The carriage arrived and the rest of Henry’s gang piled into it. We waved goodbye as the engines moved onward. A few minutes later, we stopped in front of an enormous barn, and the Mechanics opened the doors to reveal the airship Liberty. Everett came out to meet us, and after Alec explained the situation to him, he said to Henry, “If you can get in through your bedroom windows, we can keep you out of sight of any nosy servants.”

Alec turned to us and asked, “Will that do for you?”

“You have an airship? How is it powered?” Henry asked, looking and sounding very much like Rollo. “Wouldn’t a steam engine be too heavy?”

“Everett can explain it to you,” Alec said with the first real smile he’d given Henry. Henry’s enthusiasm about the machine had apparently made a small dent in Alec’s resentment of magisters. He paused, frowned, then seemed to come to a decision. “The fighting tonight wasn’t really about revolution. It was a diversion to distract the soldiers who weren’t at the ball or the theater so we could carry out our real mission.” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a few sheets of paper. “We managed to get into their offices and copy their codebooks. I doubt they have any idea that we have these. They think we were just fighting a skirmish.” He handed the papers to Henry. “You can probably make better use of these than we can.”

Henry gave a soft whistle of surprise as he took the papers. “I owe you an apology, then,” he said. “You were being more strategic than I gave you credit for. Thank you. I’ll put these to good use. We’ve stolen a lot of dispatches we need to decode.” He folded the papers and tucked them carefully into his breast pocket.

“And now, we’d best be on our way.”

“Godspeed,” Henry said with a jaunty salute.

Alec hesitated, then said, “Verity, may I have a word?” He pulled me aside and said, “I’m sorry for tricking you the way we did. I should have known what a piston you were. You really came through for us tonight in warning us, even if you did bring a magpie with you.”

“You wouldn’t have escaped without him.”

With a deep sigh and a rueful smile, he said, “I know. I hate it, but you’re right. Our machines couldn’t have done it alone.” He glanced at Henry, then back at me, paused, took a deep breath, and said, “You could come with us if you like.”

“Wouldn’t you be giving up a valuable spy who has access to the highest levels of magpie society?” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.