The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

Author:Sarah Brooks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books

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Slowly, she walks back through the crew quarters and stops in the vestibule before Third Class. More boxes have been piled up in front of the window where she had first met the Professor. She heaves them away, praying that no crew members come past to demand what she is doing. Eventually, she makes a space big enough to squeeze into, where she can look closely at the window, as the Professor instructed. She can’t see anything at first. Then there it is—tucked into the bottom right-hand corner of the window, so faint that it would escape the gaze of anyone not pressed right against the glass. It could easily be taken for nothing more than a scratch but to her it is unmistakable—a weather vane in the shape of a ship; a symbol of St. Petersburg—and the mark of her father’s glassworks.

She freezes, then runs her fingers over the little ship. It is as if she is seeing his signature. After everything, after all they had said, after the blame and the scandal, they are using the same glass that they claimed had been flawed—that they claimed had let the Wastelands into the train.

Here, though, is proof that the Company lied about her father, or proof that they are dangerously careless—either way, surely it is enough to damage them, enough to help clear her father’s name … But the Professor’s words echo in her head: “Do you know how powerful the Company is? That is the only truth that matters.”

She stares at the ship. Outside, blue fire crackles along the ground and over the rocks. In the distance, the sky is darkening.

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