The Destiny (Blood and Destiny Book 4) (15 page)

Larissa’s feet ached. It seemed unusual to
feel pain. She had gotten so used to doing daring things without giving pause
to the consequences, and now her unique ability waned with every step. They had
agreed to walk back to the train across the city, avoiding the farce of the
dangerous cab system and the chance of more fights than they were equipped to
handle, though the trek aboveground took far longer than she’d hoped. Kerrigan
suffered the most, and even a break halfway with a night spent sleeping in an
abandoned warehouse hadn’t seemed to do him much good.

Her entire body felt on
edge, anticipating trouble at every turn. They had left behind a mess which
would no doubt be discovered at some point, and she expected to hear the angry
death calls of a mob chasing them down at any minute, but as they turned into
the manufacturing district, and the familiar street layout leading to the train
station tugged at her memory, she wondered if perhaps they could make it out in
one piece after all. She could only hope Cid and the others had fared better
and that the train awaited their arrival.

Holt hadn’t said a word
for most of the day. He still seemed to suffer with the occasional bout of
sweating and reversion to a virtual comatose state, like some drug-addled criminal
who’d gone too long without a fix. She tried to press on regardless, as if she
were a tired mother dragging a pair of battered sons home through the streets. Thankfully,
both men had been alert enough to evade people.

The deserted city felt
strangely hollow and oppressive at the same time. No smoke rose up from the
houses and buildings, except for the occasional plume which they avoided at all
costs. The only place which had looked more populated than the rest was the
small Dolonite Citadel on the outskirts of the city. Larissa had considered
going inside to beg the priests for food and water, but as memories of the
Cleric came flooding back, she thought better of it. They had been lucky in
finding two good people of the faith in Narry and Sandy; she didn’t like to bet
on their luck holding out.

“Someone is at the
train,” Holt said when they turned a corner.

“How can you tell?
We’re still a few blocks away,” Larissa said as she looked around. Tall
buildings blocked their view entirely.

“Because he can hear
someone banging loudly on something metallic,” Kerrigan said, his chin turned
up and head cocked to one side.

Larissa strained to
listen as her feet slowed. A slight clanging sound could be heard on the wind.
She wouldn’t have placed it at the train if she’d noticed it without the help
of the men, but she trusted their judgement.

“Do you think it’s
Cid?” she asked. She could almost see him at the controls, hammering away.

“No way of knowing
until we get close enough to hear him swearing,” Holt said.

“Was that a joke?”

Holt didn’t answer, his
face set hard, the look of a man concentrating as he walked, alert and ready
for any form of circumstance. Kerrigan had the same look, though it seemed a
lot more forced. He was more likely to collapse into a heap than put up a good
fight against an attack. Their pace slowed, and the group curved off towards an
alley, ducking out of sight. Larissa kept her mouth shut; it had happened a few
times on their journey, and she had learned to follow the course without
argument for safety’s sake.

“What is it?” she
whispered after they stood around in silence for a while.

“Ambush,” Holt said.
Kerrigan nodded solemnly.

The clanging and
banging sound continued, the noises slightly louder. They were so close to the
train station she could almost feel the sense of victory at having escaped the
city.

“How can you tell there
is an ambush?” she asked, glancing around. The street looked utterly innocuous
as far as she could see.

“There are two men sitting
on the rooftops.” Holt pointed to a warehouse nearby. Larissa moved to poke her
head out and look when she was violently dragged backwards. “Don’t look,” Holt
said.

“Can we go around another
way?”

“They are clearly
expecting us to try to get out via the trains. I expect all routes to be
covered,” Kerrigan said. “It would be safe to assume the others have been
compromised and the train is no longer a viable means of escape.”

“Agreed,” Holt said.

“No,” Larissa said with
a sigh.

“No?”

“That’s Cid making that
noise.”

“How can you possibly
tell?”

“Because I asked him to
fix the train. No one else would know I’d asked him to do that, and I doubt
these people would be smart enough to put together a ruse to make us think he
was still working on the train. These are thugs who want their stolen money
back, not mastermind criminals who care about ensnaring us.” Larissa swallowed
hard. She hadn’t told Holt she’d given her name to Miss Cosby and that the President
had her at the top of a wanted list. That mistake had been foolish to say the
least, and she was loath to have to confess to it. They were so close to
getting out, it didn’t make sense to give up hope now.

“Can you disappear?”
she asked Holt, already knowing the answer. He shook his head. “All right, in
that case, we split up—”

“No,” Holt and Kerrigan
answered in unison.

“Yes. I will go first.
I’ll try to sneak through this way, and with any luck, they won’t see me. If I
can get to the others and get them prepared, we can make a stand together, or
I’ll tell them to get the train ready to go. Give me five minutes’ head start,
then the two of you find another way around. If you get caught, just run
towards the train station. Don’t try to fight.”

“Larissa…” Holt began.

“If you can come up
with a better plan, let’s hear it.” A silent moment passed by. The three of
them stood looking awkwardly at one another. “My plan it is, then,” she said.

She turned away from
Holt and Kerrigan, acutely aware of the incredulous looks on their faces. She
swallowed the huge lump in her throat and peeked around the corner, spotting
one man on the rooftop where Holt said he would be. He wore a flat cap and
carried a large rifle. She could only hope he had a worse aim than her own if
he was lucky enough to spot her. A second man appeared, only the edge of his
head coming into view as the rest of him was hidden behind a chimney stack.
Both men looked in opposite directions.

She watched for a
moment, glancing around elsewhere to try to spot any other hidden would-be
ambushers. When both men turned their faces away, she raced across the street,
her heart thumping loudly as though it had jumped up between her ears. She
skidded to a stop and stood flat against the warehouse wall. She could see the
edge of Holt’s face poking around the corner, watching her carefully. He
reached out and flicked his hand to the side, indicating for her to move on.
She trusted his judgement more than anything; if he said the way was clear,
that was good enough.

Larissa passed around a
corner, tucking her body into a shady alcove. Another row of warehouses
appeared on the next street over, but through an alley up ahead, she saw the
route to the train station.

Carefully and slowly,
she picked her way between the buildings, finding more men covering the
rooftops and at least three others pacing between the buildings on the ground.
Her heart raced every time she stepped away from a hiding place, and it thumped
harder still once she lost sight of Holt.

With deep breaths and
shaking hands, she skirted between buildings. Her heart pulsed so hard she felt
dizzy with minimal exertion, and yet, each time she inched forwards, she seemed
to slip by the watching eyes of small groups of men. By the time she passed the
last building leading to the station, her confidence grew. Her movements became
smooth and flowing instead of timid and jittery. Her legs glided over the dusty
ground, leaving behind no obvious trace of footprints. It was almost as if she
had been born to stealth—a far cry from the woman who had left Sallarium City
so long ago.

Before she knew it, she
found herself racing up a small flight of steps and leaping gracefully over a
barrier to enter the station. She paused by the station building to look back
over the route she’d taken. A man passed by on the street, carrying pistols in
both hands, prowling on his patrol. A sly smile spread across her lips as she
turned towards the train, racing directly to the engine where the banging and
clanging noises continued on, the occupant utterly unaware of her successful
navigation there. As lucky as she had been, she’d told Holt and Kerrigan to
come along soon after, and the clock was ticking.

“Cid!” Larissa
screeched as she saw a familiar figure hunched over in the train engine.

Lieutenant Saunders
appeared nearby, and Cid swore as he bumped his head. “Larissa, thank the Gods
you’re all right.”

“We need to go, now!”
She flew into the train and almost began pushing levers and tugging on buttons
until she realized that she had no idea how to operate the thing.

“We can’t leave now. She’s
not ready. I took the engine from the airship and I’ve hooked up through the
pistons, bypassing the steam pressure pumps, as they are no longer needed. I’m
not sure how long the remaining chunk of
Anthonium
will hold out, but I
don’t have the calculations for the rate of degradation. The Professor had them
somewhere, but I’m afraid I just can’t recall them, and even if I could, I
would have to rework the calculations, taking into account the weight of the
train, the speed and distance and windspeed, and I’m really not sure—”

“Cid, we don’t have
time for this. Can you make this train move or not? We’re about to be attacked
by a bunch of people who really don’t like us very much, so we need to leave by
train or by foot.”

“Attacked?” Saunders
said. “Where’s the Colonel?”

“He’s coming.”

“Who did you piss off
this time?” Cid asked.

“Just get this thing
moving. Where are the others?” Larissa didn’t wait for Cid to answer as she
jumped down to the platform and ran along the carriages. A delicious smell
wafted toward her from the dining car, which almost covered the acrid stench around
the rest of the station.

“They’re in there. Get
inside,” Lieutenant Saunders called.

She ignored his issuing
of orders when he had no right to do so. There wasn’t time to get technical.
She glanced in the windows and saw Narry and Sandy inside. “Stay put. We’re
leaving,” she yelled to them before jogging back to the engine.

The mechanical
apparatus hummed into life, clanking and whirring. The engine sat in the middle
of the cab, leaving barely any space to stand. Larissa wasn’t sure how they’d
managed to drag it off the airship, let alone how Cid had managed to hook it
up, but there wasn’t time to ask. Cid crouched, his backside resting on his
heels, eyes as wide as saucers staring at the engine, a wrench in one hand, a
spanner in the other. His head bobbed up and down as he checked the components
over and over.

“Will it work?” Larissa
said, her voice raised over the noise of the engine as the rest of the train
flared to life.

“How the fuck should I
know?” Cid barked back at her.

She bit back a cutting
response. Of all the people in the world, he was the only one who truly should
know the answer to that question, and if he didn’t…

“Go!” a shout came up
from the platform. Larissa turned to see Holt and Saunders gripping Kerrigan
between them, hobbling at speed. Behind them and down the street, a mob of
people ran towards them.

“Cid…we need to
go…now.”

“It’s not ready yet. It
needs to get up to speed.”

“Cid, we don’t have
time to get up to speed.” Larissa turned to the controls as soon as she saw the
men climb aboard. She had no idea where to start, but one prominent red handle
caught her eye—the brake.

She tugged on it. It
didn’t budge. A shot cracked through the air above the noise of the engine, and
something clanged off the side of the train.

“It’s ceased after
being out of use for so long,” Cid yelled, although he made no move to help her.
She could tell he was fiddling with something behind him.

Larissa pressed her
foot against a lump of metal housing some pipework and yanked on the handle
with all her might. The handle shifted. The brakes released with a screech.
Another shot disturbed her curls of hair, the bullet whizzing past her face.
She barely flinched. The entire train shifted forwards with a lurch, the
carriages bumping against their couplings.

An arm wrapped around
her waist, another around her shoulder, and Cid threw her to the floor, the
pair of them landing awkwardly together in the crowded floor space. Bullets
flew around the inside of the cab, pelting metal and pipes. Larissa’s stomach
seemed to jump up into her throat then sink straight down to her toes.

The shooting stopped
abruptly, and as Larissa rolled over out of Cid’s grasp, she saw why. The outside
world whipped past as they traveled down the tracks. She scrambled to the
doorway to look back. The station already faded from view, a crowd of people
standing on the platform and watching them leave. Behind the empty coal car,
six carriages were dotted with bullet holes.