For Want of a Fiend (17 page)

The procession left them behind. The crowd eyed them curiously as they came near the edge of the marketplace, toward a decidedly dark alley. Starbride nearly swore. Why did it always have to be alleys?

“Are we chasing someone?” Hugo said. “We dare not go in there after them.”

Starbride nearly stomped her foot. She agreed with him, but Darkstrong take her, Maia was getting away. And Hugo was armed.
And
it was at least open and not inside a building. “I saw your sister.”

He leaned ahead as if his own desire to find Maia pulled him forward. Starbride looked over her shoulder and searched for Brutal, just one more ally to come with them.

“There she is!” Hugo lunged forward, but she wasn’t about to let him go without her.

She grabbed his wrist and dipped into her dress pocket for a flash bomb. “This is undoubtedly a trap.”

“I know.” He drew his rapier.

“Be careful.” Appleton’s dead body flashed in her mind. “Accidents…happen.”

She knew it sounded lame, but she had to say something, had to warn him from stabbing the first person who stumbled from a doorway. If Hugo killed a member of the populace so soon after Appleton, King Einrich would have to give them his head on a platter.

“Where in Darkstrong’s name are you going?” a voice called from behind them.

Starbride whipped around, obeying that voice before she’d even registered who it was. Her mother stood behind them, fists on her hips.

“It’s bad enough that our servants couldn’t be part of this procession, and now you’re leaving it, too?” Her mother glanced at Hugo and then at the point where Starbride touched his arm. “What are you doing? Who is this person?”

“Mother,” Starbride said with forced cheerfulness, “this is Lord Hugo Sandy. Lord Hugo, my mother Brightstriving.”

Even as Hugo bowed, her mother scowled further. “Only a lord,” she muttered.

“We thought we saw someone we know.”

“Someone you know? Going away from the procession? Down an alley?”

Starbride’s smile turned to stone, but she kept it in place. “Yep.” She tried a laugh, but it came out strangled. She could just start down the alley, but her mother would only follow, nagging all the while. “She’s…a friend who’s in a bit of trouble, so we thought we’d follow her to see if we might help.” She gotten better at lying since being in Farraday, but this was her
mother
, who’d always been able to see through any lie she could conjure.

“She’s carrying the illegitimate child of a married duke,” Hugo said. “I’m sure we can depend on your mother’s discretion, Miss Starbride.”

“Of…of course,” her mother said.

“The duke asked me to negotiate a price to keep the woman quiet,” Hugo said. “And since the Umbriels need a representative…”

“Everyone would notice if one of
them
broke the procession, but my daughter…” She put on a smug, calculated smile. “I’ll wait here, just in case someone tries to disturb you.”

Hugo led the way down the alley. At least her mother hadn’t wondered why he was armed. She probably assumed that was only natural, just in case the scheming pregnant woman became violent.

“How did you think of that so quickly?” Starbride asked.

“I’ve been working on it since we first left the procession. I want to help you and the crown princess, Miss Starbride. I always knew deception would play a part. When is it not a part of living at court?”

“True enough.”

They turned a corner and pulled up short at the sight of the brick wall, a dead end. A green cloak lay in a heap off to the side, no sign of its wearer.

Hugo and Starbride spun around. No one stood behind them. Starbride stared at the surrounding walls. The palace was riddled with secret passageways. What if some of the buildings in Marienne were the same?

She ignored the cloak. If anything were trapped, it would be. She felt around the damp bricks and glanced up at three windows that looked down on the alley. She didn’t know if even Pennynail could make the climb, certainly not before she and Hugo had rounded the corner.

“What are you looking for?” Hugo asked.

“A way out.” She looked at the cobbles for flaked mortar or some other indication that a section of wall had moved.

Hugo bent toward the swath of fabric. Starbride grabbed his arm. “There are trap pyramids,” she said.

“Can you disarm them?”

“I only have my flash bomb and a light pyramid.”

He straightened slowly. Starbride followed him around the corner where he picked up a piece of broken brick and lobbed it at the cloak before she could stop him.

Starbride hauled backward on his coat. He stumbled into her, his wide eyes inches from hers before he staggered back, his cheeks blazing.

“Terribly sorry,” he mumbled as if he’d made the choice to run into her. “Nothing happened.” He gestured around the corner, but his face blazed as if he was speaking to someone who’d seen them so close together.

“If that cloak had been trapped, it could have blown your head off!”

“I’m…I’m sorry.”

Starbride cast another glance at the high windows and wondered what it would take for someone to make that climb.

Before she could take a step into the dead end again, Pennynail dropped from one of the rooftops, caught a window to slow his fall, and then dropped noiselessly to the ground. Hugo stepped deftly around Starbride, his rapier on guard.

Starbride grabbed Hugo’s arm. “We saw—”

Pennynail held up a hand and then pointed back the way they’d come. When they didn’t move, Pennynail made a shooing motion. Starbride pressed her lips together, not liking being dismissed even before she was royalty.

“Perhaps he’s right.” Hugo slid his rapier home. “We’re not dressed for a tour of the city’s alleys.”

Pennynail clapped him on the shoulder, but then stared at Starbride. She could almost see through the manic grin to Freddie’s disapproval. “All right, but be careful.”

He tugged at the buckles near his shoulders as if asking her who she thought she was talking to. “Let’s get back,” Starbride said. Hugo’s pinched expression mirrored hers, but there was nothing else to do but collect her mother and rejoin the procession.

Katya took Starbride’s report as they strolled. They had to speak in hurried, whispered voices when Katya wanted to pace and think and yell. She smiled at the populace and ate thrice-bedamned pie when she wanted to run after her cousin and comb the alleys until every square inch had been searched. Barring that, she wanted to tear her hair out and scream at Fah and Fey for cursing her luck at every turn.

A baker bowed to Katya. “Fresh just this instant, Highness.”

Katya smiled and hoped to convey tolerant boredom. She gave half the cake to Starbride, took a bite, and nodded appreciatively. Her tongue was already coated with redberries, but even if she had been able to taste it, she wouldn’t have paid much attention. How many times had she been forced to eat cake instead of doing her job? But, her inner voice reminded her, the crown princess would have to eat more cakes than the princess ever did. That meant sending Starbride on more missions, like exploring unknown, trap-filled alleys. Katya gritted her teeth, kept up her smile, and cursed Reinholt again.

Behind her and Starbride, young Vierdrin and Bastian squealed over their dessert. Their tutors taught them to school their expressions, but they slipped constantly. They called to Vincent more than their nannies or family.

“Lord Vincent, may I have a cake?”

“Lord Vincent, look at the banners!”

“A talking bird! May we see it, Lord Vincent, may we, please?”

Vierdrin did most of the talking, with Bastian echoing her like the parrot they were so fond of.

Lord Vincent knelt at their sides, his silver head bent over their blond ones as he explained about people, redberries, or decorations. His expression stayed soft except when he had to rein them in; then he spoke to them evenly but sternly. Even though they were his betters, they were still children. Katya thanked every spirit that he knew the difference. She only wished he’d seen it in Reinholt.

To Katya’s knowledge, neither child had asked about their father. There’d been some early crying for their mother, but that had mostly dried up. Now they clung to Lord Vincent’s side.

“It’s like Vincent’s their father,” Katya whispered in Starbride’s ear.

“I noticed. It almost makes me like him a little, but I can still feel his disapproval.”

“If you ordered him to flog himself, he would.”

“An interesting idea.” She glanced over her shoulder. “But the children would never forgive me.”

Bastian caught her glance and held out one little arm. “Starbride!”

Vincent whispered in the child’s ear. Bastian blinked for half a moment before he grinned again. “Crown Princess Consort Starbride,” he said, stumbling over the words.

Starbride frowned, and Katya thought she might sigh at the protocol, but she managed not to. “I’ve been summoned.” When she fell back to walk hand-in-hand with Bastian, Katya went with her. “Yes, young prince?”

Bastian giggled. When Vierdrin dashed to the side, Vincent stepped after her, pulling Bastian—and the rest of them—that way as well.

Vincent bowed as best he could while holding on to two children. “My apologies, Highnesses.”

“Quite all right,” Starbride said. “If you like, we could take charge of one, Lord Vincent.”

His face tightened. He only left the children’s sides when they were secure in the palace, but what Starbride had said was almost a request, and she outranked him. Katya could nearly see his mind racing.

“Oh,” Katya said with a drawl, “we wouldn’t want to deprive Lord Vincent of his duty.”

“I thank your Highness.”

Starbride gave Katya an impish look, and soon enough, Bastian lost interest in her. By the time the royal party circled back to the palace, Bastian had fallen asleep on Vincent’s shoulder. He gave the boy to a nanny, and that was only so he could carry a tired Vierdrin. Still, he commanded the nanny to walk at his side, not to outpace him or fall behind.

As soon as she saw her family settled, Katya summoned the Order to her summer apartment, all except Pennynail, who still hadn’t returned. They gathered around the table in Katya’s summer sitting room, all of the other furniture still draped with white cloths for the winter. Averie must have been sneaking in there occasionally to dust.

“I’ve seen Maia,” Starbride blurted when they were all seated.

“When?” Brutal asked.

“Where?” Crowe followed, nearly at the same moment.

Katya held her tongue as Starbride explained. Despite Starbride’s certainty, Katya doubted if Maia had ever been there. It could have been a trick of the light or a disguise; Katya almost hoped it was. If it wasn’t, if she really had seen Maia, that meant Maia had run away from her on purpose and didn’t want to be found. It meant Katya had to consider that Maia was a willing part of the trap that had nearly burned Katya alive.

“Why did she run?” Brutal asked softly.

Katya shook her head. “Maybe we’ll know more after Pennynail gets back.”

“We have to consider that she’s fallen under Roland’s sway,” Crowe said. “That he’s either warped her mind by pyramid or found a way to release her Fiend without Waltzing.”

“He never released Hugo’s,” Starbride said. “Perhaps that task is beyond even him.”

“Why release it at all?” Katya rubbed her chin as she thought aloud. “Along with the power comes the ego, the evil ambition; that’s what happened to Roland. Why would he risk Maia’s Fiend rebelling against him?”

Crowe cleared his throat. When Katya glanced at him, he stared pointedly at Brutal. “The ritual that shares Yanchasa’s essence between two people is easier if the person carrying the essence already has the Aspect.”

Brutal snorted. “That’s a very roundabout way of saying Roland would want her Fiend to be able to present before he forced her to have sex and pass the Fiend to her partner.”

Starbride put a hand over her mouth, her eyes horrified.

“Enough,” Katya said. “Brutal, did anything happen with Magistrate Anthony?”

“He didn’t say a word the entire way to the cemetery, and no one tried anything.”

Katya rubbed her temples and fought the urge to sink lower in her chair. “For now, we have to forget about Maia. We can’t just follow her anymore. We need to focus on the populace of Marienne and anything Anthony gets up to.”

Everyone nodded but stared at the table, lost in their own thoughts. “Check your contacts,” Katya said. “And let me know what you find.” As Crowe and Brutal shuffled out, Katya caught Starbride’s arm.

The secret passage had just clicked shut when Starbride said, “After what happened in the Warrens, you are
not
going to lecture me about going down that alley.”

Katya bit off those very words.

“I can’t stand the thought that Roland might be using his own daughter in a ritual.”

“What could you do against Roland if you found him?” Katya asked. “Hugo was completely under his sway once. Roland can mesmerize him with a pyramid.”

Starbride tossed her hair over one shoulder. “He can’t do that to me.”

“He wouldn’t have to. He could have Hugo stick his blade in your gullet.”

“And what would you have done? You’re the one that commanded me to go, remember?”

“Not into some alley.”

“Oh yes, I remember that distinctly. ‘Go,’ you said, and then you added, ‘unless it leads you somewhere dangerous.’”

“You know the rules. No unnecessary risks.”

“No unnecessary risks for
you
.”

“What does that mean? The rest of you aren’t expendable. Or did you mean now that I’m the crown princess?”

Starbride took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Even angry, she was beautiful. Katya tried to banish the thought, to hold on to her own anger. She knew she didn’t have the right to lecture after what she’d done in the Warrens, but she couldn’t hold in her fear.

“I know you don’t like to hear it,” Starbride said, “but your life is more important than ours.”

“And when I have to tell your mother that you died because of me, whose life do you think she’ll find more important?” A vision rose in Katya’s mind: Starbride dead in an alley, the cobblestones slick with blood. Katya’s heart leapt into her mouth. She dropped to a crouch and buried her face in Starbride’s knees. “You’re every bit as important as I am, Star.”