Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

How many people knew the truth of what happened in that tower?

If they could explain it, I'd be much obliged.

" B ut will you not come tomorrow night, Lady Perantiqua?" Is asked mournfully.

Bring's princes had left the hotel with the approach of dawn, and See's princes were about to leave also. I hoped.

"No," I snapped, shoving my messy bun out of my face.

Valetise had offered oversized clothing all week since the bodysuit affair, and I'd snatched up each outfit in a bid to hide and shrink away inside them.

"Our liege doesn't understand why you won't see him," Has Been said. "If you would but tell us, we could pass on a message. Or you could tell him yourself?"

" No," I repeated.

They'd been at this all week.

I stormed across the courtyard and up to my room, then froze at the press of power from the level above. I shrank into the shadows of my room. I didn't want to see him ever again.

Never.

"Perantiqua, I would speak with you." King See's voice curled around me in a cloying kind of way, like being wrapped in a heavy blanket when your body was overheated.

I didn't answer. I didn't want to see him. How long had he watched me and the princes?

"She's worn those outfits all week," Has Been informed his liege. "What did you do to her?"

His words were almost admonishing. I'd never heard him speak to King See in such a manner.

The king snarled, "What I did is between me and the lady. Leave now."

"Don't leave," I called to the princes. "I don't wish to see him."

Why did my voice have to hitch so pathetically? I'd wanted to sound confident and assertive.

"Tell me why you don't wish to see me, mistress." See didn't sound irritated. He didn't sound anything, and that served to upset me more.

I dashed away a tear. "Because…"

Because I felt very small at the thought of being in his company after what happened a week ago. "Go away, King See. I will not see you."

His voice had curled around me, and he tightened the noose now. "Perantiqua, I give you dawn until dusk to adjust yourself to the idea that I will see you. As day turns to night, I return to this place, and we shall converse, or I shall speak and you shall listen. At dusk, I return to this place that… it would not do for other kings to see. What exactly has happened here?"

I cared not for more riddles. "Go and do not come back, King See."

I'd intended for our acquaintance to be great and long-lasting, and that things were like this after a short time left a sour taste in my mouth.

Slamming my door, I flopped onto the bed, sending dust glittering in every direction. The press of See's power disappeared, but his promise lingered to disturb me. I had until dusk. He'd said so, and I believed him. Who did he think he was coming to my hotel uninvited?

"A king, that's who," I answered myself.

How bitterly disappointing that sentiments had changed between us since the bodysuit affair. Over and over, I replayed the night in my mind. Why did I let him see through my wool coat? Because I had. Why then did I throw the coat off and the robe too? I'd squirmed on the floor like a… like a… Was there a word for such a display? Then after, to play out his whisperings on my own body.

Where would I have stopped?

I wouldn't have stopped. That was the shameful truth. I wouldn't have stopped because whatever bloomed between us in his tower had burned me up with so much wanting that I'd become more animal than person. When he'd stopped proceedings, I'd cried more than when my own mother died. I'd cried like a child, and he'd had no idea why, and I had no idea either.

I felt like a fool and very confused. I felt like King See must know ancient secrets about such interactions that he'd wielded against me. Yet I'd done everything to myself. He hadn't touched me once and had barely spoken.

Since my last slumber, I'd felt quite ancient. To be rendered nineteen again felt terrible. I wondered if I might hate King See for inspiring such things in time.

Turmoil and strife weren't great ingredients for a settled sleep.

So like every day this week, though monsters' slumber held my body still, I was aware of the tossing and turning of my tumultuous mind through sunlight hours. When dusk's yawn woke me, I stared at the crumbling ceiling for a time, then dragged myself out of bed with all the enthusiasm of attending my own funeral.

Valetise offered a dress instead of oversized garments, and I held the gown high, feeling a slight distrust that it wasn't hooded and made of thick material.

The simple white dress would leave parts of me bare that I'd thought to cover in King See's presence until the end of time. My arms, neck, and feet would be left revealed. The material was both smooth and coarse, a mixture of fibers, and that seemed purposeful.

When I slid into the dress, the bodice hugged me, and the feminine flare where the skirt began was more obvious. The knee length of the piece suggested a youthfulness and burning inner beauty. I was surprised to discover that I wanted to portray exactly that. I wanted King See to desire me and witness my unimpaired dignity, while knowing that I was now untouchable.

"Thank you, Valetise. This is beautiful and perfect. I'm sorry for distrusting you. You weren't to know that I wasn't ancient enough for the bodysuit last week."

The suitcase half closed in a curtsy, and I dipped my head at her in response, feeling the air clear between us.

I left my blonde hair down and resolved not to wait for King See to arrive. There were many things to do at Hotel Vitale. Though I'd fortified the hotel with the help of Bring's princes, I had a list of preserving projects the length of my arm.

I walked outside, and all sight of the evening world disappeared.

"There's a bag over my head," I said. "King See, is this your doing?"

My elbow was seized in an iron grip, and my brains were rattled as a person jerked me against their hard body.

"King See isn't here," a man told me. "You're coming with us."

He must be a monster to know King See.

As low as my white, heeled sandals were, keeping up wasn't easy as the man dragged me along the landing and down the stairs.

"Could you slow a little?" I asked.

He jerked me upright at the bottom of the stairs.

Snap!

"Ow," I said crossly. "That was my wrist, you know."

"Hurry," someone hissed across the courtyard.

Yes, they'd better. King See would arrive soon.

"I'm coming. Her arms and legs keep getting in the way." The man heaved me along another few steps, then swore any number of obscene things before swinging me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Did she put up a fight then?" the second lisped.

The man carrying me grunted. "Easy as capturing a baby."

The sack over my head hid my frown. "I don't appreciate you saying so because I was made to feel very childish only a week ago."

"What's she yapping about?" a third asked.

Of course there were three. I brightened. "Are you princes then?"

"You have a date with King Change," said the one carrying me.

The three of them snickered in an ominous kind of way.

There was a creak of a door, and I was jostled through my wall of bars. After that, the whipping of my white dress around my legs and the breeze on my skin let me know we traveled at great speed. I listened to the even breaths of the prince carrying me as he ran with impossible smoothness through Vitale. The trio spoke as they ran, too, though with the way the wind snatched away their words, I couldn't make anything out.

I'd miss my conversation with King See this evening.

Part of me felt relieved. The rest of me had almost been ready to speak with him.

"I'd hoped the three of you would come by," I shouted in a lull of their conversation. "I've written a letter to King Change that I wished you to deliver. Now I can deliver it myself."

The whipping of my dress around my legs slowed, but that was the only indicator that the princes had adjusted their speed.

"What's she saying, Loup?" the lisping one asked. "That she wants to see King Change?"

They snickered again, and the low staccato sound of my captors—dare I say it—was enjoyable to the ears.

"Be careful what you wish for, wench," said Loup.

I didn't see a need for that language. "Kindly address me by Lady Patch."

My dress stopped moving altogether when the prince carrying me came to a dead stop. The footsteps of the others halted too.

The one holding me—Loup, was it?—blew out a breath. "That's a fair request. We can do that."

"No reason we can't," lisped the second.

"Speak for yourselves," the third spat out. "I don't trust her tricks. You saw how See and Bring's princes are spending their time there, doing her bidding. It's not right. She's up to something."

We started off again.

"I beg your pardon," I said stiffly. "I'm not up to anything. If you must know, Bring's princes are meant to capture me, and See's princes are there to stop them. It's simple, really."

The hostile prince muttered, "I don't like it."

I'd never met an unreasonable prince, and I was curiously eager to assuage his suspicion. My reassurance was halted as Loup tossed me to the ground.

Oof. Hard.

Metal judging by the coolness and the ringing boom as I'd landed.

I reached to pull off the sack, then paused. "Does removing this cover interfere with your plans?"

A sigh from the unreasonable one. "We would've restrained your hands otherwise, wouldn't we? What kind of prisoner are you?"

I pulled off the sack in time to see Loup reply, "A polite one, I think. Her conversation is delightful and intriguing, you must admit, Huckery."

Huckery, the suspicious prince, hunched his shoulders. "No, it's not, and she's not."

My, he certainly had some preconceived ideas of me.

Huckery swung the door between me and the other princes shut, and I glanced around upon noticing the bars. I was in a cage. A large and very clean cage that I could stand in. "I haven't been in a cage before."

I gripped the nearest vertical bar, glad to find my fractured wrist already healed.

"Get used to it," Huckery sneered. "You'll be in there until our liege decides what to do with you."

That reminded me. "Drat, I didn't get a chance to grab the letter I wrote. I don't suppose one of you could nip back to get it?"

The remaining prince lisped, "I could do?—"

"No," snapped Huckery. "We aren't her lackeys, Unguis. Remember yourself against her dark witchery."

My brows shot up. Dark witchery. "You believe so? I'd thought witchery was the business of King Bring with his curses and charm and cauldrons."

Huckery scowled in response.

I sat cross-legged on the metal floor of the cage, glad for its sparkling cleanliness that wouldn't mark my white dress. "What is King Change's business then? I've heard he'd like to destroy the world. Is that so?"

"You've been speaking to Bring's foolish princes," Unguis said, frowning.

And here I'd been passing judgments about preconceived ideas. I blushed, and the prince gaped through the bars. Were my cheeks inky? My monstrous form must be near.

"I apologize," I told them. "I should let you explain, for the three of you would know better than anyone what King Change's business is."

Huckery slammed his palm on the cage, warping a bar near to snapping point. "His business is his business. Cease your incessant gibber jabber." He said to the others, "You know what we're to do."

Loup pulled a face. "It seems a shame, doesn't it? I've never seen a midnight blush, and I would like to make her blush all night to see it over and over."

My skin started to itch, and I sighed, scratching at my forearms to no avail. "What are you meant to do?"

"Make you a little insane, Lady Patch," Loup replied. "King Change would like to ruin you for others and any possibilities that don't align with his path."

"Goodness," I replied after a beat. "How will he do that?"

Huckery narrowed his gaze. "Our liege won't lift a finger. We will do it for him."

The itching of my skin heightened, but the sickening wet pops, abrasive cracks, and horror-filled screams from the three princes distracted me tonight.

I watched as they turned into beasts of matted fur and yellowed claw, of frothing mouth and patched mange. They snapped jagged fangs at the cage, buckling and bending the bars inward. The three princes, werebeast monsters for lack of a better description, circled my prison.

Change . I could gather what their king's kingdom was about. "Does everyone change into werebeasts in his kingdom, then?"

The beasts halted their circling, and one went so far as to sit back on his horned haunches. Another tilted his head much like the other princes I'd met.

I was sorry to have to disappoint them. "I'm afraid the sight of princes doesn't squeeze my mind and make me insane. I had another one-month slumber, you see."

The princes yipped and snarled at each other, and I could see that they spoke a language I didn't understand.

Huckery lunged at the cage after, snapping his jaws.

"The strings of your saliva are most impressive," I complimented. They really were exceptional. Where Bring's princes blobbed, and See's princes ghouled, Change's princes savaged.

I couldn't help but add, "You give yourself over to your true forms with abandon. My breath is taken."

Despite my pure intentions, Huckery didn't ruffle his mange-patched fur with pride as the other two did. Instead, he snarled and yipped until the others returned to the task at hand.

Night set in, and they continued to lunge and tear at the bars.

They wouldn't succeed in squeezing my mind as intended, and I would've taken more pains to convince them of that if not for the perfect vantage point I had of their monsters. During this time, I came to understand something beyond their fangs and claws and powerful hind legs. In their rabid eyes lurked a pain. There, just behind the alertness. The pain was hooked in them, in all three. They shared this pain, and the depth of their torment vised my heart.

"What has caused your sorrow?" I whispered as Huckery tried to shove his snouted face through the bars.

He froze, not many inches from my face because their attempts to unhinge me had turned the cage into more of a jagged death trap. Soon the bars would stab in on me.

Huckery, still frozen, growled such a sinister sound that I almost became frightened. If not for feeling very sad on his behalf, I would have.

What was the source of their misery and hurt? "I'm very sorry for your sorrow, whatever the reason," I told him. "I'd like to help if you'll let me."

Huckery sat back, and past him, I could see that Loup and Unguis were lying down and panting hard.

A sparkle stole my focus, and I studied the gleaming and pointed end of a snapped bar an inch from my eye. I didn't relish becoming a monster kebab. I pushed at the cave roof, and with a bit of effort, the metal panel popped free. I tossed the roof aside, then jumped rather high and landed without any trouble on the dirt floor.

I hadn't seen much past the prince's circling forms this night, but now I could see we were in a dug-out area of sorts.

I peered around, trying to make sense of the dirt ceiling and darkness. "My, are we under the roots of a great tree?"

A panting Loup nodded.

A great tree indeed. I'd never seen one so large. Under it, I felt tiny indeed.

Huckery growled in warning but didn't stop me as I walked across the dirt cavern and scrabbled up the crumbling bank. Breaking to the surface, I was left gaping at a wonderous sight. The haunted forest was obscenely and unnaturally sparse. The trees were as gnarled as an old man's hands, and gigantic as well as utterly, horrifically bare of leaves. The ground was mud with no trace of lush understory, and broken tree roots extended for fifty feet or more between each scraggly, enormous excuse of a tree.

There was a uniformity to the spacing of the trees that sang of how unnatural the forest was, if the enormity of the leafless trees wasn't already a blaring sign of monster. The sparsity really was hideous and hostile to a lovely degree. For a second time, my breath was taken.

A haunted howl took up the air and choked my throat. I fell back, rolling head over heels down into the werebeasts' den under the great tree.

My head thumped against Loup's matted stomach.

"Sorry," I wheezed as my mind pulsed and squeezed from the haunted howl. "Was that your liege?" I asked after.

Loup made a noise that wasn't a growl and seemed more like a yes.

"Will he come to speak to me, do you think?"

My question went unanswered, and so I remained sprawled across Loup while Unguis dozed near my feet. Huckery contented himself to remain upright and alert and tossed me the occasional growl or snarl to remind me of his suspicion.

I'd nearly fallen asleep, drawn to slumber by approaching dawn, when I noticed three conventionally handsome faces peering down from above.

"You will speak to our liege this evening," Loup said. "Before the true change comes over you. He wants you ruined, but not broken, you understand?"

I understood perfectly. "Will he be irritated that I'm not ruined as he wanted?"

Unguis swallowed. "I'd expect so, Lady Patch. I shouldn't think he'll release you until you are so."

Goodness. How would he achieve that? "It's just that I had a meeting arranged with King See that I never arrived for. Do you suppose I could send a note to explain the situation?"

"I don't see why not," Loup replied.

Huckery shoved him. "She can't do that. We don't want See in our forest. He claimed her for a while. He might not be content to remain impartial as he always has."

Unguis observed me. "I wonder what she did to make him change his mind. I can't help but think I wouldn't take back a claim on her."

His comment touched a nerve after the unresolved bodysuit affair. "I'll have you know that I turned down his claim."

The three stared.

"You don't wish to be a princess?" Huckery demanded. "Whyever not?"

This came painfully close to thoughts I didn't want to think about. The thing was, I hadn't wanted to be a princess, and I still might not want to be a princess, but things with See were murky, and I felt confused about what I wanted altogether. Did I regret rejecting his claim? I didn't believe so, and yet if I'd accepted the mantle of princess, he might not have stopped whispering to me that night a week ago, and I might not have cried, nor felt so embarrassed about the exchange. If none of that had happened, then I might not have felt so angry at him. There might not have been this gulf between us that now existed.

"I had to get a snuffing share of the hotel back from King Bring," I told them. "Rejecting King See's claim was the deal."

"You did that just for a snuffing share of a hotel?" Loup was very confused. "Such a small price. You might have demanded much. Why so little?"

"Asking that exact thing seemed important to my future. In fact, that is what I'd like to discuss with your king. If he'd be kind enough to return his one-fifth snuffing share of my hotel, I'd be much obliged."

Huckery narrowed his gaze. "How obliged?"

"Much obliged, like I said."

The three princes considered that.

"We must report to our liege," said Unguis. "You will stay here and not escape?"

I had things to do, but the possible return of another one-fifth share overrode my other plans. I did wish that they'd agreed to send a quick message to See, though, for he must be worried about not finding me at the hotel.

"I'll stay here under dusk," I said.

I'd stay here and speak to King Change.