“Run!”
There are moments in life when courage is indistinguishable from good sense, and this was one of them.
Our heroes ran.
Across the shattered hall, beneath falling stones, between statues that had survived three centuries only to perish in three seconds.
“Where?” cried Engineer Leonardo.

“Up!”

“Up where?”

Lady Blackbird pointed.
Above the palace, through a vast aperture torn in the roof, skyship the Owl

She hung above like a black-winged bird, her great propellers turning furiously, her brass hull shining through the smoke.
Unfortunately, she was fifty feet above the roof.

“Excellent plan,” Leonardo said. “How do we reach it?”

A tremendous crash interrupted us.
The golem had thrown the dragon through a wall.
The wall came down.
Captain Avery was already at the mooring platform.
“Get aboard!”

“How?”
He grinned.
“By trusting a rope and regretting it afterward.”

A cable descended.

Below, the palace erupted.
Windows burst outward.
Towers leaned drunkenly.

The dragon emerged through a cloud of masonry, wings blazing, while the clockwork golem followed with the relentless dignity of a man who had never learned that buildings were supposed to remain standing.

“Cut the lines!” shouted Avery.
The crew obeyed.
The Owl lurched upward.

Then the dragon roared.
It spread its wings.
The golem seized one of its legs.
Together they fell through the palace roof.
A column of fire rose into the heavens.
Leonardo stared downward.
“Do you think they are dead?”

“No,” said Avery

“Why not?”

“Because,” he replied, looking toward the burning palace, “nothing in this cursed kingdom ever dies when it ought to.”
And beneath us, something enormous moved in the flames.

ping:

Clockwork against magick