The Mark of the Dragonfly

Anna is a creature that is part human and part mechanical. For much of the story, the other characters and the reader aren’t aware of this fact. She appears as an 11-year-old girl who is pale and fragile. When Piper first finds her, she is unconscious and completely helpless. Piper’s synergist abilities bring Anna back to a waking state, though she recalls very little of her past or how she arrived in Solace. Despite her mechanical nature, she possesses a human heart and feels a great attachment to Piper.

Despite Anna’s innocence, she possesses a prodigious amount of knowledge from the massive number of books she reads. Her ability to analyze and recall facts is crucial in saving Gee’s life after he has been poisoned by slaver dust. She is also handy with a crossbow. Her only wish in life is to remain near Piper. By the novel’s end, this wish is granted as she eludes recapture by Doloman and finds a new life aboard the 401.

Like all the other characters in the novel, Gee is hardly what he seems. He appears as a scruffy 13-year-old boy whose face is perpetually smudged with coal dust. In reality, he is a shape-shifting creature known as a chamelin. When he transforms, Gee can fly. He resembles a giant bat or dragon and has superhuman strength in his chamelin form. Gee is also an orphan, having been sold to slavers by his parents when he was seven.

After being bought and rescued by Jeyne, Gee devotes his life to the 401. As its chief of security, he ensures the safety of the passengers and the valuable cargo that needs to be guarded against bandits. Like Piper, he is fiercely protective of those he loves and demonstrates his concern for Piper and Anna at many points in the story. By the novel’s end, Gee’s growing attraction toward Piper becomes obvious, and she returns his affections. The story concludes on a happy note for him as the two girls join the crew of the 401 for its future adventures. 

Doloman is the second most powerful person in the Dragonfly territories because he is the king’s master machinist. While he superficially supports the king’s ambition to achieve technological superiority over the lands to the north, Doloman is secretly in league with the Merrow Kingdom and its plan to rule all of Solace. Doloman is particularly interested in creating an army of part-human machines like Anna to carry out that agenda.

The machinist’s obsession with mechanical humans causes him to experiment on Anna for over a year. When Piper is able to awaken her, Doloman perceives the value of a synergist on his team as well. He tries to recruit both girls by offering them wealth and comfort as his adopted daughters. When his offer is rejected, he is prepared to destroy them, but the king’s soldiers prevent that plan by arresting him. After Doloman’s duplicity is discovered, he is sentenced to life in prison.

Trimble is both the resident healer and the fireman aboard the 401. Because he dabbles with various potions and medicines, he always has glass vials of various concoctions dangling from his belt. Like Piper, Trimble is a synergist who is impervious to fire. He is also the only person on the train who can relate to Piper’s unique gift. When she is afraid to own her power, Trimble helps guide her into accepting the gift she has been given.

At many points in the story, Trimble is called upon to patch up the injuries of the humans under his care. He helps to heal Gee as well and also assists Piper in healing Anna’s mechanical damage. He regards the two girls as family and is glad to have them join the crew at the novel’s end.

Jeyne is the engineer in charge of the 401. She is a mature woman with grey hair, but her most distinctive feature is a metal arm that functions as efficiently as one made of flesh. The novel never discloses how she came to possess this unusual appendage. Presumably, later novels in the series will tell that story.

In The Mark of the Dragonfly, Jeyne is primarily concerned with keeping her train running and completing its journey to Noveen. The train is old and may soon be ready for the scrap heap. This is Jeyne’s greatest worry. She wants to keep the 401 operating as long as possible because it is her life. Despite her commanding manner, Jeyne has a soft spot for her crew. After Piper and Anna help to defend the train against bandits, she adopts them into her extended family and vows to protect them from Doloman. By the novel’s end, she offers them jobs and a home on the train, which the girls happily accept.

Raenoll is an elderly female of the sarnun species. These humanoid creatures communicate telepathically with each other though they can also speak to humans. The sarnun species as a whole is highly intuitive and sensitive. Their eyesight isn’t good, but their olfactory sense is keen, which is why they specialize in manufacturing perfumes. Their skin is also sunlight sensitive, so they prefer to live in underground tunnels.

Raenoll is even more acutely sensitive in all ways than the rest of her species. She can touch an object and discern its history. Piper and Anna consult her about Anna’s forgotten past. Raenoll can project an image in space that shows the girls Doloman’s home in Noveen. She also predicts the riches that will be offered to Piper for returning Anna to him and the horror associated with that offer.

Micah is a nine-year-old boy who lives in the same scrap town as Piper. She regards him as her younger brother and constantly cautions him about his recklessness. Micah scavenges the meteor fields and often brings Piper objects needing repair that he can sell later.

Like everyone else in town, Micah tries to beat the competition and get to the choicest finds after a meteor storm. As a result, he impetuously decides to brave the storm by refusing to go into the shelter with the rest of the town. Piper finds him in the meteor field during a storm, and he suffers a head injury from falling debris. Luckily, Piper is able to get him home, and he receives the medical attention he needs. Micah never gets a chance to say goodbye to Piper before she embarks on her train adventure, though she thinks about him frequently. Presumably, he will reappear in later novels as the 401 travels northward through the scrap towns.

Jory is Micah’s older brother, and his temperament is serious and careful. Like Piper, he worries about his reckless younger brother. After Micah is injured, Piper goes to Jory for help, and he immediately searches for a healer. His ready assistance is instrumental in saving his brother’s life.