Cogling Read Free Page A

silent prayer to the seven Saints that Harrison’s unchanging condition be a positive sign.
    What if his attitude meant the darkness in her had rubbed off onto him? What if he couldn’t fight off the evil? She bit her lip; he had to be safe from that. It had to be something different.
    Passengers shoved their way into a scarlet trolley car at the next stop. Edna broke into a run so they wouldn’t miss their ride and have to wait the half hour for another. Her arm throbbed from carrying her brother’s weight and her ankle boots pinched her toes. As the last man ascended the stairs, Edna reached the trolley, panting. The wooden steps creaked as Harrison climbed aboard—odd; he must’ve hit a growth spurt. She noticed a crack in the wood where he’d placed his foot.
    “Where to?” Rolling his eyes, the driver nodded to a map of his route drawn in red paint on the front window. It ended at the edges of Moser City.
    Beyond those limits, Edna couldn’t picture what the kingdom looked like. She’d never seen another map, but she’d heard Moser City was located in the south, and the capital, Flynt, was the kingdom’s northernmost city. She yearned to have the driver take her to Flynt, where King Elias lived. Anywhere wonderful and different.
    “Waxman Estate.” Edna handed him six pennies, enough for her and Harrison to travel the nine stops to the manor, then nudged her brother down the trolley’s aisle, squeezing past the standing passengers. She scanned the seats to find an empty one, her eyebrows drawing together as she discovered each seat occupied.
    “Just our bloody luck.” Edna stood on her tiptoes to grab a leather strap hanging from the ceiling. When Harrison didn’t move, she jerked him against her side. The trolley car lurched forward, and everyone swayed. She bumped her shoulder against a man wearing a black satin suit.
    He glared down his long nose. “Keep your grime to yourself.”
    Edna bit her lower lip to keep from snapping back and lowered her gaze. She’d done her best to scrub in the washbasin that morning, but her brown curls still felt oily. Heating enough water to fill the tub in the kitchen, sectioned off by a screen, took too much time to do more than once a month. If only they could have a tub with running water, like at the Waxman Estate.
    As the trolley left the heart of Moser City, fewer people entered and more passengers exited. Edna found a seat in the back and pushed Harrison against the window. Buildings and vehicles passed by, a mixture of locomobiles, trolleys, stagecoaches, and buggies. Once they crossed the train tracks, the streets transformed into dirt instead of gravel, with two story houses surrounded by white-picket fences and green lawns.
    They rumbled past a church with stained glass windows and a woman sweeping the walkway. Edna kissed her beads. The seven Saints would help keep the darkness from her.
    The trolley slowed and stopped on squealing brakes in front of an iron gate.
    “Waxman Estate,” the driver bellowed. “All out!”
    Edna stood, but her brother remained seated.
    “Come on.” She prodded him down the aisle. As Edna stepped off, the trolley started with a metallic roar. She stuck her tongue out at it. It might take her where she needed to be, but the ride was never pleasant.
    Inside the gate, a tomtar sat in a high-backed chair, smoking a pipe and forming a bear from a clay hunk as he guarded the entrance. Although an adult, the tomtar’s square head reached her shoulders; thanks to avian ancestry, the tomtars remained short. A coat with brass buttons strained against his thick body; his bird feet peeped from the hem. She always wondered how his legs, no thicker than her wrists, could support his stocky form.
    He cast his gaze at the surroundings before he grinned, showing chapped, black lips and a broken front tooth. The wrinkles in his face crinkled, glistening with oils, and his crow eyes narrowed. His green felt hat sat lopsided atop his shaggy