A Kingdom Lost

by Barbara Ann Wright

  “Oh,” he said, looking at the floor.

  “I’ll go,” Dawnmother said.

  “Wouldn’t you stand out, too?” Hugo asked.

  “A servant’s footsteps are made of shadows. I know how to get around without being noticed.”

  Starbride laughed. “Oh, yes, we four are made to go unnoticed: two Allusians, one lord bearing a Fiend, and an infamous criminal. Maybe we should recruit more average Farradains?”

  “That would look fabulous on a poster,” Freddie said. “Wanted: completely average people with nothing special about them whatsoever. No pay! Long hours!”

  “Dangerous conditions!” Dawnmother said. “Must not be afraid of Fiends!”

  “We’d have a line going out the door,” Starbride said.

  Hugo sighed loudly, as if he found their mirth inappropriate. “My…the Fiend king himself would have to be at the market to sense my necklace, and the corpse Fiends don’t seem to notice my buried Aspect. I shall be perfectly fine.”

  “No one’s doubting your abilities, Hugo,” Starbride said.

  He beamed at her. Behind him, Freddie rolled his eyes.

  Starbride gave him a warning look. She wouldn’t let teasing turn to bullying. “Both you and Dawnmother should go. She can help you sneak, and you can fight if things turn ugly.” She dug in her table’s one drawer, turned over the few coins she found to Dawnmother, and wished she had another way she could supplement their income. No one was hiring pyradistés.

  “You know,” Dawnmother said, “there’s money to be found in the palace. I could sneak inside and fetch some.”

  “You couldn’t go without a pyradisté, Dawn. If Roland’s retuned the pyramids in the royal wing to only recognize him, you’d be incinerated.”

  “He’s had a lot to deal with,” Dawnmother said. “He may not have gotten to that.”

  Starbride only frowned. Only a fool would leave sections of the palace tuned to his enemies.

  Freddie rubbed his chin. “We need a plan, like in the old days. We need to get Roland out of the palace so we can go in.”

  Starbride had a sudden flash of the fake Katya and Einrich. A smile started over her lips, and she felt some of the hunger for adventure she thought she’d left behind. “Like a fake king and princess?”

  They stared at her.

  “If he can fool the populace,” she said, “why can’t we? The more people who believe him, the easier it is to get into their minds and hold them. He showed the people Katya and Einrich arm in arm with him. What if we show the same people screeching for rebellion in the market square?”

  “He might come running,” Freddie said. “But what suicidal duo are we going to get to play the fake king and princess? You’ll need everyone in this room to help you sneak into the palace.”

  “Oh, I’m sure we can find some willing recruits. They might have to be convinced into willingness, but Captain Ursula and Sergeant Rhys have been itching for more to do.”

  *

  In Starbride’s small room under the warehouse, Ursula stared at the wall as Starbride outlined her plan. “And what would we get out of you getting into the palace, Princess Consort?”

  “Depends on how long we have inside,” Starbride said. She still had Hugo and Dawnmother with her, but Freddie had become Pennynail again. She wondered if it was hard for him to be so near to someone he’d been close to, maybe even intimate with.

  “If the royal quarters haven’t been ransacked,” Starbride said, “we can take money and jewelry. If Crowe’s office is still intact, we can take his pyramids and books, though that’s probably the first place the Fiend king cleared out. He wouldn’t want the rabble exploring the royal quarters, so he’s probably closed them, either by leaving the defense pyramids up or making his own. He might have retuned some of the outer ones and then left the inner as they are.”

  “He probably doesn’t care about jewelry and such.” Rhys leaned against the wall near Pennynail, looking as bored as always. “He doesn’t need to sell it, and he wouldn’t care about wearing it, except the king’s crown, maybe.”

  “Which leaves the rest of it untouched. Maybe.” Ursula dragged her fingers through her hair. “Maybe, maybe, maybe.” She glanced at Starbride. “I’m glad you were used to playing the part of the sneak before this all started. It’s not something I’m used to.”

  “The sooner we succeed,” Starbride said, “the sooner you can stop.”

  “If we can’t get the jewels,” Dawnmother said, “there’s always the silver and plate lying around.”

  “Now you sound like a common criminal,” Ursula said.

  Dawnmother grinned. “That’s what we hope to look like. The more common we appear, the less the Fiend king will know what has happened until it’s too late.”

  “Even if we don’t find any money,” Starbride said, “we might be able to do something about the capstone under the palace, like we planned in the beginning. We could lock it like we did the one on top of the academy.”

  “This trip sounds longer and longer,” Ursula said.

  “We’ll do what we have time for,” Starbride said.

  “And you want me and Rhys to be these fake royals that the Fiend king will come after?”

  “If not you, perhaps you’d know some volunteers…”

  Ursula shook her head. “I wouldn’t let any of my officers volunteer for this bat-shit operation if I wasn’t willing to take it on myself. Besides, if it’s me and Rhys wearing the disguises, then we can take them off before we’re caught and act like we’re joining the hunt.”

  Starbride grinned. “I can make you a couple of surprises, just in case the Fiend king does catch you.”

  Rhys lifted an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t that make us easier to detect? The Fiend king can sense pyramids, yes?”

  “If he gets close enough to sense it, he’ll be close enough to take its full effects right in the face.”

  “Sounds peachy,” Ursula said. “When do we put this whole thing together?”

  They agreed to meet in two days’ time; that would give Starbride and the other pyradistés time to make pyramids. Starbride didn’t mention to anyone the other task she hoped to accomplish while in the palace: searching for Katya and the rest of the royals. She was certain her closest companions knew it. Maybe Ursula even suspected it. It didn’t change the fact that the dungeons were going to be her first stop.

  Chapter Eleven

  Katya

  Leafclever had a lot to discuss with Einrich, leaving Katya in Redtrue’s company. They both had questions for each other, about Allusia and about Farraday. As contemptuous as Redtrue was about her neighbors to the west, she was equally curious, if only to mock.

  Katya was more amused by the interaction between Redtrue and Castelle. It seemed they’d kept their rendezvous the first night in the adsnazi camp, but the next morning, when Castelle tried to sidle close and give Redtrue a kiss, Redtrue sidestepped. Katya had watched them out of the corner of her eye.

  “What’s wrong?” Castelle had asked.

  “It was only a tumble,” Redtrue had said. “Don’t make it into a grand romance.”

  Castelle had blinked and stammered. Katya had resisted the urge to smirk, wondering how many times Castelle had gotten out of romantic entanglements in a similar fashion, if with a jot more panache.

  Redtrue grilled Katya on what Farradain pyradistés could do, and Katya outlined everything she’d seen, though she’d had to remind Redtrue that she had no idea how pyramid magic worked.

  Redtrue waved this away. “I don’t expect you to. But all this playing around in a person’s head? Lighting someone on fire? The Fiends were born of such things.”

  Brutal joined them while they were having breakfast and caught her last words. “Wouldn’t the Fiends be born of cold instead of fire?”

  Redtrue gave him a withering look. “The medium doesn’t matter. It’s this mind-tampering evil you should blame.”

  “The usurper is very good at that,”
Katya said.

  “I’m not surprised. An adsnazi will only touch another’s mind during the dream walk.”

  Katya glanced at Brutal. “I’ve never heard of the dream walk,” Katya said.

  “Your pyradistés riffle in the minds of others and never visit their dreams?” Redtrue stared at them as if they’d gone insane. “You expect me to believe that?”

  “I’ve seen a pyradisté go through another’s memories and hypnotize someone, but dream stuff is new to me,” Brutal said. “You use a pyramid on someone while they’re asleep?”

  “We do not use a pyramid on anyone, whether they are asleep or not!”

  Brutal lifted his hands. “My apologies, sister. For once, I’m not trying to start a fight.”

  Her mouth twisted in wry amusement. Some of the adsnazi were very amused by Brutal, someone who used combat to try to understand the universe. Some found the idea of good-natured brawling appealing. Brutal had been happy to demonstrate.

  “We use dreams to communicate between great distances,” Redtrue said.

  The hairs on Katya’s neck stood up. “For the days that we’ve been here, you could have spoken with Starbride, and you didn’t tell me?”

  Redtrue blinked a few times before she scowled. “I…well, if what you say about pyradistés is true, your Starbride does not know how to dream walk.”

  Katya let out a slow breath. “Is there even a chance?”

  “If she learned from someone, certainly. Would you like me to ride to Marienne and teach her?”

  Katya felt her anger growing. Brutal touched her shoulder. “If you possess any compassion, sister,” he said to Redtrue, “please put this particular sarcasm away.”

  “I don’t mean to mock your pain, but you have no reason to be angry with me. I suspected your Starbride didn’t know dream magic because of how much of a novice she was when you left Marienne. I didn’t know your people don’t practice it at all.”

  “We have a pyradisté with us, in Newhope.”

  “We know. We just didn’t want him here. It is a him, no?”

  “Yes,” Katya said, “though I suppose from your way of thinking, he’s as perverted as the rest of us.”

  Redtrue cracked a tiny smile. “That is so.”

  “That doesn’t mean you couldn’t teach him to be less of a pervert,” Brutal said.

  That time, Redtrue even laughed. “That would be up to Leafclever. We never send for anyone. Those who desire to practice our ways seek us out. Who knows, maybe your friend will be drawn to us.”

  “Have you ever tried to touch the dreams of a pyradisté?” Katya asked. “Or do you only touch the dreams of other adsnazi?”

  “I wouldn’t know how to touch a pyradisté’s dreams.”

  “What about contacting an adsnazi who hasn’t learned the dream walk yet?” Castelle asked. She stared at Redtrue with hard eyes, but it seemed her curiosity had overcome her anger. “Is that possible?”

  “I…I don’t know. We usually start someone on the path of dream walking by having them touch the dreams of an adsnazi with experience, and then they learn to receive dreams the same way, by someone more experienced.”

  Hope bloomed in Katya’s chest. “It would probably take someone with great experience, but he or she could reach out to a novice.”

  “That would be forcing the adsna on another, and we won’t do that.”

  Katya clenched a fist. “It wouldn’t be unwelcome! She would want to hear from me!”

  “Even so, it’s the beginning of a path we won’t tread.”

  Katya forced herself to take several deep breaths. It was a path the adsnazi wouldn’t tread, but Rene, their pyradisté, might. All they needed was for him to “find” his way to the adsnazi camp and be open to learning what they had to teach. But how to get him to come without sending for him? Katya suddenly wished for Pennynail. He could get away without anyone noticing he was gone.

  Katya nodded as if acquiescing, but her mind was racing. She’d have to talk with Brutal and Castelle later, when they were on their own. Contacting Marienne from afar was too great a tool to waste. She continued answering Redtrue’s questions and asking hers in turn, but she slipped into court mode, letting her body act as she needed while her mind focused on the task ahead.

  Brutal touched her wrist, and she knew he sensed her need to slip away. He’d seen the court face too many times. He shifted on their log as if pained.

  “What’s wrong?” Redtrue asked.

  “An old back injury. Acts up during a cold morning.” He stood and stretched. “I think I’m going to take a walk, loosen it up a bit.”

  “Want some company?” Katya asked.

  “Well, I didn’t want to ask, but if it gives out like it did last winter…”

  Katya snorted as she stood, playing along. “I had to drag him back to town through three feet of snow.”

  Redtrue grimaced. “Perhaps more of us should—”

  “I don’t want to disturb the whole camp,” he said.

  “Trust me,” Katya said, “if he collapses, I’ll shout.”

  “And I have more questions for you, Redtrue,” Castelle said, and whether she was trying to help Katya or plead her own case, it didn’t matter. Katya walked away with Brutal before Redtrue could respond.

  “Thanks, Brutal.”

  “My pleasure. Now let’s hear the plan you have spinning in your head.”

  “We need to find a way to bring Rene here.”

  “Ah, and when we do, he learns dream magic in order to reach Starbride? Do you really think trying to pull something on these people is the right way to go?”

  “Brutal…” She searched for words for a moment, unable to believe he couldn’t see her desperate need. “We could find out if she’s…” She couldn’t say it. “We could guide her to us…share info…”

  “Ride off to rescue her?”

  She gave him a black look. “We’re going to do that anyway.”

  “Exactly my point. It’s not worth pissing these people off.”

  “Not worth it?”

  “You know what I mean. I’m sorry, Katya, truly I am, especially after I…left her, but guilt won’t stop me from speaking sense. If you want to communicate with Starbride through dream magic, you’ll have to find a way to get the adsnazi to do it. Remember, if they don’t agree to help us, the other Allusians might leave us in the cold, too.”

  Before she could launch into a tirade against Redtrue, he said, “I know. Redtrue’s pretty unreasonable, but the others might not see it her way. I’d try a heartfelt plea to Leafclever. He might not have such a grudge.”

  “Or such a big stick up his ass.”

  “Well, Farradains, especially the traders, haven’t been good to Redtrue’s people. I can see her point of view at times.”

  Katya rubbed her temples. “Stop making sense and just agree with me.”

  “Ah, you miss the courtiers already, huh?”

  She shook her head, but she was too tired and heartsick to laugh.

  Katya caught up with Leafclever that evening, when all the adsnazi gathered for the evening meal. She touched his shoulder before they joined the others. “I’d like to speak with you a moment.”

  “I’ve spoken to Redtrue already.”

  “Please don’t ask me to save my breath. I have to speak my mind, or I’m going to explode.”

  He smiled, and it had a tint of affection that reminded her of Crowe. “Your people have a reputation, if not for lying, then for double-speak. I would be intrigued to hear an honest, impassioned plea.”

  Her first tendency was to be angry. Everyone she’d met in Allusia had a mocking quality, as if they regarded everything with half a smile. But then she thought of Starbride, who always found something to laugh at in every situation. Katya breathed a chuckle and wasn’t surprised to hear a few unshed tears in it. “Well, then…”

  She took a deep breath. “I…protect my family before anything else, before my own happiness, my own life, and
the lives of everyone around me. When the usurper took Marienne, I got my family out, a task that should have been as second nature as breathing. But it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

  “Starbride…turned me upside down.” Katya looked hard into his eyes as if she could drill the truth into him. “I’ve never shirked my duty, but I was willing to throw it away to find her. I’ve lived in luxury all my life, and I’d keep a cave for her. I’d be her slave, and I love her even more because she’d never want me to. Her fate…weighs on me, Leafclever; it sits in my every thought, my every action, and though we need your help desperately, I was willing to betray your hospitality today in exchange for the chance of finding out if she lives.”

  Leafclever hadn’t lost his enigmatic little smile, even when she’d admitted her attempted treachery. When she didn’t speak for several seconds, he patted her shoulder. “I hear your words, and I believe them. I’ve also been in love, and I thought no one had ever loved like I did. If I may ask, what convinced you not to pursue this betrayal today?”

  “My friend reminded me that even if I care about Starbride more than I care about my kingdom, I shouldn’t work against my family toward getting that kingdom back.”

  “Wise.” He stroked his chin. “Redtrue said it, but I’ll repeat it: We don’t force our power on anyone, no matter the good intentions.”

  Katya took a deep breath. “I don’t want you to sacrifice your values, but there has to be some way to reach out to her, not to force your presence into her mind, but to…knock.”

  “Someone familiar with the dream walk might ‘knock’ upon the dreams of another, but the recipient must be familiar with the magic in order to answer.”

  “Couldn’t she, I don’t know, learn as you knock?”

  “She wouldn’t even know what’s going on. Likely, she’d experience a vague presence within a dream. Unless the person sending the message actually invaded her dream, she wouldn’t even know there was someone on the other end.”

  “Would invading her dream harm her?”

  “That’s not really the point, is it?”

  Katya nodded, but her mind was already working. “You say you don’t see how she could answer, but you don’t actually know. What’s the harm in trying? Someone very experienced in the dream walk might be able to make Starbride see the truth.”