“No!” Lady Hilda shrieked, and her Fiendish aspect blurred over her features again. She leapt from her chair.
Master Bernard dug for his pyramid. Lady Hilda slammed into him and knocked him sideways. Lord Vincent and Captain Ursula streaked forward, but Lady Hilda flung both of them away.
The supreme head of the strength chapterhouse tossed her red robe aside, revealing her heavily muscled body clad only in a breechclout and leather halter. She rushed from the gallery, leapt over the table, and knocked Lady Hilda over. Lady Hilda grabbed the woman’s muscled arms and pitched her, trailing blood as she flew, through the air and into the wall. Guards clattered in the hallway outside. Lady Hilda hurled herself toward Katya.
Katya rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the claws over her head. “Protect the king!”
Lady Hilda pounced and knocked the breath from Katya’s lungs. She grabbed Lady Hilda’s wrists, but they pushed steadily for her face, like she’d grabbed hold of a horse. Katya kicked, and Lady Hilda grunted, but it didn’t stop the slow descent of her claws.
A chair crashed across Lady Hilda’s shoulders. Countess Nadia let go of it and then sprang away with more spryness than Katya would have given her credit for. Just as Lady Hilda glanced up, she caught Ursula’s boot full in the face. She rocked backward, her arms going slack.
Katya wriggled free. She resisted the urge to punch Lady Hilda in the face, knowing the Fiendish visage might break her fist. With a pyramid raised, Master Bernard crept up on them. Lady Hilda whirled around, caught hold of his arm, and twisted it until Katya heard a horrid snap. Master Bernard paled, made a strangled gurgle, and stared at his arm as if just noticing it had been attached upside down. Only when Lady Hilda shoved him away did he scream.
The Guard charged, weapons ready. Lady Hilda screeched, eyes fixed on Katya, and crouched as if ready to leap again. Before she could move, her eyes flew wide, mouth working, and her shoulders slumped. Her features bled to normal as she swayed back and forth, and then fell, giving Katya a view of the knife sticking out of the back of her neck.
Magistrate Anthony’s assistant stood close behind her, his fist clenched as if the knife was still in his grasp. He must have had the speed and silence of a serpent. He glanced at Katya, and for a moment, she thought she saw something in his eyes, something she recognized. Before she could study him further, he limped back to Magistrate Anthony’s side.
Lady Hilda was an unmoving lump, though human again. Katya looked for her father. Vincent and the Guard had backed Da into a corner, clearly trying to avoid everyone and get to the exit. Vincent had appropriated a sword and held it ready.
Katya stalked toward him. Vincent lowered his sword and bowed. “Crown—”
She slammed her fist into his nose and felt it squelch under her fingers. Blood sprayed before he clapped one hand over his face.
“Katya!” Da said.
“If you lay a finger on Starbride again, I’ll have your head.” Katya turned to the room at large. “How many of you helped that thing malign an innocent woman?” She turned to Duke Robert, who’d gone white as a sheet. “Your Grace, out of all the tales you’ve ever heard of Fiends, you’ve never heard of their power to manipulate?”
His mouth worked for a moment. “It all made sense.”
“The princess consort did flee,” Magistrate Anthony said.
Katya snorted. “From a band of people calling for her hide? I would have fled, too.”
“But…” Duke Robert wiped his lips and swallowed. “If not from Allusian magic, then how did Lady Hilda come to possess the attributes of a Fiend?”
Katya gestured at the head of the knowledge chapterhouse. “Why don’t you ask our learned friend here who knows so much?” She would have glared daggers at the head, but he crept toward Lady Hilda’s corpse as if sneaking up on a treasure trove.
“Utterly fascinating,” he said. “Can I take the body?”
“No. We’ll keep it here for you to examine.” Like hell, she thought, but it bought them time to figure out what to do. She gestured two of the Guard forward. “Take it to Crowe’s old study.”
“I’m sorry, Crown Princess,” Vincent said, the words made ridiculous through his clogged nose. “If the princess consort is innocent, I wholeheartedly apologize and submit myself for punishment.”
Katya ignored him.
“You did appear transfixed,” Countess Nadia said. “You stared straight ahead and didn’t move.”
“It must have been Fiendish power,” one of the barons said.
“Oh!” a courtier exclaimed. “The princess consort was trying to free you! How romantic!”
“Go and find her,” Da said in Katya’s ear. “I’ll be fine here with the Guard.”
Katya scanned the council one last time and left before anyone could object.
Chapter Thirty-four: Starbride
Starbride ran for her apartment but paused just outside the door in the secret passageway. “If they’re looking for me, this will be one of the first places they check.”
Freddie lifted his mask and listened at the door. “Stand clear. I might be coming back in a hurry.” After he pulled his mask down, he toggled the switch and leapt through.
Starbride heard a scream from the other side: Dawnmother. Her voice asked an urgent question, but Starbride couldn’t make out the words. When Freddie didn’t come dashing back, Starbride followed him.
“Star!” Dawnmother cried. She stared at Freddie as if he were a mad strangler.
“Dawn, we have to go. No time to explain.”
Dawnmother followed them without question. Freddie disabled the mechanism for this door, too, leaving it only accessible from inside the secret passageway.
“What’s going on?” Dawnmother asked.
As they walked, Starbride told her what had happened in the council chamber. Dawnmother cursed those who’d attacked Starbride with the worst swears in the Allusian language. Freddie took them to his hidden room in the tower.
“Should we get out of the city?” Dawnmother asked.
“If I didn’t free Katya and King Einrich, we can’t. If Roland can keep them hypnotized…I have to try again.”
“Star, they’ll kill you, especially that awful Lord Vincent.”
Freddie lifted his mask again. “That bastard. If he hadn’t been so quick with his blade, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Dawnmother shrugged. “Every ‘if’ is a hole in the road.”
Starbride had to grin. “You’re right. Horsestrong wouldn’t be sitting here moaning. He’d have a plan.”
“Let me talk to the servants and find out what’s happening.”
“Dawn, they’ll grab you, too.”
“If I’m careful, they’ll never know I’m there.” She turned to Freddie. “Can you get me to the secret passages by the servant quarters? Somewhere the nobles won’t think to go?”
“I can get you close enough.”
“I can’t just sit here and wait for you!” Starbride said.
“I’d never dream of it,” Freddie said. “You shouldn’t stay anywhere for long.”
Starbride let out a relieved breath. “When Katya is free, I’ll tell her you saved me from insanity.”
After grabbing some candles, they hurried to the servants’ quarters, and Starbride and Freddie stayed in the passages while Dawnmother ventured into the palace.
Starbride rubbed her arms and paced as far as she could in the small space. After what seemed like hours but couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes, Dawnmother slipped back inside.
“There are too many rumors to sort,” Dawnmother said. “The entire palace is abuzz.”
“What rumors?” Starbride asked.
“Rumors of Fiends, including that one is holding court, having eaten the king. I’ve heard that Yanchasa has risen and is sitting on the throne. No one can agree on who is dead, but the servants are having a fine time arguing about it. No one knows anything specific, let alone true.”
/> Starbride sighed. At least no one had put forth the idea that Allusians were evil.
“We need Averie or Brutal or Hugo, even Castelle,” Starbride said. “Someone Farradain who can show their face.”
“If you were hidden,” Freddie said, “could you disable Roland’s pyramids? Then we can expose him, and he couldn’t blow up.”
“He’d just transform into a Fiend and kill everyone,” Dawnmother said.
Starbride shook her head. “I don’t know about that, Dawn. Lady Hilda seemed weak. Maybe Roland had to weaken his own Fiendish essence to give some to her.”
“So, how about his pyramids?” Freddie asked.
Starbride thought of the strength of Roland’s pyramids. She wasn’t even sure how many he had. Only desperation had let her disable the one she did, and she wasn’t sure that had worked.
“I don’t think I could get them all,” she said. “Crowe wasn’t lying when he spoke of Roland’s skill.”
They headed for Katya’s summer apartments, the abandoned rooms that the Order of Vestra used for meetings.
“If Katya were free, wouldn’t she be looking for you?” Dawnmother asked when they found no one in the Order’s rooms. “Should we pick a place and stay?”
“Unless she’s hurt,” Starbride said.
Dawnmother put an arm around her. “Someone friendly will be looking for you. They’ll know you didn’t hurt her, Star.”
“Wait. Dawn, the queen should be on her own, waiting for the results from the council.”
They stared at one another for a moment. “If Roland slipped away from the council, he could get to her,” Freddie said.
“Or the children,” Dawnmother added.
As one, they turned for the passageway again. “Wait.” Starbride pulled out the scroll and pencil she always kept with her and scrawled a quick note to the Order that they were all right but on the move.
At the door that led to the royal sitting room, they paused again, and Freddie listened. After a moment, he waved them forward but didn’t open the passage.
Starbride put her ear to the door. She could hear voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying, though she thought one a man’s and the other a woman’s. When Freddie pulled his mask down, Starbride scratched on the door, hoping to sound like a rodent. If either of the voices wasn’t in Katya’s circle of allies, they might mistake the noise.
The woman’s voice paused, and the man spoke, a question by the inflection. The woman spoke again, and then they heard a soft thump like the closing of a door.
A moment later, the door to the royal sitting room swung open. Queen Catirin stood back and peered into the gloom. “Everyone’s looking for you three.” She gestured for them to come out.
“Your Majesty,” Starbride said, “I did nothing to—”
“I know. Luckily, those fool councilors figured out the truth. Katya’s looking for you. Einrich just sent a bloody-nosed Lord Vincent to tell me so.”
“Lord Vincent was hurt?” Part of her found the idea extremely satisfying.
“Apparently, Katya punched him in the nose.”
“I knew I liked her,” Dawnmother mumbled.
Starbride fought the urge to put on a very satisfied grin. “Did he say what happened after we left the ballroom?”
“Duke Robert knew about our Fiends,” Queen Catirin said, “but he didn’t know Katya has lost hers. Lady Hilda attacked as soon as Katya agreed to a Fiend test. Magistrate Anthony’s assistant killed her.”
Roland had killed one of his most powerful allies? But of course he had. Her usefulness had ended. Once Katya had been willing to go along with the test, Roland had figured out that she could somehow pass. If Lady Hilda was proven a liar, she’d move from asset to liability. She would lose Roland and Magistrate Anthony the approval of the nobles, if they hadn’t lost it already.
“Starbride?” Queen Catirin asked.
“I’m sorry, Majesty. It’s just that…things suddenly fell into place for me.”
“Would you care to explain?”
“I should wait for Katya. Or maybe we should find her?”
Queen Catirin crossed to a desk and wrote a hasty note. “Best to send a servant. I want you both together before we figure out what to do.”
And then there was only the cursed waiting to be done. Pennynail hovered in the corner. Queen Catirin hadn’t spoken to him, hadn’t really looked at him. Katya had said once that the queen didn’t care for him, that she wouldn’t trust anyone who didn’t show his face. Starbride had almost laughed. The Umbriels were forced to put on false faces all the time. Pennynail just took the same idea to the extreme, and he was upfront about it.
Eventually, Katya burst into the room, not even bothering to knock. “The secret passageway from Starbride’s room has—”
Katya caught sight of Starbride mid-sentence, and then rushed in her direction, each of them opening their arms and then swallowing the other in an embrace.
“I thought you’d been hurt,” Katya said. “That they’d—”
“You always wanted me to run from danger, didn’t you?”
When Katya pulled back, her expression was so relieved that Starbride wanted to kiss her senseless, but Queen Catirin cleared her throat.
“Did you tell them what happened, Mother?” Katya asked. “Did someone tell you?”
“You should reverse those questions, but yes and yes.”
“I can hardly believe it,” Katya said. “The council’s in a tizzy. Father is handling them, but I should get back soon. Anthony’s assistant dealt the death blow. I thought he’d prefer me dead, for sure.”
Starbride glanced at Pennynail. He stepped around a chaise until he stood just behind her shoulder.
Katya glanced at him. “What is it?”
It was best to just blurt it out, Starbride told herself. That’s the way Katya did things, the way she seemed to prefer they be done. “Anthony’s assistant is Roland.”
Katya smiled for a moment, either confused or maybe thinking Starbride made a perverse joke. “He’s…”
“Roland.”
While both Katya and her mother were speechless, Starbride told them all. Katya paced up and down the carpet, her scowl deepening when Starbride told her of the ultimatum Roland had given, either Starbride keep still about his identity, or he would kill everyone in the room.
“Even then,” Starbride said, “when the council accused me of hypnotizing you and the king, I pointed to him, but he did exactly as he said, feigned total ignorance. And no one believed me. I suppose that with all the hullabaloo, everyone’s forgotten I ever accused him.”
“I certainly forgot it,” Katya mumbled. “You should have told me.”
Pennynail stepped to Starbride’s side and shook his head.
Katya switched her glare to him. “And why not?”
Pennynail drew a triangle in the air.
“How do you know he would have actually risked killing me and my father, two people he wants alive? It was a bluff!”
“I couldn’t risk that,” Starbride said. “He said he would live because of the Fiend. That might have saved your father, too, but you? Even if you reached him before he could attack—and you would have tried, Katya, I know you—he might have let you stab him. How would that look for our cause? You stabbing Anthony’s assistant?”
“She’s right,” Queen Catirin said. “It’s the kind of frustrating thing Crowe would have done, for our own good.”
Katya pointed at the door. “My father is sitting at a table with his murderous brother right under his nose, and you’re telling me that’s right?”
Queen Catirin shook her head. “I’ll have this same fight later with your father, but you have to let Roland get away, Katya.”
“Spirits above! We can’t let him run loose in the palace.”
Queen Catirin turned to Pennynail at last. “Can you follow him?”
He nodded.
“Mother…” Katya pulled her hair back from her
face until tears formed in her eyes.
“Katyarianna, you mustn’t.”
“Please, Katya,” Starbride said. “This is a wonderful opportunity. Pennynail can find out where he’s hiding. If he thinks I’m still running for my life with Pennynail helping me, he won’t expect to be followed.”
Katya nodded, but a vein stood out at her temple. Queen Catirin made a shooing gesture. Starbride heard the gentle click of the secret passageway as Pennynail left them.
“So what now?” Katya asked. “I sit and let someone else do my job again?”
“Sulk on your own time,” Queen Catirin said. “You have a task. Go to the ballroom and look worried. You haven’t found Starbride yet, but you’ve decided that the best place is by the king’s side, doing your duty.”
“Everyone will expect me to be hunting Starbride.”
Starbride chuckled. “But duty comes first to you, always has. Everyone knows that since you agreed to become crown princess.”
“And I can keep an eye on Roland until Pennynail takes over.”
“You cannot do anything to him Katya, cannot approach him, or speak to him,” Queen Catirin said. “You must be every inch the haughty princess and not stoop to speaking to someone’s assistant.”
“You’re not supposed to know who he is,” Starbride added, “because you haven’t found me yet.”
“It will be very difficult,” Katya said.
Starbride kissed her cheek. “I have every faith.”
“As do I,” Queen Catirin added. “Go, before the council ends. When we finally catch Roland in one of his own traps, I promise, you won’t have to stay your sword.”
Chapter Thirty-five: Katya
The council chamber was far more orderly when Katya returned. Lord Vincent had cleaned up his face, but his nose was beginning to swell. He’d have one hell of a bruise.
He deserved much more. She stalked past where he stood next to her father on the dais and resumed her seat. Da held up a hand to stop one of the nobles from speaking. “Did you find her?”
Katya shook her head and put on her best pained expression. “Lords and Ladies, ladies and gentleman, the princess consort is still missing. I would appreciate it if when our business is concluded, you would do me the honor of sending your households to look for her, as I have sent mine. Since I cannot find her, I have decided to rejoin you with the hope that I might help put an end to this unpleasant business.”
For Want of a Fiend Page 28