Escaping from the local officials would be difficult, but not impossible. However, it would create a huge commotion and brand him and Mari as criminals before they had any chance to look for the tower she sought.
Mari hesitated, giving Alain another glance that this time revealed she had no ideas and needed one from him.
He began to shake his head slightly in response.
The seated customs official began to stand up, frowning, as the two local police stepped closer.
The woman soldier Patila suddenly walked up next to the customs desk, smiling at Mari and Alain. “Is anything wrong, sir?” she asked the customs official, offering her identity papers.
The official turned his frown on Patila, looking down at her papers. His expression cleared. “We’re just acting on a tip, Captain,” he said respectfully.
“About these two?” she asked. “Why would anyone have tipped— Oh, wait.” She leaned close, whispering to the official.
He frowned again, looked at Mari in an appraising way, then inclined his head toward Patila. “I see. Thank you, Captain. If you vouch for them, there is no need to inconvenience anyone.”
The official waved away the police and handed Mari back her and Alain’s identity papers. “Sorry about that. We’re not the Empire here, or Mechanics, giving people trouble just because we can. Enjoy your stay in Altis.”
Patila walked with them as they left the quay. “I saw Jorge talking to one of the customs officials,” she told Mari. “He’s not a bad person, but he’s been on edge a lot lately. Worried about things at home. And he thinks you might make things worse. I thought he might cause some trouble for you.”
“Thank you,” Mari said. “You really saved us back there.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Patila said, looking at Mari. “For the daughter.” As Mari fumbled for a reply, the soldier switched her gaze to Alain. “It took me a while to be sure you were a Mage. When you’re not careful, though, your face goes all expressionless instead of relaxed. You need to work on that still.”
“I will,” Alain said. “What did you tell the official?”
Patila grinned lopsidedly. “I told him that this one guy on the cruise had been hitting on her,” she said with a nod toward Mari. “I said I had heard him threaten to cause trouble for her if she didn’t show him a good time even though she was just this naïve kid from a farm who only wanted to be left alone. And then I’d just seen that guy talking to customs officials and I thought maybe he had made good on his threats. Since I’m an officer in the Western military, and Jorge wouldn’t even give his name, they took my word for it.”
“Captain Patila,” Mari began.
“Look, you don’t owe me anything,” Patila said. “But I wanted to tell you something I couldn’t when others were around. There are a lot of commons like Jorge. They’re scared. Worried about their homes and families and all. They’re unhappy with how things are but frightened of how much worse they could get.”
“They’re not the only ones worried about that,” Mari said.
“Yeah. I could tell. So, you need to know, if the daughter starts raising an army, a lot of commons will want to join, but many of those won’t be able to, because they’ll be trying to keep the lid on things at home, trying to keep their cities from boiling over and protecting their own places and people from whatever the Great Guilds try to do to stop the daughter.” Patila gave Mari a somber look. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Mari said. “I wouldn’t ask anyone to abandon their responsibilities.”
“Are you a Mechanic?”
Mari grimaced. “Yes. And no. I’m not a member of the Guild anymore.”
“Her Guild wants to arrest and kill her,” Alain said.
“Yours, too?” Patila asked. “I thought so. The daughter is poison to them. Are you going to be in Altis long?”
“I don’t think so,” Mari said. “There’s something I need to do and then we’re leaving.”
“That’s good. Altis can be hard to get out of, so it’s not a good place to be trapped if anybody happened to be hunting you. I don’t need to know your business. You shouldn’t have any more trouble in Altis. Not from common folk, anyway. I’m only here for a couple of days myself, then I’m heading back to my unit. I need to pass on word to some people, higher-ups, to let them know it’s real, that she’s for real, and that we had better brace ourselves for the blast when the world learns about it.” She studied Mari again. “You know, if anybody had come strutting around, claiming to be the daughter and telling everybody what to do, I wouldn’t have been happy. Somehow I always thought that the daughter would be about us, not about her, and that’s how I’d know she was real. That’s why I got involved back there, and I think that’s why Jorge tried to trip you up. The people who meet you know that you’re the real deal, and not all of them are going to be happy about that. Good luck, daughter.”
Patila veered off, walking down the street without looking back.
“She did not lie,” Alain told Mari.
“I already knew that,” Mari said. “You and I are going to keep our heads down, talk to as few people as we can, say as little as we can, find that tower, and then get out of Altis.”
“Where will we go?” Alain asked.
“I am really hoping that something we find at the tower will help us decide that,” Mari said. “But at this moment, we need to get out of the low port and up to the city.”
She stopped to ask directions of some commons while Alain kept an eye on the crowds around them. The low port felt as low-key and casual as the customs official they had dealt with, and Alain felt himself relaxing a little as well. He could see numerous taverns lining the waterfront and guessed that come evening there would be plenty of high-pressure activity here as sailors relieved themselves of their money and their worries. But for now the low port just showed the bustle of trade and the movement of cargos and passengers. There was no sign of the betrayer Jorge, and Alain’s foresight offered no warning.
But then it had also offered no warning before their near-conflict with the local officials.
Alain followed as Mari led them through the streets of the low port, then up the long slope to Altis proper. “Some older and wiser Mechanics I knew at the academy told me that jewelers in ports are not to be trusted,” she explained to Alain. A few moments later, as if invoked by Mari’s mention, a trio of Mechanics came into view, swaggering down the street alongside each other so that everyone else was forced to move aside. Mari bent her head as if laboring under her pack while the Mechanics passed, unobtrusively putting Alain between herself and them. Alain saw one of the Mechanics give him a disinterested glance, then the group of Mechanics had passed.
Mari straightened, her face sad. “Why do I have to hide from my former comrades? That still hurts. We’ll take pains to avoid the area around the Mechanics Guild Hall, though.”
Alain nodded. “As well as the Mage Guild Hall. There are a good number of Mages here, though I can sense no sign of worry among them.”
“Does worry show up somehow in what you can sense?”
“Not directly,” Alain explained. “I sense what is happening. If Mages are trying to hide themselves, if many are practicing spells, or if there is a strange lack of any spell activity, these would all be signs that something is amiss.”
“Can you tell if there are any Mages you know here at Altis?”
He shook his head. “I cannot feel the presence of anyone I know. That is not too surprising. Altis is a backwater. The harbor is magnificent, but the island itself offers little beyond spectacular scenery.”