The Apprentice hastily removed the pistol from the holster and handed it to Mari.
She looked it over. “Five chambers loaded. Safety on. Very good. Where is your alarm signal?”
“Here, Lady Mechanic.” The Apprentice pulled a large whistle from one of his pockets.
“Give it to me.”
“Yes, Lady Mechanic.” As the Apprentice did so, the first traces of a different kind of worry crossed his face. “Lady Mechanic, I was told not to—”
“Relax.” Mari smiled reassuringly at him. “It’s a drill,” she said, remembering what the Apprentices aboard the Pride had thought. “Pretend you’re a prisoner.”
“Y-yes, Lady Mechanic.” The Apprentice stared as the rest of Mari’s group came around the corner. “M-m-m-mages? Lady Mechanic, why are some of them dressed as Mages?”
“You’re not questioning your instructions, are you?” Mari asked as one of the other Mechanics took custody of the young man. “Now, quiet. You’re a prisoner, remember?”
“Yes, Lady Mechanic. Are you going to take Mechanic Ilya prisoner too?”
“Mechanic Ilya?” Mari heard more footsteps approaching.
“My watch partner. He was just resting for a moment.”
“Watch partner?” Calu asked. “They’ve teamed full Mechanics on the roving watches with Apprentices? I’ll bet that hasn’t helped morale in the Guild Hall any.”
“You didn’t know—?” the Apprentice began with a puzzled expression.
Mechanic Ilya came around the turn, huffing slightly from trying to catch up. “Who’s talk—?”
“Shhh,” Alli said, pointing her rifle at him.
Ilya, facing at least four rifles, stopped and held his hands up. “Wha—?”
“It’s a drill,” the Apprentice said.
“You idiot! This isn’t—”
“Shhh,” Alli said again, walking forward to pull the Mechanic’s revolver from his holster. “Noise makes me nervous,” she said, holding her rifle with the barrel in Ilya’s face, “and my finger twitches when I get nervous.”
Not resisting, Mechanic Ilya stared over Alli’s shoulder. “Master Mechanic Mari? I remember you from when you were here early last year. What are you doing back in Edinton? The Senior Mechanics have a shoot-on-sight order out on you.”
“I know. I want to have some words with the Senior Mechanics,” Mari said. “How is Mechanic Abad?”
“He got sent to Debran. After you left and word got out that you’d been ordered into Tiae, there was all kinds of hate and discontent here. Even more than before, that is. They sent off anybody considered a dissident, and then shipped in a lot of other people considered dissidents who were internally exiled to here.”
“Brilliant,” Calu said.
“But now—” Mechanic Ilya looked over the group before him. “You’re really doing it, aren’t you? You really are. Give me back my revolver and I’ll help!”
“He speaks the truth,” Alain said.
“Why,” Master Mechanic Lukas demanded, “did the Senior Mechanics put someone like you, who was sympathetic to Mari, on a security watch?”
“To punish me!” Ilya said. “For my bad attitude!”
“Just when you think the Senior Mechanics can’t get any more stupid,” Alli observed, “they prove you wrong again. Putting people with questionable loyalty on security watches to punish them. That’s just awesomely dumb.”
“We’re on our way to get more weapons,” Mari said.
“The armory? That’s on our roving watch route. You shouldn’t run into anyone else at this hour.”
“Mechanic Ilya?” the bewildered Apprentice asked.
“These Mechanics are all right,” Ilya assured him.
They hurried, Mari checking the time remaining until the official day would begin in the Guild Hall and the Mechanics and Apprentices would begin waking up. Everything needed to be done before then.
The entry to the armory loomed before them, a steel door set into a steel frame with multiple massive steel locks set through heavy steel hasps.
A female Mechanic knelt to one side of the door. “All of the walls are alarmed,” she said. “Except for this spot.” She traced an area low on the wall. “I’ve been telling the Senior Mechanics for fifteen years that they needed to run an alarm wire across here, and for fifteen years they’ve sent my every report back with demands for further justification for deviating from established design. Open this up like you did the outside wall, and I can get in and disarm the alarms from the inside.”
“Mage Asha, will you do this?” Alain asked.
“I will,” Asha said.
“Mechanic Dav,” Mari added, “you and Asha go inside as well in case your assistance is needed in getting the door open from the inside.”
The female Mechanic’s eyes widened as the area she had outlined vanished. She slid through the hole, followed by Mechanic Dav and then Mage Asha.
The hole vanished.
“What did I just see?” Mechanic Ilya asked, sounding fascinated as well as horrified.
“You’ll get used to it,” Alli told him. “Well, actually you won’t get used to it. You just won’t worry about it as much.”
A rapid tapping sounded on the inside of the door. “Mage Dav?” Alain said.
“With your assistance, Mage Hiro,” Dav said, pointing to the locks, “I will cause the illusion of the top half of this one to be replaced by nothing.”
“I will do the same to the other,” Hiro said.
The upper halves of both heavy locks vanished, leaving them to thud to the floor with a noise that made Mari wince and berate herself.
The massive door swung open on its hinges under the pull of Mechanic Dav and the female Mechanic. “You are not going to believe this,” she said.
Mari crowded forward, her eyes widening in shock. Instead of the ten or twelve rifles she had expected to see, there were piles of rifles below the racked weapons. “How many are there?”
“About fifty, I think. And nearly twenty revolvers. Plus a whole lot of ammunition.”
“Tiae,” Master Mechanic Lukas said as he surveyed the weapons. “I remember seeing the orders when the Guild pulled out of the Guild Halls in Tiae. They were told to bring anything that could be easily moved and destroy everything else.”
“And rifles could be easily moved,” Alli said. “The Guild must have stacked them all here instead of distributing them elsewhere. Ugh. Look at some of these. It’s going to take some work to get the rust off. But we’ve got at least thirty immediately usable weapons. Mari?”
“Pass them out,” Mari said.
The Mechanics quickly took one rifle or pistol each, only the captured Apprentice remaining unarmed. With a few weapons left, Alli moved to give a rifle to Asha, who stared back blankly.
“She has no idea how to use that,” Mari said.
“She can point it,” Alli said.
“No. Not consistently. Don’t give guns to the Mages, Alli. They’re dangerous enough without them.” Mari looked around, knowing that she was about to give another critical order, one that would no longer allow her to exercise direct control of everyone else. But she either trusted these others to be able to do their assigned tasks, or she didn’t. “It’s time to split up. You’ve all got assigned targets, and those of you who might encounter locked doors will have Mages with your groups. The Mages have agreed to listen to requests for their assistance from the Mechanics they know. Mechanic Dav, stay with Mage Asha. Bev, stay with Mage Hiro. Alli, keep Mage Tana with you. Calu, you stick with the group including Mage Dav and Mage Dimitri. Mage Alain will stay with my group to help take the front entry.”
“They’ve got six people on guard at the front,” Mechanic Iyla cautioned. “Two Apprentices and four Mechanics.”
“Do any of them have bad attitudes?” Mari asked.
“At the front? No. The Apprentices are…Apprentices. Regular watch rotation. But the Mechanics aren’t the sort just to give up.”
“You come with me, Ilya. Everybody else, remember to send a runner to the front to let me know when you’ve taken your objectives. We’re running low on time, so don’t waste any of it!”
She took off at a run, hearing others doing the same. The group split and split again, going up stairs and down hallways as each section headed for its assigned objective.
If she allowed herself time to think, it felt bizarre. To be running through the empty passageways of the Guild Hall, a pistol in her hand, a Mage alongside her, knowing that others under her command were doing to same. Not simply to defy the Senior Mechanics, but to defeat them in this one place and time. It would not topple the Mechanics Guild. It would only begin that process. But it was a beginning.
It was a long way through silent, darkened hallways from the armory to the main entry of the Guild Hall. Mari led her group unerringly in the right direction, her pistol held in a ready position. Thanks to the identical floor plan of Guild Halls everywhere she knew every corridor, every stair and every turn, yet there were differences in furnishings and decorative items that made the way seem familiar and strange at the same time. At one moment she might have been back at the Guild Hall in Caer Lyn, while a moment later Mari saw something that clearly said this was Edinton.
Mari slowed down as the small group still with her approached the front entry. “There will be an Apprentice sitting at a panel of alarms on the, uh, right side as we get to the entrance,” she told Alain. “The Apprentice can’t be allowed to touch anything. No one should touch anything on that panel.”
“Can you deceive this Apprentice as you did the one near the armory?” Alain asked.
“No,” Mari said, grateful that Alain’s Mage training made him impassive at times like this. He appeared to be totally unconcerned, which helped keep her own worries under control. “The front entry will be lighted. The Mechanics at the entry will probably recognize me the moment I stick my head in there.”
“I will stop the Apprentice from touching anything,” Alain said.
“Without hurting the Apprentice?”
“Without hurting the Apprentice,” Alain agreed. “Pause here.” He took several deep breaths, then vanished.
Mari waited, pretending not to notice the shock on the faces of her fellow Mechanics. After she guessed that Alain must have reached the Apprentice at the alarm panel, she led the others forward.
They stepped into the light of the front entry. It was set for night levels, lower than during the day but the open space still felt bright after the dimness elsewhere in the Guild Hall. Mari saw four Mechanics lounging to the side, two of them playing cards, while one Apprentice stood watch at the port that gave a view of the plaza outside and the other sat next to the alarm panel.
Alerted by the sound of her footsteps, the four Mechanics were already scrambling to their feet, rifles in hand. The two Apprentices turned their heads to look towards Mari.
She was leveling her pistol at the Mechanics when the first shout rang out. “It’s her! Sound top alert!”
“Freeze!” Mari shouted in return, but the Apprentice at the alarm panel quickly raised her arm to slap the top alert switch.
And hit instead Alain’s chest. He had dropped the concealment spell and stood between the Apprentice and the alarm panel.
The Apprentice felt the unexpected barrier, turned to look, and fell backwards away from Alain, her eyes wide and mouth wider.
The Mechanic on the far left levered a round into his rifle, ready to fire at Mari from the waist.
She saw the metal of the rifle suddenly glow red and the Mechanic dropped it with a yelp.
Mari waited for a long moment to see if the heat would make the ammunition in the rifle explode, but as the rifle rapidly cooled she spoke with deadly seriousness, her pistol backed by the rifles of the three Mechanics with her. “That was a warning. The only one you’ll get. Drop your weapons.”
“You’ll never get away with this,” one of the Mechanics on guard said.
“Then there isn’t any sense in you dying to try to stop me, is there?” Mari said.
First one, then the other Mechanics put down their rifles. The fourth was blowing on his slightly burnt hands.
Mari checked over the two Apprentices, but neither had pistols. Both were watching Mari with expressions of horror.
Mari couldn’t help sighing. She remembered tales of famous outlaws who had gloried in being recognized and the fear such recognition generated in others. As far as Mari was concerned, there was nothing pleasant about bringing fear to anyone who figured out who she was.
“How can you do this?” the male Apprentice asked as the four Mechanics were tied up one by one by Mechanic Ilya, who was apparently enjoying the task.
“Maybe I’m not doing what you’ve been told I’m doing,” Mari said.
“You’re trying to destroy the Guild!”
“That I am doing,” Mari admitted. “For some very good reasons, which can be summarized for the moment by saying that aside from your technical training, just about everything else the Guild has ever told you is a lie.” Ensuring that all of the alarms had been silenced, she had one of her Mechanics open the front entrance and wave a signal to the sailors who had been watching. They came across the plaza, accompanied by the healers Cas and Pol. “Notify Captain Banda that so far everything is going all right,” she told one of the sailors.
“I’m afraid we have little for you to do,” she advised the healers.
“That’s not a bad thing,” Pol said, looking around curiously. “I’ve never been even this far inside a Mechanic Guild Hall. Are your Mechanic lights everywhere inside?”
“You mean electric lights? Yes.” Mari moved to cover the main hallway leading to the front entrance as running steps sounded from the interior of the hall. To her relief, it was one of her Mechanics, easily identified thanks to the armband with the sign of the new day on it. She would have to apologize, again, for doubting that would be needed, Mari thought.
“We have control of the kitchens and the dining hall,” the Mechanic reported. “All of the Mechanics and Apprentices are being brought to the dining hall to be held under guard.”
“Good,” Mari said. “Make sure they know that no one will be harmed unless they try to harm one of us. And as long as you’re heading back that way, help one of my guys escort the four Mechanics who were on guard here back to the dining hall.”
She had barely finished saying that when Mage Asha and Mechanic Dav showed up. “We’ve got the far-talker,” Dav reported cheerfully. “No warnings or alerts got sent before we gained control.”
“Outstanding. You and Mage Asha stay here in case I need to send reinforcements somewhere.”
The two captive Apprentices had been seated on the long bench that spanned part of the back wall of the entry area. Asha walked over and sat down right next to the female Apprentice, who tried to shrink back but was stopped by the presence of the male Apprentice on her other side.
Asha looked at the female Apprentice. “What is your name?”
“A…A…A…A…” The Apprentice managed to swallow. “Apprentice Haru of Dorcastle.”
“I have not been to Dorcastle.” Her stock of social skills apparently exhausted, Asha lapsed into silence.
“Are you guys all right?” Mechanic Dav asked the two Apprentices. “Don’t be scared of Mage Asha. She’s nice.”
“Nice?” Apprentice Haru glanced sidelong at Asha. “A Mage?”
Asha managed a small but real smile. “Thank you, Mechanic Dav.”
More runners arrived, bringing news of more areas successfully seized and more surprised Mechanics taken prisoner.
By the time Mari saw the sun rising over the buildings to the east, the final reports had come in. “You control this Guild Hall, Master Mechanic Mari.”
“I should go check things out in person,” Mari said. “Dav, can you handle being in charge here at the entrance?”
“No problem,” Dav said. “Lady Mage Asha and I can handle anything!”
“Alain, why don’t you stay—”
“I will come with you,” Alain said.
“I’ll be fine, Alain, and you’d be better employed helping to protect this entrance.”
“I will come with you,” he repeated.
Mari gave him an exasperated look. She knew when Alain went all Mage-impassive on her that he wouldn’t give in on an argument. “Fine. Let’s go.”
With the occupants of the Guild Hall held prisoner in various areas, the hallways were oddly vacant at an hour when there should be increasing levels of traffic. Mari went to the dining hall first, concerned about the place where the great majority of the Edinton Mechanics were being held.
She found Master Mechanic Lukas at the entrance and raucous sounds coming from the dining hall. “What’s going on?”
“About two-thirds of the men and woman in there are celebrating being captured by you,” Lukas said, smiling at Mari. “The other third are keeping very quiet. Is what I heard right? No one was injured?”
“Only a few burnt fingers,” Mari said.
“You’ve more than proven your right to be in charge, Master Mechanic. My apologies for doubting you.”
“You questioned me,” Mari said. “If I can’t handle that, I don’t deserve to be giving orders.”
“She said you’d feel that way,” Lukas observed.
“She?”
An older woman in a well-worn Mechanics jacket stepped out of the dining hall. “Is there any chance of parole, Mari?”
“Professor S’san!” Mari embraced her old instructor, feeling tears start. “I was worried about you. We had to leave you at Severun and I was so afraid of what the Guild might have done.”
“Oh, hush,” S’san said, waving off Mari’s concerns. “All the Guild did was place me under Hall arrest and send me here. I think they planned on using me as a hostage to influence you. But even I never expected you to show up at Edinton and take over the Guild Hall. As long as you’re here, and apparently still fixed on changing the world, can you use any more help?”
“I would be honored to have your help,” Mari said. “And you won’t have to take orders from Senior Mechanics anymore.”
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