A Kingdom Lost

by Barbara Ann Wright

  Da nodded as Dayscout said, “This is Einrich Nar Umbriel.”

  The man’s mouth twisted to the side. “Who else would he be? He does stand out.”

  “Thank you for meeting with us,” Da said.

  “I am Leafclever, and this is my assistant, Redtrue.”

  Katya and the others bowed slightly.

  “Dayscout tells us a daughter of Newhope is lost in your war,” Redtrue said.

  Katya glanced at Leafclever, expecting him to censure his assistant for speaking out of turn, but he only watched.

  “We’re going to get her back,” Katya said.

  “Words are water,” Redtrue said, “only as firm as the container that holds them.”

  “Horsestrong?” Katya asked.

  Leafclever smiled wider. “I’m glad you know his name. You’re going to need his wisdom in order to succeed here.”

  “Succeed?” Da asked.

  “In convincing us to help you,” Leafclever said. “Or did you think we could heal your hurts with a blink of our magic?”

  Da smiled. “Negotiation has always been one of my strong points.”

  “We don’t need healing,” Katya added. “We need strength.”

  “Ah,” Leafclever said, “well, we’ll see what we can do.” He gestured for them to follow him toward the adobe houses.

  Redtrue walked at Katya’s side, scowling at all of them in turn.

  “Problem?” Katya asked.

  “We’re letting our conquerors walk into our home. What could be the problem?”

  “You don’t look conquered,” Brutal said from Katya’s other side.

  “You used words instead of whips, so what?”

  “For someone with such a chip on her shoulder, you speak Farradain very well,” Katya said.

  Redtrue frowned. “Chip?”

  “A grudge.”

  “We’re required to learn your language in our schools. What does that tell you?”

  “That your teachers wanted you to be able to speak to your neighbors,” Katya said.

  “Ah, so you know Allusian? To talk to your neighbors?” She said a few rapid words.

  Katya took another deep breath, glad that Redtrue was only the assistant. “I’m sorry, no.”

  “I bet you’re very good at dancing, though? Or wearing jewels?”

  “Am I wearing jewels? I’m certainly not dancing.”

  Redtrue shook her head. “Maybe it will do you good to cast off luxury.”

  Katya slowed to a stop, memories of all she’d lost strong in her head: Reinholt, Crowe, her grandmother, Averie. And maybe even Starbride, who was more important to her than breath. “If I were you, I wouldn’t remind me of all I’ve lost. When is the last time someone you loved died?”

  Redtrue turned away. Katya sped up to stay behind her father as he entered Leafclever’s house.

  They spent an hour telling Leafclever about Roland and their troubles. Like Dayscout, he didn’t say much, just watched and listened. Halfway through the tale, Redtrue made a disgusted noise and left. Katya nodded at Castelle, and she followed Redtrue out. If anyone was going to raise a force to roust them, they needed to know ahead of time.

  Katya turned to find Leafclever watching her. “You need not worry for your safety here,” he said. “She simply doesn’t like the perversion of the adsna.”

  “The adsna?” Katya asked.

  He put his fingers together in a triangle. “The magic which flows through us and into the pyramid.”

  Brutal frowned. “I thought the pyramid did the work, and you pyradistés were just the users.”

  “I know that you think so.”

  Katya wanted to roll her eyes but stopped herself. “I’m sorry, Leafclever, but I don’t like enigmatic at the best of times.”

  “So I guessed.” When they continued to blink at him, he shrugged. “I’m sorry if it puzzles you. It’s as natural as breathing to me and just as hard to explain to someone who’s never done it. Perhaps you should ask Redtrue. She needs to learn patience.”

  Patience was the last thing Katya had to teach, but Da gave her a look over one shoulder, and she knew her usefulness in the house was done. Two of Castelle’s friends went with her, leaving Brutal and the last two to guard Da.

  She stopped halfway to Castelle and Redtrue, just close enough to hear what they were saying.

  “And what do Farradains know of love?” Redtrue asked.

  Castelle’s well-practiced leer didn’t slip an inch. “I’d be happy to show you.”

  “You’re confident. I’ll give you that.”

  “I never disappoint.”

  Redtrue lifted her chin, and Katya expected her to attempt to tear Castelle down, but she said, “Fine. That small house over there is mine. One hour after moonrise. Be prompt.”

  Castelle blinked before she bowed. “Happy to be of service.”

  Redtrue only snorted before turning toward Katya. “Did Leafclever send you?”

  “Um, yes. He said that if I wanted to know more about perversion of the adsna, I should ask you.” Before Redtrue could trot out her disdain again, Katya added, “He also said you need to learn patience.”

  She shut her mouth with an audible snap. “Fine.” She crossed to a log near a small fire pit and sat. Katya sat across from her, glad of the heat in the afternoon chill. Castelle took a seat a little farther away, where she could watch the rest of the village.

  “Tell me what you know of pyramid magic,” Redtrue said.

  Katya repressed a smile. That was how Crowe started lessons as well. Trouble was, what she knew and what the Allusians knew might not be the same. “I admit total ignorance.”

  “That’s a good place to start. Only a few contain the ability to perceive the adsna, the life force of the world, and we few can make this force manifest through the fana-zi, the…world children, I suppose is how you would say it. We adsnazi shape the fana-zi into pyramid shapes because that is the best shape for channeling the adsna.

  “The early peoples used the adsna to destroy, to covet, to warp one another.” She glared at Katya again. “Your people use it for this purpose still, but the adsna is not a weapon. The reason your people were so easily overthrown is because they perverted the adsna to these purposes.”

  Katya flushed. “The Fiend—”

  “I heard your father speak of him. Where do you think Fiends come from? They were made by the early peoples, from their perversion of the adsna. Fiends are the twisted offspring of the fana-zi and the minds of the early peoples.”

  Katya frowned harder. She’d never heard of such a thing. She’d always thought the Fiends were as natural as humans or animals, just another sort of creature. “How do you know this?”

  “I read books.”

  The statement was so reminiscent of Starbride that Katya laughed out loud. “I’m sorry. You just reminded me… Never mind. Go on.”

  “Twisted adsna in the grip of a twisted creature? I’m sure they’re like hand in glove. It’s amazing this didn’t happen to your people before.” Her eyes narrowed. “Unless it already has. I sensed the necklace your father wears. What does it do?”

  Katya’s insides went cold. “Now why would you want to know that?”

  “The easiest way to keep the Fiends from ruining the kingdom they helped you, their creators, make would be to take them to your bosom. Is your family already corrupted, and this usurper more corrupted than most?” She waved the words away. “Don’t tell me. I’d rather not know. But mark my words, these events will happen again as long as the perversion of the adsna continues.”

  “Starbride told me about the adsnazi light shows.” But Katya was beginning to think they knew much more.

  “A reflection of the world’s natural light. The adsna flows with the world’s power; we don’t subject it to our will.”

  Katya wasn’t going to accept that explanation on one person’s say-so. But there was no Crowe to verify what Redtrue said. She tried to blame the Farradains for evil, p
yradistés and others alike. Katya’s forebears had absorbed Yanchasa’s essence for the kingdom’s well-being, and Crowe had never acted with evil intentions.

  “You doubt me.” Redtrue leaned back and heaved a huge sigh. “I work with the adsna. I feel it in a way you never can, and yet you doubt me.”

  “Well, I don’t know you from anyone else in Allusia. And Starbride was learning how to be a pyradisté when I…left. There’s never been a person as far from evil deeds as Starbride.”

  Redtrue’s mouth twisted. “One of our own training to be a pyradisté, something Allusia never hoped to hear. We are only adsnazi, and we do not force it upon ourselves. Only those who come to us, seeking the adsna, join our ranks. When you find her, if you find her, you should encourage her to come here.”

  “She’ll do as she wishes.”

  Redtrue shrugged. “I cringe at the idea of her learning perverted ways.”

  Katya couldn’t contain a smirk. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Castelle doing the same, though Redtrue didn’t seem to notice.

  “So,” Castelle said, “can you do anything with your fabled powers besides making pretty lights?”

  Redtrue sneered. “Your skepticism does you no credit.”

  “Nor does yours,” Katya said.

  “Mine is permitted, is it not? Speaking to my conquerors as I am?”

  “If you were conquered,” Katya said, “then we wouldn’t be asking for your help. We’d already have it.”

  “As I’ve said before, you conquered us with money and trade instead of weapons. What does that mean?”

  “It means most of you aren’t dead,” Katya said.

  For a moment, Redtrue held Katya’s eyes, one of her fists clenching and unclenching as if she desired to draw one of her pyramids and use some of that perverted power. “We are not powerless.”

  “I know that.” Katya leaned forward. “That’s why we’re here, to ask for your help. Maybe you’re right; maybe we brought this on ourselves. If our people work together—”

  “You seek us as your teachers? Don’t make me laugh. You’d no sooner learn from savages like us than you would sprout wings and fly. You want only the strength of our arms and backs.”

  “Well, if money and trade are your problems, we can always arrange something in that arena. If your people want more fortuitous trading laws or monetary compensation, you can negotiate with my father.”

  Redtrue crossed her arms. “If we want you gone from our lands, we have only to refuse you now.”

  “Oh no,” Katya said, feeling an evil smile cross her face. “You could chase us out, sure, but he’ll come for you eventually, with all the perverted magic in his arsenal. The power he finds in Farraday won’t be enough for him. He’ll want more, and he’ll need the crystal in your mountains to get it. Your only hope is our only hope, to strike before his feet are firm upon the ground.”

  Redtrue held Katya’s eyes for a moment before she looked away, but her face had gone from haughty skepticism to angry thoughtfulness. It was a step in the right direction.

  Chapter Ten

  Starbride

  After Roland’s minions had found the pyradistés in the warehouse district, they’d done a sweep of the area. When Freddie told Starbride about it, she had to clamp her teeth together to fight off nausea. “How many did he get?” she asked in her small room beneath the shop.

  “I don’t know,” Freddie said. “Some good can come of this, though. We’re bursting at the seams here. And if Roland thinks he’s cleared the warehouses, we have a good place to move to.”

  It was getting harder and harder to keep their large group quiet. Many of the people hiding with them weren’t pyradistés or refugees from the palace. Some simply feared Roland so much they wanted to hide, especially if their friends or family had contracted Fiend king fever, a nickname for anyone who’d had their minds warped.

  “You have a particular spot in mind?” Starbride asked.

  “A few, one with a very large basement. My father and I knew them well.” His gaze went far away before he blinked whatever he was thinking away.

  Starbride wished she had some comforting words for him; they were all in need of comforting words. “You think you could convince the owner of this very large basement to help us?”

  “I’ll appeal to his sense of community generosity. If that doesn’t work, I’ll threaten to tell his daughters they have two half-siblings. He needs their cash to stay afloat.”

  Starbride had to laugh. “I don’t know who to feel sorry for.”

  *

  The warehouse’s owner agreed to help them if some of their party would work for him during the day, loading crates. Many agreed, if only for something to do while they waited. Waited for what, Starbride didn’t know, maybe for her to make Roland disappear. If only she could. At least the coin they earned would help feed everyone.

  They moved their headquarters slowly, working day and night to move everyone and everything without arousing suspicion. The enormous basement below the warehouse had already been divided into rooms for storage so they didn’t have to live on top of one another.

  “I just got word that Roland visited the Pyradisté Academy,” Freddie said as Starbride was setting up her crafting table. “Maybe he finally got around to checking his alarms.”

  “Did he look angry?”

  Freddie smirked. “I’d like to think so, but my contact didn’t get that close. He did report that the Fiend king left very quickly after arrival.”

  Starbride leaned back in her chair, glad they were able to foil Roland a little bit. Katya would have been happy to hear it. And Freddie finally seemed resolved to stay in Marienne. He hadn’t fought with her to leave in at least a week. “Why are you staying, Freddie?”

  “In the city?” He sank down on his haunches instead of on Starbride’s narrow cot. “I owe Katya and her family a lot. After everything that happened in Dockland, my life was over. At first, I worked just with my da. I didn’t have much to do with Roland, but after Katya took over, she made me…a part of something bigger than…me.” He chuckled and stood again. “It sounds so awfully old-fashioned, but once I had a taste of it, I couldn’t go back.”

  Starbride grinned. “So it’s not because you’re in love with her or anything?”

  He burst out laughing and then rubbed his throat as if it hurt him. “She’s great-looking, don’t get me wrong, and I’ll admit to a hero crush, but she’d never look at me twice. That puts a bit of a damper on romance. I do have a weakness for blonds, though. I guess we share that, eh?”

  Starbride blushed as she chuckled. “She’s my whole world.” She felt tears come to her eyes and dashed them away.

  Freddie patted her shoulder. “We’ll find her, Starbride. I stay for you, too, you know. You’re my friend, and I’ll fight at your side until I can’t fight any longer.”

  She patted his hand and nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Until I can’t fight any longer just means until I get really tired.”

  She prodded him with one foot. “Hugo isn’t blond. Didn’t you say he caught your eye?”

  “Like I said, ten years ago, maybe. That was when I was into young, naive, and trusting.”

  “And now you want wise, hardened, and skeptical? Captain Ursula is blond.”

  “The woman who hanged me. Nice.”

  “You told me once that she knew you weren’t the Butcher.”

  He tilted his head back and forth. “She helped me find out who it was before I…died.”

  Starbride sat forward. “And you got close?”

  “Can’t you leave any secrets alone?”

  “No! You left the door open.”

  Freddie leaned against the wall. “Well, if I’m going to leave the door open, I guess I can’t blame you for barging in and taking everything that isn’t nailed down. You’d have made a good thief. I don’t think Ursula would appreciate me telling the story. She thinks I’m dead, remember? Everyone does. And if you hap
pen to drop a hint to her that you know something about the murders…”

  “I’m in the habit of collecting secrets, not dispensing them. The only person I might tell is Dawnmother, and I tell her everything anyway.”

  Before he could respond, a knock sounded on Starbride’s door. Freddie pulled his mask back on quickly, even before Starbride could say, “Who is it?”

  “Hugo, Miss Starbride.”

  After she’d called him in, Freddie slipped the mask on top of his head. Hugo scowled at him.

  “Are you all right, Miss Starbride?” Hugo asked.

  “Of course I am, Hugo. Freddie wouldn’t hurt me.”

  Hugo continued to scowl, unable, it seemed, to get the picture of the Dockland Butcher out of his mind.

  Freddie stepped close to him. “Even if I wanted to hurt her, what could you do about it, boy?”

  Hugo snarled and put one hand on his rapier. Starbride sighed loudly. If Dawnmother were there, she’d have told them to measure their manhoods and get it over with. She picked up a pyramid again, determined to get back to work if they insisted on acting foolish.

  As if summoned by the thought, Dawnmother stepped into the room. When Hugo turned to look at her, Freddie pinched him on the rump. He jumped as if bitten by a snake.

  “You…” Hugo took a deep breath, shoulders shaking, face red. “Keep your hands to yourself.” He managed to snarl and look affronted at the same time.

  “How can I?” Freddie asked. “When you make it so tempting?”

  Dawnmother pushed past them. “Star, do you want me to shoo them away?”

  “Not just yet. Was there something you wanted, Hugo?”

  With another frown, he stepped around Freddie while keeping his back to Starbride. “I was going to the market with some of the others and wanted to know if you needed anything.”

  “You shouldn’t be going to the market,” Dawnmother said before Starbride had a chance. “You’re too valuable.”

  Hugo smiled shyly. “Thank you, Dawnmother.”

  She waved the thanks away. “Your Fiend would be too valuable to Roland.”