The Pyramid Waltz (46 page)

Katya swallowed, surprised at the sorrow that came from seeing her buoyant sister-in-law in chains. “You betrayed us.”

“I had to save my children!”

“You knew!” Her anger pushed Brom back a step. “You knew about the Aspect when you married Reinholt.”

Katya expected Brom to shrink, but Brom surged forward to the end of her chains. “I didn’t know how bad it was! I never saw the Fiend, not until Roland showed me!” Spittle flew from her lips, and she backed up until she could wipe her tear-stained face. “He told me how the Fiend thinks, how it becomes a part of you! My children will not be monsters.”

“You refused because you’re a coward.” Katya thought for a moment. “No, Roland was clever when he was alive, but as a Fiend, he’s grown devious. He wouldn’t let you live just for refusing to Waltz. What did you do for him?”

Brom shook her head.

Katya’s mind raced. “Hugo couldn’t come into the royal quarters, couldn’t take the secret passages from there to the dungeons…but you could.”

“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Katya stepped forward. “You set Darren and Cassius free. Your dormant Fiendish essence let you open the doors. Did you escort them down there before we arrived? Did you sneak Roland into the palace?”

Brom snarled, the white of her teeth shining against her reddened lips. “I did it for them.”

“What did he promise you? What did he give you that you’d risk the lives of everyone in Farraday?”

“One monster or another, what’s the difference?”

Katya clenched her fist, but she kept her control. She’d been keeping it too long to lose it now. Besides, there were other ways to hurt a person. “Your children are on their way here now.”

What little color remained in Brom’s face drained away. “No.”

“We need four to Waltz. Unless you want to take their place?”

“What are you talking about? You’d make my children Waltz so you don’t have to? Monster! Evil, murdering monster!” She jumped forward again, and the chains took her feet from under her, sending her to the ground where she curled around herself and sobbed. “Leave them alone. They won’t be like him. You can’t, you can’t!”

Katya didn’t bother to explain. She had what she needed, anyway. Brom was not opportunistic. She’d colluded with Roland, had met him before she’d come to Marienne. Katya turned and closed the door as Brom cried out her name. Daughter of a noble or not, they’d use a pyramid on her now. Maybe Roland was right about a few things. Maybe Crowe should make her loyal against her will; it was what she deserved.

Katya shook the thought away. She couldn’t become like him in order to fight him.

Starbride alone greeted her at the entrance.

“Where’s Ma?”

“A discreet withdrawal, I think.”

Katya took Starbride’s hands, gathering comfort. The stitches in her back pulled and stung, echoing the pain in her chest, the deep ache of loss. “I’m glad you stayed.”

Starbride kissed her softly for half a minute. “I’m here, and I’m not leaving you.”

Looking into her eyes, Katya thought for the first time that she had all the strength she needed, Fiend or not. “I love you, Star. Never forget that.”

“I won’t. Even with all the secrets and plots floating around, I’ll believe it. And I love you, too.”

Katya kissed her hand and tucked it into the crook of her elbow as they left the dark place behind.

Barbara Ann Wright writes fantasy and science fiction novels and short stories when not adding to her enormous book collection or ranting on her blog. Her short fiction has appeared twice in Crossed Genres magazine and once made Tangent Online’s recommended reading list. She is a member of Broad Universe and the Outer Alliance and helped create Writer’s Ink in Houston.

She is married, has an army of pets, and lives in Texas. Her writing career can be boiled down to two points: when her mother bought her a typewriter in the sixth grade and when she took second place in the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing in 2004. One gave her the means to write and the other gave her the confidence to keep going. Believing in oneself, in her opinion, is the most important thing a person can do.

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