Alek recalled seeing photos of a mammothine - a huge, shaggy sort of Siberian elephant, the first extinct creature that the Darwinists had brought back. "But don't they fall over and die in the heat?"
"That's a Clanker lie!" Dylan exclaimed, then shrugged. "They're fine, unless you take them south of Glasgow."
Alek laughed, though he was never quite sure when Dylan was joking. The boy had sharp wits, despite his rough manner of talking. He'd been very clever about tying cargo onto the sledge, and had hit it off with Bauer and Hoffman in an easy way that Alek had never managed - without speaking a word of German.
Alek might have trained in combat and tactics his whole life, but Dylan was a real soldier. He swore with an effortless extravagance, and during lunch had thrown a knife three meters and hit an apple square in its heart. He was skinnier than most boys his age, but could work alongside men and be treated as their equal. Even his lingering black eye from the crash had a piratical swagger to it.
In a way Dylan was the sort of boy Alek would have wanted to be, if he hadn't been born the son of an archduke.
"Well, don't worry," Alek said, clapping a hand on Dylan's shoulder. "The Stormwalker can carry all the food your airbeast needs. Though I can't see how one creature could eat all this."
"Don't be daft. The Leviathan isn't one creature," Dylan said. "It's a whole tangle of beasties - what they call an ecosystem."
Alek nodded slowly. "Did I hear Dr. Barlow say something about bats?"
"Aye, the fléchette bats. You should see those wee beasties at work."
"Fléchette? Like 'dart' in French?"
"That sounds right," Dylan said. "The bats gobble up these metal spikes, then release them over the enemy."
"They eat spikes," Alek said slowly. "And then ... release them?"
Dylan stifled a laugh. "Aye, in the usual way."
Alek blinked. The boy couldn't possibly be saying what Alek thought he was. Perhaps it was another of his peculiar jokes.
"Well, I'm glad we're at peace, so your bats won't be, um ... releasing their fléchettes on us."
Dylan nodded, a serious look on his face. "I'm glad too, Alek. Everyone says that Clankers only care about their machines. But you're not like that."
"Well, of course not."
"It was dead brave, coming across that ice alone."
Alek cleared his throat. "Anyone would have done the same."
"That's a load of blether. You got in trouble for helping us, didn't you?"
"I can't argue with that."
Dylan held out his hand. "Well, it was barking decent of you."
"Thank you, sir." Alek took the boy's hand and shook. "And it was decent of you to save me from a fiery death."
"That doesn't count," Dylan said. "It would've been my fiery death as well!"
Alek laughed. "I appreciate it nonetheless - as long as you promise not to hold me at knifepoint again."
"I promise," Dylan said, but his face stayed serious. "It must have been rough, having to run away from home."
"It was," Alek said, then looked at the boy suspiciously. "Did Dr. Barlow ask you to find out who I am?"
"The boffin doesn't need my help." Dylan snorted. "She already reckons you must be quite important."
"Because of this castle? Because they came for me in a walker?"
Dylan shook his head. "Because they traded a barking count for you."
Alek swore softly. Dr. Barlow had understood perfectly when he'd called Volger by his title. And that wasn't the only foolish thing he'd let slip.
"Can I trust you, Dylan? To keep a secret."
The boy looked at him askance. "Not if it's a danger to the ship."
"Of course not. It's just that ... Do you mind not telling Dr. Barlow what I said about being an orphan?" Alek paused, wondering if simply asking this would give him away. "If she knows that, she'll figure out who I am. And then there might be trouble between us again."
Dylan stared at Alek a moment, then nodded solemnly. "I can keep that secret. Your family's no business of ours."
Chapter 24
"Thank you." As they shook hands again, Alek felt a burden lift, knowing that Dylan would keep his word. After a month of being betrayed - by his family, his country's allies, and his own government - it was a relief to trust someone.
He shivered and stamped his feet. "Shall we get out of this cold?"
"Aye. A hot cup of tea would be brilliant."
"We can build a fire!" Alek said, realizing that there was no need to hide their smoke anymore. Another good thing about helping the Darwinists - he could have a warm bath and a hot meal for the first time in weeks.
Dinner was an extravagant affair, but bathing was better.
First Bauer packed the tub with snow, then melted it with pots of boiling water. The resulting bath was deliciously hot, and for the first time in a month removed the engine grease from under Alek's fingernails. With a lady present, Klopp, Bauer, and Hoffman all shaved, and Dylan complained loudly that he hadn't brought his razor, though the boy hardly seemed to need it.
Dr. Barlow, of course, was disinclined to bathe in a castle full of men. But when Dylan didn't take advantage of the bathtub either, Alek wondered if hot water flowed freely aboard the Darwinists' airship.
Hoffman thawed a lamb over the fire, while Master Klopp and Bauer cooked a vast pot of potatoes in chicken broth, onions, and black pepper. The feast went on past dark, despite how exhausted they all were.
It was refreshing to have a lady at the table. As Alek had suspected, Dr. Barlow's spoken German was quite fluent. And Dylan somehow managed to make the other men laugh with only the words he'd picked up in one day.
As the night drew on, Alek began to wonder when next he would see an unfamiliar face. After hiding for five weeks, he'd already half forgotten what it was like to meet a new person, or to make a new friend.
What if he were stuck in this castle for years?
The next morning Alek's first steps were slow ones.
The sledge wouldn't budge at first, like a dog refusing to take a walk. But finally its runners cracked their overnight coat of ice and began to scrape along the courtyard stones.