“Only to be returned hereagain,” she reiterated.
“I took you for bolder.”
Was there genuine disappointment in his tone? “I’m merely biding my time,” she threatened with a smile.
He faltered. That was the thing about effective threats: they must possess a grain of truth. In this case, it was completely transparent.
“Whatever you’re planning, it will not get past me.”
“Like you didn’t let me escape either of the other times?” Arianna bared her teeth at the man.
His claws shot out but retracted just as quickly. She’d punched a nice nerve. “You no longer have that machination. You will need to depart through the door—a door I guard.”
“You should pray to each of your twenty gods that’s not the case. Because if it is, it will only mean that yours will be the first heart I cut out when the time comes.”
Cain growled. Arianna’s hand was limp at her side, ready to summon her dagger to her palm. If he wanted a fight, she would give him one while there were no others to interfere. His magic flared brightly, assaulting her senses with the smell of wet earth.
But it diminished quickly, fading into nothing more than frustration and a fearsome scowl. The Dragon retreated, slamming the door behind him like a petulant child. Arianna sighed heavily, turning to the window.
She had yet to tire of staring at the sun. For all it hurt her eyes and seared her vision, she was fascinated by its circular presence.
It was also a reminder: Arianna was very far from home, and understood little of the world surrounding her.
12.Florence
The engine that was going to propel them through the dense and dangerous wood known as the Skeleton Forest had seen better days. Better years actually. Long,long-ago years. It was an old and rusted thing, paint peeled at every corner and orange lines of oxidation ran down its sides. Florence didn’t have to be a Rivet to know that the make and model dated before she was even born.
It should be in a museum, or an artifact graveyard, not the overgrown tracks they were supposed to be traveling on.
Even with her minimal training as a Raven, Florence could see the signs of wear that time had abused into the exposed metal. The cranks between the wheels looked brittle and the pistons were in no better shape. The actual Raven of their group, Anders, had been tearing out his hair over it for the past week trying to get it up to par. Florence wished he looked a little more confident now, running his final checks.
“Where did we even find this thing?” Derek asked no one in particular.
“I feel like some questions are better left unanswered.” Nora threw her rucksack into the car that would be their moving home for the next few weeks as they traversed down through Ter.2 into Ter.1. The train was only three parts long—the engine, the tender, the car—and no two parts looked as though they’d come from the same machine yard.
“Flor, come help me with this!” Anders called from the front.
Florence glanced between her chests and the direction the voice had come from.
“We’ll load it up,” Derek offered.
“Carefully,” Florence cautioned. “Or you’re going to blow us straight to Nova.”
“If there’s anything that temperamental in here, we have no chance of making it to Ter.1. I doubt this is going to be a smooth ride.” Nora grabbed for one side of the chest.
“Still, be careful,” Florence called over her shoulder, making her way up to the engine. “Anders?”
“Flor, pass me a wrench.” The man held out a hand from where he was wedged under the engine. “There’s a small disconnect here to the cylinder I want to fix and Rotus is up bothering with the whistle. Not that I know why we even need a whistle. If we encounter another train on these tracks we have bigger problems to worry about…”
Florence passed the Raven his tools as he muttered commands. She watched him tinker and toil, remembering all the times she’d seen Will and Helen do the same when they were younger. Florence wondered where her friends were now, what vessel they were currently obsessed with.
“This is almost on tight… Can you check up on the safety valve while I finish up?”
“I don’t think you want me doing that…”
“It’ll save us time, and I want to get well down the tracks before midday.”
“Yes, but I’m not—”
