Because I was.
“You there!” I shouted, spotting a figure on horseback. The figure turned to me, backlit by moonlight. Bulky saddlebags made it clear that I’d been correct. These were thieves. Nothing more.
The horse made a nervous sound and stamped its hooves, pacing in a tight circle. I heard a boy’s voice hushing it, but he quickly lost control.
Animals didn’t like me.
Eager to give the horse even more cause to buck, I let my radiance flow into the crowbar, casting silver sparks along the rough iron. The whites of the horse’s eyes widened, and before I could decide what to do next, it threw the boy into the skeletal hedge that ran alongside the track.
Somehow, the boy landed in a surprisingly green part of the brush. He crawled out of the leaves as if the thin branches had given him a legup, and I snarled a curse at the low light playing tricks on me. He had an advantage if his eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness.
I mimicked Professor Dunn’s deep, resonant voice as best I could. “Tell your people to stand down.”
The boy scoffed and brushed off his clothes, seeming unbothered. “On whose authority?”
“The House of Industry.”
It sounded impressive, I hoped. The House of Industry didn’t enforce common laws, but surely these bandits didn’t know that. They wouldn’t know how hard a Transistor would laugh at a sixteen-year-old apprentice Conductor making threats.
“The House of Industry,” he echoed, taking a step closer. He wore a strip of green fabric around his face, obscuring everything but his eyes. I couldn’t make out the color of his hair or his skin in the dark. He tilted his head. Studied me. “But you’re just a child in a nightgown.”
“You’rea child!” I spat, flustering as quickly as I had when Gertrude asked if I planned on growing any taller. “You ought to know better than practicing thievery. Run back to your mother.”
He let out a laugh so bitter and sad, it took my breath away, and though I could not understand why, I regretted taunting him. After all, I could easily kill him without saying another word.
I let the crowbar charge until it was as bright as a torch. He shielded his eyes and ran—sure-footed and swift. Barreling after him, I wished I’d grabbed something else to use as a weapon. I’d never be able to keep up with the heavy crowbar in tow.
On impulse, I dropped it and sprinted. Whether the Transistors wanted me in their ranks or not, I didn’t need anything but my hands to inflict damage. The boy leaped over a connection between cars and began to take a ladder three rungs at a time. I had to scramble over the connection, tripping on my nightgown, and by the time I reached the other side of the train, the boy stood in a half circle of people who didn’t appear to be children at all.
“This is the new apprentice Conductor?” A gravelly voice chuckled.
The boy did not sound as amused when he muttered, “She seems to think so.”
“Leave this train now!” I shouted. “Or I’ll kill you. I can do it.”
“Prove it,” said a woman’s voice at my ear.
Before I could whirl around to face her, she had her arm snug around my throat. I raked my fingers at her sleeve, but I couldn’t gain purchase. She lifted me, and I saw the moon in the sky, its light a gentle reflection of the sun I loved so much. Dancing spots began to cover the moon, and as I kicked and elbowed, it occurred to me that choking someone was much more effective than I’d ever imagined. Unable to draw a breath, I couldn’t get my wits about me enough to control my own radiance.
I was going to die before I reached my post. A record-breaking failure.
“Leave her.”
The pressure eased enough for me to wheeze a breath that did nothing to soothe the stabbing fire in my lungs.
“Why?” the woman demanded impatiently.
“She’s meant to serve at the Mission.” That was the boy, saying it with pointed significance. I would have thanked him for understanding how important I would be in the town, but I couldn’t breathe or see.
“We didn’t get everything. She’s in the way.”
“We got enough. Leave her!”
I managed to land an elbow under the woman’s ribs, and she let me fall to the steel grating in a heap. Choking, raw sobs tore from my chest. I hadn’t realized I’d been crying. By the time I made it to my feet, the bandits were running toward a wagon hitched to two horses. With one hand on my throbbing throat, I lifted my other hand and conjured the radiance that raged within me, bright as a noonday ray of sun.
Fighting like this was forbidden, but the instructors in the House of Industry had never addressed how to use one’s radiance properly in the face of a train robbery. And it was only forbidden because reckless foolswho weren’t trained as Transistors melted their own clothes or sent bolts of radiance helter-skelter, setting fires or, worse, killing innocent people.
But my aim was always true.
