For Want of a Fiend (42 page)

Hugo slumped over her, bearing her to the ground, unconscious in the Fiend’s absence.

Starbride tried to push him off of her, but her entire body ached. Ursula and Pennynail lifted him and dumped him to the side. Bloody tracks ran from his eyes, mouth, and back, but he was alive.

Starbride tried to struggle to her feet, tried to find Maia and Darren in the streetlights. “Where are they?”

Ursula held her sword up in her left hand, her right just hanging at her side. “The male picked up the burnt one and left.”

“The burnt one.” Now that she recalled it, the scent of flesh still hung in the air. “Horsestrong forgive me. Was she alive?”

“I hope not.”

“Star?” Dawnmother said as she inched over. “Are you all right?”

The answer was most definitely no. Her arms were on fire. Her back felt awful and twisted. Dawnmother used her knife to tear long strips from the end of her shirt and wind them about Starbride’s arms. Starbride couldn’t look; she only hoped the leather had helped her a little.

“Where is Castelle?” Starbride asked.

Ursula nodded over her shoulder. “When the Fiends attacked, several gangs of people rushed us from the alley. She and her people held them back.”

Castelle jogged over. Lines of blood dotted her, as if she’d been nicked over and over, the red stripes spoiling her blue clothing. “We’ve got other problems. A stream of liveried servants just ran by. The palace has been overrun.”

Starbride’s stomach dropped. Katya, the Umbriels… “By the mob.”

Castelle nodded. “Though some of them said something about monsters.”

“We have to get there.”

“Agreed,” Castelle said. She glanced at Starbride’s arms and grimaced. “Do you think you can?”

“I can make it, but start without me. Save…who you can. I’ll catch up.”

“If she’s stuck in there, I’ll get her out.” Castelle gathered her friends and took off down the street.

Pennynail crooked a finger as if she should follow him. “I’ll be right back,” Starbride said.

Ursula nodded. “I’ll see to my men, and we’ll try to fix this miserable failure as best we can.”

Dawnmother and Starbride leaned on each other as they followed Pennynail into an alley. He shoved his mask on top of his head. “There’s a place the Order always meets, in the forest. If they got away, they’ll be there.”

“We won’t know if they got away until we go to the palace,” Starbride said.

“Star,” Dawnmother said, “maybe we should see if they’re at this meeting place first.”

“Every moment I’m not headed toward the palace is a moment Katya could be dying.”

“She knows what she’s doing,” Pennynail said. “She’s been at this game a long time.”

“Really? Because I thought a Fiendish uncle who was plotting to overthrow the government was a rather new development.”

Pennynail shut his mouth and nodded. “All right. Let’s do it.”

They bandaged one another. Ursula left the least wounded in charge of the most wounded, and then they headed out. No matter who won, Starbride wanted to be near the palace. Ursula’s mouth set in a firm line. Starbride knew she cared about Marienne, not necessarily the Umbriels, but Magistrate Anthony and his band had caused the damage racing through the city. If keeping the Umbriels on the throne was the cure to this madness, Ursula would do it; that much was clear. Starbride had to wonder, though. If putting Magistrate Anthony on the throne led to a cessation of violence, would Ursula help with that, too?

Either way, Starbride was certain Ursula wouldn’t stand by while the royals were killed. Maybe her influence could get them exiled, anything that would save their lives, Katya’s in particular.

Katya stepped back beside her father. He’d torn open the neck of his coat, and she knew by the way his eyes slid to hers what he had in mind. If he took his pyramid necklace off, if he got angry enough, his Fiend would emerge and attack Roland.

But he could also attack everyone else. “No, Da.”

A few of the Guards moved to engage Roland, but they wouldn’t distract him for long. Katya led her father into the press again, looking for a way out. A man staggered close, slashing at everything in terror. Katya ducked his swing and then bashed him in the face with her guard. He crumpled, probably to be trampled, but she couldn’t care about him.

Roland appeared in front of them again and laughed. “Perseverance can be tiresome. You don’t want that.”

That sounds of combat were dying, left to Earl Lamont’s guards and the remaining lesser Fiends. The men and women who’d been with Magistrate Anthony were either scattered around the walls, clutching their wounds, or heaped around the room, a grisly glimpse of Roland’s sovereignty to come.

Averie shot an arrow into Roland’s chest. He glanced down at it as if it were annoying fly and pulled it out, dripping with blood, before tossing it away.

Another arrow replaced it. Roland sidestepped the next shot, but now he frowned at Averie, clearly annoyed. And she knew Fiends, knew how anger moved them. She dashed away from Katya, spun, and shot again, over and over. Roland moved through the crowd and headed for her as a blur.

“The fire has died down!” Da said.

The fire had consumed the curtain but had no other fuel. The open secret passageway beckoned.

“Averie!” Katya cried, but she only had time to look back. She had to get her father to safety.

Averie didn’t acknowledge the cry, but her eyes flicked to Katya’s, and she seemed to mouth the word, “Go, go, go,” over and over. Or was it “No, no, no,” that she whispered? She raced along the ballroom, still firing at Roland. Face pinched with fright, she locked her eyes on him, even though she couldn’t really hurt him. He gained on her, almost catching her before Katya followed her father into the passageway. With a half-sob, Katya shut the door and braced it, but she didn’t know how long that would hold Roland. She grabbed her father and ran.

“They’re in the forest,” Katya said. All she could see in her mind was Averie’s terrified face chanting as death came for her. And all she could feel was fear for Starbride, for what Roland would do to both of them if he could. Katya prayed that Starbride had seen the palace and high-tailed it for the forest, that Pennynail had taken her there.

Katya shook the thoughts away and focused on how to get out. She ducked down an intersecting hallway.

“Where…going?” Da asked.

Katya slowed. Not only had he been knocked about, but he wasn’t used to running. “Do we stay in here and risk Roland finding us or go into the halls and risk everyone else?”

“Better the hallways. We know he’ll come after us this way.”

Katya led her father toward the royal summer apartments, near where the Order met. Just as they opened the door into the hallway, a boom sounded from down the passageway, and the rushing air snuffed their lamp. Roland had entered the tunnels behind them.

“Averie,” Katya said softly. “Oh, spirits, no.”

Da took a deep breath and wiped his pale, sweating face. “What’s your plan, my girl?”

Katya’s mind raced. That was the question for the day. Around her, pyramids glinted in the hallway walls. “Those will keep us safe from the townsfolk and the lesser Fiends.”

“They won’t stop Roland.”

Katya heard a scuff from down the hallway and glanced in that direction.

A mud-caked woman peered back at her. So, people had wandered this far into the palace. “Here’s more!” the woman cried, a cackle of glee in her voice. “I found some more fat cats to string up, boys!”

A group of young men hurtled around the corner behind her. “Here, kitty, kitty!” several cried.

The man in the lead burst into flame that consumed him completely and then winked out just as suddenly, leaving the carpet only mildly singed.

The others skidded to a stop, but not before two more met a similar fate.

“They’re Fiends! Fiends!” the mud-caked woman cried. They turned and fled. Well, they’d be seeing Fiends soon enough. Still, their reaction gave Katya an idea. She didn’t want to kill commoners if she could avoid it, but she had to protect her father. She pried several of the guardian pyramids off the walls.

“If we use those, won’t we get caught in the blast?” Da asked.

“We’ll have to be quick and throw them before anyone comes near us.”

He frowned but dug another of the pyramids out of the wall and fashioned the remains of his purple mantle into a sack. “You keep your rapier out, my girl. I’ll handle these.”

Katya nodded, and they were off again. They worked their way toward the servant stairs, the last place anyone would be with the rest of the palace wide open. They met several courtiers huddled in their rooms or nobles held captive. Each time, Katya chased the commoners away, with pyramids if she had to. By the time she and her father reached the back stables, there were twenty people with them, though they had to keep their distance from Da and his pyramids.

The eastern sky had begun to lighten. Katya kept her lantern lit. In the darkness of the rear stables, a group of people approached the flickering glow.

Katya raised her sword, but the figures kept coming. One of them called, “Katya?”

“Step into the light,” Katya said. Castelle appeared out of the gloom.

Katya breathed a sigh of relief, but then stiffened as she lifted her lantern. Castelle had only her own friends with her. “Where’s Starbride?”

“Right behind us, making her way toward the palace. Come on, we’ve got horses. We should be able to pick her up on our way out.”

Da had to leave the pyramids behind. With so many non-royals among them, there was too great a risk of them going off. Katya looked over her shoulder at the palace that had been her home, now in the grip of a monster and the tomb of so many friends. Still, sadness couldn’t defeat her. Her family had escaped, and soon, Starbride would be in her arms again.

Averie would want that.

Starbride could see the palace down the street, and it broke her heart. Almost all of the first floor windows had been smashed. Several statues in the front walk lay broken on the ground, and one of the ancient oak doors was pitted and scarred as if someone had tried to light it on fire and failed. One of the Umbriel banners was missing and the other had been torn in half.

“Castelle said to go to the servants’ stables in the back,” she whispered. “We have to keep going.” She and Dawnmother had Hugo dangling between them. The Umbriels usually took an hour to wake, but they didn’t have Dawnmother splashing them with water and slapping them. Still, he was only half-conscious, and he stumbled as if drunk, but he became more awake with each footfall.

She only wished he didn’t put such terrible pressure on her wounds. Several times, an evil little voice originating from her torn shoulders and aching back suggested she dump him in an alley and be done with him.

Pennynail led the way around the palace. Starbride craned her neck and hoped to see Castelle leading Katya around the corner, safe and sound.

A cry sounded behind them, a wordless shout that was taken up by many voices. Starbride turned just as Dawnmother shouted, “Run!”

A group of torch-bearing people charged up the street, setting fires as they came. Many waved sticks or blades or iron bars. They struck at their surroundings indiscriminately, as if they didn’t care what they destroyed as long as they hit something. In front of them, shouting them on, ran Maia and Darren, both fully healed. Their eyes seemed to glitter in the rising light.

Captain Ursula didn’t even try to stand up to the crowd. They had her remaining officers outnumbered three or four to one. They all lifted Hugo and took off down a side street, running like mad.

The cries of the mob changed to words, nonsense mostly, but Starbride could pick out something about “fat cats,” whatever they were. What she understood most clearly was, “Kill them!” Her injuries screamed, her back burned, and her very lungs ached. They were all wounded, struggling and pulling on one another in their haste. Even Hugo seemed to awaken more and tried to run under his own power.

They zigzagged down alleys and hoped their pursuers would give up, but the shouts seemed always at their backs. They came out of the city beside the palace, opposite the royal stables.

A mounted party stood in the small courtyard. As one more of their member swung onto a horse, a voice called, “Starbride?”

Starbride rushed toward anyone who knew her name and wasn’t yelling to kill her. In the dim light of dawn, she spied Countess Nadia and Viscount Lenvis.

“My child,” Countess Nadia said, “they attacked you!”

Starbride waved toward the sounds of the mob. “They’ll kill us.”

Shouts echoed behind them. They were almost caught.

“Hide!” Countess Nadia said.

Pennynail dragged Starbride to the side, and she and her friends climbed into a shallow ditch behind a stack of crates. Even Ursula let herself be pulled by Sergeant Rhys.

“Come now, you sons of whores!” Countess Nadia called. “You want some fat cats?” To Starbride’s surprise, she drew a sword from her belt. “Come catch your death!” Contrary to her bravado, she sped away into the early light, her friends with her. “Ride, Princess Consort!” she called to one of her hooded companions. “Ride! We go to fetch the king!”

The mob screamed and gave chase. Up the street, Countess Nadia and Viscount Lenvis slowed their horses enough for the mob to almost reach them and then sped up again. Maia and Darren went with them, but a few hung back, too tired to keep up, or maybe their energy deserted them. Either way, Starbride knew she was stuck in her hiding place for some time.

She closed her eyes and hoped that Katya had gotten out of the palace and away, that Countess Nadia got away, too, and that the Umbriels were safe. Even if they were stuck inside the palace, Starbride wouldn’t stop until she found them, until she found Katya.

“I’ll find you,” she whispered.

Katya heard a roar that sounded nearly on the other side of the palace. She rose up in her stirrups and tried to peer into the dim light; she wished she could see through stone.