For hours, Luca sat on the uncomfortable coal, frowning to the floor and the ceiling. However, Ruby marched around the shed, knocking on walls to make sure they were sturdy.

She lingered near the hole in the wall, checking is she could push out any bricks and fit through the gap, but it was fruitless. Ruby tried kicking the door, but it only shook and was too secure. This place was inescapable. The she tried to throw coal at the door, but was faced with terrible results.

Frequently, Ruby would bellow at Luca at the tope of her voice, saying” Instead of lying there like a log about to be chopped , you could at least help me find a way out!”                                                                        However, Luca remained still and sad, his devastation consuming him. So, Ruby began to dig through the coal piles, to find anything that could somewhat help. Ultimately, it came down to the barely- reachable windows. Ruby spent ages jumping up to see if there was a sign of life.

Frustrated, Ruby gently span around and directed her bottled rage at Luca, “Well, you could at least help, couldn’t you? I’m not the 0nly one trapped here, am I?” Luca didn’t respond.                                         “It’s pointless. We’re trapped and not escaping,” he eventually replied.                                                              “But at least I’m trying. Why can’t you?” Ruby hissed , tapping her foot and her face going red with wrath.

They stopped speaking. Ruby huffed and puffed intolerantly and let her blood burn and boil. There was no apparent escape route and, to add on, Luca was now hopeless. It was now deep in the night. Inside darkness sprawled itself across the shed and worsened Ruby’s vision. Outside, the sky was now sparkling with the distant light of joyous stars and the hazy gleam of the full moon beamed over Steelpass.

Before Ruby could nod off, a noise awoke her. From outside, a rustle of chatting leaves. Instantly, the pair jumped to their feet and lifted each other up to catch a glimpse of what created the noise outside of the window. A thrilling howl shattered the night’s peace and a shaggy outline of the something edged closer. Alexis jumped up through the window and into the shed.                                                                          “W-w-wind m-m-zppt-me u-u-up-zppt,” he buzzed.                                                                                                 Ruby stoked him and then reached for his neck so she could get Alexis’ key and wind him up

Alexis soon recharged and was now more jumpy and energetic. He shook his fur and dropped a gold key.

“Let’s get movin’,” he droned. He cracked his knuckles on the floor, as if he was preparing to fight.

With care, Ruby pushed the key into it’s hole and twisted it. For a hope-drenching second, the key did not move but then there was a click and a snap and the door was miraculously open. Ruby and Luca gazed outside. The coal shed was near the drawing room, but no sound came from it and all the lights were out. Moments later, they were vaulting across the field and to the gate. Alexis lead the pack, sauntering ahead.

Half an hour later, they were sat in a stable, taking refuge in it. Ruby informed Alexis on everything while he attentively listened and collected the information, picking dirt out of his fur. He had evaded the scene just before Goldfinch took the papers. By now Luca had lit a fire and prepped hay beds that were comfy enough to catch some sleep. They were safe at the moment, but they didn’t know where the necklace or the papers were. Where was he information? Where was Ruby’s Papa? Where was Peter Stanford.

Steelpass slept silently. Gingerly, Ruby edged towards the door and tried to listen out for someone’s footsteps, anyone’s footsteps. She heard none. Outside, leafless trees jutted out of the ground like sore fingers, damaging the beauty of the autumn day. Their spindly branches swiped at the sky, as if they were rabid animal’s claws. Ruby turned the door handle and pushed it open. The hinges whined in protest. She remembered when the house was full of joy and warmth, now those feelings were not present. Inside, the house was blanketed with soot, like fine dust for demons.

Ruby and Luca vaulted up the creaky stairs and into Ruby’s room. Alexis started continuously sniffing, making sure nothing mysterious was happening. Inside Ruby’s room, it seemed that everything was the same as she had left it last time she was here. Her bed was still neatly made, her favourite teddy Crumbles nestled cosily between her two pillows. Her paper bin was still overflowing with scrapped story ideas for a book. Ruby aspired to be an author. She bent down and reached under her bed. Carved into the floor was a little box, and inside… the necklace! Safe!

Intrigued , Luca bent down as well and pulled out the necklace. The three stones dwarfed the shells and Luca noticed that all three stones had cracks in them. But before he could examine them further, the necklace fell out of Luca’s hand. The stones hit the floor and snapped in two with an almighty CRRACKCCK! Three pieces of paper fluttered out of the broken stones and onto the floor. Ruby picked them up and skimmed through what they said.                                                                                                         ” New power source, named ‘promefler’, possibly hazardous, could make highly deadly weapons.”            “So that’s what they want, your father’s knowledge on this ‘promefler’ stuff,” Luca was amazed “If he did have such a powerful resource, someone would go after it. It’s probably worth a fortune”

“So this is why everything has been happening lately,” Ruby announced wearily.

“Exactly,” called a familiar, but harsh, voice from the hallway. Ruby and Luca hastily twirled around and Ruby quickly recognised Professor Goldfinch, her father’s closest friend. He rubbed his hands together and smiled; it was a crooked smile, one that echoed evil. “It was only a matter of time until you led me to the information, so I waited to snatch the right moment-now! Ill be taking those papers, thank you very much,” He finished his sentence the plucked the trio of notes from Ruby’s hands.

10 minutes later, they were shoved and locked in the dark coal shed behind the manor. The only clear way of getting out was through a tiny hole in the wall, but only a rat could fit through that.                           ” That hideous back-stabber,” Ruby muttered, ” He betrayed my father, my Papa!”

” I give up, chances of escape are slim,” a discouraged Luca stated. he attempted to get comfy on the rough coal, but it was fruitless.

” We will, I’ll make sure of it!” Ruby spat. She would not be outsmarted by a dim-witted thief.” We’ll escape and get the papers.”

” Break a leg,” Luca hissed, though only under his breath. He looked around the deep, black shed and instantly felt despair.

Prologue

Alexis gazed out of the window and saw the giant, beastly airship ebbing closer. The ship’s engine roared like a lion, prepared to fight for dominance. He saw harpoons being shot through the air , like sword through skin. Alexis smelled smoke being produced from the sprouting fire clinging to the hull, lethal like snake venom. Pivoting towards his master, Alexis howled: a howl that pierced the sky like a bullet through a skull, “By all the ticking tock Peter, jump! They’re already here! Human lives first, not mechanimal’s!”

Chapter 1

Pushing the gates to the playground of Dana Doublegoody’s Academy for Talented Girls open, Ruby Stanford surveyed the area. Freedom was metres away. No one appeared to be here, but before she even thought to run, her feet were pounding across the playground at full pelt. She came to a halt on Crawforn Crescent to regain her lost breath. The girl leant back into a bush.

She withdrew the piece of paper from her pocket and skimmed through the gloom-bringing news once again. Papa, her father Peter, was presumed dead after his airship, Nymph, was discovered crashed. She kept lingering on 1 sentence. It was her father’s last recorded words, “Watch your neck.” When the letter first arrived, Ruby pondered what it meant. Her father had always been cryptic and mysterious, but this practically gibberish to her. Every day when she was at the academy, she thought about what this could mean. It troubled her.

Waking her up from her thoughts, a particular and distinctive howl reverberated in her head. Then, out of a hedge, came a grey, fluffy face that radiated warmth. Alexis!                                                                          “Well, little missy, you took your tocking time getting out of this place. My clockwork key’s round my neck, give me a wind would you? I used all my energy escaping those scoundrels.”                                          Ruby grabbed the key form Alexis’s neck and wound it. Alexis wagged his tail in joy. Some of his mane of fur was burnt or cut, but he was in an otherwise fine shape.

Later that evening, Luca was shocked to see Ruby and Alexis walking down the patch to Tweedy’s Horologists.                                                                                                                                                                        “So, it’s your necklace, your mother’s one,” he said.                                                                                                  Ruby confirmed with a sad nod. The necklace was a precious item, a treasure. It was something that her mother once cherished. Every night, she would hold it close to her before taking it off to go to sleep. Sometimes, she would play with the shells and stones that populated the necklace. She didn’t have it now, it was at the manor hidden in a box very well. She remembered the engravings on the three stones. The engravings were of Ruby’s, her mother’s and her father’s initials.                                                                 “Sorry,” Luca stated.

“He’s right,” announced Alexis, “We have to get back to Steelpass Manor quickly, before those scallywags can take the necklace and leave.”