The clouds began to glow around us, and slowly the schools of jellies dropped and came into view. I had never seen them up close like this before. As the air cooled, they drifted farther down, toward the level where our kites rode with their wicker scoops. They were larger at this altitude, just as I had anticipated, some nearly as wide as my outstretched arm.

“Let me finish.” Fawkes’s bloodline must have still carried some authority to her, because she fell silent. “Your parents were loyal to the king, and no doubt wealthy. They lost everything when the Illusionist seized power. So your mother, dreaming of her filched finery, filled your head with fantastical nonsense about the rightful heir, here in exile, planning a glorious uprising from leagues and leagues away.”