The locomotives didn’t have lockable doors. The Skin Clan must have added a lock of some type.
Law crouched at the edge of the roof. She couldn’t see anything that would keep Bare Snow from opening the door. It must have been bolted on the inside. There were four other doors on the engine; they were flush with the sides to reduce wind resistance. Inset ladders gave access from the ground, but there would be nothing to hold onto from the roof down.
That left the windshield.
The engine’s hatchet nose ended just short of its high narrow windshield. The thick glass was designed to take the impact of a cinderblock. Bare Snow’s knives, however, were magically sharp and could cut through almost anything.
Law glanced at the passing countryside. They were almost to Rankin Bridge. Homestead was around the next corner and beyond it was South Side Flats. “Alton, if you screwed this up, I’m going to kill you. You’d better have gotten hold of someone by now. We’re coming in hot.”
“Law?” Bare Snow was learning English, but she hadn’t followed what Law had said.
“Nothing. Come on.” Law backed up and leapt across to the engine. At least its roof was wider and flatter. The huge diesel engine throbbed under their feet, a sound felt deep inside as well as heard. Once inside it would be a simple thing to sabotage the motor. It would stop the train, though, within a few miles of Station Square. The oni could reach Oktoberfest within an hour at a brisk walk. If Alton hadn’t gathered a force that could stop the oni, then it would be a slaughter.
They needed to crash the train.
There were countless safety measures in place to keep just that from happening. Law needed to override them all. It was going to take time.
They were running out of time.
Law crouched down near the leading edge of the engine. From the vantage point, they could see the entire locomotive. She tapped her lips, wanting Bare Snow to lean close. Many engineers like riding with the side windows open; there was a chance they’d be overheard.
She felt Bare Snow’s warmth beside her and then felt her soft hair against her lips. “Cut the right window in a cross with your knife. I will kick it.”
“Kick it?” Bare Snow’s doubt was clear even at a whisper.
“My boots will protect my feet from the glass.”
“Are you sure this is wise?”
It took Law a moment to realize why Bare Snow doubted the move. The female was sure Law would fall. “Look, there’s a wide lip at the top of the cowcatcher. I can brace myself against it when I kick.”
“I see no cows. Why would they even be catching cows?”
“It’s just a name for the nose guard thingy. Don’t worry. Ready?”
“Go.” Bare Snow vanished from her side.
Law slid down the left windshield to the snub nose. She caught hold of the five-inch-steep lip of the cowcatcher. There were three elves in the engine wearing Wind Clan blue. The one in the engineer’s chair was pointing at the sudden fracture in the right-hand windshield. The one directly behind him shouted in surprise and dismay when Law appeared on the nose. She kicked hard at the cut glass.
The windshield shattered into pieces that cascaded into the cab.
Bare Snow killed the engineer before he could touch the controls; he jerked backward, blood spraying from his throat. The elf behind him had an assault rifle that he aimed toward the falling engineer.
“Down!” Law pulled her pistol and fired desperately. The gunshots thundered in the tight confides of the locomotive. Bullets ricocheted off the edge of the windshield by Law’s head and smashed through the left side window. The elf went down, Law’s three shots hitting him in the chest.
A third elf came running from the back of the locomotive and went down as if clotheslined. Law held her fire.
“Bare?”
“Clear!” Bare Snow called from somewhere far in the back of the engine. “Is this what makes it go?”
Law slipped through the window, careful not to hit any of the levers or buttons on the front dash. The floor was slippery with blood and the coppery smell mixed with hot diesel fumes.
Law stepped over the bodies to glance into the next section of the locomotive. The massive diesel engine took up most of the space, rumbling loudly. “Yes, that’s what makes the train go.”
A heavy latch had been installed on the metal hatch to the gangway connection. Through the window, she could see the first passenger car. Disguised oni warriors jerked open the opposing door. They obviously expected a passageway; the lead warrior fell out of sight.
Law ducked down. “We’re going to get company. That door will only slow them down for a while.”
An alarm sounded on the console. Law swore and dashed back to the engineer’s chair.
“What is that?” Bare asked.
“Dead man’s switch.”
“They have switches for dead men? But he’s an elf.”
“It’s a safety feature. Every fifteen minutes the alarm sounds and the engineer needs to indicate he’s awake at the console by pushing the button.” She hunted for said button. Luckily everything was neatly labeled in Elvish. She punched the button. “If he doesn’t respond, the train will stop. We’re lucky it’s not every ninety seconds like on Earth or we’d be screwed. The elves didn’t want the switch installed; they wanted to know if humans had attention spans of gnats.”
“Don’t we want to stop the train?” Bare Snow asked.
Law glanced up. They were passing the tall waterslides of Sandcastle. The South Side Flats started in five miles. “We’re too close to the festival. We need to keep the train moving; we can’t let the oni get off. Between Fort Pitt Bridge and West End Bridge is the Elfhome Freight Yard. The main line ends there. There’s three sets of tracks out of it, but half a dozen switches need to be in the right position for a train this size to clear through it safely.”
Bare Snow understood immediately. “Smash! In the name of the moon, I punish you!”
Law eyed the throttle housing. “We need to get this rigged so they can’t change the speed, and then we need to get back to the hi-rail before the train hits the freight yard.”
“Rigged?”
Law tapped the throttle as she examined the control. “This lever controls the speed. I want it so they can’t move it.”
Bare Snow sliced off the lever.
“Um.” Law eyed the remains. “Well.” She poked experimentally at it. She could see the shaft inside the housing, but she couldn’t get her fingers onto it. If the oni could find a pair of needle nose pliers, they might be able to shift it, but they probably wouldn’t have time to find a pair. Law pointed at the brake lever. “Do this one too.”
Hot Metal Bridge appeared, marking the start of South Side Flats. They had ten minutes before the train hit the freight yard. She wedged the two sheared off levers onto the console so the horn blew in a continuous blast. “We have to go!” She shouted over the blare.
They scrambled out of the broken window.
Luckily, the oni had extended the gangway connection and Law crossed to the passenger cars unseen. She focused on moving as fast as she could, trying to ignore that they were speeding toward destruction with oni hot on their tail. South Side Flats was flashing past on the right as she ran. Twenty-first Street. Nineteenth Street. Thirteenth. Under the Tenth Street Bridge. Over the level crossing at Ninth.
She risked glancing behind her, knowing that Panhandle Bridge was coming up. While light-rail crossed high enough to let barges travel up the Monongahela River, its on-ramps started at street level. Did they have clearance?
No.
“Down!” Law shouted, hoping that Bare Snow heard her over the screaming train horn. She dropped down to all fours.
They flashed under the bridge, the steel support beams just a foot above her head.
A chaotic sea of bodies surrounded Station Square. Stone Clan black filled the Hooters parking lot. Alton had somehow roused the Harbingers. Humans fled in all directions, trying to
leave the area before the fighting started. Where were Usagi and the kids? Had they gotten to someplace safe? Why was anyone still at Oktoberfest? Hadn’t Alton warned anyone?
The trapped oni smashed out the windows of the passenger cars. They recognized shit hitting the fan when they saw it. Instead of bluffing it out while disguised, they’d decided to fight. Rifles bristled from the openings. The oni opened fire on the elves. The bullets came ricocheting back as they hit the Harbinger’s shield wall.
With a sudden roar of deafening noise and searing heat, the first passenger car exploded into flame.
Windwolf was in the house.
Law ran faster as three more passenger cars erupted. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.”
This was going to give new meaning to “hit by friendly fire.”
Law reached the last passenger car. Bare Snow was somewhere ahead of her, still invisible. Smithfield Bridge rushed toward her, too low to clear. Three more cars erupted into flame. She couldn’t duck down and wait for the bridge—she might become toast on the other side. She risked everything to dash forward and fling herself off the end. She felt the steel girders brush the spiked tips of her hair as she fell. She hit the white canvas of the tents stacked on the flatcar. There was another deep “whooof” as the last passenger cars went up in flame. She scrambled forward. Smithfield Bridge passed overhead, a momentary shield against the elf lord’s power. The flatcar was only eighty-some feet but it felt like miles long as she stumbled over the bloody canvas, dodging dead oni bodies, trying to get to the safety of the hi-rail before the next flame strike landed.
She hit the end of the flatcar and leapt, landing on the hi-rail’s hood. The windshield was gone; she had no idea when and where they’d lost it. She slid across the hood and into the passenger seat. “Bare?”
“Here!” Bare Snow called from driver’s side.
“Brakes!”
Bare Snow stomped on the brakes. Law nearly flew back out the windshield. She caught hold of the dashboard and Bare Snow grabbed her. The steel wheels screamed in protest, metal against metal.
“Sorry!” Bare Snow cried.
The flatcar went up in flame. The fire licked the hood of the hi-rail.
Law swung back into the cab. She slammed the Land Cruiser into reverse. “Gas!”
They raced backward away from the burning train.
The burning train sped toward the Fort Pitt Bridge, shedding oni out the side doors. The laws of physics were not kind to them; they didn’t move after tumbling across the track bed at sixty miles per hour.
There was another roar, deeper and louder, and an invisible force hit the locomotive. It tumbled sidewise like a child’s toy, dragging the burning passenger cars off the rail. Fear flooded through Law. Where was everyone that she cared about? Had they gotten to safety? Were any of them in the path of the tumbling train cars?
With a deafening thunderclap, an invisible force hit the hi-rail. The world became a confusing tumble of smashing glass and crushing metal. All the airbags inflated in an explosion of white.
They landed upside down.
“Law?” Bare Snow whispered.
“I’m fine.” Law wondered why they were whispering. Oh, right, we just got taken out by the elves who are probably nearby.
Play dead or bolt?
Considering that the concussion of the first hit had been absorbed by the now limp airbags, running would probably be good.
Law scrambled out the broken window.
The hi-rail was surrounded by elves.
She froze, hands up in what she hoped was the universal gesture of surrender. “I’m human! I’m Wind Clan!” Which probably wasn’t the best thing to say, since the elves were all in Stone Clan black, but it was true. Since she was in a household with Bare Snow, she’d chosen her clan alliance.
A male domana came stalking through the laedin-caste soldiers that had rifles leveled at Law. All of the warriors were studies in brown, reminding Law of humans from India. Law wasn’t sure if the elf lord was showing his clan pride or if he was one of those jerks who liked to appear menacing by dressing all in black. He succeeded better than most.
He gave Law a cold glance and turned away. “Kill it.”
The air around Law changed and sounds muted slightly.
“Now, now, now, Cana Lily, you can’t go killing everything.” Forest Moss was unmistakable from his white hair to his missing eye. Last Law had heard, he’d gone mad, blown up a bunch of mannequins in Kaufmann’s and then disappeared. While his hair was clean and neatly braided, dust still clung to his heavily wrinkled clothing. Mad or not, he was holding a shield spell around Law, protecting her. “You must take care, lest you harm our fair allies.”
The other Stone Clan male snorted in contempt. “It is just some lowborn human trash.”
“Hark! Hark!” Forest Moss put a hand to his ear. “I think I hear our cruel master’s voice. Certainly that’s the meter of his verse. ‘Crush the weak and helpless under foot.’ Yes, I recognize that sonnet. I think it continues with ‘burn the newborns to blackened soot.’ ”
Cana Lily reared back as if slapped in the face. “Do you slander me?”
“Do you think that I meant you?” Forest Moss pressed a hand to his chest, seeming genuinely surprised and dismayed. “Why would you think that? Do you recognize yourself in those words?”
Forest Moss waved at the wrecked and burning train. “Look around you. See the chaos that our masters have caused. They’ve dressed their vile creations in our brave warriors’ clothes and set them on our dear allies. Do you really need to see the evil in flesh before you can recognize it?”
“The Skin Clan are all dead,” Cana Lily growled.
“Can you not see the way they still control us? Here, let me explain. Two bulls were standing in a field when a snake slithered up. One bull wisely ran away. The other stood still as the snake castrated it, put a yoke upon its neck, hooked it up to an overloaded wagon and then cried out, ‘Look at your lazy brother running away when there’s work to be done! Is he not evil? Shall we not hate him forever?’ The newly made ox took it to heart. He refused to listen to his free brother who called out, ‘You’re a hundred times his size, crush him under your hooves!’ The ox carried the snake to wherever the snake desired, hating his brother instead of his master.”
Cana Lily frowned in anger and confusion. “Are you calling me an ox?”
“I worry about you, Clansmate,” Forest Moss said earnestly. “Hate has always been the blinder used by those who own slaves. It allows those they enslave to only see those who escaped the yoke, and not the one that sits holding the reins. The moment you hear anyone fear-mongering and pointing fingers, you should look for the shackle on your ankle.”
“Don’t belittle me, you mad idiot.”
“Yes, yes, I’m very mad indeed. The Skin Clan gave me to their twisted beasts who burned all reason out of my mind along with my eye. It cast me into darkness that swallowed everything. But the sun has finally risen on my dark night and I will kill to keep that sun shining.”
Cana Lily raised his hand as if to strike.
Law flinched. All her instincts were screaming to run but she didn’t want to draw attention to herself just as these two started to brawl. All around her was evidence of the power that they wielded.
“Cana Lily!” Windwolf swept between the two. He had a dozen or more sekasha in Wind Clan blue arrayed around him. Among the elves was Jin Wong, the spiritual leader of the tengu, and several of his winged warriors.
Windwolf pointed angrily toward Oakland. “If you cannot keep your focus on the enemy, Cana Lily, then go, now, and get back on your gossamer. We are at war! Save your ire for the oni.”
“That female was on that!” Cana Lily indicated the burning wreckage of the train. He apparently didn’t know the name of the human invention.
“She supplies food to the enclaves,” Jin Wong said quietly. Being that Law never interacted with any tengu, the only way he could know was via Alto
n Kryskill. “She is trustworthy. She was enlisted to help look for domi’s cousin. She called with news that she found this mess and warned of its coming.”
That confirmed that the Kryskills had connections with the tengu; the whole way, up to the top ranks.
“The warning was wrong!” Cana Lily protested. “There were to be two vehicles colliding.”
“Human technology has its weaknesses,” Windwolf said. “The message was cut off in mid-transmission. We were warned that the oni had control of the incoming train; we prepared for everything that they could do with it.”
“What was she doing on it?” Cana Lily pointed again at the train to make up for his lack of vocabulary.
Law opened her mouth to answer and then thought better of it. Once she started to explain, everything might come out, including Trixie, Usagi’s kids, and Bare Snow.
“Obviously keeping it from stopping,” Windwolf said. “If the oni had control of the train, they would have slowed it to debark. How long are you going to stand there arguing with us while the real enemy escapes to wreak more havoc?”
Cana Lily glared at them and then spun on his heel to stalk away. “You keep monsters too close to your side, Wolf! They will eat your people when your back is turned.”
“He just doesn’t get it.” Forest Moss gazed after Cana Lily with what seemed to be true sadness on his face. “We can’t allow anyone to be treated like animals or the power-mad will use it against us. They alone will be glorified like gods and everyone else will be fodder for the beasts.”
“Verily,” Windwolf murmured. “We trod that line closely even before the humans arrived on our world. The half-caste or the mixed clan were treated like dirt merely because they weren’t considered pure.”
“Welcome to the new age!” Forest Moss cried in English and then lapsed back to Elvish. “Onward! I long to return to my sun and moon!”
He strode off, singing what sounded like “Radioactive” punctuated with explosions. They watched him go.