Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

A reminder:

Monsters should use manners.

“ P awns,” I declared from the second level. “I have a task for?—”

The chaos in the courtyard caught my attention.

I was yet to embrace my true form for the evening, and so my brows felt very symmetrical as they arched. “What is this?”

My pawns were grouped together and facing the wall of bars. My guard rope was raised in obvious threat, though not whipping any creatures outside.

Many curiosities warred for first place, at least three, but I must give priority to positivity. “Sir Rope, you are larger than yesternight. Felicitations on your growing strength.”

He interrupted his threatening posture to bow.

The rope was the height of See’s princes this evening, and he had two rope legs and two rope arms. Even rope genitals. He was certainly a rope man.

“I am delighted for you,” I said.

What curiosity should I acknowledge second?

I deliberated, then asked my pawns, “Why are there humans pressed against my gate? Do they come from a king to battle me?”

Loup snickered in his staccato way, but sounded confused when he spoke, “My queen. Lady. Uh. We cannot gather that a king has sent them. They do not attack. They do not bleed from arteries or appear under the influence of curse or charm. They are not gripped by the past, present, or future in an obsessive way.”

That is how King See controlled his fifth? I did not wish to feel interested. I had written twenty scathing and furious letters since learning of Princess Take’s presence in his palace for a day.

The humans pressed their faces through my wall of bars, gazing up to the second level. They could not see me, of course, but their eyes were wide, and their tongues hung out, making their awe and earnestness plain. Did they adore me? The young humans held their little arms through the bars and waved corn husk dolls.

My, but they had taken far more care in crafting theirs. Neat stitches, beautiful and vibrant dyes. They had arranged the inner silks to flow like hair, and even dabbed blue for my eyes. The sight cheered me unlike the sight of lumpy dummies and such.

“Good evening,” I greeted the humans.

A few screams. A sudden hush. Roaming eyes that would never truly look upon me. Every word I said to them would be powerful, I knew.

My chamber had moved to the second level, and I had gained an excess of humans. My humans. Who were not my pawns, because I had pawns already. They were my subjects. All fifty of them.

I had stolen a necklace, learned the rhyme and reason of King Bring, and earned the startings of my sixth.

This could be how a queen would protect herself against kings if she could keep her obsession and excess of humans a secret.

I said to my pawns, “Where do they reside?”

“In thatched houses that have sprung up outside of your walls, my queen,” said Deliver.

I peered over the high walls of my queendom and beyond. Deliver spoke true, for there was a row of thatched houses beyond the walls. They were quaint and just what a human might need.

And very visible.

“I wish you long lives and simple happiness,” I told the humans.

Some cried.

Had humans always been so odd? Or just mine?

I could not dally to consider this because the time to acknowledge the third curiosity had expired.

The guard rope had started to whip a cloaked being. The savagery of the whipping rendered me mute with fascination for longer than I cared to admit.

“Halt, loyal rope,” I ordered. “Who has come to see me? Kindly remove your hood.”

A waspish voice stalked from the depths of the hood. “Do you always whip visitors?”

Drat. If I had known who lurked beneath this hood, I might have given his curious presence priority. “I apologize, sir. We are on edge after a capture attempt from King Raise.”

The gateman of King Take removed his hood, and I spotted the welts that peppered the minion’s wrinkled skin.

“Are you okay, sir poet?” I asked.

The minion exhaled. “I should know well enough not to challenge a gateman. I didn’t realize that was what he was, in that he’s mostly a rope.”

Neither had I entirely, though I should have, considering that he liked to open my gate, and kept worming back to my gate whenever Hex moved him. Would I have a gateman? This befitted a queen. “To what do I owe this visit, esteemed gateman of King Take?”

“You didn’t come back to hear my verse.” The minion glared upward, and fifty humans and fifteen pawns glared at him for daring to do so.

I soon fathomed what he meant and covered my mouth. “My, but I especially meant to come back, and then I raced past you in a bid to be gone from the tribunal. Please accept my sincere hopes that you did not take this as a slight against your art.”

He held his glare a while longer, then dropped it to tug a piece of lumpy paper from his cloak pocket. “No matter, Lady Queen. I will read the verse you inspired. Yours are the first ears to hear it.”

I expected Take would not much care to listen to his minion’s poetry. Who was minding Take’s gate while this minion was here, though?

Fifty humans dropped their glares at the promise of lyrical words of their queen. How odd to have fifteen pawns one night, then fifteen pawns and fifty humans the next.

I shook my head to clear the astonishment. “That is very reasonable and kind. Go ahead, sir.”

My ropey gateman stepped back as the minion cleared his throat, reciting, “ She that inspires,

She they desire,

Should only shimmer

Like a star

Without its power,

Lest starlight steals

All they are,

To build her tower. ”

My smile had disappeared around midway, but I forced it back for the minion’s sake—and that of my pawns. But mainly for my sake. “I applaud the rhythm of your poem and only wish I knew more to appreciate the craft.”

“I wish I knew more of this verse, too, Lady Queen. I began crafting the words in wonder, but though the words are right, the meaning eludes me. Then I was struck by the idea that monsterdom eludes me, too, and so I have hoped this means the verse itself is monstrous. That would fill me with pride, to write a monstrous poem, as I aspire to monsterdom. Does the verse haunt you?”

My brows shot up. “You know, I believe it does, sir gateman.”

The minion beamed, and a yellowed tooth fell out.

Luck was with me this dusk. The minion had not perceived the meaning of the poem, and perhaps my pawns had not either, but I certainly had. His verse was a warning to kings that I must be controlled before I grew too powerful.

In other words, if they could connect as much, then they must guard their princesses.

It would not do for this minion to recite such a verse to kings. “Thank you for coming to recite your art. I am grateful.” That you did not recite it to your liege first, I silently added, then said, “You might return here whenever you wish to recite it again.”

“Thank you, I shall.” The minion beamed.

The humans whispered among themselves. Something had caught their fancy, and I could not make it out. “What do they say, Is?”

“They recite the minion’s poem, my queen.”

My groan was an internal one. The humans murmured louder,

“—She that inspires?—”

“—Starlight steals all they are?—”

“—build her tower?—”

“—build her tower!—”

“— build her tower!—”

That was exactly what I wanted to keep from kings. How was I meant to control humans? And pawns who might divulge information to their kings, no less.

The answer was that… I had no idea.

The humans wandered off like chickens in search of insects. And bowing first, the minion left too.

I pursed my lips, and they torsioned and told me that my true form had arrived. “Do any of my pawns know of humans?”

Fifteen blank stares. My seeing pawns chuckled at my question in their chiming way where they all chuckled at different times, then together in different combinations. My bringing pawns added their amusement, too, in the form of rumbling laughter. Goodness, but I enjoyed hearing such sounds again.

“How could a pawn or a prince know of humans?” Gangrel answered, and he erupted in raucous snorting afterward, which triggered the same from Vassal and Sanguine.

I had not really expected they would, mouthpieces of kings as they were.

What an unusual start to the evening. I gathered myself. “Stairway princes, I have a task for you this night.”

Toil slapped his blob on the cobblestones. “You share a fright with them and give them a task?”

“Patience, Toil. A task awaits you too.”

Huckery snapped a look my way, but no task awaited him tonight, and I would not put the princes of King Change in such a dilemma anyway. I was determined on this front. They could not even bring themselves to sleep here, let alone act on my behalf against their king.

Sign, Seal, and Deliver marched closer to Mother’s grave with a definite swagger in their step. They felt favored and powerful amongst pawns. The others did not like this, and I paused to wonder whether how I felt about kings was affecting my treatment of pawns. Things were especially uneasy with Has Been, Is, and Will Be after the news of Princess Take visiting their king. A silent impasse existed between me and the werebeasts of Change. My eager blobs felt slighted, and I imagined King Bring was demanding that they be very helpful to me, but accepting their help came with invisible strings attached. Or so it felt.

“The rest of you are dismissed,” I ordered.

I had not ordered them like this before. There was surprise, and some uncertainty, but after lumbering steps and squelching and padding of pawns, only three pawns remained. I listened until the others were several blocks away. “Stairway pawns, you have a task this evening.”

“My queen, of course,” Seal said, then bowed grandly.

He was nervous. They all were.

“My heart is glad because this is not a time I must force you in a public way against your liege, though this task is not one your liege will agree with.”

Their faces fell, and I noticed that the rips in the hollows of Sign’s cheeks had not mended since the other night. He was very stressed.

“Be assured that this is only a retaliation of sorts. Your liege is already aware that he owes me a capture.”

The concerned wrinkles on Deliver’s bald head relaxed. “Oh, but my queen, we cannot capture our king unless he has drifted from his purpose. Our king has not done so for an age. Unless he drifts, the power of ancients will not fill us to correct his path.

I listened patiently. “It is not King Raise you will capture, but Princess Raise.”

They each considered that in their various way. Sign blinked his eyes that did not possess any eyelashes. Seal pursed and relaxed his lips. Deliver alternated rubbing his hands together and clenching them tight.

“This is who I order captured this night,” I declared. “Deliver Princess Raise to me before dawn.”

Sign grimaced. “You operate within the confines of your promise to King Raise. You did not state he would be the capturee, after all, but you are aware Princess Raise has been confined for three years and?—”

I waved a hand. “I am aware. That will end.”

Deliver cleared his throat. “Three years is not a long time, but not a blink. Such a capture would end an extended foreplay that our liege must wildly anticipate.”

“Yes,” I agreed, and the timeless and powerful monster in me purred at the extra sting to my capture. King Raise would suffer double a blow. One to his ego and one to his cock.

So he should for daring to capture a queen and stab her in the heart, and so pitifully too.

“You will free Princess Raise from her confinement,” I told the trio. “You will bring her to me before dawn.”

Seal stared. “If King Raise asks what we are doing, what should we say?”

“King Raise will understand everything from the other side.”

“The other side of what?”

Pawns. “The other side of what you do. I am telling you not to inform him, Seal.”

“But if he does ask?” Deliver inquired with a grimace.

“Why, you would say that while he is your king, I am your queen, and my will demands more of you. You might apologize if you like. Guilt is a beast of its own, I have learned. Shame can make one leapy and fidgety.”

“It is, and it can,” Sign said seriously. “Is there any particular way you would like us to capture the princess?”

“I leave it to you, my pawns. Do not harm her, as I would prefer her in good spirits.”

Seal fidgeted. “What if she chooses not to come, my queen?”

“Surely three princely pawns can handle that?”

The brother pawns exchanged uncertain looks.

“We might be able to,” Sign answered. “If your will allows.”

I had not considered that. I had assumed that if my will could convince a pawn against his king’s purpose, then it could grant a pawn power against a princess—that had been a foolish assumption indeed. “We shall find out. And if a princess refuses capture, then perhaps she would not refuse a courteous invitation.”

“An invitation to what, my queen?” the pawns chimed in unison.

The words popped from my lips. “An invitation to bargain.”