For Want of a Fiend (21 page)

“Bored already with your new admirers, Highness?” Lady Hilda slinked forward, as provocative as ever, but Katya spotted a new wariness in her stance.

“Court can be tedious at times, Lady Hilda. One must be very careful with the company one keeps.”

“I was just thinking that.” She glided closer and toyed with the clinging bodice of her dress, as if she might pull the plunging neckline down farther. Katya had to resist taking a step back. She didn’t need Lady Hilda for her court persona anymore so saw no reason to spend time with her.

Before Katya could think of a reason to leave, a voice hailed her. Castelle strode toward them at a fast clip. “I see you still prefer dark corners, Lady Hilda,” Castelle said as she reached them. She offered Katya a deep bow. “Highness.”

Lady Hilda curtsied. “Baroness Castelle. I haven’t had the pleasure since you’ve been back.”

Castelle gave her a lecherous wink. “Oh, believe me, the pleasure’s all mine.”

Lady Hilda smiled slightly, clearly appreciating the compliment.

“What can I do for you, Baroness?” Katya asked.

“No offense, Highness, but I was actually looking for the lady. There’s a picnic I’ve been bribed into attending this afternoon, and I’d be blessed beyond belief to have the lovely Lady Hilda on my arm.”

Lady Hilda blinked a few times. “It would be my honor, Baroness.”

Castelle held out an arm. “With your permission, Highness?”

Katya waved them away, so grateful she could have thrown her arms around Castelle’s neck. Before Castelle turned away, she winked as if to acknowledge the great favor she’d just done the crown.

*

The sight of Queen Mother Meredin sitting in her parents’ sitting room stopped Katya cold. Her petite grandmother smiled and opened her arms. “Granddaughter.”

Katya had such a clear memory of hurling herself into those arms as a child that she had to pause. Now she’d probably knock her grandmother over. She walked forward calmly and folded her in a hug. She felt fragile in Katya’s arms, and her head fit under Katya’s chin. Her voluminous gown probably weighed more than she did.

“No fanfare for your arrival?” Katya asked.

Her grandmother sank back onto the settee across from Ma. “I’m too old for fanfare. I came in an unmarked coach, as befits the queen mother.” She patted the seat next to her. “I want you to know how proud I am of you, Katyarianna. You’ve followed beautifully in the footsteps of my son. I only wish I could say the same for your brother.”

At the mention of Reinholt, Ma’s face didn’t show any slip of its serene mask, but Katya knew she had to be awash in feelings.

“I wish I could say the same for my youngest, too,” her grandmother said.

Katya sucked in a breath, surprised by her sudden urge to defend her uncle. She’d convinced herself that the Fiend had taken control of him, that so little of Roland remained that he could be absolved from any blame.

Instead of responding, Katya blurted, “I’m sorry you had to come here like this, Grandmother.” Not Grandma, not out loud anyway; that was reserved for Ma’s less strict parents.

“The kingdom’s needs, dear heart. I know you understand.”

A moment later, Starbride came in, probably looking for Katya, or maybe Averie had told her the queen mother had arrived. She bowed deeply, and Katya’s grandmother gave Starbride a gracious nod, clearly pleased with the level of respect. When Da entered, his mother embraced him with a happy smile. When asked if she wanted to see her great-grandchildren, though, she waved the idea away.

“Perhaps after the Waltz,” she said.

“Don’t you want to rest, Mother?” Da asked. “You must be tired.”

“I’d rather get the unpleasantness out of the way.”

Katya narrowed her eyes. She didn’t doubt her grandmother, but she felt there was an undercurrent in the room that she wasn’t quite picking up. A pall settled over her shoulders, both at her grandmother’s haste and at the thought of going back into the cavern so soon.

But the Waltz had to be done, and her grandmother would suffer no delays. They sent for Hugo and trooped again to the cavern beneath the palace.

On the walk, Katya leaned close to Starbride’s ear. “Crowe taught you what you need to know to do this?”

“We came up with it together, and I’ve got his large pyramid waiting by the central capstone. There isn’t much for me to do, to tell the truth. The great pyramid does the work.” She gripped Katya’s hand. “Pennynail won’t be joining us. Are you all right coming down here again?”

Katya gave her a tired smile. With all that had been happening, she hadn’t allowed herself to think of returning to the site where Crowe had died. She braced herself for the bowl-shaped depression.

No one really spoke on the trek through the passageways. Any attempts at conversation died before they began. The Waltz had always been matter-of-fact to Katya; she’d known about it for as long as she could remember. It was just something that happened every five years, whether she was directly involved or not. Since Roland, it had taken on a sinister edge that she supposed she should have associated it with from the beginning. Starbride surely did. When Katya stepped into the toothy cavern, her heart quickened.

She looked for the bowl in the earth, the place where Crowe had died. She wanted to get her sorrow over and done with. Someone had laid flowers in the bottom of the bowl.

Katya stared at the blossoms, so bright against the browns and grays of the stone. “I thought Pennynail didn’t want to come back here.”

Starbride shrugged. “Maybe he just didn’t want witnesses.”

Katya faced the great capstone and squared her shoulders. The shackles coiled on the floor like snakes. Starbride approached them with measured steps, lending the Waltz more of a sense of ritual than Crowe ever bothered with. Slowly, she snapped the shackles around the ankles of Ma, Da, Katya’s grandmother, and Hugo.

“Help me, Katya,” Ma said. Katya nearly jumped. The silence had grown so heavy she feared she was deaf.

Katya helped her remove her bodice and pull down the back of her chemise, leaving her chest covered, but making room for her wings.

“It seems an almost silly consideration,” Ma whispered.

Katya gripped her mother’s arm, suddenly so nervous she couldn’t speak.

“Dear heart, let me go, and stand back now.”

Katya obeyed without question, feeling very young suddenly. When her grandmother held out a hand, Katya moved toward her, and her grandmother kissed her cheek before shooing her away.

Why did it feel like they were saying good-bye?

Starbride collected the pyramid necklaces. Katya’s parents and grandmother leaned forward to touch the pyramid, and their human faces fell away.

Da’s two horns curled back over his head. His eyes turned all blue, and a spike jutted from his chin. The wings of a crow sprouted from Ma’s back in four places. Her eyes shone light blue, and fangs pressed down from her upper jaw against her lower lip.

Four horns sprouted from Katya’s grandmother’s head, two over the back, and two across the sides. Her face elongated, and fangs curled from her top and bottom lips. Her skin appeared smoother, younger, and Katya wondered if all Fiends were ageless, deathless. If they didn’t manage to kill Roland for good, would he plague them forever?

Hugo blanched as Starbride approached him. Katya moved to stand at his back, her courage growing when someone needed her. “You might want to take off your shirt and coat,” she said in his ear. He nodded and obeyed, his eyes fixed on the Aspects of the other three.

Starbride patted Hugo’s bare shoulder and whispered something to him. He smiled, but the look didn’t erase the pinched worry from his face. He rubbed his hands together once before he leaned forward and touched the great capstone’s side.

His eyes were the first to turn, becoming wholly light blue without white, or pupil. A spike jutted from his chin and two crow’s wings sprouted from his back. Fangs from his upper jaw plunged down well past his chin, forcing his lips into a snarl. Katya tried to combine all the traits of each Aspect, trying to comprehend what Yanchasa actually looked like, but she knew her former Fiendish face had sported different traits than these, and Roland and Reinholt had still more.

Katya took a deep breath and tried to banish the feeling that she was the reason her grandmother had to come, the reason Brom had murdered Crowe. If she’d held on to her Fiend, she could have prevented both incidents.

Crowe would have told her that was nonsense. She stood to the side and watched both the pyramid and the entrance to the cavern.

Starbride stood back from the four Fiends and picked up Crowe’s large pyramid. Her eyes went half-lidded as she focused. The capstone began to glow, and each of the Fiends groaned, a noise that made Katya’s stomach churn, as if she might void her breakfast. The glow from the capstone spread to each Fiend like creeping fungus until it engulfed them. Katya couldn’t remember anything from her own Waltz except the exhaustion.

When the glow began to recede, Katya squinted into it. Something was wrong. Only three forms still stood. She stepped closer, but paused, not wanting to get drawn into the magic, especially now that she had no Aspect to protect her. When she saw her grandmother sagging toward the ground, held up only by contact with the pyramid, she rushed forward. The glow subsided, and the Fiends collapsed onto their backs, slipping away from the pyramid’s sides. Her grandmother slid forward, threatening to smack face-first into the ground.

Katya grabbed her and turned her over. “Star! Brutal!” Her Aspect had withdrawn, and like the other unconscious royals, she had bloody streaks across her face, but her chest didn’t rise and fall as theirs did.

Starbride unfastened her shackles while Brutal laid her flat on the floor. He peered under her eyelids and put his ear to her mouth. “She isn’t breathing.”

Katya’s heart leapt into her throat. “Make her!”

Brutal opened her grandmother’s mouth and peered inside. “She hasn’t swallowed her tongue.” He leaned her forward and smacked her on the back. When that didn’t work, he pushed on her abdomen as if working her lungs.

“Grandmother!” Katya shouted in her ear. She turned to Starbride. “Can you use a pyramid on her?”

“To help her breathe?” Starbride shook her head.

Brutal laid his ear on Katya’s grandmother’s chest. “Her heart isn’t beating.” He tried pushing on her abdomen again, but nothing happened. “She’s dead, Katya.”

Katya tried to shove him out of the way, but it was like trying to move a tree. “Get out of the way.” She knelt beside her grandmother’s head. “Grandmother.” She stroked her grandmother’s cheeks. She seemed even smaller and older than in the sitting room, but more serene, almost peaceful. “Please, Grandma. Brutal, you have to—”

“Katya, there’s nothing to do.”

“Oh, Katya,” Starbride said, tears in her voice.

Katya whirled on her. “Get some more of Yanchasa’s essence from the capstone and put it in her!”

“I won’t do that!”

“You have to!”

Starbride’s mouth set in a firm line. “Do you want her to be like Roland, Katya?”

The breath caught in Katya’s throat. “No…but…” But everyone was leaving her, one after another. She fell forward into Starbride’s arms.

Everything after that was a blur: Brutal fetching Dawnmother and Averie, and toward the end, Pennynail, all of them carrying unconscious members of her family. Just as they had done after she’d first defeated Roland, they were all bundled into the same room. Brutal laid her parents in their bed, leaving them to Averie. Out in the king’s sitting room, Pennynail put Hugo on a couch, and Dawnmother covered him with a blanket. Starbride’s arms never strayed from Katya. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brutal leave the sitting room with a blanket. When he returned, his arms were full, and the blanket covered what could only be her grandmother’s body.

Katya’s tears started again at the sight of the blanket-wrapped bundle. Averie came out of the bedroom, and she and Dawnmother made plans with the efficiency of lifelong servants.

“How long will they sleep?” Dawnmother asked.

“Not more than an hour,” Averie said.

“We should stay in here until then,” Starbride said, her voice coming from above Katya’s head, her arms still cradling Katya close. “When the king and queen wake, they can decide what we should tell everyone about the queen mother. Until then, no one should see our faces, not until the king is ready.”

Katya nearly sat up and stared at her. Such authority in her voice, and a course that Crowe himself would have ordered. She also showed reverence for Katya’s father, for his position, his decision. It was like she’d been born in their circle.

“That’s good thinking.” Brutal had placed the body on another settee, at the far side of the room.

“What about Yanchasa?” Katya said. Shame prickled her that she should fall apart when her team needed her to be strong. She cleared her throat and said the words again in a clearer voice. “Did the Waltz work? Is he pacified for now?”

Starbride wiped Katya’s cheeks with her thumbs, a sweet gesture that almost made her pull away. She needed strength, not softness.

“From what I could sense, it worked. I should check, though, just to make sure.”

“Pennynail, go with her.” Katya wiped her cheeks herself and stood. With a nod, Pennynail walked toward the secret passageway again before Katya had a chance to remember why he might not want to go. Her shame deepened. It seemed everyone but her could cast off emotion and get the job done. “Wait, I didn’t mean…”

Pennynail saluted her and continued toward the passageway. Starbride followed him into the darkness again.

Starbride lifted her pyramid from the cavern floor. She had funneled some of Yanchasa’s extra essence into each Umbriel to make up for what Katya had given back. Sharing it between them had, she hoped, guaranteed that it wouldn’t make any of them more of a Fiend. She couldn’t get the idea out of her head, though, that the extra essence was what had killed the queen mother.