"Are you able to withdraw from the Kellian?" Rennyn asked, completely ignoring the Black Queen’s comment. "Your presence is killing them as people."
This brought scorn. "The golems will not fail their purpose."
"I suppose not," Rennyn said, with a distant note in her voice. "But that wasn’t quite the point, was it?"
Captain Faille backhanded Rennyn across the face. Again, the suddenness of the move made all the captives flinch, and Kendall sobbed beneath her breath. Even though she knew that it must be at the Black Queen’s orders, it still felt like Captain Faille had turned on them. It was one thing to think him a scary man, but it was purely horrid to have him act like it.
"Who do you think you are talking to?" the Black Queen asked, picking out each word.
Rennyn didn’t immediately respond, but then she straightened, looking unhappily at Captain Faille. She had this trick of ignoring the Black Queen – of both queens, really – which almost made it so they didn’t matter, for all their power. The mark of Captain Faille’s hand stood out white, with a thin red line at the centre, and already one eye was starting to swell. Yet she lifted her head as high as before, not quailing in the least.
Rennyn had to be bluffing. Ignoring the Black Queen to keep her attention fixed and wary. But her skin was grey from the effort of staying upright, the whole of her front slick with blood now starting to pool around her feet. Even if she didn’t provoke the Black Queen into killing her, she couldn’t last much longer.
A flicker of movement at the door betrayed her into another glance, but it was only the Kellian again, carrying more people. She stared at them, then closed her eyes, looking deadly tired.
"Still hoping for rescue, cousin?" asked the demon prince. "Perhaps your brother found a…wiser course of action."
"You shouldn’t judge Seb by your own standards," Rennyn said.
"Enough of this," said the Black Queen, and Kendall quailed because she knew this meant that Rennyn was about to die and then probably the rest of them.
But Rennyn nodded. "Yes," she murmured, as if she were sorry or glad. "Enough."
Kendall didn’t see her do anything, and the thorny bracelet meant there was no way Rennyn could cast, but suddenly all the Kellian started glowing. Not gold or white like they did in strong sun and moonlight, but with an angry ripple of dark rainbow tints which heralded a gust of power so strong it set Kendall’s teeth to aching. Sigils began writing themselves up each of the columns and across the ceiling, and the Black Queen staggered as if a crushing weight had been set on her shoulders.
"Three hundred years," Rennyn said, stepping away from a frozen Captain Illuma to stand shakily unsupported. The floor washed black, as if someone had poured a bucket of ink across it. "We had time to plan for many contingencies."
Kendall realised Sukata’s hold had also relaxed, and pulled free as something stung at her arms. The Kellian girl didn’t even notice, standing paralysed as tiny little lightning-bolts played over her skin. The air smelt of storms. Beneath their feet the blackness kept spreading out from the central square to cover the floors and climb up the walls, dousing the mage glows as it went. Even the Black Queen’s focus dimmed, and below it they could see pinpricks of lights clustered together in the dark, rapidly growing smaller and then fading away.
"What is it?" Kendall whispered, awed, as a round shape came into sight. Most of it was black, but there was a long band along one side which was blue and green and brown and there was a kind of halo around the whole thing. It shone like a jewel suspended in the floor below them, slowly growing smaller.
"All the world," said Rennyn unsteadily. "And more. How beautiful." She had her own faint halo, and her hair was moving gently though there wasn’t any wind.
The Black Queen was having almost as much trouble staying on her feet as Rennyn, shuddering like she was holding up a mountain, power pouring off her in an ever-increasing wave. "Kill her!" she hissed urgently at the demon.
"Useless spite," Rennyn murmured, glancing up. If she’d seemed calm before, now she acted like someone who’d finally reached the top of a hill and had no further to go.
"Quickly!"
None of the Kellian moved: they were statues beneath purple lightning crawling about so you could hear it fizzing on their skin. But the demon prince hadn’t been effected by the spell. With an odd smile he started forward.
"Don’t even–!" shouted one of the wakened prisoners, and leapt to intercept the smaller man. But the prince caught him and with a sound of tearing cloth threw him straight at Rennyn. They both went down with a horrible thud.
"Ren!"
Sebastian came running out of nowhere. He stumbled to a stop by his sister as the nobleman scrambled awkwardly off her, slipping in the pooling blood. Rennyn didn’t move.
"The late-come hero," commented the demon prince, who actually seemed to be enjoying himself, not showing any concern for his mother. He reached casually down and scooped up one of the abandoned Sentene weapons, then threw it at Sebastian.
Kendall reacted without thinking, pushing with all her might. The sword twisted in mid-air, jerking off in a completely unexpected direction. The demon laughed, and with a gesture lifted a dozen swords from near the sleeping guards, all of their points lining up at Rennyn and Sebastian.
And then the Black Queen’s focus exploded.
Kendall fell over before the blast of power, curling into a ball as the side of her face and arm were stung by glassy wasps. Her ears rang and echoed before settling back to normal, and she lifted her head warily. She couldn’t tell how long it had been and all the light had gone out of the room so that there was only a bit of brightness through the doors and windows; no good to see by.
A faint crunching of crystal, eerie and directionless, made her heart jump. Where was the demon? But nothing leaped on her, so she shifted and found she was lying on someone’s legs. Sukata. Sitting up, she pulled at the girl, who didn’t resist or react. Kendall wasn’t even sure she was breathing.
Light flared, and Kendall looked hastily around for the demon. Nowhere. The only people moving were the small clutch of wakened prisoners, dusting off shards or picking them from their skin as they climbed to their feet. All of the sleeping guards stayed where they were, still under the spell. None of the Kellian were standing.
The light was a mage glow conjured by Sebastian, but his attention was all for his sister, not for little matters like monsters. He pulled off his jacket and wadded it against Rennyn’s side. The nobleman who had been thrown at her made a pad for her head out of his own jacket, but then picked up a pistol and stood.
"It can’t have gone far," he said, with an urgent glance from the centre of the room to Queen Astranelle. "Your Majesty–"
The Queen, bleeding from a cut above her eye, cut him off with a gesture. "The thought does you credit, Tassin, but none of us are equipped to fight that creature," she said and looked at Lady Weston, who nodded in agreement. They both ignored the centre of the room, where bits of white hair and dress poked from beneath of a pile of crystal.
Queen Astranelle turned to Sebastian. "Child, can you break this sleep spell?"
But Sebastian didn’t even seem to hear her, eyes only for Rennyn, who didn’t respond when he called her name and didn’t react when he tried to straighten her.
Before the Queen could speak again there was a sound at the west door. A Kellian blurred into the room, slowing from top speed to a frozen full stop as she looked around the room. Out of uniform, Kendall barely recognised her as Lieutenant Faral, and didn’t know if it was the right reaction when the nobleman called Tassin raised his pistol at sight of her.