The Glenca River wasn't far ahead, the stop not far on the other side. She had only minutes to think of a way out of this, or the foresight of the Mages would come true, and both Dematr and Urth would suffer.

Chapter 5

"What'll we do?" Jason whispered frantically. "Will any of them help us? That one said he was at Dorcastle where your mom—"

"Jason, he wasn't on my mother's side! He said he was aiming at her. There was a special group of Mechanics sent to Dorcastle. Guild assassins. They were supposed to kill my mother and make sure the city fell."

"But that was a long time ago—"

"They hated her, Jason! They wanted her dead not just because they'd been ordered to but because they wanted it. She escaped them at Altis and ever since then they've wanted to kill her. The survivors went from being the elite of the Guild to having to hide what they'd been. This one must have gone to ground, pretending to be just a regular Mechanic." Kira had kept her face down, but raised it slightly to try to steal another glance at the Mechanics a few seats ahead. Was it her imagination, or had the third Mechanic flicked another look back at her before settling down. She saw his right shoulder shift, as if he was feeling for something under his jacket.

Kira had seen a similar gesture by her mother and Aunt Alli and Aunt Bev countless times, when they were reaching for their pistols.

Maybe a pistol. Maybe a knife. He had something, and even if Kira took out the third Mechanic it would cause an immense commotion, focusing attention on her and Jason.

She took a deep breath, thinking. The windows were open for the breeze, the outside sounds and the wind and the rattling of the passenger car and the sound of the wheels adding to the background noise.

And the door at the back of the car was right behind her.

"Not a sound," Kira breathed to Jason. She got up as quietly as she could, sliding over to cautiously open the door, hoping the extra noise that let in wouldn't be noticed. She urged Jason through, then followed, closing the door softly behind her.

"Why'd we come out here?" Jason said just loudly enough for her to hear. The wind was whipping at them, the small platform on the end of the passenger car swaying as the train rolled over the tracks.

"We have to get off of the train!" Kira said. "Before it reaches the next stop."

"How?"

"We have to jump."

He stared at her, eyes wide, then over the side of the car where dirt and grass and rocks were rolling by at a disconcertingly fast rate. "For real? Not in a game? Jump off a real train, that's moving, onto real rocks?"

"No, of course not," Kira said.

Jason looked relieved.