“A train made of thoughts isn’t mappable on paper. Thoughts move and morph inside the Elsewhere Express just as they do in your head. The train’s map is a collection of these thoughts. It will be obsolete by morning. Until then, it will suit our purpose.”
“The dragon’s breath was the map?” Raya said.
Rasmus nodded. “And now that it’s inside both of you, you’ll be able to see how the train cars are connected and find the fastest routes to each car.”
Q squinted. “I don’t see anything.”
“Neither do I,” Raya said. “Did something go wrong?”
“Give it a moment. The map will reveal itself when you’re ready to see,” Rasmus said. “Or hear it.”
“How do you hear a map?” Q asked.
“Wait.” Raya closed her eyes and angled her head. “I think I hear something.”
“Those are the door’s songs,” Rasmus said.
“I see it.” Raya’s eyes widened. “I see the map.”
“Where?” A tug on Q’s ribs drew his attention to the center of the room. Silver specks glinted in the moonlight. Tiny translucent train tracks looped, twisted, and crisscrossed beneath the carved dome. “My god…it’s beautiful.”
“Q,” Raya said breathlessly, her gaze on the space between their chests. “Look.”
Q glanced down. An eternity knot, as diaphanous as the tracks, dangled between their bodies, one end of its rope disappearing into the space over his heart, the other into Raya’s. He reached out to touch it. It passed through his hand, sending a current racing up his arm.
Raya clutched her chest.
“You felt that?” Q said, his eyes large.
Raya pressed her palm over her heart. “What was that?”
“It feels like sharing a body, doesn’t it?” Rasmus said. “But don’t worry. You can’t read each other’s thoughts. Being tethered simply gives you a greater sense of how the other person feels.”
“Tethered?” Two heartbeats raced in Q’s chest.
“Tethering is how you share the weight of the map. The two of you are now linked, like the train’s cars.”
Q pressed his lips together. Painting was solitary work. As was living in the dark. Feeling Raya’s heart pound through the tether was something he wasn’t sure he was going to get used to.
Raya ran her eyes over the swaying tether. “It doesn’t look very sturdy.”
“It’s tougher than it looks,” Rasmus said. “As long as both of you have a breath inside you, it will hold.”
Raya clenched her fingers over the knot unraveling on her hand. “And if something happens to one of us?”
“The person left holding the map will be crushed by it. So I suggest that you take care of each other.” Rasmus looked from Raya to Q. “And yourselves.”
“We will,” Q said, his voice as steady as a paintbrush in his hand.
Rasmus nodded. “I don’t expect that you’ll find the map too difficult to use. Artists such as yourselves are usually pretty good at thissort of thing.” He looked over Q’s face and hands. “You’re a painter, am I right?”
Q jerked his head. “How did you know?”
“When you’ve been on this train as long as I have, you get pretty good at reading people.” Rasmus turned his attention to Raya. “And you’re a song—”
“Med student.”
“Really?” Rasmus raised a barely visible brow behind his eyepatch. “That’s too bad. If you were a songwriter, it would have made learning how to use the map a lot easier. We could use more musicians on this train. Lily’s one of the few we have on board. She can hear the train’s songs so clearly, she no longer needs a map to find its doors.”
