rd to shake, Spyder held on to his hand. "Ask this guy if hell give us a lift out of here," he said to Shrike.
She spoke quietly to the Prince as the other dignitaries clustered around them, praising them in a dozen languages. Theyre worse than demons, Spyder thought. Demons cant help being creepy.
A moment later Shrike returned. "Its set. Were heading out now. "
"Not soon enough for me. "
When theyd all climbed on to Cornelius back, Spyder ordered him to rise as quickly as possible. The dignitaries gave a collective "Ooo," as the man-machine set out around the city walls to where the airships were berthed.
They waited with the Prince beneath his new scorpion airship as he barked orders to a small group of deck hands waiting on the ground. The hands called up to the ship, then used an elaborate series of whistles and arms gestures to send orders back and forth. A few minutes later, a large cargo net was lowered to the ground. Cornelius stepped into the net and curled his legs under his body. With a jerk, the spider and his passengers were hoisted up and onto the Princes airship.
They banked gently and headed out to sea, sailing to Madame Cinders tower fortress in Alexandria, with a dozen airships tagging along. The morning sun turned the edges of the airships to fire, so that Bels was trailed by a burning swan, a school of fiery fish, a glowing snake skeleton and a perfect silver sphere that reflected the sky, sea and all the other ships nearby.
Prince Bel gave them his best rooms. They happily cleaned up and settled in. When they werent busy sleeping, crew members bought in a constant stream of food and wine. Shrike didnt let on that she could speak the language, and enjoyed reporting what
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