Mari stared blankly at the wall. “I have no idea.”
“Huh. Strange how things work.” The healer leaned back slightly, gazing into the distance. “I’ve seen it before. People get caught on the plains. It’s the footloose ones, the ones without anyone to live for but themselves, that seem to die. Folks with someone close they love, they somehow keep alive more often than the others. In some way that gives them some extra strength when they need it.” She gave Mari an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. I’ve been assuming because I found you holding each other in the bed. You and the lad, you’re traveling together like that?”
Mari nodded. Like that. We don’t have to remain at arm’s length anymore. I can trust myself with him. At least when I’m totally exhausted. “Yes. He’s all right, too, you said?”
“He’s in fine shape for a boy who almost died in a blizzard not much more than a day ago,” the healer remarked. “You slept a good long while. How’d you come to get caught out there? The skies warned of it.”
Still weary as she was, Mari couldn’t think of a good lie. “We’re not from around here.”
“I knew that from the accent, girl. Where did you come from?”
“Palandur.” That’s what the forged Imperial identification papers said, anyway.
“Palandur! City dwellers! And you survived a blizzard on the plains near Umburan! That’s one for the records.” The healer spotted Mari’s pack. “Can I get you some fresh clothing or anything else?” She reached for the pack.
“No!” Inside the pack, right on top, was her Mechanic’s jacket. Deeper inside were tools and her pistol. If anyone here saw any of that, it would be very hard to explain. However, arousing suspicions wouldn’t help either. For that reason, Mari instantly regretted her strong reaction. “I’m sorry.”
But the healer just paused and then pulled her hand back. “Personal things in there?” the healer suggested with a small smile. “Two young ones out in bad weather, far from home, like they’re running from something.” Mari tensed as the healer continued. “What’s the problem, dear? His parents or yours?”
Mari stared blankly at the healer for a moment. Then she got it. She thinks Alain and I are eloping. That’s as good a cover story as any. Better than most. Considering that our Guilds are the closest things we’ve both got to parents now, it’s even true in a way. “Both.”
“Ah, the worst of both worlds. Are you eighteen?”
“Yes,” Mari answered for herself, then remembered Alain’s words alongside the stream. “Both of us are eighteen.”
The healer shook her head. “Then you’re both legal and old enough they shouldn’t be trying to dictate to you. But I know sometimes it still happens. I won’t pry for details.” She sighed heavily. “Folks regret that sort of thing, you know, with time. The best advice I can give you is to offer them another chance some day. You and your man out there. Especially if a grandchild comes. Most people come around then.”
Grandchild? Mari hoped her reaction hadn’t shown. A grandchild to the mother who abandoned me without a second thought? Mari barely suppressed a shudder of apprehension and tried to keep her voice calm. “Thanks. I’ll remember that advice.”
“Good.” The healer’s face turned very serious. “Then I’ll give you one more piece. Or maybe just a warning. Since you came in during the storm, you don’t know who all’s sheltering here besides you. A girl your age should know there’s Mechanics staying here.”
Once again, Mari had to fight to suppress her reaction. “Mechanics?”
“I can tell you’re worried, and well you should be. A girl like you should be wary. Just like Mages, Mechanics have been known not to take no for an answer.”
Mari had seen that, intervening when she could, never liking it, never allowing it to go too far in her presence. But she had heard stories, and now, without her jacket, she was as vulnerable as any common girl and she liked it even less. Her initial reaction had been fear of discovery, but following that came a greater sense of outrage.
Her eyes must have betrayed her anger, because the healer shook her head. “We have to endure it. You know that. Maybe it’s different in Palandur with the emperor’s eyes on them, but up here the Mechanics often do as they please.”
“Mechanics don’t care what the emperor thinks,” Mari said in a low voice.
“That wouldn’t surprise me a bit, but if you know them that well, you know enough to keep out of their sight. The women, too. Sometimes they want a personal servant for a while who they don’t have to pay, or they just feel like humiliating us.”
“I know,” Mari said again, her eyes averted from the healer.
“Some bad memories, there?” the healer asked gently. “Sorry I brought them up.”
“That’s all right. Thank you. I’ll exercise care.” What were the Mechanics here like? Like the decent ones, or like the ones who enjoyed treating the commons as if they were slaves?
What would this healer think if she knew that Mari was a Mechanic? She would be afraid of Mari. She might well hate Mari. And both feelings would be justified by the healer’s experience with other Mechanics. The knowledge made Mari feel slightly ill again.
The healer fussed over Mari a little while longer, then left with advice that Mari and her man get some food in the inn’s dining hall as soon as they felt up to it. Mari sat in the small room, staring at the door.
After a while the door opened slowly and Alain stuck his head in, then managed another brief, tiny smile when he saw her awake. “I did not know if you were still asleep.” He had put on fresh clothes, which clashed with the weariness still apparent on his face. Alain shut the door, then he just stood there, watching her with a very un-Magelike amount of anxiousness in his expression, looking somehow younger then usual.
Mari smiled back. “You’ve been smiling more. I like it. How do you feel?”
“I have been better, but have taken no serious injury and suffer no illness. You?”
“I think I’ll be all right.” She patted the bed. “Come over here and sit down. I want you close.”
“Still?” The tiny smile flickered across his face again, and Alain came to sit beside her, his eyes on hers. “I wondered if you would regret taking me into your bed.”
“Uh, Alain, that’s not exactly what I did.” He started to say something. “Yes, I know you slept beside me, and it felt wonderful to hold you. But we didn’t sleep together.”
Alain seemed baffled. “Yes, we did.”
Mari sighed. “No, we didn’t. We slept next to each other, which means we slept. ‘Sleeping together’ means the same thing as saying that a woman has taken a man into her bed, and both of those mean a lot more than sleeping has been going on.”
Alain nodded, his face serious. “I see. Physical relations. Then if someone asks, I should say we sleep next to each other but not together?”
Mari was sure her startlement showed. “If anyone asks, you tell them that it’s none of their business! What you and I do in bed, or don’t do in bed, is our private affair.”
“Private? Is this one of the social skills things?”
Are you sure you want to get in a very serious relationship with a Mage, Mari? “Mages don’t understand privacy? The idea that some stuff is personal and doesn’t have to be shared with other people?”
Alain appeared to be having trouble with the concept. “There are no other people. That is what Mages are taught. I have told you that. Why would a Mage speak to shadows of anything but what was absolutely necessary to say?”