The Assassins of Altis by Jack Campbell Page A

you?” She looked full on at Mari. “Do you still say that you…love Mage Alain?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you already carry his child?”
    Mari felt her face getting hot. “Excuse me?”
    “My questions discomfort you? Why is this?”
    Mari took a deep breath, remembering her attempts to explain privacy to Alain. “Why don’t we all sit down?” She and Alain sat on the edge of the bed while Asha took the room’s one chair. “No, I do not carry Alain’s child. That has to wait, even if I decide to do that.”
    “You do not want Alain’s child?”
    Mari’s face got hotter. “Yes, I do. Maybe. I don’t know.” She wasn’t even completely ready to discuss that with Alain, let alone with another woman she hardly knew. “But not now.”
    “You are not happy because of my question.” Asha blinked at Mari, then looked at Alain. “What are the words?”
    “I am sorry,” Alain said.
    She nodded and turned to Mari once more. “I…am…sorry. I…try to understand how you see him, even though I am still attempting to be aware of such feelings once more. But I know that you think of him very much.”
    “How do you know that?” Mari asked, not certain that she should be asking, but curious that a Mage would say such a thing.
    “When you think of Mage Alain,” Asha explained dispassionately, “your self blazes clearly to my senses even across great distances. This is how I found Mage Alain, knowing that you would be with him.”
    Mari suddenly realized that what she had felt before was not embarrassment. Not compared to what she felt now. “You can tell when I’m thinking about Alain?”
    For his part, Alain had developed an anxious expression at Mari’s reaction. “This is an unusual thing, Mage Asha.”
    “I had never heard of it from other Mages,” Asha replied without emotion. “Yet even now Mechanic Mari’s presence flares before me very brightly. She must be thinking of you.”
    “Oh, yes,” Mari said, struggling to keep her voice under control. “I’m thinking about Alain right now, yes, I am. Can you tell what I am thinking, Alain?”
    “You…are unhappy.”
    “Yes, Alain, I am unhappy. I thought you told me that Mages can’t read minds.” Mari’s words came out sounding only partly strangled with emotion.
    “They cannot,” Alain said quickly. “I do not know what this thing is which Asha can see from you.”
    “She knows what I’m thinking about you! Do you have any idea what some of the things I’ve — Oh, blazes,” Mari gasped, wondering if anyone could possibly feel this humiliated.
    Asha was watching Mari with visible curiosity. “You are not happy to know another can sense your thoughts of Alain?”
    “Happy,” Mari said with all of the restraint she could manage, “is not quite the right word.”
    Watching Mari and looking more alarmed by the moment, Alain leaned toward Asha. “This thing you sense from Mari, it is like that from a Mage?”
    “Yes,” Asha agreed. “Like when a Mage casts a spell. The presence is clear, even though it is different from that of a Mage.”
    “Then,” Alain said, choosing his words carefully as he looked at Mari, “Asha does not know what you are thinking of me. She only knows that you are thinking of me.”
    Mari glared at him suspiciously. “Just that? Nothing else? No…details? No…pictures?”
    “Pictures of what?” Alain asked.
    “Nothing! Not a blasted thing! Now answer the question!”
    Alain, looking like he had the time they faced a dragon in Dorcastle, turned back to Asha. “Do you see any pictures?”
    “No.” Asha switched her gaze from Alain to Mari and back again, betraying no reaction at all. “What pictures should I be seeing? Perhaps if I focus on attempting to see such pictures — ”
    “NO!” Mari paused to get control of herself. “Please do not, Mage Asha.”
    Asha suddenly revealed a tiny measure of understanding. “You are concerned that I may be seeing your imagined manifestations of physical