Alera looked back blankly.
“She does not know what thank you means,” Alain murmured to Mari.
“Right. Lady Mage Alera, would you do something for us?”
“You do not order? You… ask?” Alera said.
“Yes. I ask. Do you know what Mechanic trains are?”
Alera shook her head. “I do not know this word. I know nothing of Mechanics.”
“You have seen these trains,” Alain said. “They move more swiftly than anything that runs, and put out smoke from their front.”
“Yes,” Alera said. “I know those. The smoke snakes. They follow the shining lines across the land. Sometimes we have heard them scream.”
“Scream?” Mari asked. “Oh. The whistles. Um, we can explain that later. Could you… fly… up and see if one of those is coming toward this city from the north?”
“My Roc and I can do this.” Mage Alera paused, her head lowered, then looked at both Mari and Alain. “Does your wisdom permit my Roc to have a name?” Even though Alera did her best to hide any feeling in her voice, a note of yearning came through in the question.
“Yes,” Mari said, her attitude finally softening. “You are welcome with us, Mage Alera. You and your Roc.”
“He will cease soon,” Alera said. “But he will be again, and then his name will be Swift.” She ran to the Roc, vaulting up as the huge bird bent his neck once more. As soon as Mage Alera was settled, the Roc spread his vast wings, raised them, and leaped into the air with a push of its legs and a downward sweep of wings that sent a powerful gust of air to stagger everyone nearby.
Alli watched the Roc rise into the sky. “For the first time in my life, I wish I was something other than a Mechanic,” she whispered.
Mari had broken into a trot, heading for a group of Mechanics and commons visible near the Mechanics Guild Hall. Alain caught up with her, the others trailing, as Mari reached the group.
“I see that you survived,” Professor S’san said. “I hadn’t seen this side of you before, Mari. Reacting to a crisis, taking charge, giving clear orders, and leading by example. I knew that you had moral courage to spare, but it was nice to see you demonstrating great personal courage as well.”
Mari laughed incredulously. “Oh, please, Professor. Courage? Do you have any idea how scared I was?”
“And you fought anyway. Just what do you think courage is?”
“I… never mind. There are more important issues.”
Alain listened as Mari explained to the others what they had learned from Mage Alera. “How soon can we get out of here?” she finished.
“There is a problem that must be resolved before we can answer that,” Captain Banda said. “I’ve sized up what Mechanic Ken and the others want to take, and there’s far too much for the Pride to carry.”
“We can’t easily choose what to leave,” Master Mechanic Lukas added. “We need it all. Lathes, punches, small forges, drill presses, you name it. We need them.”
“Can we buy another ship?” Calu asked. “How much money was in the Guild Hall treasury?”
Professor S’san shook her head. “Not that much. Contrary to rumor, Guild Halls rarely have large amounts of currency on hand, especially out-of-the-way Guild Halls like this. It all gets forwarded to headquarters in Palandur or to the Guild offices in Longfalls.”
“Do any of you have any idea,” Mari asked, “what the Guild might have sent if they took the Mage elders’ warning seriously?”
“The assassins, if they could get some in time,” S’san said.
“Maybe common soldiers,” Lukas suggested. “As many as they could get their hands on. Mercenaries or loaners from anyone wanting to ingratiate themselves with the Guild. I doubt the Senior Mechanics would use commons whose loyalty might shift to Mari.”
Alain saw several commons standing nearby, obviously waiting but equally obviously not wanting to interrupt a discussion among Mechanics. “Mari, perhaps these officials have information.”
She looked. “Maybe they do. Are you waiting to talk to me?”
The officials walked forward, then as one began to kneel.
“Don’t!” Mari said. “Don’t! That’s better,” she added as the officials straightened again.
“Lady,” said one of the richly dressed officials, “we are in your debt. But we hope that you understand our ability to aid you is hindered by our obligations to the safety of our city and our people.”
“But we still want to help!” another said, looking daggers at the first to speak.
“We have been told that you intend leaving Edinton very soon?” a third asked.
“Yes,” Mari said. “We need to load this equipment, which requires another ship.”
“It also requires more heavy wagons and more laborers to get the equipment down to the docks,” Lukas said.
The officials bent into a whispered discussion and debate that was ended by one woman yelling at the others. “You fools! Here we are being threatened by a pirate whose forces are strong enough to capture a Guild Hall of the Mechanics and to defeat a monster of the Mages! If she takes a ship as well, what can we do? Our military is not capable of resisting such a force!”
Alain studied the woman, trying to understand her words and her tone. “Is she speaking a lie or does she believe this to be the truth?” Alain asked Mari.
“It’s the kind of lie that everyone knows is a lie but can pretend is the truth,” she replied.
“I do not understand.”
Another official nodded, speaking with mock grimness. “And if this pirate also demands our cooperation in providing wagons and laborers, how can we deny her? We must do as she demands. The safety of the city requires it.”
“No one is going to believe this!” the first official to have spoken insisted.
“They will when they see that dragon! And even the Mechanics will know that their own Guild Hall fell to this pirate!”
“I would not want to fight the Lady’s forces,” a woman in uniform with gold shining on the collar said as she approached the group. “My soldiers are in awe of the Lady, of her Mechanics, and of her Mages.”
A man with her, in a different uniform but also high-ranking, pointed to Mari. “She wears a knife. May I see it, Lady?”
Mari pulled the sailor’s knife from the leather belt sheath that the crew of the Pride had crafted.
The man examined it, nodded, then looked to the officials. “A sign of the fellowship. The pirates of these seas have accepted her as one of their own. My cutters are not adequate to confront this pirate’s forces, and the warships of the Confederation that are in port would require orders to act.”
“Where are the Confederation’s representatives?” demanded the first official, still reluctant. “What do they say?”
“They cannot be found,” the uniformed woman said with mock regret. “It is most distressing.”
“No one will believe any of this!” the official insisted again..
“But it is true,” Alain said, his impassive Mage’s voice demanding everyone’s full attention. “A pirate with a strong force entered this city. You could not stop her. Her force captured the Mechanics Guild Hall. Her force defeated a Mage dragon. Her force will take another ship with them, and she requires of you laborers and wagons. You can say all of that, and not even a Mage will see a lie in you.”
“We do not need lectures on truth from a Ma—” The reluctant official suddenly realized that he was about to insult a Mage to his face. His mouth twisted in a frantic attempt to let no more sounds escape.
The man in a blue uniform gazed toward the harbor. “It is unfortunate that the pirate is demanding… the Worthy Son. I will ensure that the ship’s crew is replaced with volunteers, and that the ship is brought next to the dock for loading. How quickly must this be done?”