With the sound of a hundred waves rushing the shore, the giant squid rose from the water in front of the ship. Alice screamed. Phipps yelled. The squid reached for the Lady with its dripping tentacles. Gavin snatched up the Impossible Cube and held it out before him. It pulsed violet. His wings snapped open, quivering and ringing out a clear blue tone.
“Gavin!” Alice cried. “What are you-?”
Gavin sang one note, the first note that came to mind. It was the note Alice had sung back in al-Noor’s lair, a D-flat. Only later would he remember that he had also used a D-flat as the base for the paradox generator, which Dr. Clef had stolen and hooked to the Impossible Cube as part of his scheme to halt time. The Cube absorbed the clear tone and TWISTED.
Blackness engulfed Gavin, and for a horrible moment he was falling through ice water. Then the world exploded in a billion colors that pulled him downward into a pattern that became more complicated as he dropped toward it, the tiny particles themselves made of tiny particles made of tiny particles made of tiny particles. He shouted as he fell, not knowing if he would ever stop. He had no wings, no clothing, no body. He was nothing but a voice tumbling endlessly through chaotic patterns. The colors swarmed and drew together into a single pinpoint of light that exploded in all directions, and Gavin tried to hold his breath, but he could no longer breathe or move. Intense heat and brilliance flashed around him-
And then he was lying facedown on the hard deck of the Lady. Wood mashed against his cheek. He lay there a moment, unwilling to move. His sleeve blocked his view. A blob of grease marred the white leather. The generator puffed and rumbled nearby, and the soft vibration of the nacelles purred through him. Ropes creaked. His wings and the power pack pressed down on his back. He became aware that he was breathing, pulling air steadily into his lungs and pushing it back out again. His heart beat in his chest. He blinked, then cautiously moved his arms, bracing himself for pain. He got none. Well, that was a relief. After this kind of thing, Gavin had come to expect blinding, tearing pain, and then he wondered when he had become the kind of man who regularly participated in events that caused blinding, tearing pain.
He pushed himself upright and immediately looked around for Alice. She lay curled on her side in a puddle of blue skirts with her mechanicals scattered around her. Phipps was on her hands and knees nearby, shaking her head. Gavin was about to run over to see to them when he remembered the squid. He tensed and glanced at the bow of the ship. Empty cavern, empty air. The squid was gone. Puzzled and relieved, he ran to the gunwale to make sure. The water beneath the ship lapped calmly at the stones. There was no sign of the giant squid, or even any indication that such a monster had ever existed. Behind the ship, the little quay was also empty. Al-Noor had disappeared as well.
Reassured but mystified, he hurried over to Alice and Phipps. Alice was already stirring, and he helped both women to their feet. The mechanicals came to life as well. The whirligigs started their propellers in short spurts and hovered uncertainly in the air while the spiders staggered about the deck like sailors on three-day leave.
“What in God’s name was that?” Phipps’s hair had come down completely, and she was trying to wind it back into a knot, but her hands, both metal and flesh, were shaking, and she wasn’t having much success.
Alice leaned on Gavin for a moment, and he could smell her hair. He allowed himself a moment to hold her, glad she was safe. Then she broke away from him and, as he had, ran to the gunwale to look around. Her mechanicals followed.
“They’re gone,” she said. “The squid, al-Noor-gone. I don’t see any squid men, either. What happened?”
The Impossible Cube was laying on the deck. Gavin picked it up. It felt heavier than usual. The glow had gone out, and the lattices, while still confusing, didn’t twist the eye nearly as much. It appeared to be nothing but an odd piece of machinery.
“Did the Cube destroy them?” Phipps conjectured.
“I’ve never seen it do anything like that,” Gavin replied, “though I don’t know half of what it can do. I can’t think of how it could destroy just al-Noor and his squid and leave us and the ship unharmed. And what were those lights about?”
“This isn’t the best place to have this discussion,” Alice said briskly. “Let’s leave, please.”
Phipps and Gavin agreed this would be a good idea. Under Gavin’s hand, the Lady glided out of the cavern into the sunlight. The fresh, salty air cleared his head, and he pushed the generator into adding more power to the Lady’s envelope, increasing their altitude until they were safely out of tentacle range. Below, waves broke against the long blade of the rocky island. Gavin checked the compass, reoriented east, and set the Lady skimming away in that direction. The Impossible Cube sat near his foot like a cat in a coma.
“Are we away?” Phipps asked. “Are we safe?”
Alice stared over the gunwale. “I don’t think al-Noor or his weapons could reach us at this distance. So I would give a qualified yes, myself.”
Phipps crossed the deck in three steps. In a quick motion, her brass hand caught Gavin by the throat and lifted him above the deck. Her harsh grip cut off both air and circulation so fast, even his clockworker reflexes were dulled.
“What the hell did you do with that Cube, you fool?” she snarled.
Gavin grabbed her wrist with both his hands, but her brass arm was impervious to anything he could do. He tried to kick, but spots swam before his eyes, and he couldn’t move.
“You detonated the world’s most powerful weapon at our bloody feet!” Phipps’s face was a rictus of fear and fury. “After everything we went through in Kiev, and you still used it!”
The only sound Gavin could make was a faint gurgle. The spots spread and grew blacker.
More gleaming brass whirled into view. Alice was there, surrounded by a dozen angry-looking whirligigs and spiders, and they were all staring at Susan Phipps. Sunshine gleamed off blades and spikes.
“Put. Him. Down.” Alice’s voice was perfectly steady. “Now.”
Phipps glared at Alice for a long moment. Then she released Gavin. He dropped to his knees, sucking in lungfuls of air. Phipps stalked away and dropped into a deck chair. The whirligigs stayed in place but oriented on her. Alice helped Gavin to his feet, and he braced himself on the helm.
“Are you all right, darling?”
“I’ll be fine,” he gasped.
“That went beyond the pale, Lieutenant,” Alice snapped. “He rescued us.”
“By detonating that. . thing,” she shot back.
“Which you yourself told him to fetch, as I recall.”
“And which you yourself had doubts about.”
“That’s no reason to lay hands on him like a common thug! We’d be dead if not for him.”
Phipps folded her arms. “We still don’t know what it did, either.”
“Just shut it, Phipps.”
“Or what? Your spiders will tickle me to death? Your whirligigs will-oh, never mind.” She rested her forehead in one hand. “It’s been a bloody difficult day. I’m sorry, Ennock. I shouldn’t have done that.”
The abrupt apology caught Gavin off guard. “Uh. . sure. It’s all right.”
Alice didn’t look nearly as forgiving, but the whirligigs and spiders dispersed to different areas of the deck. A moment of awkward silence followed as Gavin took up the helm again.
“Are those wings getting heavy, Gavin?” Alice ventured at last. “I can help you out of them while you fly the ship.”
Gavin had completely forgotten he was wearing them. Now that Alice mentioned it, they were starting to drag, and the harness was chafing. At his grateful nod, Alice gestured, and her little mechanicals zipped about Gavin’s body, unbuckling straps and untying knots while Phipps stared into space from her deck chair. One of the whirligigs slowed, and its movements became listless. Alice plucked the whirligig out of the air, extracted a key on a long silver chain from her bodice, and wound the whirligig with it. The other automatons continued their work as Gavin piloted.