The Fiend Queen (38 page)

“Already done,” Yanchasa said.

Starbride snarled. “I am in control here.”

“Of course, daughter, of course.”

“We need more allies, or did you already think of that, too?” Starbride focused through her mind magic and sought a power the adsnazi had shown her: the dream walk. They used sleeping, restful minds to be less intrusive, to admit speaking, the sharing of emotions, but nothing else. Starbride didn’t have time for that. She thought first of Master Bernard.

“No,” Yanchasa said. “He is hungry for knowledge, but he’s known Katya longer.”

That was true. She remembered how quickly he’d turned against her at Lady Hilda’s trial. Instead, she aimed for Bea.

The girl was resting, and Starbride felt her mind jump awake at a touch. “Starbride, where—”

“Below the palace.”

Shock thrummed down the line. “How are you—”

“Just listen. Because of the Fiend king, the crown has decided to leash all the pyradistés, starting with us.”

Her mind was guarded, shocked. “Truly?”

“Why would I lie?”

“Oh, there are many reasons for a good lie,” Yanchasa said.

Starbride waved to stop him from making her laugh. She sensed that Bea believed her, but something else lurked in Bea’s thoughts: the desire for revenge. A royal had hurt her; now she would hurt them. Still, she wouldn’t be enough. “We need to get to Crowe’s old office.” She changed direction, telling Bea how to meet her in the secret passageways.

“Why?” Yanchasa asked.

“If I can get the pyramid that Crowe used to commune with the capstone, we can drain your energy into it.”

“And go where?”

They’d be spotted slipping out of the castle, and Starbride didn’t want to unleash wanton destruction, not yet. “The Belshrethen attacked the council separately?” Her mind flashed back to the pages she’d seen in Katya’s room.

“Oh, daughter, are you thinking—”

“You agreed we need more allies.”

His delight filled her. “There is one more who could aid us,” Yanchasa said.

Starbride nodded. They had to stop by the dungeon.

Katya

Katya paced when she wanted to run. She supposed it didn’t matter which she did as long as she stayed out of sight. Brutal and Dawnmother waited in the hall near Starbride’s apartment. Freddie and Hugo lurked in the secret passageways. They had both routes covered, and now they only needed Starbride to return.

Maia and Castelle shooed servants and guards away, leaving Katya and Redtrue nothing to do but wait. Redtrue had invited more of the adsnazi into the palace, but Katya didn’t want them getting too close. They couldn’t have Starbride sensing their pyramids.

Katya rubbed her temples. “I can’t go through with this.”

Redtrue frowned at the wall. She’d had the same look of constipated anger since she’d arrived.

“No words of wisdom?” Katya asked. “No assurances that this is the path we must take?”

“The capstone feels different.”

Katya’s heart turned to flint. “Different how?”

“Fainter, maybe.” She shook her head. “Is there something in the way, or has she done something to it?”

“I don’t know what you’re—”

“Would you stop chattering?”

Katya sputtered a moment, but Redtrue didn’t look at her. “Something’s not right. I felt it when I first entered the palace, but I can’t tell quite what.”

“You’ve known something was wrong with the capstone since you arrived, and you didn’t say anything?” She clenched her fists to avoid putting them around Redtrue’s neck.

“I didn’t want to say until I was certain! Where are you going?”

Katya strode away without answering. “Dawnmother, Brutal!” she called. “Fetch Castelle and Maia,” she said over her shoulder to Redtrue. “And someone go get Hugo and Freddie.”

When they were all in the hall again, speaking over one another, Katya said, “Something’s gone wrong, something with the capstone.”

“How do you know?” Freddie asked.

“I can feel it,” Redtrue said, “but whether it is Starbride or—”

“It has to be her,” Brutal said.

Maia nodded. “Who else?”

“But she said she was going into the city, why go to the capstone?” Dawnmother said.

“Something changed her mind?” Freddie asked.

Katya ground her teeth into her lip. “Or she knows what we’re up to.”

“It could be Yanchasa making her go there,” Castelle said.

Hugo threw up his arms. “We’re not even sure she’s there!”

Katya shifted from one foot to the other. They could venture into the city, search for Starbride, search the palace. Maybe they were wrong, and Redtrue’s feelings had nothing to do with Starbride.

The Crowe in her gave her a stern look. There were no coincidences, not with this.

“It’s her,” Katya said, feeling the surety in her bones. “It’s her, and she knows I’ve turned against her.”

“Can she hear through walls?” Hugo asked.

Katya strode to her apartment, the others keeping on her heels. She went to the mirror that guarded the secret passageway and toggled the switch. When she stepped inside, she didn’t know what she expected to see, a note perhaps. She didn’t have an ounce of pyradisté talent, but she knew Starbride had been standing here, listening while they plotted. On some level she’d known the entire time. She’d wanted to get caught.

Or maybe she was just imagining things. As she stepped out, a gouge in the stone caught her eye. No, several gouges, spaced apart like fingers, something only the strength of a Fiend could do.

“What do we do?” Brutal asked. “Katya?”

“We have to go down there.”

“Without the element of surprise?” Freddie asked.

Katya nodded. Better to take Yanchasa head on. “You don’t have to come.” She could feel their scoffs as much as hear them.

“We’re going to need the other adsnazi,” Redtrue said. “We dare not confront her without them.”

Katya pictured all the people surrounding her laid out on the floor, hypnotized or dead with one wave of Starbride’s hand. “Go, be quick.” Everyone but Castelle and Redtrue stayed with her, counting off the minutes. “Maybe I should go, try talking to her again.”

“Should we tell your father?” Maia asked quietly.

Katya shook her head. Her father was in council, and what could he do besides pace and wait with them? But what would he do if their plan didn’t work?

Katya knew she couldn’t strike Starbride down, no matter what, not even if Starbride had wholly taken on Yanchasa’s Aspect. When Katya had become a Fiend, Starbride had embraced her. How could she do differently?

But would Yanchasa force them into a conflict? Freddie and Hugo had told her that Starbride seemed to defy Yanchasa in order to save them. “Maybe I should just go,” she said again.

Brutal’s large hands settled across her shoulders. His fingers dug in deep, making her gasp before the pressure spread across her muscles, soothing them. “You can’t let go of hope,” he said.

“Hope that we can beat my love into unconsciousness so we can finally help her?”

“All we have to do is distract her. The adsnazi will do the rest.”

“They won’t be able to hypnotize her, Brutal.”

His fingers kept up their work, and Katya could feel herself relaxing. “They can cleanse her,” he said. “We just need to give them time.”

“So the plan is to let her beat on us until they have room to work? I’d hug you if this massage wasn’t so wonderful.”

“I know the feeling,” Maia said.

Katya wanted to demand details, but she kept her mouth shut. She’d leave the prying to Starbride after all this business was done. Her ferreter of secrets would be all the spy she’d ever need.

“Did she keep any corpse Fiends?” Katya asked.

Hugo shook his head. “She killed them all and let the wild Fiends go.”

“You saw them leave?”

Freddie and Hugo glanced at one another, and Katya could tell that was a no. “She might have kept some.”

“Can’t the adsnazi take care of them?” Brutal asked.

“We’re putting a lot on adsnazi shoulders.”

“What’s the alternative?” Maia asked. “Summon the Guard?”

There weren’t that many of them left. “We need Lord Vincent.”

Freddie snorted. “He’s a good fighter, I guess.”

“Will he leave the kids?” Brutal asked.

“I’m going to convince him.” Katya strode from her apartment without waiting for acknowledgement. It was movement, something she needed, and if the others wouldn’t let her go after Starbride alone…

Vierdrin and Bastian squealed when Katya entered their apartment, running for her at full speed. Reinholt rose from a settee, his face confused but welcoming. “Katya, what’s going on?”

She must have forgotten how to use the court mask while she’d been away. She glanced at the children.

Reinholt knelt. “Why don’t you two go into the nursery and play with Vincent?”

“Actually,” Katya said, “it’s Vincent I need to talk to.”

“Ah, then I’ll go into the nursery. Funny, we both watch over the children, but not from the same room anymore.” He led the children away, and Vincent came out. Katya wondered if he’d had his ear pressed to the door.

“Highness.” He bowed. “I’m at your service.”

She told him a little of what had happened, adding that she might need his strength against any errant corpse or wild Fiends.

He listened with his usual lack of expression, but he cast a pained look at the nursery door. His duty was clear: as champion, he guarded the youngest heirs, but Katya was a member of the family he’d pledged his life to serve.

Before she had a chance to speak, Reinholt emerged alone. “They’re fine,” he said as Vincent took a step toward him. “You should go, Vincent. Go and help my sister.”

“You won’t be leaving the palace,” Katya said. “Not really.”

“And I’ll stay here,” Reinholt said. “There’s a secret door nearby, and if anything happens, they will be in my arms and away in a flash.” He chuckled. “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s running away and hiding.”

Vincent didn’t argue, but Katya saw the hesitation in his eyes. Dereliction of duty went against his soul, and she could tell he didn’t trust Reinholt to do the right thing.

But this wasn’t a Reinholt Katya knew very well, neither the charming prince nor the spoiled brat. This one was trying to reinvent himself, and he’d made it clear he wanted to start with responsibility.

“I believe him, Vincent,” Katya said.

He cast another look toward the nursery door, past Reinholt, this glance full of love.

“The sooner we finish this business, the sooner you can come back,” Katya said.

After a tiny sigh, he bowed. “Highness, my sword is yours.”

*

Redtrue arrived with a host of people in tow. Even Leafclever walked beside her. Katya cocked an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you be in council with Dayscout?”

Leafclever shrugged. “Dayscout knows my mind. This seemed more important.”

“Thank you.” But now that they’d arrived, Katya couldn’t get her feet to move.

Maia touched her elbow. “We should hurry.”

Katya cleared her throat. “Anything different with the capstone?”

The adsnazi focused, some of them with eyes closed. “It’s odd,” Redtrue said. “I can barely sense the capstone’s energy. Perhaps she’s shielding it somehow.”

Katya shifted her weight from foot to foot. They stared at her, waiting. If she kept them long enough, she wondered if they’d start wandering off.

“Basement is probably better than the passageways,” Brutal said.

“Definitely less cramped,” Hugo added.

Their tone screamed, “Normal conversation.” Katya had to smile. “Let’s go.”

They trooped into the bowels of the palace again, scaring whatever servants they happened upon. Katya assured everyone that they were on official business of the crown, but she knew her movements would get back to her father. News would travel on the wings of gossip, as Dawnmother said.

That enticed her to hurry; she didn’t want her father and the Guard involved. She couldn’t take the chance that some overzealous guard might seize the opportunity to stab Starbride in the back, thinking that might be his way to glory.

When they passed into the stone of the caverns, the crushing feelings descended on her. She could do this, she reminded herself. Hadn’t she done it already? When she’d taken the secret passageways with Starbride, she’d barely registered her surroundings. This was no different.

The thought almost made her laugh. Venturing into the caverns to see if Starbride would try to kill her, if she’d be forced to do the same was anything but normal.

Katya drew her rapier, thinking of corpses or wild Fiends. At her side, Brutal drew his mace, and the others readied weapons, the adsnazi drawing their pyramids, scanning the way for traps.

Déjà vu hit Katya hard. This was searching for Roland all over again. She wondered when the barrage of pyramids would start and clenched her teeth around a scream. No, that wouldn’t happen. Starbride wouldn’t want to kill her, couldn’t—

“This doesn’t feel right,” Brutal said.

Katya glanced at him.

“I agree,” Freddie said. “Starbride’s smart. She wouldn’t be down here alone. We should have encountered resistance by now.”

“Traps. Fiends. Something,” Hugo said.

“You’re right.” Katya didn’t hear any noise coming from the adjoining tunnels, the places where the adsnazi had burrowed through the rock. The place should have been crawling with knowledge monks and Allusian scholars.

Redtrue cursed. “She couldn’t have hidden the capstone’s energy so well. It feels like nothing’s there.”

Katya broke into a run, not caring if it was reckless. She stumbled through what had been the cavern door into a well of complete blackness. Her heart hammered in her ears, and that clawing, suffocating feeling came back. It was the dead city all over again, tons of rock pressing down on her, killing her.

Light blossomed around her, pushing back panic. The top of the green-fletched pyramid poked out of the stone, and Katya breathed a sigh of relief that the capstone was still there, but even she sensed the difference. No light emanated from it, no feelings of restless energy. It was as dull and lifeless as a giant paperweight, all of its magic gone.