I returned to our compartment with Shang Qing slung over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Except for Artemis and Phobos who were taking care of things in the engine room, the rest of my team was waiting for me with similarly incapacitated members of the Huaxia contingent – two women, one attuned to water, the other, shadow.

That only left the muscular Tai Qing and Yu Qing, the chubby boy who had called Shang Qing away during our first meeting.

I shot a glance at Hei Lian. The Dark Sun’s clone was sitting on a bunk, staring out of the window as though the events of the compartment didn’t concern her one bit. And well… as our lives weren't in danger I guess they really didn’t.

Setting my sleeping burden down beside the two women, I waited.

I wasn’t too concerned about Artemis’s safety. After all, she was a Tier 4 mage now. A fact which we hadn’t publicized too widely, which meant that she had the element of surprise. Combined with her nigh impregnable armour, I had a hard time imagining the Qing brothers defeating her. Not even if they both fought her at once.

And with Phobos there to provide support, defeat was even more unlikely.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long for my wives to arrive with the final members of the Huaxia contingent in tow, sleeping. Really, Ceres’ smoke was a masterstroke when it came to non-lethal takedowns. Even outmatched as they were, I doubt capturing the Huaxians would have been as simple without it.

“Are the train operators okay?” I asked.

“They’re fine,” replied Phobos. “These guys just knocked them out.”

I relaxed. That was a relief. At least we wouldn't have to account for any casualties.

I referred to the neat and tidy row of sleeping prisoners. “Any idea why they did it?”

“Not the foggiest,” replied Ceres. “As far as I know, they are supposed to travel to Egypt for their next Trial. The Trial of fire. They left a couple of weeks before we set out. The reason they gave was that they wanted to travel to the Central Province to upgrade their equipment. We were supposed to pick them up there.” She shook her head. “I didn’t expect them to try and ambush us here.”

“No one in their right mind would,” scoffed Artemis. “They are smack dab in the middle of Regiis territory, a long way from home, and they decide to attack a train with mages who are as strong as, if not stronger than them guarding it. Even if they successfully overpowered us and looted the train, where would they go? And how would they dispose of the stolen goods? I’m starting to question their sanity.”

“Why’re you all trying to guess why they did it?” asked Deimos as she walked up to the captives, picking up a glass of water from a table on the way. “Just ask them, ya.”

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She was just about to splash the water on Shang Qing’s face when a pale hand reached out and caught her wrist, halting her action.

“There’s no need for that,” said Hei Lian, stepping between us and the captives. “They’re here on my orders. These children work for me now.”

My mind stuttered to a halt. What?! Why?

As though reading my mind, or more likely, my face, she explained: “They wanted to swear fealty to me and become my disciples. I agreed, provided they passed my test.” She swept her amber gaze over us. “You were my test for them.”

“As you can see, they didn’t do very well.”

The corner of my eye twitched. Setting aside the fact that the Huaxian contingent had apparently defected to another nation – and the political fallout that could cause – why the hell did we have to act as a yardstick for her disciples.

I shook my head. Whatever. I could complain about her wilfulness later. There was another aspect of the current situation that was much more pressing.

“With all due respect, your Highness, that alarm that just went off in the engine room is connected via mind crystal to an observation centre in the Capital. Reinforcements will be arriving in less than an hour from whichever military barrack is closest. What explanation are we supposed to give them?”

“In my experience, the sentences which start with ‘With all due respect’ tend to be the least respectful," said Hei Lian, narrowing her eyes and sending a chill up my spine.

"And you don’t need to worry about the alarm. I was the one who rang it to give you some warning. No message was sent. As for the operating staff; they won’t remember being knocked out. No one save for us knows about this little exercise. And that’s the way it will stay.”

Now that I knew that she was behind this, I could be reasonably sure that she was keeping an eye on us the entire time and would have stepped in if any of us were in real danger. Still, I hadn’t known that during my fight with Shang Qing and it had felt like a dance on the edge of death.

Sharing my senses with my clone meant that I had first hand experience of what it would feel like to avoid decapitation by a hair’s breadth, get cooked by my own reflected flames, and get diced by crisscrossing beams of light. All of them rather unpleasant experiences. I resisted the urge to sigh.

“Yes, your Highness. We won’t mention it.”

My wives nodded their agreement.

Satisfied, she took the glass of water from Deimos and swung her arm in an arc, splashing all five of the sleeping captives on their faces.

As they all gasped and sputtered their way to wakefulness, she handed the empty tumbler back, and turning on her heel, strode towards the door leading to the next compartment – the entirety of which she had commandeered as her private quarters for the duration of this trip.

“Since they failed this time, if they still want to become my disciples, they’ll just have to try again. This journey was getting rather insipid, wasn't it? Well... with them here, I think it will be a little more interesting.”

The door swung shut behind her, leaving us alone in awkward silence.

“Well,” I addressed Shang Qing after a while. “I never did get around to accepting your invitation to dinner, did I?”

I extended my hand to him, trying and failing to read his poker face. “We could always do that now. I don’t want to brag, but my wife cooks the best fish steak in all of Regiis.”

Shang Qing opened his mouth, but Yu Qing beat him to the punch. Grabbing my hand with two pudgy ones, he pulled himself up to his feet.

“Say no more,” he said. “We accept! All that fighting has got me absolutely starving. We might not have beaten you in magic, but I’m confident that I can out-eat the lot of you.” He grinned. “And that’s got to count for something.”