by John Booth
“Good fun,” he said before stepping from the room, leaving Tom and Dougal alone. Dougal sat sourly in the attitude controller’s chair, his hands constantly sliding over the controls without changing them.
“If something happens to Daisy I will never forgive you, Tom. She means everything to me.”
“Do you think I will not be devastated if something were to happen to Laura?”
Dougal’s eyes drifted to the bridge door. “I expect you would run crying to your new woman and she would comfort you.”
Tom clenched his fists in outrage. “If Antonia never existed I would have made the same choice. The choice Laura would make if she were standing here to make it. Do you think she would be happy if I sacrificed a child for her, one to whom she owes her life?”
Dougal slapped the controls. “Aye, I know you are right. But I do not have, nor want another woman. Daisy is what I did this for. I could have stayed in England and courted her, but she insisted I go to America.”
“Then respect her talent as much as you respect her.”
The men stood and clasped hands fiercely.
“In it till the death,” Dougal said; his Scottish accent suddenly strong.
“To the death,” Tom said, “And revenge if we have to.”
Their grip on each other became intense. When they let go, Tom looked out of the window.
“Do you have any idea where we are?”
“Not really, I’m hoping that is Oxford below.”
Tom looked down at the many pointed ancient stone spires. “Let’s not try landing down there.”
It was early evening when the rebels came to the hut and undid the ropes that bound the girls to the wall. The men tied their hands together behind their backs and led them to a small hall. It was packed with angry looking people, most of them women.
Their hands were untied, but only after men with pistols sat on either side of them. A man in a red and gold coat read out a long oratory in what Daisy took to be French, but Laura recognized to be Breton, mainly because she could not understand a word of it.
The man spat some words in their direction. Daisy answered him.
“Neither of us speak French. So we cannot answer your charges except to say that neither of us has committed a crime against you. We are simply English and that is the only charge you have against us.”
The man made a series of statements to the crowd and Daisy got the feeling he was translating her words. This was confirmed when his next words were in excellent English.
“Do you deny that one of you is the Spellbinder witch?”
Before Daisy could answer, Laura spoke up, her voice calm, but there was a tremor in it.
“I am the Spellbinder who rendered people unable to move. I had been assured by the Army that no one would be killed as a result of my actions. When I found this to be a lie I ran away from them and that is why you were able to capture me. If I had stayed with the Army, I would have been safe and many more of you would be dead.”
From the murmurs that ran around the room Daisy believed that quite a few of those present spoke some English. The man spoke again and this time Daisy was certain he was translating Laura’s words. When he finished, he turned to Laura.
“You admit to the wanton murder of thousands of patriots?”
“I did a job for the army, who lied to me,” Laura repeated.
The room burst into uproar and some of the women spat on them. Laura felt wet sticky liquid running through her hair.
Another man, lacking any insignia of rank, stepped forward. He instantly commanded the respect of the audience who became silent as he turned on Laura.
“And is it true that you turned the officers into girls and the General into a woman with the curse?”
Laura looked him in the eyes. “I cannot say about the curse, but I hope it is true. That man deserves every curse that nature and God can bestow on him.”
There was laughter and excited chatter as those who spoke English translated for the others.
The man grinned. “I say we spare your life. A Class A would be the biggest bargaining chip we could possess.” He repeated this in the other language.
The men in the room seemed to be in favor of his suggestion, judging from the reaction in the room. Then a young woman stepped forward. She looked haggard and the area around her eyes was red and puffed up.
“I lost my father, my two brothers and my eight year old son because of this witch. I say we should burn her.” She repeated the words in her own tongue and then she leaned over to spit in Laura’s face.
There was turmoil in the room and when it calmed the man without insignia called for a vote. Hands were raised. When he finished there was a commotion as he shouted repeatedly at the woman who had come up to speak. She in turn shook her fists at him, but eventually gave up and moved back into the crowd.
He smiled at the girls and then knelt before them so his head was level with theirs.
“My name is Bernard Pelan. I am sorry to say that despite my advice the people have demanded your deaths. They wished to burn you at the stake, but I have insisted we follow military protocols. You will be shot at dawn. I am sorry.”
Tom looked at the Tower of Westminster and cursed.
“We have come too far for the second time.”
Light was fading and without the street lights, most of London would have been invisible.
“We must turn around and try again,” Dougal said wearily. “Can your sister provide any more help, Antonia?”
Antonia sighed. “She says that London looks different in the dark and impossibly different from above. She suggests you try following Tottenham Court Road again.”
“That’s what I thought we were doing,” Tom said and hit the wheel with his fist. “This time I shall use the compass to try and keep our course to the north however much the roads twist and turn.”
“Looks real purty down there,” French said. He had been using the telescope to look for the mansion that was the sanatorium, but in his view, every building in London looked like a mansion.
“What we need is some kind of a clue,” Tom muttered.
Five men scaled the Sanatorium wall and gathered together on the other side.
“Everybody got a bottle of paraffin and lucifers?” Pat asked. There were grunts of agreement.
“Make sure you soak the doors and get some b’neath the jamb. The gentleman don’t want no mistakes. You put those blocks under every door and into ever window. When the church clock strikes the quarter of twelve, light the paraffin.”
The men spread out around the building, using small wood wedges in the sash windows to keep them closed and larger blocks under every door. The main deterrent against anybody opening the doors would be the fire and the men paid them special attention when spraying the paraffin.
It was quarter past the witching hour when the men heard the church clock strike and lit the Sanatorium ablaze.
19. Resolutions
Tricky woke when Alice shook him so violently his teeth rattled.
“We’re on fire.”
“Middle of the night,” Tricky grumbled and rolled onto his back. A searing pain across his backside brought him to full awareness. He screamed and opened his eyes to see a crazed looking Alice holding a poker over him.
“The ’ouse is on fire,” Alice said, backing away quickly as Tricky advanced on her with fists raised.
The smell of smoke and the flickering red light outside his window registered in his mind. He put down his fists.
“Well, why didn’t you say so? Wake the others while I get mi trousers on.”
Alice put a face-cloth over her mouth and ran from the room. Heavy smoke drifted into the room as she opened the door.
Tricky hurried to get his clothes on. They were on the top floor of the Sanatorium and it didn’t look as though there were any easy ways out. A quick glance out of the window suggested that surviving the jump would be less of a problem than surviving the flames on the w
ay down. He grabbed one of the maps on his dressing table and folded it before putting it in his jacket.
He rubbed at where Alice had struck as he found a cloth to put over his face and soaked it in water. Everybody would end up in Ebb’s room and that was where he headed when he opened his door.
French saw the fire first. The Sanatorium stood out in the landscape as flames started to consume it from the ground up. Antonia took the telescope from him and gasped when Andrea confirmed it was the building they were looking for.
“That is typical of Ebb. He can’t keep out of trouble even when he’s sick,” Tom said as he turned the wheel.
Dougal looked at the scale of the fire and frowned. “Get there as fast as you can. The Hubris cannot withstand flames like that for more than a few seconds.”
Antonia set the engines to full and the Hubris lurched violently as they picked up speed.
Tricky found all the others in Ebb’s room including the nurse. She was in a state of panic and in Tricky’s view would be good for nothing.
“Find a way out,” he said to Edith.
“There isn’t one,” Edith replied. “The whole building is on fire all the way around.”
The smoke was getting thicker and they needed to go somewhere. “Is there a way to the roof?”
Edith used her talent to search the corridors and stairs. “Yes.”
Tricky addressed the nurse. “Can you carry Ebb for us?” The nurse nodded, looking relieved that someone had taken charge.
“Edith, show us the way. Everybody soak a cloth and put it over your mouths.”
Edith led with Tricky just behind her. The smoke was getting worse and everybody was coughing by the time they reached the door to the roof. It was locked.
Tricky pushed Edith out of the way and took out the lock picks he always carried. He could see the levers clearly and it should have been a matter of moments to pick the lock, but the smoke in his lungs burned and he kept having to stop to cough.
The Hubris hovered a few yards above the building and just to one side.
“We can’t take the ship over that,” Dougal said gloomily. “It would catch fire in seconds.” The building was burning fiercely and even in the safety of the bridge they could feel the heat burning their faces.
French was searching the grounds with the telescope.
“There’s no one from the house, but I can see the guys who set fire to it. They’re carrying paraffin cans. They’ve gathered by the wall.”
Dougal balled his hands into fists. “I think you need some Gatling Gun practice, Mr. French.”
French grinned. “On my way.” He handed the telescope to Antonia and ran from the bridge.
Tricky finally got the door open. A few moments later they gathered on a flat part of the roof near the middle of the building. In the flames of the fire they saw something that looked like a massive fox, hovering eerily in the sky just a few tens of yards away.
“I thinks I ’ave started seeing things,” Tricky said to Alice.
“Then I’m crazier than you, because I think that’s Tom inside it.”
“Start waving then. Show ’im we’re ’ere.”
“My God, that’s Tricky and Alice on the roof,” Tom said in disbelief. “What are they doing here?”
“We have to find a way to rescue them,” Antonia said. “There must be half a dozen people up there, most of them children.”
Dougal shook his head. “There is no way we can reach them. It would be suicide to try.”
A burst of fire from the Gatling Gun silenced the conversation for a few moments.
“At least we have avenged them,” Dougal said gloomily.
The people on the roof flinched back as fire spit from the belly of the beast.
“What it’s trying to do, kill us?” Tricky asked. “Why don’t they rescue us?”
Lucy pointed at the flames that rose high above the building. “They cannot. The fire is in the way.”
Tricky looked up into the night sky. “Fine Precog you turned out to be, Daisy Drew.”
Laura turned to Daisy and smiled. It was the middle of the night, but Bernard Pelan had left them a candle lamp. He had known that they would be unable to sleep as they waited for dawn and their deaths.
“I am glad we are together,” Laura said. “Even as I also wish you were somewhere else.”
“It is so infuriating. I have your writing tools on me, but they have tied our hands to the wall.”
“I think they have more than enough evidence of what a Class A can do, Daisy. They are not going to give me another chance to confirm it.”
Daisy grunted in annoyance. There were odd glimpses of a future in which they survived, but most of all she could see was a firing squad and then something much worse.
French came back to the bridge and gave a thumbs-up sign to Dougal. The fire burned higher and it was only a matter of minutes before it reached those huddled on the roof. They seemed to have realized that the Hubris could not reach them and sat quietly, waiting for their deaths.
“There is a way,” Baum said suddenly. Tom hadn’t even been aware he was on the bridge. Everybody turned to him.
“The water jettison system,” he said excitedly.
Dougal shook his head. “That will just send us flying into the air.”
Baum could barely contain himself and was having trouble getting the words out. “But what if we drop the water on the fire? It might give us a path to them.”
Dougal jumped to his feet. “I’ll go and set it up. When you are in the right place sound the klaxon and I’ll drop it. We will not have long.”
He ran out of the room leaving the others looking puzzled.
Baum moved to stand between Antonia and Tom. “You need to get ready to guide the ship over the building, but first you need to gain some height. I’ll explain while you do it. Jeremiah, get to the door. Tom will have to land the ship on the building and you need to get everybody on board very quickly. I will stay here and work the Klaxon.”
To use the engines to gain height, they had to turn away from the house and move in a circle. Tom saw Tricky wave goodbye as they turned. While they rose into the sky, Baum explained.
“There is an emergency jettison system. Like throwing sandbags from a hot air balloon. It dumps all the water from the engine water tanks in seconds. When that happens the Hubris will rise and you need to use the engines to force it back down.”
“But what good is that?” Tom asked.
“Water has been known to put out fires.”
Tom grinned, “So it has.”
“The water will drop from the mid point of the ship. You must position it so that the water drops onto one of the walls and puts out the flames. Then land the ship on the roof and pick up the people using the gap in the fire as a door. We must not take long because there isn’t enough water in the tanks to do more than to damp the fire for a few seconds, perhaps a minute.”
“Without water the engines will fail,” Antonia said worriedly.
Baum smiled. “When I designed this ship I thought of everything. When the contents of the tanks are released the engines will switch to using the drinking water tank. That will last for as much as a quarter of an hour.”
Tricky stopped waving as the ship disappeared into the night. Without the flames from the fire to light it, it was effectively invisible. He thought how great it would be to fly in such a thing and envied Tom.
The nurse had put Ebb beside him and the boy looked at him with sad eyes.
“Didn’t mean to take you with me.”
“Not your fault.”
“I’ll give you warnin’, afore we go.”
Tricky nodded.
Lucy moved to sit on the other side of Ebb and took his hand in hers.
Minutes passed.
“We’re goin’ to get wet,” Ebb shouted. The effort of shouting left him sagging against Lucy.
Three seconds later they were caught at the edge of a torrent of water that left
part of the building free of flames. Tricky considered their options. If they ran they might be able to jump off the building. It was near certain death, but staying was a certain one. He was about to yell out instructions when Ebb roused himself to shout again.
“No, over this side. That fox thing is coming.”
He pointed to a part of the roof with sloping tiled sides. Tricky picked up Ebb and they began to move. They heard what sounded like a steam engine coming towards them.
The Hubris arrived like a jumping wolf, leaping towards them through the gap in the flames. The bottom of the observation deck bounced onto the roof where they had been standing seconds before. A door opened and an American voice shouted at them.
“All aboard! YeeeeeeHaaaww!”
Everybody scrambled into the ship. Tricky saw flames begin to lick at the underside of the ship.
“Go!” the American shouted and Tricky felt the ship begin to rise and reverse away from the house.
Tom desperately swung the wheel to move the Hubris out of harms way.
In the observation room, Dougal slapped the hysterical nurse across the face.
“Is there a pond or lake nearby, think woman.”
“South.”
Dougal ran to the bridge. “Head south and get us close to the ground. The ship’s on fire at the rear and we need to put it down, preferably on water.”
Flying an airship near the ground at night was not something Tom found easy. Trees whipped past only inches below them and branches scraped them. Then they were over a small lake. Antonia used the engines to force the Hubris into the water while Dougal let gas out of the helium bags so they stayed down.
“Fire’s out,” Dougal called from the back of the ship. “Keep the steam engines going so we can pump water into the tanks. I’ll top up the elitos in the bags to stop us sinking.”
“Whooeee! You Brits sure have some fun,” French said and clapped Baum on the back.
“Also we Prussians,” Baum agreed.
