“Do you feel anything?” She was pleading now. “Am I being a total idiot? You said you like me. Do you? Do you know what that means? Are there emotions still buried down inside you or have I just imagined that?”
“I…feel.” He stared back at her, wondering what his face revealed.
“It’s my fault, isn’t it? You were all right before you met me, you were a Mage and you were happy.”
It was Alain’s turn to shake his head. “I am still a Mage. I was not happy. I did not know what happiness was. I had forgotten. But now I have met you and I remember some things and feel other things that—”
“No!” Mari turned her face away from him. “Don’t say it. It’s impossible. Now answer my question, Alain. What will your Guild do to you if they learn that…that a Mechanic is in love with you.”
“That would be a cause for discussion,” Alain said. “Cause to decide if I could exploit the situation for the good of the Mage Guild. Cause to debate what should be done to her. But I would be eliminated as a danger to the Mage Guild if my Guild learned that I was…in…love…with a Mechanic.”
“Are you really?” Mari asked, her eyes searching his. “Stars above, you are. I’ve messed up everything.”
She seemed to need some praise, some commendation to make her feel better. Alain, who had been taught as an acolyte never to say nice things, cast around for anything, saying whatever he could think of. “You do not mess up all things. You have defeated the dragons of Dorcastle.” She almost smiled. He could see it. What else to say? Discuss her abilities, just as if she were a fellow Mage. “You are a very dangerous person, Master Mechanic Mari.”
Mari finally turned a sad smile on him. “Maybe I’m more dangerous than I ever realized. I never thought of myself as the sort of girl who could ruin a guy’s life. Didn’t anyone ever warn you that girls can be dangerous, Alain?”
“I have often been warned lately how dangerous girl Mechanics can be.”
“You’re dangerous, too. In all the good ways and all the bad ways.” She shook her head. “Alain, we’re talking about a relationship that endangers your life.”
“It endangers yours as well. That is more important.”
“No, it isn’t.” Mari covered her face with both hands. “I really have to think. Not here. Not now. Alain, you need to get back to your Guild Hall so you don’t get tied into this, and I need to call my Guild Hall so they can get some Mechanics down here to take over what’s left of the warehouse. There’s no telling what Mechanic devices might have survived the explosion.”
“And your fellow Mechanics will get to see the dragon,” Alain added, still desperately trying to make her feel better.
“Yeah.” Mari managed another smile. “Those Dark Mechanics were pretending to be dragons, and an actual dragon came in and whomped them. How’s that for poetic justice?” She sighed, reaching into her jacket. “Good thing I had this in a waterproof pack. I hope the shock of the boiler explosion didn’t break it. Um, you’re not seeing or hearing anything, all right?”
Alain nodded. “Yes, Mari.”
Bringing out a dark box as long as her lower arm, Mari held the box near her mouth, then spoke as if talking to someone. After waiting a while, she talked into the box again. Finally Alain heard the faint sound of someone answering her, as if that person was in the box but also far away. Mari and the box voice talked for a while, then she put the box away. “That’s it, my…Alain. You need to be gone before the other Mechanics get here.” She sounded very weary as well as sad now.
“How will I know you are safe? If I see someone coming, how will I know they are your friends?”
She thought about that. “Go somewhere where you can see me. I’ll stay here. If I see the people I expect to see, I’ll wave. So when you see that wave, you’ll know everything’s fine.”
“I will do as you say.” Alain felt a terrible reluctance to leave, overpowered by emotions he had forgotten how to deal with, or never learned to deal with. For a moment, Mari’s status as the daughter of the prophecy meant nothing. For a moment, only she mattered. “Mari, I did not know that I could ever feel like—”
“Don’t, Alain. Please.” She saw his face. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ve been so selfish. I wanted you around because I trust you and because you make me happy and now…”
“I make you happy?” Alain asked, unable to believe what he had heard.
“We can’t— Yes.”
Alain hesitated. “You do not seem happy.”
“I’m unhappy because you make me happy,” Mari sighed. “If I wasn’t so glad to be around you I wouldn’t be so upset.”
“I do not understand.”
“For once, I don’t blame you,” she said. “I feel very confused, too. I need a little time, Alain. You need…you need some girl who can fly on a giant bird with you.”
“Why cannot you be that girl?” he asked.
“Firstly, because I think it’s impossible for a bird that big to actually fly, and I can prove it using equations, and secondly, because your fellow Mages will kill me. After they kill you.” Mari made a confused gesture. “This is just like me. I can’t fall in love with some regular guy, a Mechanic or even a common. I have to fall in love with a Mage. But sometimes love means giving something up, Alain. And we may have to do that. I need to think and I need to see how my Guild reacts to what’s happened tonight and what I learned. When I can talk, I’ll leave my Guild Hall and be somewhere on one of the walls. Can you still find me?”
Alain nodded, wondering why his insides felt so heavy. “Always.”
“Always.” She repeated the word softly, staring into his eyes, then took a deep breath. “We…we’ll talk. I promise. I have to… What am I going to do? I don’t know yet. I’ll be on the walls somewhere, in a day or so. Maybe three. I promise. Maybe by then…” Mari shook her head. “Tell your Guild that the dragon problem should be solved. That should make you look good, right? Now you’d better go. I don’t know how long it’ll take the other Mechanics to get here.”
“You will be safe?” he asked.
“I’ll be very careful,” Mari said. “I promise.”
He hesitated, looking at her, wanting to say more, but Mari bit her lip and shook her head again, and Alain turned and walked away, turmoil filling him. He walked fast, trying to outrun something even though he did not know what it was, until he reached a place where two adjacent warehouses left a shadowed gap between them. Alain went to the gap, sliding into the deeper darkness and gazing back at where Mari waited.
He finally had time to think. He had not worn his Mage robes, but he had been forced to use some spells. Someone in that warehouse might have seen enough to realize that Mari had a Mage working with her. Did Dark Mages know enough of the prophecy to realize what that would mean? Did the Mechanics Guild?
Mari stood on the deserted road, the dark of her Mechanics jacket blending into the raven of her hair and both matching the shadows so that she seemed to be fading into the night. Time passed slowly, but eventually Alain heard the sounds of numerous people approaching through the otherwise silent area. Moments later, a group of Mechanics came into view, moving quickly.
Mari raised her arm and waved slowly and deliberately, holding her arm aloft an extra-long time before letting it fall.
He stayed a while longer, watching as the Mechanics reached Mari, waiting until the entire group headed back toward the ruins of the Dark Mechanic warehouse. As the last Mechanic vanished from sight, Alain pulled out his Mage robes, soaking wet inside his bag, and put on the dripping garment. It would dry on the long walk to the Mage Guild Hall, and the wetness and the cold might help distract from the strange sensations filling him.