For Want of a Fiend (22 page)

“Stop that,” Freddie said. He had the mask sitting on top of his head, ready to pull down at a moment’s notice.

“Stop what?”

“Feeling guilty. We do what has to be done. The old lady knew that.”

Starbride supposed it was true, but she’d hold on to her guilt for a while longer. It had so much grief to keep it company. Starbride hugged the large pyramid to her chest as though she wanted to hug Katya again. Their promises to keep from dying echoed in her head.

As she’d done during the Waltz, Starbride fell into the pyramid in her arms, and used it to touch the capstone’s magic. She didn’t go deep, didn’t want to encounter Yanchasa any more than she had to. Before the Waltz, the capstone had roiled with the great Fiend’s energy, barely containing it. Now the energy felt subdued, almost placid. Starbride eased her focus. “Yanchasa is asleep.”

Freddie only nodded. He was too busy staring at the divot in the floor.

Starbride pulled his mask down for him. “Let’s get back.”

When they returned to the royal apartment, Hugo was awake and trying to sit up with Dawnmother’s help. “What happened?”

Dawnmother patted him on the back. “Just rest.”

Starbride nodded at Dawnmother to keep tending him and followed Katya into her parents’ bedroom. They were sitting up in bed.

“Da,” Katya said. “I’m sorry, but Grandmother is…”

Starbride took her hand. “She passed away, King Einrich. I’m so sorry.”

To her surprise, King Einrich didn’t cry like he’d done for Crowe. He simply sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his temples. “She knew,” he said. “It’s why she didn’t want to see the grandchildren. She didn’t want them to ask where she’d gone.”

“I thought so, too,” Queen Catirin said.

Katya took several deep breaths. “I should have seen it.”

“Katya,” Queen Catirin said, “don’t blame yourself.”

“Maybe she didn’t want you to worry,” Starbride said.

“That’s why she said she was proud of me,” Katya said, “because she knew it would be the last time she could say it.”

“She said that because it’s true,” Queen Catirin said.

Katya shook her head. “I should have seen it.”

“We’ve had too much loss,” King Einrich said, “more than our share, but…” Tears threatened his voice, but he swallowed them down.

“I know, Da. Duty.”

King Einrich kissed her on the top of the head. “You do know, don’t you, my girl.”

“What are we going to tell people?” Katya asked.

“That age took her. She’s had her state funeral planned for years.”

“That was her to the hilt,” Katya said.

Starbride suddenly wished she’d known the old lady better. “Well, no one will question why the crown princess is staying in Marienne now, with all the funerals.” As soon as the words left her, she thought of how callous they were. “I’m sorry.”

“No, my dear, no apology necessary,” King Einrich said. “My mother would have said the same thing.”

They spread the news through different channels; it couldn’t be doubted when it came from so many quarters. The queen mother had collapsed while taking tea in the king and queen’s apartment. She’d come to support the crown in its time of transition, but the trip to Marienne had been too hard on her. Many of the older nobles praised her as they had during the reign of her husband. In death, she was still the epitome of nobility.

Queen Mother Meredin was laid to state the next afternoon with all the pomp the kingdom could muster, almost as much as Queen Catirin would get if she died while King Einrich still ruled. They used a glass carriage, a contraption that cost a fortune, so very Farradain. When the gilded, inlaid coffin was placed inside, it was covered with so many flowers that Starbride could barely see through it. It reminded Starbride of Appleton’s funeral, though he hadn’t rated the glass carriage, and the royals gathered on the dais again; the black bunting and armbands were back.

As Starbride watched the carriage roll by, she remembered the first time she’d seen the Umbriels gather in front of the palace. They’d waited for Reinholt’s entrance into Marienne, just before Roland attacked them beneath the castle. How the crowds had cheered the crown prince then. Now, scant months later, those same crowds were eerily silent as the glass carriage rolled by. Many wept, caught up in the pall of sadness that always surrounded a funeral.

“As a kingdom,” King Einrich said to the crowd, “we’ve suffered much tragedy recently. My mother, my pyradisté, and of course, our own Mr. Georgie Appleton, three persons who lived for the good they could do Marienne.”

“Appleton lived for the people, not you, Umbriel!”

Everywhere, heads turned, and people babbled confusedly. Katya stepped up beside her father and scanned the crowd for the speaker. Starbride dipped into the concealed pocket of her dress.

“Parliament!” someone else shouted, as lost among the faces as the first speaker, though it sounded like a woman’s voice. “We need a parliament!”

Heads nodded now, though most still seemed curious rather than angry. “Did the queen mother suggest it, too?” a third voice yelled. “Is that why she died?”

King Einrich’s brow darkened. Behind them, the gathering of nobles and courtiers gasped. The crowd rumbled now. Starbride could almost see the idea of King Einrich killing his own mother spreading through the crowd like wildfire, as absurd as it seemed.

“Please,” King Einrich said. “Ladies and gentleman—”

“Monster!” the female voice shouted.

“Murderer!” another said.

Starbride fought to keep from gaping. Where had this come from? Had this dissent been gathering all the while, only the Umbriels hadn’t seen it?

The king’s Guard spread into the crowd, some of whom tried to push them back. Several officers of the Watch were coming at the crowd from the city side, catching the people in a dangerous vise.

Katya pulled on Starbride’s sleeve. “We need a distraction, now.”

Starbride turned as King Einrich called for order. His voice was lost in the angry shouts below them.

Starbride scanned the nobles and courtiers. Among them stood the masters of the city’s chapterhouses and academies. She hurried for Master Bernard of the Pyradisté Academy.

“Master Bernard!”

“Whatever’s going—”

“You’re lighting the academy earlier than expected.”

His response was cut off by gasps from those around them. From out of the crowd, something flew at the dais in a high arc. Katya leapt in front of her father and bashed a piece of fruit out of the way with her rapier guard.

“Now!” Starbride said. “Master Bernard, please!”

The Guards at the side of the dais surrounded the royals. Starbride spotted Lord Vincent carrying Vierdrin and Bastian toward the palace doors.

Master Bernard lifted one hand. On the roof of a building across the square, a woman turned toward the pyramid rising from the streets of Marienne and waved a red flag.

Katya yelled at the Guard to pull back from the crowd, but there was no way to tell the city Watch to do the same. Every second felt like hours until the central pyramid of the Pyradisté Academy glowed like fire.

Heads turned. Starbride glanced that way herself as the capstone of the pyramid shone bright white, the light so powerful that it bounced along the clouds like a living thing. The crowd fell silent as quickly as if they’d been shut off by a switch.

“We are all Farradains!” King Einrich boomed. “There is no strife that we cannot handle together. No problem which cannot be overcome through discussion.”

“He’s right!” someone called from the crowd. Starbride recognized Captain Ursula as she was hoisted up on the shoulders of her fellows. She raised her arms as if directing a choir. “We meet and we talk. That’s how we get things done. If we resort to violence, we’re no better than the worst wharf rat in Dockland.”

That got them thinking. Some resident of Marienne might have less than his neighbors, but he always had more than the people in Dockland. If Captain Ursula had been in arm’s reach, Starbride would have been tempted to kiss her.

The crowd muttered, but no one threw anything. The Guard and the Watch waved them to disperse. They went, leaving nothing but the glass coach with its flowers and coffin. When the path was clear, the black-clad driver rushed the coffin toward the stables. All that was left was to get the royal family back inside the palace. They walked, all of them acting as if what had happened outside was of no consequence. The nobles and courtiers crowded around them and spoke of the stinking rabble and how it didn’t know its place.

As Starbride rejoined the Umbriels, she tried to deter such words. It was just what the “stinking rabble” would be most upset about.

King Einrich waved such comments away. “I thought it rather thoughtful that the crowd offered me something to eat.” He had them laughing soon enough, but the older nobles still seemed scandalized and stared into the city as if they’d never seen it before. Some appeared frightened, but most were angry, even offering to teach a few lessons if that was what it took.

“Three voices from out in the crowd,” Katya said in Starbride’s ear, “two male, one female, both impossible to spot and yet still loud. Augmented by a pyramid?”

“I don’t know enough to say. But this…” She gestured at the scandalized nobles around them. “Turning the nobility against the peasantry is just the thing Roland would want.”

When they slipped back into the king and queen’s apartment, Katya sank into a chair. “Did anyone actually see any of the instigators?”

Starbride shook her head. “I went straight for Master Bernard.”

“Well done,” Queen Catirin said.

Starbride breathed a nervous laugh. “We were lucky Captain Ursula was there.”

“The Watch captain who spoke to the crowd?” King Einrich asked. “Might be time to promote her.”

“Any higher and she’d be unreachable by the populace,” Starbride said. When everyone glanced at her, she shrugged. “I mean, well, that’s what I think anyway.”

“Upon reflection,” King Einrich said, “you’re quite right.”

“We have to find these instigators, no matter who they are, and shut them up,” Queen Catirin said.

“We’ll need to do more than that,” Katya added. “If they’ve got people believing in them, we’ll have to make deals. If they disappear or turn up dead, they’ll become martyrs.”

“Unless they’re controlling people with pyramid magic,” Queen Catirin said.

“Then we need to find the pyramid users,” Starbride said. “Brom’s father doesn’t remember meeting any pyradistés who could have given Brom a pyramid, and we know she didn’t have it when she left here. And since Duke Robert had his mind examined for tampering, we know he hasn’t been influenced by a mind pyramid. So who gave Brom the pyramid she used to murder Crowe and how? The same person who did that might be the same one stirring up the town.”

“Duke Robert would have remembered meeting Roland or Maia,” Katya said. “He’s met them both before.”

“And he wouldn’t have let an unknown like Darren get near his coach,” King Einrich said.

“What if Roland has allies we haven’t considered?” Katya asked. “Duke Robert wouldn’t have thought twice about letting another noble’s caravan join his own.”

Queen Catirin shook her head. “My mother always told me that living in the palace would be like living in a nest of vipers.”

“I can think of a few vipers in particular,” Starbride said. “And I know a guide that can help me sort them.”

Katya laughed. “Two guides, yes? Since your mother’s already been doing just that?”

Starbride beamed at her. “She does love to be helpful. Let me see what I can learn.” She only hoped she didn’t uncover that trouble had been brewing in Marienne for some time, but the Umbriels didn’t want to see it.

*

Her mother met Starbride an hour after the funeral. With Rainhopeful behind her, she rushed inside Starbride’s sitting room in a swirl of skirts.

“I saw what happened, Star,” her mother said. “Are you all right?”

Starbride nodded as they embraced. “I wasn’t the target.”

“Nonsense. You’re every bit as much a target as the Umbriels.”

“I…I suppose. Well, I’m free to act where they might not be, so that’s what we have to do.”

“You’re not going to break off the consortship, are you?”

“What? Why would you think—”

Her mother clucked her tongue. “People would be more willing to talk to you if they think the princess has thrown you over. Isn’t that how the Umbriels think?”

Starbride held her breath. That was not only genius, it was far more devious than she’d come to expect from her mother. She knew she should suggest it to Katya, but the thought left her empty, almost hollow, as if the lie would be a precursor to a real event. Her fingers began to ache, and she glanced down to see she was clutching the consort’s bracelet.

“Come,” her mother said, “sit with me.”

Starbride shook her head to clear it. “Katya wants me to talk to the nobles. She thinks the people who tried to start a riot today might have noble backing.”

“Oh, of course.” Her mother rolled of her eyes. “Because the common people couldn’t
possibly
be upset without someone to
think
for them.”

“Mother, the Umbriels don’t think that way!”

“Don’t give me that. If more common people were allowed to attain the lofty rank of nobles through intelligence and drive, the established nobles would be besieged by new neighbors.” She tossed her head and sniffed. “Like me.”

Starbride had to smile. “Well, Katya thinks that
incredibly smart
commoners like you are being bankrolled by nobles, and I agree.”

“Well, money and brains make a good partnership. But the people wouldn’t be easy to rile unless they were upset in the first place.”

Starbride ducked her head. “I’ve been thinking the same thing, but now that all this has happened there’s no way to know for sure.”

“And now the princess wants you and me to find her deep-pursed noble, yes?” her mother said. “Should I be slightly disapproving of how the Umbriels treat you and see if I can catch any sympathizers in my net?”