The magic train raced through the night, its steady clatter, metallic and monotonous, echoing in Nox's temples with a dull, aching pain. He sat by the window, holding Lin close to him, who had still not regained consciousness. Her breathing was shallow, uneven, and her skin felt colder than usual, as if the Abyss that had burst from her in the battle had taken some of her warmth with it. The silver sparks in her hair, which had previously flickered faintly, had now gone out completely, making Lin look even more fragile, even more defenseless than usual.
The carriage was almost empty. A few passengers dozed in their seats, wrapped in traveling cloaks, and at the far end, an old man read a tattered book by the dim light of a magical lantern, his lips moving silently as he repeated the words to himself. No one paid attention to the two children who had boarded the train in the middle of the night. No one cared about the boy with scars on his face and the unconscious girl. In this world, everyone was preoccupied with themselves, and that was both a curse and a salvation.
Nox adjusted the cloak he had thrown over Lin and looked out the window again. Beyond the glass, dark silhouettes of trees rushed by, rare lights from distant farms, the silver ribbon of a river that glinted in the moonlight and then disappeared. The moon hung on the horizon, huge and pale, and Nox could feel it watching him. Always watching. Always knowing where he was. Even now, as he fled from everything he had known, its gaze did not retreat, did not weaken, did not grow more distant. It simply waited. As it had always waited. As it would wait forever, until it got what it wanted.
He looked away from the window and stared at his hands. They were still trembling. Not from cold or fear, though fear was certainly there, deep and sticky as swamp mud. From something else. From what had awakened inside him when he spoke with the dragon. He could still feel it: a faint, barely perceptible warmth spreading through his veins, unlike Shadow or anything else he had experienced before. Dragon blood. The heritage of his bloodline, of which he had been completely unaware. It was there, deep beneath layers of Shadow, beneath years of surviving in the slums, beneath everything that made him Nox. And now it was beginning to wake.
«Sylvana,» he whispered, and the witch's name echoed within him with a sharp, cutting pain.
He did not know if she was alive. The last thing he had seen was her silhouette standing between them and the Harbinger, blood gushing from her palms, creating a barrier that even the ancient creature could not breach. She had sacrificed herself so they could escape. She, who had survived for one hundred and forty three years in this cruel world, lived through three wars, killed hunters and demons, gave her life for two children from the slums she had known for only a few weeks.
No. She had not given her life. She had said she would hold it off. She had said she would survive. And Nox clung to that thought like a drowning man clings to a piece of wreckage. Sylvana was strong. She was one of the seven. She would make it. She had to make it.
Lin stirred, and Nox immediately forgot everything, leaning over her.
«Lin? Can you hear me? Lin!»
Her eyelids fluttered, slowly opened, and he saw her eyes. Gray as always, but the silver sparks within them barely glowed, like embers in a nearly extinguished fire. She looked at him with a cloudy, unfocused gaze, and several long seconds passed before recognition appeared in her eyes.
«Nox? Where are we?»
«On the train. We left. We are safe. For a while.»
She tried to sit up but immediately groaned and clutched her head. The Abyss on her wrists, usually bright and alive, was now pale, almost transparent, like a faded tattoo. It pulsed weakly, barely noticeably, like a heart beating with its last strength.
«I used too much,» Lin said quietly. «I feel… empty. As if everything inside me has been drained out, leaving only a shell.»
«You fought the Harbinger. You held it back. You saved us.»
«I do not remember.» She frowned, trying to recall. «I remember it was there, and I was so scared, Nox. More scared than I have ever been in my life. And then something inside me just… broke. Or opened. I do not know. Then darkness.»
Nox hugged her, tightly, carefully, afraid of hurting her. She pressed against him, small and cold, and he could feel her heart beating fast, like a bird in a cage.
«You were incredible,» he said. «You stood against it and did not retreat. You held the Abyss like I have never seen. Sylvana would have been proud of you.»
Lin pulled back and looked at him.
«Sylvana. Where is she? Why is she not with us?»
Nox looked away. He did not want to lie to her, but he also did not want to tell her the truth, which might break her. She had just woken up, she was weak, and she needed rest, not news that the woman who had become almost a mother to them might be dead or in the clutches of a monster.
«She held off the Harbinger so we could escape. She said she would catch up with us later.»
Lin looked at him for a long time, and in her gray eyes, despite her weakness, burned that same perceptive spark he knew so well. She did not believe him. She always knew when he was lying. But she did not argue, did not demand the truth. She just nodded and pressed against him again, closing her eyes.
«We will find her,» she said quietly. «When we are stronger. We will go back and find her. And we will kill whoever dared to touch our family.»
«We will,» Nox answered. «We will.»
The train raced through the night, and beyond the window, endless dark forests, fields, and rare villages where no lights burned drifted past. The world slept, unaware that two children, hunted by a goddess, were hurtling along its iron arteries, and that within their blood slumbered powers capable of changing the fate of this world.
Several hours passed. Lin fell asleep again, this time deeply and peacefully, and her breathing evened out. The Abyss on her wrists began to slowly regain its color, pulsing slightly brighter than before. She was recovering. Slowly, but recovering. And that gave Nox hope.
He did not sleep. Too many thoughts swarmed in his head. Too many questions for which he had no answers. Where were they going? What would they do at Noxspire without Sylvana, without money, without documents? How would he get into the academy if no one was expecting him and no one could confirm his power? And what about Lin? Leave her in a strange city with a strange woman he knew nothing about? Or try to sneak her into the academy, risking exposure?
There were no answers. Only the clatter of wheels, steady and lulling, and the endless dark night beyond the window.
At dawn, a conductor entered the carriage. He was an elderly man with a tired face and a gray mustache, wearing a worn uniform of the magic train company. He walked down the aisle, checking tickets among the few passengers, and when he reached Nox, he stopped, looking at him with mild surprise.
«Children? Alone? Where are your parents?»
Nox looked at him. A thousand possible answers flashed through his mind: lie that his parents were in another carriage, say they were orphans traveling to distant relatives, invent some heart wrenching story to gain pity. But he was too tired to lie and too angry to humiliate himself.
«We have no parents,» he said evenly. «We are going to Noxspire. We have no tickets. No money either. If you want to put us off at the next station, do it. We will walk.»
The conductor looked at him for a long time, and something in his eyes changed. Not pity. Rather, understanding. He had seen children like Nox many times. Hungry, angry, ready to fight for every scrap of bread. War, disease, magical disasters left behind hundreds of such orphans, and most of them ended badly. But some survived. Some grew stronger.
«Noxspire, eh,» he said finally. «The academy?»
«Yes.»
The conductor grunted, reached into his pocket, and pulled out two tickets. He handed them to Nox.
«Here. One for you, one for your sister. If anyone asks, say your uncle bought them. My nephew also wanted to go to the academy. They did not take him. He had no magic, and without magic, they only take servants, and even then only on recommendation. Maybe you will have better luck.»
Nox took the tickets. They were real, with the magic train company's stamp, with carriage and seat numbers. He looked at the conductor and could not find the words. In the slums, no one gave anything for free. Everything had a price: food, a service, information, yourself. But this man, tired, with his gray mustache and worn uniform, simply gave them tickets. Because his nephew had not gotten into the academy. Because he saw something in them that others did not.
«Thank you,» Nox said. He could not say anything more.
«You are welcome. Good luck to you, children. You will need it.»
The conductor moved on down the carriage, and Nox remained seated, clutching the tickets in his hand. Two pieces of paper that meant more than he could express in words. They gave them the right to continue. They gave them a chance.
Lin woke up as the sun rose above the horizon and flooded the carriage with bright morning light. She sat up, stretched, and Nox was relieved to see that the Abyss on her wrists was pulsing steadily and brightly again, and the silver sparks were once again dancing in her gray eyes. She was recovering faster than he had expected. Perhaps the Abyss did not only take but also gave something in return.
«I am hungry,» she said first thing.
Nox smirked. Now he definitely recognized his sister.
«We have no food.»
«We never have food. That is no reason not to be hungry.»
He rummaged through his pockets, hoping to find at least a crumb, and was surprised to feel something solid. He pulled it out. It was a small pouch he had not noticed before. He looked inside and found dried meat, several pieces of bread, and a small vial of something dark, most likely the same herbal brew Sylvana had given him after training. She had put it in his pocket while he was sleeping. Or while they were fleeing the house. Or at some other moment he had not noticed. She was always thinking ahead. Always taking care of them, even when they did not ask.
He divided the food equally, and they ate in silence, looking out the window at the passing landscapes. Forests gave way to fields, fields to hills, hills to foothills, and in the distance, on the horizon, the outlines of mountains could already be seen, beyond which lay Noxspire.
«Tell me about the dragon,» Lin asked, finishing her bread. «I felt something when I was unconscious. Something large and ancient. It spoke to you, did it not?»
Nox paused, gathering his thoughts. Then he told her everything. About the vision, about the hall in the rock, about the dragon who had called him descendant and spoken of the mingling of blood. About how their bloodline, Endragon, carried dragon blood within it, and how that blood was beginning to awaken. About how the dragon had told him to run, to become stronger, to find other bearers of dragon blood, and to return to destroy the Harbinger and the Moon Goddess.
Lin listened without interrupting. When he finished, she was silent for a long time, looking out the window, and on her face was that same adult, focused expression Nox knew so well.
«So we are not just bearers of Shadow and the Abyss,» she said finally. «We are also dragons. Or almost dragons. That explains a lot.»
«Like what?»
«Why we are so stubborn. Why we survived the slums when others died. Why the Moon Goddess is so afraid of us. We are not just a threat. We are her worst nightmare. Two powers she cannot control in one bloodline. And now dragon blood as well. She must be furious.»
Nox thought about the Moon Goddess, about her cold, contemptuous voice he had heard in his head on the roof of Sylvana's house. About how she had called his father a coward and his mother a fool. About how she had promised to kill him, to take Shadow, to wipe from the face of the earth everything connected to the Endragon bloodline. Yes, she was undoubtedly furious. And that fury would only grow.
«Let her be angry,» he said. «We are stronger anyway. We will prove it.»
The train began to slow down. Beyond the window, the first houses of Noxspire drifted past, tall, made of white stone, with pointed roofs and narrow windows in which the morning light already glowed. The city was different, unlike Ravnes or the middle tier of Mirtarind. There was no factory smoke here, no dirt or soot. Everything here breathed with power, ancient and calm, like the mountains on whose slopes the city stood.
The magic train pulled into the station, a huge building of glass and metal, and stopped, releasing clouds of steam. Nox took Lin's hand, and they stepped out onto the platform.
Noxspire greeted them with noise, light, and thousands of smells mixed into one chaotic, deafening stream. People hurried about their business, porters hauled luggage, merchants shouted the names of their wares, music played somewhere, and above it all, on a hill, loomed the academy. Huge, majestic, with towers reaching into the clouds, and walls of black stone that seemed to absorb light.
Nox looked at it and felt his heart beat faster. There it was. The place where he would become stronger. The place where his true path would begin. The place where he would either grow into someone who could challenge the gods or break and die.
«Let us go,» he said to Lin. «We need to find that tavern Sylvana told us about. And the woman who will help us.»
They left the platform and disappeared into the crowd. Two children lost in a huge unfamiliar city, with powers they themselves barely understood, and a goddess hunting them. But they were together. And that was what mattered.
And somewhere far away, in the halls of the Moon Goddess, the Harbinger laid the witch's unconscious body at its mistress's feet. The goddess looked at Sylvana, and on her beautiful, cold face, something like satisfaction flickered.
«Good,» she said. «Very good. One of the seven is mine. The children have escaped, but it will not be for long. Harbinger, you know what to do. Find them. Bring me their power. And you may keep everything else for yourself.»
The Harbinger smiled its terrible, inhuman smile and dissolved into the shadows. The hunt continued.