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understand her words. “I suggest we stay here through the day, resting as best we can. When night falls again we make our way down to the road and walk it toward Ringhmon. In the darkness, we should be as safe as possible if we remain alert.”
    “Yesterday you thought the road wouldn’t be safe,” Mari said. “What if those bandits are lying in wait for us along it?”
    “We will be better able to escape or fight if it is dark. You have your Mechanic weapon and I have my spells, so we are not helpless. There will be some chance, anyway. The road will have its dangers, but I do not think we have any chance of survival at all if we try to go overland through these heights.”
    She rolled onto her back and gazed up at the sun-blasted rocks around them, remembering their painfully slow progress of the day before. “I hate to admit it, but you’re right. That road is our only chance. Unless your Guild comes looking for you. Do you think they will?”
    “No.”
    She should have guessed that. Mages didn’t seem to waste much time on things like optimism, and any Guild that went to so much trouble to convince its members that nothing mattered wouldn’t be highly motivated to care about one Mage whose caravan was overdue.
    “What of your Guild?” Mage Alain asked.
    “The Mechanics Guild Hall in Ringhmon will eventually send someone to find out what happened to me, but by the time they decided we’d be dead,” Mari said. Wait the mandated period before marking someone overdue, fill out the proper paperwork, get it approved, get authorization to spend Guild funds on a search effort, and so on. The old joke claimed that you could die of old age while waiting for the Guild to officially approve your birth.
    Mari looked up at the sky, nerving herself for what she knew she had to do. “All right, Mage Alain. These bandits are after me. Maybe we should split up, so you’ll have a chance.” He said nothing for a long moment. Mari looked over and saw the Mage gazing outward, his eyes unfocused. “Hello?”
    The Mage drew a long breath, then shook his head. “I choose not to do that.”
    That had been the last thing she had expected. Why would a Mage choose to remain with a Mechanic when his chances would be much better without her? “Why not?”
    “If all is an illusion,” Mage Alain said in the slow manner of someone thinking through each word, “it would not matter what path I took. Therefore, I will stay with you.”
    “Gee, thanks, you sound so enthusiastic.” Mari glared at him, trying not to show how scared she was at the idea of being alone out here with the bandits searching for her. “Listen, this is real.”
    “Nothing is real.”
    “Stars above! I’m trying to give you a better chance to survive. Take it, you blasted fool Mage. Yesterday, you came with me to survive. Today, you need to leave me to live. So
do it
.”
    Mage Alain looked back at her without expression. “You are giving me orders, Master Mechanic Mari?”
    “That would really be effective, wouldn’t it?”
    “No. It would not. Was that your sarcasm again?”
    Mari gave an exasperated sigh. “You’re as stubborn as I am. How old are you anyway?”
    She saw him tense. “I am a Mage.”
    “No question. Not a doubt in my mind. So, how old are you, Mage Alain?”
    She thought he wouldn’t answer, but then Mage Alain met her eyes. “Seventeen.”
    “Really? Is it unusual for a Mage to be that young?”
    His eyes searched hers for a moment, as if trying to determine her reason for asking, then the Mage nodded. “I must prove myself,” he added.
    “Oh.” Mari sighed again, her anger at his stubbornness fading into guilty relief that he hadn’t accepted her offer. “I know that feeling. I’m eighteen. Youngest Master Mechanic ever. I made Mechanic at sixteen. Unprecedented.” She hated bragging, but her inability to mention what she had accomplished without seeming to boast had worn on her. At least when speaking to a Mage she