Mari couldn’t help sighing. She remembered tales of famous outlaws who had gloried in being recognized and the fear such recognition generated in others. As far as Mari was concerned, there was nothing pleasant about bringing fear to anyone who figured out who she was.
“How can you do this?” the male Apprentice asked as the four Mechanics were tied up one by one by Mechanic Ilya, who was apparently enjoying the task.
“Maybe I’m not doing what you’ve been told I’m doing,” Mari said.
“You’re trying to destroy the Guild!”
“That I am doing,” Mari admitted. “For some very good reasons, which can be summarized for the moment by saying that aside from your technical training, just about everything else the Guild has ever told you is a lie.” Ensuring that all of the alarms had been silenced, she had one of her Mechanics open the front entrance and wave a signal to the sailors who had been watching. They came across the plaza, accompanied by the healers Cas and Pol. “Notify Captain Banda that so far everything is going all right,” she told one of the sailors.
“I’m afraid we have little for you to do,” she advised the healers.
“That’s not a bad thing,” Pol said, looking around curiously. “I’ve never been even this far inside a Mechanic Guild Hall. Are your Mechanic lights everywhere inside?”
“You mean electric lights? Yes.” Mari moved to cover the main hallway leading to the front entrance as running steps sounded from the interior of the hall. To her relief, it was one of her Mechanics, easily identified thanks to the armband with the sign of the new day on it. She would have to apologize, again, for doubting that would be needed, Mari thought.
“We have control of the kitchens and the dining hall,” the Mechanic reported. “All of the Mechanics and Apprentices are being brought to the dining hall to be held under guard.”
“Good,” Mari said. “Make sure they know that no one will be harmed unless they try to harm one of us. And as long as you’re heading back that way, help one of my guys escort the four Mechanics who were on guard here back to the dining hall.”
She had barely finished saying that when Mage Asha and Mechanic Dav showed up. “We’ve got the far-talker,” Dav reported cheerfully. “No warnings or alerts got sent before we gained control.”
“Outstanding. You and Mage Asha stay here in case I need to send reinforcements somewhere.”
The two captive Apprentices had been seated on the long bench that spanned part of the back wall of the entry area. Asha walked over and sat down right next to the female Apprentice, who tried to shrink back but was stopped by the presence of the male Apprentice on her other side.
Asha looked at the female Apprentice. “What is your name?”
“A… A… A… A…” The Apprentice managed to swallow. “Apprentice Haru of Dorcastle.”
“I have not been to Dorcastle.” Her stock of social skills apparently exhausted, Asha lapsed into silence.
“Are you guys all right?” Mechanic Dav asked the two Apprentices. “Don’t be scared of Mage Asha. She’s nice.”
“Nice?” Apprentice Haru glanced sidelong at Asha. “A Mage?”
Asha managed a small but real smile. “Thank you, Mechanic Dav.”
More runners arrived, bringing news of more areas successfully seized and more surprised Mechanics taken prisoner.
By the time Mari saw the sun rising over the buildings to the east, the final reports had come in. “You control this Guild Hall, Master Mechanic Mari.”
“I should go check things out in person,” Mari said. “Dav, can you handle being in charge here at the entrance?”
“No problem,” Dav said. “Lady Mage Asha and I can handle anything!”
“Alain, why don’t you stay—”
“I will come with you,” Alain said.
“I’ll be fine, Alain, and you’d be better employed helping to protect this entrance.”
“I will come with you,” he repeated.
Mari gave him an exasperated look. She knew when Alain went all Mage-impassive on her that he wouldn’t give in on an argument. “Fine. Let’s go.”
With the occupants of the Guild Hall held prisoner in various areas, the hallways were oddly vacant at an hour when there should be increasing levels of traffic. Mari went to the dining hall first, concerned about the place where the great majority of the Edinton Mechanics were being held.
She found Master Mechanic Lukas at the entrance and raucous sounds coming from the dining hall. “What’s going on?”
“About two-thirds of the men and woman in there are celebrating being captured by you,” Lukas said, smiling at Mari. “The other third are keeping very quiet. Is what I heard right? No one was injured?”
“Only a few burnt fingers,” Mari said.
“You’ve more than proven your right to be in charge, Master Mechanic. My apologies for doubting you.”
“You questioned me,” Mari said. “If I can’t handle that, I don’t deserve to be giving orders.”
“She said you’d feel that way,” Lukas observed.
“She?”
An older woman in a well-worn Mechanics jacket stepped out of the dining hall. “Is there any chance of parole, Mari?”
“Professor S’san!” Mari embraced her old instructor, feeling tears start. “I was worried about you. We had to leave you at Severun and I was so afraid of what the Guild might have done.”
“Oh, hush,” S’san said, waving off Mari’s concerns. “All the Guild did was place me under Hall arrest and send me here. I think they planned on using me as a hostage to influence you. But even I never expected you to show up at Edinton and take over the Guild Hall. As long as you’re here, and apparently still fixed on changing the world, can you use any more help?”
“I would be honored to have your help,” Mari said. “And you won’t have to take orders from Senior Mechanics anymore.”
“Speaking of which, the Senior Mechanics are being held in their main conference room, as you ordered,” Lukas told Mari.
“Good. Mechanic Ken is leading teams to evaluate how much equipment we can, uh, borrow from this Guild Hall if we use the Mages’ help to create larger openings to the outside. If any of the Mechanics we captured are eager to help, let me know so I can have them vetted by the Mages.” Feeling a little awkward at having given orders to someone of Lukas’s age and seniority, Mari dug in one of the pockets of her jacket and pulled out a spare armband. “Would you wear this, Professor?”
S’san frowned at the golden star on light blue. “Why is this your symbol, Mari?”
“It’s not my symbol. It’s the image of the new day. What we’re fighting for.”
“I doubt your followers see it in the same light.” S’san pulled the band over one sleeve of her jacket. “You were always very practical and down-to-earth , Mari. And correspondingly weak on symbolism. Who convinced you that an emblem of the new day would be a good thing?”
“My friends made it,” Mari admitted. “Alain convinced me it was a good idea to use the image on banners and armbands.”
“They were right, if my opinion still matters to you. So, Lukas here tells me that you have access to banned technology texts. How did you manage that?”
“I can’t tell you yet, Professor, and your opinion will always be very important to me. Master Mechanic Lukas, I’m going back to check things at the front entrance and then drop in on the Senior Mechanics.” Mari led her old teacher through the hallways, Alain following.
“I see the Mage is still with you,” S’san added, looking at Alain.
“He’ll always be with me,” Mari said, holding up her left hand so that the promise ring showed clearly. “I’ve got five more Mages with me now as well.”
“Five more?” S’san walked alongside Mari, shaking her head. “You don’t believe in changing the world slowly, do you, Mari?”