A Kingdom Lost

by Barbara Ann Wright

  Ma came closer. “Don’t worry for me, Starbride. I know I’m not a fighter. I’ll stay out of the way.”

  “You can still stay here with Ursula’s officers,” Katya said. “There is no ‘out of the way’ in a fight.”

  Ma took a deep breath and seemed to grow several feet. “If we encounter wild Fiends, and I cannot control them, I can still tear my necklace off and stand a greater chance at defeating them than you.”

  Katya didn’t know what to say. How could she deny her mother the opportunity to fight and die for their kingdom, the risk they were all taking?

  “Careful,” Katya said softly. “You might get a taste for this, and then how will you ever be content planning parties again?”

  Ma stepped back and seemed to shrink to normal size. “Have no fear on that point.”

  “Wait,” Starbride said. “What if Roland uses wild Fiends in his army instead of in the palace?”

  “Einrich will be with the army,” Ma said.

  Katya raised an eyebrow. “Da’s going to take his necklace off in front of all those people?”

  “Better that than watching them all die, don’t you think?”

  Katya returned the pressure on Starbride’s hand. Come tomorrow they could all be dead, like so many already.

  She had to close her eyes at the thought of Averie, a world-class lady-in-waiting, and one of her dearest friends. Alive, then dead, alive, and now killed again.

  Starbride led her farther away. “What is it?”

  “I was just thinking of Averie, the jewel of my heart. I can’t remember when I gave her that nickname.”

  “Katya, I’m so sorry. I—”

  Katya bent and kissed her. “Nothing done to Averie is your fault, dearheart. You tried to save her, and for that I love you even more.”

  “And I love you, and I won’t have an easy moment until I see you again.”

  “Focus on the plan,” Katya said. Anything else would get them killed, but Starbride knew that.

  They went over a few last minute details. Starbride would start a distraction in the city just before dawn, and Katya would use the commotion to sneak into the palace. All they had to do now was part. After a long kiss, Katya nearly vaulted into her saddle. “Hold my reins, Brutal.”

  She passed them over so she could look back, knowing that one gaze could be her undoing. Starbride stood in the gloom of the clearing, watching Katya ride away. Their eyes locked until Starbride was lost to the night.

  *

  Katya and her party paused outside the wall as close to the palace as they could get.

  “Looks clear,” Brutal said in Katya’s ear.

  It had been a long time since Marienne had to repel raiders. They didn’t normally bother to put sentries on the walls. She thought Roland might have brought back the practice, but so far, they’d been lucky—a fact which couldn’t hold.

  But they couldn’t sit outside the walls all day, waiting. They threw their hooks and ropes. Castelle and Brutal climbed first and then hauled Katya’s mother up. Katya was surprised when Redtrue climbed on her own. Most pyradistés weren’t known for physical activity. She’d always thought of Crowe and Starbride as unique.

  Of course, that was in Farraday. Just being so close to home made her forget that Redtrue was adsnazi, not a pyradisté. How many problems would such thinking cost them after the fighting was done?

  Instead of traveling along the wall, they dropped into the streets in a middle class neighborhood, the only place in town near the wall that didn’t house the poorer residents of Marienne. Being near the palace carried some prestige, even if the residents never felt any breeze and had to deal with water sheeting off the wall when it rained.

  “Ready?” Brutal whispered. Their trip to the palace would be a dash. Katya stuck close to her mother’s side.

  “If I lag behind,” Ma said, “leave me.”

  Katya snorted.

  “It’s the right thing to do,” Ma said.

  “Not even Crowe would have said that. If you need a practical reason, we can’t let Roland have you.”

  When Brutal said, “Go!” they ran. Halfway there, they slowed to catch their breath. It wouldn’t do to arrive at the palace and have to sag against the walls and heave. Katya listened to the blood pound in her ears. Her stomach shifted as if she’d eaten something sour. A chill gust of wind passed through her sweaty clothes and made her shiver.

  When Katya’s mother grabbed her arm, she froze. The pounding blood, the tightening in her gut, and the chill. They could all be…

  She felt eyes on her back. “They’re here,” Ma said.

  If Katya had only vague feelings of unease, her mother must have been shaking. But her face had a reluctant smile.

  “Ma?”

  Her mother gripped her harder. “I can feel it…there.” She pointed to a nearby alley.

  Katya saw nothing. “Then why are you smiling?”

  Ma reached up and touched her lips. “Was I? It’s like…like…” Her smiled widened, but then she shook her head and closed her eyes hard. “You are not!” she spat.

  Brutal moved closer and lifted a fist to his chest. His eyes locked with Katya’s, and she nodded. If they had been wrong, if the Fiend was able to control Ma and not the other way around, they’d have to knock her out quickly.

  “Ma?” Katya asked again.

  After a deep breath, she let go of Katya’s arm. “It was strange, Katya, a feeling that…mimicked seeing my children again after a long absence, but that thing,” she pointed ahead, “is no child of mine!”

  “Was it communicating with you?”

  She shook her head. “It was just this sense that it…missed me.”

  Katya still felt eyes upon her, not as intense as in the woods, but enough to make her chest tighten. “Is it just going to watch us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “We should move,” Brutal said.

  Katya hated to proceed without knowing whether they’d have to deal with a wild Fiend, but they had a job to do. “Let’s go.” As soon as they started to run, she felt it again, that crushing sense of being hunted. Her heart hammered, but she heard her mother’s gasp. The Fiend leapt above them, a streak out of the corner of Katya’s eye.

  Ma tugged Katya’s head down until they could look at each other. Ma’s eyes flickered, turning all blue for a moment, and when she opened her mouth, her breath was bitterly cold.

  “Keep moving.” The voice was deeper, tainted by the Fiend, but it got Katya’s legs going again. Heavy weights seemed to press on her shoulders. Ma’s grip tightened again, her fingernails pricking like claws.

  Ahead of them, Redtrue drew a pyramid from her pack. It flared yellow-white, and the light of it washed over Katya like summer rain. She sighed, engulfed in a scent that harkened to mind a sun-warmed meadow.

  Ma muttered something in her own voice. The crushing feeling dissipated, and the watching eyes vanished. Katya captured her mother’s arm this time as they ran faster. When they slid to a stop near the palace, Katya stepped to Redtrue’s side.

  “What was that?”

  Redtrue threw her single braid over her shoulder. “I told you I had modified the Fiend pyramid. I turned the power down in order to drive the Fiends away.”

  “That was turned down?” Ma asked.

  “No one exploded,” Redtrue said. She bent to Katya’s ear. “Including your mother.”

  Katya’s belly went cold. “So…”

  “Did you think I would not sense it given enough time?”

  “I hoped,” Katya said. “And what does this mean for us?” In her mind she pictured Leafclever packing up the Allusians and taking them home, not willing to ally with monsters.

  “It means your family needs our help more than we ever imagined.” She tapped Katya’s chest where her pyramid necklace would have lain had she still had a Fiend. “There is hope for you.”

  “You don’t understand,” Katya said, “and I don’t have time to explain it.
There’s a reason—”

  “There is always a reason.”

  “What’s happening?” Ma asked, looking between their faces.

  “We need to get into position,” Castelle said.

  “As you wish,” Redtrue said, “but I don’t need to look into your future to see all the lengthy conversations ahead of you.”

  “Wonderful,” Ma said. “I excel at conversation. Now, shall we?”

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Starbride

  Starbride could still feel Katya’s warmth. It kept her from shivering and tempered her headache as she and Pennynail crept through the city in the pre-dawn chill. When she returned to their hideout, she had to face three knowing looks, Freddie’s as well as Hugo’s and Dawnmother’s.

  “So, this was all of you from the start?” she asked.

  “The princess’s idea,” Dawnmother said, “but then again, who else?”

  “She just needed our help putting it together,” Freddie said.

  “And Captain Ursula’s help,” Hugo added. “She had to get in contact with her men so they knew the princess’s party was coming.”

  “Fabulous,” Starbride said, feeling her cheeks warm. “Now everyone knows exactly what I was doing out in the woods this evening.”

  “Well, there are probably a few people who don’t, but we could tell them,” Freddie said.

  Starbride grabbed her satchel. “Katya’s getting into position; I suggest we do the same.” She rounded on Freddie. “And if you make that into a joke, you’ll wake up in the well.”

  His grin disappeared under his mask as he pulled it in place. The four of them left the warehouse together, gathering Master Bernard as they went. Runners had returned from Reinholt and Maia saying they were ready. Everyone was waiting for Starbride to light the match.

  A voice inside her kept insisting it should have been Katya starting the fight. It was her kingdom, her people. They would trust her more than they ever would Starbride, and no matter what might happen, Katya could handle it.

  Starbride squared her shoulders. She could handle it too. Hadn’t she proved herself enough already, hadn’t the people surrounding her proved they could weather any storm?

  Instead of sapping her confidence, she let memories of Katya build it. They were both strong, both capable, intelligent, and willing to do whatever it took to take Farraday back from the monster that had stolen it.

  Now, if only her damn head would stop hurting.

  Starbride climbed with her four companions to the roof of Marienne’s main beauty chapterhouse. It hosted one of the tallest spires in the city, shorter only than those of the palace. A small walkway curled around the outside, normally reserved for the beauty monks who sought enlightenment through the wonders of the night sky. Once Master Bernard had freed them, they opened it to the rebellion. Starbride wondered how they’d feel about that once they saw the ugliness to come.

  “Everyone ready?” she asked.

  They each pinned a swatch of fabric the size of her palm to their chests. It showed the hawk and pyramid, the princess consort’s sign. The sight brought tears to Starbride’s eyes, but she swallowed them down and faced the city.

  “Show your colors!” she cried as loudly as she could. Beside her, Master Bernard held up a pyramid that flashed white and red.

  For a moment, silence reigned, and Starbride feared that Roland had found a way to destroy all their carefully made plans. Then, from a rooftop, she heard the cry repeated from multiple mouths, spreading so far across the city that it grew faint, but it still seemed to echo around her.

  “Let’s go,” Starbride said. All across the city, citizens would be wearing her sigil, a sign to others that the fight was on. Ursula would dash through the streets with anti-hypnosis pyramids, hitting sections of the city Alphonse had told them about. Ruin and the strength monks would lead the charge on corpse Fiends and the hypnotized, seeking to kill the first and capture the latter. Any un-hypnotized servants or courtiers who remained in the palace would lock themselves in their rooms or seek to ambush Roland’s guards. Once Maia and Reinholt heard the cry, they would lead the Docklanders over the wall.

  And Katya would sneak inside the palace with Horsestrong himself watching over her.

  Starbride had her own section of the city to cover, ready to destroy any pyramids or fight Roland’s creations. After what Katya had told her of the hypnotized people in the countryside, Starbride bet Roland had sizeable forces outside the city as well. If the army could get through, Starbride hoped to have most of Marienne ready for them to take. And if Katya didn’t show up at the rendezvous, Starbride was going in after her.

  As they ran into the streets, Starbride’s headache ripped through her temples. She did her best to ignore it as they approached the first of their targets, a shop Alphonse had claimed held a pyramid. They found nothing and moved on. Again nothing.

  “The swine fed us bad information,” Hugo said.

  Starbride pressed her lips together hard. Alphonse had also said that Roland moved his pyramids, but if the other pyramid hunters were having similar luck…

  “Go get him,” Starbride said to Master Bernard. Even if his information continued to be bad, maybe they could find some other way to use him.

  “What are you thinking?” Hugo asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  The ring of steel on steel echoed ahead of them. Starbride hurried to see a group of townspeople fighting a pack of corpse Fiends. Roland must have been holding them in reserve; she hadn’t seen any lately. She dipped into her satchel and ran forward. When one corpse Fiend leapt from the fray, Starbride nailed it with a fire pyramid. It lurched toward them, but the flames slowed it down enough for Pennynail to launch a dagger into its pyramid.

  Pennynail and Hugo raced in to help the others fight while Dawnmother helped the wounded to safety. Starbride lifted her cancellation pyramid, ready to try to dispatch the corpse Fiends by deactivating their pyramids, when one turned toward her. She tried to focus on it, but it sprang away. She refocused on another in the pack when the first one let out a long, blood-curdling howl.

  The others took up the cry as they fought, and Starbride heard the howl roll across the city much as her own call had done. They couldn’t sense the fact that she was a pyradisté anymore, so it must have been something else that set them off.

  Dawnmother hurried over. “They’re calling something. We have to leave.”

  Hugo and Pennynail were holding back the corpse Fiends. Though the townspeople were fighting, few appeared seasoned. They might die without help.

  “Star,” Dawnmother said, “what if they’re calling something because you’re here?”

  Starbride focused on her pyramid again. In her augmented sight, dark golden tendrils flowed from the corpses’ pyramids down into their bodies like tainted roots. It was a powerful pyramid, a mixture of Fiend and mind magic. She lamented the fact that she’d never really gotten to study one.

  When she tried to darken it, the corpse Fiend cut down the man it was fighting and charged her. Hugo barreled into it. He landed on his side, but the corpse Fiend kept its feet under it as it slid across the lane. Before it could launch itself again, a knife shattered its pyramid.

  “That one!” Starbride cried, pointing at another. Like before, it came at her, and she didn’t have time to darken its pyramid before Hugo engaged it and ended its un-life. Again she tried to darken the pyramids, but they resisted her, giving their wielders time to attack. It worked in saving the townspeople, however. As soon as she focused on a corpse Fiend, it turned its attention to her, and the others had a chance to kill it. Even the townspeople proved effective with the Fiends’ attentions elsewhere.

  When the last lay dead, Dawnmother tugged on Starbride’s arm again. “We have to go.”

  “Why?” Hugo asked.

  “One of them got a call out,” Starbride said. “Dawn thinks something’s headed this way.”

  “It’s Horsestrong guiding my
thoughts,” Dawnmother said.

  Hugo lifted his chin. “Whatever it is, we shall defeat it.”

  Dawnmother snorted. “Put your big head in its path.”

  Master Bernard dragged Alphonse into the street behind them. “None of the pyramids have been where you said,” Starbride called.

  “I told you—”

  Starbride slashed a hand through the air. “Tell me something else, or I give you to him.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Pennynail, not even caring anymore about Alphonse’s terror.

  An explosion boomed several streets over, followed by a series of screams. Starbride and the others ducked to the ground as flaming bits of wood rained down around them.

  “It’s getting closer,” Dawnmother said.

  Alphonse sighed. “At last.” He hadn’t ducked, no longer even looked worried.

  “You knew he’d come for you,” Starbride said.

  Alphonse laughed. “I don’t care about him.”

  “You don’t care about the man who’s coming to save you?” She took one of his arms and led him down another street, the others with her.

  “I don’t need anyone to save me.”

  She tugged on his arms, but they were securely bound, and he didn’t have a pyramid on him. “Is that so?”

  “Talking of big heads,” Dawnmother said.

  Alphonse leaned close to Starbride’s ear. “I’m coming for you, Starbride.”

  She pushed him into Pennynail’s arms. “What are you talking about?”

  “Rebuilding Averie’s mind from scratch was difficult, time-consuming. It gave me an idea.”

  Starbride’s belly grew cold. “What?”

  “Did you know before you tortured Alphonse what three of his biggest fears were? Mummer’s masks, starving to death, and being buried alive; that was about all I could get out of him. He never made much sense.”

  “Mummer’s masks?” Starbride asked. “What in Darkstrong’s name—”

  “Yes, if you can believe it!” Alphonse said. “Street performers with painted masks, what’s there to be scared of? But your masked man fit the part.” He nodded over his shoulder at Pennynail. “And you left him in the dungeon in the dark, playing into the buried alive part, and he was quite…hungry when I finally found him and nearly insane.”