A Study In Ashes Part 29

"Tobias brought me here on the Gold King's orders. I'm here to help Uncle Sherlock with Sir Charles's murder."

A muscle in Nick's jaw thumped with tension. "The Schoolmaster has taken it hard. He loved the old man. But was there really a supernatural connection?"

"I don't know yet. It's rather hard to sort out fact from Dr. Watson's embellishments." As she spoke, uneasiness crept through her. She wanted to tell Nick about Nellie Reynolds and the laboratories, but if she did he would stay to make sure she was safe. That would mean a delay in leaving for Cornwall-which meant more risk. Even if they could trust the Schoolmaster and his friends, there was a chance someone else might find out about Athena and a pirate captain with a rare strain of the Blood. Never mind the usual thieves and villains-they were far too close to Her Majesty's Laboratories. If the attempt to destroy them failed, she didn't want Nick caught in the struggle. Her own feelings aside-and they were legion-the rebellion needed Captain Niccolo and his ship.

He leaned closer. "Is there a chance you can escape for good?"

"Uncle Sherlock is working on that," she said. "He's thinking along the same lines."

"Good." He put a hand on either side of her face. "He's one of the few I'd trust with you."

"I'm sure he'd be honored to hear it," she said dryly.

Nick kissed her forehead again. "I'll be back here with my ship soon. Take a chance if one comes and know I'll be looking for you."

"Is this good-bye?" she asked plaintively.

His smile grew wicked. "We can make it a long good-bye."

Hot guilt surged, accusing her with every secret she was holding back. I'm as bad as Tobias. But she buried her chagrin in a kiss, hiding her secrets behind sweet affection. Her heart hurt even worse when Nick returned the kiss with a pa.s.sion that said he hadn't detected her ruse. But I'm doing it for him. She'd thought him dead once and never wanted to suffer that tearing grief again. Nick wanted to protect her from the world. Was it so selfish to protect him back?

He took her lips again, and every other thought melted into mist. His mouth was hot and hungry, his breath warm as it fanned against her skin. She seemed to come apart inside, not sure if she was dropping away or launched into flight. Excitement and desire tingled deep inside, as if the kiss was transforming her very bones.

Nick gave a chuckle, one of those deep, masculine sounds of pleasure that said he knew exactly how he'd conquered her. In response, she nipped his lower lip, drawing another sound, this time of curiosity. She could feel their magic pulling toward each other, churning and eddying like a current where a river meets the sea, but they both held it in check. There would be time enough for dalliance when they were both on his ship and safe in the sky. And Evelina would commit any misdemeanor to make that future come true.

She put a hand on his chest, melting a little more as she felt the beat of his heart, alive and precious. "If you don't leave, I won't let you go."

He sighed, and she felt the rise and fall of his chest. He stepped back, and all at once the room was there again, cool and spare. She shivered, feeling exposed without his arms around her. She bit her lips together, not wanting to cry because he was leaving so soon-or because sudden fear made her want to beg him to stay.

Letting him go wasn't the selfish choice. Holding him back would be. "Good-bye, Nick, and come back quickly."

He sketched an extravagant bow that came straight from his days in the circus ring. "Be safe, Evelina."

She waited until the door closed before she let her tears fall.

Dartmoor, October 4, 1889.

BASKERVILLE HALL.

4:20 p.m. Friday.

"THE KEY HAS TO BE TURNED EVERY TWELVE HOURS," EVELINA explained to her uncle as he fussed with her silver bracelets. "Nothing Tobias has will take the bracelets off. And I can't believe Dr. Watson drugged Tobias!"

They stood behind the hall, the vast expanse of the moors stretched out before them. Many described the place as desolate, but she didn't agree. To her, there was a fierce loveliness. The land rolled in an undisciplined patchwork of browns and greens, the fieldstone fences more suggestions than effective walls. Splashes of gold and vibrant red flamed by the creek beds and ditches.

The wildness of earth and broad, sweeping sky didn't bother her in the least. The place was rich with spirits of every kind-both the devas of the natural world, and the echoes of the primitive men who had built the cairns and stone huts that dotted the landscape. They weren't hostile, but they were indifferent to the mortals that huddled into tiny, whitewashed villages. Unlike the tame farmlands closer to the big towns, the moors had business of their own.

Rather like the landscape, Holmes was unmoved by her protest. "Mr. Roth is in excellent care and, from the looks of him, he is overdue for medical treatment. What is the matter with him?"

"He won't say. In fact, Tobias barely spoke at all the whole way here."

"He always was an idiot."

Evelina stiffened, but there would be no changing her uncle's mind on that point. "I wish we could get the bracelets off altogether."

"I will get the Schoolmaster on it as soon as possible. He knows every maker of consequence. One of them will figure it out."

She wondered if there were safety measures that would render the key useless once Tobias discovered the theft-but raising that now wouldn't help anything. Instead, she took the key from Holmes and strung it on her necklace for safekeeping. "What now?"

Her uncle gave her a serious appraisal. "Now you join Miss Barnes and help her destroy Her Majesty's Laboratories. I am surprised that you didn't guess that she and Madam Thala.s.sa were one and the same."

Evelina was still smarting at the deception. "I didn't recognize her without her medium's robes. Those sketches in the newspapers are never any good."

Holmes raised a brow. "She's already held up her end of the bargain and visited Miss Roth in her sickbed. She is guardedly hopeful that her solution will work."

"And you kept your promise to Poppy."

"Indeed I did. And now we move from small promises to larger ones. On to the destruction of the laboratories, and after that, the Steam Council."

The energy in his voice rippled down Evelina's backbone, carrying a power of its own. At Nick's side, she'd spied out the Blue King's army and survived an attack by his soldiers, and she knew just what kind of horror a war would unleash. And yet she knew equally well the price of doing nothing. Nellie Reynolds had shown her that all too clearly.

Still, she was afraid. Everyone she cared about had endured some sort of tragedy in the last few years, and this was only going to increase the danger hovering over her small world. No matter what choice she made, it wouldn't keep her loved ones safe-not all of them, anyhow.

And her instinct said to fight, for all that road frightened her. She closed her eyes, holding the intoxicating beauty of the moors inside herself, storing it against what was coming. Soon enough, she would need all the loveliness she could find. When she opened her eyes again, she was steady enough to smile.

"I've always wanted to work by your side," she said to Holmes, "but this isn't anything like your usual cases."

Holmes raised his eyebrows. "The details change, but every case involves someone who wants what they shouldn't have, a great many lies, and at least one instant when I wished I'd became a baker's apprentice."

"Don't be so sure," Evelina said lightly, remembering her adventure in the Gold King's warehouse. "The last baker I met had a problem with dragons."

And for once-though it was for a very short while-she rendered her uncle speechless.

"THERE WAS A gunpowder factory back there," said Miss Barnes in a low whisper, pointing straight ahead through the dusk. "Do you see that?"

Evelina crouched in the ragged gra.s.s, doing her best to avoid the gorse bush poking her with long, needle-sharp spines. They were approaching the laboratory from the moor, rather than the road. Normally she enjoyed a ramble across country, but she'd heard nothing but tales about bogs swallowing up innocent victims, and the ground here was squishy-not to mention that they were sneaking up on armed men. They had waited until twilight, but there wasn't enough cover for her liking-especially not here, where the land sloped downward from a high tor. Evelina might have magical powers, but what she really wanted was a good revolver.

Nevertheless, she looked for the ruined factory. What she saw were the stumps of stone buildings, pale against the heath, one cylindrical tower still stretching into the sky. "What happened there?"

"Some sort of explosion. After that they closed it down and the laboratories moved. That's what's in the buildings on the other side of the ruins."

Her Majesty's Laboratories looked like nothing so much as a row of cottages with a dairy behind them. Which explained the cows-they were the perfect cover. Rough-coated, white-faced beasts, they dotted the land between where Evelina crouched and the cottages began. She eyed the pasture suspiciously, wondering about the wisdom of sneaking through the long gra.s.s.

"Do you know what you are supposed to do?" Miss Barnes asked.

Evelina nodded.

"Best of luck. Remember, you're the only one of us whose power works a little differently. That's why you're going in first. The dampening shields inside the building should not work as effectively on you, but don't take that for granted."

The woman squeezed Evelina's hand and crept away, her homely tan-colored coat all but vanishing in the gra.s.s.

Left alone, Evelina felt insignificant beneath the vast sweep of sky. The sun was low, outlining fractured clouds with pale fire, but already the moors had a.s.sumed a purplish hue. She could see the faint glow of devas-spirits of the land-flickering across the moor. They'd resisted all attempts to communicate, but she hadn't pushed. It was enough to know that they were there, because that meant the moor itself was healthy. Although-she noticed the lights came nowhere near the buildings Miss Barnes had pointed out.

The cows were drifting toward the enclosure, clearly feeling it was time to be milked. Evelina squinted, trying to reconcile what she knew of the place with the pastoral view. This looked more like a source of clotted cream than the infamous laboratories.

The only way to find out for sure was to ask. Evelina stripped off her gloves and pressed her hands to the earth, feeling for the energy of the land. She could touch most places with little effort, but the moors were not shy. The presence of the place rose up to meet her with the force of a blow. She rocked back on her haunches with a gasp, but held on. The vibrancy of the earth and untamed nature churned through her like a fast-running stream, but beneath that was something foul. The land didn't like it, wishing it could flick it off the way a dog shakes its coat dry. All at once, Evelina understood Miss Barnes's plan.

She shifted her power, seeking the other members of the Parapsychological Inst.i.tute. They came to her inner sight as fuzzy points of light, all bright-although some were green, or white, or a friendly yellow. There were a dozen strewn in a loose circle around the moor. Some, like Leonidas Wood, she recognized. Most she did not-which was both a comfort and a concern. She wanted to know with whom she was working, but she wasn't so sure-after years of hiding her talents-that she was as comfortable with them knowing her. Besides, none had the dark quality of Evelina's power. She was like a crow among a flock of doves.

Evelina let the power go, taking three deep breaths to steady herself before checking the position of the sun. It was time to get started. She abandoned her gorse bush and began skidding down the slope of the hill, wishing her boots had better treads. Her dress was dark, so she kept to the shadows, doing her best to stay invisible. Once the ground leveled out, she began trotting toward the cows. A few of the ma.s.sive beasts turned and stared, their short curved horns looking particularly sharp. Distracted by the herd, she forgot to watch where she was walking and stepped into a rut, her foot sliding in the mud and wrenching her ankle. She went down on one knee, sliming her skirts. Oh, brilliant. She scrambled back to her feet, dirty and limping, but carried on, using a red and white cow for cover.

Now she could see the guards posted at regular intervals, one just within sight of the next. She edged along the side of the long dairy barn, hearing the hiss of steam-operated milking machines and the clatter of milk buckets over the incessant lowing of the cows. There was a boy outside with a stick, urging them inside with shouts and swats, and a black and white collie pup bouncing in circles around his feet. The guards paid no attention to the boy or the cattle, but instead scanned the yard right where Evelina wanted to go.

She caught movement to her left and saw an old, bent man carrying a bundle of straw across his shoulders. Uncle Sherlock, in one of his disguises. He jerked his head and she changed course, following him deeper into the shadows and finally breaking into a trot. The twilight was deepening. They had to move quickly before they lost all the light.

"There is a door right beside that fellow there," Holmes said as she drew near. "I can pick the lock if we can get past him."

Evelina thought a moment. "Won't the other guards notice he's gone?"

"In this light, all they need to see is someone in uniform holding a gun. I can take his place. The problem will be rendering him unconscious without making a noise."

Evelina bit her lip. "Leave that to me."

Holmes gave her a curious look, but dropped his bundle and pushed an ap.r.o.n into her hands. "You are a dairy maid, I am your grandfather, and I require medical attention."

He thought of everything. Evelina looped the strap of the bib over her head and quickly tied the strings. A moment later, she was helping her staggering elder across the gravel-strewn yard. "Please, please sir, we need a doctor!"

The guard poked at her with the b.u.t.t of his rife. "Go on, you know you don't get inside. Send one of your own down to the village. You're not our concern."

"But please!" She abandoned Holmes and reached for the guard, putting one hand to the side of the man's head. Then she loosed a quick jolt of power. The man's eyes rolled up, and he fell back against the wall.

"You must tell me someday how you do that," her uncle muttered.

"Maybe." It was a trick she'd learned from Magnus, and not one she was particularly proud of-but like all the sorcerer's lessons, it was useful. That was what had made his instruction in the dark arts so tempting. "He'll be out for at least an hour."

She leaned in, trapping the guard against the wall long enough for Holmes to take the man's cap and rifle. No one would see anything but a girl entreating the soldier a little too enthusiastically. Once they'd lowered the guard to the ground, they took his jacket, too. In the growing dark, Holmes had effectively changed places with him. In another moment, no one would see the extra body at all.

Then he bent and, with a pair of slim tools, set to work on the lock while Evelina searched the guard for a sidearm. She'd just found a knife and a pistol when she heard the telltale click of success. "Good luck," whispered Holmes. "I'm giving you two minutes before I come looking."

"Give me ten," she whispered back.

"Five."

And she was in. The door opened into a stillroom, probably once a kitchen but now it was filled with gla.s.s-stoppered jars labeled with specimen numbers and cryptic lettering. The next door was unlocked and led into a corridor. A glance told her that what looked on the outside like a string of adjoined cottages was actually one large structure with a smooth stone floor. The corridor where she stood ran end to end, one side disappearing into the laboratory proper. The nose-wrinkling smell of antiseptics made her skin pebble with dread.

Evelina wrestled her nerves under control. Though the mission was dangerous, her goal was strictly reconnaissance. She was there to find anyone who, like Nellie Reynolds, might be able to escape. And according to the sketch the actress had made, the holding cells were to her left. Evelina hauled in a breath, turning her steps toward the row of tiny doorways.

The dampening fields that Miss Barnes had warned her about descended like a hot, wet cloak. She could feel them weighing down her power, drowning it in a soggy haze. So much for the immunity of dark magic. No, they work on me just like everyone else.

She fished in her pocket for the gla.s.s vial that Moriarty had given her. She'd read about salt of sorrows on the train. Holding up the vial, she could see the salts were clinging to the sides of the gla.s.s, attracted to the ambient energy in the room. I'm in an active dampening field, all right. But the interesting thing about antimagic devices was that balancing the magic and its counteragent was key. If the balance was even slightly off, the dampening field would collapse and magic would force its way through.

Based on that principle, Evelina had formed a theory that all she had to do was double up the antimagic charge, and it would cancel itself out. Then her power would be free.

She popped the top off the vial and shook the salt into the palm of her hand, having to pound a little to get it free of the container. When she was done, there was barely a pinch of the compound to work with. Nevertheless, the powerful substance began to itch as soon as it touched her flesh. Carefully, she tucked half the salt under each bracelet, pushing the silver rings up onto her forearms to hold the salt tight against her skin, where the compound could react to her Blood. It was a primitive solution, but if she had calculated correctly, even with her bracelets deactivated, the combined charge of the salt inside the bracelet and beneath it should tip the balance of the energy fields and render them useless. Providing, of course, that her theory was correct.

The effect was immediate, as if someone had pulled a bag over her head, suffocating her. The next sensation was nauseating dizziness, filled with the p.r.i.c.kling echoes of pain, like a pale version of the agony that had stopped her at the college gate. The skin where the salt touched began to burn, reacting violently against her Blood. As she began to sweat, Evelina thought she would vomit, but just as suddenly the sensation faded, leaving her head clear and her heart hammering. She sucked in a breath, trying to control the reaction, but then she smiled. The dampening fields weren't working anymore. But in the next moment she realized that was only partially true. Only part of her power had forced its way past the barrier. Her darker magic was alert, active, and it was-for want of a better description-enthusiastic. It approved of being left in charge. It stretched itself like a big cat and began looking about for something to eat. Dear G.o.d, I don't like this.

But there was nothing to do but get on with the job at hand. Evelina shoved the empty vial into her pocket and inched along, listening for signs of life. The place seemed empty, but surely there had to be nurses or doctors to watch over their experiments. She paused to peer into the window of the first doorway. A single light had been left on, but low. There was a steel table with something on it, but a sheet covered whatever was there. The next table held something that wasn't human, and she wasn't sure it ever had been. It might have once been a dog. She turned away, breathing hard, her hand slippery on the b.u.t.t of the pistol.

Many of the doors had a card tucked into the corner of the tiny windows. She drew close to one, bending to read it because she didn't really want to touch anything she didn't have to. It read: Subject 21-14, released 1889-09-27. She peered inside the window, but the room was dark and empty. Released a week ago? Released? Where to? Dozens of the doors said the same thing, only the number of the subject changing. It doesn't make sense.

Something in the cell across the corridor lunged against the door with a savage scream, as if it sensed her there. Startled witless, she staggered against the opposite wall, torn between fear of what was behind that door, and what might respond to those cries. No, no, no, be quiet!

She looked frantically at the number of doors left to go, and then started moving as fast as she could, not stopping to do more than glance at each one. Tears streamed down her face; she was so hurt by the act of witnessing such pain that she couldn't imagine the nightmare of living through what she saw.

None of the subjects left in the laboratories were escaping. There were bodies, but they were all strapped to hospital beds, unconscious or bandaged or trapped in steel machines she didn't understand. Sometimes the machines seemed to be erupting from the flesh, bolts and ends of steel rods poking through necrotic skin. She saw one woman suspended in a globe of gla.s.s, her body eviscerated but for an aether distiller where her heart should have been, her mouth open in an endless scream. The dark power in Evelina stirred, wanting to destroy something that was so obviously wrong.

A hand fell on her shoulder, and she realized she had been hypnotized by the horror. But she did not turn immediately, instead taking her time to grip the gun and wheel in such a way that the muzzle landed against the man's diaphragm. At the same time she raised a hand, releasing a bolt of power to knock him out as she had the guard at the door. She heard him suck in a surprised breath, but he just blinked.

"How unfortunate," she said. Now I have to shoot him.

But as the nose of the gun b.u.mped against him, it clicked against metal. Not a b.u.t.ton or a breastplate, but something m.u.f.fled by the cloth of his coat. Surprised, she looked up into a broad, bald-headed face with cold hazel eyes. "Don't try to appeal to my heart," the man said in a dull tone, but beneath that flatness was a void that made her flesh crawl. "They took mine out years ago."

She shrank back, wanting s.p.a.ce between them, but then he pushed her so that her head cracked against the wall. Stars made her reel, blocking sight and sound and dragging nausea upward in a rush. Evelina shook her head to clear it, the room reeling as the man bore down on her. Evelina made a shuddering moan, nearly losing her grip on the gun. "Stay away from me."

"No," he said simply, reaching for her.

She dodged, trying to skitter around him so she could run the other way. He laughed and pushed her again, and she smashed against the door with the thing lunging at the other side. For an instant she could feel the vibration as the cell's occupant leaped for her, claws scrabbling on the gla.s.s just behind her head. Claws? Was this the savage hound Nellie Reynolds had described?

And then the guard grabbed her wrist in a grip meant to crush bone to dust. She cried out, wrenching herself free and squeezing the trigger all at once. The sound of the gunshot ricocheted through the empty hallway. Unexpectedly, he let go and she staggered back, her momentum sending her flying toward the door where she'd entered the building. The man toppled, hitting the floor, and Evelina collapsed against the wall, revolted by what she'd done.

The bullet had entered beneath the soft underside of his chin and blown away the top of his head-and not even a mechanical heart could help that. Skull, brain, and blood splattered the stone floor and the hygienic white of the walls. The creature battering against its cell door began to howl. Evelina retched, splattering the hem of her skirts, while the thing across the way stopped howling and began to snuffle at the crack under the door.

The darkness in her, already alert, uncoiled at the scent of the dying man's energy. It-she-didn't have the power to take life from the living, but when a body surrendered it, she was free to feed. A shudder of expectation went through her, leaving her weak enough that she slumped against the wall. It had been so long since she'd drunk down life. The hunger rose, insistent and oblivious. Her other powers were dampened, unable to resist. Evelina sucked in breath after breath, unable to get enough air.

And then the hunger lunged. A taste that wasn't a taste filled her senses-something spun of honey and champagne and sunlight. Or it should have been, except the man's life tasted stale. Disappointment wrenched her, but she quickly forgot it as the rush of energy hit her, drawing a noise of relief from her throat. It was a primitive, animal response. She'd been so hungry, but now she was strong again, strong in a way that she hadn't been since giving up her studies with Magnus.

It all happened in a matter of seconds, though it seemed to go on for a lifetime. A sense of warning opened her eyes and she drew herself up to see the other guards rushing down the hall, drawn by the sound of the shot.

For a fleeting moment, that reptilian hunger wanted them, too, but then Holmes burst through the stillroom door. "Evelina!"

She plunged after him, diving past the shelves of gla.s.sware and into the open air. The next instant, the moonlit, crystalline night soared above her. Evelina could feel the power of the other magic users crackle through the air. She stopped running, suddenly caught in the ecstasy of that much magic. She'd always worked alone, or with Nick, but never like this-part of an enormous web driven by a single purpose.