“Some say it is, some say it isn’t.”
“How could even the Mages keep someone young forever?” the woman asked.
“I don’t know,” the second man said. “It must be pretty hard, or pretty terrible, but she had the entire Imperial treasury to pay them off, and Maran’s hand backing her.” The man lowered his voice so much that Mari had to strain to hear it. Not that she wanted to hear it, but her curiosity was too strong by this point. “She doesn’t age, because she’s not really alive and not really dead. Mara drinks blood, they say, to keep herself looking young, the blood of young men. She has no trouble seducing them to their deaths because Mara is still as beautiful as she was when Maran reigned. And after all these centuries she knows more magic than any Mage. They say the Emperor Palan himself sealed her into a tomb in the old Imperial capital when the city was destroyed, but there are reliable stories that somebody or something came out of Marandur recently. You must have seen how the police have been extra vigilant lately, checking anyone traveling. Word is they’re looking for whoever left Marandur, where Mara has been imprisoned in her lair for more than a century. Someone woke her up. Someone freed her. She’s come out now. That’s what’s trying to get to the Emperor and back in the palace again. Mara the Undying.”
A hush fell over the three commons, while Mari stared at the waves, aghast.
“But,” the woman finally asked, “what if she really is the daughter of Jules and not Mara?”
“Believe what you like, but if I meet her I’m going to be looking to see if her teeth have sharp points,” the second man said.
“I’m not so young anymore,” the first man remarked, “so I guess she wouldn’t want my blood, and I’m not a citizen of the Empire, so it doesn’t matter to me whether she’s Mara or the daughter of Jules, as long as she does in the Great Guilds.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” the second man muttered.
The small group wandered off past Mari, who stayed leaning on the rail, hoping her expression didn’t show how appalled she was. I thought it was bad enough being the daughter of Jules. But that’s a lot better than having people think I’m an undead, vain, blood-drinking seducer of emperors and young men.
At least it explains why the Imperials keep asking about a very good-looking dark-haired young woman. They actually think Mara might have been the one who left Marandur? Granted, if any place would be a suitable lair for the undead it would be Marandur. I suppose the only good thing about that rumor is that no one is likely to recognize me from it. Incredibly beautiful? That’s about as true as the sharp teeth.
Though now she felt an irrational urge to find a mirror and check how her teeth looked.
Mara the Undying. Stars above. I’ll take being the daughter of Jules any day over that.
Alain blinked against the late afternoon sun as he looked forward along the deck, then aft. The Sun Runner was sailing slightly south of west to reach Caer Lyn, with an easy breeze filling her sails and a pleasant sea sending gentle swells to meet her. They had been at sea for a while now, the Imperial coast had long since vanished beneath the horizon, and even though he and Mari had been on the alert for anyone watching them, no one seemed to be paying them any particular attention.
But Mari had insisted on waiting to go to their cabins. “If anyone on the Sun Runner is pursuing us, I want to see them before they find out which cabin we’re staying in tonight. Who knows how many Imperial agents are aboard this ship. We can’t afford to be trapped in a room.”
He had recognized the wisdom of that, and so had waited while Mari joined him for periods and then left, to see if anyone followed her. After what had happened in Palandur, that sort of concern was only prudent. “There are no Mages aboard as far as I can tell,” he had told Mari, which was one thing to be glad of. But he was tired of hauling his pack around, tired of standing at the rail, and was looking forward to tonight, when he and Mari would be catching up on their sleep in an actual bed in one of their cabins.
That was all they would be doing in that bed, of course. Alain remembered Mari joking about how her legs looked, and tried to think about something else.
“Hey.” Mari came toward him after her last attempt to check for anyone following her, yawning again. “I can’t wait to find one of our cabins and take off this pack. I’m thinking if anyone aboard was after us, they would have betrayed themselves somehow by now. Still no foresight warning?”
“No, but you know that does not mean danger does not exist.”
“It’s something, though.” Mari yawned hugely this time. “Stars above, I’m tired. It’s been a long trip from you-know-where. We should turn in soon. Do you know some people always sleep at night and stay awake during the day? I think they’re called normal.”
“How boring,” Alain responded. “They probably also never get attacked by trolls or dragons.”
“I haven’t decided which I like least. Dragons are definitely faster, though. I prefer enemies I have a chance to run away from.” Mari leaned on the railing with her arm touching Alain’s, sighing happily. “Do you realize how long we spent inside the Empire? It’s great to at least feel free again. And aside from Asha, whom I’m doubtless transmitting to at this very moment, we shouldn’t have to worry about anyone from our Guilds locating us until we reach Caer Lyn.”
“Asha will not tell any elder where we are. She is in as much danger from the elders now as are we. But even if there are no agents on this ship, the Imperials in port will be checking people arriving at Caer Lyn,” Alain cautioned.
“We’ll just do the same thing we did when we got on the ship. Once we’re both off this ship, we’ll find a ship headed for Altis and get right on it. I don’t want to spend an instant longer in Caer Lyn than we have to. For safety.”
“For safety,” Alain repeated in a neutral voice. He knew she was not being honest with herself, and she knew she was not being honest with herself, but Alain thought that he had pushed her enough on that for now. He wondered if Mari would feel any differently when she actually saw once again the city she had once called home.
“You know,” Mari added thoughtfully, “we really need to plan things out more instead of just rushing into them. Develop a nice, detailed plan and then carry it out, just like we did when we got on this ship. We should try to do that every time from now on.”
Alain was about to reply when he heard whistles sounding and looked up. Sailors were rushing into the rigging again, and soon the motion of the Sun Runner altered, the gentle rolling turning into a slow wallow as the sails were furled overhead and the ship glided to a stop. Mari stared at Alain, then at the empty sea before them, then back at the deck house blocking their view of the other side of the ship. Together, they rushed to the nearest passage across the deck.
Alain caught up with Mari as she came to the rail on the other side of the ship. Mari did not say anything, just pointed, face rigid. Another ship had approached, a ship with only short, stubby masts and no sails visible. A stream of pale smoke rose from a huge tube rising out of the center of the strange ship, which was almost completely made of metal. On the front of the other ship, something which looked like a very large version of the Mechanic weapons Alain had seen was mounted on the deck and pointing at their own ship. A pair of large boats were already in the water, being rowed over toward the ship Alain and Mari were on, the dark jackets of the Mechanics crowding the boats easily visible.