I nodded. “The same one. Just like two days ago. This makes three times.”
Olivia gave me a sympathetic look and took another drink from her canteen, looking for what to say, probably. She wasn’t sure what to think about the dream, and neither was I. But each time I had it, I woke, sweating and shaking, my penny burning on my chest.
In it, I was outside in the desert, facing the gates of Elysium. I caught the smell of smoke, of burning hair and flesh and wood. On the horizon was what looked at first like a sunset, but as I squinted at it, I saw that it was a wall of fire. A wall of fire, miles high, higher than any dust storm. It stretched across the entire horizon. Miles high and miles wide, sweeping toward Elysium, I knew what it was: the end. The end of Elysium Asa and I were supposed to be trying to prevent. I thought of Olivia’s promise to me, her promise that we could go and see what we could do. How much longer could we wait?
Just then, we heard a lot of shouting go up from the other side of the train.
Olivia and I exchanged glances; then she grabbed her pistols and I grabbed my spell components belt, and we followed the sound of the shouting. Out in the clearing, two of the mechanical horses were cantering in a circle, light and nimble as live horses, Asa on one, looking thin and drained, and Susanah and Mowse on the other. Everyone had come to watch them, these majestic metal monsters with their piston legs and lightbulb eyes and grinning mouths of metal and bone. Inert, they had been striking; alive, they were somehow both beautiful and unsettling.
“Finally!” Susanah was beaming. “Magic energy can be harnessed like electricity in the desert! We just needed Asa’s magic as a catalyst.”
“Anytime.” Asa grinned, his teeth flickering to fangs for a moment, then flickering back.
“Susanah, this is amazing!” Zo said. “Think how much faster we can be now! Think how—”
“I don’t care about all that,” said Judith. “I just want one of my own!”
“There’s enough for everybody if we double up!” said Mowse. “They’re waiting in the stable.”
Everyone looked at Olivia.
“I’m not sure about this. It could be dangerous,” Olivia said, her voice deadly serious. Then her face broke into a wide smile. “Ay, I’m just kidding. Let’s go, caballeras!”
We went to the stable and brought out two more horses. Judith and Zo climbed onto one, Olivia and Cassandra climbed onto another, and I joined Asa on his. Even under the homemade saddle, it felt hard and metallic.
It was so strange sitting on a horse that didn’t move and stamp and shake flies from its shoulders. Giggling and shouting, the girls rode their horses around the clearing, experimenting with speed and agility. Twice, Judith turned too fast and Zo almost fell off the back.
“Let’s play a game!” Mowse said. “A magic game! Can we, Susanah?”
“Oh, I love that idea!” Cassandra said, clasping her hands together.
“All right.” Susanah smiled. “What did you have in mind?”
“Hmmm.” Cassandra put a purple-varnished finger to her temple. “How about… this!”
She closed her eyes and mumbled something, then lifted her hands, fingers spread, and iridescent flying fish shot out of her fingertips and hung in the air. Suddenly, they darted out and flitted around us in a bright, shimmering school.
“Catch them!” Cassandra laughed, pointing to the illusory nets that were in our hands now, feeling as real and substantial as real nets.
“Let’s complicate things a bit,” said Asa. There was a thrum of power, and Asa clapped once, then several dark, jagged-looking eels appeared in the air alongside Cassandra’s flying fish, dipping and spinning among the illusions, looking somehow comical with their yellow saucer eyes and slack jaws. “Ten points for the fish! Minus five if you catch an eel too! How’s that, Cass?”
“Brilliant!” Cassandra said. “Once we get out of this desert, we should go on tour—”
“Last one out is a rotten egg!” Mowse crowed.
With a blur of movement, Susanah and Mowse galloped past us into the flat part of the desert, following the brilliant school of fish. Olivia and Cassandra were right on their tail, lunging this way and that in pursuit of the fish, their nets flashing in the sun. Judith and Zo sprang after them, whooping and hollering behind their bandannas as they left us in their dust cloud.