The Pyramid Waltz (28 page)

“What?”

“I love you.”

Katya’s breath caught, and she took a step forward. “Ah, Star, I love you, too.”

“Back, back, before I stay another three days! My escort, please.”

“Averie! Escort this rascal back to her room before I order her imprisonment in our royal apartment.”

Averie curtsied as she entered, her cheeks taut with a contained grin. Starbride gave one wink over her shoulder, and then they were gone. Katya sat and ate and reveled in recent memory, smiling again and again until it hurt. When she finished, she pushed away her plate, closed her eyes, and prayed to Matter and Marla for wisdom. “It is love, oh spirits, it must be. I’ve seen it now, and I’ve felt it. She’s seen the Fiend and the trouble in my life, and she hasn’t run away. I was ready to play the rake forever, but now I want one person. Spirits, I’ve used the gifts you’ve given me, and all I see is love. Put my doubts to rest.”

Her heart lighter, only a single great hurdle remained, and Katya doubted that even the spirits could help her with her mother. She’d put that off as long as possible.

Once Averie returned, Katya forced herself to look ahead to the unpleasant task of dealing with the traitors. Averie helped her dress in midnight blue and black. Setting her face to stone and her mind to the forthcoming task, Katya strode through the secret passageways until she reached the anteroom to the dungeons. Crowe leaned against the wall, facing the door as if waiting for her. His wrinkled face seemed more haggard in the shadowy light.

“Crowe? I thought you’d be in there by now.”

“I was.”

Katya frowned. “I expected to catch at least
some
of the interrogation.”

“Both Darren’s and Cassius’s minds are closed. They’re either pyradistés, or they’ve both been warded by a pyramid user of incredible skill. I might have known.”

Katya’s stomach went cold. “By the bearded man?”

“What makes you think so?”

Katya told him about the bearded man trying to hypnotize Starbride, about him calling her a pyradisté.

Crowe ran his fingers through his hair, making it stick out at the sides. “It might be him, I suppose. Starbride’s a pyradisté, eh? Ha. Well, now I know it was useless to offer to erase her memories when she found out about the Fiend.”

“I…I didn’t know you offered. You can’t break through these wards?”

Crowe rubbed the dark circles under his eyes. Katya wondered if he’d slept at all. “I don’t know. Given time? I still don’t know.”

Katya watched him stare into space and frowned again. She wanted to be kind, but they had a job to do. If he’d become incapable, she needed a way to either motivate him or replace him. “Pennynail taking care of you?”

“I don’t need taking care of.”

She resisted the urge to glare. Her father would’ve barked at him, but that wasn’t the way she wanted to play it. He’d do his duty, but she didn’t want his mind clouded by resentment. A way out of an impending argument leapt to mind. Starbride was again to be her salvation. “My father wants you to begin training your inevitable replacement.”

“What?” The pallor of his face gave way as two spots of red bloomed in his cheeks. “He said what?”

“He said—”

“I heard you! Of all the…I will do this, Katya! I can figure it out.” His eyes blazed, and he looked more alive than she’d seen in days.

“I know you can. That’s why I’m not going to make you do it.”

“I don’t understand. If your father commanded it, you have to do it.”

“Whose side are you on?”

“No, no. I will do it. I mean, I don’t want to be replaced, but if that…if your father wants me to be replaced, don’t anger him on my account.”

“I’ve thought of a way to keep you working and keep him happy.”

Crowe’s brows turned down before they shot up. “You clever thing, you. You want me to train Starbride.”

“It’ll keep her out of the Pyradisté Academy—so I can see her more often—it’ll get her an education, and you’ll be training your
replacement
.”

“Do you really want her in the Order?”

“Well…she wants to be involved, and I love her, Crowe. I really do.”

His face softened. “Yes, I can tell. And I’m happy for you, but you have to make sure she wants to go on dangerous missions when called.
And
you can’t keep her a secret from the king and queen.”

“I know. One thing at a time. Will you do it? The training, I mean.”

“If she agrees, of course.”

Katya gripped his shoulder once before letting go. “Have you written to Layra?”

“No, I was waiting to tell you about the captives before I did.”

“Start writing, then. And I want the best pyramids you can make guarding our
guests
.”

“Done.”

“Maybe,” Katya said idly, “Pennynail can get some of his friends to help you look into the Pyradisté Academy and see if they can find this bearded man.”

Crowe stared at her, his expression flat. “Nice try.”

“What?”

“Discover the identity of Pennynail’s friends and you discover his, is that it?”

“Guilty.”

He snorted. “I’ll go up and get to that letter now.”

“Good. I want a word with one of our guests, and then I’m off to check on Maia again.”

“Darren’s second on the left. Cassius is last on the right.”

“What happened to the Shadow?”

“I got everything I could from him, Katya.”

With a shiver, Katya nodded. “Gallows or headsman’s axe?”

“Never mind that. How was Maia last night?”

“Angry. She promised not to kill you, though.”

“I wouldn’t mind if she did.”

“She’ll forgive you one of these days, Crowe.”

He didn’t respond, and as Katya stepped to the dungeon door, she thought she heard him whisper, “I hope not.”

The door to the dungeon proper had no locks, no door handle, no opening of any kind. Instead, she pushed her palm to a pyramid set in the wood, and it tingled under her palm as it recognized the Fiend. The only people who could get past it were those who carried the Umbriel Fiend and those Crowe had tuned the pyramids to recognize, like himself and Pennynail. She supposed Crowe brought the prisoners food himself.

She held her lamp high in the dark space beyond the door. Wan light shone from pyramids set in the walls, but darker pyramids glinted in the flickering light. Those would do more than just cast illumination. Some were alarms, some weapons. They sparkled like dozens of little eyes. With a shiver, Katya moved on to the cells guarding Darren. The door swung open with a creak as the pyramid recognized her, and Katya let her eyes adjust to the dim light penetrating the darkness of his cell before she stepped inside.

Darren sat on the stone floor against the far wall; his manacled wrists lay in his lap, and his chains coiled on either side of him before leading back to the wall he sat against. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” His eyes were still as smug as they had been at the manor house, and his smile was as certain.

“You knew the mind pyramid wouldn’t work on you.”

He shrugged, making his chains jingle.

“And yet, here you are. Your secrets might be out of reach of our pyramids, for now, but your body is still in a cage.”

“But my imagination is free to roam. I’ve been picturing a golden-haired princess entwined with a dark-skinned Allusian, and it’s kept me, oh, very entertained. It would be better if you described
exactly
what it’s like to fuck her. Do you use something special or just your fist?”

Katya raised an eyebrow, all the rise he would get from her if his ammunition was so weak. “How long will your confidence last? Until you crack here in the dark, or until we string you up in the courtyard?”

“Let’s find out.”

“How about your brother? Will he be as haughty after a few days?”

Darren tsked. “She tries and tries to get me to admit things, and yet she never succeeds.”

“I don’t need you to admit it. I know you’re Darren and Cassius Sleeting.”

He stroked chin. “Sleeting, Sleeting…Ah! Now I remember. The woman who should have been queen. If that had been our mother, wouldn’t we be Darren and Cassius Nar Umbriel?”

Katya felt her face twitch and hoped he wouldn’t see it in the dim light. “You’re right. It wouldn’t be Sleeting. It would be Darren and Cassius Whoreson.” Darren’s face went cold. “Aha, a hit at last. You are Carmen Van Sleeting’s children.”

“Any man would object to his mother being called a whore.”

“Except the sons of whores. Or should I say the grandsons of whores? I wonder if this servant girl, your grandmother, actually worked in the palace. And if she did, if she tried to get into my grandfather’s bed, failed at that, and had to bed the dog boy or the privy man instead. Did you know her? Was she very ugly?”

Darren’s arms flexed, and the chains jingled again. Katya set her footing in case he rushed at her, though she didn’t think he could reach her with the chains. “Perhaps you’d like to talk about your father,” she said. “I heard he died before his time. Was it syphilis? I’ve heard that can be a very painful death.”

“You’ll find out what it’s like to die painfully.”

“I’m not the one in chains.”

He leaned forward. “You will be.”

Katya knew it was nonsense, but something about the sureness of his tone sent a shiver down her spine. “We’ll talk more later.”

“I look forward to it.”

As the door swung shut, she called, “Good day, Whoreson or Grandwhoreson.”

She heard him mutter “Bitch,” and knew she’d left him with some nasty thoughts. She’d let him remember them, over and over again, in the dark.

Dawnmother had both breakfast and a knowing smile waiting when Starbride returned. “I don’t need to ask how it went, do I?”

“Dawn, I’m so happy.”

“So I see.”

“Are you still suspicious?”

“Always.” Dawnmother laid out a pot of tea and a few slices of bread with fruit.

Sitting with a cup of tea, Starbride told Dawnmother everything about the night before, shivers running up and down her spine as she recalled the finer points. Dawnmother listened with rapt attention and asked the occasional question, but there was so much Starbride didn’t even have words for.

“Ah, Star, it sounds perfect.”

“Like one of your many hayloft trips?”

“It reminds me of Shinehorseman. With him, it was perfect.”

“I remember. Well, I remember what you would tell me about him. Why didn’t the two of you stay together?”

“He moved to one of the smaller Farradain cities between Marienne and Newhope. It wouldn’t have worked anyway. Only servant caste can really understand the servant’s pledge.” She brought her gaze back to the present. “Did the princess provide some of the promised answers?”

“Yes, but, I can’t share them, even with you.”

Dawnmother raised her hands to the ceiling and then dropped them. “These people and their secrets! Our lives are one, can’t they see?”

“I know, I know.” She thought of Crowe, a secret half-Allusian trying to operate in Farradain society with an Allusian servant’s mind. “I don’t know if I could explain the bond, but a promise is a promise. Katya will relax that promise—soon, I hope—and I’ll tell you everything. Someday, the truth for you.”

Someone knocked on the door. Dawnmother cracked it open and peeked out. Starbride strained to hear a muted conversation before Dawnmother turned with an envelope. “It’s an invitation to tea with a party of courtiers and also Baroness Jacintha Veronda.”

Starbride blinked. “A baroness?”

“Quite a coup.”

“It must be for all the courtiers.” There was another knock, and Dawnmother collected another invitation, this one to a riding party the following day with a host of courtiers and also Countess Nadia Van Hale and Viscount Lenvis Neversfall.

Starbride frowned. “Is that one for all the courtiers, too?”

Dawnmother turned the invitation over. “It’s addressed to you personally.”

“What’s going on?”

“You’re the princess’s lover.”

“More eyes on me, she said.”

“And she was right.”

Another knock came and then another; invitations poured in, some with small gifts of ribbons or sweets. Letter after letter came from courtiers who gushed about how sorry they were that they hadn’t invited Starbride to come and see them earlier. Things had been so busy, no doubt she understood.

Starbride put her head in her hands. “This is just what I need. I’ll never finish my work now.”

“You have to go to some of these, you know, those hosted or attended by nobles.”

“I know, I know. It’s one thing if they ignore me, but quite another if I ignore them.”

“Time to dress. This tea party starts in an hour.”

Starbride wore an ugly dress; everyone at the party did. She carried the little pillow Dawnmother had made for her, gratified to see that
they
all carried them, too. The ladies gathered around her like a flock of curious magpies covered in pastel froth. She wore her mint, and they clucked over its design and color. Compliments poured from them as they shepherded her to a small settee, and she put her tiny pillow under her and sat. She faced the one woman who hadn’t risen at her entrance.