Beauty in the Beast Read Online Free

war machine!’ some cried.
    “‘A mechanical monster!’ cried others.
    “The dragon flew high into the air over London, hungry and cranky. How would you feel, had you slept four hundred years? It roasted all the tiny people in the street below it and gobbled them up, teeth catching on the hot metal of the automatons it mistook for food. It cracked apart buses and used lampposts as toothpicks.”
    The dragon puppet swooped over Beth’s head, mouth belching invisible fire at the quivering finger puppets. One by one her fingers fell. The dragon dived behind Beth again, and we shucked our puppets for the queen and the two suited men with black silk top hats.
    “The queen and the parliament roused from their beds to address the emergency. They had never dealt with a dragon before, much less a hungry one. Its roars made the walls of the palace tremble.
    “They brought out all of their guns and shot at the dragon. Gatlings, pistols and even old-fashioned cannon. The dragon dodged the cannon balls, and the rain of bullets were like needle pricks to it. Shots of electricity crackled from the Tesla guns and did nothing except anger it. The beast moved too fast through the sky, and its scales were like plate armor.
    “‘Let us fight it from the sky!’ cried the people, and so every airship was deployed. They surrounded the beast from every side, all of Britain’s best pilots. But the fight did not last long. All it took was one blast of fire from the dragon to turn the entire sky armada into ashes.
    “Now much of London lay in ruins. The dragon settled into a hot crater at the center of the city with a pile of horses and ate them like snacks.
    “The people despaired. ‘Something must be done!’
    “Until this time, the Prime Analyzer had remained silent. The House of Commons and the queen assumed that the Analyzer—a construct of logic and modern technology—simply knew nothing of dragons. Perhaps for the first time ever, it had no solution for them.”
    “Prime Analyzer?” asked Rolph.
    Beth raised her open palm with the tiny replica of the analytical engine resting upon it. “Yes. The Prime Analyzer of the Parliament.”
    “Oh.”
    I received the impression that he’d never heard of the analytical engine that had replaced the House of Lords five years ago. But he made no further inquiry, and Beth continued with her narration.
    “Well. So the Prime Analyzer, which had sat silent for hours, its gears and mills slowly turning as they always did—constantly thinking, constantly analyzing—suddenly began to clack as it produced its thoughts.
    “Henry Babbage himself retrieved the printed paper from the Analyzer’s tray. Dumbfounded, he paused, then read its advice aloud. It was a single sentence. ‘Send a knight to defeat it.’
    “The message confused Queen Victoria. ‘A knight? Why, they haven’t existed since the Middle Ages. Where shall we find one?’
    “But the Prime Analyzer stood quiet again. Desperate, the queen released a royal decree: all practicing knights should report to the castle.
    “But of course, the only people to report were honorary knights, not a warrior among them. Had the Prime Analyzer, with no other knowledge of dragons, simply given them a solution drawn from a children’s story?
    “By that evening, they had almost given up. The best they could do was talk the dragon into a treaty, but would the monster be open to diplomacy? Did it even speak or think?
    “With a great clank and a hiss, the door at last opened and a voice rang out, metallic and echoing. ‘I am here at last, my queen! Have no fear! I will slay the dragon!’
    “In the doorway stood a knight! A knight far larger than any normal man, fully encased in shining brass armor.”
    Miles walked the knight puppet through the air, its booted feet stomping across an invisible stage.
    “ Bang! Bang! Bang! His steps echoed in the hall, which had gone silent except for that very slow, constant turning of the Prime