see her.”
“Maybe Halcyon ’s too fast for her,” Taziri shouted over the engine.
“Maybe,” Bastet shouted back. She looked out the little round window one last time and saw a woman’s face wreathed in pale feathers. “Maybe not. She’s on the wing!”
“Hang on!” Taziri pulled her levers again and the Halcyon rolled and dived down toward the dark earth below them.
Bastet found herself hanging from the straps on the walls as the aeroplane tilted sharply downward, and the feathery face at the window vanished. “She’s gone!”
A metallic clangor erupted above them, and Bastet saw a small dent pop down into the cabin from the roof. “She’s back!”
“Strap into that seat and hold on,” Taziri said.
Bastet pulled the seat harness on and shouted, “Ready!”
Taziri pulled on her levers and the Halcyon ran wild. The aeroplane darted down to race through the narrow stone corridors of the streets between the ancient towers, temples, and obelisks raised by kings long dead and long forgotten. Bastet clung to the straps above her head as the craft twisted upon its side and screamed through the dark avenues with one wing pointed at the moon and one wing pointed at the earth so low that if any people had been out at that hour the wing would have knocked the hats and scarves from their heads.
Bastet looked up through the little windows on the far side of the cabin and saw the stars shining down on her as the edges and corners of Alexandria blurred past the frame of the glass. And then Nethys landed on the fuselage with a thump, blacking out those little windows with her tattered dress and long raggedy wings, her feathers tearing off one by one in the ripping wind.
“She’s here!” Bastet yelled.
Taziri muttered something under her breath and suddenly the Halcyon lurched and shuddered, and Bastet felt herself being crushed down into her seat as the aeroplane banked sharply, still flying sideways through the streets, but now turning with tremendous, steel-screaming power, curling around one of the grand market squares between the high domes of the West Temple and the white towers of the Imperial Gardens.
Bastet squinted upward as the blood rushed down to her feet and she slumped lower and lower in the hard seat, choked by her safety harness, and she saw Nethys slide back down the length of the plane from one window to the next with a terrible metallic squeal, and then she was gone.
Taziri rolled the plane back upright and straightened out as she climbed back up above the roofs and towers and the Halcyon ’s engine puttered a bit more softly.
“That did it,” the pilot said. “I saw her fly off, tumbling northward, I think.”
“She might come back again,” Bastet said breathlessly as her heart continued pounding in her chest. The pain faded almost instantly, but the fear and excitement of the chase had left her blood boiling with adrenaline.
“I don’t think so,” Taziri said calmly. “I saw her crash into a wall, and fall to the street.”
“You don’t understand. She’s immortal, like me. She’ll only be hurt for a moment, and then she’ll be back in the sky again. Even if you broke every bone in her body, it would only be a matter of minutes before she could fly again.”
“Then we’ll just have to make certain that we’re not here when she wakes up.” Taziri throttled back the engine a bit more and began flicking switches.
“What are you doing?” Bastet exhaled and felt her skin finally cooling, though she still didn’t dare to leave her seat and its harness.
“Landing.”
Bastet craned her neck and saw the ground coming up to meet them, and the soft roar of the air around the Halcyon ’s wings began to grow louder. A train raced by the windows.
“Where are we?” the girl asked.
“Coming up on the northern rail station. Looks pretty quiet at the moment, so I think we’ll have a little privacy.”
Bastet realized that the train she had seen race by had been standing still and it was they who were still traveling at that unbelievable speed. The roar of the wings grew louder by degrees and as Taziri continued to pull levers and flick switches, the Halcyon clanged and hissed and creaked. Pistons contracted, springs expanded, and wires spooled up as the aeroplane’s landing guide reached down and latched onto one of the railroad lines and pulled the aircraft down with a bang and clatter.
The pilot swiftly retracted the wings, and Bastet watched as the steel panels folded up, covering the windows as they formed the very familiar shape of a proper locomotive around the aeroplane’s fuselage. To anyone who looked at the Halcyon now, it would appear to be any other train engine chuffing down the tracks, complete with steam funnel and cow catcher.
They clacked down the line and Bastet loosened her harness and stepped up into the cockpit behind Taziri’s seat to peer out the narrow windows at the way ahead.
“That was a little scary, but I’m glad you’re here,” the girl said.
“Always happy to help,” the woman replied with a quick but warm smile over her shoulder. “I just wish people would occasionally come to me when it isn’t a life-or-death situation, and people aren’t trying to shoot me or steal my soul, or fight my aeroplane bare-handed.”
“Well, I couldn’t think of anyone else in the entire world who could do what you do,” Bastet said. “If there’s someone else you think I should have asked…?”
Taziri laughed. “Not on your life.”
A woman screamed outside, and Bastet and Taziri both looked up as something heavy landed on the roof of the train.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Taziri said with a glare. “Your aunt really can’t take a hint, can she?”
“Don’t be too angry,” Bastet said. “She hasn’t been herself lately.”
The Halcyon III clacked down the rails, darting between long silent freight trains and long dark passenger trains parked in the yard. And all the while, powerful fists pounded on the metal roof.
“What do we do now?” Taziri asked. “I can’t take off again, and we’re running out of track.”
“She’s just going to keep following us,” Bastet said. “We need to hide where she can’t find us.”
“That’s going to be tricky with her on the roof,” Taziri said. “But I’ll give it a try.”
The Halcyon rattled on, its engine still cooling and rumbling lower with each passing moment. The pilot pushed a button and Bastet heard a soft clank. “That was a switching arm out next to the cow catcher,” Taziri explained. “It knocks the lever next to the track to swing the tracks left or right, so we can change lines.”
From her crouched position behind the pilot’s seat, Bastet could only nod and hope that the Mazigh woman knew what she was doing. The view through the small windows told her nothing except that they were rushing between train cars in the darkness as Nethys pounded on the roof above their heads.
“Here it comes,” Taziri said.
“What?”
Suddenly the cabin was plunged into utter darkness and Bastet heard a terrible series of hard thumps along the back of the roof in quick succession.
Nethys was knocked back, knocked clean off!
Taziri pulled the brake and the Halcyon squealed to a halt, and before Bastet could ask, the Mazigh pilot had freed herself from her harness and leapt out the hatch into the deep shadows outside. Bastet leaned out, squinting, and she heard a sharp metal clangor. A moment later, Taziri jogged back to the hatch.
“All right, we should be safe for a few minutes at least,” the pilot said.
“Where are we?”
“In a shed. I locked the doors behind us, and they seem pretty sturdy, so we should have a few minutes before your aunt breaks in. If she breaks in.” Taziri flicked another little switch and the cabin light snapped on with a sharp electric buzz. The amber bulb revealed the metal deck and walls, the pilot’s console, a pile of boxes lashed to the floor, and the pilot herself. Taziri wore a heavy leather jacket lined in thick white fur, a long blue scarf around her neck, and a pair of brass-rimmed goggles pushed up on her forehead.
“It’s good to see you.” Bastet hugged her.
“It’s good to see you, too. I just wish I didn’t have a dozen new dents to buff out of my baby here.”
“Sorry.”
