The Pyramid Waltz by Barbara Ann Wright Read Free Book Online Page B

That’s terrible, to know something and yet be unable to do anything about it. I could distract everyone, and you could slip away.”
    Katya turned, pleased surprise lighting her face. “How?”
    “I could…light a tapestry on fire!”
    Katya gave another of those bursts of laughter that she turned into a cough, and Starbride had to wonder who she was hiding her mirth from.
    “Or I could accept your offer to dance and help you waste some time.”
    “That would be wonderful, but I have to warn you about—”
    “Highness?” a voice behind them asked.
    Katya’s face smoothed to blankness so quickly it sent a trill of alarm along Starbride’s spine. They both turned toward the doors. “Yes, Lady Hilda?” Katya said.
    Lady Hilda’s red hair was so artfully arranged on top of her head that Starbride’s mother would have wept in envy. She wore the same sort of frothy creation as all the women, but it floated around her, hugging her curves here, draping there, highlighting the good, and hiding the not-so-good. She didn’t look at all like a cupcake. The neck of her gown plunged to the point of indecency, pointing past her breasts and showing off what had to be half of them. Starbride wondered how she kept them from tumbling out.
    Lady Hilda didn’t spare Starbride a glance. She played with the flounces of her dress, a blue that matched Katya’s coat, and her eyes held a promise of lust that would have been a joke had she not been so good-looking. Her stance and expression said she had the experience to back up any offer her eyes made.
    Starbride sneaked a look at Katya and saw only bored resignation, an expression that caused satisfaction to well in her, almost to the point where she beamed. Princess Katyarianna Nar Umbriel had come to the balcony to speak with Starbride, despite the hideous dress and without even a whisper of promised sex. This woman bored Katya, even for all her obvious physical charms.
    “Why don’t you come back inside?” Lady Hilda said. “Your father is looking for you.”
    Katya glanced at Starbride, but her face held little emotion. With a sigh that seemed to come from her soul, she followed Lady Hilda inside, and the crowd swallowed them both.
    Starbride watched them go, her confusion rising. Why didn’t Katya tell Lady Hilda to go away? Why the expression change, and what about that comment about boring her with hunting stories? Was it all to hide the sick friend?
    Starbride watched the night again and tried to figure out this woman who claimed to be her friend, but she needed more information in order to form conclusions. She turned back to the ball, looking for but not seeing Katya as she waded toward the exit. On a raised dais at one end of the hall, she spotted two crowned figures: a broad-shouldered, dark-haired man and a petite blond woman, both over forty. It had to be the king and queen, and it struck Starbride after a moment that these were Katya’s parents. Several people stood with them, including a younger woman with a circlet sitting in her startlingly pale hair. So many fair-haired people packed into one place. Starbride wondered if they ever confused one another but then reprimanded herself for the mean thought. There was no need to blame the blonds for a horrid end to the evening. Lady Hilda was a redhead, after all.
    Starbride lost sight of the royals as the crowd engulfed her again. She sidestepped the grab of a red-eyed young man, his cheeks bright with drink. “Come, dance!” he yelled, not quite focusing on her.
    “Sorry.” Starbride twisted out of the way. He moved on, clutching at every woman he met.
    When she gained the hallway, Starbride paused. It was still early, and she didn’t feel tired; the library would be nice and free at that hour. She ducked into an alcove and pulled a folded map from the front of her dress. When she made it to the huge library doors without losing her way, she nearly crowed in victory.
    Inside the shadowy room, time seemed to