Leviathan

Dr. Barlow brings her pet, a full trunk of clothes, and an assistant, Dylan, with her aboard the stormwalker. Klopp retreats to the lower decks with Bauer and Hoffman, leaving Alek alone with Tazza, Dr. Barlow, and Dylan. Dr. Barlow pesters Alek with questions and watches him carefully as he pilots the walker.

Alek guides the walker back to the castle and escorts Dr. Barlow and Dylan to the storerooms, where Dr. Barlow reads the labels of the provisions for Dylan to record, proving that she can read and understand German. Alek wonders if she has already guessed who he is.

They pile the food for the Leviathan onto a large sled chained to the stormwalker. As they work, Alek admires Dylan’s ability to relate to the stormwalker’s crew without speaking German. Quietly, Alek asks if Dr. Barlow has commanded Dylan to figure out who Alek is, and Dylan admits that Dr. Barlow has already discovered that Alek is someone important because a Count was willing to be taken hostage for him. Alek asks Dylan to promise not to reveal that Alek is an orphan, and the young airman agrees. Alek is relieved to finally be able to trust someone.

The next morning, Alek pilots the walker while Dylan stands on his shoulders and watches the sled through the top hatch to ensure that it is straight. The walker moves slowly due to the extra weight. After a while, Dylan exclaims that he sees airbeasts on the horizon coming to rescue the Leviathan. Alek panics and tells Klopp that they need to release the sled so they can retrieve Volger before the rescue arrives. Klopp uses field glasses and says that the ships are not airbeasts, but two German zeppelins.

Despite not speaking any German, Deryn knows that the word “zeppelin” means the Germans are coming. Alek and Klopp argue about releasing the sled and returning to the airbeast, so Deryn takes matters into her own hands and begins cutting the chains connecting the sled to the walker.

Once the chains are loose, the sled begins to slide toward the walker’s legs. Deryn climbs aboard the sled and hardly manages to catch the medal ladder the crewmen unfurl from the walker’s lower hatch. Ahead, the zeppelins are making their first pass over the Leviathan, machine guns flaring. The zeppelins are small and surrounded by fléchette bats, but the airbeast is practically defenseless.

Back on the command floor of the walker, Deryn sees that Klopp has decided to help. The Germans have spotted the walker, and the Austrians must defeat them so they do not reveal Alek’s hiding place. The German foot soldiers have left the zeppelins and split into two groups. One is firing on the Leviathan, intending to capture it, while the other is firing at the walker.

Alek asks Deryn to help by firing the machine guns below deck, and Deryn fires on his command, managing to strike the field gun the Germans have set up. A shot from the walker’s cannon scatters the remaining men, and they retreat. The other zeppelin is directly above the stormwalker and is surrounded by fléchette bats, which are ready to drop their fléchettes. Deryn warns Alek and prepares to close the stormwalker’s viewport, but an explosion knocks her off her feet. The stormwalker falls, filling the command room with snow.

The point of view switches back to Alek, who is shocked by the cold snow and the fact that he wrecked the stormwalker. He finds Klopp, Dr. Barlow, Tazza, Hoffman, and Bauer all unharmed, but Dylan is unconscious with a head wound.

As the sound of falling fléchettes fades, Alek climbs outside against Klopp and Dr. Barlow’s warnings. The German zeppelin’s gasbag was damaged by the fléchettes, but the walker was damaged even more by the fall. The Germans shout when they see Alek and open fire, but the guns ignite the hydrogen in the air, and the fire melts the zeppelin’s aluminum frame.

After the battle, the recovered Dylan and Dr. Barlow return to the Leviathan to check on the eggs. Alek, Klopp, Bauer, and Hoffman assess the damage to the walker and discuss their options before Volger joins them, looking angry. Alek explains that he did what he believed was right, but Volger retorts that Alek didn’t think of his or his men’s safety, and the Germans will return for him.

Suddenly tired, Volger tells Alek that he could surrender to the Darwinists, tell them who he is, and be taken as their prisoner. If the Darwinists win the war, Alek could be reinstated as a puppet emperor. His other option is to wait until the Germans return and die with everyone else. Alek is shocked by Volger’s propositions, and the older man says he is finished giving Alek advice.

Alek boards the Leviathan to talk to Dr. Barlow, and Dylan tells him that there’s no chance the Leviathan will be able to complete its mission because the ship is in such bad shape. Alek says the walker is damaged as well and asks if his men could board the Leviathan.

Entering the conversation, Dr. Barlow says it’s possible since their crew is much smaller than it was originally, but they will most likely be landing in France, where Alek and his men will be taken captive for being Austrian. Changing the subject, Dr. Barlow complains that they will not be able to transfer the eggs to the Ottoman Empire, and Alek suggests modifying the stormwalker’s engines to propel the Leviathan. Dr. Barlow likes the idea but says she must know who Alek truly is to trust him.

Alek hesitates to expose himself, so Dr. Barlow reveals that she has figured out that he is the missing heir of Austria-Hungary. Alek cannot deny it and says that the Germans have been hunting them for months. Dr. Barlow agrees to take the plan to the captain and promises to keep Alek’s identity a secret for now.

Once Dr. Barlow leaves, Alek begins to cry, and Deryn comforts him, telling him how she felt when her Da died. Alek explains that the Germans murdered his parents as an excuse to start a war and tells her the story of how his parents met. Alek believes that the entire war is his fault, and Deryn reminds him that he saved her life. Alek asks her not to tell anyone about his life, and she promises.

A messenger lizard tells them that the captain has agreed to their plans and summons Alek to the walker as a translator. Alek thanks Deryn for being his friend and gives her a rough hug before leaving the room. Deryn stays sitting on the floor, feeling a strange but pleasant tingling where Alek’s arms had been around her.

The next morning, Deryn and Newkirk keep watch from the Leviathan’s spine, and Mr. Rigby surveys the land from a Huxley. Deryn is distracted, watching the Austrians work alongside the airbeast’s engineers as she thinks about how she felt when Alek hugged her. Mr. Rigby frantically signals that he sees a German with eight legs moving toward them.

Deryn sounds an alarm, and an officer sends her to collect information about the eight-legged machine from Alek. When she reaches him, Alek tells her men to start moving. An officer tells her that the machine is fast and dangerous, with walkers that shoot phosphorous flares. Everyone is shocked the Germans would attack by land in neutral Switzerland, and they prepare to get the Leviathan back in the air.

Alek tries to stop the Leviathan’s engineer from starting the engines, claiming they aren’t ready, but they have no other choice. In a few minutes, the engines are running, and Alek tries to get his engine to move at the same pace as Klopp’s, which is positioned on the other side of the beast. Soon, the cilia along the airbeast’s flank catch the current and are adjusting the course.

The engines propel the ship quickly, but the airbeast is not gaining altitude fast enough. As they pass Alek’s castle, crewmen begin throwing nonessential items out the windows to help the ship clear the tallest roofs, but nothing seems to make a difference. Engineer Hoffman tells Alek in German that the extra weight in the ship may be because Volger hid a few bars of gold in his room. Alek surrenders the controls and flies out of the engine room.

Alek doesn’t know where Volger’s rooms are, but he follows the downward slant of the airbeast until he reaches a familiar hallway. Volger hid the gold in a locked map case under the bed. The Count appears at the doorway holding the key, saying he came for the same purpose. Together, they throw the gold out the window. Alek asks the Count why he would do this, and the Count tells Alek that everything has been for Alek’s safety and future. Sarcastically, Volger says they may as well throw away all the gold, just like Alek threw away 10 years’ worth of preparations in the castle and wrecked the walker.

Alek argues that they gained something more important: allies. Volger says he is being too idealistic. Alek claims that he has chosen a more dangerous path, and Volger can either support him or they can part ways when the ship lands. Volger bows and says he continues to be at Alek’s service. Alek agrees to keep one bar of gold as they push the remaining bars out the window. They feel the airship lift as German scouts begin firing phosphorous flares.

Meanwhile, Deryn and Newkirk are sent to remove the fléchette bats from the airbeast’s nose. No one knows what’s weighing the beast down, so everything is being thrown overboard. Even the fléchettes fed to the bats are discarded, leaving the Leviathan completely defenseless. Suddenly, the nose of the ship lifts, gaining more altitude every 10 seconds.

Deryn is amazed at how quickly the airbeast adapted to the Clanker engines. The cilia along the beast’s flank act as a rudder guiding the ship, while the engines provide unparalleled speed. The German zeppelins can’t keep up. The horse-shaped scout machines continue firing but cannot reach the Leviathan. Deryn thinks they have won until she sees the eight-legged walker raising its large gun.

A sharp whistle blows, telling all crewmen to run toward the tail. The eight-legged walker fires as a massive weight drops, and the Leviathan lifts even higher. The ammunition from the eight-legged walker passes dangerously close to the airbeast, but the sudden loss of weight shifted the airbeast out of the shell’s range, saving them.

Deryn and the rest of the crewmen continue running toward the tail so they can see behind them. The eight-legged walker fires again, but the Clanker engines carry the Leviathan out of range. Deryn looks at the new engines and says that the Leviathan is something different now; a little bit of “us” and a little bit of “them” (247). Whatever strange crossbreed the Clankers turned the Leviathan into, they all survived because of it.

A few days later, Deryn is lounging among the ratlines atop the airbeast when a messenger lizard summons her to the captain’s quarters. She climbs inside and finds the captain, who asks her to reveal any information she has about the Austrians, saying that Winston Churchill himself inquired about them. Deryn knows that her duty requires her to tell the captain who Alek is, but she promised to keep his identity secret. Instead, she tells the captain she will keep an eye on him and leaves without revealing any of the information she knows.

Later that day, Deryn finds Alek on egg duty in the engine room and tells him that the captain ordered her to reveal any information she has about him. She originally wanted Alek to give her permission to tell the captain, but now she wants Alek to know that she lied for him. The strange, pleasant prickly feeling she felt when Alek hugged her returns.

Alek sighs, realizing that Deryn could be hanged as a traitor for withholding information, and says he will turn himself in. Deryn says that this whole situation is Dr. Barlow’s fault, but they wouldn’t hang Dr. Barlow because she’s a woman. Deryn suddenly realizes that the Air Service wouldn’t hang her, a 15-year-old girl, either.

Alek insists on going to the captain, and Deryn realizes she wants to tell him that she’s a girl. Before she can do so, Dr. Barlow enters the room.

Alek tells Dr. Barlow about the situation, and the woman angrily exclaims that this whole mission is Winston Churchill’s fault, so he shouldn’t dare interfere. She then tells them that the Leviathan’s true mission is to correct a diplomatic disaster Churchill created when he refused to deliver a warship that the Ottoman Empire had paid for in full. He was afraid that the Ottomans would end up opposing Britain in the war, so he withheld the warship, basically ensuring that the Ottomans would side against Britain. Dr. Barlow wants to deliver the eggs to the Ottoman Empire to undo his mistake, but if he finds out that the heir of Austria-Hungary is on board, he will turn the ship around and ruin her mission.

Alek asks who Dr. Barlow really is and why she is able to challenge Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty. She reveals that she is Dr. Nora Darwin Barlow, head keeper of the London Zoo and granddaughter of Charles Darwin, creator of fabricated beasts.

Dylan is shocked and leaves the room, leaving Dr. Barlow and Alek alone. Alek doesn’t know how to feel and realizes that he is standing beside the embodiment of everything he had been taught to fear. As Dr. Barlow tends to the eggs, he shakily asks what her plans are when they arrive at Constantinople and if she plans on locking him up. She smiles and ruffles his hair, sending a chill down his spine as she tells him she has no intention of locking him up and that she has better plans for him.

She leaves him to tend the eggs, telling him to trust her. Once she’s gone, Alek looks at the eggs, wondering what fabricated beast is growing inside them that could replace a warship. Softly, he asks the eggs, “What’s inside you?” but of course, the eggs don’t answer (259).