A Kingdom Lost

by Barbara Ann Wright

  Castelle staggered back, eyes wide.

  “That’s the match,” Brutal said. “That punch would have broken your nose, Cass. Might not have killed you, but it would have staggered you enough for her to finish you.”

  Castelle frowned as if she wasn’t convinced.

  Katya grinned. “I could break your nose, and we could see.”

  With a huge sigh, Castelle rammed her rapier home. “It’s not you I want to fight. She let me in, we got close, and then she said, ‘Thank you.’ Like I’d just…polished her silver! She didn’t ask me to leave then, but she ignored me until I did.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t like chitchat,” Brutal said, “or cuddling.”

  “She said I could come back whenever I wanted, come back and polish her silver and then she’ll show me the door!”

  Katya crossed her arms. “Have you ever had someone not fall in love with you?”

  “No!” Castelle said, and then, “Well, not when I’m really trying.”

  “Why are you really trying?” Brutal asked.

  “You’re trying to win just because you’ve never lost?” Katya said. “Even though you don’t really care about her?”

  “Well, it’s not that I don’t care about her. I’m not in love with her, but…”

  Katya stuck her tongue in her cheek, wondering if she should say anymore, but she couldn’t help herself. “You’re upset not because she’s using you but because you can’t use her.”

  Castelle’s mouth worked for a few moments before she stalked away, her back as stiff as a board.

  “Was that necessary?” Brutal asked.

  Remembering Redtrue’s words, Katya shrugged. “Let her feel sorry for herself on her own time.” She left to find her father, catching up to him just as he broke from his conversation with Dayscout and Leafclever.

  “We’re headed into Newhope tomorrow, my girl,” he told her as they walked a small distance from Dayscout’s house. “Dayscout’s gotten us a meeting with the Allusian council.”

  “And Leafclever? Did he say for sure that he’s going to back you?”

  “He’s nearly there. The deuce of it is, he’s not ready to commit until he hears me speak to the council.”

  “You give them a speech, they look to him, and what if he says no? Are we sunk?”

  “The council will want to make up its own mind. If they just went with whatever the adsnazi wanted, Allusia wouldn’t need a council at all, and they damn sure wouldn’t need Dayscout. If I can rally them, Leafclever will probably go over to our side, to say nothing of Dayscout, who I believe is already with us based on what we’ve discussed.”

  “A parliament.”

  “Just so. Now all I’ve got to do is promise them the moon and hope that when the time comes, it’s low enough in the sky to grab. Whether the Allusians commit to us or not, we need to move soon. Take most of our people and whatever scouts the Allusians will part with and ride into Farraday to see what support you can drum up from those closest to the borders.”

  Katya frowned. “Like Pomanse?”

  “Walls make cities feel secure. Start with the villages and the country nobles who don’t come to court. There are a few littering the wilderness out here. We should be able to convince them.”

  Katya wished she had someone like Countess Nadia to help her convince them. “Right.”

  “If Roland’s creations have been rampaging about the countryside, they might do your arguing for you. It’s a dammed shame, but the sooner people can see what they’re up against…”

  “The sooner they’ll see the need to fight. I wonder if Horsestrong had a saying about that.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Starbride

  Master Bernard began the long process of nursing Claudius, Effie, and Ansic back to health. Starbride put Averie in a small space near the back of their hideout, leaving her in Dawnmother’s care. Both seemed to take pleasure in looking after their new charges. Even though Master Bernard hadn’t been present when Roland sacked the academy, Starbride knew he felt guilty. He’d had to assume the heads were dead along with everyone else, but the survival of these three gave him hope that more had escaped.

  It was late afternoon before Captain Ursula and Sergeant Rhys made it back to the warehouse. They’d eluded Roland for as long as they could and then thrown the disguise pyramids away. Ursula kept the fire pyramid, claiming that she didn’t know when it might come in handy.

  “He passed within a few feet of me,” Ursula said. “Bastard is cold as ice.”

  “You should see him with his Fiend face on,” Starbride said. They sat in her small room, taking turns drinking from a wine bottle. After the night they’d had, they deserved it.

  “After we’d chucked the disguise pyramids, he looked straight at me, and I could have sworn by Ellias’s balls he knew who I was.”

  Starbride sputtered a laugh. “And?”

  “And nothing. He said, ‘Keep the people back,’ while he looked around.” She took a long pull from the bottle. “I heard from outside the city this morning.”

  Starbride nearly dropped the bottle as Ursula passed it. “Katya?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, no.”

  Starbride’s heart stopped pounding. No news could mean good news, as Horsestrong said. “What is it?”

  “A few of my men who were caught outside the city when the trouble started have been watching the countryside for me. They caught word of a group of Allusians traveling to Marienne and managed to stop them before they ran into the Fiend king’s patrols.”

  Starbride held her breath for a moment. “The students!”

  “What students?”

  “They were coming to the Halls of Law for the winter term. Katya offered them her patronage. I’d hoped they’d heard of the troubles and turned around, but I wouldn’t have recommended them to the school if they’d been short of courage.”

  “I was hoping for a group of Allusian pyradistés.”

  “Adsnazi, and I doubt they could help unless you need some pretty lights.” Starbride winced, wondering when she’d developed such a low opinion of her own people, but after seeing the wonder of Farradain pyradistés, she couldn’t help herself. She’d gone undetected by the adsnazi, after all. Who else had they missed?

  “Turn the students back,” Starbride said as she took a long pull of wine. “I don’t see how they could help.”

  “It’s a miracle they weren’t picked up.”

  “Yes, miracles make me…suspicious.” She hated to say that, too. She sounded more and more like a Farradain every day.

  Ursula gave a sideway smile. “You think the Fiend king found them in the country, left the city without anyone noticing him, warped their minds, and then snuck back in?”

  “Is anything you just said beyond his power?”

  “No…well, if they can’t be returned overland, maybe my contacts could take them to the coast and put them on a boat.”

  “Anything that gets them home.”

  “They might not leave without you, Princess Consort.”

  Starbride smiled slightly. “And I can’t leave here.” Katya wasn’t in the palace, but she might still be in the city. And even if she wasn’t, Starbride had no idea where to start looking.

  “Never said you should.” Ursula smiled softly, and Starbride wondered if she was thinking of her own lost loves, lost opportunities, maybe even of Freddie. Starbride couldn’t bring that up, though she longed to. Freddie would never forgive her.

  As if summoned by her thoughts, Pennynail stepped into the doorway and knocked on the jamb. Starbride waved him in. Ursula gave him a suspicious look before she stood. “I’ll get word to our people and send the students away.” She left without saying good-bye, as Starbride had come to expect.

  Pennynail shut the door before he stripped his mask off. “It’s so…odd to see her from in here.”

  “She doesn’t trust Pennynail.”

  He gazed into the laughing Jack mask’s manic grin. “Not man
y people do until they need my help.”

  “So bitter. Did something happen?”

  “I’m just a little sick of not being able to show my face. I mean, a spirits bedamned Fiend is walking around freer than I am. Maybe he isn’t showing his true face, but his minions are out in broad daylight.”

  “You saw how Hugo reacted to you, Freddie.”

  “Maybe I could make a better disguise, something smaller than this mask that still conceals my identity.”

  Starbride wondered how long it would be until any disguise was too much, but she couldn’t say it. Having his friends distrust him seemed to cut him as deeply as it had his father. As much as Crowe had always spoken of suspecting everyone, he wanted to be trustworthy. His mother had been servant class, after all. Trustworthiness was part of who they were.

  “Is there something you can try on a select group first, some who won’t lose their wits at the sight of the Dockland Butcher?”

  He winced, but she had to drive home what he was asking for. An infamous murderer in their midst could drive their little group apart. Freddie was silent for a moment before he nodded.

  “You could try it on Ursula,” Starbride asked. “If you can fool her…”

  “She might refuse to work with us.”

  “She knows you didn’t do the crimes you were accused of.”

  He shrugged.

  “I suppose finding out you’re alive would make her feel betrayed, especially if you two were close,” Starbride said.

  “Quit digging.”

  “If you’re committed to this, I won’t have to dig. It’ll all come out on its own.”

  “I’m going to give it some thought.”

  “Is that all you wanted to tell me? Or did you just want to get the mask off for a while?”

  “Both,” he said, “though it’s getting colder and colder outside. I picked a fine time to want to go bare-faced.”

  “We’re going to need more blankets soon.” That wasn’t all they needed. Their luck couldn’t keep holding out, especially not since they’d robbed the palace. “Did you sell the silver?”

  “Yep, though my fence is touchier than usual these days. There’s one person at least who wouldn’t care who I am even if I walked in there stark naked. He couldn’t take all the silver, though, and the other fences I know are in Dockland. It might be worth sneaking over there and having a look around. I doubt Roland’s bothered except for securing the docks.”

  She wondered if she’d have to sell the jewelry as well; it pained her to think so. When they’d first gotten back, she’d looked through all the boxes and touched every piece, the enameled necklace her father had made for her as a child, with “Bride” and “Lucky” spelled out in gold wire in between yellow starbursts; the diamond necklace that seemed to depict both snowflakes and dancers; her rubies and sapphires, all lovingly made by her father. She’d stared at the emerald consort’s cuff for a very long time. She’d also recognized many of Katya’s pieces, too: the sapphires from the Courtiers Ball; her silver diadem; and nestled in the corner of the box, in its own velvet bag, the butterfly hairpin that Katya had turned into a brooch.

  With shaky hands, Starbride had pinned the brooch to her own pyramid necklace, determined that it wouldn’t be sold. It wouldn’t fetch them much money anyway. She’d almost curled up and wept then, but her mother had been right about tears in one way: they didn’t do any good, not only when no one was around to see them, but at all.

  Freddie’s slight touch on her arm brought her back to herself. “We’ll save as much of it as we can,” he said softly.

  Starbride smiled into his warm eyes. “I’m trying not to be silly. We can’t eat jewelry, after all.”

  “Well, anything with Allusian writing on it would attract too much attention. With the others, we can pry the stones out and sell them separately, but we can start with Katya’s.”

  Before Starbride could protest, Freddie said, “She’s not as attached to them as you are.” When her mouth fell open, he laughed. “It’s no secret. You spent hours last night fondling your jewelry box.”

  “I wasn’t fondling anything. Why were you spying on me?”

  “No spying. I came to the door, saw the fondling, and left.”

  She rolled her eyes. “How much do you think we could get if we sold you?”

  “No one has that much money.”

  “Are you going to Dockland, or are you going to crack jokes all day?”

  He smiled and shrugged. “It might be tricky. Don’t expect me for a couple of days.”

  Worry gnawed at her then. “Do you want some company?”

  “You’re the leader of our little resistance. You can’t leave these people alone that long.”

  “What? I’m…I’m just staying around for Katya. I’m no one’s leader.”

  He gave her a sour look. “You’re the highest ranking person here, as well as one of the most powerful, and you just robbed the Fiend king, the monster who overthrew the kingdom and who’s making life very difficult for the populace. You’re standing up to him, Starbride, albeit sneakily, which is the best way to stand up, in my opinion. You’re the leader.”

  “I care about people, that’s all.”

  “A good quality in any leader.”

  “Look…do you want anyone to come with you or not? We have some capable pyradistés. A few of the younger ones could keep up with you, and if you need someone more combat capable, there’s always Hugo.”

  “Hugo would sooner clean my boots with his tongue than he would leave you in order to watch my back.”

  “He’d go if I asked him.”

  Freddie tilted his chin up. “I’m sorry, Miss Starbride,” he said in a raspy falsetto, “the very idea is unthinkable. I cannot leave you in the arms of unknowns while I accompany some ruffian!” He grabbed her hand and laid kisses all over her knuckles.

  Laughing, Starbride tried to reclaim her hand, but he cuddled it to his chest. “Freddie, stop!”

  Starbride’s door flew open. Hugo raced into the room, rammed into Freddie, and knocked him over.

  Starbride staggered back from where they rolled on the floor. She closed the door again before they could attract more attention. “Stop this!”

  Freddie flipped Hugo over and sat on top of him. “Someone’s frisky!”

  “I saw you pawing her, you honorless blackguard! She told you to stop!”

  Freddie knocked Hugo’s arms out from under him as Hugo tried to rise. “So you thought you’d rough me up a bit, eh, junior?”

  “Leave it, Freddie.” Starbride knelt until she could look into Hugo’s face. “Do you think I can’t take care of myself?”

  That made both of them stop and look at her.

  “I know you think you’re defending me, Hugo, but you’re not giving Freddie or me any credit. He wouldn’t hurt me, and I am not helpless.” She stood and put her fists on her hips. If she was the leader, by Horsestrong’s name, they’d treat her like one. “Freddie, let him up. Hugo, stop acting foolish.”

  Freddie stood with one smooth motion. He didn’t bother to offer help to Hugo, who stood on his own. He frowned, but his face had gone scarlet. “I’m sorry, Miss Starbride, I thought—”

  “If you can’t trust him, trust me, Hugo.”

  Hugo took a deep breath. Freddie wisely kept silent. Hugo offered both of them a shallow bow. “I apologize.”

  “Accepted,” Freddie said.

  Hugo cut his eyes at Freddie. “I wasn’t apologizing to you.”

  Starbride sighed, tempted to demand they work together to hurry the trust issues along. “It’s all right, Hugo. You’ll learn.”

  He shuffled from foot to foot. “I just wanted to see if you needed anything, and then I heard you say stop.”

  “I don’t need anything, thank you.”

  Freddie pulled his mask over his head. “I’d better be on my way.”

  “Good luck,” Starbride said. “Be safe.” He strode out the door.

  Hugo
hung his head. “I’m sorry I angered you.”

  Starbride pulled her hair behind her in a ponytail before letting it fall. She rarely wore it up these days because it gave her a headache, or maybe she had a perpetual headache.

  “I do think you’re capable,” Hugo said, “and I believe in your abilities, I just…”

  Starbride prayed to Horsestrong to keep Hugo’s tongue in check. The last thing she needed was for him to admit his crush. “I know you care about me, Hugo,” she said, hoping he’d leave it at that. “And I hope you’ll care about Freddie, too, eventually. It took me a while to get used to him without the mask. Despite his colorful past, I know you can do the same.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “If he teases you too much, let me know.”

  He smiled softly before bowing and leaving the room. Starbride sat again, asking Horsestrong to save her from uncooperative people: one man who couldn’t help himself from being her protector and another who couldn’t resist teasing a young man already out of his depth. If he were there, Brutal could have made them behave.

  Now there was a thought. Many of the city’s chapterhouses had closed their doors when the trouble started, taking in their closest parishioners and their brothers and sisters, but otherwise keeping mute. They still tolled their bells at sunset every day, so each had someone inside.

  Starbride tapped her chin. If Brutal had managed to find shelter in a chapterhouse, he would have come looking for them by now. Starbride had always assumed he’d be with Katya. Still, his brothers and sisters were no friends of the Fiends. At Lady Hilda’s trial, the head of the strength chapterhouse had helped defend Katya. If Freddie was right, if they were the resistance instead of just a group of people trying to stay alive, they’d need more allies. She’d have to speak to her fellows about making contact.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Katya

  Once it had been dark a few hours, Redtrue again attempted to contact Starbride. Katya decided to pace outside, more comfortable walking her boots off as the temperature dropped than sitting in the warm comfort of Redtrue’s small house.