A Study in Darkness (69 page)

“Unhand my sister!” Roth demanded.

Really?
“Take her,” Nick said. “I only came to see her safe.”

“You—you’re Evelina’s friend,” Roth said, looking suddenly confused.

“Yes.”

Roth grabbed his sister, pushing her behind him as if Nick might try to keep her. But then he hesitated. “Thank you for saving her.”

Nick gave a slight bow. “Just get her away from here and be quick about it.”

Then Roth licked his lips. “You need to go. Word just came through to the
Helios
that Keating wants your ship.” Then he turned and pulled his sister after him, shepherding her through the throng.

Nick watched them go with mixed feelings. Imogen Roth belonged with her family, but her brother, by the mere act of breathing, made Nick’s hackles rise. Still, he didn’t need to be told twice to leave. He’d done what he’d come to do.

“To the
Jack
!” he roared, lunging through the fray. The fight seemed to be breaking up, with Keating’s men running toward their own ladders. They’d come up from the other side, sandwiching the
Wyvern
between her attackers. When it came to avoiding enemy ships, Magnus was uncharacteristically careless.
Unless he wanted to get caught. But why?

Striker was at his side. “Look.” He pointed. There were a handful of other ships closing in, two bearing the Gold King’s markings, the others Scotland Yard’s.

“Bugger,” Nick said. “Come on, Digby!”

Where was the helmsman? Worry stabbed him, but then
he saw Digby’s lanky form loping along the deck, a grin on his face. They pelted for safety. Poole had already run down ladders and they grabbed them, scrambling to leave the black ship. The ash rooks swept in, swooping down on anyone who tried to open fire.

The landing party reached the ladders, but not before the Gold King’s ship fired its cannons into the
Wyvern
. The grappling lines jerked loose, sending the
Red Jack
into a sideways drift. The ladders swung free through the air. Nick held on with every muscle he could bring to bear, waiting out the sickening vertigo. Digby whooped, but Striker’s roar of fright and fury trailed through the empty sky as his ladder swayed through open space, ash rooks circling around him.

Barely a moment later, Nick started to climb again, fighting the motion while trying to find secure holds for his hands and feet. The ship couldn’t fight with crew hanging over the side, and they were clearly in for a battle. Before long, he felt Poole’s hand close around his wrist and pull him up. Nick somersaulted over the side with a grunt, rolling smoothly to his feet.

“Status?” he asked Beadle.

The first mate was grim, but professional as ever. “Both ships are turning on us, sir. The others are closing in.”

“On us?” Nick cast a panicked glance at the
Wyvern
. Beadle was right. The black ship was on fire, but her gun ports were open. The
Helios
was distancing herself from the black ship, but positioning for an attack on Nick. Tobias Roth hadn’t lied—he’d tried to warn Nick.

Damnation!
He took stock. Digby was on board, and Poole was dumping Striker to the floor like a sack of meal. Nick turned to Beadle. “Prepare to respond.”

The words had barely left his mouth before the first cannon shots from the
Wyvern
ripped through the gondola, throwing him through the air.

“
NO
!”
CRIED EVELINA.
“
NO, YOU CAN’T FIRE ON NICK! HE
went to save Imogen!”

The Gold King looked at her as if she were no more than a puppy tugging at his shoelaces. “Of course I can attack. The
Red Jack
is a pirate ship. It’s crewed by felons.”

And nobody cared if they died. Evelina looked wildly around the room, but only Bucky looked sympathetic. A muscle jumped in Uncle Sherlock’s jaw, but that was the sole sign of emotion in his face. That meant he was thinking furiously, but he had no immediate solutions. There was no help in the room.

The communications device went into a flurry of clicks, and the operator gave his report. “The
Red Jack
has fired on the
Wyvern
. Dr. Magnus’s ship is entirely engulfed in flame. The police ships are closing in on the wreck, but the
Helios
is in pursuit of the
Red Jack
.” The young man looked up, chewing his lip. “They say it shouldn’t be a long chase. The
Jack
has been badly hit.”

“Tell the
Helios
to prepare to board,” Keating said. “And come to think of it, tell them to bring me my old streetkeeper if they find him. I have a score to settle with Mr. Striker.”

The Gold King’s calm orders, edged with malice, crushed the air from Evelina’s body. She listened, barely believing one man could hold so many lives at such low cost. She’d met many of the crew the day of the market, and had watched them drink and laugh. She remembered sitting with Striker outside the Saracen’s Head, listening to his rough voice. They were people, not just counters on a board.

She pressed a hand to her stomach, feeling the echo of the knife wounds beneath her palm. Her breath came short and uneven, her skin going cold and clammy at once. If she had felt helpless before, she felt it a hundred times more now, with no means to save the man she loved. She knew why her uncle couldn’t speak—there was nothing to say. Nick was a pirate. No law protected him. All other ships were duty bound to bring down the
Red Jack
, the lives of the crew forfeit. Anything less was treason.

She leaned against one of the worktables, fighting a light-headed sensation of falling.
Nick
. He’d just been holding her in his arms, his lips on hers, his hands on her body. And now he was about to be blown from the air. Magnus had predicted that she would deliver Nick to his enemies; the sorcerer had just been wrong about how. The earth seemed to dissolve beneath her feet, as if not even the soil could be relied on.
It was me who begged Nick to come. I drew him into this trap
.

It was up to her to protect him.

“I know you want Athena’s Casket. If you spare the pirates, I can offer you something better than the device,” Evelina said quickly, throwing down the gauntlet.

Her uncle gave her a warning look, his features sharp with alarm. “Evelina, no,” said Holmes, his voice hard. “Forgive me, but there is nothing you can do. If you take my advice on nothing else, take it now.”

“I can’t,” she whispered. “I brought Nick into this. I have to get him out.”

Bucky and Lord Bancroft stared, as if she’d taken leave of her senses. Maybe she had.

“You have something better?” asked Keating. “What have you been hiding all this time, Evelina?”

All the eyes in the room were on her. She could feel the weight of those gazes. Bancroft looked pitying, but Keating was the worst. He looked like he’d suspected something all along, and now he saw his chance. Evelina bowed her head. She’d felt vague, almost helpless since waking from her attack. Now the feeling crawled over her, shock and exhaustion
plucking at her will with teasing fingers. It was hard to think. “I just want to save them.”

“You’ve proven yourself more than once, so I’m prepared to entertain an offer. You’ve earned that much,” Keating said. “But it would mean whatever you give me will be exclusively mine to use. I wonder what that could possibly be?”

Me. And the moment I step over this line, you’ll know I’m a magic user and you’ll have the power to kill me in a thousand unpleasant ways
. But where would hiding get her? One way or the other, she was already in Keating’s sights.

“I forbid it,” said Holmes, taking Evelina’s arm as if he meant to shake her. “You’ve shut me out from the start of this affair. Slow down and let me find a better solution. In the name of your mother, my sister, I beg you.”

That made her flinch. “There’s no time. Nick is going to die.”

His voice grew hoarse with frustration. “Do you really think anything you do now is going to save him?”

“I have to try.”

“Evelina, no.”

But still she fixed her gaze on the Gold King. “What I have to say is for private discussion.”

“Then come.” Keating waved toward the door that led to the front of the theater. “Let us be private.”

She nodded, trying to extract her arm from her uncle’s grip. Holmes balked, but two of the Yellowbacks flanked him. Her uncle gave her a desperate look. “Don’t do this!”

“I have to,” she said, pulling free. “It’s Nick’s life if I don’t.”

“It’s your life if you do.” Her uncle’s face closed then, shutting her out, showing nothing. “That’s worth something to me, even if it means little to you.”

And she loved him dearly in that moment, for all the good it did them. “It’s mine to give. Please, respect that.”

Her uncle’s face grew pale. Keating made an impatient movement, and the Yellowbacks rattled their weapons. Evelina started forward, but Holmes followed her, refusing to be cowed. “I am her legal guardian,” he said. “Nothing can
be agreed to without my consent. If you insist on a bargain, at least I can make sure it is an equitable one.”

“Please yourself.” Keating led the way from backstage to the front of the house. “If you think you can outwit me in a business deal.”

“No, don’t come.” She laid a palm on her uncle’s chest. “I need to bear this on my own conscience.”

When she drew away, a Yellowback’s weapon took the place of her hand, pressing into Holmes’s chest. And so it was that her uncle stayed, and she followed Keating alone.

Evelina was barely aware that she was walking. She was about to do the one thing she had always guarded against, the one thing any who possessed the Blood dreaded above all else, and she found that she was not afraid—at least not yet. After Serafina’s knife, perhaps there was little worse that anyone could do.

When Keating reached the first row of plush seats, he sat down, spreading his arms along the backs of the neighboring chairs. He tilted his head, the dim light catching at his silver hair. “What precisely do you have to offer, Miss Cooper?”

Still standing, Evelina looked down at the Gold King, recalling their interview after he’d caught her with Tobias. They had come full circle, but this time she had invited him to the table. Anger welled up, sharp as one of Nick’s blades. Evelina’s fingers twitched, aching to make fists. She could tell Keating that she had the ability to blend magic and machinery, but there was no value in giving her trump card away up front. She would bargain low, and see what would tempt him. “You know from my report that Magnus is a sorcerer. I studied with him. I studied
magic
with him.”

Keating’s eyes opened wider, a sure sign of interest. He regarded her with his amber gaze, a leopard in repose. “And what did you learn?”

“I repaired his living automatons. I learned how he gathered his power. I read his books.”

She saw his breath catch at “power.” A pang of something—not quite satisfaction, but close—eased the pressure in her chest.

Keating blinked. “What else?” He said the words precisely, as if bored, but there was no hiding the subtle tension in his shoulders.

“I learned how to see what is happening at a distance. That is how I found his ship. Do these talents interest you, Mr. Keating?”

“Perhaps. With your mechanical talents, would what you learned put me on an even footing with the Blue King?”

“Perhaps,” she echoed, fairly certain she was lying. Her magic was still nothing compared to Magnus’s—but she wasn’t interested in playing fair with the Gold King. “Perhaps more, with a little time.”

“Play me false and you know what will happen. Magic users do not live long in the Empire.”

Evelina’s heart began to pound. The reality of what she’d done was catching up with her. She thought of Crowleyton, of what he’d done to Tobias. Of what he’d done to his own daughter. There was no mercy in Jasper Keating, and she’d just oversold herself. “All I ask is that you save Nick and his crew. Let them go. Do what you must with me.”

“Do you think I’m going to lock you in an attic like a mad relation?” Keating scoffed.

“Don’t you lock up your victims in secret laboratories and put them to the knife?”

He burst into laughter. “Oh, Evelina, what you must take me for!”

She flushed. She knew the laboratories weren’t a myth, so she wasn’t sure why he was mocking her. “I don’t think you’ll let me roam free.”

“No,” he crossed his legs. “I don’t suppose I’ll do that.”

“Then what?”

“I’m not sure. You are of more use to me in Society than out of it, but I cannot let you go wherever you wish. You’ve just made yourself too valuable.”

Her mouth went dry. His words terrified her, but at the same time this was better than she had hoped. But what kind of a life would he allow her?

He gave her a long look, his amber eyes dark in the theater’s
murky light. “What shall I do with you, Evelina? How shall I inspire you to excel at what I need?”

Perhaps he was already succeeding, because she suddenly had an idea. “I wish to attend college.”