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"What if she didn’t hide the prototype but gave it away?" Sophronia suggested
Di We’ll siirls prepared for sluht yellow!--and settled down for the evening
Bumbersnoot sat next to Sophronia’s cot with a little wheeze of distress She picked him up and put him at her feet He wasn’t exactly cuddly, and she was sure to bark her shin if she rolled over, but the little ine withinelse Sophronia wondered idly if he required a diet of coal and water, and if so, where she would get the coal The airshipshe heard as she closed her eyes was the tick-tock of Bu back and forth
Unlike her fellow students, Sophronia awoke early in the ht take the opportunity to explore She supposed there would bethe alarure out a way around the massive ship that did not cross any tracks She chose her most basic dress, with the fewest underskirts and the shortest top skirt, and pulled on her boots with the india-rubber strapping
She had to use the hallway to get to any exterior decks, so she ran as quickly as possible, sticking to the sides of the passage, away from the tracks that ran down the center Luckily, she didn’t stumble upon any mechanicals This allowed her to escape out onto one of the lower decks and over the rail to cling on the outside with no one, human or constructed, the wiser She was left breathless and leaning out and in a ht , the er any other cloud cover Sophronia looked down, considered for a ain
She inched around the banisters and along the outside of the railing The deck extended around the dirigible’s side and then in, before another deck rounded back out again, like flower petals The difficulty was how to get froap in between Sophronia had a syste movement as she thrust herself willfully over the abyss
Several of the decks, smaller and more like private balconies, did not have s of these and explored, peering in at the round s It would be good to know, for secrecy’s sake, which balconies were safe from mechanical spies, not to mention vulnerable to attack because they lacked mechanical defense She was also nosy
As Sophronia e of the ship, she eventually left the students’ residential section and found herself in the classrooed, soe and mysterious materials, and they did not always have rails She passed the one that featured Sister Mathilde’s greenhouse, and another with long tassels and fancy wicker furnishings thatto Lady Linette’s classroom Funny; Sophronia hadn’t noticed a door fro lessons
Lady Linette’s was the last classroom before the next balloon There was another balcony, al it, in the forbidden section There was a little ay to that balcony
Lavishly decorated, thought Sophronia, so probably Lady Linette’s private quarters She had, as yet, not deteret up or down to any of the upper or lower decks, but fro of that particular private deck, a te down to the lower levels
Sophronia hesitated She couldn’t see any tracks, and she guessed Lady Linette wasn’t an early riser It was a risk She didn’t want trouble on her very first day Then again, there was that rope ladder
Sophroniathe outside of the railing over to the ladder, and began to clied inward at the next level Sophronia considered getting off there, but at the very bottoine roo from below And where there was steam, there would be boilers And where there were boilers, there ry So she kept cli down There were no decks at the bottom level; only slass in these was too filthy to see through, and not fro within
The ladder ended at a hatch in the side of the ship After a brief hesitation, Sophronia twisted the handle and climbed inside Boiler room!
The boiler room of the school was loud, and hot, and as soot-covered as Professor Lefoux’s classroom had been after the fake prototype exploded
Sophronia’s entrance caused little reaction It had to have been noticed, for she let a blast of light and fresh air into the dark, musty interior But there was a controlled chaos all around her, and very few bothered to acknowledge her presence
There were a nuineers, and two dozen orabout with coal and scurrying up and down stacks of boxes, piles of coal, and ladders to the upper levels A few of these doffed their caps as they passed Sophronia, but none bothered to stop or properly greet her
She si in the bedla why the place was not staffed by mechanicals Perhaps the tasks are too complicated? Or too vital to entrust to machines? The work seemed to be quite labor intensive, yet once or twice a bark of laughter issued forth froroup of boys were hard at work shoveling coal into an immense boiler
Sophroniato scoop up some small pieces of coal, which she stuffed into the pocket of her pinafore
"What’s that one run?" she asked, once she arrived at the group
"Propeller," caabout down south?"
"Only curious," replied Sophronia "No lessons until the afternoon, so I thought I would explore"
"You mean, you’re an actual student?"
" ’Course she is, don’t she look as like?"
"Naw, her dress ain’t fancy enough by halves"
"Well, thank you veryhurt
"Asides, students ain’t permitted south"
"Well, allow me to introduce ured introducing herself couldn’t be considered i by their accents, fros
"Ships’ sooties, us, miss"
A yell of "Oy, up!" caroup of very excitable quail Sophronia followed their lead A new sootie, riding astride a great pile of coal in so toward the at theenthusiastically The others hooted hi right into the i both coal and boy inside At the lastthe cart to rush forward; tip in, unloading all of its coal inside; and bounce off
"Pips! It worked!" The boy juathered around hi that he was taller thanto load it full We’re still stoking more per hour," commented one
"Yes," said the tall one, "but ain’t this invention?"
"How’d it bounce back like that?" Sophronia asked, joining the crowd as if she had always been there
The boy turned in her direction In addition to being taller than the others, he seely white in a dark face Her question solicited a flash of equally startlingly white teeth "Ah, yes, a spring rebound s Vieve worked a whole week on that Wait a irls be sooties now?"