by Becca Andre
“Gone? How? The water’s still over the towpath.” Without a place for the mules to walk, a canal boat could go nowhere.
“Grayson suspects that Farran made some sort of propeller for them—like on those big ocean liners.”
“Farran could make something like that?”
Kali looked puzzled by the question. “He was a ferromancer. And God knows, he had no qualms about making and harvesting his own soul iron.”
“I know. I’m just surprised that he could design something like that.”
“It’s not like he had to come up with the idea. He could just modeled it after preexisting propellers.”
“Huh.” Briar glanced around her empty boat. “Where’s Molly? Is she okay?”
“Just a little bruised. She and the big guy, Eli, took a mule to the next town to make certain the canal office had been alerted, and to get supplies.”
“Did they find the mules?”
“Yes. The rest are grazing at the moment. The boy—Benji?—is with them.”
“And they left you to watch over me?”
“After the near drowning, I wasn’t much up to the other tasks.” Her usual frown returned. “I gave my word. Your man knows what that means—even if you don’t.”
“All right. Fine.” Briar held up her hands in surrender. “I was just surprised.”
Kali eyed her. “Speaking of my task… You look a little pale.”
“Bad dream. It left me edgy. Did the guys say when they expected to be back?”
“No. Before dark, I’m sure.”
Briar crossed her arms. Maybe she’d go see how they were doing. Perhaps then she could get that dream image of Grayson out of her mind.
“Do you want to talk about this dream?” Kali asked.
Briar pulled her gaze from the canal bank to give her a frown.
“It was about Grayson, right?”
“If you’re implying that—”
“I’m not implying anything,” Kali said quickly. “I know you’re worried about him, especially after seeing what he can become. If you were born in the wild, I’m guessing you had never seen a fully devolved ferromancer before.”
“I’d never met a ferromancer before Grayson,” Briar admitted. Why not tell the truth? Kali knew she wasn’t a trained ferra. And Kali kept going on and on about how her promise to not harm Grayson meant something. “I’ve known him only a couple of weeks. He’s not my slave, or lover, or whatever you thought we were.”
“Look, I’m sorry about that. But come on, if you’re not an indoctrinated part of their system, you’ve got to agree that what they do is pretty sick.”
“I was in complete agreement, at first. But Grayson keeps telling me that it’s the only system they’ve found to keep the males in check.”
“But why do they keep having kids with them, making more ferromancers and continuing the cycle?”
“That’s one of the things I intend to ask Esme when we get to Cleveland.”
“Esme?”
“The ferra I’m taking Grayson to.”
Kali’s eyes narrowed. “You’re giving him to the ferra?”
“Just one. I guess she’s something of an outcast.” Briar shrugged. “It’s what he wants.”
“What about you? Crude comments aside, I thought you loved him.”
The heat rose in her cheeks. “I like him. I think he’s an amazing person, and I can’t just give up on him. I’m going to ask Esme to train me.”
“Train you to be his ferra captor?” She didn’t say it with her usual fire, but it was obvious Kali disapproved.
“Captor, no. I’d be…” She wasn’t sure what she’d be. Unable to come up with an answer, she let it go, for now. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t turn him loose, and I can’t execute him—or whatever it is you think I should do. But I’m not giving up. As you pointed out, I’m not part of their system. I don’t think like they do. Maybe, once I understand the ferromancer world better, I can find a solution.”
A faint smile appeared on Kali’s face. “I admire your determination.” She sobered. “But what if there is no solution? You saw what a feral wolf was like. A feral dragon would be—”
“I know. I won’t let it come to that.”
Kali held her gaze for several seconds, then nodded. “I believe you.”
Briar wanted to give her a sarcastic response, but settled for a simple, “Thanks.”
“So how did you meet Grayson?” Kali asked.
“He was building locomotives for the railroad, our competitor. When I got a look at the plans, I suspected ferromancy. I stole the plans in an attempt to defame the railroad and took Grayson captive in the process.”
“You captured a dragon?” Kali looked stunned.
“Tied him to the deck of my boat and headed for the state capital.”
“How on earth did you manage that without any training?”
“Dumb luck—and not exactly good luck.”
“Huh.” Kali continued to stare at her. “You really are captain of this boat.”
“I’ve lived on this boat since I was three. I’m even named after it.”
“Indeed.” Kali laughed. “I think I admire you, Briar Rose—though I’d still like to fight you.”
Briar grinned. “The feeling’s mutual, but in light of your near drowning and my magically induced funk, maybe another day.”
“I’ll look forward to it.” Kali grinned.
Evening was well upon them when Jimmy showed up at Briar’s cabin door to let her know he and the others were back. Briar had been debating whether to go looking for them. Molly and Eli had been back for hours.
“You’re just in time,” Briar told him, setting aside the knife she’d been using to slice the bread. “Molly almost has dinner finished.”
“I’d say it is finished.” Molly looked up from the pot she was stirring.
“That’s great news,” Jimmy said. “My stomach thinks my throat has been cut.”
Molly smiled and turned back to her stove.
“So, what of the damage?” Briar asked him. “Will we be waiting here long?”
“Depending on how fast the water recedes, we could be moving again by tomorrow.”
“What?” She wondered if she’d heard him right. “Tomorrow? I thought for certain Farran had taken out a dam.”
“Just the sluice gate that fed the canal. All the recent rain made the sudden rush of water even more dramatic.” Jimmy glanced toward the open door of her cabin. “Your ferromancer fixed it.”
“You mean Grayson.”
Jimmy looked puzzled. “Of course.”
“He has a name, and he’s not mine. Where is he?” she asked before Jimmy could offer an apology.
“He went to help Zach and Benji bring in the mules.”
“Give Molly a hand with dinner. I’ll go let them know we’re almost ready to eat.” She headed for the door.
“Captain?” Jimmy called to her.
She stopped and looked back.
“What happens once we get to Cleveland? Are you still going to run the boat?”
“Of course. I just need to sort out this ferromancer mess, then we can get back to our lives.”
“But aren’t you one of them? The ferra?”
Molly looked up from her cooking, waiting for Briar’s answer, too.
“I have no idea,” Briar answered Jimmy. “But I don’t see as it matters. I want to do right by Mr. Martel. Beyond that, I want nothing more than to get back my life on the canal.”
“Mmm.” Jimmy took that in.
“What about you, Jimmy O’Shea? Would it matter if your captain can do a little magic with her fiddle?”
Jimmy smiled. “I already knew
that. So no, I don’t reckon it matters one bit.”
Briar returned his smile. “Then carry on.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Stepping out into the cargo hold, Briar pulled up short. Perseus and Eli stood in the middle of the large, open space. Judging by their respective stances, they looked like they were about to go at it.
“What’s going on?” Briar demanded.
Both men straightened and faced her, clearly more concerned about her displeasure than any conflict they might have.
“Percy was giving the big guy a few pointers,” Kali said from her seat on the side of the boat.
“Um, why?” Briar asked.
“I haven’t fared so well in the past,” Eli spoke up. “I thought it best I learn how to fight against these ferromancers and their henchmen.”
“I’d rather you didn’t fight them,” she said.
“I don’t plan to seek them out, but if you’re going to be a target, I figured I’d best learn.”
Briar sighed. She knew better than to argue with him. Eli took her safety very seriously. “Very well,” she said to Eli. “Just don’t hurt Perseus.”
Kali snorted. “The big guy is good, but he’s not that good.”
Briar smiled, taking no offense. There was nothing wrong with sticking up for your own. “Don’t pound on each other too long,” she said. “We need to set up for dinner. I’m going to go fetch the others.”
“Aye, Captain,” Eli agreed.
“Of course, my lady,” Perseus agreed.
Briar glanced at Kali.
“You know I’m not kissing your ass, but I will see they stop in a few and set up for supper.”
“Thank you,” Briar said. She wasn’t so certain she liked the woman, but now that she had begun to understand her, she no longer hated her.
With the canal cresting over its banks, the boat was tied to one of the larger trees on the other side of the towpath. Once the mules were loaded and the gangplank taken up, they’d need to pole out over the canal proper. It would be no fun to wake in the morning and find their boat stranded on dry ground.
She didn’t have to go far to find the guys. Zach and Benji were approaching, leading a pair of mules toward the boat. She greeted them when they were close enough to hear and told them about supper.
“Where’s Grayson?” she asked. “I hope you didn’t leave him alone with Big Red.”
“We’re going to give Red a little more time to cool off,” Benji said. “We’ll bring him in after supper.”
Briar nodded. “And Grayson?”
“He went for a walk,” Zach answered. “Said he wouldn’t be long.”
“I’ll find him.” A wave, and she left them to get the mules aboard.
A dirt path wound along the trees that grew beside the canal. She stopped and glanced to her right, then left, but saw nothing that would draw a person to choose one direction over the other. She was about to ask Lock where Grayson was when she noticed the iron trusses of what might be a railroad bridge about a quarter mile away, across the field on the other side of the path.
“Of course,” she muttered and walked toward it. Leave it to Grayson to find a large hunk of metal out here in the middle of nowhere.
She crossed the field, holding her hands to either side to brush the heavy tops of the mature wheat. Some farmer would harvest this soon, and the grain would become flour, destined to rest on the deck of a canal boat on its way to—
A train whistle blew, and she looked up. Black smoke rolled out of a smokestack as a blocky engine chugged along the tracks, pulling a dozen or so cars behind it. All right, maybe that flour wouldn’t be traveling by canal.
She continued walking, reaching the bridge as the engine rumbled over it with the screech of iron wheels and clatter of deck boards. The serene little creek it crossed was momentarily anything but.
The last car left the bridge and the noise faded, leaving a plume of soot to mark the train’s passing.
“I assume your locomotive wouldn’t be nearly so dirty or so loud,” she said, looking up at the man sitting on the edge of the bridge, though he wasn’t close enough to hear her soft words.
She glimpsed an image of streamlined silver, an impression of sleek movement, and soothing silence. Efficiency, power, and…a dream that had died.
“Grayson.”
He slipped off the edge of the bridge and dropped the fifteen feet to the creek bank where she stood. He straightened from the slight crouch he’d landed in. “You came looking for me.”
“Dinner’s ready.”
He was watching her.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, why?”
“Well, earlier today you passed out after dissolving a man with the power of your soul. And frankly, you look a little pale.”
“I didn’t pass out. I went to sleep. And I’m a redhead; I’m always a little pale.”
A brief smile touched his face. “Semantics.” His expression turned serious. “Did you know you could do that?”
She spread her hands, surprised he would ask. “How would I know? I’ve been stumbling along in this bizarre new world since I opened that shiny lock on your trunk.”
“I meant at that moment. Did you know what you were doing?”
“I was trying to stop him.” She didn’t know how much Grayson had understood of the song she had directed at Farran. More than anything, she’d been trying to stop Farran from forcing Grayson to devolve. But now, explaining her reasoning to Grayson embarrassed her.
He continued to study her.
“What is it?” she asked.
“How about now? Do you understand what you did?”
“Not really. I think I must have channeled Perseus’s magic. You need Scourge magic to stop a ferromancer, right?”
“Most Scourge can dissolve a construct, none can dissolve a fully devolved ferromancer.”
“But—”
“And Perseus wasn’t even there.” Grayson took a breath. “Briar, that was you.”
“You’re saying I used Scourge magic.”
“Yes.”
“But, I’m not Scourge. You’d feel that right?”
“Yes,” he said again. “And you took my construct and survived a direct hit of ferra soul fire—two abilities unique to the ferra.”
“Then…what am I?”
He spread his hands and let them fall. “I have no idea.”
She studied him. “You seem uncomfortable.”
“You dissolved a man.”
“He wasn’t a man. Not anymore.”
“It’s a matter of perspective.”
She stilled, remembering her dream. Farran had said something similar.
Grayson’s brow wrinkled. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you know Farran before he turned into metal?”
“Bizarre question. Why?”
“I dreamed about him. What color was his hair?”
“You don’t really think—”
“Please answer,” she cut in.
“His nickname was the red wolf. He was a redhead, though his was not as dark as yours.”
“Oh God.” Her knees went weak, but Grayson caught her by the arms before she sat down on the muddy bank.
“Briar?” He backed her up a few steps and encouraged her to sit on a fallen tree.
“He came to me in a dream—as a human. He told me it was all about perspective, but I didn’t fully comprehend what he meant. He went on to talk about seeing outside the confines of your world, then the lock gates opened and…”
Grayson squatted beside her. “And?”
She shook her head.
“Briar, it was just a dream. After a very draining and very traumatic event.” He gripped her hands. “Is it such a stretch that you imagined Farran as a redhead? That’s what you see each time you look in the mirror.”
She wanted to argue, to give him more details about the man from her dream, but he might think she had lost it. He already seemed pretty upset about her using Scourge magic. She wasn’t so certain about how she felt about her new talent.
“Did you really fix the dam?” she asked.
“Where did that question come from?”
“I’m wondering when we can be in Cleveland. When I can meet Esme. Maybe she can tell me what I am.”
“Ah, I see. In answer to your question, yes the repairs were made, and I think you can be moving again by morning.”
“Good.” She got to her feet. “Let’s head back to the boat.” She turned the way she had come, but looked back when he didn’t join her. “Grayson?”
“What if I decided to stay here and hop the next train?”
She studied him. “You don’t want to go to Cleveland anymore?”
“Let’s say for the sake of argument, I wanted to hop the next train. Would you let me?”
She gazed up at him, trying to decide how to answer. She didn’t think she could put it into words. Reaching up, she gripped the medallion hanging from her necklace and closed her eyes. Hating to, she pulled up the mental image from her dream. The image of the drake.
Grayson pulled in a breath, and she knew he’d gotten the image.
She opened her eyes to find something like anger on his features, but also sadness, and resignation.
“I guess we’re finally on the same page,” he said, his voice cold.
“We are.”
He tried to walk past her, heading toward the boat, but she gripped his arm.
“Even so, I’m not giving up,” she whispered.
“On me,” he clarified. “Why not? You’ve seen what I truly am.”
“No, I’ve seen what you can become. I already know who you are.”
He looked away.
“Why don’t you want me to be your…ferra?”