Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Vice.

Alas.

I felt fortified and prepared in my outfit as I entered my conservatory before dusk. Valetise was a magnificent monster, and this full-length skirt that belted at my waist over a white blouse was just what I’d needed—something practical and no-nonsense.

Princess Raise sat on her chaise, listening to a crackling radio.

“I did not think you could beat him, but you did.” Her body was coiled to flee, like a cornered animal. Her posture was a silent order not to mention her sobs and the torment of her lover’s exchange at the battle.

I did not take orders from princesses, silent or otherwise. “You won the last battle for me when you sent your king away.”

Princess Raise blanched. “I—I?—”

“I hope you are feeling okay in heart, Princess Raise. I felt the pain of your lover’s conflict in every stitch. I do wish that you could both resolve this before too long passes.”

A shadow darkened her blank face, and how amazing that a blank face could shadow at all.

She did not answer my comment, and I did not venture to voice more.

“I’m coming, dear heart!” Princess Take’s scream rocketed through the air.

My eyes widened. “Are the Takes still at each other? Goodness, but all day?”

Princess Raise snorted. “All day. That is the fifteenth time she has screamed those words.”

Fifteen times . Then I was happy for her and impressed by him. For his sake, I expected he could not resist her. For her part, I expected that she wanted me to know of her endurance and irresistibility and how she had applied these qualities to another king.

Raise smiled. “How nice to hear her voice again, though I would prefer to scream fifteen times for my king.” Her smile faded.

I could agree on the last part. With the state of things between See and me, our pleasure-making had been suspended also. “You were up all day too?”

“Listening to the radio, yes.”

Listening to the radio to distract herself from turmoil of the heart.

“You drew nearly every monster here,” she mused. “They were curious to see how you might battle, as was I.”

Curiosity could have that effect. I strode to the mirror to hide how little bats had erupted in my stomach. “Everyone? Like whom?”

“King Change did not come, though he intended to before the end. King Bring arrived in time for the second attack.”

I had not noticed.

I did notice my reflection this dusk though. In the copper-framed mirror, I saw a queen who had won a battle. I saw a woman who could feel the pain of others’ tragic love despite conflict with them. Pawns had battled for me and puffed with pride to receive my hellebore badges. I had engaged ancient thought to set three pawns free to their king’s call. Before my queendom, I stood firm and strong when Raise’s terrible stairway erupted from the ground. His blasting fury had not forced me to slumber, either, even if it shrunk my balloon.

I saw my capability and wonder very certainly this dusk. Not every night was this easy, and so I appreciated this moment greatly.

“Bring left before the end?” I smoothed the front of my skirt.

She snickered. “What end? He took himself in hand when embers caught your silk dress on fire. Your exposed leg was too much for the limits of his lust. His stairway erupted, so to speak, and perhaps mortification drove him back to his kingdom before you might notice the wet patch on the front of his trousers.”

The idea of a king masturbating while I battled was a new one. I would not mind if another king had done so. As it was, if King Bring wished to pleasure himself over me—which I had already assumed he was doing—then I would prefer to remain ignorant of the time and date of the occurrence, and what part of me had inspired the act. Nevertheless, the humor in Raise’s voice summoned a grin to my lips. “Shall I ask about his departure when I next see him?”

The princess replied, “He might erupt like my king’s stairway all over again.”

I laughed and looked back at her gasp. She was awed by the delightful sound of my amusement.

I sat on my gilded throne facing her chaise. “Was anyone else here?”

Her lips curved. “Anyone else? Could you be more specific?”

I enjoyed her coyness and wit more than her sadness, though I saw they were a mask. “Did King See come?”

“In what sense of the word?”

Her humor was enjoyable. “Both, but I fathom King See would not choose such a setting for the use of his hand.”

“You know him in this. He arrived shortly after you engaged in the first battle. He stayed until after dawn.”

After dawn. “Why so long?”

Had he stayed to watch the Takes? Jealousy clawed up my legs.

“To ensure King Change would not attack, I suppose.”

My brow cleared. Jealousy removed its claws. “You are right.” His presence also explained the body-slapping actions of the Takes. They had sought to bait King See into envy to stab at my heart.

They had failed to drag a response from him, and that warmed my vanity somewhat.

Princess Raise added, “King See crouched in readiness to intervene in the battle. He cares for a queen. But he also did not stand by her side against my king...”

I did feel grateful that he had come. Though with his ambition, I could also suppose that he had wished me rendered weaker, so that he might better claim me.

His intervention was not necessary in the end. King Raise had been defeated by his princess’s rejection, and so I would never know what King See had truly intended. “Do you make any sense of King See?”

She was stunned. Astonished. “King See is not my king, Queen Perantiqua. I make no sense of him.”

I released a breath. “Of course. I expected not.”

“Do you not make sense of him?”

“Should I?”

She considered that. “I could always make a small sense of my king from when I first met him. After our union, I could make much sense of him, and this grew and grew until I knew his sense completely. Do you make any small sense of King See?”

Worry was a gnawing creature. “I did before queendom. I have not since.”

The princess nodded. “The rules of princess cannot apply to you.”

I did not wish to confess too much to the princess of Raise, who loved her king very much and would always help him, but I did feel very uncertain. “I would feel relief if our troubles were just a matter of adjusting to queendom.”

As it was, King See had learned more from a day in Princess Take’s company than anything so far. Though… I had grown in queenliness in that time too. Perhaps I should not dismiss how my actions and the claiming of a necklace had lessened See’s madness.

“I am naught but a princess. I cannot speak of queendom.”

Neither could I yet, nor anyone.

The radio crackled. “Why do you listen to humans?”

“To hear somewhat of the world when I am locked up.”

“Do human affairs interest you?”

“Sometimes.” Princess Raise turned up the volume.

“ A message from the President of Vitale…” the presenter announced.

A deeper voice flooded through the speakers. The president of Vitale, who had been president as long as I could recall, was somewhat of an untouchable neighbor. A person viewed him as friendly, but had most citizens interacted with him? I never had in humanity.

How strange to listen to him in monsterdom—this small human who I had viewed as so powerful, but who was really another doll.

“ Citizens of Vitale. I come to you filled with sorrow for the lives lost in the city center blaze this evening. ”

I frowned. “Does he speak of my queendom?”

Raise held a finger to her lips.

“ Many of you are homeless this evening. Your possessions are gone. Your food is gone. You are afraid and uncertain. But Vitale will always help the able. Help and aid and medics have been dispatched to your area. Stay where you are. Help is coming. Vitale will not turn its back on you.”

Not on the able, at least. Invalids were another matter. “It is strange to me how humans can have no idea of monsters.”

“Their minds must make many excuses for us,” the princess said. “Tensions have risen in human society lately due to the recent construction of a village in the city center. There is some question over who owns the land they have built on, you see.”

I did see. Kings did not accept my presence, and so their humans did not. The recent construction had been my thatched human housing. “The tensions in human society spilled over this evening?”

“A small group of humans took matters into their own hands and set the new village on fire in protest. There is some confusion about what happened then, as the occupants of the new buildings were not seen to fight back. Instead, the humans who had attacked appeared to turn on each other and then fall down or wander off in a stumbling trance.”

She spoke of their exhaustion. I could only imagine how odd that appeared on mass. “They could not see any immortals, so they were left to interpret things however they could.”

“Indeed.”

“ Tonight at 7:00 p.m., we invite you to burn a husk doll in memory of those lost.”

I leaned forward and turned off the radio. “I am irritated with your king for starting that. War does not need to be so personal.”

The husk dolls and the larger dummies were getting under my skins. Not the thoughtful ones created by my sixth, but the carelessly crafted ones certainly.

“Starting what?” she murmured back.

I waved a hand in the air. “The husk dolls stitched in my likeness.”

The princess lifted her head. “My king? He did not begin that.”

“His fifth burn dummies of me.”

“Perhaps they do now, as your humans carry husk dolls too. But my king did not start that. He does not work in such ways. Matters between him and other rulers are always impersonal.”

I contemplated that, for that had been my experience with him, in truth. “If not him, then Change or Take started it. One as likely as the other to do so.”

I would not ask her for her opinion on which king had committed the act; she only knew such things of her king.

“And now?” I asked. “Your king entered a rage and attacked three times in rapid succession. You must prepare me for what he will do next if you wish to stay.”

She lay down on the chaise, and I thought that her jaw clenched.

Her tone was carefully neutral. “He attacked three times and will wallow in self-annoyance of his uncalculated response for this number of nights.”

“I have three nights until your king attacks again.” Not very long.

“Attack? No. He will deal with you now. Even more so than usual because he feels driven to erase his rashness in your mind. There will be a paper exchange.”

I frowned. “Whatever does that mean?”

“A negotiation with the goal of forming a deal,” the princess said as if explaining to a young child. “For my return. In that time, he will visit other kings to see what alliance he might find.”

Ah. So this was a paper distraction before a more thought-out attack that would only occur if we did not reach a deal. I saw Raise’s rhythm, and I could expect only a fresh rage would interrupt the process. Three rapid attacks would then result, then followed by three nights of wallowing before a fresh paper distraction. Yes, I saw his rhythm indeed. I needed more of his reason, though. All I knew was that he did not value rashness. “You seem certain of his negotiation process, but he would not warn me of attack, surely.”

“He would,” she replied.

“He would forgo the element of surprise?”

“He prefers the element of fearful anticipation—only when not in a rage, you understand? He would inform you of the time and night. He would pay for intel from King Take of your preparations. He likes to utilize the skills of others.”

With the way his staircases could explode in any location, I would have thought he would capitalize on the advantage of surprise. I had more of his reason now, but there was more to uncover still.

The princess was deep in thought.

I watched her reflection for a time, marveling in all she could convey while faceless. “Princess, I am torn. King Raise was very distraught before dawn. Only you and he know how your union is warped, but I do not feel comfortable in the middle of painfilled hearts. I must inform you that this is our second meeting, and so you have only one more before our bargain is done.”

The princess sat. “You said I could stay here.”

“I did not state for how long, and you did not bargain for a timeframe.”

She burst to her feet and paced. Anger rippled from her, but she faced me. “You are correct. I did not. A capture attempt and confinement had weakened my bargaining muscles.”

“You love your king. He loves you. I am not cold enough to stand in the way of this. I cannot see that anything is warped.”

“You are strong enough to withstand him,” she said, and her lack of acknowledgment of the rest suggested that my other observations were unwelcome.

Was I strong enough? No. I could not protect myself from a king’s direct attack. Not yet. “Forgive my lack of clarity,” I said. “I could let you stay here, but you are using me as a shield when this is a battle to fight yourself.”

Her chest heaved. All day she had remained awake, and not a crease in her suit could be seen. A skill indeed.

“I cannot be locked away so soon. I am weak with the need to live, though I wish I could do without it for his sake.”

“Then he must be convinced away from the amendment. Or you must sign.”

“I cannot sign. He must believe in the amendment,” she cried.

This was befuddling, and I did not wish to upset her again. “Princess Raise, what would you like to do?”

“I would like to stay here until I choose to leave.” Her exhale shook.

“Is this a new sentiment? Did you only feel this when you met me?”

This could be a stirring of new purpose due to my presence.

She shook her head. “I have longed for another place to be where I could not be locked away. One never existed before you came into queendom.”

The princess did not feel new stirrings of purpose in my presence. She did not fit the pattern of my obsession as experienced with Princess Bring, so maybe I was mistaken in the pattern. But… this princess could refuse a king. “You are a princess of purpose.”

She jerked. Violently.

What had she heard in my words to startle her? I came up empty on this front, but as it was, I now understood King Raise’s rhythm and somewhat of his reason. The third meeting with this princess might prove enough to understand everything.

Then I needed only one thing from her, though here was a female monster that could make me laugh. We might be friends, her and I. “Princess Raise, what you ask of me does not feel right. I do not wish to get between love.”

“Name your price.”

“Perhaps there is no price.”

“Everything has a price,” she said harshly.

“Even the love you hold for your king?”

“Especially that.” She faced my mirror.

I watched her, struggling to push down the intensity of my emotions. She could not guess at the strength of my desperation. “If I were to do something that did not feel right, then it would cost the same from you.”

She stilled. “I do not follow. I cannot betray my king. Our union is not so warped, and love cannot easily withstand betrayal.”

She spoke of love as a fragile thing, much like King See tended to. I did not enjoy that much whatsoever.

“Not a betrayal,” I reassured her. “A token, yes. A stripping away, if you like.”

She gripped the lapels of her suit jacket, and I held my breath when lace was revealed at her wrists.

“Speak plain, Queen Perantiqua.”

I could hardly trust myself to. I released my breath quietly. “You can remain in my queendom for as long as your presence does not threaten those dependent on me. You will make yourself useful in some way while here, as all creatures here do. Your token to pay for my discomfort will be the lace gloves you wear.”

Her throat must have dried, for she croaked as a frog might. “But my gloves?”

“Your gloves.”

Princess Raise lowered her gaze to her hands where my lace gloves peeked out below her cuffs. “These were my bridal gift from my king.”

Bridal gift. The words made me ravenous. I was a monster of vice after hearing them. “This is fitting.”

Fitting as payment.

Fitting of obsession.

A fitting gift for a queen.

She traced over the lace-clad back of her hand. “I have had these since our union night. Whatever my suit, I wear these always. My hands are his hands.”

My, but I should feel guilty about this. Instead, I felt impatience and growing ire. I did not like her stroking my gloves. “I feel this importance, and so that is the price. Then we have both sacrificed something.”

“I have many precious items that my king has given me,” she said quickly. “His princes could fetch them. You could take your pick.”

“I have chosen. Make your payment or depart after our next meeting. I shall anticipate knowing you better through the ages no matter your choice.”

And I would get the gloves another way.

Still the princess did not hand over my treasure.

“Why is it that you wear a reminder that your hands are the hands of your king?” I asked after another minute. “Do you need it?”

“No, I do not. I wear the reminder for sentimental reasons,” she answered. But the princess stripped off the lace gloves after.

Saliva filled my mouth. I pretended that cement held me to the gilded throne I sat upon as she crossed the conservatory.

“His hands will always be my hands,” she whispered, then extended the gloves to me.

My hands trembled as I took them.

I had not realized they would, and Princess Raise saw my reaction. Her instincts must have screamed, for she started to draw the gloves back.

I snatched them away.

Queen though I was, I snatched lace gloves from a princess.

The suddenness of the movement upset my crown somewhat, and I growled, shoving the crown back in place. My breath was coming harder than I would have liked.

The princess whispered, “And what have I agreed to?”

I wished to be alone with my gloves. I wished to croon over them and feel the delicate webbing, so ancient.

A bridal gift.

That was the price of my obsession—a bridal gift from each princess.

Black pearls from Princess Bring.

Lace gloves from Princess Raise.

There would be two more. I could feel an addiction to how all four must be mine. All four would be mine, and the simple matter of saving or ruining the world cowered in the shadows of my obsession.

I stood, not nearly as composed and calm and as far from madness as I would prefer. “You can remain in my queendom for as long as your presence does not bring harm to those dependent on me. For this, you have given me your bridal gloves. For this, you will make yourself useful while you are here. Do you have a stirring on what you shall do?”

Princess Raise, so still and quiet, understood that something great was afoot in me. She had glimpsed that which I was not comfortable with—the thieving and conniving vices that inspired guilt and shame. Even if I had bargained for this bridal gift, I had not bargained honestly, and that did not feel wonderful.

Even so, I could not feel sorry for the lace gloves were mine.

“Yes, I have a stirring,” Raise answered at last. “You endured attacks from my king, but that is not the only side of war. There is the aftermath and recovery. Immortals might go on as before for the most part. Humans cannot. I have spent much of my existence listening to human affairs on the radio. I do this to help my king in his purpose, but this has versed me in how to tend to humans after battle. In this way, I will make myself useful to you and uphold that part of our bargain.”

That distracted a tiny part of my mind from the gloves. “That would prove very useful indeed. I had wondered how to manage humans as a queen.”

“The humans are shocked. They need water. Some food soon. Medical attention. New shelter. Reassurance. I will handle this.”

She would, and I would learn from her as she did so. “Please report to me before dawn each night. You can ask what you need of my mother in the courtyard.”

“If we must negotiate supplies from other kings?”

“Come to me with your suggestions and needs for approval.” I could not think what I had to negotiate with.

Princess Raise swept a bow. “Of course, Your Highness.”

“I must go,” I managed to gasp.

Did she note the hastiness of my exit? Did she hear the galloping of my heart or guess at the heavy and dry feeling of my tongue in my mouth?

I kept my steps uniform, knowing she would hear running footsteps—that every monster here might.

“My queen,” Valetise called up. “A dining hall has appeared on the second level.”

I don’t care. “I will be there in short duration!”

“My queen,” Deliver yelled from the courtyard. “There are more humans outside the gate.”

I was coming undone. I shouted, “Urgent matters to attend.”

Nearly there. Nearly alone with my precious prize.

The door to my chamber was a grand double door now. A tarnished copper hellebore was inset in the wood. Beautiful.

I could not care.

Within the doors, a bed did not meet my eyes. I had to blur through a lounge, then a smaller lounge to find my bed chamber. An enormous bathroom branched from it along with a wardrobe suite and a balcony.

These changes had naturally occurred the instant I secured Raise’s bridal gift.

I didn’t care.

I perched on my bed and lifted the gloves to my right cheek. The gloves were soft and warm. Groaning, I rubbed them against my cheek and neck. I was but an animal placing my scent on something vital to my survival. Of this side of me, I had no control.

I stared at the gloves for any length of time to know them better, the fragile webs. The beloved gloves of a princess.

A bridal gift.

Unhinged and half-mad as I was, it was no surprise that as dawn approached, my thoughts began to fix on what came next.

I tucked the gloves inside my blouse, then patted the black pearl necklace next to them for good measure.

Two bridal gifts remained.

“I am coming for the two of you,” I breathed.