Alain spoke softly, but his voice held the dead quality that was terrifying to anyone who heard it. “That was a warning, just enough heat in the air to make you very uncomfortable. Speak of Master Mechanic Mari again in such a fashion and the air around your head will set you aflame.”
“Alain,“ Mari said, “their words can’t hurt me.” Which was a lie, but she knew she had to get used to being called worse than a slave of the Mages.
“But why should they be allowed to speak those words?” Alain asked.
“Because not allowing someone to speak is what they do,” Mari insisted. “Because I can’t say I’m doing to this to free everyone and then act as though I have the right to tell everyone what they can and cannot say. Even if what they say is about me.”
Alain hesitated, then nodded. “Your wisdom exceeds mine.” Then he frowned slightly, looking over to one side as if seeing through the walls between him and the outside.
That didn’t look good. Mari eyed the Senior Mechanics, thinking that no one with any brains would try anything while being covered by rifles and with the Guild Hall occupied by a hostile force. But these were Senior Mechanics, used to being able to do what they wanted with impunity. Overestimating their ability to judge the situation might be a mistake. “Bev, I want you in charge of watching these guys until we leave.” Mari addressed the Senior Mechanics again. “I’d be on my best behavior if I were you. As you have already seen, Mechanic Bev wouldn’t mind shooting any Senior Mechanic who gives her trouble.”
Mari turned to go, passing close by Bev. “Try not to actually shoot any of them, all right?” she muttered.
“Can’t I shoot just a few?” Bev asked loudly, her eyes glinting.
“If you have to,” Mari replied just as clearly.
“I can maim them if they make me shoot them, right?”
“If you want to.” Mari lowered her voice. “I hope you’re kidding.”
Bev nodded. “I think so. But I’m having fun scaring them.” She gave Mari a rueful look. “After this I need to be good, though. The last thing I want is to fall into the habit of being cruel to people who are at my mercy.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Mari agreed.
Beckoning to Alain and Professor S’san, Mari left the room, oddly deflated by what should have been a triumphal experience. At least none of the Senior Mechanics had noticed the promise rings she and Alain were wearing. She was getting tired of explaining them, especially to a hostile audience. “Did you sense something while we were in there, Alain?”
“A spell—” he began.
Mage Asha came running down the hall, long hair flowing behind her in a way that caused male Mechanics to stop and gape. “Fortunate that I could find you quickly,” she advised Mari. “Mechanic Dav says you must be told. We have sensed a mighty spell being cast. Mage Hiro and Mage Dav both believe the spell is one to create a dragon.”
Chapter Ten
Alain followed as Mari ran for the entry, Professor S’san and Mage Asha right behind him. He tried to order his thoughts despite his fears for Mari. “From the size of the spell I sensed, this dragon will be larger than the one we fought in Dorcastle,” Alain told her.
She glanced back. “How much larger? As big as the one in the Northern Ramparts?”
“No. But still large.”
Alain almost slid into Mari as she came to a sudden halt in the entry area. All of the other Mages were present and gazing out into the city. So were Mechanics Alli, Calu, and Dav, as well as a few other Mechanics wearing Mari’s armbands.
“Mari?” Alli said. “Just in time. There are some very agitated commons outside.”
Alain stayed close to Mari as she rushed to the massive main entrance door, which was ajar. Just outside, two common soldiers and another common waited. “Daughter! We need you!” one cried.
“There is a monster in the city!” another said. “A Mage dragon!”
Alain saw Mage Dav point. “It approaches from that direction.”
The commons shrank back as they saw Alain and Mage Dav.
“You can tell where it is?” Mari asked Mage Dav. “Then we can go out there and stop it.”
“Mari,” Alain said, “this is a very dangerous dragon.”
“Every dragon I’ve met has been very dangerous!”
Professor S’san was outside now as well, peering about. “If we have to deal with a threat from the Mages—”
“Other Mages,” Mari broke in. “My Mages will help us.”
“Very well, Mari. As I was saying,” S’san began once more, “we would be well advised to seal this Hall. We can shoot at it from the inside, and it shouldn’t be able to reach us.”
The commons looked stricken as S’san gave her advice.
“We can’t do that,” Mari said. “There’s a dragon out there, coming through the city, and it’s going to kill and destroy anything in its path. It’s there because of me. The Mage elders want me dead. I’m not going to sit safely inside this Guild Hall while others face death because of me!”
Alain did not want to back Mari in this. He wanted her safe. But he looked upon her and saw the woman who had insisted on saving him, a Mage, when every rule she had ever been taught would have justified leaving him to his fate. “Master Mechanic Mari speaks wisdom,” Alain said, wishing he did not have to say so.
“Then let her Mages deal with this problem!” Professor S’san insisted.
“We will confront the dragon if Master Mechanic Mari says wisdom dictates it,” Mage Dav said, his emotionless statement sounding totally calm. “We are unlikely to stop it.”
“And likely to die?” Mechanic Alli asked. “Mari, we can’t send Mage Dav and Mage Asha and the others out there alone.” She offered Mari a rifle.
“Mari!” S’san said, growing angry. “You have said yourself how critical you are to the success of your plan! How can you risk yourself like this?”
“How can I not?” Mari said, taking the weapon from Alli. “Professor, only two people here have ever fought a dragon. Me, and Alain.”
“I have fought one,” Mage Asha said.
“All right, three people. The point is, I know what I’m doing. No one else does. What kind of leader sends others out to do a job she knows how to do and they don’t? And there is another important factor. If a Mage monster attacks this Guild Hall, it might break apart the fragile coalition of Mechanics and Mages that I am building. The Mechanics who have just joined with me might turn on the Mages out of habitual suspicion. But if we defeat this threat with a band of Mechanics and Mages working together, it will be a powerful example of what cooperation can do.”
Calu nodded. “It will also show that Mages and Mechanics can risk their lives for each other.”
A sound drifted toward them across the city, an inhuman scream of anger that Mari remembered all too well.
One of the common soldiers looked pleadingly at her. “Lady… daughter, the monster must have encountered our forces. We will defend this city, but with only our weapons, our numbers will mean little.”
Alain felt something similar to what he had experienced when the Alexdrians had been ambushed by an Imperial legion. A sense of sadness and a resolve to do what he could. “Do not waste the lives of your people to no purpose. If the monster can be stopped, we will stop it.”
Shocked to be directly addressed by a Mage, the commons had trouble for a moment understanding what he had said. Then the one who wasn’t a soldier bowed his head to Alain. “The daughter’s Mage. We have heard of you. The Mage who stood between death and commons in the Northern Ramparts.”