Mortal Engines

Tom and Hester don’t get far before the Speedwell crew notices they’ve escaped. They make for the airship dock, where a woman named Anna Fang offers to take them to another port where they can find a ship to London. Tom wants to know how they’ll know she won’t betray them, to which Fang says they won’t know: “[Y]ou will just have to trust me” (88). Having little choice, Tom and Hester accompany Fang to her airship, the Jenny Haniver. Speedwell fires after the ship, but it rises out of range too quickly to take any hits.

In London, Valentine prepares for departure while Katherine watches from a nearby viewing area with the Guild of Historians. She hates that her father is going but understands he has important business. Katherine watches until the 13th Floor Elevator, Valentine’s personal airship, is out of sight and then wipes away her tears. While her father’s gone, she has her own mission to find out “who that mysterious girl had been, and why she scared him so” (95).

After setting a course for Airhaven, a flying city, Fang feeds Tom and Hester and tends to Hester’s leg.