“I’m more worried about the Mechanic ship.” Mari pointed out the silhouette of the much larger Mechanic vessel.
“Mechanics fear a Mechanic ship?” The captain rubbed his chin, eyeing her, then the other Mechanics and the Mages. “You wouldn’t be the daughter, would you?”
“Yes,” Mari admitted. It was easier to say this time. “But call me Lady Mari. Is there anybody on Dematr who hasn’t heard about me?”
“Not on this ship, anyway. Some months ago every tavern on the waterfront of Marida had men and women telling how they’d seen you in the Northern Ramparts and what you’d done there.” The captain bowed. “It’s an honor to sail with you, daughter. But that Mechanic ship has a big weapon on her deck.”
“I know. If they open fire, try not to get hit by it.”
The captain grinned. “I never thought to meet a Lady Mechanic after my own heart. You heard Lady Mari, you tars,” he ordered his crew. “Get anyone still sleeping up here now. It’ll be dawn soon and we need to be gone before then even though we’ll have to fight the tide.”
Alain had remained amidships at the rail, leaning on it and looking weary. Mari came back to stand by him. “We’re almost out of here.”
“Yes,” he agreed, then frowned noticeably, a sign of how tired he was. “Something is missing.”
“What?” Mari had learned not to question Alain’s judgment in a crisis.
Alain looked back and up. “The city lies silent. There is no more sound of Mechanic warfare.”
Mari followed his gaze, trying to fight off another wave of anxiety. “Then they’ve figured out that we’re not where they’ve been blowing up stuff. Or maybe they think we’re there, but dead and buried under rubble.”
“Or they have found or heard from the Mechanics at the first barricade we went through—which means they will soon find the second barricade we took.”
“Which means they’ll know we’re on the water,” Mari finished. “Captain! Get this thing moving!”
The clanking of the capstan announced the anchor coming up and other sailors rushed upward to spread and trim the sails. The Gray Lady wore round under her sails, gently gathering headway under the soft breeze which was all they had to work with. “We won’t be going anywhere fast fighting that tide,” the captain announced.
Mari met the gazes of her followers: Alli grinning, confident beyond reason; Mechanic Dav chewing his lip as he stared at the dark shape of the Mechanic ship; Bev standing by the rail with a worried expression; the Mages Asha and Dav as apparently unworried and unemotional as ever; and Alain right beside her. Mari felt totally worn out as she swayed slightly with the movement of the ship and wondered how Alain was able even to stand after his exertions earlier in the evening and then the long trek down to the harbor. “We’ve got four rifles. Alli, Mechanic Dav and Bev take three of them and line up at the rail with me facing the Mechanic ship so we can shoot if we have to.”
“Rifles against that?” Mechanic Dav asked, pointing to the Mechanic ship. The tide was forcing the Gray Lady closer to the Mechanic vessel as she tried to beat her way out to sea, so that the shape of the deck gun was now possible to make out as a dark, deadly silhouette between the masts of the large sailing ship.
“It’s what we’ve got,” Mari said, trying to sound firm and confident.
“They’ve got a far-talker on board. Once they hear we were at the landing…”
“They’ve already heard,” Alli interrupted, pointing.
Mari stared through the nigh, seeing the dim, distant shapes of sailors rushing along the deck of the Mechanics Guild ship to the big deck gun, pulling off its canvas covering. The Gray Lady had been borne by the tide so far to starboard that they were within hailing distance of the Mechanic ship, and a moment later a voice came to them faintly over the water, magnified by a speaking trumpet. “Ahoy the ship! Heave to and await our boat!”
The captain gave Mari a questioning look. “Tell him we’re on official business for the Mechanics Guild,” Mari suggested.
Shrugging in a why-not way, the captain hoisted his own speaking trumpet. “Ahoy the Mechanic ship! We’re on official business for the Mechanics Guild, and the Mechanics aboard will not allow me to heave to.”
Unfortunately, that bought far less time than Mari had hoped. A reply came almost immediately. “That is a lie! Heave to in the name of the Mechanics Guild! No ships are allowed to leave this harbor by order of the Guild!”
The captain lowered his speaking trumpet. “Any more suggestions, Lady Mari? If I announce that the daughter is aboard, every other ship in the harbor will likely come to our aid.”
“And be sunk,” Mari added grimly. “They couldn’t get here in time to help us, anyway.”
The big deck gun on the Mechanic ship was training around to point at the Gray Lady. The sky was beginning to brighten in the east, making the Mechanic ship a little easier to discern but making the Gray Lady an easier target as well. “We’ll dodge, as you suggested, Lady, but we’re making little headway and our turns will have more in common with the sway of an old drunk than with the swerve of the barmaid evading his grasp,” the Gray Lady’s captain advised.
Alli was shaking her head. “Do you realize there’s no action around their boat at all? They’re just planning on blowing us away and hope we’ll stop so we’ll make an easier target for that cannon. Oh, I wish I could build a gun like that.”
Mari found herself momentarily struck by the absurdity of the comment after Alli’s all-too-likely assessment of the Mechanic ship’s intentions. “Alli, if we get out of this, I’ll let you build guns a lot better than that one. Heavy artillery that will fire over the horizon.”
“Really? That’ll be so cool. I can’t wait.” Alli shook her head again as she looked at the Mechanic ship. “I hope we survive.”
“Me, too,” Mari said. “Everybody, rifles up.” She pumped the lever on the rifle she had acquired at the barricades, then brought it to her shoulder, aiming at the figures of Mechanics on the other ship. Mechanics wearing the same jacket she wore, maybe people she had known in other places, studied beside as an apprentice, worked beside as a Mechanic. “I don’t want to do this,” she whispered to Alain.
“You may not have to.” Alain was standing at the railing, facing the Mechanic ship. “Is it made of wood?”
“Is what made of wood?” Mari asked, sighting toward the person aiming the deck gun.
“The Mechanic ship,” Alain explained patiently.
“Yes, sure. That ship has a boiler, you can see the stack, but it also depends on sails. Only two of the remaining steam-powered ships are made of metal, and they don’t have masts like that, and you and I almost sank one of those a few weeks ago anyway. Even though this one probably has some metal hull plating for armor, the decks and the hull underneath are all wood.”
The voice from the Mechanic ship called again. “This is your final warning! Heave to now or we will fire upon you! There will be no warning shots!”
Bev stood at the rail to one side of Mari, face set, her rifle steady. “Thanks,” she whispered to Mari. “Even if we die in the next few minutes, you gave me something worthwhile to fight for.”
Mari blinked sweat from her eyes, wishing that she weren’t so tired, trying to hold a good aim at the crew of the deck gun and knowing the Gray Lady was well within range of the big gun but that the Mechanic ship was outside the effective range of their rifles.
“Do not let me fall,” Alain said in that same calm voice.
As soon as Alain’s words registered in her brain, Mari forgot about aiming. She jerked around to stare at him. Alain was standing very still, his gaze locked on the Mechanic ship, hands held at waist height and spread well apart. Something glowed there as enough heat radiated for Mari to feel it easily where she stood. Then the glow was gone and Alain was falling toward the rail, gone limp and possibly unconscious. Mari dropped her rifle onto the deck, grabbing Alain and yanking him back onto the deck before he could go overboard.