Katya lay on his legs and gasped. Everyone followed suit amidst the remains of the furniture. Katya heard the clatter of wood shifting and glanced up to see Hugo peeking at Brutal’s chest. “He’s healed.”
They all sighed so loudly it was like a shout. Katya couldn’t help a chuckle, and as the adrenaline abandoned her, it turned into a guffaw until gales of laughter shook her. They all cackled like mad idiots who’d just turned their friend into a Fiend.
Soft hands pulled Katya to her feet, and she wrapped her arms around Starbride.
“You make a lovely battering ram,” Starbride said.
“And you’re my hero.” Katya kissed her long and deep, as she’d wanted to every moment since they’d laid eyes on each other again. “Will he be all right?”
“Should be. The pyramid wound I gave him won’t have healed, but it’s far more manageable than a hole through his chest.”
“We’re lucky his Fiend didn’t know what it was doing,” Hugo said.
“Very lucky.” Katya recalled how clumsy Hilda and Darren had been the first few times they’d transformed. Even without control, the Fiend had to get used to its new body. Katya pressed a kiss against Starbride’s forehead. “He would have killed us without you.”
Hugo snorted. “He would have died in the first place without her.”
“Afraid I’m not giving my love enough credit, Hugo?” Katya asked.
He stammered, wide-eyed, but Starbride waved his protests away. “She’s only teasing, Hugo.”
When he looked to Katya, she nodded, granting him a reprieve. She wanted to stay in that room forever, to keep the giddy mood.
*
Brutal awoke before the others returned. His eyes snapped open, and he bolted upright so fast, they all scrambled back. “Maia?”
“Here.” She knelt, and they gazed at each other for a few seconds. What had passed between them seemed too large for words.
When he stood, he clasped both of Katya’s arms. “See,” he said, “I told you you’d come back for me.”
“I’m glad you didn’t have any doubts.” Averie’s face drifted past her mind’s eye, and she had to swallow. “Brutal, I’m so happy.”
He ducked close to her ear. “I understand now, about the Fiend.”
“How? You can’t remember. No one can unless they’re joined with their Fiend!”
“It’s just something that I feel, some enlightenment I received. I feel like I understand you more.”
Katya breathed a laugh and had to chalk that up to the unknowable, at least by someone who’d never set foot on Best’s and Berth’s path. “And I learned that trying to knock you down is like trying to fell a tree.”
He moved to shake Hugo’s hand, and he bowed low to Ma, who gave him a gracious nod. Dawnmother waved away his thanks and hugged him, Starbride joining her.
“We’re so glad you’re all right,” Starbride said as he wrapped his arms around both of them.
After the greetings were done, they stood in a silence that managed to be comfortable and strained, companions reunited yet still with hard tasks in front of them.
“Should we go looking for the others?” Maia asked.
“Best to stay put,” Katya said. “We might miss them.”
Brutal rubbed his hands together. “Any wounds need looking at?” He pointed at Katya. “I seem to remember you being stabbed in the back, and I see a new cut on your arm.”
At the mere mention, her back started to throb. “The arm’s not bad, but I think my back is bleeding again.” Ma had taken Brutal’s medical bag when they’d left him, and now she happily returned it. Katya grimaced as she saw the needle and thread come out. “Can’t we just bandage it?”
“Not if it’s going to keep reopening.” When she didn’t move, he gave her an uncompromising look. “Do I have to sit on you?”
She glared at him. “And there I was happy that you’re well.”
She shrugged out of her coat and lay face down on the mattress after the others had cleared it from the debris. Brutal lifted her shirt, undid her bandages, and clucked his tongue. “I wish we had some of the count’s brandy, but water will have to do.”
He sluiced some over her wound, and Katya cursed. Starbride sat at the head of the mattress and held her hands. Katya grunted and gnashed her teeth as the needle tore little holes in her flesh and dragged the thread through. Starbride smoothed her hair from her face, whispering loving words in her ear until Katya didn’t know if she squirmed from the pain or the delights that Starbride promised.
When the others returned, Brutal saw to their wounds, Scarra hovering over his shoulder as he talked her through what he did. All the while, Redtrue glared and looked him up and down as if trying to determine what had been done to him.
Freddie remained in the hall, talking to Hugo. When Brutal took a final look around, he said, “I guess Pennynail’s all right then. Skulking around?”
“Not exactly.” Katya quickly told him of Pennynail’s real identity. He’d had enough surprises for the day.
When she waved Freddie inside, Brutal said, “I know you.”
Freddie smirked. “I get that a lot.”
“No, not from the Butcher stories.” Brutal’s eyes narrowed. “We’ve met. In a tavern?”
Starbride burst out laughing. “The night we went out to see what the townsfolk thought of Appleton’s murder, in your promised den of ill repute that was nothing of the sort, Freddie.”
Freddie’s grin made Katya think of the laughing Jack mask, even without the paint. “You thought I was giving Starbride some trouble, Brutal. You came after me in the crowd.”
“But I got distracted by that other man.” He pointed at Freddie’s lean frame. “You’re lucky, friend. I would have torn you in half.”
“You would have tried.”
Dawnmother tsked. “You said the same thing, boastful, right after we left the tavern.”
“Knows when he’s beaten,” Brutal said. “A good frame of mind for a fighter, though being beaten teaches us just as much about the universe as winning, brother.”
“The universe and I know as much of each other as we’d like, brother.” Freddie opened his arms slightly, and Brutal moved in, lifting Freddie clear off the floor as they embraced.
Some of the tension left Katya’s shoulders. Brutal had sparred with Pennynail, and to a member of the strength chapterhouse, that meant they knew one another. A handy trick if one could only believe in it.
Chapter Ten
Starbride
While Katya asked Castelle and Freddie about the last pyramid they’d taken care of, Starbride took the time to sit. Yes, they still had work to do. Yes, Roland was still out there. But that morning they’d started a war, and that afternoon it was still raging, and they were wounded and tired. Pain had crept up Starbride’s shoulders and to her head, recalling the headache that had plagued her earlier, though this pain was only a shadow.
Starbride pulled the bit of cheese and bread Dawnmother had given her from her satchel. She hadn’t been hungry before Brutal, but ravenousness rolled over her as quickly as fatigue, and she had to force herself not to take huge bites.
In one corner, Brutal and Maia sat together, eating and sipping from their water skins. They didn’t speak, but it seemed they didn’t need to. She laid her head on his shoulder as she ate, and when Scarra and Hugo sat cross-legged in front of them, they both smiled. Dawnmother wandered over, touched Maia’s shoulder, and whispered something in her ear.
Queen Catirin sat by herself, eyes closed, resting against the wall. Starbride thought she had the right idea: rest while they could. Still, Starbride didn’t think she could sleep if she had a featherbed. Maybe if Roland were dead. And if Katya climbed in with her.
The fantasy faded as Redtrue settled next to her. “You know what I’m going to say,” Redtrue said in Allusian.
“You want to know what I did or how or why.”
“I don’t care how or why. As for what, I have a
n idea. My question is, how could you let these people corrupt you so?”
“I happen to be in love with one of ‘these people,’ and I’m friends with a great deal more. I’m helping them fight a Fiendish madman.”
“Fighting Fiends with Fiends.” Redtrue sneered. “Those are words from Katya’s mouth.”
“I speak with my own voice.”
“You should have come to the adsnazi.”
Starbride fought not to squeeze her bread into crumbs. “The adsnazi never bothered to look for me. How many potentials have they missed?”
“We do not force ourselves on anyone.”
“And what if a person would like to learn but just doesn’t know she can?”
“Those who truly desire to learn the ways of the adsna always find us.”
Starbride took a deep breath, determined not to get into an argument about her own feelings. But what was it that drew some to the adsnazi and not others? Was it more than just the call of power? From what Crowe had told her, she wasn’t weak when it came to pyramid magic. He’d claimed she was as strong as him in some areas, just lacking in practice. Did only the exceptionally strong gravitate toward the adsnazi, and those with lesser gifts never felt the need?
“So they called to you?” Starbride asked. “What did they say they felt? What did you feel?”
Redtrue shifted, and Starbride could see the discomfort in eyes that wouldn’t meet her own.
“You don’t want to talk about it?” Starbride asked. “You seem so glad to talk of everything else.”
“As Horsestrong said, knowledge is a guide, not a destination.”
Starbride wished her hair wasn’t braided up so she could throw it over one shoulder. “So guide me. Did you hear their voices in your mind?”
“Adsnazi do not—”
“Then how? Was your body nudged in their direction? Did they put a letter and some sweets under your pillow?”
“Nonsense.”
“Curiosity. I’m known for it, ask anyone. I remember when the adsnazi came to Newhope. Were they testing the children who followed them through the streets? Did you get too close, and they found you out?”
“We do not haul people from their beds in the middle of the night.”
Starbride thought of what Captain Ursula might say. “So you felt pulled to them in the middle of the night?”
“I did not—”
Dawnmother sat on the other side of her. “I heard Allusian and thought I’d come over. Maia seems much better now that Brutal is back on his feet.” She looked back and forth between them. “Am I interrupting?”
“Redtrue was just telling me how she became an adsnazi.”
“I wondered about that,” Dawnmother said. “Did you leave your mistress, or was it before you were bound to one?”
Redtrue’s nostrils flared, but she said nothing.
Starbride stared at both of them until her brain caught up. “Ah.”
Dawnmother nodded. “I’ve known quite a few fellow servants with ‘true’ in their names.”
“I am not a servant.” She sounded as if she had to drag the words past her bile.
“What’s wrong with being a servant?” Dawnmother asked.
Redtrue’s mouth worked for a moment. “I have to…” She stood and moved to the other side of the room.
Dawnmother snorted. “That shut her up.”
“That was rather mean, Dawn.”
“I won’t let her turn her nose up at you or me. I’m betting that any mystical calling she felt was only her running away from a life she didn’t want.”
“But if everyone who finds them is just seeking a new life, and yet everyone who finds them also becomes an adsnazi, that could mean there are many more adsnazi among our people than anyone has ever thought!”
Dawnmother shrugged as if it didn’t matter.
Katya settled on Starbride’s other side, and Starbride leaned into her without thinking. “What did you say to Redtrue?” Katya said. “I’ve never seen an Allusian turn so pale.”
“Dawnmother guessed that she’s servant caste. Evidently, it embarrasses her.”
“When she told me in the adsnazi camp, she was surprised I didn’t know. Something about the servant caste being better at quoting Horsestrong.”
“Helps to keep your mistress on the right track,” Dawnmother said. “I’ll see how the others are doing.” After a wink, she made the rounds again, stopping to speak with each person.
As Katya slipped an arm around Starbride’s shoulders, she said, “Well, which of us is going to say which part?”
“You’ll have to give me more of a hint,” Starbride said. “We’ve said a lot over the…”
Katya chuckled. “Were you about to say years?”
“We haven’t known each other a year yet.”
“Hard to believe.”
Starbride sighed. How could so much life be packed into such little time? “What did you mean about saying our parts?”
“Any little time we’ve gotten to be together, one of us says that we have to return to the real world, and the other one asks why we can’t stay like this just a little longer.”
“As I recall, most of the times, we were in bed—”
“Or the bath.”
Starbride’s belly warmed at the thought. “Not in a room full of our friends while wounded and exhausted.”
“Makes it trickier, to be sure.”
Starbride kissed her softly. “You are a scoundrel.”
“I’m constantly surprised by our lives. Brutal’s come back from the dead with a Fiend, given to him by Maia. Pennynail is a famous murderer.”
“Falsely accused.”
“A story I must hear at some point. My mother has become a Fiend twice today in order to save my life. And I’m supposed to be champing at the bit to get out there and fight some more, maybe take Roland down once and for all, but I can’t bring myself to move from this spot.”
Starbride knew how she felt. Even after they’d finished Roland, another challenge lay ahead of them. If she’d still been living in Allusia and the Farradains had come asking for help, Starbride would have had a list of conditions, and she bet the others did, too. She loved Katya, loved Katya’s family and friends, but that didn’t stop her from loving her homeland. The war would give the Allusians leave to stand their ground and not be pushed around by Farradains anymore.
“What are you thinking?” Katya asked.
“That it’s going to be me who says we should move soon.”
Katya held up her thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “You beat me to it by this much.”
While they were repacking their gear, Queen Catirin approached Katya and Starbride, a slight smile on her tranquil face. Starbride envied that look even as she wondered what depths it hid.
Before Katya could ask, Catirin said, “I’m not going with you, dearheart.”
Katya nodded. “You’re tired. I understand.”
“You better not be calling me old, Katyarianna, unless you want your mother to show you up in front of all these people.”
Katya bowed. “I’d never dream of it.”
Catirin waved the bow away. “You’re right, anyway. And now that you have young Hugo’s Fiend to come forth whenever you need it, you don’t need me.”
“I always need you.”
Catirin squeezed her arm. “Dearest daughter, I know that’s not true no matter how often I wish it was.”
Starbride was afraid to move, to break the delicate bond, but she also didn’t want to intrude. She tried to step away, but Catirin reached for her.
“I haven’t forgotten you.” To Starbride’s astonishment, Catirin kissed her cheek. “I didn’t make you as welcome as Einrich did, but that changes now.” She took a hand from each of them. “I see the inexorable path the spirits have set you on. Your wedding is going to rival Reinholt’s.”
Starbride caught Katya’s slightly crazed smile and returned it with one of her own. “I don’t suppose we can
just skip ahead to that,” Starbride said, “like jumping ahead in your favorite book?”
“Soon,” Katya said, “that I can promise.”
Catirin drew herself up. “Now, I’m going to wait with the baroness, and if we see an opportunity to sneak out of the palace, we’ll take it. In the meantime, I’ll be asking all the spirits to watch over you.”
All that was left to do was find Roland, and as they trekked into the halls once again, Starbride had to wonder how they could accomplish such a task. She’d thought he might come here, but he hadn’t shown himself.
“We could clear the palace level by level,” Hugo said. “See if there are any more corpse Fiends or wild Fiends, also see if my”—he coughed—“if he’s hiding here somewhere.”
Katya shook her head. “That might take too long.”
“He’ll want to protect the capstone,” Starbride said. “It’s the only thing in the palace he’s got left.”
“You think he can do something with it?” Katya asked.
Starbride shut out the sounds of Redtrue’s muttering. “I don’t know if he can until five years have passed again.”
“Well, if he was going to try, now’s the time.” Katya glanced around her. “There’s an entrance to the secret passageways in one of the basements nearby. That should get us close to the tunnels.”
“The basement near the front doors of the palace?” Freddie asked. “Should we bar them while we’re there? If Roland isn’t in here, that’ll slow him down.”
Brutal shook his head. “The entire Guard couldn’t keep Roland out the first time. He won’t be stopped by a barred door.”
“I can live with slowing him down,” Katya said.
They’d been angling toward the front doors while they spoke. As they jogged down a long hallway that eventually led to the grand staircase, Redtrue cried, “Stop!”
Everyone skidded to a halt. Starbride took a deep breath as she turned. Maybe Redtrue had finally figured out what they’d done to Brutal and was taking her leave. Well, Starbride was through trying to explain herself. They’d seen a way to save Brutal, and they’d taken it. What more was there to say?
The Fiend Queen Page 9
