Freaks by Kieran Larwood Page A

the blazes are those?” shrieked Monkeyboy.
    â€œSpiders,” said Sheba. She could smell the oil and hot metal inside them, and something pungent and chemical that set her fur bristling.
    They began to skitter toward the Peculiars. Hard as it was to believe, they seemed to be able to see the intruders.
    â€œGet back,” shouted Sheba, pointing to the mouth-needles. “They’re poisoned, I can smell it.”
    Just as they danced away from the creatures, there was another sound from behind them. The Gog and Magog puppets had been activated, and were moving ponderously toward the Peculiars, huge wooden arms swinging like toppling tree trunks. Farfellini must have had controls in the other room.
    â€œI take spiders,” Sister Moon called. “Sheba, you get to puppet man.”
    Hurriedly taking some pins from her hair, Sheba ran to the heavy oak door as Gigantus and Monkeyboy turned to face Gog and Magog. Ten feet tall, they swung ball and chain, jabbed with shield and spear. They looked like they meant business.
    â€œI’ll take the one on the left,” said Gigantus. “You go for the one with the spear.”
    â€œMe?” shouted Monkeyboy. “Me? Have you seen the size of me? What am I supposed to do against that thing? It’s going to rip me into mincemeat!”
    â€œStop whining and get on with it.” Gigantus cracked his knuckles, then charged headfirst into Gog, hitting it with a thud that set the whole ship rocking.
    â€œOh, Mummy!” cried Monkeyboy, but he took a breath and ran at Magog, dodging at the last minute to avoid its spear and scampering up one great oak leg, where he clung on for dear life.
    Between the feet of the giant puppets, Sister Moon danced. All around her skittered the little silver spiders, ticking away in a chorus of clockwork. They shot at her legs, trying to stab her with their deadly needles, while their glowing red eyes tracked her every move.
    Or tried to, for she was nearly impossible to follow. She leapt and spun in kicks and somersaults, touching the floor for the briefest of instants before flipping somewhere else. Every time she landed, she lashed out with her sword. Each strike hit a target, slicing the legs and bodies of the spiders, until the floorboards were littered with tiny shards of metal.
    But still they came at her. One managed to hit her boot, but luckily it missed her toes and shot its lethal payload into the leather of her sole. Another leapt at her, just as she landed from a double backflip. It clung to her belt, and was about to sting her when she knocked it free with her elbow and launched into a spinning front somersault.
    Despite the clashes and bangs around her, Sheba tried to focus only on the hairpin in the lock. But it was impossible to ignore the danger her friends were in, and she kept sneaking glances over her shoulder.
    Now three of the spiders threatened to jump together on Sister Moon. She couldn’t block all of them. Sheba’s breath caught. Sister Moon smacked the first away — the other two were raising their needles to strike just as Mama Rat stepped in. She aimed her flintlock pistol and fired, blowing both spiders into shards with one shot.
Where did she learn to shoot like that?
Sheba thought.
And where did that gun come from?
But before she could worry about it any more, her attention was distracted by a roar from across the room.
    â€œEat
this
!” Gigantus yelled, slamming another fist into Gog’s chest. There was a splintering sound, and a crack finally appeared in the hard oak. The puppet responded with a blow to Gigantus’s stomach that knocked him back a step, but it only halted him for a second. “Monkeyboy, find a way to turn these things off!” he roared, as he started pummeling again.
    â€œHow?” Monkeyboy wailed.
    Sheba held her breath as he clambered up the puppet’s leg and squeezed inside. A moment later, there came a series of grinding