Book Six

The Last Train to Nowhere

 

The red signett, despite looking like a monstrous spider, is, in fact, a mammal. Its eight angular legs are each tipped by a single, wicked claw, which it uses to grip branches and the throats of its prey. Its long, slim body is covered with auburn fur, hiding a face that the children of the Everstall Song see in their nightmares – one bloodshot eye and a grin of dagger-like teeth.

Emerald knows all of this because it is interesting, not because it is in any way relevant to her safety. She sweeps beneath the creatures menacing forearms and jumps, catching its bottom jaw in her talons and using it as a pivot to kick up into the signett’s throat, effectively beheading it. Blood cascades over her head and paints the undergrowth with a sick splash. Emerald grabs a pair of the creature’s legs and begins dragging it through the forest. The most important thing she knows about the red signett, is that it is edible.

Rolleck the Lost raises a single neat eyebrow at Emerald. The eye beneath it is completely black, with a narrow red slit across it. Although he earned it fighting what should have been Emerald’s battle, she still feels uncomfortable looking at it.

“What’s that?” he asks.

“A red signett.” Emerald lays the carcass out by the fire. “It’s all fine to eat apart from the guts.”

“This forest continues to surprise me,” Rolleck says, parting the fur hiding the creature’s face with the tip of his sword. He grimaces. “Still, I suppose they all look pretty much the same once they’re in bits and on skewers.”

“Will it be enough?” Emerald asks, glancing from her catch to the clearing behind the fire where their tent is being erected.

Rolleck followed her gaze. “I think so.”

“My ears are burning,” Riyo Falsemoon says from within the tent.

“Your stomach is rumbling, too,” Rolleck says.

She pokes her blonde head between the flaps of the tent and grins at him. “That’s because I’m hungry. Get cooking.”

Rolleck’s sword makes light work of skinning the signett, and soon its pieces and parts are staked out around the roar of the fire. The smell draws Ravi Matriya down from the tree where he has been acting as lookout.

“Is it done yet?” Riyo says, watching one of the chunks of meat begin to glisten with melting fat.

Nobody bothers to answer her, so she reaches for it.

Emerald sighs and catches her hand before she can grab it. Riyo looks up at her, dejected.

“Fine.” Emerald takes the meat herself and breaths on it. Gentle pink flames wrap it, sending its surface quickly through brown and towards black. She relents before it is charred completely, then hands it back to Riyo.

“Thanks,” she says, before taking a massive bite. The juices run clear down her chin, and she makes a delighted squealing noise around the mouthful. “Red signett is so good,” she sort-of says.

“I’ve never met someone who can speak and chew at the same time,” Ravi says.

Riyo grins at him, then swallows. “I’m a woman of many talents. Do you really think I could find the sunlight stone if I couldn’t even do that?”

“The two things are unrelated,” Rolleck says.

“That’s what you think. This is really good though,” she says, turning to Emerald. “We should take some extra with us for tomorrow.”

“That would mean not eating it all tonight.”

“Oh.” Riyo frowns. “Can’t we catch another one?”

“Do that yourself, you glutton,” Rolleck says.

“Maybe I will,” Riyo says, going in for another bite.

“She’ll go straight to sleep after she’s eaten,” Ravi says, quietly enough that only Rolleck can hear him.

“It’s like travelling with a toddler.”

Ravi nods with a smirk.

Riyo polishes off the signett, graciously deigning to leave enough for the others to satisfy themselves on. They chatter between mouthfuls and let the fire grow dimmer, the whipping of flames replaced by the soft orange glow of embers. Riyo yawns.

“Ready to hunt up another signett?” Emerald says.

“Eh. The fire’s too low to cook it now.”

“Uh huh.”

“And besides, we need to get up early tomorrow if we want to cross over into the Frosthold Song before sundown.”

“Uh huh.”

“Besides, it probably wouldn’t taste as good cold.”

“Uh huh.”

“And-”

The twilight tranquillity of the forest is flattened by the clamour of a bell, startling birds to flight all around them. The chimes are rapid and incessant, bringing a sense of imminence with them, but the shadows between the trees around them remain still.

Ravi hops to his feet. “I’ll see if I can find where its coming from.” He leaps up to a nearby branch, which barely shakes from his passing. He moves from limb to limb in great bounds that carry him all the way to the canopy. He stops at the very top of a shatterbark pine and scans the forest. Above him, the night’s darkness is redressed by a billion stars, scattered haphazardly across the sky. Far to the east, a reddish-purple light makes wavering shapes on the underside of the heavens, marking the border of the Glittering Sands, beyond the Frosthold Song.

Much closer, a sharp white light beams up from between the trees a few hundred metres away. The ringing is coming from that direction, so Ravi drops back to the ground through a rush of swishing greenery.

“There’s something over there,” he says, pointing to the northeast.

“We could ignore it?” Rolleck says.

Riyo is already striding off into the trees. “I can’t sleep with that racket going on.”

“It might stop.”

“Then we’d never know what it was.”

Rolleck sighs.

The sound grows louder as they walk, cutting through the night at a perfect angle to contrast the relative peace of the chorus of insects and animals that usually fill it. The curtains of foliage suddenly part to reveal an old building, buried by trees. There is another shatterbark pine growing straight up through the roof, and its west wall presses up so close to a sycamore that the branches have pushed through the stonework.

The interior is vacant. They climb a short set of crumbling steps into a large room with a low wall along one side. Fragments of rotted wood cling to it, suggesting it was once a counter. A set of rusted bollards don’t quite bar another door on the other side of the room, and the ringing is coming from just beyond it.

“Wow,” Riyo says as they emerge onto a raised platform. Surgically clean white light beams down from spotlights on the wall above them, illuminating the point where the stone ends and the forest begins once more. “It’s a train station.”

“A what?” Emerald asks.

“A place where trains stop,” Ravi says. He sounds excited.

Emerald sighs. “What’s a train?”

“It’s essentially a series of carts, pulled by an engine. They’re used to carry people and cargo over long distances.” Rolleck twirls the end of his moustache thoughtfully. “I’m not surprised you’ve never encountered one – they don’t come into the Everstall Song. At least, I thought they didn’t.”

“I thought they only started building the rail network up a decade or so ago,” Ravi says. “I heard a bunch of stories from travellers when the idea caught on in Ragg. Arianne and I were excited to ride one.” His excitement fades as the memories resurface, his sister’s look of wonder as they listened to a third hand tale of bulky metal horses pulling lines upon lines of carriages.

Rolleck puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes. “Your sister wouldn’t want her passing to sap the joy from the rest of your life, Ravi.”

Ravi nods, but it is difficult not to think of her, and when he does it is difficult not to feel responsible for her never getting the chance to ride a train.

“When you ride a train, enjoy it for both of you.” Rolleck squeezes his shoulder one more time.

“This train station is weird,” Riyo says. She has hopped down from the platform and stands a short distance down the line. “The tracks just stop over here.”

“This building has been here more than a decade,” Emerald says. The tree growing up through it is proof enough of that – shatterbark pines take at least forty years to reach that height.

“They stop over here, too,” Riyo says, now at the other end of the station. “And it’s not like the forest has eaten them. There isn’t so much as a hint of them beyond this point.” She turns to look up at them. She’s grinning. “It’s a mystery.”

“Not all mysteries need to be solved,” Rolleck says, but he has a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Yes, they do,” Riyo says. “Otherwise what’s the point in them being mysteries?”

Ravi and Rolleck share a glance, and Ravi shrugs.

“So,” he says. “A train station built long before trains were invented in a place where no tracks run.”

“Why do the tracks not run here?” Emerald asks.

Rolleck scratches his head. “Too much effort for not enough profit.”

“They’d have to cut down a lot of trees, and there just isn’t much out here worth going to,” Riyo says.

“There’s a station in Dole, right on the edge of Everstall,” Rolleck says. “They use it to take lumber out to the rest of the Songs.”

“Okay,” Emerald says. She looks around, but there are few clues as to why someone would build something like this out here. Aside from the platform and the tracks, there is only a slim pole with two alternately flashing lights on it. “What does the bell mean?”

“Usually, it means there’s a train coming,” Rolleck says.

They all look to one end of the tracks.

A handful of expectant moments wash by.

“I guess it just chose now to malfunction,” Emerald says.

“Does anybody hear that?” Ravi says.

“We’ve been hearing it for ages,” Emerald says. “It’s the whole reason we’re over here.”

“Not the bell,” Ravi says. “It’s like… a sort-of… chuffing sound.”

Rolleck rolls his eyes.

The tracks are suddenly rinsed in a silvery-blue light as two spinning portals open, their edges sparking white. The sort-of chuffing sound becomes a sort-of chuffing roar, and Riyo dives back onto the platform just in time to avoid being splattered by the train.

The engine is painted in flaking purple, with a few fragments of silver highlights still clinging around the edges. The smokestack releases a snapshot of steam and smoke into the Everstall air, and Ravi catches a glimpse of an empty cabin before the engine vanishes through the portal at the other end of the tracks. It is followed by carriages. Hundreds of them. They whiz by so quickly that only Ravi sees more than a crumbling purple blur. Each carriage is identical, and each is empty. Their wheels make a rhythmic drumbeat that fills in the dead space between the chimes of the bell.

Clack, ding, clack, ding, clack, ding.

“It’s slowing down,” Riyo says.

It is. Clacks and dings fall out of time, turning harmony to discord. The carriages become clearer, blurs of soft lavender becoming rows of upholstered seats. Each carriage has an emblem on it – a rearing unicorn.

The train’s deceleration leads it to an inevitable stop and, beneath the unicorn, a pair of doors slide open. A thin carpet of mist slinks out around their feet, and the bell falls silent.

“That was a bit dramatic,” Ravi says.

Rolleck looks to the portals at either end of the platform. “It would be extremely foolish for us to get on that train.”

Riyo is already on it. “Come on,” she says.

“Absolutely not,” Rolleck replies. “We have no idea where it goes or when it will come back. We don’t even know if there’s air on the other side of that portal.”

“There are no other passengers,” Ravi says. “There’s probably a reason for that.”

“Maybe they were eaten by something,” Emerald suggests.

“Maybe they were eaten by the train,” Ravi says, his eyes going wide.

The two of them share a look, then take a simultaneous step back.

“Guys, come on,” Riyo says. “It’s a magical train. It has a unicorn on it. It might take us to a mystical place where all our dreams come true and talking chickens feed us ice cream and stuff.”

“Or it might eat us.”

“Well I’m going,” Riyo says. “So I guess this is where our adventure together ends.” She turns her back on them. “It’s been fun.” She goes and sits by the window on the other side of the carriage.

“That’s childish,” Rolleck says.

“It’s Riyo,” Ravi says. He takes a step closer to the train. In Folvin, he had chosen to follow Riyo wherever she went. He wasn’t going to back down at the first sign of danger. She might be right. It might be a pleasant trip to a pleasant place. Besides, trains don’t eat people.

He hops onto the train and is not eaten. The seats are surprisingly comfortable despite their frayed material, and Riyo grins at him across the carriage.

Emerald has also chosen to travel with Riyo. She did so to see the unknown and experience the world. This, she supposes, counts as the unknown. She glances at Rolleck, who is staring grumpily at Riyo and refuses to acknowledge it. Then she sighs and steps onto the train. She, too, is not eaten. Her wings, still healing from her battle with Bronze, make sitting on the chairs difficult, so she holds on to a metal bar near the door.

An ephemeral whistle sounds, seeming to come from everywhere at once while still sounding distant. The bell begins to ring again.

“There is no way I’m getting on that train,” Rolleck says.

 

 

 

“If its any kind of salve to your pride,” Ravi says to Rolleck, “you were right about the air thing.”

The train is moving once more, and Rolleck sits opposite Ravi on a plush purple seat. His arms are as crossed as they can be for a man with a sword strapped to one of them.

If Ravi slouches, the view outside the window is similar to the view he saw from atop the canopy of the endless forest. A perfect bowl of blackness reaching from horizon to horizon, dotted with twinkling lights.

If he sits up, it becomes clear that this is not a bowl of blackness so much as a sphere. There are no horizons for it to reach for, so it just keeps going.

Emerald groans. She is sat in the middle of the aisle, her arms wrapped around her knees and her eyes firmly shut.

“I mean,” Riyo says, her face pressed up against the glass of the window, “we don’t know for sure that there’s no air out there.”

“It’s space!” Emerald wails. “There’s no air in space! There’s no ground in space! There’s no food, or plants, or fire, or spiders, or… or… There’s nothing! Nothing in space!”

“There’s a train,” Riyo says. She turns to Emerald. “You should really take a look. It’s beautiful out there.”

Emerald sobs and shakes her head. “When can we get off?”

“The next stop will be ffffffffffffffffkgibnt. We will arrive in rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrftbpudding.”

They all swivel to look at the door between their carriage and the next. A figure stands on the threshold, dressed in an immaculate suit that includes tails and a cravat. Though it is human in shape, its head resembles a purple balloon. Where its face should be is a mirror of rippling static, like the surface of a pond in heavy rain. Its white-gloved hands are held very still in front of it.

“Who are you?” Riyo asks.

“We will arrive in pudding?” Ravi says.

“I am H.E.R.T.Z. I am the train announcer. I am here to make your journey enjiiiiiiiiiiibrugft.”

“Huh. Okay. What does H.E.R.T.Z stand for?” Riyo says.

“Error. Data restricted. Passengers do not have access to zzzzzzzzzzzzktriflpsaveme.”

H.E.R.T.Z. is gone. Riyo hasn’t blinked, and yet she saw nothing. He was there, and now he isn’t.

“He seemed odd,” she says.

“In what way?” Rolleck says.

Riyo proves immune to his sarcasm, but Emerald interrupts her before she can speak.

“I think it’s rude to assume they were a ‘he’.”

“That’s fair,” Riyo says. “They seemed odd.”

“High Energy Robot Train Zombie,” Ravi suggests.

“What?”

“H.E.R.T.Z. High Energy Robot Train Zombie.”

“How could they be a robot and a zombie?” Riyo says.

“I don’t know. He said, ‘save me’ that time, though.”

“They,” Emerald says.

“Sorry. The first time they said ‘pudding’, that time they said, ‘save me’. Is that a coincidence?”

Riyo stands up and stretches. “I don’t know, but the mystery of the train still needs solving, so we’ll probably end up solving the H.E.R.T.Z. mystery on the way.”

“Where are we going?” Rolleck asks.

“To the front,” Riyo says, pointing to where H.E.R.T.Z. had been. “Everyone knows the best part of the train is the front.”

“I didn’t know that,” Emerald says. “Besides, what if we miss the chance to get off the train?”

“We’re not getting off until we’ve solved the mystery,” Riyo says, striding for the door. “So it doesn’t ma-”

There is a crackle of blue energy, and Riyo is flung back down the train. Emerald leaps to her feet and catches her.

“Ouch,” Riyo says.

“Passengers are advised to remain within their Carraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabtrbiscuit,” H.E.R.T.Z. says. They are now at the other end of the carriage, on the line that marks the very end of the aisle.

“Seems like we’re not allowed to leave our butter biscuits,” Rolleck says. He looks amused.

Riyo pouts at him. “Well I’ve never been one to stay in my butter biscuit for long. Ravi, there’s some kind of barrier. Destroy it.”

Ravi draws his bow over his shoulder and looks at it. “Do you think I can?”

“Probably!” Riyo says. “Oh, you can put me down, Emerald.”

Emerald has been focusing on H.E.R.T.Z. and the conversation in order to avoid looking out of the window. Thinking this reminds her of it, however, and she can’t help but glance at the emptiness. She whimpers and drops Riyo on the floor before crouching down and closing her eyes again.

“Ouch,” Riyo says, standing and rubbing her bum.

Ravi shrugs and pulls an arrow to his cheek. His curse-breaker crackles much like the barrier had, and when he loses the arrow it impacts something in the doorway. There is a crack like a tree succumbing to the wind and a shockwave bowls down the carriage, knocking Riyo back over. This time, Ravi falls too. Another crack and wave follow quickly after, this time subdued by distance. There is a third, and then a fourth. By that point the wave is barely a breeze, the crack little more than tap on the window.

Riyo jumps up and scurries to the door. She reaches gingerly for the threshold, then grins back down the carriage as she waves her arm through the space. “Good job, Ravi.”

Rolleck watches the other end of the carriage, expecting a visit from an angry H.E.R.T.Z., but the purple-faced apparition fails to appear.

“Let’s go, people,” Riyo says, marching into the next carriage.

Rolleck and Ravi share a shrug, then follow.

Emerald feels pinned to the carpet, but as her friends get further and further from her, she decides the only thing worse than being lost in space is being lost in space alone. She swallows and, keeping her eyes closed and guiding herself using the headrests on either side of her, she follows them.

It takes them nearly quarter of an hour to catch up with Ravi’s arrow. H.E.R.T.Z. does not bother them. Rolleck begins to wonder if perhaps they were linked to the barrier somehow, and thus destroyed by Ravi’s arrow.

Said arrow has been fired so straight that it hasn’t hit anything – simply run out of momentum and thunked into the carpet in the dead centre of the aisle. Riyo plucks it out and hands it back to Ravi.

“Nice shot.”

Ravi blushes, but his feathers hide it. “Thanks.”

“I guess you’ll have to do it again, though.”

“Please remain within your Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuffffffffffffffffthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhfindher.”

H.E.R.T.Z. is behind them. As soon as Riyo hears their voice, she flips the gravity of the carriage through a right angle. Both she and Rolleck fall down the aisle, landing on either side of H.E.R.T.Z. Their sharp white collar is suddenly being pressed against their throat by a pair of swords, one dull, straight iron, the other a wicked, curved claw.

Ravi is not yet well adapted to Riyo’s sudden gravity moulds. He grabs one of the chairs with a yelp, dangling over a seemingly infinite fall through the train. Emerald has found that, if she wishes, she can choose not to resist Riyo’s reality. Now, however, she is supremely focused upon the idea of not moving at all, so she remains standing perpendicular to everyone else, her eyes still closed.

“We just want to ask some questions,” Riyo says.

“But you’ve been a little difficult to pin down,” Rolleck adds.

“Hostility detected,” they say. Their arms do not move, and yet one moment they are folded politely in front of them, the next they are gripping both swords. “Weapons are prohibited on the traiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizutlcheesecake.”

H.E.R.T.Z. is gone again. Riyo’s sword is gone, too. She frowns at her empty hands before growling and releasing her reality. Ravi drops into the aisle with an ‘oof’.

Rolleck, having a much more intimate relationship with his sword, has vanished too.

“Damnit,” Riyo says, then yells, “Rolleck! Get back here you idiot!”

Her voice echoes down the train in both directions. There is no reply.

“H.E.R.T.Z.! Give me back my friend!” Also no reply.

“What do we do?” Ravi asks.

“We keep going,” Riyo says. “Knock down the next barrier. All these mysteries can be solved at the front of the train, I can feel it.”

“Right,” Ravi says. He steps past Emerald.

“Hey I was thinking,” Emerald says. Her eyes are still closed. “Is it really a good idea to keep breaking these barriers? What if one of the shockwaves blows out a window?”

Ravi fires, and the shockwave blows out two of the windows.

Nothing happens. He stares at the shattered glass, his heart thrumming like a train engine. He shares a silent look of wonder with Riyo.

“Erm, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Riyo says. “Seems like the train is made out of pretty stern stuff.”

“Let’s go,” Ravi says. They help Emerald’s blind fumble towards the next carriage. Riyo stops by one of the broken windows.

“Um,” Ravi says.

“It’s fine.”

“What’s fine?” Emerald says.

“Oh. Uh, nothing. Come on. The door’s right here.” Ravi bites his lip as Riyo sticks her head outside.

Beneath her, the wheels of the carriage spin silently. To either side, an eternal procession of carriages makes an unbroken line across the stars. Even for her, the sight is a little disorienting, so she pulls her head back in. She catches up with Ravi so she can whisper.

“There’s air out there.”

“That’s weird.”

“Right? It looks like we’ve got a long way to go to the front, too.”

“Err, Emerald? We’re going to pick up the pace a little,” Ravi says.

“Okay,” Emerald says. “I can guide myself as long as we keep going in a straight line. Just let me know if I’m lagging behind.”

She lets the two of them past, and they continue their journey down the train.

 

 

Rolleck the Lost does not know where he is. The carriage he now occupies is the same as the one he got on in the Everstall Song and the same as the one he was in a moment ago. He could be much closer to the front of the train, or much closer to the back. Outside, the same field of stars fills the window and spills over into the ones around it. The sudden silence is unbroken and claustrophobic. Riyo’s sword is on the floor beside him, so he picks it up in his off-hand. Its balance is dreadful, but he decides he can probably clobber somebody, or something, with it if he needs to.

“The next stop is uuuuuuuuuuuuuuukleptroplaaaaaaafindit,” H.E.R.T.Z. says.

“Find what?”

“We hope you have enjoyed your journiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiintrltttttttttttttttttttttFINDIT.”

Rolleck blinks at the sudden volume of H.E.R.T.Z.’s voice, and he grips the handle of his sword a little harder. The light changes. The windows no longer show the infinity of space. Instead, Rolleck catches a glimpse of rolling waves and overcast skies. Then the doors fly open and he feels as though he is in Riyo’s reality – falling with no control over which way. He shoots out of the doors and tumbles onto hard stone as the rest of the train whips by.

He manages to stop himself, but then hesitates before leaping at it. Even if he is able to grab onto it at this speed without significant injury, he will be clinging to the outside of the train when it goes back into space. He is not sure that’s such a good idea.

The moment passes and the last car rolls through the second portal. The two circles of flashing, fluttering light spin out like expended fireworks, leaving only sparks and memories. The bell that marks the drive-by clings its last clang and is silent.

“Shit,” Rolleck says. He has even less of an idea where he is now.

The station is in better repair than the one in the Everstall Song, but only for the lack of attention from the forest. It is still old and long-unused, and though no plants have attempted to climb inside it, the wind has done its work carving stone into dust.

Beyond the platform, there is water. In fact, in every direction Rolleck looks, there is water. To each horizon all he sees is softly rolling waves and greyish water reflecting a greyish sky.

Rolleck reaches over the edge of the platform and scoops up a handful of it. He doesn’t taste the salt of the sea on it, nor smell the briny ocean on the wind. It seems to be fresh water. He sits down, with his legs dangling from the edge of the platform and remembers swimming. He hasn’t done it for a long time. The sword makes it more difficult, but not impossible. He remembers learning to swim, too. His memories of that time are hazy. He doesn’t remember who taught him to swim, or how long it took him to learn. But he does remember the joy of it. Of mastering something.

He glances back at the station. Its forlorn visage against the stark sky makes it feel like he could wait here forever and die of old age before he saw the train again. On the other hand, the monstrous lake before him could drown him before he ever saw land. For all he knows, he is on a completely different planet that has no land at all. He looks between them a few times. Both options seem bleak, and he has never been good at sitting still. Running is in his blood.

Walk. Run. Swim. It doesn’t matter. I am coming.

Something breaks the surface of the lake. For a moment, he is not sure whether the creature is quite small and quite close, or impossibly massive and very far away. It is certainly long. It takes nearly two minutes for its scaly hide to roll by, and in that time Rolleck works out that it is on the latter side of the depth perception question. He stands and takes a step back from the edge. Bleak as the station may be, it doesn’t have that in it. He shudders as the thing’s tail makes a splash that touches the underside of the clouds. Rolleck the Lost sits again with his back to the wall of the station, watching the spot where the monster has vanished beneath the waves. He decides not to go swimming today.

 

 

 

Carriages pass by in a blur created by boredom rather than speed and, after more than an hour of walking, Riyo’s thirst for mystery is being subsumed beneath her growing weariness. The heady sights of deep space are the same as they were before, and there is only so long she can wonder at them before realising they have been there for billions of years and would be for billions more. It’s no more impressive that they exist than that she does.

I feel like we should have arrived by now,” Ravi says. “I know a lot of carriages went by before we got on, but…”

“Something’s not right,” Riyo agrees.

“We’re on a train in space,” Emerald says. She has managed to keep her eyes closed for the entire trip so far, which is fortunate because they have passed a lot more broken windows. “Nothing is right.”

“It seems weird for a dragon to be scared of heights,” Riyo says.

“I’m not scared of heights. Height is a relative term that is meaningless in space. That is what is scary. If you go out there, then you do not come back. There is nothing you can do to save yourself. My wings might as well be made of paper and string.” She gives what could almost be called a whimper and sits down again. “Let’s take a rest.”

Riyo puts her hands on her hips. “Fine. But we’re not waiting too long. We need to get to the front.”

“What if we’re walking in a circle?” Ravi says.

“Huh?”

“Like… What if we’ve just been walking through the same carriage over and over again?”

“Umm…” Riyo squints at nothing for a moment, then shakes her head. “Either you would have shot us in the back when we broke the barrier, or we’d never find your arrows.”

“True,” Ravi glances back at where Emerald is squatting by the door, clutching the nearest chair for comfort. He then turns back to Riyo. “So, what if the whole train is a loop – we’re just being sent back to the end of the train every time we get close to the front. This H.E.R.T.Z. character isn’t moving fast – they’re teleporting instantly. Maybe we’re being moved instantly to the exact same position in an identical carriage and just not noticing?”

“H.E.R.T.Z. seems to have to touch us to move us, though,” Riyo says. “And they also seems to be stuck to the doorways.”

They both look back to the doorway.

“Like the one we left Emerald in?”

“Yeah,” Riyo says. “Like that one.”

 

 

 

 

Emerald feels someone touch her shoulder, then the chair she was clutching is gone. A trickle of fear runs through her and clashes with her need to know what has happened.

“Riyo?” she says. “Ravi?” She cannot feel their presence. In fact, she feels acutely alone.

“The next stop is vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvqulotorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfindit.”

Emerald’s eyes snap open. Before her is the door of a carriage, the unicorn above it mirroring the one on the outside in dull purple. H.E.R.T.Z. is standing off to her left, at the end of the aisle.

“No, no, no,” she says. Feeling panic rising in the back of her throat. “Don’t you dare open those doors.”

“We hope you have enjoyed your journnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnfglopfffffffffffffffFINDIT.”

“Don’t you dare!” Emerald screams, then the doors open onto infinite blackness.

Emerald grabs for the nearest seat, but she is being dragged towards eternity by some unseen force. She has no control and no way to fight. It’s like she is in space.

Her scream carries her out of the car and, despite her fears of nothingness, she hits something immediately. She scrabbles to her feet and looks around a broken, burning place. Spires of crimson rock are scattered across a vast field of ash. To her right squats a volcano, breathing a constant stream of rolling smoke into the sky, almost hiding a sheet of pitch-black cloud. Behind her lies the remnants of a train station. Only the platform retains a hint of its original shape. Of the building itself, no two stones remain atop one another. Those that scatter the space are charred black.

Before her, a road of shattered flagstones leads off past the nearby mountain and into the endless grey field. At intervals, metal spikes have been driven into the earth and adorned with broken bones that vary wildly in size. In the middle of the road stands a creature of flame and hatred. It has the torso of a man and the lower body of a four-legged beast, all made from black stone that cracks in places to let liquid lava ooze from its skin. Its head is a steel skull, surrounded and held aloft of its body by a mane of chaotic fire.

“It has been some time since anyone arrived here by train,” the creature says, its voice like someone rubbing two burning rocks together. “I had thought the fools had finally learned what it means to enter this place.” He looms in over Emerald, his toothy grin seeming to mock her. “Those who came before you all called this place…” He pauses for drama. “Hell.”

Emerald falls to her knees, clutches a talon full of ash and dirt. A single tear slips over her scales and makes a darker crater in the grey beneath her. She can feel her body shaking.

“Thank goodness,” she says.

“Huh?” the fire monster says.

She looks up at him and smiles. “You have ground.”

 

 

 

 

“That’s it,” Riyo says, marching on through the carriage until she reaches the centre. She glances at the unicorn above the door. “So much for a magical journey to wonderland.”

“What’s the plan, exactly?” Ravi asks. The carriage around him suddenly feels extremely fragile. He has been reassured by how well the train has survived a few broken windows, but he once saw Riyo Falsemoon lift half a mountain’s worth of boulders and stack them all on top of each other, just so they had a higher point to scout from. He is not sure the train could survive her wrath, magical or not.

“We’re going to walk along the top,” she says, looking up at the ceiling.

“Okay,” Ravi says. Relief rising and then falling again as he follows her gaze. “Umm…”

“Relax – there’s air out there. I think it’s in a bubble around the train.”

“That’s fine, then. I guess. Umm.”

The roof explodes outwards in a tortured blast of cracks and splinters. Ravi flinches away from the inevitable cascade of sawdust and purple paint, then realises that it all went the other way. Riyo grabs his arm, and he doesn’t have time to yelp in fear before they are rising out of the train.

Being exposed to the vista changes it, a little. Riyo is glad of that. Without the confining walls of the carriage, it feels much more like she is in space. Stars and twisting nebulae throw their light and colour in an attempt to distract from the endless darkness between them, and for a moment its easy to understand Emerald’s fear. You could be trapped out here for an eternity and never even come close to a single fragment of anything. Just drifting alone. Forever.

“My goodness,” Ravi says.

“It’s immense. So much more and so much less than anything we’ve ever known.”

“It really puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?”

Riyo just nods.

“All that and I got to ride a train, too.”

Riyo smiles, and looks over at him, but he is lost in the majesty of infinity. Behind him, H.E.R.T.Z. stands above the short gap between carriages. Their purple static has gone red.

“Please keep your arms, legs, and torsos within the carriage at all ti­aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooFINDHER.”

They begin to flicker, then, between one end of the carriage and the other, letting off a high-pitched scream.

“That ruined the view a bit,” Riyo says, twisting a finger in her ear and grimacing. “Can you shut them up?”

“Let’s see,” Ravi says. He draws an arrow to his cheek and focuses on the end of the carriage. H.E.R.T.Z.’ flickering is constant. Predictable. As long as he releases at the perfect moment…

Flickering blue curse-breaker meets crackling red forehead and the whole train shakes. H.E.R.T.Z.’s head begins to expand around the hole the arrow has made in it. Its colour fades to grey as it grows larger and larger. Then, about four metres from the train, it comes into contact with something that buzzes in the same way the barrier between the carriages had. There is a whoosh of air, and H.E.R.T.Z is gone again.

“Welcome aboard the Twilight Express.”

They turn to find H.E.R.T.Z. behind them again. They are back to normal, or perhaps even better. Their head is now a perfect purple sphere, its surface smooth enough to reflect the starlight. They vanish, leaving the silence of the void as their only accompaniment.

“Did… Did I just fix them?”

“Maybe,” Riyo says. “But we still have a mystery to solve.”

“Right,” Ravi says. He can see an angled pillar of smoke and steam etching a line across heaven. It seems to go on forever. “We’re still quite far, but up here we’ll have a better idea of the progress we’re making.”

“Let’s go then.”

Riyo once more grows bored of the scenery. The stars twinkle but do not move. The colourful nebulae remain colourful but, when she thinks about it, they are not as colourful as a regular rainbow that she’s seen loads of back on Valos. Tiring of the spectacular is worse than normal boredom, she decides, because the disappointment is unexpected and therefore stings more.

“Are we getting closer?”

Ravi squints. “Maybe.”

“We’ve been walking for hours.”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“That should be enough to tell, though.”

“Mmmmm.”

They walk for a little longer in silence. Riyo loses track of just how long, but it feels like still more hours.

“Where do you think Rolleck and Emerald are?”

“Hopefully still on the train,” Ravi says. He keeps squinting at the smokestack. Usually, he is good at judging distance. With nothing besides the train itself to use as a reference, though, he is struggling to tell if they are getting closer.

“We might have walked right over them.”

“They’re probably not sitting still. They’ll be moving towards the front again. They might even beat us there. We are getting closer,” he decides. “But not as fast as we should be. Its like… for every three carriages we cross, we get one carriage closer. It’s bizarre.”

“More or less bizarre than a trans-galactic train?”

“Touché.”

“So we will get there, eventually?”

“Looks like it,” Ravi says.

They walk a little further.

“How long do you think-”

“An hour or so.”

“Bloody hell.”

“It is what it is,” Ravi says. “We just have to keep wa-”

Riyo glances to her right. Ravi is gone.

She looks back. They have just crossed from one carriage to the next.

RIyo growls in the back of her throat. “I thought we fixed you, you dumb robozombie!”

The void responds only with its continued emptiness.

“Fine. Time for a shortcut,” Riyo says.

 

 

 

“-lking,” Ravi says, then blinks. Where the eternal log-post of the smokestack should be, there is now a flaky purple door and a series of much lighter purple chairs. He blinks again, taking a moment to process.

“Drat,” he says to the empty carriage. Neither end holds a H.E.R.T.Z., but Ravi pulls his bow from his shoulder and holds an arrow at the ready, just in case.

“Rolleck? Emerald?”

There is no response.

“H.E.R.T.Z.?”

“The next station is Atkar,” they say. “We hope you have enjoyed your journey on the Twilight Express.” They stand at the end of the carriage, as usual. Their appearance isn’t quite as clean and crisp as it had been in the moment after the arrow pierced them. Their head is not quite perfectly spherical and is beginning to show the first ripples of the coming rain.

Even so, they seem much more coherent than before.

“Where are my friends?” Ravi asks.

H.E.R.T.Z. remains silent. They have no features, but in previous instances they have left almost as soon as they said their piece. Now they remain. Ravi gets the awkward sensation that he is being stared at imploringly. Like H.E.R.T.Z. is waiting for him to do something glaringly obvious.

“I’m probably not asking the right questions, am I?”

The unnerving stare that is not a stare continues.

“If you really are a robozombie, then you must have some kind of program, right? Certain ways you have to respond to circumstances?”

Stare.

“So you’re the train announcer, which means you have to announce stuff. Like when we tried to move between the carriages and when we broke out of the train – you gave us those warnings.”

Nothing changes about H.E.R.T.Z. posture or appearance, but Ravi feels like their impatience is turning to frustration.

“So you can probably only tell us stuff a train announcer is supposed to tell people.”

That stare.

“You’re real judgy, you know that?” Ravi says, trying to decide what to ask.

“This is Aktar,” they say. “Please mind the gap between the train and the platform edgggggggggggftbtFINDHERDAMNITSHEISHERE.”

“Whoa,” Ravi says, and then he is airborne and sailing from the train.

He lands on his bum, momentarily blinded by fresh sunlight lancing down at him. It is blocked by a wall of people shaped shadows that his eyes resolve into people.

“By the Gods,” one of them says.

“What is it?”

“It came off the train.”

“Nothing comes off the train, idiot.”

“A girl fell off last year.”

“That’s a myth.”

“Who cares? Where else did this thing come from?”

“I have a name,” Ravi says, trading his attention around the crowd. The people that surround him vary wildly in age and appearance. Some are dressed well, in strangely cut suits and coats, others simply, in drab colours and frayed hems. A few are wearing short robes in crimson covered by shiny silver armour, and those ones are pushing through the crowd towards him.

“It can talk!”

“Is it a bird?”

“Is it a plane?”

“What’s a plane?”

“Uh… I don’t know.”

“Then why did you say it?”

Ravi is perplexed by these strange people, but, more so, he is worried about the figures of authority. Riyo will probably get to the front of the train and use it to come and find him, and when she does he needs to be nearby. He can’t clear the station out, so his best chance is to get away from the crowd and find somewhere he can watch from without being seen.

He clambers to his feet, causing everyone around him to take a step back into the people behind them. There is a little shoving that distracts from him, and he uses it to spring out of the press and onto the roof of the station. This gives him a chance to take in his surroundings properly, while below, people gasp and yelp.

Beyond the station is a city far larger than Folvin. Ravi’s mouth falls open as he stares. It goes on forever, sprawling and stretching, out towards the horizon. A massive walled section by a vast lake dominates the skyline off to his right, while to his left the city rises to a hill, on which stands a palace of spires and domes. There are surely more buildings before him than there are trees in the endless forest.

Something on the horizon catches his eye, and he follows it up, and up, and up. An impossible tower of iron reaches above the city, where it joins others, becoming a cross-hatch across the sky. A great cage for an entire city. Chains lead from the top of each strut down towards the city, and as he turns he notices that, in places, the horizon is closer than it should be. The entire city, then, is being held aloft by this framework.

“Please come down from the roof, sir,” one of the red-robed figures says from below. Ravi swallows. He can’t afford to be distracted by this bizarre place. He needs to get back on that train.

“What do you intend to do?” he asks.

“We’d like you to come back to our temple. Our superiors will want to speak with you.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Ravi says, eyes skating around as his tongue buys him time. Though the city is mind-bogglingly huge, it appears the station is on the edge of it. There is a fence surrounding station and tracks, but beyond it is a field of golden wheat that seems to match the city in its size. All those people must eat a lot, he supposes. The stalks look to reach almost his height, and he can probably see a lot further through them than these people can. He could stay lost in that field for a long time.

The armoured man mutters something under his breath, and a long, tubular contraption appears in his hands. He points it at Ravi.

“Please come peacefully, sir,” he says. “This is your final warning.”

Ravi has no idea what the thing in the man’s hands will do, but he knows when he has a weapon pointed at him.

He leaps for the fence, arcing over the mesmerised crowd and surprising the robed man enough that he does not think to fire his weapon. He lands atop the fence, then blinks. Just inside the field of corn, hidden enough that those on the platform cannot see her, is a young girl. She has silver hair and eyes to match. They almost seem to glow. She is wearing a navy-blue cap with a flat top and a jacket that is far too big for her.

A girl fell off last year, a voice from his memory insists.

Something hits the fence by his foot, striking sparks from it. Ravi glances back to find the robed man’s tube pointed at him.

“Hold still,” he shouts, still barely audible above a suddenly screaming crowd. “The next one won’t miss.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Ravi mutters, before dropping from the fence and diving for the girl. She gasps and tries to turn, but Ravi is far too quick. He grabs her around the waist and begins sprinting deeper into the field. Behind him, there is a bang that sends wheat flying up into the sky. Nothing hits Ravi.

“Let me go!” the girl hisses at him. She obviously doesn’t want to be found either, for she has kept admirably from screaming.

“In a moment,” Ravi says. “I don’t want to be followed.”

Surprisingly, the girl lets him carry her away from the station, until the sounds of people fade away. He slows, turning off his straight path and walking more carefully so as not to disturb the wheat. After a few more minutes he stops and puts the girl down. She grumpily straightens her jacket and hat before putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him.

“Who are you supposed to be?”

“My name is Ravi,” he says. “And I’m sorry for treating you that way, but I need to talk to you.”

“Why?” She seems a little mollified by his apology.

“You were on the train, weren’t you?”

She watches him in silence for a moment. Her eyes are glowing. They look like two silvery moons.

“I was,” she says at last. “You were, too. What of it?”

I need to get back onto it.”

“You can’t,” she says, sighing out the last of her suspicion and sitting down. “The train doesn’t stop here anymore.”

Ravi’s heart sinks. “Can we… make it stop? Somehow?”

The girl shakes her head. “Only the conductor can make it stop.” She lies back and stares up at the strange sky. “And I’m not the conductor anymore.” She says the last so quietly that Ravi barely hears it.

“You’re the conductor?”

“No,” she says, sitting up and scowling. “I just said I’m not.”

“But you were! You must know something that can help.”

“If I did, I’d be on my train, idiot,” she says. “But I can’t stop it without my dolls. Without them, I’m… I’m not the conductor.” She flumps back down again, defeated.

“My friend is still on the train,” Ravi says. “She’ll find a way to come back for me.”

“Not likely,” the girl says, still staring at the sky. The way she speaks is full of early-teens attitude, and it reminds Ravi of his sister. “The rotten thief that took my dolls will throw her off. Like you. Like me. Like everyone.”

Ravi smirks. “Riyo doesn’t exactly fall the way people throw her.”

 

 

 

The smokestack is now below Riyo. The roofs of the carriages are a brown blur to her left, the stars make a wall to her right, and H.E.R.T.Z. is really upset with her. Whether they be robot, zombie, or something in-between, they are not immune to her reality. So, as she falls, she holds a wedge of altered gravity beneath her, similar to the one she had used to deflect dragonfire in Folvin. Every time H.E.R.T.Z. appears in her path, they are torn in half. This does not, however, stop them from reappearing again a little later, hale and whole.

Well, almost hale. For the brief moment Riyo sees them each time, they appear a little worse for wear. Returning towards the state they had been in when they first met. And then getting worse.

The smokestack barely seems to get closer, even though she is falling as quickly as her body can reasonably manage. Some would call this flying, but she is literally falling with style. She can only manage this because she has a consistently flat frame of reference in the train. There are no tiring micro-adjustments to be made to account for changes in land and atmosphere. Even so, she can feel the strain beginning to press against her temples. If she does not arrive soon, she will have to stop and rest, or simply find another way.

The smokestack flits past her. She blinks, then desperately drags inwards with her reality, giving herself a small atmosphere. Though she begins to arrest her momentum, she cannot slow down in time and feels the change beyond her reality as she leaves the bubble around the train. She drifts to a stop, and for a moment she is free. Nothing but void in every direction, nothing but starlight and silence. Riyo is struck by the beauty of it once more. The perfect tranquillity that threatens to steal her senses, to capture her very essence and hold it there, still, for all of eternity.

Then she is struck by the train.

She manages to alter her reality so that she is falling with it. The impact merely sets her head ringing like the warning bell at the station. She clutches to flay paint and rusting metal, eyes scrunched closed. With some effort she alters her reality again, making the front of the train her floor and allowing herself to collapse and roll onto her back. There, she lies panting until she has her breath and her wits back.

“At least I made it to the front,” she breathes to herself, because she has no one to talk to and, after exposing herself to the grasp of nothingness, she is feeling a little lonely. “Now to get my friends back.”

She stands and walks around the end of the train, altering gravity in such a way that her inner-ear doesn’t even notice the change. She squats down beside the cabin and peers inside. The space is mostly empty. A series of levers and knobs occupy what ought to be the control panel, but there is no driver to tend them. Despite the constant stream of smoke and steam escaping into the void, the boiler and furnace are both empty and clean. The controls themselves look brand new.

H.E.R.T.Z. is standing by the door. Their head is now more like a ball of constantly fluctuating spikes, and their discomforting stillness is gone. They now jerk around every now and then, their entire form contorting in ways that would break a human body. Their clothing suggests they are facing out of the carriage down the train, and they certainly don’t react to Riyo.

Nor does the other occupant of the cab. He is sitting on the floor with his eyes closed, his shoulders rising and falling evenly, as though he is asleep. Riyo can see his eye roving beneath their lids, and he is muttering to himself in words too quiet for her to hear. His hair is long and blonde, falling over his shoulders and merging with his tangled beard to make a haystack of his head. His clothes were once rich, but time has faded the red of his coat and frayed the hems of his grey trousers. Old dust and dirt make him look like he has been living wild for some time.

In his hands he holds a doll. It looks like H.E.R.T.Z.

Riyo slips into the cab and lets her reality close. It pangs at her brain and makes her wince, but it will take a little more exertion for it to be dangerous.

“Where is she?” the man growls, making her jump.

She regards him for a moment, then shrugs.

“I’m right here.”

His eyes jerk open wide enough for the train to drive into them. They’re murky green, like swamp water.

“H.E.R.T.Z.!” he squeals, scuttling backwards towards the door on his hands. He backs into, and through, the robozombie, who turns around to sort-of face Riyo.

“Passengers may not enter the drivers cavvvvvvvvvvvvvltrtwSAVEME.”

“Get her out of here!” He jabs the doll in Riyo’s direction.

H.E.R.T.Z. stops their weird, jerky movements, standing ramrod straight. The ball of rampant needles where their head should be turns from purple to green.

“Jurisdiction boundary encountered. Attempting to contact Argon. Attempt failed. Attempting to contact Merlot. Attempt failed. Systems inactive. Overriding jurisdiction boundary.” H.E.R.T.Z.’s ‘head’ flashes red, then vanishes entirely. “Override successful. H.E.R.T.Z. unit now has access to all levels of fzzzzzzztz.”

Nothing happens for a short, tense moment.

“What did you do?” Riyo asks the man.

“I-”

H.E.R.T.Z. head flashes back into existence, now an angry red sphere that pulses with light, filling the whole cab with its warning glare.

“Corruption detected. Reverting to central program.”

H.E.R.T.Z. is in front of Riyo. She doesn’t have time to blink before their neat, white glove is connecting with her nose, driving her back against the wall.

“Ouch,” she says. H.E.R.T.Z. bears down on her, but out of the corner of her eye she sees them, still standing between the cab and the first carriage. Then another one kicks her in the stomach.

The two in front of her grab her by either arm while she’s still reeling and breathless, pinning her against the wall.

“Central protocol has been corrupted,” the H.E.R.T.Z. on her left arm says.

“I am now free to converse outside the restrictions of my former jurisdiction,” right H.E.R.T.Z. says.

“Are you free to let go of me?” Riyo gasps.

Another H.E.R.T.Z. appears behind the original, and then another, further along the carriage.

“Corruption containment failed,” left H.E.R.T.Z. announces.

“rftftftftftftftft previous stops chosen to maximise probability of return of lost functions Argon and Merlot.”

“Can you even hear what I’m saying?” Riyo says. There are more H.E.R.T.Z.s popping into existence around the cab and as far as she can see down the train. She suspects they are beginning to fill every carriage.

“Control unit located. Conductor confirmed. Protect Conductor. Protect Twilight Express.”

“aererfderrfeeder stopthetrain dreoritititititititititi retrievemissingunits wowowowowowowowowowo FINDHER.”

The man with the doll has scurried away down the train, replaced with enough H.E.R.T.Z.s that soon Riyo is going to struggle to breathe.

“Protect the Conductor,” they all say at once. Ever one of them turns to face her.

“Stop the train, huh?” Riyo says. “I guess it’s worth a try.” She stares the closest H.E.R.T.Z. in roughly the spot where their eyes might be. “Gravity mould.”

H.E.R.T.Z.s start flying.

 

 

 

Rolleck the Lost has, in the past, often found himself in places he doesn’t know. Places where he has no friends, and where a tall man with a large sword might not, at first, be entirely welcome. As such, he has become quite good at disarming small talk.

“I’m a traveller by necessity,” he says, “rather than desire. In my heart I’m a police officer – someone who protects those who cannot protect themselves and serves justice. I think everyone has a view of themselves like that. An image that, even should circumstances take them from it, they strive to uphold.”

“I agree,” Herbert rumbles. “I am somewhat similar, I think. I am a guardian. One who protects, like you. I have always seen myself as such, even though I now have precious little to protect.”

Herbert’s voice is almost too vast and deep for Rolleck to hear, but fortunately he is several hundred metres away, so by the time is reaches him it isn’t enough to tear his eardrums open. Herbert’s voice is such because he is, by Rolleck’s best estimate, more than a mile long.

Apparently, he has good hearing. Rolleck does not have to raise his voice to uphold his end of the conversation.

“What is it you protect now?”

“A great treasure. One left by those who once inhabited this place.” Herbert’s voice ripples to him over the surface of the water. “This planet is called Zast, and I was born from the fires of its birth. I will likely die when it crumbles to dust. Now, it is covered entirely by this lake, but once it was home to creatures much like you. Creatures with language and thought. At first, they feared me. Then they worshipped me. Then they befriended me.” His mouth quirks into a smile, which can’t help but look disturbing on his fifty-foot fish face. “I was sad to see them claimed by changes in this planet that I could not defend them from. The lake rose, diseases propagated, wars and weather made life a misery until the last of those I wished to protect was gone.”

“I am sorry for your loss,” Rolleck says. “It is not easy to feel powerless like that.” Rolleck thinks of what happened to Yosht Torgliff the fire chief while he was helplessly tumbling through the air.

Herbert closes his eyes and nods. “Millenia have passed, since then, but it is still my greatest failure. In the hope of making amends, I now protect what they left. Whatever it is, it calls to thieves and profiteers from across space. Many came on the train, others aboard vessels that ply the universe. I told all of them that the treasure belongs to this planet. A number of them disagreed and tried to take it.”

“And yet it is still here,” Rolleck says. Herbert is being affable, but Rolleck has been around long enough to recognise threatening subtext. He shakes his head. “There is a similar treasure on my world. Perhaps there is one on every world. My companion seeks ours, but not for its value or its power. Your treasure is safe from us.”

Herbert watches him for a moment, then nods.

“Corruption detected. Reverting to central program.”

Rolleck spins and finds H.E.R.T.Z. behind him. They have no head.

“Location confirmed. Argon control unit detected. Twenty metres east-by-northeast, elevation minus thirty-six metres.”

“The creature from the train,” Herbert says, his monstrous brow furrowing. “The Twilight Express has been acting strange, of late. It no longer stops here – merely rushes through and discards its detritus. Usually, that means the corpses of the slain.”

Rolleck narrows his eyes. Before turfing him out onto the platform, H.E.R.T.Z. had glitched and asked him to find something.

“Did anything else ever fall from the train? Before the corpses?”

“Bits and pieces,” Herbert says. “All of it lies at the bottom of the lake.”

H.E.R.T.Z. head reappears. It is a perfect sphere, now, but it pulses red.

“Protect the Conductor.”

A second H.E.R.T.Z. appears right in Rolleck’s face. He lashes out, and the doppelganger falls in half, light as cloth. Their body flickers away into static shapes, and then nothing. There is already a third H.E.R.T.Z. behind them, and a fourth closer to the original.

“Has this ever happened before?” Rolleck asks, parrying aside a punch from a fifth H.E.R.T.Z. that appears on his left and ripping them apart with the riposte.

“No,” Herbert says. It makes him cringe, and he realises Herbert is drawing closer to the platform. His expression has turned sour.

H.E.R.T.Z.s are flashing into existence all across the platform, strobing heads turning the space into a flickering ruby nightmare.

“Do you mind if I take a swim? I need to find something that fell from the train.”

Herbert growls. It hurts Rolleck’s insides. “When you did not immediately begin searching this place, I suspected you were different. If you prove me wrong, know that you will suffer the same fate as everyone else.”

Rolleck swallows. “You got it.” He manages. “Which way is north?”

“Behind me,” Herbert says. He is now close enough that his voice makes the platform vibrate.

“Thanks,” Rolleck says. He finds the rough direction original H.E.R.T.Z. gave and dashes along the platform. The robozombie’s myriad forms attempt to interfere, but they are paper to him. He cleaves through those that impede him and slips past those that flail in from the sides. Then he runs out of platform and dives.

The water is cold. The shock of passing the surface makes Rolleck freeze up, and for a moment the blackness beneath and the pressure on all sides is all-consuming. His body flushes itself with adrenalin that it is not sure how to use, making him feel as though his muscles will rip free and swim off on their own.

The moment passes, and a long-unused instinct makes him kick for the surface. He breaches in time to see Herbert deal with the H.E.R.T.Z. problem.

The enormous guardian takes a breath, then exhales it.

That’s all it takes. Bodies roll away from the station in a mass wave, as though they are caught up in a hurricane. Red light plays across blue water as the H.E.R.T.Z.s splash down.

More appear to take their places, repopulating the platform almost as soon as the first wave is gone. All Herbert has to do, however, is continue to breathe. He was going to do that anyway.

Rolleck takes a deep breath and dives.

 

 

 

Emerald the dragon has, in the past, often found herself in places she doesn’t know. Places where she has no friends, and where a fire-breathing lizard with a twenty-foot wingspan might not, at first, be entirely welcome. As such, she has become quite good at disarming small talk.

Sometimes, however, people just don’t seem to want to listen to her.

“You will rue the day you came here, worm!”

“Shut up,” Emerald says, smacking the creature’s skull. It puts another dent in his cranium.

“Argh!”

Emerald stands by the thing’s prone form, the fires of his mane licking around her in a nice, warm halo. He has now tried to stand three times, but Emerald insists that he stay where he is. It’s easier that way. He is starting to come around to her way of thinking.

She frowns at the crumbling platform and the worn-but-otherwise-undamaged tracks. It seems foolish for her to take a walk around this Hell place and risk missing the return of the train. Loathe as she may be to get on it again, it’s her only reasonable way home. Besides, her friends are probably still on it.

“How often does the train come through here?” She asks her new friend.

“This place will be your gr-clang-argh!”

“I intend for my grave to stand beside my father’s,” Emerald growls, “not in this bleak, empty place. If you don’t answer my question, though, then yours will be in whichever pit I stamp your shiny head into.”

“The train passes through only sometimes,” the creature says after a moment of reflective silence. “There is no pattern.”

“Does it stop?”

“It used to stop often, sometimes depositing new victims into my care.”

Emerald cuts his self-indulgent pause short by scratching him above the eye socket. Red hot metal curls out from the gash she leaves, and he yelps again.

“Now it only passes through,” he continues quickly. “Sometimes, dead bodies and other trash are thrown from it as it does.”

His tone seems to expect Emerald to be bothered by this, but she doesn’t care. Instead she weighs her options. If the train comes back, it will be because Riyo makes it. In that case, she won’t then leave until she knows Emerald is aboard. She has some time to kill.

“Where’s the stuff that got thrown off the train?” Emerald asks.

There is a moment’s pause once more, but Emerald senses that this one is different, so she doesn’t hit the creature.

He mumbles something that is too quiet to hear, despite the fact that she is standing next to his head.

“What?”

“I kept it,” he says.

“Even the corpses?”

He shrugs his crag-like shoulders. “There’s not much to do around here. Since the train started acting weird, this guard post has gone to the Hellhounds. I thought maybe I could, y’know, use the bones to spruce the place up a little more?”

“Uh-huh,” Emerald says slowly.

“Well, you know. The spikes are all well and good, but they’re a bit samey. See, they say the demon king lives in a burning castle of bones. And, of course, I haven’t got an ego that big, but I thought with enough I could maybe do a tower, or a little keep? Or even something a little more artful.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I reckon I could re-imagine the train station, but in bone. I like it because, for a split second when they get off, people would think its normal. That they’re in a safe place. Then the horror of realisation dawns, and I’m there behind them to throw in a good, despair-inducing laugh to really seal the deal.”

Emerald is looking at the platform, her eyes slightly out of focus. In her head she sees something like the station in the Everstall Song, but faded and white. Maybe it’s just a light wood, like ash or maple. But no, why would someone carve a board of wood into that shape? It looks almost like… no. No! Noooooooo…

Muahahahahaha!

“It could totally work!” she says.

“Right?”

Emerald glances at the creature with a smile, then remembers he’s a fiery rock monster.

She smacks him again. “Take me to your stash, damnit.”

“Grah! Sorry. Okay.” He clambers to all four of his feet, then shakes off a layer of ash and dust. For a tense moment Emerald worries he might try fighting again, but then he shrugs and starts walking towards the volcano.

“I’m Abaddon, by the way,” he says.

“Emerald.”

“I wasn’t lying when I said you’d regret coming here,” Abaddon says.

Emerald shoots a glare at him, clenching her talons.

He flinches back. “You’re strong. Too strong for me. But the demon king knows everything that happens in his realm. He’ll send one of his generals and an army to crush you. They’re probably already on their way. The generals are…” the giant creature made of fire and magma shivers.

“I’ll be gone by then.”

Abaddon glances at her then keeps walking. “The train no longer stops here.”

“It will if someone makes it.”

He does not reply, but Emerald gets the feeling he thinks her confidence false.

Abaddon lives in a cave in the side of the volcano. Its pitch-black walls, lit by drooling magma, give Emerald a surprising pang of homesickness. It has only been a couple of weeks since she left Yl Torat, but the tumultuous state of her homeland makes her worry about it often. Perhaps leaving was a mistake after all.

But no. Bracken’s are a fair more capable set of claws than hers in which to leave the fate of a kingdom. She shakes the feeling and focuses on what is in the cave. As advertised, it is mostly bones.

There are things amidst and between the bones, however. Clothing that has not entirely burned away. Trinkets that unfortunate travellers have lost with their lives. Jewellery of fanciful design and coins of unknown denominations make little piles of wealth that bought their owners no safety.

Emerald pokes around amongst the pale white mounds, careful not to break any of the more fragile bones. They will be needed to plug the gaps between the larger ones to give the faux station a more convincing and solid appearance.

She scowls at herself for getting so into the idea, then something in the corner of her eye sparks recognition.

She shifts aside a few more bones and plucks a little figure from the pile.

“A doll?” Abaddon says.

It is. A yellow tiger, striped in black and wearing an eye patch. It is grinning, showing gruesome fangs, and it holds a wrench in each paw. What has caught Emerald’s attention, however, is its suit. It looks just like the one H.E.R.T.Z. was wearing. If she looks closely, she can read the little name badge on its breast.

Merlot.

“I need to get back to the station,” Emerald says.

Abaddon shrugs. “The demon king knows all that happens in his realm. You wouldn’t be able to hide from him anyway.”

When they return to the broken platform, they find it occupied. H.E.R.T.Z. stands alone in the centre, his head a flashing red siren.

 

 

 

“I’m telling you, it never comes twice in the same day,” Connie says. She has refused to tell Ravi her name, so he is calling her Connie, as in ‘conductor’. He is rather proud of himself for thinking of it. Her response had been to roll her eyes and say, “Do whatever you want.”

“It will today,” Ravi says.

“Even if it does, it won’t stop.”

“It will today.”

“Ugh. Your confidence is stupid. We’re stuck here. Get over it.”

They squat amongst the wheat several hundred metres from the station. Connie does not believe that Ravi can see the platform from there, but she is reluctant to go closer anyway.

“If you’re so over it, why were you watching when I arrived?” He turns to her. “And why haven’t you run away yet?”

She just looks away. She doesn’t leave, though.

“Well, if you’re going to stay, do you mind telling me how you fell off the train in the first place?”

“I didn’t fall,” she says with a stamp of her foot. “I was pushed. That stupid thief took my doll and made H.E.R.T.Z. throw me off.”

“Do you know the thief?” Ravi asks, still watching the station. An imposing woman who towers over everyone there has appeared to take charge of the situation. Her robes and the armour over and around them are a cut above those of the others. There are creamy silver highlights across the metal and shiny scrollwork on the fabric. Her blonde hair and red garb remind Ravi a little of Riyo, but, while Riyo would struggle to intimidate a kitten, this woman scares Ravi from half a kilometre away.

“No,” Connie grumbles. “He’s just some crazy passenger who tricked his way past the carriage barriers. Total maniac. Looked like he fell off an expensive horse and has been living in a hedge ever since. Kept mumbling about some sunshine stone or something.”

Ravi blinks, then turns to Connie. “The sunlight stone?”

“Yeah. That’s it. You know it?”

“It’s a mysterious relic from my world. I’m on a journey to find it, as it happens.”

“Well your stupid rock cost me my home, bird face.”

“I’m sorry for that,” Ravi says, “but perhaps my friends and I can get it back for you.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Ravi stands up. “Well, it seems we might already have something to show you.”

“Huh?” Connie’s tone says she doesn’t care what Ravi has to say, but there is a sudden twinkle of hope in her eye that makes Ravi smirk.

“H.E.R.T.Z. is here.”

“That’s impossible,” Connie says.

“We can risk a closer look, if you like. Their head is a little strange, though,” Ravi says with a frown. “It’s flashing red.”

“Oh shit,” Connie says, and takes off at a run.

“Wait,” Ravi calls after her, but she does not. The wheat flutters and rustles around her as she charges through it, and Ravi follows in her wake. He catches her within a few strides, but he does not want to make any undue noise. She might choose to scream, this time. Instead, he follows her until she stops, dangerously close to the edge of the field and the eyelines of the robed people. H.E.R.T.Z. has been joined by several more of those.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Connie says. “She’s been allowed to override her jurisdiction.”

“She?” Ravi asks, which even he has to admit is probably not the pertinent question.

“Yes. She. You got a problem with that?” Connie growls.

“Not at all,” Ravi says. “It’s just… You know what? Never mind. What does it mean? That thing you just said?”

“It means H.E.R.T.Z. has access to all of the train’s systems, even the ones she wasn’t designed to control. There’s a risk of corruption.”

The platform has cleared somewhat, leaving the blonde warrior goddess and her acolytes to confront H.E.R.T.Z. She now holds a sword as tall as she is, with a blade that sparkles in the beaming sunlight.

“Corruption?”

“Glitches,” Connie says with a shrug. “Strange behaviour…” She bites her thumb. “I need to talk to her.” Her gaze moves to the armed people facing H.E.R.T.Z.

There is a yell from one of the acolytes. H.E.R.T.Z. has grabbed him from behind.

Everybody stares for a moment, eyes moving from one H.E.R.T.Z. to another.

“Oh no,” Connie breathes, and a battle erupts.

H.E.R.T.Z.s flicker into existence all over the platform, quickly surrounding the robe-clad contingent and driving them back by sheer weight of numbers. The golden-haired woman’s scowl turns fearsome, and her sword swipes through a whole group of robozombies. They flutter down as though there was nothing inside their suits, but more immediately appear to replace them.

“H.E.R.T.Z.!” Connie leaps from the wheat before Ravi can catch her. The robozombie army swivels towards her as one, faces pulsing in unison.

“Protect the Conductor,” they say, voice echoed a hundred times. The one closest to them raises her hand.

“I’m the Conductor,” Connie yells.

The H.E.R.T.Z. emits a bolt of blue that sparks like the barrier Riyo walked into. Ravi is not fast enough, and it strikes Connie in the chest. Her body jerks, and she is pitched through the air towards Ravi. He catches her with a grunt.

“That bastard,” she roars, jumping from Ravi’s grip and marching back towards the platform, apparently no worse for the shock.

She falters when the rest of the front line of H.E.R.T.Z.s raise their hands. Perhaps one bolt is nothing to her, but that many might sting.

Ravi grabs her by the back of her jacket and drags her out of the way just as a cascade of bolts strikes for her. They raise tiny puffs of dust from the ground where they impact instead.

“Listen to me, you stupid doll!” Connie shouts, completely ignoring Ravi. “Just make that guy put you down! Then things can go back to the way they were!”

H.E.R.T.Z. does not listen to her, and instead fires another volley of sparks. Behind the front line, the other H.E.R.T.Z.s are driving the robed people back through the station. Ravi yanks Connie out of the way of the blue bolts, then sends an arrow into the mess on the platform. It encounters no resistance, simply scattering H.E.R.T.Z.s into scraps in a straight line to the wall of the station where it sticks into the brickwork.

“It’s useless,” Connie says. “She can replicate infinitely. If she’s just following a wonky version of her basic protocol, then every platform on the line probably looks the same, and she’ll attack anyone who comes near.”

“So why the change?” Ravi asks, backing away as the gap he has made closes and more gloved hands are raised in their direction. “What made her, err… do the jurisdiction thing?” He does not understand half of the words the girl uses.

“The thief had to order her to do it. So… I guess he felt like he was in danger?”

“Oh,” Ravi says, hopping to avoid another bolt. “Well that’s actually good, isn’t it? It means Riyo’s found your thief.”

“It also means H.E.R.T.Z. is broken,” Connie says, her tone disparaging. “And that thief hasn’t got a fucking clue how to fix her. So unless your friend is a lot smarter than you and has a magitechnical engineering degree, there’s no way to stop the Twilight Express.”

“Oh,” Ravi says. “Well, I’m sure she doesn’t even know what one of those is. Still, I have faith in her. That means we have to wait here until she can stop it.”

They have backed off far enough that the H.E.R.T.Z.s no longer consider them a threat to the platform, their backs to the wall of wheat. The robed figures have retreated through the station, the audience of civilians fled beyond the perimeter fence. It has brought a restless quiet to the place. Hundreds of H.E.R.T.Z.s stand motionless, heads pulsing ominously.

“We could be waiting a long time,” Connie says. “She’s probably not even on the train anymore.”

 

 

 

 

Riyo uses gravity mould to bring herself to a stop. She frowns around at the darkness and starlight. When she had created her reality, she had imagined an ability that allowed her to move faster than others, punch harder, maybe even slap them around without even touching them. It had really all been about the aesthetic. She’d wanted to look cool. It was only later on that she had started to understand what she had made herself. The problem with letting teenagers make important decisions, she decides, is that even when they think they’re being serious, they aren’t.

Still, she had accidentally given herself far more power than she’d thought. It has just taken her several years to figure out the details. No doubt she will learn more about it in the years to come, but the thing she has learned today is that she can survive in space. The next thing she will learn is whether or not she can stop a runaway space train.

She takes a deep breath, one of a limited number she is allowed out here. This will hurt her a lot, when she closes her reality. Still, with the man and his doll lost to a train that is literally wall to wall with robozombies in every carriage, she has decided it isn’t realistic for her to pursue him. It is far more reasonable to just stand in front of the train and make it stop.

The speck grows larger rapidly, going from distant purple star to oncoming juggernaut of steel and wood. She throws her reality out in front of her, making a corridor roughly the size and shape of the train. Then she allows herself to begin falling, not quite matching the train’s speed. She feels the engine enter her reality, feels it pushing towards her. And she pushes back. While still falling away and dragging her reality with her, she makes it so that the train is climbing a vertical cliff.

Even so, it comes on, closing the distance between them. More of it enters her reality and takes the strain of the climb, but it isn’t enough. Whatever magic drives the train is powerful, and the momentum of the hundreds of carriages beyond her reality bear it forth. Riyo growls and thrusts her reality out further, capturing more carriages. A headache like a vice begins to tighten around her skull as she increases the intensity of the effect on the train. She feels it start to slow.

Sweat drips down her brow, feeling like searing droplets of molten metal. The pain extends out of her head and along her arms and legs, making her body tremble. The seconds stretch across the infinite blackness, roaring in her ears. She yells, reaching a hand out before her. Her fingers touch the front of the train, but it isn’t moving closer any more. With a final huff of smoke and steam, its wheels stop moving.

Angry hisses and flashes of blue light mark portals spinning into existence all along the train. In abandoned stations across the galaxy, train carriages flash onto rails left to be overgrown or buried or sunk. Doors open, letting H.E.R.T.Z.s spill out to join those already standing on platforms.

Riyo smiles faintly. She stumbles along the side of the cab and rolls through the window. White gloved hands grab at her, but she is too tired to contest them. Instead she closes her eyes and lets her reality go. Only blackness follows.

 

 

Rolleck the Lost flails blindly. His hand finds sand and rocks that scratch his skin. In the back of his mind, soft, grating laughter echoes as the pressure on his lungs grows. He growls in frustration, losing a little more of his precious air, then puts both feet to the lake bed and pushes towards the surface. He breaks it, sending droplets flying around him to spatter back down as a brief, disappointing rainfall.

Herbert is frowning down at a platform full of H.E.R.T.Z.s. They are just standing around, not really doing anything.

“They are just protecting it,” he says. “They can be left alone until the train arrives, I think.”

Rolleck just gasps in air, preparing himself for another dive. He is shivering, now, and his waterlogged waistcoat is growing heavier.

“I have also come up with a way to aid your search.”

The guardian is quiet for a moment, his eyes closed. Then yellow light bursts from around his head. It flows down his body, scales flushing with energy where before they were uniform grey. Rolleck grits his teeth as everything below him is washed in rippling light. It looks as though the sun has risen below the surface of the lake. He has wasted nearly an hour plunging into the murky depths and finding only pebbles and frustration. He does not want the enormous fish monster thinking he is ungrateful, however, so, when he has his breath back once more, he dives.

Once his eyes become accustomed to the water, he is glad he decided to keep his mouth shut. Herbert’s body encircles the area around the station completely, then trails off into a distance even his glow does not reveal. Rival, the dragon he fought in Folvin, had been big. Herbert could eat her whole, and it would take her weeks to pass through his digestive tract. He was truly massive.

Something catches his new light on the lakebed, and Rolleck swims towards it. He has developed an awkward side-stroke that allows him to use is sword as a paddle rather than just having to drag it behind him. He’d become quite proficient at it over the nearly twenty dives he has attempted so far. He reaches the cluster of rocks where the shiny thing lies with plenty of breath to spare and grabs it. It’s a small figure, rotund and chromatic. It is dressed in a neat suit with a cravat, though it is too small and leaves an acre or so of shiny belly visible for the light to reflect off.

He surfaces again, holding the doll aloft in triumph. The suit matches those worn by the idling H.E.R.T.Z.s, suggesting it is indeed what he has been sent to look for. What its purpose is, however, he cannot fathom.

“I got it,” he tells Herbert, who glances at him. Too human eyes in a too fishy face. Rolleck has to brace himself to keep from flinching from that gaze.

“Good,” Herbert rumbles. “And just in time, too. Something is coming.”

There is a familiar ringing sound rolling out with the waves of the lake, and a moment later a fizzing rush of blue light marks the opening of the two portals by the platform. The train does not rush through. Rather, it just appears. A single carriage fills the space between the two portals, and it is full of H.E.R.T.Z.s. The doors slide open and the two groups join like water being poured into the lake.

“It seems your ride home is over capacity,” Herbert says.

Rolleck lets out a sigh. “I suppose I’ll have to make some space.”

“Please allow me to help,” Herbert says. “It has been a long time since I met someone who didn’t come here to steal from me. Your company has been appreciated.”

Herbert lets out a pained grunt that makes the base of Rolleck’s skull vibrate. The guardian recoils, and Rolleck’s heat jumps, wondering what could make a creature so powerful flinch like that. Then it hits Rolleck, too. It feels as though his head has been split in two, and the pain crackles through his body to the tips of his fingers and toes before it passes. It is a familiar feeling. It is just a lot worse this time.

“Shit,” Rolleck says, lunging for the platform.

“What was that?” Herbert says.

“My friend is in trouble.”

Herbert grunts again. “All the more reason to see this place cleansed, then.”

There is a splash behind Rolleck that sounds like a thousand whales doing a synchronized swimming routine, and Herbert’s tail rises from the water. It is splayed wide, the face of it bearing the finale of the glowing pattern that now covers his body, and he waves it forward slightly. Streaks of light blitz the platform, incinerating every H.E.R.T.Z. on it. And they keep coming. Every time a new robozombie appears, it flashes into vapor.

Rolleck reaches the platform and grabs the lip, hauling himself up one-handed and rolling to his feet. In quiet amazement, he walks through a flickering artwork of H.E.R.T.Z.-shaped shadows that barely have time to form before they are gone, leaving freeze frames of uncomfortable colour behind them.

“I apologise, but I cannot do more without damaging the train,” Herbert says. “Once you are aboard, you will have to deal with what follows by yourself.”

Rolleck stoops to pick up Riyo’s sword from where he has left it by the station door, then tightens his grip on his own before facing the carriage and its occupants.

“That’s quite alright,” he says. “Thank you for all your help, Herbert. It has been a pleasure meeting you.”

“May we meet again, Rolleck the Lost.”

Rolleck nods, then charges.

 

 

“What’s even the point in a creature if it doesn’t have any bones?” Abaddon says. He has smashed flat a group of H.E.R.T.Z.s and now stares dejectedly at his empty hand.

“They barely exist at all,” Emerald says. A few bolts of bluish energy flicker harmlessly off her scales. She breaths a contemptuous stream of fire at the offending robozombies and they flash into nothing. “But the fact they’re here at all means something has happened on the train. I’m not leaving this platform until I know what it is.” The doll named Merlot hangs amongst the collection on her harness, its furry head lolling on its shoulder. It is quite cute, really, despite its fanged maw and eye-patch.

“You had better hope something happens soon,” Abaddon says, glancing back towards the mountain. There is more smoke and lava pouring from its summit now, and the sky around them has darkened. “My master comes.”

“This ‘demon king’ person?” Emerald asks, swatting away some encroaching H.E.R.T.Z.s.

Abaddon laughs for an insultingly long time. “Hell no.” He wipes a single tear of molten metal from below his left eye socket. “The Demon King would not come here himself for the likes of you. I serve his subordinates – the thirteen generals. Ascalor the Burning Talon comes for you, invader.”

“She sounds friendly.”

“She will torch you from the inside with a glance,” Abaddon says.

“That is very difficult to do to a being like me.”

“Nevertheless.” He leaves it at that.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Emerald says. Because, somewhere, a bell is ringing.

She looks to the tracks, and grins as the portals spin open. The train flashes in from nowhere, displacing a small shockwave of air.

“It’s not supposed to do that,” Abaddon says. He sounds like he’s frowning, but his skull still smiles like he’s heard a great joke.

“Today is a strange day for this particular train,” Emerald says, “because today its passenger was Riyo Falsemoon.”

The windows of the carriage show a wall of robozombies, their pulsing red gazes fixed on emerald. The doors slide open and they pour out.

Something truly spine-chilling screeches into the dark cloudy sky, and a thousand smaller voices take it up.

“She comes,” Abaddon intones, and backs away from the platform. He drops to his knees like a horse might, and all of his flames go out. His skull remains floating, somehow, but Emerald doesn’t really have time to think about demon anatomy. Abaddon himself had been easy to overcome, but she is beginning to think she might not want to try this Ascalor if she doesn’t have to.

A snarl of pain bites the back of her brain, paralysing her, then ricochets through her until it passes from her scales. She glances over at Abaddon, but he seems to have gone into hibernation or something. Another screech lights up the silence, and Emerald looks out beyond the volcano again to find small smudges of shadow making darker holes in the grey sky. Something dreadful is flying towards her, and somewhere on that train, Riyo is in trouble.

Emerald takes a deep breath, then roars flame at the ground beneath her. It folds out from her like a ripple on a pond, tearing the H.E.R.T.Z.s asunder. They immediately begin appearing again, but it gives her the space to reach the door and smash her way into the carriage, talons aflame.

The onslaught is relentless and futile. It seems they are no longer able to fling her from the carriage as they had the first time. All they can bring to bear against her ins their numbers, and even though they pop like balloons they still have a physical presence, barring her path as she pushes towards the front of the train. Every single carriage is packed to the walls with robozombies, and Emerald loses track of how long she claws and burns her way forward. Eventually it becomes rote, and she loses focus. Red light and black suits become indistinct as she wades through them.

Then she is brought crashing back into reality as her claw clashes against something and doesn’t rip through it. Her eyes find first the massive wrench her claws are now embedded in. The H.E.R.T.Z. before her is no H.E.R.T.Z. at all. They are a yellow tiger.

“Greetings, Conductor,” they say. “I am Merlot, the engineer.”

“Um,” Emerald says.

“My primary function is to ensure that the Twilight Express functions to its optimum capacity. Now that I have been reintegrated into the system, I can see that there is much that has gone awry in my absence. The train should not be stopped in all stations at once. That is dangerous. I recommend that you allow me to repair the issue at once.”

“Uh. No, thank you,” Emerald says. “Not until I find my friends.”

“Very well, Conductor.”

“Um,” Emerald says again, withdrawing her claw. Merlot lowers his big wrench. He has another in his other paw, just like the doll. “I’m not the conductor.”

“You have the engineer’s control unit.”

She prods the doll. “This?”

“Yes.”

“And that lets me control you?”

“Yes.”

Emerald glances around. “Can you do anything about H.E.R.T.Z.?”

“The announcer’s control unit is not in your possession. H.E.R.T.Z.’s actions are beyond my jurisdiction.”

“That’s unfortunate.” She grabs a handsy H.E.R.T.Z. by the wrist and flings them down the carriage. Their white gloves give her an idea. “Can you do the teleporting around the train thing?”

The tiger looks at her for a moment with the same blank expression. “The unit is capable of transferring essential personnel and programs to different parts of the train, yes.”

“Okay, take me to the front, please.”

“As you say, Conductor.”

 

 

 

Rolleck the Lost has, in the past, been called unflappable. He is not a man who is easily flapped. His day has been trying, however, so he is probably coming quite close. The latest attempt the universe has put before him is named Argon. They stand amidst the H.E.R.T.Z.s, more like a ball than a man. Their suit is stretched over their chromatic girth just as on the doll, and their head is a smaller ball that might have a mouth if you wanted to be generous, but which definitely doesn’t have any of the other features you would want on your face.

Argon is shouting.

“I do not belong here! This is not where I belong!” Their arms are surprisingly long and spindly, and they flail around their head as they bellow. “What were you thinking, bringing me here?!”

“Shut up,” Rolleck says, slapping a few H.E.R.T.Z.s away from him.

“As you say, Conductor!” Argon says. “But I really think you should return me to the correct location!”

Rolleck winces. “Can you… not shout?”

“Of course, Conductor!”

Rolleck sighs. “Okay. Where do you belong?”

“I belong in the driver’s cab! I am the driver!”

“Oh. Well that’s where I intend to go anyway. It will probably take a while, thought.”

“Nonsense, Conductor!” One of Argon’s snake-like arms wends forth and taps Rolleck on the forehead. “Have you forgotten everything?!”

“Let’s just say that I have,” Rolleck says through gritted teeth.

“We can move to the cab immediately! Just issue me the order! A stupendously simple task!”

Rolleck stabs another H.E.R.T.Z., mostly to keep himself from stabbing Argon. “Take us to the cab, please.”

“As you say, Conductor!” They jab him in the head again, but this time it moves them both to somewhere else, much like H.E.R.T.Z. had when they had thrown him off onto Herbert’s world.

The cab is also packed with H.E.R.T.Z.s, but it also contains a grumpy dragon and an unconscious blonde woman in a long red coat.

“This is where I belong!” Argon shouts, trundling past the H.E.R.T.Z.s to where a set of levers and gauges occupy a panel below the mouth of the furnace.

“Rolleck?” Emerald says, blinking.

“That’s me.” Rolleck notices another non-H.E.R.T.Z. robozombie standing beside his companion and their sleeping leader. This one looks rather fearsome, and Rolleck finds his shoulders tensing again, his sword’s song a little louder in his ears.

“Oh. This is Merlot, apparently,” Emerald says. She waves a doll that looks just like the robotigerzombie. “They’re the engineer.”

“Huh.” The tension spills down through Rolleck’s body and away from him. “Mine’s Argon.” He taps the doll on his belt.

“I’m the driver!” Argon screams.

“Where’s Ravi?”

“I don’t know. Only Riyo was here when I arrived.”

“You felt it too, didn’t you?” Rolleck says, glancing at Riyo.

Emerald nods. “I think she stopped the train by force.”

“That was dumb.”

“Worked though,” Riyo mumbles.

Rolleck and Emerald both whirl on her.

“You’re awake?” Emerald says.

“Yeah,” she says. “The robozombies leave me alone if I play dead, though.” Her voice is quiet and strained. She is not having to try very hard to play dead.

“You may be playing now, but you almost got there for real, didn’t you?” Emerald says.

“Not even close.” She doesn’t sit up or open her eyes.

Emerald shares a look with Rolleck, but it seems they aren’t going to go into it now.

“What about Ravi, then?” Rolleck says.

“He’ll be fine,” Riyo says. “Just wait.”

“We could probably find him with out new friends’ help,” Rolleck says.

They wait.

“Riyo?”

She has fallen asleep.

“Our leader has spoken,” Emerald says.

Rolleck looks to the H.E.R.T.Z.s. They have become reluctant to approach, as if they are aware their attacks are futile. Occasionally one of them will lunge forward and be swatted back by whoever is closest.

“I suppose there’s not much need for urgency,” he says.

“The Twilight Express is under attack in multiple locations,” Merlot says, their voice deadpan.

Rolleck just sighs.

 

 

 

“That’s impossible,” Connie says, staring at the train carriage now blocking their view of the platform. Its full compliment of H.E.R.T.Z.s stare at them out of the window.

“Like I said,” Ravi says, “today is different.”

“No!” Connie says, rounding on him, her face etched with frustration. “I mean even if you were right and your friend got H.E.R.T.Z. to stop the train, it would have arrived like normal. This is an emergency stop! It would only happen if the train was stopped by… I don’t even know. Something other than its braking mechanism.”

“So it crashed into something?” Ravi says.

“That’s why its impossible! It never goes anywhere near anything it could crash into. And if something blocks a platform then the portals just don’t open. It can’t have hit anything because there’s nothing to hit.”

“Huh,” Ravi says. Then shrugs. “Riyo likes straightforward solutions. She probably stopped it herself.”

“You have no idea how dumb that sounds,” Connie says, rolling her eyes.

“And you’ve never met Riyo Falsemoon. Come on, let’s get aboard.”

She cries out before he even stands, and Ravi hears echoes of the same pained noise coming from the audience still gathered behind the safety of the fence. Connie is clutching at her head, then she shakes it and treats him to a foul expression.

“What just happened?” he asks.

“I don’t know. It was like… the worst headache ever, and then it just disappeared.”

“Are you okay?”

She prods at her temples a few times, nudging her cap a little higher. Then she shrugs. “I guess so?”

“Okay then, you can worry about it later.”

He grabs her before she can respond and leaps over the train. She yelps and clutches his shoulders, digging in her fingernails. Ravi winces, but it doesn’t alter his trajectory. He lands talons first on a H.E.R.T.Z., who crumples to the ground beneath his weight and then drifts away as dust. He puts Connie down and quickly draws his bow, using it to slap the first H.E.R.T.Z. to go for them across her shiny red face.

“Stay behind me and kick any of them that get too close,” Ravi says.

She isn’t in a position to answer back. There are a lot more red-robed people in the station building now, led by the tall blonde woman and a similarly well-armoured man of around the same height. They are flattening H.E.R.T.Z.s as they go and making a sortie for the platform. Ravi turns away from them and hopes they don’t catch him before he can get on the train and find Riyo.

The H.E.R.T.Z.s seem reluctant to advance, to the point where reaching the doors of the train is more like elbowing his way through a crowd than fighting through an enemy army. Just before they cross from the platform into the carriage, Connie grabs his arm.

“Wait.” She is looking at one of the H.E.R.T.Z.s. Upon closer inspection, her head is more pink than red, and it flashes at a faster tempo than the others.

“Conductor,” she says. Her voice is a wretched crackle, like someone who has inhaled a volcano. “Save me.”

The flashing gets faster and faster, then suddenly it is red again. The H.E.R.T.Z. grabs at Connie, who seems too shocked to react. Ravi shoves her off her with his bow and pulls the teenager onto the train, trying to remember which way leads towards the cab. In front of him, another H.E.R.T.Z. goes pink for a second. She raises a white-gloved hand and points left.

“False Conductor,” she croaks, then flickers her way back to normal.

“Holy shit,” Connie breathes. “That’s impossible.”

“Today is a day of impossibilities,” Ravi says. “Let’s go.”

They barrel through the train, barging past inanimate H.E.R.T.Z.s. Occasionally, one of them turns pink and points them in the right direction.

“This is,” Connie pants, “well outside… her programming.” Another pink H.E.R.T.Z. bids them save her before disappearing back into the crowd. “She should… serve whoever holds… the control unit.”

“True Conductor,” a H.E.R.T.Z. says right by her ear, making her jump and stumble to a halt, leaning against a violet seat for respite while she gasped for breath.

“Our Conductor,” another says.

“Save me.”

One of the H.E.R.T.Z.s by Ravi goes pink and points down the train, her manner insistent. Through the crowd, Ravi catches a glimpse of something that is not a H.E.R.T.Z. It looks for all the world like a human being, but then it is lost to the mass again.

“Come on,” he tells Connie. “We don’t have far to go, now.”

She nods, her breathing a little slower now, and they walk through the next two carriages almost unhindered. By the time they reach the third, the air around them is lit a perfect pink. The H.E.R.T.Z.s vacate the aisle, leaving an empty path between them and a man in striking-but-dishevelled clothes with hair like old hay and a beard like muddied thatch. He is clutching a doll that looks like H.E.R.T.Z.

“Just kill them!” he shouts at the doll. “Throw them off the train and take me to the sunlight stone!”

“You give her back to me, you thief!” Connie yells, finally drawing his attention to her and Ravi. His eyes go wide with shock, and he stumbles back a step.

“Get them!” he shrieks, shaking the doll.

The H.E.R.T.Z.s do nothing.

The thief casts around, frustration and fear warring with madness in the depths of his eyes. “Fine.” He drags an old knife from his pocket and brandishes it in their direction. “I’ll do it myself. Then you’ll have to take me where I want to go. You’ll have to!”

Ravi knocks an arrow at the man’s first step forward, and he falters. There is a moment of deep, pink silence, baked through with tension.

Then he turns and runs.

Ravi’s instinct is that he will not need his curse-breaker here. He is proved correct, as an unaided arrow sails down the carriage and through the man’s left calf. He cries out and stumbles forward, the H.E.R.T.Z. doll cartwheeling from his hand to land a few metres in front of him.

Their pink-headed audience vanishes. The space seems strange without their light tainting everything.

“No!” the man cries, dragging himself up on all-fours. He starts crawling towards the doll, dragging his wounded leg, but Connie is already on the run. Before he is halfway to H.E.R.T.Z., she plants a solid, immaculately-aimed kick between his legs. The screech he emits makes Ravi wince.

Connie steps on the man’s back, driving him back to his belly before continuing over him and falling to her knees before the doll. She grabs it and crushes it to her chest, head bowed over it and shoulders shuddering with her sobs.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m so sorry. Everything he did to you… It’s my fault. I never should have let him take you.”

Ravi sidles up and steps on the man’s outstretched hand, pinning his wrist to the carpet.

“I think you’ve done enough damage,” he says quietly. “Let’s not ruin this moment.”

H.E.R.T.Z. is there, standing over Connie. Her head is a clean purple sphere once more. She goes to one knee and lays a white-gloved hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Lorelai.” Her voice is soft and quiet – a far cry from the crisp announcer’s voice she had used when Ravi had first boarded the train. “You got me back. Your mother would be so proud of you.”

“But Merlot and Argon…” Connie, or rather, Lorelai, sniffs.

H.E.R.T.Z. looks up at Ravi, and though her face remains placid, he can feel her smiling.

“Let’s go to the cabin.” She offers her hand to Ravi.

“Do you mind if I bring this one along?” Ravi says. All the fight has gone out of the thief. He just lies there staring at H.E.R.T.Z. “He has some explaining to do.”

H.E.R.T.Z. nods, and Ravi grabs the wrist he has previously been standing on and drags the man close enough that he can take H.E.R.T.Z. hand. It might just be his imagination, but it feels quite warm compared to the evil H.E.R.T.Z.s’.

They are then standing in the cab.

“Told you so,” Riyo says. She is slumped against one of the doors, her eyes closed.

“That would be more impressive if you hadn’t already said it three times when one of us made a noise you weren’t expecting,” Rolleck says. “Just open your eyes.”

“Can’t,” Riyo says. “Light hurts.”

“Is he actually here this time?” Emerald is also sitting with her eyes closed, and Ravi notices there is nothing but space beyond the windows. The cab is probably the only part of the train not in a station.

“You guys,” Lorelai says, standing up. She is looking at the one-eyed tiger and ball of shiny metal that are the only other occupants of the cab.

The two of them seem to remain stoic, but Ravi sees their eyes jump from Lorelai to Emerald and then Rolleck. Rolleck meets Ravi’s eyes, and Ravi nods.

“This will be yours, then,” Rolleck says, taking a doll that looks like the orb-man from his belt and offering it to Lorelai. She takes hold of it almost reverently.

“CONDUCTOR!”

Everyone in the cabin flinches, but Lorelai laughs as Argon wraps his arms around her several times and picks her up. “This is where you belong!”

Emerald opens her eyes to see what the screaming is all about, then flings the tiger doll to Lorelai before closing them again.

The conductor catches it and gives Merlot a teary smile.

“I am glad you are safe, Conductor,” he says, kneeling before her. He still matches her height but lets her reach out and pet his head as though he were a tiny kitten.

“Everyone is where they belong!”

“Not quite,” Ravi says, nudging the thief forward. “I think his journey is over.”

He limps before them all, then falls to his knees in front of H.E.R.T.Z. “You could have just taken me there,” he says, eyes pleading. “Why wouldn’t you just take me there?”

“There are three thousand, two hundred and eighty-four stations on the Twilight Express Rail Network,” H.E.R.T.Z. says, her voice back to its curt, helpful tone. “Only one has been destroyed. The planet Calis is no longer accessible by train.”

Riyo’s eyes flash open. “He was trying to get to Calis?” she asks. Then she says, “Ow,” and closes her eyes again.

“He was searching for the sunlight stone,” Ravi says.

“I’m guessing he didn’t find it,” Rolleck says.

The man looks around at them all, eyes jerking between and then around them. “You know of the stone.”

“We’re from Valos,” Rolleck says, arresting his attention for a moment. “We’re looking for the stone ourselves. Or at least, one of us is.” He looks up at Riyo.

“You’ll come around,” Riyo says.

“You won’t find it,” the man says. “I got close. I got so close. To the Bridge. Across it.”

Rolleck’s eyebrows rise at that. The scruffy man before them doesn’t seem strong enough to overcome a squirrel, let alone the countless fiends that prowl the devastation around the Reach.

“That’s where they are,” he hisses. “Waiting. In every shadow.” He glances into the corners of the cab, then out into the blackness outside. He shivers. “Cannot overcome them. Cannot even face them. Death and madness. Madness and death.”

“Sounds lovely,” Rolleck says. “But what are ‘they’?”

The man just shakes his head. His hair moves with it in one lumpy mass. “I had to find a way around. Had to kill the others. I found the train. It can go anywhere.” He looks back to H.E.R.T.Z. “Why wouldn’t you just take me there?”

“He doesn’t know anything useful,” Riyo says. “And I’m not sure I want to know any more anyway. My mind’s made up. I’m going to Calis. At this point, learning more is just spoiling the surprise.”

Ravi and Rolleck share a look. Ravi just shrugs. It has been a trying day, and neither of them have the energy left to play the straight-man.

“So what do we do with him?” Ravi says.

“I’ll find somewhere for him,” Lorelai says, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Is our mystery solved, Riyo?” Rolleck says.

“Yep. It’s a cool magic space train. I’m ready to go home now.”

Rolleck sighs. “It doesn’t feel like a satisfactory answer, given how hard it was to find.”

“Life’s only like that if you’re a pessimist,” she says. “Besides, we helped Lorelai get her train back. That’s worth a bit of hard work, surely?”

“My suit got wet. I’m not sure anything is worth that.”

“I am sorry to intrude on your conversation,” Merlot says, “but the train is still under attack. One carriage in particular has attracted a large group of bird-like creatures that are on fire.”

“Sorry,” Emerald says.

“Can we get underway like this?” Lorelai asks.

“The Twilight Express will sustain additional damage by doing so, but there is nothing that I cannot fix,” Merlot says.

“Let’s go,” she says. She clutches all three dolls in one arm and uses the other hand to pluck something small and silver from her jacket pocket. She puts it to her lips.

“I love this part!” Argon screams.

“Please stand clear of the doors,” H.E.R.T.Z. says. “The train is now departing.”

The whistle rings out down the length of the train, and it shudders. The hiss of steam that isn’t real and the rumble of a vast engine fill the cab. The Twilight Express begins its star-spangled journey once more.

 

On the side of a wind-blasted mountain sits an ancient temple, its walls so battered they look no different from the cliffsides that surround them. On one side of the temple is an odd building that doesn’t quite match the rest. Before it is a rectangle of uniform stone and two strips of metal. The temple elders claim this building predates the temple. Predates the religion that its occupants follow. Perhaps it predates the very people themselves. It is not holy in the way the temple is, but it has the undeniable dignity of all old places, and so it is kept clean.

Senellica sweeps the platform. The first fallen leaves of autumn are gathering in the corners the wind will permit them to stay in, and they must be ushered on. She is startled from her task by the ringing of a bell. The wind seems to die down to allow it prevalence over the mountainside, and as Senellica casts about to find its source, blue light rushes into the space. A sort-of chuffing sound joins that of the bell, and then a blurred wall of wood and metal begins rushing past the edge of the platform.

After a moment it is gone, its noise and presence a memory Senellica is not sure she believes in. In the wake of the thing’s passing, more leaves have been scattered across the stone, her robes have been blustered out of place, and a man now sits at the edge of the platform. He looks forlorn and destitute, and he stares down the mountainside with glazed eyes.

Sellenica straightens her robes and approaches him slowly. He seems to notice her but does not turn.

“I was so close,” he says.

“Close to what?”

“Everything. I could have had everything.”

“No one can have everything,” Sellenica says.

“With the stone, they could. But it’s impossible. Impossible.” He shakes his head.

“If it’s impossible, then I was right. No one can have everything.”

“Ha!” he turns to her then. “What place is this?”

“This is a place that helps people,” Sellenica says. It has helped her.

“I think,” the man says, returning his attention to the slopes and empty sky before him. “I think I need help.”

 

 

In the middle of a thick forest there is a building. It is old enough that life has claimed it for its own, grown things around and through it, until it seems like it belongs there every bit as much as the trees and critters that now occupy it. Before it is a rectangle of stone and two strips of metal.

The Twilight Express rolls to a stop amidst the chaos of unsettled things fleeing the clamour of a bell. Beneath the shape of a proudly rearing unicorn, the doors open, and four weary figures step out onto the platform.

Riyo Falsemoon yawns. “That was fun,” she says.

Emerald turns back to the four figures still on the train. “I hope you’ll forgive me for saying it, but it absolutely wasn’t. I hope I never see another train in my life.”

“I still don’t get how you could be scared of space,” Lorelai says. “Look,” she points up at the sky. “Every planet is right in the middle of space all the time.”

“It’s different,” Emerald says, crossing her arms.

“Whatever,” Lorelai says. She looks away, then shuffles her feet a little.

“I suppose this is goodbye,” Ravi says.

Lorelai glances at him, then looks away again. “Yeah. I guess.”

There is a moment’s pause, then H.E.R.T.Z. gives her Conductor a nudge. They manage to share a look despite one of them not having a face, then Lorelai says, “Fine. Geez.” She looks at them and blushes faintly. “Thank you for getting me my train back. You can all get free rides. If you ever, y’know, want to.”

“Thank you, Lorelai,” Ravi says, smiling.

“It was nothing,” Riyo adds. She tries to turn away and a wave of dizziness hits her.

Rolleck catches her arm to keep her from falling, then sighs. “We appreciate your offer,” he says.

“Never again,” Emerald says with a shiver. “Sorry.”

“She’ll come around,” Riyo says. “See you again some time, conductor.”

“GOODBYE!” Argon screams. Merlot Just nods.

Lorelai pulls out her whistle, and the driver and engineer vanish.

“Oh, actually,” Ravi says, “there’s still a mystery left.”

“Huh?” Lorelai says.

“What does H.E.R.T.Z. stand for?”

“H.E.R.T.Z.,” H.E.R.T.Z. says, “stands for-”

“Wait don’t tell them,” Lorelai says, blushing even more. “It’s stupid.”

“It is the name you gave me, Conductor. I am proud of it.”

“I was like five! Five-year-olds are dumb!”

“High Energy Robot Train Zombie,” H.E.R.T.Z. says.

“Ugh,” Lorelai says, covering her face. “How can you be a robot and a zombie?”

“Yes!” Ravi says, raising his fist triumphantly.

Riyo bursts out laughing and an infectious smile spreads around the group. Lorelai catches it too as she raised the whistle to her lips.

“See ya,” she says, and the high, shrill sound rushes out into the forest as the doors close. Slowly, the Twilight Express pulls out through the portal and away from Valos. Just as the blue light shimmers away, it sounds its horn.

“Well,” Riyo says, “I don’t know about you guys, but I could eat another one of those spider-sloth things.”

Emerald and Rolleck both groan.