Bloodflowers Bloom (The Astral Wanderer Book 2), D'Artagnan Rey [essential reading .txt] 📗

should positioned them around an occupied car that might have at least given him pause. Then again, this one seemed more feral than the mori so he might not have minded the collateral damage.

He stopped a few steps into the cave and glanced at the three remaining ghouls still seated motionlessly on the floor where he had left them. Thoroughly disgruntled, he leaned against the wall and considered what he should do next now that his plan had failed. A thought occurred to him, one that should have been easy to answer but now eluded him. What was the point of the preemptive attack in the first place?

Would he have been satisfied if the ghouls had killed the brats? In all honesty, he would not mind if the Templar was dead, but that could have caused complications. Perhaps the others would have given up on the mission if their leader had been killed. That would have ruined everything.

So why had he done it? He felt there was something important—some kind of edge he had overlooked. Perhaps it was not to kill the Templars but to observe them? That sounded right. After all, it was not knowing about the Templars’ powers that almost cost him last time, so why did it escape him? He slid his hand to the box attached to his waist and tapped it absently. Was it already getting to him?

Salvo shook his head and sighed, walked out of the cave, and observed the sky. What did it matter if the plan failed? This would be better. All that tricky, subterfuge crap was Koli’s specialty and why did he try to do this like Koli? This was his mission and he would do it like he wanted to do it.

He looked at the tracks. The train would pull into the city any moment now. There wasn’t much chance that he could reach them and strike while they were sightseeing. It would probably cause satisfying chaos, but Levirei’s guards were no joke and there were at least a dozen guilds in the city. He wouldn’t last long, even if he abandoned the ghouls. Dammit, he might have made the attempt if he had a team of the big ones, but he was left with the freaks’ scraps.

His gaze was drawn away from the city to the east, where in the distance, he could faintly see a dark patch of sky, something strange enough to make someone suspicious. That was where they would eventually go and it seemed the best place to intercept them or at least catch up. The ghouls weren’t as fast as he was and a part of him knew he would want to be prepared this time, even if he would not admit that to anyone.

When he snapped his fingers, his undead servants stood as one and stalked behind him as he ran a hand over the dark box. The contents hummed and he could hear it growl, wanting release. This time, he would be prepared and nothing they could do would prepare them for it.

“Arriving in Levirei!” a conductor announced over the box speakers in the cars. “Also, it appears there was a mishap in one of the luggage cars. We are quickly righting this oddity but there may be a slight delay. Our deepest apologies.”

“Did you hear that, Wulfsun?” Jazai chuckled and stretched as the train slowed. “You bumbling around the luggage knocked their schedule off a little. It’s not very professional.”

Devol shifted in his seat and glanced at the diviner with what he hoped was sufficient warning for him to keep it down “You still haven’t told us what happened when you left.”

The large Templar shrugged. “I told you. I went looking for the guys in robes, found them, and took care of them. What more do you need?”

“Well, you could have told us that was your plan,” the boy remarked as the train came to a complete stop. “From what you told us, we could have dealt with them.”

“I didn’t know that at the time.” The man pushed to his feet as the doors to the train car opened. “Besides, it would have looked more suspicious with all of us walking around.”

“At least we would have had something to do,” Jazai muttered and straightened his jacket as he and the others stood to follow. “Seriously, what kind of line was that? Planning for when we get to the city? You have all the plans.”

“We could have at least helped to clean the mess you made,” Asla added.

“You’re gonna keep harpin’ on that, are ye?” Wulfsun sighed, ducked through the smaller doorway so he could debark, and stretched his arms with a yawn. “I cleaned up something far more disgusting than they would want to deal with. It’s even, now go and wait for the bags and meet me at the exit.”

Devol and Asla nodded and moved to the luggage cart while Jazai shook his head and followed. The first action on the trip and they didn’t see any of it, the diviner thought morosely. When they reached the cart, the young swordsman handed one of the attendants a ticket and they searched for their bags. Asla tugged on his shirt and pointed to two conductors examining something that looked like a dagger.

The three wandered closer and Asla asked what they were doing with her dagger, which successfully confused them. Her two companions remained relaxed with neutral expressions as she explained that it was an heirloom she valued too much to ever leave home without it in her possession, although she hardly ever used it. The conductors apologized, handed it to her, and surmised that it must have fallen out of her luggage when everything collapsed. They added that she needed to keep it hidden while in the city as it could cause problems with the local guard.

She agreed and thanked them and the group remained silent as the two men walked away to prepare the train. When they were far