The tumbling-in-a-dryer feeling of traveling through the comic book’s pages seemed to last longer than usual. Wylder had time to wonder if it was because Nevins had turned the page instead of him or Addy. And then he was bouncing and jouncing at high speed, dense gray smoke whirling around him, making him cough. He was—it took him a minute to work this out—on the roof of the train. Good thing he was sitting down because the jouncing was pretty extreme, and he might easily have fallen off. Metal wheels squealed on metal rails. Being surprised was becoming second nature to Wylder. Forget turning the page—every time he turned around, something new was happening.
A gust of wind pushed the smoke away for a second, and he caught sight of Addy’s face. She was near him, her eyes squinting against the smoke, the wind whipping her long dark hair. It seemed to be just the two of them up here.
“Hey,” he said.
Her eyes shifted, and she nodded.
“That was crazy, huh?” He had to talk loudly over the noise of the train. Grit stung his eyes. “Do you know where we are?”
“On top of the train, wouldn’t you say?”
He grinned. “Well, whatever happens next, I just want to say that we’re in this together, Addy. We’ll get home. I know we will.”
“I’m not Addy,” she said.
“What?”
“I’m not your girlfriend in the pantaloons. I’m Nelly. And I’m not going home with you. Can you stop chattering and help?”
“Hey!” Another voice, not too far away. “Who are you calling a girlfriend?”
Wylder considered jumping off the train in sheer embarrassment.
“And I’m not wearing pantaloons. I’ve got your dress on, remember?”
“Where are you?” said Nelly.
“Right here. I’m in some kind of trap.”
She sounded close by. Also a little scared.
“It’s around my waist,” she went on.
“Me too,” said Nelly. “It hurts.”
The train swung into a turn. Wind carried the smoke away to the right, making everything clear for a moment. Yes, they were in a devil of a mess. The girls were trapped. A giant bird made entirely of metal was slumped asleep or dead in the middle of the roof. Addy and Nelly squirmed in its long talons as if gripped by oversized handcuffs.
Wait a minute. It wore a bowler hat. “Hey,” said Wylder. “Doesn’t this bird thing look like the robots?”
“Screaming sludge, Wylder! Help us!”
Addy was trying to wriggle free. Wylder stepped over Nelly and dropped to his knees, struggling to pry apart the talons that held Addy captive.
“Demons!” Nelly spluttered. “You’re driving me mad! How did I come to be on the roof? In the grasp of a … a … what is this thing?”
“What are we doing here?” Wylder whispered.
“This thing,” Addy said slowly, “is a lammergeyer.”
“A what-er-geyer?”
“A kind of vulture. It’s what the mechanizmos transform into. There’s a scene near the end where Flynn and Krackle are fighting in the gold car. Krackle sprouts these awesome aluminum wings and carries Flynn off through the roof.” Addy winced and slid a finger under the claw at her waist as if it was pinching her. “It’s better on paper. Anyway, we have to get out.
Look around for a controller, Wylder. The lammergeyer needs one to make it— Oh, look! Over there!”
“Where?”
“By the trap door! It’s Nevins! I bet he has a controller. Go after him and get it! And the comic!”
“Right. Of course. I’ll go and … er, fight him?” Wylder struggled to his feet. “Um, what is supposed to happen next?”
“I don’t know! None of this is my uncle’s story. There’s no rooftop scene until we get to Toronto. Hurry, Wylder! What if Nevins comes back and wakes up this lammergeyer? It’s up to you to save me.”
“Me too,” said Nelly.
“And Catnip,” said Addy.
The rat poked his head out of her bag. His shiny pink eyes were impossible to read.
Wylder shuffled backward. “You know, I’ve never actually been in a fight before. I was always able to talk my way out of things. Oh no, wait—I’m wrong. There was this guy in my class in grade three. Smithers, his name was. He started pushing me on the playground. I took off my raincoat and—”
“Wylder!”
“Right! Sorry. I’m off now.”
He took another step, and another. Turned back.
“Just to let you know, that fight didn’t go very well. Smithers pushed me down, and his little dog peed on my raincoat. That’s probably why I forgot about it.”
Wylder heard shouts and bumping from the car below. He dropped to his hands and knees and scrambled along, his eyes peeled for the trap door.
Addy had never been on the roof of a moving train trapped in the talons of an oversized robotic bird of prey, so she couldn’t compare the experience to anything else. What wacky plot twists had unfolded between where they’d been and where they were now?
Addy shifted. The steel prongs gripped tightly, causing fierce jabs of pain when she tried to … um, breathe. The thumpity-thump of her heart was worse than the pain. Nelly’s face—soot-smeared and bleary-eyed—mirrored Addy’s feelings: furious frustration, cranky discomfort and flashes of lip-biting scaredness.
“I knew from the first minute that you were a demon,” said Nelly. “I should have told the Red Riders and had you tossed from the train.”
“Nobody wants us out of here more than I do,” said Addy. Would Wylder catch up with Nevins? And would he have the guts to tackle him? If only Wylder was the one pinned to the roof and Addy was the one down there stomping on Nevins’s face!
Something moved under her hand, and she jerked in surprise, sending a jingling shudder through the metal feathers on her captor’s wings.
“Catnip!”
The rat poked his nose into Addy’s free hand and then crawled up her arm to find a spot under her chin. His tail wrapped nearly the whole way around her neck.
“You hardly fit in there anymore.” Addy tickled him between the ears. “Are you homesick, Catty? Like me?”
“Talking to animals is a certain sign of witchcraft,” said Nelly.
Another blast of the gritty smoke enveloped them, making Addy’s eyes water. Nelly began to cough, a wretched hacking that caused another metallic ripple. And then another.
Uh-oh, it wasn’t the coughing that was making everything shake. Deep inside the lammergeyer’s chest, Addy heard a PRT-PRT-PRT, like Uncle Vim’s car motor turning over on a January morning. The wings trembled for a moment and then froze again.
Just then, Addy heard a croaking sigh from the side of the train—the kind of noise someone makes after hauling a heavy box up a flight of stairs …
