Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

And finally,

The right question.

“ T hey come for you,” said King See.

He sat on the bench beside me in my new rooftop garden. The sweeping garden extended the entire length of the third floor and surrounded my copper conservatory. Since hellebores returned me yesternight, I had formed a fondness for this bench that gazed over the thatched housing of my sixth.

My sixth was far larger tonight. I was in possession of two hundred and fifty humans. They did amuse with their comings and goings. That was part of what I liked about this bench seat.

The garden and humans were not the only additions to my queendom.

I looked at King See and smiled because I could look at him and see him. “Yes, they do.”

Four kings came for me this dusk.

“Raise returned to the alliance,” he said next. “I did not think he would so soon.”

I passed King See a letter. After stitching another Mother to Cassandra’s left hand, I had come back to the letter.

“ My swinging Perantiqua,” King See read aloud in some rage. “ To our union, you have agreed, and the date is set for three nights hence. ” He did not read Bring’s slogan and signature aloud.

I might have felt calm about the letter now, but I had not yesternight. “He did not like my reply that informed him what he might do with the date.”

King See crumpled the letter in a fist. “What does he mean by swinging princess?”

Hmm , I had not bargained on answering that question. “He wishes to dress me prettily and have me sit on a swing in his kitchen as he toils over charm and curse. He wishes to kneel under this dress when it suits him. You may assume the rest.”

“I can well assume,” the king said mildly.

My throat tightened at the sudden thought of sharing Bring’s fantasy with another king. See and I had not touched again since my return. There had been so many connections to make.

I touched him now to thread my stitched fingers between his. His hand, so oversized, engulfed mine, and they rested perfectly together. I was not lured into the lie, for much still complicated our destiny. “See, I will not join Bring in union.”

“He will call a tribunal, Perantiqua. There is precedent to consider.”

“Precedent means a lot to kings.”

“It must when we are immortal. Disagreements cannot always be decided with humans, or no humans would remain to save or use for ruin.”

Ah, yes. Of course. “I fathom. There is no precedent for a queen, however, and I mean the words I say. I will not be a bride to Bring.”

“Will you be a bride to me?” he mused aloud.

The question was not designed for answer, and we had none anyway. “New ancientness is settled in me, sir. Hellebores fulfilled their purpose again. I am grateful to you for placing me in them.”

“I war within myself about how delightfully things might have gone if I had not.”

That was a natural enough regret.

We fell into quiet. I could hear the faint roars of a crowd. Fevered humans. Four sixths. Or two-thirds, as Picket might prefer to have put it.

The rope monster was now complete in all features and clothing, and he was out adding bricks to mortar in a last effort to provide more protection. No brick wall could protect us from four kings, but we each coped as we could.

“They come,” said See. “And what will we do?”

We. That word from his cruel mouth meant much. “We will meet them, you and me. But I have a question for you. I am more ancient after a dried bouquet, and this question had since occurred to me.”

He focused milky eyes on me. “Speak it.”

“What is there if not love?”

Such was the quiet up here that such vulnerable questions could be uttered and answered in a calm way that did not alter and shake the world.

King See grunted. “This evening you have asked an ancient question indeed.”

I had been so adamant that love must exist between us, while See had felt equally and oppositely that love could not exist at all. Finally the right question had occurred to me.

In his mind, what must exist between us if love did not?

My mind had reassessed my memories and experiences, and views I had held were changed in the last night as a result. Such was life as a monster queen. But there was a reluctance in my heart on the topic of love—perhaps my heart was too whole still. Had I not seen the love between the Raises? Had not Princess Raise herself spoken scathingly of love?

I gathered my bravery. “The answer, sir? What is there if not love?”

“Respect and choice. Trust and acceptance,” he replied.

I felt each word like a blow.

There was a total sense in them that I was not ready to admit. Love… love must be had. Yet I had seen what love did to a princess and king. What lust did to another couple. What purpose did to a third. Even what subservient duty did to the last. “You believe these must be shared between a queen and a king instead of love?”

“I theorize only, maiden, and fearfully at that, for I have experienced the midnight of your kiss and felt your silken sigh on my cheeks. I have breathed your breath and held you vulnerable in my arms. You are my immortality, and dread immobilizes me and threatens to steer me to vice whenever I lower my guard. I do not trust myself always, nor my theories.”

Distant booms and frenzied screams were louder now. I trailed my fingertips over his jaw. “You speak such romance, King See. Are you sure that you do not believe in love?”

“I do not have the luxury of believing in love when a queen such as yourself exists. She might be mine if I can resist the most common trap of all for enough dusks put together.” He stood and extended a hand to me.

I let him pull me up from the bench and looped my arm in his. We descended to the courtyard together, and twelve pawns exited their chambers to fall into line behind me, though three did not leave their kennels at all.

Tonight, pawns did not join their laughter in glorious symphony, for tonight, most of them would battle against their kings. Understandably, this was not something my pawns anticipated with delight. Only King See’s pawns were free from writhing guilt on the matter.

The odds were against us, certainly. Kings marched their sixths to reduce my queendom to ash, then likely See’s to ash too.

Yet here he was.

A kiss and touch had settled something in him. Our hearts did thump in tandem, after all. What a pity I had not asked See about his heartbreak obsession and whether it remained.

Another time.

A queen was rather busy for now.

I exited my wall of bars, and the sight of thousands of humans pounding against my picket was marvelous to behold. Beyond them, standing high atop apartment towers were four kings.

“Change, Raise, Take,” I greeted three of them. “You throw your sixths against my walls this dusk.” I shifted my focus to the fourth. “Bring, you do that and more. Here is the way of matters.”

“We do not come to listen to a queen,” Change roared.

His high emotion broke against my power and did not shove at it or force me to slumber. How long would it take them to realize I was now their equal? And more, perhaps. I was still learning of myself now that four bridal gifts were stashed away through hellebores.

Take hissed, “You have my princess. Return her, and I will be content to merely squash your queendom from this world.”

There was that. Princess Take had creeped back to my queendom after the dinner affair, for what reason, she did not care to divulge, but unfortunately, she had spotted Princess Bring in the act of rehydrating herself from fake death.

In a stunning act of self-preservation, Princess Bring had slimed Princess Take to the wall and left her there until my return from the grave.

“Gladly, King Take. Do you gather that she came to my queendom of her own accord?”

He did not answer. “She did not stay of her own accord.”

“Perhaps not, but that was not my doing either. She is quite free now, however, and I am happy to return her to you once kings have listened to a queen.”

Raise had dressed in a gold suit for the occasion. “I have wearied of your incessant words. I will listen no more.”

Bring spoke, the vile king that he was. “You have a chance to save much human life, Queen Perantiqua. You have a chance to save the kingdom and standing of King See. You have a chance to negotiate the safety of those monsters in your queendom. Agree to our union without war and without tribunal and I will join with you and… See… against other kings.”

Three other kings glared at him.

“That would even the odds, more so.”

Change sneered. “Not when you are a weak queen. No more, the war begins.”

There was a roaring surge from a quarter of the humans attacking my picket. My pawns erupted forward, though none of my werebeast pawns.

But the gate in my wall of bars creaked open at that moment, and four kings saw the princess who exited.

Princess Bring appeared, rehydrated to completeness. She stopped just behind me and curtsied. To me.

“She lives, ” exclaimed Raise. “But how?”

Bring’s growl was menacing indeed.

“King Bring,” I mocked. “You did not believe that I would let you murder your princess in my queendom, surely. Not when you had revealed the curse to me during our midnight picnic.”

The eyes of all were upon him.

“This is a fakeness and a farce. She is dead. You torment me with her image,” he cried. “Anyone could be under that cloak.”

My heart sank. You cold bastard. You cruel soul.

Princess Bring shook in squelch behind me. “It is I, the princess you have been smoking each day with poison in a bid to bachelor yourself so that you might take a second princess.”

“You are not she,” her king scoffed.

There was a whisper of fabric, and I refused to look back as Princess Bring uncovered herself.

Kings murmured their shock. Bring was most shocked of all, for he must have thought his princess too weak to reveal herself.

“You see it is me,” the princess said coldly.

Raise replied, “We see, truly.”

King Take was never more serious. “Is this true, brother king? King of saving. Have you been poisoning your princess? Did you seek to kill her in truth during the royal dinner affair?”

King Bring did not answer.

“I switched the goblet,” I told those gathered. “I had already told Princess Bring that you meant to kill her and would likely do so to pin the murder on me in a blackmail attempt.”

“You trick me, false queen,” bellowed King Bring. “You have enticed and lured me.”

“You enticed and lured yourself,” I replied calmly. “A saving king you may be, but in my experience of you, there is no king in possession of more denial. You convinced yourself that murder was an act of saving.”

I had been warned of this king several times, of how his adoration of me would turn to hate if I did not take care.

I watched this transformation now. His second mouth shouted curses along with his first mouth. His power blasted outward. His humans screamed and shrieked and clawed at my walls.

King See stepped forward. “Perantiqua is no murderer. You gather against her tonight in reaction to a lie. Two lies, in fact, for she did not murder Princess Bring, and she did not agree to union with the king of bringing either.”

“Falsehood!” blasted King Bring.

Change laughed. “I did not come here to seek justice, See. You know me better. There is ruin to be had.”

His humans were climbing the walls.

My sixth were screaming and fleeing their thatched houses.

“King Take. King Raise,” I called. “What of you?”

“You have our princesses,” Take hissed.

“And I have said that I will release a princess if kings should listen.”

Bring roared and Change laughed. Take and Raise flung ultimatums.

All in all, kings did not listen one bit.

A rage rumbled, shaking my humans to the ground. The fury built in me and then naturally exploded from my lips. “ Will kings be fools until the end of the beginning of the world! ”

Those beastly humans who had managed to climb over my wall fell down dead. Drat.

At least the humans outside my walls had lived through my fury, and the violent show had silenced kings at last.

I flung out three stitches; two into the midst of my queendom where they threaded into two of the four chambers that had been carved out on the first level. A dried bouquet was to blame for the appearance of the four chambers and the names carved above each one. Change, Raise, Bring, Take. Princesses had a space in my queendom now.

One thread latched around the ankle of Princess Take, who sulked in her chamber. Another thread held the hand of Princess Raise and walked her out. The third stitch shot in the distance. West. It dove into a haunted forest and hooked in the strings of a garden apron.

Kings had not missed the way three of my stitches shot out from my body.

Princess Raise appeared first, and the stitch holding her hand returned to me.

Princess Take appeared second, and I set her upright, keeping a hold on her ankle.

Princess Change appeared last, flying through the air, and held aloft by my stitch. She quit shrieking as I set her next to the others.

Four princesses.

Of course, I had spent last night drawing every speck of King Take’s rhyme and reason out of Princess Take. Only Princess Change was left to interrogate in such a manner.

What purpose did princesses hold for a queen? They were not my princesses, just as princes were not my princes.

They were not witness to my rhyme nor reason either.

I rather thought they would hold another purpose for me entirely, and that time would reveal it soon enough.

“You have my princess,” said King Change. “So I will listen.”

Surprising. “I applaud you, sir. And what of other kings? Bring, I suppose that a threat to your princess would not bother you.”

He snarled and those of his humans still alive resumed their clawing and climbing. My sixth, however, threw rocks and rotten fruit to defend themselves.

“Here is what I will say,” I said. “King Take, your princess chose to enter my queendom without permission. She has paid the price for this. Leave with your sixth, and I will happily release her to you.” I did not wait for his response.

“Raise,” I said next. “Your princess chooses to remain in my queendom for fear of you locking her away. I am no murderer and no poisoner. And I would like to help in the sorry matter between you. There must be some way forward, and if you leave with your sixth tonight, and honor her choice in affairs, then I will mediate negotiations between you both.”

He scratched his jaw at that.

“King Change,” I said. “No doubt your princess informed you what I took from her. This has given me the power to pluck her from your kingdom whenever I should choose. Because you have sent your sixth against me this dusk, you must pay me for the inconvenience and slight. Your princess will spend one week in my queendom, no more and no less. Please know that you are powerless to prevent this.”

He bared his yellowed teeth. “A princess is married to a king’s purpose, fool queen. You have no power to enforce any of these things.”

I felt when he tried to summon his princess. There was a tug under my ribs.

I tugged back, and we jerked her in the air for a time.

“What is this?” King Change rasped. “What hold exists?”

“Only the hold of a fool queen,” I replied. “A pathetic and weak queen at that. Dear Change, did you really think that corn husk dolls could unravel me so.”

His yellow eyes glinted and gleamed in the distance. “Oh, but they could have done with just a little more ruin and madness.”

King See stiffened, and the ancient in me did raise her head. What did that mean? Had Change played more of a part in matters than I had seen?

Regardless, on the topic of husk dolls, he had not factored in the growing power of a queen and how well her crown would fit so shortly into queendom. Otherwise, yes, his attack on my self-esteem might have crushed me more.

“I will release your princess in one week,” I told him. “King Raise, King Take, what decisions have you made?”

Both kings were ever discerning. They understood that I had changed again. I could prevent a princess from returning to her king. And I would.

More than that, they did not understand the new ways in which I was dangerous.

“I accept your offer.” Raise was first to break. But he loved, and I was reluctantly starting to admit how that weakened him.

Take hissed his annoyance. “She has paid for the intrusion, you say. I will leave with my princess and my sixth. But you will pay for past slights against her, or I shall meet you here again in the same way.”

I nodded. “You might pen a letter to me on this, sir. We might negotiate to settle things amicably.”

“We shall see,” he replied.

Two kings departed with their sixths. Change and Bring exchanged a long look. How ironic to see an alliance between the king of ruin and that of saving.

Change turned his back on me and strode away without another word. His humans, those still alive, did the same.

“You have earned an enemy this night,” King Bring announced.

“You could be so much more without half as much denial, bringing king,” I said back.

And he yearned to attack.

This king hated me in fullness and might never stop doing so. How he wished to unravel and break and use me.

King See looped his arm around my waist. “You would do better to listen, brother king.”

Even through his hate, the ruler of charm and curse must want me, for he roared fury at the sight of See touching me, and his reply came between grunts of rage and heaving inhales. “You are no brother of mine, purposeless king. You… are an enemy of my ambition, an enemy of saving , and so an enemy of mine. As she has proven unworthy, so have you. No unworthy creature shall win home in the future I create. I swear this now and forever!”

I had earned an enemy for myself and King See tonight. King Bring’s declaration was no trivial matter.

“Enemies, you say,” See mused to his brother king.

Then my chin was tilted and shifted until I gazed up into milky eyes. He did tower so.

“So be it,” stated King See as he set his cruel lips to mine.

And perhaps a queen’s purpose had little to do with kings.

But the obsessions of a king must be managed lest he spill into claiming madness.

And so I ran my hands over chalky skin and dark hair and torsioned my lips against his. I gave him what he needed now, knowing that our agendas might clash horribly another time very soon.

We spoke of destiny and doom after all.

So be it.