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“But I do wish to marry you, Mari,” Alain said desperately.

“Then why didn’t you tell me what was in that vision? Was it supposed to be some kind of surprise?”

“You are being unfair,” Alain said, finally getting his mental balance again. “I did not know the meaning of the rings, and we had little time to speak right after I saw the vision.”

“You managed to mention a few other things! Something about armbands and some battle—”

“I thought the battle raging around us in the vision was far more important than the rings.” Mari just stared at him. “Did this one err?”

She nodded, her face still rigid with multiple emotions. “That one erred. Boy, did that one err.”

“Mari, nothing in that vision is fixed, nothing in it must be in our future. Everything depends on our actions, on our decisions.” He looked back at her, the full import finally hitting him. “We…we may be married someday?” His voice sank, and Alain felt the unfamiliar motion of a smile forming on his lips, but in his amazement he made no effort to suppress the smile. “This may happen?”

Mari’s face was relaxing as she watched him. “Yes, Mage. It may happen. Even now, it may happen. Don’t ask me why, but it may happen.”

Alain had to lean on the nearest boulder as emotions flooded him. “It was never to be in my future. Earlier we spoke of family, but I did not realize…now it may be. And with you.”

She had actually begun smiling again. “If you play your cards right.”

“Will you help me make that future happen, Mari? That part of it?”

Her hand rested on his. “I’ll give it my best shot. Alain, I honestly cannot tell you yet whether I want to marry you. It would be a very big step, and we haven’t actually spent all that much time together and…and there are some other issues I need to deal with. Big issues. But we’ll see, Alain. We’ll see.”

The fury had passed. Mari was smiling at him again, then she turned to walk onward, humming what sounded like a merry song under her breath.

Alain followed, deciding not to try to talk about anything else for a while.

He had not realized how dangerous conversation could be.

Chapter Seven

Another night in the mountains, much lower down now. Mari sat watching the stars during her time on sentry duty. She had spent a lot of time doing that since Alain had talked to her about the stars: watching the stars, and thinking. My Guild says Mechanics came from the stars, but discourages studying them. Why? What secrets do the skies hold? Was Alain right when he wondered if everyone on Dematr came from the stars originally? But how could that be possible? Whatever the stars are, the vast majority of them never seem to move relative to each other. If there’s no apparent parallax, they must be incredibly distant.

She gazed at Alain. His face, usually still emotionless during waking periods, was now relaxed in sleep. The Mage had trouble forming anything like a natural smile when awake, but sometimes at night Mari had seen a very ordinary and very comforting smile drift for a moment across Alain’s face. Married? I really haven’t considered that. He saw it, though, us married in the future. What would it be like? What decisions do we have to make to get there?

I don’t know for sure yet, but I think I want to get there.

What if Alain had told me about those rings just before we parted at Dorcastle? I’d just realized I was in love. I hadn’t really thought about a future with him. Marriage? I might have run screaming in the opposite direction. Knowing that possible future then might have made it not happen.

I’ve had months to think about it, months to realize that it wasn’t just some crazy crush on a guy who needed fixing. Now I can think yeah, maybe. I heard those common soldiers who couldn’t stop talking to each other about how brave he had been, how he had saved them. That’s my Mage.

I wonder what our children would be like? I’ve never wondered that about a guy before.

An image of her mother came then, dimmed by the years, seen from the perspective of the eight-year-old Mari had been when she last saw her mother, and Mari felt suddenly cold. No. No. Not if I end up like her, someone who could abandon and forget about her own daughter. I can’t do that to Alain, to any children. Maybe it’s better if he and I never get married, maybe it’s better if I never have children.

Though, honestly, the odds of either Alain or I staying alive long enough for that to be a possibility are getting worse all the time. Mari looked west, back in the direction they had come from. And if those commons go around telling people I’m the daughter of Jules, we won’t have any chance at all. Where did they get such a crazy idea? And why does Alain seem to encourage them sometimes? I know when he says they know who I am that Alain is talking about me being a Master Mechanic, and who I am inside, and his girlfriend. Not some mythical hero who’s going to save the world.

I mean, I want to fix things, and that may mean doing some very radical stuff, but that’s not the same as…

Is it?

She tried to think about other things until she awoke Alain for his turn on watch, but Mari’s dreams were troubled for the rest of the night.

When Alain woke her in the morning, Mari winced at the effort of standing. “Three days of riding, followed by three days of climbing. My thighs are never going to forgive me. According to General Flyn’s map we should have one last difficult stretch and then reach level ground before this day is out.”

Before starting out this morning she took off her Mechanics jacket, trading it for a coat such as commons wore, carefully packing away the jacket in her pack. Alain watched her, then exchanged his robes for common clothes from his own smaller pack. Anyone seeing them now wouldn’t be able to tell that they belonged to the Great Guilds, or that a Mage and Mechanic were keeping company.

The path started out that day following gentle slopes, but by afternoon the trail had grown much steeper, plunging downward at so sharp an angle that they were climbing down rather than walking. Mari saw the narrow gap ahead with relief, and as the sun sank behind the Northern Ramparts again she and Alain stepped onto fairly level ground at the foot of the mountains.

Mari pulled out a large map she had bought back in Kelsi, spreading it upon a nearby rock. “Any idea how far north we are of the pass you used?”

Alain peered toward the south. “I see nothing familiar.”

“I think we’re about here,” Mari suggested, tapping the map. “Flyn thought we would be far enough north to avoid any Imperial forces guarding the pass. That means we need to go east from here until we cross this stream,” she continued, tracing the route with one finger, “then cut southeast to get back into farming country. According to the map, this area around us is supposed to be used for grazing herds, but I don’t see any.”

He gazed around, looking at the plains rolling gently off to the north, south and east. “It is autumn. The herds would have been brought in by now, taken to market for sale or slaughter, or moved to sheltered areas for the winter.”

“How do you…? Oh. Your parents’ farm?”

“Yes.”

Mari hesitated, seeing how Alain was closing down his feelings, reacting to the pain of the long-suppressed memories this area was bringing out. His voice had, for a moment, softened and gained a more youthful quality, before a Mage’s unemotional tones came back in control. “Alain, I—”