She hadn’t meant to doze off, but with nothing to do and the oppressive heat of the cabin beating down on her in heavy, suffocating waves, she had closed her eyes and just nodded off into oblivion shortly after a snack of dried meat, seeds, nuts, and other stale rations from her pack. The second little canteen was empty. Only two bottles left now.
Taziri woke slowly, her mind crawling up through layers of faceless, formless dreams until she could open her eyes and stare blearily at the cabin ceiling. The heat had faded a little but she was still covered in sweat and breathing heavily.
Voices.
She sat up and pulled on her shirt over her hot, sticky skin. As she fastened the buttons, she moved to the window to peek out. There was a man’s head just outside the window.
Shit!
She reached for her gun but her hand only grasped at empty air beside her leg. For a moment she panicked that someone had taken her revolver, until she remembered taking off the holster so she could sit more comfortably. She snatched the gun from the holster slung over the back of her pilot’s seat and peeked out the window again. The man had shifted to one side and another head was just outside now, a small head farther down. A girl’s scarved head.
Hasina! Oh no, no, no.
The girl knocked feebly on the hatch and said something in Eranian. Her words meant nothing but Taziri could hear the terrified and miserable warbles in the girl’s voice. She’d been crying. Taziri looked frantically around the cabin yet again for some tool or answer or idea but there was only an old tarp and a few empty seats to look at.
So she took a long, deep breath, and she opened the hatch. She quickly leaned out just enough to level her gun at the man’s head. He jerked back half a step, a flicker of fear in his eyes as he focused on the weapon. But then he looked up at her and let loose a stern torrent of Eranian at her.
Taziri shook her head. “No good. I only speak Mazigh and Espani.”
“Mazigh?” The man frowned. “I speak Mazigh. You is Mazigh? You is not allowed. Your skin. Your train. To police!”
“No police.” Taziri put up her gun and held out her left hand in an open gesture. “No trouble. No fight. I’m waiting for someone. They come back and I go. Okay? No police.” She glanced down at Hasina and caught a glimpse of her own chest. She had only fastened two buttons of her shirt.
My skin. Oops.
The men held up the old compass that she had given to Hasina and he said, “Not allowed. Is very bad. Is danger. Is for police.”
“No, it’s not dangerous. It’s a compass. Com-pass? North, south? For directions. Like a map.” Taziri sighed at the man’s unbroken look of mild anger and confusion. “Fine, just give it back to me.” She held out her hand and the man gave her the compass. “Okay, now what about Hasina? Is she in trouble now? Did you hit her?”
The man glanced at the girl and looked back up at Taziri. “Hasina good girl. No police.”
What does he think the word police means?
Taziri nodded. “Fine. Good. Sorry about the trouble. No police. Just waiting for my passengers and then we’ll be on our way. No trouble. All right? Are we all right now?” She slipped away her gun.
The man didn’t look any happier. He looked at Hasina again and started talking in Eranian. In the middle of his lecture, the girl started talking over him in a sad and plaintive voice. Taziri couldn’t catch any familiar words, but the tone was making her uneasy.
And then a cat meowed.
Taziri looked down and saw a light brown cat sitting in the gravel beside the freight cars. And then a second one slipped out from under a car. And then a third jumped down from on top of the car. As the cats continued to wander into the rail yard, the man slowly became aware of his feline audience and his lecture trailed off into silence as he stared around himself.
His face pale and sweating, the man reached out for Hasina, who quickly took his hand and followed him away from the Halcyon. The man glanced up once at Taziri and said, “All is good. Very good. No police. Good bye.” And then they were gone.
For a moment Taziri stood in the open hatch and thought about going after them and making sure that the man hadn’t hit the girl, and that he wouldn’t, and that everything really would be as “good” as he said, but according to her own definition of the word.
If it was just me, then maybe. Maybe it would be worth the risk to hassle some random stranger into being a better father, or into changing his entire society. Maybe. But I have a family of my own I want to see again, and Qhora is counting on me to get her home to her little boy, too. Damn it.
She stepped back inside and sealed the hatch without giving the cats another thought, even though they now carpeted the rail yard so thoroughly that she could barely see the gravel through their fur. She eased back into her pilot’s seat and leaned into the padded leather, listening to it creak and squeak under her weight. She closed her eyes.
“Asr be kheyr,” said a female voice.
Taziri opened her eyes and saw a girl sitting in one of the passenger seats behind her. This girl was a little older than Hasina, closer to twelve, and dressed in a far more ornate dress with only the thinnest and lightest of golden scarves draped over her long black hair, and all pushed back to reveal her very pretty face. Her dress was mostly black, trimmed in red and white and gold thread embroidered in the shapes of tiny cats all sitting or running or sleeping or playing. Strapped over her shoulder she wore a curved bronze sword across her back with the handle raised behind her right shoulder. She also wore a simple black cord around her neck and on that cord hung a golden egg, a lumpy golden egg covered in intricate little lines. And in the girl’s hands was a wooden mask. As she turned the mask over in her hands, Taziri saw the front of it was sculpted to resemble a cat’s face.
She glanced once at the hatch.
Yep. I definitely closed and locked that. So, what the hell?
She said, “Hello.”
The girl gave her a quizzical look and held out her empty hand. Taziri took her hand, intending to shake it, but the girl held her hand still for a moment and then let go. She smiled. “Hello,” she said in Mazigh. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
“You speak Mazigh?” Taziri asked. She has a Tingis accent.
“I do now.” She winked and waved the fingers of the hand she had just extended to Taziri. “My name is Bastet. What’s yours?”
“Taziri. Nice to meet you, Bastet.” She glanced at the door one more time. Still locked.
“Oh don’t worry, they won’t be back. And don’t worry about Hasina. Her father is a bit set in his ways, but he wouldn’t hurt her. And even if he wanted to, I wouldn’t let him,” Bastet said. “I keep an eye on all the young ones around here.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” Taziri said slowly. “I was actually wondering how exactly you came to be…in here.”
“I go where the aether goes,” the girl said. “And the aether goes everywhere, even if you can’t see it. You’re from Marrakesh, right? I’ve never been to Marrakesh. We used to travel more, my family and I, when I was younger. But my uncle is less interested in the world these days.”
Taziri started to speak but Bastet continued, “I like trains. I’ve seen lots of trains, but this one is different, isn’t it? Is it new?”
“Yes, it’s-”
“Where’s the engine? Usually the engine is right here.” She pointed to the floor in front of her. “But there’s nothing here.”
“The engine is very small.” Taziri thumbed over her shoulder at the nose of the Halcyon. “It’s up there in the front.”
“Is it fast?”
“Very fast.”
“How fast?”
Taziri smiled. “Fast enough to fly.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “This train can fly? Amazing.”
“Well, maybe just a little amazing.” Taziri leaned back. “What exactly did you mean about keeping an eye on the young ones? Do you live around here?”
“Of course. We’ve always lived here. I like to play with the girls around here, and I make sure that the boys aren’t mean to them, and their parents are nice to them.”
That’s not much of an answer. Taziri said, “I see you like cats.”
“Not really. But they like me.”
“But your dress, and that mask.”
“Oh.” She pressed the mask to her face and it stuck there without any ribbons or ties. The detail of the mask was so fine, from the slitted nose to the triangular ears to the subtle openings for the eyes, that it almost appeared as though the features might come alive. Then she took the mask off and said, “It was a present from my aunt. We all have one.” And she sat the mask on top of her head like a cap.
“I know a woman who wears a mask,” Taziri said. “She looks a little strange and people used to hurt her, and it made her afraid all the time. But when she wears the mask, she’s like a whole other person.”
Bastet nodded. “Sounds like my whole family.”
Taziri couldn’t imagine an entire family of Miraris.
“What was it you gave to Hasina?” Bastet asked.
“A compass. Just an old compass.” Taziri held up the little device, its wobbling needle flecked with rust.
“May I?” Bastet took the compass and turned it over and round and over again in her hands. “We used to have these, but they were bigger. Can I keep this?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.”
Taziri pointed at the girl’s necklace. “That’s an unusual pendant. Is it an egg?”
She touched the golden shape. “It’s my heart. It was a present too. We all have one.”
Her heart? Taziri shrugged. “So what does your family do?”
“Not much. They used to do funerals mostly.” Bastet sighed. “I don’t suppose you’re going to make this engine fly any time soon, are you?”
“No, sorry, I have to wait for my passengers to come back. And even then, we don’t have enough fuel to fly away. We’ll be hitching a ride with a train to get back to Marrakesh.”
“Oh. Marrakesh!” The girl’s eyes brightened. “I almost forgot. I wanted to ask you about Marrakesh. Have you ever met a man named Thoth?”
Taziri shook her head. “No, I’ve never heard that name before. Who is he?”
“My grandfather. We haven’t heard from him in a while and I thought he might have gone to Marrakesh.” Bastet frowned. “But he usually uses different names in different places. He called himself Bashir for a while, but I don’t know what name he might be using now.”
“Sorry I couldn’t help. I hope you find him,” Taziri said.
“Thanks.” Bastet stood up. “Are you going to be all right in here?”
“As long as my food and water hold out, I should be fine for another day or two.”
The girl nodded. “I’ll bring you something later. Thanks for looking out for Hasina. And don’t worry. No one will come nosing around here again. Bye!” She slipped her mask down onto her face and for a moment it looked as though the wooden cat mouth curled up into a feline smile. Then Bastet stepped toward the closed hatch and simply vanished into it in a swirl of silvery white vapor.
Taziri chewed her lip and then exhaled slowly.
That was strange even by Espani standards.