Mari puzzled for a moment. “Tiae? Are you serious?”
“Yes.” Alain pointed east this time. “We want to be as far from the resources of the Empire as possible. Our Guilds will surely try to enlist the Empire’s aid if your strength grows too much, and the Empire itself seeks us because of our visit to Marandur. Yet I think even the Confederation and the Western Alliance could be forced by the Great Guilds to aid action against us, though they would surely be sympathetic to your goals. Syndari is too mercenary to trust. That leaves Tiae or the Free Cities, and the Free Cities are far too close to the Empire despite the protection offered by the Northern Ramparts.”
“If there is any place that needs fixing in this world,” Asha observed coolly, “it is certainly Tiae, the Broken Kingdom.”
Mari looked from Alain to Asha. “A place with no central authority? A place with no armies to muster against us? The Great Guilds have pulled out of Tiae because it wasn’t safe even for them, so it’s the one place in the world where neither the Mechanics Guild nor the Mage Guild has a presence. Nobody goes to Tiae. It’s been that way for years. It would take a while for the Great Guilds to hear we were there, and even longer for them to figure out what we were doing. Valuable breathing space to use those banned texts to start manufacturing things that will give us advantages over the Mechanics Guild and any army of commons. We could find someone decent, some commons trying to rebuild a bulwark of civilization against the anarchy in Tiae, and help them.”
“This was my thought,” Alain agreed.
“But it’s more than that,” Mari said, as new ideas came to her. She stared into the darkness. “The unraveling of this world started at Tiae. The authorities in Edinton were scared of it spreading into the Confederation, and you tell me that’s just what will happen.”
“The storm of chaos,” Alain said, nodding.
“So we stop the break there, at the origin,” Mari said. “We start fixing Tiae, and the rot won’t spread as fast elsewhere. People everywhere will hear that Tiae is rebuilding itself, regaining order and… and freedom, because the Great Guilds aren’t there to try to reassume control as soon as that is possible. We’ll hit that storm where it’s strongest, and we’ll beat it.”
Mari wrapped her arms around Alain. “My darling, brilliant Mage. The second smartest thing I ever did was not to shoot you in the waste outside of Ringhmon.”
Asha had been looking south, but now turned her head to gaze at Mari, her long hair rippling like liquid silver in the starlight. “Not shooting Alain was the second smartest thing you ever did, friend Mari? What was the smartest thing?”
“Marrying him, of course!”
“I see.” Asha nodded, her voice still betraying no emotion. “Though you could not have married Alain if you had shot him earlier.”
“At the least, it would have made me think carefully about doing such a thing,” Alain agreed. Then he gazed at Mari. “Tiae will hold many dangers. I have advised going there, but what you say is true. That is where the storm has begun, and where it is strongest.”
“It’s not as though anywhere is safe for me,” Mari pointed out. “For the first time since you told me about being… the daughter, I really believe I can… we can… do this. But it’s going to be hard getting to Tiae and building a foothold there. We’ll need a lot more Mechanics, and I wouldn’t mind some more Mages, and commons, lots of them willing to learn and fight for us, and the Great Guilds are going to be after you and me as soon as they figure out where we are and… have I forgotten anything?”
“It will be a dangerous road and a hard road,” Alain said. “It is fortunate that you always prefer the harder road.”
She punched his arm, surprised that she had that much energy. “Don’t forget that you’ll be walking that road too, my Mage. Thank the stars above that we’ll be together. The daughter isn’t going to be able to do this without your brains, your courage, your skill, and your love. Alain, I’m glad we’re not going to Dorcastle. I’m not ready to face the possibility of that big battle your foresight showed you.” Mari looked up again as Alli walked over.
“Hey, Mari, you got anything to read?” Alli asked.
“How about some banned technology manuals?” Mari said.
“Oh, yeah! Give me some of that!” Alli’s grin faded into a questioning look. “So, how long will this trip be? What’s our next move after Julesport?”
“We’re going to Tiae.”
“Tiae!”
“That’s right.”
Alli shrugged, then nodded, sitting down to join the group. “Sure. We’re Mechanics. We fix things, and Tiae needs to be fixed.”
Mari nodded as well, feeling better than she had since boarding the caravan for Ringhmon a year ago. “That’s what we’re going to do. We’ve got a world to change, a storm to stop, and some Great Guilds to overthrow, and we’re starting there.”