The Pyramid Waltz

by Barbara Ann Wright

  It was stuffy in the small waiting room, and Starbride was glad she’d worn her hair piled on her head in one of Dawnmother’s artful creations. She resisted the urge to fidget with her diamond necklace.

  In front of her stood Brom and Reinholt and in front of them Queen Catirin and King Einrich. She heard Maia whisper, “Hurry up, hurry up,” behind her and grinned over her shoulder.

  Maia smiled back, her hair glowing against her turquoise gown. Starbride had been thrilled to find Brother Brutal acting as her escort. She didn’t know how many bolts of fabric it took, but his coat seemed tight around his shoulders, and he pulled at the high collar as if it choked him. The side of his face was still a little singed from the fire pyramid at the dock warehouse. Whenever he looked down at Maia, though, his frown lifted into a smile. Starbride wondered if Maia’s courage in asking him to the ball had extended to grabbing his head and kissing him, but she thought not.

  At some unseen signal, they stepped onto the grand ballroom’s dais to thunderous applause. Starbride gripped Katya’s arm and tried to let the attention of the glittering sea of people wash over her. She’d hated being stared at when she’d first arrived. She thought it would be different being stared at from a position of power, but her tightened muscles wouldn’t loosen. Katya patted her arm as they descended the dais into the ballroom.

  As the crowd pushed forward to speak with them, Starbride couldn’t help but compare this party to the Courtiers Ball. At that one, she’d been afforded the same respect one gave to a potted plant. At Reinholt’s ball, she could’ve whipped off her dress and still would’ve been surrounded by sycophants complimenting her undergarments.

  Baroness Jacintha pushed by a group of courtiers. “You must tell me the name of your jeweler. I never got to ask during our tea.” She said the last part loudly, turning her head for maximum volume.

  “My father’s creations,” Starbride replied. “His name is Sunjoyful.”

  “They’re lovely.”

  “Just what I was going to say, Baroness Jacintha.” Countess Nadia emerged from the crowd to stand beside them, her arm twined through Viscount Lenvis’s. He seemed extremely pleased with himself and maybe a tiny bit nervous. No doubt Countess Nadia had landed him, or nearly had, and he was thinking about what to make of such an opportunity.

  Baroness Jacintha blinked as she turned. “Ah, Countess Nadia. Everyone knows you have fine taste.”

  “Indeed. I believe you’re wanted by the buffet, Baroness.”

  Baroness Jacintha started but covered it by a low curtsy before leaving.

  Starbride smiled slyly. “Thank you, Countess. Good evening, Viscount.”

  Viscount Lenvis inclined his head. “Princess Consort.” He gazed down at Countess Nadia. “Not a fan of Baroness Jacintha’s, my dear?”

  “That woman is as annoying as a talking bird. I can land you a bigger fish, Princess Consort.”

  “Landing yourself one as well?”

  Countess Nadia winked. “A fine idea.”

  “Starbride will meet all the nobles in good time,” Katya drawled. “The crown won’t forget your kindness to the princess consort, Countess. With Starbride as your friend, I’m sure you’ll rise to great heights. Duchess Skelda Van Nispin’s sewing circle, perhaps?”

  Countess Nadia shrugged. Starbride leaned closer to her. “Do you really want to be part of a sewing circle, Countess?”

  “No, but I would love to have Duchess Skelda and all her friends thinking they should invite me to everything and wondering to what extent I have your ear. I can filter gossip for you while extending my network of intelligence.”

  Starbride had to blink to keep her eyes from bulging. Was everyone so calculating? She supposed she’d have to get used to it. “I like the idea of mutual aid, Countess.”

  “Call me Nadia.”

  She curtsied, and the viscount bowed as they moved away. Starbride just heard Viscount Lenvis say, “I never knew you were so well connected, Nadia! A friend of the crown.”

  Katya snorted. “Good luck, Lenvis.”

  “He’s baited and hooked,” Starbride said.

  “Let’s hope he can survive it.”

  “Good evening, Princess. Princess Consort,” someone beside them said.

  Starbride nearly dropped her drink when she focused on him. “Lord Hugo! Another friendly face. You always know just when to pop up!”

  “I wouldn’t want to lose my ability to surprise you. I was worried that I’d never top myself after foolishly spying on you in the library.”

  Lord Hugo bowed, but Starbride saw the wariness in Katya’s stance. Lord Hugo had kept the affair in the woods a secret, as far as they’d been able to tell, but that wouldn’t set Katya at ease.

  Starbride’s shoulders relaxed at the sight of him, though. Lord Hugo simply rang true to her; she sensed honor in his very nature. “So nice to see you. If I had my way, I’d keep my few friends around me at all times.”

  With a slight blush to his cheeks, he said, “Thank you, Miss, uh, Princess Consort.” He gestured toward the bracelet on her wrist.

  “You can call me Starbride. I think you’ve earned it.”

  Katya snorted softly and turned to speak with someone else.

  Lord Hugo bowed again. “Then I must insist that you call me Hugo.”

  Starbride tapped her chin and made a show of thinking that over. “No, no, I don’t think I could ever say Hugo without the Lord. I picture you being called Lord Hugo even as a babe in arms.”

  “Actually…” His eyes lost focus. Blinking rapidly, he put one hand to his forehead and staggered as if overcome.

  Starbride reached to steady him. “Are you all right?”

  “I…” He stared at her, frowning, as if he couldn’t figure out who she was. “I…”

  “Is it the heat? The crowd?” She waved Dawnmother over. “Water,” she mouthed. Around them, people nodded at Lord Hugo and whispered amongst themselves. One woman sniggered, and Starbride wanted to slap her. Instead, she patted Lord Hugo’s back as he shook his head, his eyes near frantic. “Maybe you should go into the hall and catch your—”

  “I’m fine.” His face relaxed as he took a few deep breaths. “I’m sorry I frightened you.” With a trembling hand, he reached out, and his fingers just brushed her cheek. “I’m sorry.” He turned and fled through the crowd.

  Dawnmother arrived with a glass of water. “What was that about?”

  “I don’t know.” The alarm crawling inside her didn’t subside. “I think something’s wrong.” She staggered as a shudder rocked the room, and the din of conversation turned into piercing screams as half the room’s occupants fell to the floor.

  “What in Darkstrong’s name?” Starbride said. Katya hurried to her side.

  Another quake shook the building. The domed ceiling cracked, and pieces of plaster fell like snowflakes among the screaming crowd. Starbride gaped as several people toppled from the balcony into the night outside. Katya’s arm went around her waist as people surged against them, running for the exits, and Starbride sucked in a deep breath as Katya held her tight with one arm and grasped Dawnmother with the other. She guided both of them toward the dais.

  The crowd became a mob, fierce as any river, which battered them as they struggled to push through. Dawnmother escaped Katya’s grip and grabbed Starbride’s free arm. Katya elbowed people aside. They didn’t even seem to see her. She had Starbride’s arm in a grip of steel that wouldn’t let go no matter how many bumps and bruises, how many collisions they suffered. Dawnmother clutched Starbride’s other arm with both hands. Starbride held on to both her saviors, knowing the crowd could sweep any one of them away.

  When they reached the dais, the royal family helped them up and into the doorway of the waiting room. Starbride turned to watch the fleeing crowd in horror. “What is it?” she said as another tremor shook the building. She held on to everyone around her and noticed two of them missing. “Where are Maia and Brutal?”

  “It c
an’t be him,” Katya said to King Einrich as if she hadn’t heard.

  “Can you think of something else?” he asked.

  “Is the palace under siege?” Reinholt said.

  Queen Catirin shook her head. “A siege party couldn’t sneak through the city to get to us.”

  Starbride scanned the crowd. “Maia!” she shouted, but she had no hope of being heard over the screams.

  “It’s all right,” Averie said from beside her. “She was near the doors. She knows what to do in a crisis. Stay close to us.”

  “It has to be Yanchasa!” Queen Catirin said, catching Starbride’s attention.

  “Rein.” Brom pulled on Reinholt’s arm. Her eyes were wide, terrified. Starbride laid a hand on her shoulder, and Brom covered it with her own but stared into her husband’s face.

  “It’ll be all right, love,” Reinholt said. “It doesn’t hurt. Afterward, you won’t even remember.”

  Brutal lifted Maia onto the dais and then vaulted up after her. “Crowe’s got the Guard working to keep the crowd in order,” Maia said. “He said he’ll get Pennynail and meet us in the pyramid chamber.”

  “The Waltz,” Starbride said. Brom’s horror made sudden sense. After the Waltz, she’d have to wear a pyramid necklace to keep her Fiend under control.

  But there was no time for sympathy. Starbride and Dawnmother stayed with the royals as they hurried into the corridor behind the entry room and then into a secret passageway. They grabbed a lantern there and wound deeper into the palace, past bedrock, deeper and deeper, through tunnels of rough-hewn stone. The marks on the hallway junctions disappeared. If a person didn’t already know their way through these tunnels, they could be lost forever. Starbride supposed that was the idea. The depths to which the Farradains would go to preserve their secrets never ceased to amaze.

  Crowe met them at one junction. He held a brightly lit pyramid and had Pennynail beside him. “It’s not an attack. It’s Yanchasa.”

  “He’s early,” King Einrich said. “He’s never been this early before.”

  Another quake shook the passageway, making tiny cracks in the stone. The party broke into a run until they reached a dead end. King Einrich pressed his hand to a large pyramid set in the wall, and it opened like a door into a cavernous chamber that still felt airless for all its size.

  Starbride turned full circle as she walked and stared at the natural cavern that the palace sat atop. Stalagmites littered the floor, and their companion stalactites clung to the ceiling. What caught her attention, though, was the enormous glowing pyramid in the middle of the chamber. She thought at first that it rested on the bare rock, but the stone of the floor clung to it, hiding the very bottom, and she realized it was the top of an even larger pyramid that lay buried underground. She recognized Allusian crystal, but what touched the floor was a darker, green-flecked stone. “Horsestrong preserve us. If that’s just the capstone, the rest of the pyramid must be…” She couldn’t picture its true size. “Is he…under there?” she whispered, not willing to risk an echo. “Yanchasa?”

  “Yes,” Crowe answered from beside her, “he’s contained in the pyramid.”

  Katya gave her one quick kiss and moved closer to the pyramid. “Stay by the wall with Averie and Dawnmother. The rest of us are going to watch over the Waltz.”

  With an actual Fiend right under her feet, Starbride wanted to retreat down the tunnel, but she couldn’t leave. She loved Katya too much to leave her in what might become a dangerous situation. Well, that and she had to see what happened next.

  “What is happening?” Dawnmother whispered.

  Starbride bit her lip. All the royal secrets were about to be revealed. One by one, they’d been alarming. She didn’t envy Dawnmother getting all of them at once. “Don’t be afraid, but prepare yourself. The Umbriels are more than they appear to be.”

  Chapter Thirty-one: Katya

  Katya stood well back from the pyramid as Crowe chained her family’s feet to the floor. She’d Waltzed once, before Reinholt had married. She remembered the cold shackles around her ankles, and even that feeling had been dwarfed by the coldness building within her as the Fiend, Yanchasa’s Aspect, fought to get out.

  Crowe took her family’s necklaces one by one. He shackled their ankles. Their human faces fell away as they leaned forward to rest their hands on the capstone. Lit by the light of the glowing pyramid, her father, then her mother, then her brother changed. Her father sprouted two horns that curled back over his head. His eyes turned all blue, and a spike jutted from his chin.

  Ma had no horns on her head or spikes on her face. Instead, the wings of a crow sprouted from her back in four places, ripping through the fabric of her dress. Her eyes shone light blue, and fangs pressed down from her upper jaw against her lower lip.

  Reinholt’s horns came from his temples and traced the sides of his head back, just over his ears. Two wings sprouted from his back, and the spike on his chin mirrored their father’s.

  Katya wondered, and not for the first time, what her own Aspect looked like. She glanced at Starbride, who’d seen it, and wondered if Starbride was comparing them all. The Fiendish faces were cold and impassive, yet a tightening of their skin revealed an underlying rage. With the shackles, however, and with their hands on the pyramid’s sides, they could do nothing but feed their energy downward to quiet Yanchasa. If they were to get free, Katya had no doubt that they would kill everyone in the kingdom.

  Crowe looked to Brom. She stared at Reinholt with open fear and shock, her hand pressed to her mouth. “It’s time.” Crowe knelt and held up the fourth and final pair of shackles. “If you love your husband and your kingdom, it’s time.”

  “I love my children more.”

  Katya stepped forward just as Crowe stood, but something whizzed past Katya’s ear and buried itself in Crowe’s gut. With a grunt, he sank to his knees, clutching an arrow shaft. Brom darted away, and Crowe banged off the side of the pyramid and slumped to the floor.

  Katya spun, drawing her rapier as she turned. In the doorway stood three men: Darren, Cassius, and Lord Hugo. Armed with bow and sword, the first sported smug smirks. Lord Hugo, his rapier held defensively in front of him, seemed more uncertain, apologetic even.

  Katya felt movement beside her as Brutal and Maia stepped close. Brutal’s bare fists clenched in front of him, and Maia pulled a throwing knife from her skirt.

  “When I say—” Katya began.

  “Hold,” a voice interrupted.

  Two people emerged from behind stalagmites on the far right of the cavern. One was a woman, her face gray, her eyes a dead-looking white, though it was the pyramid embedded in her forehead that drew the eye, that and her drawn bow. As Katya turned her attention to the other new arrival, her breath stopped.

  It had been seven years since he died, but Roland Nar Umbriel looked exactly the same.

  “Father?” Maia whispered.

  “Come to me, daughter,” Roland said.

  Katya grabbed Maia’s arm. “It’s a trick.”

  Footsteps sounded from behind them as Brom ran for the doorway. Brutal stuck out a leg and tripped her. He bent, grabbed her ankle, pulled her to him, and then lifted her to stand in front of him like a shield. He stepped between Katya and Maia and the three men in the doorway.

  Katya glanced over her shoulder. Starbride, Averie, and Dawnmother sidled along the wall, away from the doorway, watching her. Crowe cried out somewhere behind her, and Katya hoped Pennynail was helping him.

  “I did it for my children.” Brom sobbed as she dangled in Brutal’s arms. “They wanted to make my children into monsters!”

  “Shut up and you might live,” Brutal snapped.

  “Who are you?” Katya pointed her rapier at the false Roland. “What are you? You’re not my uncle.”

  Roland laughed, deep and rich. “You know.” He strolled toward the doorway with a casual air. “That was the very thought I had as I sank under the river. What am I? It was my death that made me
think of my life, of everything in it. Of my daughter.” Maia jerked in Katya’s grasp. Katya clamped down harder and ignored the tears cascading down Maia’s cheeks.

  “And I thought of my lover.” Roland gestured at the gray-skinned woman, and Katya realized with a roiling stomach that it was Layra. “The mother of my son.” He gestured to Lord Hugo. “I thought of all the things I would miss if I died in the water. I’d stopped breathing already. It was just a matter of waiting for my mind to give in.” He tapped his skull and grinned. “But the Fiend wasn’t ready to let go.”

  Katya’s mouth dropped open. “You…merged with it?”

  Roland smiled, and the features of his Aspect dropped over his face: horns like her father’s, fangs like her mother’s, and his eyes the deep rich blue of her own. But his expression didn’t lose its character, didn’t become the Fiend’s. He was himself, even with the Aspect. “It showed me what a fool I’ve been to live life as a normal human.” His voice grated along the nerves, deeper, but with an echoing tininess that made her feel like she had a mouth full of blood.

  “I wandered the wilderness for years, trying to put my mind back together again, and then all I had to do was wait the five years for the Waltz to come around again.”

  Another shock wave rocked the cavern, and Roland tilted his horned head back. “Yes, old boy, I hear you.”

  Katya raised her rapier. “You’re the bearded man, the one who kidnapped Starbride, the one we couldn’t find.”

  “I’m not here to harm you, little K. I’ve come to collect you and my daughter. I’ll help you put Yanchasa to bed for good. All I ask is a kingdom ruled the right way, my way. A small price to pay, if you really cared about it. I’ll let your Fiends out for you.” He stepped forward. “You’ll discover unimaginable heights when we tap Yanchasa for all he has, and the people of Marienne will finally get a ruler they deserve, one who will protect and guide them by any means necessary.”

  Katya glanced at Brutal. He nodded. She shook her head at Roland. “You’ve done too much evil, uncle. We’re not interested in what you have to offer.” Her heart hurt, but she shoved the feelings down.