Alain bent and turned to get through the hole. Once he was beside her the hole vanished, leaving them in darkness.
Not wanting to use her hand light, which might reveal their presence to anyone watching, Mari felt her way forward, spotting a rectangle of light that must mark the borders of a door. The door wasn’t locked, so they opened it carefully, peering out into a deserted hallway.
“Unoccupied offices, I guess,” Mari whispered. She led the way to the stairs and went down them, Mari wincing as each stair creaked with what seemed to be an incredible amount of noise. On the ground floor, a few small window openings were boarded up. “Great. How do we leave a boarded up building without someone noticing?”
Alain sighed. “Let us go to the back. If we cannot open a door there, I will make another opening.” He seemed tired already.
“Let’s hope we won’t need to do that.” Mari smiled at him. “Have I told you you’re great to have around when bad guys are on the hunt?”
Alain managed another one of his smiles. “I can be useful in dungeons as well.”
“True.” They had to kick open an interior door before reaching the back. There Mari found a door locked from the outside. Grumbling, she pulled out a tool from her pack and hastily pulled the bolts from the hinges, then swung the door open backwards. Alain was watching her with a perplexed expression, plainly trying to figure out how she had done that. It was a source of unending amazement for her that a man who thought being able to walk through a solid wall was no big deal regarded the most simple mechanical tasks as mysterious and unfathomable.
The door let out into an alley, where Mari paused to look both ways, her pistol at ready. “Now what?”
“We can assume all ways out of the city will be watched.”
“We can’t afford to stay here, Alain. Pandin’s already too dangerous for us.”
“No, we cannot stay. But we can confuse our pursuers as to where we are going. I have thought of a plan, a stratagem.”
“A stratagem?” Mari asked, impressed by his use of the term. “Really?”
He led them both out the alley and onto the street, walking rapidly back toward the coach station as Alain talked. “I am assuming someone may be watching for us,” he assured Mari. “Let us get on the coach to Marida.”
“We don’t want to go to Marida, Alain!” Mari objected. “It’s a seaport and we'd need to leave Imperial territory to get there. There’ll be more spies and more Imperial security between here and there than anywhere inland!”
“We need only take the coach a short distance and then jump off to confuse our pursuers.” Alain stopped speaking, staring ahead with a grim look in his eyes. “Then again, my foresight now warns of serious danger for us near the coach station. I do not think we will be allowed to leave that way.”
Mari thought, running through options. “We have to get out of this city. Walking would be too slow, and…wait.”
Alain looked at her. “I am already waiting.”
“No, I meant— Never mind.” She pointed in a direction where a smoky haze was visible over the city. “There’s one way out that the Order will never suspect we’ll take. We’ll get on a train.”
“A train?” Alain followed as Mari began walking rapidly toward the Mechanics Guild train station. “A Mechanic train such as we rode from Ringhmon? But your Guild seeks to arrest you.”
“Yeah. Which means it would be crazy for me to walk into a Mechanic Guild train station. Which also means no one will expect me to do that,” Mari explained, wondering to herself whether that actually sounded like a smart plan.
“But then—”
“I’m not wearing my jacket, Alain. My Guild thinks I’m still wearing it, they think I’m traveling alone, they don’t think I’m in the Empire.” Mari smiled in what she hoped was a confident way. “We should be okay. Just a couple of commons. The Mechanics here won’t look twice at us.”
Mari turned casually away from the ticket booth as she spotted the poster with an all-too-accurate drawing of her face on it just inside where the Apprentice selling tickets could easily see it. The Guild had been more efficient than she had expected. “Time for another plan,” she muttered to Alain.
Gazing around the station, Mari saw that it resembled other Mechanic train stations. No surprise there, since the Guild had a mania for standardized design. The main difference from the train stations farther south was that up here the locomotives used coal to fire their boilers rather than the oil employed in the southern Empire and the Bakre Confederation. Instead of oil tanks, this station had large coal bunkers.
But if this station was otherwise just like the stations she was more familiar with… “I’ve got another idea. Follow me and try to look casual and unconcerned.”
“That was easier to do before you announced that you had another idea,” Alain said.
“Very funny,” Mari said. “Lots of Mages in the world and I get the one with the hidden sense of humor. I’ve done way too good a job of teaching you sarcasm.”
Mari led the way to one side, where crates, barrels and bags were stacked awaiting transport in freight cars. She slid smoothly in among the freight, ducking slightly so she was concealed behind the stacks, then moved rapidly toward the train just beyond.
There weren’t any guards, just as Mari had expected, because no common would risk getting close to a Mechanic train except to board the passenger cars. She studied the nearest freight car, looking up and down the train. A small cluster of Mechanics and Apprentices was visible at the rear of the train, standing around talking before boarding the passenger car there. Up front, a single Mechanic and one Apprentice were fussing with the steam locomotive. No one was looking her way. Mari pulled out her Mechanics jacket and put it on, stuffing the common coat into her pack. “Stay here,” she cautioned Alain, then stepped out from cover.
The door to the freight car was locked. Mari glanced up and down the track again, wondering what the odds were of getting the lock picked without anyone noticing. Even though right now I look like just one more Mechanic, it’s still too risky because no one should be popping open any of these cars right now. How can I get us inside this thing without being spotted? She looked up, then beckoned to Alain. “Come on.”
It took her five steps to the rear of the freight car, then Mari swung in between cars to where the small ladder leading up the back was located, pulling Alain behind her. She started climbing, glad to be hidden from the Mechanics at the front and rear of the train, pausing only to gesture Alain to climb after her.
The top of the freight car felt hideously exposed, but was actually screened right now from anyone close to the train. The lock on the small top-access door was also closed, but easier to pick than the side door would have been. Mari popped the lock in a few seconds, then beckoned Alain again, getting him down inside the freight car and following quickly. She stopped when only her head was still out in the open, listening and looking for any sign that someone had noticed. Reassured, Mari lowered herself into the freight car, swinging the door shut after her.
The car was almost full of freight, but that left plenty of room for the two of them. The sides of the car were supposed to be solid, but the car was old, the wood had shrunk and warped, and therefore there were numerous small gaps through which light and air could enter. “Welcome to our ride to Severun,” she whispered. “Stay very quiet until the train starts moving.”