AN INHUMAN ROAR OF RAGE, like wind from a deep, cold cave, filled the night. The sound froze Slank and Nerezza, who stood at the end of the walk, having just seen the cab, and their prisoner, off to the ship. In a moment they were joined by Jarvis, Cadigan, and Hodge, who came running from their posts around the house.
They looked toward the source of the horrible sound and saw Ombra’s dark form leaning out the fourth-story window, an arm extended, pointing at something flying awkwardly, erratically, overhead toward Kensington Gardens.
Slank squinted up at it, then cursed in fury.
The boy. The flying boy. And he had the girl.
“Stop them!” commanded Ombra, but all five men were already pursuing the ghostly figures now passing over the streetlight. The men ran across the street, only to be confronted by the high fence surrounding the mansion opposite the Asters’, its massive iron gate locked shut. Hodge, familiar with the neighborhood, led the others to the right and down an alleyway along the side of the mansion, into the park. By then the flying boy and girl were out of sight, having vanished over the roof. But Slank had not given up.
“He was falling!” he yelled. “Did you see that? He was falling!”
Peter was, in fact, falling.
Molly’s weight was proving too much for him; he couldn’t support her much longer. As they cleared the mansion roof he heard the shouts of the men coming around the side. Clinging tight to Molly, he strained desperately upward, but felt them descending, felt the dark ground below getting closer….
Molly felt it, too.
“Peter…” she whispered helplessly.
“I know….”
Dull bells sounded from beneath his shirt, where the weakened Tink clung to his collar.
We’re falling.
“I know,” he repeated.
Do something. Drop the girl.
“No!”
“What?” Molly said.
“Not you!” Peter said. He heard shouts from the right. He strained upward. Nothing.
More bells. You can’t fly with this cow holding you down.
“Be quiet!”
“What?” said Molly.
“Nothing! I mean, not you!” The shouts were closer now.
Do I have to do everything myself?
And with that, Tink, unseen by Molly, darted out of the back of Peter’s collar and flew into the night.
“This way! This way!”
Slank, now running in front, raced into the dew-soaked grass of Kensington Gardens. He stopped, the others stopping behind him. Their eyes searched the dark sky.
“They can’t have gotten far,” Slank said, frustration and rage choking his voice. “They were sinking. You saw that, didn’t you? He could barely fly.”
“There!” Hodge shouted, pointing.
The others followed his gaze, and saw it: a pale yellow light flitting through the fog about twenty-five yards away.
“That’s them!” yelled Slank, breaking into a run, the others on his heels.
Peter saw dark shapes directly ahead, closer and closer. Trees.
He and Molly were too low; they were going to hit them.
“Hang on tight,” he whispered to Molly. With his last ounce of strength, he made one more desperate effort to swoop upward. For a second or two, nothing happened. Then he felt it—felt them ascending, just the slightest bit.
But not quite enough.
Ombra stood silently in the shadow of a massive elm on the street in front of the Aster home, watching as the men returned. Their shoulders were slumped, their heads bowed; their hands empty. They had chased the mysterious phantom light halfway across Kensington Gardens, only to have it vanish. The boy and girl had escaped.
Now they trudged reluctantly toward Ombra, wondering—fearing—what the dark figure would do to them for having failed.
“My lord—” Nerezza began, only to be silenced by Ombra’s upraised arm.
“Silence,” said the groaning voice. “The girl took the envelope. We have her mother. Those are the important things. The girl will find her father. The message will be delivered. Slank.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Find another cab.”
“As you wish, my lord.” Slank hurried off.
“You men,” Ombra said, addressing the three guards, “will take up your positions here at the house. Jenna will tell the rest of the staff that the lady and the girl were called away in the night to join Lord Aster, and that they will be gone for several days at least. The staff will believe this; they are accustomed to the Asters’ mysterious ways. I doubt the girl would be fool enough to return here, but if she does, seize her and bring her to me immediately.”
The guards nodded.
“And the boy?” said Nerezza.
“Yes, the boy,” said Ombra, and now there was anger in his voice. “The boy and his bright little friend.”
The dark hood turned toward Nerezza. Nerezza thought he saw two dim red circles in the deep blackness, like glowing coals; he felt Ombra’s stare, felt his face go cold as ice. Ombra’s entire being seemed to swell, then subside; there was a rustling noise that sounded, to Nerezza, like the wing of a giant bat.
“You told me there was no stowaway on your ship, Captain Nerezza. But it seems you were wrong.”
Nerezza tried to answer, but found he could not talk, could not move.
Ombra looked away, and suddenly Nerezza could move again.
“I very much look forward to meeting the boy again,” Ombra said, his voice once again calm. “I have…plans for the boy.”
From the south, the sound of clopping hooves came up the street. Slank had found a cab. Ombra turned away, leaving Nerezza to rub his still-cold face and to wonder what ugly fate this dark thing had in mind for the boy.