A Study in Darkness (ARC) by Holloway Emma Jane

Author:Holloway, Emma Jane [Holloway, Emma Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery
ISBN: 9780345537195
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2013-10-29T06:00:00+00:00

“Why are there no devas here?” Evelina asked Magnus the next day. She had been working on witchlight all night, and had rushed into the theater earlier that morning to show him the pale glimmer she’d finally managed to produce. And then—as seemed to happen with them—one bit of conversation had led to the next.

“Why do you think the devas have left these streets?” Magnus replied, lifting his cup of tea.

Evelina blinked, coming back to the present, and watched the sorcerer, trying to figure out what part he played in the complex game for power. Was he really the Blue King’s maker? Or was he pursuing some gambit of his own? And why was he taking the time to teach her?

“I don’t know why the devas are gone,” she said. “You’d think something would thrive here. There’s a river, and there are still gardens.”

“Think harder.”

It was late morning and they sat in his library, surrounded by all those wonderful books. He’d pointed some out to her and she’d spent blissful hours curled up in a large, comfortable chair poring through the writings of a mage from five centuries ago. It was a history book of sorts, but not the history of kings and queens and borders. It was the history of her people and their Bloodlines, and how they had come from the steppes thousands of years past, and from the Gardens of Babylon, and the deepest roots of the Niger. The words were like a voice whispering from somewhere deep inside her. On some primal level, she knew this story to be true, and that she had a right to hear it. As strange a turn of events as it seemed, Magnus was giving her the birthright of her Blood.

Not many months ago, she had refused him out of fear, and none of her reasons had gone away. And she wasn’t sure what would happen once her deal with the Gold King was done. But until that moment for decision came, she would learn all she could.

“All right,” she said. “The devas used to be everywhere. Every herbwife and hedge wizard left offerings to their favorites, asking them to help with their spells. Then the factories came along. No one liked them tearing up the woods and fields and driving the devas away.”

“And so Church and State turned against magic,” Magnus finished. “If no one had reverence for the woods, there would be no objection to tearing them down, putting up manufactories, and offering the people jobs instead. Quite the contrary, because in this new century fewer and fewer work their own land. They need employment, and will silence anyone who stands in the way of earning a living. The steam barons and their witch trials have taken this to new heights.”

That was all very true, but nothing that Evelina didn’t know already. “But there are still devas in parts of London. The garden at Hilliard House has some, and Regent’s Park …”

Magnus’s lip curled in a half smile that said he was about to come to the point.

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