The Mark of the Dragonfly (14 page)

Anna didn’t seem to hear her and simply continued chattering away. “Apparently, their vision is poor when compared to a human’s, but a sarnun’s
feelers
have
twenty times
the number of olfactory receptors we do,” she said. “Because of that, they value unique fragrances. The market for perfume in Tevshal is the largest in the Merrow Kingdom. The sarnuns make it and sell it not just among their own kind but also to the humans, even though we can’t appreciate all the subtleties they put into it.”

She knows an awful lot about sarnuns too
, Piper thought, surprised. She guided Anna by the shoulder, half afraid the girl was going to step out in front of a carriage, so absorbed was she in her recitation. How many books had Anna managed to read in the last two days, Piper wondered, and how was she remembering everything in them?

“Most of the merchants near the train station are sarnun,” Piper remarked, trying to get Anna’s attention onto something else. “Looks like business is good.”

“Chemicals from the sarnun perfumeries seeped into the soil over time,” Anna droned on, “and modified several species of existing flora to produce the bioluminescence, but the reaction was most evident in the night-blooming flora, obviously. Isn’t that fascinating, Piper?”

“Sure, almost as impressive as your ability to soak up all that information and yet completely ignore me when I tell you to save it for later,” Piper said. “Anna, you need to focus. Why don’t you fix that amazing brain on helping me find Raenoll’s place?”

Piper figured the most likely place to start looking would be in the merchant district, near the sarnun perfumeries. Tevshal was very different from Scrap Town Sixteen, Piper realized as they walked. It was much bigger and cleaner, with sturdy, beautiful buildings, and the people—an equal mix of humans and sarnuns—seemed happier, more prosperous. Probably because Tevshal’s major business was perfume, so they’d been much less
affected by the iron shortage than other places in the Merrow Kingdom.

As they pressed further into the knot of buildings, the sarnun influence in the city became more apparent. The sarnun shops were stone tunnel vaults with copper pipes running along the outside. More silver flowers grew in arches over the doorways. According to signs on the doors, the merchants and their families lived beneath the shops in underground tunnels snaking throughout the city. Sarnuns preferred the cool, damp dark of the underground and shied away from the sun because it was hard on their skin. Aboveground, it was impossible to tell where one shop ended and another began. They all spilled together in the long, narrow vaults. Evidently, the sarnuns didn’t believe in walls the way humans did. Of course, since the sarnuns communicated mind to mind, they probably didn’t see the need for physical barriers either.

Piper glanced uneasily behind them. It was after dark and they were deep in the city, out of sight of the train station. This was the best time for the slavers to be out looking for targets. The only bit of good luck was that the streets were still bustling with foot traffic and sintee-drawn carriages, and it seemed the shops were in no danger of closing anytime soon. It was a safe bet slavers wouldn’t try to snatch them while there were so many potential witnesses around.

An avenue of glowing silver flowers led them to an
open, cobblestoned square lined with shops and restaurants. Cheerful organ music flowed from a garden in the center of the square. Following the music, they entered an area of sculpted hedges surrounding a large carousel where a myriad of animals cavorted in frozen poses. Charging horses, sintees, grapa hounds, and grizzly bears turned in a circle, their metallic skins reflecting the night eye flowers and lighting up the square with dazzling copper and silver glows. Piper’s mouth fell open. She’d never seen a carousel in real life, only in pictures or miniatures. This one was ten times as impressive as any of those.

“Look at that!” Anna cried, poised to bolt to the carousel.

“Wait.” Piper grabbed the girl’s arm. “I don’t want us to lose each other in the crowd. I told you, this place is dangerous.”

“I know, but it’s a system of simultaneous moving parts—rotating platform, supporting sweeps, and suspended, posed figures, all of it powered by the steam engine in the center. Look, you can see the smoke.” She pointed to the carousel’s domed top, where the steam and smoke escaped like a whistling teapot. “And look! The animals can blink and turn their heads. I wonder how they’re accomplishing that. Really, it’s a beautiful set of integrated systems that—”

Piper held up a hand. “You’re doing it again.”

Anna blinked. “Doing what?”

“Talking like a book, like you—” Piper stopped herself, realizing what must be going on. “Did you read a book on rare carousels too?”

“No, I just … I know it, somehow.” Anna stared at the carousel, transfixed and confused. She tugged on Piper’s arm. “Can I ride it? Please, Piper, can I?”

Piper sighed. “At least that sounded normal. It’s your money; you can ride on it if you want, just don’t wander off afterward. Come right back here.”

She gave Anna a couple of coins and went to wait beside the hedges while the girl bought a ticket. The ticket taker opened the gate, and Anna climbed on the back of one of the big grapa hounds. Piper would have chosen a horse herself. They looked much nobler and more beautiful, with their curlicued copper manes flying in an imaginary wind—not that she was interested in riding on carousels. The grapas were just too fat, and their lumpy tusks always made them look a little silly. But Anna clung happily to the metal beast’s back and grinned at Piper as the platform started to turn.

All dressed up and sparkly, yet Anna was right: at its heart, the carousel was an impressive machine. Piper strolled around the fence to get a better view. She paused when she noticed the engineer standing near the ticket booth.

“How are you making the heads and eyes move?” she asked him by way of introduction. “Individual mainsprings?”

The engineer looked surprised, but then he nodded. “I wind ’em all up before every other ride, same time I check the pressure on the engine—got an eighty-seven-key Alcastra organ up there too to take care of.”

Piper let out a whistle—that was a lot to keep an eye on at once. “Impressive.” She watched a thick-bodied bear with a jeweled saddle pass by and narrowed her eyes at it. “You might want to check Mr. Grizzly there when the ride’s done. Something’s off with his hanger—it’s wobbling. Might be a problem with the crank.”

“How do you—” Blinking, the engineer looked where she pointed. Slowly, he nodded. “Good eye you’ve got. I’ll check it out.”

“Lot of systems to manage for one carousel ride,” Piper said, but she thought it would make for an enjoyable challenge.

He grunted. “Don’t I know it. Something’s always busting on this thing.”

Piper’s gaze roamed over the carousel again. “Other than the bear, it looks like it’s running pretty good to me.”

“First time ever,” the engineer said, scratching at the beard stubble on his chin. “Can’t figure out what I did right this time.”

Piper understood his confusion.
I’ve had my own experience with touchy machines
, she thought, feeling the weight of the pocket watch she wore around her neck. “Well, good job anyway,” she said. “I’d better be going.”

She waved goodbye to the engineer, who tipped his hat to her. She wandered among the hedges, past a small fountain with a stone mermaid reclining on a rock, and she sat down on a bench to rest, making sure she still had a clear view of Anna on the carousel.

Across the square, a man and a woman came out of a candy shop carrying four caramel apples on sticks. Two little boys younger than Micah waited eagerly on a bench outside the shop. They jumped up and ran to their parents, hands reaching for the caramel treats.

Piper watched them sitting next to their parents. They looked so happy, she thought, all clustered in an intimate little group. The youngest boy had to have his mother help him hold the stick while he bit into the apple. He came away laughing with a caramel-covered chin. The woman smiled and wiped his chin with her fingers. She glanced up and caught Piper’s eye. Piper dropped her gaze.

Her shiny new leather boots filled her vision, and suddenly Piper felt tears threatening again. She clutched her father’s coat close around her for comfort. It was a warm night, much warmer than in the northern towns. She might have gone without the heavy coat, but the thought of that made her feel even worse.

For the longest time, all Piper had wanted was to escape from the scrap town and start a new life, but now that she had, she felt more alone than ever. Her father was still dead, and she was saddled with a strange, talkative
capital girl with a belt full of coins who was being chased by a crazy man. They were in a town that, for all its pretty sights, was crawling with slavers, and the only hope they had for getting information was from a sarnun that Piper wasn’t even sure she could find. Her father would have known how to handle all of this, but it was too much for her.

Anna waved to her again from the carousel, and as the machine slowed and came to a halt, Piper waved back. She wiped the corners of her eyes and stood up.

Probably the craziest part of all was that she was actually starting to like this strange girl, Piper thought as Anna hopped off the grapa hound and ran toward her. Piper thought she was going to bowl right over her, but at the last minute, Anna stopped and threw her arms around Piper’s shoulders, giving her a fierce hug. Piper was so surprised, for a minute she just stood there with her arms awkwardly trapped by her sides. Tightness spread in her chest that had nothing to do with the girl’s grip.

“Careful, you’ll break me,” Piper said with a light laugh as she untangled herself from Anna’s arms. She smiled wryly. “I take it you liked the ride?”

“Oh!” Anna spun in a circle. “That was—”

“Amazing?” Piper guessed. “Fascinating?”

Anna grinned. “Fun.”

“Good. Now we need to go find Raenoll,” Piper said. “No more stalling.”

“Oh, I forgot,” Anna said, her face brightening. “I saw a sign for the place while I was on the carousel. It’s down a little alley just off the square.” She pointed to one of the paths leading out of the garden. “That way.”

“Nice work, Anna,” Piper said, grinning in relief. That was one less problem, anyway. “Lead the way.”

Anna took Piper’s hand and led her to the opposite side of the square from the candy shop and down a stretch of tunnel vault. Sure enough, three doors in was a sign that had a picture of a white eye. Beneath it was written
RAENOLL THE SEER
in both the Trader’s Speech and the sarnun language.

They approached the door. Piper reached under her shirt and pulled out her pocket watch. “It’s later than I thought,” she said worriedly. “I hope she’s still seeing customers. I guess we’ll find out.”

Anna looked at the watch curiously. “I didn’t know you wore that. It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks. It’s been with me a while,” Piper said. “I fixed it. That’s what I do—I’m a machinist. I guess I never told you that.”

“That must be hard work,” Anna said. “Did you have to study for a long time to learn to fix machines?”

“Not really. My dad taught me a little, but I’ve always had a knack for knowing what’s wrong with a machine. I can tell sometimes before I touch it. Then, the more I touch it, the more I know how to fix it, and the machines always seem to respond to me. Just like the watch—for
some reason, it won’t work for anyone but me.” Piper laughed uneasily. She’d never talked this much about her talent to anyone but her dad. “I bet you’re going to say that doesn’t make any sense.”

Anna looked thoughtful. “No, I think it makes perfect sense. You’ve cared for it. The watch is a part of you. It feels safe with you.”

“Great. The pocket watch cares for me,” Piper said, sighing. It wasn’t quite the same as having a human care for her. “I suppose it’s as good an explanation as any for what I can do. Anyway, we’re wasting time. We should see if Raenoll’s home so we can get this done and get back to the 401,” she said. She stepped forward and rapped on the door.

“Come in, please.”

Piper could swear she heard the voice, accompanied by a watery echo, with her ears, though in actuality the sarnun had projected the invitation into her mind. Piper reached for the door handle, but the door swung open on its own, startling her. Night eye blossoms growing along the walls illuminated a set of stairs leading down deep into the earth.

“Piper, are you sure about this?” Anna said. “Her voice hurts my head.”

Piper reached out and found Anna’s trembling hand waiting for her. “We’ll be fine. I’m right here with you. I’m not leaving.”

As she said the words, Piper heard the truth in them,
and in that moment, she made a decision that silenced all the thoughts that had been running through her head lately. She wouldn’t abandon Anna for a belt stuffed with coins.
That’s not who I am
, she thought. She would help Anna get to the capital and do what she could to protect her from the wolf. Maybe in the end there would still be a reward in it for her, and she could get started on her new life.

Piper squeezed Anna’s hand reassuringly, and they descended the stairs.

“You want to run that by me again, Green-Eye? I’m a little bit confused.” Trimble picked up a hot coal and tossed it idly from hand to hand. Beside him, Gee stared out the window at the silver lights of Tevshal’s merchant district.

“I just asked if you’d seen them come back to the train, Fireman. It’s a simple question,” Gee said irritably.

“Oh, I understood the question, just not your reason for asking it,” drawled Trimble. “I thought you wanted to get rid of those girls.”

“I do,” Gee said. “The older one’s got a temper that’s just waiting to blow like one of your experiments, and the younger one … well, she just never stops talking. If they’re working for Aron, I’ll eat my wings. They’re hiding something, I’m telling you.”

“So why do you keep looking for them out there?”
Trimble threw the hot coal back into the firebox and turned to check the boiler pressure. Sweat poured down his face. He pulled down his goggles to keep the moisture out of his eyes.