Chapter Ten
Asha’s eyes stayed locked on Alain’s for a long moment as the carriage drove past. Then Asha leaned back and let the curtain drop.
He waited, barely able to believe that Asha had not betrayed him to the Guild and the Imperials. But there was no alarm, no variation in the steady pace of the marching column, as the carriages of the Mages moved away down the road. Though Alain strained his senses, he could feel no sign that any of the Mages within the carriages were preparing spells.
Mari turned and gave him a worried look. “What happened? One of the Mages looked out and you suddenly tensed up, like you expected trouble.”
Alain relaxed himself with an effort. “One of the Mages in the second wagon saw me and knew me,” he explained in a low voice. Mari’s eyes flared in alarm. “But she did nothing.”
“The Mage who looked out toward us? Wait a minute.” Her tone of voice went very quickly from alarm to umbrage. “Blond. Beautiful. Was that Asha?” Mari demanded.
“Yes, that was Asha.”
“That was Asha.”
“Yes,” Alain repeated, wondering why he felt so worried by the way Mari looked at him.
“She has blue eyes,” Mari said, pointing her forefinger at Alain. “You didn’t tell me that she had blue eyes. And you didn’t tell me she was beautiful.”
“I told you she was very attractive. I did not mention the eyes because I did not think that was important.”
“Not important?” Mari glared at Alain. “How old is she?”
“I do not know exactly. I believe she is perhaps two years older than me.”
“Oh! Great!”
Alain watched Mari, unable to understand what was wrong. “She did not betray us, Mari. There is no need to be concerned.”
“I’m not concerned!” Mari growled back at him.
“But—” Alain decided he should stop trying to explain. Mari was staring at the last of the Imperial forces marching past, her face unyielding. Alain watched them, too, wondering why Mari was so unhappy and why Asha had not betrayed him. Two women acting in ways he did not understand. Nothing in his Mage training had prepared Alain for this.
The last ranks of foot soldiers passed. Bringing up the rear came wagon after wagon, most being driven by farmers or merchants who had been pressed into service along with their vehicles and draft animals. Inside the wagons lay soldiers too badly wounded to walk or ride, sometimes moaning as the wagons jolted them. Mari leaned back to murmur to him. “They didn’t get off easy either, did they?” Her bad mood seemed to have passed as quickly as the storm.
Alain just nodded. He wondered why he felt neither pride in having hurt so many of the enemy, nor revulsion in the harm he had caused to save the Alexdrians, just a melancholy at the sight of the suffering. “The Free Cities and the Empire have been waging war for centuries, to no purpose. Men and women die, but nothing ever changes.”
“What a waste,” Mari said. “But their deaths do accomplish something. They die to keep the world stable, so that the Great Guilds can continue to rule.” She stared at the last wagons full of wounded as they passed. “What are you thinking now?”
“I am thinking that within a few years such deaths, such suffering, will occur on a scale so vast that all this world will be filled with it,” Alain said. “And there will be no safe refuge for the injured or any others. Unless this world does change. That is its only hope, that one person can bring about change.”
She looked over and back at him, somber and subdued. “Remember that ‘no pressure’ thing I mentioned? Why me, Alain?”
“I do not know.”
“I already know how delusional you are concerning me,” Mari told him, “but why does everyone else seem to think I’m either their great hope or really dangerous?”
He had no answer to that. Mari nodded resignedly to him, then gripped his hand. Together she and Alain joined the mass of commons once again clogging the road to Umburan in the wake of the legion.
It took close to the week Calu had predicted before Mari and Alain reached Umburan, walking almost all the way since few wagons passing them had room for riders. By the time they limped into the city, Mari was rethinking her opposition to more horseback riding.
Mari had planned to pass through Umburan as quickly as possible. After she had learned about Alain’s battle, that desire had been reinforced by worries about lingering too close to where the engagement had been fought. There were Imperials in Umburan who could conceivably have seen the young Mage accompanying the Alexdrians, and there were those eight Mages who might have been passing through or might live in the city’s Mage Guild Hall.
But now she had to try to meet with Calu, and in any case by the time they reached Umburan the Imperial troops who had marched by them had already had plenty of time to monopolize all outgoing transport for the next few days. With no way out of the city except by walking—making them too slow and too easily intercepted by anyone looking for them—Mari decided it was just as well that they were planning to stay a while longer. Few would be leaving Umburan until the horses, wagons, coaches and other forms of transportation which had been requisitioned by the Imperial military were freed up for use by civilians again.
Alain, though, wanted to increase their risk. “I should go closer to the Mage Guild Hall to see if I can detect the presence of the Mage Asha,” he argued.
“Why are you so eager to find this Mage Asha again?” Mari demanded, fighting off the aggravation she felt every time the name came up. “Catching up on old times is dangerous, and according to you she wouldn’t be interested in that anyway.”
“She may have important information,” Alain said.
“I’m sure.”
“Why does Asha concern you?” Alain asked.
“She doesn’t concern me. Your old friends are no business of mine. All that I’m worried about is the danger to us.” The small room they had rented in a hostel had thin walls, so they kept their voices low and tried to ignore the sounds that leaked in from the rooms around them.
“Your feelings do not match your words,” Alain said.
“My feelings? My feelings are none of your business!”
Alain watched her for a moment with a puzzled air.
Normally Mari got joy out of spotting expressions on his face, but not right now. She schooled her voice to sound as reasonable as possible. “I don’t think it’s wise to seek out other Mages, particularly other Mages who were part of a group which recently tried to kill you. If there’s going to be contact between you and other Mages, I would just prefer it happen a little farther down the road.”
Alain sat silent for a little while, then nodded. “I do understand. It is hard for me to explain why I believe that Asha can be trusted.”
“It’s not all that hard to understand,” Mari grumbled, thinking of the female Mage’s hair, eyes and face.
“Perhaps you can explain it to me, then,” Alain suggested.
“I don’t think so.” Mari checked the time. “I need to go meet with Calu.”
Alain stood up. “I will watch from outside the bookselling place while you meet with him, to ensure no one approaches. There is a chance he is being watched by your Guild just as you were in Dorcastle.”
“That’s right. Thanks.” Mari felt another of those pangs of guilt. She had been sniping at Alain over an old girlfriend of his, yet Alain was being perfectly reasonable about Mari’s need to see Calu. “I’m sorry I’ve been a little on edge.”