Free The Dragons of Dorcastle by Jack Campbell

behind them as they rode off. Mari and the Mage waited a while longer, despite the discomfort of their hiding place, but finally Mari decided that if she were going to die she would rather be killed by bandits down on the road than be broiled alive up on the ledge.
    The climb down wasn’t easy, even in full daylight. Mari examined the remains of the caravan and its former guards and drivers as best she could stomach, looking for anything else that might help them. But in the time since the Mage’s search last night the bandits had done a thorough job of destroying and despoiling everything that was left.
    She met Mage Alain again at the edge of the crater which marked where the first explosion had shattered the front of the caravan. Somebody had used a lot of explosives to produce a blast that powerful, and the Mechanics Guild charged plenty for explosives. This “bandit gang” had a great deal of money behind it.
    If Mage Alain was right about what the bandits had said—and the lack of bullet holes in the ruin of her own wagon would seem to confirm his guess—they had spent all of that money and killed all of these people in order to get their hands on her.
    Why?
    Mage Alain shook his head as he looked down into the crater. “The caravan master did not escape. I believe a few guards may have made it out of the pass, fleeing east, but they could not have outrun the bandits.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.” Just common folk, her Mechanic training told her. Inferiors meant to serve Mechanics. They didn’t matter.
    Except that they did.
    Rubbing the back of his neck, Mage Alain squinted into the distance. “It should not matter…they do not matter,” he said, as if trying to convince himself, unknowingly using the same phrase which had come to Mari as she thought of her training.
    Mari grimaced. “Can you think of any reason we shouldn’t start walking west right now instead of waiting for nightfall?”
    “No. We will not overtake mounted bandits unless they stop to watch for us, and if they do lie in wait, perhaps I can avenge those who died here.” The lack of emotion in his voice matched that in his face.
    But Mari thought she could see the anger smoldering deep in the Mage’s eyes. She could have pointed out to Mage Alain that his desire for vengeance meant he did care about what had happened here, but she simply nodded and said nothing, feeling reassured that this Mage, at least, did think the fates of others mattered.
    * * * *
    They walked westward until close to sunset, taking full advantage of any shade cast by the heights around the pass. Just before sunset they cleared the pass, coming to a point where the road zigzagged down a fairly steep slope before continuing in a long curve toward the northwest across desert flatlands which ran all the way to the horizon. Mari, wishing she had brought a far seer, gazed out over the panorama for any sign of the bandits, but except for a tiny cloud of dust far down the road saw nothing.
    After eating a small amount of the trail rations and drinking as little water as they dared, they started down the slope, cutting across the back-and-forth twists of the road designed to accommodate wagons. That sped them up enough that they reached the bottomland before moonrise.
    The road proved easy enough to follow in the moonlight. Mari tried to maintain a steady pace as they strode through the desert waste, the only sounds the soft crunch of their feet on the sand drifted across the road, their breathing, and the occasional faint sigh of a breeze that seemed as exhausted as the two humans trudging along the apparently endless road. She saw nothing moving, no living thing except her companion, but did hear the occasional rustle of some small creature nearby.
    The stars were more brilliant than she had ever seen them, but Mari didn’t dare look upward as she walked for fear of tripping and falling. Mechanics didn’t look at the stars much, anyway, any such study being