The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson Read Free Book Online

she couldn’t believe that. The scrap towns didn’t get much news except what the traders brought with them, but they talked plenty about Aron. Rumor had it that he didn’t condone scavenging from the scrap fields. He even encouraged people to come from the Merrow Kingdom as her father had done, to work in his factories, shaping iron for his fleet.
    He wants us poor, Piper thought—poor and working for him.
    “That still doesn’t explain where you came from.” Piper spoke softly to the girl, nudging her a bit. “Can you hear me? Can you wake up?”
    No answer. The girl had drifted into a deep sleep, but whatever nightmare she’d been having hadn’t let go of her yet. Her eyelids twitched, and every so often, her body stiffened as if she expected an attack. Piper started to move away, wanting to give the girl space, but in her sleep, she clutched at Piper’s wrists and made an unhappy little mewling sound. Piper sighed and settled down next to her. The floor was cold. She freed one of her hands long enough to reach for more wood for the stove.
    Outside, she heard the first stirrings of the townspeople coming back from the fields. Voices raised in agitation drifted past her door. She caught snatches of their conversations—mostly about Micah and the caravan, how neither of them had any business being out there in the storm and how the Consortium was going to punish the survivors. Anger swelled in Piper’s chest. They had no right to gossip about Micah. He was just a kid. And none of them had run out of that shelter to help him. They’d stayed huddled in the dark like rats.
    That was the problem with this town. Nobody really cared about helping anybody else. They were all drifters, scavengers hoping to make a fortune or at least some quick coin. Nobody ever thought about trying to build a real life here. Even the houses were temporary structures built as quickly and as cheaply as possible. In someways, Piper knew she was just as bad as the rest. After her father died, she’d stopped going outside unless it was necessary. She kept to herself and rarely talked to anyone except Micah and his family. Now even that connection might be gone for good.
    And what would happen when the girl woke up? Piper didn’t need another mouth to feed, and a girl from the Dragonfly territories wasn’t likely to want to stay in the scrap towns any longer than she had to. She could go to the Consortium and tell them what happened, but they were already going to be looking for Piper to answer for the stunt she’d pulled escaping from the shelter. Why hurry that process along? Still, as someone marked by Aron, the girl was obviously important. Someone was bound to be interested in where she was and what had happened to the caravan.
    Piper lifted the girl’s sleeve and looked at the tattoo again. Outside, the shrill call of a distant steam whistle caught her attention. It was the 401. The train came through the scrap town once a month, ferrying goods and passengers on a north-south route through the Merrow Kingdom and the Dragonfly territories, where it originated. It was scheduled to come in at midday. Piper hadn’t realized it was so late. A gnawing hunger clawed at her insides. She hadn’t eaten anything since her quick breakfast of bread and tea.
    “I bet you’re going to be hungry too if you ever decide to wake up,” Piper grumbled at the girl. “Well, wecan’t sit here cuddling all day, and I’m going to need my hands if you want food.”
    She eased out of the girl’s tight grip and breathed a sigh of relief when the girl didn’t make a fuss. Piper took the rice balls out of her satchel and ate both while she fetched another bucket of water from the well. Then she got out an old dented pot with a bent handle and set it on the kitchen table. Micah’s parents had returned from their last fishing trip with a bundle of sturgeon for her. She kept it in an ice chest in the corner farthest away from the stove. She took two