The Cerulean (The Cerulean Duology #1) - Amy Ewing Page 0,124

his hair, a casual movement that she thought was an attempt to hide his unease. “Well, I’ve got an appointment with the owner of the Lugsworth Theater. See you later.”

“So James isn’t going on the train, then?” Leo said after he left.

“He is. He just does not realize it yet.” Kiernan sighed. “A shame. He is so young and talented, but I fear he did not know what he was getting into when he signed on to work with your father.”

“Not many people do,” Leo said.

Kiernan smiled at that. “He is an expert businessman. Makes it a point to know everything about everyone.”

“What does he have on you?” Leo asked, and Kiernan’s smile faded.

“He helped me out of a spot of family trouble, that’s all.”

Leo let the subject drop, but Sera got the sense he did not quite believe the man. The two of them moved over to Errol’s pond, and from what Sera could hear it sounded like Kiernan was giving advice or instructions on how to re-create the pond somewhere else, detailing the type of moss and the temperature of the water and such.

“And we must never touch Errol with our bare hands,” he was saying, “or with anything metal. He’s got quite a strong voltage. We use wooden hooks and nets.”

She waited impatiently as Kiernan ran through more instructions, hoping Leo would not leave without speaking to her. The chance came at last when Kiernan was packing up his things, putting jars of flower cuttings into his square black bag.

“Excuse me just a moment, dear boy, nature is calling,” he said. “I must use the facilities before we leave.”

“No problem, Mr. Kiernan,” Leo said. “I can finish putting these away.”

He knelt by the bag, carefully placing each jar inside, until Kiernan was gone. Then he hurried over to the crate.

“I have the necklace,” he said, fumbling in his pocket. “Agnes and I are working together to get you out. She’s got passage for you on a ship, if you can believe it. But we still need to get you out of here. I thought I’d be coming around the theater more, since I’m working with Kiernan now, but you wouldn’t believe the way that man can go on and on about a leaf or a water sample. I’ve been stuck in his lab for almost a week.”

At last, he produced the necklace, and Sera let out a wild sound, half sob, half laugh, as she reached through the slats and took the moonstone in her hand. Such a small thing yet of unnameable value—a piece of her home, a connection to her friend.

“I would give it back to you now, but if anyone found it, they’d take it away,” Leo said.

Sera could not take her eyes off it, blurred as they were with tears. “I understand,” she said. “This is enough. For now.” She stroked the moonstone gently. Holding it in her hands made her miss her City more than ever.

“The problem is the Pembertons,” Leo said, almost to himself, and Sera got the feeling this wasn’t the first time he’d mulled over this issue. “There are so many of them, day and night, guarding all the exits. Even if I could distract a few of them, it wouldn’t be enough.” He sighed. “Besides the fact that I still don’t have the key to this damn chain.”

“There are no windows in this place?” she asked. “No . . . no spaces I could crawl through?”

“That’s the only window,” he said, pointing up to the glass ceiling. “So unless you can fly across the rooftops of Old Port, I don’t think—”

“Yes,” Sera said, ashamed she had not thought of it before. The glass ceiling, the one place where she could see the sky. Mother Sun had been calling her from there all along. “That is how I get out.”

“I don’t think that will work,” Leo said. “First you’ve got to get up there, then you’ve got to break the glass, then you’ve got to get to the Seaport. And like I said, unless you can fly—”

“These rooftops,” she said. “They have spires? They are like dwellings?”

“Um, yeah, I guess there are spires, and apartment buildings and churches and factories—”

“And are they close together or far apart?”

“Close together,” he said. “Most buildings in this city are right on top of each other.”

Sera smiled triumphantly. “Then I can fly,” she said. The moonstone glowed, as if applauding her words.

Leo looked about to protest, then stopped himself. “That still doesn’t get