Free The League of Seven by Alan Gratz Page B

his parents would ground him for and scrambled for the talent card chest across the cabin. The girl was still pumping juice out of the extinguisher, but more wasps were coming in by the minute. Archie disengaged Mr. Rivets’ Surgeon card, swatted a swooping hornet with it, and quickly replaced it with an Airship Pilot card from the case. The machine man immediately strode to the steering console, brushed some wet, wriggling hornets out of his way, and brought the airship under control.
    â€œThe extinguisher’s running out!” cried the girl.
    â€œI got an idea—I got an idea!” Fergus said. Wincing in pain, he hopped across the cabin, the girl’s flying circus protecting him the whole way. Fergus slammed painfully into the wall and pulled away a brass panel, revealing a network of ducts and fittings and tubes.
    Archie swatted at more hornets. “What are you doing?”
    â€œI’m just … rerouting … a couple of things,” Fergus said. He grunted as he worked, trying to keep himself balanced against the wall on his one good leg. Archie ducked to keep away from the swarm and ran to Fergus. The tinker was taller than Archie, just like everybody else, but Archie was still able to hold him up. Fergus worked faster, disconnecting one hose and switching it out with another.
    â€œThere!” he said.
    Smoke poured out of the ventilation shafts.
    â€œYou broke it!” Archie said, already starting to cough.
    â€œNo. I’ve seen beekeepers do this back home in the Carolina mountains. Smoke calms bees.”
    â€œHornets, sir,” Mr. Rivets said.
    Hornets, wasps, bees—it didn’t matter what they were. The smoke was working. The insects stopped attacking and hovered around Mr. Rivets, away from the smoky vents. The only problem was that Fergus was smoking himself and Archie and the girl out too.
    â€œWe can’t breathe this smoke for too much longer,” Archie said, coughing. He looked out the front window and saw the familiar bloodred moon in the night sky. The Hesperus was up high enough that the rest of the hornets had fallen away!
    Archie ran to a porthole and wrenched it open. The smoke and the hornets were sucked outside, replaced with the thin, frigid air of the upper atmosphere. The girl ran to Fergus and helped hold him up while he switched the pipes back to normal, and when the last of the smoke was gone Archie closed the porthole, slamming it shut so hard the glass cracked.
    â€œWe did it,” Archie said. He collapsed to the floor like a switched-off machine man, and Fergus and the girl flopped down beside him, absolutely exhausted.
    â€œSmart thinking on the fire extinguisher,” Archie told the girl.
    â€œTaking us up where it’s cold was a brass notion,” Fergus told Archie.
    â€œPumping smoke in the cabin is what saved us,” the girl told Fergus.
    â€œThose little clockwork gizmos of yours saved me ,” Fergus said.
    The girl whistled, and her circus flew back to their places in her bandolier.
    â€œShall I bring us down, Master Archie?” Mr. Rivets asked.
    â€œNo. Keep us up here for a while, just in case those wasps come after us again.”
    â€œHornets, sir.”
    â€œHow far d’ya think we’ll have to go till that Swarm Queen can’t send insects after us no more?” Fergus asked.
    â€œI do not know, sir. The Swarm Queen’s influence over the phylum Arthropoda means that as she gains strength, her mastery over insects everywhere will only become stronger.”
    â€œClinker,” Fergus muttered.
    â€œI shall vent some heat in from the engines for you,” Mr. Rivets told them. “But at this altitude the cabin will still tend to be cold.”
    â€œWhatever you can do, Mr. Rivets. Thank you,” said Archie.
    â€œMight I also inquire, sir, where it is we’re going? At present, we are holding station over Port Hibernum.”
    Archie looked at the