Free Blood Red (9781101637890) by Mercedes Lackey Page A

forest, in fact—and there was no sign of a road or so much as an animal track on this side of the train. But she immediately felt at ease;
this
was where she belonged, with proper earth beneath her feet, and nothing artificial but the train and its track for miles. There was little or no wind, and beneath the smell of hot metal and coal smoke was the scent of good, green, growing things. She heard the calls of dozens of birds—finches, sparrows, a raven, rooks, starlings, tits, warblers, pipits—there were probably more birds than that out there, but the chatter of the people going to see what was wrong drowned out their songs as she approached the gathering crowd.
    She was by no means the only person on the train who was curious enough about what was going on to have alighted—in fact, the passengers from the more crowded cars seemed to have taken this as an excuse to escape the crowding. There were four men from the parlor car, and many other men and a few women from second and third class making their way alongside the stopped train on this side. As she passed the great steam engine, waves of heat radiated from it, and she looked up at the cab of the enormous construction to see the crew sitting at what must be rare leisure, only occasionally throwing on a shovel-full of coal to keep the fires stoked.
    Then she was out in front of the train with the rest, and saw what had happened.
    There was a tree down across the track—quite an enormous tree at that. It looked to be hundreds of years old, and its girth was tremendous. There were half a dozen men sawing and hacking at it, and teams of patient horses waiting to take the pieces away. It was very clear that the thing could not simply be cut in half and dragged off. It would have to be cut apart in several pieces, or the horses could never haul it away. It was obvious from the limited progress they had made that this was going to take a great deal longer than the three hours the steward had promised.
    It was also clear—to her, at least—what had felled the forest giant. Smoke still rose from the splintered stump. It could only have been struck by lightning, but it must have been a massive blast. Now—that was very suspicious to her mind. She had spent most of her life in the Schwarzwald, and she had never seen a lightning strike that powerful that was directed to the
base
of a tree rather than the top. She wanted to get closer, but could not think of a way to do so without drawing the ire of the working crew.
    As she stood there at the back of the crowd, staring in astonishment and growing suspicion, a low voice spoke in her ear. “If I might trouble you for a moment of your time, Earth Master?”
    The voice was male, and spoke German, and the fact that the speaker had identified her as an Earth Master came as a shock. She turned quickly. Immediately behind her was a tall, lean, pale-blond man with a pronounced jaw, little round wire-rimmed spectacles, and an extremely worried expression. She identified him immediately—not that she knew him, but she knew
what
he was. The green swirls of Water Magic surrounded him in a simple shield. Too simple a shield for him to be very powerful.
    Water Mage.
Not a Master. Not that there was anything wrong with that! Plenty among the Bruderschaft were mages rather than Masters, and the specific and skillful application of a little power could get as much done as brute force.
    Things were going a little faster than she liked. She hadn’t even had time to analyze the downed tree, and here was an unknown Water Mage addressing her. On the other hand, maybe
he
had exactly the information she was looking for.
    She nodded at him, and inclined her head back along the train. Once they got past the engine again, they were alone—everyone that was curious enough to go to the front of the train had gathered in a crowd there, drawn together by the universal urge of people who do not have to do a