Starbride didn’t know what to say. Lord Hugo had the right road, but the wrong end, as Horsestrong once said. “Let’s just hope Lady Hilda isn’t following you following me following her, or we really will be in the middle of a farce, Lord Hugo.”
“I’m surprised at Princess Katyarianna for not giving you an escort.”
“Actually, I’m going to surprise her…on a hunting trip. It was a last-minute decision.”
“I heard that she likes to hunt. So, a surprise, eh? No wonder you didn’t stop for trousers or a sidesaddle.” He glanced at her legs, went crimson again, and stared ahead.
He clearly expected them to catch up with Katya right away and reveal themselves, and Katya would wonder what they were up to. Starbride would have to talk very quickly and dismiss Lord Hugo before he had a chance to speak or to see and hear anything he wasn’t supposed to.
Inside the forest, Katya was lost from sight, but the dust from her passage floated above the road. Starbride didn’t want to run her horse, even along the packed dirt. She couldn’t risk unseating herself. Part of her brain told her to just pack it in, to go back to the library, and study. If he was serious about protecting her, Lord Hugo would turn around with her. But then she thought of Katya leaving her behind and flirting with courtiers, and anger spurred her onward. She wouldn’t just be a convenience, even to a princess. And she wouldn’t let Katya go back on a promise. She remembered the kiss on Miss Greyson’s hand and leaned forward.
An hour passed, and Starbride made small talk with Lord Hugo about the court, about the weather, about Allusia. Well into their second hour, her answers became monosyllabic as worry tightened her insides. Katya’s dust cloud had disappeared.
“What’s wrong, Miss Starbride?” Lord Hugo asked.
“There’s no more dust.”
“Beg pardon?”
“The dust cloud is gone. Katya…Princess Katyarianna has either left us too far behind or she’s left the road.”
Lord Hugo took a long look around and frowned. “So, you decided at the last minute to surprise her, but you didn’t know her destination?”
Starbride shook her head, feeling more foolish with each passing second. Katya had left the road at some point, and Starbride hadn’t noticed where. And she didn’t know Lord Hugo, not really. She sidled her horse away from him.
“I know I’m always asking for forgiveness,” Lord Hugo said, “and I’m going to do it again now. Let’s return to Marienne. Perhaps you can think of another surprise?”
Starbride pressed her lips together. Oh, she’d have a surprise for Katya all right: scathing recrimination. Could she yell at Katya for leaving her in the woods if Katya didn’t know she was there?
They turned back toward Marienne, and Starbride stared at her horse’s neck and wondered what in Darkstrong’s name she’d been thinking. She hadn’t been thinking, that was the problem. She’d just reacted, and that wasn’t like her, not at all. Another trouble to lay at Katya’s feet. Starbride tried to tell herself to stop being unfair, but everything that had happened built up in her: meeting Katya and getting to know her, finding a friend and possibly more, and then being attacked and afterward being left out and feeling cheated. Her head felt like a jumble, never mind her heart.
“Don’t take it so badly, Miss Starbride,” Lord Hugo said. “Sometimes things don’t work out, that’s all”
“I’ll be all right, Lord Hugo.”
“Tell you what! Let’s watch the bushes and underbrush. Maybe we’ll be able to tell where she cut through.” His forced cheerfulness grated, but Starbride had to agree. There was no choice when someone was trying so hard to cheer her up.
“Ah,” he said a few minutes later, “I think I see something.” He dismounted and hurried to the ditch on the side of the road. “This bush has been flattened recently!” With one more step, he pitched headlong into the bush with a cry.
“Lord Hugo!” Starbride called. “Did you fall?” She slipped down from her horse and hurried over.
A dark-haired man stepped from the cover of the undergrowth. Older than Lord Hugo, around twenty, he was dressed in leather, a woodsman’s or a hunter’s outfit. He eyed Starbride with a grin. “Well, two for the price of one.”
Starbride stepped back toward her horse.
The young man held up an arm. “Whoa there, miss, stand fast unless you want your lord to suffer.”
Another man stepped from the underbrush, mid-twenties and large, his coloring and features similar to the younger man. Both had swords and knives at their belts, and the large man held Lord Hugo close, one hand over his mouth. Lord Hugo struggled, and the young man relieved him of his rapier and knife before the larger shoved him toward Starbride.
“Thieves!” Lord Hugo moved in front of Starbride. “You’ll not get away with this.”
Starbride jabbed him in the back, wishing he’d keep his tongue. She began to edge toward the horses. They’d shied away from the noise. She pulled on Lord Hugo’s coat and hoped he would take the hint. They needed to ride away at all speed. The shop flitted to the front of her memory, and she pushed it away.
The two robbers glanced at one another. “And how will you stop us, young lord?” the younger man said.
Starbride continued to back away, trying to drag Lord Hugo, but his chin inched up by degrees. She didn’t want to abandon him, but what could she do to help besides encourage him to run?
She could call for Katya. Starbride gathered breath for a scream, but someone grabbed her shoulder. Her breath left her in a rush, and she spun to face another man, this one in his thirties, his clothes a little better than the other two: a leather vest on top of a clean white shirt and cloth trousers. His hard blue eyes bored into her. “Cooperate,” he said, “and you won’t be hurt.”
“Let her go!” Lord Hugo cried. There was the crunch of feet on gravel, and someone tugged Starbride’s arm once before letting go. She tried to turn, but the bearded man grabbed her shoulders.
He frowned. “I’ve seen you before, or maybe I’ve just heard about you.”
Starbride tried to keep calm and think. Behind her, she heard a sharp cry and the sounds of a struggle. “What…do you want with me?”
“It’s not what I want, but it is fortuitous. We were hoping to catch one of her friends in our net, but now here you are.” He turned her around but kept hold of her shoulders. Lord Hugo was struggling to his feet. He grasped his stomach and faced the other two men who stood between him and Starbride. “But what should we do with your young friend?”
“Fight me like men!” Lord Hugo said. “One at a time!”
The younger man glanced over his shoulder and then gestured to the larger man. “Fight him, Cassius. He might even be an adequate swordsman.”
Cassius drew his short blade, and the younger man threw Lord Hugo’s rapier to the ground. Lord Hugo scooped it up and took a stance that seemed clumsy even to Starbride’s untrained eye. His whole body shook, and his wrist didn’t seem adequate to the task.
Cassius lumbered in with a quick jab. Lord Hugo darted out of the way like a bolt of lightning and stabbed Cassius in the shoulder. Cassius leapt back with a yelp.
Lord Hugo saluted with his rapier. “I am an exceptional swordsman.” He took a different stance, compact and protected, and then launched an attack. Better prepared, Cassius blocked, but Starbride saw blood dribble out of his leather sleeve, and he sought to keep his wounded arm behind him. Lord Hugo zipped and stabbed, and soon Cassius had more shallow cuts, more limbs to favor. Starbride began to hope they might get out of this, that whatever these men had planned would go up in smoke.
After a moment, though, the bearded man said, “Enough. Darren, stop this.”
The young man looked over his shoulder again. “Are you sure, my lord?”
“We’ve no more time to waste.”
As Darren lifted Lord Hugo’s knife, Starbride opened her mouth to shout, but the bearded man grabbed her throat, cutting off her voice and her air. Darr
en threw the knife into Lord Hugo’s back. With a cry, Lord Hugo pitched forward, and Cassius struck him across the face with the pommel of the short blade. The rapier fell from Lord Hugo’s grip as he collapsed into the dirt and lay still.
The bearded man released Starbride’s throat as stars danced before her eyes. With a harsh inhale, she coughed, and the bearded man’s breath whispered against her ear. “Scream and you join him.”
Starbride’s teeth came together. She tried to cross to Lord Hugo, but the bearded man wouldn’t let her go, and she could only watch his still form and fight despair. She rounded on the bearded man. “Is he dead? Did you kill him?”
“His pain is done. Your princess’s is just beginning.”
Starbride shrank back and snarled. “I will never help you, whatever you have planned.”
“All you need to do is be present.”
Starbride thought of the short table and the knife between her fingers. She gripped her bandage and tried to fight her panic.
The bearded man shook his head as if reading her mind. “No, no. We are not those ruffians.”
“We’re much…friendlier,” Darren said from behind her. His touch grazed her shoulder.
Starbride took a step away from Darren, her hatred for him growing every second. The bearded man gave him a level look over her head. “That’s enough, Darren. Did you help Cassius patch himself up?”
“Yes.” Darren moved closer. Starbride shifted away.
“You’re in for a short trip.” The bearded man reached in his trouser pocket and pulled out a pyramid. “And you don’t even need to remember it.” He held the pyramid in front of Starbride’s face, and just as in the shop, she felt nothing.
His eyes widened. “That’s…unexpected.”
“What is it, my lord?” Darren asked.
“I hadn’t heard that you’re a pyradisté,” the bearded man said.
“I’m…”
“Ah, you didn’t know? No training, then. I guess we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.” He shook the pyramid slightly. “Look deep into this, and all your questions will be answered.”
Starbride couldn’t help it. She looked, barely registering the footstep behind her and the pain that detonated inside her skull as something collided with it. Her legs wouldn’t hold her all of a sudden, and her mind couldn’t stay awake.
It was cold, the chill of a strong wind and not enough clothing to protect her from it. Starbride was lying on something equally cold, bare stone by the feel against her shoulder, and she’d been lying there much too long. Her feet were numb, and she smelled mustiness, the scent of old cloth.
As recent memories returned, Starbride lay still and pretended to sleep. She listened hard and heard nothing but the wind. She risked cracking one eye open and saw only a dark swath of cloth covering her face. A flex of her hands revealed that they were bound in front of her. She moved her feet and found them unbound. Starbride paused, waiting to hear if her slight movement induced anyone else to move. When she heard nothing, she felt along the bag covering her head and then tugged it off. A long expanse of stone bricks led to a wall in disrepair, half of it gone around what remained of a window. A tattered tapestry trailed from the wall, gone to threads. Starbride saw the tops of trees beyond the wall and knew she must be on a second or third story.
She lifted her head, her every thought tuned to escape. Pain throbbed in the back of her skull, her bound wrists, and a spot on her side. Her room had no roof, and wisps of cloud scudded across the blue sky. Through a doorway behind her, a staircase led downward. The only other exit was blocked by fallen stone.
With a slight groan, Starbride sat up. Pain reached a crescendo in her brain; she breathed deep and waited for it to still. Her side ached, but she couldn’t reach to touch it. She’d been lying on several small stones, one of them with a fresh red stain where it had dug into her. But she still had all of her limbs. She thanked Horsestrong and turned her attention to unbinding her wrists. These men couldn’t do anything to her or to Katya if she escaped.
Starbride tried to gnaw on the cord, but it felt like leather wrapped over wire. She sought the ends but couldn’t spot them in the figure eight looped around her wrists. Trying to stretch the cord made it bite into her skin, so she gave up on it for the moment and stood. Her only comfort was that her dress was dirty and tattered, torn in several places, and there had to be a bloodstain on the side. Completely unsalvageable.
She choked back a laugh, afraid of hysteria. The men had taken her shoes. Did they think that would prevent her from going anywhere? The floor was strewn with broken brick and bits of masonry, but she could step around them. The stones were bitterly cold in the shade of the collapsed wall. Maybe they thought it would be too chilly for her pampered little toes.
Starbride approached the gap in the wall from the side, keeping herself hidden in the hope of remaining unseen by anyone standing below. When she reached the window, she peeked around at a small clearing being taken over by the forest, a garden overrun by weeds and a flagstone path that had been knocked askew by roots reclaiming the ground.
Creeping to the head of the stairs, she listened, ignoring her numb feet. She took one step down and listened again. Light flickered up the circular stairway, but to descend, she’d have to cross a patch of complete darkness. Starbride felt with her foot first, her toes passing over loose stones as she tried to find a clear place to stand. When she heard voices, she froze.
“…be out at least another few hours,” one said. Darren.
“How do you know?” another asked. Cassius.
“You cracked her a good one, and she’s just a little courtier after all.”
Starbride hurried across the floor and resumed her original position, on her side facing away from the staircase. She slipped the bag over her head again before footsteps crested the stairs. She fought not to hold her breath, to keep it deep and even, and tried not to think of what they intended to do with her. She didn’t trust the bearded man’s promise and begged Katya to show up soon and rip them apart.
The sound of booted feet paused behind her. “See?” Darren said.
“Yeah, but—”
“Relax. She’ll stay put until the princess comes.”
Starbride’s heart pounded, but she didn’t let her body respond.
“The lord said not to touch her,” Cassius said. Starbride bit her lip harder and forced herself not to roll away. She couldn’t help but wonder what part of her Darren had been close to touching. Bile gathered in her throat, and she swallowed it.
“Come on,” Cassius said. “Out of temptation’s path.” Darren chuckled as their footsteps receded down the stairs.
Starbride counted to sixty, took a deep breath, sat up, and pulled the bag off her head. She made herself take a rational look at the circumstances—anything was better than dwelling on Darren’s odious hands. They planned to use her against Katya somehow. A lure? A trap? Probably both.
Starbride crossed to the window again. The trees were too far away to use, and she didn’t think she could climb down the wall with bound wrists; she’d never been a good climber. She also couldn’t sneak down the stairs with the two men around. Resting her forehead against the cold stone, she willed herself to think of something better. Cassius and Darren had to return to find their bird flown. Starbride leaned out the window and glanced along the sides of the building. What if she flew to another part of the nest?
The structure looked like some old manor house, big enough to keep them chasing her for a long time. The broken wall was large enough to step through, and the ledge that ran to the next room was intact. Before her good sense had the chance to speak, Starbride stepped out onto the ledge. It held her, and she inched toward the next gap, her face to the wall. She blocked out the thought of the ground below her and hung on to whatever she could find.
Chapter Thirteen: Katya
Katya gritted her teeth and fought the impatience that told her to just pick a direction and ri
de. Ahead of her, Averie studied the forest floor. She straightened after only a moment and jogged back to where the rest of the Order waited on horseback. “The tracks have turned,” Averie said. “These lead back to the road.”
Katya rubbed the back of her neck, trying to stop the ache that was creeping up from her shoulders. “A false trail?”
“Perhaps.”
“Crowe, are we even close to the manor house?”
“I know this is the right area. The memories I saw in the pyramid correspond with what I’m seeing now. It just…rings true. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
Katya gestured at the forest. “And yet, no manor house. And these tracks don’t lead anywhere.”
“Oh, they lead somewhere,” Brutal said. “Round the garden path.”
“Back to the road?” Maia suggested. “Maybe Crowe can get a better bearing.” She shifted when Crowe gave her a sullen glance. “Another bearing, I meant another. Nothing wrong with this one…”
“Back to the road,” Katya said, her excited mood gone. “Let’s follow this double-backing trail.”
Averie took point again, and Katya bent close to Crowe. “Why are you always giving Maia dirty looks or heaps of sarcasm?”
Crowe stared at his pyramid and didn’t look at her. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Why are you always so mean to the girl?”
“Can we please focus on the mission before we wander into a great big trap?”
“Certainly,” Katya said, but she promised herself she’d have an answer later. The trail led to the road as they’d guessed, but just before they reached it, Averie rushed back to them.
“There’s someone lying in the road,” she said.
“Dead or alive?”
“I can’t tell.”
“The trap we’re expecting?” Brutal asked.
The Pyramid Waltz Page 14
