A Study in Ashes (85 page)

For now he knew precisely what the Black Kingdom was. From the bridge, he and Alice had been bound and marched through the underground wilderness until they’d come to a waterway. There, they’d been thrown onto a flat-bottomed boat that had brought them here, the Wraiths using long poles to guide the craft through the sluggish black water. From the boat, he’d seen creatures no mortal was meant to discover—tentacled, eyeless things in the water, half-human creatures hanging upside down from the roofs of the great caverns, man-wolves and white-skinned women with fangs. This was the kingdom of nightmare, and death seemed the only means of waking up.

He’d held Alice as best he could, his heart breaking as her composure finally shattered into tears. All he had asked of Fate was that she survive and go free, but he was far from sure now that his wish would be granted. He would have to fight for her and, hell, he didn’t have a lot to lose.

She was behind him now, head bowed in stupefied silence. Tobias took another step forward, racking pain making him feel oddly disembodied, as if he were really floating just above the ground. The dragon lifted its head, tongue
flicking out to mop up a smear of blood from its snout.
Dragon?
He nearly burst into a hysterical laugh. After all the bullets, bombs, and magnetic aether he’d survived that day—not to forget the Scarlet King’s poison—and he was about to die by dragon. No one could ever accuse him of taking the conventional path to a gruesome death.

“Tobias!”

He looked over to see Evelina, Captain Niccolo, and—dear God—the man they were calling Prince Edmond. “What are you doing here?”

The instant he spoke, a baby began to cry. The sound, all too familiar, speared through him. “Jeremy!”

Oblivious to the guards, Alice sprang from behind him and raced to her child and Mrs. Polwarren. He moved to follow, but a magnetic aether rifle poked him in the chest. “Stay where you are,” the Wraith said.

But Tobias barely heard, the implications of Jeremy’s presence crashing home. The dragon was watching Alice sob over her child. Tobias couldn’t read lizard faces, but he thought he caught a glint of speculation in those red eyes. Too many people he loved were in the room, and in peril. He glanced around, afraid to see more.

Then Tobias noticed Keating. “You evil bastard,” he snarled with a vehemence that surprised even him.

But the Gold King looked too shaken to care. “Don’t waste your breath on me, boy. That
thing
just ate the Blue King and three of his men.”

Inexorably, Tobias’s eyes returned to the stain on the floor. There were bits in the gore—inedible buckles and scraps of bone—but the only thing he recognized was the steam-driven chair shoved into the shadows. King Coal had been a huge man, and for any creature to eat him and three others beggared the imagination. Tobias had a fleeting thought about greasy food and indigestion, but it vanished as the monster rose and began moving his way. “What is it? Why isn’t anyone killing it?”

“Because it’s the Black King,” Keating returned, his voice grim.

The dragon’s tongue flicked his way. With what seemed
like prudence, Tobias fell to one knee and bowed his head. The tongue flicked again, this time touching his face.

Death sits upon you
, said a voice in his head.

Tobias looked up sharply. “What’s going on?”

Yes, you hear me
. The Black King’s eyes gave a lazy blink.
You are close enough to the realm of spirit for me to speak with you
.

Rage shot through Tobias. “No!”

Why deny it?

Because he never wanted anything to do with magic. Because he wanted to be home in his bed with Alice, making up for everything he’d never got right. But the clock that measured his life was winding down, every tick weaker than the last. He felt Alice’s eyes on him, questioning. Loving. Hot tears burned in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. This creature hadn’t earned the right to see his weakness.

A rueful chuckle rippled through his mind.
Do you know what it is to be old, Mr. Roth?

“No, Your Majesty.”
And I never will
. He furtively glanced about the room, which was largely unfurnished but for the throne on its dais. Though Tobias had seen gaslights elsewhere, this room was still caught in a time before industry. Torches were thrust into sconces along the walls. The Wraiths had ended their feeding frenzy and stood motionless in a regular circle around the perimeter, puddles of squirming shadows about their feet.

Old age is when some ambitious peddler of coal lands in your home and proclaims himself your master. He thinks it is the shiny, steaming toys he owns that makes him king. Blue King. Gold King. Scarlet King. What do they know of kingship?

Tobias bowed his head again. “Your Majesty, are you not also a member of the Steam Council?” Then he recalled that the Black Kingdom was always represented by proxy. Now he knew why.

I was here long before the first machines. My only requirement was that I be left in peace, but your war shook me from my sleep. So I had the tunnels blocked and my servants deployed to bring the remaining barons my way. If they cannot solve their differences, I will do it for them
.

A wave of pain made Tobias giddy. “Devouring the opposition is a tactic I honestly hadn’t considered.”

The dragon gave an amused blink.
Why are you here?

“The Gold King stole my child.”

So it seems, but your search is over now
.

It was, but not the way he would ever have imagined it, with his wife and child in even more peril than before. He cursed himself for letting Alice accompany him, even though he well knew that wasn’t his decision to make. Misery and fury claimed him, bringing on another heaving, wet cough. “All I want is for my family and friends to go free,” he gasped at the end of it.

We don’t always get what we want, Mr. Roth
.

Bitterness made him foolish. “What could you possibly want that you don’t have?”

Tobias felt, rather than saw, the Wraiths and their pets drawing closer. Anxious, he began to rise, the sickness in his body suddenly roiling to the fore. Pain shot up from his gut, leaving him sweating and breathless. Blind terror jumped along his nerves as the Wraiths seized him, hard hands crushing flesh against bone. He heard Alice and Evelina cry out, but the sound was distant. The burning eyes of the Black King consumed his mind.

What do I want? I am a creature of another age, Mr. Roth. I am the last of my kind. No one else walked beneath the new sun, when fire was a marvel and men lived like a lesser kind of wolf. No one remembers the songs or the sorrows of that age. I have changed with the endless roll and churn of time, but after so long, the will frays like old silk. I have been the object of fear and veneration. The race of Man has worshipped me, and they have reviled me. I have been dishonored, tricked and cast down to these depths. I no longer wish for anything new, so I sleep. But sleep is forever interrupted by the antics of children. I want forgetfulness. I want abdication. Death is the only true peace, and it is one I am denied
.

“Death is not as pleasant a prospect as it sounds,” Tobias growled.

You do not value it
.

“I’m not ready.” Pain made his voice sharp.

Few ever are, Mr. Roth
.

“I would fight for those I love.”

What would you trade for your wife and child?

“Let the other prisoners go and you can have what you want of me.”

And if what I want is to taste your death?

Fresh terror made him flinch against the Wraiths’ iron grip. He heard the dragon’s words, but they made no sense. A thousand questions battered against his fading will until, with his last scrap of strength, he pushed the confusion away.

He was instantly calmed. The details didn’t matter. Saving his family did. If surrender was his final card to play, his last weapon to save them, so be it. “Then consider my death yours.”

Very well, Tobias Roth. Are you prepared?

Agony racked him, bowing his back until he heard bones crack.
Why not?
He could no longer speak, but he somehow felt the Black King understand his thought.

One of the Wraiths pulled out a long and evil-looking knife, but it was as nothing next to the dragon’s talons.

EVELINA’S GORGE ROSE
. She was certain she would pass out and clung to Nick with clammy fingers. Her mind couldn’t grasp what she was seeing, and wouldn’t accept that there was nothing she could do.

“Remove the others!” said Lord Fawkes, sweeping a hand toward the archway. “The king is at work.”

The Wraiths surged forward. Alice screamed again, the baby’s wails multiplied by his mother’s terror. Evelina plunged toward Tobias.

“Evelina, wait!” Nick leapt after her, grabbing her elbow. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

He was probably right, yet she refused to turn away. She’d
felt Tobias’s illness at Baskerville Hall, but had not fully understood it at the time. Now she could sense his death hovering, too near for any healing magic to help him—but loss and grief insisted she be there at his side. “Tobias!”

“Silence!” Lord Fawkes demanded. “Get back with the rest.”

But Evelina wasn’t moving, so neither was Nick. She could just see into the tight circle around Tobias. The Black King was so close that his breath stirred his hair, and one wickedly curved claw was pressed to the hollow of his throat. Tobias cried out in agony, twisting against the pain as his flesh succumbed to the Scarlet King’s poison. He was dying. The only question was whether the dragon or the toxins would get to him first.

“Evelina!” Nick said again, grabbing her elbow. “What are you thinking? Because if you’re seriously planning to take on the entire Black Kingdom, I need to know.”

“I need to stop this!” She needed Tobias alive. She needed everyone out of there safely. But the dark magic she felt coursing through the dragon was enormous—too much for her to fight. She had to use her wits, not spells. “My lord king,” she cried out, “if you have superior magic, do you not have superior powers to heal?”

I do, but why would I do such a thing? Do not look for mercy from me
.

“Why not show mercy? What about building alliances? Working with the rest of the Empire? What about governing your realm?” She heard the Wraiths stirring, but she couldn’t tell if that was good or bad.

My realm? This is the pit where all the outcasts are flung, away from the sun and the sight of Man. Once I ruled empires. Now I am the steward of the dung heap
. There was no missing the sourness in his tone.
I was tricked into this realm by your ancestors, little mouse. Do not mistake me for a friend
.

“But you’re the conduit of all the magic here. You have immense power.”

I am but the lightning rod the power uses to enter this world. That is why I have lived so long. The power of the underground needs a king to be its avatar
.

Evelina licked her lips. As long as the dragon was talking, Tobias lived. She seized on another question. “What would happen if you weren’t here?”

My power would shatter and the Black Kingdom would fall. Those who dwell beneath the streets would be free to roam in the world above
.

Evelina quailed. The creatures would be loosed upon London? That wouldn’t end well. “But—”

Remove her!
the Black King commanded.
I will have peace while I eat
.

Lord Fawkes was suddenly in her way, forcing her back at knifepoint. “The king demands silence.”

Ignoring Fawkes’s weapon, Nick stepped between them, putting a hand against the Wraith’s chest. “Would you care to think about where you’re pointing that blade?”

Taking advantage of the distraction, Evelina pushed past Fawkes and thrust herself nearer to the dragon, reaching for the creature’s aura of power. She had a half-formed notion that she might be able to steal its stronger magic and use it as her own. But then the dragon’s claws plunged home, and Tobias gave a final roar of agony. As she felt his life flutter, Evelina screamed her fury.

Sight, sound—all sensation from the physical plane left her. What remained was the shifting vision of power in her mind’s eye. The dark fog of the Black King’s magic consumed Tobias’s life, swallowing it down like mist blotting out a star.
Stop it!
she raged, thrusting her power at the beast. It bounced off like pebbles against a mountain.

You interfere
, came the Black King’s voice. It was the booming of the ocean in sea caves, as old and worn as the rock itself.

I have the right. He is dear to me
.

For the first time, she felt the tug of curiosity in the beast.
Who are you?

While the Black King had taken her measure before, this time it was more than a cursory flick of the tongue. His mind drilled into hers with the force of one of the Gold
King’s war machines.
I am Evelina Cooper. I have put magic into machines. I destroyed Her Majesty’s Laboratories and the sorcerer Magnus. I have fought against the Steam Council
.

And this gives you the right to raise your magic against me?
The dragon sounded amused, but sleepy now, as if a full stomach took the edge off its concentration.
You are just a beginner
.

There was barely a spark remaining of Tobias’s life. Evelina grabbed that sliver of light and held on. The dragon was consuming not just his body, but also the essence that held the spice and sweetness of his death. She couldn’t let that happen. Nothing would remain of his soul, not even scraps enough to haunt her.

Tears burned Evelina’s face. Whatever had happened between them, she still loved Tobias—no longer as the man she would marry, but now as an old and comfortable tenderness. They’d come so far together, and Evelina yearned to see him happy. To lose him now would be a defeat her universe could not abide. But all that was left of him was a guttering flame.