The Assassins of Altis by Jack Campbell Read Free Book Online

understood but apparently satisfied the mind of a Mechanic.
    Now Alain felt for the power in the area around him, sensing how much was available here as only Mages could. “We could run, but only across the open fields. We would be seen easily, if only by the footprints we made in the fresh snow. If we stay here, there is enough power available to me to sustain a concealment spell for some time.”
    Mari grimaced, but did not dispute his words. “You can you hide us without that other Mage spotting you doing it?”
    He concentrated on the Mage he still sensed on the edge of his awareness, far distant from here. “For a while, yes. By the time the Mage helping with the quarantine could tell these Imperials that another Mage was active here, the legionaries should have long since left.” Alain studied their surroundings. “They will look up in the trees and around the trunks.”
    Mari pointed to a jagged stump which only came up her waist. “So we go there, where we couldn’t possibly hide?”
    “Not without a Mage.”
    It still took some work to get everything back inside their packs, muddle any trace that they had been sitting next to the trees, and then find a spot right next to the stump where they could stand with the smallest chance of having a legionary blunder into them. Mari ended up backed against the stump, her arms once again around Alain from behind, he pressing back and looking in the direction from which the cohort of legionaries was approaching. “You really are enjoying this, aren’t you?” Mari whispered. “I think you could make me invisible even if I wasn’t glued to you like this.”
    “No, I could not,” Alain said. “But it is pleasant.”
    She did not reply, because they heard commands being called. The woodcutters on the other side of the trees did not hear the approaching legionaries and kept up their racket, so Alain had to watch carefully, unable to count on knowing how close the legionaries were before they got close enough to see him and Mari. “I will start the spell. Stay very still and very quiet.”
    “No problem,” she muttered back.
    Common folk believed that Mages changed real objects. Mechanics considered Mages to be fakes who claimed to be able to do impossible things. Neither was correct. Alain's training had focused on enabling him to realize that nothing was real, that the world he saw around him was just an illusion. And if all was illusion, then with enough strength and power and concentration other illusions could be temporarily placed over the existing illusions. The illusion of a wall could have the illusion of an opening placed on it.
    The illusion of light, traveling in straight lines, could be altered so that the light curved around a Mage, concealing him or her.
    Alain bent light so that no one could see either him or Mari, only the broken truck behind them. They stood silently as the legionaries began coming into view. Alain, concentrating on maintaining the spell as the line of Imperial soldiers slogged wearily into the woods, wondered if the distant Mage had picked up the small spell yet.
    A centurion walked with the legionaries, barking out orders. “Check every tree. Check the branches, check behind it, then check the branches again.”
    Most of the legionaries carried swords, and several had crossbows. None carried any of the Mechanic weapons that Mari called rifles, but that was small comfort. The legionaries displayed little enthusiasm for their task, and from their weary expressions and tired movements Alain guessed the legionaries had been up and searching since last night. But under the eyes of their centurion they did as instructed, checking every tree carefully.
    None of them came near the stump to search, but Alain had to breathe as silently as possible when the centurion came to stand near it, glaring around at his troops. “Pick it up, boys and girls! We’ve got a lot more territory to cover today until we find them, and when we do find them