by Peter Bunzl
“Yes,” said Lily. “And we’re going to rescue him.”
Lily and Robert crouched in the frosty garden and watched Malkin squeeze himself between the tall railings. He dropped his tail and kept his body low as he slunk off down the street.
When he’d finally gone, Lily wrinkled her nose, and looked up at the house. “We can get in there,” she explained, pointing at a small open window over the back porch, obscured by the bare branches of a tree. “Like climbing the trellis at home.” She gave Robert a searching look. “It’s going to be dangerous, so if you don’t want to come, you don’t have to.”
Robert shook his head. “I do want to. For my da. I want to help you stop them.”
“Good.” Lily jumped up and grabbed a low-hanging branch of the tree, then she climbed into its bare crown.
Robert took a deep breath and followed.
By the time he got up among the branches, Lily had already crept out along a bough.
She dropped down onto the porch roof above the back door, and beckoned for him to follow. As soon as he arrived, she climbed through the open window.
The room they tumbled into was dimly lit. Robert crept across the floor, opened the door, and looked out. He was about to step into the hall, when Lily brushed his arm.
“There’s someone else here,” she whispered.
She was right: Robert saw the room was filled with the shadowy shapes of old mechs. One leaned stiff against the wall, another sat square in a corner with its legs sticking out. A third lay toppled on the floor. Wires sprouted from their chest panels and their arms and some of their limbs had been ripped open.
Lily stepped towards them, and started as she saw their faces.
“Why, it’s Captain Springer,” she said, “and Mr Wingnut, and Miss Tock – all our mechanicals from home.” She stroked their faces and examined their injuries. “Madame Verdigris must’ve sold them to him.”
Then she stopped. A funny look came over her face and she rushed into the corner where a mechanical woman stood, half-hidden in the shadows. Robert heard her sharp intake of breath.
“Robert, it’s Mrs Rust!”
The old mech woman had wires sprouting from the end of one arm. Metal flanges and springs stuck out in a jagged pattern from the place where her hand should be. Lily searched round Mrs Rust’s neck for her unique winder on its chain and when she found it she wound the mech-woman’s springs until she flickered to life.
Mrs Rust blinked in surprise at Lily. “Clockwork and click-wheels!” she cried. “It’s my tiger-Lil!” And when she realized what this meant, she burst into tears. “Those ratchet-faced villains – they captured you too.”
“They did, Rusty, but what on earth are you doing here?”
“It was those men – Roach and Mould,” Mrs Rust explained. “They brought us to this place. Wanted to know about one of John’s inventions: the Cogheart. I’d already told Madame we knew nothing about it. I told them that too, but they kept us prisoner, tortured us, pulled our grommets and loose bits off.”
“I’m sorry,” Lily told her.
“It’s all right,” Mrs Rust said, “we’ll survive. We’re made of sterner stuff. Quick – wind the others.”
“Of course, Rusty.” Lily kissed her on the nose and then she and Robert ran around winding the other mechanicals as fast as they could. While they wound, Lily whispered their names to awaken them.
“Captain Springer, Mr Wingnut, Miss Tock – please, wake up.”
And, though he didn’t know them, Robert found himself joining in.
He helped Lily with a mechanical man whose beard was made from curled metal shavings and who had eyebrows of moulded steel. As soon as he was ticking, the man jumped to attention and saluted. “Captain Springer: chauffeur mechanical, first-class, at your service.”
They wound a mechanical woman with a bottle-top nose, who blinked pin-light eyes behind thick round eyeglasses. “Who’s there?” she spluttered.
“Miss Tock,” Lily exclaimed, “it’s me!”
“Lily?” Miss Tock seemed confused. “Where am I? I was in the garden, clearing leaves with Mr Wingnut. What the devil is this place?” Then she saw Mrs Rust and Captain Springer, and her bright eyes faded. “Oh,” she said, “now I remember.”
Lily and Robert wound the last mechanical: a fellow in a long tailcoat with ears made from wing nuts that stuck out the side of his bucket head. He woke with a jitter, and bowed low and creakily to them. “Mr Wingnut, gardening mechanical, at your service.”
The four mechanicals shambled about, talking and ticking with one another.
“Thank goodness you woke us,” Miss Tock said.
“Claptraptions!” cried Captain Springer. “Now my wheels are turning; I can recall everything!”
“If I can just get myself perambulating in third gear,” Mr Wingnut spluttered, “then we shall see what we shall see…”
“By all that ticks,” Springer concluded, “we’re still alive, aren’t we?”
“Pipes and pin-cushions, yes!” Mrs Rust hugged Robert and Lily, dusting their faces with rusty kisses. “Thanks to these two lovelies here.”
“This is Robert,” Lily explained. “And he’s ever so brave. He helped me escape Roach and Mould when they came to Brackenbridge and he repaired Malkin’s bullet wound with his da.”
“Mangles and motors! You have been through the wringer.” Mrs Rust gazed at Robert. “He must have the heart of a mech-lion if he helped you survive such dastardly dealings.” She pinched Robert’s cheek, until he turned away, blushing.
Mrs Rust took Lily aside. “Lily, your papa’s alive,” she whispered. “Being held in the basement.”
“I know,” Lily replied, her voice full of determination. “And with your help, we’ll get him out.”
Lily, Robert and the rest of the mechanicals, led by Mrs Rust, crept along the halls and corridors of the professor’s house, looking for the entrance to the basement. It was hard to keep the mechanicals quiet, because they rattled and jittered and clanked and ticked all the time.
“This seems crunkingly familiar,” said Captain Springer.
“Yes,” said Miss Tock. “I think I might’ve been here before, ten thousand ticks ago, though, to be fair, my memory-valves aren’t what they used to be.”
“Click-wheels and coat hangers!” exclaimed Mrs Rust, “I believe you’re right – we lived here with John and Grace, when Lily was knee-high to a tin toy.”
Just then the parquet floor gave a loud creak.
“Quiet, all of you,” Robert cried. “You need to hush.”
They paused, listening to see if they’d been heard. Luckily this part of the house seemed relatively still. Professor Silverfish’s mechanical butler and maid were obviously busy in another wing of the building.
Lily found a staircase that led down, and Mrs Rust seemed to think it was the right way to go, so the entire group crept down into the cellar.
At the foot of the stairs, Lily stopped. “I remember this too,” she whispered. “There’s a workshop at the other end.” She started down the long subterranean hall, lined with oak panelling. Robert followed her and so did the mechanicals, jittering and creeping along the wooden floorboards behind them.
They came around a curve in the passage, and found their route blocked by a locked metal door.
“This is it,” Lily said. She was reaching for a hairpin when Mr Wingnut stepped forward and wrenched the whole door off its hinges.
“There,” he said, propping the door carefully against the wall. “No point taking care with someone’s locks and escutcheons when they’re keeping you prisoner.”
Robert wished the mechanicals had been with them earlier.
Save for the shelves of machine parts along one wall, the room they stepped into was large and clinically bare. At the centre of the space, Papa sat at a long workbench, examining a half-made device.
He stood and ran towards Lily, but was brought up short by a chain around his ankle, fixed to a
metal hoop embedded in the floor.
Lily rushed towards him as he tugged wearily at the links.
“Papa,” she said, “we’ve come to get you out.”
Then Papa let go of his chains and gave her an enormous hug. Captain Springer reached down and broke the chain about Papa’s ankle; and Miss Tock took his arm. John smiled at them both. Then he greeted Mrs Rust and Mr Wingnut, and Robert too, shaking his hand.
“My friends, you’ve escaped! But, Lily, I told you not to come back here. It’s not safe. You should’ve run far, far away. Found help.”
“Malkin’s gone for help,” Lily said. “I had to save you.” She was close to tears. “And I need to know the truth.”
Papa squeezed her hand. He was crying too. “But the truth will hurt, Lily dear… It always does. And you’ve been hurt so much already… As have our friends.” He smiled weakly at them. “It’s my fault. If I hadn’t offered Simon the Cogheart in the first place… I should’ve told you everything when Mama was killed, but you were so broken…by the accident. I thought you needed protecting. I was scared you’d think ill of me…of my choices—”
“Please,” Robert interrupted. “There’ll be time to talk later. We have to go.”
“Of course,” Papa muttered. He put his arm round Lily and kissed her on the forehead. “Lead on, Macduff.”
They followed Robert and the mechanicals along the hall. Lily hugged Papa. How could he think she was broken after all she’d done to save him?
“I’m strong, you know,” she said. “You can tell me anything.”
“Yes,” Papa agreed. “But maybe I’m the weak one. Maybe that’s why I wrote you the letter in the first place – so I wouldn’t have to tell you the truth face to face. You see, Lily, with the Cogheart, I never set out to create a perpetual motion machine and I hadn’t realized what Silverfish would do to get hold of it. He’ll stop at nothi—”
“Hush!” Robert cried. They’d reached the end of the corridor and he thought he’d heard something.
The mechanicals jittered to a stop, and everyone stood still and listened.
There was a tapping and many footsteps, and suddenly, Roach and Mould appeared at the top of the stairs with a motley-looking crew of armed men.
“It’s the kidnappers!” Miss Tock gasped.
“And the others from the hunt,” Robert added.
Lily clung tight to Papa. Her stomach lurched as she recognized the face of the man who’d been in the street outside Robert’s shop.
“Punchcards and pistons!” Mrs Rust wheezed. “Looks like trouble.”
“We’d best beat a hasty retreat,” Captain Springer muttered.
He shooed Lily, Robert and Papa back down the corridor, and he and the rest of the mechanicals followed, shambling after them. Lily’s eyes darted about. If they went this way they’d be trapped for sure.
Roach and his men had reached the bottom of the stairs. “You mechanicals, step aside,” he spat. “We need to recapture Professor Hartman and our prisoners.”
Mrs Rust shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said. “You’ll have to come through us.” She linked arms with Captain Springer, and then with Miss Tock and Mr Wingnut, and they all made a wall in front of Lily, Robert and Papa.
“So be it.” Roach made a sharp gesture with his cane, and Mould and the rest of his men spread out across the width of the corridor, pulling pistols from within their jackets.
“They may turn us into sieves,” Miss Tock whispered to Lily, “but we’ll save you, if we ca—”
RATA-TATA-TATA-TATA-TAT-TAT!
The men let loose a volley of gunfire. Their bullets pinged off the mechanicals, embedding themselves in the corridor’s walls and wood panelling. Then the hall filled with choking smoke, and the gunfire stopped.
There was an eerie silence, and Lily heard the click of reloading guns.
“We have to get out of here!” Robert cried. “Is there no other way out?”
Papa put a hand to his head. “There is: a secret passage! I had it installed when we lived here, in case of attack. One of these light fittings opens it.” He staggered along the wall, grasping at the metal stems of the electric lamps, trying to twist them sideways. “It’s none of these. We must try them all.”
The firing began again; bullets exploding loudly on metal and wood.
Robert and Lily ducked and ran along the corridor, yanking the arm of each lamp bracket, trying to twist them like door handles.
“Here it is!” John shouted. He stopped beside one in the centre of the row, whose bracket looked slightly discoloured. He reached up, and twisted the fitting.
There was a ratcheting sound, like mechanical gears moving, and a wooden panel in the wall whooshed aside, revealing a narrow dark tunnel.
“In there, quick,” Papa told them, and Lily and Robert climbed in.
Papa beckoned to the wall of mechanicals. “Come on, my friends, hurry!”
Mrs Rust shook her head. “You go, John, get the children to safety. We’ll hold back the men, and follow as soon as we can.”
Papa nodded. “Thank you, Rusty.” He climbed into the tunnel beside Lily and Robert, and pulled the panel shut.
As the three of them struggled away, the battle between the men and mechanicals raged through the wall, echoing down the dark tunnel.
Papa was having trouble walking, and had to stop and rest every few feet. After fifty paces they reached a set of steps, climbing upwards and ending in darkness. At the top, Papa pulled a lever on the wall and another panel slid away, tumbling them out into hazy afternoon light.
They stepped from an opening hidden at the back of a stone arch, and Robert saw they were standing outside a little folly at the end of the garden, its roof covered in melting snow.
An icy path, flanked by frosted topiary cut in the shapes of leaping fish, led back towards the house. In the other direction, a small jetty ran out onto the river.
Roach and Mould’s airship, Behemoth, was tied to the jetty’s mooring post. Its bobbing zep balloon cast a torpedo-shaped shadow over the busy waters of the Thames, and the spiked gondola hovered a few feet above the pontoon, its rear cargo bay open.
“We’ll take that,” Lily said. She grasped Papa’s hand, and Robert’s, and they ran along the planked jetty towards the airship.
“Should we wait for Mrs Rust and the others?” she asked, as they clambered into the cargo bay.
“No need.” Professor Silverfish stepped out from behind a piece of engine housing. “My men will take care of them.”
He pulled a gun from behind his back and pointed it at them. “I told you before, John, if you didn’t cooperate with my plan one of these children would get hurt.”
“We can discuss this, Simon.” John held up his hands. His face looked calm, but his legs were shaking. “I understand – you need my help. But so does my daughter, and her friend. Surely, after all that’s happened, we can still come to some arrangement?”
“It’s too late for bargains,” Professor Silverfish said. “I can’t trust your words, or actions. These children know how serious I am, but I think only a show of force will convince you.”
He pointed his gun at Robert’s chest and clicked off the safety catch.
Lily felt a sickening jolt of energy.
Time seemed to slow.
She saw Professor Silverfish squeeze his finger on the trigger.
“No—” she cried.
And dived in front of Robert as the gun fired.
A sharp molten pain seared through Lily’s body. The bullet cut through her skin and pierced her chest. Her teeth grated, there was a hollow ringing, and she felt the projectile bounce off something metal deep inside her.
The momentary relief was followed by a jitter, like springs unwinding, cogs catching. Her head spun with dizziness. A sickly aching arced through her, and a carnation of red blossomed on her dress front.
She clutched at her breast, pressing at the silk. It stuck to her ribs, warm bloo
d dripping through her fingers, and she dropped to the floor.
Robert kneeled beside her and grasped her hand, cradling it in his. Papa dropped to his knees and threw his arms around her.
Lily tried to sit up, tried to stay with them, but her limbs felt heavy, her bones brittle. She sensed her will fading, her self slipping away. Her head fell forward, lolling against Papa’s shoulder.
“Don’t die, Lily,” he whispered. “It’s the heart – don’t let the bullet break your heart.”
Professor Silverfish’s eyes widened. “The Cogheart – it’s inside her. She’s had it all along – of course, what a fool I’ve been!”
Tears rolled down Robert’s cheeks. Beside him, he felt John’s body shaking, wracked with sobs. “It was that terrible night…” John said. “The night of the crash…” He broke off and brushed a tear from his eye, glaring at Silverfish. “You tore my world apart that night…killed my beloved Grace. For what? Trying to steal the Cogheart… Because of you, I had to keep it. I had no choice – I knew it could save one of them… And I chose Lily, my only child. I took her to the hospital, and they operated, gave her the Cogheart. It saved her life. And now…and now this…” He couldn’t finish; he buried his face in Lily’s hair, and sobbed.
“What about me?” Professor Silverfish shouted at him. “What about our bargain?”
“You!” John didn’t even look at him. “You’re not important. The way you’ve behaved you don’t deserve to live.”
Robert stroked Lily’s fingers. They were still twined with his, but her breath had become shallow, and her grip was loosening, going limp.
He glanced over his shoulder to see Roach and Mould running madly across the courtyard towards them. They stumbled up the loading ramp, coughing heavily.
“We had to retreat, professor,” Roach mumbled, leaning on his cane. “John’s mechanicals are destroying your home.”
“Never mind that,” Professor Silverfish said, “we have what we want.” He nodded at Mould. “You, go ready us for take-off.” Then he waved his gun at Robert. “And, you, Roach, get this boy off my ship. He’s useless to me now.”
“With pleasure.” Mr Roach wiped a hand across his face, and caught his breath. Then he grabbed Robert.