Nate and Tatiana dismounted stiffly, sore and tired. The thrill of the chase had left them and now they were feeling the aftereffects. Daisy hugged Tatty, examining her wounds with concern. Nate and Abraham shook hands, no longer master and servant, but still unable to be equal. Abraham handed Nate a rapier in its scabbard and Nate drew it out a few inches to check the sharpness of the blade.
'They're coming,' he said at last, looking up at a single leaf-light that floated in the air above the roof of the station building. 'We have a few minutes at most.'
'Could the train outrun them?' Daisy asked.
'An engine like this can do nearly sixty miles per hour, ma'am,' Abraham told her. 'More than Trom could manage, I'm sure. I'm not certain about the juggernaut.'
'It'll be all right,' Nate said confidently.
'You're sure this will work? That Roberto won't be put at any risk?' Daisy persisted.
'All aboard!' the train's guard bellowed, blowing on his whistle and moving along the train to close any open doors.
'No,' Nate replied, looking her in the eye. 'I'm not sure of anything. We can only try.'
'I suppose we can,' she sighed, nodding. All right, then. Let's do this. And may God go with us.'
'Any help at all would be appreciated,' Nate said as he helped her up into the carriage.
He turned to shake hands again with Abraham.
'This is where we part ways,' he said. 'I hope I'll see you and your brothers again soon. Good luck.'
'I think you will need the luck more than we will,' Abraham told him with a grim smile. 'God-speed, Master Nathaniel.'
And to you,' Nate responded, gripping the other man's hand tightly.
And for the first time in years, Nathaniel offered up a heartfelt prayer; just in case there was anyone up there still listening.
The locomotive started out of the station, southbound. Heaving and hissing, its pistons pushing the central driving wheels, which stood taller than a grown man, it gradually picked up speed in a cloud of smoke and soot and steam. It breathed like an asthmatic buffalo, but there the similarity with a living beast ended. This marvel of the Victorian Age had little in common with any animal, particularly the vigorous, fluid and tireless movements of engimals. But it had changed the landscape of this century in a way that they never could, and the iron engine moved now with seemingly unstoppable momentum, steadily gaining speed.
Its puffing grew louder and faster as they left Kingstown behind them and carried on along the rails and down the coast. The driver looked out from under the arched roof, through the round window of the cab at the track ahead, as the other engineman shovelled coal into the firebox and watched the boiler's gauge with an experienced eye. The engine panted quickly now; travelling at speed, it passed through pastoral land, which dropped away to the sea on its left; fields dotted with clachans and villages on its right.
Suddenly the man looking out of the window let out a cry of warning, reaching for the controls. The engine's brakes squealed, quickly followed by the brakes in the guard's van behind the carriages, but these trains could slow down no quicker than they could accelerate. There was a shriek of metal sliding against metal as the wheels scraped sparks off the rails. The enginemen blew the whistle in alarm, the train skidding inexorably towards its doom. The carriages' buffers impacted against one another as they were slowed suddenly from either end, and inside, people were thrown from their seats. Panic ensued.
And then the massive bull-razer the driver had seen careering towards them on a collision course crashed into the side of the locomotive, smashing the twenty-five tons of iron off its rails and sending it toppling over on its side. The six-wheeled tender tumbled after it, carpeting the ground with lumps of coal before it was pummelled aside by the carriages slamming into it from behind. Half the train followed the locomotive off the rails… and then, with a deafening crunch, the juggernaut rammed the guard's car, sending it over on its side and pulling the rest of the carriages with it.
Hugo stood up and gazed out on the devastation and saw that it was good. From the back of Colossus he could see the entire train lying on its side in ruin. Steam billowed up from the split boiler in the locomotive and smoke gushed from the twisted, punctured smokestack. People were starting to emerge, climbing out through the doors and shattered windows. Slattery blasted the roof of the train twice with his shotgun and there was more screaming.
'We're looking for four people!' he roared, casually reloading the weapon. 'Two ladies, a young gentleman and his cripple of a brother. They are all we want. The rest of you may flee in safety!'
He jumped down from Trom and strode over to the wreck, climbing onto the first carriage. Elizabeth stayed on the bull-razer's back to keep watch in case any of their prey tried to escape. Hugo and Brunhilde climbed onto the side of the overturned train at the other end and started to walk down its length, each armed with a pistol and a sword. Brunhilde still wore a smart crinoline dress, and she held the hoops up with one hand as she climbed, revealing her bloomers in a most undignified manner, looking like an uncouth little girl determined to join in the boys' games.
The three met towards the rear end of the first-class carriage. Looking down through the remains of the glass in the windows, they found what they we're looking for: Daisy, Tatiana and Roberto lay semiconscious in a sprawling heap on the internal wall of the compartment.
'Where's the other one?' Hugo hissed.
Elizabeth saw her brother's posture change and immediately knew something was wrong. She had regained her leaf-light cloak, looking a little worse for wear but otherwise undamaged. She raised her hand, ready to gesture the little engimals into attack. Instinct made her look round at that moment and Nate's fist caught her square across the cheekbone and knocked her flying. She fell off the far side of Trom's back, landing head-first on the dry turf. Nate dropped down and glared at her as she lay there, seeing the jagged angle of her neck. She wasn't dead, but she was close enough to it for now. The leaf-lights continued to wait patiently for instructions from their silent mistress.
On the carriage, Daisy had been pulled up through the door, and now Brunhilde was gripping her by the hair and banging her head against the wooden wall of the carriage.
'Where's the delicious one?' the gibbering woman asked, yanking on Daisy's hair to bring their faces nose to nose.
'You'll see soon enough!' Daisy snapped back, tears in her eyes.
Her hand found the pocket hiding the syringe and felt that it was still intact. Brunhilde smacked her head against the wall again and Daisy let out a cry. Her body was already racked with pain and each impact shot bolts of it through her skull. Hugo leaned in through the window.
Tatty was struggling to get to her feet and Roberto looked in terrible shape, lying unconscious on twisted limbs, his stretcher fallen on top of him.
'He wasn't on the train,' Hugo said softly. Then he bellowed it.
Flash's engine came upon them in a sudden roar and Nate leaped from the engimal's back as it piled into Slattery in a high-speed charge that hurled them both off the side of the carriage and over onto the ground below. Flash got back on its feet. Slattery did not.
Nate came to a running stop as he drew his sword and almost managed to drive the point of it into Hugo's unprotected thigh, but the Patriarch drew his cutlass with blurring speed and parried the strike. They pulled apart, swords in the guard position.
'You used your own
'To be honest, I didn't think you'd actually crash the train,' Nate admitted. 'I thought you'd just block its path.'
In fact, the ferocity of Hugo's assault had wrecked Nate's plans, and the sight of all the dead and injured had shaken him to the core. But it was too late to do anything about it now.
'You still have much to learn about the use of force,' Hugo told him, and lunged in with an attack.
Nate swept it aside, cutting inside Hugo's guard at his torso, but the Patriarch's chain mail saved him. He came
