The Pyramid Waltz (25 page)

Katya tried hard to be angry, tried it for Maia’s sake, but the damnable thing was that she understood. It was a hard choice, but the Order of Vestra was made of hard choices. He’d made one that she might have to make herself one day. Katya stepped toward them, and both Crowe and Pennynail looked up at her. The Laughing Jack mask was the same as always, but Crowe’s face was white and anxious, as if he feared she would plunge her rapier into his chest. Even then, he didn’t move, and Katya knew part of him wanted her to do it, as if death would somehow absolve him.

Instead, she opened her arms, offering consolation but not forcing it on him. His lips trembled, and he heaved himself from his seat and embraced her. As he trembled and wept, he seemed so fragile. Pennynail helped support him from the side, and for a time, all of them did nothing but grieve.

“So, that’s why you’re always so mean to Maia?” Katya asked at last.

Crowe wiped his face. “I couldn’t be kind to her. I couldn’t have her
like
me. I don’t deserve her friendship or her love. It’s also why Queen Catirin is more than brusque with me, at times. She loved Roland like a blood brother instead of one by marriage. She blames both herself and me for his death, since we all agreed he should go.”

“It was his decision.”

“Say that over and over, and it won’t make us feel any better. Roland was always putting himself in danger, always attacking straight on. He thought Einrich was too soft. They had some terrible arguments. Roland wanted to experiment on traitors to see if he could…retrain them into being loyal using mind magic.”

Katya’s mouth twisted at the thought. “That’s a little darker than I recall.”

“When it came to protecting his family, he could get very dark indeed. He and Catirin shared that a little, I think.” He stared at the wall. “She was always trying to find him another wife after Maia’s mother died. She threw countless dinner parties and fetes, all to find him a good bride.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“She thought he was lonely. Well, she didn’t know about Layra.”

“Uncle Roland was having an affair with someone in his Order?”

“It started when Maia was about three. He never found a way to break the news to Catirin. Layra wasn’t a noblewoman, and she didn’t have the cash or connections to be a courtier, but she was Roland’s friend, had been for years, and they just sort of…found each other. She wouldn’t have married him anyway, even if they’d gotten approval. She couldn’t stand the restrictions of court life.” Crowe shrugged. “Everyone in the Order knew. We just kept it from your mother and father.”

Katya leaned against the table in wonder. It was so hard to imagine the uncle in her memory having a romance with anyone. Roland had always been so…solitary. “What happened to Layra and the brothers?”

“The poor brothers never made it out of the house. Layra escaped, but when she heard Roland had died, it broke her heart. She wanted nothing more to do with the Order. I told Einrich about their relationship, and he paid for Layra to move far out into the country, which was her wish, to a little farm. We used to exchange letters, but we fell out of practice as the years went on.”

Katya began to pace, her mind done with grieving and leaping to the puzzle in front of them. “Did you use ‘temperance’ as the code for a flash bomb back when Roland was alive?”

“Um, I can’t recall. I think so. Why?”

“Because some of our traitors seemed to know it. They weren’t caught by the flash.”

“You think it’s Layra that’s been feeding the traitors information? But…why would she work with the children of the woman responsible for Roland’s death?”

“We don’t know that Darren or Cassius are Carmen’s children. And even if they are, revenge makes people do funny things. Use the pyramid on our captives, and then I want you to get in touch with Layra. Find out if she’s still where she’s supposed to be.”

His face was still pale and his eyes fever bright, but he nodded. “As you will.”

“Right. I’m going to check on Maia.”

When she reached Maia’s door, she found Brutal outside rather than inside where she expected him to be. “She sent me out,” he said. From inside the room, Katya heard a distinct
thunk
. “I figured that when it went quiet, I’d try again.”

“Breaking things, is she?”

He shrugged. “Try your luck.”

“Thank you, Brutal, for seeing to her.” Brutal nodded, but his baby face stayed pinched and worried. Katya knocked on the door.

“Go away!” Maia said from inside. There was another
thunk
.

Katya cracked the door open. “I’m coming in.”

“I don’t want company!”

Katya stuck her head inside. Several green-fletched arrows jutted from the wardrobe in the corner. Katya stepped in and shut the door behind her. All the wooden surfaces in the room had a few arrows sprouting from them. Maia stood on the center rug, her face red and puffy. Her bowstring hummed as she pulled back for another shot.

Thunk
. An arrow lodged in the dresser. “I said I don’t want company.” She glared at Katya and then pulled another arrow from the quiver on the bed. “Unless you want to send that murdering bastard in here.” She sank an arrow into her headboard.

Katya leaned against the bare stone wall, out of the line of fire. “You’re running out of ammunition.” She glanced at the wall opposite. The portraits of Maia’s parents and of Roland with the infant Maia had been spared the deluge of arrows, though one had been shot in the frame.

“I’ve got other weapons.” Maia fired another arrow in the headboard and hit it dead center before she flipped open the lid of the trunk at the foot of her bed. “Throwing daggers.” She tossed a brace of knives onto the bed. “I’ve even got this.” She held up a carved wooden case. “It’s a blowgun like the ancient Uanai used to use. I had a historian make it for me. I thought it might come in useful someday. Fires teeny-tiny poison needles.” She chucked it back in the trunk and then threw her bow in, too.

Katya didn’t know what to say. She had no idea that Maia researched new throwing weapons, especially poisoned ones. Maia’s aim was unparalleled, and Katya needed that, but she didn’t want Maia thinking of death all the time. “Maia.”

Maia ignored her and slipped one of the stilettos free of its sheath. Jerking her arm to the side in a blur, she launched the knife at a table mirror and shattered it into a dozen pieces.

“That’s enough, Maia,” Katya snapped.

Maia turned, her body vibrating as if she were a bowstring, her face swinging between sorrow and defiance. “He…he…” Her lip quivered, and strands of hair floated around her head, much like the baby in the portrait behind her. Katya stepped forward and wrapped her in an embrace. Maia stiffened, and Katya thought she might push away, but then, with a sob, she melted in Katya’s arms. “He killed Da.”

“I know, coz.” Katya tightened her grip, feeling her own tears. She stared at Roland’s portrait and mourned the fact that she’d never get to speak with her uncle as one adult to another, that they would never lead the Order of Vestra together.

Pity made her tears flow harder. Maia had no father and could have no surrogate father in either churlish Crowe or Katya’s often-absent father. No wonder she’d fallen for strong, capable, kind-hearted Brutal. “I’m so sorry, coz.”

“I want to kill him.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I do!” Maia flopped at the foot of the bed and wrapped her arms under her knees. “I want to shoot him! And drown him! I want to kill him a thousand times!”

“No, you want your father back. I do, too.”

“You have a father.”

“Roland was a far better father than mine.”

“What?”

“Well, I love my father, but he’s a bit…absent sometimes, even when he’s in the room. He’s loving, no doubt, but he’s, well, the king. I don’t think being king leaves much room for tenderness in a person’s life. Roland was very tender. His love was like a great big blanket, and it was all for you, coz. Da’s love is kind of…”

“Loud?”

Katya gave her a sideways hug. “Boisterous. He couldn’t read a bedtime story without getting bored in the middle and finishing early.” She cleared her throat and deepened her voice. “And then, some prince or another did something heroic, and they all went home for tea. I say, my girl, this is rather a bore, isn’t it?”

Maia laughed a little. “Look here, I know you’re six, but these books don’t have enough murders.”

“How the deuce is a man supposed to make it through a book without murders?”

“You can finish it yourself, can’t you, my girl? If you can’t figure out the words, just look at the pictures!” Even as they chuckled, Maia’s eyes filled with tears again. She scooted up the bed and leaned against the headboard between two arrows. “Da read to me every night, and he always finished. I miss him, Katya.”

“I know.”

Maia yanked one of the arrows out of the wood, the head groaning as it came loose. “Would you kill me? If you had to? Would you hold my face under the water?”

Spirits forbid she would ever have to make that choice, but Katya answered with what Maia needed to hear, not daring to question whether or not it was the truth. “No, you and I would have gone to the bottom of the river together, taking the evidence with us.”

“If Crowe had killed himself with Da, Da would still be dead.”

“Yes.”

“Was there no other way?”

“No, not when the kingdom is at stake.”

Maia snapped the arrow in two. “Then I’ll spread my hatred to Carmen Van Sleeting and her children.”

“But you won’t remove it from Crowe?”

Maia rubbed her face again. “I can’t forgive him just like that, Katya. I can’t just
understand
.”

“All right. Do I have your word you won’t kill him?” With all their talk of death, it was a serious question.

“Yes, not if you still need him.”

Katya reminded herself never to let Crowe retire. “Brutal’s still outside. Do you want me to send him in?”

Maia shook her head. “I look a mess.”

All that had gone on, and that was what she was worried about? “He won’t mind.”

Maia glared at her.

“All right. I’ll tell him to clear off.”

“Are you seeing Starbride tonight?”

“Absolutely.”

“Will I get details?”

“Absolutely not.”

“You’re no fun at all.”

Katya kissed her forehead. “If it gets too hard on your own, send for me.”

“I’d rather you be having fun.”

Katya slipped out the door. Brutal glanced at her, his eyes hopeful. “Sorry, Brutal. She doesn’t want you to see her when she’s a mess.”

“I don’t care about that.”

“I know, but a sixteen-year-old girl won’t be budged when she thinks she looks terrible.”

Brutal leaned against the wall. “I’ll hang around in case she changes her mind. Maybe she’ll talk to me through the door.”

“Maybe. Thanks, Brutal.” Katya strode away, wanting to be with Starbride more than anything, wanting to live in Starbride’s arms forever. But, she reminded herself, there was another dreaded conversation that had to happen first. Perhaps a little dinner would smooth things over. She tapped her chin as she thought about it. There were so many instances in life she didn’t know how to handle; arranging dinner for two was not one of them. And she couldn’t force the Order to heal. She’d stopped the bleeding, but only time would close the wound.

Starbride changed into the outfit Katya had given her; she’d earned a break from the frothy dresses.

“Are you sure the dress you wore this morning couldn’t be salvaged?” Dawnmother asked. “Did you even
try
to save it?”

“It was completely ruined.”

“I’m sure you wept.”

“One down.”

Dawnmother stood back and surveyed the red outfit. “Hair half-down again, I think. Jewelry?”

“Something simple.”

Dawnmother whisked a small ruby pendant and matching stud earrings from the jewelry box, and Starbride stood still for the fastening and styling. When Dawnmother held the mirror in front of her, she nodded. The top half of her hair had been pulled behind her head in a simple twist, showing off her earrings, while the rest hung free.

“Very elegant,” Dawnmother said.

“Maybe we can sell some of the frothy dresses and have more Allusian outfits made.”

Dawnmother snorted. “And then what will you have to ruin when you go gallivanting into the woods looking for danger?”

“We’ll keep one dress around, then.”

“After a few forays, you’ll be as ragged as a beggar.” Dawnmother picked imaginary lint from Starbride’s shoulder.

“Stop fussing, Dawn. I’m fine. I swear that I will not be leaving the palace tonight.”

“I’m becoming a worrier.”

“Becoming?” Even as she teased, guilt pricked her. She’d been angry that Katya left her behind, but she’d done the same to Dawnmother, without even a clue as to where she’d gone. “I’m sorry, Dawn. I’ve always been more trouble than I’m worth.”