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

reached up, picked a leek out of her hair and dropped it back in the pot. Waste not. She took the bowl from the girl and blew on the broth several times to cool it, then she handed it back and smoothly retrieved her knife from the floor. The girl was too busy eating to notice.
    Piper watched her for a long time when she should have been eating her own meal. She was absorbed in trying to figure out how, in the space of a few short hours, her life had gone so completely lopsided that she found herself standing in her house, fish broth dripping down her face, watching her dinner be gobbled up by a girl who was protected by King Aron, the person she hated most in the world.
    Try as she might, she couldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer, so Piper ladled up some soup and ate it at the kitchen table while the girl stuck close to the stove. When Piper finished, she stood and went to get her coat. She used the sleeve to wipe the rest of the broth off her face. She knew without looking that the girl was watching her. “I’m going out,” she said, “but I’ll be back soon, and then we’ll talk about … what happened. Eatas much as you want, but don’t go outside, you understand? I don’t want you getting lost while I’m gone.”
    The girl didn’t answer, and Piper wondered how much she understood. Piper herself spoke in the Trader’s Speech, and the girl had used the same tongue just now. Was she a simpleton, or just afraid because she’d woken in a strange place to an unfamiliar face? Either way, it didn’t make any difference to Piper. She needed to get the girl out of here, find a way to send her back south to the Dragonfly territories. The first step would be to get a letter out on the 401, let the king know what had happened to the girl. She could look into doing that much now. Then she needed to check on Micah. She couldn’t stand not knowing how he was.
    Piper bundled the big coat around her and headed for the train station, a worn, two-story brick building on the outskirts of town. The 401 had pulled alongside, sunlight gleaming off its tracks and driving wheels.
    Despite all the other things on her mind, excitement fluttered through Piper at the sight of the immense black steam engine with its mile-long tail of boxcars and passenger carriers. Though aged, the 401 was still an impressive specimen. Every time it came to town, Piper itched to get her hands on the old girl to see what secrets she held in her metal heart.
    And there were secrets. Piper could tell just by looking. Dozens of strange pipes, vents, and valves covered the train’s exterior, far more than should have been needed to operate the various systems of an ordinary train, and an extra layer of thick armor plates had been bolted to each of the cars. Stories floated around town that the best machinists in the Dragonfly territories had fitted the train with a formidable set of defenses, and that it hauled cargo through some of the most dangerous lands in Solace, fending off sky raiders and saboteurs along the way.
    Whether the stories were true or not, Piper thought the 401 was a heavy, stern-looking, capable old girl—one who’d seen practically every corner of Solace—and Piper envied the big train and everyone who had ever traveled on her. Her crew had seen more of the world than Piper was ever likely to.
    But maybe that didn’t have to be true, Piper thought as an idea came to her. Her heart beat excitedly as she considered it. Getting an express letter all the way to Noveen was going to cost a small fortune, yet wouldn’t the capital be very interested to learn that she’d rescued one of Aron’s marked people from the harvesting fields? Interested and maybe grateful enough to reward Piper with the money she needed to get out of the scrap town for good.
    Running through the possibilities in her head, she was almost to the station when she heard a male voicecall her name. Turning, she saw Jory running toward her, his blond hair