City of Air (Lost Cities Saga 1)

There was tea, as promised in the sitting room when Lord Aries led Leona to the ship's cavernous library which was just off from the captain's quarters and his own room. Leona took him at his word, once again confused by the twists and turns she had taken to get there and wondering, not for the first time, just how large the Slyphide really was.

She was not given the opportunity to speak with Generous. He had been whisked away by the crew on the way in and presumably led to the engine room. Cedric had not looked particularly pleased at this, but then he was sent off with Mr Diamond on Lord Aries' orders to "inspect the equipment and check for stowaways". From the suspicious looks he kept shooting at Leona over his shoulder on their way down the corridor, it was clear that this was the last thing he wanted to do. But had he not heard Leona say that this man had murdered someone? Did he not care that Lord Aries could possibly do the same to him with the same nonchalance and get away with it?

The library had fewer windows and so was not as brightly-illuminated but there were sconces in the wall for jackalantan to perch when it got dark. The long room was also separated into three places, with long benches and sofas for sitting on one side, a long table with no chairs on which maps and measuring instruments had been laid out in the middle and at the other end, a massive desk and high-backed leather armchair for working. There was a globe on the desk and an ordinary oil lamp. Lord Aries directed Leona to the sitting area and the djinniyeh took her place at the door.

Leona barely waited for him to take his place on the sofa opposite hers to ask, "Why are we going to New Amsterdam? Shouldn't we be going to Londinium? Aren't the Union and the Empire sworn enemies? Won't they hang you when they find out that you're consorting with the enemy?"

Lord Aries, in the act of reaching for the tea pot, paused and laughed. Then he sat back and said, "Miss Ruby, so impatient…" She scowled and he said, "You say 'we', does that mean that you are willing to be cooperative now? And is that concern I hear?"

Leona sniffed and said, "I'm your hostage, I have to go wherever you go…and I don't want you to kill my brother like you did Mr Opal. And-and I don't think you should throw Mr Miller overboard."

He went wide-eyed at this and Leona's cheeks heated and she ducked her head. He did not try to conceal his amusement as he asked, "What makes you think I'm going to throw Mr Miller overboard? He is my apprentice, as I promised."

Leona sat back in her seat with her hands linked in her lap and looked him directly in the eyes. She said, "You don't need him. You're already 'Lord Aries, First Among the Twelve, governing member of the Zodiac Society'…and you don't look that old so you don't need an apprentice, not yet. Not to mention that you already have her." She jerked a hand in the direction of the djinniyeh.

Lord Aries looked at the djinniyeh too but she did not respond. Then he turned back to Leona and said, "Oh, but I do have use of him, Miss Ruby. Mr Miller is ambitious, so much so that he is blinded by it. Imagine the possibilities."

Leona scowled and said, "He would not make a good scapegoat, he would run away as soon as there's trouble."

Now Lord Aries lifted an eyebrow and asked, "Do you have someone else in mind then?"

The wool of her dress was beginning to irritate her skin. Leona pulled awkwardly at it a moment and said, "Just don't kill them, please."

She refused to look up at Lord Aries' face and after a moment he asked, "How is it that you exist?"

At this she did look up, brow furrowed. He was lounging in his seat now, arms spread over the top of the sofa. He continued, "Is there anyone else in your family, apart from your younger brother of course, who has any special ability? Do you know of anyone in your mother's or father's families? I know that it was best to keep such abilities secret in the days before the Emancipation but surely there were whispers?"

Leona thought back to her meetings with her family during school vacations, to the stilted conversations with her mother, the few words exchanged with her father and said, "No."

He considered this for a moment, tapping his hands against the seat and then sat forward, elbows on his knees, fingers in a steeple under chin and said, "I have believed all my life that I was the only one left. I have never encountered another elemental magician in all my time around magicians in Albion, in all my travels tracing magical history in the world. Not one. And then here you are."

Leona shrugged and replied, "Maybe you were looking in the wrong place. Master Opal did not find me among magicians."

He smiled at her, she ignored it and he said, "Indeed. That he did not. I should have thanked him."

Leona felt a flash of anger and tears prickled at her eyes, but she took a deep breath and blinked them away. Lord Aries observed this in silence and then said, "He was wrong, you know. He should have taught you to use the power you have, if only to control it. If he had you would have summoned the water sprite you asked for and not the spirit of the Carib warrior you received instead."

"Is that what you learned?" asked Leona.

"It is what I discovered," Lord Aries replied, nearly cutting her off. Leona's brow furrowed slightly and he released a breath and said, "Contrary to what you may think of me, Miss Ruby, I was not born to the wealth of someone like Sebastian of Tyne. My mother was a whore in Londinium and my father a customer who did not even give her his name. She tried to get rid of me, she said, before I was born but it did not take and I came anyway and she decided that if I was that determined to live, I might as well. She did her best by me, I am sure, for I was better fed than some of my friends and when I was big enough she sought out work for me from those same customers. One of them suggested chimney sweep and that was how I discovered I could manipulate fire elementals. I just did not know that the way I did it was unusual until another magician saw me."

Leona tugged at the sleeve of her dress again, head bowed, gaze trained on the hem of her skirt, and said, "Master Opal said he knew what I was because I summoned a water elemental with no training. But didn't you see the duppies?"

Lord Aries looked momentarily confused and then, "Duppies? Oh, you mean the ghosts? Yes, I saw them. But I learned very quickly that no one else did and people who talked about things that weren't there did not survive very long. I also learned that in order to survive one had to learn how to control their abilities and as a magician the only way to do that was to find a teacher. Of course, teachers are not free and there are no formal schools of magic in all of the Empire. Any that exist are private enterprises that charge fees the former students will pay for the rest of their lives. I was fortunate to have my predecessor become one of my mother's customers. I hear the Qingese have done something but it is mainly for the children of officials and the aristocracy. But haven't you ever wondered how those freedmen magicians came to be? Or why so few of them have found their way to different careers? If Master Opal had not found you, perhaps your family would have put you in such a school and I would have never met you."

"And Master Opal would still be alive," said Leona.

Lord Aries shrugged. "Perhaps. He was certainly a powerful magician. He was also an ambitious man, not as blinded as young Mr Miller, not anymore, but he was looking for something. He needed that one thing to get him recognised by the same society he despised and put into a position of power—yes, I researched him as much as Sebastian did—and attain the glory that his family name once held. Don't look at me like that, you're a smart girl, you had to know that the only reason he took you from your home was because he hoped to use you to get what he wanted. He should have brought you to Londinium immediately though, you have no control, no idea of the power you have."

Leona stared at him for a time, hearing for the first time the ever-present low hum of the engines in the background, the tick of the grandfather clock at the map table, and their breathing in the quiet room. She realised, when he did not press further, that he was waiting for her. She asked, "And you're going to teach me that control?"

He smiled, reaching for the tea pot again and said, "It is imperative that I teach you that control." He poured them two cups of tea, still hot despite the time they spent talking, and then placing one before Leona and taking the other for himself, he said, "You understand that I am doing this because I also want something."

"To get to the West City," said Leona.

He nodded, took a sip of tea and replied, "Yes, to get to the West City. To get there before Sebastian and to get the Book of Earth."

"What's so special about that book? Master Opal said it did not exist," said Leona.

"I am not surprised, I'm told he went searching for it once and nearly died," said Lord Aries.

Leona nearly choked on her tea and hurriedly put the cup down as she asked, still sputtering, "W-what?"

"Of course he would not have told you that, and having failed he would do everything in his power to deny it exists," said Lord Aries.

Leona massaged her throat as best she could, eyes watering but managed to rasp out, "But you will find it."

"Yes, we will find it," said Lord Aries, catching her gaze again.

Leona took up her tea cup again to avoid his gaze, refusing to acknowledge his correction and asked, "And what will you do when you get that book? You're already in the Zodiac Society, you don't need more power."

Lord Aries took another sip of his tea and said, "This is beyond the Zodiac Society. Have you not heard the legend? Miss Ruby, if we are real, then the cities must be real, then the treasures at their hearts must be real and so too the spirits that created them. I do not seek the West City and the Book of Earth to put their power into the hands of the Zodiac Society or the Empire. They would not know what to do with that power. Put it into a museum, perhaps, as Sebastian intends, certainly it would make the boy's father happy. Or use it to conquer new territories until the Empire's hold on the world is absolute, until there is no Union or Confederacy or Qing or Tsarussia but the Empire alone. No. That is not what I want. I seek the Book of Earth to free the spirits that created it and the other treasures, and to change this world from what it has become. A world in which the only options left to a child not born of wealth are chimney sweep or factory worker or indentured servant, free in name only." He looked her in the eyes again and said, "It is the world you should want."

Leona swept her thumb along the rim of her tea cup and thought back to her brother off somewhere in the ship, to their father in the factory, to the freedman magicians she had seen summoning jackalantans in the streets. She had never thought about her world too much, except to think it unfair that she had to keep her ability her secret and how unfair it was that her family could not afford to send her brother off to be a Tinker. But then she did not have to. Master Opal had taken her in and assured her that when she got to Londinium things would change for the better and that she would be able to do everything that she ever dreamed of. He had not gotten the chance to do that, she had no idea if he ever had the power she imagined he did to do what he promised.

She looked up at Lord Aries and said, "I don't care about changing the world. I just want to help my family."

Lord Aries smiled at that and said, "And you will, Miss Ruby. I promise you."

Leona thought about Mr Miller then and said, "A promise is a comfort to a fool."

He chuckled at that and said, "Yes, true, true, and you are no fool. Well then, how about this, we are partners. Not like Mr Diamond, because all he wants is treasure that will do nothing for him in the end. No, we shall be partners in charting this new world and make it so that your family will be well provided for."

"You killed Master Opal. How many other people are going to die?" asked Leona, staring at him.

He dropped his gaze to his tea and said, "Well…that is not a matter with which you should concern yourself."

Leona shook her head and replied, "I cannot be your business partner." She sat up straight, cradling her tea cup in her palms, refusing to look away from him or take back the words that may turn him into a dangerous enemy from that moment on.

Instead he merely smiled and said, "No. I suppose you cannot. Still, you will stand with me in the Central City when the Golden Dragon returns. We will greet him as our Sire and help him remake this world the way it was meant to be. That is our destiny."

Leona tried not to think of how much that sounded like a prophecy. And then, just at that moment, there was a knock at the door and Mr Diamond stuck his head in to announce that the tour was over and so he and the boy had come to see what Lord Aries and the girl were up to. Lord Aries sighed and waved them in. Leona scrambled to the end of the sofa furthest from the door, grateful for the interruption even as Cedric dropped himself beside her and took up her tea cup.

Sebastian was not entirely wrong when he said that Lord Aries was dangerous. He was, but what made it worse was the fact that he was also insane. She and her brother were trapped aboard a ship to places unknown chasing a legend with a madman.

Despite his earlier remark that Leona needed to regain her strength, after lunch, Lord Aries announced that he needed to begin Leona's training immediately and led her back to the study with the djinniyeh. The chairs and tables had been pushed to the walls to give them room in the middle to work with and someone had laid out two summoning circles with tape. Lord Aries handed Leona a stick of chalk and said, "Consider this your Exhibition. Summon something for me."

Leona took it from him, eyes slightly narrowed in suspicion. He said nothing but folded his arms and settled his weight on one leg to watch. She walked over to the nearest circle and dropped to her knees to begin drawing, rolling the chalk between her forefinger and thumb as she tried to decide what to do. He had already seen her fail to summon a proper water sprite, but that was hardly her fault as Tamosi had intervened. Of course, this high above the spirits-knew-where, the odds of that happening again were slim.

"I do not have all day, Miss Ruby. If this were a real Exhibition you would be on your way out of the door already," said Lord Aries.

She started slightly, then scowled at him and decided at once, she would summon an imp and set fire to his pants! But just as she began scrawling in the symbols, Lord Aries began,

"The Vermilion Phoenix rises with the Southern Sun,

Mistress of Fire and Commander of the Heavenly Army,

She who protects, enforces and spreads the reign of the gods,

She warms, she feeds, and she burns,

I call your name: Fire."

Leona had stopped to look at him but noticed then that the second pentagram had caught ablaze and burned red flames. Her eyes went wide, but Lord Aries was not finished.

"Fire burns and creates,

Come join us in the light,

Grow strong on the air that sustains us all,

I call your name: Salamander."

And just like that a salamander unfurled in the centre of the circle, fat and long with glowing yellow eyes that studied Leona with an intelligence that frightened her. Did all of his creatures look like that?

"This is another power of an aether magician, Miss Ruby. We can strengthen the power without altering too greatly the size of any creature that we summon, allowing us the ability to make deadly use of the smallest of elementals. You have already discovered, inadvertently of course, that we can invite the spirits of the departed to take up new lives in our elemental creations but that was not controlled. We shall have to start over and so, when you summon that imp instead of focusing solely of the fire, think of the energy required to make it as strong as my salamander here," said Lord Aries.

Leona stood up again and said, "Are you just going to ignore the explanation for what you just did?"

He lifted an eyebrow at her though there was a slight curl to his lip that suggested great amusement. Then he said, "An explanation? For what?"

Leona did not roll her eyes but only just as she replied, "For the summoning you just did without drawing a circle!"

"But I did draw a circle," said Lord Aries, nodding to the second circle that was still burning quietly, trapping his salamander within.

"With words!" said Leona. "You just said an incantation and it appeared! Even Oriental magicians have to draw a circle!"

Lord Aries looked to the circle again and then let his eyes go wide as he exclaimed, "Oh, that!" Then he smiled gently at her and said, "Unfortunately, I cannot teach you that, at least not today. In time you will come to understand that in their quest to stipulate rules and regulate the use of magic to be as non-threatening as possible our predecessors locked us into traps from which there is little escape. Why, you have done a variation of this very thing, I'm sure, from time to time. You can summon or banish without a circle, ordinary words do what your chalk and dramatic incantations are supposed to. However, before the wheels I see turning in your head take you away, you must have control, far more control than you currently possess to do it right."

Leona looked at the circle and the salamander in its fiery cage then back to Lord Aries. She asked, "Who taught you how to do that?"

"Would you believe me if I told you it was the first Fire Magician?" he asked. "A Kemetian priest who, coincidentally, was the first wielder of the Fire Staff back when the world was free."

Leona replied, "You summoned him?"

"Indeed," said Lord Aries.

"But how?" asked Leona. "You would…you would have to know his name or at least possess something that he touched."

At this Lord Aries lifted an eyebrow and asked, "What makes you say that?"

Leona shrugged and said, "If you're going to summon an ordinary elemental you need some of the element present."

Lord Aries gave her a wry smile and said, "Very well, so I had his name and I summoned this magician from the dust of time and you can imagine his surprise on meeting me and that I spoke his language. Ah, the things he knew…my predecessor must have burned with envy at the things I have managed with very little help from him. I have far surpassed him and all the others that went before me…" His smile deepened and he said, "Perhaps I should make you the new Lady Scorpio. The current lady does not have an iota of your power."

"No, thank you," said Leona quickly.

Lord Aries frowned now and said, "Then what do you want? You refuse to join me though that has been your destiny since the day you were born. You refuse a position of power that I can just hand to you, one that would vastly improve your lot and that of your family as well as others like you. Do you not understand what I am offering? Tell me, Miss Ruby, what do you want?"

Leona glared at him and said, "I want to go home."

He sighed and turned away from her to the window and then said, "But we are going home, Miss Ruby. That's where I am going to take us, to the place we belong, the City of Souls. Now, I want you to summon something for me without drawing that circle. This is my Exhibition. Surprise me."

Leona squeezed her hands into fists again and tried to stop herself from screaming. She really wanted to, but she would not. Instead she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and imagined the circle that would summon an imp.

They were small creatures, only a little larger than a rat but black-skinned with four arms, glowing red eyes, horned heads and spiked tails. They were hideous little things, and started fires with sparks set off by their tails. She pictured one appearing in the circle she had thought up and once she could see it, she pulled at the fire of Lord Aries' salamander's cage and pushed it towards the image in her head. With her eyes squeezed shut she could not see if it worked but then Lord Aries said, "Very good. Just like that."

She opened her eyes. Her summoning circle had caught fire and in its midst was a lump of something like coal, rolling around, touching sparks whenever it touched the lines. "Very good, Miss Ruby. I'll make a magician of you yet."

Leona felt a chill along her spine and shook herself. Her concentration broke and the fire dissipated, taking the little lump with it. Lord Aries sighed and said, "Again."

Leona dug in her heels. "I don't have the control, you just said so."

He stared at her and said, "Let us not play this game. Would you prefer I dangle Mr Miller or your brother over the side of the ship? Do it again and again until I either tell you to stop or you get it right."

Leona wanted to protest, she really did, but from the periphery of her gaze she saw the djinniyeh start for the door. She closed her eyes and pulled on the fire again.

"Very good," said Lord Aries. Leona listened for the sound of the door opening again but it did not. She tried to concentrate instead on the imp she wanted to summon again, to see the creature in a fiery cage like Lord Aries' salamander. When the picture formed in her mind she pushed at it with aether, drawing from the burning circle. She knew she had succeeded before she opened her eyes because Lord Aries said, "Ah, an imp! What cheek."

The imp sat in the middle of the circle with its tail in its hands, looking around the room and at them. Leona could feel it though as if it were bound to her by an invisible tether. And then Lord Aries said, "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" asked Leona still staring at the imp.

"You should be feeling a connection between yourself and the imp. All magicians have such a connection with their 'familiars', however, for aether magicians this tether doubles as the means of binding. Other magicians must have a replica of the summoning circle on their person at all times. We do not."

Leona looked over to the djinniyeh and asked, "She is bound to you like that?"

Lord Aries followed her gaze and replied, "Oh, no, Noor chose to follow me. In time I hope you will do the same. I mean you no harm, Miss Ruby, but it is imperative that you stand with me."

The imp vanished and Leona swayed and then dropped to her knees. Lord Aries was at her side in an instant, pulling her back to her feet. He said as he did so, "Ah ah, I forgot. Come, come, have a seat. You are new at this so for a time it will take your strength."

A chair was procured and Leona sank into it gratefully, suddenly light-headed. Then a thought came to her and she said, "This does not seem like a useful idea, not unless you are also an air or earth magician."

Lord Aries sat down in another chair facing her and said, "Hardly. There are always sources or water and fire around us too. In the places you least expect. If you concentrate you will find them. But I think that will be all for today. You have done quite well for your first try."

Leona thought then of her classes with Master Opal. The books upon books of theory and of history with examples, the runes she had memorised until they appeared in her dreams and on one memorable occasion had nearly started a fire in her bed, and the long hours spent drawing and redrawing summoning circles until he was satisfied and she was allowed her first elemental, a tiny water sprite. "Surprise me" Lord Aries had said. There was no theory offered, no rationale for what she had to summon or why just the command. And yes she had summoned the imp as he commanded, using the aether rather than relying on perfect circles, but why? What did he think she was capable of? For what purpose was this needed?

Having slept an entire day, Leona had imagined that she would not be able to fall asleep once the sun disappeared and night descended. She certainly was not tired when Lord Aries announced that it was bedtime and chased her off with the djinniyeh. In fact, she had just managed to wrestle Generous away from his work in the engine room in the gondola under the ship's belly to the common room where there was a telescope set up to watch the stars. Her younger brother had not come willingly, but Leona, after spending the day in entirely too close quarters with a mad magician needed a break and would not hear refusals.

As Mr Diamond and Lord Aries played a spirited board game in the background and Mr Miller snored loudly from where he was sprawled on the sofa, Leona and her brother identified constellations and planets and imagined what it would be like to float among them as they did now among the clouds. Generous surprised her with his ability to find them before her, having just been shown the maps once and even debated the possibility of improving on the telescope so that they might see the planets closer. He recounted his day in the engine room and tour of the ship and marvelled at how the magicians alternated the use of fire and air and water elementals to propel the ship and keep them afloat. He speculated on the possibility of finding work as an airship builder, perhaps even creating his own line. And then Lord Aries stood and said, "Alright, time for bed, Miss Ruby. We have a long day tomorrow in the city."

Leona looked out of the window to the horizon and the soft glow of amber lights in the distance. Much of the land before them was dark and where there was light was too bright for jackalantans, not from this distance, so it must be something else, like electricity. But this was the Confederacy, where the land was mostly covered in great estates and mansions with wide streets, or so said Mr Diamond. And yet the Union was much more tightly packed and even brighter, with New Amsterdam glowing so brightly at night that it was as if the sun never set.

"Miss Ruby," said Lord Aries, a little louder. She turned away from the window to find he was looking at her with a slightly raised eyebrow. Obviously he expected her not to dawdle.

She looked back to her brother with an apologetic smile and stood. But then he stood with her and asked, "Where are you going tomorrow?"

Lord Aries turned his gaze to the boy and replied, "None of your concern, Mr Ruby. Your sister and I have business in the city."

"She doesn't know anyone in the city," said Generous, standing tall. "I want to go with you."

Lord Aries' expression did not change. He said, "Young Master Ruby, I see that you did not quite understand what has happened here. You and your sister are my prisoners and of the two of you, your sister is the more valuable. If you want to survive you will do as I say and not question it."

Generous made to protest this but Leona stayed him with a hand and a headshake. He bit his lip, furious but said nothing. Leona watched him until she was satisfied that he would not and then walked away to go to bed, the djinniyeh leading the way. As the door shut behind them though, she heard Lord Aries say, "Do not worry, Mr Ruby. I will not allow anything to happen to your sister. Did I not bring her to you safely?"

A few winding turns later, Leona was back in her room. The djinniyeh locked the door as soon as she was inside and even heated the doorknob a little to force the metal to expand and seal her within. Leona tried the handle a few times to no avail, exhaled heavily and decided that it was best to go to bed. At the very least they had provided a clean nightgown, a lamp (which was a jackalantan with a decorated shade that cast a carousel scene onto the walls and ceiling,) and her doll. Someone had even cleaned the doll a little too. Leona wondered if they noticed the thrum of energy within.

Thus decided, she changed, climbed into bed, hugged the doll to her chest and stared at the carousel dancing around the room. In a wink she was out.

The sea below was purest cobalt, calm and welcoming. She imagined skimming the surface just enough to dip her toes and maybe catch a flying fish or two before someone spotted her and she was scolded. If she jumped now, she might even have a moment to herself to enjoy the freedom of soaring through the air with the clouds, for once, at her feet. She lifted her arms and leaned forward.

"Kara!" someone called. She stopped at once, jerking backwards so that she would not fall and turned to look. It was—

Leona opened her eyes. The room was dark and cold. She rolled onto her side and drew her legs to her chest, pulling the sheet closer to form a cocoon and shivered. Then she remembered the lamp and realised that it had gone out. She pulled into herself a little tighter, tucking her chin in and tried to think warm thoughts, and that was when someone said, "I failed…"

Leona sat up so fast her chest hurt. She ignored it, looking wildly about the room for the speaker. The lamp had gone out and though the sky outside had lightened to a deep violet it was not yet bright enough to fill the room. Then the speaker said, half-sobbing, "After all these years…I failed…"

It sounded close by, frightfully so. Leona threw the cover off of her legs to go for the lamp and that was when she noticed it. Slumped in a corner beside the table was a form glowing faint bluish-white. It was and then was not a ghost, like Tamosi had been: a spirit that had assumed the form of an elemental, in this case a sylph.

At Leona's movement it lifted its head from its knees to reveal a girl about Leona's age with light grey eyes, long black hair and a round face. She wore a long white fur-lined cloak and a bronze headpiece that shone like a tiara. Leona said her name without thinking, "Kara."

The ghost-girl-elemental's eyes were red with tears but she smiled and replied, "Leona."

It did not surprise her that the girl knew her name or that Master Opal was dead. It was the elemental spirit's responsibility to know these things anyway, even if she had been dormant for so long. Leona slid her legs over the side of the bed and tried to stand. Before she could move though, Kara said, "Do not bother. The sorcerer has an enchantment on this room. Ye will not be able to stand without draining ye energy and if ye tried to break it he or his fire spirit will come to stop ye."

Leona lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Her head cleared immediately and she said, "Vincent is not dead."

There was a moment's silence and then Kara replied, "But John is…the last magician of House Opal is gone."

"Vincent will marry one day and have children, maybe one of them will be a magician," said Leona.

"Neither of us will be there to see it," said Kara.

Leona lifted her head to look at the elemental and asked, "Are you an Oracle?"

The elemental shifted her gaze from the floor in front of her to Leona's face and said, "Do ye think that this Lord Aries will let Vincent live? Or me if he discovers me, or ye if he does not get his way?"

"I am not going to be killed by James Tolliver," said Leona. "Nor my brother, nor Vincent, nor anyone that I can help."

"Even Cedric Miller?" asked the elemental.

"Even Cedric Miller," Leona replied.

The elemental stared at her for nearly a full minute before allowing a small half-smile to form on her face and said, "I will help thee, Leona Alice Ruby. But I have one request: when the time comes, I will kill James Tolliver, Lord Aries."

Leona thought of it, of the possibility of throwing the magician off the airship to his death and forcing the crew to take her and her brother back home, of killing him with a pipe broken out of the showers or drowning him with a water sprite. She was no killer. She said, "Okay."

At this, the elemental's smile widened and she stood from her place in the corner. Now Leona noticed that Kara wore a bronze breastplate and carried a long sword at her hip. She reminded Leona of the Valkyrie of Master Opal's Nordic lessons. If this was the traditional protector of the air elemental magic specialists of House Opal then it was most fitting. Then Leona noticed that Kara had come to stand over the cot. The elemental looked over her from head to toe and said, "I cannot stray far from thee, bound as I am to your doll but I can travel freely through this space. I will bring thee news of the knaves who crew this vessel and the sorcerer who hath appointed himself thy captor."

"The djinniyeh…" said Leona.

"Aye, I will watch for the creature too. But I am of the air, her powers mean nothing to me. Now, rest well until my return," said Kara. She swept a sleeve gently over Leona's face and dissipated like a cloud.

Leona had no choice but to do as she was told. She had just fallen into a light doze too when Kara reappeared with in a gust of wind that jerked Leona upright and into full wakefulness. The Valkyrie bowed slightly and said, "Your captors rest, your brother too, only the sorcerer and his creature wake and plot."

Leona exhaled heavily and asked, "Do you know what they're planning?"

"We are to visit the descendants of another fallen House, Garnet. They plan to meet with the current head of that family. The creature expressed concern that this Mr Garnet will not be cooperative once he learns of the death of House Opal," said Kara.

Leona went wide-eyed and a moment later exclaimed, "I knew it!"

The Valkyrie's brow furrowed in confusion, and Leona sobered immediately and said, "Sorry. Did they say anything else?"

The Valkyrie did not look convinced but replied, "There was talk of the key. John Opal did not have it; they believe that this Mr Garnet will."

"A key?" asked Leona.

"There are only two ways to enter one of the cities, Leona Ruby. The first, one must be born there. The second, one must receive an invitation. This invitation comes with a key and that was only granted to one of the three Houses," replied the Valkyrie.

Leona considered this a moment, noting the expression of worry on the Valkyrie's face and said, "We cannot let him get his hands on that key."

"No, we cannot," said the Valkyrie.

"Well then," said Leona, settling back into her bed with a yawn, "let's make sure of it."