“Do you really think the tether will help you get home?” Agnes asked.

“Yes,” Sera said, and Agnes looked up to see stark determination on her face. “It is the link between my City and this planet. It must be the way home. In days of old, Cerulean would always travel to the planets they were tethered to. They had to have a way to get back somehow.” She turned to look out the porthole. “The closer we came to this country, the more I could feel my magic getting stronger, multiplying and bursting in my veins.” Suddenly, she gasped. “They’re back!”

She and Agnes scrambled off the bunk and opened the door, running to the hatch as footsteps echoed overhead. Then it was thrown upward, revealing a square patch of sunset-colored sky and Vada’s face.

“Well,” she said. “That was an interesting shopping trip, to say the least. Here, catch.”

She dropped several parcels, wrapped in soft, colorful paper and tied with twine. Agnes caught one wrapped in blue that felt sturdier than the green one that followed. Leo had to pass his packages down carefully—he had quite a stack of them, boxes tied with green ribbons in addition to paper-wrapped clothes. The fanciest one by far was for Sera, wrapped in gold foil with a stamp on it featuring a swan with three stars over its head.

“I will be helping you into this,” Vada said to Sera as she and Leo climbed down into the hold. “There are many buttons.” She turned to Agnes. “You and your brother go change, quickly. We don’t want to be late for dinner, and I am not liking the thought of walking the market after dark.”

She gave Leo a push and shuffled Sera down to the captain’s cabin.

“Dinner?” Agnes asked. “Where are we going for dinner? What happened in the market?” She followed Leo to his room, which wasn’t a cabin so much as an unused storage room. There was a dusty bench with a blanket and pillow, and a couple of empty shelves built into the walls.

“I’ll explain once we’re changed,” Leo said as they turned away from each other.

Agnes unwrapped the sturdy package and gave a cry of delight. “Vada got me pants!” she exclaimed.

Leo snorted. “I got you pants. I figured you’d want them.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“They should fit better than your old lab attire.”

She bit back a retort and began to undress. She was still unused to being grateful to her brother.