Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

What was the point of a capable body,

If not this?

“ W hat in the dawn of the new age.” A whisper arose from the entrance of my conservatory.

I did not pause in fastening my robe. “Were you comfortable in the laundry, Princess Raise?”

“Yes, though it was more of a lounge than a laundry room.”

Just so. I faced the princess. She tilted her head here and there, likely to see all my stitches.

“The sight of me confuses you,” I remarked.

Princess Raise was dressed in the same suit as last night, but the crispness was unaltered, which could only impress.

I kept my gaze away from her sleeves and the lace gloves concealed there. If I could refrain from looking at them, then this conversation might have a good end.

The princess was breathless. “That is not all I feel. How come you to be so stitched together, Queen Perantiqua?”

“Fifty mothers made me.”

“Ah, yes. Many would be needed to create such a creature.”

“You were not made,” I answered. “You were born.”

“Thirty years in the womb. You must know.” She entered and flopped onto a velvety chaise that Mother had pushed through the floor when I’d arrived before dusk.

For my meeting with Princess Bring, Mother had provided a small table and two chairs.

For my meeting with Princess Raise, she had provided a velvety chaise and gilded throne.

I padded to the copper-gilded throne. Princess Raise gazed at the ceiling. Assumedly. She could see, of that I was sure. “I do know how long ancients warped you. I have spent some time with Princess Bring.”

“Did you capture her too?” the princess asked.

“She came to me. Her king wishes me for concubine. He sent his princess to convince me of their mutual disinterest.”

Raise snorted. “Were you convinced?”

“Yes.”

“Of what?” She turned her head to me.

My lips flicked upward. “An excellent question.”

Raise swallowed. “Your lips torsion. I have never seen this in a monster. It’s…”

She trailed off, and I expected that she might consider uttering the word “exquisite” a weakness.

“Exquisite. Yes. As you are in your facelessness. We are unique and timeless, Princess Raise. Compliments do not remove our intellect nor dignity.”

A scoff this time. “You are young in the ways of a bargain. A bargain is an immortal tally. Compliments can add up to a cost.”

I could only imagine, but a compliment had lowered her guard, and she had given me confirmation that her facelessness was no indication of her power. “An immortal tally. You speak of your union with your king?”

She did not answer immediately. “Young in bargains, but ancient in connections. You know that our union is warped.”

“Only you and your king would know and feel.”

She scoffed. “’Tis warped. Everyone knows. Nothing can fix it.”

The princess did not seem very distraught over this, so did she not care for her king, or was this a cover just like her bravado?

I said, “So your king seeks to fix the warping of your union with amendments? And you will not sign these. You can refuse him because the union is warped, or… can you refuse because the amendments have nothing to do with his purpose?”

The princess sat. “What has my union got to do with you?”

I crossed my legs and regarded her defensiveness. What did it cloak? “I had anticipated meeting a princess who could refuse a king. The idea of losing my purpose has kept me from agreeing to princessdom. That path is closed to me now, but I wish to know if a monster might keep herself among kings.”

“There is a king you yearn for,” she whispered. “King See, I imagine, if he has stopped pining for Take. For you, how could he not? Or do you wish to steal a king?” Her tone gained a steely edge.

I smiled. Here was a princess who did care for her king, which narrowed my theories. “I do not wish to steal your king, Princess Raise.”

She faced the ceiling some more. “That would have made sense. I cannot think why else you would let me stay here for so small a price. And that deal is set in stone, just so you know. Do not think to add to our agreement.”

“I do not think to do that,” I murmured. “What questions have you for me?”

She faced me. “I get questions?”

“Knowing a monster is a two-sided affair at least. You must know other princesses?”

“Yes, yes. Not in confinement, but I see them now and then. We used to meet for regular scares in the beginning.” She waved a hand in the air, and I jerked at the flash of lace.

Of beautiful, fragile, aged lace .

I gripped the armrests of my throne to stop from launching at her. My heart galloped with the sheer want to wrench the prized possession from her delicate wrists.

Only when I could trust my voice, did I say, “Regular scares. How delightful . All of you together?”

“Of course, though we would meet at Take’s or my king’s kingdoms for obvious political reasons.”

Given that these kings both saved and ruined.

“That was a long time ago,” she mused.

Quiet fell then, and I could not find it in me to interrupt the completeness of the princess’s inner reflection. She was used to confinement in recent years, and perhaps un used to waiting to reflect until alone.

So I watched her reflect, feeling grateful for more than a blinking glimpse of her genuine feeling. Her heavy breaths told me that she missed the other princesses. The social interaction. Her low chuckle spoke of her fond memories with them.

This princess was quick-witted, bustling, and confident. She was surely meant for towering purpose.

Raise jerked, and I averted my gaze to a window before she caught me observing her solitude.

She cleared her throat. “Losing my purpose was a heavy consideration for me. I had seen what became of other female monsters. We had all, kings and princesses, started to guess what union entailed. Princess Change altered so drastically after union. Everything seemed to alter after that.”

I hummed. “What made you decide on union to King Raise despite that?”

“Love.” She sat abruptly and clapped a hand over the blank space where her mouth might be. Her entire face blushed crimson. “ You. How do you do that to me?”

“Do what?”

She thumped the chaise with a fist. “Get me to say that which I should not?”

This was a princess of sharp intellect and calculation. She felt wariness and seriousness, and a monster might never guess as much without peering beyond her laugh and swagger.

“One evening I shall share my theories with you, Princess Raise,” I said. “But what you have confessed stays with me. You married for love, and I am happy for you. Do you love him still?”

She waited to answer, but this time my power did not pull the answer from her. “Yes, and he loves me.”

I pursed my lips. “Which is why he seeks to fix the warping of your union with amendments. So why do you refuse? You must guess that the union is set and unchangeable.”

The princess pressed her lips together. She would not tell me of warpings and alterations to her union yet.

I felt curiosity—a force, yes—but I felt no obsession to know the truth.

I left the matter alone.

Glass exploded from the conservatory floor and showered both of us in vicious shards.

I blew out a breath and plucked a shard from my forearm. “Princess Raise, your king has realized you are not where he left you. That was his sneeze of fury.”

Wonder lit her serious gaze at my casual dismissal of her king’s rage. She, of course, did not see beneath my armor as I saw beneath hers.

Pawns rushed into the conservatory, Gangrel in the lead, spear in hand.

“My queen, are you harmed?” He hissed, fangs lowered and quite terrifying. A sweeping look led him to the center of the conservatory. “ Raise. ”

The pawns split themselves between surrounding me and the entrance to Raise’s kingdom.

Sign, Seal, and Deliver hovered between me and their princess, very sheepish indeed as they wondered who to protect first.

“Stairway pawns,” I said to them. “You will remain in my queendom until this small tension is resolved.” Who knew what King Raise would do to them. Some or other protocol, if I had to guess.

Sign sagged. “ Thank you, my queen.”

“How can you call her ‘my queen’ when you have sworn an oath to my king?” demanded Raise, entering her own rage and bursting to her feet. “You have sworn fealty to him. Does that mean nothing to you? She is magnificent beyond words, is that why you have done it?”

She was loyal, and she loved her king. Loved him. Refused him. Distanced herself from him. Combined, those things made little sense.

“They call me queen because my will fills them and exceeds the will of King Raise.”

Princess Raise shook her head. “I do not follow.”

“No, I see that. Your king is in a fury, it seems.”

She sat again, glaring daggers at her king’s princes. “Yes, and that does not happen lightly. I do not like him to feel so because he behaves hastily in a way that fills him to regret and self-admonishment later.”

“Yet you wish to stay here so he cannot lock you up and have thus caused his rage. You must have known this would put him into a fury. There is a conflict in your actions and words, princess.”

“Well—” The princess cut off, then said, “If you manage to withstand his first three attacks, you should be fine.”

Hasty indeed. “When can I expect these attacks?”

“Very soon and in rapid succession.”

Unexpected. “Only because of his fury.”

She burst upward and started to pace. “You would receive a message from his princes tomorrow otherwise, would you not?”

Now that Princess Raise pointed that out, I recollected King Raise had done so in the past. The evening after I escaped his kingdom, his princes arrived to tell of the contract between my ancestor and their king.

Princess Raise exploded and whirled on me. “Why do you not ready yourself? Why do you not hose the stairwells and oil the landings?”

I could not say whether the princess would give me all her king’s reason and rhyme, but this was a start. “I am quite a new monster, Princess Raise, and a very new queen.”

Pawns paused in their scanning and posturing to look at me, and the princess was hardly less befuddled.

“What?” she demanded.

“Everything is normal to other monsters. Things are as they have always been. But with my new eyes, I see matters differently. I have seen kings sit very powerfully on their thrones, or even swing their feet while sitting on one. I have seen them take one capable step to the left and circle a room. They have displayed their coiled strength and menace in this fashion many times, occasionally blurring a short and beastly way when their agenda called for it. All in all, Princess Raise, I have seen them do very little.”

I rose, and my silk robe slithered to drape my body.

A calamity had begun outside. The first attack of Raise’s fury, no doubt.

“Pawns, you may go ahead,” I ordered. “Do what you do best to defend my queendom.”

They were unleashed and, in a whoosh, blink, and snarl, pawns launched from the third level to face what I expected was a human wave of Raise’s frenzied contractees.

I pocketed my surprise that Huckery, Loup, and Unguis had joined the others or even come to protect me from harm. I expected nothing from them. But they could ruin in my name in battle as easily as the others might save, so perhaps this order worked for them.

“I don’t understand,” the princess said with a sigh.

She didn’t? “A queen need not sit still nor move one step here and there. I might move where I like.”

“You cannot mean that you will fight my king’s fifth yourself ?” Raise was stunned. Gob-smacked. Challenged in ideal.

Was I not a powerful and capable and immortal being? Could I not blink and crush and leap? There must be a reason for possessing these abilities.

“A new queen must,” I replied. “A wise queen will.”