CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
In the darkness of the night a cone of light swept around the low bank of earth and raced towards him, trailing ribbons of smoke and a sequence of lesser lights framed by windows. The longhunter Cole stood watching with narrowing eyes, one boot propped on a felled tree that lay across the iron tracks, one hand perched on the barrel of his rifle, smoke rising from a burning roll-up hanging from his lips.
‘Hurry up, you fool, it’s coming!’ came the voice of Aléas from the nearest trees.
The longhunter’s wide-brimmed hat tilted as he scanned the trees bordering the track, where he glimpsed the young Rōshun hurrying deeper into cover.
Closer the light came, spearing along the track and narrowing his eyes even further. Cole stood his ground, caught in a sudden mood of daring as he watched the smoke trailing from thrusters on either side of the approaching rail liner, felt the vibrations rising up from the stony ground and into his boots. Moments before the beam struck him, he tossed his roll-up to the ground and hitched up his rifle. Casually stepped aside into the gloom beneath the trees and followed after Aléas, hearing the rail liner’s thrusters cutting out and brakes screeching in their place. Lights flickered through the trees from the passing windows, faces staring out from the comfort of their carriages.
The rail liner was a recent innovation by the Empire of Mann, a form of fast transportation that was being unrolled across the far northern continent by competing cartels and now in Pathia too, where a track connected the capital city of Bairat with Sheaf, and which was being extended northwards onto the Khosian Lansway. Still unfinished, it should take them close enough to Camp Liberty to complete the rest of their journey by road in the day they had remaining, if only they could avoid unwanted attention until then.
Not an easy task in this land suffering under Mannian occupation.
In the gloom a pair of eyes swung to watch him approaching. It was Nico, crouched down next to Ash and Juke. The cat sat at his side.
His son had barely spoken to him since they had left the Isles, seemed to hardly even know who or where he was. It stung Cole’s heart, such indifference from his only child, no matter that the lad hardly seemed himself yet.
Without acknowledging him, Nico stared out at the strange contraption arrayed along the track, its carriages jostling together one after the other as they came to a stop.
Voices shouted as men jumped down from the forward draught carriage to inspect the fallen tree in their way. Silently watching, Cole and the others waited until the sounds of chopping axes rose into the night air, and chatter came from passengers climbing down from the carriages to stretch their legs or relieve themselves in the bushes.
‘Now,’ announced Ash, and they stepped out from the tree line and made their way towards the last carriage on the rail. A group of Mannian priests stood clustered in their robes of white further along the liner. Soldiers passed the time with remarks and leers towards a pair of women.
‘Quickly now,’ Ash urged, and they climbed steps into the heat and light of the carriage and sat down at the back in empty seats. Cole whistled softly and the cat scurried down under the seat, her nails clattering against the wooden floor.
Soon enough, the passengers were stepping back on board and returning to their seats as a horn wailed outside, stamping their feet and blowing into their hands for warmth. The thrusters roared and fired brightly, and then the rail liner was in motion again with a sudden lurch.
No one paid them any heed. Outside, the world accelerated ever faster until they were shooting through the night like an arrow, heading towards the far Lansway in the north.