For Want of a Fiend (32 page)

Castelle tapped her shoulder. “Prudence.”

Katya almost replied that she was one to talk.

Ursula cleared her throat. “Well, the nobles may get custody of Lady Hilda, but I’m in charge of keeping order in Marienne. My remaining officers and I will accompany you, your Grace, in order to guarantee that Lady Hilda remains in custody.” She knelt and hauled Lady Hilda to her feet.

“Let go of me, peasant,” Lady Hilda said, “before I stain my hands with your gutter blood.”

Ursula drew her face close. “I’ll give you the same choice I give any lowlife. We can do this the easy way or the very easy way.” She aimed the pommel of her sword at Lady Hilda’s chin.

Lady Hilda sneered, but Duke Robert stepped up before she could respond. “Accompany us if you wish, Captain, but we’re leaving now.” He took Lady Hilda’s other arm, and one of his guards fitted her with arm and leg irons. Katya almost rolled her eyes. The Fiend could break those in a heartbeat. A cassock-clad man came forward and before Lady Hilda could protest, lifted a pyramid to her face.

She slumped in the arms of the guards.

“Starbride,” Katya said, “is she really out?”

Starbride rustled in an unknown satchel for a moment before she produced a pyramid. “It seems so, but I can check further if—”

“You cannot pyramid a noble without their express permission or the permission of the nobles’ council,” Duke Robert said. He waved at his men, and they hauled Lady Hilda down the stairs.

“Form up!” Ursula called. She looked Katya in the eye. “I won’t let her out of my sight. You could come with us…”

“Thank you,” Katya said, “but I’m not joining the duke’s party without a few more friends to watch my back. I’ll take care of your wounded. Just leave us the cart.”

Ursula nodded, gratitude in her eyes, and then she was away after the duke.

“Did the nobles just declare their defiance?” Hugo asked quietly.

“Certainly seems that way,” Katya said. “How is everyone?”

“Pennynail is hurt the worst.” Starbride helped to support him while he tried to stem his wound.

Brutal knelt in front of them. “Let me take a look.”

“Has anyone seen Averie?” Katya asked.

“Seeing to the wounded.” Starbride held a handkerchief to a gash on her forehead. “We sent someone to tell you where we’d gone.”

Katya shook her head, feeling her own injuries at least. Even Hugo was favoring a knee. “I didn’t get it.” She couldn’t let all the worry out right then. She’d collapse.

They climbed down the ruined stairway and carried the bodies of the dead Leather Woman, the living enemy pyradisté, and the barely living Watch officer. Maybe Lady Hilda thought her pyradisté already dead; more likely, she didn’t think of him at all. Pennynail had trussed him with his arms behind his back.

Castelle gathered her own fighters. She’d lost one, and another was badly injured. She helped Katya gather the dead and then stood outside and stared at the house.

Katya followed her. “How’s your arm?”

Castelle just shook her head. “I don’t like this, Katya.”

“I know. I’m sorry you lost a friend.”

“He went the way he wanted to go, in combat. No, I don’t like that Lady Hilda is going to get away with this.”

“I’m on the nobles’ council and so is my father. And we have allies besides.”

“Count me as one of them, but the look in old Robert’s eye makes me think that some of the old school will use Lady Hilda to defy your family. Unrest in the capital smacks of weakness to them.”

Katya moved a few steps farther from the house. “It’s not weakness. What Reinholt did might have blown over if not for…” She shook her head.

“If not for what?” Castelle stepped closer. “What the hell is going on? I don’t know if you noticed, but Lady Hilda wasn’t exactly human during our little confrontation.”

“I know.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was a Fiend.”

Katya took a deep breath. “She was.”

“What?” Castelle rubbed her tattooed temple. Her hat had fallen off at some point, and she hadn’t bothered to retrieve it. “If you want my help, tell me what’s happening. I’m no good to you if I don’t know what I’m up against.”

In all their time together, as close as they’d gotten, Katya hadn’t shared the Fiend or the Order. Castelle had never pried, unlike Starbride. Castelle hadn’t cared enough to follow, to stumble onto the truth.

But here, now, was a different Castelle, more mature, a woman ready to help, to be involved. She’d already committed to helping Katya’s cause, and she didn’t even know what that cause was.
That
was the same old reckless Castelle, but this new one wanted to know what her friends were dying for.

Katya told her part of it, that the Umbriels were part Fiend, that they had to be in order to pacify the great Fiend Yanchasa, who rested under the palace at Marienne. “That’s what it means when the kings and queens of Farraday call themselves the ‘foes of Yanchasa the Mighty.’”

“So when you and I were a couple, you were a Fiend?”

“Not anymore. That’s a long story, but when we were together, yes.”

“I would have noticed. All the time we spent together…”

Katya shook her head. “It only came out when I was enraged or during the Waltz.”

“I made you plenty angry.”

“Not just angry. When someone threatened to hurt Starbride, I broke through the enchantment and became the Fiend. That’s how she knows.”

“To save her. How romantic.”

Katya rolled her eyes. “And dangerous.”

“That’s when you knew you loved her, wasn’t it? When you broke a powerful enchantment by will alone?”

Katya swallowed, thinking of that day and of the tenderness that came after. “Yes.”

Castelle looked away. “Well, we, uh, we won’t have to worry about that anymore. So does this mean that Lady Hilda is an Umbriel?”

“No.” Katya told her as little as she could manage about Roland, about him merging with the Fiend, about it taking over upon his “death” and how he was determined to take the throne even if it meant tearing Marienne apart.

Castelle nodded along with the tale. “He’s given this Fiendish essence to Lady Hilda.”

“That’s what I’m guessing.”

“So the younger brother of the king whom everyone thought was dead became a Fiend and now wants to destroy you.”

“You’ve got it,” Katya said.

“How exactly is the Fiend transferred?”

“Well, one can be born with it, like I was, if both their parents have it.”

“But you said it could be passed from person to person through a ritual.”

Katya’s cheeks burned hotter, and she cursed them. Why did only Castelle have such an effect on her?

“You’re blushing. It must be what I think it is.”

Katya turned away.

“So, ex-Prince Roland and Lady Hilda…Ah well, it doesn’t matter. The important bit is that he’s collecting allies. You’re sure the civil unrest is his fault? From what I’ve seen, Magistrate Anthony is the one kicking up all the fuss.”

“Roland has to be at the center. There have been too many pyramids floating around.”

Castelle jerked her thumb to where Lady Hilda’s pyradisté lay bound in the cart. “There’s the pyradisté that could have provided them.”

“It has to be someone of Roland’s skill.”

“Well, since I know little to nothing of pyramid magic, I’ll have to take your word for it.”

Katya smiled softly. “I have an inside source.”

“She’s very beautiful.” Castelle gazed at the house as if she could see Starbride through its walls.

“And she’s already given her heart away.”

“Am I making you worry? You know what I always used to say.”

“‘If you know you’ve got her heart, you never worry’? Yes. That’s why I always worried with you.” Katya didn’t wait for a reply. She moved into the house instead, suddenly needing to be near Starbride as if the mere thought of her conjured great power.

Starbride knelt in a sitting room and helped Averie and Brutal dress the wounded. As Katya came in, Hugo shuffled in from the kitchen with a large cauldron of water. “I don’t know how you carried two of these, Brother Brutal.”

“Training, Lord Hugo, that’s all.”

“I think you started with more muscle than I’ll ever have.”

Brutal chuckled, but his attention remained on those around him.

Katya knelt by Starbride’s side. “How are they?”

“Besides one of Castelle’s men, we lost five Watch officers. We’re trying to get the rest ready to move. It’s going to be crowded in that cart.”

“We’ll have to head for the Watch house as quickly as possible and hope Roland doesn’t see an opportunity. How is Pennynail?”

“Stitched and resting.”

Katya grimaced. She’d been stitched in the field a few times. Averie and Pennynail had to sit on her once after a brigand cut the back of her thigh wide open.

Soon, they had everyone patched and wrapped for travel. There were plenty of free horses. Katya wondered if Duke Robert had wanted to confiscate them to slow Katya down, but Captain Ursula wouldn’t let him.

They traveled as quickly as they could. Duke Robert couldn’t hold a council without someone from the royal family in attendance, usually the king, and Da would try and slow things down, as would Countess Nadia and her friends. Katya tried to tell herself that she was far from alone in her troubles, but she couldn’t shake her unease. Nobles and courtiers were scheming, but she’d never expected rebellion inside the palace itself. All the givens she’d taken for granted were abandoning her one by one: the love of the populace, the love of her brother, the cohesion of her family, the support of the nobles. Even the strength of her Fiend.

With her Fiend, Katya could have torn Lady Hilda apart in the stable and prevented this mess. Afterward, Starbride could have returned her to normal.

Or she would have turned on her friends, hurt them, run amok through the stables, and into the streets. And with two Fiends present, Hugo might have broken his necklace, and then they would have had three rampaging Fiends. There were too many ifs. Katya tried to tell herself she was better off Fiend-less. Or so she hoped.

After a rattling ride through the forest and then Marienne, they paused by the Watch house and unloaded the officers. One of the sergeants informed them that Ursula had continued to the palace with the captive.

Katya and her friends rocketed through the streets, not wanting to give Roland time to put an ambush together. Katya kept her cloak close around her and ducked her chin into the mantle. They’d braced Castelle’s wounded and Pennynail in their saddles, but it couldn’t have been a comfortable ride. When Katya skidded to a halt in the royal stables, she nearly ran down one of the grooms.

“Star,” Katya said, “can you see to the wounded?”

“Yes, go!”

Katya ran into the palace, Castelle right behind her.

To her surprise, Hugo followed them, too. He limped but managed to keep up. “I’ve never attended the council, but I have my title.”

“Glad to have you,” Katya said.

They went straight for the council rooms, no cleaning up, and no stopping for breath or food. The guards bowed before Katya, though their eyes narrowed at Castelle and Hugo.

Katya pushed past and left the guard to find Castelle and Hugo in the nobles’ book. She burst into a room filled with angry voices. Da stood at the head of the table, and by the red tint of his neck, he was on his way to losing his temper.

“At last!” Da shouted, and the room went momentarily quiet.

Duke Robert was on his feet like many others. He stood near the end of the table closest to the doors, and by the faces around him, Katya could tell lines were being drawn, allegiances clear by what end of the table one chose. Countess Nadia and Viscount Lenvis were near her father’s side as well as old Earl Lamont and several others.

Lady Hilda was nowhere in sight, nor was Captain Ursula.

Katya moved to stand with her father, Castelle and Hugo behind her. She bowed to Da, and he inclined his head. As if introduced to civility by this exchange, the rest of the nobles bowed to Katya.

“We are debating whether to have a trial for the traitorous lady,” Da said.

“I beg your pardon, Majesty, but treason has yet to be determined,” Duke Robert said. “We must have a trial to even put that label upon her.”

“I see you’ve got the argument well and circular,” Katya said in her court drawl. Several people laughed, including some at the other end of the table. Even though they’d chosen sides, some clearly weren’t happy with arguing.

“A traitor to the crown falls under the jurisdiction of the crown,” Duke Robert said, slowly and carefully. “No one disputes this, but the lady has asked the noble’s council to decide whether or not she is a traitor.”

Katya fought to keep her own temper in check. Before she could even begin to try a reasoned argument, Hugo blurted, “She tried to kill the princess consort!”

Katya grabbed his arm. When he looked at her, she stared pointedly at his chest where his pyramid necklace hid under his clothes. He swallowed so forcefully she saw it in his neck. The nobles murmured amongst themselves.

“I saw no such a thing,” Duke Robert said. “I saw the lady attacked in her own home. I understand there is evidence of a crime, but that evidence should be laid before this council. Otherwise, it seems as if the Umbriels are taking whatever course they choose, whenever they choose, and to
whomever
they choose.”

“All for no cause,” another of the nobles said, and others echoed the sentiment.

There was greed and lust for power on some faces, but on more, there was simply anger, as if they were appalled at the royal family’s actions. Katya couldn’t help but wonder if some of them were influenced by Roland.

“We have not had a trial by nobles’ council in many years,” Da said.

That was because traitors to the crown were taken out by the Order, but Katya didn’t mention that.

“There are more nobles now than in the past,” Da said. “This room is so full that not every noble can have a seat at the table. And if we are obliged to invite every noble from the countryside to a trial, how will we fit them all?”

Heads nodded along the room.