“They have? Why do you think—”
He was very obviously not looking at her now.
“Oh.” Ever since he met me. Change the subject, Mari. “Let’s take a look at some of the other sites.”
She led the way toward another place where dragons had caused damage, trying to think of something else to talk about, something to distract Alain. “Um, you know, if I had worn my jacket, that guard wouldn’t have spoken to us unless I asked him stuff, and he probably wouldn’t have told us about the hissing.”
Alain nodded. “We were taught as acolytes that instilling fear has its purposes, but it can also create problems.”
“I wonder just how many problems.”
“You can work with commons,” Alain said.
“I guess,” Mari admitted.
“And Mages.”
“One Mage. That is unusual, I know, but if I can make it work, why not?” Mari grimaced. “I want to be in control of what I do. The hardest part of being in my Guild is having so many rules and restrictions and people telling me what to do. Some of the rules make sense. You can see why they’re necessary. But a lot of other rules feel like they’re just there because someone wanted to control Mechanics who were lower in rank. And yet that is so much easier than the life of commons. What it would have been like growing up as a common, with no power at all, no control at all, just a pawn in the games of the Great Guilds?”
“I do not think you would do well under those conditions,” Alain said.
“I don’t think so, either.” The next words came out before she quite realized what she was saying. “Why am I helping to force other people to live in a way I couldn’t stand to live?”
The Mage didn’t answer, seeming to be sunk in thought, but she didn’t know what the answer was, either, and was horrified at having said such a thing. If the Guild ever found out that she had said that…
Mari had regained her composure by the time they reached another secluded area, where a section of unloading dock had been reduced to splinters. At yet another place, a small coastal freighter, the sort whose crew normally slept ashore, had been holed and left lying on the bottom of the harbor next to the pier where it had been tied up. Asking around, Mari learned that most of the small ship’s side opposite the pier had been ripped open. Farther along, a warehouse fronting on the harbor had seen half of its seaward wall stove in, the bricks forming piles of rubble.
By the time they had finished looking over the wrecked warehouse, the sun was past noon. They stopped to grab some hand food from a small cart catering to the waterfront workers, finding seats on bollards at the edge of the pier. Below them, the waters of the harbor surged gently back and forth, some trash on the surface bumping against the piles holding up the pier. Looking down, Mari could see only a little way beneath the surface, the water so clouded that within a short distance all was hidden.
She ate slowly, trying to grasp something that was bothering her. Something that tied together all the sites they had viewed. But what? She looked around, trying to spot anything that might help her figure out what it was. Around at the water, up the long slope through the city… “That’s it.”
“What?” Alain followed her gaze. “Something is up there?”
“No. That’s the point. Nothing’s up there.” Mari could see the Mage’s eyes reflecting confusion, and felt a sense of satisfaction that she was getting better at spotting his thoughts and emotions despite his efforts to hide them. “Can dragons fly?”
The apparent change of subject didn’t seem to startle the Mage. “No. Not at all. They do not have wings, but even if they did I do not see how they could fly. Their large muscles, their heavy bones, their armored scales, it all ties them to the ground.–Although by using their hind legs, the largest can jump impressive distances,” he added. “If you want a flying spell creature, you need a Roc.”
“A what?”
“A Roc. It is a giant bird,” Alain explained.
Mari shook her head. “A giant bird. I’m crazy to be listening to this, you know that?”
“I have thought…” He fumbled for words, for a moment looking just like any other seventeen-year-old young man. Was that actually embarrassment showing? “You might…be interested…someday…in flying…on a Roc. I mean…with me.”
“Are you asking me on a date?” Mari tried desperately not to laugh at his discomfort. “A date on a giant bird?”
“Um…I do not know…just something to do…together. That is not dangerous,” Alain added hastily.
“Doing something together that isn’t dangerous?” Mari asked. “That would be a change of pace for us, wouldn’t it? Maybe that would be fun, someday.” She wanted to let him down easy, even though the idea of flying on some giant bird felt not just impossible but also far from safe. “Have you ever gone…flying…with a girl before?”
Was he blushing? Just the faintest hint of it, but— Stars above. She had made a Mage blush.
“No,” Alain said.
From what she had seen and heard of Mages and their acolytes, from what she had learned of Alain, that wasn’t surprising. A Mage social probably consisted of everyone standing in the same room and ignoring each other. “Sure, Alain. Let’s do that someday.” I really hope I don’t end up regretting that. “For now, never mind the giant birds. Could dragons get up there?” She pointed up toward the city.
“Of course.” Alain regained his composure quickly. “The wide streets would make their passage easy.”
She smiled with satisfaction. “Then can you think of any reason why everything these dragons have done is close to the water? Even the train trestle was destroyed down at ground level, right at the shore.”
Alain stayed silent as he thought. “No. Now that you mention it, it is very unlike them. Dragons do not like water all that much, especially deep water.”
“They don’t swim well?”
“Not at all. They are heavy, as I said.” The Mage rubbed his chin, clearly thinking. “I have thought you were right about this not really being the work of dragons, but now I am certain. Only a leviathan would be tied to the water, and a leviathan would not cause the kinds of damage we have seen.”
“Leviathan.” Mari tried not to wince. “Giant fish?”
“Not exactly. Squid? Whale? It is a bit like both. But much larger.”
“Fine.” Hopefully he wouldn’t ask her out for a ride on a leviathan. “All I need to know is that we’re not dealing with one.” She started walking along the pier, Alain falling in beside her. “Just out of curiosity, and not that I ever expected to be asking someone this, but can you make a dragon?”
Alain shook his head. “No. To be able to create a spell creature you need different training, different ways of knowing how to change the world illusion. It is not something I ever sought.”
Mari nodded back. “Then it’s a specialty. That’s what Mechanics call that sort of thing.”
“Do we need a dragon?” Alain asked.
“No!” She fought down the image of a monster adding to the problems of Dorcastle. They came to some more bollards and Mari sat down on one, staring across the harbor. “If it’s not some spell creature doing this, then it’s got to be some Mechanic device. Nothing else could generate that kind of power without taking a lot of time or being so big it would be obvious. But my Guild’s not behind this. It’s costing us a lot of money.”
“It is also causing the Mage Guild a lot of trouble,” Alain pointed out, sitting down on an adjacent bollard. “That could be seen as worth the lost money for your Guild.”
“Well, yeah. But I don’t think so. That’s just a guess, of course, but the Senior Mechanics in Dorcastle are all acting very unhappy. I think I’d have spotted some signs of smugness if this was a plot cooked up by my Guild. And,” she continued, “that train accident we almost had. I don’t see how the Guild would have approved the possible destruction of the train and all its passengers. Whoever set it up might be a Mechanic.” Was she really telling a Mage this, even if that Mage was Alain? “But I don’t see how that Mechanic could be following Guild orders.”