Behemoth (32 page)

“Aye … well, it is a bit awkward, ma’am. I’m under orders to keep my mission here a secret.”

“Under orders?” Nene looked Deryn up and down. “You don’t appear to be in uniform.”

“I may be undercover, ma’am,” Deryn said, “but I’m still a soldier.”

“Undercover,” Bovril said, chuckling. “
Mr.
Sharp!”

Deryn glared at the beastie, wishing it would stop
saying
that.

“Well, boy, at least you’re honest about your doubts,” Nene said, dropping her hands and turning to Alek. “So, what do your men think of our walkers?”

Alek answered in Clanker, and soon Klopp and Bauer were peppering Nene and Zaven with questions.

Deryn couldn’t follow half of it, but it hardly mattered what language you said it in—this revolution was well and truly stuffed without cannon. Zaven was barking mad to think otherwise.

Even Alek couldn’t see the truth. He was always on about how it was his destiny to help the revolution, to get revenge on the Germans and end the war. That was a load of yackum, Deryn reckoned. Providence wouldn’t stop the sultan’s walkers from chewing up the Committee’s antiques, as easy as a box of chocolates.

She pulled out her sketch pad and stared down at the parade again. The elephants were lining up beside a long pier, their guns elevating, readying to salute a warship.…

“The
Goeben
,” Deryn murmured. The ironclad’s new
Ottoman flags fluttered bright crimson, her Tesla cannon glittering like a steel spiderweb in the sun.

Lilit had been right—the sultan was flaunting his power today. Even if the Committee could beat those elephants somehow, they’d still have to face the big guns of the
Goeben
and the
Breslau
.

Or perhaps not. Less than a month from now the
Leviathan
would be headed up the Dardanelles, guiding a beastie hungry for German ironclads. Admiral Souchon might have fought kraken before, but nothing like the behemoth. The creature was supposedly powerful enough to sink the sultan’s two new warships in half an hour.

Now,
that
would be a barking good night for a revolution to start.

The problem was, Deryn couldn’t tell the Committee what was coming. If just one of them was a Clanker spy, letting the plan slip could spell doom for the
Leviathan
. She was duty bound to keep quiet.

A torrent of smoke poured from the war elephants’ cannon, rippling into a vast dark cloud on the sea breeze. The sound arrived long seconds later, as tardy as distant thunder. Then the
Goeben
’s guns returned the salute, ten times louder and more fiery.

Deryn sighed as she began to sketch the scene—there were too many barking pieces to this puzzle. The behemoth might sink the German ironclads, but it couldn’t
slither onto land and fight the sultan’s elephants as well.

Behind her the discussion had grown heated. Zaven was proclaiming in Clanker while Klopp shook his head, arms crossed.

“Nein, nein, nein,”
the old man kept repeating.

If only there were a simple way to handle a hundred and fifty tons of steel …

Then, all in a flash, it came to her.

“Hold on, Mr. Zaven,” she broke in. “It doesn’t matter that your walkers haven’t got cannon. We can fix that!”

Alek shook his head tiredly. “There’s nothing we can do. He says the army has strict control over cannon and ammunition.”

“Aye, but you don’t need anything so fancy,” Deryn said. “When the
Dauntless
was hijacked, the attackers had nothing but a few bits of rope.”

“Hijacked?” Nene asked. “I thought the
Dauntless
’s rampage was due to sloppy piloting.”

Deryn snorted. “Don’t believe everything you read in the papers, ma’am.” She pointed down at the armored elephants. “See how there’s a pilot for each leg? The hijackers lassoed our men and yanked them off, then climbed up to take their place. That’s how you stop those metal beasties. Knock out a couple of pilots, and you stop them completely!”

“Perhaps on the
Dauntless
, where the pilots ride out in the open,” Zaven said. “But the men down there are well shielded.”

Deryn had thought of this already. “Shielded from ropes and bullets, maybe. But they must have vision slits, like Alek’s Stormwalker did. What if something spicy got through them?”

“Something
spicy
?” Nene asked.

“Aye.” Deryn grinned, turning to Alek. “I never told you about how I rescued the
Dauntless
, did I?”

Alek shook his head.

Deryn took a moment to compose her thoughts, knowing she had their full attention now. “It was my idea, in fact. The barking diplomats had no proper weapons aboard, so I snatched up a big bag of spice powder and hurled it at one of the hijackers. The smell of it knocked that bum-rag right off his saddle! And armor will only make things
worse—imagine being stuck inside a wee metal cabin with a snootful of spices!”

“Spices,” Bovril repeated quietly.

“That hijacker could hardly breathe,” Deryn said. “And my uniform was pure dead ruined!”

“The army doesn’t control hot peppers,” Nene murmured, and Alek began to translate for Klopp and Bauer.

Lilit turned to her father. “Do you think it could work?”

“Even a foot soldier can fight a walker that way,” Zaven said. “The Committee can flood the streets with spice-wielding revolutionaries!”

“Aye, but think bigger than that,” Deryn said. “Unlike the German walkers, yours have all got hands. I reckon that Minotaur beastie could throw a spice bomb half a mile!”

“Farther than that,” Lilit said, then smiled. “If Alek can manage not to crush it first, that is.”

Alek
hmphed
a bit. “Klopp says he can rig something up—some sort of magazine to hold the spice bombs. We’re standing above a mechanikal factory, after all.”

“Parts aren’t a problem,” Zaven said. “But the hottest spices are sold by the pinch. We’re talking about buying tons!”

“If I can provide the money, are you willing to try?” Alek asked.

Zaven and Lilit both looked at Nene. She raised an eyebrow, staring at Alek.

“We’re talking about a lot of money, Your Serene Highness.”

Alek didn’t answer, but knelt to open his satchel—the small one he’d been lugging about all day. He slid out what looked like a brick wrapped in a handkerchief.

“Junge Meister!”
Klopp said softly.
“Nicht das Gold!”

Alek ignored him, unwrapping the handkerchief to reveal a metal bar. When sunlight struck it, a pale yellow fire burned across its surface.

Deryn swallowed. Barking spiders, but princes were
rich
!

“You really are him, aren’t you?” Nene murmured. A thin few slices had been shaved from the bar’s edges, but the Hapsburg crest was still plain.

“Of course, madam,” Alek said. “I am a very poor liar.”

The conversation started up again, shifting back to Clanker as Nene, Zaven, and Klopp began to plan.

Lilit turned to face Deryn, her eyes glittering.

“Spices! You’re brilliant. Just perfectly brilliant.” Lilit gathered her into a hug. “Thank you!”

“Aye, I’m dead clever … sometimes,” Deryn said, pulling herself quickly away. “It’s just lucky Alek brought that slab of gold along.”

Alek nodded, but a pained look crossed his face. “That was my father’s idea. He and Volger planned for anything.”

“Aye, but it’s barking lucky you brought it
today
,” Deryn said. “Otherwise you’d have lost it.”

“Pardon me?”

“Stop being a
Dummkopf
,” Deryn said, shaking her head. “The taxi pilot knows what hotel we came from. And the way we’re dressed, it’s dead certain the management will remember us if the police come asking. So we’ll have to stay here. We’ve lost the wireless set, but we’ve got Klopp’s tools, Bovril, and your gold.” Deryn shrugged. “That’s everything important, right?”

Alek squeezed his eyes shut, his voice falling to a whisper. “Almost everything.”

“Blisters! You didn’t have
two
slabs of gold, did you?”

“No. But I left a letter behind.”

“Does it say who you are?” Lilit asked softly.

“All too clearly.” Alek turned to stare at Deryn, his gaze suddenly intense. “It’s well hidden. If no one finds it, we can sneak back and fetch it!”

“Aye, I suppose so.”

“In a week, once things have settled down. Please say you’ll help me!”

“You know me, always happy to lend a hand,” Deryn said, punching Alek on the shoulder. Though, frankly, it sounded a bit pointless to her. The Germans already knew that Alek was in Istanbul, so why risk getting caught?

It was only a barking letter, after all.

“You bum-rag!” Deryn cried. “I was having a dead good dream!”

“It’s time to go,” Alek said.

Deryn groaned. She’d been helping Lilit with the Spider all day, carrying parts and trays of type, and every muscle in her body ached. It was no wonder that Clankers were grumpy all the time—metal was barking
heavy
.

In her dream she’d been flying. Not on an airship or a Huxley, but with wings of her own, as light as gossamer. It had been brilliant.

“Can we not leave it for another night? I’m knackered.”

“It’s a week since we left the hotel, Dylan. That’s what we agreed.”

Deryn sighed. She could see the desperate gleam in the boy’s eye again. He got it every time he talked about
his lost letter, though he wouldn’t say why it was so barking important.

Alek threw her blanket aside, and Deryn jumped to cover herself. But she’d slept in her mechanic’s slops, as she always did now. She’d had to watch her step here. The pilots who came to train in Zaven’s warehouse were all curious about the strange boy in the background, who knew none of the languages of the Ottoman Empire. So Deryn stuck with Lilit, working on the Spider, and helped Zaven with the cooking, learning the names of new spices, and slicing garlic and onions until her fingers stung.

“Leave off!” she cried. “I’m getting up.”

“Hush. I don’t want any questions from the others about where we’re going.”

“Aye, right. Just wait outside a minute.”

He hesitated, but finally left her alone.

Deryn changed into her Turkish clothes, muttering about the various defects of Alek’s character. She often talked to herself these days—living among Clankers was driving her mad. Instead of the murmurs of beasties and the steady hum of airflow, Deryn spent her days surrounded by the rattle of gears and pistons. Her skin smelled of engine grease.

Of all the machines she’d worked on this last week, the Spider was the only one she had a fondness for. Its dance of cutting blades and conveyor belts was as elegant
as any ecosystem, a whirl of paper and ink converging into neat bundles of information, and its huge legs stretched out like the boughs of an ancient tree. But even that faint suggestion of a living thing only made Deryn miss her airship home the harder.

And all to help some barking
prince
.

She went out into the training courtyard, where the latest bunch of walkers stood, their spice-bomb throwers half finished. A djinn towered above the rest, its powerful arms crossed, its nozzles still wet from being tested. As fellow Muslims, the Arabs had a dispensation from the sultan to arm their walkers with steam cannon. The cannon didn’t shoot projectiles, but in a pinch the djinn could disappear into a white-hot cloud.

The courtyard’s outer door was wedged open a squick. Deryn slipped through to find Alek waiting out on the street.

Lilit was there too, dressed up in fancy European clothing.

“What’s
she
doing here?”

Alek raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t I tell you? We need someone the hotel staff won’t recognize. Lilit rented a suite yesterday.”

“And exactly how does that help us?”

“My room is on the highest floor, like Alek’s was,” Lilit said. “Two doors away. And they both have balconies.”

Deryn frowned. She had to admit, climbing across balconies might be a wee bit easier than picking the lock. But why hadn’t anyone told
her
the plan?

“I can sneak about just as well as you two can,” the girl said. “Ask Alek how easily I trailed him.”