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 Alton 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!”