Eleanor flinched, expecting to be shot, but the bullet whistled past her window and hit the balloon.

King Blodger fired again, hitting the balloon again. The flyer stopped rising, and the nose tipped forward slightly as the front of the balloon leaked hot air.

The King lowered the gun slightly and aimed at Eleanor.

She pulled the cannon lever.

The blast knocked the balloon backwards enough that Blodger's shot broke the cockpit window, but missed Eleanor.

The spiders landed in a giant ball a few feet away from King Blodger, and activated, digging into the ground. People stared at them until the old inventor shouted, “Run, you fools. They'll chop you to bits.” The crowd panicked, and surged away from the digging robots. Several people fell against the King, stopping him from firing again.

Eleanor's flyer drifted toward the ground, where churning dirt and rising dust showed the spiders rippling out from their impact site, excavating a new pit.

She steered to the left, and got a few yards ahead of the spiders as her cabin floor brushed the top of somebody's tent. She opened the pilot's door and stepped out onto the tent as it collapsed.

The flyer continued over her and crashed into the next shack. She climbed off the tent and ran, still clutching the Green Coal activator. She joined the crowd who were fleeing from the spider pit, bumping into tents in the near darkness. The fire in the inventors' tent crackled behind her.

After a few minutes, she broke away from the crowd and headed for the prison, wondering if she could trick the guards into going to fight the fire. When she reached the locked door, however, nobody was guarding it.

She pounded on it, and yelled, “Charlie, can you hear me?”

There was silence from inside.

She pounded again, hoping that he still had the lockpicks which Minnie had given him. “Charlie?”

A man's voice near the prison wall said, “You can stop that yelling. Nobody's home. If they've got sense, they'll all go to the center of the planet, where all the secrets of the universe are stored.”

Eleanor recognized the voice as one of the prisoners. “How did you get outside?”

“The plan worked. Just drill a hole and walk away. Simple. I'll bet the Green Men know everything.”

“Did you see which way a boy named Charlie went when he left?”

“I couldn't see anything. The nights are very dark, but the truth is a shining light.”

A gunshot echoed, from the middle of the City.

Eleanor said, “Thanks for telling me. Stay safe.”

“Wait, I'll tell you about the secrets of the universe-”

“Later.” Eleanor ran back into the tent city. She hoped Minnie hadn't been shot to death. She had no idea where Charlie was, but she guessed that Minnie had gone to try to get her father's pistol back from Captain Blodger.

The paths were full of people pulling down tents, packing, and yelling, “Flee the city!” and “We're under attack!”

Eleanor slipped through the crowds mostly unnoticed, even though far more torches and candles were lit now.

She reached an area of churned dirt in front of the King's airship, and realized that the spiders had burrowed under it, and were still spreading outward and most likely downward as well. The whole airship could fall.

She ducked behind a nearby shack and yelled, “Minnie! Where are you?”

At the top of the gangplank, Tania called out, “She went up to the deck, to fight with the King.”

Eleanor asked, “Whose side are you on?”

“Whoever wins.”

“Well, get off that ship and get clear of the loose dirt. Everything could fall to the level below, and smash there.”

“I don't believe those spider robots really work.”

“I've seen them. They do work. Get out of there.”

Tania shrugged, and sauntered down the gangplank, which ended on unchurned ground. “I suppose I can wait down here.”

“Is anyone else on board?”

“Nah, they all left to fight the fire.”

“Thanks. I'll find Minnie and Blodger, and see who's winning.” Eleanor took a deep breath, and ran up the gangplank, scared that the ship could sink through the ground at any time.

She ran down the hallway and up the stairs to the deck, but nobody was there. She crossed to the cabin and looked through the window, but saw no one. “Minnie?”

She looked over the rail at the inventors' camp and saw the large tent still blazing, and a few smaller tents sliding toward a hole that showed bright sunlight from the level below. Everyone had left the area.

She crossed to the other side and shouted to Tania, “They're not up here.”

“Try the cargo hold. Bottom of the stairs.”

Eleanor climbed down from the deck and kept going toward the lowest level. She stopped near the bottom of the stairway. A glowing energy orb showed metal spider legs thrusting through the wooden floor, tearing it apart.

Minnie crouched on a stack of crates near the closest wall, apparently unhurt. King Blodger sat on a tall treasure chest in the center of the hold, tearing cloth into strips while his mangled boots seeped blood onto the spiders below him. Neither of them could reach each other or the stairway without crossing the floor full of spiders. A few barrels were near the stairs, leaking rum from small gashes, but even if Eleanor jumped onto them, she still wouldn't be close enough to grab Minnie's hand and pull her to safety.

King Blodger saw her first. “Spy! Get me out of here. I'll cancel your prison sentence.”

Minnie turned to her. “Throw us each a parachute, and then get to safety. They're inside the stairs. Lift the tops.”

A chunk of floor sank slowly.

Eleanor turned, and lifted the hinged top of the next stair up, feeling sick. The space under it was empty. She tried the next, and kept looking until she found one that still held parachutes. She pulled out three and hurried back down the stairs.

She doubted that she was strong enough to throw Minnie a parachute from that distance. She ran down to the last step and jumped onto the nearest barrels. They wobbled slightly, but stayed upright. She got as close to Minnie as possible without touching the churning floor, and then threw a parachute.

Minnie leaned forward and caught it. She turned, and held it out toward King Blodger. “I'll throw you this parachute if you give me back my gun.”

“You'll throw it to me anyhow, Menace. You're too soft-hearted to be a real pirate.” He pulled off his boot and dropped it. Blades tore through it. He began to bandage his foot.

Minnie turned to Eleanor. “Toss me another.”

Eleanor threw a second parachute, and Minnie caught that one. She opened it, and hooked the top around the crates she perched on before tossing the harness and rope ends back to Eleanor. “I'm leaving, Blodger, if the floor holds. Do you want this parachute or not?”

He pulled out the gun. “Fine. Toss it to me.”

“First give me-”

The floor began to sink, and the treasure chest and Blodger lowered.

Minnie threw the parachute to him. He caught it right before falling through the floor, still holding Minnie's pistol.

She swore, but her section of floor was sliding toward the hole that had swallowed Blodger. “Pull, Elle.”

Eleanor clutched the parachute harness and jumped back to the stairs. She pulled the ropes, but the crates under Minnie barely moved. She pulled harder, feeling the rough ropes dig into her hands. She leaned back and heaved herself up a stair, and then another, hearing the crates under Minnie scraping across the splintered wooden floor.

Minnie yelled, “Good enough, love,” and leaped over to the barrel tops. A barrel tipped, but Minnie jumped off of it to the stairs. “Let's go.”

They ran up the stairs and down the hall. A creaking, grinding noise surrounded them as part of the airship sank lower, tearing walls and floors.

They reached the hatch and climbed out onto the gangplank. The far end was sinking into churned dirt, and Tania was backing away.

Minnie ran down the gangplank and jumped, clearing the churned area. Eleanor followed, lifting her skirt hem and jumping as far as she could. She landed on clear dirt, and almost fell forward. Minnie caught her, and pulled her into a hug.

Tania asked, “Is the King still alive?”

Minnie answered. “He fell, with a parachute. He may live.”

As she spoke, the airship sank quickly and disappeared, leaving a bright hole through the ground.

Eleanor backed away, but Minnie looked down into the hole. “I don't see his parachute. He'll live, though, unless the airship lands on him. He'd better stay alive so I can get my dad's gun back from him.”

Tania said, “You could just take it off his corpse.”

“A corpse would be hard to find, in all those trees.”

Eleanor said, “Let's worry about your gun later. I have to extinguish some Green Coal, and then we still have to find Charlie.”

Minnie said, “He left with that Sergeant and his wife, to go meet a girl named Persephone. He'll be fine.” She backed away from the new pit. “I have to round up Blodger's crew, and figure out who will be their new captain.”

Tania said, “You, Menace. Clearly.”

Minnie looked at Eleanor.

Eleanor tried not to frown, leaving the decision up to Minnie.

Minnie said, “Maybe just for a little while, until things settle down here. But no actual piracy. I'm retired, and I intend to stay retired.”

Eleanor let herself grin.