Our opponent gradually fell behind until his carriage disappeared from sight. “Those engines don’t have the capacity for long runs at high speeds, not without a constant input of magic, so it was hardly a fair contest,” Lizzie said. “But I do think we’ve made our point that there are other viable sources of power.” Around us, the bus full of Mechanics cheered and launched once more into their raucous Yankee Doodle song. I merely sighed in relief.

The bus slowed, and Colin came over to me. “We’re near your destination, and the police will head us off at any moment, so this is where you get off.” He bade me brace myself in the doorway, then jumped down to run alongside the bus. Holding his arms up to me, he shouted, “Jump, Verity! I’ll catch you!”

The bus still seemed to be moving terribly fast, but I heard a police bell approaching and realized that if I didn’t jump, I might never make it to my interview. I took as deep a breath as my stays allowed and flung myself out the doorway. Colin caught me easily, ran a couple of steps more, then set me on my feet and kept his arms around me until I was steady. “Now, hurry into the park and disappear until the police pass,” he instructed before catching up with the bus. He leaped aboard and waved his hat to me through the doorway. “Best of luck to you, Verity!”

I waved back at him and made haste to the nearest park entrance. I jogged down a pathway until I could run no more, then slowed to a walk. The sound of clanging police bells on the street grew louder and turned my legs to jelly from fright. I collapsed onto the nearest bench and took my book out of my bag to try to appear as though I’d been sitting there all along, minding my own business.

I took no notice of the words on the page as I considered what I’d just experienced. History had shown rebel movements to be futile. The American colonists had attempted to rebel more than a hundred years earlier, but had stood no chance against the magical might of the British Empire. If there were other sources of power that didn’t require magic, that would change things entirely. I’d just seen a steam-powered engine outrace a magical one. Did this mean that another revolution was imminent? That would mean violence, death, and an interruption of daily life even for those who didn’t support the cause. Life for the nonmagical hadn’t seemed that difficult to me because my life had been reasonably comfortable, but in my first day in the city, I could already see that there was much I didn’t know about the world outside the sheltered academic enclave I’d previously inhabited.