For Darkness Shows the Stars

you’d like to go change first? Put on a nice dress?”
    Elliot stopped and looked at the Post in confusion. Were these Cloud Fleet people so very fine? Were they out exploring the wilderness in lace?
    “It’s just that—” Mags looked pained. “In the parlor—”
    But time had run out, for a man appeared in the doorway and filled the air with his booming voice. “Did you say Elliot? Is this Miss Elliot North?” He stepped into the light and Elliot resisted the urge to step back. Every bit as giant as his horses, the admiral was red all over, from his thinning, combed-over ginger hair to his ruddy complexion to his deep scarlet coat. Elliot had never seen such a color on a piece of fabric. It looked like the flowers in Ro’s garden.
    “I have been looking forward to meeting you, my dear girl. Nicodemus Innovation, at your service.” He inclined his head in a move that was almost, but not quite, a bow.
    “Admiral Innovation,” she said, collecting herself. It wouldn’t do for a North Luddite to be rendered speechless by a Post’s jacket, no matter how red it was. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to greet you. I’ve been making the final preparations to your lodgings—”
    He waved his hand. “Don’t worry a bit. The sun-carts make great time when the weather’s as clear as today’s. Even my horses could hardly keep up. We haven’t seen a flicker of your father yet, but your sister Tatiana’s been, ah, entertaining us while we waited for you.”
    Elliot could only imagine. Well water perhaps, from tin cups? She wouldn’t put it past her sister.
    “Come in and meet the Fleet,” he said, bustling her into her own house.
    “The whole Cloud Fleet is in my parlor?” Elliot asked with a smile. “Very impressive, sir.” In the hall, she could smell freshly baked cream biscuits and peach and chamomile tea. If this was Tatiana’s doing, it was also very impressive. Perhaps she owed her sister an apology.
    “Nah, not all of them,” said the admiral. “Just the ones I like best, you know.” He laughed and pushed open the door. “My wife, here—Felicia.” The woman was as tiny as her husband was giant, with black and silver hair that curled around her freckled face. She nodded to Elliot and opened her mouth as if to speak, but the admiral was already steering her away. “And over there you’ve got the Phoenixes—captains both.”
    He gestured vaguely to two blond young people who were sitting near Tatiana with cups of tea in their hands. They looked over at her, and Elliot found her steps faltering under the intensity of the girl’s gaze. The female Phoenix—Andromeda, the admiral was telling her—looked to be about Tatiana’s age and had the most unusual eyes she’d ever seen, a light, glistening blue, like sunlight on seawater, and so clear it was as if Elliot could make out each speck in her iris despite the shade in the room. The male Phoenix—Donovan, according to the admiral—had eyes that matched, but he was younger, perhaps only in his mid-teens. Elliot was surprised that the famed “captains” of the Fleet could be so young. She was expecting grown-ups, not teenagers. The Phoenixes must be siblings, with their corresponding eyes and last name? Elliot wondered if they were born with the name, or if they’d grown up on an estate and adopted it later, as the Innovations had done. It had become fashionable these last few years for free Posts to change their names when they left their estates—to adopt new first names in the long, ornate style of Luddites and surnames of their own creation.
    “And then—but we’re missing someone.” The admiral’s heavy brows knit together. “I thought I brought three of you.”
    “You did,” said Andromeda Phoenix. “Wentforth is out seeing to the horses.”
    “The horses?” Now the admiral appeared even more confused. “Wentforth?”
    Andromeda gave Elliot a small, inscrutable smile. “Yes, very curious.”
    “Donovan,” said the admiral with a sigh, “go drag him from his sudden fascination for animal husbandry and bring him in to meet Miss Elliot. I’m sure the horses will be very well looked after in the baron’s stables without Wentforth’s help.” He turned to Elliot as Donovan snapped to do his admiral’s bidding. “No introduction would be complete without my star pilot.”
    Andromeda helped herself to more tea and sat back in her chair, that same small smile playing about her lips. She was dressed in a most