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Alek shook his head "Perhaps I’hI’m in love with your ship"

"You’re in love," Dylan said slowly, "with the Leviathan?"

"It feels right here" Alek shrugged "As if this is where I’h as he put the medal back into his pocket

"You Clankers," he muttered "You’re all cracked in the head"

Alek pulled his ar Dylan was always explaining how the airship’s interwoven species sustained one another, how every beast was part of the whole Surely he could understand

"Dylan, you know I’ve always been alone I never had school prince"

"But I’m hardly even that, because of my mother’s blood I never mixed with commoners, and the rest of my family has alanted me to disappear But here on this ship " Alek laced his fingers together, searching for the right words

"This is one place where you fit," Dylan said flatly "Where you feel real"

Alek smiled "Yes I knew you’d understand"

"Aye, of course" Dylan shrugged "I just thought youelse, that’s all I feel the same way as youabout the ship"

"But you’re not an ene "It’s h "Not quite as simple as you’d think"

"I didn’t say you were siing over you No one’s trying to throw you off this ship and put you in chains!"

Dylan shook his head "Tell that to ht" Alek recalled that Dylan’s mother hadn’t wanted him to join the military "Women can be quite mad sometimes"

"In my family they’re a squick madder than most" Dylan pulled Alek’s jacket from the wormlamp "Full of stupid ideas Mad like you wouldn’t believe"

In the sudden wash of green light, Dylan’s face was no longer sad His eyes had their usual spark, but there was an angry gleam in them He tossed the jacket to Alek

"We both know you can’t stay aboard this ship," Dylan said quietly

Alek held his gaze a moment, then nodded He would never be allowed to serve on the Leviathan, not once the Darwinists understood their new engines They would take hi, whether or not they learned exactly who he was

He had to escape

"I should get back to , I suppose"

"Aye, you should," Dylan said "I’ll go up and watch the eggs for you Coh, or the lady boffin will have both our heads"

"Thank you," Alek said

"We can only stay in Constantinople twenty-four hours You’ll have to find whatever you’re looking for tonight"

Alek nodded, his heart beating a little faster He reached out a hand "In case we don’t talk again, I hope we’ll stay friends, whatever happens Wars don’t last forever"

Dylan stared at the offered hand, then nodded

"Aye, friends" He stood up "Keep that lamp I can find my way in the dark"

He turned and climbed up into the blackness without another word

Alek looked down at his hand, wondering for a moment what had happened, why Dylan had turned suddenly cold Perhaps the boy had let s show than he’dsohed There wasn’t ti to do Once the Leviathan started back for Britain, there wouldn’t be another chance to escape He had to be off this ship in less than two days

Alek picked up the wormlamp and started for the hatch

Chapter Ten

Deryn had never seen a Clanker city before

Constantinople rolled past below, the hills filled to bursting with huainstup six stories tall Two narrow ar water carved the city into three parts, and a placid sea stretched away to the south, peppered with countlessa dozen different flags

A pall of sines and factories, veiling the walkers striding the narrow streets The er birds; only a few biplanes and gyrothopters ski wireless aerials

It was odd to i from a place just like this, full of s and their bedbugs Of course, it was strange to think of Alek at all right now She’don about Da’s accident, thenfor aprince would think of her that way Alek didn’t even know her real first nairl in boy’s clothes? He’d run ato run in any case Soht he and his Clanker friends would slip away into that sood Then she’d be done with acting like so in her skirts whenever a certain boy walked by

Not that pathetic unsoldierly fate for Deryn Sharp

The Leviathan swept in low over the water, and Newkirk leaned closer to the bigof thedoide eyed No doubt he was searching the forest of masts and smokestacks below for the deadly spindle of the Goeben’s Tesla cannon

"See any German ships?" he asked nervously