For Want of a Fiend

by Barbara Ann Wright

  Katya ignored his pain. Averie was beside her, bow trained on the crowd that now divided its attention between Roland and Katya.

  Roland lifted a pyramid. “Now, now, niece, no running off until the party’s over.”

  Katya froze. If that was a flame pyramid, he could kill them all. She’d have to wait until he was distracted.

  “What is this?” Magistrate Anthony bellowed.

  Katya nearly sang his praises and prayed that Roland would focus on him.

  “Richard,” Magistrate Anthony said, “what are you—”

  “Come, fool, you’ve had your moment in the sun.” Roland chuckled. “Parliament indeed.”

  Magistrate Anthony’s supporters didn’t know who to target. Everyone muttered and gestured, growing louder by the second. Averie trained her bow on anyone close, and Katya kept in front of her father, rapier at the ready. Roland’s gaze was still on her. She couldn’t even sidle for the passageway door.

  Magistrate Anthony and the others advanced on Roland, shouting now. He raised an eyebrow. The doors behind him banged open, and in walked a host of gray-skinned people. No disguises this time, the Fiend-filled corpses marched with purpose. Pyramids glinted from their foreheads, and cold poured from them in waves. They leapt upon the crowd.

  Katya pushed her father toward the exit. Before she could take two steps, the waiting room curtain burst into flames. Katya staggered back; her father grunted again. Roland, Fiendish face on, leapt onto the dais.

  “I told you,” he said, and his voice brought the tang of blood to Katya’s mouth. “Once the party starts, you stay for the duration.”

  Katya stabbed for Roland’s heart. He shoved the blade wide. A shudder rolled up Katya’s arm, as if he’d parried her with a steel bar. She swung again, but he knocked the blade away with the same lack of effect. He smiled as the room erupted in screams. Out of the corner of her eye, Katya glimpsed the townsfolk trying to fight the lesser Fiends, but they weren’t having as much success as they’d had with her unarmed father.

  “Roland,” Da said, “if there is any of my brother left within you—”

  “Oh, there is.” Roland blinked back to his human form for half a moment. Katya struck, but he ducked to the side. When he straightened, he wore the Fiend’s face again. “See?” With his arms out to the side, he advanced.

  Katya gave ground, but they were running out of dais with the fire on one side and the lesser Fiends on the other. Averie guarded Da’s back, shooting at any of the Fiends that came too close. Sweat rolled down Katya’s face, and she blinked it out of her eyes.

  Roland laughed. “The Fiend knows more about ruling than we ever will, brother. They once held this entire land under their sway. I want my family to embrace their nature, to rule as they should have done from the beginning, without bowing to any constraints.” He sneered at Katya. “Well, not you, not anymore. That Allusian tick sucked the Fiend out of you, didn’t she? You’re not even one of us.”

  To her horror, the words stung, but Katya lifted her chin. “The Allusian tick and I look forward to thoroughly killing you.”

  He smiled, seeing right through her bluff, but it was the best she had. Maybe she could clear a path through the lesser Fiends and get Da into the hall, but they’d have to get away from Roland first.

  Magistrate Anthony tottered up the steps. He bent over his stomach, as if nursing a stab wound. “This isn’t what I wanted!”

  Who he was speaking to, Katya never knew. Roland ripped his head from his shoulders with one clawed strike. He didn’t even have the courtesy to look while he did it, smiling all the while.

  A flash of blinding light from the door caught everyone’s attention.

  A squad of armed guards, led by Earl Lamont, ran through the doorway, several cassock-clad pyradistés among them. While Roland looked at them, Katya grabbed her father’s arm and ran into the press, Averie right behind her.

  One of the Fiends slaughtered a man in Katya’s path. She swung for its forehead, and cut through the pyramid, but she didn’t stop to watch. Da tugged on her arm. Katya spun, thinking he might be in danger, but he picked up a short sword.

  She’d never seen her father armed before. He swung at a nearby Fiend as it reached for him. The swing was unpracticed, as if he’d learned at one time and then forgotten. Katya yanked him off balance and pushed past him.

  “Stay clear, Da!” She lopped the Fiend’s arm off. Averie shot it in the head, and it crumpled.

  “I’m not helpless,” Da yelled.

  “Pretend you are!”

  Earl Lamont appeared through a break in the fighting. He held an ancient looking broadsword, but swung it with more practice than her father had. Dimly, Katya recalled that he’d been the champion during her grandfather’s reign. Now, the younger men and women around him did most of the damage. They encircled Katya, her father, and Averie.

  “This way, Majesty!” Earl Lamont said.

  A clawed hand shot out of the crowd and took the old man through the neck, fingers bursting through his skin. His mouth was open as he half-turned, eyes wide, but they dimmed as he fell.

  Roland stepped into the gap, squarely in front of the door, his confident smile in place.

  Chapter Forty-two: Starbride

  Captain Ursula tried to stab Maia from behind. Maia kicked back, perfectly balanced on one leg and still holding Starbride aloft.

  Trying to block out the pain in her shoulders, Starbride lifted her legs and pushed against the Fiend’s chest. Maia tried to pull her in closer. The claws dug through Starbride’s skin and stuck along the way as if hitting bone. Starbride kept repeating to herself that it wasn’t bone, that couldn’t be true, and that no matter how much crippling ache rolled up her arms, she needed to get free.

  With one last shove, she went weightless, and flew from Maia’s grasp. The ground hitting her back was almost enough to drive the agony of her shoulders out of her mind. Together, though, the pain coupled with the breath driven from her lungs crippled her.

  She chanted at herself to get up, get up. She had to move. She saw her pyramid lying in the dirt and pushed toward it; her torn skin cried out for her to stop. She could almost feel the blood pooling beneath her.

  Someone plucked up the pyramid and then grabbed around her waist and pulled her up.

  Starbride looked into Dawnmother’s face, but Dawnmother watched the battlefield. She heaved Starbride to the side. Starbride tried to hold on, but her arms wouldn’t obey her.

  Maia grabbed Dawnmother’s legs and yanked them out from under her.

  “No!” Starbride crashed to the ground, but forced herself to hang on to Dawnmother. She fumbled into her satchel and threw the first thing she found, her mind falling into it without thinking.

  Maia burst into flames. She danced away, howling, before she rolled in the dirt. As she fell, Ursula and Pennynail ducked in and stabbed her over and over.

  Dawnmother shouted, “Down!”

  Starbride tried to obey, but something hit her from behind, and she toppled at Dawnmother’s side. A painful shudder ran up her spine again, along with a sharper, warning pain. Dawnmother grabbed Starbride’s hands and pressed the Fiend-suppression pyramid into them before she rolled Starbride over.

  Hugo stood over them, his features twisted in Fiendish malice, his all blue eyes without recognition. A line of claw marks across his face slowly oozed blood, but as Starbride watched, those wounds closed. His coat and shirt had been torn away, and his skinny boy’s chest was pale, as if carved from marble. His black crow’s wings fluttered lightly, and his fangs already forced his lips open, but they grimaced farther, as if he was trying to smile. He reached for Starbride, impossibly fast, but Dawnmother shoved against Starbride’s back, forcing her past Hugo’s arms to smack into his chest.

  Starbride grunted as her nose connected, and she felt blood trickle down her face. Hugo’s arms closed around her. Starbride lifted her arm with every ounce of will she possessed and got it between them. Hugo�
�s neck didn’t hold the key. She could get him anywhere. She pressed the smooth side of the pyramid against Hugo’s chest, felt the point just prick his skin.

  Inside the pyramid, Starbride could see the two sides of Hugo, the Fiend and the human, the one asleep under the influence of the other. She focused hard, but it felt like trying to turn a rusted handle; the Fiend bucked, fighting her. As Hugo shrieked above her head, Starbride pushed harder and flipped that handle, pushing the Fiend down and bringing out the human.

  Hugo slumped over her, bearing her to the ground, unconscious in the Fiend’s absence.

  Starbride tried to push him off of her, but her entire body ached. Ursula and Pennynail lifted him and dumped him to the side. Bloody tracks ran from his eyes, mouth, and back, but he was alive.

  Starbride tried to struggle to her feet, tried to find Maia and Darren in the streetlights. “Where are they?”

  Ursula held her sword up in her left hand, her right just hanging at her side. “The male picked up the burnt one and left.”

  “The burnt one.” Now that she recalled it, the scent of flesh still hung in the air. “Horsestrong forgive me. Was she alive?”

  “I hope not.”

  “Star?” Dawnmother said as she inched over. “Are you all right?”

  The answer was most definitely no. Her arms were on fire. Her back felt awful and twisted. Dawnmother used her knife to tear long strips from the end of her shirt and wind them about Starbride’s arms. Starbride couldn’t look; she only hoped the leather had helped her a little.

  “Where is Castelle?” Starbride asked.

  Ursula nodded over her shoulder. “When the Fiends attacked, several gangs of people rushed us from the alley. She and her people held them back.”

  Castelle jogged over. Lines of blood dotted her, as if she’d been nicked over and over, the red stripes spoiling her blue clothing. “We’ve got other problems. A stream of liveried servants just ran by. The palace has been overrun.”

  Starbride’s stomach dropped. Katya, the Umbriels… “By the mob.”

  Castelle nodded. “Though some of them said something about monsters.”

  “We have to get there.”

  “Agreed,” Castelle said. She glanced at Starbride’s arms and grimaced. “Do you think you can?”

  “I can make it, but start without me. Save…who you can. I’ll catch up.”

  “If she’s stuck in there, I’ll get her out.” Castelle gathered her friends and took off down the street.

  Pennynail crooked a finger as if she should follow him. “I’ll be right back,” Starbride said.

  Ursula nodded. “I’ll see to my men, and we’ll try to fix this miserable failure as best we can.”

  Dawnmother and Starbride leaned on each other as they followed Pennynail into an alley. He shoved his mask on top of his head. “There’s a place the Order always meets, in the forest. If they got away, they’ll be there.”

  “We won’t know if they got away until we go to the palace,” Starbride said.

  “Star,” Dawnmother said, “maybe we should see if they’re at this meeting place first.”

  “Every moment I’m not headed toward the palace is a moment Katya could be dying.”

  “She knows what she’s doing,” Pennynail said. “She’s been at this game a long time.”

  “Really? Because I thought a Fiendish uncle who was plotting to overthrow the government was a rather new development.”

  Pennynail shut his mouth and nodded. “All right. Let’s do it.”

  They bandaged one another. Ursula left the least wounded in charge of the most wounded, and then they headed out. No matter who won, Starbride wanted to be near the palace. Ursula’s mouth set in a firm line. Starbride knew she cared about Marienne, not necessarily the Umbriels, but Magistrate Anthony and his band had caused the damage racing through the city. If keeping the Umbriels on the throne was the cure to this madness, Ursula would do it; that much was clear. Starbride had to wonder, though. If putting Magistrate Anthony on the throne led to a cessation of violence, would Ursula help with that, too?

  Either way, Starbride was certain Ursula wouldn’t stand by while the royals were killed. Maybe her influence could get them exiled, anything that would save their lives, Katya’s in particular.

  Chapter Forty-three: Katya

  Katya stepped back beside her father. He’d torn open the neck of his coat, and she knew by the way his eyes slid to hers what he had in mind. If he took his pyramid necklace off, if he got angry enough, his Fiend would emerge and attack Roland.

  But he could also attack everyone else. “No, Da.”

  A few of the Guards moved to engage Roland, but they wouldn’t distract him for long. Katya led her father into the press again, looking for a way out. A man staggered close, slashing at everything in terror. Katya ducked his swing and then bashed him in the face with her guard. He crumpled, probably to be trampled, but she couldn’t care about him.

  Roland appeared in front of them again and laughed. “Perseverance can be tiresome. You don’t want that.”

  That sounds of combat were dying, left to Earl Lamont’s guards and the remaining lesser Fiends. The men and women who’d been with Magistrate Anthony were either scattered around the walls, clutching their wounds, or heaped around the room, a grisly glimpse of Roland’s sovereignty to come.

  Averie shot an arrow into Roland’s chest. He glanced down at it as if it were annoying fly and pulled it out, dripping with blood, before tossing it away.

  Another arrow replaced it. Roland sidestepped the next shot, but now he frowned at Averie, clearly annoyed. And she knew Fiends, knew how anger moved them. She dashed away from Katya, spun, and shot again, over and over. Roland moved through the crowd and headed for her as a blur.

  “The fire has died down!” Da said.

  The fire had consumed the curtain but had no other fuel. The open secret passageway beckoned.

  “Averie!” Katya cried, but she only had time to look back. She had to get her father to safety.

  Averie didn’t acknowledge the cry, but her eyes flicked to Katya’s, and she seemed to mouth the word, “Go, go, go,” over and over. Or was it “No, no, no,” that she whispered? She raced along the ballroom, still firing at Roland. Face pinched with fright, she locked her eyes on him, even though she couldn’t really hurt him. He gained on her, almost catching her before Katya followed her father into the passageway. With a half-sob, Katya shut the door and braced it, but she didn’t know how long that would hold Roland. She grabbed her father and ran.

  “They’re in the forest,” Katya said. All she could see in her mind was Averie’s terrified face chanting as death came for her. And all she could feel was fear for Starbride, for what Roland would do to both of them if he could. Katya prayed that Starbride had seen the palace and high-tailed it for the forest, that Pennynail had taken her there.

  Katya shook the thoughts away and focused on how to get out. She ducked down an intersecting hallway.

  “Where…going?” Da asked.

  Katya slowed. Not only had he been knocked about, but he wasn’t used to running. “Do we stay in here and risk Roland finding us or go into the halls and risk everyone else?”

  “Better the hallways. We know he’ll come after us this way.”

  Katya led her father toward the royal summer apartments, near where the Order met. Just as they opened the door into the hallway, a boom sounded from down the passageway, and the rushing air snuffed their lamp. Roland had entered the tunnels behind them.

  “Averie,” Katya said softly. “Oh, spirits, no.”

  Da took a deep breath and wiped his pale, sweating face. “What’s your plan, my girl?”

  Katya’s mind raced. That was the question for the day. Around her, pyramids glinted in the hallway walls. “Those will keep us safe from the townsfolk and the lesser Fiends.”

  “They won’t stop Roland.”

  Katya heard a scuff from down the hallway and glanced in that
direction.

  A mud-caked woman peered back at her. So, people had wandered this far into the palace. “Here’s more!” the woman cried, a cackle of glee in her voice. “I found some more fat cats to string up, boys!”

  A group of young men hurtled around the corner behind her. “Here, kitty, kitty!” several cried.

  The man in the lead burst into flame that consumed him completely and then winked out just as suddenly, leaving the carpet only mildly singed.

  The others skidded to a stop, but not before two more met a similar fate.

  “They’re Fiends! Fiends!” the mud-caked woman cried. They turned and fled. Well, they’d be seeing Fiends soon enough. Still, their reaction gave Katya an idea. She didn’t want to kill commoners if she could avoid it, but she had to protect her father. She pried several of the guardian pyramids off the walls.

  “If we use those, won’t we get caught in the blast?” Da asked.

  “We’ll have to be quick and throw them before anyone comes near us.”

  He frowned but dug another of the pyramids out of the wall and fashioned the remains of his purple mantle into a sack. “You keep your rapier out, my girl. I’ll handle these.”

  Katya nodded, and they were off again. They worked their way toward the servant stairs, the last place anyone would be with the rest of the palace wide open. They met several courtiers huddled in their rooms or nobles held captive. Each time, Katya chased the commoners away, with pyramids if she had to. By the time she and her father reached the back stables, there were twenty people with them, though they had to keep their distance from Da and his pyramids.

  The eastern sky had begun to lighten. Katya kept her lantern lit. In the darkness of the rear stables, a group of people approached the flickering glow.

  Katya raised her sword, but the figures kept coming. One of them called, “Katya?”

  “Step into the light,” Katya said. Castelle appeared out of the gloom.