A Conspiracy of Alchemists: Book One in the Chronicles of Light and Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page A

account of the fact that they would hang him if they ever caught him there. Too many ways to get into trouble in London Town. What he wanted was to stay in Paris and work on his poems, but the odds of being caught and hanged in London were still more attractive than risking the wrath of his master. Sir Eustace’s penchant for inflicting pain made his own proclivities pale by comparison. There were few things in the world that brought his master more satisfaction than binding those who served him into submission. Feathers had seen with his own eyes the elaborate chains and straps his master maintained for such purpose. The plight of the water horse suddenly came to mind.
    “Bring me the girl alive. Without delay.”
    “Yes, sir.” Feathers inclined his head as far forward as he dared within the small space.
    “Now get out. I need to speak to the Guild. And our friend on the other side of the Channel after that. There is much that has to be done and little time to do it.”
    Abercrombie lifted his hands and motioned in the air as if he was taking hold of a set of reins. The horse raised her head and snorted in response.
    Feathers opened the carriage door and got out.
    “And Feathers, do not fail me this time.” Abercrombie’s voice followed him from the carriage.
    “Yes, sir,” Feathers turned to say, but the carriage had already moved down the alley.

CHAPTER 4
    Inside the cab with the broken door, Elle waited with Marsh and Patrice for the afternoon to pass into evening. She watched two electromancers dressed in gray habits as they strolled down the Boulevard Saint-Michel. Behind them, the streetlights blinked on one by one as the little hermits ignited the glass-covered spark cores on top of the lampposts. Paris was readying herself for the night.
    A gaggle of prostitutes cackled and called out to the electromancers in guttural tones as they passed them by. Their crude words echoed against the buildings. Horrified at the lewdness of the women, the little monks shuffled on. A horse clop-clopped as it made its way up the road to the Sorbonne.
    The bracelet was safely tucked away under her shirt cuff. She squeezed her coat sleeve at the wrist and felt it dig into her skin with a reassuring hardness. She knew a jeweler just off Fleet Street who specialized in jewels and pendants from the Shadow side. He would certainly know how to exorcise a fairy and undo a clasp spell for sure. She would go there tomorrow without delay. In the meantime, she only hoped none of the Shadow magic rubbed off on her. Absinthe fairies were creatures to be treated with the utmost circumspection.
    Patrice chewed on the decidedly soggy-looking end of his cigar stub. It had gone out some time before—a small mercy in the stuffy warmth of the cab. Marsh pulled his pocket watch out and flipped it open. It was the seventh time he had done that in the last hour.
    Elle studied his hands as he snapped the front of the watch shut and then flicked it open again. Mr. Marsh had the long elegant fingers of a confidence trickster. She wondered how many shady characters the viscount had in his employ. She was one of them now, she realized.
    “I think it’s time to go,” Marsh said.
    They left the cab where it stood in the alley and crossed the road to reach the airfield behind its neat black railing fence.
    “I don’t have a departure permit, and the docking papers were in my holdall,” Elle said as they entered the ornate side gate.
    Marsh felt inside his waistcoat and pulled out a bill folder. He handed a few notes to Patrice. “See if you can persuade someone to give us papers with that.”
    Patrice nodded and walked over to the row of buildings that housed the administrative offices.
    Outside the departure pagoda, passengers milled amongst leather-clad steamer trunks. A small gray poodle yapped at a man with extraordinarily hairy ears, who looked very much like he was a werewolf. A clutch of children escaped from their governess and disappeared