26.Florence
The land had changed.
The Skeleton Forest had thinned and the dominant pines that oppressed their senses at every waking hour of the day had become scrawnier. As the train barreled down the winding pathway, they swerved out to the coast, giving Florence her first glimpse of the tall, rocky bluffs that made the Western side of Ter.2 impenetrable by boat.
The majority of Ter.2 was an imposing place—tall and shadowed, full of harsh rocky outcrops and the forest that boasted some of the most dangerous monsters in the world. But they had eluded the endwig, and lived to see the land change from the cold north to the more temperate, flatter south.
Tall grasses grew like in Ter.4, but the terrain was mostly flat, not hilly. It lacked significant features to the point that Florence wondered how the oceans had not just swallowed it whole. She watched it blur by as they continued on their tiny, overgrown track.
Nora and Derek alternated helping her. She had forced them to learn. She would shoulder as much of the burden as she had to, as they needed, but she could not do it alone. Will only went so far; skill was always required to make up the remainder.
They were begrudging at first, but not as much as Florence expected. She was too tired to question why, and thankfully the reason became apparent soon enough. She had earned an unexpected amount of respect from her companions after the night of the endwig. Her unconventional upbringing had served a purpose.
“How do you know how much coal to add, again?” Nora asked from where she was manning the grate and shovel.
Florence tapped the gauge next to her. “This meter. You want this to stay out of the high and low levels here and here. Ideally, it should sit around fifteen.”
“Why?”
“For an engine this size, that amount of power seems to clip us along without wasting power. There’s only so fast we can push her, or should…” Florence thought back to the sloppy repairs she’d made across the train following their frantic flight, and especially those she had less faith in holding. At least she’d had some training in the Ravens, but all her knowledge as a Rivet came from watching and helping Arianna.
Arianna. The name sat within Florence’s heart, still encased in love. The months apart had shown Florence that much. She loved Arianna as the teacher and guardian she had been. The recognition of the fact made the distance, surprisingly, more bearable. It dulled the harsh words they’d spoken to one another and quietly assured Florence of Arianna’s intentions. She knew the woman, and she knew that her venture to Nova was for the right reasons. And she knew that when Arianna returned, they would embrace once more and Florence would again be crafting canisters to help both the revolution and the White Wraith.
“What is most important to a Raven?”
Florence used the rattling of the train to mask a heavy sigh. She was always going to be seen as a Raven before anything else. She’d delighted in it when it had served her, when it had made people unassuming of her canisters in Mercury Town or her skill with the revolver. Or when it had helped her blend in at the port of Ter.5.2. But she was quickly learning she would give such things up for the sake of choice.
“Speed, mostly.” The echoes of trikes whizzing through the streets of Holx echoed in Florence’s ears. “Suicidal speed.”
“And for a Revolver?”
Florence paused in surprise. She glanced over at Nora, who stopped her inspection of the gages long enough to search Florence’s face.
“You’d know that too, right?”
“Explosions.” Florence gave the woman a small smile.
“And Rivets?”
Florence had to think about that for a moment. While Ari was a Master Rivet, she was also not the most conventional of her guild. “Mathematics, perhaps?”
“That sounds terribly dull.” Nora scrunched her coal dust-coated nose.
Florence grinned. “I think so too.”
They slept together, all three of them, in the back car during the day while they were in the Skeleton Forest, and transitioned to sleeping at night in Ter.1. The air itself in the southern territory was thick; it made the hair on her neck stick without any effort. Florence much preferred working through the day when she would be uncomfortable in the engine anyway, than struggling to sleep in the moist daylight hours.
The nights were cooler, and it made huddling together all the more pleasant. There was a different sort of comfort among them than she’d found with Arianna. When Florence had lain in bed with Arianna, even snuggled together, there was a relaxed ease about it. But with Derek and Nora the pressure sat in her stomach, closer to her abdomen. It was the first time she’d felt such tension. She was smart enough to understand lust, but she wasn’t fully aware for whom it stirred.
In all, the trip was mostly peaceful. There was still the stress of maintaining the train and managing the coal, but the old track they rode on was in good enough condition that Florence was confident it’d been used to smuggle things more recently than anyone let on. It was an overall straight shot with only two dead-end switch-offs until they reached Ter.1.2.
The train’s terminal was an abandoned yard and they subsequently left it behind. Florence, Nora, and Derek continued on foot. Despite their brands, they were far enough from the Alchemists’ Guild hall and past the territory border that they could move without any major concern. Derek carried two large trunks, Nora one, and Florence managed hers and a small case of their remaining powders onto the final train that would take them the rest of the way to Faroe.
They paid into a simple car, huddled with other patrons in bench seats. It was quite unlike her last train ride with Arianna when they had their own cabin; this trip lacked all sort of privacy or grace. Harvesters and others piled into the car, taking all available space, and they found themselves sharing their benches with three others.
Florence was pressed against the window for the two-day ride, and she watched as the land continued to change. The fertile middle ground between the end of the Skeleton Forest and the far end of Ter.1 became rocky and barren, void of life.
“What’s that?” Florence squinted at a hole in the earth far in the distance. It looked as if someone had taken a spoon and carved out the land, removing it for some unknown reason.
