“Radiants!” said Captain Tamwell.

     Princess Ardria looked through the train's grimy window, following his pointing finger and saw three small points of light on the northern horizon. She felt her guts clench up in fear. Were they coming this way? Was this it, what they'd been dreading ever since setting out from Marboll?

     The Carrow soldiers sharing their carriage saw them as well, but paid them no special attention. To them, the creatures were their allies. Battle brothers. They searched the horizon for the small patches of glowing light, trying to see in what direction they were travelling, but only in idle curiosity. If they were approaching, they might wave out the window as they passed overhead, but that was it. They had neither fear nor a special fascination for the creatures. Ardria knew better, though. Did they know that she was on this train, heading for Charnox, now less than a day away? Were they looking for her? Even if they weren't, they wouldn't pass up a chance to take her out if they spotted her.

     She watched them, therefore, along with Tamwell and Brailsford, desperately willing the tiny points of radiance to move along the horizon, signifying that they were moving across their paths, that they just happened to be in the same part of the world at the same time with completely unconnected purposes.  Hopefully they would just continue on their way and never know how close they’d come to ending her dangerous mission. There was a tree on the horizon. A large oak tree that had lost most of its leaves in the seemingly endless draught, almost between them and the Radiants. She used it as a frame of reference while compensating for the train's movement, tried to convince herself that the creatures were about to pass behind it. They didn't. Instead, they grew brighter, and after a couple more minutes there was no more room for doubt. The Radiants were coming their way.

     Tamwell left his seat to approach Captain Silva, and half a dozen soldiers immediately jumped upright and drew their pistols. Tamwell hurriedly raised his hands. “I just want to talk,” he said.

     “It's okay,” said Silva, and the soldiers returned to their seats, although they continued to watch him warily. “What's on your mind, Captain?”

     “When I entered Carrow, I was carrying a pistol,” said Tamwell. “Do you still have it?”

     “I imagine it’s still among your possessions, in the baggage.”

     “Is it still loaded with the same ammunition it was when it was taken from me?”

     “I have no reason to believe otherwise.”

     “Captain, this is very important. You must send one of your men to get that gun. We're going to need it very shortly.”

     “Need it for what?”

     “It is loaded with very special ammunition. Incendiary ammunition. It sets alight any flammable substance it touches. You'll need it to fight off the Radiants.”

     “The Radiants are our allies, Captain. We have no reason to fear them.”

     “Yes you do. They are desperate to prevent Princess Ardria from speaking to your king. They don't want her telling him what she knows.”

     “And what is that?”

     “That the Radiants are your enemies just as much as they are ours. They don't just want Helberion destroyed. They want all human civilisation destroyed, including Carrow. Duchess Pardew will confirm this.”

     Everyone in the carriage looked at Soonia Darniss, and Ardria felt her heart in her throat. This was it. If she was going to betray them, it would be now. She could deny everything Tamwell had just said, then sit back and laugh when Radiant tentacles smashed through the windows and dragged the Princess away...

     Darniss deliberately paused, as if enjoying Ardria's anxiety, but then she nodded. “It’s true,” she said at last, and the Princess relaxed. “Captain Tamwell is right. The Radiants want to destroy us as well.”

     “Why do you think this?”

     Ardria looked out the windows again. The Radiants were visibly closer. They didn't have much time. “Perhaps you could get the gun first,” she suggested, “and we'll answer all your questions later.”

     Silva stared at her, clearly suspecting a trick of some kind, but then he nodded. “Shackell,” he said. “Go get Captain Tamwell's pistol from the baggage.” One of the soldiers rose from his seat and went off to obey, disappearing through the connecting door. “I just want to see this special ammunition of yours,” he explained. “There's no chance of the Radiants attacking.”

     “If they do, they’re likely to just cast a curse the moment they’re close enough,” said Ardria. “If they know I'm here, they won't care who else is in here with me...”

     “Helberry lies!” cried one of the soldiers. “Captain, They’re trying to...”

     “Silence, Frell!” snapped Silva. “Control yourself in front of the enemy.”  He turned back to Darniss. “You were their captive for several months. You could have been brainwashed.”

     “I saw their attack on Paisley Palace,” replied Darniss. “There were eight of them. Seven of them died. Some of them could have gotten away. They died because they were so desperate to kill the Princess and her father at any cost.”

     “It was a decapitation strike,” pointed out the Carrow Captain. “Take out the enemy leadership.”

     Darniss shook her head. “If that were the only objective, would they have sacrificed so many of themselves in the attempt? No, they were desperate to Kill Leothan and Ardria because they knew something. Something the Princess learned while she was half demon, while she was telepathically connected to the Radiants. She learned that all of mankind was their enemy, including Carrow. Not just Helberion. Captain, if they attack, they will not hesitate to kill you and your men if that's what it takes to kill the Princess.”

     Silva stared at her. “Maybe you genuinely believe that,” he said, “but the fact remains that you were their captive for months. They clearly did something to you, made you believe this.”

     “I assure you they did not.”

     He just shook his head. “It makes no sense, don't you see? An attack on the train would be a dead giveaway. How can they still pretend to be our allies after killing Carrow soldiers and hundreds of Carrow civilians? They would be defeating the very object of killing you.”

     “When they’re through, there'll be no living humans left to tell what happened,” said Ardria. “The blame will be put on Helberion assassins. No-one will guess that Radiants were responsible.”

     “And what reason would Helberion have for massacring a train full of civilians?”

     “No-one will care what the reason was. Just another senseless atrocity to be blamed on us.”

     “The people back in Finchingfield know you boarded this train, with an escort of soldiers. Remember the huge crowd that gathered to see you? It'll be obvious that you were the target... Oh! People will think they were rescuing you.”

     Ardria nodded. “Which is ridiculous, since I want to be here. I don’t want to be rescued, but people will believe it. No-one will believe that Radiants were responsible.”

     “Speaking of Radiants,” said one of the Carrowmen. “They're here!”

     All eyes turned to the windows, which were filled with a growing radiance. Dangling tentacles could be seen just outside, just a few feet away from the grimy glass. The creature’s hideous piping could be heard distantly, somewhere above them. Ardria tensed up in fear, but then the tentacles drifted away as it moved along the train. It can't see us, she realised with a surge of hope. It only has eyes around its body, and that's twenty feet above us. Then, with a surge of fear, she realised what it would have to do if it wanted to be sure of getting her. Curse the entire train, starting at the front and working methodically back to the box car at the end.

     “How can it keep up with us?” asked one of the men. “We must be travelling at fifty miles an hour!”

     “It's generating a fifty mile an hour wind to blow it along,” answered Brailsford. “It must be. Open the window and see.”

     “That's just a myth,” said Silva. “If they could control the weather...” He looked out at the arid Carrow countryside with its shrivelled crops in their cracked, dusty fields.

     Brailsford rose from his feet, raising his hands to signal peaceful intent as the Carrow soldiers tensed up warily. The Kelvon Captain went to the narrow top window, moved the catch and pulled it open. There should have been a gust of wind as the train rushed along the track. There wasn't. Brailsford took a handkerchief from a pocket and held it outside the window. It hung limply. The air outside the train was moving at the exact same speed as the train itself.

     The Kelvon Captain stared meaningfully at his Carrow counterpart, who stared back with wide, astonished, terrified eyes. Yes! thought Ardria with rising hope. Figure it out! Put all the pieces together!

     “Captain,” said Tamwell. “Your King has ordered you to bring the Princess to him alive and unharmed. Is that so?”

     “It is,” confirmed Silva. He looked at the dividing door. “Where the hell’s Shackell?”

     Another Radiant appeared outside the window, the thicker, upper parts of its tentacles visible this time. It tried to drop lower, tried to bring its eyes level with the windows, but that meant dragging its tentacles along the hard, stony ground at fifty miles an hour. It tried to lift them, but seemed incapable of raising more then two or three at a time. It must have hurt, because it hurriedly rose again, abandoning the attempt. It fell back, going to the rear end of the train, while the third creature approached the middle part of the train, two carriages behind them. They were arranging themselves systematically along the train, preparing to attack.

     “Does anyone know how to drive a train?” asked Tamwell. “Because if it curses the engine first, the driver and the engineer...”

     Silva stared at him, then jumped from his seat. “Everyone move forward,” he ordered. “Get to the front of the train...”

     He was too late. Screams came from somewhere up ahead, and a moment later from behind as well. The distant hubbub of panicked, confused, terrified voices, as well as panicked animal noises. “No!” cried Frell, leaping to his feet, waving his gun around in wild panic. His finger was white with pressure on the trigger and the prisoners shrank back into their seats fearfully. “They're our allies!” He aimed the gun at the Princess. “You did this! You turned them against us!”

     Tamwell tensed up, ready to hurl himself at the Carrowman in defence of his Princess even if it cost his own life, but it was Silva who came to her rescue, drawing his own pistol. “Frell! Control yourself, this instant!”

     “But they did this! This is why they came here, to turn them against us!”

     “They're already against you,” said Ardria. “They...”

     “Lies! You're lying!”

     He steadied the pistol, aiming at her heart, but it was Silva’s pistol that spoke first and the Carrow private was thrown back down into his seat as two bullets pierced his chest.

     The other Carrow troops stared at each other in fear and confusion, their fragile discipline close to breaking. “Steady up!” commanded Silva. “It seems we have been lied to, but not by the Princess and her people...”

     “Captain, that's treason,” said one of the Carrowmen in a hesitant, fearful voice.

     “Not at all,” said Ardria, though. “We believe the treason has been committed by people close to the King. Adoptees. People with luminous skins, or who hide their luminous skins with powder. Possibly some of his advisors. They have been lying to him. All those who are loyal to King Nilon, all those who are loyal to humanity, have a duty to...”

     She was interrupted as the connecting door burst open and passengers poured through, their wide, staring eyes blind to everything except an escape from the slaughter taking place up ahead. They ignored the soldiers and their prisoners and almost ran along the central aisle to the other door, which also opened to admit passengers coming from the other direction. Each group fought to get past the other. Punches were thrown, and from both ahead and behind came more terrified screams and animal noises. Passengers fell sideways onto the seats. Ardria found herself under a struggling businessman with a bloody nose. Her head was banged against the steel window frame and for a moment all she could see were stars, but then Tamwell was pulling him off her. Pushing him back out into the aisle and helping her back to her feet.