The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality Book 4) (31 page)

“It has gone,” Alain said. He walked to Mage Alera, hearing Alli asking another question of Mari.

“Where’s Calu?”

“Commanding the rear guard,” Mari said.

“He’s—” Alli threw up her hands. “Isn’t that like a man? You risk your life, so he figures he has to risk his life. What is the matter with men?”

Alain offered his hand to Mage Alera. “Let me help you stand.”

She looked up at him, impassive and tragic at the same time. “Help?”

“As you helped Mechanic Alli do what she must.” Alain got Mage Alera to her feet, not surprised to discover that she was completely worn out, having put what strength she could into keeping her Roc going as long as possible. He put a spare armband on her sleeve. “Do you see the Mages over there? You can rest among them. We will leave this city tonight on ships.”

“Is it worth it, Mage Alain? Is…helping…the daughter a path of wisdom?”

“It is,” he said. “May you soon ride Swift again.”

Alera looked at Alain. “You remembered his name. But he is even less than a shadow.”

“Not to one who believes in him.”

* * * *

It was very late in the afternoon when Alain heard the rattle of Mechanic weaponry firing in another part of the city.

Professor S’san listened on a looted far-talker, then nodded to Mari. “Mechanic Calu says the Mechanics he is facing are professional fighters. He is not trying to defend any spot, but is only having his Mechanics take stands long enough to cause the attackers to have to stop and advance cautiously afterwards.”

“Alli will kill me if Calu is hurt,” Mari said. “Where is Alli?”

“With Calu,” Alain said. “She told me to tell you.”

Shaking her head, Mari yelled at those still working. “Drop anything we haven’t already loaded! Get the loads down to the dock and get yourselves and your loads onto the ship. Master Mechanic Lukas, inform Captain Banda that he needs to get all of our ships away from the dock as soon as possible, and have all of our boats waiting to take the rear guard and others to the ships.”

She paused. “Come on, Alain.”

Alain followed as Mari ran into the Guild Hall, moving through the hallways with the ease of someone familiar with the building. Reaching the Senior Mechanic conference room, Mari waved to the Mechanics guarding the door. “Get down to the docks.”

Entering, Alain saw most of the captive Senior Mechanics sitting against the far wall, looking subdued and dazed. “They’ve been kind of nervous around me for some reason,” Bev explained. “What the blazes is going on?”

“Mechanic attack force entering the city,” Mari murmured to her. “You and the other two in here get out, lock and bar the doors to this room, and head for the docks.”

“Got it. You’ve got something in your hair,” Bev pointed out. “Right there.”

Mari shuddered as she pulled out another fragment of dragon. “Don’t waste any time. I’m going to make certain no one else is left in the Hall.”

Alain followed again as Mari ran, stopping by numerous rooms to look inside and racing off again. She stopped to order the Mechanics guarding the Guild loyalists in the dining hall to seal the doors and then run for safety.

The far-talker Mari still carried began making noise. She listened, then shook her head. “Calu is falling back really quickly. He says if he doesn’t, the other guys will cut off the rear guard.”

They burst out of the front entry, Alain seeing that the sun had fallen so low that its rays were grazing the rooftops of Edinton. At the bottom of the stairs, Mechanic Bev waited along with several other armed Mechanics. “I didn’t get to go up against the dragon,” she said, “so I’m staying for this fight.”

In the midst of the erratic crashes of the Mechanic weapons, much louder now as the fight neared the Guild Hall, Alain heard a deeper boom.

“Alli must have set a bomb to slow them down,” Mari said. She ran, breathing heavily, to where the Edinton officials still waited. “Get out of here. Get all of the commons who aren’t already at home into shelter. If those Mechanic assassins see you they might kill you out of sheer meanness.”

“We’ll see you again, daughter!” one called as the officials took to their heels.

“Everyone else is heading for the docks,” Professor S’san said.

“Why are you still here?” Mari demanded. “Go!”

S’san hesitated, then nodded, joining the tail end of the fleeing procession.

Alain saw a patch of darkness appear on one side of the plaza, then moments later saw Mechanics wearing Mari’s armbands running toward them. “The attack comes,” he said.

Bev and the others knelt to aim their weapons, Mari standing beside Alain and counting as more Mechanics ran into the plaza, heading for the shelter offered by the Guild Hall. “Where are Alli and Calu?” she whispered.

A small group of Mechanics burst out of a street, pausing to fire a volley behind them, then bolted for all they were worth across the plaza.

Before the last of Mari’s rear guard had reached the Guild Hall’s walls, while they were still in the open, a larger group of Mechanics appeared and swung their weapons up to fire, ignoring the long-range shots of Bev and the rest of Mari’s Mechanics.

Alain had been gathering strength to himself, preparing his spell, and now he placed the strongest heat he could on the pavement in front of the attacking Mechanics. The stones of the pavement shattered into fragments and dust, creating a boom that rivaled the sound of Mechanic Alli’s bombs.

The attackers reeled back, seeking cover.

More Mechanics appeared to the right of them.

Alain placed another ball of heat in front of that group.

The sun sank below the buildings, putting the plaza into shadow.

The first group of attackers was firing on the rear guard from the shelter of some of the buildings.

Alain, feeling his strength draining rapidly, put a third globe of heat just inside the window of the largest structure the attackers were using as cover, causing the nearest windows to blow out.

He took a faltering step, nearly falling, but Mari caught him. “This day must have taken more from me than I realized,” Alain told her, startled that his strength had given out so quickly.

The rear guard was reaching them now, racing past Bev and her force as Bev waved them onward. “We’ll form a line at the buildings,” one Mechanic yelled as he went by, his face streaked with smoke, sweat, and blood.

“Mari, you and Alain ought to get out of here, too,” Bev urged, pausing in her firing across the plaza.

“Not until the rest are clear,” Mari insisted.

“Then send Alain ahead! From the looks of him he can’t run very far!”

Mari gave Alain an anguished look, then focused on Bev again. “Make sure Alli and Calu make it past before you fall back.”

“You got it.”

Alain, angry at being so weakened, did his best to move quickly as Mari helped him toward the line of buildings ahead. “Like Marandur all over again,” Mari gasped. “Or Altis. Why do we keep ending up like this?”

Just ahead of them, one of the rear guard stumbled and fell forward, blood appearing on her back where a bullet had hit. But two other Mechanics grabbed her, one on each side, and carried her on. “Get her to the boats!” Mari ordered.

Alain looked back as they reached the shelter of a building, able to stand on his own once more. About a dozen members of the rear guard and Bev’s force were intermingled in the plaza. He saw Mechanic Alli stop, turn, aim carefully, and fire. Moments later, one of the attackers came to a sudden halt and fell as her bullet struck.

Spurts of dust and fragments were flying from the buildings around them, marking hits by the attackers’ bullets.

“Keep going! Keep going!” Calu was yelling. He jerked from a bullet hitting one arm, but kept on his feet.

Unable to see any targets worth using another fire spell, Alain could only fall back again with the others.

Alli stopped nearby, reloading her rifle. “Alain, the only thing that will keep Mari from insisting on being the last out will be if you keep her moving. Don’t you be a hero or she’ll do the same.”

“I understand,” Alain said. He felt a strong reluctance to follow Alli’s advice, but he knew it was wise. Wisdom this day seemed to involve telling someone else something that they did not want to hear. “Mari! This way!”

Without waiting for her to argue, Alain once more began moving back with the rear guard.

Mari caught up, glaring at him, but stayed at Alain’s side.

Despite the way parts of the rear guard kept halting to cover other members as they retreated, Alain found he had trouble keeping up as the Mechanics hurried down the long way they had marched through just the night before. It only slowly occurred to him how long he had been up, moving, and often fighting and casting spells. Little wonder three fire spells had exhausted him.

Fortunately, this time the journey was downhill toward the harbor, not uphill into the city, and fear lent wings to everyone heading for the boats they hoped were still waiting at the docks.

With all the commons in the city in hiding, no one had come out to light the streetlamps. The streets grew increasingly dark as the sun set, the buildings to either side dim shapes.

Alain paused in a darker patch of shadow, looking back down a long straight stretch of a wide street. Mari leaned against the wall of the building, breathing heavily, her pistol ready in one hand as she used the other to pull out the far-talker Professor S’san had given her. “Ditch the far-talkers!” she said into it. “Don’t forget that the Guild can track their locations. Get rid of them now if you haven’t already.”

Mari dropped the device onto the pavement, raised one boot, and slammed it down repeatedly on the far-talker. “That felt good.”

Several shots resounded from the far end of the street. Alain saw the shapes of Mechanics running toward him and Mari. It was obviously time to force Mari to fall back as well, but Alain paused, remembering an abandoned draft wagon they had passed at the head of the street. He could still barely make it out.

More shots as more Mechanics appeared, these firing at the rear guard. Alain measured his strength, then built heat above his hand. A moment later he placed that heat on the dimly visible form of the wagon.

The wooden wagon erupted into flames which sharply revealed the shapes of the attacking Mechanics. The rear guard fired at the clear targets, causing three to drop while the others scattered for shelter.

Calu stumbled up to them, his wounded arm dripping blood that formed tiny, dark pools on the street. “Move!”

“You, too!” Alli ordered as she joined them. She shoved Calu towards Mari and Alain. “All three of you, get to the boats!”

“Where’s Bev?” Mari demanded.

“With the other section! Get out of here, Mari! And take my idiot husband with you so the healers can patch him up!”

Alain grabbed Calu’s uninjured arm and pulled him along. Mari, muttering something angry under her breath, followed just behind, covering their back trail with her pistol.

They staggered out onto the open area along the dockfront. Alain saw three boats in the water, two of the large ones from the Pride and the largest boat from the Gray Lady. Sailors were at the oars, and Mechanics in each boat were gazing anxiously toward the sounds of battle.

“Alli…” Calu fought being handed down into a boat, but he was weak from loss of blood.

Alain turned to Mari, who was standing on the edge of the dock and staring into the city. The sound of rifle fire was coming closer, and Alain heard one bullet strike the surface of the dock not far from them. “We must go,” he told Mari.

“Not yet!” Mari cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled as loudly as she could. “Everyone in the rear guard! Fall back to the boats now! We are leaving!”

Dark shapes appeared, racing over the short remaining distance, some of them lurching with fatigue or injury.

“Get in the boat, Mari!” Alli shouted as she appeared. She turned, fired again, then came running their way.

Alain saw Bev reaching one of the other boats and helping in some of the others before kneeling and firing at other Mechanics who were darting from the buildings. He reached out, took Mari’s arm, and pulled her toward the boat as Alli came charging up.

They all got into the boat at about the same moment, Alain dropping in, pulling Mari with him, and Alli diving off the dock to land on the oar handlers as bullets tore by overhead.

“That’s all of them! Shove off!” Mechanic Deni ordered from her post at the stern of their boat.

Deni tossed off the line holding the stern to the dock, then used a pole to help push off as the sailors got their oars in the water and began pulling with the vigor of those hearing bullets headed their way.

“Asha,” Mari gasped, staring around frantically. “Did we get Asha to a ship, or are she and Dav still at a hospital?”

Alain pointed toward the shape of the
Pride
, which was growing in size as the boat approached it. “I can sense Asha on that ship. Mechanic Dav is surely with her.”

“Thank— Oww!”
Alain spun to look, alarmed, and saw Mechanic Alli hit Mari again. “Stop risking yourself like that!” Alli stretched far enough to hit Mechanic Calu as well. “You, too! I cannot be the only adult in this crowd!”

“I’m glad that you’re safe, too,” Calu said in a worn-out voice.

“Thank the stars that Alain listens to sense!” Alli sagged back, still holding her weapon, gazing at the flash of rifle shots from the dock. “You did an amazing job commanding the rear guard through most of the retreat, Calu. I love you. When we get nice and safe, I think I’m going to cry a little. I’m kind of stressed.”

“Me, too,” Mari said. “I’m going to slug you back once we get on the ship.”

They came alongside the
Pride
, sailors helping everyone up the ladder. Alain saw the boats being hooked up and hoisted out of the water, while other sailors brought up the anchor and unfurled sails that looked ghostly in the light of the rising moon.

“They’ll be looking for other boats in order to follow us and attack again,” Mechanic Deni commented to Alain as she passed. “Those killers, I mean. But the commons took every boat but ours and tied them up out on the water. We’ll be clear of this mess before you know it, Sir Mage.”