The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality Book 4) (26 page)

“The Guild fall?” another Senior Mechanic blurted out. “You’re insane, girl! Just as the Guild has warned us! Absolutely insane! The Guild has always been here and always will be!”

Mari shook her head. “No. The Guild’s days are numbered. I have no wish for bloodshed, unlike the Senior Mechanics who keep trying to kill me, but I will break the hold of the Mechanics Guild on this world. Believe it or not, I’m doing you a favor. If the Guild succeeded in keeping Dematr in chains, that victory would last a very short time before the commons finally rose and drowned everything in blood and fire.” She didn’t think these Senior Mechanics could be convinced, didn’t think they would believe her or join her, but they would report what was said, and many eyes would see those reports. Some of those eyes might become future allies.

“How would you know such a thing?” Senior Mechanic Tam asked contemptuously.

“The Mages have seen it—”

“Mages!”

“And I would say that any fool who walks among the commons can feel it, but you obviously haven’t.” Mari paused while Tam purpled with rage. “This world will be free. Mechanics will be free as well, and everything you have tried to control will slip through your fingers.”

“Nothing will change except that you will die,” another Senior Mechanic said in a very cold voice. “And your lies will die with you.”

Mari managed to smile despite the tightness in her gut at the threat. “I don’t think so. Things are already in motion that will survive even if I don’t. I have a job to do, and I’m going to see it done.”

Some others had entered the room behind Mari, and she turned to see Bev standing close by. Bev had her eyes fixed on the row of Senior Mechanics, her face rigid.

She brought the barrel of her rifle up and started walking toward the captives. Mari almost flung out a hand to stop her, but Alain shook his head. “She must handle this,” he said in a very low voice.

“What’s going on?” S’san whispered to Mari.

“I don’t know exactly. I assume it has something to do with when Bev was an Apprentice at Emdin,” Mari whispered back.

“Blazes! What is she going to do?”

Mari looked at Alain again. “She must know she has the power to shape her world,” Alain said.

Her rifle in a ready position, Bev halted directly in front of one of the Senior Mechanics, a man Mari didn’t recognize. Nobody was saying anything, the silence almost oppressive.

Finally Bev spoke, her voice sounding almost as dead as a Mage’s. “Senior Mechanic Sodo.”

Sodo, a man of average height and a bit too much weight, stared back at her wordlessly, his terrified eyes going from the barrel of the rifle to Bev’s face and back again. The Senior Mechanics next to him were edging away, plainly almost as frightened as Sodo.

“Aren’t you happy to see me again, Senior Mechanic Sodo?” Bev asked in that same emotionless voice. “Aren’t you?”

With shocking suddenness, Bev swung the butt of the rifle around and forward, slamming it into Sodo’s groin. The Senior Mechanic gasped in pain, his legs giving way.

“Aren’t you?” Bev demanded, her voice finally tinged with rage. She brought the rifle barrel forward again and jammed it against Sodo’s teeth, forcing the Senior Mechanic’s head back against the wall and preventing him from falling to his knees.

One of the Mechanics standing next to Mari looked to her for guidance, his face anxious, but Mari just shook her head and made a restraining gesture. From what Alain had said and the little Mari knew of the events at Emdin, she understood what was going on. “Mechanic Bev decides how this ends.”

Bev paused as she heard Mari’s words, then leaned in closer to Sodo, her eyes blazing. “Don’t you have anything to say, Senior Mechanic Sodo? No lectures on an Apprentice’s duty to the Guild? No instructions on the importance of an Apprentice doing anything that she is ordered to do? No threats of what might happen if an Apprentice spoke out of turn?
Now
you have nothing to say, Senior Mechanic Sodo?” She jabbed with the rifle barrel, drawing a grunt of pain from Sodo and a trickle of blood from his lips and gums.

“How does it feel, Senior Mechanic Sodo? How does it feel to know that I can do whatever I want to do to you? How does it feel to be helpless?” Bev’s lips drew back in a snarling smile. “But you know what, Senior Mechanic Sodo? Not only are you a sorry excuse for a Mechanic, not only are you a sorry, pitiful, and pathetic excuse for a
man
, but you’re also a lousy teacher. Lucky for you, because if I had become what you tried to make me, you’d be dead.”

Bev jerked her rifle away, letting Sodo drop to his knees as he grabbed at his mouth in agony. “Listen to me very closely, Senior Mechanic Sodo. You’re going to live this time, because I won’t let what you did to me destroy me. But if you ever,
ever
hurt anyone else, I will find you. You will never know what door I might be behind, what corner I might be waiting around, with a pistol and a knife, to ensure that you die a slower and more painful death than you can possibly imagine. Do you understand, Senior Mechanic Sodo?”

Sodo nodded frantically, and Bev turned away, walking back to Mari, leaving the Senior Mechanic on his knees.

Bev reached Mari and nodded to her, breathing deeply and looking oddly relieved. “Thanks, Mari. Thank you, Mage Alain. I’m good now.”

Mari reached up to squeeze her shoulder. “We trust you.”

Bev put her own hand over Mari’s. “More importantly, you just showed everyone that you trust me. Do you want me to beat up anyone else?”

Mari couldn’t help glancing at Professor T’mos, who was staring at Sodo in shock, but she shook her head. This was…too pleasant. Getting revenge, being in control, scaring people who couldn’t fight back… She saw an ugly path ahead, a path that would lead to her becoming like the Senior Mechanics she now faced. Unless starting right now she made a major effort to turn her course in another direction. “Once we’ve taken all that we need from this Guild Hall,” Mari told the Senior Mechanics, forcing her voice to sound in control but not threatening, “we’ll leave. No one will be harmed if I can help it. I am truly sorry it came to this. I don’t want bloodshed, I don’t want fighting. If the Guild leaves me alone, I won’t attack any more Guild Halls. If the Guild attacks me, then all bets are off. Tell the Guild’s leaders that. They have a choice.”

“More lies! You’ll hang in Palandur when your lunacy and pride take you back there!” shouted another of the Senior Mechanics. “You’re a traitorous slave of the Mages, you filthy—” His voice broke off as his face suddenly flushed red and sweat sprang out on his forehead. The Senior Mechanic seemed to have trouble breathing for a moment, staggering back against the wall.

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.”

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.”