Affront awakened her. “How dare you?”

  Thana’s eyes were wide, relieved, and she sputtered a humorless laugh. “Come on.” She led the way into a scene from a slaughter. Bodies covered the ground, though the Order was still on their feet. Illis was trying to pull someone out of a hole in the ceiling beside a green-flecked wall that stood out against the gray of this newly made chamber.

  The green stone had to be the Fiend’s prison. The legs squirmed, and Sylph tried to call a warning that this person held the siren pyramid everyone dreaded, but a pulse went out, and she stiffened.

  The Fiend pyramid was active.

  The tunnel began to shake, and a low groan echoed from somewhere. No, not just anywhere. It came from the prison, from the thing that slumbered there.

  That slumbered no longer.

  “No,” Thana said. She drew a box from her satchel and took out another pyramid, more Fiend magic, Sylph sensed.

  “Gunnar?” Dina asked, as a wave of Fiend magic came from the prince. He stood as still as a statue, and the blue of his irises bled across his eyes as horns sprouted from his head.

  Sylph barely had time to be shocked as Thana leaped, grabbed him, and fell into her own Fiend pyramid. She wrapped its power around the prince, seeking to hold something in.

  There were too many powers fighting for Sylph’s attention. She needed guidance, focus. And by the spirits, she needed to touch the siren-Fiend pyramid, the one made from new crystal, and guidance and focus were as good an excuse as any.

  Keeping her grip tight around her stone pyramid, she gave herself to the siren.

  The world split in two.

  Sylph cried out from the pain of feeling ripped in half. Stone magic was eternal. Fiend magic felt mutable, a power meant for change. Both fought her mind for supremacy, one reaching for the stone, the other toward the greatest source of Fiend magic, the creature inside the prison.

  And it reached back.

  She gasped to find it intelligent, promising overwhelming power, daring her to imagine her control over stone extended to flesh. She could remake herself and everyone around her however she chose. She could remake the world.

  But at what price? Enough of her mind was left to question it, but the answer was surprising. She needn’t take the power if she didn’t trust it. She could send it back where it belonged, into the captive Fiend. That would end this crisis as definitively as anything else.

  Sylph doubted that.

  She could sense the presence of the rogue pyradisté as he scratched for the same power, but she was much stronger, and the siren wanted her. And oh, it was tempting. With this power, she could create stone-Fiend hybrids, creatures that could guard against this kind of coup ever happening again. Such creatures already existed, she realized, thinking of those she’d felt in the mountains, chunks of crystal given humanoid form, given life, a perfect union of magics.

  But she sensed an undercurrent to the power, the same malevolence she’d sensed in the mountains. The person who had created those creatures, those wild Fiends, hadn’t had the good of the world in mind. That was why they carried destruction at their hearts.

  No, better to keep away from this power, keep to her stone. She tried to pull further away, taking the enemy pyradisté with her, much as he fought. When she sensed his concentration waver, she opened her eyes to see Illis pull him from the ceiling.

  The Fiend pyramid fell.

  “No,” she cried, knowing that being broken wouldn’t stop this magic.

  It shattered, its power flowing out. The palace rumbled, and the prince roared, a deep bass growl that shouldn’t have come from a human throat.

  Inside the prison, the great Fiend twitched.

  Thana cried out. Sylph had to keep her safe, had to keep the prison intact, or the Fiend would kill them all when it burst into freedom. She had to fight, to concentrate.

  To be closer to the stone.

  With a last gasp of air, she gave herself to the magic and sank into the floor.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Sylph disappeared into the rock as if she’d fallen down a well. Thana cried out but was stuck holding her Fiend pyramid on Gunnar. She had to prevent him from manifesting his full Fiendish Aspect and tearing everyone in the room apart.

  But she ached to run to where Sylph had vanished. “Spirits, give her back to me,” she whispered.

  “What’s happening?” Dina yelled as the room continued to shudder, and bits of rock rained from the ceiling.

  Nothing good. Thana focused on Gunnar. The sooner she dealt with him, the sooner she could free Sylph. Her predecessor had told her she might have to force the Aspect down in one of the Umbriels if something happened to their Fiend necklaces, but Gunnar’s was still intact.

  It was probably the only reason he submitted to her at all, pitiful as she was at magic.

  “No,” she said with a growl. She had practiced with this pyramid, sensing how the energy flowed so she’d know what to look for in case this happened. No matter what circumstances had brought her here, she was going to do her cursed job so she could then dig her love out of the ground.

  She closed her eyes. Quashing the Aspect was a contest of wills, and the will of a Fiend could be mighty. She imagined herself trying to pack a crate with a blanket just slightly too big for it or maybe trying to turn a rusty handle. But this was her mind at work, not brute force. She could outthink a cursed Fiend. No, she would outthink it.

  She focused her will and shoved.

  Her limbs trembled as if she’d taxed her muscles, and she grunted again. “Come on,” she said with a gasp. To her relief, the Aspect receded a little. “Come on, you bastard.”

  She pooled the efforts of her pyramid with his necklace and shoved with all her might. Gunnar bellowed, his Aspect resisting her.

  “Come…on.” She had to get to Sylph. She had to…had to…

  With a sigh, Gunnar collapsed. Thana stumbled, gasping for air. At her feet, Gunnar’s face was human again, with only two drops of blood where his horns had been.

  The tremors in the ground stopped. Thana fought the urge to lean on her knees even as she reveled in her victory. If she could subdue a Fiend, she could rescue Sylph. She staggered forward.

  “Is he all right?” Ivar asked as he checked Gunnar’s pulse.

  “He’ll be fine,” Thana said, her throat as tight as if she’d been shouting.

  Illis dropped from the hole in the ceiling. The man he’d been pulling at lay on the ground. “Looks like they were trying to climb to the capstone,” Illis said. “They didn’t make it all the way.”

  “Thank the spirits for that,” Thana mumbled as she kneeled next to Dina, right above where Sylph had disappeared. The floor was solid. “Sylph?” She slapped on the stone, but could Sylph even hear her, sense her?

  It depended on how deep she’d gone, both into the rock and into her magic.

  Thana fought the urge to despair. The room was littered with pickaxes. They could get to her. Digging would be more useful than weeping or beating on the stone and demanding that Sylph be returned. This was a problem that had a solution, and she would find it.

  “Watch out,” Ivar called.

  Thana turned in time to see the pyradisté who’d been pulled from the ceiling lurch upward and gouge Illis’s leg.

  Dina lunged and stabbed the pyradisté, ending him, and Ivar sprang forward to support his brother.

  Thana fought another urge to panic as she stood. “Get him up. Come on.”

  “It’s all right,” Illis yelled over her. “I’m okay.”

  Ivar kneeled at his side. “How deep is it?”

  “Not very. Give me a bandage, and I’ll be fine.” Blood trickled down his leg, mingling with the larger pool of blood from the body on the floor. Dina lifted the body and put it in the corner so Ivar could tend the wound. Illis looked up and caught Thana’s eye. “Really.”

  She mashed her lips together, but she had to believe him and not just because she could continue to focus on Sylph if he was all right. “Okay,” she said. “Are the rest of the pyradistés…” She didn’t want to say dead, didn’t even want to think about the corpses around her, the deaths that should never have happened.

  “Yes,” Dina said. “What should we do next, Thana?”

  Thana nodded to her, grateful for the permission to continue. “Next, right.” Everyone looked at her, but she began talking to herself as much as them. “The pyradistés had a Fiend pyramid. They tried to use it, and Sylph stopped them. Then it broke.”

  Illis scratched the back of his head. “My fault. Sorry.”

  “You didn’t know,” Ivar started, but Thana held up a hand.

  “What’s done is done.” She took a deep breath. “Breaking the pyramid released this…burst of energy that tried to bring Gunnar’s Aspect out, but his necklace and my pyramid stopped it.”

  “You stopped it, Than,” Dina said softly.

  Thana gave her a grateful smile. “But the burst also affected Yanchasa.” She looked to where Sylph had disappeared. Tears threatened, but she shoved them down. “Yanchasa couldn’t have pulled her underground from his prison. That was her power.” She looked to Dina again. “Full contact with the stone seemed to help her control her power before.”

  “When she made it flow like water,” Dina said, nodding. “So she went down there to focus?”

  “Probably to keep the cavern intact,” Thana said, glancing around. “No, she wouldn’t need all her will for that.” Dread grew in her stomach as she looked at the green-flecked stone of the pyramid that held Yanchasa. “The burst of power…maybe it awakened Yanchasa enough for him to struggle.”

  Dina put a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. The brothers cursed.

  “If so, she’s keeping him inside there,” Thana whispered, pointing, and the horror of how close they stood to annihilation gripped her throat. He might be listening to them even now. “Oh spirits, she’s pitting her strength against his.”

  As if to punctuate her words, the ground rumbled again.

  “What can we do to help?” Illis asked quietly.

  Thana rested her hand on the ground, willing Sylph to hold on. “We put him back to sleep. We perform the Waltz.”

  * * *

  The world was stillness. In other places, it raged in fire or furious shudders, but surrounding Sylph, it would be quiet.

  The monstrous Fiend twitched. The earth trembled.

  “No,” she whispered. She strengthened his prison, pitting her power against his force, then shifted tiny holes to feed her air, and brought the world to stillness again.

  It took all her focus, and it was getting worse, the twitching seemed like the movements a person might make just before waking, and once awake, she didn’t know if she could hold him, only that she had to try.

  Panic tried to gain a foothold in her mind, but she used all her court training to breathe through it, let it wash over her and leave, a pesky annoyance she didn’t have time for. It wouldn’t be denied forever. She thought of Thana, who depended on her and waited for her.

  No, she couldn’t let her mind wander too far. She had to wait for the tiniest shift so she could correct it before it became a quake. Thana would have to remain a specter in her mind until then.

  Until when? There was no prison she could make that could match the Fiend’s strength. There was no way to put it back to sleep. Her mind was one with the stone, but her body was mortal. How long—

  The earth rumbled again, stronger this time, and she sensed massive limbs sliding gently against the prison’s walls. Their movement wouldn’t be gentle for long.

  “No.” She focused again and breathed, and the earth settled. She could not begin thinking about the future now. Not because she didn’t wish to or because of any pact with Thana. She couldn’t afford the loss of focus. She had to remain vigilant, ever present, a statue, waiting.

  * * *

  Thana led the others up Sylph’s staircase while they carried Gunnar between them. “This is the second time we’ve carried his unconscious Highness today,” Ivar said.

  “And he can stand to lose a few pounds if it keeps happening,” Illis said, limping and panting under the strain.

  Dina chuckled, and Thana wanted to join in, but she wished they’d save their breath for the task at hand. And any attempt at humor felt wrong at the moment. She was already planning five steps ahead. First, she needed to collect the queen, then they needed two others who—

  She pulled up short, crying out as she almost collided with Queen Earnhilt and Calla on the stairs. Everyone sucked in a deep breath before talking at once. The cavern rumbled harder than before, shutting everyone up as they reached for the walls to steady themselves.

  Thana took advantage of the moment of silence and summarized what had happened.

  When Thana finished, Earnhilt’s jaw stood out like iron, and Thana could nearly hear her teeth grinding. She sheathed her blade, stepped near the brothers, and hoisted her son over her shoulders. “Come on,” she said, leading the way up.

  Everyone glanced at everyone else before following. Thana was just happy it had been Gunnar’s Fiend who’d almost escaped and not Earnhilt’s.

  In the capstone cavern, she laid her son on the floor. “We need two more besides Gunnar and I for the Waltz.”

  Thana looked to Calla, but she stood placidly. She was probably too far removed from the throne to be born with an Aspect. Umbriel children were born with Fiends because before conception, their Umbriel parent passed it to their other parent during a sexual ritual overseen by a pyradisté using Fiend magic.

  Another task Thana had never done and didn’t look forward to. Spirits, it looked like she’d have to do it now, though. Fantastic, another task to accomplish before she could go after Sylph.

  “The crown prince and his wife are in the Western March,” Dina said.

  Ivar shook his head. “That’s a four-day ride there and back.” The cavern rumbled again as if laughing at them.

  “And the crown prince’s father?” Thana asked.

  Earnhilt bit her lip before shaking her head. “I don’t know where Gerhart is spending his days now.” She turned to Ivar. “Go find Lamont or her cronies, see if they know.” He nodded, but she caught his sleeve before he could run off. “If she gives you any shit, tell her that given recent circumstances, I will not hesitate to beat the information out of her.”

  With a small smile, Ivar was off to do her bidding.

  Earnhilt looked to Calla. “And you don’t have a Fiend.” Calla shook her head, and by her horrified frown, she didn’t want one. It was probably too much to hope for that she’d ever be happy about anything.

  And that was all the Umbriels Thana knew about. “I don’t know if it will work with just two of you,” she said before anyone could ask. “We might have to ask for volunteers.” She winced as she said it. That meant more people being privy to the court’s greatest secret.

  Earnhilt frowned. Unless they waited for Gunnar to wake up, she would have to have sex with said volunteer while Thana used a pyramid to pass on the Fiend. Then after the volunteer Waltzed, they’d have to wear an anti-Fiend necklace the rest of their lives and keep their temper in check.

  But the most likely candidate, Earnhilt’s lover, was lying dead upstairs.

  Thana cleared her throat and looked to Calla, but they couldn’t ask her to sleep with one of her cousins.

  “I’ll bear it,” Dina said softly.

  Earnhilt gave her a gratified smile, and Thana wondered if she knew that Dina had slept with her son as well as her. Depending on who gave Dina a Fiend, everyone would know soon enough. Time was against them, and the need for petty secrets had ended, as far as Thana was concerned. She’d do what she had to, tell whoever what she had to, in order to get Sylph back.

  Earnhilt clapped Dina on the shoulder as if they were about to go into combat together. Thana hoped it wasn’t going to be like that, not when she had to be in the room.

  Illis limped back when they looked at him. “No, please. I can’t.” He wiped his lips and looked at Gunnar. “His face, the horns, I…”

  Earnhilt lifted a hand. “It’s all right, lad. We won’t force anyone.” She stroked her chin as she thought. “I think I know a few people who might want a way back into my good graces.”

  * * *

  Thana did not like using any of the traitorous nobles for this. She didn’t know how any of them could be trusted, but Earnhilt seemed certain that once they shared the Fiendish Aspect with the Umbriels, they’d be as desirous to protect the secret and keep the kingdom safe from Yanchasa.

  But who to choose? While Thana went to retrieve the two pyramids that would let her pass the Fiend from one person to another, Earnhilt drew up a list of likely nobles while sitting in Gunnar’s apartment. She’d said they might as well be comfortable for the ritual, and a corpse was in her room.

  Thana hadn’t known what to say about that. If Lady Lucia’s death affected Earnhilt, she wasn’t showing it. Thana suspected she simply preferred to mourn in private and not until the crisis was over. If it had been Sylph who’d died…

  She told herself not to let her mind wander there. Sylph was alive, and they were going to save her. Her stupid imagination would just have to accept that.

  The palace rumbled every ten minutes or so, prompting them to hurry. Gunnar had awakened when Thana returned to his apartment, and by his frown, he wasn’t pleased that he’d be pressured to take part in the ritual of passing the Fiend, but he’d do his duty. From what Thana remembered about the ritual, the magic itself made the act easier. She didn’t quite understand how, but she was about to find out.

  “What do you think?” Earnhilt asked as she gave Gunnar the list.

  He grimaced. “About picking a lover off a list for me or my mother? Equally squicky, thanks.”

  “Don’t be tiresome.”

  His scowl deepened as he continued to read. “Well, who on here appeals to you, Ma?”

  “You’re not reading for appeal, boy. It’s about trust, loyalty.”

 

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