After all the noise of the steam engine, which had rushed through his mind, Twist couldn't bear the near-total silence of his cabin. He instead returned to the open second deck and leaned his back against the railing. The breeze tossed his black curls about playfully and tugged at his scarf, now looped loosely around his neck. The brilliant sunlight poured down his back like warm water and reflected off the sea of pure-white clouds that the ship sailed so quickly over. The ship still made no sound as its bow broke the crests of the clouds along its hull, but the rigging creaked softly as the balloon pulled against the whispering wind. Twist closed his eyes to the overpowering light and quietly savored the curious combination of chilly air and baking sunlight in the soft murmurs of the sky.

  Before long, however, the warmth of the sunlight began to fade. Twist opened his eyes to see vibrant color splashed over the sky. Orange and pink brushed each tower of cloud, while lilac spilled into the valleys, and the sun fell slowly through the pale-blue sky. Twist turned to look out over the vista, just as the clouds opened below the airship, falling away to reveal a land Twist had never seen. Emerald fields, rimmed and dotted with gray, stretched out to the edge of the world impossibly far below him. Tiny castles cast strong shadows against the green, and small villages and towns appeared in clusters here and there, as the land grew darker by the moment.

  Twist looked behind him, but found only Captain Davis out on the deck with him. He was standing at a wheel not unlike that of a sailing ship, which stood at the front edge of the top deck. Twist hurried to him, climbing the stairs two at a time.

  “What land is that below us?” he asked.

  “France,” Captain Davis answered instantly. “We'll be flying over Paris soon.”

  “Paris,” Twist said, his small voice filled to the brim with wonder. He'd read stories about Paris, seen paintings, and once touched a clock that was built there, but never in his life considered actually seeing the city with his own eyes.

  “You can't miss it,” Captain Davis said. “Just watch over the starboard side. We should keep the light long enough to make out the gardens at Versailles as well.”

  Twist hurried to the edge and looked over quickly, straight down, to see a town grow into a gray city through the abyss of empty air below him. Then, his vision realized the height from which it was looking, and it began to swim. Twist pulled back quickly, holding his suddenly horribly dizzy head in his hands.

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  “Be careful,” Captain Davis said with a laugh. “It might be easier if you don't look straight down.”

  “There is a city down there now,” Twist said, keeping his eyes closed for the moment and leaning against the rail. “Is that Paris?”

  “No, that's Rouen,” Captain Davis said lightly. “It's a large city, but not as large as Paris.”

  “How do you know so easily, exactly where we are?” Twist asked, opening his eyes again to look to Captain Davis. “You can't even see over the side from there.”

  Captain Davis smiled at him. “How do you know so easily, exactly how to fix your clocks?” he asked back. “We each have our skills. I don't have a clue about mechanical things, but I always know where I am.” Twist gave his mind a moment to consider this—that this man could know the whole globe in such detail—but it only made him feel dizzy again to try.

  “How many places have you been to?” Twist asked.

  “I couldn't say,” Captain Davis said. “You'd have to study more than a few maps to find a country I haven't been at least over.” Silence stretched out between them again, while Twist let the thought of it play in his mind.

  “I've been over two,” he said softly.

  If Captain Davis heard him, he chose not to respond. Twist turned back to gaze at the land again, though he tried not to look too far down right away. Just as promised, the towns continued to grow, filling the land with more and more gray, until Twist spotted a river winding through the buildings. There were two teardrop-shaped islands in the middle of the river, and there was a large cathedral on one of them. Long-forgotten maps of faraway cities floated back to his thoughts. Twist suddenly realized that he was looking at the Seine, the river that wriggled through Paris like a snake.

  A shiver ran down his spine as he watched the sun fall over the French capital, filling the Seine with the reflected lilac and gold of the remaining clouds that streamed along beside the airship. Not long after, just before twilight claimed the land in darkness, he saw huge gardens and well-contained forests below as well, with impossibly long and straight paths cut cleanly through the green. Soon, the only light on the ground came from tiny, star-like points of gas light or candles, and reflected light in rivers and lakes from the last few rays that reached up to gild the clouds. The sun boiled itself into the horizon in a wash of red and copper before slipping wholly below the edge of the world and dragging a dark blanket studded with silver stars over the sky.