Stubby stepped in at this juncture. “Sir, there is definitely something funny about those boys. Particularly that one.” He pointed at Dimity.
The duke glanced again at her fallen form. “That one is the least of my concerns—he’s got himself a mechanimal. He has all the right connections. No, it’s these other two I don’t know.”
Sidheag said, “I’m Scottish,” as if that would explain everything.
The duke nodded, as if it did. “Yes, well, we can’t all be from the right side of the country. Would I know your family?”
Sidheag looked uncomfortable. The duke was probably aware of the Kingair scandal. She scrabbled for the right kind of family to call her own, but Scotland was a funny place, progressive as a rule, mostly not in favor of the conservative referendum. So she dodged the question. “Probably not, Your Grace.”
That didn’t mollify him, since he had practically demanded an introduction. He turned wrathful eyes on Sophronia. “And you, little man?”
Sophronia said, “I’m one of those two-bit country gentry, Your Grace.” She bowed. “Mr. Temminnick, at your service.”
At that precise moment, Monique decided to start screaming.
The duke looked at his son. “And what exactly is that?”
“One of the vampire drones. We kept her for collateral,” explained Felix, happy for a change of subject.
“Is she always that noisy? Seems hardly worth the bother.”
Sophronia was growing uncomfortable with this encounter. It was getting beyond her control. She wandered over, with the pretext of checking on Dimity. Dimity seemed perfectly fine, although deep in her faint.
Sophronia pulled out her smelling salts.
Dimity sneezed herself awake.
“What?” she sputtered.
“You fainted and Felix’s father, the duke, has turned up.”
“Oh, dear,” said Dimity, accurately.
“Felix is well, thank you for asking, a scrape to the leg.”
“Oh, good.”
“But I think it is time we extracted ourselves.”
Dimity nodded. “And?”
“I’m sending you back to the train, with the pretext that you aren’t well. Tell Soap he needs to charge the dirigible.”
“What?”
“Oh, keep your voice down, do. They won’t let us actually crash. That ship must be full of some very valuable equipment. Just tell him to head at it full throttle.”
Dimity nodded and stood shakily.
Sophronia helped her up, all solicitation. She took Bumbersnoot for herself. If the mechanimal was going to confer credence, she wanted to keep him with her.
Dimity began trudging back toward the locomotive.
The flywayman with the gun, Shaggy, his face welted from where Duke Golborne had struck him, was having none of it. “Oh, no you don’t, young master!”
Dimity froze, then turned slowly back.
“He needs to recuperate,” objected Sophronia. “I suggested he return to the train for a snifter.”
“He can recuperate perfectly well right here,” answered the duke, turning back to Felix.
“Now what?” hissed Dimity.
Sophronia wasn’t entirely certain Felix could get them out. Or even if he wanted to. And she was under no illusion that, if they were taken hostage by flywaymen and Picklemen, their female natures would remain hidden.
“We’ll have to try something else. Invisible spiders?”
Dimity said, “Sidheag’s better at those than me.” She angled her back toward the duke and flywaymen so they couldn’t see, and gestured to Sidheag. She pressed her wrists together and waggled her fingers in a fair imitation of a spider.
Sidheag gave her a funny look.
Sophronia followed up by giving Sidheag the code for creating a distraction, pressing the first two fingers of both hands together in a quick, birdlike movement.
Comprehension dawned. Sidheag gave an almost imperceptible nod and then began to gyrate about like a madwoman, waving her hands around her face.
“Bees,” she yelled, “I hate bees!”
Dimity watched this for a moment before squeaking herself, adding to the distraction. “Oooo, eeek! Get them off!”
Sophronia unstrapped her hurlie, remembering what Soap had said about its being her version of a charge. She fed it to Bumbersnoot—her wrist felt na**d without it. The little mechanimal obligingly swallowed it into his storage compartment, where it clanked against the crystalline valve already nestled there. If he had possessed the capacity to belch, he would have. As it was, he looked vaguely too full for comfort, whistling steam out his undercarriage in a stuttering way.
Sophronia set him down, pointing him in the direction of the train.
She whispered, “High speed, Bumbersnoot, forward, march. Go on, find Soap. Go to the train.” She waggled her free arm in a pinwheel, disguising her ducking down as an effort to avoid the mythical bees.
One could never be certain, with Bumbersnoot, which instructions he actually understood. Or chose to follow. Sophronia had, after all, rather stolen him. He hadn’t exactly come with a protocol proclamation pamphlet. However, something she said must have clicked into his operation wheels, for he began skittering down the track on his stubby little legs in a rapid and direct approach to the locomotive. How he might get Soap’s attention from the cab was a mystery, but his small metal form was stealthy enough to be ignored by the enemy. Either that or because he was a mechanimal, he was deemed nonthreatening.
Sophronia began her own fit in earnest, waving off bees. The three girls used the distraction to back—or, more correctly, gyrate—away from the duke, Felix, and the two confused flywaymen.
And then, delightful music to the ear, Sophronia heard the dulcet sounds of a locomotive cranking to life.
SESSION 13: A ROUSING GAME OF MARBLES
The duke noticed that there was a train heading slowly but inexorably in their direction. “What’s going on, boys?” he shouted over the resulting hubbub.
Sophronia said, “Sorry, Felix, but you’re in safe hands now. I figure you don’t want to stay with us, at this point.”
“Mr. Temminnick, what are you about?” Felix’s voice was deeply suspicious. He leaned up on one elbow to see her. The three girls had managed to wiggle impressively far.
Sophronia thought he looked heart-wrenchingly vulnerable.
Then he turned to the duke. “Father?”
Sophronia immediately regretted any sympathetic feelings.
The train moved relentlessly toward them, picking up speed.