“I don’t care about that.” He took my hand and squeezed it fiercely. “I’d rather have you with me than have you being useful. I’ve missed you.”

I weighed what he’d said, realizing what a sacrifice he was willing to make. I’d been so potentially valuable to them that they’d engineered an elaborate ruse to get me on their side, and now he was willing to give up the spy they’d worked so hard to create. But they’d done their job too well. I couldn’t just leave now. I shook my head. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and I think Liberty Jones has a lot more stories in her. Who knows what I might learn among the magisters?”

He looked disappointed for a moment, then he grinned. “That’s my girl, Liberty. I’m sure I’ll see you again.”

As Alec boarded the engine, Henry came up behind me. “If you want to go with them,” he said softly, “I’d understand, even though hiring a new governess would be very inconvenient.”

I turned to face him. “Do you want me to go, now that you know about me?”

“Only if going is what you want. Nothing has to change, as far as I’m concerned.”

I glanced at Alec and the magnificent engine, then turned back to Henry. “No, I think I can do more in the city. Besides, there are the children, and there’s my newspaper career.”

“Newspaper career?”

“Just one of the many things we need to discuss later, but we’re running out of time to get home safely.”

Everett and his crew had wheeled the airship out of the barn, and he gave us goggles as we boarded. The ship was soon soaring upward. I could see the rebel engines below, snaking their way into the wilderness, and I waved, but I wasn’t sure they could see me.

Henry was like an older version of Rollo as he moved around the ship, taking note of every detail of how it worked, and then looking over the side at the approaching city far below. “Rollo would be so jealous,” he said with a grin. “I feel guilty for getting to do this without him.”

“Maybe someday we can arrange it for him,” I said.

“Perhaps. You’re the one with the connections.” He studied me for a while, then took my hand and said, “That, back there, is that why you had to come to the city, why you said you have nowhere else to go?”

I nodded. “I think my father always knew I wasn’t his child, and when my mother died…” I gave a weak shrug, and he nodded. “He didn’t even know about the magic, but that was how I knew.”

“Do you know who your natural father was?”