by Alex English
Echo ran back into the cockpit and scanned the controls, settling on a lever marked thrust. She pulled it, there was a roar and the airship surged forward, throwing Echo back into her seat and leaving Gilbert dangling from a control handle by the tail, his feet scrabbling for purchase. Through the windscreen, Echo saw the stone of the castle rooftop disappearing as they gained height. Yes! This was it! They were getting away!
Something hit the hull with a metallic clatter. Echo jumped.
The guards! They were firing at the ship! But what would happen if they hit the balloon? Would it hold?
Echo shuddered. She wasn’t going to find out. She leaned hard on the thrust lever, the engines hummed with life and the little ship surged forward. There were more muffled cries from behind and the clang of a spear as it bounced off the hull, but they were gaining speed now. Climbing up, up and away from the rooftops, into the open sky. Into the night, over the city and beyond.
‘Look,’ cried Echo. The city’s streets spread out before them, the little grey-roofed houses as small as toys. Gilbert ran over the dashboard to the windscreen and peered out too.
Below, city dwellers were returning home from the firework display, weaving through the streets, their lanterns bobbing ahead of them like fireflies. At the hum of the airship engines, people turned to look skywards. There were shouts as city dwellers stopped, pointing up at the Hummerbird, open-mouthed.
Echo gazed back down at them. I’m leaving, she thought. I’m really leaving. She snatched one last glance at the upturned faces below her, then fixed her gaze on the northern wall, where the flames of the north beacon flickered in the breeze. She put her shaking hands on the wheel and held her course steady.
She was going beyond the Barren, and she would not be afraid.
CHAPTER TEN
As they neared the city wall, Gilbert let out an urgent cheep and Echo jerked her gaze up from the dashboard to see that the Hummerbird was surging dangerously close to the north beacon, with its bowl of flickering flame. Echo was pretty sure that flames and balloons didn’t mix. In fact, if they kept on going this way, they were going to crash right into it!
She grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and swung it to the right. The airship bucked and jerked and Echo was thrown to the floor. The wheel spun wildly as she was thrown this way and that. A cupboard above the pilot’s seat flew open and a little brass telescope tumbled out, hitting a button at the top of the dashboard and barely missing Gilbert, who scrabbled to stay upright. An amber light began to flash and dials whirled.
‘Hold tight, Gilbert!’ Echo struggled to her feet and clung to the dashboard. She glanced out of the windscreen and gasped as she realized they were racing straight towards the flames of the beacon again. The wind must be against them! They were getting far too close. Echo grabbed the wheel and wrenched it to the right once more. Gilbert’s scales glowed danger red and his tail stood to attention as he let out a panicked squeak and hung on to the dashboard with all four feet. The airship turned, but too late. Flames surged up the windscreen; there was a crackle and a hiss from above.
‘Oh no!’ To her horror, Echo saw smoke billowing above them. ‘We’re on fire! What should I do now, Gilbert?’ She pulled the wheel hard to the right again. ‘We’re going to crash!’
The pressure gauge spun wildly, an alarm blared and the dashboard lit up in a sea of flashing red lights. Echo heaved on the thrust lever and the little ship surged forward over the city walls and into the Barren.
The Hummerbird began to drop towards the rocky ground. Echo grabbed Gilbert and strapped herself into the pilot’s seat before pulling in vain on the thrust lever. Her heart pounded in her ears in time with the shrieking alarm. They were falling!
They dropped further and the ship spun in the air. Echo saw the greyness of the Barren and the starlit night sky flying past the portholes as the ship tumbled faster and faster.
‘Aaagh!’ Echo gave up on the steering wheel and flung both hands over her eyes. Her stomach turned and she braced herself against the dashboard as the ship bounced and skidded over the Barren. There was a horrible scraping noise as they juddered across the rocks, then suddenly they were falling again. Cupboards burst open, showering saucepans, jars of strange vegetables and copper-plated instruments over the floor.
Finally, the ship came to a stop, the charred silks deflating over the portholes with an empty sigh.
It took several minutes before Echo could relax her grip on the dashboard. Gilbert scrambled up and nudged her cheek.
‘I’m all right, Gilbert. Are you?’ she croaked.
Gilbert bobbed his head, chirruped as if to say, Fine and dandy, and shook the dust out of his scales.
Echo gingerly raised her head and surveyed the scene. ‘What a mess!’ The windscreen and portholes were obscured by the deflated balloon silks, but in the gloom she could see that the floor was littered with the brass instruments, cooking implements and jars that had fallen out of the cupboards.
‘Let’s look outside.’ Echo released her seat belt and wobbled out of her seat, Gilbert clinging to her shoulder. She picked her way over the spilled paraphernalia, scaled the ladder and released the exit hatch with a pneumatic hiss. The stench of burnt hair hung in the air as she pushed her way out from under the balloon and slithered down the hull to the ground.
She emerged from the charred fabric and looked around. They’d rolled into a rocky crater so deep that the city walls could barely be seen behind them. At least that meant that they couldn’t be spotted from the city, Echo realized with relief. But her relief turned to dismay when she examined the balloon. Even by moonlight, she could see it was well and truly ruined, its turquoise silk blackened and crumbling into ash around a gaping hole.
‘Oh, what are we going to do, Gilbert?’ she said. This rescue mission was not going well.
Gilbert nuzzled her cheek, but Echo could tell he was out of ideas too.
To the north, bare grey rock stretched out as far as she could see. She squinted at the horizon, but could only make out silvery clouds of mist. Was there really anything beyond? A lump of panic threatened to form in her chest, but she put her hand to her hair and grasped her mother’s pin to steady herself. Of course it was real. It had to be. Just because she couldn’t see it yet, that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
There was a rustle of fabric behind her. Echo jumped in fright and spun round to find a familiar rumpled blond head appearing from under the balloon.
‘Horace!’ She opened and closed her mouth for a moment. Why in Lockfort was he here? He’d followed her again! She bit her lip in fury. How dare he? He was bound to ruin everything! Although, she had to admit, looking around at the emptiness of the Barren, it was comforting not to be completely alone out here. She sighed. ‘What are you doing here?’
Horace flushed as he fought his way out from under the balloon. ‘I didn’t think you were going to make it fly. Are you quite mad?’ He glanced around. ‘Where in all Lockfort are we?’
‘We’re not in Lockfort.’
‘We’re not . . .’ Horace’s face turned pale as he took in the grey rockiness of the Barren. ‘Oh no! Echo! What have you done?’
Echo’s relief turned to irritation and she scowled. ‘I’m going to find the professor and . . .’ She considered for a moment. She couldn’t tell Horace about going to Port Tourbillon yet. ‘And help him.’
‘But the professor’s a criminal! And now we’re stuck out here like criminals too.’ His voice rose to a squeak. ‘We’ll perish! We’ll wither away to skeletons! We’ll—’
‘No, we won’t.’ Echo clenched her fists to keep her voice from trembling. She had to be brave. She mustn’t let Horace panic her. ‘We’re not stuck. We’ll find the professor and he’ll fix the airship and . . . Where were you anyway?’
‘In that cupboard at the back. I just wanted to see what you were up to, and then I heard footsteps and I . . . I got spooked.’ Horace sniffed. ‘Oh, I wish I’d never looked inside this
stupid contraption!’ He kicked the side of the ship with a dull, metallic clank, winced and hopped away. ‘Ow! And now I’ve hurt my toe!’
Echo shook her head in exasperation. This was all she needed. Horace must have followed her and hidden when she’d come back with Gilbert.
She sighed. ‘Look, we’re here now, and it’s no good panicking,’ she said, more gently. ‘We need to find the professor. He’ll know how to fix things.’
‘Are you sure?’ asked Horace.
‘I’m certain,’ said Echo, not feeling very certain at all. ‘I’ll go and find the end of the expulsion chute and see if he’s there. You wait here, where it’s safe.’
She scrambled up the side of the crater on her hands and knees, Gilbert clinging to her back. When she got to the top and looked out, she could see the high stone city walls and the bright bowl of flame that marked their exit from the city. At the base of the wall, directly below, gaped the dark mouth of the expulsion chute.
She squinted in the moonlight, but there was no sign of the professor. ‘Can you see anything, Gilbert?’ she whispered.
The little lizard ran forward through the grey dust and cocked his head up at the wall as if to say, Look.
‘Not up there . . . Oh!’ As Echo followed his gaze up the city wall, she saw dark figures emerging, frantic dark figures, more and more of them appearing by the moment, waving bows and arrows. Even in silhouette, they looked very unfriendly indeed.
Echo shrank back below the edge of the crater. She swallowed, suddenly full of doubt. Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe it wasn’t the professor who had been expelled at all. Maybe it was someone worse, somebody dangerous! And now she and Horace were alone in the Barren with a broken airship and no way forward, and no way back. And all of it her fault.
‘Echo!’ Horace yelled from below in the crater. ‘Echo, I see him!’
Echo glanced back down towards the airship. Horace was waving a little pair of brass binoculars.
She half climbed, half fell back down and ran up to him, panting, and covered in a film of grey dust. ‘Where’d you get those?’
‘They were on the floor,’ he said. ‘I thought they might come in handy.’
‘Can I have a look?’ Echo took them and scanned around. Everywhere she looked was bare grey rock.
‘There!’
Echo focused the binoculars where Horace was pointing and grinned in relief. Beyond the far side of the crater, small but getting larger, a figure with a distinctive halo of frizzy hair was walking towards them.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘It sounds like you’ve had quite the adventure!’ said the professor, with a grin, after Echo had explained what had happened. ‘It’s just as well the Hummerbird doesn’t take flammable lifting gas!’
Echo grimaced. ‘I’m sorry about your ship.’
‘No need to apologize. I should be thanking you both for being daring enough to come out and find me. That expulsion chute is quite the ride, you know, although those rivets are murder on the old posterior.’
Echo took a sidelong glance at Horace, who had his arms tightly crossed and was watching the professor suspiciously.
‘Luckily, I have a spare balloon envelope,’ the professor went on. Then he scratched his head. ‘Unluckily, I punctured it during an unfortunate incident with a barbed albatross.’
Echo frowned and went back to examining the balloon, wishing beyond all wishes that she could undo the damage.
Gilbert ran down her arm and hopped on to the fabric. He sniffed the blackened silk and recoiled with a squeal.
Echo shook her head sadly. If only she hadn’t gone so close to the beacon, they’d be on their way to Port Tourbillon already.
The professor continued mumbling to himself. ‘Perhaps we can mend the puncture in the old envelope. Let me get the repair kit.’
He disappeared into the Hummerbird and returned with a small zipped suitcase. As he opened it, Echo realized it was just a bigger version of her own embroidery kit, complete with a gleaming pair of long-bladed scissors, several bulky needles and a large spool of thread.
‘Now, we just need something to patch it with,’ said the professor, releasing the ropes and rolling up the charred turquoise silk. ‘But what?’
Echo glanced down at her ceremonial gown and wriggled out of her voluminous petticoat. ‘How about this?’
‘Perfect!’ said the professor.
Horace cleared his throat. ‘I suppose I could help with the sewing too,’ he said. ‘The sooner we mend it, the sooner we’re back to Lockfort. Can you show me what to do, Echo?’
Echo nodded. ‘Take one of these.’ She passed him a needle and thread and started sewing, trying to ignore the guilt that niggled at her. She had no plans to return to Lockfort any time soon, but Horace didn’t need to know that yet.
Between the professor, Horace and Echo, it didn’t take long to repair the spare balloon. As Echo cut a rectangle out of her petticoat and deftly secured it to the tear in the fabric, she had to admit that her embroidery skills were finally useful for something. It turned out that Horace had the knack too, and, as they worked together through the night, their squabbles were forgotten. The first light of dawn was emerging on the horizon as Echo put the last stitch into the patch, knotted the silk thread and held it out for Gilbert to bite through. The balloon didn’t look too smart, but it would do.
‘A marvellous job!’ said Professor Daggerwing. ‘Now, let’s get her hitched up and inflated.’
After several minutes of struggling with ropes and buckles, they managed to attach the balloon to the airship gondola.
Professor Daggerwing stood back and admired it. ‘Now, I really should get you two as close to Lockfort as I dare,’ he said.
‘No!’ Echo shook her head in horror. He couldn’t! Not after she’d got this far. ‘I don’t want to go back,’ she said.
‘What?’ The professor stared at her. ‘Surely you want to go home?’
‘Lockfort doesn’t feel like my home,’ said Echo. ‘I want to go to Port Tourbillon, with you.’ She didn’t want to tell him about the hairpin, not yet. ‘I just need you to fly me there. You don’t have to do anything else. I’ll do chores, mend sails, scrub dishes, anything.’
‘Well, that’s a lovely offer, but—’
‘Hang on a minute. What about me?’ said Horace. ‘You two might be prepared to fall over the edge of the world, but I’m not.’
‘It’s not the edge of the world!’ exclaimed Echo. Why did he always have to ruin everything? Couldn’t he understand that this was important to her? ‘You’ll see – there are other cities out there.’
‘I don’t care if there are. I want to go back,’ said Horace, turning to the professor, who was looking between the two of them with his eyebrows knotted together in a frown. ‘I only came by accident. I didn’t know she was going to fly out here.’
Echo set her jaw. Everything was going wrong. But she wasn’t about to go back to Lockfort again after coming this far. She took a deep breath and put on her kindest voice. ‘You’re here now, Horace. You’ll just have to come with us to Port Tourbillon. We’ll bring you back straight afterwards.’
‘But I don’t want to go to this Port Toblerone place, even if it does exist,’ Horace said. He folded his arms and pouted. ‘If it’s so good, why haven’t we ever heard about it?’
Echo looked at Horace’s obstinate face in despair. How could she convince him?
Gilbert cocked his head at faint voices and a rumbling coming across the Barren from the city walls.
That was it! Echo remembered the armed soldiers gathering. She turned to the professor. ‘We can’t go back, even if we wanted to. It’s not safe.’
She told the professor and Horace about the figures she and Gilbert had seen. ‘We’re hidden while we’re in this crater,’ she said. ‘But I have the feeling that, once they see us, they won’t be welcoming us back into Lockfort.’
The professor nodded gravely as he listened. ‘I’m certainl
y not popular with King Alfons.’ He considered the situation for a minute. ‘Going straight back in daylight would be risky.’
‘More like certain death,’ said Echo.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Horace. ‘You’re exaggerating. They won’t shoot at children.’
‘The young lad does have a point,’ said the professor. ‘I should take you back right away. Let’s hope there’s enough lifting gas in the tanks to get us airborne.’ He clambered up and disappeared inside the Hummerbird before Echo had a chance to argue. They followed him up the ladder.
In the airship, the professor sang under his breath as he flipped switches and adjusted levers on the dashboard. There was a whoosh as the patchwork balloon inflated and the engine hummed into life.
‘Aha!’ The professor looked upwards with a grin on his face. ‘We have lift-off!’ The floor wobbled beneath them as they rose once more into the air.
Echo ran to the back of the ship and pressed her nose to the porthole, then peered through the binoculars. She squinted through the brass eyepieces and swallowed. As the Hummerbird rose from its hiding place in the crater, there was a shout from atop the city walls. Three guards were positioned behind the parapet. As she watched, she saw more emerging, wheeling a low black cylinder.
‘What is it?’ asked Horace.
‘I think,’ said Echo, passing him the binoculars, her heart thudding in her ears, ‘it’s a cannon.’
‘A cannon!’ Horace peered through the binoculars. ‘I’ve never seen the royal cannons taken out before.’ He paled. ‘But why would they—’
‘To shoot at us, stupid!’
Horace gaped in dismay. ‘But Father wouldn’t . . .’
‘Father?’ Professor Daggerwing spun to face them, his eyes as round as the Hummerbird ’s portholes. ‘Do I need to add kidnapping a prince to my list of misdemeanours?’