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.The heavy doors were nearly closed, leaving a gap just large enough for people to come and go single file.The scorch marks Starbride remembered from the night Roland had taken over had been washed away, and the torn Umbriel banners were gone.Nothing new hung in their place.Perhaps Roland was still thinking on what his new crest would look like.“Let’s stay near the edge,” Freddie said.“Any more than a few people deep and we could get trapped in the press.”Starbride glanced back to see how many more people worked their way down the street.Even with all the turmoil, a few vendors had showed up, calling out their wares.Freddie guided them farther back in the crowd as more people arrived.“If anyone looks too closely at us,” he whispered, “head for those vendors and pretend you’re buying something.”Starbride resisted the urge to grab her pyramid necklace and Dawnmother’s hand.Like Freddie, they wore caps and scarves to hide their features.Hugo and Freddie tried to stay in front of them, blocking their faces from passersby.The crowd noise swelled for a moment.Starbride peeked around Freddie’s shoulder and saw Roland, the bastard, striding from the palace doors.No guards surrounded him, but then, he didn’t need any.Freddie bent close to Starbride’s ear.“He’s alone.If I can get close enough…”“He’s fast enough to move out of the way of anything you throw.”“Fast enough to dodge a stab to the neck?”It could work, she supposed, but just as quickly, she knew it wouldn’t.Even if Freddie managed to catch Roland without his Fiendish Aspect upon him, the Fiend was always inside him.“I won’t risk losing you.”“Aw, do you have a little crush?”She poked him in the back.“Keep dreaming.”Hugo leaned close to them and glared.“Perhaps you should pay attention.”“Sensitive and easily antagonized,” Freddie said.“Ten years ago you would have been just my type, kiddo.”Starbride saw Hugo’s ears go red, but before he could retort, she shushed them both.At the top of the dais, Roland smiled at the crowd, not a trace of the Fiend on his face.Starbride remembered Katya saying that he looked just the same as he had seven years ago, when he’d supposedly died.He was in his mid-thirties, broad-shouldered and good-looking, with a face so much like Katya’s father’s except Roland’s beard was lighter brown.Starbride could almost see his blue eyes twinkling.He seemed so…normal.The noise of the crowd dropped, but no one clapped for Roland.He smiled harder, as if he hadn’t expected a warm welcome.“Friends and neighbors,” he said, “loyal subjects.” Even he laughed at that one, his mask slipping.Starbride had to wonder if he’d gone even more insane.“I’ve called you together to announce that the king and the crown princess have been found.”Starbride’s stomach dropped to her knees, and the world seemed to tilt around her.She grabbed Hugo to keep from falling over.Roland gestured over his shoulder, and two people walked from the palace.Starbride’s heartbeat returned to normal.They were an older man and a young woman, but they were no more Katya and King Einrich than Freddie and Hugo were.Hugo gasped.“It’s…really them.But they’re smiling.He must have used a pyramid to—”“It can’t be,” Freddie said.Dawnmother grabbed Starbride’s arm.“Oh Star…”“It’s not them,” Starbride said.“They must be wearing disguise pyramids.” No other pyradistés in the crowd would be fooled, but everyone else murmured to themselves.The fakes linked arms with Roland, smiled, and waved to the crowd.To their credit, the crowd managed a bit of sporadic clapping.“Thank you, good citizens,” the fake Einrich said.“With the help of our new friend and his enormous power, we hope to work together for a better tomorrow.”Starbride fought not to gag.Instead of clapping, the crowd seemed more suspicious, glancing at one another and muttering.On the dais, Roland chuckled as he watched the sea of people.His features seemed to ripple, but when they straightened, they were his own, not the Fiend’s.The hair on the back of Starbride’s neck stood up.“Get ready.”Around her, faces slackened, and happy, stupid smiles took over people’s mouths.Two men near the back of the dais lifted a large, cloth-wrapped bundle into the air.The wind caught the edge of the cloth and tore it away, revealing a pyramid half as tall as Starbride.She tugged on Freddie’s arm.“Let’s—”He dumbly turned toward her, the same goofy smile on his face as on everyone else’s.“Damn,” Starbride whispered.Hugo and Dawnmother shared the same blissful look.Starbride tried to grab all three of them, ready to lead their idle bodies from the square.But how to do it without arousing suspicion? She supposed the grinning crowd wouldn’t notice her, but movement to her right caught her eye.A host of corpse Fiends eased into the square.They lifted their gaunt, gray faces and sniffed the air as they moved through the crowd.Starbride turned Hugo, Freddie, and Dawnmother toward the dais again.The corpse Fiends had cut off the escape routes, and as Starbride watched from the corner of her eye, one of them turned in her direction.She let her eyes go half lidded and tried on a satisfied smile, difficult with her teeth clamped together.The square had gone eerily quiet, echoing with the shuffling footsteps of the corpse Fiends.One drifted closer, and Starbride fought not to hold her breath.It paused beside her, and she focused on the feeling of the pyramid against her chest, trying to think as Katya would, hoping to borrow a measure of Katya’s courage.The corpse Fiend sniffed against her ear, and the scent of it filled her nostrils, dry and dusty like an old riverbed.It breathed deep, the air moving several strands of her hair.She fought the urge to tremble or sneeze, fought to remember to blink.Well, she wanted a test for her new pyramid [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]