Go ahead and underestimate me. It’ll only give me a greater advantage. I clutched the iron railing, ignoring the tingle of cold metal against my palms, and combed the skies with my will. Grandfather’s spirit stirred, quiet but awake. Ready. Eager. “You don’t have to believe me.”
Belief was the fuel for my powers, and the Fantazikes, the members of Le Cirque de Merveilles Mécanique, Malita, and my grandfather had provided me with enough faith to whip the storms into a fury.
“You certainly seem fierce,” Brahm said. “But I’ve seen many people swagger and preen until the moment they spot my fist flying toward their face. Then they wilt like old cabbage. Why should you be any different?”
“Because...” Casting my net, I let my subconscious drift, searching for subtle eddies in the wind currents, changes in pressure, pockets of moisture. Storms were out there, waiting for me, and the more I could draw in, the better. “I’ve been hit more times than you can imagine, and I’m still standing.”
Leaning over the platform railing again, I watched the front of the train. My vision had adjusted to the darkness, and the landscape’s flat shadows had gained shape and depth. I exhaled and drew a web of distant lightning across the sky. To Brahm, it likely appeared as little more than heat lightning on a late-summer night. To me, the slight flash provided enough light to reveal subtleties in the train’s exterior. I spotted a ladder near our platform then hiked my leg over the railing, ignored the warnings in my head, and clutched the closest rung.
Wind screamed in my ears, nearly drowning out Brahm’s cry. “What in the Shadowlands are you doing?”
Violent gusts ripped at my hair and coat as I climbed the ladder. Ignoring Brahm, I reached the roof and crawled to the center of our train car where the rocking and swaying seemed less likely to throw me overboard. From there, I could see our surroundings plainly. The last trees fell away behind us. We plowed through open countryside, zooming beside open fields.
Brahm’s dark head popped up at the roof’s edge, his hair fluttering like pennants on a battlefield. “Liesl, have you gone mad?”
“I’m trying to get a better view.” I swept my arm out, gesturing at the surrounding fields. “Sitting in that train car made me feel like a chicken in a crate on her way to the butcher’s shop. If anyone’s going to attack, I want to see them coming.”
“What kind of fighting can you do from up here?”
“If you’re so worried, why are you following me?” I wanted to gather the storm clouds closer but feared they would blot out the meager light streaming from the stars and leave us blind.
He crouched and skittered crab-like over the roof until he reached my side. “I don’t know. It seemed like the thing to do.”
“So under that tough exterior there’s a gentleman waiting to rescue the damsel in distress?”
He scoffed. “You’re no damsel.”
I hunkered closer to the roof, hoping to find some relief from the rushing air, and drew my coat collar higher around my ears. “Well, I’m glad we can agree.”
Brahm eased down beside me, and we studied the neighboring fields, searching for movement or hints of threat or attack. My nerves buzzed, my eyes watered, and my ears had gone numb from the constant roar of wind, but I refused to let down my guard, even if it meant suffering the next day with an aching back and a crick in my neck.
The train click-clacked its hypnotizing tempo.
The gentle sway rocked me like a baby’s cradle.
It would have been easy to let my senses drift, stretch out fully, relax, and bury my face in the warm crook of my elbow, but worry pinged like a dull alarm in the back of my mind.
Brahm cleared his throat. “Won’t your friends be wondering where you’ve gone off to?”
“Maybe. But I couldn’t have gotten far, could I? Unless I fell overboard.” An image of me slipping from the rooftop and shattering on the rails flashed before my mind. I cringed. “If you’re worried about it, you can always go back inside and tell them where I am.” His persistence in accompanying me raised more than a few warning flags. What if I just electrocute him now and ask questions later?
“Excuse me if my white knight armor was showing again. I’ll try to do a better job of keeping it concealed.”
I snorted. “If you’re my white knight, then I’m—”
A flash of far-off light, a distant yellow flicker, caught my attention. I watched for what could have been either a flame or a lantern’s glow and waited for it to reappear. Or it could have been my imagination. Either way, I needed to know for sure.
Like a distant, glimmering star, the light flashed again, this time in a series of flickers that seemed to have a deliberate nature. Like a signal.
Beside me, Brahm drew in a harsh breath.
If he’d seen it too, then it wasn’t simply my imagination. I called the storms closer, trading visibility for better access to my weapons. “I’ll wager your thoughts are the same as mine.”
“Bandits,” he grumbled. His boots scraped the roof as he rose into a crouch. I pounded on the steel beneath my feet, hoping Malita and Niffin would take it as a signal to prepare themselves for... well, I didn’t know what exactly. An attack of some kind, I supposed.
Inching forward, I approached the space between our car and the next. Not allowing myself a moment to second-guess, I leapt, crossing the crevasse, and landed on the next carriage’s roof. My equilibrium wavered. I rocked on bent knees, arms thrown wide until I regained my balance. Then I scurried to the space between the next two cars. Brahm said nothing to dissuade me, having possibly decided nothing would. His pounding feet echoed mine as we leapt from car to car, advancing closer to the engine as it raced forward.
“Maybe it’s nothing,” I said, unconvinced, as Brahm and I perched at the head of the first train car, keeping low to avoid the smoke steadily puffing from the engine’s smoke stack. “Maybe we’re overreacting.”
“Do you really believe that?” said a voice that didn’t belong to Brahm. I squealed, clutching at my jittering heart as Niffin skulked up beside me, as quiet as a cat.
“Tell me what you saw.”
“Looked like lanterns. Maybe a signal. That’s all, and I haven’t seen them since we worked our way up here.”
Niffin had removed his spectacles. He peered intently into the gloom as if willing the bandits to appear and announce their intentions. “It would help if there were not so many clouds making everything so dark. A little lightning might even be welcome. A big storm could discourage the bandits before they even—”
Kaboom!
A ball of brilliant orange flame boiled over the tracks. The fireball bloomed into a tentacled beast that lashed at the rails and clawed the wooden ties. A chorus of shouts arose from the darkness.
The train rocked as the conductor responded, yanking on the brakes. Iron wheels squealed, sparks raining out a torrent of protest. Brahm, Niffin, and I braced ourselves, our bodies tense, balance low, moods anxious. Tension radiated from my companions like light from a blazing lantern.
“This isn’t just some simple robbery.” The train slowed, but my heart raced faster and faster, as if making up for our lost momentum. “Are they planning to steal the entire train right off its tracks?”
“I don’t know,” Brahm said, “but we’d better be prepared for the worst.”
Chapter 6
A group of men and women jumped to the ground from a car near the engine, several stumbling over the uneven terrain. Their lanterns shone on the track as they jogged beside the engine, easily keeping pace as the train continued to slow.
“Guards?” I pointed at the group, who all wore dark uniforms trimmed in gold buttons and braiding. At the front of the cluster, a rifle barrel glinted, reflecting lantern light. Dread shimmied down my spine.
“Looks like it,” Brahm said. “I’ve never seen anything this organized before—they look like professionals. Perhaps the train’s owners have decided to take the bandit threat more seriously.”
“This isn’t going to go well,” I said. “Not if they’re bringing guns to the fight.”
“Liesl,” Niffin whispered, “you can stop this.”
I glanced at Brahm’s shadow. Who was he? Could I risk revealing myself?
If I did nothing, there would be bloodshed, and I wanted no innocent deaths on my conscience, not in exchange for keeping my identity secret. I sucked in a deep breath, closed my eyes, and unleashed the storms.
A mighty whip of lightning lashed the sky.
Thunder, louder than the bandits’ explosion, rocked the air, and its concussion battered the earth, the train, my companions, and me.
The guards paused and gaped at the sky, but I was focused on the tracks where a throng of bodies, indistinct in the gloom, rushed toward the train. With a flick of my finger, I threw a bolt into their path, and the explosion was the vicious roar of a pack of angry beasts.
