The Pirates of Pacta Servanda (Pillars of Reality Book 4) (21 page)

Mari could feel the eyes of Mechanics, Apprentices, and the common sailors upon her. Before she could say anything, Master Mechanic Lukas spoke up, seated facing her across a small open area in the center of the group. “Master Mechanic Mari, my experience with you is that you work out details before deciding on actions. I didn’t question the vagueness of what you’ve told us so far because I could understand your reasons for withholding the details while hostile ears could hear. I think most of us would like to hear more now.”

“And you will,” Mari said, once more trying to sound totally in control. She was getting better at that, she realized. And that was good, since Master Mechanic Lukas’s words could be taken as a challenge as well as a request for more information.

Alain reached into his robes and produced the text she had asked him to bring from the
Gray Lady
, handing it to Mari. She had wanted that done in full view of the Mechanics. “This is a big detail,” she said, holding up the text, then passing it carefully to Master Mechanic Lukas. “Texts containing technology banned by the Mechanics Guild.”

“Banned technology?” The Mechanics around the circle were straining to look, their eyes filled with wonder, as Lukas took the text and began looking through it. “Communications,” he commented.

“Look at that!” a Mechanic behind him gasped, pointing. “We could do that! It would improve our portable far-talkers.”

“But what’s that?” another Mechanic asked, staring. “It’s…all right. I get it. But can we build that?”

“If we can’t yet, we’ll find a way,” Lukas said. He nodded to Mari. “This is huge. How many do you have?”

“Quite a few more,” Mari said. “Including medical, and armaments, and mass production.”

“Mass production?”

“Making things fast. Making a lot of things fast,” Mari added.

“The Guild wouldn’t like that,” Mechanic Ken said. “According to them, the Mechanic arts involve hand-crafted work for everything. No wonder the Guild would have kept that banned for centuries.” He peered at the text that Lukas held. “That paper doesn’t look ancient.”

“These are copies of the originals,” Mari said.

“Who gets to see these?” an eager voice cried.

“Everybody,” Mari said.

“She means it,” Alli said. “We’ve been looking over the texts on the
Gray Lady
.”

Lukas was frowning at the text he held. “Mari, this is amazing. In the long run, it will let us build some of the things we’ve only dreamed of. In the long run. But we may not have a long run. I don’t know where you’re planning to set up shop, but a few dozen Mechanics and Apprentices who have to build their basic tools before they can even start on these things won’t be able to get very far before the Guild locates us and destroys us.”

“The Mage Guild wants Master Mechanic Mari dead, too,” said Senior Mechanic Gina. “They’ll come after us as well, which I wouldn’t have worried about as much before what I read today.”

“We need tools and we need more workers,” Lukas summed up.

Mari took a deep breath, knowing that her next statements would have to be said just right. “We can get workers. We can get a lot of workers.” She pointed to the common sailors listening to the discussion. “Commons can do basic Mechanic work.”

Utter silence fell.

“I’ve proven it,” Mari said. “They can use our tools. They can operate a boiler. If given proper instruction and supervision. They can build things, if we show them what to build and how to do it.”

“Are you saying,” Lukas said slowly, “that the commons are Mechanics, too?”

“No,” Mari said. “We’re better at it all. The lie the Mechanics Guild has told all these years is that we’re the only ones who
can
do it. What we are, are the people who are
best
at it. When I was working with the commons, what to me was easy came harder to them. I don’t believe this was just because it was new to them. We Mechanics will remain the leaders, the teachers, the skilled practitioners of our arts. But we don’t have to keep them secret anymore.”

Calu nodded. “We can design, we can innovate, we can supervise, we can be engineers. The Guild has pretty much told us we have to dig every ditch because commons can’t use shovels. But the commons can. They can do basic production and operation tasks. Which frees us up to do, well, the stuff we like to do.”

“Commons mess up a lot,” someone commented.

“They mess up,” Captain Banda said, “when they’re treated poorly. When they’re treated with respect, they do a fine job. My sailors are skilled, reliable workers.”

“Let me be clear,” Mari said, acutely aware of the commons listening. “I’m not talking about the same deal the Guild has been running on Dematr, where the Mechanics are in charge of everything. The Mechanics should be in charge of Mechanic tasks. In charge of their workshops and manufacturing and design areas and the places that teach people how to be Mechanics or how to do jobs like operating boilers. But we shouldn’t be telling the commons what to do. I meant what I said earlier about freedom. The commons should rule themselves. We have to stop treating the commons as slaves to Mechanics. They are people, like us, and just as we deserve freedom and respect, so do they.”

A low rumble sounded among the Mechanics as they took that in. It didn’t sound like a happy rumble.

Alain stood up, attracting everyone’s attention. “I am a Mage,” he said. “The elders of my Guild taught me that everyone else was only a shadow. What happened to those others did not matter in any way. Mari showed me that others do matter. That Mechanics do matter, as do common people.”

Mechanic Alli stood up, too. “All of us have been unhappy with the way we’ve been treated by the Senior Mechanics. Right? They’ve ordered us around, and told us we can’t do things, and forced us to do things, and generally made our lives miserable because they wanted to control everything. You, and me, and every Mechanic haven’t been the rulers of Dematr. That’s what we were told, but it’s not true. It’s the Guild that has ruled this world. We’ve been the servants of the Guild. One step higher up the ladder than the commons, but still servants.”

“Everybody has to be free,” Mari said, giving her words more force and more volume. “Everybody. Mechanic. Mage. Common folk. Because it is going to take everybody to beat the Mechanics Guild and the Mage Guild. It is going to take everybody to change this world. We work together, and we all win. We try to keep things the same, and we all lose.”

She had chosen those words carefully, and could see the reaction they caused. Especially the last sentence. She didn’t have to underline that keeping things the same had been the primary governing rule for the Guild since its founding. And everyone here had bloodied themselves against the wall of inertia that rule had created.

“Do you really think,” Master Mechanic Lukas asked, “that you can get Mechanics, Mages, and commons to work together that way?”

“I already have,” Mari said.

Several moments of silence followed. Lukas looked at Mage Alain and Mage Asha, then around at the common sailors. He smiled slightly. “I’m looking forward to learning more about that, Master Mechanic Mari. All right. It’s your project. Does anyone disagree?” None of the Mechanics spoke up this time. “Now tell me where we’re going to get tools.”

Mari grinned. “We know where to get tools. A Guild Hall. We’re heading for one right now.”

“Edinton?” Mechanic Ken asked incredulously. “I won’t deny that Edinton has a lousy reputation and is probably riddled with dissent, but that doesn’t get you through the door, Mari.”

“The front entrances have been reinforced even more in the last year,” Senior Mechanic Gina said. “And additional guard procedures put into place. You would need an army to break through the front door.”

“Why do you seek ways to overcome the defenses at the front entrance?” Alain asked, drawing looks from all of the Mechanics. Only Mari knew that she had prepared him to ask that question after he had been the one to suggest to her not only attacking the Guild Hall but how to get in.

“Because that’s the way inside,” Master Mechanic Lukas said gruffly.

“But my training in military matters advises that when faced with strong defenses, it is better to go around them than to strike them head-on.”

Lukas paused before answering. “There is merit in that. In theory. If you want to break something you aim for a weak point instead of hammering where it is strongest. But there isn’t any way to go around the defenses at the front. The other entrances to the Guild Hall are heavily armored and routinely locked, barred, and alarmed. I doubt with the materials available to us we could even blow our way through them.”

“There are other ways to make openings where none exist,” Alain said.

Master Mechanic Lukas froze with his mouth half-open.

“You mean like when you made that opening in the deck?” Mechanic Ken asked eagerly, leaning in toward Alain. “Can you do that for a longer time?”

“Yes,” Alain said. “On land there will be much more power to draw on. And the other Mages who follow Mari can also perform this spell.”

“We’ve seen it,” Alli said. “It’s a solid wall, then the Mages do their thing, and there’s an opening big enough to walk through.”

“How can they make openings in walls?” Lukas asked. “I’ve seen it, but how do they do it?”

Alain answered. “Mages do not make openings. We create the illusion of an opening in the illusion of a wall. The illusion lasts as long as our power can sustain it, and then the illusion of the wall returns to its former appearance.”

Mari laughed. “I’ve had this conversation before! Everyone, Alain is not messing with you. That is how the Mages think. It’s how they do something that we can’t explain. And Alain was the one who proposed this plan. Unlike me, or probably any of the Mechanics here, he actually has some training in how to conduct military operations.”

“If we can get inside the Guild Hall somewhere far from the front entrance,” Calu said, “then we’d just be more Mechanics walking around. We could get access to things like the armory—”

“That’s heavily alarmed and locked,” someone cautioned.

“Why can’t a Mage make an opening in the armory?” Ken asked, looking around.

“Bring a Mage inside a Mechanics Guild Hall?”

“Why not?”

“What happens when they kill somebody?”

“Why would we kill anyone?” Alain asked. “Would that be necessary?”

“No,” Mari said. “And if it did prove to be necessary, Mechanics would do it. We can handle our own. The Mages will not harm anyone if I tell them not to.”

“They aren’t like other Mages, then,” someone scoffed.

“This one is talking to us,” Master Mechanic Lukas pointed out. “I can even spot some feeling in his voice at times. No, he’s not like other Mages. And neither is the Lady Mage there. While we were pounding our heads against the front entrance fortification problem, this Mage thought of a way around it. Why haven’t Mages broken into Mechanics Guild Halls that way before this, Sir Mage?”

“Why would Mages want to?” Alain asked.

“Don’t Mages hate us?”

“Mages hate no one. Mages do not care about anyone. That does not mean they will never harm them,” Alain added. “It means Mages do not care whether others are hurt or killed, because they do not believe others are real. Why attack the Mechanics unless they first attack the Mages?”

“Which I understand did happen in the past,” Mari said. “Maybe our Guild decided in part to leave the Mages alone because the Mages did break into Guild Halls in the way Alain has suggested.”

“Your…work,” Mechanic Ken asked. “It can’t be detected by alarm systems?”

“It can be,” Alli offered. “If a Mage makes a hole that breaks an alarm wire, that sets off an alarm just as if someone cut it. But if we tell the Mages where to make the holes—I mean, if Mari tells them where to do it—they should be able to avoid setting off alarms. There’s about thirty of us. Counting the weapons we still have on the
Gray Lady
, we’ve got a dozen rifles and four pistols. That’s already a lot, but Edinton’s armory should have ten or twelve more rifles and a couple of revolvers.”

“We go in at night,” Mari said. “We know where the security patrols travel and what their schedules are because we’ve all walked those patrols and the Guild never changes them. We know the exact layout of the Guild Hall at Edinton because the Guild builds every Hall using the same plan. I don’t know where all the alarm wiring runs but I bet some of the others of you do. We surprise everyone, we get all the weapons under our control, and when the Senior Mechanics at Edinton wake up, we’ll be in control of that Guild Hall.”

“I’ve always wanted to loot a Guild Hall,” Bev said. “To get my hands on some of the stuff the Senior Mechanics have hidden away for only their use.”

“I’ve wanted that longer than you have,” Lukas said.

“Do we get a vote on this plan?” another Mechanic asked.

Mari could see Alain’s head move very slightly to left and right in a tiny shake of disapproval. They had discussed this, too, and Alain had been very firm that while voting might be a good idea under other circumstances, it was no way to run an army.

And while this was a very small army, it was going to attack a Guild Hall.

“No,” Mari said. “We can discuss long term policy issues, but when it comes to a project like this, we need someone in charge.”

“Why is that someone you?”

Calu laughed. “Are the Mages going to listen to you?” he called to the dissenting Mechanic. “Are the commons going to do what you say? How many Mechanics in Edinton are going to look to you as someone to follow?”

Mechanic Ken glared at the objector. “You are just like me and the others here. All except Master Mechanic Mari. We sat around as the years went by and things got worse and worse. We complained and said something ought to be done, and watched our friends get shipped off to exile or prison, and waited for someone to do something. Why follow Mari? Because she’s willing to lead! And you know what the best measures are of how good she is at that? The fact that the Guild has worked so hard to kill her, and the fact that she not only is still alive but has hit the Guild harder than we ever dreamed possible.”