“Too much failure to accept authority and you end up with anarchy, like in Tiae,” Mari pointed out.
“That is so,” Alain agreed. “But as you told your elder, there is much that lies between total control and anarchy. The leaders of our Guilds and the rulers of the Empire would have us believe that only those two extremes exist, but I have been among the Free Cities and you have been in the Confederation. Their governing systems are not perfect, but they work while still allowing their people freedom.”
“Freedom?” Mari turned to Alain, surprised. “I’ve never heard you use that word. Hardly anybody uses it.”
“I was taught that freedom is an illusion, only one more illusion which distracts from the path of wisdom.” A flare of some deep emotion showed in Alain’s eyes. “But I have felt freedom, Mari, as I walked the road beside you, and I know it is no illusion. The will of the Great Guilds, of the Emperor, those things are illusions, and their images will not endure.”
She stared at him. “At times like this I really remember why I fell in love with you. You know, since you told me about…about the prophecy, I’ve been thinking more about overthrowing the Great Guilds, and I’ve realized that’s not a goal. That’s just something you do on your way to somewhere else. But where? What is the goal, what is it that would replace the Great Guilds? And you just said it. Freedom. To think, to act, to do new things and to make what we do matter. All my life I’ve wanted that. I bet most other people do, too.”
“A new day?”
Mari looked away, feeling uncertainty fill her. “I still don’t see how I can do that, Alain. And I have to wonder why things are like this. It’s been bothering me all the way down here from Severun. You may noticed I’ve been a little preoccupied.”
“I have noticed,” Alain said.
“Aren’t you the diplomatic one,” Mari said. “I have to wonder. Was freedom tried and did it fail? Is that the history before the history we know? Or has it ever been? Why are things as they are now? Is there a reason? Would freedom be a mistake?”
His brow creased ever so slightly, the equivalent of a major frown from a non-Mage. “I cannot believe it would be. I have been a servant to those who demand absolute obedience, and I am now free. I know which is better.”
“Me, too. But does that give me the right to make that decision for others? Do entire societies, do worlds, work better that way? I need more data, Alain. That’s one of the reasons we’re going to Marandur. Maybe along with the banned technology there will be some banned histories.” She frowned at him. “I know that not-a-look of yours. What are you thinking and not saying?”
“I…” He struggled with a word before getting it out. “Hope. I…hope you decide that freedom is the answer.”
Mari gave him her best reassuring smile. “No matter what we find, Alain, I will not believe that the answer is anything like the Empire.”
His eyes rested on hers, concern easy to see. “There may be many who want you to become an Empress.”
“Oh, please!” Mari laughed at the absurdity of the idea. “I will guarantee that is never, ever going to happen. Can you see me on a throne?” Her laughter died as an awful thought struck her. “Have you? Have you seen me on a throne?”
“No,” Alain said. “I have never had such a vision.”
“If you ever do,” Mari said, “that is one future we will ensure does not happen.”
They veered off from the old road and a bare path alongside it that revealed the trail sometimes used by the legionaries. After getting far enough away from the road, they turned to walk parallel to it, watching constantly for more Imperial troops. The road to Marandur cut across a series of slight hills and shallow valleys, so as Mari and Alain traveled they caught sight of the old city while on the higher ground and then lose the view as they moved down into the low areas. The result was to create a series of images, each offering a slightly closer view and more detail than the next.
When first they sighted Marandur the city looked almost beautiful, gleaming in the distance under the last rays of the setting sun. From far away, the city could have been intact. Only the lack of any kind of haze over the city hinted that no people lived or worked there. A living city was always crowned by a haze made up of smoke from fires to heat and cook and work, and from the dust thrown up by the movement of people and animals, just as a living creature breathed out warmth. But the sky above Marandur was almost crystal clear, like that above a vast cemetery where no one moved or drew breath. Mari felt a chill at the sight, and she moved to walk a bit closer to Alain. “Hold on.”
She stopped walking, pulled out her far-seers, and studied the city. Under the magnification of the far-seers, gaps became apparent in the great walls. Towers were truncated, the upper stories fallen into the streets below. The huge gates lay sprawled next to the entrance they had guarded, an entrance with no traffic and lacking any sign of life. Mari moved the far-seers slowly as her head turned, spotting the ragged walls of lesser buildings standing vacant. In all the great city, it was hard to find any place where a roofline or a wall or even a window presented lines unbroken by damage.
Mari shifted her gaze to the area just outside the city. A watchtower stood a few bowshots outside the gates, the reflected glint of the setting sun on the armor of sentries easily visible. “There are towers all the way around as far as I can see,” she told Alain, “close enough to each other that even at night I bet they can spot us if we tried to walk between them. There are sentries walking rounds between the towers, too. It’s a very good security barrier. I tell you, Alain, the Empire is a bloody-handed and despotic state, but they sure know how to build things right. How are we going to get past those sentries?”
“We must not linger on the higher ground,” Alain cautioned. “It will make us to easy to see. We must get close enough to study the defenses and spot any weaknesses.”
“Fine with me.” Mari stayed close to Alain as she put away the far-seers. They went down into the next low area and quickly lost sight of the dead city.
There were more rises, and even though Mari and Alain stayed low and moved quickly across the crests of the high areas, each successive look gave them a better view of the city as the moon rose, its pale rays shining on the dead metropolis.
Outside the city, watch fires had been set at regular intervals, illuminating the ground and the outside of the broken walls. “I can’t see any gaps in the Imperial defenses,” Mari whispered to Alain. Even though they were still a few thousand lances from the Imperial watchtowers, she felt very exposed. She glanced up at the sky, where the stars were paler and the moon was close to setting. “It’s not long until dawn. I don’t want to try anything in daylight.”
Alain pointed toward a small patch of trees to one side of them. “That is wise. Those trees will offer a little cover during the day. We can lie among them, observe the Imperials, and make plans.”
Mari looked. “Why haven’t the Imperials cleared those trees?”
“It is a small patch, merely saplings, and more than a long crossbow shot from the towers. Still, the Imperials will probably clear it sometime during the winter to provide a little extra wood for their fires.”
They moved cautiously toward the small stand of trees, constantly watching for any sign that some Imperial sentry had glanced backwards and seen them. At one point, Alain came to an abrupt halt and stared into the darkness. “I sense a Mage, but he or she is distant, somewhere else among the defenses.”
“You can hide from that Mage?”
Alain nodded. “I believe so. The other Mage is not attempting to conceal his or her presence, and is so far off that I think a low-level spell would not be spotted, or if spotted the Mage could not reach here in time to know who had been casting it or why.”