do we do?” yelled Rosemary. “Enough of challenges,” said Puck. “I shall take you to the centre of the Land of Fiction, quick as I can.”
He swooped close to the cliff face, turning a corner in the valley. The pursuing Zeppelin banked. “Where’s the other one?” shouted Rosemary.
Then they turned another corner and found the second Zeppelin waiting for them.
It hovered at the rim of the valley, its sides almost touching either wall. It towered over them, eclipsing the sun. The grapple struck towards them.
“Hold on!” Puck screeched. He swerved down and right. Rosemary yelled. The wall of the valley swept towards them. The grapple was just feet behind. They were in the middle of a gap between grapple and cliff, and the gap was narrowing by the second.
The grapple swung in. Puck put on a burst of speed. The grapple hit the cliff face, raising a spray of rock and dust.
Then Puck’s wing smashed against the cliff with a sickening crunch. Puck cried out and fell.
Rosemary and Peter clung for dear life against his back. The wind whistled in their ears. The ground rushed up to meet them.
“Look,” Peter yelled, pointing. “The tracks!”
Rosemary looked ahead. Before them, the train tracks ran along a narrow ledge before crossing the valley on a high bridge, plunging into a tunnel.
Behind them, the second Zeppelin rose above the rim of the valley and began a ponderous turn. The first sailed past.
“Puck, slow down!” Rosemary cried.
“I can’t!” Puck shouted. “My wing is broken!”
The ledge rushed towards them. Puck banked, his body shuddering. They were feet above the railway tracks, the gravel rushing past. “Jump!” he cried.
Peter grabbed Rosemary and rolled off Puck’s back. They hit the ledge hard, rolling over and over.
Puck topped out and fell, hitting the tracks and cartwheeling. A cloud of dust rose up around him. When it cleared, they saw the eagle lying on its back, still. All was silent save for the drone of the Zeppelins.
Puck shuddered back into his accustomed body as Peter and Rosemary rushed to him. He clutched his arm, which was bent in a direction it wasn’t supposed to go. His bright face was darkened with pain.
Rosemary knelt beside him, afraid to touch him. “Puck! Are you okay?”
He staggered to his feet. “No.”
The drone of the Zeppelins grew louder as they tracked along the valley, grapples gnashing at thin air.
“You must cross the bridge,” said Puck. “The quest leads there.”
“We’d never make it,” gasped Peter. “There’s no way. They’ll snatch us off the track!”
“I will make sure the path is clear,” said Puck. He clasped Rosemary’s shoulder with his good hand. “Brave Rosemary, you must go on.”
Rosemary looked up. “What? Puck, what do you mean?”
He gave her a sad smile. “I must leave you.”
“What? No! We can’t go on without you!” She clutched at him.
He pried her off and touched her cheek. “I can no longer be your guide. But you are the hero. You must go on.”
A shadow fell across them and they looked up. The Zeppelins were almost overhead.
Puck stepped back to the cliff edge. “Farewell.” Peter stood up. “What are you —”
Puck turned, took two staggering steps, and jumped off the edge.
Rosemary ran forward. “No!”
Puck flung his arms out and transformed back into a great golden eagle. He soared up with a sweep of his giant wings, even though one was broken. He turned his beak to the Zeppelin guarding the bridge and surged forward, faster and faster, becoming a blur, his feathers like fire.
Peter pulled Rosemary into the cliff face, shielding her with his body. The phoenix struck.
The Zeppelin burst. Shafts of flame shot out in all directions. The second Zeppelin caught and it too exploded.
Peter and Rosemary watched as the falling airships cracked against the railway bridge and crumbled. Their burning metal skeletons rained on the valley floor.
Puck was nowhere to be seen.
“Wow,” said Peter. “Umm ...” He struggled for words. Finally, “Wow.”
Rosemary slumped down on the ground, curled up, and buried her face in her knees.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE CITY OF MARBLE AND CHROME
The flames ebbed. The last piece of twisted metal toppled off the bridge and echoed from the valley below. Then the only sound other than the flames licking on the bridge was the wind whistling through the canyon. Peter stood staring at the devastation, then looked at Rosemary, all curled up and rocking. He stood silent for several minutes, waiting for her to look up. She didn’t.
Finally he reached out. “Hey.” He touched her arm.
She swatted his hand away. “Leave me alone!”
He halted, stood a moment, then reached out again. “Hey.”
She hit him harder. “I said leave me alone!”
He jerked back, then lunged forward and hauled her to her feet.
She beat at him. “Leave me alone!” Her words echoed through the canyon.
“Stop it.” He grunted as a punch caught him across the mouth. “Ow!” He grabbed her wrists and shouted in her face. “Stop it!”
His words echoed back at them for several seconds. “Stop it! Stop it. Stop. Stop ...”
She stood in his grip, breathing hard. She didn’t look at him.
“We have to keep going,” he said, his voice level, firm.
“Why?” she said bitterly.
“Because he said so,” he said. “He ...” He stumbled, cleared his throat, and took a deep breath. “You’re the hero. He ... he did what he did so ... so that you could go on.”
“What’s the use?” Her eyes glistened. “We’re no closer to finding Theo. Everything’s attacking us, and the one person who could help us the most d-, d-, d-” She spat it out. “Dies!”
“It’s —” Peter began. “We —”
“I shouldn’t have come here!” Her voice echoed again. She struggled to free herself from his grip. “I shouldn’t have brought you here! Now they’re after you too!”
Peter’s grip held firm. He looked at her levelly. “Let me guess. If this was a book, you’d have stopped reading right about now.”
She stopped struggling. She looked at him.
“Well, it’s not a book.” He let go of her wrists and clasped her shoulders. “It’s not going to go away just because you decide to stop. We’ve got to keep going.”
“You go, then,” she said, turning away. “Just leave me alone!”
“No!” he yelled, with such force that she jumped. “Not here, not now, not ever! Being alone is the worst thing in the world, and I’m not doing that to you. You didn’t drag me here; you hit me over the head trying to stop me. But I came anyway! And now we’re in this together, and we’ve got to work together if we want to get out! I’m not leaving this spot until you get that!”
Her