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quickly?”
    “Several clockworkers in England and in Europe invented wireless communication devices,” Gavin said. “You can send messages at the speed of light to any other wireless device that listens to the same frequency. They’re better than a telegraph because you don’t need to raise poles or string wires.”
    “We can’t outrun such a message,” Feng pointed out. “As it is, we lost three days when you were captured. I imagine that was what your Lieutenant Phippswanted—to catch us up. It is fortunate she seems to have no airship.”
    “Yeah. We’ll have to think of some way to hide better. I just wish we had more time.”
    “You said that.” Alice set her cup down with a clink of metal on china and came around behind his chair to put her arms around his neck. The iron gauntlet was chilly. “And you’re right, darling. We’ll find a way. We’ll find time.”
    Her touch made him feel better, despite the spider. Even though he was barely nineteen and she was twenty-three, he felt no difference in their ages. Alice had been initially put off by it. The gap had been one of the reasons she had resisted admitting she loved him.
    Gavin touched Alice’s hand, letting himself drink in her steady presence. And she was so beautiful. Her deep brown eyes set off her honey-brown hair, and her triangle face and little nose and rounded curves all came together like the parts of an intricate fugue, compelling and hypnotic. He still found it hard to believe she was with him—and that it had taken her so long to break society’s rules and leave her horrible fiancé. She leaned down. Her scent wafted over him, and he kissed her softly in the free and open sky. The kiss intensified, and a thrill went through him. He could do this. He could conquer the whole damned world, as long as Alice Michaels stood beside him.
    “Very sweet,” Feng said, breaking the moment. “But I have no idea where I am going.”
    They broke away and Alice coughed, a bit flushed. “I’d help, but I never learned how to read a navigation chart.”
    “Right.” Gavin got up and took the charts away from Dr. Clef, who was now staring into the distance.
    “My Impossible Cube had time,” he muttered. “All of it. At once. But you destroyed it, my boy. My lovely, lovely Impossible Cube.”
    “Not this again.” Alice sighed. “Click!”
    Click jumped down from his vantage point on the gunwale and strolled over to rub against Dr. Clef’s shins. A mechanical purr drifted across the deck. Dr. Clef glanced down.
    “Ah, you send me the clicky kitty as a distraction. It will not work. I am so very forlorn.” Still, he picked the cat up and stroked the metal ears. “It won’t work at all, will it, clicky kitty? It will not. It will
not
.”
    “Germans are so good at despondent,” Gavin observed. He pored over the charts. “If we keep our current course, we’ll reach Luxembourg by tomorrow. I know the place—it gets a lot of airship traffic, and the
Juniper
stopped there several times.”
    “Do you think the other airships will give us camouflage?” Alice asked.
    “Honestly? No.” Gavin gestured at the softly glowing envelope. “She stands out, even among airships, and the envelope isn’t big enough to lift her without turning on the generator.”
    “Then why did you build your ship this way?” Feng asked.
    “You’re such a clicky kitty,” Dr. Clef cooed. “You
are
.”
    Gavin’s stomach turned over. “Because I could. You don’t think about consequences when you’re in a… a clockwork fugue. You just build. I didn’t even know Iwas a clockworker when I built the
Lady.
I thought I just had insomnia.”
    “Whatever the reason, we have a conspicuous ship,” Alice said, “and the Third Ward is spreading word of a generous reward for our capture.”
    “Is the clicky kitty hungry? Would he like a saucer of arsenic?”
    Gavin sighed and leaned over the gunwale, the fresh breeze on his face, solid wood beneath his bare