Her face saddened, Mari turned away and continued moving carefully across the rubble.
It was hard to tell how much later it was that Mari stopped suddenly, crouching down. Alain went into a crouch, too, without asking why. It was strange, he thought, how good they had become at such things. Then Mari waved him up and pointed.
One of the rough paths made by the barbarians crossed their track just ahead. Alain studied it carefully, then leaned close to whisper in Mari’s ear. “Someone has traveled it recently enough to trample some of the snowfall. But it was long enough ago to allow the signs of their passage to be partly obscured by more snow.”
“Do we go ahead?” Mari whispered back.
“The path runs right across our route. If we do not cross it here, we will have to cross it somewhere else.”
She nodded reluctantly, one hand reaching toward her jacket, then lowering again. Mari moved ahead quickly, crossing the path in a rush.
Alain stayed right behind Mari, but as he watched her, watched where his feet were going and tried to watch the ruins around them through the concealing sheets of snow, Alain also felt for the power in this area. As in most parts of Marandur, the power here was fairly weak, and without that power to augment his own Alain could not alter what Mari called “reality” and which Mages knew to be an illusion that could be manipulated. The power available would have to do, though, so Alain prepared his mind for whatever spells might be needed.
They would have to be offensive spells. Bending light around himself and Mari to hide them would not work in this storm, where the blowing snow would reveal their location anyway. Alain resigned himself to having to use superheated balls of air which he could direct to any spot he could see, a very powerful spell but one which would drain his strength rapidly. He also drew out the long Mage knife he wore under his coat.
Mari had still not taken her weapon in hand as she crept forward. She paused, looking to all sides and listening for anyone coming, then beckoned to Alain and began moving ahead as quickly as she safely could.
Alain followed, but could not avoid letting a larger than usual gap form between him and Mari. Fortune created that gap, however, as it allowed Alain to see a shape rising out of an apparently solid pile of rubble immediately after Mari had passed it. The barbarian was too close to Mari to risk a fireball, so Alain swung the hilt of his Mage knife against the back of the man’s head.
Mari turned at the noise, staring at the barbarian sprawled at her feet. Then her eyes widened as they looked past Alain. He didn’t see her draw out her weapon, but suddenly it was in her hand as she aimed past him. Alain dove forward as the boom of the Mechanic weapon filled the battered street and something made a loud crack in the air over him. He scrambled up beside Mari, seeing another barbarian falling backwards, staggering like a drunkard but with a spreading red stain on his chest. As the wounded man fell, more shapes rose up behind him. Mari aimed again, but even though her finger quivered on the weapon she did not fire the pistol.
“Mari?” Alain asked.
“They’re not attacking,” Mari said, her voice strained..
Alain studied the dark shapes cautiously. “They are small.”
“Small?” Mari jerked, her expression reflecting sudden shock and horror. “Oh, Alain, they’re children. Stars above, what if I had shot again?”
“We have stumbled on a village. I would not assume that it is safe to ignore the children, but we should run if we do not want to kill them.”
“Where are all the other adults?” Mari’s weapon quested from side to side as she searched the falling snow for signs of further attack.
“Perhaps they are waiting in ambush where we would have gone if we had not cut to the right for a while.”
The shapes of the larger children were beginning to creep toward them cautiously. Mari grimaced. “Which means the other adults heard my shot and are probably racing this way right now.”
Chapter Two
Without another word she spun and started running toward the walls of Marandur, her pace reckless in the snow-covered rubble. Alain followed, only occasionally pausing to look back for any pursuers. They scrambled up and down piles of debris, moving hastily through the ruins. Mari cut left, weaving between fallen buildings, and Alain followed, guessing that she was trying to confuse anyone trying to follow.
A dark, menacing shape loomed up before them, causing Mari to swing to one side with a muffled cry and aim her weapon, but then she lowered it with a gasp of relief. “It’s a wrecked siege machine,” she whispered to Alain. He followed her past the crumbling remains of a large Imperial ballista, its outlines vague in the snow so that it seemed almost troll-like.
The snow was coming thicker now, and the sky had darkened as the afternoon drew on. With visibility getting worse by the moment, Mari had to slow down. Alain could hear her gasping for breath, and himself felt the strain of scrambling quickly through the hazardous obstacles after a long day already spent picking their way through the ruins. They struggled through a heavily damaged area where no buildings stood at all, just higher and lower piles of ruin, leaping across occasional gaps that were all that was left of the streets which had run between the buildings.
Mari had slowed to a stumbling walk, so Alain came up beside her. “Can you keep moving, or should we seek a hiding place?”
“They’re after us, Alain,” she wheezed. “If we stop, they’ll catch us.”
“I do not hear the whistling they use to signal each other, but I agree.”
“If they did whistle, at least we’d have some idea how close they are. How are you doing?” Mari asked him.
“Weary, but I can keep moving,” Alain assured her.
“Same here.” Mari was peering ahead. “On this side of the river, the distance from the university to the city wall shouldn’t be nearly as far as we had to come when we sneaked into the city. I have no idea how much distance we’ve covered so far, but it shouldn’t be much farther to the wall.”
Alain put his arm about Mari, supporting and comforting her as they struggled through another badly damaged area. That brought hope to Alain, since they knew some of the areas of worst damage were near the walls, where the rebels had made their initial stand once the walls were breached.
“Stars above, we made it,” Mari sobbed, as the high, thick stone walls which had formerly protected the city of Marandur rose out of the murkiness of the storm and the fading day. Great gaps were visible in the walls, places where Imperial siege machines, Mechanic weapons, and the spell creatures of Mages had broken the mighty stones and tumbled them inward upon the buildings they had once defended.
Mari slowed down, walking very cautiously toward the nearest break in the wall. She reached the wall and stopped completely, breathing heavily as she looked out through the jagged hole in the wall. Even through the thickly falling snow they could spot faint glows in the fields beyond: bonfires burning in front of and on the Imperial watch towers outside the city. “We have to wait here a while. It’s barely dark, and even with the snow I’d prefer waiting until later to sneak through those Imperial sentries.”
Alain nodded, breathing deeply himself. “We have been going very fast. I would like a chance to recover before we try getting past the legionaries. If we have need of spells, I will require my strength.”
“That makes it unanimous.” Mari sat down against the wall near the break, facing in toward the ruined city, her weapon cradled in both hands. She stared at it and closed her eyes. Then her expression took on a grim and reluctant determination and Mari opened her eyes again and lowered the weapon’s front so it rested ready to defend them. “It’s a tool,” she said, as much to herself as to him. “It can be used for bad purposes, or good purposes. I have to ensure that I only use it when I must, and only for the best of reasons. I wish I didn’t need it, but I do.”