The Mark of the Dragonfly (38 page)

They stood like that for a long time while the wind and the salt air rushed over them, blocking out all sound.
After a while Piper felt the train jostle them, and she shifted her feet, holding on tighter to Gee. She heard footsteps behind them and turned to see Anna run out onto the platform, her face flushed with excitement.

“Piper, Gee, come quick!” she said. “Trimble’s going to show me an experiment he’s been working on, something about mixing black powder with a sarnun perfume recipe. He says it makes this amazing explosion, and the smoke smells like lilies.”

“Sounds great,” Piper said, grinning. “Just try not to blow up the train—or each other.”

Hand in hand, she and Gee walked back inside. The big black engine blew its whistle and continued its journey north. Piper thought of her father. After he died, she’d dreamed about escaping aboard the 401, but she never thought she’d be calling it her home. Yet here she was—a scrapper, a machinist, a synergist. A chamelin walked next to her, holding her hand. Her sister was half human, half machine.

Miles and miles of track, and the whole world spread out before them, waiting.

A lot of people had a hand in making this book possible, going all the way back to when it was just a vague notion of a dragonfly, a train, and a girl with a stubborn streak who lived in a world of forgotten things. I don’t even know all their names—the people who helped me—but I can start with the names I do know.

Elizabeth, Gary, and Kelly, my critique partners and friends, helped guide this book from the beginning. They made sure my world, characters, plot, and all the other details were just right. And I like to think they screamed the loudest when I told them the book was going to be published. Thank you for that and so much more.

My parents and my brother, Jeff, have seen every high and low of my writing adventures. They put up with all of it and never complained, and they claimed
they weren’t at all surprised when I told them the book was going to be published. Thank you for everything.

My incredible agent, Sara Megibow, gave me the best Christmas present ever, and the best New Year’s present too. She calls me a rock star, but she’s the real star.

My editor, Krista Marino, and her team at Delacorte Press understood exactly what I wanted this book to be and helped make it even better. All of you rock.

Two women I respect a great deal, Susan Morris and Erin Evans, helped bring me to this point in my writing career. I thought of you both while writing this book, hoping you would like it.

And now some of those whose names I don’t know: thank you to the crew at the Monticello Railway Museum who spent fifteen years bringing an old steam engine back to life, at the same time sparking an idea in my head about a very different train in a very different world.

Last, thank you to the group of Girl Scouts who heard me speak on a panel about women in gaming at the Gen Con games convention in 2011. You won’t remember me, but you listened to me talk about some of those vague notions about dragonflies and lost things and other worlds, and your eyes lit up. That was the moment I first thought there might be something to this story. Thank you for listening.

Jaleigh Johnson is a lifelong reader, gamer, and moviegoer. She loves nothing better than to escape into fictional worlds and take part in fantastic adventures. She lives and writes in the wilds of the Midwest, but you can visit her online at
jaleighjohnson.com
.