Starbride sent several messages to the strength chapterhouses and got a quick response. A few monks from one would meet with her. She didn’t like going without Pennynail, but she had Dawnmother, Hugo, and Master Bernard. As strong as the brothers and sisters of strength were, they couldn’t match a pyramid.
She set a meeting near the grand marketplace, still not telling them who she really was. As far as they were concerned, she was just someone interested in finding out what the chapterhouses thought of the Fiend king.
The marketplace was as noisy as Starbride remembered. Even with all the troubles, people still needed to shop. Rows of stalls occupied the huge square and spilled down several streets, making the space seem small. Striped awnings fought with blankets upon the cobblestones.
Starbride kept her hood up and pretended to browse a wagon covered with silk ribbons. Hugo stood in the middle of an aisle behind her, looking back and forth. He would approach the monks first while the others watched from the crowd. Starbride wouldn’t show her face until she was sure it wasn’t a trap. She couldn’t confirm for Roland that she was still in the city.
Three red-robed figures glanced over an assortment of knives down the lane. Starbride peered at each face. None of them was the supreme head of the strength chapterhouses. Maybe she was hiding and waiting, too, though that didn’t seem her style.
Hugo strolled down the lane, bumped into one of the strength brothers and said something. When the man replied, Hugo led all three into a short alleyway. Starbride and Dawnmother headed closer so they would have a good view. Master Bernard leaned against the wall just outside the alley entrance and watched Starbride and Dawnmother, waiting for a signal.
In the alley, the monks crowded close to Hugo. Two men and a woman, none of whom looked younger than Brutal, but they didn’t seem old enough to have been on the path for long. The crowding could be eagerness on their part, she supposed, or fright.
The man doing the talking, the largest, gestured at the alley mouth, as if insisting on something. Hugo shrugged and shook his head. Did they want him to call Starbride? Surely they understood why they couldn’t immediately be trusted. Or maybe they were anxious to get on with the meeting and get away.
The female monk edged close to Hugo, enough to either kiss him or head-butt him. She grabbed the collar of his coat. He jerked away, and several of his buttons popped off, the coat gaping open to reveal his shirt underneath. Hugo struck at her, but all three monks leaned in. The smaller one caught one of Hugo’s arms, and the leader reached for his shirt.
“His necklace,” Starbride whispered. “They’re trying to get his pyramid necklace.” She signaled Master Bernard. He stepped into the alley mouth, shouted to get the monks’ attention, and threw a flash bomb.
Starbride shielded her eyes, hoping Hugo remembered to do the same. She heard two distinct yells and then started for the alley. If anyone heard the cries, hopefully, the clamor from the market would prevent them from determining the source.
Dawnmother paused at the alley entrance to discourage anyone from wandering close while Starbride went inside. Hugo faced the one monk still standing, the leader. The others writhed on the ground, holding their eyes. Hugo had drawn his rapier. The monk was unarmed, but he took a wary stance, both hands in front of him as if to bat any strikes away.
Master Bernard raced for the smaller man and placed a pyramid against his head. With a few quick jabs, Hugo backed the leader away. Master Bernard crossed to the fallen woman and put his pyramid to her head as well; it would keep them unconscious. The leader feinted and jabbed two fingers into Hugo’s wrist. Hugo grunted and sprang back, nearly dropping his sword, his arm wobbling.
Starbride lifted a mind pyramid and whistled. The leader glanced at her, and their eyes met. He fought against her as she drew his thoughts in, but Starbride let the pyramid do the work instead of making it a battle of wills. Within seconds, he was hers, lost in the pyramid’s sparkling facets. “I have him.”
Master Bernard pressed his mind pyramid to the leader’s forehead, and he crumpled.
“Let’s do this quickly.” Starbride hated that they had to do it all. She’d hoped that the chapterhouses hadn’t been infiltrated, but these monks were either working for Roland willingly, or they’d been coerced. And there was only one way that Roland coerced.
Starbride pressed a pyramid to the female monk’s forehead and looked deep inside. It would have been easier with the monk conscious. Sleeping minds tended to take unwanted paths. Starbride let the mind envelop her until she knew the monk as Scarra. She’d been born Clara Aubet, but the strength monks took on rougher names once they’d set their feet on the path.
No, they didn’t take them, Starbride saw as a memory rose to the surface. The names were given in a special ceremony attended only by other monks. Starbride left that ceremony alone, not wanting to pry more than she had to. She settled the memories into their respective strands, calling up thoughts of Roland’s coup.
Scarra had been in the chapterhouse when it happened. Only weeks from being fully initiated, everyone and their pet cat had challenged her to a fight, one after another. It was…exhilarating. She learned so much, about herself, the fight, and those she fought. At the rate she’d been going, she thought she might attain total enlightenment that afternoon.
She’d just walked into the dining hall when Blade had charged in, the supreme head of all strength chapterhouses, here in her house, large as life! She’d been so sure, so strong. Scarra had gawped at her in awe. Blade called for Ruin, the head of Scarra’s chapterhouse and said they were going out. The fight of a lifetime was in the making. Monsters had taken the throne, and the strength chapterhouses were going to defend the king.
What a fight! What a chance to prove herself, to learn more lessons of the universe! Scarra had leapt to her feet, ready to join the charge, but Ruin stopped her and told her to hold the chapterhouse. Hold the spirits bedamned chapterhouse when the city was burning!
Starbride pulled back from the memory, fighting not to get caught in Scarra’s rage. As angry as she was, Scarra had obeyed the order to stay behind. She’d had plenty to do, helping the higher-ranking monks, taking in refugees or wounded monks from other houses. She didn’t see Blade or Ruin for weeks and wondered what had happened to them. When Ruin returned, he seemed different, more arrogant. Scarra assumed by his swagger that he had won the fight, but swagger had never been in his nature. When the others asked him about Blade, he said she was still at the palace, that they’d made a mistake, that the Fiend king was stronger than King Einrich had ever been.
Scarra was confused. Pure physical strength wasn’t what they strived for or respected. What one did with his or her strength was just as important as the strength itself. Still, when Ruin told her and some of the others to go to the palace, to see the king for themselves, she’d gone. If Ruin believed in him, he had to be worth a listen.
She’d met with this new king and heard him speak. Ruin had been right. This stronger king was much more capable than the other had been. Scarra was completely convinced after meeting him once.
Starbride backed up to when Scarra had met Roland. The memory shift was subtle, barely a wrinkle in the flow, but if Roland had known Scarra at all, if he’d bothered to pry, he would have known that it took more than words to convince her. Deeds were Scarra’s measure of a person, and Roland had shown her nothing.
Starbride dug into the memory and pulled the thread slowly apart. Roland hadn’t erased Scarra’s memories. He would have had to rebuild all her memories from the coup onward in order to make new ones. No, he did what Starbride suspected he’d once done to Hugo: placed new memories over the old.
Underneath, Starbride found the real memory. Scarra had walked into the throne room with some of her fellows, and Roland had pulled the cover from a large pyramid. Scarra had foolishly stared into it. Roland had simply changed her from a skeptic to a true believer in a blink. With a disgusted sigh, Starbride unwound the new memory.
Unfortunately, she had to take everything from there on, the entire thread. Scarra wouldn’t even remember that she’d inadvertently turned traitor.
Starbride saw that Roland had commanded the strength monks to capture certain people at all costs, some of whom would be known by their pyramid necklaces. Scarra wouldn’t remember that order either, wouldn’t have any idea how she’d wound up in an alley at the market.
When Starbride surfaced, Scarra remained unconscious. Master Bernard had finished the leader, and told them his name was Rage. Starbride helped him with the last, Fury. All three had been brainwashed at the same time. With Hugo and Dawnmother’s help, they sat the monks against the wall and settled in to wait.
“Should we bind them?” Hugo asked as he held his coat closed.
“Their confusion upon waking should work in our favor,” Master Bernard said. “Though we should be ready in case their first instinct is to attack, I don’t think we can risk binding them.”
Starbride picked up Hugo’s buttons and slipped them in her pocket. Dawnmother could help him fix the coat later. “If a stranger makes it past Dawnmother, we can tell them our friends are ill, and we’re waiting for them to recover. Not so easily sold if they’re bound.” She kept a mind pyramid out in case she needed to hypnotize them again but cupped it in her palm, out of sight from anyone on the street.
The monks came to at the same time, their drooping heads lifting haltingly as they tried to overcome the lethargy that accompanied a mind pyramid. They blinked at Starbride, at each other, and at their surroundings.
“Gently,” Starbride said. “My name is Starbride. This is Master Bernard from the Pyradisté Academy, and Lord Hugo Sandy. You’re in an alley near the grand marketplace.”
“How did we get here?” Rage asked. He was nearly as tall as Brutal, though a little less bulky. His eyes darted between all of them.
“Did you kidnap us?” Scarra kept her eyes on Starbride alone, and through the fatigue, Starbride saw anger brewing. Fury didn’t speak but stared at Master Bernard curiously, as if they’d met before.
Starbride laid out their tale as best she could. They all remembered the pyramid in Roland’s throne room but nothing after that.
“I’m no one’s lackey,” Rage said.
Scarra touched his arm. “And the Fiend king was going to use us to capture you?”
“How do you know?” Fury asked at last. “You were the head of the Pyradisté Academy. And you…” His bright blue eyes fixed on Starbride. “You’re the princess consort.”
Scarra’s eyes went wide, and she tried to bow from a seated position. “Oh, um, hello, Highness.”
Starbride bit her lip to keep from laughing. “You don’t have to bow.”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Rage said.
Scarra nudged him. “She’s the princess consort, idiot.”
“So?” Rage asked.
“So? Do some…courtly shit.” She clapped a hand over her mouth.
Starbride did laugh then. “Let’s get somewhere safe, and I can tell you more.”
Scarra stood immediately. After a shrug as if he wanted to see what would happen, Fury followed. Rage stood, but he didn’t lose his scowl. “I think we should check on our fellow brothers and sisters first. If what you say is true—”
“You’ll go right back into the Fiend king’s clutches when your hypnotized fellows get hold of you,” Hugo said.
“If he bothered to mind-hump three scrubs like us, this infection goes deep,” Scarra said. “Everyone in our house could be f—” She glanced at Starbride, blushed, and made another clumsy bow. “Excuse my speaking, Princess Consort. Ma always did say I have a mouth like a penny whore.”
Fury snorted a laugh, his intense expression replaced by a boyish look that made him seem about fifteen.
“Since you haven’t reported back,” Starbride said, “the Fiend king might already know we’ve broken his hold on you.” As she stared at them, she wondered if having her break his spell had been Roland’s plan all along, the reason why he’d only sent three people to capture or kill her. Now he’d expect Starbride to try to free all of them. Now he’d set a bigger trap.
“I suppose if you wanted to kill us,” Rage said, “you would have done so while we were down, but how do we know you didn’t do this to us? That we were shopping, and then you used a pyramid on us?”
“Does that change how you feel about the Fiend king?”
Rage looked down as if doubting everything he’d ever seen or heard.
“Let’s hear them out,” Fury said. “Seems like we’re in it up to our ears anyway.”
When Rage agreed, Starbride led them to their old hideout. Down in the dark space, she and Master Bernard lit pyramids and set them on the small table that remained.
Starbride cleared her throat, still thinking of traps. “The Fiend king has been known to…implant pyramids in those he captures. It happened to me once, and since you probably would have been unconscious, it wouldn’t be in your memories. He could have developed a pyramid that could track you. Do you mind if Master Bernard and I examine you?”
The three monks glanced at one another.
“You can stay together if you like,” Starbride added hurriedly. “Or we could examine you one by one, in private.”
Scarra chuckled. “It’s not modesty we’re worried about. It’s close in the chapterhouse. But a pyramid stuck up one of our…um.” She shrugged out of her robe and stood only in her well-muscled body and meager undergarments. “Well? How do you test?”
Like her name suggested, her skin was a map of scars. Even though most of her fights were probably barehanded, she’d certainly had others in her time, even if she looked only twenty or so. “Well…let’s look for new scars, red or pink. How many of those do you have?”
Scarra shrugged as if she couldn’t be bothered to remember them all. Fury helped her look, joking as he did. Even Rage seemed to relax as they laughed. Starbride didn’t think she’d feel the same being so scrutinized. She turned away.
Scarra hooted at her. “Nothing you haven’t seen before, Princess Consort.”
Starbride felt the heat rush to her face. When she tried to stammer a response, they only laughed harder until Scarra shushed them.
“Only joking, Princess Consort.”
“I think you should call me Starbride if we’re going to be poking around in each other’s underwear.”
“Oh, so you’re joining us now?” Fury asked.
Starbride shook her head. Hugo began what was probably an affronted response, but Starbride stopped him. They continued to search each other, Starbride not daring to look when Fury took his undergarments off, and the others cried for him to spare their eyes.
“Put your lad away in front of the nobles or it’ll be off with your head,” Scarra said. “Both of them!”
Starbride had to laugh, and she noted that Dawnmother continued to watch the monks with appraising, unashamed eyes. Master Bernard simply chuckled and leaned against the table, waiting for them to finish.
Neither Scarra nor Fury had new scars, but on Rage, they found what Starbride expected: a new scar, pink, still a little red around the edges. Starbride bent close to look. Luckily, Rage had kept his undergarments on, but the scar was on his thigh, very close to his…Starbride shook the thought away.
“This could be what we’re looking for,” Starbride said. “If there’s a pyramid in there, we have to get it out.”
“Careful,” Scarra said. “Cut him wrong there and he could bleed to death, not to mention the fact that a clumsy knife could rob him of his…pride.”
“We’ll need a surgeon and some way to put you to sleep,” Starbride said. “I can use a pyramid on you.”
Rage shook his head. “Pain helps me focus. I’ll meditate.”
“A detection pyramid first,” Master Bernard said. “To make sure it’s in there, and to see what we’re dealing with. If it’s a destruction pyramid, we might need to break it as soon as we have it
out.”
Starbride brought her detection pyramid near the scar and focused. There, just beneath the skin…
As soon as her mind touched it, it leapt to life. She barely had time to cry out before it exploded, blowing a gaping hole in Rage’s leg, nearly taking it off. He collapsed, and the rest of them staggered back before rushing forward again.
“Rage!” Scarra cried. He stared into her face as he coughed his last breath, blood streaming from his leg. “What in the name of Best and Berth was that?”
Blood soaked the floor around Scarra’s bare legs where she knelt. Starbride could feel the wetness on her face and neck. She had to be covered in red. One moment he’d been laughing and joking, years ahead of him, and now dead within seconds.
She felt her lips pull up in a snarl. “Track you?” she spat. “Why did I worry that he’d track you when he could kill you?”
“What are you—” Scarra asked.
Starbride surged to her feet. “The Darkstrong-cursed Fiend king. I was worried he’d track, but why would he bother? I’m trapped in the city. He’ll find me sooner or later; time is on his side. Why would he spend energy trying to chase me when he can just kill his puppets before I free them?” She shouted the last words, and angry tears started in her eyes. She swallowed them down.
Scarra looked down at her mostly-naked body. “Is it in us too?”
Starbride took several deep breaths, trying to quiet her rage so she could comfort the little child she heard in Scarra’s voice. “You don’t have any new scars.” Even so, she wasn’t going to check. “He wouldn’t need to trap all of you. One in three is probably good odds in his book.”
“Just enough to make us frightened of taking any action,” Hugo said softly. He stared at Rage’s body with tears standing in his eyes, and Starbride knew what he was thinking. His father had done this. He’d only been six when Roland had first died, but that was old enough to remember how much he’d loved his father.
Starbride took his hand as she tried to think. Dimly, she became aware of Dawnmother washing the blood from her face and directing the monks to get dressed. Starbride could free the monks mentally, but some would be left with a trap inside them. As soon as she touched it with her detection pyramid, it had activated, leaving her no time to focus or shut it down. Roland probably had the means to detonate the pyramids from a distance, just like he’d once done to the fire pyramid he’d put in her. It might be kinder to leave the monks hypnotized. Then Roland wouldn’t have a reason to blow them apart.
A Kingdom Lost Page 14