With Fate Conspire (63 page)

Outside the gates of that eminent estate, the two cities went about their business: mortal and faerie London, lying atop and between and alongside one another. Not merged into one, but not separate either; a mere step
sideways,
and daily bridged by men and women of both kinds, for good and for ill, for education and for mischief, and sometimes just for curiosity’s sake. Their coexistence was not perfectly peaceable—not yet, and perhaps not ever—but then no great city ever lay fully at peace, and this one had survived the influx of strangers before. It was the dawning of a new age, and London would endure.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Like its predecessors in the series,
With Fate Conspire
owes a great deal to the people who assisted me in my research. During my trip to London, this included: Josephine Oxley of Apsley House, Lin and Geoff Skippings of Carlyle’s House, and Shirley Nicholson of the Linley Sambourne House, all for answering questions about the furnishings and daily life of the period; Helen Grove and Caroline Warhurst of the London Transport Museum Archives, for helping me research the progress of the Inner Circle Railway; Donald Rumbelow of London Walks, my guide on a Jack the Ripper tour (which may eventually result in a short story); and Paul Dew and Philip Barnes Morgan of the Metropolitan Police Service historical archives, for opening their filing cabinets and display cases to me so that I might research the Special Irish Branch, and also for showing me Inspector Abberline’s personal scrapbook. (Irrelevant to this novel, but still very cool.) Regrettably, I do not have the names of the dedicated librarians at the Guildhall Library and London Metropolitan Archives who helped me unearth an 1893 map of London’s sewers, but they have my thanks. And a very special thank-you to Sara O’Connor, who waded through one of those sewers on my behalf, and also to the folks at Thames Water who helped arrange that visit.

Then, of course, there are the e-mail queries. Jenny Hall of the London Museum answered questions about the destruction of London’s city wall; Jess Nevins pointed me toward a variety of Victorian resources; Sydney Padua of the excellent webcomic
2D Goggles
gave me assistance on both Ada Lovelace and the Analytical Engine; John Pritchard was invaluable on the history and occupancy of various houses in London. Dr. William Jones of Cardiff University provided me with references on Irish nationalism, Sarah Rees Brennan advised me on Irish dialect, and Erin Smith answered questions about Irish Catholicism. Rashda Khan and Shveta Thakrar advised me on Indian folklore, and Aliette de Bodard did the same for Chinese. Christina Blake translated things into French on my behalf. Finally, I thank all the readers of my LiveJournal who answered questions along the way, and most
especially
everyone who suggested possible titles for The Novel More Commonly Known as “The Victorian Book,” during the long and arduous quest to find one that would work.

This book was more complicated than most to write, so I owe a large debt of gratitude to those friends and family who let me talk their ears off about it: Kyle Niedzwiecki, Adrienne Lipoma, Kate Walton, Alyc Helms, and Kevin Schmidt, the last of whom made the very excellent and timely suggestion of ectoplasm.

Finally, I must thank all the historians and scholars whose research I relied upon to keep my facts accurate. The terrifyingly long list of these may be found on my Web site,
www.swantower.com
.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

MORTALS

Those marked with an asterisk are attested in history.

Whitechapel Irish

Elizabeth O’Malley—
a young woman

James O’Malley—
her father, a prisoner in Newgate

Owen Darragh—
a boy, missing seven years

Maggie Darragh—
his sister

Mrs. Darragh—
his mother, an invalid

Fergus Boyle—
a troublemaker

Father Tooley—
a priest

Dónall Whelan—
a fairy doctor

No. 35 Cromwell Road

Louisa Kittering—
a rebellious young woman

Mrs. Kittering—
her mother

Mrs. Fowler—
housekeeper to the Kitterings

Ned Sayers—
footman to the Kitterings

Ann Wick         }

Sarah                 }           
maids to the Kitterings

Mary Banning   }

Society for Psychical Research

*Frederic William Henry Myers—
a spiritualist investigator

*Henry Sidgwick—
his friend, likewise an investigator

*Eleanor Sidgwick—
wife of Henry, likewise an investigator

*Annie Marshall—
wife of Myers’s cousin, now deceased

Iris Wexford—
a medium

Scotland Yard

*Adolphus Williamson—
Chief Inspector of the Special Irish Branch

*Patrick Quinn—
Police Sergeant of the Special Irish Branch

*Augusta Ada King—
mathematician and Countess of Lovelace, now deceased

*Charles Babbage—
an inventor, now deceased

*Eliza Carter—
a girl from West Ham

Mrs. Chase—
a widow from Islington

Eveleen Myers—
wife of Frederic Myers, and a photographer

Delphia St. Clair—
wife of Galen St. Clair, now deceased

Francis Merriman—
a mortal seer and founder of the Onyx Hall, now deceased

Princes of the Stone, in chronological order

Sir Michael Deven

Sir Antony Ware

Dr. John Ellin

Lord Joseph Winslow

Sir Alan Fitzwarren

Dr. Hamilton Birch

Galen St. Clair

Matthew Abingdon

Colonel Robert Shaw

Geoffrey Franklin

Henry Brandon

Alexander Messina

Benjamin Hodge—
the current Prince

FAERIES

The Court of London

Lune—
Queen of the Onyx Court

Sir Peregrin Thorne—
Captain of the Onyx Guard

Sir Cerenel—
Lieutenant of the Onyx Guard

Dame Segraine—
a lady knight of the Onyx Guard

Dame Irrith—
a sprite, and lady knight of the Vale of the White Horse

Amadea—
Lady Chamberlain of the Onyx Court

Tom Toggin—
a hob; valet to the Prince of the Stone

Bonecruncher—
a follower of the Prince

Invidiana—
a previous Queen, now deceased

The Goblin Market

Nadrett—
a criminal boss

Dead Rick—
his dog; a skriker

Cyma—
a former lady, in debt to Nadrett

Gresh                  }

Nithen                 }           
followers of Nadrett

Old Gadling        }

Chrennois—
a French sprite, and follower of Nadrett

Valentin Aspell   }

Hardface              }           
Goblin Market bosses

Lacca                   }

Orlegg—
a thrumpin in service to Valentin Aspell
Greymalkin—
likewise in service to Valentin Aspell

Po—
a Chinese faerie, ally of Lacca, and keeper of an opium den

Hafdean—
keeper of the Crow’s Head

Blacktooth Meg—
hag of the River Fleet

Charcoal Eddie
—a less-than-bright Puck

The Galenic Academy

Abd ar-Rashid—
a genie of Istanbul, and Scholarch of the Academy

Wrain                              }

Wilhas von das Ticken   }

Niklas von das Ticken    }           
Academy Masters

Lady Feidelm                  }

Ch’ien Mu                       }

Yvoir—
a French faerie, and scholar of photography

Kutuhal—
a vanara from India

Fjothar—
a svártalfar from Scandinavia

Rosamund Goodemeade—
a helpful brownie

Gertrude Goodemeade—
likewise a helpful brownie, and Rosamund’s sister

Eidhnin                            }

Scéineach                        }           
Irish fae, of a nationalist bent

Suspiria—
founder of the Onyx Hall, now deceased

Father Thames—
spirit of the River Thames

BY MARIE BRENNAN

Midnight Never Come

In Ashes Lie

A Star Shall Fall

With Fate Conspire

Warrior

Witch

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

WITH FATE CONSPIRE

Copyright © 2011 by Bryn Neuenschwander

All rights reserved.

Map by Rhys Davies

A Tor
^®
eBook

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
^®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brennan, Marie.

With fate conspire / Marie Brennan.—1st ed.

     p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

ISBN 978-0-7653-2537-2

1.  Fairies—Fiction.   2.  London (England)—History—19th century—Fiction.   I.  Title.

PS3602.R453W58 2011

813'.6—dc22

2011018987

First Edition: September 2011

eISBN 978-1-4299-8203-0

First Tor eBook Edition: August 2011