The Dragons of Dorcastle (34 page)

Now Mari sat near the base of one of the walls of Dorcastle, the rising sun shining down through the ragged remnants of morning mist. She knew she looked haggard from lack of sleep, and her breakfast formed a hard lump in her gut. Her Mechanics jacket and her pistol were hidden in her bag. She had decided that investigating this openly would only produce orders from the Senior Mechanics to butt out, so she would do the thing undercover, just one more common to whom no Mechanic would pay any attention.

Alain said he could find her. This would help prove whether or not that was true. Her common sense, which seemed to have almost deserted her, kept telling Mari that it would be far better if the Mage never showed up. Better for her, and certainly better for him.

But when he did appear, she couldn’t help smiling happily at seeing him. The Mage was also dressed as a common, and also carrying a bag which doubtless contained his Mage robes. “Good morning,” she said, feeling better.

He nodded back, one corner of his mouth twitching.

Had that been an answering smile? “I guess the thread didn’t break,” Mari added.

“No. It is a remarkable thing,” Alain agreed tonelessly, then he paused and tried to put more emphasis in his voice. “No, it did not break.”

“Great.” Mari held up a piece of paper. “I’ve got a list of places we need to look at. It’ll be a walk to get to the right parts of the city, but at least it’ll be downhill.” Mari pointed ahead, where the city of Dorcastle sloped down to the water in successive terraces of streets and defensive walls. “All of the places are located around the harbor.”

They walked through the crowded streets, having to deal with the unusual problem of commons who did not make way for either a Mechanic or a Mage. But no one cleared a pathway for two more commons. Wagons and carriages rattled by, the horses or mules pulling them one more type of obstacle to progress, and street merchants called out offers to them with an aggressiveness that Mari wasn’t accustomed to. She ignored them, since she wasn’t certain how a common would respond and didn’t want to give herself away as a Mechanic. For the same reason, Mari didn’t talk at all with Alain for fear his emotionless voice would give him away as a Mage. But as they passed commons she started noticing some of the commons giving her and Alain knowing or sympathetic looks. What was that about?

Mari stole a glance at Alain’s totally impassive face as he walked next to her. She knew she looked worn out and probably worried and—
Stars above. The commons think Alain and I are a couple who have had a big fight.
She felt her face warming with embarrassment.
I need to work on that guy’s face. Not just his voice, the face, too. Both projects at once.

Planning that out at least kept her distracted until they reached the harbor.

Mari consulted her map, then led Alain along the waterfront to a section of piers screened by warehouses from the main harbor. They paused, looking at a large section of wooden pier which had been torn and buckled. Harbor workers and sailors passed the wreckage with curious or worried glances. Standing near the wreckage was a middle aged common wearing an old but serviceable chain-mail shirt that strained around a belly which reflected too many meals enjoyed too well. A small dagger and a wooden club hung from the guard’s belt, both as dilapidated as the mail shirt. Mari walked up to the guard with her most winning smile, trying to pretend that the guard was another Mechanic so she wouldn’t start ordering him around. “Is it all right if we look at this?”

The guard waved them toward the wreckage. “Look all you want. I’m just here to make sure no lackwit with his head in the clouds walks into the holes in the pier. Not much to see, though. There’s no dragons around. If there was, I wouldn’t be!” The common chuckled at his own joke.

Mari smiled obligingly and nodded in thanks. She and Alain went closer to the wrecked area. “Something definitely used a lot of strength here.”

The Mage bent down, gazing at the torn wood. “As we saw at the beach. Something has pulled these timbers out and broken them.” He pointed to the indentations of what seemed to be huge claws.

“Wouldn’t something capable of doing this be really large?” Mari asked. “Do you think someone saw it?”

“No one saw it,” the guard remarked. He had come to stand near them.

The familiarity startled Mari, who was used to the deference and distance commons always gave Mechanics. But she managed to cover up her reaction and look interested in the guard’s words.

“The warehouses block the view,” he continued, waving around to indicate the structure.–“But they heard it all right, over the sound of breaking wood. Hissing and moaning like the monster it was.”

“Hissing?” Alain asked.

“Yeah. You feeling all right, fella? Nothing to be scared of here now. Anyway, lots of hissing. These dragons are like big snakes, right?”

Alain made a gesture of ignorance. “Is that what they are?”

“Well, I’m no Mage, but that’s what I hear.” The guard grinned. “Of course, if I was a Mage you couldn’t believe what I was telling you, could you?”

“No, I could not,” Alain agreed, absolutely serious.

“Excuse me,” Mari interjected, trying to break up the conversation before the common figured out why Alain was so unexpressive. “Have you seen any Mechanics down here?”

The guard thought, scratching his head. “A couple, I suppose. Soon after it happened. They just looked around a little and then left. Like it wasn’t their business, you know?”

“They didn’t say anything? Ask any questions?”

“Mechanics? Say anything to the likes of me or you?” The guard laughed.

She hoped she didn’t look too uncomfortable at the guard’s blunt words. “They might’ve given some orders.”

“Orders? Nah.” The guard shook his head. “Like I said, they acted like it wasn’t no affair of theirs. I expect they’re happy seeing the Mages get raked over the coals about this. Why would they worry about whether you or me runs into a dragon or loses their job because the harbor’s closed?”

Mari kept her voice composed. “The Mechanics make a lot of money off the trade through Dorcastle. I understand they’re not happy about the harbor being closed.”

“Is that so? Hard to tell, since whenever one looks at me they’re always looking down, and I don’t figure they care about me any more than a Mage does. You know what I mean?”

“Yes,” Mari said after a moment. “I know exactly how it feels to be looked down upon. Thanks for your information.”

“No problem. Helps pass the time,” the guard replied with another smile.

As they turned to go, Alain faced the guard again. “Hissing? You are certain there was hissing?”

“Clear as could be, son,” the guard assured him. “Maybe you ought to lie down somewhere for a while. You might be sick. You look as blank as a Mage.”

“Come on,” Mari said, grabbing Alain’s arm and pulling him away from the guard. “What was that about?” she asked in a low voice as they walked away. “The hissing stuff?”

“Dragons do not hiss.”

“What do you mean, they don’t hiss?”

“They do not hiss.” The Mage spread his hands as if trying to pantomime something huge. “They are not like snakes at all. They have scales, but otherwise— ”

“Hissing,” Mari broke in. “What about the hissing?”

“They do not. I have been near two dragons, and the breathing sound they make is what you would expect from any very large creature. A big rumbling noise and the sound of the wind rushing in and out of their throats.”

Mari frowned. “Would a dragon hiss if it was working hard at something? Really exerting itself?”

“No. They need even more air when working hard. I know your locomotive creatures hiss at times, but do you know of any other creature which breathes through its teeth when it is in need of more air?”

“How do you know stuff about animals?” Mari asked.

The Mage lowered his gaze to the cobblestones of the street. “The farm I lived on as a young boy. The memories have been coming back to me in the last couple of weeks.”

“They have? Why do you think—”

He was very obviously not looking at her now.

“Oh.”
Ever since he met me. Change the subject, Mari.
“Let’s take a look at some of the other sites.”

She led the way toward another place where dragons had caused damage, trying to think of something else to talk about, something to distract Alain. “Um, you know, if I had worn my jacket, that guard wouldn’t have spoken to us unless I asked him stuff, and he probably wouldn’t have told us about the hissing.”

Alain nodded. “We were taught as acolytes that instilling fear has its purposes, but it can also create problems.”

“I wonder just how many problems.”

“You can work with commons,” Alain said.

“I guess,” Mari admitted.

“And Mages.”

“One Mage. That is unusual, I know, but if I can make it work, why not?” Mari grimaced. “I want to be in control of what I do. The hardest part of being in my Guild is having so many rules and restrictions and people telling me what to do. Some of the rules make sense. You can see why they’re necessary. But a lot of other rules feel like they’re just there because someone wanted to control Mechanics who were lower in rank. And yet that is so much easier than the life of commons. What it would have been like growing up as a common, with no power at all, no control at all, just a pawn in the games of the Great Guilds?”

“I do not think you would do well under those conditions,” Alain said.

“I don’t think so, either.” The next words came out before she quite realized what she was saying. “Why am I helping to force other people to live in a way I couldn’t stand to live?”

The Mage didn’t answer, seeming to be sunk in thought, but she didn’t know what the answer was, either, and was horrified at having said such a thing. If the Guild ever found out that she had said that…

Mari had regained her composure by the time they reached another secluded area, where a section of unloading dock had been reduced to splinters. At yet another place, a small coastal freighter, the sort whose crew normally slept ashore, had been holed and left lying on the bottom of the harbor next to the pier where it had been tied up. Asking around, Mari learned that most of the small ship’s side opposite the pier had been ripped open. Farther along, a warehouse fronting on the harbor had seen half of its seaward wall stove in, the bricks forming piles of rubble.

By the time they had finished looking over the wrecked warehouse, the sun was past noon. They stopped to grab some hand food from a small cart catering to the waterfront workers, finding seats on bollards at the edge of the pier. Below them, the waters of the harbor surged gently back and forth, some trash on the surface bumping against the piles holding up the pier. Looking down, Mari could see only a little way beneath the surface, the water so clouded that within a short distance all was hidden.

She ate slowly, trying to grasp something that was bothering her. Something that tied together all the sites they had viewed. But what? She looked around, trying to spot anything that might help her figure out what it was. Around at the water, up the long slope through the city… “That’s it.”

“What?” Alain followed her gaze. “Something is up there?”

“No. That’s the point. Nothing’s up there.” Mari could see the Mage’s eyes reflecting confusion, and felt a sense of satisfaction that she was getting better at spotting his thoughts and emotions despite his efforts to hide them. “Can dragons fly?”

The apparent change of subject didn’t seem to startle the Mage. “No. Not at all. They do not have wings, but even if they did I do not see how they could fly. Their large muscles, their heavy bones, their armored scales, it all ties them to the ground.–Although by using their hind legs, the largest can jump impressive distances,” he added. “If you want a flying spell creature, you need a Roc.”

“A what?”

“A Roc. It is a giant bird,” Alain explained.

Mari shook her head. “A giant bird. I’m crazy to be listening to this, you know that?”

“I have thought…” He fumbled for words, for a moment looking just like any other seventeen-year-old young man. Was that actually embarrassment showing? “You might…be interested…someday…in flying…on a Roc. I mean…with me.”

“Are you asking me on a date?” Mari tried desperately not to laugh at his discomfort. “A date on a giant bird?”

“Um…I do not know…just something to do…together. That is not dangerous,” Alain added hastily.

“Doing something together that isn’t dangerous?” Mari asked. “That would be a change of pace for us, wouldn’t it? Maybe that would be fun, someday.” She wanted to let him down easy, even though the idea of flying on some giant bird felt not just impossible but also far from safe. “Have you ever gone…flying…with a girl before?”

Was he blushing? Just the faintest hint of it, but— Stars above. She had made a Mage blush.

“No,” Alain said.

From what she had seen and heard of Mages and their acolytes, from what she had learned of Alain, that wasn’t surprising. A Mage social probably consisted of everyone standing in the same room and ignoring each other. “Sure, Alain. Let’s do that someday.”
I really hope I don’t end up regretting that.
“For now, never mind the giant birds. Could dragons get up there?” She pointed up toward the city.

“Of course.” Alain regained his composure quickly. “The wide streets would make their passage easy.”

She smiled with satisfaction. “Then can you think of any reason why everything these dragons have done is close to the water? Even the train trestle was destroyed down at ground level, right at the shore.”

Alain stayed silent as he thought. “No. Now that you mention it, it is very unlike them. Dragons do not like water all that much, especially deep water.”

“They don’t swim well?”

“Not at all. They are heavy, as I said.” The Mage rubbed his chin, clearly thinking. “I have thought you were right about this not really being the work of dragons, but now I am certain. Only a leviathan would be tied to the water, and a leviathan would not cause the kinds of damage we have seen.”