“Is it anything I can help with?”
“Maybe.” She was looking ahead, biting her lower lip.
“Is it something dangerous that concerns you? Should I be worried?”
Mari took a moment to answer. “No, it’s not some danger. The streets feel very calm.” She paused. “So as for whether you should worry, that would depend upon what sort of things worry you.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“I’m just thinking about things! There’s something I have to decide.” Mari looked up at the afternoon sun. “And I think I need to decide soon. Those Mechanics who came to my old home really centered me on the issue of not knowing what each new moment will bring. Will we even live to reach Altis? What if my Guild intercepts whatever ship we get out of here?”
“I am concerned about that as well.”
She hesitated before speaking again. “Alain, I want you to be completely honest with me. You told me that when I was transmitting about you Asha couldn’t actually read my thoughts, she just knew I was thinking about you but couldn’t tell any more than that. Is that really true?”
Having hoped that Mari had somehow miraculously forgotten the issue of Asha being able to detect her when Mari was thinking of him, Alain was not thrilled by the question, but he nodded firmly. “That is true. She knows only that I am the subject of your thoughts. She cannot tell what those thoughts are. No one can.”
“Not even you?” Mari asked with a half-smile. “Can she… tell what we’re doing when I’m thinking about you?”
“Asha?” Alain puzzled over the question. “No. She said she could not, and I do not see how she could. At this moment, for example, she could not tell that we were walking. Why do you ask?”
“It’s just something that I needed to know.” Mari fell silent again.
Alain gave it up, walking quietly alongside her and gazing ahead for any Mechanics as he also cautiously felt for signs of Mages nearby. Some other Mages were here, but none of them were bothering to hide their presence, a good sign that Alain’s own arrival in Caer Lyn remained unnoticed. Once he spotted the black jackets of more Mechanics in the distance, the Mechanics in a small group and not acting as if they were alarmed at all.
By the time they actually reached the area near the waterfront, the afternoon was far gone. Mari led them to the wall boards on which sailing schedules were posted, hastily studying the list. “There. The White Wing. That’s the one we need. It sails on the tide, which isn’t that long off, but it gives us enough time.” She hesitated. “Just enough time, maybe. Can you get us tickets while I take care of something else?”
Alain nodded. “I have bought tickets before, so I can do the same here, but what—?”
“One cabin!” Mari called, already heading off up the street at high speed. “Make it a good one if we can afford it, and make sure it’s private!”
“But—”
“One cabin!” By that time Mari was far enough away that Alain gave it up and went to the agent to purchase the tickets.
The White Wing proved to have a few cabins left. Alain looked at the costs, regretting once again that Mage training paid little attention to such practical issues as how to handle money. Mages could stay or go anywhere they wanted since no one dared refuse them, but such extortion would draw far too much attention to him right now even if he hadn’t developed a most unmagelike conscience. Now, without Mari on hand, Alain was not certain how much he should pay.
The agent noticed him hesitating, and smiled encouragingly. “You want the White Wing? Tell you what, since she’s about to sail and needs to fill those cabins, I’ll give a good deal on one.” He named a price, then looked expectantly at Alain.
Alain tried to look like he was considering the offer, while wondering if it was actually a good price. “That is for two?”
“If you’re sharing a bed.”
“Yes.” There was something else Mari had said was important. “It is private?”
“Absolutely!” the agent beamed, then winked at him.
What did that mean? But at least Alain was certain this man did not conceal ill-will, just a false sort of friendship probably aimed at convincing Alain to buy what the man sold. “All right.” Alain nodded to the agent, then counted out money slowly enough to watch the agent and know when there was enough.
“You’d best not waste any time getting to the landing,” the agent advised. “There have been some rumors about the harbor being closed soon.”
Alain stepped back out onto the street and looked around for Mari, feeling a pang of worry when she was not immediately visible. But a moment later she came into view up the street, beckoning him. “Hurry!” she called.
“But the ship—”
“I know! Come on!”
Shaking his head, Alain trotted to join her, only to have his hand grabbed as Mari urged him along faster. “In here.” He found himself in a plain office-type room, facing a disinterested-looking woman seated at an unadorned desk. Mari seized a piece of paper on the desk and thrust it at him along with a pen. “Sign this right here.”
Alain looked at the indicated place. “What is this?”
“Just sign!”
They had been in plenty of situations before where one of them had to trust in and immediately follow the instructions of the other. Alain awkwardly scrawled his signature, wondering if anyone else would actually be able to read it. Penmanship had not been a major concern of Mage training. As soon as Alain finished, Mari scooped up the document and passed it to the woman at the desk along with several coins.
The woman glanced at the paper, counted the coins, then looked at Mari as she recited in a bored voice. “Do you make this promise of your own free will, with no thought of deceit or reservation?”
Mari nodded. “Yes.”
The woman looked at Alain. “You?” she asked in the same bored tone.
Alain stared at her, then at Mari who was nodding vigorously at him. “Uh, yes.”
The woman signed the paper, picked up a stamp and slammed it down on the document, slammed the stamp down on another document which she handed to Mari, then without looking at them spoke again in her jaded, monotone voice. “Congratulations on behalf of the people and city of Caer Lyn. May your lives be filled with the joy of this day.” She tossed the first document into a file nearby. “And now we’re closed, so please do any celebrating outside.”
Mari took Alain’s hand again, pulling him out and back down the street toward the docks as she stuffed the paper she had been given into one of her coat pockets.
“Mari,” Alain asked, “what is that paper? What just happened in there?”
She looked back at the place they had left, her expression shifting, walking so fast that Alain had trouble keeping up. “In there?”
“Yes. In there. What did I sign and what did we just do?”
Mari’s face worked with indecision. “We, um, we…”
“Mari?”
“We got married,” Mari forced out quickly, not looking at him.
“What?” Alain asked.
“We got married,” she repeated. “You said you wanted to. You proposed to me back at that inn west of Umburan.”
“Yes, but—” “And I said yes last night and gave you my proposal, too, and you accepted that. So we got married.”
Alain stared at her. “I had expected a marriage to be a little different.”
Mari nodded, smiling brightly but still looking straight ahead as she kept walking fast. “I know wedding customs in Ihris probably aren’t the same as they are here.”
“Mari, I know nothing of customs for marriages in Ihris or anywhere else, but I had thought that no matter where a marriage occurred, the man would know when it is taking place.”