The Fiend Queen (12 page)

“So they called to you?” Starbride asked. “What did they say they felt? What did you feel?”

Redtrue shifted, and Starbride could see the discomfort in eyes that wouldn’t meet her own.

“You don’t want to talk about it?” Starbride asked. “You seem so glad to talk of everything else.”

“As Horsestrong said, knowledge is a guide, not a destination.”

Starbride wished her hair wasn’t braided up so she could throw it over one shoulder. “So guide me. Did you hear their voices in your mind?”

“Adsnazi do not—”

“Then how? Was your body nudged in their direction? Did they put a letter and some sweets under your pillow?”

“Nonsense.”

“Curiosity. I’m known for it, ask anyone. I remember when the adsnazi came to Newhope. Were they testing the children who followed them through the streets? Did you get too close, and they found you out?”

“We do not haul people from their beds in the middle of the night.”

Starbride thought of what Captain Ursula might say. “So you felt pulled to them in the middle of the night?”

“I did not—”

Dawnmother sat on the other side of her. “I heard Allusian and thought I’d come over. Maia seems much better now that Brutal is back on his feet.” She looked back and forth between them. “Am I interrupting?”

“Redtrue was just telling me how she became an adsnazi.”

“I wondered about that,” Dawnmother said. “Did you leave your mistress, or was it before you were bound to one?”

Redtrue’s nostrils flared, but she said nothing.

Starbride stared at both of them until her brain caught up. “Ah.”

Dawnmother nodded. “I’ve known quite a few fellow servants with ‘true’ in their names.”

“I am not a servant.” She sounded as if she had to drag the words past her bile.

“What’s wrong with being a servant?” Dawnmother asked.

Redtrue’s mouth worked for a moment. “I have to…” She stood and moved to the other side of the room.

Dawnmother snorted. “That shut her up.”

“That was rather mean, Dawn.”

“I won’t let her turn her nose up at you
or
me. I’m betting that any mystical calling she felt was only her running away from a life she didn’t want.”

“But if everyone who finds them is just seeking a new life, and yet everyone who finds them also becomes an adsnazi, that could mean there are many more adsnazi among our people than anyone has ever thought!”

Dawnmother shrugged as if it didn’t matter.

Katya settled on Starbride’s other side, and Starbride leaned into her without thinking. “What did you say to Redtrue?” Katya said. “I’ve never seen an Allusian turn so pale.”

“Dawnmother guessed that she’s servant caste. Evidently, it embarrasses her.”

“When she told me in the adsnazi camp, she was surprised I didn’t know. Something about the servant caste being better at quoting Horsestrong.”

“Helps to keep your mistress on the right track,” Dawnmother said. “I’ll see how the others are doing.” After a wink, she made the rounds again, stopping to speak with each person.

As Katya slipped an arm around Starbride’s shoulders, she said, “Well, which of us is going to say which part?”

“You’ll have to give me more of a hint,” Starbride said. “We’ve said a lot over the…”

Katya chuckled. “Were you about to say years?”

“We haven’t known each other a year yet.”

“Hard to believe.”

Starbride sighed. How could so much life be packed into such little time? “What did you mean about saying our parts?”

“Any little time we’ve gotten to be together, one of us says that we have to return to the real world, and the other one asks why we can’t stay like this just a little longer.”

“As I recall, most of the times, we were in bed—”

“Or the bath.”

Starbride’s belly warmed at the thought. “Not in a room full of our friends while wounded and exhausted.”

“Makes it trickier, to be sure.”

Starbride kissed her softly. “You are a scoundrel.”

“I’m constantly surprised by our lives. Brutal’s come back from the dead with a Fiend, given to him by Maia. Pennynail is a famous murderer.”

“Falsely accused.”

“A story I must hear at some point. My mother has become a Fiend twice today in order to save my life. And I’m supposed to be champing at the bit to get out there and fight some more, maybe take Roland down once and for all, but I can’t bring myself to move from this spot.”

Starbride knew how she felt. Even after they’d finished Roland, another challenge lay ahead of them. If she’d still been living in Allusia and the Farradains had come asking for help, Starbride would have had a list of conditions, and she bet the others did, too. She loved Katya, loved Katya’s family and friends, but that didn’t stop her from loving her homeland. The war would give the Allusians leave to stand their ground and not be pushed around by Farradains anymore.

“What are you thinking?” Katya asked.

“That it’s going to be me who says we should move soon.”

Katya held up her thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “You beat me to it by this much.”

While they were repacking their gear, Queen Catirin approached Katya and Starbride, a slight smile on her tranquil face. Starbride envied that look even as she wondered what depths it hid.

Before Katya could ask, Catirin said, “I’m not going with you, dearheart.”

Katya nodded. “You’re tired. I understand.”

“You better not be calling me old, Katyarianna, unless you want your mother to show you up in front of all these people.”

Katya bowed. “I’d never dream of it.”

Catirin waved the bow away. “You’re right, anyway. And now that you have young Hugo’s Fiend to come forth whenever you need it, you don’t need me.”

“I always need you.”

Catirin squeezed her arm. “Dearest daughter, I know that’s not true no matter how often I wish it was.”

Starbride was afraid to move, to break the delicate bond, but she also didn’t want to intrude. She tried to step away, but Catirin reached for her.

“I haven’t forgotten you.” To Starbride’s astonishment, Catirin kissed her cheek. “I didn’t make you as welcome as Einrich did, but that changes now.” She took a hand from each of them. “I see the inexorable path the spirits have set you on. Your wedding is going to rival Reinholt’s.”

Starbride caught Katya’s slightly crazed smile and returned it with one of her own. “I don’t suppose we can just skip ahead to that,” Starbride said, “like jumping ahead in your favorite book?”

“Soon,” Katya said, “that I
can
promise.”

Catirin drew herself up. “Now, I’m going to wait with the baroness, and if we see an opportunity to sneak out of the palace, we’ll take it. In the meantime, I’ll be asking all the spirits to watch over you.”

All that was left to do was find Roland, and as they trekked into the halls once again, Starbride had to wonder how they could accomplish such a task. She’d thought he might come here, but he hadn’t shown himself.

“We could clear the palace level by level,” Hugo said. “See if there are any more corpse Fiends or wild Fiends, also see if my”—he coughed—“if he’s hiding here somewhere.”

Katya shook her head. “That might take too long.”

“He’ll want to protect the capstone,” Starbride said. “It’s the only thing in the palace he’s got left.”

“You think he can do something with it?” Katya asked.

Starbride shut out the sounds of Redtrue’s muttering. “I don’t know if he can until five years have passed again.”

“Well, if he was going to try, now’s the time.” Katya glanced around her. “There’s an entrance to the secret passageways in one of the basements nearby. That should get us close to the tunnels.”

“The basement near the front doors of the palace?” Freddie asked. “Should we bar them while we’re there? If Roland isn’t in here, that’ll slow him down.”

Brutal shook his head. “The entire Guard couldn’t keep Roland out the first time. He won’t be stopped by a barred door.”

“I can live with slowing him down,” Katya said.

They’d been angling toward the front doors while they spoke. As they jogged down a long hallway that eventually led to the grand staircase, Redtrue cried, “Stop!”

Everyone skidded to a halt. Starbride took a deep breath as she turned. Maybe Redtrue had finally figured out what they’d done to Brutal and was taking her leave. Well, Starbride was through trying to explain herself. They’d seen a way to save Brutal, and they’d taken it. What more was there to say?

“I feel a pyramid,” Redtrue said.

Starbride drew her own detection pyramid. “Can you tell where?”

“Don’t,” Redtrue said. “Can you not sense it?”

Starbride frowned, not ready to hear again about her deficient education. “I don’t have your ability.”

“That’s not what I—”

Starbride fell into her pyramid, and the world burst apart as a deafening boom rammed into her like an invisible hammer. The hallway tilted back and forth from where she sat against the wall. When had she sat down? Dust rained from the ceiling, drifting like snowflakes. Dimly, she heard someone saying her name, but she couldn’t hear over the ringing in her ears.

Redtrue’s shaved head passed into her vision. “I told you not to!”

Starbride blinked and shook her head. She climbed to her feet as the world rushed back to her. An explosive pyramid like the one Roland had implanted in the strength monks, designed to go off if a pyradisté tried to detect it. The world threatened to spin, and she clamped her teeth on the little she’d eaten.

The hallway in front of them had collapsed, blocked by rubble. A gaping hole led to the floor above. If Redtrue hadn’t detected the pyramid, they would have walked under it and been buried beneath the rubble or blown to pieces.

“Katya? Dawn?” Starbride turned until she found them. Dirty and confused, they were as deafened as her, but no one seemed badly hurt.

“We passed near here before,” Katya said.

“And there was no pyramid,” Redtrue added.

“So he is here.” Starbride stared at the walls that might suddenly burst apart and batter them with stone.

Redtrue touched her shoulder, making her jump. “I would sense more pyramids were they near.”

Starbride’s cheeks burned as she scanned the destruction she’d caused.

Redtrue’s head lifted. “Wait. I feel something else.” When she pointed to the ceiling, everyone hurried to the sides of the hall, but Redtrue’s finger shifted as if her target was on the move.

“Well, isn’t this a fun new development?” Roland’s voice called from the hole. “Someone who can detect my pyramids without setting them off.”

Katya waved everyone back. “Come closer, Uncle. You’re not afraid, are you?” She leaned close to Starbride. “Ready flash bomb.”

“Something is—” Redtrue started.

A glittering object fell down from the hole. “Scatter,” Starbride cried. She dug for her cancellation pyramid as the hallway exploded in flames, forcing them back from the pile of rubble.

Another pyramid flew after it, angled to arc down the hall, but Starbride focused on it, turning it dark as it spun through the air. Redtrue might be good at detecting pyramids, but how good would she be at cleansing them when they were on the move?

Katya led them away. No matter how good they were at cancelling Roland’s arsenal, they wouldn’t be able to catch everything raining down on their heads. They turned down another hall.

“There’s something in the floor!” Redtrue shouted.

They scrambled to the left, the way they’d come from. Starbride couldn’t detect the pyramid, not without risking setting it off. “Can you cleanse it?”

“It might explode,” Redtrue said.

“Everyone, back,” Katya said. “Redtrue, do it.”

Redtrue held her pyramid aloft, but another hurtled their way from around the corner, and fire bloomed again. At the same time, an explosion rattled this hallway, too, blowing out a large chunk of the floor and exposing the basement.

Starbride coughed as the fire sucked the air from her lungs. She staggered back from flames so hot she felt them ten feet away.

“I’ve been following you, niece,” Roland called, “listening in the walls, waiting, leaving my pyramids behind so your new asset couldn’t detect them. She’s a keeper, that one.”

Starbride stood ready, her cancellation pyramid clenched in her fist. She couldn’t try to detect Roland’s pyramids with his explosive surprises lying around.

“Show yourself, Uncle, if you want a fight.”

“Moron. This
is
how I fight.” Two more pyramids sailed through the flames. Starbride pounced on one and cancelled it. The other burst into flames against the wall and caught two paintings alight. They were forced to retreat again.

Starbride saw a figure on the other side of the fire. Well, if he liked it so much; she took a fire pyramid from her satchel and flung it, following it with a destruction pyramid for good measure. The hallway shook again, but not as it had for Roland’s traps.

“Almost, but not quite,” Roland sang.

Maia fired into the flames, but the arrows hurtled back, their fletching smoking. Brutal and Scarra ducked out of their path.

“Now, now, daughter,” Roland called. “Is that any way to thank me for teaching you how to share your Fiendish gifts?”

Maia only snarled and fired again. The arrow hurtled back at her and nicked her leg.

“Coward!” Brutal called.

“The stupid and brutish always confuse cowardice and tactics.”

Starbride watched for the figure again and tried to focus. She got hold of something, but it moved too quickly, and she lost it. Another pyramid sailed forth, then another, and another. Starbride could always get one, but the others backed them down the hall. Soon, the entire palace would be alight.

“He’s herding us,” Katya said. She looked to Brutal. “Ready for a mad dash?”

“Always, but I’d prefer not to be on fire, thanks very much.” He jerked his head back. “Let’s get ahead of him and find a way around.”

They ran instead of being backed up inch by inch. The sound of Roland’s laughter grated on Starbride’s nerves, but she told herself they were regrouping, not running away. Their best chance was to surprise him as he had surprised them and hit him before he knew what was happening.