Raven slid to one side. She dropped behind a row of chairs. She held up her

medallion. Nothing happened as she wished it for it to shoot back.

She pulled her arm back as a beam blew up a chair next to her. She winced, glad that nothing had gone through her arm. She had to move before the Keswick got a clear shot at her.

So hers didn’t shoot anything, or she didn’t know how to use it to shoot anything. She had to get out of the train station if she wanted to keep the useless hunk of junk.

Another chair exploded. At least his aim wasn’t that great. That gave her a chance.

Raven glanced around from her cover behind the row of chairs. She had a door to her left, the tracks were ahead and to the right. The guy stood between her and the tracks. Behind her and to the right was the ticket seller booth.

She hoped the ticket seller had enough sense to get out of there.

The best bet was to fall back behind the ticket booth, and then circle around to another part of the station. She could flee and circle around to board the train when the guy tried to chase her.

Raven rolled across the floor, tucked the medallion in her belt and ran. She dove behind the ticket booth. A charge of energy punched through the window and the door behind it.

She grimaced as she ducked low. She had to cross an open space before being able to duck behind a column. From there, she could run out a side door. She didn’t know where that went, but it was better than staying where she was.

She ducked a little to the left to get a bead on her enemy. She spotted him crossing the floor. The only weapon she had was her knife. She could throw it but what good would that do?

She had to cause a distraction and had nothing to lose.

She pulled her arm back and then flung her knife. She threw herself the other way. She didn’t wait to see if she hit. She heard the sound of the energy discharge, and then a cry. She slid behind the first column. She took a moment to catch her breath.

She didn’t hear any more discharges. She took a chance and glimpsed at where she had last seen her enemy. She saw him struggling on the floor.

What had happened there?

She decided that she couldn’t wait for him to recover and start shooting up the station. She had a chance. She had to take it.

Raven dodged back the way she had come. She paused at the absence of magic beams cutting through the air at her. She charged forward and hopped the damaged row of chairs. She stopped.

She didn’t know how she had done it. Her knife had struck the man in the neck. He had collapsed in the middle of the station. She grabbed his medallion and put it on her belt next to the other one. She grabbed her knife and pulled it loose. She wiped the blood off on his jacket. She put it back in its sheath as she looked around.

She had to get out of town before more of the Keswicks showed up to try to stop her. They would be after her even harder after this.

She spotted the train coming into the station. She had to board and find some place to hide before the train officials called the Guard to hunt her down. She would be hunted from both sides.

“Are you all right?,” said the ticket seller. She stood behind the booth.

“Yes,” said Raven. She looked around. “I have to gather up my things and board the train.”

“I’ll call for the Guard after the train leaves,” said the ticket seller. “This is a mess. What did he want?”

“He didn’t want to pay the money his mom owes,” said Raven. “Let’s move his body out of the way so people won’t panic when they see it. Then we have to do something about this blood.”

“We don’t have time for that,” said the ticket seller. She waved her hand at the train. “We need to talk to the conductors to keep the passengers onboard until we settle this.”

“Good idea,” said Raven. “Thanks for helping me.”

“It was just luck,” said the ticket seller. She pointed toward the other door Raven had been working her way toward. “I slipped and fell behind a counter back there, and decided that was better than trying to cross that open space.”

“It’s still good that you are helping me,” said Raven.

“Let me go up and talk to one of the conductors,” said the lady. “I’ll try to keep this as quiet as I can.”

“Don’t get into trouble,” said Raven. “I can figure some other way to go north as long as the Guard doesn’t hold me for this.”

“Don’t worry,” said the ticket seller. “This isn’t the only time we have had things happen. The train crew will help out.”

Raven didn’t see it, but she didn’t want to argue with her unexpected helper. The Keswicks were after her over the medallion. How long would they stay after her was a question she didn’t want to find out.

The ticket seller approached the train as it rolled to a stop. She waved at a man on the end of the train. He climbed down the three steps on the end carriage and they conversed for a minute. He held up his lamp and waved it at the uniformed men getting off the train. They held hands up to stall the passengers.

One of the uniforms summoned a conductor with higher rank and they marched down to talk to the ticket seller and the man at the end of the train. He didn’t seem too happy about being thrown off schedule.

The four of them conferred before the elder conductor sent his junior to get more men. He waited for a small group to arrive. They set about wrapping the body up, and cleaning the station floor. The body was carried to the back of the station and out of sight.

Raven stood out of the way and let them do the thing silently. She didn’t want to touch the body any more after taking the medallion and her knife. She still didn’t know how a wild throw had killed him like that.

“Are there any more surprises in store for the trip, young lady?,” asked the head conductor as soon as the cleaning job was done.

“I’m just trying to leave the city,” said Raven. “I have a job to do, and I need to go.”

“All right,” said the head conductor. “Go ahead and board. We’ll keep an eye open for more troublemakers. Nothing can stop the train from running. We have to make our next stop in a few hours.”

“Thank you,” said Raven.

“You’re a passenger on the train,” said the conductor. “Your safety is paramount so you can keep using the train and make it prosper. Go ahead now.”

Raven nodded as she collected her duffle and ran to get on the train. She found her compartment toward the back. She placed her duffle under the fold-out bed and locked the door. She just needed to hold on and she would be out of Bern.

The medallion she took from the old lady had to have magic. It was almost the same as the one the guy used in the station. Maybe it didn’t shoot beams. What did it do?

She decided she was good with the mystery for right now. She expected it to be something from the Alvas that didn’t look like it was doing magic when it was. And she didn’t want to try to find out what it did in the middle of a train with a crowd of people onboard.

At least she knew what the other one did. All she had to do was figure out how to activate it. She doubted she would have to use it, but being able to throw firebolts around could make some things easier than others.

The train’s horn blew. She sat on the bed as the carriage started to move. She had some time before she reached the end of the line. She decided to sleep the best she could, and be ready to move when the train reached the last station. Then she had to secure some way to get to Baldwin from there.

Maybe she could secure some work if she reached Baldwin. Cities were the same everywhere. The need for messengers couldn’t be that different.

She hoped that the Keswicks wouldn’t chase her now that she was heading out of the town. She felt that they would. She had two of their medallions. She expected them to try to get the two artifacts back. She needed to catch up with Eisen and then figure out what she wanted to do, and where she wanted to go.

She doubted that she wanted to stay in Baldwin for long. How many messengers were needed when the authority could fly? That was a hard knack to overcome with what she had with her.

Could she make her way to Riordiana? Did they need a messenger there? She had some skills but not a spirit animal.

Maybe she could work her way along Corwin’s Steps. She could deliver mail between settlements. There weren’t that much in trains up there.

She would need a horse for that. She didn’t know how to ride. She should have worked on that while working for Kobach. She had time to learn now that she didn’t have a job.

How did one learn how to ride a horse?

Raven closed her eyes and tried to nap. She had never been outside the city. She wondered what the rest of the world would be like.

She heard something slam against the carriage. She stood. She looked around. Where had that sound come from?

She went to the door. She peeked out in the carriage. Others were also looking around.

She went back to the window and opened it. She looked out. Something flapped at the end of the train. She frowned. It looked like a human was hanging on back there.

She shook her head as she tried to think of a way to get off the train and escape. She thought about the carriage. She could move up to the boarding platforms between cars and look for a place to jump off. That looked like her only chance. She didn’t want to be trapped on the train, or cause people to be hurt.

She grabbed her bag and carried it down to the door to go to the next carriage. She looked back down the carriage. Fires and ice chopped through the cabins as the boarders worked their way forward. She hurried to the door and slipped outside.

She stood in the wind and looked around. One of the Keswicks worked his way down the side of the carriage with some kind of root system carrying him along. She didn’t see any of the others yet.

If she jumped, he could follow her off the train. Worse, he could catch her if he was fast enough with the vines he was growing. She would be at his mercy.

She had to get rid of him if she wanted to jump off the train.

She pulled out the lightning medallion and held it in her hand. She pointed it down the side of the train while keeping most of her body hidden by the carriage wall. She willed for the lightning to erupt. A yellow streak struck the Keswick and blasted him from the wooden wall of the carriage. He hit the ground and rolled in the backwash from the train.

She looked on the other side of the train. She didn’t see any Keswicks on that side. Unless they saw their comrade fly off the train, she was the only one who knew her victim had hit the ground.

Raven made a decision and threw her duffle from the platform. She jumped after it. She left the bag to run back to where her victim had fallen. She frowned at the way his head rested on his neck.

He had hit the ground wrong from the looks of it.

She searched him, taking anything that looked valuable. She looked around for the medallion. She grabbed it up.

Time to go before the Keswicks jumped off the train after her.

Raven jogged to her duffle and shouldered it. She moved into the trees, leaving the tracks behind. It would take her days to get to the end of the line. How long did she have before they started chasing her again?

She decided to turn and head north to parallel the tracks without counting on being near them. That was the best she could do unless she wanted to work her way through the trees in a wide circle and hope she didn’t get lost.

Maybe she should run east as far as she could, then turn and head northwest. She didn’t like that at all. That meant spending days in the wilderness when she had no way to get food.

She cursed the Keswicks for depriving her of meals in the dining car. That would have been two days of free food while heading north.

The thought that she should return to Bern and burn their house down crossed her mind as she tried to figure which way she should go.

She settled next to a tree and wrapped her cloak around her body. She decided to settle in place for a moment and just think about what she should do, and how she should go about doing it.

She closed her eyes and thought about her situation and how to close the gap to Eisen and the boy he had adopted.