Breath of Earth Read online

  The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meanings in Contemporary Japanese Inari Worship by Karen A. Smyers

  Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume II, compiled by Ryusaku Tsunoda, William Theodore de Bary, and Donald Keene

  India

  Children of Kali: Through India in Search of Bandits, the Thug Cult, and the British Raj by Kevin Rushby

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough

  Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel L. Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Arrival of a New Century by Philip McFarland

  The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

  Fun with Poison

  The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

  A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup

  For a current reference bibliography, please visit www.BethCato.com.

  Acknowledgments

  Breath of Earth required intense research into early-twentieth-century California and the hardships suffered by Chinese immigrants. I am grateful for the assistance of folks on Codex Writers who provided information, conversation, and book recommendations that resulted in a novel more grounded in historical accuracy. Any remaining errors are my responsibility, and I beg forgiveness for my ignorance.

  After I completed my initial draft of Breath of Earth, I was delighted that the Phoenix Art Museum had an exhibit and lecture on namazu-e. This artwork is very rare since the propaganda prints were actively sought out and destroyed in the 1850s. Phoenix Art Museum, thank you for such impeccable timing for this exhibition.

  Many thanks to my first readers and initial cheerleaders for the book, Anaea Lay and Rebecca Roland. This project was daunting from the very start and they provided me with a positive boost to keep on going.

  This book is dedicated to my literary agent, Rebecca Strauss, but she deserves a bonus mention here, too. She’s awesome like that. Much gratitude to the whole crew at DeFiore & Co.

  Hugs and cookies to the wonderful folks at Harper Voyager. You made my dreams come true by releasing The Clockwork Dagger and The Clockwork Crown, and I’m thrilled that we’re together for my new series. Huge thanks to my editor, Kelly O’Connor; my magical publicist, Caroline Perny; and so many others there. Sloth power!

  Of course, there is my family to thank. My parents, who encouraged me to delve deeper into California history on my own after I kept pestering them with questions that couldn’t be answered by my elementary school textbooks. My husband, Jason, who copes with my madness during drafts and revisions. Then there is my son, Nicholas, who has been fascinated by the laminated-and-scribbled-on 1896 San Francisco map on my office wall these past few years. See, dude? I told you it would help me write a book.

  About the Author

  BETH CATO is the author of the Clockwork Dagger fantasy duology, which includes The Clockwork Dagger, nominated for the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and The Clockwork Crown, as well as two short stories and a novella in the Clockwork realm. Her novella Wings of Sorrow and Bone has been nominated for a Nebula Award. She writes and bakes cookies in a lair outside of Phoenix, Arizona, which she shares with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  Advance Praise for Breath of Earth

  “Beth Cato’s Breath of Earth takes the reader to a San Francisco filled with magic, danger, and tragedy. A rare woman with a geomancer’s gift, Ingrid Carmichael must fight to retain control of her powers within the city’s shifting landscape of political intrigue. And she desperately needs to find a way out of the city if she’s going to get to the bottom of a murderous plot, but has no way to know who’s friend or foe in a situation where allegiance isn’t as straightforward as she’s always been taught. All in all, a suspenseful and rousing start to a new series. I look forward to reading the next one.”

  —J. Kathleen Cheney, author of the Tales of the Golden City

  “Beth Cato gives steampunk a magical, global twist in an action-packed adventure that keeps the pages turning in anticipation. And if you don’t fall in love with Ingrid Carmichael after reading this, you have no soul.”

  —Michael J. Martinez, author of MJ-12: Inception and The Daedalus Incident

  “Breath of Earth is that rare gem, a thought-provoking, imaginative adventure of the highest order, chock-full of wonder as well as heart-wrenching what-ifs. It’s reminiscent of Jules Verne at his best, with brilliant characters who linger in the mind and heart. Bravo!”

  —Julie E. Czerneda, author of the Clan Chronicles

  “Cato cleverly brings her colorful Barbary Coast–era San Francisco to life, highlighting the neglected perspectives of the outsiders and the dispossessed who made up the majority of its populace.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  Also by Beth Cato

  THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER SERIES

  The Clockwork Dagger

  The Clockwork Crown

  The Deepest Poison: A Short Story

  Wings of Sorrow and Bone: A Novella

  Final Flight: A Short Story

  Credits

  Cover design by Richard L. Aquan

  Cover photograph © Gene Mollica

  Map by Paula Russell Szafranski

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  BREATH OF EARTH. Copyright © 2016 by Beth Cato. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  Harper Voyager and design is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C.

  ISBN 978-0-06-242206-4

  EPub Edition AUGUST 2016 ISBN 9780062422071

  16 17 18 19 20 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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