Read Online Goliath by Scott Westerfeld - Free Book Online

had kept it away from the spoils of dried beef.
    It certainly didn’t
look
like a beastie that had already eaten lunch.
    “Climb!” Deryn shouted, pointing up her own rope. “Tell them to climb!”
    Mr. Tesla didn’t say a word, but his men needed no translation. They began to pull their way up toward the portholes, hand over hand on the thick mooring ropes. None of them thought to drop his pack, or perhaps they were too scared of the Clanker boffin to leave anything behind.
    But there was nothing Deryn could do for them now. She scampered up her own line, glad for the friction hitch she’d tied earlier.
    As the men’s weight was added to the ropes, the lines began to slacken, the airship settling closer to the ground. This was the situation Deryn had wanted to avoid—another gust of wind would pop the ropes taut again, flinging off the men holding them.
    She looked over her shoulder. The small bear hadbroken into the open, and larger shapes loomed behind it.
    “Sharp!” Mr. Rigby’s voice called from the porthole above her head. “Get those men to drop their packs!”
    “I’ve tried, sir. They don’t speak English!”
    “But can’t they
see
the bears coming! Are they mad?”
    “No, just afraid of that fellow there.” She jerked her chin toward Mr. Tesla, who still stood on the ground, impassively regarding the approaching bear. “
He’s
the mad one!”
    The
whoosh
of a compressed air gun split the air, and Deryn heard a howl. The anti-aeroplane bolts had hit the closest bear and sent it tumbling among the fallen trees.
    A moment later it stood again and shook its head. A fresh mark gleamed on the beastie’s scarred and patchy fur, but it let out a defiant roar.
    “I think you’ve just made it
angry
, sir!”
    “Not to worry, Mr. Sharp. We’re putting that tranquilizer to good use.”
    Deryn glanced backward as she climbed, and saw that the bear looked unsteady on its feet now, ambling across the fallen trees like an airman full of too much drink.
    When Deryn reached the porthole, Mr. Rigby stuck out a hand and pulled her in.
    “The spare cargo’s ready to drop,” the bosun said, “so we’ve plenty of lift. But with bears closing in, the captainwon’t take us any closer to the ground. Can the rest of those men climb?”
    “Aye, sir. About half of them are airmen, so they should—”
    “Good heavens,” Mr. Rigby interrupted, peering out the porthole. “What in blazes is that man doing?”
    Deryn crowded in beside the bosun. Mr. Tesla was still on the ground, facing three more bears that had broken from the trees.
    “Barking spiders!” Deryn breathed. “I didn’t think he was
this
mad.”
    The largest of the creatures was hardly twenty yards from Tesla, leaping across the fallen trees in huge bounds. The man calmly raised his walking stick. . . .
    A bolt of lightning leapt from its tip, with a sound like the air itself tearing. The beast reared onto its hind legs and howled, trapped for a split second in a jagged cage of light. The brilliance faded instantly, but the bear howled and turned to flee, the other beasties following in its wake.
    Mr. Tesla inspected the end of his walking stick, which was black and smoking, then turned toward the airship.
    “You may land your ship properly now,” he called up. “Those beasts will be wary for an hour or so.”
    The bosun nodded dumbly, and before he could call for a message lizard, the winches started up, inching the ship lower again. The officers were in agreement.

“REPULSION OF THE STARVING WAR BEASTS.”
     

Mr. Rigby found his voice a moment later. “It’s not just the bears that should be wary, Mr. Sharp.”
    She nodded slowly. “Aye, sir. We’ll have to keep an eye on that fellow.”

 
    Alek awoke to a thunderclap, a buzzing sound, and then a monstrous roar.
    He sat up and blinked his eyes, convinced for a moment that some awful dream had shaken him from sleep. But the sounds kept coming—shouting, the creak of ropes, and