The Fiend Queen

by Barbara Ann Wright

  They stepped away as it oozed down the stairs. As the adsnazi cleansing light gave way to normal light pyramids, the puddle hardened until the steps were encased in crystal.

  Katya stared at the glimmers of light that ran along its twisted, beautiful surface. She couldn’t tear her eyes away. “Disable the pyramids you can. The others we’ll set off from a distance.”

  “What if the tunnel collapses?” Leafclever asked.

  Katya looked to her companions, the determination on their faces. “Fiends are really just animated puddles of crystal.” She had to laugh and watched confused smiles cross a few faces. “If the most powerful creature we’ve faced is no more than that, everything else is easy. If the tunnel collapses, we’ll make a new one.”

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Starbride

  Adsnazi magic wafted down the hall like volcanic air, threatening to smother Starbride’s chill. They were coming for her.

  She’d never been so tired, but the thought of stopping brought no refuge. She knew what lay behind her. All she could do was keep going forward.

  Tingles ran up her arm, and she knew she’d gouged her palm deeper. The pain had become like a tiny needle passing over her skin. If she focused on it, she could think a little more clearly, but she didn’t see how that could help her.

  “What will they do, the other council members?” she asked. “Will they lay the kingdom low?” Did she want that? It was so hard to remember.

  Yanchasa seemed distracted as she answered. “Whatever you wish, daughter.”

  But she’d bring them here in their own forms. They’d have the free will to do as they wished, become Farraday’s rulers, perhaps.

  “Who better?” Yanchasa said. “And then all your dreams for the safety of these people will be recognized.”

  “Your people didn’t end up very safe.”

  “And what is the alternative, daughter?”

  Seized by those she’d once thought of as friends, stripped of her power and imprisoned. Abandoned by Katya and everyone who claimed to love her. Yes, she knew all that, but it was hard to care. The fuel of her anger had been swallowed by the adsna along with everything but fatigue.

  When she emerged into the summoning chamber, her breath caught, and natural curiosity rose up inside her. She should have been down here since they’d discovered this place.

  A long space held aloft by ten marble columns in two rows. Colorful mosaics ran along the peaked roof and down the glossy green floor. With just a glance, Starbride knew what they depicted, tales of the council of five whose stories had somehow found their way to Katya’s ancestors and provided the basis for the ten spirits.

  Writing covered the walls, packing them from top to bottom. Pyramid users had made this room into a living book, set in stone to preserve its words. Starbride felt as if generations of people stood behind her, urging her to complete their dreams: Summon the council. Destroy these invaders and return Belshreth to its place among the world.

  They would do wonders, and she would be one of them, joined together with Yanchasa the Mighty.

  A wave hit her, but there was no water. She staggered, trying to keep her feet. Power roared through her, shards of pure adsna trying to carry away what she was, steal her power, and turn her into a well, just as they had every pyramid they touched.

  “Adsnazi,” she snarled. She pushed back and felt several of them crumple, their pyramids turned to junk. “Bea, Roland, throw your pyramids.” She gathered the rest of the children around her, drawing on their strength. One of them crumbled to crystalline dust, but she felt the power of its destroyed body flow through her, strengthening her.

  Starbride turned to the wall, letting Yanchasa study the writing while she fought the river of adsna. The cavern shook and bucked as Bea and Roland took up the assault, but she couldn’t let that distract her.

  “Very clever,” Yanchasa said. “They planned to use the capstone and retune it to summon flesh magic instead of repel it.” Starbride felt his grin take over her mouth. “They needed such a large pyramid because they hadn’t learned how to be one with flesh magic, not like you and I, daughter.”

  But they couldn’t perform the magic while the adsnazi hammered at them. “Open your mind to more of my power, daughter.”

  She let a bit more of Yanchasa’s essence trickle in, and her vision dimmed. He began the call, flesh to flesh. She felt the glimmer of an answer, saw it in her mind’s eye. In the depths of the mountains to the north, high among snow-packed glaciers, something stirred.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Katya

  Someone was shaking Katya’s shoulder, and she could taste blood and dust. “Princess,” someone hissed in her ear. She snarled at them. She was in her grave, couldn’t they see that? She’d died and earned her rest.

  “Wake up!”

  Katya smeared the dirt from her gritty eyes. “Dawnmother?”

  “You have to get up. We’re here.”

  The last few moments whirled to life in Katya’s mind: what they’d come down here to do, how the ceiling had collapsed. The buried city. Dead and buried in the ancient city.

  No. She shook her head and stood, rubble falling from her. Someone had thrown an explosive pyramid. It was fighting Roland in the caverns all over again. Swords clanged nearby, and the unearthly shriek of a Fiend made her close her eyes again. Some of the adsnazi turned the thing to a crystal puddle while the others stared down the path, their faces masks of concentration.

  One of Vincent’s arms hung unmoving, but he’d kept his feet. Dawnmother was trying to get the others up, and if they wouldn’t wake, she pulled them away from the combat. Castelle was still down and Hugo. Brutal, Maia, and Freddie stood and shook their heads.

  “She’s too strong,” Redtrue said.

  “Keep moving forward,” Katya said.

  They did, inch by inch, the adsnazi trying to cleanse the pyramids that were thrown at them, but most of the time, the best they could do was leap out of the way. Katya caught a glimpse of the pyradistés chucking magic at them and saw the young girl Starbride had brought back from the north and a hooded man who kept his face out of the light.

  Freddie flung a knife, and Maia shot an arrow, forcing the duo farther down the tunnel, into a large columned room. Near the back of that room, someone turned.

  Katya stared as Starbride’s beautiful face contorted into a snarl. “Whatever you’re doing, Redtrue, keep it up,” Katya said.

  “You don’t understand! She’s taking us one by one.”

  Katya glanced back. Adsnazi littered the floor.

  “You have to kill her,” Redtrue said. “She’s lost to you.”

  “No.”

  “You must! If you don’t, I’ll have to—”

  “No!” Katya roared, and in the room, even Starbride took a step back. Katya grabbed Redtrue’s shoulders. “If you lay a finger on her, I will end you.”

  Redtrue’s eyes went so wide, Katya could see her own reflection, and she knew Redtrue felt the truth in her words.

  Katya turned back to where Starbride waited and saw the pyramid cradled in her arms. “Attack that. Or use it if you can.” Before Redtrue could preach to her about using evil, Katya added, “Do it, or you won’t get out of this alive.”

  A handful of the adsnazi shrieked in unison, and Katya thought even she could feel the power being traded back and forth. One of the wild Fiends at Starbride’s side writhed and turned into a pile of molten crystal.

  Starbride’s face went from hatred and determination to fear and wounded betrayal. “Push them back!”

  Fire blossomed along the ceiling as a pyramid caught a lip of stone and shattered. Katya dropped, but with nothing to catch, the flame puffed out, leaving the air hazy with smoke. More of the adsnazi cried out. Redtrue snarled, and the pyramids that the girl and the hooded man wielded flared bright white. They dropped them to the ground as they backed away from the entrance, leaving the way clear.

  Katya darted toward
Starbride, Vincent and Brutal at her side. The remaining Fiend blurred toward them, but Katya kept true.

  Starbride backed up a step as if she didn’t know the woman who loved her. She clutched the pyramid like a little girl with her doll. “Stay away from me. How can you do this?”

  “Star, I only want to help you.”

  “You were supposed to love me.”

  “I do love you, more than anything. You’re my heart, Star.”

  Starbride slashed a hand through the air. “You abandoned me.”

  Guilt cut into Katya like a knife. “Never. I went because I had to, Star, but you were always first in my head, always.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because I love you!”

  “I always have! It was you who gave up on me!”

  Katya was lost, but she suspected what was happening. “Don’t listen to it, Star!”

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Starbride

  Katya advanced with a murderous look in her eyes. The colors of the mosaics seemed to shift, everything distorted by the adsna hammering at Starbride and the power she used to keep it at bay. This couldn’t be happening. Katya wanted to murder her.

  “Stay away from me,” Starbride said. “How can you do this?”

  “You have to die, Star. It’s the only way.”

  “You were supposed to love me.”

  Katya’s smile turned pitying as well as dangerous. “Is this because I left months ago? I came back, didn’t I?”

  Starbride slashed a hand through the air. “You abandoned me.”

  “You’re not worthy of my affection. I only pretended you were.”

  “Why?”

  “It amused me. Besides, if you really loved me, you wouldn’t be causing all this trouble.” Her lip pouted out. “Do you love me, Star?”

  “I always have! It was you who gave up on me!”

  Her vision grew hazy, and it seemed there were two Katyas, one who mocked her and the other who cried, “Don’t listen to it, Star!”

  Everything was falling apart. She reached for the children, but the cursed light from the adsnazi had washed over them, turning them into nothing, as they’d turn her into nothing. “Katya, please.” There had to be something she could do. She didn’t want to kill her beloved. She couldn’t.

  But then she’d be free. No more waffling back and forth, no more uncertainty. There would be power and the means to use it. Every path would be clear. It was Katya and her friends who muddied the way.

  “No, they’re my friends, too.”

  But were they? It had been Katya they loved from the beginning. They’d all betrayed Starbride in the end, even Dawnmother. Their part in her life was just over.

  A deep well of loneliness opened inside her; she was so tired of fighting. She felt as if she hadn’t slept in days, as if the only rest she’d been able to get was a fleeting dream. “I don’t know what to do.”

  And there was only one person who had the answer.

  “I need time,” Yanchasa said. “We’re so close, but I need more energy to bring them here.”

  Starbride was too busy flinging adsna at the adsnazi. She felt another one fall, hammered into unconsciousness by raw power, but it wouldn’t be enough, not without Yanchasa’s help. They were staggering from Bea’s pyramids, but Roland’s were missing their mark.

  She darted away from Katya and jerked at his arm. “What’s the matter with you? You’re supposed to be helping me.”

  He laid his stump on her shoulder. “I am.” He’d retreated so much that Bea’s back was to him, and while she focused on the adsnazi, he flung a fire pyramid at her.

  She howled as fire bloomed around her, and she dropped to the stone to roll. When she came up, her face was a blistered mask of rage. “You pathetic mongrel! You turn away from even scraps of power now.”

  Roland sighed and seemed wistful. “I was very good at being a monster.”

  “And now you’re just a tool. Why did you let this happen to us?” Bea cried. Her face was a mask of inhuman rage, and she didn’t seem to care about the pain, reminding Starbride of not-Alphonse and his bloodstained teeth.

  Starbride laughed. “Part of me knew, you know. I knew you were just a copy of him, but I didn’t care as long as I could use you.”

  “Use this!” Bea flung a pyramid, but it bloomed with light before it reached them. Starbride didn’t know if it was her or the adsnazi. She sent another pulse of power through her pyramids and knocked an adsnazi down.

  “Give me what’s left of the capstone,” Bea said. “You’re not worthy of Yanchasa’s power. None of you are! It was me he wanted!”

  Roland drew another pyramid and advanced. Starbride looked to where Katya was creeping up on her.

  “What do I do?” Starbride asked, the power of the adsnazi still trying to take her breath away.

  “I cannot help you and summon allies, daughter, not without a deeper connection between us.”

  “What about your body slumbering under the capstone? What of its tremendous power?”

  He sighed. “I’ve expended too much power trying to communicate with Roland and then with you. That body can no longer wake. But there is one thing we can do.”

  With pyramid-augmented sight, Starbride could see the gold and silver ribbon that attached her to the pyramid in her arms and the great consciousness within. What if she fed that ribbon, helped that consciousness come out further?

  What other choice was there? If she was to survive this onslaught long enough for her allies to arrive, she needed to hold the adsnazi at bay.

  Starbride opened herself to power and felt her consciousness fade before Yanchasa’s mind.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Katya

  Whatever Katya said, Starbride didn’t seem to hear. Worse, she seemed to hear someone else’s words, and Katya knew who was to blame. At least Starbride’s allies were fighting each other. Katya watched as the slim girl went down under the weight of the hooded man and the adsnazi assault. When the hooded man straightened, Katya’s breath left her in a rush.

  “Roland?”

  He had the decency not to say, “Hello, niece.” He tossed a bloody pyramid down at the slim girl’s side. When he approached, she raised her blade. He stopped and mouthed something like, “I’m sorry.”

  Starbride stiffened, clutching the pyramid in her arms.

  Redtrue rushed forward. “No, you cannot let her!” She grabbed at Katya’s coat like a drowning woman. “We have to kill her now. She will become the Fiend if we don’t.”

  “You heard what I said.” Her eyes shifted between Starbride and Roland. When had it become so difficult to tell who the enemy was?

  “Are you blind?” Redtrue cried. “The power of that pyramid is flowing into her, and she’s doing some other magic I know nothing about.” She gestured to the walls around them. “You know what this room is for. She could be summoning another Fiend.”

  “A council member,” Roland said. “You can stop her, Little K.”

  Katya snarled at the beloved nickname. “I don’t need you to tell me that.”

  Redtrue flung her arms toward where Starbride stood transfixed. “She has succumbed.”

  “Then get me in her mind. Use dream magic.”

  Her mouth worked soundlessly. Leafclever strode up behind her. “She cannot, Princess, and you know it. We must kill Starbride before it’s too late.”

  Katya was tempted to turn her sword on him, but instead, she gripped Redtrue’s hand. “Please, Red. Please.”

  Redtrue’s eyes bored into Katya’s. She nodded once. Leafclever sucked in a sharp breath. “You know what this means?” he asked.

  She nodded again. Katya didn’t know what they were talking about and didn’t much care. Her friends, still groggily shaking their heads, gathered around her. Katya pressed a knife into Dawnmother’s grasp and spoke in her ear. “If anyone interferes, you know what to do?”

  Her gaze never wavered. “Yes.”

  K
atya cut her eyes at Roland. “Watch him especially.”

  Roland stepped closer and drew a pyramid from a bag at his side. Katya let the point of her rapier rest against his heart. “Don’t.”

  “Let me help you, niece.”

  She looked from his pyramid to Redtrue, who could cleanse it with a thought.

  “I know more about Fiend magic than anyone here, save Yanchasa. Whatever they’re doing, maybe I can slow it down.”

  “I should kill you for what you did to my mother.”

  He sighed as if the idea made him happy, but he also had steel in his gaze. This was the only man who could ever stand toe-to-toe with Katya’s father during an argument, who could match him volume for volume, with the same passion, when each believed his cause was just. “I’ll help first, and you can kill me after.”

  This must have been where Reinholt got his sense of humor. Katya gave Redtrue a glance. She nodded as if to say she’d keep an eye on him.

  With her friends forming a barrier around them, Katya sat at Redtrue’s side, just in front of Starbride’s feet. Redtrue pulled her dream walking pyramid from her bag and closed her eyes. Katya closed hers, too, shutting out the heated words between her friends and the adsnazi. Seconds passed before she felt as if the hard ground dropped away, and she was pulled through the air.

  The world faded to a white void.

  Cavern gone, friends and family, gone. Even Redtrue was a hazy silhouette. “Starbride?”

  Katya had never been able to see anything in these visions before. She’d always had to concentrate on Starbride’s thoughts and emotions within the darkness of her own mind. This time, air rushed around her, and Starbride popped into view. The pyramids no longer marred her skin. She was dressed in the outfit she’d worn when Katya had asked her to be the princess consort: dark blue trousers, shirt and bodice, jewels around her throat, but her hair lay in tangled knots over her shoulders.

  “Katya?” Starbride asked. Her eyes were the same milky white as the void. “I can feel you, but there’s so little room in here. Did I pull you into the pyramid with me?”