The Royal Sorceress by Christopher Nuttall Read Free Book Online Page A

slept, but he knew that they could be a very nasty place for a young girl. No one could be trusted on the streets. “Let me go and I won’t steal from you again…I swear I won’t…”
    “Be quiet,” Jack said, in the same even tone. “What is your name, young lady?”
    The girl’s face, already pale, became almost bloodless as she realised he knew her sex. “Olivia, sir,” she said. “I didn’t know you were a spark or a toffee; I didn’t know…”
    Jack smiled, inwardly. Spark was street-slang for magician; toffee was street-slang for upper-class personage, slumming in the poorer areas of the city for pleasures that were denied even to people of their lofty birth. If the girl had identified him as a magician, it suggested some magical talent of her own. It was almost a shame that the Royal Sorcerers Corps hadn’t found her. She would have been brainwashed into serving the order that kept the lower classes in their place, but at least she would have enough to eat.
    “I’m looking for Mistress Lucy,” Jack said. It was a name from the past, but unless he was very much mistaken she would still be alive and thriving within the underworld. Any woman in a position of power had to be stronger, tougher and more ruthless than any of her male counterparts. The female of the species was far more deadly than the male. “Do you know where she stays?”
    He allowed some Charm to slip into his voice. “You will take me to where she stays,” he said, as the girl nodded frantically. “Don’t try to run away, or I’ll turn you into a rat.”
    The girl’s eyes went wide, in surprise and fear, and then she nodded. “Follow me, mister,” she said. “I won’t lead you wrong.”
    Jack followed her, shaking his head inwardly at how the locals didn’t seem to take any notice of them. But life on the streets was hard; no one would risk their lives to save a street child who would steal from them the moment their backs were turned. Even the handful of preachers who came down into the maze of houses, bridges and slums would turn their backs on a street child. And once she couldn’t maintain her manly guise, she’d probably be corralled by a pimp or forced into the brothels. They’d use her up and then throw her out to die. There was no mercy for the poor in London.
    The Rookery was more complex than he remembered. It had started life as a set of houses and apartments, but thousands of immigrants from the countryside had taken over and turned it into a mishmash of tiny streets and makeshift houses. The Bow Street Runners wouldn’t come into the Rookery without heavy numbers or military support, which meant in practice that the Rookery was controlled by a shifting network of criminal lords. He smiled to himself as he caught sight of a Chinese man striding past, the people moving out of his way to allow him to pass. The Tongs were known for brutally enforcing their will and their smuggling enterprises were legendary. Jack had used the Chinese community the last time he’d been in London, even though he disliked them on general principles. They always seemed to be laughing at him behind their inscrutable eyes.
    They are human too , he reminded himself firmly, as the girl stopped outside an unmarked house that seemed to be in remarkably good condition. The sound of laughter and male grunting from inside confirmed that it was a brothel, even before Olivia started to back away, making motions and gestures that seemed to imply that Mistress Lucy was inside. Jack caught her arm before she could start running and pulled her with him as he opened the door. Inside, a line of lovely young women waited for him, trying to look alluring. Jack wouldn’t have been tempted even if he’d had time. He knew just how badly they had been used, even if Mistress Lucy treated them as more than cattle.
    “Here,” he said. He produced a gold coin from his pouch – not his wallet, which had nothing more than a few metal filings to imitate