Chapter 20: Frederico – Eliana
The Old Woman guided Frederico through a forest of thin trees with very small leaves that sieved the sunlight, making it gentle on the little flowers that covered the ground with white, blue, and yellow petals. Between the trees, Frederico saw the glitter of metal, and he squinted to see what it was. Little by little, as they got closer to the metal, it took shape, and Frederico’s mouth fell open.
‘A train,’ he said. ‘I didn’t think they existed anymore.’
When War began, people dismantled all the locomotives, useless without Sátiron’s sorcery, to build armor, weapons, and tools.
‘No one found this one,’ said the Old Woman. ‘It’s far away from any track.’
Frederico’s mouth stayed open.
‘This is a war train,’ he said.
‘The locomotive is a Stanton, second generation.’ The Old Woman dismounted and put her hand on the wheel’s crosshead. ‘This one was converted to a passenger and cargo train during the Second Empire but went back to using magic tracks during the Tinsa War. Now it’s useless, of course.’
‘If it doesn’t need tracks, there must be a way to make it work.’
‘It does need tracks, but magic ones. Without a mage or a sorcerer, the locomotive won’t work.’
Magic and mysteries belonged to the past and to dreams. Frederico only had nightmares. That locomotive was the first concrete proof that there was a world outside the war, maybe beyond the Land of the Banished.
‘Sit down,’ said the Old Woman. ‘Let’s see if I can teach anyone how to read.’
Frederico walked around the locomotive, then spied its inside.
‘What’s this?’ he asked.
‘I have no idea. If there were any railway engineers in Franária, they died in the first century of War.’
Frederico looked under the train.
‘There’s a lot of rust. Do you think we can clean it?’
‘Boy, learn how to read, and I will search for books about trains, all right?’
Frederico straightened up.
‘Are there books about trains?’
‘There are books about everything. The written universe is infinite. Come, I’ll teach you to brave it.’
‘What’s written here?’ Frederico asked. On the locomotive’s side there was a word in black.
‘Eliana,’ said the Old Woman. ‘That’s her name.’
