Mortal Engines: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

After jumping out of their balloon, Tom and Hester walk all night toward London. In the morning, they realize they’re at the edge of the Rustwater Marshes, nearly a thousand miles away from London. They keep walking for the rest of the day but aren’t sure what to do next. That night, after Tom goes to sleep, Hester suddenly wakes him up. They hear the engine of an airship and realize it must be Shrike.

In the airship, Shrike can indeed see Tom and Hester with his heat vision. Shrike’s pilot complains that if Shrike can do this, they shouldn’t have wasted time chasing the empty balloon. But Shrike wanted to reward Hester for cleverness, although he doesn’t tell the pilot that.

Below, Hester and Tom run from the airship. Shrike calls out to them, saying the hunt is over. Hester asks how Shrike even ended up in London. He reveals he sold his collection of old relics in order to charter an airship and make it to London before Hester. In London, Crome took Shrike to the Engineerium for experiments, which Shrike expected. He endured being taken apart all because Crome promised him his “heart’s desire,” in exchange for killing Hester.

All of a sudden, there’s a loud rumbling sound. A town comes out of the fog and runs over Shrike and his airship. Tom and Hester are both shocked for a moment. They wonder what the town is running away from so quickly. Soon, a second town races their way. Hester and Tom dodge the wheels and grab a ride on the new town.

The town is Tunbridge Wheels, and it’s small, more of a suburb. The place seems deserted and large parts of it are rusting away. Tom notices a flag and realizes it must be a pirate suburb. Men and women with large guns emerge from the fog. Meanwhile, a still-alive Shrike tries to work his way out of the mud, tracking the movement of Tunbridge Wheels with his heat vision.