by Vered Ehsani
“The ponytailed dwarf,” I replied.
“He can’t be named?” Lilly asked.
“Not that we know of,” I said. “I think you might be on the same ship as I am.”
Her energy also increased as she smiled. “Marvelous. Can you break us out? Perhaps we can find a rowboat and escape that way.”
“While your line of thinking is most commendable, dear cousin,” I said, “we won’t be using any rowboat to escape.”
“And why not?” she probed.
I spun around. In all other directions was the complete absence of light. “Because we’re on an airship.”
Lilly stared at me with the dazed expression of the utterly amazed. I was certain she knew nothing of Count von Zeppelin’s theories and patents. She did however know enough of my world and work to trust that an improbable flying contraption was in fact very possible.
“So what do we do?” she eventually asked without questioning how I came by my knowledge.
Impressed with her efficient use of time, I said, “Learn to fly.”
Chapter 26
At that statement, the void quivered, fractures of light crackling across its surfaces.
“Time to go,” I said. “Stay strong and eat whatever they give you.”
“Eat?” Lilly asked. “How absurd to think of eating at a time like this.”
“It’s exactly at a time like this that we need to eat,” I retorted, but I wasn’t sure if she heard me, for the void dissolved into my room.
A soft glow brightened the view outside my windows, beckoning me to rise from my pallet of straw. For a moment, I thought we’d landed on a snowfield, until my brain sorted through the image and identified the surface as cloud formation. Across the thick, white clouds, at the distant horizon, the sun beamed color and light into the sky.
That’s when I came upon a truth: a beautiful view wasn’t nearly as beautiful when one was trapped by a lunatic dwarf and a tattooed guard named Brutus.
Speaking of which, Brutus must’ve entered my room while I slept, for there was a new tray of food near the locked door, the empty tray having been removed.
While I had little appetite, I was determined to follow my own advice and consume what I was given. As I sat there, forcing food down without any appreciation for taste and texture, I detected a slight breeze brushing cold tendrils of air against my cheek. It was coming from the roof.
I stood and followed the breeze until I was standing in the corner of the room, where one of the walls met with the curved outer wall of windows. A slight whistling sound caused me to peer up to the rough wooden boards that created a ceiling, and there I could see a sliver of a crack.
Curiosity was a vital tool for any investigator and more so for me at that juncture, since I didn’t have my walking stick. There was nothing for me to climb on, except the metal window frames. I glanced at my skeletal left hand, and without hesitation I summoned the wolf energy.
It appeared by my side, seeming to be nothing more than an obedient pet that happened to glow in the dark.
“Inside,” I said and focused on my hand. In a breath of time, the metal bits were glowing and moving as I willed them.
I hiked my skirt and lifted a boot until it could rest on the thin metal ledge under the window closest to the corner. I gripped where I could around the frame and heaved up.
The top of my head smacked against the ceiling.
“Blast,” I muttered and pressed an eye against the crack.
Several feet above me floated the balloon.
I swiveled slightly and pushed a shoulder against the wooden boards. They creaked and shifted under the pressure.
I smiled as I visually compared the well-sanded, varnished mahogany flooring with the cheaper, weaker and unvarnished ceiling.
The boards on top hadn’t been part of the original construction. That was my deduction, and I tested it by placing more pressure on the ceiling, straightening my legs. Something gave way and a corner of the ceiling popped up; a nail fell on my nose before clattering against the metal window frame.
A gush of icy wind caused me to shiver but I continued pushing until a piece of board flew off and left a hole big enough for my arm and shoulder to enter. My metal hand grasped around blindly and latched onto one of the thick, metal ropes that connected the gondola to the balloon.
With that enhanced purchase, I thrust my other shoulder and upper back against the ceiling until enough bits of plank were dislodged to create a space for me to ease my upper body out into the elements.
Sunlight glittered off the metal ropes that connected the engine car to a metal web that ensnared the balloon. I glanced earthward and decided it was best to refrain from doing that.
I squinted up at the balloon. If this was the smaller version, the full-sized prototype would be unimaginably huge, I reflected, and gained a modicum of respect for the dwarf’s successful heist. To steal something of this magnitude required a certain degree of talent.
Blinking against the glare and biting wind, I stared around at the roof I was poking out of. I knew what lay toward the front end. Was it possible that Lilly was at the other end?
It was never a good idea to overthink one’s options, or else one would never accomplish anything. Before I could commit that blunder, I wiggled my way out of the hole and onto the roof of the gondola. It was most fortuitous that I was still clinging onto a rope with my metal hand, for the wind gusted terribly against me and would’ve quite neatly swept me off.
Everything seemed to sway, or was that just me? I lowered myself to my hands and knees, and the force of the wind eased off. Crawling along in the space created between the swaying gondola and the balloon, I oscillated between sensations of claustrophobia and acrophobia, with a bit of vertigo thrown in whenever I made the mistake of glancing down the side of the ship.
Fortunately for all concerned, particularly myself, I was made of a firmer substance. I was also endowed with a stout and unladylike constitution, one that Mrs. Steward was highly critical of, perhaps because it prevented me from experiencing womanly susceptibilities and from conveniently fainting. Then again, it wouldn’t be convenient at all to faint from that position, so high above the plains.
With my metal hand gripping the ropes as I inched along, I made my way toward the stern. Every so often I paused, put my head to the floorboards and shouted Lilly’s name. Either the wind was too fierce and snatched my words away before they could penetrate the wood, or Lilly was unconscious, gagged or not present. As I could barely hear myself in the whistling wind, I resorted to banging on the boards instead, hoping that might alert her.
Closer to the stern, a roaring noise further deafened me. An engine churned, its efforts causing a constant tremor through the structure. Puffs of steam exited out of a narrow metal chimney and were instantly whisked away to mingle with the clouds.
I paused to admire the view. A flock of flamingos created a pink cloud far below, and farther still, a herd of elephants devoured the grass. Small specks of black suggested buffalos were there too.
Weary, I placed my forehead on the flat roof. “Truly it is a marvel how a ghost-chasing widow frequently ends up in such peculiar places,” I said to a passing cloud.
Its only response was a cold, damp caress followed by a thump to my head.
I sat up at that. Clouds didn’t thump. Was it the reverberation of the engine? I lay my ear to the wood, and detected a localized thumping, like that of a fist.
“Lilly?” I shouted, pressing my mouth to the splintery wood.
“Beatrice?” came the muted response.
“About time,” I breathed out and studied the wooden planks.
It was as I had suspected: a hasty job to cover the airship’s gondola with a roof. The wood was cracked, unvarnished, unpolished and it was astonishing that it even held up against the stress of flight.
The nails were hardly any better, being little more than crude, rusty bits of pointed metal. I sought out a point of leverage
, but the truth was that it was far easier to push than pull, particularly when one was pulling while holding on for dear life on top of an airship far above the comfort of the earth.
I noticed one nail had already popped up slightly, providing a bit of space underneath. Using my right hand to hold me to the rope, I inserted a metal finger into the gap and wiggled and tugged.
A sharp gust of wind pummeled at the balloon and everything tilted slightly. My skirt flung about me in a distracting manner; a pox on the fashion. I decided there and then to investigate those split skirts that Cilla had mentioned, the cycling outfits that had so shocked Mrs. Steward. Given my proclivity for climbing through windows, hanging off airships and flying on possessed horses, the strange apparel might be the better choice.
And amidst all that musing over fashion, the nail came free. Using my metal hand and the nail, I pried up other nails until a board loosened sufficiently for me to lift it out of its home. A face appeared in its place.
“It’s about time, Beatrice,” Lilly yelled against the wind and the chug of the engine. “I expected you much earlier. And what on earth are you doing up there? Can’t you use doors like a normal person?”
I leaned my head in. “It’s delightful to see you too, Lilly dear, and you’re in good spirits as well.”
“I’ll be in far better spirits when we toss that little miscreant off this ship,” she said with an unnatural severity.
“I can see your maternal instincts are developing agreeably,” I observed. “With such an approach, you should have no problems with discipline in your household.”
I peered into her cell. She too was in a small room, somewhat better equipped than mine, I noted. She had a proper bed, a small table with a washing basin, and a comfortable chair. The dwarf hadn’t been negligent in his promise to look after her comfort, in as much as one could when kidnapping someone.
“I suppose that door is locked as well?” I asked, wondering how useful my metal fingers would be at picking locks, given that my hairpins were bent from my last effort.
I decided there and then that upon returning to Nairobi (assuming we did so and in one piece), I would commission Dr. Cricket to add other gadgets to my hand, to augment its current fingers. Fingers, while useful, could benefit from a few additions.
“Well, of course it is,” Lilly said. “I keep checking after every visit of that Neanderthal, hoping he might forget.”
“That’s clever of you,” I said vaguely as I deliberated my next move.
“You’re not really listening, are you?” Lilly asked.
“Hm?” I said as I shuffled backward.
“Wait, don’t leave me,” she shouted.
“Hush,” I ordered, leaning back in. “I’m going to pry off some boards on the other side of your door. Unless you fancy walking around on the roof? We must be a thousand feet above ground by now.”
“No, it’s quite all right,” Lilly hastened to reassure me. “I’ll just wait right here.”
I glanced about. To one side, a glittering ribbon filled the horizon. Mt. Kilimanjaro was nowhere to be seen. As I had no sense of how fast we were traveling, I couldn’t imagine where we were, but if that mountain was no longer in the scenery, we were probably out of East Africa. Even though the sun had completely extracted itself from behind the horizon, the air was still cold; my cheeks were numb and my throat ached from the constant intake of icy breath.
I began working on the boards, not daring to ponder what I would do next once Lilly was free. Thus far, I’d only seen Nameless and Brutus. Could the dwarf really have brought no other backup? Then again, two women locked up in separate rooms wouldn’t require a lot of muscle to contain.
Snorting at the stupidity of some men, I tossed a small plank into Lilly’s room. It wouldn’t do for Nameless to be looking outside a window and notice bits of wood flying off the roof.
I’d made a decent hole and was about to lower myself into it when someone shouted my name.
I glanced about, wondering if someone had taken Nelly for a flight. That’s when I noticed a head. From the distance, I gathered it was poking out of the hole in my cell.
“Good morning, Mrs. Knight,” Nameless shouted against the wind, his long mustache and ponytail flapping about. “Really, now, if you wanted some fresh air, I could’ve obliged you by opening a window.”
“That’s most considerate of you,” I shouted back. “But what I really wanted was a bit of freedom.”
He laughed. “Oh dear. Freedom really is greatly overrated. What do we do with it anyway?”
“Well, we kidnap each other for a start,” I pointed out.
“Indeed, and I believe your family is most familiar with the effects of that,” he said, still smiling broadly.
As if I needed yet another reminder of my brother’s kidnapping.
“Come inside, Mrs. Knight,” Nameless yelled. “It won’t get any warmer out there. And as the sun heats up the air, we might be in for a bit of turbulence, particularly as we approach the ocean.”
He gestured ahead to the glittering ribbon that was now visibly closer and directly ahead.
I frowned at the talking head. Where was Koki when I needed her? I was sure she would’ve taken great delight in removing the dwarf’s head.
Right before she ate my other hand.
I shuddered at the gruesome imagery. “How are you able to reach the roof?” I asked, raising my voice yet again as the wind increased in force.
“I’m standing on Brutus, of course,” he replied.
“Well, if you and Brutus are in that room,” I said, pondering the implications, “who’s steering the ship?”
“Don’t worry about that trivial detail,” the dwarf said, waving such concerns aside. “For a straight course under steady conditions, we should be perfectly safe.”
Did that mean there was no one else aboard?
“Mrs. Knight, it’s a tad chilly,” he continued. “I’ll send Brutus down to that end to help you in, shall I?”
“Please don’t bother,” I reassured him and dropped through the hole I’d made.
The door to Lilly’s room was locked with a bar; I lifted it as I heard shouts down the other end. I rushed into the room, grabbed the chair and pulled it outside, positioning it beneath the hole.
“Lilly, hurry up,” I commanded.
Her face paled as she realized what I was about. “You can’t be…”
“Yes, I jolly well am, and you’d best hurry or we’ll both be tied up tighter than a pig to market,” I said as I snatched at her arm.
It was well that her condition wasn’t too advanced, or she’d never have fit through the gap. As she stood on the chair and reached up to pull herself out, I formed a stirrup with my hands and heaved as she hoed, so to speak.
With a shriek, she landed on top. Heavy feet pounded down the corridor as I leaped onto the chair. As I pulled myself up through the hole, stepping on the backrest of the chair to do so, a beefy hand grabbed at my ankle. Even through my leather boots, I could feel the strength of it.
“Lilly!” I shouted.
She’d latched onto a metal rope, but stretched out a hand to reach my own. I kicked back with my free boot and connected with something soft with a most satisfying crunch.
Thus freed, I scurried to join Lilly.
“Now what?” she shouted at me, her beautiful curls tugged into disarray by the wind.
“I’m still forming a plan,” I replied.
“Which is another way of saying you don’t have one,” she said, her expression cross.
“Exactly,” I said and would’ve said more on the subject except that Brutus popped out of the hole like a bunny rabbit at Easter.
Of course, he couldn’t fit his beefy, tattooed shoulders through the gap, but that didn’t cause him to pause. He simply pushed from below and a few boards went flying. I grabbed one and smacked him upside the head.
He blinked a few times, his nose bleeding and rapidly swelling from my well-aime
d kick, and continued to exit from the hole.
“Move, Lilly,” I ordered.
“Where to?” she yelled in my ear. “There’s no place to go.”
“Just. Move,” I shouted as I shuffled away from Brutus who was now sitting on the roof, eyeing the board in my hand with little concern.
With a huff that couldn’t disguise her fear, she pulled herself along the edge, keeping both hands on a rope at all times. As all three of us were on the same side of the ship, it developed a slight tilt, not enough to unsettle us, but noticeable at any rate.
Brutus stretched an arm toward my ankle and I smacked the board over his wrist. With a yelp, he jerked his arm back, and stared at me reproachfully.
Nameless appeared from the hole in my cell’s ceiling. “Mrs. Knight, you’re complicating the matter far too much and my breakfast is getting cold. Come inside at once.”
“How are you reaching the ceiling now?” I shouted back. “And might I add that I’ve never met a dwarf with a penchant for the open sky. Your species usually prefers the earth; the deeper, the better.”
Nameless scowled, his face darkening with the foreboding of a thundercloud. “I am not a dwarf,” he screamed at me and disappeared.
“That’s one gone for now,” I muttered, a little prematurely.
A trapdoor in the middle of the roof opened up and the dwarf stalked out, glaring at me. He stood there, his squat legs sturdy against the increasing wind velocity and sway of the ship. In his hands he held a small wooden club, the type the African herdsmen carried around to fight off hyenas.
“I can only assume there’s a ladder there, or a set of stairs,” I remarked. “Really, I can’t imagine why any dwarf would want to fly about like this.”
The airship shuddered and jerked as it entered a turbulent airstream. Paying no heed, Nameless yelled something, his face contorted with rage, but his words were lost in the wind that was now howling. Turning his attention to Brutus, he gestured and shouted.
With no premeditation, I directed the wolf to attack. My metal hand went limp against the rope it was attached to. His eyes bugging out, the dwarf hurled his club at the wolf. Of course, it merely travelled through the energy form and smacked against my ribs with a hearty whack that left me breathless.