A Kingdom Lost

by Barbara Ann Wright

  “I’m not going to let go until you agree to not feel guilty anymore.”

  “Wonderful. Will you pick out curtains for this hallway we’re going to live in, or shall I?”

  Castelle’s face turned thunderous, and Katya braced herself for the shouting. No, she decided, if the shouting began, she was going to punch Castelle in the gut and then carry on to bed.

  Instead, Castelle swooped forward and kissed her with passionate intensity. Katya’s eyes flew open, and it took her a heartbeat to realize what was happening. It had been a long while since anyone had held her, since she’d pressed someone close, and she’d forgotten how skillful these particular lips could be.

  Before Katya could respond, Castelle straightened, her face blurrily close. “This always cleared your mind before.”

  Katya’s heart hammered in her ears, and she almost leaned forward, almost claimed those devious lips again, but Castelle’s words were too similar to something Starbride had once said, and Katya couldn’t hold in a sob. She drew back and tightened her arms around herself.

  “Katya?” Castelle said, surprised, it seemed, into dropping the Highness. “Spirits, I didn’t…hurt you or anything, did I?”

  Katya drew in a great, shuddering breath. “The fact that you don’t know how much you hurt me proves that we don’t know each other at all. I love Starbride, Castelle.”

  “I know, but—”

  “No, you don’t know. You couldn’t, not when you kissed me like that. I ache for her. She lives inside me. She’ll do that forever, even if she…” Katya mashed her lips together, desperate to keep from falling apart until she could be alone.

  “Katya, I’m sorry. I just wanted—”

  “Don’t ever touch me again.” Katya stepped past, wondering what in all the spirits’ names Castelle had been thinking. A quick tumble in the ship’s hold and all of Katya’s problems would be gone? A betrayal of the woman she loved would clear her of guilt? Was that how it worked in Castelle’s world? Katya couldn’t help but wonder how many women Castelle had kept on the side when they’d been together. Their relationship had meant the world to Katya. Maybe it hadn’t meant as much to Castelle because she was incapable of feeling real love for anyone.

  “Oh, Star,” Katya whispered, hurrying to her bunk so she could fall to pieces. “Please be alive, please, please, please.”

  Chapter Six

  Starbride

  Starbride held her new pyramid up to the light. Squinting, she polished it again, trying to buff away the last few smudges.

  “If you’re going to wear it, it’s going to get marks on it,” Dawnmother said.

  Starbride glared at her, but Dawnmother didn’t look up from her pile of mending. “I want it to be perfect, Dawn.”

  “He who tries for perfection will sooner catch the sun.”

  “Horsestrong really did have a saying for every occasion.” But how many did he actually say, and how many did he just get credit for? Starbride wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d really been mute. “The better I can make this, the better I can hide from the corpse Fiends.”

  “I have faith in you, Star. I do not see how worrying to sickness will help the pyramid work better.”

  “You’re right. If it’s going to work, it’s going to work, and there’s only one way to test it.”

  Town criers had passed through the streets early the day before, calling the populace to the palace steps in the late afternoon. The Fiend king wished to address them. Freddie had wanted to go alone, maybe with Hugo, to see what Roland had planned. Starbride had disagreed. She and Master Bernard had finally finished the pyramid that would let a pyradisté hide from the sharpened senses of the corpse Fiends, and they had to know if it would work.

  Dawnmother set her sewing aside and looked up. “If the Fiend king himself is going to address the people, he will have many of those…things with him.”

  “If these pyramids fail, the corpse Fiends will have a harder time finding us in a crowd.” She tried to swallow her nerves, but her belly felt like it was full of flies. “Besides, we can’t just wander around the largest city in Farraday looking for a lone corpse Fiend. And we won’t be at the front of the crowd, just in case Roland tries any tricks.”

  “Well,” Dawnmother said as she stood, “when do we leave?” Starbride started to protest, but Dawnmother lifted an eyebrow. “We’ll be safe, yes? That’s what you said.”

  Starbride swallowed her retort. “Let’s go.” She slipped a tiny chain through the hole at the top of the pyramid and then lifted it over her head. She’d wear it under her clothes, next to her skin like the Fiend necklace Hugo and the other Umbriels had to wear.

  As it settled cold against her breastbone, a memory rushed to the front of her mind: kissing Katya’s warm throat, her fingers playing over the gold chain that held Katya’s pyramid. Starbride took a deep breath and forced the feelings down before they could overwhelm her.

  “Star?” Dawnmother asked.

  Starbride lifted the pyramid and pressed it to her lips before she dropped it down her shirt again. She and Dawnmother gathered Pennynail and Hugo as they exited their basement hideout. They left Master Bernard behind. Starbride wanted to test her new pyramid on herself before she asked anyone else to risk his or her life.

  “What do you think my…the Fiend king wants?” Hugo asked as they hurried through the streets. Starbride caught the pained expression on his face. He wanted to forget that Roland was his father as much as possible.

  “I don’t know,” Starbride said. Coldness settled in her at the thought that Roland might say something about Katya, about how he’d captured her. She walked a little faster.

  A few streets from the hideout, Pennynail surprised her by taking off his mask. He’d darkened his hair and wore a scarf high up on his chin. He put a coat on over his leather, buckled outfit, making it look almost normal. He’d smeared coal lightly on his cheeks, making them gaunter, and he pulled a flat cap far down over his eyes. No one would recognize him unless they took his hat off and peered very closely at his face.

  Hugo watched the transformation with hooded eyes.

  “The mask is just too obvious to mingle,” Freddie said. “And the rooftops are out if I want to stay close to you.” When he winked, Hugo turned away.

  The large square in front of the palace already teemed with people when they arrived. An empty dais stood at the front, blocking access to the large stairway that led inside the palace proper. The heavy doors were nearly closed, leaving a gap just large enough for people to come and go single file. The scorch marks Starbride remembered from the night Roland had taken over had been washed away, and the torn Umbriel banners were gone. Nothing new hung in their place. Perhaps Roland was still thinking on what his new crest would look like.

  “Let’s stay near the edge,” Freddie said. “Any more than a few people deep and we could get trapped in the press.”

  Starbride glanced back to see how many more people worked their way down the street. Even with all the turmoil, a few vendors had showed up, calling out their wares.

  Freddie guided them farther back in the crowd as more people arrived. “If anyone looks too closely at us,” he whispered, “head for those vendors and pretend you’re buying something.”

  Starbride resisted the urge to grab her pyramid necklace and Dawnmother’s hand. Like Freddie, they wore caps and scarves to hide their features. Hugo and Freddie tried to stay in front of them, blocking their faces from passersby.

  The crowd noise swelled for a moment. Starbride peeked around Freddie’s shoulder and saw Roland, the bastard, striding from the palace doors. No guards surrounded him, but then, he didn’t need any.

  Freddie bent close to Starbride’s ear. “He’s alone. If I can get close enough…”

  “He’s fast enough to move out of the way of anything you throw.”

  “Fast enough to dodge a stab to the neck?”

  It could work, she supposed, but just as quickly, she knew it wou
ldn’t. Even if Freddie managed to catch Roland without his Fiendish Aspect upon him, the Fiend was always inside him. “I won’t risk losing you.”

  “Aw, do you have a little crush?”

  She poked him in the back. “Keep dreaming.”

  Hugo leaned close to them and glared. “Perhaps you should pay attention.”

  “Sensitive and easily antagonized,” Freddie said. “Ten years ago you would have been just my type, kiddo.”

  Starbride saw Hugo’s ears go red, but before he could retort, she shushed them both.

  At the top of the dais, Roland smiled at the crowd, not a trace of the Fiend on his face. Starbride remembered Katya saying that he looked just the same as he had seven years ago, when he’d supposedly died. He was in his mid-thirties, broad-shouldered and good-looking, with a face so much like Katya’s father’s except Roland’s beard was lighter brown. Starbride could almost see his blue eyes twinkling. He seemed so…normal.

  The noise of the crowd dropped, but no one clapped for Roland. He smiled harder, as if he hadn’t expected a warm welcome.

  “Friends and neighbors,” he said, “loyal subjects.” Even he laughed at that one, his mask slipping. Starbride had to wonder if he’d gone even more insane. “I’ve called you together to announce that the king and the crown princess have been found.”

  Starbride’s stomach dropped to her knees, and the world seemed to tilt around her. She grabbed Hugo to keep from falling over.

  Roland gestured over his shoulder, and two people walked from the palace. Starbride’s heartbeat returned to normal. They were an older man and a young woman, but they were no more Katya and King Einrich than Freddie and Hugo were.

  Hugo gasped. “It’s…really them. But they’re smiling. He must have used a pyramid to—”

  “It can’t be,” Freddie said.

  Dawnmother grabbed Starbride’s arm. “Oh Star…”

  “It’s not them,” Starbride said. “They must be wearing disguise pyramids.” No other pyradistés in the crowd would be fooled, but everyone else murmured to themselves.

  The fakes linked arms with Roland, smiled, and waved to the crowd. To their credit, the crowd managed a bit of sporadic clapping.

  “Thank you, good citizens,” the fake Einrich said. “With the help of our new friend and his enormous power, we hope to work together for a better tomorrow.”

  Starbride fought not to gag. Instead of clapping, the crowd seemed more suspicious, glancing at one another and muttering. On the dais, Roland chuckled as he watched the sea of people. His features seemed to ripple, but when they straightened, they were his own, not the Fiend’s.

  The hair on the back of Starbride’s neck stood up. “Get ready.”

  Around her, faces slackened, and happy, stupid smiles took over people’s mouths. Two men near the back of the dais lifted a large, cloth-wrapped bundle into the air. The wind caught the edge of the cloth and tore it away, revealing a pyramid half as tall as Starbride.

  She tugged on Freddie’s arm. “Let’s—”

  He dumbly turned toward her, the same goofy smile on his face as on everyone else’s.

  “Damn,” Starbride whispered.

  Hugo and Dawnmother shared the same blissful look. Starbride tried to grab all three of them, ready to lead their idle bodies from the square. But how to do it without arousing suspicion? She supposed the grinning crowd wouldn’t notice her, but movement to her right caught her eye.

  A host of corpse Fiends eased into the square. They lifted their gaunt, gray faces and sniffed the air as they moved through the crowd. Starbride turned Hugo, Freddie, and Dawnmother toward the dais again. The corpse Fiends had cut off the escape routes, and as Starbride watched from the corner of her eye, one of them turned in her direction.

  She let her eyes go half lidded and tried on a satisfied smile, difficult with her teeth clamped together. The square had gone eerily quiet, echoing with the shuffling footsteps of the corpse Fiends. One drifted closer, and Starbride fought not to hold her breath. It paused beside her, and she focused on the feeling of the pyramid against her chest, trying to think as Katya would, hoping to borrow a measure of Katya’s courage. The corpse Fiend sniffed against her ear, and the scent of it filled her nostrils, dry and dusty like an old riverbed.

  It breathed deep, the air moving several strands of her hair. She fought the urge to tremble or sneeze, fought to remember to blink. Well, she wanted a test for her new pyramid. It didn’t get any better than this.

  After the corpse Fiend whuffed a final time, it loped away through the crowd. Starbride wanted to sag to her knees, but other corpse Fiends might be watching. Roland himself was scanning the crowd as his minions moved through it.

  Across the square, one young woman screamed and broke into a run. As one, the corpse Fiends took up their infernal howl and leapt after her. When Roland and his two fakes turned in the fleeing woman’s direction, Starbride linked arms with Freddie and Dawnmother, grabbed a fistful of Hugo’s shirt, and inched toward a side street. She tried to block the terrified woman’s screams from her ears, wishing there was something she could do to help, but she couldn’t defeat a pack of corpse Fiends on her own.

  When she turned a corner with her three charges, she hurried them along until they began to encounter people who hadn’t gone to the palace to hear what Roland had to say.

  “Who does he…” Freddie started. He whirled around. “What the hell?”

  “Where are we?” Hugo asked.

  “Star?” Dawnmother said.

  Starbride gave them all a gentle push. “Keep walking,” she said through her teeth. “Look normal.”

  They fell into step with her, and she filled them in as they walked.

  “Clever bastard,” Freddie said.

  Hugo patted her shoulder. “Quick thinking, Miss Starbride.”

  “And now we know your pyramid works.” Dawnmother squeezed Starbride’s arm, telling of how afraid she’d been, no matter her words.

  “I shudder to think of what he’s doing to the people he hypnotized back there, how he’s…retuning them.” Starbride thought of the large pyramid and shook her head. Now they knew Roland was continuing his experiments. They had to find a way into the palace soon. Who knew what he could do with a pyramid so large?

  Her mind seemed to click then, as if a puzzle piece fell into place. The capstone under the palace wasn’t the only large pyramid in Marienne.

  “Horsestrong preserve us,” she whispered. “The Pyradisté Academy.” It was far larger than the pyramid she’d seen just then. How many people could it hypnotize? As far as Starbride knew it was just a light pyramid, but Roland’s power was unbelievable. She told the others her thoughts as they walked.

  Hugo whistled. “And it’s nearly in the center of town!”

  “We need to talk to Master Bernard,” Starbride said. “Maybe we can…lock it in some way, I don’t know.”

  “I do,” Dawnmother said. “If you can’t keep him from using it, destroy it.”

  Freddie laughed softly. “Blow up the second largest pyramid in Farraday? Sounds like the most fun we’ll have since this whole business started.”

  Master Bernard wouldn’t think so. Starbride imagined she’d have to hold him as he wept.

  Chapter Seven

  Katya

  When Katya first saw Newhope, she thought it must be on fire. It gleamed so. Rows of buildings started at the harbor and climbed up a steep hill toward the center of the city. All of them shone in the dawn. Katya had to squint through her fingers just to look.

  “It’s a defensive measure,” Captain Penner said. “The buildings are painted bright white and decorated with polished metal on the one side. You have to sail at a very specific angle to decrease the glare.” The ship tacked, and the light from the buildings decreased. Still, they had to stop far out in the harbor and wait for a pilot boat to lead them in.

  The Allusians were a crafty lot, then. It was a lucky thing the Farradains hadn’t tried to co
me at them a hundred years ago from the sea. Katya tried to put such thoughts away. Reminding the Allusians of all they’d lost to the Farradains wouldn’t help her cause.

  Da joined her at the rail, and Katya nearly leaned on his shoulder she was so tired. “Ready for some land again, my girl?”

  “Where do we go first?”

  “Straight to the governor’s office to throw ourselves on his mercy.”

  “Do you really think that’s likely?”

  “Worth a try. Our noble friends can seek out the Farradain families living here and find a safe haven for themselves and maybe us if the governor tosses us out on our ears.”

  Whatever they did, they couldn’t seem like usurpers of the governor’s power. The nobles who sailed with them would probably prefer it if they stormed the town and took what they wanted, but the balance of power in Allusia was tenuous. As Starbride’s original mission to Marienne had proven, not everyone was happy with the Farradain traders living in Newhope. Allusia might have adopted Farradain laws, but the Farradains themselves didn’t always adhere to those laws. According to Starbride, they’d been using antiquated practices to create a trading monopoly.

  Starbride had been determined to stop them. The fierce look in her eyes had made Katya so proud. Now, it made her insides tighten with worry. She tried rolling her head back and forth, but her neck and shoulders felt like rocks. If they got any stiffer, they’d split the skin open.

  Maybe she could relieve her tension by telling the Farradain traders in Newhope to behave. Of course, Starbride hadn’t wanted her to. She’d pointed out that if Katya solved all of Newhope’s problems, the Allusian people would never stand on their own.

  And with Roland to worry about, discussing trade law seemed rather pointless.

  The pilot ship led them into the harbor. Katya stayed with her father as he disembarked. Brutal walked in front of them, and Castelle followed with a handful of her friends. Ma and the children were probably bursting to be on land, but they couldn’t risk that, not just yet. If Katya had to hurry her father back to the ship, she took comfort in the fact that sailing away from the harbor wouldn’t be as difficult as sailing into it.