Princesa mecanica

3.1 Contents
Prologue 1 A Dreadful Row 2 The Conqueror Worm 3 To the Last Hour 4 To Be Wise and Love 5 A Heart Divided 6 Let Darkness 7 Dare to Wish 8 That Fire of Fire 9 Graven in Metal 10 Like Water upon Sand 11 Fearful of the Night 12 Ghosts on the Road

13 The Mind Has Mountains 14 Parabatai 15 Stars, Hide Your Fires 16 The Clockwork Princess 17 Only Noble To Be Good 18 For This Alone 19 To Lie and Burn 20 The Infernal Devices 21 Burning Gold 22 Thunder in the Trumpet 23 Than Any Evil 24 The Measure of Love Epilogue A Note on Tessa’s England Acknowledgments

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For the Lewis family: Melanie, Jonathan, and Helen

I held it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam A.H.H.”

PROLOGUE
York, 1847. “I’m afraid,” said the little girl sitting on the bed. “Grandfather, can you stay with me?” Aloysius Starkweather made an impatient noise in the back of his throat as he drew a chair closer to the bedside and seated himself. The impatient noise was only part in earnest. It pleased him that his granddaughter was so trusting of him, that often he was the only one who could calm her. His gruff demeanor had never bothered her, despite her delicate nature. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, Adele,” he said. “You’ll see.”

She looked at him with large eyes. Normally the ceremony of first runing would have been held in one of the grander spaces of the York Institute, but because of Adele’s fragile nerves and health, it had been agreed that it could occur in the safety of her bedroom. She was sitting at the edge of her bed, her back very straight. Her ceremonial dress was red, with a red ribbon holding back her fine, fair hair. Her eyes were huge in her thin face, her arms narrow. Everything about her was as fragile as a china cup. “The Silent Brothers,” she said. “What will they do to me?” “Give me your arm,” he said, and