For Want of a Fiend (16 page)

Starbride sighed. Her mother could keep a secret as well as anyone, especially in the nest of intrigue that was the palace. “The prince has left.” She dropped her voice even though they were nearly alone. “I don’t know what the family is going to say publicly. They may say he’s gone into seclusion or on a sabbatical.”

“I expected more from the prince. No wonder the king took his position away.” She leaned forward and kissed Starbride’s forehead. “Go. See what you can do to help. I’ll take care of the thank-you notes.”

Starbride threw her arms around her mother, suddenly taking back every mean thought, though she knew she’d think them again later. “Thank you, Mama.”

“Go on. I’ll start with the countess. I think she and I will get along very well.”

With their elder child gone, Starbride found the king and queen’s apartment open to her again. Queen Catirin stood up from a settee and greeted Starbride with a smile and a nod. Starbride bowed in return.

“Katya is in her father’s office,” Queen Catirin said. “They should be back soon.” She had the same frosty elegance as before, the same grace, but dark circles under her eyes spoke of too many late nights. If she were anyone else, Starbride would have asked that she unburden herself. But she’d come to know that Queen Catirin loved all things to be in their proper places, people included.

Starbride sat and kept herself from fidgeting. If Queen Catirin were any other noblewoman, small talk would be the expected route, but the queen was privy to the same secrets as Starbride; she knew the depth of every situation. Starbride had to offer her something real.

“I’m not sure about the…etiquette of what I’m about to say. I wanted you to know that I’ve seen many bad mothers in my lifetime, and you aren’t one of them.”

Queen Catirin smiled softly but lifted a hand toward the corner of her mouth as if to tuck the expression back where it belonged. “It may help you to know that the ‘etiquette’ for such a statement does not exist, but thank you.”

Starbride nodded. “Any advice you have for me would be welcome.”

“As far as your duties in the Order go, you’d be better advised by Katya or Crowe. As for being a consort, your life will change now that Katya is the acting crown princess. The court has a way of being both long- and short-termed in their thinking. They know Vierdrin will eventually replace Katya, but they also acknowledge that anything can happen. Some of them will want to groom you to be a queen at Katya’s side.”

Starbride’s stomach went cold, as much from that possible scenario as from Queen Catirin’s matter-of-fact tone. How could she speak so calmly of the elevation of her second child above her first and of the possibility of her grandchildren dying? Starbride tried to banish such uncharitable thoughts. Queen Catirin was only letting her words reflect the attitudes of the court.

“Well.” Starbride fought not to stammer. “My mother is already helping me decide who to spend time with.”

“Your mother works quickly.”

Katya emerged from the office a few moments later, paler than Starbride liked to see, but resolved. When her eyes hit Starbride, her shoulders relaxed a little, as if the mere sight of Starbride took some of her tension away. She took a chair and held Starbride’s hand as if it were an anchor.

“We’ve got most of the duties sorted,” King Einrich said. “Katya will open the hunt tomorrow morning, and then she’ll go straight to the redberry tasting and meet us.” He touched Queen Catirin’s knee as if to forestall the argument. “Everything will be tasted before we eat it, just like always. If we don’t eat the redberries, it’ll support the notion that we don’t care about the populace.”

Queen Catirin turned her face away, a sure sign that she disapproved. “Mother,” Katya said, “that’s not the bad news.”

“We’re going to hold Appleton’s funeral before anything else,” King Einrich said. “I met with Magistrate Anthony today. The man’s a ruin. He and this Appleton fellow were closer than kin, from what I gather. Hopefully, our offer to give him a state funeral will help smooth things over.”

Queen Catirin frowned, but Starbride didn’t think she would argue. If keeping the peace meant that the Umbriels had to share some of their perks, so be it. “What else?”

“We’re coming to the end of our grace period with Yanchasa,” King Einrich said. “After Yanchasa reabsorbed Katya’s Aspect at the last Waltz, we need to do it again.”

Katya’s grip tightened.

“We had planned to use the two of us, Reinholt and young Hugo,” King Einrich said. “But now, well, I don’t want to use Vierdrin or Bastian. If neither of them is mature enough to open the hunt, they’re not mature enough to have the Aspect.”

“Oh spirits,” Queen Catirin said. “A child whose Fiend can present?”

“Children can get very angry,” King Einrich said.

“Or they could just forget and take their necklaces off,” Starbride added.

“Or take them off on purpose.” Katya shrugged as they all stared at her. “I don’t think of my niece or nephew as malicious, but I’m sure we can all remember a time in childhood when we wanted revenge. It’s easy to not think of consequences when you’re four.”

“There is Brom,” Starbride said.

“Right after we sent her away?” Queen Catirin asked.

“She’d do it if the only other option was her children,” Katya said. “She betrayed Reinholt for them, after all.”

“So she claimed.” Queen Catirin sniffed. “I think she refused out of fear for herself, which means she’d never agree to help.”

“There is one other option,” King Einrich said. “My mother.”

Starbride blinked several times. She almost blurted, “Your mother is alive?” but kept that contained.

“Your mother is nearly seventy, Einrich,” Queen Catirin said. “The transformation is a strain.”

“Those are the choices before us, dearest. I shall send for both of them. I’ll have to offer Duke Robert something to get him to bring his daughter back, probably my permission for her to marry again, but if he won’t allow her to come, or if once here, she fights us, it’ll have to be Mother.”

“Poor Grandmother,” Katya said. “I’ll bet she thought her Waltzing days were long behind her.”

They held the funeral for Georgie Appleton the next morning, before any more festival events. Four white horses pulled the black cart through the streets, Appleton’s coffin barely showing from the sea of flowers inside. The festive decorations in the square in front of the palace had been replaced with black bunting, and many sleeves sported black armbands.

Katya thought it’d be written in the history books as the most lavish funeral ever held for a magistrate’s assistant. Even so, from her position on the dais, she noted angry faces in the crowd. In Magistrate Anthony’s district, she’d heard that people wept as the coffin rolled by.

How many were wondering where Prince Reinholt was? Everyone in Marienne had heard about his demotion; the people had to be waiting for a show of public remorse. Da hadn’t issued a statement about Reinholt’s whereabouts; Katya had heard no end of rumors, the foremost being that the king had killed his own son for being an embarrassment.

Magistrate Anthony stood on the dais, too, a few steps down from the royals. His face had gone stark white under his mop of dark hair. His light gray eyes were red-rimmed and glassy. He had tear tracks on his cheeks that he wiped away. When Da offered his condolences, Magistrate Anthony said, “Thank you,” in a soft voice, but he had a hardness in his eyes that said he wouldn’t lightly forgive.

Magistrate Anthony turned and caught Katya staring. She offered a nod. He didn’t return it, didn’t even bow. When the coffin rolled to a stop in front of the dais, he clomped down the steps to join it.

Da started his speech. Katya barely heard it. The crowd shifted and fidgeted, but Katya focused on anyone who seemed intent on getting to the front.

Several men and women slipped through the crowd like serpents. They weren’t looking at Da or anyone on the dais. They seemed focused on the coffin cart or Magistrate Anthony.

Katya caught Brutal’s eye where he stood at the edge of the crowd. She flicked her eyes toward the moving figures, counting seven. He turned slowly. Tall enough to see over many of those behind him, he headed toward the nearest of the seven.

Starbride leaned up to her ear. “I see them.”

Katya nearly chuckled. Of course she’d seen them. She didn’t miss much.

The woman Brutal had been moving toward changed course and headed away from Magistrate Anthony. Brutal started toward the next closest suspect, never straying more than twenty feet from the coffin cart. If someone wanted to make the Umbriels’ position more tenuous, they couldn’t do better than murdering Magistrate Anthony and laying that crime at the Umbriels’ door.

There was no way Brutal could stop all seven people, no way to tell who was really curious and who had darker thoughts on his or her mind. Da came to the end of his speech and announced that the Umbriels would donate gold to a cause both Magistrate Anthony and Appleton had championed: housing for the poor. As the crowd applauded politely, Katya touched the back of her father’s arm and then walked down the steps. When she reached Magistrate Anthony, she patted him on the shoulder.

“Magistrate,” Katya said loudly, “please accept my condolences on behalf of the crown.”

Behind her, her father applauded; the nobles and courtiers behind him did the same, followed somewhat hesitantly by the crowd.

Magistrate Anthony frowned. They’d already done this. Still, he bowed. “Thank you, Crown Princess.”

From the ground, Katya could see Brutal still on the move. She couldn’t stand there and pat Anthony on the shoulder forever, though.

She turned to the crowd. “I hope you will all join me tonight in drinking a toast to Appleton’s life. Let every barkeep know that each citizen of Marienne will receive one free beer this night, courtesy of their crown princess!”

The people paused, almost as if holding their breath before they roared in appreciation and clapped their fellows on the backs and shoulders as if she’d made them all rich.

“And the offer starts right now!”

They cried out again, and the front ranks bowed over and over. The crowd surged away and carried everyone with them. Brutal leapt to the front before the mob could catch him.

Magistrate Anthony’s stunned stare turned suspicious. “They’d have mobbed you otherwise, Magistrate,” Katya said. “You’d better go now, or you won’t have any privacy.”

Brutal breathed hard as if he’d just fought off a stampede of cattle as he moved to Katya’s side.

“This is a friend of mine,” Katya said. “He’ll see that you and Mr. Appleton get to the cemetery in peace. You and those closest to you will have room to grieve.”

“Thank you, Highness.” He climbed up beside the driver on the coffin cart, and Brutal walked beside it as it drove away. Without the crowd to play on, Katya doubted any would-be assassins would be quick to attack.

She climbed up the dais and nodded at the nobles and courtiers who still applauded her. Her father bent down to her ear. “That’ll put quite a dent in your coffers, my girl. Lucky for you, beer is cheap.”

“It’s a small price.”

He smiled, and she wondered if he’d realized why she’d spent the money. She’d tell him later. He usually turned out to be wilier than she gave him credit for.

“Now we have a hunt to open, yes?” Starbride asked.

Katya nodded. The death of one commoner hadn’t put the nobles or courtiers out of the festive spirit. She’d open an event for them, and by the time her family went out into the city later that day, hopefully, the crowd would be in a much better mood.

At the opening of the hunt, Starbride watched Katya’s brilliance; her voice rang out clear as a bell, her posture was the epitome of poise and grace, with just enough drollness mixed in to have the rich crowd eating out of her hand. The nobles and courtiers loved her, but most of them had done that before. The city would be the challenge.

The king and queen strolled through the grand marketplace of Marienne with Katya and Starbride half a step behind and Lord Vincent just beyond them with the youngest royals in tow. They sampled redberry cakes and pastries, all of which had been approved beforehand. Most people smiled at the royals, bowed and scraped and beamed under their praise. No doubt the free drinks helped.

Starbride kept an eye on the crowd. She didn’t know if it was her imagination or not, but she thought she saw more furrowed brows, more frowns than before. Some clearly weren’t won over by free beer. Starbride tried to shake the suspicious feeling off and told herself that these were just normal people with a range of expressions. Still, she stuck close to Katya, grateful that Hugo trailed them, along with a few privileged nobles. Behind them was an even smaller sampling of courtiers, including Starbride’s mother.

In the back, Starbride reminded herself. Her mother was stuck at the back, out of earshot. The thought made her smile.

Starbride caught a flash of very pale hair out of the corner of her eye; Maia leapt to her foremost thoughts. She kept herself from whipping around and tried to maintain a pleasant expression as she looked for the hair again. There, between two stalls, hair nearly as pale as Lord Vincent’s, and underneath that, a face Starbride knew well.

“Maia,” she breathed. The crowd moved, and Starbride lost her.

“What?” Katya said through her smile.

“I saw Maia.”

Katya stiffened. “Go. Take Hugo.”

Starbride fell back to where he stood. He smiled genially and bowed. She threaded her arm through his. “I need an escort that way, quick as can be believable.”

Smart boy, he paused for half a heartbeat then rallied. “Come, Princess Consort, you must taste these pastries.” He hurried her along, his entire posture screaming boyish enthusiasm. The idea of adventure still excited him, and she had to admit, it thrilled her as well, though experience had taught her caution. She wouldn’t be caught in a burning apartment, for a start.

While pretending to eat a pastry, Starbride turned full circle and caught that pale flash of hair again. “What about over there?” She practically dragged Hugo in Maia’s direction.