“We’ve been spotted.”
“Where?” Dawnmother asked.
Starbride shook her head. They turned down the street, trying not to walk too quickly, still trying to fit in.
“Stop, Starbride!” a voice called.
She looked over her shoulder and stumbled in surprise. It wasn’t Roland but another familiar face, though one she’d never actually spoken to. The only time she’d gotten close to him was when she’d spied on him outside Lady Hilda’s townhouse and later when she’d taken him to the dungeon.
Hilda’s pyradisté, the oldest of the Sleeting brothers, one of the sons of the woman who’d claimed to be the rightful queen of Farraday. He smiled, and she was struck by how much he looked like Einrich and Roland. There had to have been something to Carmen Van Sleeting’s claims of being an Umbriel.
“Did you forget about me?” he asked.
Starbride’s eyes flicked around. No Roland, no corpse Fiends. He was a pyradisté; if they ran, he could cut them down. Maybe, like Roland, he underestimated her.
“The last I saw, you were in the dungeon.”
“Being tormented by your masked man.” His hand went into his pocket. “I haven’t forgotten.”
Starbride went into her own satchel and grabbed a cancellation pyramid. She focused on his pyramids and tried to snuff them like candle lights. She snapped off one and then two. He growled and used his own pyramid, and hers went dark, the feeling of being thrown from it mid-use bringing tears to her eyes.
Damn, she should have gone for his cancellation pyramid first. Averie was already in motion. She hadn’t brought her longbow with her, so she darted forward with her long knife. He chucked a pyramid at her feet and danced away. Starbride closed her eyes, keeping out most of the blast from a flash bomb, but she heard Dawnmother grunt and felt her stagger.
Two could play that. “Temperance!” Starbride threw a flash bomb and heard several people in the street drop. That was good. Fewer people to turn against them.
She opened her eyes in time to see another pyramid flying in her direction. She hauled Dawnmother out of its path, but that didn’t help several bystanders from bursting into flame.
Even as they burned, they lolled with smiles on their faces. No random mind pyramid could be so strong as to keep them permanently blissful. They had to keep wandering back to recharge that effect. Still, too many of them would be hurt by a pyramid duel in the street. She had to get rid of them somehow.
Starbride dug for her spare cancellation pyramid. Still hauling Dawnmother around while Averie pursued the pyradisté, Starbride fell into the pyramid and set her sights on the tavern. The golden fountain was still there, brighter than the smaller, moving lights dotting the enemy pyradisté.
The large pyramid oozed tendrils of light, leaking its vile fluid into the populace. And where it touched, it left residue behind, but she’d been right, such residue would wear off, and the person would have to come back to this pyramid or another like it for another dose of bliss. If Roland covered the city in these, no one would ever complain about him again.
Anger spurred her as she grabbed hold of the large pyramid with her mind. It felt like plunging her arms into icy water as she reached into its diseased heart to stop its pumping forever. She pushed until it yielded, dwindling until its golden glow became nothing.
“Look out!” Dawnmother shoved her to the side and fell on top of her. A sphere of blackness blossomed behind them. It annihilated all of the people caught within and left a bowl-shaped divot in the street. It had snipped Dawnmother’s long hair, leaving it to unravel on her shoulders. Starbride struggled up and saw a leg on the ground, sheared through as if by the sharpest of knives, blood slowly trickling into the bowl in the road.
The street seemed to take a great breath, and then the screams began as people shook off the effects of the mind pyramid. They ran, and Starbride saw the enemy pyradisté again. He caught her eye and bared his teeth. Starbride fell into her cancellation pyramid, finding his just as she felt him tug on hers, but this time, she was faster. She searched for another but didn’t find one. She took his pyramids one by one.
He cursed and ran. Starbride followed, Dawnmother beside her. She saw Averie push through the crowd and close on the running pyradisté’s back.
He glanced over his shoulder and shouted, “The man I have become is but a sum of the many who came before me.”
Starbride had just enough time to wonder before Averie spun and kicked Dawnmother in the face.
“Averie!” Starbride yelled. Dawnmother collapsed beside her. Starbride turned back, but Averie was on her in an instant.
Averie’s fist landed in Starbride’s stomach, sending pain radiating through her midsection and knocking the breath from her. She reached for her satchel, but Averie tore it off and threw it away. Averie twisted one of Starbride’s arms behind her back, forcing her to her knees and sending hot agony through her shoulder. Starbride’s head wrenched back as Averie’s fingers wound into her hair and pulled sharply.
The pyradisté sauntered toward them, his smile back in place. “He’ll be a little angry that I sprang this trap, but I’m sure he’ll understand that you forced me, especially when I give you to him.”
“Averie?” Starbride gasped.
“No use talking to her. She’s merely a tool, like the man said. ‘A sum of the many who came before.’ She’s the epitome of his Majesty’s brilliant creations.” He glanced at Averie. “Bring her.”
Starbride yelped as Averie hauled her to her feet and then marched her along through the very confused townspeople, leaving Dawnmother in the dirt.
Starbride tried to stay on her feet as the taller Averie hurried her along. She could see almost nothing with her head yanked back. Averie’s pulls on her hair hurt nearly as much as the arm twisted up behind her. “What did you do to Averie? I would have detected if she’d been tampered with by a pyramid.”
“Did you miss it when I said Roland is brilliant? You didn’t see any tampering because there isn’t any to see. He stripped her memories completely, remade her into the willing tool currently yanking your hair out, and then overlaid her memories, masking the entire process, leaving no seams. Genius.”
Starbride’s mind whirled. Roland had really tortured Averie, then, to make her injuries real. And she’d endured it as herself before he mind-warped her completely. A mind overlay, undetectable. It was genius, terrifying, awful genius. “I’m so sorry, Averie,” Starbride whispered.
Averie made no response.
“He’ll kill you one day,” Starbride said, “and who you are won’t matter.”
He leaned into her vision and put a hand on his chest. “Alphonse.”
“I don’t care what your name is.”
“Snarl all you want, little terrier.”
“If he broke her, I can fix her.”
Alphonse put on a pitying smile. “Nothing left to fix, I’m afraid. Her old memories are gone. He just used them as a coating, see? And when I spoke the code words—an old philosopher’s, not mine—the coating was washed away. All that’s left is, well…”
Starbride couldn’t help a little noise of frustration. Time enough to think on Averie’s predicament later. She could barely make out where they were going, yet she was certain that Roland would be waiting.
She had to slow their progress. When they didn’t hear from Starbride’s group, Hugo or Freddie would come looking. They would find Dawnmother, and then they would be on her trail. All she had to do was stall. If she went limp, she feared that Averie would pull her arm from its socket. She was already on tiptoes; there was no way to drag her feet. When she tried to slow, Averie twisted her arm higher, and Starbride let out a little shriek.
“Come now,” Alphonse said, “pick your feet up.”
“Did you help with these genius plans?” Starbride asked. He seemed quite willing to talk, and if she could really engage him, perhaps he would slow.
“I’m proud to work under his direct
ion.”
“And how long do you think he’ll let you keep living?”
“For as long as I’m useful, and I plan on being useful forever.”
Starbride had to laugh at that. She patted her pocket, trying to see how many pyramids she had left.
“Something funny?” Alphonse asked.
Starbride tried to give him an incredulous look. With her head pulled back, it wasn’t easy. Her cancellation pyramid had fallen. She still had her detector, and there was one other: a flash bomb. She always carried a backup of the pyradisté’s best friend. “Once he takes over the city, he won’t need you.”
“Then I’ll move on.”
“If he’ll let you.” And she still had the pyramid around her neck that hid her from Fiends. She couldn’t let Roland get a hold of that one.
“Are you not uncomfortable enough already?” Alphonse asked. “Do you want me to make her hurt you more?”
“Whether you do or not,” Starbride said, “it won’t change reality.”
“Oh, just keep walking.” He pulled a little ahead.
Starbride grabbed her flash bomb. She closed her eyes and rammed it into her own shoulder, just in front of where Averie’s face should be. Bits of crystal dug into her palm. Her eyelids lit up with the glow, and Averie yelped. The pressure on Starbride’s arm and hair eased, and she bolted for the alley she’d glimpsed just before she’d acted.
Heat blossomed behind her, but she kept running. She heard the crackle of flames and felt the heat swarm across her back. Starbride dropped to the street and rolled in the dirt.
When she stopped on her back, Averie loomed over her. Starbride kicked, catching her in the stomach, but Averie went with the motion and pushed off the side of a building. She leapt forward again. Her knee landed on Starbride’s thigh, spiking pain down Starbride’s leg. She cried out and tried to push Averie away, but the shards of crystal dug into her palm.
“Now, what did that get you?” Alphonse called.
Averie grabbed Starbride’s wrists. Her face was mostly calm, only a slight frown marring her features, but her eyes were red-rimmed. She couldn’t be able to see well.
Starbride brought a knee up into Averie’s chest, making her grunt and twist to the side. Starbride sat up and tried to push away, but Averie held on, and now Alphonse was coming. Starbride planted a foot between Averie’s breasts and shoved.
Averie lost her hold on one wrist. Starbride tried a backhand, but the blow just grazed Averie’s cheek. Starbride didn’t want to hurt her. Maybe Alphonse was wrong; maybe she could be saved. Starbride would never know, though, if she let them recapture her.
Alphonse reached for her, but before he could grab hold, a knife punched into his shoulder. He staggered away with a cry.
“Miss Starbride!” Hugo cried.
“Here! Averie’s turned against us, but don’t kill her!”
When Hugo charged into view, Averie let go of Starbride and leapt to her feet. She whipped her long knife from her belt.
Freddie ran for Alphonse, who reached into the satchel at his side.
“He’s a pyradisté,” Starbride called. She threw her detection pyramid at him, hoping to distract him.
He ducked out of its path, giving Freddie time to throw another knife. It caught Alphonse in the leg, and he dropped to one knee. Freddie kicked him in the face, and he went down like an empty sack.
“Who are we not killing?” Freddie asked.
They both turned to Hugo, who’d taken a reluctant stance against Averie. She struck at him over and over, and he gave ground, staying ahead of her blows.
“Do you have my satchel?” Starbride asked.
Freddie shook his head. “We put Dawnmother in a safe place.” He moved to flank Averie, but she shifted to face both of them.
The satchel couldn’t be far down the street. If no one had picked it up, she could grab a mind pyramid, hypnotize Averie… Two steps away she remembered that Averie wore an anti-hypnosis pyramid. “Damn…”
“Knock her out!” she cried to Hugo and Freddie.
More easily said than done. Averie was quick, and Hugo seemed reluctant to harm her. She kicked an empty crate into Freddie’s path, and when Hugo came for her, she dipped, grabbed a handful of dirt and flung it in his face.
He staggered back, keeping his rapier on guard.
“Hold it there!” a woman’s voice cried from up the street, and Captain Ursula ran closer, shortsword out. “What’s this now?”
Averie took to her heels, sprinting across the street and into an alley while Hugo wiped at his face. Freddie tried to fade into the background.
“More hypnotized folk?” Ursula scanned the street and caught Freddie half in shadow. “Just a moment, fellow. I know you, don’t I?”
Starbride grabbed her arm. “Captain, wait. We…need your help with this man. He’s a pyradisté working for the Fiend king.”
That gave Ursula pause, and she glanced at where Alphonse lay bleeding in the street. “I thought the Fiend king wanted to exterminate them.”
“We’ll never know if we don’t question him, and we won’t get to if we’re caught out here.”
Hugo approached, still blinking away grit. Ursula looked again for Freddie, but he was gone. Starbride had no doubt he was still nearby. “Right,” Ursula said, frowning. She bent to help them lift Alphonse and bear him away. “But I shall want some answers.”
“And you’ll have them,” Starbride said. Some of them, at least.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Katya
Leafclever and Redtrue listened with horrified faces as Katya told them about the newest assassin.
“To abuse the adsna so…” Leafclever and Redtrue paled, as if they were moments from being sick.
“He took her mind away,” Redtrue said. “And put his own in its place?”
“And then he put a bomb inside her, one designed to kill the first person who touched it with mind magic.”
“And perhaps you if you had been standing closer,” Leafclever said.
Redtrue covered her mouth
“I was sick, too,” Katya said, “after I saw it.”
“I’m sure,” Redtrue said. “But we are not only sickened at the death.”
“The perversion of the adsna,” Katya said. “I know. This is what we’re up against. The usurper will turn the adsna however he wishes in order to get what he wants.”
Leafclever spread his hands as if gesturing to the entire world. “I sense you are leading to your expression, ‘fight fire with fire,’ but instead, you are proving our point. We cannot add to the adsna’s perversion. If we produce pyramids that can penetrate the minds of others, even to search for these assassins, we add to the evil. And the evil we create will one day be fought by others who will have to defeat it with greater evil and so on.”
Katya kept her court face on and looked to Redtrue, who still covered her mouth, staring at nothing.
“What if the pyramid is just a tool?” Katya asked. “And the good or evil comes from the heart of the wielder?”
“The fana-zi, the pyramid crystal, is a tool,” Leafclever said, “but the adsna is not. It is the spirit of the world, and when someone uses it in a way not in harmony with the world, that is an evil act, despite the intentions of the user.”
Katya had to lift her hands, her well of patience already dry. “I think it’s far more evil to do nothing while good people die.”
Redtrue’s gaze snapped to Katya’s face, but Leafclever didn’t lose his sardonic little smile. “We have been doing more than ‘nothing.’” He withdrew a pyramid from his pocket and gave it to her.
The crystalline sides were smooth, but the insides were cloudy, like some poorly made pyramids she’d seen. As Katya peered into it, though, the clouds moved like trapped smoke. “What does it do?”
“It works with the adsna to block mind intrusions.”
It sounded like exactly what Starbride was working on. Katya had to wonder if they worked the s
ame, if Farradain and Allusian magic were not so different after all. “What about those that have already had their minds tampered with? Will this free them?”
“Until we are confronted with another such person who survives, I do not know. We are working on larger versions to cover many of our comrades at once.”
“Thank you,” Katya said. “Do you think you could make a pyramid that stops Farradain magic completely?”
Redtrue spoke up at last. “We cannot stop those that detonate. We can only fight their effects.”
“No, I mean something that cancels the pyramids before they can be used.” She told them of how Crowe used cancellation pyramids to search for magic and then switch it off, turning enemy pyramids into junk.
Leafclever rubbed his chin. “Interesting. If it were large enough, and we used it constantly…”
Katya nearly rubbed her hands together, excited that they were working together at last. “Could you modify your Fiend pyramids to be less…violent?”
Leafclever sighed. “We have been trying to think of a way, but so far…” He smiled. “But I am glad to see our words of caution affecting you at last, Princess Katyarianna.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever see eye-to-eye on the philosophy, but I’ll take what I can get.”
“That is why the cycle of evil will continue in Farraday.” Without waiting for a response, he wandered off.
Katya couldn’t help shaking her head at his departing back.
“You still don’t hear his words,” Redtrue said, “not really.”
“I hear him. I just don’t agree. Can you blame me? After all, I’ve never touched the adsna like you have. And I’ve had two different groups of people telling me contradictory facts about it. Who am I supposed to believe when I can’t really find out for myself?”
Redtrue cocked her head. “I think the evidence is plain enough even for your uninitiated eyes. There are no Fiends in Allusia.”
Katya had to wonder what would happen if the adsnazi ever came close to the great pyramid under the palace in Marienne. They might realize that Yanchasa slumbered there, kept asleep by a portion of its own Fiendish Aspect in each of the Umbriels save Katya.
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