Their progress felt agonizingly slow. The grass and brush here were a bit higher, impeding their progress. To Mari it felt like the noise they made as they moved through the vegetation must be echoing loudly enough for the Imperials to easily hear, but the crackling of the watch fires must be hiding the sounds Mari’s and Alain’s motion made, and the flickering shadows would make the movements of the grass harder to see.
Mari’s back itched, anticipating the impact of a crossbow bolt or, ultimate irony, a Mechanic-made rifle bullet.
Alain stumbled and she almost fell, barely catching herself, managing not to drop and pull the Mage down with her. He stood a long moment, his breathing louder and more strained that it had been before, then carefully moved ahead again. She concentrated on anticipating and matching his movements, her head resting against his back while she tried to will some of her strength into him.
There finally came a moment when Alain stopped, wavering where he stood. “We are through the alarms,” he gasped. “We must get through the gap in the wall.”
“I’ll help hold you up. Keep moving.” Mari did her best to support Alain now, as the two of them staggered the rest of the way to the wall. Once there, at the foot of the break in the wall that they had aimed for, Alain leaned against the broken stone.
“I will hold my spell while you climb over me. It will help hide you in part until you get inside. Then I will follow.”
She hated to do that, but recognized the wisdom of Alain’s instructions. Mari unwrapped her arms from about him, her joints and muscles stiff with the effort she had been expending, then took a deep breath and scrambled up his back and into the gap in the wall. Once screened from being seen from the outside, Mari turned. For a moment, she could see only the gap and the reflected flames of the fires beyond, then Alain popped into view most of the way inside the breach in the wall.
Grabbing his arm, Mari helped pull him inside, listening fearfully for any sounds which would show that the Imperials had spotted Alain. But no shouts or trumpet calls resounded, and after crawling over broken stone fragments and rubble they reached the inner side of the wall and dropped down to the forbidden streets of Marandur.
“There are no sentries inside the walls,” Alain gasped in a low voice. “We can be sure of that much.”
Mari stared at the jagged ruins poking their battered faces into the night sky. If ever a place seemed right for haunting by the restless spirits of the dead, it was Marandur. “What could have created this wreckage?” Mari panted, worn out from mental strain and physical effort. “This much damage? It can’t all be due to Mechanic weaponry, though after so much time and neglect it’s hard to tell.”
Alain slumped down to a seated position, his back against a solid portion of the wall. “There were trolls employed. They are awful creatures. And dragons. The destructive power of Imperial ballistae and catapults cannot be ignored, either.”
“I’m not happy to be here now, but I’m sure glad I wasn’t here then.” Mari sat next to him, putting one arm around Alain again, staring into the dark ruins. A little light from the Imperial watchtowers came through the break in the wall, but it only served to illuminate enough of the old wreckage to emphasize their spookiness. “Alain.”
“Yes, Mari?”
“I want you to be honest with me. Do Mages know anything about ghosts?”
“Ghosts?” She couldn’t see his expression in the dark. “Mages are taught that this world is a dream, Mari. When we die, my elders said, we go on to another dream. Ghosts are but the memory of those who have gone on.”
“So…are you saying they do exist? Or they don’t?”
Alain sat quiet for a minute. His breathing was steadying, but he still sounded worn out. “You know Mages can change the illusion if they believe they can. As far as I know, even memories can appear to live if one believes hard enough.”
She shivered, even though the wall behind them blocked the breeze from the north. “Are they dangerous?”
“Not unless you believe they are.”
“Blast it, Mage!” Mari hissed. “I want you to reassure me! This isn’t something I can fix with a hammer or a slide rule!”
“Oh.” It was somewhat comforting to be able to hear the regret in Alain’s voice. His outward emotions were displaying more clearly the longer he was with her. “I did not understand,” Alain explained. “The dead cannot harm us, Mari, unless we give them the power to do so. Then they act out their worst impulses through us, guiding us to do things which hurt ourselves and others. This is not Mage teachings. It is the lesson of the history I have read.”
Somehow that wasn’t as calming as she had hoped for. “I for one have no intention of letting the dead force me to do things that hurt us. We can’t move through this debris at night. It would be too dangerous. We’ll have to wait until daylight.”
He nodded, the gesture betraying how tired Alain was. “Resting would be wise in any case, I think. We will need our strength.”
Mari rested her head on Alain’s shoulder and tried to sleep, but the slightest sound would jerk her awake. She knew the ruins had to be home to many wild creatures, from mice up to feral dogs, but that didn’t make it any easier on her nerves when she heard a pebble roll somewhere or the soft pattering of tiny feet. When she finally fell asleep for a while, she did so with one arm around Alain and one hand on the grip of her pistol.
Chapter Fifteen
Dawn came eventually. Mari stood up, blinking and feeling rotten. A bed. I used to sleep in beds all of the time. Someday, when all this is over, I’m going to wake up every morning in my comfortable bed and give thanks. I’ll never take a bed for granted again.
The sound of a rock fall came from somewhere inside the city, rattling her nerves. “Alain? How are you?”
He looked into the city, rubbing his face. “I have slept better.”
“Me, too. Excuse me while I find a convenient ruin to do my business behind, then we can eat.”
When she got back, Alain was standing braced against the wall. The huge stone blocks making up the fortification would have seemed invincible if not for the ragged breach in them that loomed just beyond Alain. “We need to find good shelter tonight,” Alain said. “Somewhere we feel secure enough to rest.”
“Good shelter?” She ran her gaze across the vast landscape of ruin that stretched ahead of them. “I hope the remainder of the city is in better shape than this. Otherwise we’ll be camping out in the open so we don’t have to worry as much about a wall falling on us.”
They ate and drank, Mari thinking that the food tasted dusty, as if the ruins were already working their decay on it. “All right. Let’s go. Can you handle the distraction of me going first?”
Alain looked as ragged as Mari felt, but he managed one of his tiny smiles. “I will be grateful to be able to see something nice amid all of this wreckage.”
“Just keep your eyes on your feet occasionally. I don’t want you walking into a hole while you’re staring at my rear end.”
The banter heartened Mari a little and they started off, trying at first to stick to one of the main roads of the city, but finding that so choked with rubble that it was easier just to follow whatever path offered the least resistance. “The destruction seems horrible at the walls, but I can see buildings that are more intact farther inside the city,” Mari remarked. “Why do you suppose that is?”
“I would guess the rebels first tried to defend the walls and the buildings closest to the walls, and held out long enough to cause the devastation of the areas they were in. Once the walls and the defenses behind them crumbled, subsequent fighting was less intense though still awful.” Alain shook his head, then hastily reached out to grab the remnants of a brick wall as the debris under his feet shifted.