right. Surely the Emperor’s not going to tolerate that behavior from the Great Guilds?” she said, hastily changing the subject back to the first topic. “Even from Mechanics and Mages?”
The second woman lowered her voice dramatically, but Mari could still hear. “He is reportedly very, very unhappy and has expressed that to the heads of both of the Great Guilds.”
“It’s about time! Those Mechanics think they’re better than the Emperor himself, I’m sure!”
The woman was in fact right about that, Mari thought to herself. But Mari wasn’t going to say that out loud. She leaned back and looked at Alain. “I guess we were the large group of Mechanics,” she murmured.
“I will try not to take offense at being mistaken for a Mechanic.” Alain gave her a glance. “What happened with the Mage you fought in the alley before I came down?”
Mari bit her lip, looking at the floor. “I shot him. I had to. He had a knife and he looked like he was getting ready to make a spell. But after I shot him he just lay there, hurt. I gave him something to control the bleeding and told him what to do. He should be all right if a healer gives him antibiotics.”
“In the middle of a battle you paused to give mercy to an enemy?”
“Yeah. I know. It wasn’t very smart.” She inhaled deeply, feeling the rawness in her throat from last night’s exertions. “But that’s who I am.”
“I am happy that you did that,” Alain said.
Despite her disquiet, Mari tried to bend a smile his way. “A Mage approving of an act of mercy? What’s the world coming to?”
“Perhaps something better, if the one who will bring the new day wields mercy as well as a weapon,” Alain said. “What of the other you shot at? Your weapon struck the lightning Mage?”
“I think so,” Mari said. “Either that or I scared the blazes out of that Mage.”
“The loss of that one would cause me no grief,” Alain admitted. “Especially if it was the same Mage who tried to kill me during the ambush of the Alexdrians on the northern plains. Asha did not lie to us.”
“You told me that at the time and I never doubted it. I hated leaving her behind. Did you get any look at all as we ran, to see what happened to her?”
Alain nodded. “As we began running, Mage Asha vanished from sight using the concealment spell. That would have made her presence obvious to other Mages, but hidden her from the troll since it had not fixed on her. She probably held the spell only until safely past the troll.”
“I wish we could have done that,” Mari said. “Do you have any idea who needed her help?”
“No. Perhaps the Mage you shot, though I do not know why that would concern her.” Alain paused. “It is all right to be concerned about Asha?”
“Alain!” Mari stared at him. “You really felt that you needed to ask that? I must have been awful.”