Here it is! The first chapter in my new novel, Trans-Continental: Cannon Belle Run! This is the third book in the Trans-Continental series, which can be read independently of Girl in the Gears and Mississippi Queen if you’re curious. This book is being written as a serial, published and collected on this site as I go. I’ll post the next chapter in a few days, though it’s already up on Royal Road, if you want to read ahead.

Note: Reality Check, Trans-Continental, and The Multiverse Blues all occur in the same multiverse, in that chronological order.

Chapter One – Sister Trouble

I have to write this all down, because no one will believe my story. It all started with a distressing telegram from my sister to me:

Father sent me, but I made other plans. Meet me at the levee in Ouiatnon at dusk three days hence. Set the table and make haste. Love, Mags

I put the telegraph message on the table, turning it around to show Duffy. She peered at it. “What’s this, Ida? A message from Maggie?”

The clatter of dishes and murmur of conversation surrounded our table in the Bourbon Street cafe. A trolley chugged by outside, leaving a wake of coal smoke.

Frowning, she looked up from the note and said, “Hmm. Cryptic. What d’you think she means by it?”

“I’m not certain. She’s in trouble if she’s defying our father. That bit about making haste sounds especially bad. It’s written as though she thinks it might be intercepted.”

In a low voice, Duffy said, “She’s workin’ for him now? And why Ouiatnon?”

I shook my head. “Maggie’s still a loyal citizen of the United States of Dixie. Mostly.” I sighed. “My guess is, she feels like she has no choice. I’m the black sheep for leaving home.”

Duffy’s eyes dropped from looking at me to stare at the dregs of her café au lait. “Yeah, no choice but to back that oppressive regime. She had absolutely no choice at all.”

A cold lump formed in my stomach. “Hey, Duffy, don’t be like that. Dixie’s awful, but not everyone who lives there is a monster.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sure. Charming folks like your ex.” She fluttered a hand in the air as she feigned a mocking Southern accent. “Evah so polite and delightful as she tried to kill us.”

“Damn it! Is that what you think of me? Did you forget that I used to be a soldier in their army?” Suddenly aware of a flush creeping up my cheeks, I adjusted my puff sleeves and fluffed my skirt.

She shook her head. “I didn’t forget. You used to be. But you left!”

“I deserted. Because I couldn’t pretend to be a man anymore.”

Her expression softened. “Look, Ida. You know I always got your back. But Dixie keeps pushing outward, their war machine gets bigger and nastier every year. Just ask the folks in Baltimore. Or Pittsburgh. Fort Arthur, even! They’re expandin’ and killin’ anyone who gets in the way. And not just army versus army, neither! Good folks dyin’ every day at the hands of good ole Dixie. I can’t—I won’t excuse it in the name of good manners, love.”

I sighed and ran a hand over my face, closing my eyes for a moment. “I know all that. You know I hate to see it. It’s hard to watch the country I grew up in become this greedy, military monster. I want to apologize every time I get a hard look from strangers who hear my accent. We do what we can, Duffy. Working for the Queen to keep the Free City free, right?”

Duffy took my hand in hers. “I’m not blamin’ you, personally, kid. But are we gonna stick our necks out to help one of them?”

I pulled my hand away. “Maggie isn’t ‘one of them’! I’m not asking you to come with me. And I thought you weren’t going to call me ‘kid’ anymore.”

I regretted my sharp tone. Duffy scooted her chair away from the table as though I’d slapped her. There was a catch in her voice as she said, “You’d go without me, love?”

I shrugged. “Even if Maggie weren’t my sister, even if I didn’t love her as much as I love you, she saved me. She saved us, when Father tried to force me back into the Dixie Army. I owe it to her. So I’m going whether you choose to join me or not.”

Duffy doffed her hat and wrung it with both hands, eyes downcast. “I’m sorry, Ida. I’ll go with you if you’ll have me. I’ll help Mags, but I won’t help Dixie, understand?”

Our eyes met, and I nodded. “I understand. Besides which, Queen Melony would banish us from the Free City of New Orleans for life if we did. We’ll go see what Maggie needs. Maybe she just wants asylum with us here in Nola?”

Duffy smiled and popped her bowler back onto her head full of dark curls. “I’d like that. I hope that’s all it is. Might explain the neutral territory, hey?”

“Maybe. We should be prepared for worse.”

“What, like a trap? Hey, d’you think maybe that message isn’t really from Mags?”

I shook my head. “It’s from her. As kids, we made up code words to get around our parents. If she’d mentioned her ‘gingham slippers’ it would be a warning that she’s lying to cover for something to tell me later. Or if she mentioned ‘wild animals’ it would mean I should lay low to avoid another beating. If she said, ‘come at once’, I’d know to do the opposite. Since she said to ‘set the table’, she’s telling me someone’s with her. I can only guess what ‘make haste’ means, but it sounds like something we’d do anyway.”

She grinned and touched the brim of her hat. “Always on the run, it’s our speciality!”

I made a dramatic flourish with my hand in response. “That’s us, Ida and Duffy! Famous friends, at your service! Now, how shall we get there? This says ‘three days’, and it says she sent it this morning; but her use of ‘hence’ is another code for ‘one less’, so she wants to meet in two days. We’ll need to get there fast, deep into the Democratic Republic of Chicago, and then make a quick getaway.”

Duffy held up a finger. “We’ll need to be inconspicuous, too. Can’t go in with an armored trackless engine or one of the Queen’s airships. Can you imagine flying to Ouiatnon through D.R.C. territory in the Whiskey Kiss? Even if they didn’t shoot us down, we’d announce our arrival for sure!”

“But we don’t have the time to borrow the Ada Lovelace to go underwater, and I don’t think the Ohio river is deep enough anyway—much less the Wabash.”

“What about taking the Clair de Lune?”

I laughed. “Sure, we’ll just talk the Queen into letting us borrow her personal zephyr ship! I have my doubts, particularly after we wrecked the Rook!”

Duffy’s sly smile warmed my insides. “Aw, we didn’t wreck the Rook! The Baron did that for us. Does Melony even know about that?”

I laughed. “Melony always knows somehow. Do you think Captain Levi could keep that story to himself? After all, that’s how we died!”

She snorted. “Yeah, I miss those days when we were dead. Least we knew Dixie wasn’t gunnin’ for us if they thought so anyway. Even if the spy network hasn’t gotten word back to Colonel Stillwell, d’you suppose June left us out of her report?”

I wish she hadn’t brought up my ex. I tried not to let my irritation show in my face. “Well, we did save her life, even after what she pulled on the Marie Curie.”

“You really think that holds water with someone like her? She’d sell us out in a heartbeat.”

I held up a hand. “I know. I know. There’s no way that Brigadier General Stillwell doesn’t know we’re alive. And that’s what I’m afraid of.”

Duffy whistled. “Your dad got promoted? Good for him. You think he’s using Maggie to get to you?”

I shook my head. “That might be what he ‘sent’ Maggie to do, but she knows what he’d do to me. Really, even he knows there’s no getting me back, unless he wants to throw me in a prison cell back home. Or have me shot to end his embarrassment. I don’t know what his game is, if he is involved.”

“We gotta believe he’s behind this, since Mags mentioned him. That’s gotta be one of your ‘codes’, hey? A warning about him?”

I nodded and sighed. “You’re right. So you’re the clever one, how are we borrowing the Clair de Lune?”

She touched the end of my nose with her finger. “Naw. You’re the brains of this duo. I’m just the hired muscle.” She posed as though she were a beefy weightlifter, her wonderful sly smile spoiling any illusion there might have been.

“Oh pooh. You’re far better at fast-talking and finding all the angles. What have we got on the Queen?”

“Well, we’ve got a mystery, and Melony’s curiouser than a cat. We’ll say it’s a spy mission to get intel on Dixie. And it might just be, at that!”

“Okay. You sell it to the Queen, and I’ll convince Captain Levi to take us.”

“Yeah, doubt you’ll have to twist his arm, he loves that little blimp. Its upgrades make the old Rook look like a carnival ride.”

“But it’s us. He’ll be wary, after what happened last time.” I made an arc with my finger from eye level downward and slapped the table with my hand. Smack!

Duffy scrunched her face together at the memory. “Tell him we promise we’ll try our best not to let that happen this time.”

“To be fair, he jumped out of a perfectly good blimp and left it in our hands. I’ll insist he stay at the helm! He’ll like that.”

“See you at the hangar in an hour, hey?”

I kissed her cheek. “Pack for a journey. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be a simple milk run.”

“You know it, ki—love!”

Chapter Two – Night Cruise