They clacked down the line and Bastet loosened her harness and stepped up into the cockpit behind Taziri’s seat to peer out the narrow windows at the way ahead.
“That was a little scary, but I’m glad you’re here,” the girl said.
“Always happy to help,” the woman replied with a quick but warm smile over her shoulder. “I just wish people would occasionally come to me when it isn’t a life-or-death situation, and people aren’t trying to shoot me or steal my soul, or fight my aeroplane bare-handed.”
“Well, I couldn’t think of anyone else in the entire world who could do what you do,” Bastet said. “If there’s someone else you think I should have asked…?”
Taziri laughed. “Not on your life.”
A woman screamed outside, and Bastet and Taziri both looked up as something heavy landed on the roof of the train.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Taziri said with a glare. “Your aunt really can’t take a hint, can she?”
“Don’t be too angry,” Bastet said. “She hasn’t been herself lately.”
The Halcyon III clacked down the rails, darting between long silent freight trains and long dark passenger trains parked in the yard. And all the while, powerful fists pounded on the metal roof.
“What do we do now?” Taziri asked. “I can’t take off again, and we’re running out of track.”
“She’s just going to keep following us,” Bastet said. “We need to hide where she can’t find us.”
“That’s going to be tricky with her on the roof,” Taziri said. “But I’ll give it a try.”
The Halcyon rattled on, its engine still cooling and rumbling lower with each passing moment. The pilot pushed a button and Bastet heard a soft clank. “That was a switching arm out next to the cow catcher,” Taziri explained. “It knocks the lever next to the track to swing the tracks left or right, so we can change lines.”
From her crouched position behind the pilot’s seat, Bastet could only nod and hope that the Mazigh woman knew what she was doing. The view through the small windows told her nothing except that they were rushing between train cars in the darkness as Nethys pounded on the roof above their heads.
“Here it comes,” Taziri said.
“What?”
Suddenly the cabin was plunged into utter darkness and Bastet heard a terrible series of hard thumps along the back of the roof in quick succession.
Nethys was knocked back, knocked clean off!
Taziri pulled the brake and the Halcyon squealed to a halt, and before Bastet could ask, the Mazigh pilot had freed herself from her harness and leapt out the hatch into the deep shadows outside. Bastet leaned out, squinting, and she heard a sharp metal clangor. A moment later, Taziri jogged back to the hatch.
“All right, we should be safe for a few minutes at least,” the pilot said.
“Where are we?”
“In a shed. I locked the doors behind us, and they seem pretty sturdy, so we should have a few minutes before your aunt breaks in. If she breaks in.” Taziri flicked another little switch and the cabin light snapped on with a sharp electric buzz. The amber bulb revealed the metal deck and walls, the pilot’s console, a pile of boxes lashed to the floor, and the pilot herself. Taziri wore a heavy leather jacket lined in thick white fur, a long blue scarf around her neck, and a pair of brass-rimmed goggles pushed up on her forehead.
“It’s good to see you.” Bastet hugged her.
“It’s good to see you, too. I just wish I didn’t have a dozen new dents to buff out of my baby here.”
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. Come on, we should get moving before-”
The heavy shed doors banged from the outside.
“Right.” Bastet helped Taziri unhook the boxes and bundles from the floor of the Halcyon and they quickly moved everything outside to the ground. Taziri locked the hatch, saying, “I’ve got a few booby traps on her now, just in case. Electric shocks, mostly. Should be enough to keep the riff-raff away for a couple days, at least.”
Together they slung the little boxes and tubes and bags over their shoulders, and crunched across the gravel of the shed floor away from the doors where Nethys was still pounding and grunting.
“I’m sorry I had to hurt her,” Taziri said as they slipped out the service door and headed quietly into the deserted train station. “I mean, I threw her into a building, and then scraped her off the roof when I drove into the shed. I know you asked me here to help these people but…”
“It’s all right,” Bastet said quietly. “There’s no other way. They’re just too dangerous right now. And besides, no matter how much you hurt them, you can’t kill them, and they’ll always recover completely. At most, they might remember getting hurt, but honestly, when you’ve lived as long as we have, these sorts of things aren’t very memorable.”
“Getting thrown off an aeroplane into a stone wall isn’t memorable?” Taziri laughed, and the sound echoed through the shadowy station. “You’re a hard crowd to please.”
“Not at all. You’re here. I’m very pleased.” Bastet patted the gear on her shoulders. “Is this everything you need to build the magnet?”
“Everything except the aetherium core.”
“Right.” The immortal girl nodded. “And I think I know where we can get your sun-steel. As much as you need.”
They hurried through the empty city streets, keeping close to the walls and shadows, and looking up at the starry sky every few moments, but there was no sight or sound of the winged Nethys. Bastet led the way and they soon reached the old neighborhood near the harbor with the great lighthouse blotting out the stars to the northwest, and they huddled against the door of a certain house, knocking as loudly as they dared until the tall smith from Nippon opened the door. The introductions were brief and breathless, but Jiro recognized the names Asha and Lilith readily enough, and let them speak their piece.
“We’re going to build a machine to take the needles out of the immortals, and all the other slaves that Lilith took,” Bastet explained quietly. “This is Taziri Ohana, from Marrakesh. She’s going to make a magnet machine, but we need your help. We need sun-steel. A lot of it. Can you help us?”
“A machine to heal Lilith’s victims?” the smith asked.
“Yes.”
Jiro gave them a stern glare, but he nodded and stepped back to let them enter. Then he directed them to sleep on the floor, and he went back to bed.
Chapter 19
When she woke up the next morning, Bastet heard a kettle whistling softly and two voices talking, interrupted from time to time by a metallic click or clank. She sat up and yawned, feeling the warmth of the small cooking fire beside her. Taziri and Jiro sat side by side with the Mazigh’s boxes laid out carefully before them on the floor. He would point and ask what something was, and she would hold it up and answer him. Their Eranian accents were so wildly different that Bastet was surprised they could even understand each other.
“Good morning,” Bastet said. “Working already?”
The kettle whistled louder.
Taziri smiled. “Our host had some questions, so I figured the least I could do was answer them. Besides, it’s going to take a bit of effort to make this work.”
Bastet nodded. “Can I help?”
Jiro gestured to the kettle. “Tea, please.”
The girl yawned again as she stood up and saw to the shrilly whistling kettle. She poured out the greenish tea into the little white cups that had no handles and presented them to the others, who took them as they continued to talk about wires, batteries, fields, and other arcane things. After several more minutes, Taziri and Jiro seemed satisfied that they knew what they were doing, and they began bundling up the supplies and tools.
“What now?” Bastet asked.
“Now, we work.” Jiro tucked most of the boxes under his long arms and led the way through the back of the house, through a narrow door, and into the adjoining house.
Bastet followed them both and found herself in a small workshop full of familiar tools for metal working, from whitesmithing to blacksmithing to goldsmithing. There was a furnace, a foot-bellows, an anvil, and a trough of water, as well as tongs of all sizes, bores and drills, hammers and anvils, and leather aprons and gloves all neatly arranged on hooks and shelves around the space. Taziri and Jiro laid out the boxes and began setting out the tools and materials for the magnet.