The Mark of the Dragonfly (30 page)

The tension in Piper’s body receded; there was no coming back from damage that bad. Then, to her shock, the raider stood up and jumped, grabbing the iron railing of the observation deck as his craft hit the dirt and broke apart. Using his momentum, he swung into Gee’s body with a loud thud. The impact pushed Gee off balance and allowed the raider to swing his dagger at the chamelin’s throat. Gee managed to dodge, but the raider pulled back for another strike.

“No!” Piper screamed. She ran to the end of the platform and grabbed the raider’s arm, wrenching backward, anything to keep the dagger from slicing into Gee. Anna ran up and attached herself to his other arm, yanking as hard as she could.

The raider threw Piper off, sending her flying across the platform so that she struck her head on the iron railing. For a moment, her vision darkened, stars blinking in her sight line, and when they cleared, she saw that Gee had regained his balance. He reached for the raider,
who was trying to retreat, but Anna still clung to his other arm.

Piper saw what was going to happen next. She tried to get up, but her head swam. She couldn’t seem to move fast enough and her tongue lay thick and heavy in her mouth. Helpless, Piper watched as the raider turned and slashed at Anna with his dagger. By some miracle, the girl saw the strike coming and leaped backward, half falling through the doorway behind her to avoid the blade.

As she fell, Piper saw that her friend hadn’t been fast enough. The dagger had sliced open her left arm; there was a long gash from shoulder to elbow. Piper found her voice then, and screamed. She jumped up, head pounding, throat raw, and tried to reach for Anna. A wave of nausea and dizziness washed over her, and this time Piper couldn’t shake it off. Her body had had enough. She slipped into darkness, her screams turning to whimpers in her ears. The last thing she heard was Gee’s bestial roar.

When she awoke, for a minute Piper thought she was flying again, carried in Gee’s strong arms. No, that wasn’t right. The surface she lay upon was softer. Puzzled, she opened her eyes.

Slowly, Piper recognized her surroundings. She was back on the 401. She was in Gee’s room, lying on his bed, and her arm was stiff and sore. When she looked down at it, she saw there were white bandages wrapped around her hand. And someone had removed her blood-soaked shirt and replaced it with one of her clean ones. She tried to sit up, but her head felt as if it weighed a ton, and she was dizzy and a little queasy.

How had she gotten here? Piper tried to remember the last thing that happened before she’d lost consciousness. She remembered the canyon, Gee coming back to rescue her from the raiders, and then … something
felt wrong. A spasm of fear went through Piper’s body. Something bad had happened. Why didn’t she remember? She tried to sit up again, slower this time.

“Don’t try to move,” said a voice.

Startled, Piper rolled onto her side and saw Gee sitting in the chair at his little table. He was back in his human form, and he looked terrible. His left arm was tied close to his body in a sling, and his shirt collar was pulled back, revealing bandages wrapped around his shoulder.

“What happened?” Piper croaked. Her throat burned for a drink of water, but she needed to know that everything was all right first. “How bad are you hurt?”

Gee smiled wanly. “It’s not as bad as it looks. Nothing’s broken, but it made Trimble feel better to truss me up with bandages. I’ll have them off by tomorrow.”

Piper breathed a sigh of relief. Gee would be fine. If he’d been hurt badly, she’d never have forgiven herself. She opened her mouth to ask why he’d risked his neck for her like that, when her memory flooded back in a horrible rush, and she blurted out, “Anna!”

Gee’s face clouded. “She’s up front in Jeyne’s room. Trimble looked after her too. She’ll be fine.”

“Then why do you look like that?” Piper heard her voice, high and frightened like a child’s. “I want to see her!”

“You should rest for a while longer,” Gee said. He stood up and came to sit on the edge of the bed. “Trimble
thinks you might have a concussion. You hit your head pretty hard on the railing.”

“You saw that?”

“I saw everything,” he said with a sad smile.

The memories were still fragmented, but Piper vaguely recalled the raider throwing her off, and then hitting her head, then Anna, falling through the doorway as the dagger cut into her arm.…

“I want to see Anna,” Piper repeated. “I have to know she’s all right.” Gee ducked his head and muttered something. Piper raised an eyebrow. “What was that?”

“Nothing, it’s just—I thought hitting your head might have knocked the stubbornness out of you, but I guess it was too much to hope for,” he said. “I’ll get you some water, and then, if you can prove to me you can get up without fainting, I’ll take you to Jeyne. She’ll explain about Anna.”

“Explain what?” Now Piper was really scared. “You said she was all right!”

“She
is
,” Gee said sharply. “It’s complicated. Just be patient, and I’ll take you to her.”

“I—Sorry,” Piper said, ashamed that she’d snapped at him. Gee was hurt too, and he’d obviously been sitting up with her. The last thing he needed was for her to badger him. She tried to be patient while Gee filled a glass of water from his washstand and brought it to her. He waited while she drank it.

“Do you feel like eating?” Gee asked. “I brought
some fruit from the kitchen.” He held out a small plate of sliced apples. Piper took one and bit into it. The fruit was crisp and juicy and tasted delicious. “That’s good,” he said. “Food will help you get your strength back. After what you did to those crossbows, you must be starving.”

Piper stopped chewing as she remembered. “I was angry and so scared,” she said, “and the next thing I knew, everything was in pieces.”

Gee nodded. “Once there was a fire in the engine cab, and Trimble brought it under control all by himself. He said he didn’t plan it—he just reacted, like you did, and it was over just like that. It took a lot of energy, though. Afterward, I watched him wolf down a whole chicken and three baked potatoes, skins and all.” Gee whistled in admiration. “I’ve never seen anyone eat so much.”

Piper wrinkled her nose. “I’m fine with the apples, thanks.”

“It was a good thing, what you did,” Gee said. “When I heard all those men screaming, I circled back and saw I had a clear path to you.”

Piper clutched an apple slice in her hand, her fingernail piercing the peel. “Would you really have gone back to stop the train?” she asked nervously. When Gee didn’t respond, Piper realized he would have. She couldn’t believe it. “But you would have given up all that cargo, put everyone on the train in danger, just for me? What were you thinking?”

Gee’s jaw tightened. “I wasn’t thinking,” he said,
shaking his head, clearly frustrated at himself. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. All I could think was … was …”

“What?” Piper demanded.

Gee stood up suddenly, pacing the car like a caged animal. “I didn’t want you to get hurt,” he snapped. “Seeing you out there with that crossbow bolt at your throat—it twisted my insides, and I couldn’t think straight. You just … you can’t imagine how scared I was.”

A fire spread across Piper’s cheeks. “Yes, I can.” She stared at the blanket, unable to meet Gee’s eyes. “I felt the same way when they dropped the net on you,” she said in a small voice.

Gee said nothing, but he’d stopped pacing and stood in front of her. Piper still couldn’t look up at him. She was afraid if she did, she would see him laughing at her. Why should she worry for his safety—a chamelin with twice her strength? He didn’t need her help. All she’d done was get herself caught again and make him come rescue her.

She heard Gee utter a quiet sigh, and before Piper knew what was happening, he was kneeling in front of her. Gently, he untangled her hands from the blanket and held them in his own, being especially careful with the bandaged one. Piper’s heartbeat sped up. The fire in her cheeks raced down her neck.

Slowly, he leaned toward her, releasing one of her hands so he could wrap his uninjured arm around her
and pull her into a hug. Piper let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, closed her eyes, and rested her chin on Gee’s shoulder. She could feel his heart beating fast as he turned his head and pressed a kiss against her cheek.

Safe
, Piper realized.
I feel safe
. She wanted to stay like that, listening to Gee’s fluttering heartbeat. But she couldn’t because …

Anna
.

Gently, Piper pulled away. Gee leaned back, and this time Piper was able to meet his eyes. Now that she’d found the courage, she couldn’t stop staring into that vivid green field, ringed with yellow at the pupils. The more emotion he felt, the more the yellow came through, Piper realized. Then there was that soot smudge. She reached up and touched it gently before she noticed what she was doing. Suddenly shy, she buried her hands in her lap.

“I’m sorry, but please take me to Anna,” Piper said. “I need to see her.”

Gee nodded solemnly. He stepped back and, without a word, stood next to the bed while Piper got up. She moved slowly—it felt like every muscle in her body had been bruised—but gradually she got to her feet. She wavered a bit, but Gee put an arm around her waist, pulling her toward him. Leaning on him gratefully, Piper limped to the door.

They made slow progress up the train. In the cargo areas, guards were stacking and resealing crates that had been torn open. It looked like some of the raiders had managed to get inside the train during the attack.

“They almost got the cargo,” Piper said, surprised. “How did they get inside the train?”

“They attacked at three different points, took us all by surprise,” Gee said. “We spread ourselves too thin in the defense.”

“But they weren’t just after the cargo. They came after you too,” Piper said, remembering the last raider’s desperate flight on the glider and his attack on Gee. She didn’t ask what had become of the man. She didn’t want to know.

“Yeah, and if I’d figured that out a little sooner, I could have led that last raider away from the train. Then you and Anna wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” Gee said, scowling.

Piper opened her mouth to argue, but they had reached the front of the train, and her attention was taken by fear of what she would soon discover. Standing at the door to Jeyne and Trimble’s car, Piper suddenly couldn’t bring herself to go in. Something was terribly wrong; she could feel it in her bones. And she knew Gee wouldn’t have been acting so strangely otherwise.

Gee knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Jeyne’s voice called from inside.

Gee opened the door and helped Piper inside. Jeyne was sitting at Trimble’s bedside, where Anna lay under a pile of blankets. The girl’s eyes were closed, her face deathly pale. Her left arm, the injured one, was uncovered and had been laid across a small table next to the bed. Trimble bent over the table, partially obscuring Piper’s view. Piper’s heart sped up. Anna was hurt badly and Piper wanted to cross the room, take her hand, but she couldn’t make her feet move.

“How is she?” Piper asked, unable to keep the fear out of her voice.

Jeyne looked up. The older woman had dark circles under her eyes. “She doesn’t have much more color than you do. Goddess, we’re all pretty beat up, but we’re still here.” Piper heard the determination in her voice and knew where her nickname had come from. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Piper said.

“Well then, come over here.” Jeyne pulled up a chair for her.

Gee helped her to the engineer’s side and steadied her as she sat down, then retreated to a corner. Without him standing there, supporting her, Piper felt even shakier. She also noticed Trimble hadn’t spoken since she’d come into the room. He remained bent over Anna’s arm, intent on something Piper couldn’t see.

“Will she be all right?” Piper asked. She directed the question at Trimble, but the fireman didn’t reply. “How’s
her arm?” she tried again, but he still didn’t answer. Panic gripped Piper. “She’s not going to lose her arm, is she?”

“Calm down, honey.” Jeyne put her hand on Piper’s shoulder. Piper had never heard the stern engineer’s voice sound so gentle. It terrified her. Jeyne had lost part of her own arm—was she preparing to tell Piper that the same thing was about to happen to Anna?

“Tell me what’s going on!” Piper’s voice was louder than she’d meant, but she could barely hold herself together.

“Let her look,” Trimble said. He straightened and turned to Piper. “We might need you. Goddess knows I can’t figure out what to do here. This is way beyond me.”

Jeyne nodded. “At first we thought Anna’s cut wasn’t that deep,” she explained. “There wasn’t hardly any blood, so we brought her back here to patch her up. When she wouldn’t wake up, we realized that the cut was worse than we thought. We took a closer look and … well …” Jeyne paused while Trimble stepped out of the way, making room for Piper to lean in.

The room went dead quiet. Piper’s vision darkened at the corners, leaving only the small gaslight glow shining on Anna’s arm. The knife slash was an angry, jagged line from her shoulder to the curve of her elbow. Jeyne was right, Piper thought faintly, there was very little blood, and as she looked closer, she could see why.