“Sera?” Leela asked.
“I have to go back,” Sera said. “We have begun to heal our City, but the High Priestess’s schemes affected the planet as well. And my friends are in danger. I don’t know what the Renalt will do if she gets her hands on Leo and Agnes.”
Leela swallowed. She did not know what a Renalt was and she did not wish for her friend to return to the planet, but she knew when Sera had made her mind up about something there was nothing else to be done. She cared deeply for those she had left behind, Leela had seen that. And then she remembered a snippet of Wyllin’s memory—of how, before the City moved again, the Cerulean would go down onto the planet one last time.
“I will go with you,” Leela said. “We must give back what we took from this planet.”
“I will come too,” Elorin piped up, and Leela smiled at her. She wasn’t sure how much the three of them would be able to give, but it was better than nothing.
“Where are you going?” Leela had not noticed that Koreen, Daina, and Atana had approached them, but Koreen was looking at her with interest now.
“I have to return to the planet once more,” Sera said. “To help my friends.”
“And we must replenish the earth,” Leela added. “As Cerulean did in times of old.”
“To the planet?” Atana gasped. “But it’s dangerous down there.”
“Do not be a scaredy-cat, Atana,” Koreen said. “It is our purpose to go onto the planet. Sera survived, and Leela too.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I will go with you as well.”
“What?” Atana yelped, but then Daina said, “So will I.”
“What’s this about going to the planet?” Freeda was looming over them and other Cerulean were gathering around, curious and interested.
“I wish to join you,” Acolyte Endaria said, after Leela had explained why they were going.
“We will go too,” Kandra said as she joined them, holding Sera’s green mother’s hand, her orange mother close behind.
One by one, Cerulean volunteered, agreeing to something they had no concept of, something that had been kept from them for generations. Twenty were coming in total. Leela had never felt so proud of her people.
“But we need moonstone,” Leela said.
Sera grinned. “It’s in the temple spire, you said, right?”
And Leela laughed, because there was nothing Sera loved more than climbing the temple, and this whole time she had been perching atop all the moonstone in the City.
Leela turned to the High Priestess. “You are coming with us,” she said, and Acolytes Endaria and Imima flew to her sides and gripped her arms. But the High Priestess did not struggle. She merely looked at Leela with the eyes of a woman who saw her world shrinking, who saw everything she had built begin to crumble and fall apart. The fight had gone out of her.
As they left the temple, the news of what they were about to do spread and there were cheers of encouragement for the knot of . . . what had Wyllin called them? Travelers. The knot of travelers that Leela and Sera had gathered.
Leela’s eyes filled with tears as she passed the doors and the symbols of Mother Sun shifted and became readable, a short cluster this time, not a waterfall like she had grown used to.
I am so proud of you, my child, the markings said. They shimmered, and for one moment, Leela saw the will-o-the-wisp from her dream reflected in their gilded image.
And then it was gone and the markings melted away.
Once outside, the travelers waited as Sera climbed up the temple spire as quick and lithe as a sunlizard. Leela saw the golden point shift and then moonstone was raining down on them, figurines and rings and bracelets, necklaces and circlets and brooches, along with shattered fragments of the old fountain from the Night Gardens.
Elorin chose a moonstone ring set with pink stargems and Kandra was fastening a brooch to her robes as Freeda tucked a long shard of moonstone into her belt. Leela could not believe so many had volunteered to come. She did not want to put her people in danger, but she knew in her heart that this was what they were meant to do. Sera might have another motive in helping her human friends, but Leela knew that if the City were to really, truly change and return to the way it was supposed to be, it had to begin now.
Besides, trying to keep the Cerulean away from all harm was what had led them to this stagnation in the first place. There were worse things than death, Leela thought as she looked at the High Priestess, still flanked by two acolytes.
Sera climbed back down the temple and Leela turned to address those who would be coming with them.
“We will have to go down beneath the City,” she said. “If anyone wishes to change their mind, now is your chance. There is no shame in being afraid.”
Daina trembled and Koreen twirled her hair nervously, but no one said a thing. The gathered Cerulean were watching her with faces set and backs straight. Leela felt a quiver in her stomach. She was in charge now. She must lead them.
She turned to Elorin and Sera. “Let’s go,” she said.
She led them to Faesa’s statue, revealing the stairs that descended into the cold blue light. There were more cries of amazement as the Cerulean took in the Sky Gardens, the glowing columns and green paths and clear pools. Leela brought them to the central pool where the stalactites lay empty and the tether shot up into the cone of moonstone. Leela turned to the ice-white vines above—there was a flash of heat in her heart and suddenly all the fruit fell, plop plop plop, juicy orbs of gold littering the ground.
“You must take one,” Leela said. “And eat it. It will enhance your magic and make you strong.”
She was a bit shocked at how quickly her orders were followed. Without hesitation, everyone bent to grab a fruit. Koreen’s eyes widened as she took the first bite, Kandra gasped, and Freeda shuddered. But when the High Priestess began to bend, Leela reached out a hand to stop her.
“No,” she said. “Not you. You do not get to consume our magic anymore.”
The High Priestess pursed her lips and straightened.
“Everyone take a pool,” Leela commanded once the fruit was eaten. The Cerulean already seemed changed, their skin glowing bright silver, their eyes shining pure blue, as they spread throughout the space to stand beside the clear patches on the ground. “We will follow the line of the tether. Trust me. Trust Sera.”
Elorin had a mix of fear and anticipation on her face as she gave Leela a tight smile. Sera’s mothers were standing at pools right next to each other, their eyes flitting from the planet back to their daughter.
Leela and Sera stood together beside the largest pool with the tether shooting through it. “When I say jump, we jump!” Leela called out.
Sera grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Leela took a deep, fortifying breath and cried, “Jump!”
She sank through the pool, Sera at her side. One by one the Cerulean followed them, filling the darkness like silver-blue stars.
36
Agnes
SERA WAS GONE SO QUICKLY, IT LEFT AGNES BEWILDERED, her mind unable to truly absorb the loss.
Then the cannons rang out again and Vada grabbed her hand. “We must be getting out of here!” she cried.
Agnes turned to Wyllin. “Come with us,” she said.