We disembarked and headed upstairs.
Inside Battery Park, even the SeaGlass Carousel appeared to be covered in powdered sugar. We passed it and continued to the dockside promenade, where we presented our tickets to Statue City Cruises.
From the dock level upward, the three-story ferry was as white as the snow. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it had been sculpted in the park and then set in the harbor. But it was solid and reassuringly steady as we crossed the gangplank and boarded.
“Which level?” I called over my shoulder.
“Top!” cried Poppy.
“It’s freezing up there!”
Poppy made jazz hands and wiggled her fingers at me, as if to remind me of her fire magic.
I found the stairs and headed up, past the second level, to the open-aired third level with rows of all-white benches. Unsurprisingly, we had it entirely to ourselves.
When all the passengers had boarded, the ferry engines rumbled.
Poppy was humming to herself—the tune from the subway—and a twinkling silver glitter drifted over all of us.
Toasty warmth surrounded me.
The ferry chugged away from the dock. From the harbor, the skyline looked completely different, as if leaving it changed it completely. When I stood on the city streets, it felt likemycity. Looking back at it, over the distance and the water, it felt likeeveryone’scity.
The Statue of Liberty came into view. Small, as the Princess of Arrows had said, but getting bigger every second.
The arrival dock lay behind the Statue, facing an American flag that waved in the harbor breeze. Snow coated the small stand of trees nearby.
Already we had come so far, past anywhere the Blessed or the Gentry could have gone before. I smiled. Set my cap firmly. Waited for the ferry to dock securely.
Berron was at the railing, his hands gripping the rail until small vines grew, his gaze on the Statue. The second the boat stilled, he was moving for the stairs.
I jumped up and herded the rest of our crew down, to find Berron waiting on the ferry side of the gangplank. “What are you waiting for?” I said.
“You.”
A whole world inside one word.
Our slow and careful walk down the gangplank turned reckless when we reached dry, solid ground. Poppy and the Princess of Arrows galloped at full tilt over the brick promenade. Berron, Daniel, and James jostled each other good-naturedly, like boys, while Jessica, like a dark horse, sprinted ahead of all of us, arms pumping, head held high. James dropped back with a good-natured laugh and waved them on, his human side beginning to show in gasps for air.
When the brick path narrowed and began to curve around the star-shaped stone fort, we all slowed and walked together.
When we reached our destination, and gazed upward together, no one spoke.
Beyond the roof of the fort, above the stone pedestal with its edges piped with snow, stood the Statue of Liberty. Her arm, well-muscled like a baker’s; her crown, a halo and a pointed defense against those who would challenge her. She was strong—for us.
We would be strong for each other.
I thought of my grandmother: sandwiches, bowls of fluffy potato salad, cold glasses of milk and pans of apple tarts overflowing with cinnamon and sugar. Summer mornings on the Central Park lawn. Letting the magic in.
Setting the magic free.
The Statue stared out at the harbor, holding her torch with the golden flame. Watching the ships come in, watching the seasons change.
Until the clouds shifted, and the shadows played over her face; and it seemed, for only a few breaths, that she turned her gaze on us.
And she smiled.
Epilogue
