JA L E I G H J O H N S O N

The Mark

of

t e

D!gonfly

AUTHOR

Q &A
INSIDE!

C hapter Sampler
1

Mark
D!gonfly
of
the

The

Jaleigh Johnson

D E L AC O RT E P R E S S

2 a sneak peek . . .
Keep reading for

Meet "e
Cha!#ers
Piper: A tough girl who has

had to fend for herself since her

dad died, making money by fixing
broken objects with an almost
magical touch.

Anna: She has no memory

of who she is or what happened

to her, and she is marked with a
mysterious dragonfly tattoo.

Gee: A peculiar green-eyed boy

who has made his home on the
401, standing guard and keeping
intruders
out.
3

ONE
Scrap Town Number Sixteen
Merrow Kingdom

icah brought the music box to her on the night

of the meteor storm. Piper never slept on these
nights, when debris from other worlds fell from the sky.
Restlessness kept her awake in bed, staring at the slanted
ceiling of her tiny house. She counted the widening
cracks in the gray scrub-pine planks and then counted
the seconds as they ticked by on the tarnished silver
watch she wore around her neck. Beneath her cotton
nightdress, the metal lay warm and comfortable against
her skin. Micahs knock made her lose count, but the
watch ticked on steadily.
She pulled on a pair of her fathers old boots, slung
his brown coat over her nightdress, and opened the
door. Wind blew a harsh breath of snow and ice crystals
into her face. Piper wiped her eyes and fixed a look of
annoyance on the boy huddled in the doorway.

I must be seeing things, Piper said. This cant be

Micah Howell standing at my door, dragging me out of
bed in the drop dead of night. Look at meIm stunned
stiff. Im speechless.
Micah snorted. Thatll be the day, then. Let me in,
Piper, will ya? He stomped snow off his boots. Stinks
out here, and its so cold my teeth are cracking together.
Thats your own fault for being out on a storm
night. Most scrappers have the sense to stay inside. He
was right, though. The air already reeked of brimstone.
The storm was coming. Piper moved to let him in, then
shut the door behind him. He immediately ran to the
cast-iron stove to warm his hands. Piper nudged him
aside and adjusted the dampers. Hand me a log before
you make yourself at home, she said. It was her habit to
pretend to be bothered by her friend, even though she
was happy to see him.
Micah handed her a piece of wood from the basket
near the stove and reached into the bulky sack he had
slung over his shoulder. I brought it, just like I said I
would.
Thats great, kid, but I thought you were going to
bring it a few hours agoyou know, before I made a
comfortable nest in the middle of my bed. Piper tended
the stove, and then she went to the window and looked
out at the sky, which had begun to lighten, though it was
still several hours until dawn. The moon waxed a sickly
greenish color, as it always did before the meteors fell,
8

making the clouds around it look like swelling bruises

on the sky.
Pipers skin itched. She had the urge to go outside
and watch the fields, to see the first of the meteors streak
from the sky, but it was too cold, too dangerous. And
besides, shed promised to fix Micahs toy.
A musical boxPiper rolled her eyes. Machines
couldnt make proper music. You needed a person for
that.
She lit an extra kerosene lamp and placed it on the
small kitchen table. Piston rings, bolts, and cylinders littered its surface. Piper shifted these aside, wishing she
had a bigger work space, one she didnt also have to eat
at. Lets see it, then.
Micah set the music box between them. Isnt she
beautiful? he said, his fingers lingering on the lid. It was
decorated with a painted figure of a woman in a white
silk robe. She reclined on a strip of grass, her long black
hair falling around her waist. At her back grew a tree full
to bursting with pink blossoms that hung over her like
a veil.
Whoever had made the music box was a skilled artist. Piper could practically smell the flowers, each one
hand-painted in white, coral, and cerise. In a few places,
the paint had cracked and faded, but those were hardly
noticeable. Overall, it was an incredible piece. Micah
had been lucky to find it.
But she wont sing? Piper lifted the lid to get a look
9

at the musical components. Shed seen contraptions like

these before. A series of pins arranged on a metal cylinder struck the teeth of a steel comb while the cylinder
turned, making the tinkling notes of a song. Shed heard
this type of music and had always thought the sound was
a little annoying. Did you clean the inside after you dug
it out of the crater?
Course I did. The boy was indignant. You think
Im stupid?
Piper glanced up from the box and raised an eyebrow.
Ha-ha. You watchthe coin I get from that thing
will feed my family and me for a month. Shell look
smart in one of those fancy mansions in Ardra. Dont
you think she will, Piper? His excitement faltered, and
he looked at her anxiously.
Yeah, itll look smart. Just make sure you find a
buyer with a stiff hip at the market, Piper said. Theyre
the ones wholl be looking for these kinds of pretties.
She felt the cylinder and its tiny pins. Micah had done
a decent job cleaning it, but flecks of dirt still caked the
comb, and something was keeping the cylinder from
turning. She heard the soft, strangled notes of a song
trying to play.
Why a stiff hip? Micah asked. He had a thin face
and a stubby nose that always scrunched up when he was
confused.
It means hes got a lot of coin on his belt. Piper
swayed back and forth in her chair like a drunk man
10

to illustrate what she meant. Poor thing, he cant walk

right with all that money weighing him down. You have
to know what to look for or youll never make any decent coin.
Ive sold stuff before, Micah said. I did all right.
A handful of trinkets at mostyoure still a puppy
at this game.
Am not! At eleven, Micah hated it when he was
made to feel young.
Piper went on as if she hadnt heard him. Every
traders got a different story. Greasy fingers means youre
dealing with a machinist. She waggled her stained fingers at him significantly. Shell be looking for spare
parts. The ones who come in from Ardra will want iron,
always iron. If you have books or pictures to sell, you
want an archivist. Stiff hips have money to waste. You
can sell them just about anything if you can convince
them its a one of a kind.
Oh, I forgot! I have a book to sell too, Micah said.
He rummaged in the sack and pulled out a red leatherbound book with spidery cracks on the spine. The smell
of aged paper tickled Pipers nose. Embossed on the
front cover was a picture of a girl and a small dog. Next
to her stood a grinning scarecrow, a lion, and a man who
looked like he was made entirely of metal. I cant read
any of the words. What do you think?
Piper examined the book. If its a language theyve
never seen before, the archivists will go nuts. Cant be
11

a very good story, thoughthat picture doesnt make

much sense.
Micah shrugged. I dont care, as long as its worth
something.
Dont worry. Archivists always pay good, Piper
said. She didnt know much about them, only that their
lifes work was collecting meteor-storm artifacts in order
to learn as much as they could about the other worlds.
Piper had heard stories about their museums, vast vaults
built in mountain strongholds to the southwest. They
didnt much care for outsiders either. As far as Piper was
concerned, they could be as mysterious as they wanted,
as long as their prices were fair. And they would love the
condition of Micahs book.
Where did you find these? Piper asked, comparing
Micahs two items. The books got most of its pages,
and Ive never seen a music box this pretty. Theres
hardly a scratch on it.
Got it at the last harvest, Micah said proudly. I
beat everybody else to itfound it in a crater, just under
the ice dragons tail. He gestured vaguely to the north,
where the Hiterian Mountains rose up sharply to snowcovered peaks and marked the northern border of the
Merrow Kingdom. On clear days when clouds didnt obscure the view, if you closed one eye and put your thumb
over the top of the jagged peaks and valleys, the spaces
between flesh and rock formed the rough shape of a
12

dragon with one wing dipping, as if the mythical beast

had frozen in midflight.
Below the dragon lay the harvesting fields, a crescentshaped stretch of land that covered roughly fifty miles
of cratered plains and foothills. For as long as anyone
could remember, the meteor storms had happened there
on each full moon.
Over the years, the scrap towns had grown up on the
outskirts. People had become scavengers, scrappers digging out whatever the storms brought from other worlds,
hoping to find some machine, artifact, or trinket, like
Micahs, that was worth selling at the trade markets. Becoming a scrapper was a way for people to make a living,
though not a very good one. Most things that fell from
the sky were hopelessly broken. The storms were so violent it was a mystery how any objects remained intact
after they hit the earth.
How did you get out there so fast? Piper asked
suspiciously. Micah was nimble, but neither he nor his
brother ever ate really well, so they didnt have as much
energy as some of the other scrappers in town. At thirteen, Piper was stronger and faster, and she made extra
coin from fixing machines people brought her from the
fields.
Well, I mightve gone up the mountain before the
storm was over, Micah said guiltily.
Piper almost dropped the music box. Youre telling
13

me you went out to the fields before the meteors were

done falling?
Micah waved his hands as if trying to hold off a different kind of storm. Just once, and I promise I was
careful! Mom and Dad were away fishing at the lake, so
it was just me and Jory at home. We went to the shelter
together, but I told Jory I was going to be with you so I
could sneak off. I was scared of the storm at first, but
once I squeezed under some rock ledges, I didnt have to
worry about the meteors.
Micah and Jorys parents would have had a fit if they
knew what Micah was up to, Piper thought. But they
were fishermen who went south to the Meljoy lakes
every other week for the trout and pike while Jory, the
eldest, looked after Micah. Fishing was what really kept
Micahs family fed, not scavenging in the scrap fields, but
Micah always thought hed find some priceless trinket,
something valuable enough to sell and bring his parents
home for good.
Oh, well, thats fine, Piper said, though it wasnt.
For a minute there, I was worried, but now that I know
you had some pebbles to protect you from the deadly
meteors raining from the heavens, I wont think any more
about it. So how about lets go back to the part where
you snuck off and used me to lie to your brother? Piper
caught Micah by his shirt collar and shook him. You
know going out in a storm is illegal, not to mention a
hundred and fifty kinds of dangerous. Do you want to
14

get your skull smashed? Itd probably smarten you up, a

couple good knocks to the head.
Let go, Piper! Micah wriggled in her grasp and
bared his teeth as if he might bite her. Piper let him go,
but she scowled fiercely at him until he turned red from
his hollow cheeks to the tips of his ears. I told you I
kept under the rocks. I was safe, he insisted.
Its not just the meteors you have to worry about,
Piper said, exasperated. Meteors bring the dust too, or
did you not see the green clouds hanging in the air like
pretty little death curtains?
I wore gloves, he protested, and wilted under her
black glare.
I dont care if you picked that box up with your
brain like the sarnuns do! Piper poked his temple until
he slapped her hand away. Theres a reason the Consortium crams everybody down into the shelter during
a storm, Micah. You have to wait for the wind to blow
the meteor dust away, or youre just breathing poison.
The thickest gloves in the world wont protect your lungs
from that stuff.
No human ever died from that, Micah said stubbornly.
Itll kill you slower than a meteor to the head, sure,
but its just as nasty as the black smoke that belches out
of the factories in Noveen, she said. Her voice wavered.
You knew people from this town who died of that.
Im sorry, Piper, the boy said, subdued. But Im
15

not as fast as the others. If I dont get out there first,

theres nothing good left.
Sure there is. Theres plenty of good stuff if you
know where to look.
Micah didnt answer, just stared at the music box
with a defiant, hungry look. Piper sighed. Boys were so
stubborn. Her father used to say he thanked the goddess every day that hed had a girl. Boys were too much
trouble. Look, Ill prove it to you, she said. When
the storms over, well go out togetheryou and me. Ill
get you a trinket thatll make this music box look like a
cheap windup toy.
Micahs face brightened. Youd do that?
Piper smiled. Absolutely, if only so I dont have to
step over your smashed skull in the field. Now hush up a
minute. I think I found your problem. Piper rested her
fingers on the music boxs cylinder. The tinny vibration
of the strangled music beat a little rhythm against her
fingertips. She felt the steel teeth, which were supposed
to pluck the pins on the cylinder and create the melody.
One of the teeth had a clot of dirt stuck on the end,
which had crusted on the cylinder and kept it from turning. Piper reached into the box with her smallest finger,
but she couldnt scrape the dirt off without risking damage to the fragile tooth. Go get my tool belt, will you?
she said to Micah. Its under the bed.
The boy crawled over, pushed aside a stack of dogeared, greasy-fingerprinted repair manuals, and reached
16

underneath the bed to grab the small tool belt. It was

little more than a thick leather strap with pockets sewn
all over it. Her father had made it for her a long time
ago when shed first started fiddling with machines. Back
then, all their nuts, bolts, and gear wheels had seemed
like fun mysteries that needed solving. Shed had no idea
her talent would one day become what fed her.
Piper took out a small horsehair brush. As gently as
she could, she rubbed the bristles over the comb, dislodging the dirt from them and the cylinder. What Im
doing here will probably bend or break off part of the
tooththese pieces look pretty oldso it might miss
a note or two, but just tell the buyer its all part of the
song. Here, Im done, she said, handing the box back to
Micah.
Micah lifted the box lid and looked at the cylinder.
Which tooth? Piper pointed to the place, but the boy
shook his head. It looks the same as the others, doesnt
even look bent. Howd you do that without leaving a
mark?
Look, you said to fix it, so I fixed it, Piper said
crossly. Stop bothering me and try it out.
He took hold of the windup key and turned it until
it wouldnt move anymore. When he let go, a tinkling
melody drifted out of the box, soft andPiper had to
admit itsweet, with no missing notes at all. The boys
eyes widened. How do you do it, Piper?
I told you how.
17

Yeah, but . . . He hesitated, and Pipers stomach

clenched. She knew what was coming. People in town
say youre weird with the machines. Youre like a healer
with them. Only, when the healer treats a bad cut, it always leaves a scar. When you fix the machines, it doesnt
leave a mark.
Machines are easier to fix than people, Piper said,
trying to shrug it off. A lot louder and dirtier toowell,
sometimes, at least.
But you even fixed that watch, Micah persisted. He
lifted the trinket from around Pipers neck and held it in
the palm of his hand. When I gave that to you, I was
sure youd never get it going again. Now it looks almost
new.
Piper didnt have an argument for that one. Micah
was right. The watch had been in pieces when he brought
it to her. Micahs brother had taken it from a small crater at the edge of the harvesting fields. Hed gathered up
as many of the broken pieces as he could, but it looked
like some scrapper had trampled the watch in his rush to
get on to bigger treasures. Piper spent weeks working on
it, painstakingly reinserting its brass gears, escapement,
and mainspring into the case. Her patience paid off the
day she heard the distinctive ticking sound coming from
the thing. Micah ended up giving the watch to her as
agift.
What she never told Micah or anyone else was that
in the months after her father died, when she desper18

ately needed coin that he was no longer able to provide,

shed tried to sell the watch to a stiff hip from Ardra.
The trader brought the watch back a week later, claiming Piper had cheated him, that the thing didnt work.
Piper gave him his money back, though it had almost
killed her to do it. A few days later, the watch inexplicably started ticking again. Twice more Piper tried to
sell it, but both times the traders brought it back, angrily waving the broken thing in her face. Apparently,
the watch had decided not to work for anyone but Piper.
Shed never figured out why.
Piper knew she should be proud of her talent, and she
was, but it made her nervous the way people whispered
about her when they thought she couldnt hear. They
claimed that there were many machines only Piper could
fix, and that made some people angry, as if she were taking something away from them by being so good at her
work. How could the best machinist in the scrap town
be so young, with no training beyond her fathers guidance and her own tinkering? That was what they whispered. Even Micah looked at her strangely sometimes, as
he was doing now, and Piper hated it.
Its getting lateor early, I guess, she said. Youd
better head home. The storm was coming, and she had
to be ready. She didnt have time to worry about stupid
rumors. Piper held open the sack for Micah to put the
music box in it. Look, promise me you wont take less
than twelve for that thing, and make sure you tell anyone
19

who looks at it that it plays a pretty song. Theyll want to

hear all about it.
The melody had dwindled to a few meek notes.
Micah pressed his ear against the box. But I dont know
anything about the song. Its from another world.
Piper threw up her hands, but she was smiling. A
little bit of the tension went out of her. Of course you
dont know it, but that doesnt mean you cant make
something up, you dumb puppy. Tell them its probably
an old song from a world of poets, a lovers lament.
Lovers lemon? Micah said dubiously.
Lament, Piper said. Didnt you learn anything in
the Consortium school? It means regret or something.
Trust me, theyll eat it up. She shooed him toward the
door. Go on.
Micah ran when Piper pretended to kick him out
with her oversized boot. Thanks, Piper, he said, grinning. Mom and Dad are coming back tomorrow night.
Ill bring you some fish from their catch!
As soon as he disappeared around the corner, Piper
shut the door, shed her nightdress, and put on trousers
and a thick cotton shirt, adding another layer of socks
to the ones she already wore so her fathers boots would
fit tighter. Luckilyor unluckily, depending on how you
looked at itshed always had big feet. Shed outgrown
her own boots months ago. Her fathers coat, however,
didnt fit her at all. The tail dragged on the ground, and
the sleeves bunched at her elbows. It hung loose on her
20

and she was always catching it on things, tearing holes

and leaving threads hanging out. The garment looked
more like a dogs shaggy coat than a jacket. She adored it.
After she dressed, Piper checked the stove again and
hauled water in from the well. She filled the teakettle
and set it on the stove to boil. From a cupboard, she
took a box of tea and measured out a small amount to
add when the water was done. For the rest of her breakfast, she got out the loaf of bread shed made the day
before and tore off two large chunks.
Every now and then, she threw an uneasy glance out
the window. The green light in the sky grew brighter with
each passing hour, and the smell of brimstone thickened
in the air, mingling with the scent of woodsmoke from
the stove. By her guess, the meteor storm would break
just before dawn, which gave her a couple more hours to
get ready and get to the shelter.
She packed a satchel with cloths, heavy leather
gloves, a pair of goggles to keep any lingering dust out of
her eyes, and a couple of rice balls shed bought from the
market. She went over every item twice to make sure she
hadnt forgotten anything that shed have to come back
for later. As soon as the storm was over, she needed to
be among the first out to the fields for the harvesting
Micah would slow her downshe had to be ready to
run as soon as the green light faded from the sky.
She felt a twinge of guilt for lying to him, but the
truth was too depressing. The fastest scrappers did
21

always snatch up most of the valuable stuff. It only took

thirty minutes after a storm ended to be left with junk.
Thats how good the scrap towns had gotten at scavenging the objects that fell from the sky. If you didnt get a
move on, there was no point digging through the craters.
There was nothing valuable left.
Outside, Piper heard doors opening and closing up
and down the street and footsteps passing by her house.
A few people called out her name as they passed by her
door to make sure she was awake and moving. She didnt
know who they were exactlyshe never opened the door
when they called to herbut theyd been doing it since
the day her dad left the kingdom to go south to work in
the machine factory in Noveen, and theyd kept doing it
after he died. Piper wondered if her dad had asked them
to look out for her while he was away. They never offered to share food with hergenerosity only went so
far in a scrap townbut she appreciated the little show
of friendship, especially in a town where most people
never bothered to learn their neighbors names.
Many of the scrappers were nomads by nature, and
superstitious. If they didnt have any luck scavenging in
their first few months in a scrap town, they moved on to
the next one. They were always sure that all they needed
was a change of scenery for a change in luck. As a result,
there were always empty houses around town as scrappers cleared out and squatters moved in. Piper figured
22

they all eventually ended up back where they started,

with no better luck than when theyd begun.
Her satchel packed, Piper poured the hot tea through
a strainer into her favorite fat yellow mug. Curls of
cinnamon-laced steam rose in the air. After an impatient
minute waiting for the tea to cool, she drank it down,
burning her tongue as usual. The scent was amazing, but
the flavor was weak. She needed fresh leaves, but it was
too much of a luxury to buy them when she still had a
little bit left in the box. When shed finished the bread
and drained her second cup, she left her mug on the table
next to the machine parts and went out to join the other
scrappers on their way to the shelter.
Frigid night wind burned against her face. Piper
pulled her dads thick coat around her and hugged herself
to hold in the warmth. Nearly Thirdmonth, she thought
disgustedly, and winter still held the northern towns in a
death grip. The shelter would be a little warmer with the
heat of all the bodies, but Piper didnt like the idea of so
many people crammed together in a hole.
In the distance, on the southern edge of town, green
moonlight illuminated the sweeping, snow-covered roof
of the Trade Consortium pavilion, the immense structure overshadowing the scrub-pine houses of the townspeople. Made of sturdier oak and pika wood shipped
by rail from Ardras lumberyards, the pavilion housed
the weekly trade markets sponsored by the Consortium.
23

Behind it were the trade offices and multistory dwellings

for Consortium representatives. The columned pavilion separated the two parts of the town like bars. Piper
looked toward the center of town and saw Arno Weir
standing next to an open metal door set into the ground.
He saw her approach and pulled his lips back in a
gap-toothed smile. Theres my little machinist! Have
you finished working on my steam engine yet? As he
spoke, he crossed her name off a list he clutched in his
left hand.
The population of the town was constantly changing, so it was hard to keep track of people and make sure
they got to the shelter, but Weir knew everyone. He ran
a general store out of his house and could tell youfor
a pricewhich were the fairest traders at the market. If
the town had been big enough to have a mayor, Weir
would have been it. He was also one of Pipers best customers.
Its going to take me another week, Piper told him,
and its going to cost you double. That engine was a
clunky little beast, more trouble than it was probably
worth, but Piper loved a challenge. Not that shed ever
admit that to Weir. If he thought she was having too
much fun tinkering with the machines, hed try to make
her work for free. Piper never worked for free.
Weir clicked his tongue and put on a morose expression. You trying to cheat me again, Piper? What would
your father say?
24

Hed tell you youre a bad actor, Piper said. You

forgot to say it was a smaller modelthe ones used on
short-range, semi-rigid supply gliders. Those things are
twitchy dont work right half the timeand you know
it. You also conveniently forgot to mention that there
were sarnun stretch coils all over it.
No, no, no, I didnt see anything like that
Piper crossed her arms and smothered a grin. She
couldnt help it. She loved a good bargaining match, and
she also enjoyed making Weir squirm. Come on, Weir,
you know this isnt my first dance. You stripped the coils
off, but the chemicals leave traces everywhere. You cant
miss them. They smell like dog vomit.
Do they really? Weir said, dropping his innocent
expression. I mean Aw, darn it, Piper!
Look, you know I like a good chemical accelerant
as much as the next girl, but if you add too many seasonings, it spoils the soup, Piper said. And really, it was
shameful to muck up a perfectly good machine with
chemicals and embellishments to make it go faster and
run longer than it ought to. Why couldnt people learn
to be more respectful? More time, more money, or I
can bring the engine back tomorrow and well call the
deal off, she said.
Not so hasty! Weir cried, putting extra mournfulness in his tone. Piper rolled her eyes. How can I argue
with you? Youre magic with the machines. Ill give you
twenty extra and another week. Fair?
25

Piper nodded curtly. Normally she would have held

out for more, but she wanted to shut him up. The last
thing she needed was Weir praising herloudlyin
public about her talents. Just like Micah and that stupid
watch. There wasnt anything special about being a good
machinist. Keeping her customers happy kept food in
her belly, so she had to be good at her work. That was all
there was to it.
Move on, said a deep voice behind Piper. Youre
holding up the line.
Sorry, Piper said, glancing over her shoulder. A
guard wearing the blue livery of the Trade Consortium
frowned at her. The frown emphasized his long mustache
and saggy cheeks. A hound-dog look. He wore a revolver
at his beltyou didnt see many of those in the north,
where iron was scarceand a crossbow on his back.
The Trade Consortium was an independent organization sanctioned by the Merrow Kingdom to keep order
in the scrap towns by settling disputes. They also hired
men to make sure the scrappers didnt fight each other
over what they took from the harvesting fields. The more
scrappers who harvested, the more goods there were to
trade at the markets, and the Consortium took a cut of
every sale. In return, they made sure each town had a
couple of healersif you had the coin to afford thema
school for the youngest children, and decent roads, and
when fights did break out, the Consortium came down
hard and stopped them. Those attentions stabilized the
26

towns and helped them thrive as much as they could,

but still poverty reigned and a perpetual feeling of despair hovered over the harvesting fields like the poisonous dust. Order was good, but it didnt make daily living
any easier.
Piper passed Arno Weir and entered the shelter. The
townspeople trooped single file down a set of earthen
stairs into the dark. Being in the shelter had always felt
to Piper like being buried alive. Shed never been able to
stop the crawly feeling that came over her skin when she
was in the shelter with the earth above her head. Forcing
down the flutter of nerves in her stomach, she followed
the crowd.
Gathering like this was the closest the town ever
got to an official function outside market days. She assumed all the scrap towns had shelters similar to this
one, though shed never been to any of the others. The
problem was people built their houses closer and closer
to the harvesting fields every year, so close that sometimes the meteors flew wide and demolished them like
piles of matchsticks. The Consortium warned people
against doing this, not only because of the meteors but
also because of the dust, but they didnt care enough to
try to stop them. If only people would hold themselves
back, just a little, not be so eager to get killed, thered be
no need to gather everybody underground.
Piper heard Arno Weirs heavy boot tread on the
stairs. Looks like thats all of us, he said, and the metal
27

door clanged shut, making Piper jump. Candle lanterns

filled the cramped space, illuminating the haggard, windburned faces of the townspeople. Smoke and the odor of
unwashed bodies quickly soured the air.
This last part of the nightthe waitingwas the
worst. Everyone was quiet for a while, but as soon as the
crashes and booms of the first meteors sounded outside,
it started. Mothers juggled their children, and the youngest ones started to cry because they were tired and hungry and didnt like being underground in the stink and
smoke any more than Piper did. Men fidgeted, stomped
their feet for warmth, while some chewed their smelly
sarnun tobacco and remarked to nobody in particular
that it sounded like there were more meteors than usual.
Be a good harvest this time, wait and see, Weir
said. He removed a dirty handkerchief from his pocket
and blew his nose loudly.
Piper gritted her teeth to keep from screaming.
Scrappers with mouths bigger than their brainstheir
talk was always the same. Everyone had a story of a
friend of a friend of a friend whod made a fortune in
the fields after a huge storm. Piper knew it for trash. It
was never a better harvest. Nobody ever found a trinket
that made them rich, got them out of the scrap town and
into a fancy mansion. Every person gathered in that hole
had been born in a scrap town, and theyd probably die
in one too.
But not Piper.
28

She had vowed it on the day she learned her dad

was never coming back from the factory. Once she had
enough money for a train ticket, she was leaving for
Ardra. It was the capital of the Merrow Kingdom, the
seat of the royal family, and the best place for someone with Pipers skills. Shed find a machinists shop, a
small one, and hire on for repair work for as long as they
needed her. If Ardra didnt suit her, shed just keep traveling until she found the right place.
No matter what happened, Piper had swornto herself and to her dadshed never work in a factory down
south, and she wouldnt live out her life in a scrap town.
She wanted to see more of the world than this one tiny,
frigid corner.
Absorbed in her thoughts, she almost didnt hear the
alarmed cry that rang out from the back of the shelter.
Jory, Micahs older brother, ran up to her, his lantern
swinging wildly in the darkness. Wheres Micah?

29

A Conversation wi"

30

Photo by Mark Jones

Ja$igh Johnson

In THE MA R K OF THE DR AGONFL Y, Piper, Anna,

and Gee are all such brave chara!ers in their own ways.
Who was your favorite to write?

Its so hard to choose a favorite! I will say that I loved writing

Annas bursts of encyclopedic knowledge. And the scenes
where Piper and Anna are together are very special to me.

What inspired you to writeTHE MA R K

DR AGONFL Y?

OF THE

Two distinct elements came together to help inspire me

to write the story. A dragonfly pin that I wore on the sash of
my wedding dress inspired the dragonfly symbol. And the 401
steam engine on display at the railway museum in my hometown inspired the fictional 401. The story grew from those
seeds.

THE MA R K OF THE DR AGONFL Y takes place in such

a cool world. How did you come up with it?

I wish I knew! But I loved the idea of a place where the

boundary between worlds was thin, allowing objects to pass
through. Once I had that idea, it brought up all kinds of
interesting questions. What would that mean for the people
who lived there? How would they react to these objects? How
would the objects influence their world? So many questions,
and I had to know the answers.

Without giving too much away, what is your favorite

part of THE MA R K OF THE DR AGONFL Y?

Any scene involving the 401, but I especially enjoyed the

scene at the beginning of the book when the 401 is just sitting
at the scrap town, all mysterious and beautiful and begging
to be explored. It helps that I 31
love trains; theyre so romantic.

Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer?

Nope. I started scribbling stories in notebooks for fun

when I was nine or ten years old, but I didnt know I wanted
to be a writer until I was in high school. I didnt know I could
be a writer until I was in my twenties and just starting to be
published. It took a long time and a lot of patience, but Im
glad I didnt give up.

Do you have any advice for young readers who want to

become writers?

If you love reading, youre already on the right track. I

learned what made a good story by reading all different kinds
of books. My other piece of advice is pay close attention to
your English teacher. He or she will give you the tools to get
those stories out of your head and onto the page, one sentence
and paragraph at a time. Teachers also hold the secret of
grammar. If you want to be a writer, grammar is your friend.

What were some of your favorite books when you were

growing up?

Too many to count, but off the top of my head theres

Anne of Green Gables, The Hobbit, A Wrinkle in Time,
Charlottes Web, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, From the
Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Grimms Fairy Tales,
all of the Ramona books, and pretty much any book ever
written by Robin McKinley.

For more, visit MA R KOFTHEDR AGONFL Y.COM

Order your copy of

The Mark of "e D!gonfly

by Jaleigh Johnson

From one of the below retailers:

For more online accounts, click here.

Text copyright 2014 by Jaleigh Johnson

Jacket art copyright 2014 by Nigel Quarless
Map illustration copyright 2014 Brandon Dorman
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by
Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books,
a division of Random House LLC,
a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon
is a trademark of Random House LLC.
Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools,
visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Jaleigh.
The mark of the dragonfly / Jaleigh Johnson. First edition.
pages cm
Summary: Since her fathers death in a factory in the Dragonfly
territories, thirteen-year-old Piper has eked out a living as a scrapper
in Merrow Kingdom, but the arrival of a mysterious girl sends her on a
dangerous journey to distant lands.
ISBN 978-0-385-37615-0 (hc) ISBN 978-0-385-37645-7 (glb)
ISBN978-0-385-37646-4 (ebook) [1. Fantasy.] I. Title.
PZ7.J63214Mar 2014
[Fic]dc23
2013019716
The text of this book is set in 12-point Goudy Old Style.
Book design by Heather Kelly
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Random House Childrens Books supports the
First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

FREE SAMPLE COPYNOT

FOR SALE
34

Three unlikely friends

marked for greatness.
One is smart.
One is brave.
And one is hiding a secret
that could cost them their lives.

35

VISIT MA R KOFTHEDR AGONFL Y. COM