“And you know why you can’t,” Brutal said. “If you want me to go, I’ll go, but there’s more of a chance that she and I will miss each other than that I’ll actually find her.”
“What I really want is for the spirits to whisk her here.”
“Ah, the whisking twins,” Averie said.
Katya glared at both of them. “What else can I do? If I wander the halls, I’ll be crowded by scared courtiers. I don’t have it in me to reassure them right now.” She sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to find it in me. I can assure the people in the palace that the royals haven’t abandoned them. My father is too busy taking reports.”
Brutal nodded. “We’ll trail behind you at a discreet distance.”
“Damn the discreet distance,” Averie said. “I’m tempted to bring my bow.”
Katya belted on her rapier. “It would be prudent to go armed. No one would think twice.”
Averie grabbed her bow and arrows and belted a long knife on her hip.
Brutal had his huge mace on his belt already. “Being a brother of strength always lets me get away with carrying weapons. People just expect it.”
Katya had to agree. And they weren’t the only ones sporting weapons in the hallway. Most of the courtiers didn’t have them, but the nobles and their servants did, those who still wandered the halls at least. Katya was right about the courtiers. They flocked around her like geese. She had to keep guaranteeing them that there was no safer place than the palace, that anyone coming in or out was carefully screened. She urged them to keep to their rooms.
Most of the nobles did just that, though some walked the halls boldly, either making a silent show of confidence or fluttering around and speaking of picnics and games they were planning. They dealt with the fact that the city was burning by not acknowledging it.
Katya felt drawn toward the back stables, the place where Starbride would make her way inside the palace. Brutal caught her arm before she could go down the long hallway.
“They’ve closed all the doors,” he said. “The guards know what she looks like; they know to let her in.”
“I’m aware of all of that, thank you, Brutal.”
“Then don’t go down there,” he said. “I know you. You’ll keep saying, ‘Just a little farther,’ and soon you’ll be out of the stables and down the block.”
Katya turned the other direction when a far-off boom made her stop. The deep sound reverberated in her stomach, and the floor seemed to shake beneath her. Distant screams came from her right, toward the front of the palace.
“What in the spirits’ names?” Katya braced herself to run in that direction, but then changed her mind. She had to protect her family.
A short scream made her spin around in time to see Roland drop the body of a guard onto the carpet. “Hello, niece,” he said. A group of townsfolk stood behind him, their faces contorted by unnatural hatred. “You really should have put more guards on all the doors. We walked right in the back!”
Katya drew her rapier, but Brutal grabbed her arm. “There are too many!”
If he said that about a fight, it must be true. They ran. Katya hated herself with every step, but that anger flew away before the cries of the townspeople as they gave chase.
“Left!” Averie cried.
Katya obeyed, but she wanted to turn to the right, to resume her course to the royal wing. Averie seemed to be leading them down a dead-end.
To Katya’s shock, Averie toggled a switch on the wall that opened up into a secret passageway. Once they were through, she broke the latch.
“Where in the hell is this?” Katya yelled.
Averie led the way down the corridor. “The Umbriels have their passages and the Umbriels’ servants have theirs.”
All Katya could do was follow her through the twisting maze and try to ignore the occasional scream that filtered through the stone. They had to run through the hallways at one point, to go from one maze of passageways to the other. The palace was filled with screams and the clash of metal against metal.
Katya shut it out, plunged through the next secret passageway, and didn’t stop until they’d reached her parents’ sitting room.
As they burst through the secret door, Lord Vincent rounded on them, sword drawn. As soon as he saw Katya, he lowered his blade.
Ma was on the far side of the room with Bastian and Vierdrin. Two of the nannies crouched near them. “We heard screams,” Ma said.
“We have to run,” Katya said. “The palace is breached.”
Ma dashed to the corner, to a heap of bags. The nannies shouldered the bags while Ma lifted Vierdrin. One of the nannies lifted little Bastian. Both children cried quietly, and the nanny tried to stifle them.
“Should I?” Vincent held out his arms.
Ma shook her head. “You four need your arms free in case we run into trouble.” She nodded at Katya. “Your father is in the council room.”
“Let’s go through the passages.”
The nannies were pale with fright, but they stepped inside the walls without argument and stayed close to Katya’s mother.
Close to the council room, Katya peeked into the hallway. There wasn’t a secret door into the actual room itself. Two guards outside the council chamber slumped in heaps, and the doors were wide open.
“If he’s in there…” Vincent said from where he crowded behind her. He didn’t finish the thought.
Katya swallowed hard. If Da was in that open room, he was probably dead.
“Katya,” Ma said, “there’s something on the wall here.”
Katya stepped back inside the passage and shut the door. An arrow had been drawn on the wall with chalk, pointing toward the ballroom where the special council had been held. “Why didn’t he go to your room?”
Ma sucked in a breath. “We’re not the only ones who know these passages. If he was being followed…”
“He would lead his pursuers away from us.” Katya bit her lip. Did she go after her father, the rightful ruler of Farraday, or did she leave the castle by the quickest route and save the future ruler? Katya looked to her young niece and nephew. She had a responsibility to them, but she also had one to her father.
“Go after him,” Brutal said. “I’ll keep them safe.”
Ma sucked in a breath, but Katya gave him a grateful smile. “I’ll catch you as soon as I can.”
“We’ll take horses from the cache behind the palace and meet you at the old place in the forest.”
Katya nodded. Ma pressed in close and surprised Katya with a kiss on the cheek. She hushed Vierdrin’s little whine at being pressed between them. “Be safe. Bring him back.”
Katya cast one glance at Lord Vincent.
He bowed low, and she knew her family would only be hurt over his dead body. For once, his stodgy adherence to tradition warmed her. She waved them away, and then they were disappearing through the gloom. Averie didn’t move. When Brutal turned back for her, she motioned him on without her.
“Averie,” Katya said. “Go.”
Averie shook her head. “My place is by your side. They’ll be fine with Lord Vincent and Brutal. Besides, you’ll need me to find them. You don’t know the forest for shit.”
Katya had to smile, had to admit she was relieved at the company. “All right. Let’s go get my father.”
Chapter Forty: Starbride
“Take your hands off my sister!” Hugo yelled, a roar that nearly made Starbride let him go.
Darren smirked and held his blade steady on Maia’s neck.
Everyone had their blades or bows drawn. Castelle sidled close to Hugo. “If you screw this up by rushing him, I’m tripping you,” she said.
Starbride had to agree. She eased into her satchel and let Castelle serve as cover. “She’s right, Hugo. Wait.”
Captain Ursula stepped toward Darren. “Best you let that woman go, son. There’s no way out.”
“Who’s this, now?” Darren asked, still with his sneer. “Are you so desperate for allies t
hat you’ve taken the Watch to your bosom, Starbride?” He leered. “Though I don’t blame them for wanting to be there.”
“So let Maia go,” Starbride called. “She’ll only slow you down.”
“As your new friend said, there’s no way out. I don’t see why I shouldn’t take her with me into the spirit world.”
Hugo tensed. “Stop, stop,” Starbride whispered as loudly as she dared. “Think!”
She had to do the same and quickly. If she lobbed a flash bomb, she was likely to catch her allies in the blast. Darren would also suspect such an attack after spending so much time with Roland. She couldn’t throw anything deadly with Maia in the way.
But she could try to hypnotize him. She’d never tried before, but with all her studying, she’d learned how to use the right pyramid. She’d have to get him quickly. If he had time to react…
“When I say, Castelle,” Starbride said. “Step to the side.”
Starbride fell into the pyramid. A thousand facets waited in her mind, ready to splinter Darren’s thoughts so that he couldn’t control his body while still retaining the ability to see, and hear, and feel.
“Now.”
Castelle stepped to the side. Darren looked to the movement, and Starbride held the pyramid aloft. She felt his gaze on it and pounced, drew his thoughts in, captured his mind, but he bucked against her. Starbride tried not to fight directly, to let the pyramid do the work instead of making it a battle of wills. Within seconds, he was hers, lost in the pyramid.
“Take him!” Starbride cried.
She felt rather than heard the rush. It wasn’t a perfect pyramid, and she had to maintain eye contact to hold him. Someone screamed, and Starbride glanced that way. She gasped to see Maia holding a Watch officer aloft, her face stretched and terrifying, fangs and horns and all blue eyes.
As she threw the officer to the side and laughed, Starbride knew Roland had implanted the pyramid in her neck, letting her summon her Fiend and control it. And she was an Umbriel, born with a Fiend, as strong as Katya had been.
With a start, Starbride realized that her concentration had slipped, and Darren was free.
As his features melted into those of a Fiend as well, Starbride’s stomach dropped to her feet. Dawnmother pulled her to the side, shaking her into wakefulness. Her arm slipped free from Hugo’s coat.
Maia and Darren moved as blurs. They cut down those closest to them before the others could blink. With screams, most of the Watch officers broke and ran.
Who could blame them? Starbride’s thoughts took a moment to orient themselves before she hurled a flash bomb at Darren where he was busy cutting a Watch officer in half with his claws.
Darren shrieked, a harsh sound like a rusty saw on metal. Castelle ran him through with her sword. His flailing arms knocked her out of the way. Two knives thudded into his chest before Pennynail aimed a kick at his head. It glanced off Darren’s temple, and Darren slammed him to the ground.
Hugo dove at Maia. Starbride screamed for him to stop, but Maia’s arms shot out, and he bounced off her as if he’d run into a brick wall.
Maia stared at him, her inhuman face alight with glee. “Is this the baby brother I’ve heard so much about?” she asked, her voice deep and cold.
Hugo could only gasp. Starbride started toward him, but not before Maia reached into the collar of his coat.
“Join the fun.” She ripped his pyramid necklace from around his neck.
“Maia, don’t!” Darren yelled.
Maia stared at Darren until Ursula stabbed her from behind. Maia whirled, but Ursula sprang out of the way.
Starbride reached Hugo’s side. “Control yourself.” She dug in her satchel for the pyramid that would suppress a Fiend. If Hugo could maintain control, Starbride could leap on Maia and press the pyramid to her neck.
“Anger is the last thing on my mind,” Hugo said between clenched teeth as he clutched his shoulder.
Out of the corner of her eye, Starbride saw Pennynail scuttle out of the way of Darren’s stomping feet. Someone yelled from the edge of the courtyard, catching Pennynail’s attention, and he passed out of view.
Starbride tried to help Hugo to the edge of the fight, but he couldn’t seem to get his feet under him. Dawnmother tugged on his side, favoring his shoulder. Her head jerked up, she looked past Starbride’s shoulder, and screeched.
A grip like steel grabbed Starbride’s arm, nearly dragging it out of the socket as it spun her around, face-to-face with Darren.
His Fiendish breath chilled her as she stared into his all-brown eyes. “I was hoping I’d be the one to catch you.”
Darren’s free arm was a streak across her vision as it slammed into something she couldn’t see. She heard a grunt: Dawnmother. And Hugo was down but not out. Starbride tried to bring her Fiend-suppression pyramid to bear, aiming for Darren’s neck. She only had a moment before—
Hugo’s Fiendish form barreled into Darren, tearing him away from Starbride so forcefully it sent a shockwave through her shoulders. The two forms writhed in the dirt, one blur atop another, only distinguishable by the wings sprouting from Hugo’s back.
For a moment, Starbride could only stare. How in Darkstrong’s name was she ever going to tear them apart? When Ursula’s voice yelled, “Starbride!” she whirled around.
Maia’s claws streaked for her face. Starbride dropped. She tried to scurry backward, but Maia was on her before she could move. Searing heat rolled up Starbride’s arms as Maia’s claws dug in just below her shoulders. Starbride cried out and kicked, connecting with Maia’s legs, but her ankle shuddered under the impact, as if she’d kicked a side of frozen meat.
Maia lifted her, claws digging in harder, and Starbride’s mind screamed that it couldn’t hold, that either her skin would tear free, or her arms would come loose from their sockets.
Starbride couldn’t feel her hands, but she raised them as Maia laughed in her face. She needed to stab Maia’s neck with the suppression pyramid and focus. She struggled, straining against the agony.
Her hands were empty.
Forcing herself to look down, Starbride saw her pyramid lying in the dirt between Maia’s feet.
Chapter Forty-one: Katya
As Katya hurried to find her father, she couldn’t help thinking of Starbride. From the outside, she’d be able to see that the palace had been breached. She wouldn’t walk into that mess, would she?
But of course she would, if she thought Katya was trapped inside. Katya would do the same in her place. Pennynail could guide her to the meeting spot in the forest. But would she go?
Maybe if Castelle, Hugo, and Dawnmother made her. Castelle and Pennynail would probably sneak through the chaos to find Katya and her family. Maybe they could help Starbride do the same.
The time to think about it was over, though. She and Averie reached the secret doorway into the waiting room behind the ballroom. It stood open a crack. Katya crept close and strained to hear.
Someone was speaking, pontificating, by the sound.
“You have no choice but to acquiesce to our demands for a parliament,” Magistrate Anthony said.
“Oh, yes,” Da replied. He sounded tired, maybe a little injured. “Parliament at sword point. Is this how you plan to run your new government? It will be you in charge, I’m guessing, as the man who clearly knows and understands best how things should be done.”
Anthony chuckled. “Only if the people vote me as their leader.”
“I’m sure a pyramid will garner you lots of votes.”
There were murmurs, enough for a room full of people. Katya looked to both sides of the doorway, but no one stood in the waiting room. The curtain had been pushed aside, but there was still enough to hide behind. Katya saw the back of her father’s head. He sat on his throne on the dais. An armed man stood beside him, but Katya couldn’t count the number of people on the floor of the ballroom. She took a careful step out of the doorway and tiptoed to the curtain, not wanting to move the fabric in the
wake of a dash. She stepped to the edge, just to the side of her father and waited. When no one seemed to notice, she waved Averie forward.
“I knew you would claim the people were under pyradisté influence,” Magistrate Anthony said. “Richard guessed as much.”
“Richard your assistant?” Da said, and there was sadness and anger in his voice.
“Yes, the only good thing to come from Georgie Appleton’s murder.”
“Lucky he was there for you,” Da said, “ready to step in at the last, a brilliant man you’d heretofore overlooked, the perfect man for the job. I bet everything he said was like gold.”
“This stalling is pointless. No one is coming to vanquish us at the last minute.”
Katya pressed her lips together. Her father wasn’t waiting for rescuing; he was stalling Magistrate Anthony so his family could escape. She tightened her grip on her rapier and waited for any distraction.
“You poor, misguided young fool,” Da said. “I was considering your parliament idea, I really was—crown and commoner working together for a brighter future—but this violence won’t serve that cause.”
“Then what cause does it serve?”
“That of a tyrant.”
“I told you, only if elected will I—”
“He doesn’t mean you,” a new voice said.
Katya peeked under the curtain rather than around it. Magistrate Anthony’s young assistant, Roland in disguise, had walked into the room.
“I prefer to think of myself as a visionary.” Roland smiled. “Hello, brother. Believe it or not, I am finally glad to be rid of this façade.” His features blurred until he became Roland again, only his beard was longer, the color slightly altered, but the face she would never forget.
The room erupted in a tizzy of voices. The man who’d been guarding Da let his sword dangle between his knees. Katya sprang forward and knocked the guard off the dais. She skidded to a halt, grabbed her father off the throne, and yanked him toward the curtain. He made a strangled yelp and clutched his side.
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