21
CASSANDRA
You can do this, I prayed to myself, ignoring the drum-beat of my heart in my chest. I looked around the car and saw the kind old man that had been nice to me earlier, and he smiled at me as if to say everything would be okay.
I found myself smiling back. I could do this.
“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,” Sebastian, the dragon, said with a congenial smile completely at odds with the situation. “Thank you for being here. I know commutes and holidays have been disrupted by our interlude, but I assure you it is almost over.”
He kept one hand behind his back, and spread the other to gesture at the crowd.
“We had a simple plan. It should have been easy boarding the train and taking what we want, and then leaving as if nothing had happened at all. But what I failed to account for was the stubbornness of you. The unwillingness to cooperate with reasonable demands. It disappoints me, to be honest. That humanity has not changed in the past century. I suppose I should not be surprised, but I always am.”
He gave an aloof shrug, then pointed at the window. “But now our time is rapidly evaporating, and I am forced to do something I did not want to do. Something less eloquent. You see, one of you has something I need. A small stone object, a carving of a mythical beast of wing and claw adorned with a shadowy gem. Perhaps you do not have it, but you spotted another passenger with it. Such information will be rewarded. Come forward now, unload your burdened consciences, and we can end this fruitless charade.”
There was silence as Sebastian gazed slowly around the car. Other passengers did the same, though more frantically, in the hopes that someone would come forward.
Of course, nobody did.
Sebastian sighed, and his voice was thick with disappointment. “How predictable.”
As quick as a striking snake, he lunged toward the old man seated in front of him. His wicked curved knife was in his hand and then slid under the old man’s jaw. A scattering of passengers cried out and I yelled with them, cringing at the sudden horror and the blood we would see at any moment, but the blade did not pierce skin. The dragon held the blade against the old man’s neck while holding the man’s head with the other.
“I do hope it is obvious,” Sebastian drawled in his accent, “but my previous offer is still on the metaphorical table. If you have the totem, come forward now.”
“Miserable little pissant,” the old man growled, angry instead of afraid. “I killed Italians like you at Solerno. Cocky when you have the numbers, but the moment the tide turned you all threw down your guns and pissed yourselves.”
Sebastian’s eyes sparkled and a surprising smile touched his lips. “And in my day, the last time we escaped our prison and fought our great endless fight, I battled Americans and British and French above the trenches of the Somme. Now that was a bloody war.”
The old man’s face twisted. “Don’t mock me, boy. You’re young enough that your grandpa was probably in diapers when I was killing men.”
My eyes were glued to the knife at his throat. I could feel myself panicking, the calm structure of our plan too far way to focus on. My throat felt like it was tied shut with twine; I tried to make myself speak, and failed.
This was it, I knew. I had to do it now.
“Dragon!” I called, voice hoarse and fearful. I swallowed the lump in my throat and pulled the totem from my pocket, raising it high for all to see.
The totem raged against me, practically burning my palm with power, but I held on as tight.
Sebastian’s eyes grew wide, first with surprise and then pleasure. “I knew I saw something in your eyes before,” he said, “when we first took this train. Where is the gryphon?”
The word sounded strange on his tongue in a way I couldn’t place. A different emphasis on the wrong syllable. I could practically feel the dragon’s fury 20 feet away, as if merely saying the word had caused him great pain.
I did my best not to think about Orlando, who was a pulsing beacon of love behind me. My lie had to be convincing. Every lie I’d ever told in my life had merely been practice for this moment. The dragon had to believe me or none of this would work.
“He’s back in Chicago,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “He thought he was keeping me safe by sending me away. Clearly he was wrong. I’m alone.”
His eyes narrowed on me, but he didn’t question me. He licked his lips.
“Bring it here, darling,” he whispered.
I nodded to the old man. “Let him go first.”
Sebastian pulled the knife away without hesitation, spreading his arms like an Italian Cristo Redentor. “See? I am reasonable.” His smile washed away and his voice grew ominous. “Now kindly prove you are the same.”
The totem was a ball of fire in my hand. The pressure had built back up in my head, insisting I not do it. I knew this was going to be painful for me.
“How did you know I would be on this train?” I asked. I knew I was delaying, but the question had plagued me and I had to know. “You planned all this before the totem was even here.”
The dragon let his knife-hand hang at his side. “I can sense where it has been, and where it will be,” he said in a hollow voice, staring off at something I couldn’t see. “Those things leave traces across time, across our minds, like grease spilled on a pristine floor.”
He shook his head, and raised his knife to point at me again.
“It is time, and I am out of both patience and mercy. Give it to me now.”
There was no more delaying. This was it. Either my plan would work, or it would kill us all.
That’s a lot of pressure for a girl who’d expected to spend the weekend nude in bed with a man’s lips touching her body.
I lowered my hand holding the totem, then shot it straight back up toward the ceiling.
Even without the signal, I could tell my emotion would have told Orlando when it was time. From behind came the sound of gunfire, deafeningly loud in the enclosed space, the pressure punching my eardrums painfully. The window to my right exploded in a shower of glass. The dragon’s mouth hung open with shock, and the two henchmen at the far end of the car aimed there guns around, confused.
My finger found the gem on the totem, smooth and warmer to the touch than the rest. I pressed it as hard as I could, feeling it give way beneath my thumb.
And then I threw it out the window.