The League of Seven (39 page)

“It's the atmosphere,” Fergus said. “The light from the stars gets all wonky when it comes through the air, making our eyes see it as a flicker. Doesn't work the same way for planets. They're closer, so they don't—”

Hachi screamed in their ears and spasmed, jerking back and forth on the rope in the next grid. Blue-hot energy crackled over her gloves and up her coat, sparking in the fur lining of her coat.

Lektricity!

“Hachi!” Fergus cried. He lunged for her and fell. Archie caught Fergus's safety line with one hand and hung on to the rope maze with the other, using his massive strength to keep Fergus from falling. As though he were lifting a wooden toy at the end of a bit of string, Archie raised Fergus back up to Hachi.

“Higher!” Fergus cried.

Archie lifted him up until Fergus could grab the rope that Hachi still clung to. As soon as Fergus touched it, the lektricity shifted from Hachi to him. Archie knew that right then, underneath Fergus's layers of winter clothing, the black lines that covered his friend's skin like tattoos were rearranging themselves, turning Fergus into a syphon for all the lektricity.

Without the lektric charge to hold her to the rope, Hachi's hands went slack and she fell.

“Catch her!” Fergus cried.

Archie fumbled for her safety line and caught it. Hachi jerked to a stop, and he hauled her back up.

Fergus pulled his hand away from the lektrified rope. The blue-hot lightning followed him, finally disconnecting and slinking back into its hidden home in the rope.

“Crivens! I thought I could wait out the charge, but it kept coming! What's powering that thing?”

“Here, help me get Hachi back up,” Archie said. She was awake, which was good, but she was still groggy. Archie lifted her higher, and Fergus helped Hachi get her hands back on the safe ropes in their grid.

“So,” Hachi mumbled. “Planets don't twinkle.”

“What?” Fergus said. “Oh … yeah.”

Hachi punched Fergus, but there wasn't much strength in it. “You might have said so
before
I followed one.”

Hachi leaned into Fergus, and he hugged her with one arm while he held tight to the rope with the other. Hachi and Fergus put their heads together, and Archie looked away.
Blech
. Hachi and Fergus had become close in their adventures together, and though neither of them said so, they were practically boyfriend and girlfriend. It always made Archie feel a little weird to see them when they got like this. But a little jealous of how close they were as friends too.

At last they separated. “I don't know how we're going to tell the difference between our guiding light and the planets,” Fergus said.

“Planets move. The light doesn't,” Hachi said. “We may not run into any more in the right position to fool us,” she added, “but if we do, we'll wait and watch.”

“And all the while get closer to dawn,” Fergus said.

“We should be moving, not talking,” Hachi said.

“Are you sure you're strong enough?” Fergus asked.

In answer, Hachi climbed up to the next grid.

“So, she's strong enough then,” Fergus said to Archie, though of course Hachi could hear him too over the speaking tubes.

Together they climbed, sometimes moving up, sometimes side to side, sometimes back down, but all the while working their way around and up the giant dome of helium. The sheer vertical face of the balloon gradually gave way to the gentle slope of the top of the balloon, and they crawled along on hands and knees, still clinging to the ropes so the wind wouldn't tear them off.

Archie heard someone scream, and he froze.

“Crivens! What's that?” Fergus asked. “There can't be anyone else up here!”

But someone was up ahead of them. Lots of someones, from the sound of screams coming to them over the wind. It sounded like someone was being tortured.

“I can see silhouettes against the stars,” Hachi said, crouching low. “Something's coming. Something's coming right at us!”

Archie ducked with Hachi and Fergus, then remembered he was the Heracles of the team. Whatever was coming, it was his job to meet it head on, so the others wouldn't be hurt. But that didn't mean he wasn't scared. Still holding the rope, he raised himself up, closed his eyes, and turned his head away.

“Honk-honk-honk!” the thing cried as it got closer.

Honk-honk-honk?

Something flapping and feathery smacked Archie in the face and he fell over, glancing up in time to see a big white bird launch itself off the side of the balloon and disappear into the dark night sky.

“It's birds,” he said. “Geese!”

Fergus lit his oil lamp and shined it forward to have a look. The top of the balloon was covered with bird nests! There had to be hundreds of them, scattered here and there among the grid lines of the rope net that covered the giant balloon.

“You know what this means?” Hachi said.

“Aye,” Fergus said. “If this thing is covered with birds, it's also covered with bird poop.”

“No,” Hachi said. “I mean, yes, probably, but that's not what I meant. Look at
where
they have their nests.”

Archie scanned the nests, trying to see what Hachi saw. All he noticed was that the birds were packed into just a few of the grid squares, when they had lots more empty ones they could have been using. No—wait. He understood!

“Oh, brass! They're nesting in the grid squares that aren't booby trapped!”

“Exactly,” Hachi said.

Sure enough, Archie was able to trace a path from where they stood all the way to the top, where something small and red glowed in the night sky.

The Dragon Lantern
.

Copyright © 2014 by Alan Gratz

 

Starscape Books

Reading & Activity Guide

THE LEAGUE OF SEVEN

by Alan Gratz

Grades 4–8, ages 9–13

 

About This Guide

The questions and activities that follow are intended to enhance your reading of
The League of Seven
. Please feel free to adapt this content to suit the needs and interests of your students or reading group participants.

BEFORE READING THE BOOK:
Writing & Discussion Activities

The pre-reading activities below correlate to the following Common Core State Standards: (W.4-8.3) (SL.4-8.1, 3)

1.
   Ask each student to write about a time when s/he felt that a parent or other adult was treating them too much like “a little kid.” What was the situation? In what way did they feel they were being treated childishly? What was the result? Describe the way in which they would have preferred to be treated. How do they imagine the outcome of the situation would have been different had they been treated in this way?

2.
   Invite students to discuss their experiences belonging to clubs or teams. What are the purposes and goals of these groups? How did they gain entry to these groups (e.g., sign-up, try-out)? How do group members work together? Are their groups successful in reaching their objectives? What groups do they see in the adult world (e.g., political parties, community organizations, book clubs)? In what ways do they see these groups as similar to, or different from, the groups to which school-age people belong?

Discussion Questions

The discussion questions below correlate to the following Common Core State Standards: (SL.4-8.1, 3, 4) (SL.6-8.2, 3) (RL.4-8.1, 2, 3) (RH.4-8.6)

1.
   The first chapter of
The League of Seven
introduces the “Tik Tok servant” Mr. Rivets. Describe the relationship between Archie and Mr. Rivets. Consider the high-tech devices you own or use. How might they be similar to and/or different from Mr. Rivets?

2.
   What do you think the author means when he writes “People didn't want to know there really were monsters in the world” (p. 19)? What kind of monsters does he mean? Do you think this statement holds true in our own world, too?

3.
   Explain the difference between “Mangleborn” and “Manglespawn.” What types of creatures are the black bugs that attach themselves to Mr. and Mrs. Dent and other Septemberists?

4.
   Why do Archie and Mr. Rivets set the
Hesperus
on a course to Florida? What situation does Archie discover when he arrives? With what important people is he imprisoned?

5.
   En route to New Rome with Hachi and Fergus, the group stops to see the newly widowed Mrs. Henhawk. What promises are made and/or revealed in the course of this visit?

6.
   What animals are represented in Hachi's set of “clockwork gizmos”? Compare Hachi's five animals and their abilities to the seven abilities required of various League members as they have formed through history. In what other ways are the mechanical animals important to the story, both technically and symbolically?

7.
   New Rome seems to be an alternate history version of New York City. What features of the real city are recognizable in Archie's descriptions? What are the most significant differences between “New Rome” and the real New York?

8.
   Before Archie begins to understand his own role in the newly forming League, he is already the keeper of the “true” history of the world and the person who shares legends and stories previously unknown to (or misunderstood by) Hachi and Fergus. Describe one or more of these stories, how it was originally understood by Archie's companions, and what is important about them learning the truth in the course of the novel.

9.
   Who is Mr. Tesla and how do Archie, Hachi, and Fergus find him? What does he reveal to them about the threat posed by Edison? How does the scene in Tesla's workshop show the dueling positive and negative elements of technological advancement? Can you apply your observations to a recent technological innovation in our own world?

10.
 Is the Great Bear's pelt truly invulnerable? Explain your answer.

11.
 What is Hachi's “mantra” as depicted in chapter 22? How might it relate to the concept behind the League? What does the mantra reveal to readers above Hachi's character and her motives?

12.
 Where is Lady Josephine's Academy? How is this location the scene of both a great deception and a great revelation?

13.
 
Here
, Ms. Ambrose bids her student farewell, saying, “I pray you find peace, Hachi—but I can at least rest well in the knowledge that you have found good friends.” How might this be a wish you could make for yourself or offer to someone in your own life? Is there “peace” to be found in the League of Seven? Why or why not?

14.
 How do nursery rhymes relate to the Septemberists' mission? Has reading this novel made you reconsider folktales and legends you have been told? Explain your answer.

15.
 How do the three friends defeat the Swarm Queen? By what betrayals is Archie tempted?

16.
 What does Archie learn about his relationship to his parents at the end of the story? How might this change his understanding of the words “family” and “friends”? What might you say to him to help him cope with his new insights?

17.
 If Archie is the strongman/shadow figure, Hachi the warrior/fighter, and Fergus the tinker/maker, what other roles remain to be filled to form a new League of Seven? What do you hope will happen in the next installment of the novel?

Research & Writing Activities

The research and writing activities below correlate to the following Common Core State Standards: (L.4-8.4) (RL.5-8.4) (RL.5-6.5) (RL.6-8.6) (RL.4-8.7) (SL.4-8.1, 3) (W.4-8.2, 7) (WHST 6-8.6)

1.
   Go to the library or online to learn more about the literary subgenre of
steampunk
. Find at least three sources for your information. Use your research to create an informative poster that includes a definition of steampunk, a short history of the origin of the genre, and a list of some famous steampunk novels and/or movies.

2.
   The
setting
of a novel can loosely be defined as the time and place in which the story unfolds. In
The League of Seven,
the setting is an alternate history wherein some major world events took different turns—and yielded different outcomes—than they did in readers' reality. Alone or in small groups, identify events, geographical names, inventions, and historical figures that are represented differently in the novel than they are in your history books. Create a booklet entitled “A Guide to the Alternate History of
The League of Seven,
” including maps; alternative biographies of historical figures, nations, and Native American tribal groups; short descriptions of specialized technologies, means of transportation, and other elements that are familiar yet different from the reality of the reader's world.

3.
   Go to the library or online to learn about ways the number seven, featured in the novel's title, has significance in many cultures. Consider researching the legendary Irish warrior Cú Chulainn, the Seven Gods of Good Fortune in Japanese mythology, or the biblical account of seven days of creation. With classmates or friends, create a mural, large mobile, or sculpture depicting the significance of
seven
across cultures and times.

4.
   Go to the library or online to research the sources of one or more past League of Seven members to which Archie refers throughout the novel, such as Heracles, Hippolyta, Theseus, or Wayland [the] Smith. Write a one-page report comparing the history of this character as found in your research with the portrayal of the character in the novel.