She tried to call out, but the corpse Fiend lunged again; it used to be a man, now as gray-skinned and nondescript as the rest of them, dressed in rags. It stank like a tomb. She ducked its thrust, still on her knees, and its blade grated off the wall of the chapterhouse. Katya sliced its wrist. She cut deep, but blood didn’t flow from the wound. She grabbed its arm and hacked the blade from its grasp.
Its fist slammed into her chin, and she saw only blurs as sounds seemed to slow. She wriggled away, kicking and slashing, anything to keep it off balance. Her free hand found its weapon, and she threw it behind her. She shoved backward, into the wall, using it to get to her feet. She shook her head to clear it just as the corpse Fiend darted inside her reach.
Katya rammed her rapier guard into its forehead. The corpse Fiend’s icy fingers closed around her neck, cutting off her air as quickly as a noose. Katya punched again. Cracks spread through the pyramid, but little bursts of light danced across her vision. Katya focused on the pyramid rather than the cold, dead face. She summoned all her strength and tried one more punch. The pyramid shattered, and the corpse Fiend dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.
Katya sank down with it, coughing and sputtering, her throat aching with every breath.
“Katya!” Brutal called. He pulled the corpse Fiend away, knelt in front of her, and put pressure on her bleeding shoulder.
She would have yelped, but she couldn’t stop coughing. It felt like she’d been drinking fire.
“Where else are you hurt?” Brutal asked.
Katya waved to her neck.
Brutal gently unbuttoned her coat. He checked her throat all the way around, softly lifting her hair, and she almost laughed at the way someone so large and ferocious in battle could be so tender. Just as quickly, she nearly burst into tears, at the mercy of adrenaline and fatigue and lightheadedness.
“You’ll have a hell of a bruise,” he said. “I need to get your coat off so I can look at this shoulder.” He turned and barked at someone. “Fan out, search for more of these things!”
Brutal helped Katya shrug off her coat. He tugged her shirt over her shoulder until he could look at the wound. “There’s no tearing. Still, I don’t trust a corpse to keep its blade clean. We need some of the count’s brandy.” Lacking that, he bound her shoulder with what he had on him and helped her put her coat back on again. “Can you talk yet?”
She nodded, swallowed several times, and said, “Bastard surprised me.” The words hurt, and she grimaced, wishing she had one of the water skins they’d left on the horses.
“I should have been with you,” Brutal mumbled.
Katya swatted him on the arm.
“I know, I know, save the guilt for when we can relax.”
“Katya?” someone called from behind them. Redtrue’s brows were drawn in concern. “Did something…?” She trailed away as she looked at the corpse Fiend. “Are you all right?”
“No thanks to you,” Brutal said.
Redtrue stepped forward, fists clenched. “I will not become evil to fight evil! It was bad enough I helped you kill that man.”
“Save it.” Katya rubbed her sore neck. “Come on, Brutal.” She glanced at Redtrue. “Stay near the fighters.”
Redtrue bared her teeth as if she might argue, but she knelt by the corpse Fiend.
With Brutal, Katya helped search the town. They found one more corpse Fiend lurking around the village, but Count Mathias and Hawkblade hunted it down.
Brutal helped set up a makeshift hospital where he and the village healer could treat the injured. Trackers were sent into the woods to gather the villagers who’d run away, but it would be a long time before they found them all. They pulled down the burning chapterhouse and heaped dirt around it to keep the fire from spreading. Redtrue and her adsnazi were the greatest help there, using their dirt trick to put the fire out where they could.
Katya took a long pull from her retrieved water skin as she watched. When Redtrue wandered near, she couldn’t help but say, “Guess killing fire doesn’t break your oath.”
“I don’t wish anyone to be hurt.”
Katya snorted.
Redtrue turned slowly. “We fight destruction. Can’t you see that?” She gestured behind her where the other adsnazi were still battling the fire. “Twisting the adsna, using it to kill? That’s the path that created these Fiends.”
“You don’t know that for certain. Besides, killing a corpse Fiend isn’t the same as killing a person; the people who used to be in those bodies are long gone.”
“And you don’t know that for certain. There could be a way to cleanse the Fiends.”
Katya laughed so hard it hurt her throat again. “Have you seen them? They’re dead, Redtrue. They don’t bleed. They don’t feel.”
“It looked like a man.”
“Dead for a long time, just no longer mobile because I destroyed the pyramid that powered him. The corpse Fiends are one of the usurper’s strongest weapons, and you can annihilate them without breaking a sweat.”
“I can’t. The one that I helped you kill…he was still alive.”
“Do not shed any tears for Darren. He deserved such a death and much more. If you won’t use your pyramid, teach Starbride how when we finally speak to her.”
Redtrue’s chin lifted. “I won’t teach destructive magic. When we do speak with her, I’ll teach her how to use the adsna properly.”
Katya rubbed her temples. “All I hear is that you’re willing to let countless people die, all for your precious high ground.”
“You don’t understand!”
“Go tell it to the dead.” Katya turned away. She found Brutal at the hospital under the canvas that had been strung up as a roof. Katya knelt next to him and offered her water skin.
He took a long pull. “We’ve done all we can for the critically wounded. Ten won’t survive the night.” He rubbed his face with bloodstained hands. “Most of the others will be fine: a few stab wounds, lots of burns. They’ll have some scars here.” He glanced at her and chuckled. “That’s an angry face. Been talking to Redtrue?”
“Stubborn ass.”
“Seconded.”
“Would you use a weapon like that, Brutal? When your chapterhouse places the fight, the struggle, above all else, would you use a battle-ender like that pyramid?”
He cocked his head. “It’s the overall struggle that’s important here, not the individual fights. Human against human, that’s the fight that teaches us about the universe. This?” He gestured around them. “This is slaughter; all it teaches me is that Fiends need to be put down. I’d use that pyramid if it meant my soul would be kept from enlightenment until the end of time.”
Katya squeezed his shoulder. “Good to know.”
“How can we change Redtrue’s mind?”
“We let Da, Dayscout, and Leafclever fight it out.”
“Or we could go to the other adsnazi. Scenes like this might affect some of them more than Redtrue, or maybe one of them lost a loved one to a murderer or something; they’d be more sympathetic.”
“Looking for revenge, no matter the target?” Katya asked.
“It’s a thought.”
“Before, it was me talking about creating a rift amongst our allies, and you talked me out of it.”
“I wasn’t this pissed off before.”
“If we can convince Leafclever, it won’t matter what Redtrue thinks. He can give us other adsnazi, maybe some who’ll follow orders.”
“Yeah,” Brutal said with a snort, “like that won’t create any rifts.”
“If I anger Redtrue, I’ll never be able to speak to Starbride.”
Brutal winced. “Couldn’t you find another adsnazi?”
“She’s the best, and her Farradain is perfect.”
“So, lazy, get better at Allusian.”
She nodded. “You’re right. What else do I have to do, after all?”
As they packed up to leave, many of the villagers approached them, some terr
ified that the Fiends would come back. Those begged Katya to stay. Others yelled at them to take these troubles and leave, never to return. Still others asked to come with them, wanting revenge on the monsters that had killed their families.
Brutal leaned close to Katya’s ear. “Let’s take them,” he said. “There are enough left to help the wounded recover.”
Katya agreed. They needed recruits if they were going to stop the same thing from happening to another village. With the bodies loaded onto the two free horses, the villagers were forced to walk. After they’d gathered their meager belongings, fifteen people followed in Katya’s wake. She was more than happy to ride slowly. Her shoulder throbbed, and her neck burned, especially when she had to turn her head. By the time they reached camp, it was past dark; they’d been forced to go even slower in the blackness.
Katya went straight to her parents’ tent, not missing that Redtrue and her adsnazi went to their tents without speaking to anyone.
Da had heard most of the news from Katya’s messenger, but she filled in the gaps for Dayscout, Leafclever, and Ma. Count Mathias joined her for the retelling. When they came to the part where Redtrue had made one of the corpse Fiends explode, Da’s jaw dropped, but Leafclever shut his eyes as if the news pained him.
“After that, she refused to use the pyramid,” Katya said.
“What?” Da asked. He glanced at Leafclever. “Why?”
“Is there more to the tale?” Leafclever asked.
Katya went on, trying to swallow her anger and speak only the facts; she couldn’t help but linger over the deaths that could have been prevented if Redtrue had used the power she’d created. When she came to her own attack, she could feel her mother’s eyes boring into her.
All through her tale, thunder had rumbled in the distance. When she finished, it boomed nearly overhead, and the rain began. The temperature dropped so sharply, Katya shivered. She glanced out the tent flap to see what remained of the campfires gutter and die. Soon, it wouldn’t be rain but snow.
“At least we can take comfort in the fact that Darren is dead,” Da said. “But we should talk about this new weapon.”
“There is no new weapon,” Leafclever said. “We cannot turn the adsna against itself. To avoid creating these Fiends or other evil, one must use the adsna as it is meant to be used: in harmony with the world.”
“You think the corpse Fiends unnatural,” Da said, “against the adsna. Destroying them should be just like putting out a fire that someone started.”
He shook his head. “Part of them is human.”
“Part of them was human,” Count Mathias said. “They don’t even bleed.”
Leafclever shut his eyes as if the horror was too much to contemplate. Katya sympathized a little, remembering when she’d first encountered a corpse Fiend, the disgust she’d felt, but that hadn’t stopped her from killing them.
“We cannot use such a pyramid again, not against these corpses or Fiends themselves,” Leafclever said with a tone of finality. Dayscout said something in Allusian, his tone pleading. Leafclever shook his head. “I will speak to Redtrue, and we will find another way.”
Katya glanced at her father, too tired to fight. He nodded toward the tent flap, dismissing her. Ma squeezed Katya’s arm before she left, a little motherly concern that could be expressed in front of non-family.
Katya squelched through the mud back to her tent. She sat inside, stripped out of her wet, muddy gear, wincing both at the pain in her shoulder, the soreness of her muscles, and the dull ache in her throat. For a moment, she just sat in her blankets and thought of nothing. Darren’s death brought her no joy, not in the face of all they had yet to accomplish. And with this new conflict in the camp, Starbride seemed very far away.
“May I come in?” Redtrue asked from outside.
Katya blinked at the entrance and didn’t know what to say.
“It is raining,” Redtrue said.
“I know.”
Redtrue’s sigh carried even through the tent wall. “I have news of Starbride.”
“Come on, then. But you better not be using that to come in and make more excuses.”
Frowning, Redtrue sat down inside the tent, laying her wet cloak close to the entrance. “I’m sorry you and Castelle were hurt. I’m sorry for all the people who died.”
Katya remained silent.
Redtrue rolled her lips under. “I contacted the pyradisté again, and I did not stop berating him until I secured a promise that he would find Starbride tomorrow.”
“And you think he’ll honor his promise? Or you’ll haunt his dreams?”
She slipped her cloak back on. “I shall tell you when I’ve found her.”
Katya barred the way out of the tent. “You helped me before out of pity. Now you do it out of guilt.”
“And so?”
“Thank you, but as long as you hold the key to victory, the guilt will stay with you.”
“Let me pass. I have other visits to make this night.”
Katya scooted out of the way, wondering if Redtrue was going to visit Castelle and then realizing that, at the moment, she couldn’t care less.
She laid back and let memories surround her until she could almost feel the warmth of Starbride’s body next to hers.
Chapter Twenty-two
Starbride
“Here.” Drive stopped at a red alley door. She kicked it open with one swift movement and waved everyone inside.
Starbride hurried into a small storeroom lined with shelves, most of them holding ceramic bowls and glass bottles. The overpowering scent of vanilla oil and incense rolled over her, and she covered her mouth with one sleeve. “Where are we? A scent shop?”
Drive shut the door and put a large jar in front of it to keep it closed. “It’s a brothel, but it doesn’t open until later.”
“A…what?” Starbride pulled back from touching one of the shelves.
“The only one who lives here is the proprietress,” Drive said. “I’ll tell her we’re here before she comes downstairs with her cudgel.”
Starbride swallowed a few times and hoped a cudgel was a weapon. She knelt beside the unconscious Maia and Hugo. “I didn’t know they had brothels in Marienne.”
“They have brothels everywhere,” Ruin said. “We’re just lucky Drive knows this one.” He nudged Fury. “Remind me to ask her how she knows, eh? Now, let me take a look at your injuries.” He examined Scarra’s swollen eye and Fury’s oddly hanging shoulder, and then had Scarra and Pennynail help him pop Fury’s shoulder back into place.
Starbride tried to shut her ears against the sickening crunch and examined Maia with a pyramid. The pyramid in her neck remained dark and inactive. Still, they couldn’t just leave it in there. “Ruin, can your monks remove a pyramid from Maia’s neck?”
“Well, the Fiend king had to get it in there somehow. That means we can get it out, though we might have to seek a surgeon from outside our ranks. Can you keep her unconscious until we return to the chapterhouse?”
“I hope so.” In the meantime, Starbride tucked a suppression pyramid into Hugo’s coat. He’d dropped his necklace somewhere in the chapterhouse, and unlike Maia, he didn’t need a pyramid to keep his Fiend awake.
“I’ll find Drive,” Ruin said.
“Don’t get sidetracked,” Scarra called.
Starbride pressed a pyramid to Maia’s forehead, looking into her thoughts as well as keeping her asleep.
Maia’s mind was a jumble, like any sleeping person, but also oily and hard to see, as if the creature inside her had coated her thoughts in slime. She’d been assigned to the strength chapterhouse by her father, with orders to send for him if she discovered Starbride or any important fugitives, orders she’d ignored.
Starbride smiled at that until she realized why Maia had disobeyed. She didn’t defy her father for the sake of her conscience; it was the Fiend. Beyond murderous brutality was a need to be solitary. The Fiend that had merged with Maia wasn’t happy obeying Ro
land’s orders. Starbride bet the others felt the same. Maia’s human side recognized that she had to work with her father in order to win, but the Fiend took any little chance to rebel. Maia thought she could handle Starbride on her own; she’d relished the chance to sink her claws into flesh.
Starbride hurried away from that memory and gleaned everything she could about Roland instead. Katya and the royals weren’t inside the palace. Starbride had known that, but it still filled her with relief to have it confirmed. Roland suspected they’d fled the city; he’d sent Darren with a host of corpse Fiends to find them.
And Darren hadn’t yet returned. Another wave of relief washed over Starbride. Katya and her family were still on the run, and Starbride bet they were half a step ahead of Darren and building allies in the countryside.
She looked for other clues to Roland’s plans, but she didn’t know how useful they would prove to be. Roland would soon know that Starbride had captured his daughter. He’d change his plans accordingly. Starbride’s stomach turned over as she saw that if she had chosen to go to the largest knowledge chapterhouse that day, she would have met Roland himself.
Starbride pulled away from Maia’s memories and brushed a strand of hair away from her face.
Hugo began to stir. He sagged against the wall as if his head was too heavy to hold up. “Is she going to be all right?”
“I’ll do what I can,” Starbride said. “Listen, Hugo… You can’t take your necklace off again. If you had gotten away from us, your Fiend would have hurt innocent people.”
He smiled, too tired, it seemed, to manage a blush. “I knew I’d attack her first. Fiends like to fight each other.”
“And if you’d killed her?”
“I couldn’t let her hurt you.”
Starbride glanced at Pennynail, but he shrugged. Hugo knew Starbride would never forsake Katya, but it seemed he would do as he wished whatever the truth was. She couldn’t command him not to have a crush on her.
“Would someone like to tell us what the f—” Scarra cleared her throat. “What’s going on?”
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