“Course,” he says gruffly, and leads us further into the shed, towards a large black object. Is that what I think it is, an engine from an airship? It’s up on blocks and looks deceptively simple. Then I realise Ydra’s saying something and I bring my attention back to him. Marina has melted away – is talking to a couple of women over by a big table covered in metal pieces – and I realise Ydra is explaining the engine to me. I can hardly breathe.

“Are you working on this?”

“Yes, at the moment, on this one,” he says in his accented voice. The Fonecians speak a kind of hybrid language from the Outer Islands. “Next it will go to that man over there for adjustments. Then another man will fit it back into the ship.”

The engine is incredible and my fingers are itching to touch it. There are black pipes, some kind of cooling system, and chains. I want to see it in action, see how it works.

“Later,” Ydra is saying, “if I can make arrangements, you might be able to join a cargo run.”

My eyes goggle. “You mean, travel in an airship?”

“Yes,” he says, glancing over to where my sister is now cradling a mug in her hands, still chatting with the others. “But later,” he adds with a note of caution.

“Later?” I frown, wondering what he means.

Perhaps Ydra has said too much, for he claps me on the shoulder and changes the subject. “Never mind!” he says, leading me over to another work bay where a Fonecian is lying on the ground beneath a metal frame.

It doesn’t seem long at all before we join Marina, yet it could have been hours. The Fonecian probably has to get back to work, though there’s no sense of urgency in him. As he escorts us back outside, I can’t help but notice the looks they exchange, my sister and this foreign bloke. They’re more than friends, I’d wager, even though they simply shake hands in farewell, like any acquaintances would.

“Did you like that?” Marina asks on our way back through the industrial area.

I glance at her sideways. My head’s humming after being in the airship depot, though I’m suspicious as well. “So how did you meet him, this Ydra person?”

“If you must know,” she says, hinting that it’s actually none of my business, “we met one day at the Haretts’. He was delivering a parcel that had arrived for them from Karis.”

“And you became friends, just like that?”

Marina beams at me. “Yes, just like that!”

It’s nearly dark now and the gas lamps are being lit, a man climbing up and down a ladder to get to them. My enigmatic sister is marching along, for all the world without a care, and I know she won’t tell me anything more, no matter what I say.