Moe Eisen walked into the train station with his pack on his shoulder. Bernard trailed

  behind, eyes on the crowd. Some of the people moved away from him when they

  noticed the gears on his face and hands.

  “Our train will take us up to the main road,” said Eisen. He pointed at a sign showing

  the times of trains due in on the track. “From there, we’ll have to hire a carriage, or

  join someone heading overland. We might have to walk part of the way.”

  “Are you going to be able to walk that far, Pa?,” asked Bernard. “I think I can

  partially fly on my own. I would have to leave you behind if I did.”

  “Do you know how far you can fly?,” asked Eisen. He wasn’t surprised. The boy had

  already shown a weird array of talents. What was one more?

  “Not really,” said Bernard. “I would have to test it out. I think maybe I could get

  across the city before the time ran out if I was lucky.”

  Eisen nodded. That wasn’t an indicator of how fast Bernard could move in the air, but

  it was a respectable distance. If push came to shove, he could ask the boy to fly on

  alone and the flight would help him cover a lot of ground.

  “If anything happens to me, Baldwin is due north beyond what is called the Crater

  Desert,” said Eisen. “Don’t go in the Crater. The people there are unfriendly to

  strangers.”

  “How unfriendly?,” asked Bernard.

  “They kill anyone that isn’t one of theirs,” said Eisen. “And neither of us could blend

  in for long.”

  Bernard nodded at that. He couldn’t really blend in with the people he had grown up

  with his whole life. How would he blend in with a bunch of strangers?

  “How long do you think it will take us to get to Baldwin?,” asked Bernard. Going to

  another city had seemed like something you did when you were desperate before he

  had been doused. He realized they were desperate. It was something he hadn’t

  considered before standing in the train station.

  “Two days to get to the road,” said Eisen. He paused to calculate in his head. “Maybe

  as much as a week on the road depending on if we can get transportation instead of

  walking. Maybe a month if we have to walk the whole way.”

  “That’s a long walk,” said Bernard. “I think I would rather fly.”

  “Remember what I said,” said Eisen. “Head due north. You should be able to find

  signs to point to Baldwin once you get around the Crater Desert.”

  “I understand,” said Bernard. “It might take me some time, but straight flying should

  get me there with breaks in a few days depending on how much trouble I have to

  avoid.”

  Eisen nodded. He knew there was just as much trouble for things in the air as things

  on the ground. He had dealt with predatory animals that could grab a man up off the

  ground and fly away with him in a second. How much easier would that be for a boy.

  It wouldn’t be that easy with Bernard. The boy had shown he could combine the

  effects in his body. Anything grabbing him in the air better be ready to be doused

  with acid, or flame, for its trouble.

  He would be the one in trouble if they encountered anything dangerous on the road.

  “Here comes our train,” said Eisen. “The number Eighty One. Let’s go wait on the

  platform for it to pull in.”

  The odd pair walked through the crowd. Eisen kept an eye on things. He didn’t want

  someone deciding that Bernard was a Rhiem and needed to be pushed around. Some

  Rhiem would take that, but some wouldn’t.

  And he was sure that Bernard would not after all they had gone through at this point.

  He didn’t need a giant boy deciding to throw people through the roof of the train

  station in a fit of anger and indignation.

  That would cost them precious time with the authorities asking them the types of

  questions he didn’t want to answer. And if they made the connection between

  Bernard in the train station with what happened in front of his shop, that would make

  things even worse for them.

  The vigilante action they had committed could be explained as self defense, but he

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  didn’t want to chance an encounter with the Guard when they could walk away. And

  Bernard didn’t have the time to spend in the machine awaiting trial.

  The train rolled into the station in a cloud of black smoke. There were some that ran

  on magic, but this one still used steam and wood to get around. Eisen approved.

  Magic could fail at the worst time and be unfixable. You could always mend a regular

  engine as long as it didn’t blow up.

  “I got a private compartment,” said Eisen. “It should be toward the end of the train.”

  “What about food?,” asked Bernard. “I’m hungry.”

  “There’s a dining car that will feed us for the two days we’re on the train,” said Eisen.

  “After that, we’ll have to scrounge for food.”

  “I can do that,” said Bernard. “How hard could it be to catch a bunch of rats in the

  woods?”

  Eisen nodded. He had scrounged things while he was in the army. Some of it had

  been fine. Some had not.

  People got off the train. Some had bags. Some didn’t. Conductors walked the train,

  pointing where the passengers could claim belongings that had been stowed away.

  When the flood had passed, the same conductors waved people to board.

  Eisen looked at his ticket. He started up the steps. He looked at the signs above the

  doors as he made his way down the length of the first passenger car. He found the

  private compartment after a few minutes. He let them in and threw his bag on the

  bottom bunk.

  “We have beds?,” asked Bernard. “This is great. Food?”

  “We’ll have to wait for the train to get underway before we can go down to the dining

  car,” said Eisen. “I’m sure there will be a crowd wanting to eat.”

  “So we wait for the train to get started and try to go eat after everyone else has cleared

  out?,” said Bernard.

  “I think it will save us a lot of hassle,” said Eisen. “Dining cars are notoriously small.

  I don’t want to get into an altercation because I knocked someone’s food out of their

  hands.”

  “I don’t want someone to knock the food out of my hands,” said Bernard.

  “That is the most important part of anything food related,” said Eisen, with a smile.

  “We’ll be able to see the landscape moving in the daytime. I will be able to check our

  map against it.”

  “Did you travel much in the army?,” asked Bernard.

  “A fair bit,” said Eisen. “Bern had several small wars with the Alvas, and skirmishes

  with the Rhiem. The Baldwins helped us sign a treaty to keep things in check. That’s

  how the demilitarized zone came to be. The city government asked the Green Lights

  to not interfere after that. I think they were scared.”

  “Scared?,” asked the boy. He sat down at the window in one of the fold out chairs

  provided by the car designers.

  “The Green Lights took to the field and pushed the Alvas back across their own

  border with what looked like minimum effort,” said Eisen. “Something like that is

  bound to scare whomever in charge that they could do the same to him.”

  “I can see that,” said Bernard. “If you’re Rally Kenzo making deals and having

  problems with Ditko on the next corner, you don’t want Koldere to stick around after

  he buries Ditko somewhere. He might get ideas that he doesn’t need you either.”

  “I think that was the fear in the government circles,” said Eisen. “They don’t tell

  the people at the bottom the reasons decisions were made.”

  “Were you an alchemist in the army?,” asked Bernard.

  “That came later,” said Eisen. “I discovered I had a knack for chemicals and when

  I got out, I worked my way to a license and opened my own shop.”

  “That sounds okay,” said Bernard.

  “I’m glad you approve of my decision,” said Eisen.

  A knock sounded on the door. Eisen went and opened it. A conductor smiled at him

  from the hall.

  “How do you do?,” asked the conductor. “I’m just checking tickets before we leave.”

  Eisen pulled out the papers and handed them over. The conductor inspected them

  with a glass. He handed the authorization back.

  “Thank you,” said the conductor. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

  “Do you know of any transport from the end of the line?,” asked Eisen. “My grandson

  and I are headed up to Baldwin.”

  “There is three, or four, companies that provide coaches, or allow for transportation

  using cargo wagons,” said the conductor. “There is also a Rioridanian company that

  transports people and cargo through the air. Some of their company participate in the

  Air Race.”

  “This far east?,” asked Eisen.

  “Ever since their city was destroyed, some of them have worked this way,” said the

  conductor. “Rumor is there is a track laying company negotiating with the train

  service to extend out beyond the end of the line and into Baldwin itself.”

  “That sounds good,” said Eisen.

  “It’s just a rumor right now,” said the conductor. “I have to get back to work. Have

  a good trip.”

  Eisen shut the door as the official went down to the next compartment to ask for the

  tickets of the riders there. He scratched his head as he went back to the bunk and sat

  down.

  “What does that mean?,” said Bernard.

  “It means we can fly if the company has a daemon big enough to carry us, and they

  don’t charge much for the privilege,” said Eisen.

  “That would be so neat,” said Bernard. “I’ve never flown before.”

  “Neither have I,” said Eisen. “It’s a consideration to cut time off our journey.”

  “We should do it just to do it,” said Bernard. “So what if it cuts time off our travel

  to Baldwin? We might not be able to do that again.”

  “So you want to fly?,” said Eisen.

  “I would like that very much,” said Bernard.

  “Let’s see if we have enough to cover a flight into Baldwin,” said Eisen. “Surely they

  won’t charge that much for just the two of us and our bags.”

  “Even a small amount of time would be great,” said Bernard. “We don’t have to make

  it all the way to Baldwin.”

  “All right,” said Eisen. “Maybe we can get a lift to someone traveling overland.”

  “That’s great,” said Bernard. “We need to get something to eat.”

  “Wait,” said Eisen. “We haven’t left the station yet.”

  “We can still go up and grab a table, right?,” said Bernard. “I’ve never ate somewhere

  fancy before.”

  The train shook under their feet.

  “Let’s see what fancy dining waits for us,” said Eisen.