the goddess whales could fly, if you remember the story Malina told you,” Claire reminded them. “And so can we.” She tilted her head as she felt the thrumming of the engine through the soles of her boots. “Seven, Eight, Nine, prepare for lift. Seven, vanes full vertical. Nine, stand by for course. Eight, engine full ahead.”
But nothing happened.
Or rather, the stern rose obediently, pressing up against their feet and causing their knees to bend to compensate, but the bow remained stubbornly attached—
“Lady, the mooring mast!” Lizzie shouted. “We’re still tied down!”
And now the teeming mass of men had seen the ship do its odd bobble in the air, and had swerved in their direction.
“Seven, lift!” Claire shouted, and plunged down the gangway.
She leaped for the ladder of the mooring mast, scrabbling up the rungs like a frantic spider. The seething crowd of men, angry at being denied their quarry, set up a roar as they caught sight of her. Her fingers had turned to rubber as she worked the knot. Finally she bit it with her teeth and gave a mighty pull, and the rope loosened. She felt the strain on her arms as the airship lifted ten feet off the ground.
I won’t get aboard—they won’t wait—the count must be saved—
The first of their pursuers leaped for the mooring mast and it shook with the fury of his ascent.
Not a prisoner! No, never again—
Claire flung herself off the mast, clinging like a monkey to the mooring rope, just as the man screamed in fury and lunged for her.
He grabbed, and caught only empty air as Athena fell straight up into the stars.
*
Cold.
The wind howled and snatched with icy fury, blowing her skirts up around her waist and her hair into her face, while freezing her hands to the rope. Claire had managed to twist a foot in it to give her arms a tiny bit of relief, but there was no way she would manage to hang on for more than a few minutes.
Had anyone seen her? Did Andrew and the girls even know she was out here, freezing to death and likely to plunge a thousand feet through the air at any moment?
A sound like the cry of a bird needled through the howl of the wind, and she managed to turn her head enough to see thoug/fonat she was nearly on a level with the navigation gondola, swinging like a pendulum about ten feet in front of it.
Three people crowded the gangway port. One of them—Andrew—held something long and gleaming.
“—end—rope!”
What?
“Claire, slide to the end of the rope!” the count’s much louder voice boomed upon the wind.
Oh, no, she didn’t dare do that. What if she slipped right off the end of it and fell to earth like Icarus, doomed to death because she chose to fly?
“Claire, you must give us some slack in the rope! Slide to the end!”
Something tugged at the holster on her back in which the lightning rifle was secured.
Suddenly terrified, Claire threw a glance over her shoulder. Her hands were freezing. Had some giant creature landed? She could not use her hands—
Tug. Tug.
The rifle. The rifle was being drawn backward, back toward the gondola, as if under a magnetic compulsion.
Something bronze flashed in the running lamps.
Nine’s leg, with its magnetic foot.
With a gasp, Claire loosened her death grip on the rope by the smallest margin and clutched it between her legs, inching like a caterpillar toward the end. With every foot, the rifle on her back was drawn closer to the gondola by the power of Nine’s feet, both of which were now being employed to bring her in.
Thank God she had not removed the rifle.
Thank God she had not left the automatons behind.
Thank you, God, for watching over us. Oh, please, protect Tigg and Willie and Alice and all of us who love them—
“I’ve got you!” Andrew grabbed her, and while the count used Nine’s legs to draw her further into the port, the Mopsies pulled on the tails of his dinner jacket to make sure he did not lose his footing.
Andrew rolled her into the loading area, Lizzie and Maggie sprang to close the port, and Claire curled herself into Andrew’s warm, blessed arms and burst into tears.
Chapter 27
Cargo ship she might be, but Athena was exceedingly well stocked with provisions as well as more munitions than any of them—with the possible exception of the count—had ever seen in one place. Much to Claire’s surprise, the count informed them that he