Fairfoot’s harbor was built in a natural inlet. Two outstretched arms of land embraced each new arrival, and ships from every system were lined up on its shoulders, elbows, and wrists.

Santher steered them straight into the center of the harbor. With ships packed on every pier, there was little room to dock, but the Markab was small. Santher found an unobtrusive place beside a longboat from Ursa, and the four of them quickly disembarked, tying the yacht to a post.

Emma followed the others down the pier, where they encountered a group of Ursa sailors. They were a mixed crowd of bears and men, the lot of them smelling like pipe smoke and the oily stench of fur. The bears stood upright and were remarkably tall. The men were tall as well, and dressed in fur coats that hung down to their boots. Emma felt tiny among them—she barely reached their waists. She moved delicately beside Herbie, afraid of getting trampled.

One of the men had great, hairy hands and a thicket of beard that sprang sideways from his ears.

“Ursell,” he called to a friend of his, “think the Queen’ll want some pelts?” He was holding an armful of wolf skins, and when he raised them in the air, Emma ducked. A swipe from a single one of the skins could have knocked her into the harbor.

“Only pelting she’ll get will be a smack across the face,” Ursell grumbled. The other men laughed. “Don’t see what we’re doing here anyway.”

“We don’t have a choice, do we?” the first man said. “You see what she did to Lynx—you want her doing that to Ursa?”

Laika stopped abruptly and looked up at the man. “Do you know any pirates?” she asked.

The man froze and looked down at her. “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Stiffly, he moved past her and hurried his men forward, glancing back at her as if she were dangerous.

Laika turned to Emma and Herbie. “See how afraid everyone is to talk about pirates?”

Emma was surprised. “Maybe it’s because there’s so much navy here,” she said.

“But they’re always like that,” Laika replied.

“It’s just because they think you’re crazy,” Santher said. “Come on.”

They had reached the center of the wharf. The Chained Lady docked on a long, lone pier that extended out into the middle of the harbor. Red carpets had been laid out for her, leading straight ahead to a grand building that dominated the shoreline. It was a veritable pantheon with a dome roof, a stone facade, and imposing marble columns. Ministers from all over the galaxy had lined up along the carpet to greet the Queen. Emma and her friends crept to the front edge of the crowd and watched as the Queen’s ship laid down its gangplank.

Silence fell as a large shadow passed over the crowd. Everyone looked up to see a flock of flying Pegasus horses heading for the carpet, their great wings outstretched. Two by two, they landed on the carpet and ran forward, clearing the way for those behind. On their backs, smartly dressed soldiers sat upright, sternly ignoring the applause that broke out from the crowd.

When all the Pegasus horses had landed, sailors from the Queen’s ship began marching down its gangplank.

“Draconi sailors,” Laika whispered to Emma and Herbie. The Draconi guards moved in a tight formation, their short, stocky bodies draped in coarse fabrics, their arms and faces browned by the sun. “They look like Riders.”

“They ride dragons?” Herbie asked.

“Normally, yes. But those ones were sent to protect the Queen. She has her own dragons. But I don’t see them. Sometimes they fly alone.”

A trumpet blared, and everyone fell silent. The Queen appeared at the top of the gangplank, flanked by her guards. Regally, she walked down the plank. The crowd fell in a sweeping wave as every creature knelt before her. Emma bowed halfheartedly. She wanted to get a better look.

Queen Virgo was a surprisingly small figure, but her clothing more than made up for her size. She wore a long royal-blue dress that seemed to spread out for miles behind her. Her great tier of blond hair was drawn up in waves, and a crown of objects was placed artfully around it. They looked like bright-blue ears of wheat. A gigantic diamond hung around her neck.

Once the Queen had passed and the crowd had risen again, Emma heard a clanking. Straining to see, she caught sight of a dirty young woman in white rags. Her legs and wrists were bound in heavy chains, and she was being dragged, stumbling, behind the Queen.

“That’s the princess of Andromeda,” Laika said, her big brown eyes wide with sympathy. “It’s how she’s being punished for rebelling against the Queen.”

They got a look at Princess Andromeda’s face as she passed. She might have been lovely once, but now her cheeks were sunburned, her lips were cracked and bleeding, and her eyes were swollen. She moaned.

“Just one drop of water, please!” she begged. One of the guards turned, raising a whip in his hand. She cowered. The guard yanked her chains and dragged her, stumbling, into the hall.

Santher gave a low whistle, and they turned to see him ten feet away, slipping into a crowd of young servants from one of the warrior systems. It so happened that the warrior’s beige uniforms matched the ones that the four of them were wearing. As the ministers began moving into the great hall, Emma and her friends followed, blending in seamlessly with the servants.