I wake up gasping, my face damp with tears. The dim light streaking blue across my sheets tells me it is the hour just before dawn. I tremble, my head turning instinctively toward the window, aching and hopeful and bewildered at the dream I’d just had of Red. Not a dream, no. Every detail in it was so vivid that I can still feel the tingle of Red’s presence in my fingers, still feel the cold breeze at the top of the ledge where he sat with the others. It was a glimpse into something real. They are out there, and they are planning to make a move on the train tracks this morning.
I’m in such turmoil that, when Constantine’s voice appears in my mind, it’s too late. Through our link, I can almost feel him shifting into a sitting position in his own bed. The fog in his head has cleared. His medicine must have worked.
You are thinking about Red, he says.
He has sensed the storm of my feelings. He knows something has happened.
I can hear you whispering his name in your mind, over and over again.
I want to shake my head and lie to him. But I’m still too unsettled by my dream, still shaking off the bewilderment of sleep to hide it properly. The image of my mother appears in my mind, her back turned to me as she cooks over her old stove. I remember the guard holding a gun to her head when I first pledged my loyalty to Constantine. I think of where she might be now, in a place Constantine has yet to reveal to me.
You saw him, didn’t you? he says. You linked with him.
I didn’t, I reply. But he doesn’t believe me.
You are going to tell me everything, he orders, his voice at once gentle and menacing. And when we return to Cardinia, you will be pleased with where your mother is staying. Do you understand me?
And I find myself doing exactly as he says.
6
RED
From our vantage point on the cliff over looking the city walls, the train yard is already active in the early hours before dawn. Adena looks on with me, while beside her, Jeran finishes sheathing his blades. Tomm and Pira are checking their weapons too.
“They’re already in position,” Pira mutters. “Earlier than we thought.”
“If the Premier himself is going to be on that train, then we haven’t even seen how crowded it’s going to get,” I reply. “Talin may already be out there, overseeing the train’s inspection.”
“Any Ghosts out?” Jeran asks.
Adena shakes her head. “Not yet. I’ll be surprised if they don’t make an appearance though.”
“We’ll wait for your move,” Tomm says.
Adena looks at me. “You sure you can act alone?”
“Yes,” I reply. “As long as the rest of you can handle the station and the train cars.” If Talin really is going to be near the train, then it’s better she run into me than anyone else.
Adena does not look convinced, but we have little choice, so she just nods and hands me a small object covered in makeshift plates of joined steel, an armored explosive she had made out of the scrap metal we had salvaged. “This isn’t exactly a perfect product,” she tells me, turning it gingerly in her hands. “But it should work. See here?” She touches a small length of rope at one end. “It’s linked to an interior of gunpowder. If you pull the string, it lights a flint inside that will give you a brief flame. It’s quick. Release it right away and toss it. It’ll explode on contact.”
I nod. “Pull and release immediately. I can handle it.”
“Make sure it doesn’t get wet.” Adena takes a deep breath. “It won’t work if it does, and I’ve only been able to make a handful of these. And don’t blow it up in your face. You may be a Skyhunter, but as far as I can tell, you’re not immortal.”
It is my turn to give her a wry smile. “Close enough.” I rise and stretch my wings slightly. The pain lances through me again, but noticeably duller.
Adena just rolls her eyes as she hops to her feet and rests her hands on her blade hilts. “No reason to keep waiting around, then. Let’s go.”
Below my bold façade, my fears are a living, slithering thing in my bones. The sky is clear, everything in place, and we have a plan. But it doesn’t matter. The other voice shifts in my mind, stirring awake.
Somehow, you can still feel at your core that it’s all about to go horribly wrong.
Talin will be down at the train yard today with the Premier. I shake my head, trying not to let thoughts of her take over my mind. There had even been an instant last night when I thought I had sensed her watching my back, looking at me from some faraway place. But I can’t be sure. When you’ve been an experiment most of your life, it always feels like someone’s watching you.
If I cross her path this morning, it’s best if I face her alone. At least it should be enough of a distraction for the others to escape.
We head down to the city outskirts in the silent shadows. By the time the first hints of light start graying the sky, we have taken up our positions behind the piles of steel and wood near the train yard. A smattering of soldiers patrols the area, and the front gates are open, through which a steady stream of workers and guards head back and forth from the train station. Along with them walks a steady line of prisoners. As I look on, they shuffle out from the gates, stumbling as Karensan troops guide them one by one onto one of the train cars. A few of them are still dressed in sapphire coats. Some Strikers are mingled in with the common soldiers. With a sick feeling, I know that these are the ones the Federation has deemed promising, fighters they will turn over to the Chief Architect once they arrive in Cardinia. Future Skyhunters, perhaps.
Suddenly I’m reminded of my early training days, when I was a young Karensan recruit sent out for the first time on a mission patrolling the streets of a conquered city in Larc. I’d been assigned to follow a tall, gruff warrior, one who had no patience with this scrawny boy tailing her every move.
“Stay here,” she’d told me that afternoon, pointing to the rubble of brick and mortar that had once been a house. “If anyone gets past me and tries to flee, you raise the alarm. Understand?”
I had nodded and stayed back as she then entered a house with several other soldiers behind her. I remember how small I had been then, how easy it was to hide in the shadow of that rubble. Waiting for her felt like an eternity. Then a shout came from the house, followed by several sobs and then the sound of a gunshot. I jumped, tense as a rabbit ready to take flight. But no one emerged, so I stayed where I was. I waited for a long time before she finally reappeared leading several men out, their hands bound tightly, their eyes blindfolded.
Please, I remember thinking. Do not move.
No one did. I do not know what happened to those men, nor why they had been led out. Maybe they were rebels, the same as we are now. Whatever the reason, I lost my nerve and stole away through the rubble, silent and unseen, back to the Karensan base set up at the outskirts of the city. The female soldier I had shadowed didn’t even care about my absence. She must have been relieved for my disappearance.
Now I crouch behind the tracks and will myself to become as small and invisible as I had once been. Some distance away, I can see the outline of Adena, Tomm, and Pira near the train station, while Jeran and Aramin have settled into hiding places around the farther cars of the train. They’ll wait for my diversion before making their move.