The Hidden Masters of Marandur by Jack Campbell

Author:Jack Campbell [Campbell, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9781625671325
Publisher: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
Published: 2015-06-09T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“All right.” Mari kicked out, her boot catching the man’s ankle and drawing a yelp of pain. The man fumbled with the weapon he had been in the act of trying to draw as Mari grabbed the wine bottle and slammed it against his head. Watching curtains being yanked back on some of the other booths in the room, Mari began sliding out of her seat as the man slumped down onto the table. Before she could tell who was inside those booths, Alain had grabbed her and pulled her back inside their own.

“Close our curtain,” he said.

Not waiting to ask, Mari used one hand to sweep the curtain to their booth closed, brandishing her pistol as she did so to dissuade anyone from rushing in immediately. “Now what? Why didn’t you let me run?”

“There are better ways to leave.”

Mari gave Alain a quick, puzzled look, then saw the wall beside his booth seat now had a hole in it, a hole large enough for them to get through. “I forgot all about that.”

The thunk of handheld mini-crossbows firing echoed in the room and the curtain to their booth jerked as bolts tore through it. Alain was already sliding through the hole, then turned to help her. Mari ducked down as low as she could get as more bolts thudded into the booth. A moment after she had cleared the hole, it vanished as if it had never been. “That should slow down any pursuers,” Alain remarked.

Mari impulsively kissed him. “I love you, my Mage.”

Alain twitched one of his small smiles at the possessive term. “We have to keep moving and get away from here. Though they may not be able to figure out how we escaped, they can still launch a search of the area.”

A couple of more thunks startled Mari, and she turned to see the very tip of one bolt sticking through the wall. “Let’s hope they keep shooting into that booth for a while before they charge it.” An ugly thought struck then. “We left that guy in the booth. He might get killed by his own people.”

Alain gave her a dispassionate look. “Waste no concerns on him. When he spoke of the Dark Mechanic who shot at you in Edinton, I could see in him that he was one of those who tried to kill you there.”

Mari couldn’t help shivering. She had never before looked closely upon someone who had tried to kill her. “Thanks for not telling me that earlier.” She looked around, seeing that they were on the upper floor of a laundry, with rack after rack of clothing hanging from rails on the ceiling. The distant sound of voices and splashing water warned of laundry workers laboring on the first floor. “It might be very hard to sneak past whoever is downstairs here, and if there’s anyone watching the outside of that restaurant, they might see us leaving an adjacent doorway. Can you get us through another wall?”

“Yes, but the fewer walls the better.

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