The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands

by Sarah Brooks

The Captain knows when you’re talking about her, say the crew. They say she’s behind the door before you’ve had time to take a breath. They tell so many stories about her that it is hard to untangle what is real and what has grown into train lore.

“Indeed. A very tedious man, you see. So unmemorable he makes me forget an entire city. Please stage a fainting fit if he approaches, Vera.” Vera inclines her head.

no, they had not seen her that night, they had not thought to find out about the daughter of the man they had destroyed, to fear her anger, her grief. They had not thought about her at all.

She will have to be more circumspect in her questioning. She will be sly, and watchful, and all the things her mother taught her not to be.