The Fiend Queen (31 page)

But the majority stayed true to the attitude that had led them to rebel, and those that regretted leaving their homes had been forced to meet in secret. They’d handed down their memories until the figures in them became legend, a hoped-for future.

Maybe those who’d constructed the capstone thought it would either keep their former rulers imprisoned, banish them if they managed to escape, or keep the populace from using flesh magic.

But her people had retuned it. Instead of keeping the Fiends away, the Farradains had called one of them.

“Oh spirits,” Katya said. “Redtrue was right. We screwed everything up.”

And after Yanchasa was imprisoned in the pyramid, the people who worshiped the council of five saw their chance to free him, but the Order of Vestra killed them before they had the chance.

“At least we did one thing right,” she muttered, though there would have been no need for the Order of Vestra if the ancient Farradains had never messed with flesh magic in the first place. They must have realized the curse they’d condemned their people to right after they’d done it. After all, they hadn’t passed the secrets of flesh magic to anyone but members of the Order. If the Farradains had known about other flesh magic—like the ability to reshape their bodies—would they have been so selective with its use? Or would they have turned Farraday into another Belshreth?

Katya rubbed her temples. It was all conjecture until someone could translate the underground writing, but how would knowing help them free Starbride?

Katya stood to pace, missing Averie again, both for the companionship and for someone to bounce ideas off of. Maybe she should go looking for Maia, but Maia was having a bit of fun exploring underground with Brutal. And Dawnmother was speaking with Starbride’s parents. Da was in council. Katya could have joined him, but she thought her mind would wander as the nobles and commoners and Allusians went round and round in debate.

A knock on her door made her jump. She waited, but there was no one to answer it. “Come in.”

Reinholt poked his head around the door. “Hello, Little K.”

She stared at him. She hadn’t seen him since she first crawled out of the dead city. Her father had told her that Reinholt had cried when he’d thought she was dead, but he hadn’t bothered to visit since she’d proved she was alive.

Katya bit back the urge to bark, “Where in the spirits’ names have you been?” and swallowed. “Hello.”

He smiled, and it had a bit of the old Reinholt gleam. Gone was the bitter edge from the last time they’d had a lengthy conversation, just before he’d abandoned his duty and his children.

“Look,” he said, “I’m sorry I was such a colossal ass.”

That didn’t begin to cover it.

Before she could speak, he held up a hand. “I know it’s going to take a while for you to forgive me. I understand, I do. And I’ll say I’m sorry as many times as I need to. I’ll make everything up to you.”

As if he’d just broken a lamp and blamed it on her. “Rein—”

“I met Appleton’s family.”

She sucked in a breath. “You what?”

“I did them the most damage, so I’ve spoken to them. It didn’t go well.”

“I don’t expect so. You killed one of them. The city, Rein, the riots.”

“I know.”

“And then you left!”

“I know, Katya. You can’t say anything that I haven’t said in my own head.” He scrubbed through his hair and paced, reminding her of herself. “That’s why I sneaked into Dockland, why I tried to find out what happened to all of you, why I went along with Starbride.”

Katya’s eyes narrowed. “
Went along with
? She saved you!”

“Yes, I went along with her extremely smart, fabulous ideas. Happy?”

“If she hadn’t taken you in, if Roland had caught you—”

“Like I said, nothing I don’t already know.”

She cocked her head. “What makes you think I’ll ever forgive you?”

“Because I’m your brother. Because our mother’s gone, and because I’ll be standing with you at your wedding whether you want me to or not.”

That same old Reinholt audacity. She had to admire it even as she wanted to kick him in the shins.

“And because,” he said, “I wouldn’t accept the crown prince’s title even if our father fell over, cracked his head, lost his memory, and forgot what a total prick I am.”

Katya sputtered a laugh.

“You’ve got better crown prince instincts in your right boot than I do in my entire body,” he said.

Going a little far perhaps, but she bobbed her head side to side as if to say that was probably true. “I’m not the real heir anyway, just a placeholder for Vierdrin. You have been to see your children, yes?”

“Where do you think I’ve been since you miraculously returned to life? Even the reincarnation of my sister couldn’t tear me away from their little faces.”

This time, her smile was genuine. “And Lord Vincent?”

“Ah, that’s a pricklier manner. I’ve burned my bridges there, committed the ultimate sin in his eyes.”

“Dereliction of duty.”

“Which is a shame because I was quite in love with him.”

Katya’s mouth fell open. “Did you
ever
love Brom?”

He gave her a dark look. “It is possible to love more than one person, Katya. Not all of us believe in that one, perfect, true love like you do.”

“Starbride is all the woman I need.”

“Hooray for you. Lucky for me, there are all kinds of people in the world.”

She gestured for him to sit across from her. “If you love Vincent, you have to fight for him.”

“Hopeless, romantic idiot,” he said.

She did kick him in the shin then. He uttered a curse and scooted away. “Why are you here?” she asked.

“Seemed the right thing to do. You came back from the dead to see all of us.” He glanced around. “Where is Starbride? I half expected to find you writhing all over each other.”

“Must have made you wonder why I said, ‘come in.’”

He shrugged. “Like I said, all kinds of people in the world.”

“You’re an ass.”

“Granted. So, where is she?”

Katya crossed her arms, then unfolded them and let them lay in her lap. She needed someone to puzzle out Starbride’s predicament with, and here was a pair of ears that claimed to be willing. But how could she share her most intimate thoughts with Reinholt? She didn’t know if she’d have been able to do that
before
he was half responsible for nearly burning Marienne to the ground.

He hooked his hands under the settee. “I’m not moving until you tell me what’s bothering you, so you might as well start.”

“I could just leave.”

“I could just follow you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I could kill you.”

“Maia wouldn’t love you anymore. I’m her favorite cousin now.”

“Liar!”

He shrugged again. “Besides, there are only a few servants around, and I’m heavy. You’d never shift my body through the halls on your own.”

Katya sighed loudly. “Have you heard any of the stories about Starbride?”

“I saw her outside Da’s tent. She’s gone pyramid wild or something.”

Katya spilled everything to him, and to his credit, he didn’t make as many pithy comments as she expected. She glossed over some details, their most intimate conversations, their lovemaking, but she got her point across.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said at last.

“Must be new to you.”

She searched his face for sarcasm but found none. “I do like to have a plan.”

He steepled his fingers and stared at the table. Katya left him alone in his thoughts and marveled at the change in him. Before Brom had betrayed them, he’d been her sarcastic but lovable brother, a man who liked to tease and wink at life. She was a little ashamed that she’d never thought much of him, even though he’d be king one day, and if she wasn’t too old to go adventuring, she’d still be leader of the Order, reporting to him as she did her father.

That had never seemed real, and not just because her father seemed immortal. When Reinholt had revealed himself to be a spoiled brat, oh, she’d thought of him more often, but nothing good. It was as if the jovial personality he’d always displayed had been some kind of mask.

Now she saw the truth: he’d never grown up before the trouble started. If he’d become king, he would have been loved, a golden god the populace could cheer, but all the work would have been done by those around him, advisors and the royal pyradisté and the Order. A committee would have done the job of one king.

And now he could see he wasn’t right for it. What he
was
right for, exactly, Katya had no idea, but he seemed to be trying to figure it out, and she was a little touched that one of the places he’d started was with her.

He sat up so suddenly, Katya started. “Well,” he said, “it doesn’t seem like you can convince her to give the power up. Did Master Bernard say he could help?”

Katya shook her head. “Flesh magic is new to him. He only learned a little, and Starbride taught him that.”

“Is there any way you could sneak up on her and knock her out?”

Just the thought made Katya’s insides roil. “I couldn’t hurt her, Rein.”

“There are people for that.”

Katya shuddered.

“It’d be for her own good, Katya.” When she didn’t speak, he sighed. “Well, if someone could knock her out, maybe that would give the adsnazi or Master Bernard room to work.”

“She defeated an entire army singlehandedly. If her Fiend guest didn’t rip your throat out, you’d probably find her skin hardened like steel and end up making her angry.”

“I wasn’t nominating myself to do the dirty deed.”

She opened her mouth to say, “No, you wouldn’t,” but she kept the words inside. “Any other ideas?”

“Trick her? You must have some way of making her vulnerable.”

“This is the love of my life you’re talking about, Rein.”

He barked a laugh. “I suppose this is why you keep an infamous murderer in your group, Little K. Someone’s got to think nasty thoughts for you.”

“Pennyn—Freddie is innocent.”

“Still, didn’t you always say he and Crowe did the dirty jobs for the Order? There must have been a reason they were nominated.”

She waved, not willing to get into that. “I’ll think on it. If you come up with something solid, let me know.”

He nodded, but she could see his exasperation in the way he fought not to cross his arms. He could make hard decisions as long as they didn’t jeopardize his own skin.

“Have you heard about Roland?” she asked.

“Maia told me on her way to your underground city. Nice find, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

“What are we going to do with our mad uncle?”

“How do you feel about him?”

He shrugged. “Sorry for him.”

Katya sat bolt upright. “Sorry? For the man that poisoned your wife against you? That started this whole ugly business that even now isn’t finished?”

“The Fiend did all that, Katya, not the man.”

She could see by his confusion that he believed that, something she couldn’t bring herself to do. She didn’t know how she’d speak to Roland without cutting his throat, but Reinholt seemed nonplussed. “Come with me,” she said. “I’ve got another job for you.”

Katya led the way into the dungeon, though they needed Reinholt’s Fiend to penetrate to the deepest layer. Katya turned her lamp up as high as it could go and fought not to think about the stone walls pressing in. She had to close her eyes several times in quick snaps, picturing an open field, a forest, the wide blue expanse of the ocean.

She repeated over and over that these walls were steady; they weren’t coming down, and they didn’t house a giant Fiend, only what remained of one.

“I’ll stay behind you in the shadows,” Katya said. “I don’t want to talk to him.”

“You just want me to see if he’s crazy? If he remembers what he did as a Fiend?”

“He remembers. I know he does. I just want to know…” She couldn’t finish, didn’t even know why she’d led Reinholt down here.

“If he’s sorry?” Reinholt asked.

“If there’s enough of him left to be sorry.”

He didn’t argue. She could have kissed him for that. Did it matter if Roland was sorry for what he’d done, what the Fiend had made him do? Would that make everything better? Why did she care enough that she wanted to hear it?

If she could forgive him, then anything Starbride did wouldn’t matter. Katya locked that thought away.

Soft whimpering came from Roland’s cell. Starbride had spoken about Maia’s transformation, how she’d wanted to die, how Dawnmother and others had held and comforted her. Katya felt a twinge of sympathy for anyone left alone in the dark with his sins.

When Reinholt pushed open the cell door, the whimpers ceased. “Is that you?” Roland called.

Katya slipped into the shadows while Reinholt lifted the lantern toward his face. “It’s me, Uncle.”

Roland blinked at him. “Nephew? Is that you, Reinholt?”

He was filthy, his hair and beard in tangled knots. His shirt was torn and smeared with blood. As a child, Katya had worshiped her uncle, leader of the Order, a strong, intelligent, fearless man. She’d hung on his every word, an annoying little burr stuck to his side whenever he’d been in the palace.

As this Roland held up his stump to ward off the demons in his mind, Katya knew her beloved uncle was as dead as she’d thought him to be.

“Stay back,” he said. He rolled, wrapping himself in his chains until he was flush against the wall. “I don’t want it to hurt you.”

“How could you hurt me now, Uncle?” Reinholt asked.

“Yanchasa.” Roland’s lip quivered. “I hurt everyone I love.” His stump slashed through the air as if scraping at the words. “I tried to fight back. Anytime I could slow myself down, I did. The Fiend, it likes to play with people. It likes to hurt them. Anytime I could play cat and mouse with Katya and the others I did. I thought I was enjoying it, that the Fiend was enjoying it, but now I know I was trying to slow myself down!”

Killing Ma was meant to slow them down? Katya ground her teeth together so hard sharp pain slid along her jaw.

Reinholt knelt on the stones. “Yanchasa can’t hurt you anymore, Uncle. Starbride saw to that.”