PROLOGUE Malkin pressed his forepaws against the flight deck window and peered out The silver airship was still following gaining on them The purr of its propellers and the whoosh of its knife-sharp hull cutting through the air sent a shiver of terror through his clockwork innards The fox tore his eyes away and stared at his master John’s ship Dragonfly was fast but she had nothing in the way of firepower The silver airship by contrast bristled with weapons Sharp metal spikes stuck out from her hull making her look like some sort of militarized porcupine Just then Dragonfly’s rudder shifted and she pitched as John twisted the wheel into a one-eighty turn to swoop back past her pursuers The silver airship shrunk away but within seconds she’d swung around to follow She began closing in once more her propellers chopping through the clouds throwing dark shadows across their stern When the two airships broke into a patch of blue she fired A harpoon slashed across the sky and thudded into Dragonfly’s hull the point piercing her port side Thud Another harpoon speared into the stern Malkin let out a bark of alarm as the stench of burning gas filled the flight deck and the needles in the rows of instrument panels flickered into the red danger zones Over the whine of their stalling engines the crackle of straining
steel cables could be heard The silver airship had begun to pull them in John locked Dragonfly’s wheel and engaged her autopilot He threw open the cockpit door and with Malkin at his heels dashed toward the engine room Pistons pumped and crankshafts turned at full power while the cabin juddered and shook In the center of the floor a metal egg-shaped pod sat among a tangle of pipes John threw open its door No room for both of us he said You go Malkin The fox gave a whimper of disapproval No It should be you John Humans over mechanicals It’s the law John shook his head I can’t leave my ship I need to try and guide her down safely and you’ve no opposable thumbs He gave a half-hearted laugh and withdrew a battered envelope from his pocket Crouching down he stuffed it into a leather pouch around Malkin’s neck This is for my Lily See that she gets it What’s in there John smiled Secrets Tell her to keep them safe She mustn’t tell anyone about them not ever Can you remember that I think so Malkin prodded the pouch sniffing at it with his nose Good John said Make for Brackenbridge that’s where she’ll be If I get out of this alive I’ll come find her Is there anything else And tell her I love her John ruffled the mechanimal’s ears one last time It’s at least a day’s journey from here Have
you enough clicks Malkin nodded Take your winder anyway John produced a tarnished key on a chain and hung it around the fox’s neck next to the pouch Though heaven knows who’ll wind you if I’m not there Thank you John Malkin stepped into the escape pod and curled up on the seat By all that ticks I hope to see you again And I you old friend John shut the door With a clatter and hum the pod bay doors opened and in a jolt the pod was free As John watched it through the open hatch shrinking away in the sky an image of his daughter Lily flashed into his mind If only he could see her one last time Tell her the truth about the past He should’ve done it long ago but he’d not been brave enough Now Malkin would have to take care of things Everything was in the letter Another harpoon smashed through Dragonfly’s hull and whirring saw blades cut through the steel ribs ripping cracks in the ship’s tin chest In a jagged screech the cracks were wrenched into a doorway and two silhouetted figures appeared Their silver eyes glinted in the light The thinner of the figures raised a stick with a skull handle then John felt a blinding shaft of pain and everything went black
CHAPTER 1 Lily wrinkled her freckled nose as she trudged along at the back of the line of girls With each step her heart beat hard in her chest and her green eyes flicked across the dog-eared pages of her beloved penny dreadful hidden inside her schoolbook She was enjoying a particularly gory scene in Varney the Vampyre Versus the Air-Pirates where Varney had captured the heroine in the disused attic of an Italian boarding school and was preparing to feast on her blood Lily had her pencil poised to mark up the gruesomest passages of the magazine so she could reread them later at her leisure Another dubious volume balanced on the crown of her head wobbled with each step but she didn’t let it distract her from Varney Heads up Eyes straight With one copy of The Oxford Guide to Perfect Poise balanced on her head Mrs McKracken Lily’s middle-aged deportment teacher led the gaggle of girls in a circle around the Great Hall her flat feet slapping across the polished wooden floor The Kraken Lily called her though never to her face that would be far too risky The Kraken was somewhat obsessed with posture As for Lily she barely gave it a second thought In her opinion it was better to read books than balance them That’s what they were designed for after all And if you
