“Quickly,” Mari explained. “The weaknesses build up gradually, but the warning signs aren’t always easy to spot. One moment everything seems fine, and the next it comes apart.”
“But someone who sees the metal weakening can do things to save it? To keep it from coming apart?”
“Well…yes,” Mari said. “But it can be hard, especially if the damage has accumulated for a long time. It can reach the point where saving the metal is extremely hard and you’re better off replacing it.”
Alain nodded. “And if our world was this metal?”
“If our world— ?” Mari let that sink in. “That’s scary. Why would the rest of the world crack like Tiae?”
“I have a memory,” Alain said. “From before the Mages took me for training. A pen had been made for the animals on my parents’ land. They had been placed within it, many of them in a small space, and something caused them to begin to rush about. Some panic or pain.” He paused, recalling the terror with which a little boy had watched the scene. “There was no room, but still the animals tried to rush from side to side, trampling those who fell. The fallen…screamed as the others crushed them. But still the panic grew, and my father, I think it was, broke open the pen and let them run, because otherwise they would have killed themselves.”
Mari stared at him, saddened. “That must have been awful to watch. An animal pen. A cage. A box. Like that man in Ringhmon talked about. Is that what you think might be happening? The commons have been penned in for so long and…”
She shook her head, frightened by the visions that idea had created. “Alain, I haven’t been able to figure out why the leaders of Ringhmon kidnapped me and did some things on . . . a Mechanic device, things that they knew were absolutely forbidden by my Guild. The risks were insane. And suppose someone did try to destroy that locomotive to get rid of me? Overkill. That’s what Mechanics would call that. Using far more force than made sense. It’s as if people are starting to act that way, like those animals you remember, panicked and pushing against the walls confining them.”
“They would need someone to break the pen open,” Alain said.
“I don’t break things, Alain. The Mechanic rule is repair and replace. That’s what we would have to do, but repairing and replacing a world? I think that is beyond the capability of Mechanics.”
“But if Mages and commons also help,” Alain said, “you could do this.”
“Me? Oh. Sure. Mari’s going to save the world.” She laughed shortly. “I’m…what’s her name? That daughter of Jules! Is that why you’re hanging around with me?”
“I thought you did not want to speak of—”
“You’re right. I don’t.” Mari took a deep breath, glaring across the harbor, upset that she had introduced the topic of their relationship into the discussion. “Alain, I can’t fix anything unless I get someone to listen to me. Someone besides you, that is. I need proof. I need…I need a dragon.”
“I cannot—”
“Not a real one, and don’t say it! One of the fake dragons that is doing this damage. Would you like to go dragon hunting with me? Tonight?”
Alain nodded without hesitating. “A friend helps.”
Mari smiled. “Yeah. But it might be dangerous.”
“Then I must be there with you.”
Stars above, if only this could work. It can’t. You know that. Focus on the job, Mari! Remember what happens to him if he’s caught with a Mechanic. You can stay just a friend with Alain and help him change enough that he can meet some girl who can be a lot more than that to him without also endangering him. She ignored the pang of distress that thought brought to life. “All right. Let’s go case the job.” Alain gave her a questioning glance. “That means look around the barge area before it gets dark.”
She stood up and they started along the waterfront once more, just as some sort of loud argument erupted nearby. Ignoring the debate, Mari nonetheless heard it quickly escalate into a fight. A crowd swelled in the area with amazing rapidity as laborers rushed to see the combatants, so that before she knew it Mari was struggling through a dense mass of people trying to rush past her and Alain.
A powerful arm suddenly came around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides, while another arm came around from the other side to clap a hand over her mouth. She gripped her bag. Alain had vanished in the mass of humanity. Mari felt herself being lifted and pulled back with the flow of the crowd toward the buildings and alleys that lined the waterfront, barely able to struggle and unable to cry out.
Chapter Fifteen
Mari tried to elbow her captor in the side but couldn’t get her arm free. She tried to bite the hand over her mouth but a stout leather glove protected it. She kicked backwards, getting in some jabs to the ankles of whoever had grabbed her, but he was wearing heavy boots that protected his shins. Mari’s kicks made him stumble, but he kept a firm grip on her.
They were fading into the crowd. Mari lost sight of where she had been. She had no idea where Alain was. Then they backed through a doorway. The door started to close, caught on something, then slammed shut, leaving Mari and her captor in the dimness of a room illuminated only by a heavily curtained window, the sounds of the brawl outside now muffled.
“Get her,” someone grunted. Hands grabbed her own, forcing her arms back as her captor released his grip slightly. The bag dropped from her hand. Mari twisted, slipping one hand free and swinging a punch that caused one of the kidnappers to back away hastily.
The big man’s grip tightened again. Mari felt a sense of despair. There were at least two other men in here, and she had no way to get in a good blow at any of them. Once she was tied up she would be helpless.
“She’s supposed to have a gun,” the big man stated. “Search her.”
One of the others placed his hands on Mari, pawing her and grinning as he saw Mari’s outrage. “What’s the matter, girl? Not used to men feeling around? Maybe you’ll like it.”
That did it.
Mari twisted again, surprised at her own strength and surprising her captors. Her leg came up and she planted her boot in the gut of the man who had been trying to search her. As he fell backwards with a grunt of pain, the other men shouted angrily, but under their cries Mari heard a familiar voice whose tones conveyed calm and confidence even though they carried no emotion.
“Close your eyes.”
Hope blossoming inside her, Mari squeezed her eyes tightly shut. A moment later bright light flared in the room, dazzling even through her eyelids. The cries of the men holding her changed to distress. A thudding noise resounded, then the arms of the big man holding her finally relaxed as he fell, almost pulling her down with him.
Mari spun, her angry gaze fixed on the third man, who was stumbling around blinking. Mari pivoted on one foot, leaning back and bringing her other leg up in a kick that slammed into the man’s stomach and bent him over, gasping for breath. A moment later she landed a hard kick on the man’s head, snapping him back and to the side, where his head struck a wooden beam. He fell and lay still.
That left at least one. But as Mari turned to face the first man she had kicked, she saw Alain hurl himself forward, hitting the man in the chest and forcing him back through the window. Glass shattered as the curtains billowed, and the noise of the riot outside suddenly jumped in volume. Alain stood up and looked out the window, one hand raised slightly, then backed away. “He is running,” he explained dispassionately.
“You couldn’t get a good shot at him?” she asked, trembling with reaction, fear, and anger at the kidnapping attempt. She stared at Alain, who appeared to be completely unfazed by the recent crisis.