Mari smiled as if unconcerned. “All roads lead to Palandur.” She could see out of the corner of her eye that Alain was watching them without seeming to watch them. Mari studied Professor T’mos, trying to figure out his attitude toward her. They had been on good terms when she had been at the Mechanics Guild Academy, Mari thought, but only on a student/professor basis. T’mos had devoted considerable time to counseling her on proper ways for Mechanics to act. All in all, his attention to her had been a little suffocating, but Mari had liked him enough as a teacher to tolerate that.
Professor T’mos nodded again, his mouth working as he thought. “Have you come to Palandur to report to Guild Headquarters?” he finally asked.
“I wasn’t planning on that, no.”
“Maybe I should be clearer.” T’mos took on the same attitude she remembered so clearly; the wise, mature professor speaking to the inexperienced young student. “You’re in a lot of trouble, young lady. Surely you know that?” Mari nodded. “There is an arrest order out. Running isn’t the answer. The Guild will catch you eventually if you try to do that. Whatever you did, you still need to trust in the Guild’s mercy.”
Mari shook her head. “Professor T’mos, the Guild’s mercy in my case consisted of setting me up on my first contract to get kidnapped and killed by commons. You must have heard of that.”
“Rumors, Mari. Surely you don’t believe the sort of nonsense that commons speak against the Guild.”
“Some very experienced Mechanics confirmed that it happened that way, Professor.” Well, one had, anyway, but Professor S’san was worth a hundred regular Mechanics in Mari’s estimation.
“Politics,” T’mos snorted. “The Guild would never harm any Mechanic, and you shouldn’t listen to those who claim otherwise. I don’t know who you’ve talked to, but that’s what got S’san. She was forced to retire for meddling in politics, Mari. You need to rethink anything she taught you unless you want to end up sidelined yourself, which would be a great shame given your potential.”
Mari felt her temper rising, which had always been a problem during T’mos’ lectures to her. The difference now was that Mari didn’t try as hard to keep her temper in check. “Never harm a Mechanic? The Guild ordered me to go unescorted to Tiae. You know what Tiae is like now. Total anarchy. I’d have been enslaved or, if I was lucky, simply killed.”
“The Guild must’ve had a good reason for ordering you to Tiae,” T’mos assured her. “Unescorted? That wouldn’t happen. There would have been an escort.”
“No, Professor, I confirmed that there would be no escort even though I was assured one would be there.”
“Hmm.” Professor T’mos shook his head, then changed the subject slightly. “Analyze that, Mari, and you’ll see the flaws in your concerns. What possible reason do you think the Guild would’ve had to send you on a suicide contract?”
Mari spoke quietly, but kept her voice firm. “I had learned about those who call themselves the Order, those who aren’t of our Guild but have the skills of Mechanics. I knew Mages could actually do things beyond our understanding. Not tricks, but actual temporary changes to reality. Even though I’d promised to stay quiet, those things were apparently enough to condemn me in the eyes of the Guild’s Senior Mechanics. That and some belief of theirs that I would threaten their control of the Guild someday.”
T’mos made an irritated gesture. “The so-called Order is a tiny bunch of tinkers who’d be lucky to fix a broken pot. The Mages are very good frauds, though, and I’m not surprised they fooled even you given your lack of experience. But Mari, I know much more than you. What you say you thought you knew wasn’t true. Why would the Guild have tried to silence you for that? And frankly, whoever told you that the Guild feared your abilities as a leader when you’re still this young is a fool. The Guild encourages good leaders.”
Mari had always been unhappy with being talked down to, but willing to tolerate it. After all, Mari had been inexperienced, her instructors were indeed the best in their fields, and her knowledge of the world had been second-hand, since she had been kept within Mechanics schools since being forced to leave her family at a young age.
But she wasn’t that inexperienced girl any more and she had seen a great deal of the world in the last several months. “Professor T’mos, how can you tell me something that you know isn’t true? Do you honestly believe that the Mechanics Guild is right to deny truth solely so that it can maintain its hold on power? Aren’t you alarmed by the way the technology used by the Guild is deteriorating, regressing as we lose the ability to make and do certain things because anything that might be considered innovation or change is prohibited? You’re a smart Mechanic. Surely you can see that the road the Guild is following is a dead end.”
T’mos smiled sadly. “Mari. Always the questioning one, aren’t you? If there are things you think you know, then you need to lay them out before the Guild so—”
“I did.” Mari spread her hands. “And I was put under a Guild interdict and sent into great danger.”
“No.” T’mos displayed an annoyance at being interrupted that Mari recognized. He always had treated her like a child of his, hadn’t he? “You’re under an arrest order because you didn’t listen, because you jumped without thinking. How many times did we discuss your impulsiveness? And now here you are! You and whoever it is you’re traveling with.” He glanced around, studying the other people in the waiting area.
So the Guild now knew or suspected that she had a traveling companion, but still didn’t know who it was. Mari, sensitized to spotting subtle emotions by being with Alain, thought she detected another layer of aggravation beneath the professor’s annoyance. Maybe, as Professor S’san had suggested, T’mos really had once thought that he and she would end up together as something much more than professor and student, though still authority figure and obedient follower. The thought made her stomach clench with sudden nausea. “The Guild thinks that I’m traveling with someone?” Mari asked, hoping to learn more of whatever the Guild knew and get T’mos’ attention back on her.
Professor T’mos shook his head and sighed with disappointment. She recognized that, too, and was ready when T’mos tried his next approach. “The Guild knows a great deal more than you give it credit for, Mari. You’re a Mechanic. Descended from those who came from the stars themselves. So am I. This other Mechanic… I assume he’s a Mechanic…”
Mari knew she was probably flushing in anger a bit at T’mos’ tone, but it wouldn’t be hard to make the professor think that her reaction reflected embarrassment. “You don’t think that I’d take up with a common, do you?”
“Of course not, Mari,” T’mos said, smugness tingeing his words. He apparently thought that he had tricked her into confirming something. “This Mechanic, whoever he is… ?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“All right, Mari, but he doesn’t have your best interests at heart.”
“He… seemed all right,” Mari suggested.
“Can’t you trust me more than some romantic fling you’ve picked up? Is he behind this? Is he driving it? Controlling you? Listen, the Guild can protect you. We’re your true comrades. Turn yourself in, young lady. For your own sake.”
Mari pretended to think about it. T’mos appeared to believe that his old manipulations would get through to Mari, as if she hadn’t changed in the least since leaving the academy. Is he “controlling” me? Does T’mos believe that I can’t think or act on my own? All right, then. Perhaps I need to give my old professor another illusion to play with so Alain and I can get out of Palandur in one piece. “Professor,” she whispered, “I am worried. I never meant things to go this far.”