“Well, I admit that is usually done.” Mari glanced very quickly and anxiously at Alain, then down at the ground as they walked. “It was just a civil ceremony. I’m nineteen and you’re eighteen so it’s perfectly legal and will be recognized anywhere, though of course we won’t be telling people our true names. We did use them on the marriage document but without our Guild titles it’ll just be one more piece of filed-away paperwork that our Guilds will never locate. We can do something bigger and more formal later if you want. Invite guests. That sort of thing.”
“That is hardly the point, Mari. Such an important event, such an important decision—”
“We did have a guest, you know,” she added, still keeping her eyes averted. “You said destiny would be there, and I know it was. It felt very special for me. I felt very special.”
“I was simply confused and doing what I was told,” Alain replied.
“From what I’ve heard, that’s not all that unusual for men at weddings.” Mari stopped abruptly, turning to face him, looking directly at Alain with a pleading expression. “We only had a few moments. They were closing. There wasn’t time to explain. You said you wanted to marry me.”
“I do.” Alain rubbed his forehead, trying to absorb what had happened. “I mean, I did. I just did not expect it now.”
Mari took a deep breath, closing her eyes, apprehension in her expression and her voice. “Alain, you and I have cheated death a number of times already. In some cases only luck saved us. There are plenty of powerful enemies still trying to kill us. Our luck could run out any day. Any moment. We talked about that.” She opened her eyes to look directly into his, her face suddenly calm. “I realized something after we left my family’s house. If I die tomorrow or next month or even today before the sun sinks any more in that sky, I want it to be as your promised partner in this life.”
“I…” It finally sank in. For only the second time in his life, the first being while the caravan he was protecting was being blown apart around him, Alain felt completely unable to think. “I…”
“I know it was selfish of me. I should have given you a chance to say if you wanted it that way, too.”
It was just so hard to grasp. Alain’s mind stayed stuck. He could not speak.
Her face started to crumple up in sorrow. “You didn’t really want me, did you? You’re unhappy.”
The thought of her tears somehow got his brain moving. “Mari, I am very happy. We will be together always now?”
She nodded, wiping at her eyes. “Mostly, at least. I hope.”
“Then this is the most wonderful as well as the most unforeseen day of my life. But at the moment I am also very, very overcome with feelings. I do love you, I do want you, but I cannot find any other words right now.”
Mari gave him an unsteady look. “Then you’re not mad at me?”
“I do wish I had known what was going on.”
“She only stayed as long as she did because I bribed her!”
Alain laughed. For a moment, every day of his life as an acolyte and a Mage, detached from all other people, seemed like a long, bad dream from which he had only just been awakened. “You told me you are impulsive. I should have taken the warning and been prepared for something like this.”
“Exactly,” Mari agreed, grinning. “You should have expected this. I don’t know why I should have to explain it.” She tugged at him again, getting them back into motion toward the docks.
Mari leaned in to kiss his cheek as they walked rapidly toward the docks. “I’m so happy. Even though there are still lots of people trying to capture or kill us. You’re going to be happy, too. I just know it.”
“I am already happy,” Alain protested. “Completely overwhelmed and very surprised, but happy.”
She put her mouth near his ear and whispered. “Don’t you remember the night you’d never forget that we once talked about? Well, now we’re married, and I have some things I picked up to make sure I don’t get pregnant, and by the time the sun sets we’ll be in our private cabin on the ship taking us to Altis.” Mari pulled back and gave him a worried look. “You did get a private cabin, didn’t you?”
Alain felt his breathing stop and only got it going again with difficulty. “Y-yes.”
“See, you are happy, aren’t you?” she teased.
“Yes,” Alain repeated. He swallowed, looking over at her. “Do we have to wait until sunset?”
Mari laughed. “Men. One thing at a time, love. Let’s get to the pier before the boat to the ship casts off.”
They were almost to the pier, looking for the boat to the White Wing, when Mari and Alain passed a group of sailors trudging up from the harbor. One of the sailors glanced at them as they passed, then Alain heard a shocked exclamation. “It’s her! She got away from them!”
Mari had turned toward the sound before Alain could warn her, and as he turned, too, Alain could see the entire group of sailors had come to a halt and were staring at Mari. “The daughter,” a female sailor whispered in awed tones.
Another sailor pointed at Alain. “That’s her friend, the one that went to help her. Her Mage.”
Mari had that horrified look on her face again and seemed momentarily lost for words, so Alain spoke for them. “You are from the Sun Runner? It is important that no one know we escaped and arrived here.”
The startled sailors all made noises of agreement, but as Alain saw the excitement in them he wondered how long their promises to keep quiet would hold.
Finally finding her own voice, Mari spoke quietly as she looked around for anyone else who might be close enough to hear. “Please do as my Mage says. I need to keep the Guild guessing as to where I went.”
“Is there anything we can do for you?” one of the sailors asked eagerly, generating more agreement from his fellows. “It was terrible hard to let the Mechanics take you. But we did what you and your Mage said, and now we’ll do anything you ask.”
“Are you going back out to sea?” another asked. “Aren’t you worried about that metal ship coming after you again?”
Mari shook her head. “That ship isn’t going to be giving anyone else any problems for a long time to come.”
“You stopped that ship?” All of the sailors looked at Mari in awe, which Alain could see startled her.
“When are you going to move against the Great Guilds?” the first sailor asked again.
“I don’t know yet. There are things I have to do first,” Mari said.
“How long?” the female sailor pleaded. “Years?”
Mari gazed back at her. “No. Months. Maybe a year.”
“And then we’ll be free?”
“Free.” Mari looked down, then back up at the sailors. “I hope so. Nothing is certain. But I’m going to do my best. The Great Guilds are very powerful, and I need to be ready to confront them. Spread the word for everyone to… to stay calm, and wait to hear. They will hear when I start doing things. Change is coming. Now, thank you, but please, we have to hurry.”
The sailors straightened up as if someone had commanded them, then the eldest brought his hand to his brow in a salute that the others copied. “May the stars shine on you, Lady Mari.”
Mari blinked in surprise, then smiled quickly again and tugged at Alain. “Thank you. We have to go. Please say nothing.” Pulling Alain along, Mari fled down toward the pier.
Once out of earshot of the sailors, Alain looked back to see them in a group talking together excitedly. “We must hope that no one else noticed them all saluting you, but by nightfall some of them will be drunk and speaking of seeing you here.”
“I know,” Mari groaned. “How did they know my name?”
“The Mechanics who arrested you used it, and the commons on the Sun Runner heard. Some of them spoke your name in my hearing before I was taken from the Sun Runner. Your mother told me that the rumors from the north have also carried the name Mari with them.”