Yanchasa walked at her side in the darkened passage, so close that they would have knocked into one another had he been real. “I came to it more slowly than you did.”
“And you were living on top of the crystal your whole life.”
“The only issue of the mind I ever had to deal with was the odd case of cowardice from one of my troops.”
Was that what was happening to her? Fear? If she couldn’t master this power, she’d be less than useless. She’d become a liability. She stopped in the passages heading out of the palace and changed direction, heading for Katya’s apartment. If anyone could give her a rousing speech about bravery, it was Katya.
“I used to get lost in these passages all the time,” she said.
“I know the way.”
Starbride winced. But Yanchasa lived in her head, why did it matter if he sometimes riffled her memories? At least he could see what she remembered and not become confused by it. She paused outside the secret door, her Darkstrong-cursed doubts rising again. She let the adsna flow until she felt surer of herself and lifted a hand to knock.
Yanchasa’s spectral touch brushed her shoulder. “Wait, daughter. Listen.”
Starbride pressed her ear to the wall and used flesh to augment her hearing. Several voices. It took a moment to make them out.
“I don’t want to do it this way.” That was Katya, her voice moving as if she was pacing.
“Something happened while we were out there.” Freddie’s low rasp. Starbride’s cheeks burned as he told them of her weakness at the abandoned tavern and then their words in the woods. “She’s changing, but I don’t know if it’s for the better. It’s as if she’s fighting Yanchasa one minute and being it the next.”
“She seems a little better,” Hugo said, her stalwart supporter. “More in control, warmer.”
“But unpredictable,” Freddie said. “I think sometimes the Fiend is speaking through her.”
Oh, that again.
“Maybe all she needs is time,” Katya said.
That was what she’d been saying all along!
“Time to go crazier,” Freddie said. “Fantastic. What if we give her time, and the Fiend just takes over? Your brother’s plan might be the only way, Katya. I can do it quick. She’ll barely feel it.”
Starbride’s belly went cold.
“I just don’t think we’re there yet,” Katya said. “I don’t want to hurt her.”
Starbride tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. “Yet?” she mouthed. Yanchasa put a finger to her lips.
A knock sounded on the door, and Starbride heard several of them talking at once, making out the addition of Dawnmother’s voice.
“What happened?” Katya asked.
Dawnmother broke every confidence and told them how Starbride had whined and cried and picked at her pyramid. Shame and anger and the harsh tang of betrayal filled Starbride’s mouth.
“We thought they needed time to adapt to you,” Yanchasa said, shaking her head sadly, “but now I see they never will.”
“Where is she now?” Katya asked.
“Gone into the city to collect her thoughts. I waited until she had time to make it out of the palace before I came. She might return at any time.”
“Make a decision before this goes any further,” Freddie said.
“I don’t want to see Miss Starbride hurt,” Hugo added.
Katya sighed loudly. “We need Redtrue. Doesn’t this plan fall under the fighting evil with evil banner?”
Starbride’s fingers dug furrows in the stones at the sound of Redtrue’s name.
“We are ultimately talking about freeing Starbride from evil’s influence,” Freddie said. “I don’t see how Redtrue could disagree. We’re not using dark magic.”
No, Starbride thought, just Freddie doing something to her that was quick so she could barely feel it. Did he plan to bash her brains in or shove a knife through her ribs?
“I think you’re the only one who can make this decision, Princess,” Hugo said.
“We all care about her,” Katya said.
Starbride tried to give her a scathing look through the wall. Who conspired against someone they cared about?
When Katya spoke, Starbride barely heard, even with her augmented senses. “All right.” Those damnable words again.
Starbride stepped back as if the words shoved her before she leaned in and listened to their plan. They were going to collect a few more of their friends and then ambush her as soon as she returned from the city. Freddie volunteered himself and Brutal to hurt her. Katya simply mumbled assent.
Starbride sneered. Crowe had been right. None of the Umbriels liked to do their own dirty work. Where would Katya be during all this? Standing off to the side, waiting for Redtrue to strip Starbride of her power, and then she’d rush in to pick up the pieces?
Starbride’s feet were moving, though she barely felt them. She wanted to beat her fists against the stone, to make it quake, to shake Farraday to its bones. Trust was all she’d asked for, a little faith. She was making a transition, couldn’t they see that, and all she needed was time.
But no, they wanted Starbride to put the past behind her just like that, to take the grief and terror and anger of the past six months and return to her chirpy, helpful, normal self, the woman who’d been happy to stand in the back and be invisible. And that was if they didn’t manage to kill her by attacking her in the hall. The very idea that they could overpower her proved that they still underestimated her.
“It’s an outrage, daughter, truly.”
“I led the rebellion!”
“You were practically abandoned.”
“I brought Reinholt to heel, I invented a way to avoid detection by the corpse Fiends, I helped free the monks, and I helped so many of the citizens.”
“You captured the enemy and stripped him of his power!”
“Exactly!” Acid burned from her mouth to her stomach.
“Where is the gratitude?”
Starbride slapped her own hip so hard the pain traveled down her leg. “Your guess is as good as mine!”
“If it were me, daughter, well…”
“What?”
“I don’t want to compare my past to your present.”
Starbride thought swiftly of the peasants conspiring to bring down the council of five. “You think that if they can’t cleanse me they’ll find some way to imprison me?”
Yanchasa waved around her. “If the Belshrethen had attacked the council when we were together, things would have been different. But you have no one to help you. Everyone has turned against you.”
“Everyone but you. I’m so sorry I tried to push you away.”
Yanchasa smiled softly. “I’ll help you all I can, daughter. You could flee.”
But as she fled, her connection to Yanchasa might grow weaker, and she wouldn’t feel the flow of the adsna as greatly. “No. I need as much power behind me as possible.” And she knew where she could get it. If they wanted to attack her, let them try when she was at full strength. She’d go to the…
Starbride blinked. She was already on the path to the capstone cavern, but she couldn’t remember turning. The snow on her boots flashed in her mind’s eye.
“We have to hurry, daughter,” Yanchasa said.
Starbride shook her head and felt a tingle within her chest. She could put out a call. There were still a couple of children within reach. That was good. She’d need their strength.
“Already done,” Yanchasa said.
Starbride snarled. “I am in control here.”
“Of course, daughter, of course.”
“We need more allies, or did you already think of that, too?” Starbride focused through her mind magic and sought a power the adsnazi had shown her: the dream walk. They used sleeping, restful minds to be less intrusive, to admit speaking, the sharing of emotions, but nothing else. Starbride didn’t have time for that. She thought first of Master Bernard.
“No,” Yanchasa s
aid. “He is hungry for knowledge, but he’s known Katya longer.”
That was true. She remembered how quickly he’d turned against her at Lady Hilda’s trial. Instead, she aimed for Bea.
The girl was resting, and Starbride felt her mind jump awake at a touch. “Starbride, where—”
“Below the palace.”
Shock thrummed down the line. “How are you—”
“Just listen. Because of the Fiend king, the crown has decided to leash all the pyradistés, starting with us.”
Her mind was guarded, shocked. “Truly?”
“Why would I lie?”
“Oh, there are many reasons for a good lie,” Yanchasa said.
Starbride waved to stop him from making her laugh. She sensed that Bea believed her, but something else lurked in Bea’s thoughts: the desire for revenge. A royal had hurt her; now she would hurt them. Still, she wouldn’t be enough. “We need to get to Crowe’s old office.” She changed direction, telling Bea how to meet her in the secret passageways.
“Why?” Yanchasa asked.
“If I can get the pyramid that Crowe used to commune with the capstone, we can drain your energy into it.”
“And go where?”
They’d be spotted slipping out of the castle, and Starbride didn’t want to unleash wanton destruction, not yet. “The Belshrethen attacked the council separately?” Her mind flashed back to the pages she’d seen in Katya’s room.
“Oh, daughter, are you thinking—”
“You agreed we need more allies.”
His delight filled her. “There is one more who could aid us,” Yanchasa said.
Starbride nodded. They had to stop by the dungeon.
Chapter Thirty-three
Katya
Katya paced when she wanted to run. She supposed it didn’t matter which she did as long as she stayed out of sight. Brutal and Dawnmother waited in the hall near Starbride’s apartment. Freddie and Hugo lurked in the secret passageways. They had both routes covered, and now they only needed Starbride to return.
Maia and Castelle shooed servants and guards away, leaving Katya and Redtrue nothing to do but wait. Redtrue had invited more of the adsnazi into the palace, but Katya didn’t want them getting too close. They couldn’t have Starbride sensing their pyramids.
Katya rubbed her temples. “I can’t go through with this.”
Redtrue frowned at the wall. She’d had the same look of constipated anger since she’d arrived.
“No words of wisdom?” Katya asked. “No assurances that this is the path we must take?”
“The capstone feels different.”
Katya’s heart turned to flint. “Different how?”
“Fainter, maybe.” She shook her head. “Is there something in the way, or has she done something to it?”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“Would you stop chattering?”
Katya sputtered a moment, but Redtrue didn’t look at her. “Something’s not right. I felt it when I first entered the palace, but I can’t tell quite what.”
“You’ve known something was wrong with the capstone since you arrived, and you didn’t say anything?” She clenched her fists to avoid putting them around Redtrue’s neck.
“I didn’t want to say until I was certain! Where are you going?”
Katya strode away without answering. “Dawnmother, Brutal!” she called. “Fetch Castelle and Maia,” she said over her shoulder to Redtrue. “And someone go get Hugo and Freddie.”
When they were all in the hall again, speaking over one another, Katya said, “Something’s gone wrong, something with the capstone.”
“How do you know?” Freddie asked.
“I can feel it,” Redtrue said, “but whether it is Starbride or—”
“It has to be her,” Brutal said.
Maia nodded. “Who else?”
“But she said she was going into the city, why go to the capstone?” Dawnmother said.
“Something changed her mind?” Freddie asked.
Katya ground her teeth into her lip. “Or she knows what we’re up to.”
“It could be Yanchasa making her go there,” Castelle said.
Hugo threw up his arms. “We’re not even sure she’s there!”
Katya shifted from one foot to the other. They could venture into the city, search for Starbride, search the palace. Maybe they were wrong, and Redtrue’s feelings had nothing to do with Starbride.
The Crowe in her gave her a stern look. There were no coincidences, not with this.
“It’s her,” Katya said, feeling the surety in her bones. “It’s her, and she knows I’ve turned against her.”
“Can she hear through walls?” Hugo asked.
Katya strode to her apartment, the others keeping on her heels. She went to the mirror that guarded the secret passageway and toggled the switch. When she stepped inside, she didn’t know what she expected to see, a note perhaps. She didn’t have an ounce of pyradisté talent, but she knew Starbride had been standing here, listening while they plotted. On some level she’d known the entire time. She’d wanted to get caught.
Or maybe she was just imagining things. As she stepped out, a gouge in the stone caught her eye. No, several gouges, spaced apart like fingers, something only the strength of a Fiend could do.
“What do we do?” Brutal asked. “Katya?”
“We have to go down there.”
“Without the element of surprise?” Freddie asked.
Katya nodded. Better to take Yanchasa head on. “You don’t have to come.” She could feel their scoffs as much as hear them.
“We’re going to need the other adsnazi,” Redtrue said. “We dare not confront her without them.”
Katya pictured all the people surrounding her laid out on the floor, hypnotized or dead with one wave of Starbride’s hand. “Go, be quick.” Everyone but Castelle and Redtrue stayed with her, counting off the minutes. “Maybe I should go, try talking to her again.”
“Should we tell your father?” Maia asked quietly.
Katya shook her head. Her father was in council, and what could he do besides pace and wait with them? But what would he do if their plan didn’t work?
Katya knew she couldn’t strike Starbride down, no matter what, not even if Starbride had wholly taken on Yanchasa’s Aspect. When Katya had become a Fiend, Starbride had embraced her. How could she do differently?
But would Yanchasa force them into a conflict? Freddie and Hugo had told her that Starbride seemed to defy Yanchasa in order to save them. “Maybe I should just go,” she said again.
Brutal’s large hands settled across her shoulders. His fingers dug in deep, making her gasp before the pressure spread across her muscles, soothing them. “You can’t let go of hope,” he said.
“Hope that we can beat my love into unconsciousness so we can finally help her?”
“All we have to do is distract her. The adsnazi will do the rest.”
“They won’t be able to hypnotize her, Brutal.”
His fingers kept up their work, and Katya could feel herself relaxing. “They can cleanse her,” he said. “We just need to give them time.”
“So the plan is to let her beat on us until they have room to work? I’d hug you if this massage wasn’t so wonderful.”
“I know the feeling,” Maia said.
Katya wanted to demand details, but she kept her mouth shut. She’d leave the prying to Starbride after all this business was done. Her ferreter of secrets would be all the spy she’d ever need.
“Did she keep any corpse Fiends?” Katya asked.
Hugo shook his head. “She killed them all and let the wild Fiends go.”
“You saw them leave?”
Freddie and Hugo glanced at one another, and Katya could tell that was a no. “She might have kept some.”
“Can’t the adsnazi take care of them?” Brutal asked.
“We’re putting a lot on adsnazi shoulders.”
“What
’s the alternative?” Maia asked. “Summon the Guard?”
There weren’t that many of them left. “We need Lord Vincent.”
Freddie snorted. “He’s a good fighter, I guess.”
“Will he leave the kids?” Brutal asked.
“I’m going to convince him.” Katya strode from her apartment without waiting for acknowledgement. It was movement, something she needed, and if the others wouldn’t let her go after Starbride alone…
Vierdrin and Bastian squealed when Katya entered their apartment, running for her at full speed. Reinholt rose from a settee, his face confused but welcoming. “Katya, what’s going on?”
She must have forgotten how to use the court mask while she’d been away. She glanced at the children.
Reinholt knelt. “Why don’t you two go into the nursery and play with Vincent?”
“Actually,” Katya said, “it’s Vincent I need to talk to.”
“Ah, then I’ll go into the nursery. Funny, we both watch over the children, but not from the same room anymore.” He led the children away, and Vincent came out. Katya wondered if he’d had his ear pressed to the door.
“Highness.” He bowed. “I’m at your service.”
She told him a little of what had happened, adding that she might need his strength against any errant corpse or wild Fiends.
He listened with his usual lack of expression, but he cast a pained look at the nursery door. His duty was clear: as champion, he guarded the youngest heirs, but Katya was a member of the family he’d pledged his life to serve.
Before she had a chance to speak, Reinholt emerged alone. “They’re fine,” he said as Vincent took a step toward him. “You should go, Vincent. Go and help my sister.”
“You won’t be leaving the palace,” Katya said. “Not really.”
“And I’ll stay here,” Reinholt said. “There’s a secret door nearby, and if anything happens, they will be in my arms and away in a flash.” He chuckled. “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s running away and hiding.”
Vincent didn’t argue, but Katya saw the hesitation in his eyes. Dereliction of duty went against his soul, and she could tell he didn’t trust Reinholt to do the right thing.
But this wasn’t a Reinholt Katya knew very well, neither the charming prince nor the spoiled brat. This one was trying to reinvent himself, and he’d made it clear he wanted to start with responsibility.
The Fiend Queen Page 30
