Emma Holloway - A Study in Ashes

It was early afternoon, the sky a deep autumn blue. Nick stayed in the cool shadows, making himself invisible as he worked his way through the streets. A few yellow leaves crunched under his boots—a sound Nick had almost forgotten in the wasteland of the manufactory. But as beautiful as the natural world was, he found his gaze straying to the people passing by—ordinary people chatting, laughing, and sitting in tea room windows eating platefuls of perfectly ordinary food. He’d almost forgotten all that, too. It was one thing to know that he’d lost a year of his life, quite another to feel it in the pit of his gut. The Scarlet King had sliced away a piece of him.

Before, he’d had a ship and crew. He’d had friends—Striker, Digby, and the others. He’d had his ship, and the deva who had taught him to use his power. And—after years of yearning—there had been Evelina. Against all odds, they had finally found a way to be together and then—then loss had burned him away until he was nothing but a husk of ash. He wanted her back—all of them, but especially her. Maybe after that, he would find himself again.

Fury curled inside, speeding his steps toward his destination. He knew the small rooming house was occupied by artists, which meant the rents were cheap and the landlady oblivious to the kind of visitors tramping up her stairs. A good thing, since Nick was too exhausted to scale the wall and climb through the window. In fact, he rather wanted someone to carry him the rest of the way. Not the mode for daring pirates, perhaps, but he’d had a long day.

He went through the tradesman’s entrance and trudged up the back stairs to the second floor. The door he wanted stood slightly open, as if a servant hadn’t quite pulled it tight. He pushed it open, wondering if the Schoolmaster even still lived there.

The sitting room that came into view was shabby, but bright and pleasant in a disorganized way. Papers, discarded clothes, and a guitar littered the sagging furniture. A huge, threadbare armchair faced the door, and in that chair sat the man Nick had come to see. He was tall and lean, about thirty, and he wore green-tinted eyeglasses that all but hid a pair of shrewd blue eyes.

The Schoolmaster raised his eyes at the squeak of hinges, one hand reaching for the pistol half hidden in a stack of newspapers. Then he froze, his eyebrows lifting in almost comical surprise. “Captain Niccolo? We all thought you were dead!”

Nick stepped inside, pulling the door shut behind him. A flash of his old pride brought a grin to his lips. “They didn’t call me the Indomitable Niccolo for nothing.”

The Schoolmaster’s face crumpled into a grimace. “Oh, come now, you’ve been saving that line. Gods, man, you look awful.” And then he sprang to his feet, grasping Nick in a bear hug that nearly squashed the last breath from his body. The Schoolmaster laughed. “It’s good to have you back. Where have you been, you old dog?”

The greeting was so warm, so normal , Nick had a momentary urge to weep. After feeling like the dead watching the living all the way there, he was suddenly folded back into the human race. “I’ve been in Manufactory Three.”

The Schoolmaster fell back, stunned. A sober silence rang like a bell through the room. Then he ran a hand through his sandy, curling hair, as if he didn’t know what else to do or say. “Gods.”

“I made it out,” Nick offered.

Coming back to life, the Schoolmaster took Nick’s arm, guiding him to a chair angled to the right of his own. Nick obeyed, although he wanted to point out that he needed rather more than a sit-down after months in the Scarlet King’s hell.

“No one has lived to tell a soul what goes on there,” said the Schoolmaster. “Surely you know that. So how did you get out?” His look turned suspicious. “How did you get out?”

Nick understood. The Schoolmaster, as a rebel, had placed a lot of trust in him by giving him this location. There was every chance Nick had bargained for freedom with the Schoolmaster’s life. “I swear on everything holy that no one knows I’m here. They didn’t even know who I was in that pit of Hades.”

“Good.” But the Schoolmaster didn’t relax.

“Give me a glass of brandy and I’ll tell you everything.”

The man’s lips quirked. “I’ll do better than that.”

He pulled open the door and yelled down the stairs at the top of his lungs. “Mrs. Pennyfeather!”

There was a long pause, and then a shrill voice floated up from below. “What is it, scamp?”

“Be a love and give us a bit of a spread, will you? Bread, cheese, and meat and maybe a bit of that steak-and-kidney pie? And a jug of ale?”

There was grumbling from the bottom of the stairs, but it concluded—after a bit more boyish wheedling—in assent. Nick listened to the exchange with his eyes closed, the soft cushions of the chair urging him to sleep. Fatigue had him in its undertow, but he forced himself to rally as the Schoolmaster returned.

“Don’t you have any guards?” Nick asked. “I could have walked right in here and shot you dead.”

The Schoolmaster shrugged. “That only makes me more conspicuous. I do my best hiding in plain sight. Besides,” he said with a smile, “you mustn’t forget there’s Mrs. Pennyfeather. Now.” The Schoolmaster leaned on the arm of his chair, his chin in one hand. “Do tell. You promised to give me everything.”

Nick pulled the device he’d taken from the fallen airman from beneath his coat. “The reason I got away was because I was sent to retrieve this.”

He put the device on the small table that sat between their chairs. The Schoolmaster picked it up with obvious curiosity. “Why you?”

“It was on a church roof—an awkward spot nearly impossible to climb. It didn’t matter if one of the prisoners fell to his death. In fact, one did. I was luckier.”

The Schoolmaster opened the device, and his eyes went wide. “I’m glad you didn’t fall, my friend. This is quite the diverting little toy.”

The food arrived, and Mrs. Pennyfeather spread it out on the low table that sat before the two men. Then she took one look at Nick and brought back another slice of pie before leaving them in peace.

They ate and talked, Nick doing more of both. It was plain food, but to him it was a delicacy—soft bread, sharp cheese, and ale as richly golden as the sun on the windowpane. And there was more than enough. He ate until his sides hurt and talked until the pitcher of ale was dry.

When he got to the end of his tale, his companion was listening with rapt attention, the device forgotten in his lap. “This explains much,” the Schoolmaster said.

“How so?”

“There have been rumors of Scarlet’s ambitions. His real strength is in his air fleet and his European allies. The word is he’s itching to make a move on the Gold King, for all they’re supposed to be friends.”

“That’s madness. He doesn’t have the resources.”

“I never said he was smart. His vanity—not to mention his very bad manners—will get him killed. But then someritory, times all it takes is one idiot to kick over the first domino, and everything falls.”

“And then, war,” Nick said, finally putting it all together.

“Indeed. I wondered if it would come when the Steam Council murdered the Gray King. Fortunately, it didn’t. We wouldn’t have been ready then.”

“Are you now?”

“Are we?” The Schoolmaster shrugged. “Let me say simply that we are less unready than we were. Our best hope is if the steam barons destroy each other and then we come in to mop up. But the Gold King at least has figured that out. He’ll not be quick to show his hand. That’s the only reason he has not torn London apart looking for the culprit who destroyed the Clock Tower.”