Two of a Kind

Thrace was a lawless land of sand and sagebrush. Even after over a thousand years, it had yet to fully be incorporated into the theocracy of the Faith. The priests of Delphi had sent missionaries for centuries but found mixed success. As a result, the Tribes of Thrace were only partially adherent to the Faith. Most of them spoke the language Glossa, but still, some only spoke the words of their ancient ways of life. The Argosi were the only tribe to convert fully to the Faith, but their nomadic lifestyle did little tame the land.

If Thrace were to ever be tamed, it would likely be the work of Troy or Rhodes. Both had begun to colonize the continent, building a handful of ports on the shores. Troy built theirs in the south, and Rhodes founded theirs in the east. Both were new nations, eager for expansion, and Thrace was a land of opportunity that could make either nation a global powerhouse to rival the Republic of Athens or the Empire of Sparta.

But Thrace was not a land that would give up its treasures so easily. Not only would the nations have to contend with the Thracians, but there was also the matter of each other. Though Thrace was a rather big place, that did little to stop settlers from each nation from finding reasons to quarrel over resources. Finally, there was also the matter of frontier.

Beyond the control of reach of Troy and Rhodes was a loose coalition of small settlements in the south of Thrace. Some called it New Knossos; others fancied Attica. But, whatever you called the land, the people were united in their belief that they, like the Knossosi, were free—a nation under the gods' rule alone.

The supposed free-folk had come from all lands and all ways of life for one reason or another. Though their relationship with the tribes has been rough, and they had no love for the yoke of Troy or Rhodes, they did have good relations with the Trojan and Rhodians settlers themselves—many of them having close family among the Atticans. The frontier was a land promise and hard-working people, but it also attracted another kind.

Bandits, robbers, and highwaymen plagued Thrace. Many came to target the settlers, while others came to escape punishments in other parts of the world, and some had been settlers themselves who just fell on hard times and turned to criminality to survive. Others did it out of love.

Running across the top of the train, Andi had hoped to lose her pursuers, but the men of the Trojan militia were more clever than she gave them credit for. Two uniformed men gave pursuit while their officer hung back, barking orders for them to bring the thief in alive.

The caboose rocked under Andi's feet as she ran out of carriages to leap upon. She considered dropping down, but that ran the risk of having to fight off even more militia in more confined spaces. Not to mention the problem of an overzealous soldier firing into the passenger cabin and hiding an innocent bystander. No, Andi would make her stand here.

Adjusting her gloves and rolling her shoulders, Andi turned to face the soldiers. Her weary smirk tried to mask her body language's uncertainty about what was about to happen. Then, letting out a frustrated sigh, followed by a sardonic cackle, she lifted her fists. "Alright, shall we dance?"

"I need her alive!" barked the officer as her two men leaped onto the caboose from its adjoining carriage.

"Give up now," said the taller, bulkier soldier with a shaved head and wheat-colored beard as he landed on the caboose and stood upright. "Make it easy for all of us," he said as he loosened his shoulders.

"Yeah," said the thinner, shorter soldier with dark skin and piercing blue eyes. "Don't make us ugly up that pretty face."

Andi let out a gasp and touched one hand's fingertips to her breasts. "You think I'm pretty? Aww, that's so sweet," she said before she giggled and charged in, swinging.

An elbow caught the thin one in the face before that same arm's fist dug into the big one's side. Andi then swept the leg of the thin one as she spun around and backhanded the big guy with both hands. The thin one fell hard on his back as Andi bolted for the officer. She was mid-leap to the other car when a beefy hand grabbed the straps of her suspenders on her back and reeled her back.

The meaty Trojan lifted Andi overhead and smashed her into the roof of the caboose. Several thin metal plates bent as a couple rivets were jettisoned by her impact. The heavy boot then loomed overhead as Andi was still wondering where the air in her lungs had gone.

A gunshot rang out, and an instant later, the big guy stumbled backward, clutching his calf. With a jubilant smile, Andi took a deep breath and rolled onto her belly. Her amber eyes grew bright and wide seeing a handsome man chasing the train with what would be a cherry-colored jalopy if the Thracian dust hadn't been so unkind to its enamel. A handsome rogue dressed in Thracian leathers and a Corinthian silk scarf caught in the wind behind him was steering the contraption.

Percy called out to her from the driver's seat with one hand on the guiding wheel and another holding the hand carbine with smoke spilling from its barrel. "You want a ride, gorgeous?!"

Andi smiled as she pushed herself up from the hot metal roof. She got her feet under her and sprinted for the corner closest to the jalopy. It would be a substantial jump, but she'd made more severe leaps before. A mere mortal might not manage such a feat, but heroic feats were the sort of thing she was born to do. She was nearly then and mentally prepared for whatever came next—or so she thought. A bullet ricocheting across the hot tin roof next to her was something she had not expected, and it stopped her in her tracks.

"The next one will hit you, I promise that!" shouted the officer, pulling back the hammer and rotating the cylinder of her clockwork hand cannon.

Andi glanced at Percy as the jalopy struggled to keep pace with the train. Her window of escape was closing fast. Then, taking a deep breath, she turned around to face the officer. "I thought you wanted me alive?"

"I do," said the officer, her military duster flapping in the desert wind. The two soldiers were now back on their feet and composed, ready for round two, with their officer standing between them. Despite the recent gunshot wound, the big one's bleeding leg did not seem to him too much. The female officer read the eyes of her prey and aimed the gun at the driver of the jalopy. "Perhaps I should shoot him instead?"

"Oh, Juno's cunny!" cried Percy as he dropped deep into his seat and tried to shield himself behind the dashboard. The red motorcarriage swerving and slowing due to his sudden shift in position.

Andi winced as she reached for her back pocket.

The officer shook her head and clicked her tongue. "Not so fast!"

Andi tilted her head as she slowly revealed a folded piece of paper. "This is what we came for," she said, holding it up as the wind violently beat against it. "I give it back and we can all go our separate ways. No one has to die."

"What?!" exclaimed Percy, barely heard over the sound of the rattling train and the rush of wind atop the train carriage. "Andi! What are you doing?!" he cried out in his imperial accent.

The officer motioned her head, and the small soldier approached. As her subordinate did so, she swung her aim for the female thief, training her sights on the other woman's breasts. "Tell your man to turn himself in."

The thin soldier reached for the parchment when Andi's fingers splayed open, letting the wind do its thing. The surprised soldier tried to snatch the flying paper from the air but was caught by Andi's arm and pulled in front of her as the gunshot rang out. Hot metal buried itself into the soldier's chest as a cloud of smoke scattered into the wind, giving Andi a split second to make her move and hope her lover's reactions were just as fast.

As the smoke cleared, the officer saw her man fall to his knees, clutching his bloodied chest. She cursed as she turned to see Andi clinging to the hood of the jalopy as its operator grabbed the brake lever with his left hand and nearly ripped it off.

As the vehicle skidded to a halt, turning sideways, Percy rested his carbine on his left forearm and took a shot. The slug had no intended target but did its work all the same as both the officer and the big soldier hit the deck. A few seconds later, as the Trojans got to their feet, Percy stowed his carbine and waved a farewell to them, knowing full well the train had carried them out of range of her clockwork pistol.

Groaning, Andi rolled off the hood and rubbed her side. "Why am I always falling for you?" she asked with a sore chuckle as she untucked her tunic from her breeches and raised it to reveal a mark that would surely leave a nasty bruise.

Percy raised his driving goggles as he chuckled. "I always said you were quite a catch," he said, leaning forward and resting his crossed forearms on the folded windshield. "Gonna bruise?"

Andi groaned as she limped for the passenger door. After Percy swung it open for her and lowered herself into the seat, she whimpered and shot her beau a sardonic glance. "Any other stupid questions?"

"Just one," said Percy with a nod as he disengaged the brake, having to finesse it due to the lever sticking—likely from all the sand getting in the gears. Once he had it figured out, Percy backed the jalopy up and began down the dirt road in the opposite direction of the train. "How long you think it'll take us to comb this desert for that one piece of paper? Because I'm figuring it'll take us at least until nightfall..."

Andi smirked as she shook her head and unbuttoned the three buttons on the top of her tunic. "I don't think it'll take all that long at all," she said as she pulled a folded parchment from between her breasts.

"Mercury's bollocks..." said Percy, dropping his jaw. "What the feck is this?"

"Remember the job in Olona... two or three lives ago?" she asked, carefully unfolding the parchment.

Percy cocked his head back. "Uh, I remember getting an arrow in the rump," he said with a nod. "What of it?"

"You got said arrow in your fine backside because our mark noticed we took his wife's bracelet. We would've gotten away if we had listened to me and brought a fake to replace it with," Andi said, having unfolded the parchment entirely and visually confirmed its authenticity.

"You brought a fake map?" asked Percy with a chuckle.

She bobbed her head from one side to the other. "I brought a receipt... I was gonna switch it out, but that damn officer had those eagle-eyes and-"

Percy let out a loud chuckle. "I couldn't love you more than if you were Venus herself!" he said over the engine as he picked up speed. He continued to laugh as he pulled his goggles down. "Stow the map in the compartment. I don't want it blowing away for reals this time."

Andi nodded and quickly folded the map. However, she returned it to the safety nestled between her breasts rather than the glove box. Once she had it secured, she let out a long sigh and reached over to run her gloved fingertips up the driver's sleeve. "You know... I could be your Venus if you wanted..." she said with a smirk. "Maybe when we get back to the hotel, we could..."

"We could-?" asked Percy with a glance. His goggles hid his raised eyebrow.

"Eyes on the road," Andi said, snapping her fingers and pointing ahead.

Percy chuckled and did as he was told.

Leaning over with a sore groan, Andi pulled some of Percy's hair away and let her lips brush his ear. "Maybe we could..." she paused to release an aching whine, "get me some elixir?" she asked before descending into playful giggles as she smacked her lover's leather sleeve.

Percy scoffed and gave a courtesy chuckle. Then, shaking his head and only risking brief side-glances at her, he let out a long sigh. Tightening his grip on the wheel, Percy kept the jalopy cruising at a comfortable pace. "Ha... You're a real hoot," he said, shifting his hips in his head. "Regular Muse of Comedy..." he sneered with a hint of a smile.

Leaning against the passenger door, Andi scoffed. "Oh, you know if you take care of me, I'll take care of you," she said with a suggestive smirk.

Percy nodded. "We need to get that map to the client first," he said. "Apothecaries like denari and I spent our last dinar on fuel for this thing when someone went off-script and hopped on the train without warning."

Nodding, Andi pulled up her shirt and looked at her side. "I'll live... Okay, we get paid, then I get some pharma for the pain, and you get-"

"To deal with you being high on elixir all night," Percy chimed in with a scoff. He shot her a glance to see she was still throwing him those bedroom eyes. That got him nodding and also shaking his head. "Yeah, okay... I can deal with that. Just don't overdo it again. Last thing I need is to break my neck trying to get you dressed after you climb up on top of a clocktower naked again."

Andi scoffed and giggled. "Oh, please, that was one of the best nights of your life. You said so yourself the next morning."

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't like to tempt the Fates by doing something insanely stupid more than once," Percy countered with a deep chuckle.

Andi rolled her eyes. "Well, you don't have to worry about that, darlin'," she said as she got comfortable in her seat, gently rubbing her ribs. "Thrace doesn't have any clocktowers that I know of."

"Maybe not," said Percy. "But if there were any to find, you can bet pharma-glazed Andi is the one to find it..."

The drive went on as the two shared a silly laugh.

## Characters

### Heroes

* Perseus
* Andromeda

## Notes and Trivia

* This Story marks the first appearance of Perseus and Andromeda.