‘You’re getting worse,’ he said worriedly. ‘Come on. Let’s get you back into the carriage. You need some sleep.’
Emily didn’t resist when her father lifted her into the carriage. A second blanket had been stored under the seat. He pulled it out and draped it over her. ‘Settle down and rest,’ he advised. ‘I’m going to try to find us somewhere to hide for the night. Then when the city starts to wake again, we can blend in with the other carriages and start to make our way off Manhattan.’
As her father climbed back up into the driver’s seat, Diana settled in beside her. She put her arm around Emily protectively and drew her closer. ‘Sleep, child,’ she said softly. ‘We will be going home soon.’
When Emily awoke, the sun was up and the sounds of the city had returned to their normal noisy pitch. But there still seemed to be more police sirens than usual, and the frightening sounds of the helicopters could still be heard overhead.
Diana was still beside her. But her father and Joel were gone.
‘Where are we?’ Emily asked groggily as she looked around.
They appeared to be on a building site hidden amongst several large cement mixers. A large scaffold was built above them, blocking them from the view of the helicopters that still flew very low over the city.
‘Your father knew of this place and brought us here,’ Diana explained. ‘He said we should be safe for a while. He said it was in a place called Downtown. Though I am not certain what that means.’
Emily felt relieved. ‘That means we’re well away from the stables,’ she said.
Pegasus was still tethered to the carriage. He nickered softly and tried to look back at her.
‘Morning, Pegs,’ Emily said softly.
‘Sleeping Beauty wakes,’ her father called.
Steve and Joel were approaching through a hole in the tall fence surrounding the building site. They both carried several bags of food. At their approach, Pegasus whinnied.
‘He smells the sugar,’ Joel said. He looked at Diana. ‘I bet you’ll need some too. We’ve got lots for you both.’
‘And I’ve got more stuff for your leg,’ Emily’s father told her as he put the bags down on the ground. He reached for her forehead. ‘The fever’s down a bit, but not a lot. How are you feeling?’
‘Not too bad,’ Emily lied. The truth was she felt awful. Her head was pounding, her body ached and her leg was throbbing painfully to each beat of her heart. ‘I’m fine for today. I just hope we can get out of New York before the Nirads find us again.’
‘We will,’ her father said. ‘Now, we’ve got fresh bagels and cream cheese for us. Diana, you and Pegasus can have the cereal.’
‘Guess what?’ Joel added, reaching into one of the bags. ‘We made the front page of all the papers!’ He handed several newspapers to Emily. ‘Look at the headlines. FLYING HORSE EXPOSED AS A HOAX! Can you believe it? Half a million people saw us soaring up 5th Avenue and they are calling it a big hoax!’
Emily looked at the grainy images of their panicked escape flight. The pictures looked like they had been taken from a camera phone and blown up too large to clearly see any details. She could see Pegasus and his huge white wings. But she couldn’t see her or Joel’s faces.
She quickly scanned the article. ‘A movie stunt? Do they really expect the people who saw us to believe it was a stunt to promote a new movie? And look, they don’t even mention the Nirads! How dumb do they think people are?’
‘They don’t think they’re dumb at all.’ Steve pulled more items from the bags. ‘But you can bet the CRU ordered the papers to print that. I’m sure if anyone tried to challenge the story, they can expect a visit from a not so friendly CRU agent to set them straight. This is probably the best thing that could have happened for us. The public won’t be adding to the search. Especially now that Pegasus is …’ Her father paused and tried to think of the best possible words. Finally he said, ‘Now that he’s not white any more.’
In the bright daylight, Emily could see that their midnight dye job on Pegasus was awful. The stallion’s head and part of his neck and mane were black. But further down his front legs, a sharp, distinct line changed to brown. Then a bit further down his back, the colour changed to medium brown. At the end of the blanket, his exposed rump and tail were black again. He looked as strange now as he had when he was glowing white.
‘Let’s eat and then get moving again.’ Steve pulled out the rest of the food. ‘We’ve got a lot to do today and not a lot of time to do it.’
As expected, Pegasus was starving. The stallion hungrily went through three large boxes of sweet, sugary cereal and several bags of brown sugar and honey before he started to slow down.
Diana was much the same. Emily watched in amazement as she ate handfuls of the cereal from the box and washed it down with honey straight from the bottle.