The Mark of the Dragonfly

by Jaleigh Johnson

  “You’re trying to make me feel better, aren’t you?” Anna said. “Is that why you laugh and make jokes when we’re in trouble? You don’t want me to be scared?”

  “I’m trying not to be scared either,” Piper admitted. She glanced toward Tevshal, but the city still seemed a hundred miles away.

  Anna followed her gaze. “We’ve been gone a long time,” she said. “What if the train leaves without us?”

  “They won’t,” Piper said firmly. “I heard the porter say the 401 won’t leave until near midnight. We’ve still got a few hours.” It felt like she was trying to convince herself as much as Anna. In truth, Piper was scared to think about what would happen if the 401 left them in Tevshal.

  “You think we’ll make it in time?”

  Piper heard the fear in Anna’s voice and she forced a crooked smile. “I got us out of that carriage, didn’t I?” Of course, Piper had had help from whatever had landed on the roof and was probably still out there prowling around for fresh meat right now, but why dwell on the details?

  Another rustling sound, louder, made Piper spin. This time it was coming from the field. Piper froze, facing the direction of the sound, and Anna grabbed her hand, squeezing it in alarm.

  “Maybe it’s another bird?” Anna offered meekly.

  Piper shook her head and put her hand over the girl’s mouth before she could speak again. She lifted aside a clump of pika leaves and squinted into the darkness.

  Shapes moved in the field—two shadows on her left, one to the right. Human shadows. And the figures were coming closer. It was more slavers. They must have been waiting to meet the carriage. Piper considered for a moment, but she knew there was really only one option. The copse was too small to hide in. They would have to make a run for it.

  “Anna.” Piper lifted her hand from Anna’s mouth and spoke very softly. “I’m going to distract them. While I do, I want you to run toward the city as fast as you can. Don’t stop until you get to the train. Do you understand?”

  “No!” Anna nearly yelped. “They’ll catch you. I’m not going to run while they take you away!”

  “We don’t have time to argue!” Piper pried the girl’s fingers from her arm and hauled her none too gently to her feet. “Do what I say, Anna, please,” she said desperately.

  Shouts echoed from the field. The slavers had heard them. They were running toward the copse now, and Piper was sure they’d be surrounded at any moment. Piper pushed Anna out in front of her, and together they burst from the trees and broke into a run. Piper made sure Anna was headed toward Tevshal; then she turned and ran in the opposite direction, screaming at the top of her lungs.

  Two of the slavers immediately turned at the sound and gave chase. The third kept after Anna, but she had a good head start on him. Piper kept on screaming and running, glancing back every few seconds to see if Anna was still ahead of her pursuer. Piper was frightened, but at the same time elated that she’d kept two of the slavers away from the younger girl.

  Then, to her left, she heard a loud whirring sound. Piper looked back and saw that one of the slavers chasing her had stopped. He was whipping a length of rope with weighted sacks at both ends in a circle above his head. Piper had a good idea what was in those sacks. It looked like the slavers had decided to use the dust after all.

  Piper skidded to a stop and changed directions. Her only chance was to make herself an impossible target. She ran and stopped, ran and stopped, each time changing direction slightly until she had doubled back and was running toward the city. She saw Anna in the distance, still running strong. Behind Piper, the slaver grunted as he threw the bolas and the whirring sound closed in on her.

  Piper threw herself to the side and hit the ground, rolling. She heard the weighted sacks pass over her head and hit the ground several feet away. One of the sacks burst, spewing an ugly, greenish-yellow cloud into the air. Piper covered her nose and rolled away. Luck was on her side. The wind blew in the opposite direction, carrying the cloud toward the second slaver, forming a poisonous wall between them. The slaver cursed at his partner and covered his mouth and nose.

  But Piper didn’t have time to rest. The slaver who’d thrown the bolas was reaching for a holster on his belt. Piper got to her feet but almost tripped on the other sack, which had landed near her but hadn’t burst. Piper grabbed the sack and stuffed it in her pocket at the same time as she heard the crack of a revolver.

  “Stop right there!”

  Piper froze in terror. She was caught. The slaver had fired the shot into the air and now trained the revolver on her. His partner came up on her left. He carried no revolver but had a length of rope in his hands. Piper knew she couldn’t escape a second time, but maybe Anna still had a chance.

  “Forget the rope.” Out of breath, the slaver motioned with his revolver. “Use the dust.”

  The rope man reached in his pocket. Gee’s words pounded like alarm bells in Piper’s head. “You can’t run away, you can’t yell for help, you just stand there in a daze while they round you up, march you off to the market, and auction you to the highest bidder.”

  “No.” Piper didn’t realize she’d breathed the word aloud until the slaver cocked the revolver and took a step forward.

  “You’ve got nowhere to go,” he growled. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  Piper stared at the gun, her gaze moving slowly along the length of the black barrel. Images of her standing helpless in a crowd of slavers passed through her mind. They waved coins and clustered around her. A loud whine filled Piper’s ears. She thought the sound came from her own throat, a scream suppressed only by the teeth she clamped on her bottom lip.

  Then the slaver’s gun exploded.

  The cylinder and hinge burst from the gun’s frame, showering ammunition everywhere, and the hammer slipped from under the slaver’s thumb. He cursed and dropped the pieces of the weapon on the ground.

  Relief made Piper dizzy, and she stumbled. As she fought to clear her head, she saw what remained of the gun’s frame lying on the ground. The slaver hadn’t fired. She’d heard no report. The weapon had just exploded—exactly when she’d needed it to.

  Run. Piper snapped back to herself. You have to run. She turned and took off before the slavers recovered from their shock.

  Fatigue slowed her, but she forced herself to keep going, cold wind burning in her ears, feet pounding the ground. The lights of Tevshal were getting closer. And ahead of her, Piper could see that Anna was almost to the city limits.

  Piper was beginning to think they might make it after all when she realized the distance between her and Anna was shrinking. Anna was tiring, slowing down. As Piper watched, the third slaver closed in on the girl. He had his bolas out, whipping them above his head, ready to throw. She would never be able to dodge them.

  At that moment, a dark shape appeared in the sky above Anna.

  Piper stopped dead.

  In the moonlight, the creature looked equal parts lizard, bird, and man, with eyes that glowed green and leathery wings that stretched to a huge span on either side of its body. On the ground, it would walk on two legs, but in the air … As Piper watched, terrified, the creature dipped in a smooth arc and snatched Anna up in its claws.

  “No!” Piper screamed.

  A heavy weight slammed into her from behind. Piper hit the ground hard with the slaver on top of her, wrestling her hands behind her back. She didn’t bother to struggle; she was too busy watching the sky, tears blurring her vision, as the creature carried Anna up into the clouds and far out of reach. Soon they were only a moving speck against the moonlight, and then they disappeared completely.

  Piper dropped her face against the ground. The smell of dirt and cold grass filled her nostrils as shuddering sobs racked her body.

  The slaver hauled her to her feet. Fiery pain shot up her arms. She didn’t resist when he pushed her to the base of a nearby oak tree, where the other two men stood catching their breath. Her legs were so tired they shook. She was
sure they would give out completely if the slaver hadn’t been holding her up.

  “Fight’s finally gone out of this one, hasn’t it?” he said, smirking. “We won’t need the dust to make her obey now.”

  “Won’t need it anyway,” said the slaver who’d been chasing Anna. “Our man will be here for her any minute.”

  Piper barely heard them. Chest heaving, she stared up at the sky, but nothing moved except ragged clouds passing over the moon.

  They stood like that for a few minutes before she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. She squinted into the darkness and saw a man hurrying across the field toward them. Piper thought at first it was just another slaver—until the man spoke, sending a chill up her back.

  “Where’s the other one, Tuloc?” he asked. “I told you there were two.”

  “Master Doloman, sir,” the slaver holding Piper replied, “we’ve had some trouble.”

  “Doloman,” Piper said to herself. So that was the wolf’s name. Strength flooded back into her limbs as he came into view. “How did you find us?” she asked.

  “Hello again, scrapper.” In the moonlight, Doloman’s beard looked thicker than it had at her house, yet still unkempt. He’d changed clothes, though, and was now dressed in a fine-looking gray suit, but his arm was still in a sling, and dark circles ringed his eyes, making him look half-demon in the shadows. “You led me on a chase, but I caught an express train in Evansdown and managed to arrive in Tevshal a few hours before the 401.” He addressed the slavers. “Where is the other one?” he demanded. “I want her brought to me at once.”

  The slavers exchanged uneasy glances. Tears ran down her face, but Piper had the sudden urge to laugh hysterically. Doloman hadn’t seen what happened in the field.

  “Your men lost her,” Piper said, her voice raw. “She’s gone for good this time.”

  Doloman went pale, his lips quivering with rage. “Find her,” he hissed. “Spread out and search the field. She has to be here somewhere.”

  The slavers started to argue, but Piper interrupted, her fury boiling over. “What do you want with her?” she cried. “I don’t believe for a minute she’s your daughter—she’s terrified of you. What did you do to her?”

  For a moment, Doloman’s rage melted into genuine surprise. “Terrified of me? But I tried to help her. When she came into my care, she was half dead. I only wanted to heal her. When the storm destroyed the caravan, I thought I had lost her forever, and then I saw her with you—alive and well. It was a miracle.”

  “You’re lying,” Piper spat. Anna might have lost her memory, but other than that, she’d been fine until Doloman showed up. “There’s more you’re not telling. Why were you out in that storm with the caravan? What were you doing in the scrap town?” she pressed.

  Doloman’s eyes narrowed. He glanced at the slavers. “I told you to find the girl!” he barked. “Stop wasting time!”

  “That thing took her,” the man holding Piper said, glancing anxiously at the sky. “It got Ori too.”

  “What?” Doloman shrieked.

  “A monster,” Piper said, choking back a sob. “And it’s all your fault!”

  Doloman took two steps forward and grabbed Piper by the throat, pulling her up on her toes as he dragged her closer. He stared into her eyes with so much loathing, it was as if he were staring down an insect he longed to crush.

  Piper’s lungs seized, and she choked for air. Without breath, everything inside her was grinding to a halt. Darkness crept in at the edges of her vision, and her thoughts fragmented. He’s going to kill me this time, she realized. She clawed at Doloman’s arm, but he didn’t loosen his grip.

  As darkness closed in, Piper thought she heard a distant whooshing sound, like the beating of massive wings.…

  “Look out!” screamed one of the slavers, and Doloman’s hand at Piper’s throat was suddenly gone.

  Piper dropped to the ground, coughing and sucking in air. At the same time a dark, winged shape landed in their midst, sending Doloman and the slavers scattering. Piper looked up; the creature’s massive body blotted out the moonlight. It towered over her, green eyes shining with a strange, hypnotic light. A clawed hand reached out for her. And that was when Piper squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the beast to tear into her.

  She waited, but in the silence she heard the whirring sound of bolas and Doloman’s harsh voice barking orders to the slavers. Piper opened her eyes in time to see the creature turning toward the men. It let out a loud, deep roar that had Piper covering her ears and curling into a ball.

  That was all the slavers could take. They dropped their weapons and ran, sprinting across the field toward the city. But Doloman didn’t run. With his good arm, he grabbed one of the slavers’ discarded bolas. He whipped it around once and released it right into the creature’s face.

  The bag exploded against the beast’s chest and released a thick cloud of dust. Flapping its wings wildly, the creature took flight. Piper rolled away, both from the dust and the enormous beating wings.

  But instead of lifting up into the sky, the creature let out a choked roar and crashed back to the earth, its wings caught underneath its body. Piper watched the thing try to get up, but it couldn’t breathe. Instead of being stupefied by the dust, the beast was choking on it.

  With the creature no longer a threat, Doloman turned on Piper. She tried to scramble to her feet, but she knew she couldn’t outrun him. She barely had her breath back, and she was so weak that her vision was starting to blur again.

  Piper reached into her pocket for the one weapon she had left. She pulled out the sack she’d taken from the bolas and hurled it at Doloman.

  The dust bag exploded, and Piper watched as Doloman inhaled the greenish-yellow cloud. His eyes immediately glazed over, and he sank down on the ground, twitching feebly as he fought the effects of the poison. In less than a minute, he lay still, staring blankly up at the sky.

  Piper crawled to her feet and staggered over to his still form. She stood, watching him for a moment to make sure he wasn’t going to get up, but it looked as if the dust had him completely. His lips moved, but the sound that came out was barely above a whisper. Piper leaned down so she could hear what he was trying to say.

  “Anna … you must … come home … to me.… You must …” He sounded desperate.

  “She’s not coming home,” Piper said bitterly. “She’s dead. You killed her.” But Doloman’s glassy expression remained fixed on the sky.

  Piper didn’t know how long the dust would keep him helpless. She had to get as far away as she could before it wore off. She turned from Doloman and saw the creature on the ground, still choking on the dust, its wings beating weakly. It was clearly suffering.

  Good, Piper thought, rage burning inside her. Let it suffer the way Anna had suffered. Piper’s hand went to her knife. She drew the blade from its sheath and stalked over to the creature. As if it sensed her presence, the beast rolled onto its back and stared up at her with those strange glowing eyes.

  “She was smaller than all of us,” Piper said. She didn’t know whether the creature understood her or not, and she didn’t care. “Why did you have to take her? I was trying to keep her safe!” Her voice broke, and tears blinded her. “To take her home.”

  Piper raised the knife in both hands, fighting to hold it steady. Let the beast suffer for a few seconds more, and then she would put it out of its misery. She met its eyes again. Their glow had diminished, and she was startled by what she saw—was that compassion in its expression?

  Suddenly the creature’s skin rippled. Its body went rigid, wingtips pointing toward the sky. Then the appendages began to shrink. First the wings, and then its arms and legs began to draw in toward its body. The dark green skin faded to an olive tone, and the bones of the creature’s face shrank and reshaped right before Piper’s eyes. Dark hair sprouted from the creature’s head, falling across a face that was now unmistakably human.

  Gee’s face.

  Pi
per’s hands dropped to her sides. She bit her lip to keep from sobbing aloud in relief. Gee was a chamelin. Piper had heard stories from her father about such shape-shifters, but she’d never seen one before. She’d just assumed the creature that had attacked the carriage was a wild beast, a monster, but chamelins didn’t hunt humans. Her father had told her that too. In fact, they often lived among them in their human forms—like Gee must have been doing.

  Now that Piper knew the creature’s identity, everything else began to fall into place. Somehow, Gee must have seen the slavers take them and followed from the air. Once they were outside the city, he’d attacked the carriage driver and given them a chance to escape. A monster hadn’t taken Anna. Gee had saved her; he’d probably flown her all the way to the 401. Then he’d come back for Piper.

  And now he’d returned to his human form—and he was naked.

  Piper’s face got very warm. Quickly, she averted her eyes and slipped off her dad’s coat. She knelt beside Gee and covered him. Gee tried to sit up, but another fit of racking coughs overtook him, and he fell back, spitting a mouthful of green bile onto the dirt.

  The dust must affect chamelins differently, Piper guessed. It seemed like Gee had inhaled a ton of the stuff, but it hadn’t stupefied him. Piper helped him to a sitting position and wrapped an arm around his chest, supporting him as best she could while he coughed up more of the dust. Finally, he drew in a shuddering breath and wiped his mouth.

  “Thanks,” he said. His voice was hoarse. “I’d hoped for”—he coughed again—“a cleaner rescue. I didn’t see the other slaver coming—put the dust right down my throat. What about you? You all right?”

  The sound of voices pulled Piper’s attention away from Gee, and she looked up to see a trio of figures running across the field in their direction. They carried lanterns with fire in them, not night eye flowers.