p Alice soared, her wings beating wildly, till they were over the battlefield in clouds of burning smoke. Above, below, to their left and right, the air exploded with the firing of shells.
“Hold on!” roared Benissimo, and Ned clutched at the elephant’s harness till the bones in his fingers throbbed.
Two wyverns had spotted Alice and were tearing towards her when, from nowhere, one of the Viceroy’s armoured owls flew at their sides. In a burst of leathery wing and feather, owl and wyvern fell from the air, still fighting and clawing even as they struck the ground. The second wyvern screeched, launching a torrent of spittle-heavy fire. Alice dropped fast but not without a painful scorching at the tips of her wing. The wyvern was joined now by three others and they pursued her with venom as she desperately tried to reach the eastern tower.
“ZEUS’S BEARD! LUCY, NED – DO SOME-THING!” roared Benissimo.
They both turned, the air rushing by so fast that they were nearly thrown from the elephant’s back, when all of a sudden, the wyverns stopped, hovering in mid-air like dragonflies.
Down below, from all across the battlefield, the fair-folk cheered. Ned looked down to see tanks and soldiers joining the ranks of Antlor’s stag-men and on the other side, the colossi, having broken through the forest, laying waste to Darklings with the heels of their feet. But that in and of itself was not the reason for their howls of joy. Ned could see George and Mr Fox rushing forward with Rocky the troll and Monsieur Couteau and a full squad of the BBB at their backs – and the Guardians didn’t try to stop them. On the contrary, they parted to let them by!
“Ned?”
Ned couldn’t answer.
“THEY’VE DONE IT, NED! THEY’VE DONE IT!” yelled Lucy.
“Barking dogs,” he whispered.
“Barking dogs indeed, pup. I knew they’d do it!”
Almost as one, Barbarossa’s metal army stopped their ceaseless surge as new directives were fed into their code. Above and below, the flow of fighting changed – wyverns now dived in straight lines to aid their Darkling kin and their Demon masters. Owls unfettered from their tearing claws descended on the Daedali’s crews while the Viceroy’s guns turned to the forest’s edge and pointed at the horde within its branches. Ned watched George, pounding on all fours, his great muscles heaving him towards the fortress. His parents, his tiny mouse and the Tinker had beaten the Central Intelligence!
“They’re alive!” he exclaimed. “They’re blooming well ALIVE!”
Behind him, within the shadows of Alice’s harness, came a satisfied “Arr”, but beneath them all poor Alice was rapidly losing control from the burns on her wing, and try as she might, she couldn’t steady her path.
“Come on, girl! Hold it together!” yelled Benissimo.
She approached the top of the eastern tower like a burst balloon, skidding along its short metal roof and collapsing in a heap of weary grey limbs. Dazed and confused, her passengers clambered down from her back, Lucy quickly using her Amplification-Engine to tend to Alice’s wounds.
“There’s no time for that,” spat Benissimo, his whip curled and cutlass drawn.
“Oh, go to hell!” seethed Lucy, her eyes misting even as she worked her ring. “You’ll be fine, Alice – I’ll have you fixed up and good as new in no time.”
The great elephant’s eyes were mournful and red, and her trunk hanging limp to the ground.
The Ringmaster fumed. “Don’t you understand, Lucy? Our troupe, all of them, will die if this monster rises!”
“He’s right, child,” said a voice behind them. “There’s no time for any of us.”
Ned spun round to see Sar-adin approaching. On the ground by his feet were two felled Demons, their faces cruel and wicked even in death. Ned studied the Demon – in his belly was a blade, no doubt put there by one of the Demons at his feet.
“My master is expecting you.”
And with that, Sar-adin, murderer and Demon, fell to the ground and breathed his last breath.
Ned raised his eyes to see a door in the wall waiting and open, and just as he saw it, the tower was shaken by the booming of a voice.
“NeDdD.”