City of Air (Lost Cities Saga 1)

The plan had been designed by the Chief Architect of New Amsterdam and refined by the Construct-General Grant and Mr Diamond. After changing trains at the state capital, they would head for the Confederacy under the guise of a vacationing party. Officially, travel between the Union and the Confederacy was restricted to carefully-monitored migrant workers and relatives of Confederates. Mr Diamond was from New Orleans but had left the state before the Civil War. Instead, they were going as specially-invited guests of another ally in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, and it was from there that they would launch their attack.

Before they changed trains, Leona was made to change into a simple dark yellow cotton dress with a white petticoat and white lace handkerchief tied at her throat and a white lace and cotton headband over her hair. She was also given a leather cord necklace with a coin pendant that identified her as the property of the Garnet sisters.

At the sight of it she had frozen and looked over at Mr Diamond with wide eyes. He had had the grace to be embarrassed and looked away from her as he explained, "There are very few freedmen in the Confederacy."

Leona refused to take it from him. "This is for your protection, cherie. I promise you that once our business is concluded you will no longer need it."

Leona still would not take it. He sighed, walked over to her and put it over her head. She squeezed her hands in fists at her sides and he said, "There are no freedmen magicians in the Confederacy either. Do not let anyone find out what you are. Do not worry; it is only for a little while."

Leona could not bring herself to believe him. Enslavement had been abolished in the Empire and its colonies for more than fifty years. Leona's parents had been born freedmen and one her grandmothers before them. In the Union, enslavement had been abolished since before the Civil War, and though there had been an attempt to free all the enslaved during the war itself, the Confederate victory had reinstated the system. But as Mr Diamond said, there were freedmen in the Confederacy, as there had always been. Considering that they were coming from Union territory there was no need to pretend that Leona was enslaved except perhaps for Rose to get back at Leona for refusing to submit. And as long as Leona was presented as their property she had no choice but to obey.

"I will stay with you," said Leona to Mr Diamond.

He lifted an eyebrow. She straightened her spine, and then tucked the necklace into the front of her dress. "I am a freedwoman and a subject of the Empire. I will not be enslaved by a Unionist, of all people. And if I have to do anything Rose Garnet says, I'm going to have to kill her."

Mr Diamond smiled and said, "Sounds fair, ma cherie." He turned and headed out of the car to the other train where the Garnets were waiting. Leona followed close behind him, still shaking, already frightened of her new status.

"Ah, perfect," said Rose, as Leona boarded the train. "Come over here with me, Leona. We must get you in character as our maid."

"No," said Leona, and she took a seat by the window. This car was less finely-decorated than the private one the Garnets had come down from Aerie in but the fabric-covered seats were arranged just the same.

Mr Diamond snorted and said, "This is going to be a fun trip."

The first five cars of the train were filled with vacationing Unionists and Confederates and some of them took the opportunity to visit with their fellow wealthy passengers once the journey was underway. Leona was forced to leave her seat by the window, though she did remain near the bar where Mr Diamond had once again posted himself, as guests entered one by one to greet the Garnets. The men came in to discuss business or politics or both, the women came to discuss fashion or parties or flirt with Mr Garnet, which he politely but firmly deflected. One of the men brought in a small enslaved boy in a white shirt and stockings, brown vest, yellow breeches and an absurd powdered wig. He held the boy's hand through the entire exchange, occasionally feeding him bits of fruit, and winked at Leona.

Leona suppressed a shudder and dropped her gaze to the floor. He must have thought that she was trying to be respectful but Leona did not want to look at the ghost of the weeping woman who clung to the boy. It reminded her too much of her mother back in the colony who most certainly had no idea if her youngest daughter was still alive or not.

At the border where the Union State of Colorado met the Confederate State of New Mexico, Confederate officers in grey and yellow boarded the train to inspect the passengers' tickets. The officer who checked Leona's, a tall, red-haired man with a full beard on which he had hung solid gold trinkets, let his fingers slide over her skin as he took out her ID necklace. Leona still refused to touch it. When she felt his touch she started and stepped back. He grinned and leaned in close so that Leona could smell the tobacco leaves he had been chewing.

Mr Diamond cleared his throat and said, "Is that a genuine Henry rifle? Are they still using those antiques?"

The man turned to Mr Diamond, straightened and asked, "Is that a Bourbon accent I hear?"

Mr Diamond nodded and said, "New Orleans born and bred."

The man smiled and stuck out a hand for Mr Diamond to shake, "Baton Rouge." Leona was forgotten entirely.

Twenty minutes later the train crossed into the Confederacy and Leona's gaze wandered out the window again. Compared to Colorado, New Mexico was hot, dry desert with small shrubs, cacti and dust devils swirling over the sand. They passed a few small towns along the way, heading east, and Leona was surprised to find no great plantations, but more clusters of weathered, wooden buildings around a single main street. Occasionally they passed men on horseback amidst great herds of cattle or smaller ones of sheep, black and white dogs nipping at the heels of the slowest animals. Once or twice, Rose or Orchid would squawk about seeing an Indian, but Leona never noticed anything by the time she looked. A third of the mounted men were as dark as she.

When night fell, ending the first day of their journey, they had crossed out of New Mexico and headed south into the Confederate State of Texas. Bedding was laid out on one side of the car (by Leona, volunteered by Rose with no objections from the others) with a curtain as a screen and Leona and the girls were sent to bed by Mr Garnet and Mr Diamond, while the two men stayed up late playing cards and talking. At some point in the night, the general joined them. Leona, who was having trouble sleeping anyway, felt his arrival as a brush against her soul, as if he had reached out and nudged her and jerked awake.

He was peering around the curtain at her and so their eyes met at once. Then Mr Diamond said, "Let her sleep, general. When we get to Virginia she will need all her strength."

He grunted and joined the men at the table.

The next morning, when the bedding was cleared and the girls had washed up, again with Leona's help, they had breakfast and were allowed out for a short tour of the town they had stopped at overnight. With nothing to do as the train was re-supplied and changed passengers and cargo, Leona had jumped at opportunity to stretch her legs and see what the Confederacy looked like. On the Sylphide, most of the Union had been green forests, fields and hills all the way to rocky Colorado.

The Texas town was a completely different world from New Amsterdam and even the mining town just down the mountain from Aerie. A cattle town, as supposedly most of the major towns in the state were, there were also huge plantations on which stood massive great houses with two-storey columns lining their wraparound porches and gangs of slaves to work the fields they did not leave to cattle. More than a few of the ladies in town, in beribboned bustle gowns of silk and lace, their hair curled and padded high on their heads, walked with two simpler-dressed enslaved women carrying parasols to cover them and a fan to cool them.

Despite herself, Leona crept as close to the Garnet sisters as possible. Lavender wrinkled her nose at one, who had turned up her nose at them once she identified them as Unionists, and asked, "Do you notice, Miss Ruby, how weak the female magicians we've come across are?"

Leona had noticed but was too busy hoping that if any sensed her they would assume the three sisters alone were magicians, and not the girl trailing them too. She replied, "Yes."

"That is because in the Confederacy it is frowned upon for women to become magicians. It is exclusively a male art," said Orchid. "Women who are discovered to have magical talent are discouraged from using it, or at least are expected to use it very little and only then for decoration or work."

"And of course," chimed in Rose. "Non-whites are not allowed to become magicians at all."

They returned to the train in time for lunch and to continue north-east. Over the next two days, they crossed the great Mississippi River with its triple-decked steamboats and long barges and passed through the states of Arkansas and Tennessee, desert giving way to prairie and then back to forests and great, green mountains. There were more great houses here too, with enslaved people and wage labourers barely visible through stalks of sugar and corn or bent over rows of tobacco and cotton. It was cooler too, but only just a little, and in the towns the dresses were only a little less elaborate than those of the ladies of Texas.

They also took some time during these trips to summon more and more souls of fallen soldiers, though these were forced to remain in their crates. They took care to only do the summoning at the busiest times on the train, when it was easy to not notice a small group walking to the cargo cars. Mr Garnet still had an excuse on hand—that they were checking his precious supply of constructs, for sale to interested parties in the capital—just in case they were spotted. They were never interrupted though, and Leona often went to bed barely able to stand from her exhaustion and haunted by the sounds some of the men made when they realised they would be locked away in the coffin-like crates. No amount of reassurances that their deaths prevented them from suffocating would settle those who had lived with claustrophobia.

She had no idea where they got the mementos and names of the men they summoned and she never asked. And once again, Mr Garnet removed the bracelet as soon as the summoning was completed. It made Leona remember what Lord Aries had warned about allowing her to wear the bracelet for too long. Even if it was not true, Mr Garnet was not taking any chances, not with their precious plans at stake.

The Construct-General went out with them on those trips too, though in a different uniform, disguised as a servant, and kept closest to Leona. More than once she caught his gaze lingering on a saloon or families and she wondered if he missed his. She had no idea what had happened to them after his death in the war though and so had no comforting words. His situation was not supposed to be permanent anyway, not like George's had been until the death of his master. All the same, Leona promised herself that as soon as the battle was over, she would dismiss him as quickly as possible.

She never saw her brother and if she asked, she was always told that he was "with the cargo". Leona really hoped that did not mean that he was in chains. Like Lord Aries before them, the Garnets seemed determined to keep the siblings apart as much as possible.

Finally they arrived in Virginia, the state named for the Empire's most famous queen and the site of one of earliest Imperial colonies in the country. The Garnets' and Mr Diamond's allies had arranged for them to stay in an estate in the capital city, and also attend a masquerade ball being hosted the next night by the First Lady of the Confederacy. The levels the White Tiger League had infiltrated were as amazing as they were terrifying.

The train stopped in Richmond in the early evening, with the sunset painting the pale blue sky in shades of pink and violet, and casting everything in a dull gold lacquer. Leona stepped off the train behind the sisters to find that a pair of steam-cars had been sent to collect them, alongside a larger trailer for the crates. The sight drew more than a few curious looks, but Mr Garnet made a show of discussing loudly with one man his intention of bringing business into the Confederacy.

The girls were directed to the first car and sent ahead to the estate where they would be received by their ally and his wife. Mr Diamond remained with Mr Garnet to oversee the unloading and transport of the crates. The mansion that was to be their home for the duration was of the colonial era renovated to the "Greek revival" favoured in the Confederacy. The colonnade that lined its wraparound porch almost obscured the painted red-brick walls.

A middle-aged woman with elaborately curled iron grey hair and a slim frame awaited them in the front yard, dressed in a beaded and embroidered, cream-coloured evening dress with lace gloves and a matching fan. There were two dark-skinned enslaved women with her, heads bowed, gaze firmly trained into the dirt. Leona was surprised to discover that they were magicians. The woman did not smile as they filed out of the car but greeted the sisters, "I am your Aunt Gloriana. You girls shall accompany me to the ball tomorrow and be presented immediately. Is that the sorceress?"

She turned to Leona. Lavender nodded and said, "Yes ma'am, this is Leona Ruby."

The woman swept her gaze over Leona from head to toe and back again, and said, "She will remain in the attic until tomorrow evening. I suppose we might have something presentable for her to wear. Guinevere, Mab, take the girls to their room. I will escort Miss Ruby to the attic."

Leona and the sisters exchanged surprised glances, and then Leona reluctantly started after Gloriana into the house. The circular, dome-roofed foyer with a great crystal chandelier suspended from the ceiling opened to a grand curving staircase that led to the second floor. Gloriana led Leona up the left staircase and then left again down a long, wide hall at the end of which was a smaller staircase that ended in a small trapdoor in the ceiling. Gloriana opened this and led the way in. Leona hesitated only to take a deep breath before following.

The room that was to be hers was filled with boxes and old furniture, covered by dusty white sheets, and other assorted abandoned relics of previous eras and lives. But one corner, near a half-moon window overlooking the side of the estate and its sprawling grounds had been cleared. Someone had made some attempt at giving her a bedroom, with a cot, an old chest for a dresser on which a lamp had been placed and a few curtains suspended on metal rods from the ceiling for some measure of privacy.

"You shall sleep and have your meals here. You are not to leave this room under any circumstances for that collar or no, you will be identified as a magician, and especially if you're out alone," said Gloriana. "I'm surprised no one found you out already. I told that fool Garnet that it was too dangerous bringing you here but he insisted. If that magician he stole you from is truly a member of the Zodiac Society, the Confederacy is well within its rights to seize you in the name of its allies."

Leona walked over to the bed and sat down. She looked around the room and then up at Gloriana and said, "But I have to go to the party tomorrow with the Garnets."

"Yes," said the woman with a sigh. "And it is in your best interest to make yourself as uninteresting as possible. Speak to no one, keep your gaze down and stick close to the sisters. We sometimes have high-ranking officials from the Empire at these events and this party in particular, the anniversary of the Confederate Victory, will have them."

Leona's eyes went wide. She asked, "Tomorrow's party is an anniversary ball?"

"Yes," said Gloriana. "Why do you think it was chosen? Now if you will excuse me, I think the others are here. I shall send one of the servants around shortly to fetch you for your bath and after that your dinner will be brought." Then she turned and left, locking the door behind her.

Leona had no intention of trying to escape the estate anyway, certainly not in the Confederate capital. Instead she lay down on the bed and rolled onto her side to look out the window, waiting for her brother and the others arrive. In one more day they would be helping the White Tiger League and the Union attempt the hostile takeover of another country. She could only hope that it would not end in her and her brother's deaths.

Leona awoke early the next morning, cocooned in the single bed-sheet as far away from the window as she could manage. It mattered little; the pre-dawn chill permeated and persisted. She considered and then quickly discarded the idea of summoning a small fire elemental. The room was filled with too much fuel and surely one of the other magicians in the house would notice. Leona was forced to get out of bed and put back on her travelling dress before curling up again on the mattress and trying to think of warm things. It was not a good start to what was definitely going to be a very long day.

Hours later the room had warmed only a little and Leona was seated on the floor before the window watching the goings on of a Confederate plantation on an anniversary day. The servants had started early, setting up red, white and blue decorations, flowers and ribbons and fabric, great banners and flags all around the house. From her view of the side of the house, Leona was just able to see the same going on at a neighbouring estate. She tried to picture what the whole city would look decorated like that and then pushed the thought away. In a few hours she would see anyway. She hoped it was lovely, especially if it was the last thing she was going to see.

It was noon before anyone came up to give Leona anything to eat. Gloriana herself, accompanied by a maid—Titania, this one was called—with a tray. Leona devoured the paltry breakfast, just tea, stale bread and jam, no eggs or bacon, but enough to keep her alive though not strong enough to attempt anything. Before they left though, Gloriana said, "I shall be back in a few hours to get you ready for the party. A dress has been found and will be modified to suit you."

Leona nodded and lay back on the bed, trying to relish what little respite she could from her meagre breakfast. It was clearly not going to hold her for very long. Not after days of travel and all the summoning she had performed. She could already feel the beginnings of a headache forming at the base of her skull.

Leona spent the next few hours sprawled across the bed trying to catch some sleep, at least until the afternoon heat made it unbearable and she was forced to loosen her travelling dress and pull up her skirts to cool down. Then she went to sit before the window again and looked out at the grounds.

The Garnets were there with Mr Diamond and a group of people who were possibly neighbours and friends. They were having all having a great picnic, groups of young men in uniform and some who were not, and young women in bright dresses with parasols and fans like the ladies in Texas. They were spread out between the trees on the grass on table cloths with little trays of cake, sandwiches and other treats piled high, jugs of juice and water, having happy light conversations that Leona just heard as a low murmur. How delightful. While she suffered, they were having a ball. She spotted the sisters easily and cursed them. Generous was there too, Leona was stunned to discover, though he was at Mr Garnet's side. She gritted her teeth at the sight; they looked far too much like the man and the boy on the train.

She thought back to what Mr Garnet had said when he first saw her. That she was darker than he expected. Was it for this? If she had been like those fair, mixed girls she had attended school with, would she be down there in the field among the pretty dresses, like butterflies in a field, instead of confined like the madwoman in the attic? Certainly he could have passed her off as an illegitimate daughter if she was.

She retreated to the bed and wondered how much trouble she would get into if she tried to cool the room with elementals. She decided not to, for the sake of peace, but cursed the sisters again in her mind. And then finally, gratefully, she fell asleep.

It was still light out when she awoke, just as the trapdoor opened and Gloriana emerged with four maids, two of which carried a giant tub between them. The night before Leona had been made to wash-up with a basin, but not tonight. Today was special.

"You will bathe and dress here," said Gloriana. Then she nodded at a pair of servants who summoned a small water elemental to fill the bath and another set of imps to heat it. Leona was made to strip to her underwear and climb into the hot water, before she was scrubbed by the women with washcloths. It was by far the most uncomfortable bathing experience she had ever had, not helped in the least by the women commenting on her breasts and hips.

Gloriana remained with them but said nothing. When the bath was finished and Leona stood shivering before her in nothing more than a towel, Gloriana instructed the women to remove the tub and bring up the dress. The dress turned out to be Gloriana's debutante gown from more than forty years earlier, ivory satin and lace with glass beading in the embroidery at the hem of the bell-shaped skirt, which had a short train, and along the low-slung neckline that began at the top of Leona's shoulders. Leona had to wear a crinoline and lacy pantaloons, so that she felt as if she was wearing a birdcage. The dress was also a little too big, but Gloriana and her attendants made quick work of fixing that, while also removing the train and fashioning it into a huge bow that they stuck with pins and bits of wire to appear like small wings.

Then they turned their attention to her hair. It took them a few minutes quiet discussion and then it was decided to match it to the era, parting Leona's hair down the middle in the front, and twisting the top half in a small bun at the back. Then they parted and twisted the lower half of her hair into curls and loose plaits and tied it all up with ribbons. Leona could not see herself but she imagined that she looked rather ridiculous and out of time.

When they were finished, Gloriana stepped back to examine the work and said, "Perfect, now you are 'Odette'. You shall answer only to that name for the evening. I shall be 'Odile'. You have heard of Swan Lake, of course?"

Leona had not but she nodded anyway, and Gloriana's lips twitched and she said, "Good, you know when to lie. I shall come for you in an hour's time. Mab here will bring you something to eat. Do not get anything on that dress."

Leona nodded again and went back to her bed. Mab did deliver, some ten minutes later, and Leona took pains to keep the dress clean, as promised, while she ate. It took some doing. She had last eaten hours earlier and could not get the food, cold porridge, down fast enough. Then, just as she finished, another maid came up and announced, "Ma'am is ready for her."

Leona's gloves and shoes were also borrowed, the original slippers that went with the dress turned out to be just the right size. She put them on and followed Mab and the other servant down the stairs to the hall where Gloriana stood in a black gown that did look very much like a copy of the one Leona wore. And here she received the finishing touch, a white half-mask decorated with small white feathers and glass beading.

"You have been to a Masque before?" asked Gloriana.

"No," said Leona, deciding to be truthful.

Gloriana grunted at this and said, "Well then, you shall wear this at all times. You will speak to no one unless I direct you to. You will accept nothing from anyone unless I approve it. You are not a guest of this party but my companion. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes ma'am," said Leona.

Gloriana nodded, turned and started down the hall. Leona hurried after her thinking all the while that she did not want to die wearing this borrowed dress. And there was no doubt in her mind that people were going to die.

The sisters were waiting for them in the foyer, one in a gauzy white dress decorated with hundreds of little stars, the other in a black dress decorated with moons and the last in a gold dress decorated with suns. Their father and Mr Diamond had chosen to go as a Union general and Empire privateer of another era respectively. When they caught sight of Gloriana and Leona, Mr Garnet said, "Ah, Odette and Odile. But why have you given yourself the role of villainess?"

Gloriana gave him a brief smile and said, "I prefer the black swan, I find it far more beautiful."

The ride to the president's palace, the so-called White House of the Confederacy, another Greek-inspired, colonnaded, two-storey mansion, took an hour, mainly because of the checkpoints that they had to pass through. When Leona saw the clusters of grey-clad soldiers and barricades, Gloriana explained, "Every year for the past twenty there have been concerns about Unionist and Patriot attacks."

"Patriot?" asked Leona, watching as the soldiers forced a group to disembark so that their car could be searched. There were no less than three great grey airships hovering overhead. There were also noticeably no magicians or elementals assisting.

"Patriots are rebels seeking to unite the Confederacy and the Union once more. Most of them are war veterans and can claim lineage to the Founding Fathers. In recent times they have taken to attacking events that commemorate the Confederate victory," said Gloriana.

Leona looked away from the window to her and asked, "Do you help them?"

Gloriana lifted an eyebrow at her and then looked over at Mr Garnet. He shrugged and said, "She has a quick mind."

Gloriana looked back at Leona and replied, "Yes."

Leona looked out the window again. The soldiers waved them past without forcing them out of the car and Gloriana said, "I am the widow of a high-ranking official of the Confederate government. They never search my car."

Four checkpoints later, the steam-car finally rolled into the drive of the Confederate White House and stopped. Mr Garnet and Mr Diamond disembarked first, and then helped Lavender, Rose and Orchid, and Gloriana and Leona out. The driver pulled away and they ascended the steps together, though Leona could not help looking back at the line of steam-cars and barricades, soldiers and guests. The city beyond was lit up here and there by lantern-light, though the airships sometimes cast great beams upon the arriving guests. When she had gone to the Governor's House with Master Opal, Vincent and Sebastian, more than two weeks earlier, it had looked nothing like this. Not even when there had been riots.

The Confederates may have won their right to govern themselves, but like with the former Frankish colony of Saint Domingue, now called Haiti, their enemies were doing everything in their power to ensure that they could not really enjoy it. Of course if the reports were true, the people of Haiti had also created a comfortable, wealthy society for themselves and so were able to call for labour from other territories. And yet, Leona was very certain that she had never even seen a Union soldier in the streets of New Amsterdam.

"The barricades were set up during the war and never removed," said Gloriana. "And then President Lee expanded them. Now come, stop staring child."

Leona did as she was told. Gloriana handed over her invitation, gave no explanation for Leona and marched them through the front doors and into the ball. The front hall was filled with light and music, though lined with soldiers in dress uniforms acting as ushers and guiding the guests along to the Grand Ballroom. The First Lady herself, as identified by Gloriana, was dressed in a bright red ball gown and star-spangled blue sash receiving all guests. Leona was not introduced nor acknowledged but Gloriana received a hug and kisses on both cheeks.

"We were roommates at finishing school," said Gloriana once they were past her and in the main ballroom. There were more red, white and blue decorations here and Leona wondered how separate the two nations really were when both maintained the same colours. In fact, these were Empire's colours too, though the Empire's army, in keeping with their fire magicians, wore red.

Gloriana had secured herself a seat near the drape-covered back wall, which gave her a good view of the room and the entrance doors, and directed Leona to stand beside her. They were also near the Frank-style doors to the back garden, and through the curtains Leona could see young couples giggling in the shadows or walking quietly along the path. Surprisingly, very few people gave Leona a second glance but then, Gloriana was not the only person in attendance with an enslaved person. On the bench next to hers was an dark-skinned elderly woman, her skin as veined as wood, her hair a shade lighter than Gloriana's who was clearly to act as chaperone to a young girl in a white, empire-waist dress with a long pink sash and a head of bright, blonde curls. The Garnets had disappeared since the entered the house.

Leona bent over towards Gloriana and asked, "Where are the magicians? I don't see any."

Gloriana gave a little huff and snapped, "Do not speak until I address you first." Leona straightened at once, her cheeks warm. She had completely forgotten Gloriana's warning since the woman had been speaking to her all the while. Still, a moment later, Gloriana said, "I'm sure the sisters have explained that women and slaves are not allowed to become magicians?"

"Yes," said Leona, keeping her head down and her gaze to the floor.

"Magicians have not always had the best reputation in the Confederacy, particularly since the war. No man worth his salt will ever admit to being one though there are those who have no choice. Those men you will see wandering the estates, offering their services or, if they can afford it, catch the next boat out of the region. My son went to the Orient as soon as he could get a boat willing to take him. It is why it is believed that magic has gone away from the Confederacy. Any magician you see openly practicing the art is a foreigner and if he intends to remain here he will soon find something else to do."

"It certainly feels like the magic has gone away," said Leona. She noted Gloriana's mention of a son but decided not to pursue it lest she be scolded again. But just because there were no openly practicing magicians that did not mean that there were none at all. And any magician would surely have sensed the presence of magic by now. How fortunate for the White Tiger League then, that the Confederacy had such a prejudice against magic.

Gloriana answered Leona's unspoken question, "Of course, tonight there will be far more magic around than anyone has seen in years."

"Why?" asked Leona. Then she stopped because she had felt something familiar.

Gloriana did not notice. She said, "Because we have a delegation from the Empire tonight to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Confederate Victory."

Leona barely heard her. She was looking around the room at the guests. There were Lavender and Rose, dancing the foxtrot with two young officers. There was Orchid in the corner chatting with another. Mr Garnet and Mr Diamond were in hearty conversation with a group of men near the door. When he felt her gaze, Mr Diamond looked up and winked at her. But no, they were not what Leona had felt.

She knew this magician, for that is what it was, she had spent nearly two months in his presence and would never forget the touch of his power. He was young but he was strong, his power loomed over almost everyone except Master Opal and Lord Aries. She did not see him but eventually she caught a hint of his voice and followed the sound. It was Sebastian.