The Mark of the Dragonfly (17 page)

Anna opened her mouth to reply, but whatever she was going to say was lost in a loud crash. The carriage tipped sideways, throwing Piper and Anna against the windows. The driver shouted in alarm at the same time something heavy banged against the carriage roof right above Piper’s head, and the carriage came to a dead stop.

“Are you all right?” Piper whispered, helping Anna sit up.

“I think so.” Anna was dazed and bleeding from a shallow cut on her forehead. Piper wiped away the blood
and checked her over quickly, then scrambled for the door and kicked it open.

“We’re going to make a run for it,” Piper said. “Stay close!” She jumped to the ground and turned back, offering the smaller girl her hand.

Anna took it and hopped out. “What hit the carriage?” she asked.

Piper pulled her along the side of the carriage to avoid being seen, but the driver was gone, and so were the horses. The driver’s seat had three long, deep gouges in the wood that looked like claw marks, and the carriage roof had a huge dent in its center. Piper stared at the marks and a shiver of fear ran down her back.

“Could have been a dravisht raptor,” she said. “I hear some of them have claws as long as your arm.”

Anna’s mouth fell open. “If it carried off a full-grown man with an average weight of a hundred and seventy-five pounds, taking into account the length of the claws, I calculate the size of the raptor has to be—”

“Forget I said that,” Piper cut in. She didn’t want to think about how big the creature might be. “Whatever it is, we don’t want to be here when it comes back.”

Piper grabbed Anna by the arm and pulled her away from the carriage. They took off across the field toward the city. The wind blew cold on Piper’s face as she ran, though it wasn’t nearly as biting as she was used to in her scrap town by the mountains.

The night air burned in Piper’s lungs, and after a few minutes, both girls were panting. If they were going to make it to the city, they would have to rest, but the moonlight was too bright and the field too exposed to stop out in the open, so she angled west, heading for a copse of trees.

Ducking among the dense oaks and pikas, Piper slowed and let Anna catch her breath. “We’ll stay here a minute,” she said as she lifted one of the pika’s low branches aside. They grew right down to the ground, and their bluish leaves effectively blotted out the moonlight overhead. Anna followed and sat down beside her. Above them, Piper could hear bird rustlings, and a night-hawk cried out, then took flight. “Somebody doesn’t want to share his tree.” Piper laughed, but she was too tired to put much heart into it.

“You’re trying to make me feel better, aren’t you?” Anna said. “Is that why you laugh and make jokes when we’re in trouble? You don’t want me to be scared?”

“I’m trying not to be scared either,” Piper admitted. She glanced toward Tevshal, but the city still seemed a hundred miles away.

Anna followed her gaze. “We’ve been gone a long time,” she said. “What if the train leaves without us?”

“They won’t,” Piper said firmly. “I heard the porter say the 401 won’t leave until near midnight. We’ve still got a few hours.” It felt like she was trying to convince
herself as much as Anna. In truth, Piper was scared to think about what would happen if the 401 left them in Tevshal.

“You think we’ll make it in time?”

Piper heard the fear in Anna’s voice and she forced a crooked smile. “I got us out of that carriage, didn’t I?” Of course, Piper
had
had help from whatever had landed on the roof and was probably still out there prowling around for fresh meat right now, but why dwell on the details?

Another rustling sound, louder, made Piper spin. This time it was coming from the field. Piper froze, facing the direction of the sound, and Anna grabbed her hand, squeezing it in alarm.

“Maybe it’s another bird?” Anna offered meekly.

Piper shook her head and put her hand over the girl’s mouth before she could speak again. She lifted aside a clump of pika leaves and squinted into the darkness.

Shapes moved in the field—two shadows on her left, one to the right. Human shadows. And the figures were coming closer. It was more slavers. They must have been waiting to meet the carriage. Piper considered for a moment, but she knew there was really only one option. The copse was too small to hide in. They would have to make a run for it.

“Anna.” Piper lifted her hand from Anna’s mouth and spoke very softly. “I’m going to distract them. While I do, I want you to run toward the city as fast as
you can. Don’t stop until you get to the train. Do you understand?”

“No!” Anna nearly yelped. “They’ll catch you. I’m not going to run while they take you away!”

“We don’t have time to argue!” Piper pried the girl’s fingers from her arm and hauled her none too gently to her feet. “Do what I say, Anna, please,” she said desperately.

Shouts echoed from the field. The slavers had heard them. They were running toward the copse now, and Piper was sure they’d be surrounded at any moment. Piper pushed Anna out in front of her, and together they burst from the trees and broke into a run. Piper made sure Anna was headed toward Tevshal; then she turned and ran in the opposite direction, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Two of the slavers immediately turned at the sound and gave chase. The third kept after Anna, but she had a good head start on him. Piper kept on screaming and running, glancing back every few seconds to see if Anna was still ahead of her pursuer. Piper was frightened, but at the same time elated that she’d kept two of the slavers away from the younger girl.

Then, to her left, she heard a loud whirring sound. Piper looked back and saw that one of the slavers chasing her had stopped. He was whipping a length of rope with weighted sacks at both ends in a circle above his head. Piper had a good idea what was in those sacks.
It looked like the slavers had decided to use the dust after all.

Piper skidded to a stop and changed directions. Her only chance was to make herself an impossible target. She ran and stopped, ran and stopped, each time changing direction slightly until she had doubled back and was running toward the city. She saw Anna in the distance, still running strong. Behind Piper, the slaver grunted as he threw the bolas and the whirring sound closed in on her.

Piper threw herself to the side and hit the ground, rolling. She heard the weighted sacks pass over her head and hit the ground several feet away. One of the sacks burst, spewing an ugly, greenish-yellow cloud into the air. Piper covered her nose and rolled away. Luck was on her side. The wind blew in the opposite direction, carrying the cloud toward the second slaver, forming a poisonous wall between them. The slaver cursed at his partner and covered his mouth and nose.

But Piper didn’t have time to rest. The slaver who’d thrown the bolas was reaching for a holster on his belt. Piper got to her feet but almost tripped on the other sack, which had landed near her but hadn’t burst. Piper grabbed the sack and stuffed it in her pocket at the same time as she heard the crack of a revolver.

“Stop right there!”

Piper froze in terror. She was caught. The slaver had fired the shot into the air and now trained the revolver
on her. His partner came up on her left. He carried no revolver but had a length of rope in his hands. Piper knew she couldn’t escape a second time, but maybe Anna still had a chance.

“Forget the rope.” Out of breath, the slaver motioned with his revolver. “Use the dust.”

The rope man reached in his pocket. Gee’s words pounded like alarm bells in Piper’s head.
“You can’t run away, you can’t yell for help, you just stand there in a daze while they round you up, march you off to the market, and auction you to the highest bidder.”

“No.” Piper didn’t realize she’d breathed the word aloud until the slaver cocked the revolver and took a step forward.

“You’ve got nowhere to go,” he growled. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Piper stared at the gun, her gaze moving slowly along the length of the black barrel. Images of her standing helpless in a crowd of slavers passed through her mind. They waved coins and clustered around her. A loud whine filled Piper’s ears. She thought the sound came from her own throat, a scream suppressed only by the teeth she clamped on her bottom lip.

Then the slaver’s gun exploded.

The cylinder and hinge burst from the gun’s frame, showering ammunition everywhere, and the hammer slipped from under the slaver’s thumb. He cursed and dropped the pieces of the weapon on the ground.

Relief made Piper dizzy, and she stumbled. As she fought to clear her head, she saw what remained of the gun’s frame lying on the ground. The slaver hadn’t fired. She’d heard no report. The weapon had just exploded—exactly when she’d needed it to.

Run
. Piper snapped back to herself.
You have to run
. She turned and took off before the slavers recovered from their shock.

Fatigue slowed her, but she forced herself to keep going, cold wind burning in her ears, feet pounding the ground. The lights of Tevshal were getting closer. And ahead of her, Piper could see that Anna was almost to the city limits.

Piper was beginning to think they might make it after all when she realized the distance between her and Anna was shrinking. Anna was tiring, slowing down. As Piper watched, the third slaver closed in on the girl. He had his bolas out, whipping them above his head, ready to throw. She would never be able to dodge them.

At that moment, a dark shape appeared in the sky above Anna.

Piper stopped dead.

In the moonlight, the creature looked equal parts lizard, bird, and man, with eyes that glowed green and leathery wings that stretched to a huge span on either side of its body. On the ground, it would walk on two legs, but in the air … As Piper watched, terrified, the
creature dipped in a smooth arc and snatched Anna up in its claws.

“No!” Piper screamed.

A heavy weight slammed into her from behind. Piper hit the ground hard with the slaver on top of her, wrestling her hands behind her back. She didn’t bother to struggle; she was too busy watching the sky, tears blurring her vision, as the creature carried Anna up into the clouds and far out of reach. Soon they were only a moving speck against the moonlight, and then they disappeared completely.

Piper dropped her face against the ground. The smell of dirt and cold grass filled her nostrils as shuddering sobs racked her body.

The slaver hauled her to her feet. Fiery pain shot up her arms. She didn’t resist when he pushed her to the base of a nearby oak tree, where the other two men stood catching their breath. Her legs were so tired they shook. She was sure they would give out completely if the slaver hadn’t been holding her up.

“Fight’s finally gone out of this one, hasn’t it?” he said, smirking. “We won’t need the dust to make her obey now.”

“Won’t need it anyway,” said the slaver who’d been chasing Anna. “Our man will be here for her any minute.”

Piper barely heard them. Chest heaving, she stared
up at the sky, but nothing moved except ragged clouds passing over the moon.

They stood like that for a few minutes before she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. She squinted into the darkness and saw a man hurrying across the field toward them. Piper thought at first it was just another slaver—until the man spoke, sending a chill up her back.

“Where’s the other one, Tuloc?” he asked. “I told you there were two.”

“Master Doloman, sir,” the slaver holding Piper replied, “we’ve had some trouble.”

“Doloman,” Piper said to herself. So that was the wolf’s name. Strength flooded back into her limbs as he came into view. “How did you find us?” she asked.

“Hello again, scrapper.” In the moonlight, Doloman’s beard looked thicker than it had at her house, yet still unkempt. He’d changed clothes, though, and was now dressed in a fine-looking gray suit, but his arm was still in a sling, and dark circles ringed his eyes, making him look half-demon in the shadows. “You led me on a chase, but I caught an express train in Evansdown and managed to arrive in Tevshal a few hours before the 401.” He addressed the slavers. “Where is the other one?” he demanded. “I want her brought to me at once.”

The slavers exchanged uneasy glances. Tears ran down her face, but Piper had the sudden urge to laugh
hysterically. Doloman hadn’t seen what happened in the field.

“Your men lost her,” Piper said, her voice raw. “She’s gone for good this time.”

Doloman went pale, his lips quivering with rage. “Find her,” he hissed. “Spread out and search the field. She has to be here somewhere.”

The slavers started to argue, but Piper interrupted, her fury boiling over. “What do you want with her?” she cried. “I don’t believe for a minute she’s your daughter—she’s terrified of you. What did you do to her?”

For a moment, Doloman’s rage melted into genuine surprise. “Terrified of me? But I tried to help her. When she came into my care, she was half dead. I only wanted to heal her. When the storm destroyed the caravan, I thought I had lost her forever, and then I saw her with you—alive and well. It was a miracle.”

“You’re lying,” Piper spat. Anna might have lost her memory, but other than that, she’d been fine until Doloman showed up. “There’s more you’re not telling. Why were you out in that storm with the caravan? What were you doing in the scrap town?” she pressed.

Doloman’s eyes narrowed. He glanced at the slavers. “I told you to find the girl!” he barked. “Stop wasting time!”

“That
thing
took her,” the man holding Piper said, glancing anxiously at the sky. “It got Ori too.”

“What?” Doloman shrieked.

“A monster,” Piper said, choking back a sob. “And it’s all your fault!”

Doloman took two steps forward and grabbed Piper by the throat, pulling her up on her toes as he dragged her closer. He stared into her eyes with so much loathing, it was as if he were staring down an insect he longed to crush.

Piper’s lungs seized, and she choked for air. Without breath, everything inside her was grinding to a halt. Darkness crept in at the edges of her vision, and her thoughts fragmented.
He’s going to kill me this time
, she realized. She clawed at Doloman’s arm, but he didn’t loosen his grip.