A Study In Ashes Part 48

Tears trembled in her eyelashes. "I may need you to remind me who I am right now, this day. I can't forget that I love my friends and my family, even if I am a little afraid of Grandmamma Holmes. I can't forget how much I hated choir, but that I loved geology."

Nick grasped the hand she had pressed against him. It had gone chill with panic. "But we all change and grow with time, Evie. I can't keep you under gla.s.s like a museum piece."

Tears were standing in her eyes. "You can keep me from losing sight of what counts. Like the fact that I love you more than I can say."

"Oh, I'll remind you of that, Evie." Nick felt an ache squeeze his heart. It was heavy as iron, but strangely light as well, as if he'd come to the end of a grueling journey. Everything he had ever done had led to this moment. He had her trust, not just when it came to her life, but with her very soul.

His put his other hand over hers, clasping it tight. "And if it makes you feel better, I promise you that I will do whatever needs to be done. Trust me on this. I love you, and I will not let you fall."

She bowed her head, her long hair tumbling forward like silk over his hands. The silver fire glowed softly between them, an echo of their desire for one another, but it seemed wrong to stir those embers now. There were many kinds of healing, and right now was the time for hard truths.

"I have one condition," Nick said.

Evelina raised her tear-stained face. "What?"

"It's time you ate something and came out of this tiny dark room. There's a whole world out there waiting for you."

"How can I even think of it?" She pulled away sharply. Clearly, he'd made the suggestion too soon.

"What else are you going to do?" Nick asked, using the same practical, steady voice he used with his men when they were under fire. "You're being forced to face a piece of yourself that you fear. You have to find a way to use it to make you strong."

A strange look came over Evelina's face.

"What?" he asked, fearing he'd struck the wrong tone.

"I had this same conversation with Imogen in a dream." She looked up at him, her expression drawn. "Except it was about Anna, and I gave her very different advice."

Unsure what she meant, Nick picked his next words very carefully. "I can be your safeguard, but in the end you have to find a way to master this power."

She looked away. "How?"

"Make it your ally. Make it your weapon." He squeezed her hands in his.

"My weapon? What kind of advice is that?"

"I'm a pirate. I know something about darkness and choices."

She gave him a long look, taking in everything he'd said. "And here I am struggling to stay on the path of goodness and light."

"I know you're capable of anything."

"Anything?" she said dryly. "Such as?"

He shrugged. "I was hoping you'd come along and redeem me from my wicked ways. This business of redemption is a two-way street, you know."

Evelina sank back against the pillows, her gentle curves reminding him why he had marched into a haunted castle to play the hero. "Saving you might take some time."

And finally, she smiled.

AS SHE STEPPED onto the bridge some hours later, Evelina felt exposed and vulnerable, like an egg that had lost its sh.e.l.l. Nick was right to coax her back into the light and air. The bright, brisk atmosphere of the ship was the opposite of Magnus's gloomy castle, and the sheer normality of it kept her magic quiet. She played with Bacon until the little dog got lured away by the smells from the mess, and then she busied herself with all the novel equipment on the bridge. But the noise and press of so much active, eager energy was almost too much after the solitude of Siabartha. The greatest comfort was Athena's presence, feminine and warm. Evelina had never been able to speak to the air deva, but it was something to know she was there, especially since Nick had gone down to the city below with Striker.

Evelina found a spot by the high windows and tried to stay out of the way. Bath spread out over the green earth, looking serene from this vantage point. She had been there a few times with Ploughman's Circus, and remembered the warm color of the stone and the beauty of the River Avon. She could see the arcs of terraced homes and the roof of the cathedral. It was as small and perfect as a diorama-and it looked about as unreal. If not for the tiny moving specks that were people and carriages, she might have thought it all a toy.

"How long will we be here?" she asked Digby, who was working at the station closest to where she stood. He was one of the few whose name she knew, and the easiest to talk to.

The tall, red-haired crewman shook his head. "I'm not sure, miss. We've been loading cargo long enough that they should be almost done. Then it's picking up a few pa.s.sengers, and we're away."

"Where to?"

"Wherever the cargo needs to go." Digby gave her a sly smile. "It seems pirates have become the new Royal Mail."

She didn't have time to ask for a better explanation, because another crowd of men entered the room, Nick among them. A purely feminine panic brushed her when she saw Michael Edgerton, an old friend of Tobias's. Some of her chagrin was the sensation of the past and present colliding. The rest was sheer vanity. The last time she'd spoken to the man had been at a ball. Now-ragged and reeling from her struggle with Magnus-she wasn't exactly at her best.

Edgerton spotted her, his eyes flaring slightly with surprise. He was still tall and thin, although he had filled out some in the last year. As he shifted, she saw someone else she knew-the Schoolmaster, now Prince Edmond, who was deep in conversation with Nick. The last time she'd seen the Schoolmaster, he'd been handcuffing a man on her uncle's floor.

Curiosity got the better of her. There didn't seem to be any formality around the rebel heir, so she drifted their way to join the conversation.

"The city was known to the Romans as Aquae Sulis, or the waters sacred to the G.o.d Sulis," Edgerton was saying. "The hot springs have been known for centuries, but rarely exploited for their geothermal power. The steam barons have overlooked it. Nevertheless, we would need time to build facilities with more capacity. As it is, we have neither the power nor the power storage cells to do more."

"It's the best answer we have with no coal. Bancroft has worked miracles for us, but getting the coal out of London has proven a challenge," said the Schoolmaster.

"Where does that leave us?" asked Nick.

"If we get this cargo to our northern makers, we can mobilize our forces there."

So we're carrying batteries. Evelina considered it an interesting solution, but a limited one. Not enough to win against the forces of Keating or the Blue King.

"Will this many cells even get them to London?" Nick asked doubtfully.

Edgerton and the Schoolmaster exchanged glances. They'd obviously worked together long enough to read each other well, because a decision was made without words.

"In part," said the Schoolmaster. "There is a question of which of our northern forces to mobilize. There isn't enough power for them all."

"We were counting on them to hold the north flank," Edgerton said quietly. "To be utterly frank, this presents a problem."

Nick met Evelina's eyes and inhaled, as if he were going to take that moment to pull her into the conversation. She turned instead, staring out the window without seeing a thing. She was aware of the tension all around her, the collection of large personalities a power source all their own. But she could also feel her newly bolstered magic simmering inside her. If she'd felt like a peeled egg earlier, now she was just the sh.e.l.l, caught between those inner and outer pressures. She wasn't ready to deal with this. She wanted a dark room, silence, and solitude.

But she knew the answer to their problem, and she had the means to make it work. She'd wanted to reconcile the two halves of her being for so long-magic and logic, the world of spirit and the world of machines. She'd created Mouse and Bird years ago, solving the riddle of how to harness the power of devas to make living clockwork. She'd gone to the university to understand the dual nature of her heritage, but perhaps that wasn't something that could be solved by study. Maybe that duality was just something she was, and a union would be forged just by recognizing what she could do. And her newfound power gave her the means to make it happen on a grand scale.

It all flashed through her mind in moments, leaving her with the sensation that her stomach was dropping through the bottom of the Athena's hull. The situation reminded her of a card in her Gran Cooper's fortune-telling deck that showed a man walking off a cliff: the Fool. It was supposed to represent a trust in fate she just didn't feel. But the prince would lose without her help.

Evelina turned. "Gentlemen, I have a solution."

Edgerton and the Schoolmaster looked up in surprise. Nick folded his arms, looking like the cat who'd got the cream.

Northern England, October 15, 1889.

ABOARD THE ATHENA.

Dawn Tuesday.

"ARE WE NEARLY THERE?" THE SOFT FEMALE VOICE CAUGHT the Schoolmaster's attention. He was alone in the mess, drinking a cup of tea thick enough to stand on-in his opinion, the only kind of brew worth drinking.

"I'm not the one to ask," he replied, eying Miss Cooper. "They let me think I'm in charge, but I'm really the idiot pa.s.senger with the upside-down map."

It was cool on the ship, and she wore an airman's jacket over her dress, her long, dark hair spilling in waves over her shoulders. The jacket was far too large and the sight of her sleeves drowning her dainty hands was oddly charming. So were the big blue eyes in her heart-shaped face, but he knew better than to act on that attraction-and not just because of his birth or Captain Niccolo's knives. He could feel the power this young woman commanded like a magnetic charge. She wasn't to be trifled with-especially when she'd offered him the ability to run machines on magic. That was the power every one of the steam barons coveted as if it were the Grail.

The Schoolmaster was grateful, but he was also a little nervous. Nothing miraculous ever came without a price and, to be utterly frank, there was a fragility to Miss Cooper. All he knew was that she'd been through a great ordeal. He didn't want to be responsible for her collapse. Overtaxing her wasn't gentlemanly, and with her powers might be b.l.o.o.d.y dangerous.

She came to stand beside him at the window. "I've only ridden in tiny ships before this, and they didn't fly nearly so high. The views are mesmerizing."

"Mm," he said, telling himself there was no possibility that he was actually afraid of her. He watched as she fingered a figurine on a chain around her neck. It was one of the souvenirs the street hawkers sold in Bath-a tiny pewter owl copied from the remains of the old Roman spa. "Is that a memento from the captain?"

She flushed a delicate shade of rose. "Yes."

The Schoolmaster hid a smile. That part of her-the girlish part-he had no problems with. "The owls are sacred to Minerva-or Athena, if you prefer the Greek. There are plenty of ancient shrines to her in the old ruins."

A shy smile followed the blush. "Perhaps then it is a good luck charm, considering our ship."

He clasped his hands behind his back. "How did you get involved in this adventure, Miss Cooper?"

She was silent long enough he a.s.sumed she wouldn't answer, but then she gave a short, low laugh. "I had two grandmothers, my lord. One was a fortune-teller with a circus and the other a tyrant for good behavior and a respectable marriage. I've spent my life trying to please them both."

"So you plunged headlong into a civil war?"

She lifted a shoulder. "With the two sides of my family being so different, I've been in one all my life. And I'm hoping for a better empire."

The Schoolmaster swallowed. He'd heard that note of expectation a thousand times already, and he could feel each hope adding to an ocean of responsibility. "You blew up the Dartmoor laboratories. I think you've made your criteria for improvement clear."

She cast him a wary glance. "I prefer a society that lets me live unmutilated."

A mild shock pa.s.sed through him at her words. She is as uneasy about me as I am of her. It didn't make him feel any better.

Edgerton and Captain Niccolo came into the room. Edgerton spoke first. "Look down, sir."

The Schoolmaster drew closer to the window, peering through the patchy cloud. Dawn was just breaking, pinking a steely sky. At first all he saw were indeterminate shapes that might have been carts, sheep, or haystacks dotting the fields below. But as he looked longer, the growing light revealed edges of steel and bra.s.s. Soon he saw the ground was covered in a procession of wagons, some pulled by heavy draft horses, some powered by steam. In the bed of each were one or two devices. There were various types of guns and cannons, and others that were not so easy to recognize from the air.

"By the coordinates, it's the lowland army," Edgerton replied, his face serious. He pointed to the rear of the force, where a particularly heavy vehicle rolled on a kind of movable train track. Smaller vehicles ran alongside the main one, taking up track the larger one had crossed and setting it down in front in a perpetual cycle. "There's the coal supply."

"That's it?" Captain Niccolo exclaimed from where he stood beside Miss Cooper.

Edgerton nodded. "That's all that's left. They're hoping to capture additional supplies along the way. It's a desperate gamble."

The Schoolmaster rested his forehead against the window, silently cursing. He'd heard the northern armies were short of supplies, but seeing their condition brought it home. Desperation made people do foolish things, including him. He had antic.i.p.ated the shortage of fuel, but he had counted on having more time to solve the problem. He'd encouraged the makers to go ahead and build their battle machines. But that time had never materialized, and now-because no one could deny the urge to fight for their freedom, not even for lack of coal-the men below stood an excellent chance of being captured and slaughtered once their engines died. He needed a miracle.

He sighed and turned to the young lady with the dark shimmering power, praying that she was his answer. "Miss Cooper?"

EVELINA CLUTCHED THE owl in one hand and Nick's hand with the other. When she had made Mouse and Bird, there had been a ritual with amber and blood and the words her Gran had taught her. But she'd raised the devas on the moor without formal tools, and she needed that freedom again.

The pewter owl, warm from her grasp, dug into her palm. It would serve as a focus-a simple object that would be her touchstone within the physical world. Nick's fingers wrapped firmly around hers, the wild magic skimming along their flesh in a continuous current. She was the conduit between those poles-magic and reality-and would twist the energy coursing between them to her purpose.

Evelina's eyes unfocused as she drifted inward, searching for the power she needed. With the bracelets on, the process had been like rummaging for whatever she could find. Now it was like running her fingers over the treasures of a jewel box, judiciously selecting the piece best suited to the occasion. Her hunger stirred, but she forced herself to look past those darker magics. What she needed now belonged to a different path, to the herbwives and folkways of the olden times. Magnus's power would serve only as an amplifier.

She cast her mind toward the earth below. It had been lush not long ago, but now was scarred with smoke and ash. Her consciousness turned toward the remnants of the gra.s.s and trees, flitting through them with the speed and grace of a swallow. There were devas there, cl.u.s.tered in the safety of the green places.

There were many versions of the summons that would bring them to her hand, but she chose a simple rhyme.

I summon you by Will To perform a task for me.

If you do it well, I'll reward you willingly.

With Blood I give you strength And with Tears I pay your fee; With Words I give you wisdom And my leave to fly home free.

She felt their attention stir, p.r.i.c.ked to life by the touch of wild magic and then called by the ancient spell. In her mind's eye, Evelina could see them-a cloud of colored orbs drifting like falling petals. Each one should have had its own tree or stream to live in, but that wilderness was gone. As her consciousness swept past, they spun and eddied in agitation.

The collective of their thoughts coalesced. What do you want from us?

Evelina smiled to herself. Do you wish to fight the men who took your home?

The devas swirled faster, rising like a sparkling funnel, the song of their excitement the pained howl of the Earth.

THE SCHOOLMASTER LOOKED down in disbelief as a cloud of light appeared and then vanished in a wash over the army below. Then he blinked, unsure whether or not he had actually seen it. Perhaps it had been a trick of the dawn light.

But then a sigh seemed to pa.s.s from Evelina Cooper, and the scene below shimmered at the same instant. And then, to his gaping astonishment, the devices drawn by the carts came to life. The guns swiveled, legs extended, wheels rolled-and the machines b.u.mped off the carts to trundle forward on their own. And it wasn't a disorderly mob of rampaging machines, but rather a quiet and businesslike maneuver respectful of the human shepherds in their midst. Yet the machines had a defined notion of where they were going, just slightly off the path they had been following heretofore.

The Schoolmaster's body tightened, every nerve screaming that what he saw wasn't supposed to be happening. He had seen magic before, but not on this scale. And it might have been what he'd hoped for, but nothing had prepared him for a self-propelled aether cannon, barrel jauntily swinging in march time toward the rising sun. "Where the fardling h.e.l.l are they going?"

"Wherever you like," said Miss Cooper softly. "As long as they can make one stop along the way."

"Where?" He put one hand against the frame of the gla.s.s, leaning casually while he tried not to pa.s.s out.

The captain answered in a tone of b.l.o.o.d.y satisfaction. "Manufactory Three. There used to be a forest there. The devas would like to clear the way for it to grow back. It won't take them long."

The prince felt the ship change course, following the stream of marching machines. "Lovely. Um, do you suppose they could invade London when they're done?"

"Absolutely," said Miss Cooper with a dangerous smile. "And there are plenty more where those came from."

London, October 16, 1889.

PENNER TOY AND GAMES.