Most of the conversation among the commons was about things they had done together and spots they had visited, but Mari’s attention was caught when she heard a certain name. “Flyn’s in command of part of the army of Ihris,” one of the Western Alliance soldiers said. “They hired him away from Alexdria.”
“After that mess on the last raid he commanded?” another one of the soldiers asked. “His force got cut to pieces.”
Mari was thinking about whether or not to ask more about Flyn when she heard Alain speaking.
“That was not the fault of General Flyn,” Alain said, betraying an unusual amount of emotion. Fortunately, an unusual amount of emotion for a Mage appeared just mildly upset to other people. “His force was betrayed, ambushed by a full legion backed by many Mages.”
The others focused on Alain. “How do you know about it?” one asked.
Mari answered before Alain could. “His brother was up there.”
One of the women leaned forward eagerly. “Did he see the daughter?”
“Oh, come on, Patila,” one of her companions laughed.
“All of the soldiers with Flyn saw her,” Patila insisted. “And a lot of Mechanics went through later looking for her. I have a friend who personally talked to them, or was interrogated by them I guess I should say, and those Mechanics were looking for a woman about our age.”
“Yeah, I know, but that doesn’t make her the daughter of Jules. The stories say she was wearing a Mechanics jacket.”
“But she fixed things for free, and gave away stuff to help injured commons. Does that sound like any Mechanic you ever met?” Patila gazed at Alain again. “Did your brother see her?”
Alain nodded. “He did.”
Mari watched the others, trying to judge their reactions.
“Did she seem like the daughter?” Patila asked excitedly.
Alain glanced at her, and Mari nodded ever so slightly.
“Yes,” Alain said. “He was certain of it.”
One of the men looked skeptical, but the others exchanged looks filled with emotion. “I hope you’re right,” the other woman said. “We need her. When we left home, everything felt… what’s the word?”
“Tight as a drum,” the skeptical man said. “And ready to snap from being pulled too tight. Like those civil disturbances near Genese.”
“There was rioting in Palandur recently,” Mari said.
“Really? In the Imperial capital?” The man shook his head. “This world is going to blazes like a raft going over a waterfall, and I don’t see where anyone can stop it.”
“Hey, lighten up,” the second soldier said with a grin. “We’re still on vacation for a few more days. Let’s talk about something fun.”
“Such as?”
“Uh… hey, that other story, the one we heard from some Imperials in Caer Lyn the night before we left.”
“You mean Mara?” Patila asked with a roll of her eyes.
“Yeah. It really had them spooked,” the soldier explained to Mari and Alain. “Have you heard about it?”
Mari shook her head wordlessly, aiming a warning look at Alain as she did so.
“Well,” the soldier began, obviously relishing the chance to tell the story, “apparently there had been some worries about Mara before, just superstitious stuff. In most places Mara is just a creepy legend to tell stories about around the fire, but I guess you Imperials take her a lot more seriously. The Imperials told us that somebody got out of Marandur recently, which is supposed to be impossible. You know, the dead city?”
“We’ve heard of it,” Mari replied dryly.
“Oh, yeah, of course you guys would know about it. According to the Imperials I talked to, there were a lot of funny noises in the city, where nobody is alive to make funny noises, and soon after footprints were found coming out, right through the area where there were legionaries guarding the city. Somebody snuck right through the Imperial sentries and then vanished completely.”
“Mages can be invisible,” one of his companions pointed out.
“Yeah, but they can’t fly without a Roc, and legionaries couldn’t miss a Roc. From all I hear, those guys are really sharp. Anyway, half the Empire has been trying to find whoever escaped and having no luck at all. So,” the soldier leaned forward, grinning, “the Imperials are starting to say it was Mara who left Marandur, that she’d been at Maran’s tomb, maybe trapped there for a long time, but now somebody let her out and she’s running free.” He laughed loudly. “I can’t believe the Emperor would encourage that kind of superstition. Every young man in the Empire must be checking the teeth of every attractive girl he sees.”
“If Mara leaves the Empire,” the other woman suggested slyly, “maybe you guys will have to worry about that. You’re just the right age for her appetite.”
“See? That’s what I mean! How can making guys nervous around good-looking women serve any good purpose?”
“Maybe it’s a stratagem,” Patila replied. “I’m serious. If the daughter really has appeared, that could create problems for more people than the Great Guilds. What’s the Empire’s first priority?”
Mari answered. “Control. Stability. Just like the Great Guilds.”
The woman soldier nodded. “Right. Does the Emperor want the daughter running loose inside the Empire, stirring up the common folk? Not on your life. But if the common folk of the Empire think she’s really Mara, they’ll be even more inclined to be good little citizens so the Emperor will protect them.” She looked at Mari again, embarrassed. “Sorry I put it that way.”
“No, that’s probably a good way of saying it,” Mari assured her.
Alain was nodding, too. “It is a possibility. The Emperor would want to be able to control the daughter as well as his own people.”
“Then why feed the rumors at all?” the first male soldier asked. “That’s what I can’t figure out, why so many people are paying attention to them right now.”
Patila tapped her finger on the table to emphasize her words. “Because this time it’s different. I talked to my grandfather before I left, and he said there’s never been so much talk about the daughter, or so many people claiming to have actually seen her. Grandfather said that in the past every once in a while somebody would say that the daughter was coming soon, but nobody ever said she was alive and getting ready to move against the Great Guilds, and nobody ever claimed to have seen her or what she had done. She killed a big dragon in the Northern Ramparts. Lots of people saw her do it and others hiked out to see the dead body before it finally dissolved. Before that there was Dorcastle. Nobody knows exactly what the Great Guilds tried to cover up there, but somebody killed a dragon there, too, and messed up a lot of Mechanic equipment.”
“And there’s rumors about what happened at Ringhmon,” one of the men added.
“Maybe she did go to Marandur,” the second woman suggested. “I mean, Jules was in the Imperial fleet before she headed west. Maybe Jules left something in Marandur centuries ago and her daughter had to go looking for it. Why else would anyone go to that city?”
Another of the men shrugged. “Whether the rumors are true or not, the Mechanics are in an uproar. One of the ship’s officers told me several of them were supposed to sail with us but got yanked off at the last minute. He said they were complaining about a Guild emergency when they left.”
Mari feigned only a small amount of interest, even though she was feeling intensely curious. “A Guild emergency?”
“Yeah, like they were needed back in Caer Lyn for something.”