Leviathan

Deryn wanted to argue, but the ship had to eat to get healthy, just like any natural creature. And there wasn’t a scrap of food out on that bleak expanse of snow.

“You mean there’s nothing we can do?”

“I did not say that, Mr. Sharp.” Dr. Barlow stood up, pointing at a pile of jars on the slanted floor. “First we shall get these eggs to the proper temperature. Give those warmers a shake.”

“Right, ma’am!”

“And then I want to meet this mysterious boy of yours.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Alek was miserable, humiliated, and tired. But he was too cold to sleep.

Smashed windows and bullet holes were everywhere in the wounded airship, and icy winds howled down the slanted corridors. Even Alek’s cabin, with a locked door and closed porthole, was freezing. Instead of an oil lamp to warm his hands against, the cabin was lit by the same green worms that covered the ship’s skin. Dozens were stuffed into a lantern that hung from the ceiling, squirming like glowing lice.

The whole wreck was overrun with godless vermin. The awful six-legged dogs swarmed its wilting gasbag, and flying creatures filled the air. Even here inside the gondola, reptiles of all sizes scuttled along the walls. While the ship’s officers had interrogated Alek, a sticky-footed talking lizard had tromped to and fro across the tilted ceiling, repeating random snatches of their conversation.

Not that Alek had said much. The answers to the officers’ questions—where he’d come from, why he was here— were beyond their understanding. There was no point telling the Darwinists his real name; they’d never believe he was the son of an archduke. And when he’d tried to tell them how dangerous it was to keep him here, the warnings had sounded like empty, pompous threats.

He’d been such a fool—this vast creature, these people were so alien. It was madness to try to cross the gulf between his world and theirs.

Locked in the cold, dark cabin, Alek wondered if his noble intentions had been a joke from the beginning. As if anyone could carry food for a hundred men across that glacier, every night and in secret. Perhaps he’d come here only out of morbid curiosity, drawn like a child to a dead bird on the ground.

Through the cabin’s small porthole the black horizon was slowly turning gray. Time was running out.

Otto Klopp would soon come to take the second watch. A quick search would prove that Alek wasn’t in the castle, and it wouldn’t take much imagination to figure out where he’d gone. Within a few hours Count Volger would be gazing at the grounded airship, drawing his plans and pondering the fact that the heir to the throne of Austria- Hungary was a complete idiot.

Alek set his jaw. At least he’d accomplished something.

“A TILTED TALK.”

That young airman, Dylan, might have frozen to death if he’d lain in the snow all night. But Alek had saved him from frostbite. Maybe this was how you stayed sane in wartime: a handful of noble deeds amid the chaos.

Of course, Dylan had betrayed him five minutes later.

Where was the sanity in that?

Keys jangled in the corridor, and Alek turned from the porthole. The slanted door swung open, and in walked …

“You,” Alek growled.

Dylan smiled at him. “Aye, it’s me. I hope you’re well.”

“No thanks to you, you ungrateful little swine.”

“Now that’s a bit rude. Especially when I’ve brought you a bit of company.” Dylan bowed, sweeping an arm toward the doorway. “May I present Dr. Nora Barlow.”

Another person strode into the room, and Alek’s eyes widened. Instead of an airman’s uniform she wore a gaudy dress and a small black hat, and held the leash of a bizarre doglike creature. What was a woman doing on this ship?

“Pleasure to meet you,” she said. “Alek, isn’t it?”

“At your service.” As he bowed, the strange beast nuzzled Alek’s hand, and he tried not to flinch. “Are you the ship’s doctor? If so, I’m quite unhurt.”

The woman laughed. “I’m sure you are. But I’m not a medical doctor.”

Alek frowned, then realized that her black hat was a bowler. She was one of the Darwinist fabricators, a practitioner of their ungodly science!

He looked down in horror at the creature snuffling his trouser leg.

“What is this? Why have you brought this beast here?”

“Oh, don’t be afraid of Tazza,” the woman said. “He’s perfectly harmless.”

“I’m not telling you anything,” Alek said, trying to keep the fear from his voice. “I don’t care what this godless animal does to me.”

“What, Tazza?” Dylan let out a laugh. “I reckon he could lick you to death. And he’s perfectly natural, by the way. What they call a thylacine.”

Alek glared at the boy. “Then kindly take it away.”

The Darwinist woman settled herself on a chair at the high end of the tilted cabin, looking down at him imperiously. “I’m sorry if Tazza makes you nervous, but he has nowhere else to go. Your German friends have made rather a mess of our ship.”

“I’m not German.”

“No, you’re Austrian. But the Germans are your allies, are they not?”

Alek didn’t answer. The woman was just guessing.

“And what would a young Austrian be doing so high in these mountains?” she continued. “Especially now, in wartime?”

He stared at Dr. Barlow, wondering if it was worth trying to reason with her. Though she was a woman, she was also a scientist, and the Darwinists worshipped science. She might have power on this ship.

“It doesn’t matter why I’m here,” he said, trying to use his father’s tone of command. “What matters is that you have to let me go.”

“And why is that?”

“Because if you don’t, my family will come to get me. And believe me, you don’t want that!”

Dr. Barlow narrowed her eyes. The ship’s officers had only laughed at his threats. But she was listening to him.

“So your family knows where you are,” she said. “Did they send you here?”

He shook his head. “No. But they’ll guess, soon enough. You don’t have much time to let me go.”

“Ah … time is of the essence.” The woman smiled. “So your family lives nearby?”

Alek frowned. He hadn’t meant to give that away.

“Then I suppose we must find them, and quickly.” She turned to Dylan. “What do you suggest, Mr. Sharp?”

The young airman shrugged. “I suppose we could follow his tracks backward in the snow. Maybe bring a present for his ma, so there are no hard feelings.”

Alek shot the boy a cold look. It was one thing to be betrayed, but quite another to be mocked. “I was careful with my tracks. And if you do manage to find my family, you’ll only get yourselves shot. They hate strangers.”

“What unsociable people,” Dr. Barlow said. “And yet they hired English tutors of the highest caliber for you.”