Prologue

Stella gazed out of the transparent window of the Eagle. Her warm breath steamed it up, but still she could see the large, mechanical submarine edging closer, gliding through the water as if there was no effort. She saw it rise above the water, its cannons aiming towards the airship. Deep inside, the cannonballs were as big as bowling balls. She heard the muffled yelling from their enemies and the sizzling from the rope, burning about to let off the weapons. Stella smelt thick smoke filling the airship, as sharp as burning acid. Running to her master, Stella squeaked, “We have to get out of here, I’ll follow, jump!”.

Chapter 1

Nudging open the thick, heavy wooden door of Catherine Williams Academy for young girls, Amelia Brown studied the yard. Luckily, everyone was in morning lessons. She began to run across the tarmac playground, as fast as she could go, hoping to not be caught. She was arriving towards freedom, she would not be kept in captivity any longer. Amelia arrived at a huge brick wall, she whistled as a rope ladder, with leather foot holds swung over the wall. She landed with a thump on the other side, Stella greeting her like a playful puppy.

As she got her breath back she noticed a sign with bold lettering, which read: Heather Road. She reached for her bag, which was sitting on her waist, and pulled out a crumpled, brown envelope. Some of the words were smudged as it seemed to be fresh, but Amelia could still make sense of it. She read out the dreadful news; her father, John Brown, was missing and his airship was found destroyed in a nearby field. His last words were confusing, “Heather road”. She always wanted to figure out what this meant.

Stella gracefully slid around the tree, ‘are we going to go now?’ she asked, ‘I’m running out of power, could you give me a wind up?’ Amelia twisted the golden, engraved key. ‘ I used a lot of my energy pulling the rope ladder’.