Stained Glass Monsters (31 page)

The whole room shuddered, and she heard
panes of glass crack. All the edges went off the sounds, drowned
out by a thrumming which filled the air, crushing Kendall's ears,
her chest, her bones. The whole of the heaviness over Falk was
squashing down into this one space.

The black square became a pool, a pit
and all the room was tipping into it. Kendall found herself tilting
forward, but was held upright by Sukata. She could hear more glass
breaking, but it was far away, outside this heavy, dark world–

Light. Bright, painful, stabbing into
the eyes. Kendall flinched from it, and found that she was
sweating, shaking, but no longer crushed. She took an overwhelmed
breath and stared at the crystal sun which had taken over the
room.

For some reason she'd thought that Queen
Solace's new focus would be black like Rennyn's, but this was clear
and bright like those that ordinary mages wore. It was just – big.
Twice the height of a man, floating in the centre of the room,
shining brighter than any of the mage glows. The air still throbbed
with power, but it was more contained and less painful.

The huge focus rose slowly toward the
big vaulted ceiling of the room, and there on the floor was the
White Lady again, just as Kendall had seen her in Falk. Feet neatly
together, hair spread out in a great fan to the tips of her
fingers, beautiful dress shimmering. But this one's eyes were
open.

The woman sat up, moving very slowly.
She wasn't more than average height, but it felt like the floor
quaked from her weight, leaving Kendall dizzy, small and scared
spitless. Lieutenant Danress had been right about the pointlessness
of attacking the Black Queen direct. There was so much power in the
room, swirling around and through everyone like a live thing, as
obedient to the Black Queen's will as the Kellian. Casting a spell,
drawing a weapon, making any kind of attack would be suicide. Only
the Kellian might have the speed to succeed, and they were on the
wrong side.

"Your Majesty," said the demon prince,
and bowed extra-deep, before offering her his hand.

The Black Queen stood up, her long fall
of waving white hair swinging to her knees. She didn't seem awkward
getting up off the floor, wasn't in a hurry, acted totally in
control as she gazed round at them all. The smaller focus detached
itself from the demon's wrist and moved to hover at her shoulder
like a glass courtier. Tyrland's new Queen.

Kendall became a little tangled over
whether it was right to call her the new queen or the old queen.
Either way, the haughty, disgusted look she suddenly fixed on Queen
Astranelle, like she was some bug crawled from under a rock, left
no doubt over how she felt about anyone else holding the title.

"You descend from the Pretender?" Her
voice was strong and commanding, and colder than the Hells.

"I am a successor of King Eliathas,
yes." Queen Astranelle stood steady, not moving even when Princess
Sera was unable to hold back a hiccupping sob, burrowing her face
into Prince Justin's side.

The Black Queen's lip curled, surveying
the small royal family. "You claim a right to this land?"

The menace in her words hung in the air,
a sword ready to fall at the wrong answer. Tyrland could not have
two queens. But Queen Astranelle wasn't about to swear fealty to
the Black Queen, no matter the consequences.

"I have accepted a duty to this
kingdom," she said, with quiet pride. "I will not turn my back on
it."

Other than that she wasn't a friend of
the Kellian, Kendall didn't know much about Queen Astranelle, but
she had to like her for standing there so calm. Chin up in the face
of death. She liked Lady Weston even more for stepping to the
Queen's side, a show of support from a mage who couldn't even
cast.

The Black Queen's eyes narrowed, but
then she glanced away, and Captain Faille moved, faster than fast.
In a breath he was standing before Rennyn and one of his hands rose
and fell, and left a line across her shirt. A choked gasp broke
from Rennyn's lips, and she moved like she wanted to clutch her
side, but couldn't because Captain Illuma still held her arms. He'd
cut her open. Those nails were every bit as much a weapon as a
sword.

As everyone stared in confusion, Captain
Faille reached out his long, pointed fingers and actually stuck
them into Rennyn's side, which made her turn very pale and writhe
rather. Blood was streaming down from the cut, a bit below her ribs
on her left side, but it didn't look like the wound was too deep.
When he drew back his hand he was holding a familiar black sphere.
Rennyn's focus.

"Did you imagine such a simple ruse
would overcome me?" the Queen asked, sounding genuinely
curious.

Rennyn didn't answer immediately,
watching Captain Faille hand the blood-slick focus to the demon
prince. The demon held up the necklace with its identical black
stone, then dropped the necklace on the floor and pocketed the real
focus. Only then did Rennyn turned her attention back to the Black
Queen to say, "May I ask you a question?"

"Traitor's child, do you hope to
postpone your death or hasten it?" But behind the Black Queen's dry
words Kendall glimpsed suddenly sharpened attention. Captured and
bleeding, her focus taken from her and facing a mage as powerful as
the gods, Rennyn Claire still managed to act like
she
was
the one in charge. Did she have a plan, or was this just Surclere
arrogance?

"Are you able to withdraw from the
Kellian?" Rennyn asked, completely ignoring the Black Queen's
comment. "Your presence is killing them as people."

This brought scorn. "The golems will not
fail their purpose."

"I suppose not," Rennyn said, with a
distant note in her voice. "But that wasn't quite the point, was
it?"

Captain Faille backhanded Rennyn across
the face. Again, the suddenness of the move made all the captives
flinch, and Kendall sobbed beneath her breath. Even though she knew
that it must be at the Black Queen's orders, it still
felt
like Captain Faille had turned on them. It was one thing to think
him a scary man, but it was purely horrid to have him act like
it.

"Who do you think you are talking to?"
the Black Queen asked, picking out each word.

Rennyn didn't immediately respond, but
then she straightened, looking unhappily at Captain Faille. She had
this trick of ignoring the Black Queen – of both queens, really –
which almost made it so they didn't matter, for all their power.
The mark of Captain Faille's hand stood out white, with a thin red
line at the centre, and already one eye was starting to swell. Yet
she lifted her head as high as before, not quailing in the
least.

Rennyn had to be bluffing. Ignoring the
Black Queen to keep her attention fixed and wary. But her skin was
grey from the effort of staying upright, the whole of her front
slick with blood now starting to pool around her feet. Even if she
didn't provoke the Black Queen into killing her, she couldn't last
much longer.

A flicker of movement at the door
betrayed her into another glance, but it was only the Kellian
again, carrying more people. She stared at them, then closed her
eyes, looking deadly tired.

"Still hoping for rescue, cousin?" asked
the demon prince. "Perhaps your brother found a...wiser course of
action."

"You shouldn't judge Seb by your own
standards," Rennyn said.

"Enough of this," said the Black Queen,
and Kendall quailed because she knew this meant that Rennyn was
about to die and then probably the rest of them.

But Rennyn nodded. "Yes," she murmured,
as if she were sorry or glad. "Enough."

Kendall didn't see her do anything, and
the thorny bracelet meant there was no way Rennyn could cast, but
suddenly all the Kellian started glowing. Not gold or white like
they did in strong sun and moonlight, but with an angry ripple of
dark rainbow tints which heralded a gust of power so strong it set
Kendall's teeth to aching. Sigils began writing themselves up each
of the columns and across the ceiling, and the Black Queen
staggered as if a crushing weight had been set on her
shoulders.

"Three hundred years," Rennyn said,
stepping away from a frozen Captain Illuma to stand shakily
unsupported. The floor washed black, as if someone had poured a
bucket of ink across it. "We had time to plan for many
contingencies."

Kendall realised Sukata's hold had also
relaxed, and pulled free as something stung at her arms. The
Kellian girl didn't even notice, standing paralysed as tiny little
lightning-bolts played over her skin. The air smelt of storms.
Beneath their feet the blackness kept spreading out from the
central square to cover the floors and climb up the walls, dousing
the mage glows as it went. Even the Black Queen's focus dimmed, and
below it they could see pinpricks of lights clustered together in
the dark, rapidly growing smaller and then fading away.

"What is it?" Kendall whispered, awed,
as a round shape came into sight. Most of it was black, but there
was a long band along one side which was blue and green and brown
and there was a kind of halo around the whole thing. It shone like
a jewel suspended in the floor below them, slowly growing
smaller.

"All the world," said Rennyn unsteadily.
"And more. How beautiful." She had her own faint halo, and her hair
was moving gently though there wasn't any wind.

The Black Queen was having almost as
much trouble staying on her feet as Rennyn, shuddering like she was
holding up a mountain, power pouring off her in an ever-increasing
wave. "Kill her!" she hissed urgently at the demon.

"Useless spite," Rennyn murmured,
glancing up. If she'd seemed calm before, now she acted like
someone who'd finally reached the top of a hill and had no further
to go.

"Quickly!"

None of the Kellian moved: they were
statues beneath purple lightning crawling about so you could hear
it fizzing on their skin. But the demon prince hadn't been effected
by the spell. With an odd smile he started forward.

"Don't even–!" shouted one of the
wakened prisoners, and leapt to intercept the smaller man. But the
prince caught him and with a sound of tearing cloth threw him
straight at Rennyn. They both went down with a horrible thud.

"Ren!"

Sebastian came running out of nowhere.
He stumbled to a stop by his sister as the nobleman scrambled
awkwardly off her, slipping in the pooling blood. Rennyn didn't
move.

"The late-come hero," commented the
demon prince, who actually seemed to be enjoying himself, not
showing any concern for his mother. He reached casually down and
scooped up one of the abandoned Sentene weapons, then threw it at
Sebastian.

Kendall reacted without thinking,
pushing with all her might. The sword twisted in mid-air, jerking
off in a completely unexpected direction. The demon laughed, and
with a gesture lifted a dozen swords from near the sleeping guards,
all of their points lining up at Rennyn and Sebastian.

And then the Black Queen's focus
exploded.

-oOo-

Kendall fell over before the blast of
power, curling into a ball as the side of her face and arm were
stung by glassy wasps. Her ears rang and echoed before settling
back to normal, and she lifted her head warily. She couldn't tell
how long it had been and all the light had gone out of the room so
that there was only a bit of brightness through the doors and
windows; no good to see by.

A faint crunching of crystal, eerie and
directionless, made her heart jump. Where was the demon? But
nothing leaped on her, so she shifted and found she was lying on
someone's legs. Sukata. Sitting up, she pulled at the girl, who
didn't resist or react. Kendall wasn't even sure she was
breathing.

Light flared, and Kendall looked hastily
around for the demon. Nowhere. The only people moving were the
small clutch of wakened prisoners, dusting off shards or picking
them from their skin as they climbed to their feet. All of the
sleeping guards stayed where they were, still under the spell. None
of the Kellian were standing.

The light was a mage glow conjured by
Sebastian, but his attention was all for his sister, not for little
matters like monsters. He pulled off his jacket and wadded it
against Rennyn's side. The nobleman who had been thrown at her made
a pad for her head out of his own jacket, but then picked up a
pistol and stood.

"It can't have gone far," he said, with
an urgent glance from the centre of the room to Queen Astranelle.
"Your Majesty–"

The Queen, bleeding from a cut above her
eye, cut him off with a gesture. "The thought does you credit,
Tassin, but none of us are equipped to fight that creature," she
said and looked at Lady Weston, who nodded in agreement. They both
ignored the centre of the room, where bits of white hair and dress
poked from beneath of a pile of crystal.

Queen Astranelle turned to Sebastian.
"Child, can you break this sleep spell?"

But Sebastian didn't even seem to hear
her, eyes only for Rennyn, who didn't respond when he called her
name and didn't react when he tried to straighten her.

Before the Queen could speak again there
was a sound at the west door. A Kellian blurred into the room,
slowing from top speed to a frozen full stop as she looked around
the room. Out of uniform, Kendall barely recognised her as
Lieutenant Faral, and didn't know if it was the right reaction when
the nobleman called Tassin raised his pistol at sight of her.

Lieutenant Faral saw it, and there was a
faint flicker behind her eyes as Kendall thought about just how
dangerous Kellian could be. But then two other Kellian followed her
blurring entrance, and she sounded as proper and correct as ever
when she said: "My Lady, there are fires in the city."