Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

With many dances,

To be danced

To know one rhythm?

Not a chance.

“ Y ou know that King Bring favors a seven-night rhythm,” Princess Bring was saying. “When Raise first turned his back on the kingly pact to save, then of course King Bring considered the idea of starting war on night one, then the outcome of starting a war on night two.

I continued, “Then whether the outcome would save or ruin on night three. On nights four and five, he convinced himself of whatever he already wanted to think. On night six, he planned how to dramatically go about it, and then he did just that on night seven.”

“You connect rhythms as though musician born,” the princess exclaimed. “That is exactly what he did. On night seven, he set fire to a great many staircases belonging to King Raise, a consequence for betraying their pact.”

Staircases in Raise’s kingdom denoted the contracts he had formed with humans, so I could only imagine how furious Raise would become after such an attack. “How did he respond?”

Princess Bring chuckled. “King Raise did not like humans in his fifth being set free of their obligations. He formed a great many new contracts with humans in my king’s fifth. A frenzy of them—contracts that protected them from future curse and charm.”

In this way, kings battled. Not directly, but through humans. In fairness, a battle between kings would be endless and pointless. Immortality did not allow for much of a victor in direct battle. So humans were used, and the best strategist was declared victor instead.

“I am not musician enough to understand the rhythms of other kings,” I admitted to Princess Bring, sitting with her at the table.

I had hoped that one princess could teach me war, but several meetings with Princess Bring had shown me that could not be. A princess only understood the rhymes and reasons of her king, and I could not understand any of them alone.

I sighed. “I note that King Bring freed humans from contracts with Raise—an act of saving—while Raise shielded humans from charm or curse—both an act of saving and ruining. A charm could have helped the humans, after all. How interesting that they stuck to the nature of their purpose despite the battle.”

“I had not put this together myself,” said the princess. “Not beyond the reason of my king, and in that I can tell you that he was particular with which stairways he set aflame, choosing only those that would have a saving effect.”

“I have enjoyed this evening, princess. Thank you.”

“As have I. I had not realized all I knew and understood. I feel… knowledgeable and useful.”

“Your mind has endless capability.” I reached over to touch where I believed her shoulder to be. “I am grateful for you sharing your thoughts with me.”

The princess froze.

I drew back my hand. “Goodness, I apologize. Was it my touch?”

The princess wobbled upright. “No, not at all.”

“Princess, are you sure? You are not yourself. I apologize sincerely if I have caused distress.”

“All is well! I—I must go. I?—”

She blinked away, and I shot to my feet. “Princess Bring, wait!”

My, but she could blink quickly. She was blocks away in the space of twenty seconds.

“I’m… sorry,” I whispered, lowering my hand that hung outstretched.

I sat heavily. “Drat.”

A simple touch had caused her to flee. I’d done so instinctively without a care about how she might have felt. If I had stopped to think, then I might’ve considered that a long, long time had likely passed since anyone had touched Princess Bring, even in a friendly way. Princes would not take such liberties with their princess. King Bring did not. Who else remained to touch a princess?

My simple touch might have felt large and foreign indeed.

“Bother.” I pulled a face that I felt in every stitch of my face. “Bother, bother, bother. I have crossed a boundary this evening.”

I must send her a letter of explanation.

I rushed for the stairs but wrenched to a halt at a twinkle in thyme. Bending, I picked up the twinkle in my conservatory entrance.

A necklace.

Slime covered the jewelry and spoke of its ownership. This necklace must have ripped off the princess as she hastened to be gone from my company.

The pearls were black and gray and shimmering and…

“ Wonder has me in its claws,” I said breathlessly.

I could not move my sights from the necklace. The pearls were exquisite and untold, and I was different and changed for seeing and holding them. These prized pearls.

This one-of-a-kind necklace for a princess.

Not mine.

Mine.

My, but the sight of them pounded my heart in a strong, loud, and altogether bizarre way. And why should I feel so poundingly affected by these black pearls?

I inhaled as though bursting through water’s surface for life-giving breath. I had been many things in my life, but a thief never. A thief I would become tonight because I would never, never be parted from this necklace. I clutched the slimy pearls tight in my hand as though they might save me from a terrible fate.

I couldn’t speak for the nonsense and surety of the shift in my character and ideals.

Princess Bring was my friend, or on the way to be if she could forgive a thoughtless touch. I should not steal from her. I should return these pearls because if she wore this under her cloak to visit a queen, then the necklace must mean a great deal to her.

I should, I should, I should. I should do any number of things.

But I would not.

I would not.

Ever.

I cradled the black pearls to my chest and lifted my gaze to my reflection. “And what in the world could this mean, mirror of mine?”

I knew nothing but the pearls had an unbreakable hold on me.

The cloak of thief was not comfortable to wear or look at, and though my decision to steal the jewelry was bizarrely set, guilt was a beast of its own. I looked away from my reflection and stuffed the necklace down the front of my dress. Only then did I leave the conservatory.

I would hide it.

“My queen!”

I leaped at the shout, a fidgety victim of shame and guilt. It was only Valetise shouting from above.

I blurted, “I go to write a letter explaining an ill-conceived touch!”

She tilted her head. “Okay, my queen. I call down to you to explain that your room has moved.”

Moved. “But moved?”

“Yes, moved. Your room is on the second level now, not the first.”

I blinked. “The second level. I see.”

I did not see yet.

“When did this happen?” I called up.

“One minute and thirteen seconds ago, my queen.”

Perhaps I did see now. The necklace stuffed in my dress felt very heavy and important. There was a certain reek in the air too. “Thank you, I shall be there shortly to write my letter.”

“Just so. The letter explaining an ill-conceived touch. I will ask the wall to surrender your writing desk.”

I leaned against the balustrade to peruse the first-level landing. Back in humanity, I had always cleaned the first level, so when I returned to the snuffed space of Hotel Vitale, I felt most like living here.

Now a princess had fled, dropping her prized and untold black pearl necklace. With my choice to thieve from her, my queenly rooms had moved upward a level… as if my hotel wished to hold me closer to the stars. This was a nod of approval from my queendom. I felt rather enabled. Sometimes this building was right, after all.

Where many doors once led off the first level to various rooms, now a solid wall encrusted with diamonds and gems faced me, extending from one end of the level to the other.

“Are you behind these renovations, Mother? Or do you simply react to the changes in my power?”

I peered down at her grave. She rustled her black hellebores, and I winked.

The necklace was our little secret.

“There is nothing for it. My obsession is under construction, and I am glad, for I have mostly floundered in queendom.” I patted the hidden necklace.

I could only hope that kings would not spot the changes in my queendom. They might understand, and that would hinder me.

I had intended to hurry to my room and pen a pleading letter to Princess Bring, but my hand had drifted from the necklace to the stitch over my breastbone. I toyed with the contemplative stitch and decided to take the hint of the mother who had sewn it. “More reflection is warranted on this change.”

I could think of no better place for this than the laundry room where I had first noticed missing cleaning carts—which had triggered my obsession with snuffing shares.

Though I had planned to sit on the floor among cleaning carts, the room had altered into a small sitting room, warm and intimate, so I curled on an armchair that was rather monstrously faced away from the fireplace. Only then did I remove my copper crown and set the bothersome thing on the table next to me.

“Of monsters of kings,” I murmured, massaging my head and gazing at a blank wall that used to hold shelves filled with sheets and bulk hotel supplies. “Of brides of monster kings.”

Of monster brides.

Of brides, it appeared, I would have dire use and need. Each princess was needed to complete my tutorage of war. Each princess, assumedly, possessed an item that I might find impossible to resist. If I claimed these items, my queendom would grow. Perhaps my power with it.

I trusted obsessions and reek more and more.

Unfortunately, of brides, I had little notion of how to proceed.

The problem was how to access each princess in a way that escaped the perusal of kings. Gaining her cooperation in divulging her king’s rhyme and reason was another matter entirely.

I felt versed in the topic of how King Bring warred. So who was next?

I did not care to hurry after a friendship with Princess Take. Envy was mostly to blame for my decision, but Take had slumbered a long while—far longer than me, and while I was more ancient as a queen, her power could prove problemsome.

I would leave her for now.

Princess Change… visiting her would accelerate Change’s battle plans for me. I expected his attack with each passing night, but war was yet to come. When it did, I would consider this princess more.

Princess Raise. In confinement and extended foreplay. King Raise was quick to connect agenda, quicker than most kings. But—I recalled with much glee—I already had the perfect cover! I had already sent a message to Raise that he owed me one capture.

I would not capture him, but his princess.

But.

I groaned. “She is trapped in his kingdom.”

Even as a queen, I would not return to his kingdom unless in great and dire need. So, how to get to Princess Raise and free her and lure her and convince her?

I toyed with the stitch above my eyebrow. A cunning stitch indeed.

Pawns had spoken of a warping in the Raises’ union. They had painted a picture of their princess’s headstrong nature and ability to refuse her king’s purpose. A bride who had slumbered for thirty years… and how was such a bride to be lured and convinced?

I drew the black pearl necklace from my dress and held the glinting strand high. Perhaps hours passed as I sat mesmerized by glimmer and gentle spin. I ran the strand through my fingers, relishing the smoothness of them, and nearly choking on the rightness of them in my hands.

A princess to capture.

A kingdom I would not enter.

A kingdom that others could .

My lips curved in their uneven way. “The time has come to set my pawns to work.”