Secrets of the Dragon Tomb by Patrick Samphire Page B

were wrong, all the while not knowing if you are alive or dead, whether you have rescued Mama and Papa and Jane or been captured yourself? Do our sewing and embroidery like good little girls while we wait for word from you, word that might never come? No, Edward. We will be coming with you.”
    â€œEnough!” Freddie thumped his walking stick on the ground. “We don’t have time for this. Very well. We will all go. And God help us, because this is no way to run a rescue mission.” He jabbed his walking stick toward the stables. “I will be getting the automatic carriage prepared. Be ready to go in five minutes. If you are not, I will leave without you.” He stomped off, and Putty scurried after him. I took one last look at our ruined house.
    In the late evening light, the glitterswarms were rising from the depths of the Valles Marineris, turning the sky into a sheet of shifting gold. High, wispy clouds reflected red from the sinking sun. Dust and smoke from the collapsed house rose and spread to obscure the sight. I turned away.
    My foot caught on a piece of debris. Lying among the splinters of wood and the shards of brick was my copy of Thrilling Martian Tales . Its cover was torn and its pages filthy.
    I almost left it there, but it was the only thing I still had. Everything else was gone. I shoved it into my jacket pocket. Then I followed Olivia, Putty, and Freddie to the stables, where Papa’s automatic carriage awaited, to begin our long journey north in pursuit of Sir Titus and my family.
    *   *   *
    The drive to Ophir City in Papa’s automatic carriage took all night. The sun was rising over the hills as we came through a pass between overhanging claws of rock and saw the city spread below us. I couldn’t help but count down the hours. Not twelve days anymore. Eleven and a half. Maybe less. The automatic carriage was so slow .
    Freddie rolled the power dial back to zero and disengaged the round spring that drove the carriage. He loosened his shoulders, then slumped with an exhausted sigh.
    â€œThis is it,” he said. “Ophir City. There’s been a town here for over two thousand years.”
    Tall, closely packed wooden buildings in the old Martian style clustered in unplanned confusion, their turrets, spirals, and spires prickling the air like an enormous, crazy hedgehog. Clockwork Express tracks swept high over the hills to the west in a glittering bronze arc and plunged down to the city. Pillars every couple of hundred yards held the railway above the ground. In the morning light, the tracks shone like thread in the Martian sky.
    â€œYou can see the Clockwork Express tracks from the void when you fly from Earth to Mars, you know,” Freddie said. “When the Mars-ship sails down into the atmosphere, you can see them like a golden spiderweb laid across the surface of Mars.”
    Putty sighed.
    â€œThat’s beautiful,” Olivia said.
    â€œYes,” Freddie agreed. “And empty. When you’re up there, coming down, you see just how little of Mars we’ve conquered. The spider’s web looks fragile and it doesn’t stretch far. There are places it doesn’t even get close to.”
    â€œLike Lunae City,” I said.
    â€œYes. Like Lunae City.”
    Ophir was the last stop on the Express line that ran all the way from Tharsis City, a journey of over two thousand miles. Beyond Ophir, the only way north or east was by airship. The morning Express had already arrived. It would have run all night, skirting the Candor and Ophir Valleys in the dark. I could just make out the passengers disembarking. A single, giant airship was tethered to a spindly tower above the station. Its silvery, oblong balloon was over a hundred yards long, and it cast a shadow over a large portion of the city.
    Freddie glanced at his pocket watch. “Time to go. The airship departs at ten. If we miss it, we’ll have to walk to Lunae