“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.
Chapter Eleven
Katya
“What about Fiend suppression pyramids?” Katya asked as they ran.
Starbride shook her head. “No good if he won’t come near us. And it would be better if I could see him. He’s more cautious than when we fought in the city.”
“He must know you’ve cleared out the palace,” Brutal said. “He can’t have many resources left.” He led them around a sharp corner. Getting anywhere quickly in the palace was always a problem, but if they could circle around, they could catch Roland before he had a chance to plant more traps. They could cut through the receiving hall and down another hallway, and that would take them close to the front doors again, maybe before he knew they were coming.
As they passed a set of stairs, Katya had the flash of an idea. “He might not expect us to come from above.” She turned to Starbride. “Can you punch a hole in the floor like he did?”
She shook her head, eyes wide. “I don’t have anything that powerful. I was afraid of it blowing up before I was ready.”
Which was why Crowe never used such destructive pyramids. Katya couldn’t blame Starbride for listening to her teacher. They’d have to use the hole provided by Roland to sneak up on him.
After they raced up the stairs, Redtrue shouted, “Stop!”
Katya skidded to a halt, arms out to catch anyone who staggered past her. “Another pyramid?”
“Somewhere ahead. In the floor perhaps.”
“We could set it off,” Starbride said.
“Do you sense any more, Redtrue?” Katya asked.
“It’s difficult when they’re small.”
But they could set it off before Roland expected them to. “Do it.”
The floor blew upward in shards of masonry and dust. An orange glow flickered from below, the fire raging just below them.
Freddie took a cautious look down. “Carpet and paintings are gone, but the fire’s dying out. We’re lucky stone doesn’t—” He leapt away. “Get back!”
Katya dragged everyone she could reach and caught the glittery arc of a pyramid f
lying upward. It went dark before it could smash into the ground, Starbride’s wondrous ability to cancel a pyramid in mid-air.
“Very clever, niece,” Roland called. “But I’ve learned not to underestimate you. Shame you still can’t say the same about me.”
Katya cursed, though she’d suspected he might be ready for them. “Can you give us some cover so we can get down there?” she whispered.
Starbride nodded. “Flash bombs.”
“Oh, I’d wait on that,” Roland called. “Unless you want to blind your mother.”
Katya’s heart froze. She glanced at the others, but they all looked to one another.
“He’s lying,” Hugo said, “has to be.”
Roland had already said he’d been dogging their footsteps. She thought it was a trick to unnerve them. He might have seen a little, but if he’d been watching the entire time, he would have struck when they were only four rather than wait until Starbride and the others had joined them.
But Ma had gone to wait with Baroness Jacintha after Starbride had arrived. Roland could have been watching then and waiting for an opportunity to pick them off one at a time.
“She won’t call to you,” Roland said. “She may be a queen, but she’s also a mother. I so admire her for that, you know.”
Katya crept toward the hole, Starbride just behind her with Redtrue. If they could get close enough, maybe they could cleanse Roland’s pyramids before he could throw them.
The fire had died down, leaving only a small table smoldering. Katya coughed into her sleeve as she searched through the smoke. Roland stood at the edge of Katya’s field of vision, Ma beside him, unbound. Part of her hair had come undone, and spatters of blood covered her clothing, but her serene expression would have fit in at any garden party.
She had a bit of metal twisted around her neck like a collar, and Katya guessed it was more to keep her pyramid necklace in place than to lead her around. She wouldn’t run; she wouldn’t see the point. Roland could catch her in an instant, and Ma would never do anything as undignified as screaming and running in fear.
“All right, Mother?” Katya called. She fought to keep her voice calm, but the anger she’d been missing mixed with her fear until her insides felt like a furnace.
“She’s perfectly fine,” Roland said. “I haven’t laid a claw on her.”
Ma’s eyes locked with Katya’s, all the gentility of court mixed with the iron of rule. “I’m all right, Katyarianna.”
Her full name to remind her that no matter what happened, however Roland tried to use her mother to manipulate her, she must not yield.
“What do you want?” Katya called. If he asked for safe passage out of the palace, she’d let him go and catch him in the streets or out among the army. Their final battle didn’t have to take place here.
“What if I said I wanted you to take her place?” Roland asked.
She could get close and then strike.
“Don’t even think it,” Brutal said.
But it wasn’t his mother. Something slipped into her palm from behind. A pyramid. Katya slid it into her pocket. She’d throw it in his face, and then the others would be right behind her. “I’d say yes.”
Ma’s eyes narrowed.
“I don’t sense any pyramids on him,” Redtrue said, “only your mother’s necklace.”
All the better. “Get ready.”
“I knew you would say that,” Roland said. “What if I asked for the princess consort, our dear little Starbride, what would you say then?”
Katya’s heart pounded. Starbride for her mother, one kind of love for another.
Starbride nudged her. “I can defend myself better than she can.”
True, and Katya tried to say it, but no sound came out.
Starbride called, “I’ll go,” just as Roland howled with laughter.
“Keep her,” he said. “I would play with you a little longer, go through all your friends, but I’m bored with this game. I just wanted you to see this.”
He grabbed Ma’s arm and turned her toward him. His transformation bled over him like a shimmer, and he lifted his claws toward her throat.
“No!” Katya dropped down the hole, rolling as she landed to absorb the shuddering impact. He moved slowly but inexorably as Ma struggled against him. Katya knew she’d be too late, that she’d get there just in time to catch her mother’s body as it fell.
But Ma’s eyes bled all blue, and her wings thrust through her coat. She grabbed Roland’s arm as her lips pulled back in a snarl.
Katya got her feet under her as Ma and Roland careened down the hallway in a blur. They rammed into a wall, pausing long enough for Katya to see Ma’s fangs sunk into Roland’s wrist. Roland’s ghastly howl echoed down the hallway, making Katya’s ears throb and her mouth fill with the now familiar taste of blood.
She ran, hearing the others behind her, but the Fiends were too fast. Roland spun to a halt, still caught in Ma’s mouth. She sank her claws into his arm and yanked, a sickening crunch of bone and bloody spray that tore hand from wrist.
Roland shrieked, and Katya stumbled as something deep in her ear popped. She leaned against the wall and tried to stagger forward. Roland ducked as Ma swiped with her claws, but before she could strike again, he stepped inside her reach and slammed his claws into her throat, between the metal collar and her chin. Her eyes jerked open, and she pawed for him, but he pulled away in a shower of her blood and flesh, and she crumpled to the floor.
Katya cried out, but her own voice seemed muted. Roland cradled his stump to his chest. An arrow and a knife streaked past Katya. He sidestepped the first and caught the latter, throwing it as Brutal charged. Brutal ducked out of the way. Roland ran away a few steps and then jumped farther back.
Redtrue cried, “Stop! There’s another pyramid.”
Katya didn’t listen. She had to get to her mother’s side. If they could stop the bleeding, her Fiend could heal her. Another shuddering boom filled the hall, but Katya paid it no mind as she skidded to a halt.
Ma’s fingers twitched along the carpet, fanged mouth working, and her gaze fixed on the ceiling. Katya pressed into what was left of Ma’s throat. The blood burned with cold, making little webs of frost across Ma’s collar. “Brutal!”
He knelt beside her. “Let me see.”
She couldn’t take her hands away or more blood would jet out. It already flooded the carpet. “You have to give her time to heal.”
“Katya, let me see!” He elbowed her over. She scrambled up as he pressed a wad of fabric to Ma’s neck. “Someone hold her down.”
Scarra knelt on one of her arms while Castelle held the other. “Strong as a damned mule!” Scarra said.
Strong enough to live. Tears filled Katya’s eyes. She swiped at them, smearing her mother’s cold blood across her cheeks.
Ma’s legs had ceased moving. Castelle let one arm go, and it stilled on the singed carpet.
“Ma?” Katya said.
Starbride knelt at Katya’s side. “He went down a hole.”
“There’s too much fallen stone blocking the way to follow,” Freddie said.
Katya couldn’t even wonder what they were talking about. She took her mother’s frigid hand in her own. “Ma?”
“Katya,” Redtrue said as she knelt at Katya’s back. “Let her die as a human.”
Katya rounded on her. “She can heal.”
Redtrue shook her head, her eyes dry and hard.
Tears trickled down Brutal’s cheeks, and he swallowed before he said, “She’s right.”
“No.”
“The damage is too much,” he said, “even for a Fiend.”
“It wasn’t too much for you!” Katya cried. “It wasn’t too much for Roland when he died!”
“You can’t make her into a monster like him.” Starbride squeezed Katya’s shoulder so hard, she felt it through her grief. “You don’t want that, and neither does she.”
“Let her die as a human,” Redtrue said.
“Shut up!” Katya screamed.
Ma’s mouth had stopped working, and her eyes seemed too heavy to keep open. She had never liked the idea that she had a monster inside her. She spoke of it only as a necessity, yet she’d used it that day more than any other because she cared about her family, her kingdom.
But she wouldn’t want to die with it riding her.
“Do it.”
Yellow light bloomed, but it brought no relief. Ma’s eyes widened a final time, and when the light faded, they were back to human and still.
No final shuddering breath, no last glance between them. The Fiend had been the only thing keeping her alive, and now she lay as still as stone. Brutal took his bloody fingers from her throat and smeared crimson trails across his cheeks as he wiped his tears away. He stood, but Katya couldn’t take her eyes off Ma’s still face.
“Shift over,” Brutal said.
Katya felt movement around her, and then Brutal lifted her to her feet. It was too soon; she couldn’t stand, but he didn’t let her try, cradling her against his massive chest.
It started as a sound deep within her, a growl that tore her throat into something raw and tight. Then the tears came, spilling from her along with sobs and screams. She thrashed, beat at Brutal, and pledged her revenge to all ten spirits in a language only she could understand. She watched Ma’s death over and over, compounded by so many images: Averie; the guards in the palace; the young girl Roland had used as a bomb, her chest blown open; Maia; Crowe; even Brom and Lady Hilda, both of whom had welcomed a monster into their midst without knowing how far he’d take them into the abyss.
At last she shook and shuddered but without tears. “Put me down.”
He set her on her feet. When Starbride’s arms went around her, she was ready for them, but her grief was done for now. The pitying, loving look in Starbride’s eyes would have to wait, but Katya kissed her forehead so she would know she was loved.
The others had moved a discreet distance away, peering down the hole Roland had made. “He’s gone down there?” Katya asked.
“And the way is blocked,” Brutal said.
“Then we keep for the basement, like we planned,” Katya said.
The Fiend Queen Page 10