Mari grabbed Alain again and pulled him along into the maze of crates, taking lefts and rights in quick succession. They ran past some of the Dark Mechanics, also fleeing with no more thought of trying to catch intruders. “Was that your best shot?” Mari gasped as she leaned against some crates to catch her breath.
“Do you mean was that my most powerful fire? Yes,” Alain admitted. “I still need to grow my abilities.”
“Great. My weapon can’t kill it and neither can yours.” Mari stared forward, her face intent. “It’s going to keep after us until it’s dead?”
“It is not alive—”
“Answer the question!”
“Yes,” Alain said. “It will kill or destroy anyone and anything else that gets in its way before then, of course. If we survive long enough, the creature’s spell will expire even if it has not been destroyed.”
“How long is long enough?”
Alain spread his hands. “Perhaps a few days.”
“That’s way too long.” Mari paused as a hissing sound came to them over the sounds of the dragon crashing through the crates. “I thought you said they didn’t hiss.”
“That is not the dragon,” Alain said, trying to identify the sound and failing.
“It’s the steam boiler on the barge,” Mari gasped. “The Dark Mechanics fired it up before this mess started and they’ve forgotten about it.” Her eyes lit with hope. “We’ve got another weapon, Alain.”
“We do?”
“Yeah. We just have to survive long enough to get to it.” As if summoned by her words, the dragon’s head appeared, darting down toward them, crates splintering and flying to either side as it lunged. Mari held her weapon in both hands again, now looking stubborn as well as scared, aiming carefully as the dragon reared back for another strike.
She fired a single shot.
Alain saw the projectile from Mari’s weapon hit just beneath one eye and shatter, fragments pelting the dragon’s eye. It screamed in rage and pain, the sound so intense the air itself seemed to pulse with its power.
“Go left!” Mari urged, darting past the creature’s blinded side as she grabbed Alain once more and led them through a couple of more turns before skidding to a halt as they faced a solid wall of crates. “We’re dead.”
“No.” Alain concentrated, even though his strength was draining rapidly. For a moment he wondered if he could manage the spell, but as his fear for Mari peaked he felt her presence more strongly, felt the thread between them, and sensed a small additional surge of strength from somewhere. An opening appeared in the crates before them. Mari dashed through the opening, Alain following. Moments later he heard the dragon crashing around in the area they had left, trying to figure out where its prey could have gone.
Mari headed back into the open area, running toward the barge. The leader of the Dark Mechanics, scurrying past in another direction, turned to face them with a livid expression and opened her mouth, but when Mari pointed her weapon at her, the Dark Mechanic wheeled away and ran.
With a leap, Mari jumped onto the barge’s deck, running to the big Mechanic creature she called a boiler. Alain followed, seeing the dragon’s head where it was floundering through the crates, hurling aside broken wood and the occasional Dark Mechanic as it searched for Mari and Alain. But they and the barge were to the monster’s left, unseen thanks to the damage done by Mari’s last shot.
Mari was crouched near a very large barrel which radiated heat, her hands spinning some wheels attached to it or on things leading into or out of it. “Wire or rope. We need wire or rope,” she gasped.
Alain looked around, faded memories of his earliest years on his parents’ farm coming back to him. He spotted a coil hanging from a hook. “Will this do?”
She grabbed it gratefully. “I hope so.” Hastening to one side the barrel, Mari started winding the rope around something high up, over and over again until all of the rope had been used up, then knotting it hastily.
Alain took another look at the dragon, which had reduced most of the crates to splinters and was digging through the remains while the few surviving Dark Mechanics near it tried to crawl away.
Mari came up beside Alain and grabbed his arm, not to direct him this time but apparently for comfort. Her face was very pale and her eyes frightened, but she spoke with forced calm. “All right. I’ve opened the fuel valves all the way. The pressure in that boiler is going up fast, but I closed off the steam exhaust pipes and I’ve tied down the relief valve. When the pressure gets high enough the boiler will explode with enough force to hurt even something like that dragon. I hope.”
“You are frightened of this boiler,” Alain said.
“Alain, an over-pressured boiler is incredibly destructive. It may well kill us instead of the dragon, but it’s our only chance.”
Alain nodded. “How do we get the dragon here when your device explodes?”
“If the boiler is close enough to blowing, having that monster step on it or crash into it will finish the job,” Mari explained. “As to how to get it here, I was hoping you knew how to do that. Being that you’re my expert on dragons.”
“The only way to get it here is to show it a reason.” Alain nodded again, this time slowly, not having to think through his decision. “One of us must act as bait, so I will—”
“No!” Mari shouted. “You will not act as bait! You can’t judge when the boiler is close to blowing, and I won’t let you die saving me! Nor will I leave you or anyone else to face something like this alone. Is that understood, Alain? If that’s what we have to do, then I’ll do it while you go—”
It was Alain’s turn to interrupt. “I cannot allow you to die saving me. I will not leave, either.”
She glared at him, then unexpectedly smiled in a sad way. “You’re as stubborn as I am, Alain. We’ll do it together. All right? When I give the word, follow me and run like your life depends on it, because it will.” Her hand shifted from his arm, reaching down to clasp his hand tightly.
They waited, Mari glancing back at the Mechanic device behind them. Alain took a firmer grip on the bag containing his robes, surprised that he had not lost it during all of the running and fighting. He could feel the increasing heat coming off the boiler and hear it roaring and hissing ever louder. Metal pinged and groaned in a way that sounded more frightening than the dragon did.
Her hand gripped his, and even amid the fear and danger he marveled at the feeling that came with that contact. If we die holding hands in this way, will we enter the next dream together?
Mari took one more look at the Mechanic boiler, bit her lip, then looked at him. “I’m going to say this because in another minute we may be dead, and I don’t want to die not having told you. I love you.”
Before he could reply, or even try to grasp her words, Mari had aimed her weapon at where the dragon was still rooting around in the mess of broken and battered crates. “Hey, ugly!” she yelled. “Come and get some!” She fired, the projectile sparking off the side of the dragon.
Its head jerked around, the right eye finally focusing on Mari and Alain, then the creature leaped out of the wreckage around it and dashed straight for them.
Mari stood, her face paler than ever, her hand holding the weapon shaking. Her other hand still gripped Alain’s. “Now,” she breathed, then burst into motion like a scared cat.
Alain tried not to slow them down as Mari scrambled over the deck of the barge, the dragon roaring as it came on behind but its cries not matching the rising thunder from the Mechanic boiler inside the barge.
The dragon was almost to the barge when Mari reached the bow. “Dive deep and stay down!” she yelled as they jumped.