A Study in Ashes (79 page)

At that, he finally stirred, taking both her hands and raising them to his lips. His dark eyes met hers for a long, languorous
beat. Nick was Nick, always on her side, and the silver fire of wild magic burned bright between them even in the full light of day. Evelina squeezed her eyes shut, her entire body aching with relief and gratitude.

When she opened them again, his lips curled into a smile that mixed mischief, pride, and a vulnerable softness she rarely saw in him. For an instant she glimpsed the family man he might become. And then it was gone, and the captain was back. “You don’t crumble, Evelina.”

No, she just melted whenever he looked at her. She cleared her throat. “I think you were saying something about needing the devas again.”

When she opened her consciousness again—more gradually this time—she felt the familiar rush of spirits eager to join with the wild magic she and Nick shared. She caught them—this time dispensing even with the short verse she had used before. She made her offer wordlessly—more with mental images than anything else. The devas of earth and tree grasped her meaning at once. Too many of the city’s gardens had been swept away to make room for commerce, forgetting what was owed to health and spirit. They were willing to fight for their place in the metropolis.

They flowed into the machines, eager to turn the battle against the barons. But the nature spirits weren’t plentiful enough to subvert two entire armies, and Evelina searched further, drawing on Nick’s strength and the deep well of dark power. When it was firmly in her grasp, she delved deep into the earth and sky around them.

There were other kinds of spirits there, ones that barely had names—but the battle had stirred them to consciousness. At first Evelina thought them earth devas, but they were more than that, and less.

Who are you?
she asked.

At first, they didn’t know how to answer.

Where do you come from?
asked Nick, who seemed to be able to speak to these creatures as easily as she could.
Where do you live?

Here
, they said, and suddenly Evelina’s mind was filled with images of alleyways and iron gates, churchyards and
cellars. There was the song of bells and the splash of fountains, the hidden waterways and the whisper of wind in the high places.
We are London
. And then came angry images of the ramshackle rookeries and sickness, and she understood that these city spirits were every bit as furious with the steam barons as the country devas.

She felt Nick’s intake of breath at the same moment as hers. These devas were something new, something neither Gran nor Magnus had spoken of. And yet it made perfect sense. When a city grew old enough, it began to have devas of its own. These were babies compared to the devas of Dartmoor, but they were there and willing to help. Best of all, there were thousands of them.

The dark power rose like a tide, lifting them all. Evelina felt the mass union of magic and machine almost as an audible click in her mind. It wasn’t so much a spell as opening a door between possibilities, permission asked and received.

The devas poured into the war machines of the steam barons, destroying them from the inside out—or turning them on each other. When the foot soldiers saw the artillery developing a mind of its own, many threw down their weapons and ran.

Evelina laughed, but it came out more like a gasp. The magic had left her ringing like a bell, joyous and somber at once. She reached up to realize that her face was wet with tears.

“That should keep them busy,” Nick said under his breath, still grasping her hand.

Too soon, the intimacy of the spell was broken. The prince joined Nick and Evelina, a number of airmen ranged around him like a guard. He was tense, the muscles of his jaw jumping. “I need a report. What’s going on out there? What is that caterpillar doing?”

Nick answered. “The air devas say the forces with the caterpillar are holding the King Coal’s rolling spheres on Waterloo Bridge.”

“How? They can’t be anywhere near as strong.”

“Through sheer cheek and a handful of sharpshooters, from the sound of it.”

A cluster of men broke through the fighting and ran forward. Nick and the other airmen drew weapons, closing ranks before the prince, but Evelina cried out in pleasure as soon as she saw who it was. It was half a dozen of the cavalrymen in their blue coats, a lieutenant in the lead, and in their midst walked two figures in civilian clothes. She’d never thought she’d be glad to see Lord Bancroft, but there he was with Bucky Penner. Both men were bruised and dirty, but wore triumphant smiles as they bowed low before the prince.

There was little time for more than the barest formality. Both men nodded a surprised acknowledgment to her, but Bucky quickly unslung a sack from his shoulder and knelt before the prince, Lord Bancroft at his side.

“Your Highness,” said Bancroft. “Here are devices that will disable the Gold King’s war machines. We brought them to you through the underground, but you should know that from this point west, the tunnels are filled with enemy soldiers.”

“How did you get through?”

Bancroft blinked, as if not quite sure how he was still alive. “The men who are in company with my son found us. Not all of our rescuers made it back.”

“Your son?” the prince asked.

“The one on the caterpillar.”

Tobias?
Surprised and yet not, Evelina craned her neck, trying to see over the crowd, but she couldn’t see him.

“I thank you for your efforts, gentlemen,” said the prince, but he looked at Evelina. “Will these devices conflict in any way with what you have done?”

“No,” she said. “The devas will override the war machines, no matter who commands them.”

Bucky looked at her with fresh interest, but the prince was already issuing orders. “These need to get to Edgerton and the army to the west. Lieutenant, take a party and see Lord Bancroft and Mr. Penner get through to them safely.”

The lieutenant gave a smart salute and gathered his charges, but her attention was drawn away. Several things were happening at once at the near edge of the battle.

Tobias must have had some of those devices, because all at once several of the Gold King’s battle engines were using their cannons to clear a path for his caterpillar. This had two effects. The rebel army to the west began pushing toward him, but a ripple passed through the Gold King’s lines as a group she hadn’t seen before crashed through.

“Who are they?” Evelina demanded, but no one had time to answer her. Smythe’s cavalry scattered like rain before the onslaught, horses whinnying in terror. Within seconds, she knew why.

Here were some of the missing inmates of Her Majesty’s Laboratories, gathered into a fighting force the likes of which no one had ever seen. They carried no weapons, and rags hung from their gaunt frames, as dirty and bedraggled as the matted ropes of their hair and beards. Like Nellie Reynolds, many were part machine, but where she had kept her personality, these had been turned into something else. Evelina’s guess was that their magic had been ripped from them, or twisted somehow to damage their minds, because there was nothing human left behind. Fearless, they arrowed forward at unnatural speed, snarling with savage, catlike teeth bared.

There were more than a dozen, but just as many guns opened fire. Half went down at once, but half still sprinted toward the prince—and such fast targets were difficult. A second volley took more down, but two still came. One was male—his head and one arm seeming to be the only part left that was flesh. The other was a woman, her left leg and right arm made from a framework of shining steel. Nick aimed and shot the man full in the face, sending him spinning backward, but the woman lunged, clawed hands already reaching for the prince.

They hadn’t come all this way for this to happen. Panicked, Evelina thrust her power forward, willing the tragedy to just
stop
.

And it did. Time froze.

Panic morphed into bewilderment. Evelina stared around her. Everything was as immobile as if it had been cast in bronze. The half-woman’s long gray hair streamed behind
her, the ropey muscle of her calf straining as she launched from the grass, and yet she did not move. The prince’s expression was a mask of wide-eyed revulsion, one arm raised to block her attack. Nick was there beside her, caught in the midst of his weapon’s recoil as his target fell backward, suspended at an impossible angle in the air.

Evelina’s scalp crawled. She’d never done anything like
this
before! She took a deep breath, relishing how quiet it was with the din of battle stopped. Except it wasn’t silent. Something else besides her was moving around.

She turned toward the noise. It was the giant dog, standing just inside the ring of frozen battle. It really was the size of a small calf, with the huge, square head of a mastiff. The coat was brindled brown and black with a white chest and two massive white paws on its front legs. It might have just been a big dog except for its glowing red eyes and the blue-green slobber dripping from its jaw.
A dog that drools aether?
Evelina thought. What had the scientists at the laboratories done to the poor creature?

And yet here it was, oblivious to her magic. It started to lollop toward her, a deep baying cry escaping from its chest. Evelina backed away, unsure how to stop it but knowing she must. She gathered her magic—or tried to—but it seemed as immobilized as the scene. She fumbled, her abilities blunted by having used so much power only minutes ago. Had she even cast the freezing spell, or had it been the hound?

The creature sprang for the prince. Evelina leapt to stop it by sheer strength, but her fingers slipped from the sleek fur, the muscled body far too powerful to even flinch at her assault. But it didn’t grab the Schoolmaster in its massive jaws; it savaged his attacker instead. Those huge white paws slammed into the half-human’s sides, bearing her to the ground before snapping her neck with a single, sickening crunch.

Evelina gasped, and the hound turned its head, red eyes like a whirling mass of clouds turned ruby by a spectacular sunset. There was something ancient about them and very
uncanine, and something that told her she wasn’t the only magician in the war.

“I saw you at the laboratories,” she said.

An image formed in her mind that made her skin crawl. This was indeed the dog Nellie Reynolds had described—part hound, part clockwork, and part aether engine. But through the magic unleashed during the wreck of the laboratories, the beast had become host to Dartmoor’s spirits—and they were just figuring out the potential of the hound’s internal workings.

“Is this trick of stopping time your magic or something built inside of you?” she asked.

Both
, it replied.

The hound’s deep voice startled her tired magic to attention.

“Why did you follow us?” she asked.

Events have been set in motion. The dragon awakes. Magic walks. Crowns rise and fall. No one can stop the wheel from turning now
.

The creature’s words chilled her to the core. Her power rose, tingling and ready for a fight, but the creature gave an acknowledging
whuff
and bounded away. As soon as it had vanished from sight, the racket of the battle resumed with the force of a thunderclap. Nick’s victim fell. The prince gave a surprised cry, blinking as he saw the woman dead on the ground. Evelina slumped into a crouch, her head spinning.

“What the bleeding hell happened?” Nick demanded.

What indeed?
Evelina reeled from the suddenness of what she’d just seen. What had Dr. Watson been writing—something about a hound that haunted the Baskerville family?

She thought he’d made it up, but she would bet her last shilling she’d just seen the object of the good doctor’s latest tale.

THE NEXT MOMENT, THE AIRMEN LEAPED INTO ACTION
, breaking Evelina’s thoughts.

“Get the prince back inside the ship!” Nick commanded, and his crew sprang to obey.

“No!” said the Schoolmaster. “Others have fought on my behalf long enough.” He unslung the modified rifle he had over his shoulder. “I can’t command what I will not do myself.”

“Pardon, my lord, but you need to stay alive long enough to actually win the day,” Nick broke in, waving a hand. “Otherwise, this has been a colossal waste of time.”

The prince bridled. They might have argued longer, but a roar of cannon made the ground shudder and drowned out anything else they had to say.

Evelina ran for the ladder that led back inside the
Athena
, but instead of crawling back inside she used it to work her way onto the ship’s backswept wing. A handful of rooks were already there, and they hopped aside to make room for her. Her skirts started to tangle around her ankles as she climbed, but she kicked them aside, no longer worried about the rips and mud along her hems. She finally got to her feet, shading her eyes against the falling angle of the sun. She could sense Athena, who was lost in a swirling, hazy doze despite the chaos all around.

“What do you see?” Nick called up from the ground.