City of Air (Lost Cities Saga 1)

Leona's heart skipped a beat.

He wore a royal blue silk doublet with matching breeches, a white, lace-trimmed undershirt with high collar and long sleeves, pale blue stockings and black shoes decorated with pale blue ribbons. In one hand he held a black hat with a great white feather and a royal blue silk cape to match his outfit. On his face he wore his Virgo half-mask and even if he had not, Leona would have recognised the Honourable Sebastian of Tyne, anyway. But what was the Imperial magician doing in the Confederacy? And, more importantly, had he seen her?

"What is it?" asked Gloriana, jerking Leona out of her daze. It was just as well, for if she stared at him any longer, Leona was sure that Sebastian would have noticed. Not that that was a bad thing. If Sebastian found her, surely he could rescue her.

"Odette!" snapped Gloriana.

Leona blinked and turned to the woman. Gloriana glared up at her and asked, "What happened?"

"Nothing," said Leona at once. She willed herself not to look at Sebastian again. He should not have noticed her anyway. She was in a mask and an old-fashioned dress and looked barely different from any of the handful of enslaved people in the room. The only thing was if he recognised her power. Then again, why would he? Who was Leona Ruby to him anyway? An opportunity won and lost? Vincent was the person he cared about and to whom she mattered.

She glanced in the direction she had last seen Sebastian. He was still there, now chatting with a lovely young lady dressed like Anne Boleyn, pearls in her hair and a red-lipped smile. There was no sign of Vincent and if he was not there then Sebastian was not here looking for her.

"Do you know that young man?" asked Gloriana.

Leona started and looked back at the woman. She was no longer glaring but looking at Leona with eyes narrowed in suspicion. Leona considered and then decided against lying. If the White Tiger League could take down Lord Aries, what was to stop them doing the same to Sebastian? She replied, "That is Lord Virgo, a governing member of the Zodiac Society."

Gloriana looked at Sebastian and then back at Leona and asked, "How do you know this Lord Virgo?"

Leona stared at Gloriana. This woman was an associate of Mr Garnet and Mr Diamond who, while they had betrayed Lord Aries, were certainly not Leona's allies. And Leona had no idea what to make of Gloriana. She took a breath, glanced back at Sebastian and said, "He is a friend of my late teacher's son. He came home with Vincent for the holiday. We had no idea at the time who he really was."

Gloriana lifted an eyebrow, and asked, "Your teacher's son did not recognise a governing member of the Zodiac Society?"

"Vincent is not a magician," said Leona, "and when he met Lord Virgo he was just an ordinary student at their university. He had no reason to suspect him. Lord Virgo is quite young and not very many people have seen the faces of the Zodiac Society's members."

Gloriana looked past her to Sebastian again, though Leona kept her back turned. Surely someone must have noticed them looking at the Imperial magician by now? Then Gloriana looked over to where Mr Garnet and Mr Diamond stood and asked, "I take it that our associates do not know him?"

"I do not think so," said Leona. "Mr Diamond was on the ship when I was taken and I met Mr Garnet in New Amsterdam with Lord Aries."

This time when Gloriana returned her attention to Leona, she gave the girl a long, considering look. Leona met the woman's gaze for a moment before glancing over at Mr Diamond and Mr Garnet. They had moved over to another group of guests. Then Gloriana asked, "Who are you, really, little girl? Charles told me that you are a living descendant of House Ruby and instrumental to our plans. He also told me that he had rescued you from the Zodiac Society. But if you are who Charles claims you to be the Zodiac Society would have killed you on sight. The war between the Zodiac Society and the Order of the Stone did not end with House Ruby's fall."

Leona took a breath and replied, "I don't know anything about the Order or being a descendant of House Ruby or any war. My name is Leona Alice Ruby and I am a subject of the Empire. I was taken from my home by Lord Aries after he murdered my teacher, John Opal, and brought to New Amsterdam to meet Mr Garnet. I suppose in a way that Mr Garnet did rescue me from Lord Aries, and I have been helping you all with your plans, but I have not even had my Exhibition. All I really want to do is go home."

"And that young man, Lord Virgo, will help you do that?" asked Gloriana.

Leona looked over to see that Sebastian was now dancing with the ill-fated queen. They swept right past Mr Garnet and Mr Diamond without garnering so much as a glance. But of course not, the men were not magicians, and even if they heard Sebastian's name and title, what did they have to fear from him?

Leona looked away and replied, "I don't think so. I don't think he's here looking for me and I don't see Vincent. My family could not afford to pay him to search anyway, and-and what would be the p-point?" Admitting it hurt much more than she thought it would.

"'What would be the point?'" asked Gloriana, scoffing. "Miss Ruby, do you have any idea of the power that you have? You have given a rebel force an army, one that cannot be killed easily. Do you know how long we have searched for such an advantage? Why do you think House Ruby was in power for more than two centuries?"

"But I am not a descendant of House Ruby," said Leona.

"How do you know that?" asked Gloriana.

Leona wanted to stamp her foot and scream but instead she took a deep breath and replied in a low voice, "Because magicians do not only exist in the Empire. My name is Ruby because, as you well know, one of my ancestors had been bought and worked for a plantation owned by someone whose name was. Even John Opal, my teacher, had changed his name from Potts because the last person named Opal in his family was his maternal great-grandfather."

Leona had not meant to be rude but she could not help it, and squeezed her hands into fist to regain some control. She was agitated, possible rescue was mere metres away but she dared not go over to Sebastian. She had no idea how he would react to seeing her there or if he would be able to help. She was also still very tired, underfed and trapped in the Confederacy. She had neither the patience nor the inclination to go over this same old argument again. Still, she shook her hands out of the fists, straightened her spine and stepped back to the wall. Then she said, "I am an aether magician, yes, but I have no connection to your Order or your Houses or this war or whatever it is you have planned. My little brother and I are subjects of the Empire, not slaves, and all I want is for us to go home alive, not be killed here for things that do not concern us."

Gloriana was silent for a time after this and Leona took the opportunity to try to get her breathing under control. Some of the underwire in her corset had loosened and now dug painfully into her back. She forgot about it soon enough though, when she realised that she could sense the soldiers.

The White Tiger League was on the move. She closed her eyes and exhaled. There was nothing to be done for it now but to see the plan through. In addition to raising their undead army, Mr Garnet had something big planned to ensure the Confederate surrender. She took another deep calming breath, willing herself to stop shaking, and opened her eyes.

Sebastian stood before her.

She squeaked and covered her mouth with both hands, pressing her back into the wall. He did not move, just stared at her slightly wide-eyed, completely ignoring Gloriana beside her. How had Sebastian noticed Leona standing there with Gloriana, out of everyone in the room, when he had just been dancing? Then he extended a hand towards her and said, "Miss Ruby…?"

Gloriana stood up suddenly, forcing Sebastian to take a step back. She was taller than him and the width of her skirt certainly helped. Miss Boleyn next to him, put a hand on his arm and said, "Your Lordship, if you—"

He cut her off by addressing Gloriana. "Madame, forgive me if I have broken some kind of social code in this place, but I must speak with that young lady."

Gloriana narrowed her eyes at him, gaze hard and said, "You will not."

Sebastian's gaze hardened a little before he turned to Leona and said, "Miss Leona Ruby, I know it is you. Please…we thought you were dead, you and your brother both. Vincent has been beside himself with worry over how he was to explain this to your parents."

"Vincent?" asked Leona. She stepped away from the wall. She could have ignored Sebastian right up to the moment he mentioned Vincent.

Sebastian shook off his dancing partner and took Leona's hands in his, smiling slightly. "Yes," he said, letting his gaze wander over her as if he was searching for injury, "he—we both thought that Lord Aries had killed you. We had searched everywhere, but Lord Aries was long gone and no one I contacted could confirm where he went or if there was a girl with him." He squeezed Leona's hands in his own, his smile spreading over his face to his eyes, and almost breathed the words, "Thank goodness you're alive, Miss Ruby."

"I say…what is the meaning of this?" asked Mr Garnet.

They all turned to find that he and Mr Diamond had come over with the sisters and their dancing partners. Sebastian stepped away from them, pulling Leona with him. She went easily, squeezing his arms in relief. Apparently unaware of her reaction, he replied, "Who are you, sir?"

More than a few heads were turned in their direction. Couples had stopped dancing to stare, as did a few soldiers along the walls. It was not every day, or at least not until much later that men started fights over slave girls. Mr Garnet straightened and said, "I am Charles Garnet, and that young lady you have so boldly seized is company property."

Sebastian sucked in a breath a moment before he snapped, "This young lady is a subject of the Empire, taken from her home against her will more than two weeks earlier. She is no one's property."

Mr Garnet gave Sebastian a second look and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am Lord Virgo, Sixth Among Twelve, governing member of the Zodiac Society and representative of Her Imperial Majesty's magicians on official business with the Confederate States of America. And as representative of Her Majesty, I will be taking Miss Ruby with me when I leave," said Sebastian. He glared at Mr Garnet, as if daring the man to contradict him.

Mr Garnet said nothing and Sebastian turned to Leona again and asked, "Miss Ruby, are you alright? You're shaking."

Leona had not noticed. She willed herself to stop and said, "Y-yes. I'm okay."

"What about your brother, where is he?" asked Sebastian.

That reminded Leona of the White Tiger League's plot and she looked over to Mr Garnet. The soldiers had surrounded the house. He may not have been able to feel it, but his daughters and Gloriana certainly did. Leona could expose them though and stop the war before it began. She turned back to Sebastian and began, "Listen, Mr T—"

The windows exploded.

The air filled with screams as shards of glass, wood splinters and the shredded drapes went flying into the room, followed moments later by the construct soldiers. Sebastian shielded Leona with his body, sending them both to the floor and throwing his cloak over their heads. A moment later, she heard the earthy clods of Persephone's feet as the golem appeared to protect her master. The room filled with the sound of gunfire, thunderous explosions that jolted Leona's heart and tore screams from her throat despite her best efforts to muffle them in Sebastian's sleeve. And then everything went silent.

Sebastian waited for a ten count before lifting his head to look around. Leona could see nothing. The arrival of the construct soldiers had destroyed a number of the lights. A few magicians revealed themselves by sending up jackalantan but the tiny balls of light did little to illuminate the room.

Then someone said, "Sebastian-tono, do you want me to escort Ruby-san to our hotel?"

It was a young man's voice. Sebastian turned to the speaker and Leona followed to see a tall, slim young man with neatly-slicked black hair and round-rimmed glasses. Then Sebastian realised their position and scrambled to his feet. He and his assistant, for that was what the young man was, another magician about Vincent's age, helped Leona off the ground, then Sebastian replied, "That looks to be a rather difficult proposition, Mr Suda."

"Hardly," said the young man. Now that they were face to face, Leona saw that Mr Suda was from the Orient, though not Qingese. "I dare say we would only be a little inconvenienced."

Leona looked around the room. Most of the guests were huddled in the centre of the dance floor, surrounded by the construct soldiers in borrowed Confederate grey. This was Leona's handiwork. Even if she had had no choice, she had done the summoning. She said, "We can't just leave them like this."

Both young men turned to look at her. She met Sebastian's gaze and said, "I…I am the one who summoned the soldiers. And the general. Lord Aries showed me how and I did it."

"Lord Aries show—is he here?" asked Sebastian.

"No," said Leona. "They betrayed him and brought me here to help them do this. They want to restart the war."

Sebastian turned back to the soldiers, just as Mr Garnet and his allies appeared again, and this time he was smiling. Sebastian shifted so that he stood between them and Leona. Mr Garnet's smile widened and he said, "I am afraid there has been a change of government, Your Lordship, and the Union has no agreements with the Empire. As of now you are here illegally and we are well within our rights to detain you all. It is nothing personal, of course, but politics."

Leona's heart rate picked up again but Sebastian scoffed, straightened his clothes and said, "That is quite alright. I understand how these things go. However, I cannot allow you to detain my person, my crew or Miss Ruby. So if you will excuse me."

Four construct soldiers stepped away from the guests towards Sebastian. He did not blink, he muttered something, took a step towards them and a moment later the four construct soldiers fell apart and reassembled into a single knight knelt at Sebastian's feet. Their stunned souls remained suspended in mid-air, glowing softly. The sisters gasped but Mr Garnet merely pursed his lips. Sebastian turned back to them and said, "I am sorry, I did not properly introduce myself. I am the most powerful Earth magician you have ever seen."

No one said a word and Sebastian smiled. "Now, I understand your reluctance to release Miss Ruby into my care. You did go through all the hard work of stealing her away from my colleague and dragging her into your war, but this is no place for her. I am sure you can find an alternative method of getting whatever it is that you want without her. So, if you would excuse us…"

He turned to the door and they heard Mr Diamond cock his pistol. Sebastian turned back to him. Mr Diamond grinned and said, "Pardonnez moi."

Sebastian's expression did not change. Mr Diamond stepped away from the others to go to Leona. She backed away at once, grasping for Sebastian, who took her hands and pushed her behind him. Mr Diamond stopped smiling and said, "Now, now, ma cherie, you know that we will not hurt you. I thought we were finally getting along?"

Leona was too close to escape to care. She would not be taken by Mr Diamond and the Garnets, not again. She looked around at the others. All of the soldiers were under guard and the Construct-General was standing with Mr Garnet. Leona doubted that she would get him to help her. He had to want this second chance to win this war as badly as the White Tiger League.

Suddenly, Rose called out, "Rota! Mist! Seize her!"

A pair of construct soldiers shed their metal skins and disappeared. A moment later, Leona was caught in a whirlwind. She screamed but stopped when she found that she was having trouble breathing. The sound of the wind rushing past her ears was terrible, deafening, and still through it she could hear a cacophony. Sebastian was calling her name. Leona squeezed her eyes shut. The whirlwind began to lift her off the ground.

Leona's eyes snapped open again just as she was finally torn away from Sebastian and Mr Suda and swept up to the ceiling. Persephone, already locked in battle with another pair of elementals cast by the Garnet sisters, made a vain swipe at the elementals holding Leona. The room descended into chaos.

Sebastian had summoned a number of smaller gnomes and sent them after the construct soldiers. The little earth elementals erupted from the earth and up through the floorboards and threw themselves into the room, scattering the constructs like tin soldiers in a life-sized version of a child's game. The Confederate soldiers had joined the fight too, using fists of flesh and bone against the metal ones of the constructs. Mr Diamond and Mr Suda were engaged in some kind of bizarre fight involving an umbrella against a pistol. Everyone was fighting desperately. Leona closed her eyes again and tried to picture the grounds outside the manor. Surely there had been a lake or a fountain nearby.

She could remember none, but there was water in the house. She yelled over the sound of the wind:

"The Black Turtle rises from the Northern seas,

Mother of the waters, her eyes see the world,

Giver of life, Healer, destroyer of worlds,

I call your name: Water.

Give me a goddamn leviathan!"

Leona knew that it had worked when the air elementals dropped her. She fell, hard, into the hostages, the other women's padded bustles softening her landing only a little. One of the women pulled her flat to the floor and that was when Leona felt the floor shaking.

Someone shouted, "They're going to bring the house down on our heads!"

That prompted another round of screams and then someone hauled Leona to her feet and began pushing her towards the exit. She could see no sign of Sebastian or the others. They made it through the door moments before a wave of water burst through the walls and swept through the room and out the destroyed windows. Leona just caught a glimpse of construct soldiers sliding across the dance floor, the water breaking them into pieces as they went.

Out the doors, down the steps and into the drive the guests spilled. Most of them were bloodied and covered in splinters, though some had clearly been caught in the deluge, their clothes hanging limply around their forms as they ran. They were met by soldiers from the checkpoints racing to the house to protect the Confederate president. Some of the guests tried to intercept them and were hit or threatened. Gunfire erupted, lighting up the dark night like wild jackalantan. Then the second wave of construct soldiers hit and the screaming started again.

Leona stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked back up at the front doors for Sebastian. She got the sisters instead.

Lavender, Rose and Orchid had evidently been caught in the worst of it. Soaking wet, their dresses were shredded ruins, their elaborate coiffures drooped off the backs of their heads, and all exposed skin on their necks, faces and arms were bloodied and bruised. As one, their gazes fell on her. Leona began to back away from the steps. The sisters called their elementals. Leona could not see them but she felt them. The sisters started chanting together, and it took Leona a moment to realise that they were trying to combine the power of their sylphs. It was not unheard of for a group of magicians to do such a thing. It was the reason the Empire's army had been near unstoppable in its conquest of major parts of the world.

Leona called for the leviathan and it surged through the front doors behind the sisters like the sea in a storm. They scattered screaming before it hit but Leona had not been trying to hit them, just stop their attack.

"Stop it, Leona! You're ruining everything!" cried Rose.

"Have you forgotten the Order?" called Orchid.

Lavender said nothing. Leona suspected that the eldest Garnet sister had never really bought Lord Aries' story. Leona shouted back, "I am not doing this with you! I don't care about the Order or your war!"

And then Leona was swept up into the air again. They did not try to be gentle this time. They spun and turned her about until she was dizzy and nauseous, swinging her up to the clouds in one moment and then dashing her towards the ground in the next. Leona gagged, choked and squeezed her eyes shut as her head began to hurt. They did not seem to care anymore if she died of fright. She needed to make them stop before they killed her.

She knew the leviathan had answered her will when she started falling through the air. Then she got her bearings and realised that she was so high above Richmond that the city below was like a spider-web of light stretching between dark walls of forest and sea. She bit back her scream of horror, decided against the incantation and pulled the water towards her. In moments she fell into a column of water that soaked her to the skin, shredded her dress into ribbons and slowed her fall into a gentle but terrifying slide. Leona peeked through her fingers at the ground, saw it still rushing up to meet her and pulled again, turning the water into an icy column that stuck fast to her wet dress and stopped her fall entirely. Leona was left sitting atop a very tall, undulating tower overlooking a battlefield.

She was close enough to the ground now that she could just distinguish between the groups fighting below. The Confederate army was out in force, arrayed about the estate in various positions, trying to contain the construct army. There were far too many of the soldier's bodies on the field though, lying amongst the scattered remains of the constructs that they had managed to destroy. Not that they did not have aid of their own. Sebastian and his assistant were there as well, tearing through the ranks of constructs with an efficiency that was amazing to behold.

Leona had to get down there to help them. Taking a deep breath, she imagined the column as a large, winding staircase, complete with railing all the way to the ground. Then she opened her eyes, stood up and hurried down the frozen flights as quickly as she could manage on the slippery ice. One flight from the bottom, something barrelled into the column, shattering it and throwing Leona headfirst into the dirt.

She landed heavily, her vision going white as she bounced and rolled before finally falling to a stop in a ditch, clutching at her still-smarting forehead, eyes watering. But then someone called, "I found her!"

Hands seized her arms and pulled her out of the dirt. Leona released her forehead and blinked open her eyes to see that Mr Suda and a strange young woman in a ball gown had come to her rescue. And when they got a good look at her, Mr Suda straightened and turned his back and the girl gasped and called to someone just out of sight, "Stay where you are until I call you!"

Then the young woman began looking around them until her gaze fell on a fallen soldier in a dress uniform with a long cloak. She scrambled over to him, stripped the body of the cloak and hurried back to Leona.

"Here, put this on, Miss Ruby," she said.

Leona took it from the girl wondering how she knew her name. As if reading her mind, she replied, "I am Lady Diana of Nottingham, Sebastian's cousin and second assistant. Come with me, quickly now."

Lady Diana helped Leona to her feet while Mr Suda shielded them with a massive golem in the form of a samurai warrior called "Namazu". As they passed, it bent down, scooped up a section of earth and lifted it up between them and the gunfight as one might lift a shield.

"You're in good hands, Miss Ruby. Mr Suda comes from a family with a long history as warriors and assassins. Isn't that exciting?" asked Lady Diana, smiling at his back.

"Miss Ruby! Oh thank goodness!" cried Sebastian, running over to greet them. Then he noticed her dress, jerked to a halt and turned his back.

"She hit her head on the landing but she looks alright," said Lady Diana with a giggle.

Sebastian gave a stiff nod and said, "If we had only known you were alive we would have come for you sooner, Miss Ruby. The authorities dismissed the whole thing as a terrible accident and told your parents that you had run away."

"An accident?" said Leona.

He glanced back at her a moment to catch her eye before replying, "Apparently no one got a very good look at his murderer, except for myself, Vincent and you. They would have blamed you for the whole thing too, if I had not pulled rank and made sure that the story was somewhat right. I am so sorry, Miss Ruby. We brought so much trouble into your life."

Leona, still trying to process the fact that there had been an attempt to blame her, said, "Yes. You did."

Sebastian flinched as if she had struck him and began, "Miss Ruby, I—"

Mr Diamond stepped into Sebastian's path, cutting him off. Mr Diamond had his gun out and the Garnets with him. He ignored the others and said, "Ah, ma cherie, I thought we had lost you."

Lady Diana and Mr Suda both drifted closer to Leona and Sebastian stepped back, the three of them and the golem boxing her in. Mr Diamond noticed this, chuckled and said, "That's not going to do a damn thing. I know magicians aren't immune to taking a bullet or two."

"Try it and I bury you alive, right here," said Sebastian, baring his teeth.

Persephone burst out of the soil behind the Garnets, startling the sisters and showering all of them in dark, loose dirt.

Mr Diamond cocked his pistol and then Mr Garnet burst into flame.