A Kingdom Lost Read online

  She leaned against the walls after she left Ruin’s room. Pain roared through her shoulders. She tried to breathe through it, but deep breaths reminded her of the awful crick in her back.

  Hugo patted her shoulder. “Are you all right, Miss Starbride?”

  “A few hours of sleep and I’ll be fine, Hugo, but we have a little work to do yet.”

  Scarra escorted Starbride, Hugo, and Pennynail downstairs to where the rest of the monks ate breakfast. At one corner, the newest arrivals were having everything explained by Fury.

  Most turned to stare at Starbride, Hugo, and Pennynail. They hung back, waiting for Drive to explain. She told the monks who hadn’t had their minds tampered with to keep calm; the strangers’ presence would be explained shortly. Then she gave Starbride a tray with so much food even Horsestrong couldn’t have eaten it all: eggs, sausage, porridge, toast, an entire bowl full of fruit, plus butter, molasses, and three different kinds of jam.

  “There’s more if you want it,” Drive said.

  Starbride laughed, even as tired as she was. She sat a table where everyone received coffee and fruit juice and a jug of water apiece.

  Hugo gobbled his food. Freddie declined, but Starbride knew he must be hungry. “Maybe you could take some food and find a quiet corner,” she said.

  He shrugged and stayed put. The monks clearly didn’t like strangers in their inner sanctum. It was best to stick together until their presence could be explained.

  Ruin came downstairs at last to stand at the head of the room. “Brothers and sisters, you are free today because of a small fighting force opposed to the Fiend king.” He gestured at Starbride’s table. “I’ve decided to join in their fight, and I hope you’ll do the same.”

  That got a murmured assent from everyone. They did love a fight, or they wouldn’t be there.

  “There is one piece of our story I have yet to reveal,” Ruin said, “I ask that you check yourselves for a new scar.” He showed his inner thigh. “If not here, check your entire body.”

  There was a shuffling as they obeyed right then and there. The disrobing struck Starbride as terribly funny, and she had to stare at her plate to avoid any ill-timed laughing.

  “If you have the scar, please stand.”

  Twenty of the fifty people present stood. Too many, by Darkstrong, but now they knew.

  “These scars,” Ruin said, “are trap pyramids planted by the Fiend king. They are designed to kill us if a pyradisté tries to destroy them.”

  Starbride let out a sigh, so glad he didn’t say, “Explode.” The monks, to their credit, only glanced at one another.

  “The Fiend king killed Brother Rage with just such a device. We may be able to remove these pyramids, but we’re not sure what the outcome of such an attempt would be. Would any volunteers remain standing?”

  Not a one of them sat down.

  Ruin looked to Starbride as if to say, “So you see?”

  Starbride nodded. “Shall we draw lots?”

  They agreed that was as good a method as any, discussing a decision that might get them killed as if it was nothing special. Starbride had to admire their bravery even as she wished they had a greater sense of self-perseveration.

  When the volunteer was chosen, Starbride left the extraction to the monks. She’d seen enough blood. Scarra escorted her, Hugo, and Pennynail into a side room.

  As the wait stretched out, Hugo said, “Maybe we should go home.”

  Starbride shook her head, too tired to respond aloud. She couldn’t go anywhere until she knew for certain. When she heard the bang from the other room, her stomach went cold.

  Ruin ducked his head in. “He’s dead.”

  Scarra let out a string of curses, and Starbride wished she had such a vocabulary at her disposal.

  “At what point did it…?” Starbride asked. “Once it was removed?”

  “After the scar was opened, and the medic reached inside.”

  Starbride bit her lip, glad for once that she was too tired for grief. “Trap pyramids are partly mind pyramids,” she muttered. “Mind pyramids can read intent…”

  “What do we do now?” Hugo asked. “What else can we try that the Fiend king hasn’t thought of?”

  Starbride heard the weariness in his voice and almost snapped at him to stop whining, that they were all tired, and why, in Darkstrong’s name, was everyone always looking to her for answers? She took a deep breath. “We need Claudius and Master Bernard. Together, they can tell you far more than me. When we get back to the hideout, we’ll send them over.”

  “Shall I see you home?” Scarra said.

  “I have all the protection I need. Besides, I’m not the only one who’s had a busy night.”

  Scarra touched Starbride’s arm, and Starbride almost jumped when it turned into a half caress. “Take care of yourself.”

  “Thank you,” Starbride said. First Hugo and now Scarra? Did no one remember she was waiting for Katya? They left by the back door and hurried through the streets that were gaining people by the moment.

  “Did she…rub your shoulder?” Hugo asked.

  “It was a friendly pat,” Starbride said.

  He frowned as if unsure. Pennynail gave his arm a little push, pointed to the green lining of his cloak, and then to his face.

  “Shut your…finger,” Hugo snapped. “You have no idea what you’re pointing about.”

  Starbride wondered how they could joke with everything that had happened, but maybe they were all too tired for grief.

  Back at the warehouse, Starbride found sleep a long time coming. Tired as she was, the enormity of everything she had yet to accomplish weighed on her. She thought she’d beaten Roland at one of his games. She’d found a way to defeat one of his pyramids, but what of the others? She’d sent Claudius and Master Bernard to help with the problem, but what if they couldn’t find a solution?

  And even if they solved the trap, a little voice inside her whispered, what if that was what Roland wanted them to do? What if there was a trap within a trap within a trap? The mind control and pyramids might be just hard enough to throw her off the scent of real danger. If he wanted her to find and defeat them…

  Starbride sat up in her bed and lit a candle. What would Katya do in her situation? She had many wonderful qualities, but refraining from second-guessing herself wasn’t one of them. Still, Katya would push on while keeping her eyes open. To do anything else would be to paralyze herself.

  Starbride wrapped her hand around her pyramid necklace and stroked the butterfly pin as she lay back down.

  She woke after only a few hours. Her candle hadn’t even burned out. She yawned and stretched. Easier to wake up and be tired, she supposed, than sleep through the entire day. She’d go completely nocturnal at this rate. Right then, she needed to make plans. Katya took solace in them, and Starbride needed to speak to the other strength chapterhouses that day. If she couldn’t free the monks’ bodies, she could at least free their minds.

  *

  With Ruin by Starbride’s side, it would be easier to gain entry to the second chapterhouse. They could simply walk in the front door. Starbride thought they should cleanse the intelligence and wisdom chapterhouses next. Strength was an asset, but she preferred to put her faith in knowledge.

  Even with little sleep, the day seemed brighter. With not only Hugo and a hooded Pennynail but Ruin, Drive, Scarra, and Fury by her side, Starbride thought it would take Roland himself to defeat her.

  The second strength chapterhouse looked much like the first from outside. Twin statues of Best and Berth performed feats of strength on the cornices and eaves. People came and went into the public chapel. Senior monks spoke with those interested in finding enlightenment. No one gave Starbride and her friends a second glance with red-robed strength monks surrounding them.

  An itch settled between Starbride’s shoulder blades. It was too easy. She could almost feel Darkstrong sapping her good feelings. Perhaps they should cleanse the luck chapterhouses ne
xt and get Fah and Fay on their side.

  Before they crossed into the restricted areas of the chapterhouse, Starbride caught a glance from one of the trainers in the chapel. Instead of the clear-eyed, almost challenging look she’d come to expect from the fighting monks, this one shifted away.

  “Turn around,” Starbride whispered.

  They looked terribly obvious as they turned together, but that didn’t matter as long as they made it out alive. “What’s wrong?” Ruin whispered.

  Starbride fought to keep from staring at the fighters in the corner. Those farthest from her had ceased their battles. “Keep moving.”

  The doors to the outside boomed shut.

  “It’s a trap!” Hugo said for those who weren’t paying attention.

  Ruin and Drive ran for the lone door that led into the chapterhouse. Starbride’s heart sank, thinking herself betrayed, until the two monks pulled the doors shut, and she realized they were keeping any reinforcements from coming through.

  Starbride backed toward them, wanting to keep together. The other monks advanced.

  “He thought you’d go elsewhere,” someone said from the corner, near a rack of padded practice weapons. “He thought you’d be smart enough to stay away from the other houses after what you’d done, but I said no.” Maia stepped from the shadows, a smile on her pretty face. “You’re a creature of habit.”

  Starbride slipped a hand into her bag, her heart pounding. “Stay away from her,” she said to her comrades. “She’s part Fiend.”

  Maia’s smile widened. She’d slicked her baby-fine blond hair back from her face, making her pale features too severe. Her light blue eyes sparkled, though, as if the happy girl she’d been was still in there somewhere, but her black coat and trousers reassured Starbride that any girl was merely a ghost.

  “No.” Maia’s features blurred, and her eyes became all blue as her teeth grew into fangs. Horns sprouted from her brow, one arching over the crown of her head and another on the side starting at her temple and circling back. Her ears lengthened to long points, rising almost past her hair. “I’m all Fiend.” Her voice grated in Starbride’s ears, filling her mouth with the taste of copper.

  Starbride heard a commotion behind her as someone tried to come through the door, but she didn’t take her eyes off of Maia. The fighters charged.

  Hugo set his feet. Fury and Scarra settled into fighting stances, and Pennynail rushed to the side. He buried a dagger in the knee of one attacker as he ran. The man stumbled, and Maia knocked him out of her way.

  Maia came for Starbride, but the others avoided her. Roland wanted her alive. Well, he wasn’t above making a few mistakes. Maia leapt, a blur. Before she could close the gap, Starbride lifted her Fiend suppression pyramid and focused.

  Without contact, suppressing a Fiend wasn’t a switch she could flip. It felt more like an invisible wall. Starbride could feel Maia’s Fiend as if she laid fingers on it, oily and sharp and so cold it burned.

  Maia hissed, but Starbride kept her focus, paying attention enough to stay out of the other fights. Maia tried to edge around as if faced with a real wall, but Starbride kept her in view.

  “Grab the pyradisté,” Maia snarled. The enemy monks broke off their attacks and focused on her. Hugo stabbed one in the side, but the other slipped past and lunged for Starbride. She dodged out of the way, fighting to keep her mind on the pyramid. She might have crippled the enemy’s greatest weapon, but she’d also crippled herself.

  “Shit,” she said as she tried to keep on the move. Hugo backed off her attackers. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fury and Scarra guarding her flanks, but something knocked into her from behind. Starbride stumbled, and the pyramid skittered from her grasp. She caught herself as she fell, sending shockwaves through her elbows. She pushed up and reached for the pyramid.

  A leg slammed into her side. Starbride’s breath left her in a rush as pain bloomed first from her side and then from her shoulders as she slid several paces. She fought to breathe and crawl at the same time.

  Averie’s memories loomed in her head. “No,” Starbride hissed. She reached for the pyramid that gleamed in the midst of so many feet.

  “Leave her. She’s mine,” Maia said.

  Starbride reached into her bag. Maia hauled her upright. Starbride shut her eyes and slammed a flash-bomb into Maia’s face.

  Maia shrieked and released her. Starbride stumbled away, but Maia clamped on to her wrist. Starbride dipped into her bag again, but Maia batted her next pyramid away. It burst into flames on the other side of the room, lighting the practice mats on fire.

  “Going to burn me again?” Maia asked. “I thought we were friends.” She ripped Starbride’s satchel from her shoulder, nearly wrenching the arm out of the socket. Starbride punched Maia’s elbow, but her arm didn’t give. Starbride’s knuckles ached as if she’d hit a frozen branch.

  Maia’s fingers clamped around Starbride’s neck. “Are you going to come along like a good girl, or shall I break your neck and give your corpse to my father?”

  Over Maia’s shoulder, Starbride saw Hugo bash another opponent in the face and then reach inside his coat.

  “Katya didn’t keep you around for your memory, did she?” Starbride asked.

  Maia cocked her head. Hugo’s Fiendish form barreled into her from behind.

  Starbride dove for her satchel, but Hugo’s and Maia’s thrashing bodies kicked it across the room. As she scrambled after it, one of the mind-controlled monks reached for her. Starbride dropped, grabbed one of his legs, and yanked. As he fell, she stood again, searching for the satchel.

  Pennynail scooped it up and threw it in Starbride’s direction. She winced as she ran to catch it. How long could it get thrown around before one of her destruction pyramids broke? Now she knew why Crowe used them so sparingly.

  Starbride dove for the satchel, but a monk knocked her to the side. He grabbed the bag out of the air and backed into Scarra. She elbowed him in the back of the head, and he lurched forward.

  Starbride grabbed the satchel, but the monk came with it. She tried to copy Scarra’s elbow move, only aimed at the monk’s face. Pain rolled up her arm as she connected. His nose crumpled, and blood jetted from his face as he collapsed.

  Starbride dug in her bag, found a flash bomb, and cried, “Temperance!” as she threw it toward Pennynail’s attackers.

  The flash bomb exploded in the monks’ midst, and they cried out almost as one as they fell to the ground. Pennynail was among them in a moment, bashing the pommel of a dagger against their heads.

  Ruin and Drive still held the door, but their faces had turned purple with effort, veins standing out in their temples. Scarra sported a reddened eye that was swelling shut, and Fury’s left arm hung crookedly. Maia and Hugo rolled along the ground, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.

  Starbride ran for them; Pennynail raced to join her. She scooped up her fallen Fiend repellent and directed it at both of them.

  They hissed and pulled away from each other. Starbride threw a flash bomb, closing her eyes at the last second. They both shrieked, and Starbride went for Hugo. “Hold Maia!”

  She tried to tackle Hugo, but his claws dug into the scars on her shoulders. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her pyramid in his thigh.

  Starbride blocked out his struggles and focused. There it was, the rusty handle that all the Umbriels held inside them, the switch that would turn off their Fiends. As always, it resisted her, but she pushed and struggled, screaming in her haste to beat the Fiend back where it belonged.

  Hugo grunted, and she felt the handle turn. As he became himself again, he sagged against the floor, losing consciousness.

  Starbride struggled to her feet. Pennynail and Scarra were trying to hold Maia, but she bucked like a wild horse. Scarra had her from behind, and Pennynail tried to grab her legs to knock her over. Maia twisted and kicked him away. Scarra grabbed Maia’s wrists, but Maia hurled Scarra up and over her head to slam into the ston
es.

  Starbride focused. Maia took two steps forward, away from the repelling force. Starbride jumped at her and buried the pyramid in her neck.

  Maia screeched. Pennynail grabbed her legs again, sending her face first to the ground. He lay across her legs and Scarra pounced on her arms.

  Starbride searched for Maia’s switch, but there was something in the way. Roland had brought out her Fiend, but she’d never Waltzed, never communed with the progenitor of her Fiendish Aspect. She needed help to unlock her Fiend, unlike the others who needed help keeping it inside.

  There, in Maia’s neck, Starbride found the pyramid that fought her. It was like Lady Hilda’s, but her Fiend had been weaker than Maia’s. This one Maia had possessed since birth, and the implanted pyramid let it out but also helped her control it. As Starbride tried to turn Maia back to human, she saw that the control was a lie. The Fiend was threaded throughout Maia, as it probably was with Roland. By merging with it, they had let it corrupt them completely.

  Starbride fumbled in her satchel, trying for her cancellation pyramid. Her fingers finally closed around it, but if she fell out of the suppression pyramid, Maia could overpower them.

  “Can you knock her out?” Starbride said.

  “Not likely,” Scarra answered with a breathy grunt. “Cut her fucking head off easier!”

  “We have to go!” someone else yelled.

  “I’m so close.” Starbride sat atop Maia’s back and locked her legs around Maia’s waist. “Maia, if any of you is left inside, help me fight!”

  She withdrew from the suppression pyramid. Maia bucked. Starbride heard even Pennynail’s cry beneath his mask as he echoed Scarra. Starbride fell into her cancellation pyramid as quickly as she could.

  The pyramid in Maia’s neck fought her as hard as Hugo’s Fiend had. Maia bucked, pushing Scarra away. Starbride clenched her legs tighter as she would with an unruly horse. Maia bore Starbride’s weight as she pushed up on her arms. If she shook Pennynail off, Starbride would be flying right behind him.