“We’re too late,” she said, sounding breathless as she used up the last of her oxygen. “Look!”
Thaddeus saw what she meant — the lava was already sucking hotly at the stairs that led to the cells. Their escape route was cut off. They were trapped.
{Chapter 49}
OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN
“There!” Thaddeus shouted. Rémy looked up to see that he was pointing at the only high point the lava couldn’t possibly reach — the ledge below the waterfall that gushed down the wall.
“Go!” she shouted, glancing down and dancing forward to avoid the lava’s reach.
They clawed their way up the rough wall to reach the water. It cascaded through the ceiling and then split in two. Some of it flowed down into the man-made riverbed below, to provide the steam for the Comte’s huge engine. The rest, though, disappeared back into the rock through a void worn smooth by time and the constant passage of water. Here the river ran in a raging torrent that vanished from sight, down into the pitch-black belly of the mountain.
She was standing close to it, and the sight filled Rémy with a dread she hadn’t felt even when she saw the lava break its banks. She was rarely afraid, least of all for herself. She had spent so much of her short life risking it that to put herself in peril almost came as second nature to her. But here and now, when there was no option but to plunge into the icy waters before them, she felt afraid. A memory surfaced, of trying to breathe but being unable. Of darkness, and cold, cold water.
“We have to go through there,” Thaddeus yelled.
“Where does it come out?” Rémy asked. “Do you even know if it does? Maybe it just disappears right down into the earth. Maybe —”
“What other choice do we have?” Thaddeus shouted to her over the quaking rumble all around them. “Look!”
Rémy turned to see where he was pointing. The lava had completely filled the archway and was busy pouring into the lower level. They were utterly cut off — soon the only thing not burning would be the ledge on which they stood.
The last of the oxygen in her canister gave out. Rémy pulled off her mask and tossed it into the raging lava below. Thaddeus did the same. They stood before each other, coughing as the sulphur choked them.
“We don’t have any more time,” Thaddeus yelled. “We have to go now.”
“D’accord,” Rémy said, as her heart pounded in her chest. “Okay.” Pull yourself together, she told herself silently. It’s only water. You can do this. You’ve done it before.
Thaddeus stepped close to her, putting his hands either side of her face and forcing her to look him in the eye instead of at the water. “It won’t be like last time,” he promised, as if he’d read her mind. “This isn’t like Abernathy’s flood. I’ll be right with you.”
Rémy didn’t push him away as she might once have done. She tried to smile instead. “You’re lucky you’re not stuck here with J, is all,” she shouted. “You know how he hates to take a bath.”
Thaddeus smiled at her affectionately. “I’ll go first,” he told her.
“No,” she said, taking his hand. “No, we go together.”
The water was icy cold after the intense heat of the cavern. It pulled at their feet as they clambered into the tunnel’s opening. Ahead, the passageway sloped downward into darkness, the water gushing past and over them with terrifying speed. They tried to stay upright as they picked their way toward the abyss below, but it was impossible. Thaddeus was the first to slip, his drenched shoe striking a slippery stone. He lost his footing. He let go of Rémy’s hand and flung his arms out to steady himself, but to no avail.
“Thaddeus!” Rémy yelled as he vanished from sight. She froze for a second, shivering in the cold dark, and then took another tentative step forward.
A moment later Rémy found herself on her back, the wet stone scraping at her spine as the waterfall rushed over her. She tried to push herself up out of the drowning torrent, but only succeeded in taking a single gasp of breath before being dragged under again. The water was so cold it had numbed her instantly, and she tumbled over and over as the water cascaded down, down, down, bumping and scraping her against the harsh rock until her body felt like a bruised apple. Time and again she thought she had breathed her last breath, and time and again the water lifted her up just enough to take another before dragging her back down again.
Then, suddenly, there was daylight. Rémy was spat out of the mountain like a mouthful of cold coffee and found herself slaloming down the great waterfall that cascaded through the three tiers of Mont Cantal. Struggling to right herself, she saw Thaddeus ahead of her. He clung to a rock, drenched, his hair plastered against his head as his eyes searched the water for her. She threw up an arm, and he saw her. Their hands reached for each other, found each other, grasped each other. Thaddeus pulled her to the rock, and she clung to it beside him, one of his arms around her as they both gulped for air. Rémy blinked the river water from her eyes and saw that Thaddeus was as bruised as she felt — one welt covered his left eye, and blood was trickling from his wet hair. She reached frozen fingers up to his cheek, worried, but he shook his head with a shaky smile.
“I’m fine,” he managed, through heaving gasps. “We made it. We made it!”
{Chapter 50}
YANNICK’S REMORSE
They struggled out of the water. The waterfall had carried them all the way down into the deep pool at the lowest tier of the city. Overhead, the night air was smudged with smoke and the orange glow of flames. The fire from the Comte’s castle had spread all the way down the mountainside, burning the city in its entirety. The place seemed completely empty — there were no screams or shouts, no sound of running feet. Mont Cantal had been abandoned, its people fleeing their burning homes and crumbling city.
Thaddeus helped Rémy to her feet. The path on which they stood led from the pool to join the main thoroughfare in and out of the mountain fortress. Here, the houses were alight, but the road was wide enough for them to walk between unscathed. They soon realized that the fire was not their biggest problem.
“Look,” said Thaddeus, nodding ahead at the great wall that encompassed the mountain’s split.
The Comte’s golden army stood sentry along the walls and in front of the main gates. They were in pairs, one facing in, one facing out, so there was no way to approach them without having to confront their blank faces and fierce strength.
“I hoped that the Comte’s death would mean they’d stand down,” said Thaddeus. “But it doesn’t look that way.”
Rémy scanned the wall, looking for a way out, but there was none. The grille that shut off the river was intact, and other than the main gate, there was no other exit except possibly over the walls. “What about Claudette?” she asked. “Could she and Amélie have got out before they blocked the gate?”
Thaddeus shook his head, still catching his breath. “I don’t know.”
“Claudette!” Rémy shouted. “Amélie!”
None of the mechanical soldiers made any sign that they had heard. Then there came the sound of scrabbling. It echoed around the empty houses, above the crackling flames, finally resolving into footsteps.
“Claudette?” Rémy shouted again. “Is that you?”
There was no answer. Rémy glanced at Thaddeus, and for once they could both tell what the other was thinking. They began to look around, searching for something to use as a weapon. Thaddeus picked up a large rock, while Rémy grasped a chunk of fallen roof beam. The sound grew nearer. They braced themselves as it became apparent that the sound was of hurrying human footsteps.
“Claudette?” Rémy shouted again.
A ragged figure appeared from between two charred houses. It most definitely was not Claudette.
“Yannick?” Rémy cried in disbelief.
He was a pitiful sight. He had lost his military jacket and the rest of his uniform was
blackened and torn. His face and arms were smudged with soot, and he looked exhausted.
“Please,” he said in French. “Please, don’t hurt me, Little Bird. You’re the only other two people I have seen! You must help me get out. Those things . . . those things!” He pointed a wavering finger at the soldiers on the wall.
“What did he say?” Thaddeus asked suspiciously. “What does he want?”
“He just wants help. Speak English, Yannick,” Rémy snapped at him. “Do you know any other way out of here?”
The wretched magician shook his head. “No. There is no other way. We are trapped! Either the fire will get us, or those monsters will.” He brightened for a moment. “Unless you can call your airship back? Then we can escape the same way as Claudette and Amélie?”
“Wait,” said Rémy. “You saw them? They got out?”
Yannick nodded. “Will it come back? For you — for us?”
Thaddeus shook his head, looking at the flames around them. “They’d be mad to. The flames are too high, too much of a risk.”
Yannick sagged. “Then we’re done for. It’s hopeless!”
“Ach, be a man for once in your life,” Rémy said scornfully. To Thaddeus, she said, “We don’t have to fight the whole of the Comte’s army. All we need to do is get through their lines — make them leave a gap so we can get over the wall.”
Thaddeus nodded. “What’s your idea?”
Rémy pointed to where the stones of the arch across the river created the only features in the great wall. “We aim for those. They will be easier to climb. I will create a diversion — draw some of them away. Then you climb. Once you are high enough, I’ll lose them and double back.”
“No,” Thaddeus said immediately. “I can’t let you use yourself as bait!”
“It’s the only way,” Rémy insisted. “I’m the fastest of us all — both running and climbing. I have a chance. You two have none. You know it’s true.”
From his grimace, she could see that Thaddeus did know, even if he didn’t like to admit it. “I don’t think —”
She cut him off. “We don’t have time to argue, little policeman,” Rémy told him shortly. “The lava we let loose is not going to stop. It is coming. Isn’t it?”
Thaddeus rubbed one hand over his eyes, and she knew she’d won. “All right,” he said unhappily. “What do we do?”
Rémy led the way as they ran swiftly down toward the wall. The soldiers took no notice of them at first. Rémy split off from Yannick and Thaddeus, waving with her hand to indicate they should hold back. She picked up a stone and skimmed it through the air so that it glanced off the shoulder of one of the golden men. It turned, primed and ready for attack, as she quickly began to scale the archway. She got three quarters of the way up before the soldier above sensed what was happening. It reached for her in one strong movement, and she started back down the wall again, scrambling quickly backward, though careful not to go so quickly that it abandoned the chase. It followed her, and so did the second in the pair. The two mechanical sentries came after her down the wall, leaving a small gap in its defense.
“Go!” she shouted to Thaddeus, as she drew the two soldiers away. “I’ll follow! Quickly!” They were faster now they were on flat ground, but she was faster still. Rémy headed for the streets of burning houses, hoping to lose her metal pursuers in the tangled, smoky alleyways.
She glanced back over her shoulder to see Thaddeus and Yannick on the wall, making for the gap. For a moment her heart leaped — it looked as if they were going to make it! Then the two soldiers pursuing her stopped dead. Rémy paused, too, out of breath and wary, but they didn’t attempt to catch her. Abruptly, they turned and started back to the wall, heading for their posts.
“Thaddeus,” she screamed. “Yannick — look out!”
Thaddeus had gone up first and was almost at the top. Yannick was several steps below him. They both hesitated, wondering if they could reach the top and begin the scramble down the other side. The answer was no. The two golden men were back at the wall in an instant. Yannick froze where he was, fear stilling him against the wall, blocking Thaddeus’s only path back to the ground.
“Yannick,” Rémy shouted, scared, “jump. Just jump!”
It was too late. One of the soldiers started climbing up the way Thaddeus and Yannick had used, cutting off their escape. The other leaped directly at the wall, launching itself several feet into the air and landing beside Yannick, clinging to the stone like a spider. Yannick screamed and tried to get away, but the soldier clamped its hand around his leg, pulling at him as the magician scrabbled desperately against the wall. The second soldier reached Yannick and began to pull at him, too.
Rémy saw Thaddeus start back down toward the fray, intending to help the magician, who was screaming fit to wake the dead. She looked around and grabbed a hunk of fallen wood, hauling it up and running forward.
“Thaddeus!” She shouted. He looked up and saw her coming. She used all her might to throw the wooden beam toward him. He caught it and swung it at Yannick’s inhuman captors as Rémy searched for another weapon. Then she, too, joined the attack. The soldiers showed absolutely no reaction to their blows. Yannick struggled feebly in their grip as Thaddeus tried again and again to free him. Then Rémy saw one of them reach for a small panel on its side. It flipped it open and pressed a button on the plate within.
Instantly, four more of the soldiers on the wall turned and began to walk toward the scuffle.
“Thaddeus,” Rémy screamed. “Look! Get out of there!”
But in the act of turning to see what she meant, Thaddeus lost concentration. He wobbled, dropping the beam to catch his balance. In that moment, one of the soldiers reached out and caught hold of his leg.
“No!” Rémy shouted, as he yelled in pain at the heavy grip on his burnt skin. The sight of Thaddeus both trapped and in pain opened up a well of strength she didn’t know she had. Rémy hurled the chunk of wood she was holding. It hit the soldier square in the back, hard enough to knock it forward against the wall. The policeman yanked his leg free.
“Jump,” Rémy screamed up at him. “Don’t think, just jump!”
Thaddeus did as he was told, letting go of the wall and throwing himself down toward her. He sailed over the heads of the soldiers and landed hard in the dust below. Rémy darted forward, dragging him up before they could react. Together they stumbled away as swiftly as they could.
“Yannick,” Thaddeus managed, winded.
Rémy turned back to see her childhood friend surrounded by the Comte’s mechanical men. Each of them seemed to be pulling him in a different direction, like a pride of lions with a carcass. She drew her lips into a straight line and kept moving.
{Chapter 51}
FRIENDS IN NEED
The soldiers didn’t seem interested in following them. They’d been ordered to protect the wall, and that’s what they were doing. No one in, no one out. Thaddeus’s body was smarting, both from his hard landing and from the soldier’s frighteningly powerful grip. He leant heavily on Rémy as they ran to the shelter of the smoldering houses of Mont Cantal.
“Rémy, it’s no good,” Thaddeus said, doubling over to catch his breath. “There’s nothing more we can do.”
She settled beside him against the wall, breathing hard. “So we just give up?”
“Unless you’ve got another idea?” he asked, as he straightened up. “I can’t see any way over that wall, can you? Not alive, anyway.”
She hesitated, and then shook her head. “Non. I just hate to let them — him — win.”
Thaddeus smiled and then moved to put his arm around her, pulling her close against him. “He hasn’t won,” the policeman reminded her. “Claudette and Amélie got away. We destroyed that awful place of his. I choose to count that as a win.”
She smiled, and then pressed her face into his shoulder,
wrapping her arms around him. “You English. So easily pleased.”
Thaddeus pushed his nose into her short hair as he stared at the wall of flame licking steadily toward them. “Yes, well. It looks as if I got the girl in the end. So there’s nothing for me not to be pleased about, really, is there?”
Rémy lifted her head, her lips parting as if to come back with some smart answer. Thaddeus took the opportunity to kiss her instead, firmly and as if it was the only thing that mattered at that moment. Which it was.
The ground began to shake. It was only slight at first, but the tremors quickly grew until the burning houses around them began to crumble. The stones on the road shook and bounced, cracks beginning to appear in the ground as the quaking grew worse.
“What is it?” Rémy shouted over the noise.
Thaddeus looked up at the mountain. The waterfall had slowed to a trickle, exposing the cave mouth through which they had escaped. Steam and yellow smoke were gushing from the depths in great roiling belches. The smell of sulphur began to reach them.
He looked down at Rémy, holding her even closer even as they both trembled in the quake. “The lava,” he said. “It’s coming.”
Another sound rose into the air. This one came from the wall, not from the mountain. At first it was indistinct, a raucous hubbub that bubbled under the grating of the quake and the roar of the flames. Thaddeus and Rémy looked out from their shelter just as a volley of large rocks appeared over the wall. They shot into the air, raining down on the golden soldiers. Most missed their targets, but some found them. One of the larger rocks even dislodged one of the mechanical men, hitting it so hard that it lost its footing and fell off the wall completely. There was an audible cheer as it disappeared from sight.
“People,” Rémy said in amazement. “It’s people! But what —”
A trumpeting noise filled the air, a harsh shriek of anger that would be enough to scare the unwary into the grave.
The Ruby Airship Page 28