Alain nodded in farewell to Mari’s mother and protesting little sister, then followed Mari as she hastened up the alley. “You said we will watch?” he asked.
“There’s a place.” Mari gazed at him intently, but Alain did not think she was really seeing him, instead focusing on her memories. “If it’s still there. This way.” She turned into another narrow way, concealing her pistol under her coat and moving briskly but not so fast as to arouse notice.
Alain followed a short distance behind, watching for anyone who might be watching Mari as she turned west, then north again, the streets and alleys climbing enough that the slope wore at his pace. Finally she cut south before pausing where a short street came to an end. Catching up with Mari as she crouched behind bushes bordering the barrier halting further travel, Alain saw that they were positioned some distance from the front door of Mari’s old home but could clearly see it down the slope.
She brought out the Mechanic device Mari called a far-seer, placing it to her eyes. “I’d hide here sometimes,” she whispered to Alain. “When I was little. I’d play spy with my friends and pretend Mother was an enemy I’d been assigned to watch.”
She swung her head and the far-seer slightly, looking up the street. “Carriage. Two Mechanics. Only two? I can’t see any rifles.”
Alain could not make out details at this distance, but he could see the open coach carrying the Mechanics halt outside the bright green door. Both of the Mechanics got out, the driver remaining in his seat to control the horses.
Mari tensed. “I recognize one of the Mechanics. Master Mechanic Samal. I know him. He’s a decent man. Why did it have to be Samal?”
“Perhaps that is a good thing,” Alain said.
Samal and the other Mechanic walked up to the green door and knocked, the sound carrying up to Mari and Alain.
After a short period which served to increase their tension, the door opened and Alain saw Mari’s mother in the same posture with which she had first greeted Mari. Outwardly respectful—but also clearly resentful.
“If only I could hear them,” Mari muttered fiercely. “They haven’t manhandled Mother yet, though.”
Alain could see Mari’s mother shaking her head, saying something he couldn’t make out except for the angry tones in which she spoke. The Mechanic with Samal rudely gestured Mari’s mother aside and the two Mechanics entered.
The pause this time was longer. Mari jerked as a sudden high-pitched cry came through the open door of the house.
“That is not your mother,” Alain said.
“No. It has to be Kath. They’d better not—”
The two Mechanics came out the door, laughing to each other. Another shout came from the house, this one clearly young, feminine and outraged.
To Alain’s surprise, Mari started shaking with suppressed laughter. “Kath. Mother told her to get in the bath, remember? Those Mechanics must have gone in to make sure we weren’t hiding in there.”
“Kath sounds upset.”
“Upset? Alain, don’t ever walk in on a girl near Kath’s age while she’s taking a bath. Upset does not begin to measure the reaction you’ll get.” Mari had relaxed, grinning at the scene through the bushes screening them from view. “Mother did it just right. She must have told them she hadn’t seen me and didn’t ever want to see me, and then Kath provided a great distraction when they searched the house.”
The Mechanics were getting into their carriage. The one Mari had called Master Mechanic Samal was speaking sharply to the one beside him. “I wonder who that is with Samal?” Mari murmured, the far-seer still to her eyes. “I don’t recognize him, but I get the feeling that he told Samal to do this.”
“Perhaps now that other is discredited in his eyes,” Alain said.
“I think so. Samal looks annoyed, and he wasn’t easy to annoy. Believe me, when we were apprentices we tried.”
“It worries me sometimes when you speak of the things you did as an apprentice,” Alain whispered back to her.
Her grin widened even though Mari’s gaze remained on the Mechanic carriage which had surged into motion, the clop of the horses’ hooves echoing from surrounding buildings. “If you only knew the whole truth, dear Mage, you might not be so eager to promise yourself to me.” Mari finally looked away from her far-seer for a moment, her eyes on his. “Did that go as well for you and my mother as I thought it did?”
“I had a strange feeling in your home, Mari,” he said.
“Strange? Um … it’s understandable that you felt a bit awkward.”
“No, not that.” Alain tried to put his thoughts into words. “When you and Kath reconciled, when your mother offered me a place in your family, I felt… I felt as if I were in a place where much power was concentrated.”
Mari frowned at him. “You mean Mage power, the stuff you draw on to do those spells? My family house is located where a lot of that is available?”
“No.” Alain shook his head, frustrated. “I cannot explain it because I do not understand it. It was if the people there added to the power I might be able to draw upon. This should not be possible, and I am not sure I could have used that power. It was, as I said, strange.”
She watched him intently for a while. “Let me know if you ever figure it out. You could have knocked me over with your little finger when my mother said it was your family, too. Isn’t she wonderful?”
“I see where you get it from,” Alain said.
Mari gave a pained laugh as the carriage of Mechanics turned down another street and was lost to sight. “Still delusional, I see. Wasn’t Kath great? Far Daarendi! Could you believe it?”
“I would prefer Daarendi to a hidden place deep in the Great Wood,” Alain confided.
“I remember when I was that age. The romantic fantasies I wove!”
“Would you tell me some of them?”
“No! They’d be far too embarrassing now. Ridiculous stuff. You know, meeting some impossibly wonderful man and then we’d go off and have adventures together.”
“That does not sound so ridiculous,” Alain observed.
Her smile slowly grew as she looked at him. “No. Maybe it’s not.”
Alain felt no further hint of warning, and the attitude of the Mechanics as they left Mari’s family home had betrayed no trace of peril, but Alain and Mari kept walking along the road as fast as they could without attracting much attention, hoping to get a ship out of Caer Lyn before the day was out. They saw a few other Mechanics passing on the streets, but none nearby and none showing signs of alertness or alarm. Whatever had caused the Mechanics to visit Mari’s family home had not resulted in any further activity.
“A routine check,” Mari speculated. “Maybe they hadn’t heard that I’d been captured by that ship and were following earlier orders to see if I had contacted my family.”
After that, Mari seemed preoccupied during the walk toward the area near the docks where the sailing schedules would be posted and tickets available for purchase. For his part, Alain worried about the ship on which he and Mari had originally set out for Caer Lyn. Mari’s mother had said the Sun Runner had arrived here late yesterday evening, and many commons on that ship had seen Mari. It was one more complication, one more set of people who they would hopefully avoid running into before they got out of this city.
But despite his internal concerns Alain couldn’t help noticing the way Mari kept giving him looks out of the corners of her eyes. Sometimes the looks seemed appraising, sometimes happy, sometimes worried. “Is something wrong?” Alain finally asked.
Mari looked startled. “Wrong? No. I was just thinking.”