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Bran nodded mutely, helplessly Brunty waved his device in the frosted air

“It’s a Voltaic Pyle! I stole it froht out of your world and into ers getting it free Very stubborn, your Swiss That’s what your wooden friends are so cross about Not supposed to go hopping the fence into Breathertown But why not, I say? You can trip on your own faces and get up in Glass Town Why shouldn’t I see Switzerland?”

Branwell blinked He shrugged uncertainly “What’s a bat-tree?” he asked

“It’s what’ll make Glass Town and Gondal equal at last, that’s what it is!” the Magazine Man snapped He seeasped or shown other signs of awe “It gives me power”

Suddenly, the capital O’s of Brunty’s eyes looked terribly young and afraid

“II actually don’t know exactly what’s going to happen next,” Brunty whispered “If it all goes pear-shaped, tell my sisters I tried—”

But Branwell never heard what the poorLiar, Brunty the Godforsaken Gondalier, Can’t-Take-Hi Sack of Sliid as a streetla slack Inside his reen and smoke

“Make ready!” cried Captain Bravey

His raggedy regiment thuret and blind red rapture all soldiers feel in the ins Whatever happened next, they would have a new story to tell round the hearth of Bravey’s Inn Some of them would, anyhow

“Fire!” roared the Captain, and they did, but so did Brunty

The volley of loyal Glass Town ed across the frosted meadow in an arc so perfect military historians would have fallen to their knees in awe Anne ainst her knotty yew tree She only just an to unfurl into the stout Brown Besses they’d seen in Port Ruby, with their brown aprons and brown rolling pins and their stout brown hearts Anne’s vision blurred and wriggled and through a groggy silver filouts of ultra ca to find someone she knew in the smoke

Brunty was gone Or, at least, he wasn’t Brunty anyreen acid of his machine foamed out of his ed hair It seeped through the joints of his elbows and knees It overflowed the capital O’s of his eyes likeno longer snapped or spit or crackled It exploded froers and boomed out of the middle of his chest and even dribbled horribly out of his nostrils Wherever the lightning hit a musket ball, it detonated, and the half-uncurled little warrior inside vanished into half a thimble full of ash The headlines on Brunty’s waistcoat shivered They broke open into new print: HEAR YE HEAR YE, READ ALL ABOUT IT! THE TRIUMPH OF BRUNTY’S AMAZING BATTERY! VICTORY ASSURED! V-GT DAY HAS COME AT LAST! The lightning kept co to suck th from the heavy clouds above Bravey’s men scattered and took cover behind stumps, woodpiles, inside the thick wooden door of the pub So buckets of water out down the line, to put out the flames before they could creep toward the inn with its thatched and naked roof and its rooms full of wooden men

The Captain did not flinch He just shouted:

“Form ranks, lads, form ranks! Prime and load! He’s just one hty Little Pupper!”

The air smelled of old coins and ozone and laround Anne tried to stand, but she was so dizzy The tree felt real and true against her back Everything in front of her felt ht back around and go back where it came from