The Stolen Child (20 page)

The woman's fingers closed around the ladder, and her other arm tightened suddenly around Rachael's waist, crushing the wind out of her
.  
Her vision swam as the city pin-wheeled below them
.  
Ilona's
face was creased with pain, eyes squeezed shut.

“I strongly suggest you grab
a
hold,” the woman
grunted
, eyes closed and teeth still gritted against the pain.  “
I
t's a very long fall.”

Rachael grabbed onto the nearest rung and held on tight
.  She
felt
a momentary urge to try to kick the woman off, but
even the thought of it seemed like suicide
.

Her hands shook,
her fingers numbed by the cold
.

“Climb,” Ilona
roared
, and she did so without thinking.  Above them the engines screamed as the ship gained altitude, going flat out.  
On either side of the hull t
wo massive blue crystals crackled with
electricity
.  
Her hands were numb with the cold, and as she caught each rung she felt sure it would slip free of her
hands again at any moment.  As the ladder twisted to and fro, she caught sight of a dark shape beneath them.  Justin was closing on them, his wings cutting the air in long, sweeping arcs.
 

She reached the top and a
pair of strong hands
caught her by the shoulders and lifted
her aboard.  
A
tall man with
a tanned skin and dark hair that was pulled back into a pony-tail
.  
His
duster coat rippled around
them both
as she collapsed onto the deck
.  
The man smiled, as if he had done her some kind of favour.  Rachael felt her stomach twist.
 

-

Arsha could feel the relief washing over her as Micah pulled Rachael and Ilona up onto the deck.  Already they were flying away from the glass spire at full speed.  
She could hear the wretched sound of the engines as the vast black shape of the raven came after them.

“Everyone hold onto something,"
her father bellowed.
 

Arsha grabbed
onto
the railing and saw Ilona do the same.  Micah threw an arm around Rachael, who seemed too stunned to even struggle as he grabbed at the opposite railing.  Then her father threw a lever and the crackling of the lightning in the floatstones ceased.

For a moment, nothing happened.  Then her stomach felt as if it was going to lift up into her throat as the Zephyr went into free-fall.  
Suddenly the sprawl of endless grey was rushing up to meet them
.

“Micah, get this thing off my tail,”
h
er father roared.

“I can't get a clear shot from here,” Micah called back.  Halfway down the deck he was
holding
tight to the railing.  Rachael was now holding on as well, seeming more worried about not falling off the ship than anything else.

They were still pitching forward, nose down, heading for the buildings below and the
dark shape of the
river beyond.  
Micah
began to climb the railing, hand over hand
like a ladder
.  
Arsha
looked around herself and caught sight of two coils of rope, stashed at the back of the deck.  Grabbing the nearest one, she
looped one end over the
railing and threw the other end to Micah.

He grabbed the rope in both hands and
nodded to her
as he got to his feet.  
Using the rope to brace, h
e
walked
up the sloping deck.  
When he got to the back railing, he
pulled the rope around himself in a loop and slung the other end across the
hand rail
, wrapping it around a few times before handing it to Arsha.

“Hold tight,”
h
e said, and then leaned back into the sling he'd
made
.  He levelled the lightning ballista and fired shot after shot.  The bird ducked and weaved, but several shots came close, and after a bolt carved a scorched black line across the feathers of one wing it seemed to lose some distance on them.

Then she felt the crackle in the air as her father slammed another lever home, re-engaging the lightning cages and bringing the floatstones to life.  The propell
e
rs screamed as they skimmed the tops of the nearest buildings, plunging towards the river.  Her father spun the wheel and brought the Zephyr around in a tight arc.  She felt the spray as one
propeller
skimmed the water.  They levelled out, flying just a few feet above the river, weaving between the strange looking ships that dotted the surface.  Up ahead Arsha saw a bridge looming over the water, two towers facing each other across the span, their tops connected by
a walkway
.

When she realised what her dad was about to do, Arsha's heart caught in her throat.  He brought the Zephyr even lower,
white spray surrounding them as the hull rode the water
.  
T
he raven
was
still chasing them, vast wings tearing the air apart with every stroke.

-

Rachael screamed in terror as Tower Bridge whipped over their heads,
barely missing the tops of the propellers
.  
As the ship began to climb again, s
he glanced back just in time to see Justin plough through the top of the bridge, pieces raining down in a cascade around him.  
White plumes dotted the river as the debris crashed into the water with a thunderous sound.
  The
force of the
impact whipped his body around,
and for a moment she watched as he spiralled down towards the surface of the Thames
.  
At the last moment Justin levelled out, claws raking the surface of the river
.  The
ship
continued to climb higher
as he gave chase
.

Above them the clouds loomed, reaching down to envelope them.  The air grew colder and she shivered furiously, barely able to hold her grip on the railing.  
Heavy grey
mist
filled the air around them, until she couldn't even see the deck in front of her.  Then the clouds vanished
and she was staring at a sky turned from
black to silver by the light of a full moon.
 

A moment later the clouds beneath them
burst apart
, as Justin
tore
through into the
open air
.  Rachael stared in awe.  Caught in the
silver moonlight, he was beautiful
.  His feathers shone, and the light gleamed from his beak and talons.  She saw clearly the
smouldering
lines scored across his plumage
by the lightning bolts
.

“Faster,”
t
he young man roared
from the back railing
.

“
We can't go any faster, Micah.  The engines are about to explode,
”
the older man at the wheel shouted back.
 

Micah
shook his head and hefted the long silver rifle that he carried.  Seeing him move to take up a firing position
again
, Rachael didn't even think before throwing herself across the deck at him.  She slammed into his back, and the impact knocked him
off balance,
the weapon nearly slipping from his grasp.  He
fell against
the railing, tipping halfway over.  
Then
a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and hauled her
back
.  Ilona threw her
across the deck
and she slammed into the
far
railing
.  She lay the
re
, gasping for breath, with the ic
y
air burning her lungs.

She rolled o
ver
and crawled to the nose of the ship, using the railing to stand.  She looked back and saw Justin closing even faster.  
The man
raised his weapon and turned to fire, but already Justin was almost upon them.

She heard a crack of thunder that seemed
to
split the sky open.  An arc of lightning as thick as a tree trunk seared the air above their heads, missing Justin by a little more than a few feet.  
It took her a moment to realise that the lightning had come
from above the clouds.  Then a shadow fell over them, as another ship soared overhead
.  It was the size of a battleship, shaped like a Roman trireme, with a nose that sloped back as it rose up to the deck.  From the rear of the ship
curved
wings extended outwards
on either side
, forming a cross with the fins that protruded both above and below.  
Below the ship's nose, a turret
like protrusion wheeled about, angling a massive brass spike that appeared to be some kind of weapon,
taking aim for a second shot
.  Lightning
jumped
from the tip of the spike again, ripping across the sky as Justin peeled away.  
Swooping down, trailing smoke from his scorched wing feathers, h
e
vanished into the clouds
.

As Justin disappeared, the young man raised the rifle to fire off a few parting shots.  Screaming with rage, Rachael threw herself across the deck at him, lashing out wildly.  
Micah
turned, startled, holding the rifle across his chest as a shield even as
Arsha
tried to step between them.  
Then
Ilona grabbed at her, but this time she spun and kicked at the woman's shins.  Ilona dodged back and the kick caught in
cloak
, throwing Rachael's balance off.  As she recovered, the woman slapped the silver gauntlet
against
her chest.  
T
here was a tiny blue flash,
and
every muscle in her body
seemed to light on fire, convulsing with pain
.  
She never even felt herself hit the deck
.

-

The Zephyr levelled out and
Rishi
eased off the throttle, slowing to docking speed.  
He
pulled the tiny ship around so that they were flying level with the Triskelion, and set the
m
gently down on the deck.

Pulling herself up from the floor at the back of the boat, Arsha walked across to the where
Rachael
lay.

Breathing a heavy sigh, her father ran a hand through his hair.

“Ilona...”
h
e said, disapprovingly.

“Don't even start.”  Ilona scowled at him, still clutching at her b
ruised
side and gasping for breath.

“
You
should get Milima to see to that,”
h
e said at last, turning awa
y
.  
With a strained expression, Ilona turned and began to climb
down the ladder
.  Micah and her father set about lowering
Rachael
down to the deck below, and then Micah carried her inside.  Arsha watched it all in a kind of daze.  As the adrenaline faded, she found her head swimming as she struggled to take in everything that had just happened.  
Then her father turned towards her.  It was just the two of them left out on the deck, moonlight casting everything with an unearthly glow.
 

His hands were strong as he pulled her close.

“Thank you, Arsha.  Thank you.  I'm so proud of you.  
You were incredibly brave out there.
”

She felt the warmth of him, as she let her face fall against his chest.  His arms enclosing her, his long coat shielding her from the wind.  She knew she should feel safe, protected, in her daddy's arms, but she couldn't seem to block out the way his voice trembled, the way his body seemed so frail, so small.  
In all her life, s
he couldn't remember a time she had ever heard her father sound quite so afraid.

The room smelled faintly of lavender and old timber.  
The air was heavy and stifling.  Her body was all tangled up in thick layers of blankets.
 
S
he could hear, or at least feel, a
muted
humming
in the
distan
ce
.  Then she heard the sound of a door opening
.  Light footsteps on a wooden floor moved closer, and Rachael felt herself tens
ing up beneath the blankets
.  She kept her eyes closed and
forced
herself to breath
e
slowly.
 

The footsteps came to a stop b
eside
the bed, and she heard the rough scraping
sound
of someone pulling up a chair.  Then the room was quiet again, except for
the soft rustle
of pages being turned.

She desperately
wanted to open her eyes,
even
just a crack, to see who was in the room with her.  Perhaps see where she w
as.  S
he told herself to wait;
t
hey'd leave
eventually
, and she'd be free to
explore
.  

Memories began to piece themselves together as she pretended to sleep
.  
T
he fight on the rooftop.  
T
he people in the strange clothes, with their strange weapons and their flying ships.  
She wanted to tell herself they were just fragments of a dream, but nothing could be as real as the
acrid smell of burning feathers as Justin was forced to flee.  
She remembered his rage, the way his screams had split the sky
.  
She remembered the terror pounding in her skull and pulsing through her veins.  The way each frozen breath
t
ore
at her lungs.  She remembered that dizzying moment as the whole of the city was spread out below her, with nothing to save her from falling except the hand of
her captor
.  She
supposed
that she must be on their ship now.  The
humming
sound
she heard was the
engines rumbling away
somewhere in the distance
.