A Study in Darkness Read Online Free PDF

magic the next best thing to a religious crusade crossed with a national sport. Magic was their rival. Anyone claiming to use real power was subject to jail and probably execution or—if there was some suspicion they actually had the hereditary talent referred to as the Blood—a trip to Her Majesty’s laboratories for testing.
    Imogen’s stomach began to ache with tension. She was well aware that her friend Evelina already knew how to put devas inside clockwork machines—exactly the information the steam barons were after. Imogen guarded that secret as if her own life depended on it, because Evelina’s certainly did.
    “Unless,” continued Scarlet in a harder tone, “one of us learns to control magic-powered machinery first. Whoever wins that race wins the Empire. So, friend, what happened to this prototype?”
    “It was stolen,” Keating growled.
    “That’s what I’ve heard.” Again, he sounded like he only half believed Keating. “Rumors of pirates using demons to subdue their prey. Making whole ships vanish in a puff of smoke.”
    Keating grunted, the single sound rich with disgust. “I know who has the casket. The problem is catching him. It’s not as simple as it sounds.”
    “Let me help you,” the Scarlet King replied. “I have a fleet of small, nimble airships.”
    “You don’t think I’ve tried?”
    “You have admirable vessels, but my men are trained for surveillance. Wherever it has gone, the device can be retrieved. Discreetly, of course. That’s what I want for stopping your bomber. You and I pool our resources and get that device before someone else from the council does. We study it and share whatever technical information we learn.”
    “It’s magic.”
    “It’s an edge. Any one of us will use it if we can, and I plan to use it against the rebels.”
    Imogen closed her eyes, the ache in her stomach spreading to her whole frame. Evelina’s friend—the handsome circus rider Niccolo—had stolen the casket. Had he turned pirate? She hadn’t heard that tale, but sometimes the really important news never made it to the papers. Men like Keating wouldn’t want the whole Empire after his prize, so they would keep something like that quiet.
Nick as a pirate?
Imogen mused.
He would look good with a cutlass and parrot
.
    Imogen’s heart pounded as she strained to hear the voices. Angry and urgent, they were almost whispering now, making it hard to pick out words. It sounded like more on the same subjects: rebels, bombs, the navigation device, building an alliance against the other barons. Imogen wasn’t a diplomat’s daughter for nothing; she could tell the combination of these topics spelled trouble around the Steam Council’s table—and that meant trouble for everybody.
    Fingers trembling, she nudged the window open again, hoping to hear despite the mumbling. This time, the blasted hinge gave a squeak. She froze.
    “What’s that?” the Scarlet King demanded. “Look, there’s a light above.”
    Keating replied in a weary tone. “That’s Imogen Roth’s room. She’s a frail thing and always sleeps with a light.”
    A frail thing? Well, bollocks to you, Keating, I have your secrets
.
    There was silence, then a scuffle of feet on the gravel, asif someone was shifting nervously. “Let’s go inside,” muttered the Scarlet King.
    More footfalls. Imogen waited, counting to twenty before she risked making a noise. Then she dove for her bed, burrowing below the covers to find some residual warmth—and to appear innocently asleep if anyone came to check.
    But if she hadn’t been wide awake before, she was now. Bombs? In London? Ordinarily, one would tell the police, but their supervisors were owned by one steam baron or another. When it came to something like this, their hands were tied.
    Still, she had to tell someone what she knew—someone who understood bombs and power struggles, and someone who could warn Evelina’s Nick. Unfortunately, there was no one in her family she