Mechanic Dav jerked his attention away from Asha with obvious difficulty. “They’ll come in and quarter the area until they find you and kill you.”
“Nice. Are they guarding the walls between the gates?”
“Yes. But that’s a lot of territory to cover, so between the gates there’s just a screen of armed apprentices posted at intervals. I’m supposed to be supervising some of them. A lot of them are way too young to be doing that kind of thing, but their main role is to sound an alarm if they see you.”
Mari gave Alain an anguished look. “I don’t want to shoot at apprentices. I don’t want to hurt them at all. A lot of them are just kids.”
Before he could answer, a deep boom sounded outside and the floor and walls of the warehouse shook. Dust filtered down from the high ceiling and a shock wave rippled through the floor beneath them. Alli scrambled up onto some crates until she could see out of one of the windows. “I think that warehouse where we left the far-talker is gone.”
“Gone?” Mari demanded. “They blew it up? The whole warehouse?”
“Looks like it. Boy, Mari, they really want you dead.” Loud thumps sounded on the roof over their heads. “That’s debris from the explosion coming down. Wow, I wish I could’ve set that charge. It must’ve been great putting something that big together.”
“Alli! Focus! We’re trying to survive here!” Mari closed her eyes, trying to pull up a mental map of the area they were in. “Walls. Warehouses. The outer wall of this warehouse is also one of the outside walls. We’re in a trap, but every trap has a weak point because everything has a weak point. That’s simple engineering. What’s the weak point in this trap? The apprentices.”
“They’re the youngest and the weakest and the least experienced,” Mechanic Dav agreed. “But like you said, a lot of them are just kids.”
“That’s all right,” Mari said. “Thanks to these Mages, we’ve got some non-lethal ways of dealing with the apprentices. Alain, that thing you did when they tried to kidnap me in Dorcastle, where you made it really bright for a moment? Can you do that again?”
He nodded. “Yes. I have that much remaining in me. I cannot hold it long.”
“You won’t have to. Just a flash in a small area. But we have to do something to keep the assassins from noticing when we do that.”
Alli brightened. “How about an explosion?”
“An explosion?” Mari grinned. “Do you know where we can get some explosives?” she asked, already guessing the answer.
“I’ve got some with me,” Alli said. “And some fuses. Don’t look at me like that, Mari. I packed some tonight because I thought we might need to blow up something.”
“You were right about that,” Mari admitted. “Do you have enough to blow a small hole in one of these warehouse walls?”
“Oh, yeah. I don’t know if it would be a big enough hole for us to get through, though, and the sound of the explosion would attract the assassins for sure.”
“That’s the idea! It’ll be a… what do they call that, Alain? A distraction?”
“A diversion,” Alain said.
“Right. Alli, we’ll need an explosion going off near that closest gate outside, to divert the attention of the assassins and everyone else. Do you have a timer?”
Alli shook her head. “I have a fuse I can cut to the right length, though.”
“Good enough.” Mari looked at the two other Mages. “Mage Asha and Mage Dav, I don’t know how much you had to go through to get here. How tired are you? Do you have many spells left in you? Is there enough power in this area for you to use?”
Both Mages nodded. “We are fairly well rested. The journey to find you was not difficult,” Asha explained. “Our main concern was staying hidden from the senses of other Mages. We did not have to search for you, since as I said earlier I had no trouble sensing your bonfire. At one point its intensity was almost painful.”
Mari winced, looking daggers at Alain, who took a sudden interest in the far side of the warehouse. “Can we just not bring up that bonfire thing again for as long as possible? I’m a little sensitive about that.”
Mage Dav gave Mari what passed for an intrigued look from a Mage. “You know a great deal about Mages.”
“Well, yeah.” She pointed at Alain. “I’m married to one. Can either of you throw fire like Alain?” To Mari’s surprise, both shook their heads.
“The use of fire is a very difficult art,” Asha explained. “Few Mages can master it.”
“Alain never told me that,” Mari said, giving him a different kind of look. “All right. Here’s what we’re going to do,” she announced. “Alli, you’re going to lay a charge against this warehouse wall as close to that nearest gate as you can. Use a short fuse.”
“I’ve got enough fuse for a longer burn if you need that,” Alli said.
“Of course you do. We want a short burn, Alli, because we need to get out of here before the assassins figure out where we are, but give yourself enough time to get back here. After Alli has lit the fuse, she’ll join us along the wall of this warehouse. That’s part of the outside wall, too. We’ll get as far from the nearest gate as we can. Just before the charge blows, Alli lets us know so Mage Dav can open a hole in the wall, giving us access to the street, and as the explosion goes off Alain sets off his flash spell thing through the hole to dazzle the eyes of any apprentices nearby. It has to be at the exact same time, Alain. While the Mechanics watching the gate are diverted by the explosion and watching for us to charge out the gate, and the nearby apprentices are temporarily night-blinded, we all run across the street and head for, uh…”
“The entertainment district,” Mechanic Dav suggested. “There’ll still be crowds there so we won’t be the only people on the streets, and it’s only a few blocks east of the warehouse district.”
“Great. Mage Asha, you’re our… um… spare,” Mari said.
“Reserve,” Alain corrected her.
“Reserve. Right,” Mari said. “Be ready to cast a spell if we need it right after Alain and Mage Dav have cast theirs and can’t do another quickly. Has everybody got that?”
Mechanic Dav shook his head. “I get the hole in the wall thing, because I just saw it even though that seems impossible, but what’s the flash-spell thing?”
“Just keep your eyes averted when I tell you,” Mari said.
“What are explosives?” Asha asked.
Alli stared at her. “Somebody has really neglected your education, Lady Mage! Explosives are mixtures of ingredients that have been processed in a way that allows them to either oxidize extremely quickly or to instantaneously release large amounts of energy when triggered by a detonator employing chemical, mechanical or electrical—”
“Alli,” Mari interrupted. “Mage Asha is a smart person, but she is not understanding one word of that because she has been taught very different things than you and I have.”
“Really?” Alli frowned. “Um… explosives make a lot of noise and blow up things.”
“Like a Mechanic boiler,” Alain said.
“No,” Mari said. “Not like a boiler. A boiler can explode but it is not an explosive.” That sounded a little odd even to her. “Listen, we’ll have time to explain things to each other later. For now, just each do your part.” Mari looked at the motley group, amazed that she suddenly had five Mechanics and Mages following her instructions. Alli seemed perfectly happy with that, Alain was used to working with her in a crisis, the other Mages weren’t giving any clues as to what they thought, and if Mechanic Dav didn’t stop drooling over Mage Asha he would walk straight into a wall and knock himself out.