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According to wireless broadcasts that Count Volger had overheard, the two ships had been trapped in the Mediterranean at the start of the war With the British in control of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, there’d been no way for the for the past week

Alek knehat it felt like to be hounded, trapped in a fight that someone else had started But here he was, ready to help the Darwinists send two ships full of living, breathing men to the bottom of the sea

The vast beast rolled under his feet, the tendrils that covered its flanks undulating like windblown grass, pulling it into a slow turn Fabricated birds swirled around Alek, so instruments of war

That was another difference This ti side by side with these creatures Alek had been raised to believe they were godless abominations, but after four days aboard the airship, their squawks and cries had begun to sound natural Except for the awful flechette bats, fabricated beasts could even see into a Darwinist?

When he reached the spine above the engine pods, Alek headed down the port side ratlines The airship was tilting into a cli away below him The ropes were slick with salty air, and as he strained to keep fro, questions of loyalty fled his ine pod, Alek was soaked in sweat and wishing he hadn’t worn fencing ar Guard unifor tattered after six weeks away from hoineer, as studying the roaring machine with apistons and spitting glow plugs looked bizarre beside the undulating flank of the airbeast, like gears attached to a butterfly’s wings

"Master Klopp," Alek shouted over the roar "How’s she running?"

The old h, for this speed Do you knohat’s going on?"

Of course, Otto Klopp spoke hardly any English Even if a ht the news up to the pod, he wouldn’t knohy the airship was changing course All he’d seen were color codes flashed fronal patch, orders to be obeyed

"We’ve spotted two Gerain? "The ship is giving chase"

Klopp frowned, chewing on the news for a ed "Well, the Germans haven’t done us any favors lately But it’s also true, young master, that we could blow a piston at any tiears The newly rebuilt engines were still cantankerous, with unexpected proble up The creould never know if a temporary breakdoere intentional

But this was no time to betray their new allies

For all the talk of Alek saving the Leviathan, the airship had really saved him His father’s plan had been for Alek to hide in the Swiss Alps for the entire war, e only to reveal his secret - that he was heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary The airship’s crash landing had rescued hi in the snow

He owed the Darwinists for saving hiines

"Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, Otto"

"As you say, sir"

"Anything wrong?" Mr Hirst asked

Alek switched to English "Not at all Master Klopp says she’s running sned to the starboard engine crew Shall I stay here and translate for you two?"

The chief engineer handed Alek a pair of goggles to protect his eyes from sparks and wind "Please do We wouldn’t want anys in the heat of battle"

"Of course not" Alek pulled on the goggles, wondering if Mr Hirst had noticed Klopp’s hesitation As the airship’s chief engineer, Hirst was a rare Darwinist with an understanding of machines He alatched Klopp’s work on the Clanker engines with ade There was no point in arousing his suspicions now

Hopefully this battle would be over quickly, and they could head on to Constantinople without delay

As night fell, two dark slivers came into view on the horizon

"The little one’s not lasses

Alek took the glasses and peered through theun turrets had been blackened by a fire, and an oil slick spread in the ship’s wake, a shi sun

"They’ve been in a fight already?" he asked Mr Hirst

"Aye, the navy’s been hunting them all over the Mediterranean They’ve been shelled a few ti away" The man smiled "But they won’t escape this time"

"They certainly can’t outrun us," Alek said The Leviathan had closed a gap of sixty kiloht back either," Mr Hirst said "We’re too high for them to hit All we have to do is slow the out on the spine above, and a swars lifted fro in flechette bats first," Alek said to Klopp

"What sort of godless creature is that?"

"They eat spikes," was all Alek could say A shudder passed through hi a black cloud in the air Searchlights sprang to life on the gondola, and as the sunlight faded, the bats gathered in the beams like moths