The Mark of the Dragonfly (9 page)

Anna obeyed, crawling on her belly onto the sloping rock hill near the train tracks. As soon as Piper saw she was safely out of sight, she climbed up the metal ladder attached to the car and grabbed hold of the heavy canvas bellows that protected the vestibule between cars. She brought her knife up and, before she lost her nerve, sliced an opening in the canvas.

A warning bell erupted from somewhere deep within the train. Piper flinched, almost dropping her knife. She
figured there’d be protection on the doors, but she’d never dreamed that a little scratch would set off an alarm. “We’re in trouble,” she called down to Anna, trying to keep her voice low. “Stay there and don’t move.”

“Come down,” Anna whispered fearfully.

Piper shook her head. “It’s too late to turn back.” She hooked an arm around a ladder rung, gripped the knife handle in both hands, and pulled, widening the slit in the canvas until it was half the length of her body. Her heart pounded in time with the warning bell.

“Piper, look out!”

Piper raised her knife, prepared to fend off an attack, but there was no one there. Then she heard it, a high-pitched whine like a machine warming up. The sound was coming from a line of four pipes running alongside the car. They ended in an open vent right beside where Piper clung to the ladder. Scorch marks covered the wall of the car near the vent.

Fire
, Piper thought as panic spread through her chest. She cursed her own stupidity. She should have expected a trap like this. They were flame vents, part of the train’s defenses triggered by the alarm. It looked like the pipes were designed to shoot gouts of fire out the vents at raiders trying to board the train.

“Stay down!” Piper yelled at Anna, forgetting to be quiet. She started to jump off the ladder to get clear of the vent, but her coat sleeve caught on one of the iron bolts that held the ladder in place. The force jolted her,
and the knife slid from her hands. Her sleeve tore, the threads twisting around the protruding bolt. Piper swore and tried to pull the cloth loose, but jerking her arm only made the threads twist tighter. The whining sound grew deafening. Piper didn’t want a taste of the fire that was about to shoot out of that vent. She gave up pulling the sleeve and tried to slip out of the bulky coat. At the same time, an intense heat built at her back.

She wasn’t going to make it. A strangled cry rose in her throat. She thrust out her hand to cover the vent, even though she knew it was futile. Nothing could hold back the fire. Piper closed her eyes and braced for the worst.

Please, stop. Please, please don’t fire
.

Behind the mechanical whine came a roaring sound that filled Piper’s ears. Suddenly, both sounds gave way to a shuddering groan, and abruptly the pipes fell silent. Piper opened her eyes. The vents were dark. The heat was gone. She felt only the cold night air on her sweat-soaked face. Even the warning bell had stopped. The machinery must have malfunctioned.

“Are you all right?” Anna asked.

Piper was so relieved she felt like crying. She released a shuddering breath and reached down for Anna’s hand. “Hurry,” she said, hauling the other girl up onto the car. “I don’t trust that thing to stay broken, and somebody had to have heard the warning bell. We need to find a place to hide.”

Anna had retrieved Piper’s knife. With it, Piper freed her coat from the bolt, though she had to cut half the sleeve away to do it. She held open the canvas while Anna crawled through and then followed her inside. They went left through a door and found themselves in an empty boxcar.

“Can we stay here?” Anna asked.

“No, it’s too wide open,” Piper said. “Let’s go right, toward the back of the train.” She turned and went back through the vestibule to the other door. Shoving it open, she started to plow forward and realized—too late—that the car they’d entered wasn’t empty.

Piper suddenly found herself staring into a pair of startled green eyes. She skidded to a stop and stumbled when Anna bumped into her from behind. The eyes belonged to a boy standing alone in the middle of the car. He looked to be about Piper’s age, dressed in torn overalls and a brown shirt. A bean-shaped blot of soot darkened his left cheek, and his bare feet were filthy. When he saw Piper, in an instant, the expression in his eyes shifted from surprise to anger. He broke into a run toward them.

“You there! Stop!” he yelled.

Piper slammed the door on him. “Go!” she screamed, and the two girls turned and ran back the other way. They passed through the empty boxcar and on into the mail car. Piper heard the boy’s footsteps pounding behind
them. He was fast, fast enough to catch up before they found a place to hide. “Keep going!”

The next car was full of cargo and food supplies for the train. Piper didn’t have time to stop and look as they tore through the car. A guard standing at the far door turned when he heard their footsteps. Piper kept running, using her momentum to throw herself at the guard. She hit the guard in the side and knocked him sprawling beside the door. Anna ran past and opened the door for them. Piper lost her balance, but the smaller girl grabbed her by the shoulder to steady her and they ran on.

“This is no good,” Piper said. Her chest burned, and she knew Anna must be worse off. “We’re running toward the front of the train. There’ll be more people and more guards; we can’t hide up here.”

Proving her words, they ran into the next car to find three guards. They were inspecting some cargo and didn’t immediately see the girls. Piper grabbed Anna and turned her around.

“Where are we going now?” Anna asked. Sweat ran down her face. She looked as if she were about to drop. “We’re not making any progress forward or backward. Those chasing us, on the other hand—”

“I know, I know! Back to the mail car,” Piper said. Maybe they could tackle the boy, overwhelm him as they’d done to the guard. “We have to—”

Just then, the boy burst into the car. The guards at
the other door looked up. “Get them—they’re stowaways!” the boy shouted. Before Piper could run, the boy grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back. Anna tried to push him away, but the guards ran forward and lifted her by the waist. She kicked the air futilely. “Throw them off the train,” the boy said.

“You don’t understand. It’s not safe out there.” Piper struggled, but the boy only squeezed her wrist until she yelped in pain. “If you throw us off the train, we’re dead.”

“You’re lucky we don’t give you to the Consortium,” the boy said, “or drag you off to the capital, charge you with destroying government property.”

“If they want it protected, maybe the capital should put
men
in charge of the 401, not boys,” Piper sneered. She stamped her heel on the top of his foot. The boy grunted, but he didn’t let her go. How could he be so strong? He was thin as a scarecrow and no taller than she was. Piper twisted around to look at the boy. Up close, she saw two ugly scars slashed his neck just above his collarbone. His pupils dilated, flashing yellow at the edges. The change caught her off guard and she blinked, but when she looked again, they were the normal black color. She must have imagined it.

“Off you go,” the boy growled.

The guards took out a set of manacles and bound Piper’s wrists in front of her. They went to do the same to Anna, pushing up the sleeves of her dress. Piper stopped
struggling. Instead, she prayed they would remove the bindings once they were off the train. At least then they would have a chance to run again.

Watching the guards, the boy suddenly let out a soft cry. “What is that?” he demanded.

The guards looked at each other, confused. Piper turned and saw the dragonfly tattoo exposed on Anna’s arm. Then she remembered what the boy had said about charging them with destroying government property.

Of course—she was an idiot not to have realized it sooner. The 401 originated from the Dragonfly territories, which meant King Aron likely owned the train and employed all its workers. They would recognize the tattoo and its significance right away. Piper sucked in a breath as hope stirred in her chest. Maybe, if they put on a good enough show, they could still get out of this.

“Anna!” Piper hissed. “What are you doing? I told you to keep that covered!”

Anna glanced blankly at the tattoo, then at Piper. “I don’t remember you telling me—”

“Quiet!” Piper said. “Don’t say a word.”

“Wait a minute. That can’t be genuine,” the boy said. “Bring her over here,” he told the guards. “I want to see that tattoo up close.”

They led Anna over to the boy, who removed her manacles so he could examine the tattoo. Piper noticed that he had large calloused hands. If not for the soot on his face, the dirty bare feet, and the expression of
suspicious anger in his eyes, he might have almost been good-looking. Almost.

He stared at Anna’s tattoo for a long time with narrowed eyes, running his finger over the shimmering wings and body, as if he could wipe the ink away and prove the tattoo was a fake. Abruptly, he released her and nodded to the guards. “It’s genuine. Let them go.”

The guards hesitated. “Are you sure?” the larger one ventured.

“Do it,” the boy said stiffly. “They’re under the king’s protection.”

Piper’s knees went weak with relief. She never thought she’d be glad for Aron’s influence, even indirectly. The guards removed her manacles, and she rubbed the feeling back into her wrists.

“What does it mean, Piper?” Anna asked. “A minute ago they were like predators, chasing us down, hemming us in, but now they’re acting differently … because of this.” She looked at the tattoo as if she’d never seen it before. Piper quickly took the girl’s hand and rolled down her sleeve to cover the tattoo. This would be tricky. To avoid attracting suspicion, she needed the guards and the boy to believe that they actually worked for Aron and knew what they were doing—instead of being two scared girls running for their lives up and down a train.

And if they believe we’re working for Aron
, Piper thought, hope rising within her,
they’ll have to help us, at least let us
leave on the 401. They wouldn’t dare defy their king by denying us safe passage on the train
.

“Our secret is out,” Piper said, affecting a tone of resignation, as if they’d been caught playacting. It was the best thing she could think of to cover Anna’s confusion. Her amnesia would be a bit too hard to explain at this point. “No need to pretend anymore, Anna—they know you’re working for Aron.”

“But what—” Anna stared at her blankly.

“Never mind,” Piper said, shooting Anna a look to try to keep her quiet. She couldn’t let the girl give them away. “What’s important is that these men understand we’re here on
secret business
for the Dragonfly territories.” She tried to sound as mysterious as possible—which wasn’t hard, since she was making her story up as she went along. “And we need their help.”

“Secret business?” the boy echoed, disbelief plain in his voice. He rolled his eyes and laughed. “Maybe the Dragonfly territories should send
women
to represent them, not girls.”

Irritating as he was, Piper gave him points for turning her insult around. But she still had the advantage. “You saw for yourself the tattoo is genuine. I think that entitles us to a little more respect—and an apology.”
All right, that last one might have been asking too much
.

Piper and the boy stared each other down, tense, neither one willing to blink. Piper tried to look confident,
but her stomach churned with nerves. “Where’s
your
tattoo?” the boy challenged.

Piper gritted her teeth. “I don’t have one.” She ignored the annoying little
aha!
flicker in the boy’s eyes and scrambled to think of an explanation, preferably one that sounded at least a tiny bit plausible. “Look, I’m this girl’s protector.” Piper’s mind raced. Goddess, what was she saying? Where did that come from? “Isn’t that right, Anna?”

Awkward silence fell over the car. Piper realized she’d just potentially put her fate in the hands of a girl with no memory, whose next sentence might or might not make any sense.

Oh, I am such an idiot
.

“It’s true,” Anna finally said, and Piper let out her breath, relieved. “She’s my protector.”

The boy’s eyes narrowed. His jaw worked, as if he was holding back a flood of words—hopefully not something like
You two are the world’s worst liars!
—Piper thought. “I see” was what he ended up saying. “In that case, we apologize for mishandling you.” The boy stared at Anna as he spoke and ignored Piper completely. “How can we be of service in your
secret business?
” he asked, the disbelief still in his voice.

Piper started to answer him, but then she realized they were all waiting for Anna to speak. As far as they were concerned, Anna was the one in charge here. Piper was just the scrapper. Piper’s face burned with anger and
humiliation. She didn’t have a tattoo, so in their eyes she wasn’t even worth talking to.

Anna glanced uncertainly at her, and Piper tried to smile encouragement, but inwardly she prayed that the girl wouldn’t start going on about wolves and proportions—theoretical, hypothetical blabbering again.

“Piper and I want to leave this town on the train,” Anna said at last. She hesitated before she continued. “We want to go to the capital. Yes, we want to go to Noveen.” She looked at Piper again. “It’s the logical place, the only one that makes sense.”

Piper sighed in relief. She gave the boy a bright smile. “Couldn’t have said it better.”

“All right,” the boy said. “Noveen is at the end of our route. But it would be best if you told us who or what you need protection from so we can be prepared.”

“A wolf,” Anna murmured, shuddering. Her eyes lost focus as the memory took hold of her.

“What?” the boy asked, looking confused.

“Never mind,” Piper said hastily. She didn’t want them to know about the man chasing them. Knowing about him would bring up too many questions Piper couldn’t answer. “That’s our business. You said you’re already going to the capital—great. We just want to tag along.”

“Just using us for a ride, huh?” A muscle in the boy’s jaw twitched, and his angry scowl deepened. “Can you at least tell us your full names, or are they a secret too?”