The Mark of the Dragonfly (20 page)

She told herself she was going to take a long shower to wash off the dirt and wipe away the memory of the slaver’s rope on her, but Piper only managed to strip off her clothes before the room started to spin. She climbed to the upper berth and drew the covers over her head. Strangely, her last thought before she fell asleep was that Gee still had her father’s coat.

Gee stood on the open-air observation deck at the back of the train, leaning against the iron rail as a grove of cypress trees rushed past. They had entered the southern territories—the Dragonfly territories—King Aron’s country. Before long, the air would grow unbearably hot and thick with the tang of salt water. He’d never liked the coast. Gee preferred the north countries—the cold, solid mountains and the pewter color of the sky before it snowed. He loved to fly in that weather.

He shifted, Piper’s coat draped over his right arm. It was far too big for her, Gee noticed, but that hardly mattered. She wouldn’t need to wear it in the south.

Behind him, the door slid open. Gee didn’t have to look to know that it was Trimble. Even in Gee’s weaker form, the smell of the fireman’s sweat was like a beacon.

“Off to scout?” Trimble asked.

“In a minute,” Gee replied. “I was resting.”

“You sure you got all the dust out of your lungs?” The fireman stood next to him, fingering one of the glass vials at his belt. Thick yellow liquid filled the vial, and when Trimble popped the stopper with his thumb, Gee smelled burnt peanuts. “This antidote’s good enough for humans. It might be a little weaker inside you, but it’ll help the burning.”

“I’m all right,” Gee said. He coughed once. “If that stuff tastes as bad as it smells, I’d rather have the burning cough.”

“Suit yourself.” Trimble put the vial back on his belt. “Jeyne says not to go too far tonight, and I agree. You need to rest.”

“We’ll be in Cutting Gap in three days,” Gee answered. “None of us has time to rest.”

“The cargo will be safe,” Trimble said. He ran a hand through his sooty hair. “The defenses are working perfectly—fact is, everything on this train is humming along better than I’ve ever seen it—and there’ll be guards in just about every car.”

Gee shook his head. “You’d think they were guarding solid gold, not machine parts. I don’t know why we don’t just give the raiders some. They’ll sell the stuff for scrap and be able to feed themselves decently for once. It’d save King Aron a lot of coin in the end. He wouldn’t have to hire so many guards.”

Trimble raised an eyebrow. “You think they’d sell
the parts to buy food? More likely they’d use them to build a dozen more gliders and hit us even harder next run. There’s no room for compromise in this game, friend.”

“No, not when they’re willing to die for the cargo—or kill for it.” Gee shot him a sidelong glance. “Each and every run, we have to boost our defenses. The train’s becoming a weapon in itself. Things didn’t used to be like this, did they?”

“I can’t remember anymore.” Trimble blew out a sigh. “All I know is if we don’t do our jobs, by the end of this run we won’t have jobs. They’ll replace us with crueler people, the ones who shoot back even when they don’t need to.” He looked at Gee. “Is that why you went out after those girls—your conscience nagging you?”

“I should have listened to her,” Gee said. He combed his fingers through the loose threads on Piper’s coat sleeve. “Those girls needed protection, just like I did once.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Trimble said. “They didn’t exactly confide in us.”

“Yes, they did—the night they came aboard the train. Piper told me that if I threw them off, they were dead. Tonight, they almost were.” Gee let the threads hang free. “I should have tried harder to keep them away from Tevshal, from the slavers.”

“You like her.” A smile creased Trimble’s face.
“Piper, I mean,” he added. “I can see why. You two are a lot the same.”

Gee blushed. “Actually, I was thinking she’s more like you.”

The fireman frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“When I was flying to get Anna, I saw that one of the slavers had a gun on Piper and then—” Gee stopped. He decided he didn’t want to share his theory with Trimble. Not until he’d had more time to think about it. “Never mind. We’ll talk about it later. And I
don’t
like her,” he added. “Not in the way you think.”

“Whatever you say, but you can’t protect them from Master Doloman forever,” Trimble said. “Once we get to the capital, they’ll have to get off, and then they’ll have to go into hiding. There’s no other way to avoid him.”

“I know,” Gee said sharply. It had been bothering him ever since he found out who it was the girls were running from. “You think I haven’t already thought about that? I’d get them off sooner if there were any decent towns I could fly them to, but there aren’t. Aron ruined them when he strip-mined everything in the area to get his iron. There’re hardly any safe places left anywhere.”

“Well, they’re safe enough here for now,” Trimble said. “Master Doloman will be a while recovering from the dust Piper threw in his face, and the authorities will have to confirm his identity before they let him go back to Noveen. We have some time.” He stared into
the distance. “Too bad Jeyne couldn’t buy the 401, run it as an independent operation. We could take on the cargo and passengers we wanted, maybe bypass Cutting Gap completely. It’d make for longer runs, but it’d be worth it.”

“You’re dreaming,” Gee said. “Jeyne doesn’t have any more coin than the rest of us. We get by with what we have, same as always.”

“You’re right.” Trimble sighed, pushed off the rail and headed for the door. “You want me to give that coat back to Piper on my way up front?”

“No,” Gee said. “Let them sleep. I’ll give it to her in the morning.”

“ ‘Let them sleep,’ he says. That’s the problem,” Trimble muttered. “One of them is sleeping in my bed. Got her own suite, but she ends up snug in my cot.”

Trimble shook his head as he went back inside. As soon as Gee was alone, he started to cough again. He’d been holding the coughs in so as not to worry Trimble, and they felt like hot coals pressed against the inside of his chest. He bent over the rail and hacked until his lungs threatened to burst. The train tracks peeled away beneath his feet in a sickening blur. He closed his eyes and held on to the rail tight with both hands.

When the fit finally passed, Gee straightened and rubbed a hand over his burning chest. Maybe he should have tried Trimble’s antidote. His alchemical experiments generally worked—except for the times when they
exploded. At any rate, the fireman was right. He needed to rest and get back his strength before they hit Cutting Gap. After that, he would worry about what to do for Piper and Anna.

He hoped three days would be enough time to recover. He’d need all the strength he could get.

Piper woke to a gray sky and rain streaking the windows. The train had stopped, and when Piper crawled to the window to look outside, she saw they were in Molwey. That meant they were out of the Merrow Kingdom and already deep into the Dragonfly territories.

She rubbed her eyes and leaned over the edge of the bed to see if Anna was awake yet. When she saw the empty, made-up berth, everything from the previous night came back to her.

Anna was sleeping in Jeyne and Trimble’s room. She and Piper were running from King Aron’s chief machinist on board one of Aron’s own trains.

Piper flopped back on the bed. Not the smartest scheme she’d ever come up with, she thought, but at least they were safe again for the moment. Jeyne Steel had promised to look after Anna, and Piper believed she would. But their presence here put everyone else who worked on the train at risk. If Doloman or Aron found out that the 401’s crew was protecting them, they’d be in as much trouble as Piper. The sooner they got to Noveen
and sorted out who Anna really was, the better it would be for everyone.

Though she was still tired from the previous night, Piper pulled herself out of bed, showered, dressed, and was headed out to check on Anna when a voice called to her from the hall. She turned to see the porter, Mr. Jalin.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, miss,” Jalin said. He fidgeted and kept shooting glances over his shoulder. “It’s just … your companion …”

“Anna?” Piper was suddenly on edge. “Is she all right?” She took an involuntary step toward him, her hand raised.

“She’s fine,” Jalin said quickly. “Miss Anna is in the library, but I’m afraid there’s a problem. She’s been … rearranging things.”

The way he said “rearranging” got Piper’s attention. Considering what the girl had done to her own house, she didn’t want to know what was going on in the library. Piper smiled. “So she’s started moving things around. Is she going on about proportions and fixing things?”

“Yes, that’s it.” Jalin’s expression looked as if his neck button were fastened too tight. “I hoped you might look in on her and make sure—”

“I’ll take care of it.” Piper patted the beleaguered man on the arm and moved past him. She’d best get to Anna before she dismantled the whole library. Still, Piper slowed when she reached the dining car, savoring the breakfast smells as her stomach rumbled.

Piper noticed then that the car was almost empty. It should have been packed at this hour, but there were only a handful of humans sitting quietly in their seats, most of them staring intently out the windows instead of eating. And no sarnuns to speak of. When Piper slid the door to the next car open, several of the passengers jumped. A strange tension filled the air, a feeling of expectation that resembled a scrap town just before a meteor storm. Uneasiness immediately swept over her, and Piper’s guard came up.

Head down, she walked quickly through the car. At the other end, Piper saw the door marked LIBRARY. She slid it open, then closed it behind her.

Glass-fronted book cabinets lined both walls, and a pair of windows between them let in the natural light. Cushioned leather armchairs were situated around the room, and permeating everything was the smell of old books and ink.

When Piper stepped into the library, she saw immediately what had put Jalin into such a panic. Every one of the cabinet doors stood ajar, and the bookshelves were empty.

Anna sat on the floor in the middle of the room, a large leather-bound book open in her lap. Arranged around her were the rest of the books, dozens of them, stacked in towers that were almost as tall as Piper. Anna had turned the spines to face her.

She looked up when Piper walked into the car, and
smiled enormously. “You’re awake. You must see this, Piper.” She gestured excitedly for her to sit down, so Piper took a seat in one of the armchairs. “The room was all wrong. You couldn’t see any of the books behind the glass because of the reflective surface. I think that’s why so few people come in here, but I’ve fixed all that. Accounting for average height and the angle of the sun coming in the windows, I’ve created the ideal spot here in the middle of the room for reading. You can see all the book titles, and everything is in easy reach. What do you think?”

Piper heard the 401 blow its whistle, a long, loud burst of warning. She crossed her arms and fought to keep from laughing. “Well, Anna, as you like to say, it’s a good idea in theory, but I can see one or two little problems.”

“Really?” Anna’s forehead scrunched in consternation. “What’s wrong with it? I accounted for both human and sarnun reading styles, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

The train started to move, slowly at first, but quickly picked up speed. Piper leaned back in her chair as the car started its rhythmic swaying from side to side. The book towers swayed with it. A second before the first one toppled, Anna’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she squeaked, and scrambled to her feet.

Books began to crash to the floor all over the room,
despite Anna’s valiant attempts to steady the towers. She managed to save one, wrapping her thin arms around the books, but that made her lose her balance and Piper had to jump up and grab her before she fell.

“Let it go,” Piper advised, pulling Anna toward another chair. Reluctantly, the girl complied, and the last tower fell over with a loud crash. They were knee-deep in books.

“I thought I accounted for everything,” Anna said gloomily.

“You did—everything but a library that moves,” Piper said. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll help you get the books straightened up.”

They spent the next hour going through the piles, sorting the books alphabetically and by subject, putting them back in the cabinets. When Piper got to the book she’d seen Anna reading, she examined it.

“Encyclopedia of Predator and Prey Animals
,
”
she read off the cover. “What were you looking up in here?”

“Nothing specific, but when I started reading the book, it triggered a memory.” Anna took it from Piper and flipped to an entry near the beginning. On the left-hand page was a sketch of a wolf. “The picture and these words—I remember someone reading them to me before I went to sleep at night.” She pointed to a paragraph, and Piper read it aloud.

“ ‘Stress responses in prey animals—the frozen
muscle response and the instinct to fight a predator or seek escape. Fight or flight.’ ” Piper remembered Anna repeating those words the night they escaped the scrap town.