Eleanor stayed in the back as the group of prisoners walked away from the airship, heading for the prison. The guard with the spiked club led the way, holding a torch. The other three guards walked behind the group, in the dark. Eleanor was acting meek and quiet, and the guards hadn't bothered to tie her hands together.

Charlie moved near Eleanor, and whispered, “I'm so sorry.”

Eleanor whispered, “The King would have sent me back to prison anyhow. But what are you doing here?”

“I'm in love."

Eleanor shook her head, not sure she had heard him clearly. “In love, did you say?”

“Yes. You gave the code to a girl, and she's lonely, and we signalled back and forth all night. And we both adore each other.”

Eleanor looked around the makeshift tents in the torchlight, and thought sadly of poverty and garbage-scavenging in Charlie's future. “Have you met her yet?”

“No.”

Furthermore, Perse seemed a little too ignorant and shallow, and Charlie ought to be mourning his parents instead of meeting girls. But he was headed for prison now, so this wasn't the best time to argue with him. “Well, I hope you're still happy when you meet her. How did you get here?”

“She sent me to find this Sergeant's retired friends, and they spread the news, secretly of course, that the country was in danger from below, so some of us came down in an airship for reconnaissance. And I was hoping, of course, to meet Perse.”

Eleanor slipped a bit on loose trash as they walked around a tent. The City had no straight streets. “I wish you had stayed safely in the orphanage.”

“I hated it there. At least this is an adventure. Will we really starve to death?”

“I hope not.”

Ahead of the group, Minnie was marching along beside the guard with the torch. She laughed about something, and began to loudly sing a drinking song about pirates wasting their loot in lively taverns. She waved her bound wrists and once wiggled her fingers in a walking-legs motion, that Eleanor knew meant, 'I'll distract them. Run and get help.'

Eleanor hoped that the signal was for one of the other prisoners, but Charlie was the only one she knew, and he didn't seem to be watching Minnie.

Nervous, Eleanor whispered, “Stay safe, and good luck,” to Charlie, and then she slowed slightly so she was the last person except for the three guards.

Minnie, shouting the song's chorus, veered away from the leading guard and fell onto a small tent, which collapsed. Somebody inside started shouting, and Minnie floundered around as if she couldn't stand up.

The leader of the guards started laughing. “Get up, you crazy drunkard.”

Minnie said, “I can't, I'm stuck,” and she started laughing too.

The leader said, “Get her up and walking.”

Eleanor edged backwards as the three guards moved forward, each apparently unsure who was supposed to help Minnie.

Another prisoner bolted ahead of the group, followed by shouts of, “Get him,” and “I'll go,” and “No, you two stay. You go,” and “Me or him?”

Charlie yelled, “I see an airship coming,” adding to the confusion.

Eleanor looked up, but didn't see any airships. She backed away silently and ducked behind a tent. Then she very calmly walked away from the group, through the darkness, as if she were just an ordinary citizen here, going home from some errand.

Nobody pursued her, and soon the commotion was behind her. A few people outside their shacks glanced at her as she walked past torches or flickering candles, but nobody said anything.

As she walked, she wondered where to go for help. Minnie and Charlie would be in prison soon, and Rich and the Pit people were such obvious helpers that she knew the guards would look for her there, first. And they were far away, and so was Scurvy Zeek's airship. Miss Locke's inventor friends were closer, but Eleanor didn't know whether they would help her or whether they would call the guards to prove their loyalty to the King.

She kept walking toward the far edge of the city, away from the prison, feeling helpless. What did Minnie expect her to do, just handle the situation herself?

Actually, that was something to consider. What if she didn't run and find help? What if she tried to behave more like Minnie, and do some crazy, daring thing instead of acting like a sensible lady?

Eleanor stopped walking as a thought struck her. Commit an act of piracy. That was a possibility. The inventors had an airship, probably in the large, bright tent that she had seen earlier. And if she didn't steal it from them, they would use it to attack the sky level. She could probably steal it. But how?

She started walking again, strolling casually toward the inventors' bright tent. It was nearly as long as the King's airship, with a ceiling twice her height. She could hear hammering inside, and soft snoring from the darker shacks near the tent. The sound of Minnie's distant singing stopped suddenly. Eleanor hoped the group had reached the prison without anyone being injured.

She unknotted the Green Coal activator from her skirt. If the King had a stockpile of Green Coal, then it should either be in the airship or in the inventors' tent. A fire in either place should work as a distraction. She pressed buttons randomly and waited.

An alarmed shout in the tent told her that the buttons were working. The young inventor with his arm in a sling ran out of the tent, followed by several other people. They shouted, “Fire!” and “Get water!”

Eleanor hesitated, wondering if she should truly steal the airship, or whether it would be better to wait and hope that it caught on fire. She edged closer to the bright tent, staying in the darkness.

Then she thought, 'Be daring. What would Minnie do? Well, drink, probably, but then what?'

She took a deep breath, and strolled forward into the light. She demanded, “Is the airship safe? The King sent me.”

A woman in a greasy apron said, “Safe for now. Get water from the King.”

Eleanor pushed past the woman and entered the tent, hoping she looked far more confident than she felt. A wave of heat and a few curls of smoke drifted from a pile of burning crates at the far end of the tent. Eleanor stabbed buttons on the activator until all the green flames vanished, leaving only a few orange flames and glowing embers among the wooden slats.

Halfway to the crates was the small flyer that had launched the spiders. Worktables surrounded it, covered with half-assembled spiders, small metal parts, and flickering candles. Eleanor hurried to the cannon on the flyer's nose, and grabbed a candle so she could look inside. The cannon was nearly filled with folded metal spiders, held in place by fine metal webbing.

She tried the entry hatch and found it unlocked, so she climbed into the flyer's cockpit. People appeared outside the tent door, and she reactivated the Green Coal as several men ran into the tent with buckets of water.

She yelled, “I'll rescue the flyer.” She turned to pull the ignition lever behind the seat to light the furnace, but it was already blazing, full of Green Coal and wood and garbage.

Above the flyer, the balloon rose, inflating and bumping the ceiling of the tent. Eleanor hoped that the bullet hole had been fixed.

More people with buckets ran over to the flames, coughing in the smoke. Somebody else was rolling up the tent walls, but the fresh air blew the flames into a pile of scrap wood near the crates.

As soon as the flyer rose a couple of inches from the floor, Eleanor yelled out the pilot's window, “Roll up the near wall. Pull the flyer out of the tent. Hurry, before it's destroyed. King's orders.”

Several people pushed away tables and raised the nearest tent wall, while a few others pulled the flyer forward, toward the darkness outside.

Eleanor glanced back at the wall of flames behind her, smelling burning fabric. She hoped it was only the tent, and that the flyer's balloon hadn't caught on fire.

She looked forward and saw people with torches heading for the tent. The King's voice yelled, “Minnie, are you starting fires now? I'll kill everyone you've ever cared about.”

Eleanor smiled grimly, thinking, 'Your Majesty, you suspect the wrong pirate.' She looked at the control panel and found the lever that was labeled, 'Secret! Danger!'

King Blodger yelled, “Is that you, Minnie? Who's in that flyer? Identify yourself.”

Eleanor coughed at the people helping push the flyer, as if she was too overcome by the smoke to answer the King. As soon as it was clear of the tent, she coughed again and said, “Stand clear of the propellers.”

Her helpers moved away, and she turned on her running lights and started the propellers. The flyer began to lift.

The King and his guards pushed through the crowd that was gathering to watch the fire. King Blodger looked up and saw her through the cockpit window.

He reached into his coat, and pulled out something shiny. He raised it.

Eleanor realized that it was Minnie's pistol at the same time that she heard the gunshot.