“There they are!” one of them shouted. “Piper!”
It was Anna. Piper still half supported Gee, but when she heard the girl’s voice, her strength gave out. She rested her head against Gee’s back and started to cry again.
“It’s all right,” Gee murmured. “She’s safe. I promise. You’re both safe.”
The next few minutes were a blur. Piper managed to get herself under control before Anna came running at her, throwing her arms around her and squeezing all the breath out of her again.
“I thought they were going to take you away,” Anna sobbed. Her tears made tracks down Piper’s neck. “I told Gee to hurry.”
“He had incredible timing,” Piper said, smiling. Gently, she loosened Anna’s grip. The two people who’d followed Anna across the field were helping Gee to his feet. Piper had never seen either of them before. One was a man wearing gray overalls eaten up with so many black singe marks she wondered how the fabric held together. His spiky hair stuck out all over his head, and his face, smooth and white as an egg where it wasn’t obscured by soot, looked friendly. He wore a wide belt affixed with dozens of leather loops. Each of the loops held a small glass vial with a rubber stopper. Liquids of various colors floated inside the vials.
The woman standing next to him was dressed in similar gray overalls—minus the singe marks—and was much older. What drew Piper’s attention was the woman’s right arm. From the elbow down, it was made of not flesh but steel and brass. Piper had seen the prosthetics that healers used, but those had been made of wood or simple metal shapes like hooks. This woman’s limb had a wrist joint and five hinged metal fingers. Piper watched her use the limb to steady Gee on his feet. Then the woman turned to Piper.
“So, you’re the two troublemakers I’ve been hearing so much about,” the woman said. Her voice was gruff, but Piper detected no anger in it. “You can call me Jeyne. I’m the 401’s engineer. You already know Gee, and that’s my fireman, Trimble.”
“We call her Jeyne Steel,” Trimble said, grinning warmly. “She loves that.”
Jeyne ignored him. “I talked to the authorities in town after Gee dropped off that carriage driver. They’re coming to round up the rest of the slavers. They seemed surprised when I told them where you were. According to their information, the slave market was supposed to be on the other side of town. Guess this bunch got lost.”
“Bad luck for us,” Piper said, as if that were all there was to it. She didn’t mention or look at Doloman, hoping that maybe Jeyne wouldn’t ask too many questions about their ordeal.
“Luck, huh? I guess we’ll see.” Jeyne nodded to the fireman. “Trimble, you take the girls on back to the train. Gee and I will be along shortly, and then we’re going to have a nice long chat about what happened out here tonight.” She gave Piper a piercing look. “Does that suit you?”
Clearly, a cryptic story about being on a secret mission wasn’t going to work this time—Jeyne had seen through her, and Piper knew it was time to confess. The engineer didn’t strike her as the kind of person she could fool with a lie. Besides, Gee had just pulled their butts out of the fire and hurt himself in the process. They owed him and his friends some trust.
Piper looked Jeyne in the eye and nodded slowly. “That’s fair,” she said.
“Good.” The older woman’s severe expression softened a bit. “Go on, then. You must be exhausted after all you’ve been through.”
Trimble led the way back to the train while Piper and Anna trailed behind. Anna refused to let go of Piper’s hand the whole way, but Piper didn’t complain. She was too tired and too relieved that they were safe. For her part, Anna didn’t seem nearly as affected by their ordeal. Even after she’d been kidnapped by slavers, banged around in a carriage, and carried off by a beast, Anna was back to her normal self, chattering away at full speed.
“… one minute my feet were running on the ground, and the next they were running through the air. That’s not logical at all, I thought. I’m not a bird, but then I looked up and realized I’d grown wings! Of course, that’s not logical either, I told myself. Spontaneous hybridization from human to bird isn’t possible, not by any science we know. Then that got me thinking about the chamelins—and at the same time how high we were in the air—and somehow I knew it was Gee carrying me. I don’t know how I knew. Maybe it’s because his eyes are green when he’s a boy and when he’s a beast. Anyway, then I wasn’t scared at all. Piper, were you scared of Gee in his other form?”
“Not for a second,” Piper said. She’d die before she admitted that her heart threatened to pound right out of her chest when she saw that creature land in the middle of the field.
“You’re a brave one,” Trimble said, shooting Piper a knowing grin. “Gee looks fierce in his beastie form, and he grumbles enough when he’s human to make you want to push him off the train at full steam, but he’s all right. He’s protective of the train, and thank the goddess for it, I say. We might not be running if it weren’t for Gee.”
His tone was jovial, but Piper heard the feeling underlying the fireman’s words. “I thought the chamelins all lived in the west with the archivists,” she said. “What’s Gee doing here so far from his own kind?”
“He has his reasons. You’d have to ask him about that, though. It’s his own story to tell,” Trimble said.
Trimble’s answer made Piper even more curious about Gee. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but suddenly she stumbled on the uneven ground and almost fell. Her feet felt like they were weighted down with rocks, and her throat ached where Doloman had grabbed her. Jeyne was right. Piper was so exhausted she didn’t know how much farther she could walk.
Thankfully, they were almost to the train. Piper never thought she’d be so relieved to see the big steam engine again. Inside, her bed was waiting for her, soft and warm and, most importantly, safe. A few minutes ago, Piper had thought the only bed she’d be sleeping in was the dirty wood floor of a slaver’s wagon. Instead, she almost felt like she was coming home, back when her father was there. Those days she’d always felt safe when she slept. Tears stung her eyes at the thought, and Piper wiped them away impatiently. She was crying entirely too often these days. She was sure it was Anna’s fault, somehow.
As much as Piper wanted to sleep, she knew she had a lot of explaining to do first. Trimble led them toward the front of the train to a car that contained a small office with a cluttered desk, an upper and lower berth near the windows, and a tiny washroom.
“Jeyne and I sleep here,” Trimble said, “so we can be near the engine in case there’s trouble.” He pointed to the lower berth. “That’s my place. Take a seat, and Jeyne’ll be here in a minute.” He left the car and closed the door behind him.
Piper sank down on the bed, and Anna settled in next to her. In the glow of the gaslights, Piper noticed dark circles under Anna’s eyes. She was more tired than Piper had realized.
“Go ahead and lie down,” Piper told her. “I don’t think Trimble will mind.” She fluffed up the fireman’s pillow and helped Anna slip off her shoes. The girl curled up on her side, and Piper sat on the edge of the bed next to her. She thought Anna would drift off immediately, but a few minutes later, she felt the girl’s fingers on her arm.
“You never told me what Raenoll said.” Anna looked up at Piper through half-closed eyes. “What did she see in her vision?”
Piper had been expecting—and dreading—the question, though she hadn’t expected Anna to ask it so soon, so it caught her off guard. “Raenoll? After everything that’s happened tonight, the seer is who you’re thinking about?” Piper forced a laugh, but she was just stalling.
How much could she tell Anna? She couldn’t reveal what Raenoll had told her about what would happen to Anna if Piper abandoned her, that much was certain. Piper didn’t know what to think of the seer’s cryptic words herself. According to Raenoll’s prediction, if she took Anna to Noveen, her reward would be that something terrible would happen, something nei
ther of them could live with. But what other choice did they have? If that mansion was where Anna came from, the answers they needed were there.
“I think she saw your home in her vision,” Piper said at last, hoping that it turned out to be the truth. She described to Anna the sculpted gardens, the fountain, and the beautiful columned house overlooking the ocean. Piper hoped that it was as beautiful in real life as in the vision. Surely a place like that was too huge and fine for someone like Doloman to live there. It was the perfect house for Anna, big enough for parents and a small army of brothers and sisters. Piper wanted desperately to believe that Anna had a home and a family like that, a place safe from Doloman and his slavers.
While Piper talked, Anna’s eyelids drooped, but she smiled when Piper finished. “That’s nice,” she said. “I don’t remember that house, but maybe it is home. I hope so. I’m glad we went to the seer, Piper.”
Piper didn’t answer, letting Anna drift off to sleep. In the silence, she found herself thinking not about Raenoll, but about Doloman. She tried not to, wanted nothing more than to block out all that had happened, but she kept feeling his hand at her throat. Piper’s fingers brushed lightly over her neck. Tomorrow there would be bruises on the tender skin. Doloman would have choked the life out of her if Gee hadn’t come when he did.
Gee, a chamelin. Imagine that. Though up until now she’d never seen one, Piper’s father had told her stories about a chamelin who used to live near the scrap town. He’d said the creature was solitary, which was odd because chamelins were family oriented and protective by nature. They lived in large groups, establishing their colonies near archivist strongholds. When Piper asked her father why, he’d told her no one knew for sure, but the most likely reason was that the archivists valued protection too. They worked in groups to preserve the knowledge and culture that came from other worlds. Books, musical compositions, art—the archivists guarded all those objects as precious artifacts. The chamelins in turn protected the archivists.
Her father told her he felt sorry for the chamelin, that he’d probably lost his family group and was looking for another, but since the people in the scrap towns rarely interacted outside their own families, he wasn’t going to find what he was looking for there. Eventually, he left, and her father never saw him again. Piper wondered if Gee had had a similar experience.
The flickering gaslights in the suite made her sleepy. Piper was just contemplating lying down next to Anna when the door opened, and Gee and Jeyne walked in, grim expressions on their faces.
Piper tensed, unsure what to say as Jeyne came to stand in front of her. “You’ve both had a rough night, so I won’t keep you here long, but I need some sort of explanation,” she said. Her tone was businesslike, but there was an edge to it. “Gee followed you from the train. He said those slavers didn’t just grab you at random. They were looking for you specifically, and they went to a lot of trouble to get you. I need to know why so I can protect both you and this train.”
She waited for Piper to speak. Gee leaned against the wall, but he wasn’t looking at Piper. He was pale, and looked sick from breathing in the dust. Piper felt the weight of the debt she owed him. She cleared her throat. “They were after Anna,” she said, then she started talking.
She told them what had happened the night of the meteor storm, about Micah’s injury, how she’d found Anna in the caravan wreckage and brought her back to her house, how the other caravan survivor had eventually tracked them there. “We jumped on the train right after he attacked us,” Piper explained. “The only thing Anna remembers clearly is the factory in the capital, so that’s where we’re headed.”
“That’s why you went to Raenoll,” Gee said, speaking for the first time. “You thought she could help Anna remember who she is.”
“That’s right,” Piper said, “but it wasn’t worth getting caught by the slavers. I should have listened to you,” she said, glancing at Gee.
Jeyne looked at her thoughtfully. “You’ve come a long way on your own,” she said. “You have family back north?”
Piper shook her head. “It’s just me.”
“And Anna has no idea who this man is who’s after her?” Gee asked.
“I found out tonight his name is Doloman,” Piper said. “That’s all we know.” She sighed. At least maybe that nightmare was over. With any luck, he was sitting in a Tevshal jail right now with the other slavers and couldn’t hurt either of them.
“Doloman?” Jeyne said. She looked at Gee and their alarmed expressions churned up dread in Piper’s gut.
“What is it?” Piper said. She rubbed slick palms together and tried to push back her growing fear. What else was about to go wrong?
“Well,” Jeyne said, “that makes for a thornier problem, doesn’t it?” Before Piper could speak, she held up a hand. “Your friend has the tattoo of the Dragonfly territories, is that right?”
“That’s right,” Piper said. “Whatever else she is, she’s protected by King Aron.” She glanced at Gee. “I wasn’t lying about that part.”
“That doesn’t solve anything,” Gee said tersely, but he was addressing Jeyne, not Piper. “We’re still obligated—”
“I’ll decide what I’m obligated to do on this train, thank you,” Jeyne said curtly. Her expression softened when she looked at Piper. “Gee here is upset because he knows the 401 is bound to cooperate with anyone who has the dragonfly tattoo on account of it being King Aron who pays our wages and keeps this train running. The problem is that Doloman also has the mark of the Dragonfly.”
Piper’s heart stuttered in her chest. Suddenly, she couldn’t catch her breath. It was as if Doloman were there choking her again. “You mean …”
“Yeah, I mean. Master Doloman—that’s his title—is a member of King Aron’s advisory council. In addition to that, he’s the king’s chief machinist. That pretty much makes him the second most powerful person in the Dragonfly territories.”
Piper was at a loss for words. All she could manage to utter was a faint “I didn’t know.”
“There’s no reason you would,” Gee said. “You’re not from the Dragonfly territories, and Master Doloman’s very secretive about himself and his work for Aron. He hardly ever goes out in public.” He glanced at Jeyne. “We’ve never met him, but he was one of the men who built the 401.”
“He’s an engineering genius,” Jeyne said grudgingly.
“He’s your boss.” Piper gripped the edge of the bed for support. “That’s what Gee meant when he said you were obligated. When they find out who he is in Tevshal, they’ll let him go. Then he’ll come here, and you’ll have to turn us in.”
What would happen to her then? What would happen to Anna? Doloman would likely take her to Noveen, and Piper would be the one thrown in a jail cell for the rest of her life for assaulting Aron’s chief machinist. She’d been an idiot to think their troubles with Doloman were over, but this was worse than anything she could have imagined.
Jeyne turned to Gee. “Why don’t you head up front and let Trimble know that we need to get under way as soon as possible. I’ll join him in a minute.”
Gee hesitated, his lips pinched as if he wanted to argue, but something in Jeyne’s expression stopped him, because he nodded and headed for the door. He shot one last, long glance at Piper that made her look down at her feet uncomfortably. When she looked up, he’d left the car.
“What are you going to do?” she asked Jeyne.
The older woman didn’t immediately answer, which made Piper’s stomach clench. Jeyne pulled a chair out from the desk and sat down across from the bed. She regarded Piper thoughtfully. “I haven’t decided yet,” she said finally. “On the one hand, Gee’s right. Now that I know that it’s Master Doloman after you, I’m required to turn you over to him. If I don’t and King Aron finds out, there’s a good chance this train will get shut down, and we’re all out of a job. Goddess knows we’re running on borrowed time already, what with the factories spewing out parts for airships an
d ocean steamers faster than you can say ‘exploration through innovation.’ ” She sniffed. “That’s King Aron’s favorite saying. On the other hand, Master Doloman’s guilty of kidnapping and consorting with slavers, which is something I won’t tolerate no matter who he is.”
“But if he’s such an important person, why didn’t he just have the authorities in Tevshal pull us off the train as soon as we got to the city?” Piper asked, confused. “Why did he hire the slavers?”
“I’m asking myself the same question,” Jeyne said, rubbing her temples. “He must not want the authorities knowing about you two. Slavers take their coin and don’t ask questions, and if Master Doloman wants to recover Anna quietly and get rid of you at the same time, selling you to the slavers is the perfect way to do it.” She clasped her hands together, cupping metal over skin. “But if it’s true he doesn’t want to attract attention, it’s a safe bet he won’t risk coming on the train and demanding that we hand you over, especially after what happened tonight. And that gives us a reprieve.”
Piper considered this. Jeyne was probably right—if he hadn’t already, Doloman probably wouldn’t risk coming after them openly, but whatever sanctuary the train provided wasn’t going to last forever. “He’ll just wait and come after us when we get to Noveen,” Piper murmured. “He knows that’s the train’s last stop. He knows that it’s Anna’s home too, that that’s where she’ll want to go.” And how perfect for Doloman. Big city like Noveen—Aron’s chief machinist probably knew all kinds of unsavory types like the slavers who would be willing to help him kidnap two girls. The safe feeling Piper had had earlier when they’d gotten back on the 401 fled her utterly. “We have to get off the train. It’s too dangerous to stay here—and we can’t go to the capital.”
“Hold on a minute.” Jeyne held up her hand. “You’re not caught yet,” she said.
“But—”
The Mark of the Dragonfly Page 14