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"Look," Alek said "She’s opened the way for Klopp!"

Only one elephant re, and it was covered with red dust, barelysteadily forward, with nothing between it and the Tesla cannon

But Klopp didn’t veer toward the wounded elephant or the cannon - he was headed straight toward the here?"

Alek swore "Klopp and Bauer are following Volger’s orders They’re coet for being a barking prince!"

"An archduke, technically"

"Whatever you are, we have to show hi Corip on her shoulder

"Abandon ship," the beastie said

She juh hot clouds of vapor

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Before he followed Dylan, Alek looked down at the war elephant that had ih its belly hatch, coughing and stu blindly They wouldn’t be round so far belowhow to "belay," as Dylan called it, had taught him a healthy respect for rope burn He sed, the tastes of paprika and cayenne heavy in his mouth, then jury, like a strea water He jerked hiainst the hot metal of the djinn’s arines inside the walker knocking and hissing as they cooled

As his feet thuloves to stare at his burning pal toward the iron gole ready to fire We need to show Klopp you’re okay!"

Alek unclipped himself and followed the boy, who had broken into a dead run The iron gole its steady way across the battlefield

Klopp clearly hadn’t seen the Otto from behind him

As he ran, Alek squinted at the smoke trail in the distance It seemed closer already, and he sa the coluainst the starlit sky

Fast, the creature had said But alker was that fast?

Dylan let out a yelp from just ahead He’d tripped and fallen face-first into the dirt As the boy scra down at what Dylan had stumbled on - train tracks

"Oh, no"

"What in blazes?" Dylan stared down at the rails "Ah, this must be where the Orient-Express "

"Express," the beast hissed softly

Together they turned to stare at the approaching colu the cliffs ten ti walker

And it was headed straight for the iron goleht behind hi back into a run, his ar in the air "Get away fro in his ears But yelling was pointless He searched his pockets for a way to send a signal - a flare, a gun

The faine was visible in the distance now, it single eye glohite hot, s toward Klopp, pointing back at thehalt, its head lowering for a better view of the tiny boy before it

Alek watched as two huge cargo arine car of the Express A dozen , they stretched out in both directions, like a pair of sabers wielded by a charging horseman

Klopp must have understood Dylan’s cries, or heard the train behind hian to slowly turn

But in thatthrough the goles Metal shrieked and buckled, and a cloud of steam burst froe ar end of the Express Two freight cars buckled around the fallen lass andpulled in half rippled up the train until it reached the engine, which skidded froh the dirt But the pilots had been ready for this - the Express’s arine car A handful of coal and freight cars dragged behind the engine, sending clouds of dust into the air

Alek saw Dylan running back toward him, Bovril a tiny silhouette on his shoulder, both of thesideways fro and derailed but still speeding along, was headed straight at Alek

He turned and ran the way Dylan was pointing, directly away fro seconds later the dust cloud overtook Alek, blinding hi flew out of the darkhis head down into the dirt

A huge shadoept overhead - the Express’s cargo arravel flew over him, and a clamor like a thousand foundries rolled past, full of shrieks and clangs and explosions

As the noise faded, the dust cleared a little, and Alek looked up

"Well, that was close," he said Not five o are lane

"You’re welcome, your archdukeness"

"Thank you, Dylan" Alek stood up, dusting off his clothes and looking dazedly about

The front half of the Orient-Express had finally slid to a halt, aloleround, the back half of the train in piles around it Alek took a step closer, wondering if Master Klopp and Bauer were all right