She didn’t know what she expected. Perhaps for the man to leave by climbing around the elephant cheek the way she had.

Instead, he ran to the door, pushed it open and leapt out.

Rue suppressed an un-goddess-like shriek. She didn’t want to kill the poor man!

She rushed after him, only to see that he had deployed some kind of parachute, which he must have grabbed from near the door. It looked a lot like a large conical parasol. He floated down to land a good distance away, on the other side of the gorge, in the unnamed forest. Rue heard him shout in elation and then the glad tones of “Eat Bertha’s Muscles” wafted up to her. Presumably he was happy with life and the blessings of his holy visitor.

Well, thought Rue, at least I made somebody’s evening.

The sky train Ganesha might look like a creature of Hindu mythology come to awesome mechanical life, but inside the guidance cabin was all classic British engineering. It was actually a rather simple, an old-fashioned steam engine out of the Poedunkle-Boof Manufacturing Company in Bacon End. Rue’s eyebrows arched as she read the plaque – it was a decade or more out of date! It’s been a while since the far reaches of the empire received upgrades. This is nothing compared to Quesnel’s domain back on The Spotted Custard. She stopped that thought before it started. Rue did not want to think about Quesnel. Given the catastrophe that her evening had become, he had not been as far from the truth when he had tried to stop her from starting all this.

The firebox was cold and dead which was odd as, even overnight, most steamers simply banked their coal. Also, the boiler was half full, hardly enough water for much of a journey. Perhaps there was a watering station on the other side of Tungareshwar?

Rue was undaunted. All she had to do was get everything up to temperature and the steam going, make certain all her dials, levers, and settings were configured correctly, keep the firebox stoked, and the elephant head would move. Actually, that’s rather a lot. Fortunately, she had flint and tinder with her.