“Yes. It may take a couple of days, and we’ll need to refuel from time to time, but if the weather is good, then it should be a pleasant trip,” Rovender replied as he cinched up his rucksack. Eva noted that his pack was considerably smaller as he pulled it over his narrow shoulders. She could also see that he had changed in color. The washed-out cerulean markings on his skin had become a striking blue, similar to the color in the holograms that she had seen of peacocks. Peacock blue.

“Are you okay with flying?” he asked.

Eva thought of the first time she’d been aboveground and her wish to soar above the world and see it from the safety of the clouds. It had been only a little more than a week before, but it felt like a year ago. “Yeah,” she said with a smile. “I think I’ll be okay.”

“Good.” Rovender grinned back.

Look. Up. Stars.

Eva closed her eyes. Far away, she could hear the faint thoughts of Otto singing to her.

“What is it?” Rovender looked at Eva.

Eva opened her pale green eyes. “It’s Otto. He wants me to look up at the stars.”

Eva and Rovender looked up into the nighttime atmosphere. The waning gibbous moon was glowing brightly in the heavens, far beyond the Rings of Earth. Like a band of diamonds, the asteroid fragments and space dust glittered as they orbited the planet, each fragment sparkling like a brilliant star.

One of those stars, shimmering close to the horizon, dropped.

“Did you see that?” Eva squinted in the fading light, trying to get a better view.

“A meteorite perhaps,” Rovender said, and pulled out his spyglass.

The luminous dot fell, down close to the earth, but did not hit the surface; instead it got brighter, more intense . . . and larger.

In the gentle desert breeze of the night, Eva heard a distant whine. It was an electronic-sounding whine . . . almost like the Goldfish. “Do you hear that?” she asked.

“This is no meteorite.” Rovender dropped his goggles. He narrowed his eyes at the approaching star.

A large orb-shaped ship descended from the blackness above, causing dust and sand to billow up from the ground. As Eva and Rovender shielded their eyes, they watched the craft touch down on three stout landing pads.

“Is this from Solas? Queen Ojo?” Eva asked.

“Queen Ojo has no large ships.” Rovender studied the scratched and chipped painted insignia. “None like this.”

The ship was battered, decorated in bright yellow and black checks, and had a round clear cockpit window set in the nose. A pair of large engines poked out from the back, their noisy turbofans whining as they slowed. Numerous tiny boosters lined the craft’s entire body. With a hiss a hydraulic ramp opened up from the belly.

Next to Rovender, Eva stood motionless, in awe, waiting for the driver of the craft to emerge.