"Aren't we almost there?" Alek asked in irritation, glancing back over his shoulder. He could barely see the Leviathan now, a shadowy hulk in the misty air. He felt uneasy, venturing this far into the unfamiliar Japanese city. People wanted him dead, after all.
Dylan sighed. "Stop complaining, your highness," he said sarcastically. Then, more seriously, "I need to tell you something. Something I should have told you a long while ago. And I couldn't rightly tell you on the ship, with everything downright mad with the preparations and all."
It was true that the Leviathan was a mess, crewmen and beasts running everywhere preparing for the takeoff as the ship headed for America. America. It seemed like such a strange place, if that foreign reporter had been any indication. Alek shuddered.
Dylan stopped. "Did you hear something?" he asked, frowning down the street.
Alek drew next to him. "No..." he began.
"Get down!" Dylan suddenly screamed, his voice raising an octave. He flung himself at Alek, and as he hit the ground he heard a shot ring out. Stunned, he barely saw the gunman race off into an alleyway. He hadn't stayed to finish the job. Strange.
"Thank you for that," he said, brushing himself off. Dylan didn't answer. Then he saw the blood, spreading from the boy's shoulder appallingly fast. "Oh no," he whispered. He didn't know how to treat wounds. But help might not get here for ages, and he couldn't carry Dylan back to the Leviathan. The wound didn't look like it was anywhere vital, but the boy could die of blood loss. It was up to him.
Carefully, Alek unbuttoned the boy's shirt, reasoning that he couldn't hurt anything too badly by bandaging up the wound. As the shirt fell open, he stopped, confused. There was already a bandage tightly wrapped around Dylan's chest, although Alek couldn't remember him being wounded recently. And the shape of the boy's body looked wrong somehow...
Alek's still shell-shocked mind took a while to connect the pieces, and then he froze as the revelation spread through his mind, shocking him.
"Mr. Sharp," he whispered.
The girl's eyelids fluttered.
Dylan - or whatever her name was - opened her eyes slowly. He - no, she, Alek corrected himself - looked confused, but her eyes focused on his face.
"Alek?"
"What's your name?" Alek asked briefly.
"What?" The girl looked at him, confused, and then looked down at her open shirt, comprehension spreading across her face. "Oh. You found out."
"I'd say."
She sighed. "I was going to tell you. I tried so many times, but whenever I tried, things went pear-shaped. My name's Deryn."
Deryn. Alek started making a bandage uncomfortably. "Why'd you save me?"
"Well, you're the barking prince, aren't you?" She shrugged and winced. "More important than a wee middie, and a girl to boot."
"Why'd you do this?" He asked, tying the cloth around her shoulder while attempting to make absolutely no contact with her skin.
"Dress up? Well, it should be obvious, shouldn't it? I wanted to be an airman. And they don't let girls in."
"Females have no place in war."
"I was doing a rather fine job. And look at Lilit." Deryn cut herself off abruptly.
"Wait. You and Lilit..." Another alarming revelation shook Alek's exhausted mind.
"Let's not talk about Lilit," Deryn said quickly.
"Why didn't you tell me? I told you my secret. I would have kept yours."
"I couldn't..." Deryn said quietly, frowning.
Alek frowned. "You mean..." But he couldn't finish his sentence - not that he knew how - because at that moment there was the sound of footsteps, and he looked up to see a group of German soldiers running towards them.