Chapter Seven
“The Mechanics Guild,” Mari breathed. “That’s one of their steam-powered ships. There are hardly any of those left working any more, but they’re so much faster than sailing ships that they must have caught the Sun Runner easily. How did they know I was on board this ship? How did they know to intercept this ship?”
“What do we do?” Alain asked.
“We can’t jump off like we did the train.” Mari rubbed her forehead, her face frantic. “Our only chance is to try to hide somewhere below deck.”
Mari turned, starting to fight her way through the crowds of passengers boiling out onto the deck to point and stare and wonder what had led the Mechanics Guild to stop this ship. Alain stayed close to her, frustrated by the slow progress they were making. The crowd on deck had become so dense that it was hard to move at all even though ahead of him Mari was shoving hard.
Suddenly a group of Mechanics wedged their way between Alain and Mari, using the butts of their weapons to strike at anyone in their way. Alain had to stagger back a half-step to avoid having one of the weapons strike him, then found himself separated from Mari. He lunged forward, disregarding the cries of anger from commons he was pushing aside. Alain made it through a knot of commons, then maybe a lance length farther, and suddenly found himself at the edge of a small area of deck cleared of commons.
He stopped, gazing at the scene within that area.
Mari was standing still, facing several Mechanics. Two had Mechanic weapons pointed at her. One middle-aged male Mechanic reached forward and roughly jerked back Mari’s coat, checking the area under her shoulder. “Not carrying the pistol today, Mari?” he demanded.
“It’s in my pack,” Mari answered. “Honored Senior Mechanic,” she added in the kind of voice which Alain had learned meant sarcasm.
The Senior Mechanic’s hand rose, but he stopped before hitting Mari. “Where’s your friend?”
“I have no friends,” Mari replied in a voice now emotionless.
“That’s probably the only thing you’re going to say that I’ll agree with,” the Senior Mechanic noted coldly. “But the Guild knows that you were traveling with someone. Where is he?”
Mari shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Answer me! Is he on this ship?”
Alain could see Mari’s mocking smile. “We split up a while ago. Doesn’t the Guild know that?”
Another Mechanic took Mari’s pack. “Should I search it?”
“No!” the Senior Mechanic barked. “Don’t look in there. It will be searched later, by authorized Senior Mechanics only.”
Alain could see the resentment in the other Mechanic at the Senior Mechanic’s haughty tone, but he stood obediently holding Mari’s pack.
At a gesture from the Senior Mechanic, a female Mechanic stepped forward and patted her hands all over Mari’s clothing, then stepped back. “No concealed weapons,” she reported.
“Good. Get her to the ship.” The Senior Mechanic led the way as the others grabbed Mari and pushed her along, the commons splitting to leave a free path for the Mechanics.
Alain watched, shoving his way through the crowd to keep the Mechanics in sight, trying to figure out what to do. In this dense a crowd, invisibility would be a hindrance, not an aid. Simply attacking the group of Mechanics around Mari would do no good. His heat might just as easily harm Mari as her captors, his knife was no match for their weapons, and even if he somehow triumphed without hurting Mari, the metal Mechanic ship with its big weapon would still remain.
But he became aware of a rumbling noise from the crowd of passengers, slowly rising in volume as more and more commons joined in. It took Alain a few moments to make sense of the words, then the intensity of the noise rose again and he heard them clearly. “It’s the daughter!”
“The Mechanics have the daughter of Jules!”
“They’re taking the daughter!”
The different cries merged into a welter of shouts in which only the words “daughter” and “Jules” were clear, but that was enough. As Alain watched with growing concern, the crowd surged forward toward the Mechanics, the commons yelling and seizing anything that might serve as improvised weapons.
The Mechanics had heard the shouts, too, and were backing along the rail in a tight group, their weapons pointed outward. Alain could see the growing fear in their eyes, the sort of alarm which could lead to panic and then the use of the Mechanic weapons. Even though the crowd of commons far outnumbered the Mechanics, Alain had seen what Mechanic weapons could do. Mari had told him that these were called “lever-action repeating rifles,” and while he did not know the meaning of that, those same weapons had wiped out a caravan which Alain had tried to protect. Alain knew that something had to be done, but he hesitated because his training as a Mage had told him nothing about how people thought. Alain had no idea how to stop the crowd before a massacre occurred.
Then he heard Mari yelling over the sound of the crowd. “No! Stop!” Her face appeared as Mari shoved her way to the front of the frightened Mechanics despite having her arms held behind her. “They’ve got rifles, blast you! If you try to charge them a lot of you will die!”
The Senior Mechanic in charge of the boarding party looked nervously from Mari to the crowd. “Listen to her!” the Senior Mechanic shouted.
Mari bent an angry look on the Senior Mechanic, then faced the crowd again. “Back off. Please. For your own sakes.”
A common stepped forward slightly from the crowd, an older man with short-cut hair and a face red with fury. “We’re willing to die for you, Daughter.”
“I don’t want anybody dying for me!” Mari yelled back. “It’s senseless. Even if you overcome these Mechanics and free me, that still leaves that ship out there. It can shell this ship and sink it, then make sure no life boat or life raft stays afloat. You would all die. Please, let them take me.”
“We can’t let the Mechanics destroy our only chance for freedom!” a woman cried, her voice torn between anguish and fury.
“Don’t die in vain!” Mari called back. “As long as I live, that chance remains.”
Perhaps inspired by Mari’s words, the Senior Mechanic drew his pistol and put the small end against Mari’s head. “Rush us and I blow her brains out! Do you hear me?”
Alain had to restrain himself from launching a spell at the Senior Mechanic. He did not know enough about how the Mechanic weapons worked to be sure he could kill the Senior Mechanic before he killed Mari, and an attack on the Mechanic leader would surely produce an immediate reaction which would turn into the massacre which Mari feared.
Mari’s face had gone rigid. The crowd had become suddenly silent, so Alain could hear what Mari said to the other Mechanics. “The Senior Mechanics would order your death as easily as they ordered mine, as easily as this one put a gun to my head.”
“Shut up!” The Senior Mechanic glared at the crowd of commons. “We are going to the ladder down to our boats. She is going in the first boat, and she’ll have weapons pointed at her head the entire way. Try anything and she’ll die.”
The commons stood glowering as the Mechanics began backing toward the ladder, the weapon of their leader staying pressed tightly against Mari’s head. As Mari’s arms were being freed for the climb down she caught a glimpse of Alain in the crowd and he saw Mari mouth the words “I love you,” then after a brief pause one more forceful, unspoken word. “Go!” A moment later she was being shoved down the ladder and out of sight.
Alain ignored Mari’s command, but as he tried to think of a plan to save her he heard the volume of anger in the commons rising again. At least this time he knew how to halt them, by following what Mari had done. “Do not,” he called. “She asked you not to die now.”