“Oh”—Monique waved a hand in the air and sniffed—“she never leaves much anymore, and she’s useless when she does. They always send impersonators.”
“They do?”
“Of course they do. It’s easier, and it’s a good way to finish.”
“And who is they?”
“Why, the teachers, of course. But we were talking about me and my problems.”
Sophronia looked Monique up and down gravely. “I don’t think we’re going to solve those in the space of one carriage ride.”
Pillover tut-tutted at her from behind his book—but there was clear amusement in the reprimand.
Monique sneered. “Who do you think you are? Covert recruit. You’re not that special. You’re not that good. Proud of yourself and your little carriage rescue, are you? Well, I didn’t need your help! I’m a top-level student, on my finishing assignment. Ordered to retrieve three useless children.”
Pillover’s voice emanated from behind his tome. “I hardly think that was all.”
“Of course it wasn’t all,” Monique snapped. “I had the prototype to collect as well, now didn’t I?”
Pillover took interest at last. “The one the flywaymen were after?”
Sophronia asked, “What’s it a prototype of?”
“Don’t be daft. I don’t know that.”
“Do you think you might at some point tell me what finishing actually means?” Sophronia was getting more and more curious about the particulars of this finishing school. It seemed Mumsy might have been misled as to the nature of the establishment.
“No.” Monique gave her a decidedly nasty glare and then turned her attention out the carriage window.
Sophronia wasn’t certain what she’d done to incur such loathing. Should have left her with the flywaymen. She looked at Pillover, who ignored her. So she sighed and sat back, frustrated. After a moment’s consideration, she switched to the spot next to Pillover and attempted to read over his shoulder, ignoring his faintly goaty smell. All boys smelled of goat. So they passed the rest of the ride, until the carriage pulled into the sleepy little town of Swiffle-on-Exe.
As they ratted to a halt, Dimity blinked awake. “Ow. What? Did I fall asleep?”
“No, you fainted. Blood,” explained her brother tersely.
“Oh, did I? Pardon.” Dimity glanced down at her wounded shoulder. “Oh!” Her eyes began to roll back into her head.
Sophronia quickly leaned forward and clapped her hand over the injury. “None of that, now!”
Dimity refocused on her. “Ouch. Uh, perhaps we could tie something over it?”
“Good plan. Close your eyes.” Sophronia worked the long hair ribbon loose from the grip rail inside the carriage door and wrapped it around Dimity’s shoulder.
“Oh, I do wish I were more like Mummy. She’s terribly fearsome. Wish I looked more like her, as well. That would help with everything.” Dimity sat up.
“Why? What does she look like?”
“More like Pillover than me.”
Sophronia, who had seen very little of Pillover’s appearance, outside of his massive outer garments, could only say, “Oh?”
“You know, dark and brooding. I should dearly love to be dark and brooding. It’s so romantic and fortune-teller-like. I couldn’t brood if my life depended on it.”
“Well, the ribbon around your shoulder makes for a certain fortune-telling appeal.”
“Oh, does it? Splendid. You know, Sophronia, you could probably do it if you put your mind to it.”
“Do what?”
“Be dark and brooding.”
Sophronia, with middling brown hair and moderately green eyes set in a freckled face, would hardly have described herself as brooding. Or dark, for that matter.
Dimity’s attention, lightning fast, shifted to a new topic. “Where are we?”
“Bunson’s, finally,” said Pillover, snapping his book shut. He made a show of organizing for arrival. Given that he no longer had any luggage, this was rather like the action of a mechanical without instructions, trundling idly in circles until he ran out of steam.
The carriage door was opened by a stiff domestic mechanical of some advanced outdoor nature.
“What is that?” gasped Sophronia. She’d never seen anything to equal the monstrosity. It was taller than Frowbritcher and conically shaped, with a wheelbarrow attached to its back. Where a face facsimile should be was a confusion of gears and cogs, like the back of a clock.
“Porter mechanical.” Pillover stood, clutching his literary tome, and jumped down. “You two coming?” he asked, without turning to see.
“Where is your luggage, young sir?” asked the mechanical. Its voice was louder and brassier than Frowbritcher’s. It wore a gray cap, backward, and a brass octopus pin on a cloth cravat around its neck. That’s too bizarre. Sophronia had never seen a mechanical wear clothing before.
Pillover answered. “Oh, about ten miles back in the middle of the road.”
“Sir?” The porter rocked side to side in confusion. It was riding on a set of rails, like a very small train.
Sophronia climbed out of the carriage to get a closer look, wondering if she could take the porter apart.
Dimity followed.
The mechanical’s attention instantly shifted to them.
“No females, young sir.” It made a whirring, hissing noise and ejected a puff of steam from below its cravat. The material fluttered up against its clockwork face and then flopped back down.
Pillover turned back. “What?”
“No females allowed, young sir.” The porter puffed again. Flap, flap, went the cravat.
“Oh, those aren’t females. They’re only girls. They’re slated for the finishing academy.”
“They read as females, young sir.”
“Oh, I say. Don’t be difficult.”
Sophronia took the diplomatic route. “We need to speak with an authority. Our carriage was attacked and our guardian is overset.”
“No females!” The porter mechanical was quite firm on this. Its chest panel moved aside to reveal some kind of weapon, too large to be a gun.
As Sophronia stood, transfixed, it sparked and then whooshed to life, hurling blue flames that got close enough to singe Dimity’s hair.
The girls dove back inside the cab, and the coachman, who was not having any more tomfoolery on his watch, drove the carriage away at once. The flame-throwing porter did not follow them.
The carriage halted outside the school grounds. Sophronia pressed her nose against the glass above the cab door and looked out. Bunson’s was massive, but oddly hodgepodge—not like a respectable educational facility at all. A few of its towers were square, but others were round; some were old, others new; and some were positively foreign looking. There were wires stretching between the towers, and sticks jutting outward with netting dangling off their ends. An orange glow lit up various windows, here and there puffs of steam emanated forth, and one large smokestack belched plumes of black smoke up into the sky.
Sophronia looked at Dimity. “What now?”
“Well, my brother’s no good. He’ll have forgotten about us the moment he got inside.”
“It’s starting to get dark.” Sophronia turned to their erstwhile headmistress. “She’s simply going to have to do her job.”
Dimity took a deep breath, sat down on the bench next to Monique, and shook the older girl’s arm.
“What do you want?”
“We don’t know the academy’s location, and neither does the driver.”