Broken wood and glass cut gashes in his face, neck and hands as they exploded out of the building. They landed with a brittle thud on one side of the gabled roof of the south wing, sloughing slate tiles away beneath their spinning wheels as they slid down the slope, the old roof barely supporting the velocycle's weight. They were going too fast to stop and they hurtled towards the edge… Nate pulling back to lift Flash's front wheel as they slipped off in a shower of slate and glass and splintered wood, falling, falling, until they hit the roof of the stables and Flash's back wheel punched through, jarring the two riders to the bone as they came to an abrupt stop.
'Come on, come on!' Nate screeched, struggling to free the velocycle.
Tatiana pushed down with her feet too but it was useless. The roof collapsed inwards, sending them tumbling into the building. They plunged through the hay store on the first floor, which slowed their fall before the boards gave way under Flash's plummeting weight and they crashed through to the ground. Tatiana screamed as she landed heavily on her side. Nate had the breath knocked out of him and hit his head against a broken rafter.
The grooms hurried to the scene, standing uncertainly, reluctant to lay hands on this man who had once been one of their masters. Nate rose from the wreckage of wood and hay, bloodied and covered in dust.
'Get out of my way' he snarled. And they did.
Pulling the velocycle onto its feet, he picked up his sister and helped her onto the saddle behind him. The engimal shook itself and snorted steam and then it reared, its back wheel grinding smoke off the ground. They lunged forward, out of the stable doors and round the house towards the front gate. The speeding shape raced across the grass, through the company of cavalry, startling horses and raising angry shouts from their riders. The war engimal, a navy-skinned creature the size of a large coach, with six wheels and a triangular head jutting with tusks, looked on dispassionately. It did not move without orders.
It turned to watch the velocycle skid onto the cobbled driveway, sprint down between the two rows of poplar trees and disappear out of the gate. When it turned back to face the front, what it saw caused it to rise up on its hind wheels with a frightened squeal, throwing its rider. The fearsome war engimal staggered back, swivelled and bolted for the forest at the side of the house. The horses followed it with wide, panicked eyes.
From around the other side of the house, crushing the cobbles beneath their feet, the ground shaking beneath their great weight, came Trom and Colossus. On the back of the bull-razer, holding the reins, was Slattery, with Elizabeth beside him. Hugo and Brunhilde rode the juggernaut, and from the top of each behemoth, lengths of snake-chain coiled and reached out at the will of their master. And Hugo, wearing his chain mail once more with his suit and top hat, screamed an exultant battle cry as his monsters chased down their prey.
XXXIII
They had covered more than three miles and were scrambling up a narrow sloping lane when the flock of leaf-lights struck silently and without warning. They swooped into Flash's path and swept across Nate and Tatty, their sharp edges cutting like a hail of glass shards. Thrown out of the saddle, brother and sister landed hard on the ground in a sprawling heap. Nate rolled up onto his feet, then dropped into a crouch to shield Tatty, pulling his jacket over her head again as the engimals came in once more, sweeping over him, raking their blades across his shoulders and back. He cried out, as much in anger as in pain. There seemed no way to fight these elusive creatures. Pulling out his revolver, he fired at them, over and over again, knocking two or three from the air, but there were dozens more and now his gun was empty. He frantically tried to reload before they came back in again, fumbling rounds into the chambers.
But they were changing tactics. The leaf-lights rolled together as they dived, wrapping into a single long spear-shaped formation that picked up speed as it solidified. Nate dived out of its way at the last moment, only to face it again seconds later as it spun and came at him from the opposite direction. It was only feet from him when Flash reared up on one side, blasting a jet of steam from its nostrils. The leaf-light javelin shot through the gushing, boiling-hot steam, and there was a high-pitched buzzing as the projectile burst into its component parts. The leaf-lights swirled in confused pain. Nate seized his jacket and swung it over them, gathering as many as he could in the material and bunching them together before swinging the thrashing bundle hard against the ground, over and over again until it went still. He jumped on it a few times for good measure.
The few remaining engimals fluttered up into the air, out of his reach. But just four or five of them could offer no threat. Nate heaved in deep breaths, wincing at the pain from a hundred small cuts. He noted with satisfaction that the older ones were already closing up. His inherited defences were kicking in, his healing accelerated by the adrenaline coursing through his body. His muscles felt charged up from the rush, and despite the pain, a smile split his blood-stained face.
'That wasn't the act of a slave!' he said fondly to Flash, slapping its side. 'You roasted them! By God, I'll make a warhorse out of you yet!'
'You're enjoying this,' Tatiana said miserably.
He didn't answer, picking her up instead and getting into the saddle before helping her on behind him. No sooner had Flash started forward than they heard a sound like a cattle stampede and the ground started to tremble. Smashing through the trees behind him came Colossus, with Hugo and Elizabeth riding on its back. Trom rumbled along not far behind. They could not match Flash's speed, but whereas the velocycle had to work its way round the landscape, the behemoths could trample a line straight through it. Elizabeth's leaf-lights had bought them all the time they needed to catch up.
High hedges barred the way on either side, so Flash was forced to go uphill. Colossus was driving through walls and hedges to cut them off, while Trom lumbered up from behind. Flash brushed past only an instant before Colossus charged across the laneway. A chain snaked out, its linkmouth catching onto Flash's right rear leg and starting to pull the velocycle back. Nate drew his pistol and shot the snake-chain twice in the head, severing it. But another was already locking onto the saddle behind Tatty. It yanked them back as Colossus turned and threatened to pull them under the juggernaut's wheels. Nate couldn't reach round to aim at the chain's head.
'Hang on!' he yelled.
There was slight slope on the huge engimal's head – enough for Nate to spin Flash round and, with its wheels spinning wildly, ride the velocycle right up onto the juggernaut's shoulders and over its back. Nate kicked Hugo out of his way, shooting the chain where its tail anchored it to the juggernaut's carapace. Still dragging the rest of the snake-chain after him, he rode down Colossus's tail… and straight out in front of Trom.
Nate jinked right and the slow-witted engimal followed him, its shovel-shaped jaw digging into the ground and throwing up earth like a sea wave, bearing down on the velocycle and its riders. Nate rode Flash up, tilted almost horizontal along the wave, bursting out at the end of it as Trom's enormous jaw rammed straight into the side of the juggernaut, bringing both behemoths to a juddering halt, chains slapping against their armour like tentacles.
The behemoth's riders had no chance to use their firearms before Flash and its riders disappeared over the crest of the hill. The snake-chain that was still hanging onto their saddle now coiled up and swung its three yards of tail over the front of the velocycle, wrapping around the riders like a constricting snake, trying to crush the life out of them. Tatty took the pistol from Nate's hand and calmly shot the thing in the head.
The two fugitives and their mount made it to the small, red-brick train station by the sea with time to spare. The train was still there, its barrel-shaped iron locomotive seeping steam as it sat waiting to depart. They were a strange sight to behold: the Beast of Glenmalure, being ridden along the platform by two bedraggled, bloodstained members of the gentry – one a young woman in men's clothes. Daisy and Abraham, who had been anxiously watching out for them by the door of their train compartment, ran up to greet them.
