“A little?”
“Watch it.” She unbent enough to explain. “I’m worrying about so many things: about the dangers to you and me, and what to do, and how to get to Severun, and…to be honest, I’m also dealing with some pretty powerful emotions that I haven’t ever felt before, either. Sometimes I think they make me a little crazy.”
They found the bookstore without too much trouble. Mari paused on the street, staring south to where the usual large plaza opened out around the Mechanics Guild Hall. Mechanics Guild Halls had been her homes since she was a small child. They had been her safety and sanctuary against the outside world, they had been where her friends and co-workers were. She had been educated and trained in them. To have those Guild Halls be a place where enemies lurked was very disturbing, as if a long-trusted friend or a stern but loving parent had changed inside to be a deadly foe. Mari could sometimes go for long stretches now without being conscious of not wearing her Mechanics jacket, but this close to a Guild Hall she suddenly felt naked without it. She belonged in that Guild Hall, she should be wearing her jacket, and there should be no doubts or fears within her.
That was what she had been taught as an apprentice. That was what she had once believed. Now, every certainty had been replaced by distrust.
Mari and Alain lurked in a shaded area until they saw Calu appear, strolling along until he entered the bookstore. “Do you see anything?” Mari asked.
“No. Nor does my foresight warn of danger.”
“Good.” She paused to look at him. “Thanks for putting up with me when I get hard to live with.”
Alain bowed toward her. “I know that I am not always easy to live with, and I understand the no pressure you are under.”
“You mean the pressure I’m under,” Mari said. “No pressure means, uh, pressure…never mind. Thank you.”
I will watch,” Alain said. “Go meet your friend. What would be appropriate for me to say to him?”
“Uh…that you were sorry you had to stay out here keeping a watch for danger and couldn’t say hello in person.”
“Say that to Mechanic Calu for me,” Alain said.
“Sure.” Smiling despite her worries, Mari walked across the street and down to the bookstore with as casual a gait as she could manage. Her inability ever to manage the swagger employed by most Mechanics was a good thing, since it meant she didn’t have to remind herself to walk like a common.
Partly-filled bookshelves lined the walls and ran down the center of the store. Calu was standing to one side, screened from the view of the owner by a wall of shelves. Mari walked up next to him as if wandering through the store. “Hi, Mechanic.”
Calu glanced over at her with a relieved expression. “You made it. Where’s your, uh, Alain?”
“Outside, keeping an eye out for trouble. He said he was sorry he couldn’t say hello in person.”
“Did he really?”
“Yeah.” Mari couldn’t help grinning. “He really is trying to be human again.”
“Good for Alain.” Calu regarded her solemnly. “You need all the friends you can get right now, Mari. The alert on you has been upgraded to an arrest order.”
“An arrest order?” She had been expecting it, yet it still felt like a punch in the gut. “Any reason?”
“For the good of the Guild.” Calu snorted in derision. “And allegedly for your own good. We no sooner got back here after the blizzard than the Guild Hall supervisor called us in and asked us if anyone had seen or heard anything of Master Mechanic Mari of Caer Lyn.”
Mari made a pained sound. “Senior Mechanics always pretended to forget to call me a Master Mechanic, but now that they’re trying to get me arrested, they remember.”
“The Senior Mechanic said that you had last been seen in Alexdria.” Calu shook his head. “They also said that an expended weapon believed to have been in your possession was found in a pass leading into the Empire, so they thought you might’ve come this way. That’s why they asked us if we had seen you.”
“An expended weapon?” Mari winced. “Alli’s dragon killer.”
“Yeah, although needless to say the Senior Mechanic didn’t mention finding a dead dragon near it.”
“They just found one weapon?”
“Yup.” Calu pretended to be examining some of the books before him. “But they also found a large group of Alexdrian soldiers, who first claimed not to have seen you. But they had a horse with them which matched the one you had bought in Alexdria, and when confronted with that and the evidence of the weapon they admitted they had seen a Mechanic heading south toward Kelsi. She was alone, these soldiers swore, and had traded horses for one of theirs since hers was worn out. They also said this Mechanic had asked them how hard it was to get a ship to Farland from Kelsi or Marida at this time of year.” Calu glanced at her again. “I used to think that commons were so afraid of Mechanics that they’d always tell us the truth. Now I’m never going to talk to commons again without wondering whether or not they’re lying to me.”
Mari breathed a thank-you to General Flyn. Farland was as distant as any place on the Sea of Bakre could be, and almost the exact opposite direction from the way she had actually gone with Alain. She had a mental vision of General Flyn earnestly, politely, and oh-so-respectfully lying his head off to the Mechanics who had questioned him. “The Guild thinks I’m trying to get to Farland, then?”
“Yeah. We were asked if any of us knew anyone you might know there, and whether we’d gotten any letters from you.” Calu took a book, pretending to look at it and shaking his head. “Mari, we got word of all this as soon as we got back here, which means somebody found out this stuff quickly enough to have it sent by long–distance far-talker and then relayed here. There must have been some Mechanics pretty close behind you.”
Mari stared at the books before her, not focusing on their titles. “They must have been real close. Not much more than a day behind, I’d guess. I thought I had done a decent job of throwing off any potential trackers before I left Alexdria, but if I hadn’t been moving fast they might have caught up to me before I reached Alain.”
“Any idea why they didn’t catch you after that?”
“Well, the commons lied to them, and Alain and I headed off the main pass, taking a small hidden route to the north. Anyone sent on east through the pass wouldn’t have found us.” She gave a heavy sigh of relief. “We thought we were just avoiding any legionaries ahead of us at the mouth of the pass, but we ended up sidestepping Mechanics coming up behind us, too.”
“Lucky,” Calu commented. “But it means the Guild was following you pretty well.”
“I was wearing my jacket after I left Alexdria,” Mari admitted. “I thought in Free Cities territory I’d be safer traveling alone as a Mechanic than as a common.”
“Wrong.”
“Yeah,” Mari agreed. “Hopefully the commons and the detour and the blizzard threw the Guild off my track.”
“I think so,” Calu said, “since the Guild is asking everyone where you might be. But that means a lot of people will be looking for you, and the Guild is obviously keeping an eye out for you here in Imperial territory as well as elsewhere. The Senior Mechanics were all saying the Guild is worried about you, that you had gotten hurt in Ringhmon, hit on the head, and now might be irrational and in need of care.”
“That’s funny,” Mari grumbled. “They weren’t too worried about the lump on my head while I was still at Ringhmon.”
“So,” Calu continued, “you might say crazy things or believe crazy things, but if any of us saw you we were to either talk you into coming back to a Guild Hall with us or else go immediately and get some Mechanics to bring you back.”