Grain...

They hurried towards the carriage as soon as they could. The sounds of the pneumatic steam hissed through the air and Amaretto was pushed unceremoniously into the carriage. Johanna paused a moment and then jumped into the lorry after her. Alice slammed the door shut and as Amaretto looked around she saw that her aunt had already arrived in the carriage.

"So where are we going?"

Alice tapped the front of the cab and then said, "Piccadilly Quarter! Hurry man, Hurry!"

Johanna looked out the window and as the carriage hurtled down the street. "We need to get to the house. There is the small fact that Mother Chime could be looking for us."

"Who exactly is Mother Chime?" Amaretto frowned as they hurtled down the roads of London town.

Alice narrowed her eyes and looked suspicious. She then closed her eyes and then sighed. "I'm sorry if I seemed so suspicious. It's just that there has been so many problems since..." Alice trailed off and then shook her head again.

Katherine simply sat on her side of the carriage and said nothing, looking at Alice with appraising eyes. When Alice had trailed off, Johanna waited a moment and then picked up where her companion left off. "Mother Chime arrived here in the Empire almost five years ago. She was indoctrinated by the Queen herself and then she slowly took over the rest of the area. The queen is enamored with her at this moment in time. She is now one of her closest advisers."

Amaretto shrugged her shoulders. "Doesn't seem like much of a problem to me though," she said in a quiet voice.

Alice looked up at Amaretto and then said, "Mother Chime is the reason so many things have changed recently." As if to punctuate her sentence, a loud noise suddenly droned overhead. Alice pursed her lips and Amaretto looked at her aunt who still had a calm look on her face. Katherine slowly tilted her head towards the window and Amaretto paused to look out of the window. Above a large dirigible slowly droned overhead, moving along the sky at a sedate pace.

Johanna waited till the sound was almost gone before she said, "Mother Chime brought scientists with her; what she called great men of learning. They came in and brought with them vast amounts of knowledge and with it, it changed the Empire. The Sun, which was once to be considered setting, rose again. We are now one of the most powerful countries in the world because of her. however, there is some other things that are going on."

Katherine opened her mouth after being quiet for the first time on the ride. "Could it be that the country seems more like it is being run by Mother Chime than the Queen Mother?"

Alice nodded her head. "The Queen Mother has been sequestered because of a strong fever. She is currently under the care of several physicians, but the official line is that she is off in the country for a holiday."

"The Queen Mother on a holiday," Katherine scoffed. "I have never heard something more preposterous."

Alice made a small smile at that. "Needless to say, Mother Chime is currently running the Empire, that is why there are no bobbies and nothing but Iron Men around."

Katherine suddenly began to rummage through her bag and then pulled a small flask out of it that was covered with a small bird that was in flight. When Amaretto looked at it a little closer, she could have sworn that the bird really was in flight on the side of the flask. Katherine took a sip from the flask after carefully opening it and then said, "So what do we do now?"