Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

I learned perspective,

Under a great tree.

One saw a wondrous cave.

One saw a perfect grave.

M y jaw cracked on a yawn, and I stretched my arms overhead.

"Bother." My white dress was ruined by dirt, though the dirt streaked and dotted the canvas in a nonsense pattern that I could appreciate with a slight alteration to my perspective.

"I slept under a tree then," I said. That was a first. Did everyone in Change's kingdom get to do the same? What a great thing.

Dirt showered down the bank to my left, and I glanced that way only to encounter a blurred form and a balloon of power.

King Change.

I stood quickly, brushing at my dress. "Good morning, sir. Thank you for coming."

He stalked down the bank in a staggering semblance of an injured soldier's march. I knew well enough to keep space between myself and kings. Even if my mind was good enough to smudge them out somewhat, they were nothing like a prince.

"Wench," he rasped. "I come when I desire and through no desire of yours."

I'd overstepped. "Of course, sir. You are a king, and this is your kingdom."

"You are right, it is mine—ruined and sorry kingdom though it is. A reflection of me, assuredly."

Whatever did he mean by that? "I found the sight of the forest wonderful."

"Then you are as much a fool as I have wished you to be. Why then are you uncaged and free enough to glimpse my kingdom? I had ordered you caged and ruined."

I glanced at the crushed remains of the metal trap behind me. "The cage became cramped, so I got myself out. Then, when I realized I was in a cave under a great tree, I could not resist seeing the rest."

The king's head tilted up. "You call this a cave?"

"Yes, sir, a wondrous cave. What do you call it?"

"A grave, one hopes. The perfect grave."

"Who will the grave belong to?"

The king walked the perimeter of the den, and I circled opposite him.

"You are foolish and optimistic," he stated, ignoring my question. "See sought to claim you. Young monster, what path will you take? One to strengthen me, or one to weaken me?"

My path had naught to do with him. "I cannot fathom my path, sir, and so I cannot answer your question."

"I'd expect not, foolish thing."

"If you could but tell me your purpose, then I could perhaps figure out an answer for you."

"My purpose is to help this world into the ruin it needs," said King Change.

His forthright answer stunned me. He did seek the world's ruin then. Bring's princes were right. "Why does the world need ruin?"

"Because there's too much pain. Far kinder to end the life of a maimed beast, don't you think?"

I wasn't sure what to think on such a heavy matter, but I had seen animals beyond saving in childhood and understood part of what he suggested. "If the life cannot be saved, perhaps ending the life is merciful."

"What if a life will never be the same even if salvageable? If such a life is saved, it will exist in misery and despair, a half-life only. Some things cannot be fixed. When do we submit to the knowledge that the answer is not to fight for life, but to accept the mercy and finality of death?"

I didn't know enough to engage in the conversation on the same level as him. "I cannot say, sir."

"I'd expect not, foolish thing. But will you help the world submit to its fate? That is my question."

"I don't imagine I'll help the world do anything."

"You will. That is clear from how See has favored you, and from Take's interest and Bring's obsession. Kings do not become involved with mere monsters."

I wasn't sure any of those things were true aside from Take's interest, and I would rather do without that. What I knew was this king made my insides shiver. I felt frightened where I had rarely felt so, and not because he would become a monster soon with the onset of night, but because of the way he looked at this tree and forest and his kingdom.

I saw a haunting forest fit for monsterdom, and he saw horridness that should end. I saw this as a whimsical, hidden cave, and he saw a grave already dug. What was more, I suspected that King Change might seek to kill and end anything monstrous simply because they weren't conventional, and that in itself was a terrible failing of character. I'd only met those who celebrated uniquities. I'd never met a monster who considered himself one in essence, and so I feared becoming monster in front of this king and having my vulnerabilities and uncertainties preyed upon. A person who placed such importance on convention must be an unpredictable type of fellow. For that fellow to wear a crown and rule a kingdom… I should know more of this king so that I might safeguard myself.

"Do all of your subjects turn into beasts at dusk?"

"We are all cursed, yes. I am forced to curse more to counter the foolish movements of the other kings to save or hold fast the world."

I took a breath. "You mean to say that if Bring charms or curses the life of a subject, then you must change one of yours into a beast?"

"You understand something, if not all."

His tone mocked, and yet my fright of him was such that I didn't reprimand his poor manners and inhospitable behavior. "The everyday occupants of Vitale become beasts, you say? Mere humans change at dusk?"

"Those I have touched do not change in the physical manner I do, nor that my princes do, but they become beastly in their own way, whether upon themselves or others."

My thoughts turned to the landlady who'd clawed my cheek with her slap, and to the laws in Vitale that said an invalid must be turned out of the walled city. There was beastliness in Vitale, certainly, and I'd never imagined these aspects originated from a king's power and purpose. Change's power forced vices out of the shadows, and there was a beauty to that.

I continued to circle the perimeter of the cave opposite the king.

He said, "My princes tell me you seek my one-fifth snuffing share of the snuffed space, Hotel Vitale. They have said you would be much obliged. Tell me, what are the limits of your obligation."

"I would not ruin a world," I told him plainly. "I'm not sure about such matters yet."

"Then you are not sure about saving it either."

"I haven't given the matter thought."

"I'd expect not."

He didn't expect a lot of me.

"What would you give in return for my snuffing share?" he asked.

"I've no idea, King Change. What do you want other than the ruin of the world? Perhaps there is something there we can negotiate on."

"I want nothing else."

That made negotiations hard, but not impossible. "King Take wished me to attend a ball for the sake of amusement, and King Bring wished me to reject the claim of King See to leave me open to the idea of concubine. You seek the ruination of the world, which I cannot give, but is there a little step toward it that I could manage?"

"You would give such a thing?"

"I cannot say, you have not asked, and I have not felt how the request sits with me."

The ground shook suddenly, and I fell on my behind, shielding my eyes against the crumbling dirt from the roots of the tree above. "Goodness, was that you? Did I offend you then?"

My insides seized in fright at the thought. This king was very unpredictable, and I'd met King Take . I couldn't guess from one moment to the next what he might consider beneficial in the ruining of the world, but he'd mentioned that I was involved in the world's fate, and so I should be worried if this king became convinced of me saving it.

"Not me. It's See and Bring come to collect you," he mused, then faced me.

I watched his blurred form with a wariness I hadn't much experienced since monsterdom. A man set on hating himself was dangerous to the extreme.

"Would you, wench, grant a future agreement?"

I pursed my lips against the urge to chastise him for continuing to call me wench. "Do I understand correctly that you simply wish for me to agree with you in the future?"

"Yes, wench. I would have you agree with me at a point in the future."

I waited for more specific terms, and when they didn't come, I moved forward with caution still. "In return for a future agreement from me, you would permanently return your one-fifth snuffing share of Hotel Vitale to me in full, and immediately, and you would not seek to remove the snuffing share again through any means?"

"I would, for that."

The ground shook again, and harder. I was glad I hadn't stood.

"He nears," the king said. He didn't sound worried or rushed. Rather, he waited for my answer and seemed animated at the thought of See's arrival. I hadn't seen him animated yet. Though, I realized, a fight between kings might help to ruin the world a little, so of course he'd anticipate See's arrival.

"I grant you this request, King Change," I said, for better or worse. There would be consequences after this future agreement certainly, one way or another.

He lowered in a mocking bow. "How could you do otherwise? Begone from my wretched company. Await the day of our next meeting, and learn from your mistake today. For I leave you with a parting gift that you did not think to prevent. This opportunity to enrage See and to delay Bring and to irritate Take is too tender not to bite."

I hadn't connected that he meant my ruin when King Change blurred forward, and though he did not connect a blow to me, the balloon of his power was more than enough to batter me. I was slammed into the vicious knots of the tree roots behind. My head returned to bounce off his power again, only to slam against roots once more.

The pulse of my mind caught up to my senses.

There was a savage squeeze around my head.

A squeeze created by a king.

I'd just barely become used to princes, and a prince was nothing on a king. So of course, I—a new monster—knew no more.