Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

I'd made assumptions about immortality.

" N ame," a man demanded.

I opened my eyes and peered up at the blurred monster looming over me.

A few blinks and the blur disappeared, though the number of his arms did not.

The monster's skin was gray and possessed a waxy quality that gave the impression of leathery toughness and none-too-recent death. Tears stretched in his skin, like a beast's yawn where drool stretched between upper and lower lip. He didn't have a trace of hair on his body or face. No eyebrows or lashes or chest hair.

"You have a lot of arms," I croaked.

Two of his arms were occupied with holding parchment and a quill.

The monster tilted his head. "I found two arms weren't enough for all I had to do. I pushed some of myself into more of them."

"And that's why your skin tears in places. How wonderful."

He frowned and smiled at the same time. "Thank you. I believe it wondrous too. I…" The monster shook his head. "Name!"

I propped on my elbows. Goodness , I was still in my nightgown. I'd fallen from my conservatory and must've sustained considerable injury to have lost consciousness.

"Questions asked kindly are questions I will answer, sir," I told the monster.

He stared, still poised to jot down my answer on his parchment. "Please, lady, what is your name?"

I answered, "Lady Patch. And what is yours, if I may ask?"

"You may. I am Prince Sign."

"Another prince. How lovely to meet you, Prince Sign. Have you been the eye in my conservatory?"

"No, Lady Patch." He blinked a few times, then jotted something on his parchment, though his movements had lost their briskness.

I rolled to my feet and looked about.

I stood on a floating platform in the middle of thousands of staircases. No stairs connected my platform to any other, and my stomach lurched as I spun in a circle only to find stairs in every direction—above and below, near and distant. For as far as my eyes could see, there was nothing but stairs everywhere—short and long, curved and straight .

This kingdom scared me where no other had.

"Where do these stairs go, Prince Sign?" I asked.

His scratching stopped. "Where they need to."

"So if I need to go home, then a stairwell would take me there?" Except this platform had no stairs.

"Lady, you misunderstand. The stairwells go where my liege needs them to. Of course, if your need aligned with his need or if you formed a deal with him for your need, then your stairwell would lead where you needed." He cleared his throat. "Why did I tell you that?"

"Thank you," I replied. "Is this my stairwell then? It has no stairs." Another thought occurred to me. "If this is mine, then do all these stairwells belong to people?"

"Yes, lady. Now, kindly, what is your deepest desire?"

"My, that's very personal."

"It is so with King Raise. He wishes to enslave you, so a deep desire works well." He cleared his throat. "Why did I tell you that?"

I grimaced. "I'm glad you did, for now I've decided not to tell you."

"My liege will be unhappy with me."

"Maybe there are other questions I can answer that won't enslave me?"

The prince muttered as he scanned the parchment. As he unwound the roll, the length of his questionnaire became more apparent. He went on scanning and scanning.

"Ah," he announced. "There are two. Firstly, where do you reside?"

"Hotel Vitale," I answered, then waited as he scribbled it down.

The monster finished writing, and a single stair appeared on my platform. So that is how a person built their stairwell out of here. A clever trap, for if I didn't answer, then I couldn't escape, and if I did answer, then I would lose freedom in another sense.

The prince asked, "Would you consider your soul to be unchained, free—though not of charge, and otherwise fine and ready to enter into an agreement? Is there, in other words, any prior claim to your soul from another entity that is not yourself?"

"I haven't thought of such things before. But yes, I consider my soul unchained and free. I certainly hope not to ever sell it and would never do so for free. I don't consider myself ready to enter into an agreement involving my soul."

The prince squinted. "Shall I put down ‘yes' or ‘not applicable'?"

"You could do both for good measure?"

His brow cleared. "A grand idea." He jotted on the parchment, and another stair appeared on my platform.

I was nowhere near the other stairs, and I'd answered the only two questions that wouldn't enslave me to King Raise.

The prince scanned the parchment anew and pulled a face. "This preliminary questionnaire really is quite incomplete. You're sure that you won't answer enslaving questions? You'll be trapped here for eternity if you don't."

That seemed unfair, and yet I couldn't die and didn't need to eat. I was also very capable, and if King Raise only gave me two options, then I would simply create a third. "I'm sure, Prince Sign."

The prince rolled up the parchment. "Then there's naught to be done, I gather." He extended the quill to me. "Sign at the bottom, Lady Patch."

I didn't take the quill. "Sign what?"

"This."

"What is this?"

"A preliminary document exploring eternal servitude to my liege."

Eternal servitude could prove bothersome to an immortal monster. "I do not seek to be servant to your liege."

Prince Sign lowered quill and parchment. "Whyever are you here then?"

"I fell through the glass panel in my…" I recalled King See's advice. "My… hotel. I must've landed with force, and when I woke, you were here."

"You weren't delivered," he said after a lull.

"I think not. Though I'm unsure whether my glass panel gave way or if it was pulled."

Prince Sign appeared as baffled as I felt.

"You aren't embroiled in disastrous circumstances?" he asked. "Does vengeance burn within you? Unrequited love, perhaps? Financial strife? Do you wish to be with child?"

"None of those things. Should I be?"

"No one has come here without wishing badly for something." He glanced around, then extended the quill again. "You had better sign."

I took his quill and tossed it over my shoulder.

"That was my finest quill! Whyever did you do that?"

"I've answered the matter of whether I shall sign. You chose not to listen, even though I'm very worthy of being listened to. Consider your finest quill in the future when we converse."

The prince half-bowed. "I am chastened. My apologies, magnificent lady. I can see you're very worthy of being listened to, and I'm sorry that I did not better show you this. Now only words can suffice to convince you of such until future opportunities arise to show you."

I dipped my head. "As apologies go, that is a good one, Prince Sign. You had better take me to King Raise. This is a matter to solve directly."

The prince threw a scathing look at the unsigned and mostly unanswered questionnaire. "We had better. I'm meant to leave people on the platform until their resolve breaks, but they always sign before then, and they always want something badly. You'd better follow me, lady, for better or worse. This has never happened before, so I cannot say how my liege will react."

He walked off the platform, but a staircase blurred out of nowhere to prevent his fall. The long flight of stairs connected to my platform and didn't have balustrades like the others around me.

"Yours is a beautiful one," I told the prince. As I watched, he morphed to a conventional and handsome daylight form. My stitches and patches disappeared also. Goodness, was it dawn? I'd been down here for hours. Princess Bring had left my hotel at midnight.

"There are only three free stairwells in the kingdom. This is one of them, and it is mine."

I took that to mean Raise's princes could go where they liked. "Tell me, Prince Sign. Did you and your liege hear of my recent arrival to monsterdom?"

"You're a monster?"

I cocked a brow. "Couldn't you tell from my patches and stitches when you found me? You know, I give frights as well as receive them."

"I have no doubt. I haven't seen a human in a long time and couldn't remember what they look like or if they changed sometimes. I thought you were the most exquisite and rare creature ever seen, heard, or smelled, just not that you were monster. My oversight, lady, I assure you. Work has kept me busy here for centuries."

"You haven't ventured to the surface at all in centuries? No wonder you've forgotten the difference between monster and human. You must have become disconnected."

"Connected to my work more so."

"This is how King Raise likes you?"

"What else would he like us for? His purpose is his breath, and so it's mine as his prince."

King Bring had said that Raise's purpose had become personal. I'd interpreted that to mean that Raise had corrupted long ago to whatever riches or glory his purpose could provide.

We reached the bottom of the stairwell and entered a long hallway.

The padding of my bare feet echoed, as did my breath. I couldn't see any doorways down the hall, but when the prince turned right, an unmarked door appeared. That seemed to be the way in this place: things weren't there one moment, then they were in the next.

The kingdom obeyed the will and thoughts of King Raise, and that was frightening indeed. Prince Sign could summon destinations and doorways because his king trusted that the will of his princes aligned with his will absolutely. That was why the princes each had a free stairwell. I doubted the stairwell would work for me, though. Raise surely wouldn't trust his princes that far.

In short, if I couldn't convince Raise that returning me to the hotel served his interest, then I suspected escape might be impossible.

"My liege," the prince called into the room, then bowed. "There has been an interruption in proceedings."

"An interruption," drawled a voice. "There is no such thing in my kingdom."

"No, my liege. You are brilliant, and it does seem there's an interruption."

"I am sure it is not, but speak your quibble, so that I might reassure you it is not such."

Prince Sign cleared his throat. "My liege, a Lady Patch declares she fell into the kingdom to land upon a stairwell. She mentions that she was not delivered. In addition, she opted to answer only two entry questions and then," he mumbled the rest, "didn't sign."

I became aware of the crackle and pop of flame in the silence.

A creak of leather followed. "Did not sign?"

"Yes, my liege. And so she suggested I bring her here to solve matters directly, and I didn't feel sure that was the right course until the lady mentioned she'd recently become monster. Then I felt certain you'd wish to meet someone like her."

"A new monster," said Raise. "Yes, I heard of her through the channels as one does. New monsters don't mean much to business, my prince."

My eyes narrowed.

He'd known of me and snubbed me for the sake of his purpose, which he termed a business.

Raise sighed. "Let her enter then. I might as well see what can be done."

To enslave me?

Prince Sign stepped aside, and I had the relish of witnessing King Raise jerk on his couch. He shot to his feet.

"Lady," he hushed. "Magnificence."

I inclined my head. "King Raise, we meet."

I wouldn't say meeting him was a pleasure because his rudeness had picked at my calmness somewhat.

"I have been in error," the king said. "I should have made haste to meet you, lady."

Perhaps I should stay open to the idea that a person could learn from their mistakes.

"One as you is a powerful pawn to keep," he said in the next breath.

The smile I'd nearly formed fell flat.

He regretted not making haste to meet me because he saw how I might be used. If there was a person not to surround myself with, King Raise might be him. Yet this was the way of him and the way to him. My wants had to align with his.

What did King Raise desire?

I trailed inside as far as his power would let me. His leathery skin matched his prince's, but his business suit covered everything that the jewels on his fingers didn't. Of course, his face remained blurred.

"This is your kingdom then, sir," I said. "A wondrous collection of stairwells and eternal servitudes."

"You are not frightened by it?" he purred.

"I was recently a human. I can appreciate a person who does what they can with what they're given."

"Then you understand what no other monster does." His voice was silken.

I shouldn't forget how many stairwells existed. This king would recognize a play on words. "Tell me then, why did you turn into your purpose when the other kings wished to spur theirs?"

Leather creaked, and the king approached the fire. "I wished to spur mine long ago, if you wish to know. As time went by, I saw that our interpretation of why we were here and immortal kings wasn't correct, and so I made the choice to change the way I lived and what I lived for."

I studied his suited shoulders and back. "I cannot fault you for that. A person should live for themselves."

"Not a king, lady. Kings don't get to do that."

"Nor princes, nor princesses?"

He looked up and in my direction. "They are freer than kings."

"Less so in some ways. A prince obeys orders, and a princess is chained to the whims of her king."

"Your conversation is delightful," he said suddenly. "Unexpectedly articulate and intriguing."

I executed a small curtsy. "I am told."

"Who tells you?"

"Mostly every monster I've met."

A hum. "King Bring wishes you to concubine. King See wishes you to princess. King Change wishes you to ruin. King Take wishes you to puppet."

This king was far better informed than he'd let on. "You want something from them."

"Do I?"

"Why else would you keep tabs on them so?"

He didn't answer, and that was an answer in itself.

What did he want from the other kings? The answer popped into my ancient mind without too much trouble. King Raise had decided to serve himself instead of serving ancients and fate. His offer to me was one of eternal servitude in exchange for making my deepest desire a reality.

King Raise wanted power over others.

He wanted power over kings and, in this way, he would become the only king.

"There's one path to what you wish," I told him plainly. "If I remain here, you will never get it. I haven't answered your questions, and so you must watch how I interact with kings and princes and princesses to see how best to chain me to you. The only way to achieve that is to show me to the surface so that I might interact with them in the first place."

A deep chuckle. "You are very ancient, but quite young in such dealings."

"Is the matter not as I've presented it?"

"In part, new monster. You assume good will, and that is a human notion. I do not much care how your signature arrives on my contract, just that it does. Prince Sign, take her to the dungeons."

The prince was aghast. "My liege, dungeons should not hold liquid wonder and?—"

"To the dungeons!"

I covered my ears at his roar. My last slumber was recent, and I had dinner plans with King See in a week. Please no more. I staggered until the weight of my mind's squeeze and pulse until, gasping, I found a wall to sag against.

"And she shows more resistance to kings than my contractees informed me of," the king said. "What else do you hide? And why do you hide it? Magnificent monster, you shall give me all answers in time. Prince Sign, take her away, and tell Prince Seal to unleash level seven protocol."

The prince didn't challenge his liege aloud this time, but his expression said it all.

King Raise asked in a silken voice, "Is there a reason you do not leap to my bidding?"

The prince clasped his hands behind his back. "Of course, my liege, I exist to see to your bidding as it pertains to your purpose. I seem at odds in this matter, which may stem from the fact this action does not align with the reason ancients warped you."

"My purpose is to raise dreams, nightmares, desires, and even lives. Lady Patch isn't exempt from my ability to raise."

Prince Sign hesitated. "Yes, my liege. I hear what you're saying. Perhaps my hesitation stems from the lack of signature on her preliminary questionnaire."

"It matters not why. You don't exist to hesitate. You have your orders."

The prince bowed. "Level two protocols."

" Seven , Sign. You try me for the last time tonight."

Prince Sign straightened but didn't meet his king's steely regard. "As you say, sire."

"Good evening to you, Lady Patch. Let us both hope that you are more cooperative at our next meeting."

I pushed off the wall. "I doubt that I shall be, sir. You have made the wrong move on the gameboard this night."

There was a flicker of surprise in the slight turn of his shoulders, but he didn't backtrack his orders to Prince Sign.

"Lead the way, Prince Sign," I told the monster beside me.

We left King Raise and continued down the endless, doorless hall. Prince Sign glanced at me three times but spoke not at all.

"Do not fret," I said at last.

The prince widened his eyes. "I do feel this way, but it is you who might consider feeling fret, lady. Didn't you hear my liege's orders?"

"Yes," I said pleasantly. "But that won't happen. King Raise doesn't see what he does, but we do."

"We do?"

"We do."

We walked down the endless hallway for a time.

The prince stopped. "What do I see, lady? I'm not sure we have the same lens."

"You said it yourself, Prince Sign. King Raise has parted ways with his purpose. He cannot be allowed to act so, and it will fall to you and me to ensure this doesn't happen."

The waxy monster stared.

I leaned in. "You can feel that I am not meant to be locked away, and I can tell you that no matter of protocol will work to make me answer or sign anything I don't wish to."

"The protocols always work," the prince informed me, sorrow in his voice. "I used protocol seven on my king long ago when he turned too many times from his purpose. This is what broke him properly."

I absorbed that. "The feeling you had then is similar to what you feel now."

"In part, lady. I do not feel the urge as strongly. The sense of misguided purpose is like a scent on a breeze. I do not feel the dungeons are for you, but I'm also not driven to step between you and my king. I am not suddenly filled with the power of ancients that would enable me to stop a king."

"Is that how princes overpower straying kings?" I asked him.

"Yes, lady. Ancients tend to give monsters what they need."

Then I hoped they would do the same for me. My efforts to convince King Raise to release me hadn't gone as planned. His prince had to be the reasonable one.

"Here is what must happen," I said. "You will call your staircase and allow me to walk to the surface. In this matter, you must obey your instincts, Prince Sign, I assure you."

I had a dinner to attend, and I had a sense of timelessness in this place. How long was a day here in comparison to a day above ground?

"That will not work," the prince said. "My stairwell works for me, not others, even rare gems."

I peered in each direction of the endless hall to no avail. "I need a way out of here, prince."

"There is none but a stairwell formed through agreement with my liege, lady. I'm afraid this is a hopeless business."

I smiled and noticed the twist of it, then noticed the gray waxiness of the prince's skin too. How were we monsters again already?

I rested a hand on the prince's linen jacket sleeve. "The impossible and magical frequently happens to me. Do not worry so. Kindly call your stairwell."

"It's of no use, I promise you."

"Do you agree that I should be allowed to judge that? And if there is a way to escape this kingdom, that I shall take it?"

The prince wrung two of his hands, "Y-you might certainly judge the stairwell. As for the s-second, that draws near to oath… breaking, and?—"

"I would not have you break an oath," I said. "The stairwell, if you please."

After an audible swallow, the prince obeyed.

The wall parted to admit the bottom of the prince's wonderful stairs. Through the door, I could spot the maze of other stairwells beyond.

There must be a path through.

If this kingdom operated on the thought of King Raise, then the trick sat therein. I focused my mind on the motion that Raise didn't know what he did. We could have a meaningful relationship in the future, but not if he dungeoned and tortured me. Then, I might not feel inclined toward friendship.

This was in our best interest.

Holding that thought, I tried to set a foot on the bottom step of the prince's stairwell.

An invisible balloon formed under my foot and bounced my leg right off again.

"A hopeless endeavor," the monster beside me said.

"Nothing is hopeless," I replied. "Believe me. I have had some reason to lose it, but hope always remains."

I peered up in the direction of the surface. "Where do you usually walk to find the surface?"

"I think of the surface, and the stairs lead me there. I haven't walked on the surface for centuries, lady."

"Do you usually climb up though?"

"From what I recall, lady, yes."

I bent my knees and jumped as high as I could.

An invisible force resisted my jump and made me feel like I'd jumped upward through gelatin.

I gasped and gripped the edge of a landing, then pulled myself on top of it.

The prince arrived at a run up his stairwell. "Lady, you jumped. This is not your landing. My liege will be very unhappy."

The landing underfoot crumbled at my intrusion, and I bent my knees, then launched high again. The prince's shouts were left behind.

A gelatin force had resisted my first jump. On the second jump, the resistance felt more like wet sand.

I started to fall at the height of my jump but caught hold of a landing on the way down. Panting, I pulled myself onto the landing with shaking arms. The stone started to crumble.

"Lady Patch, my king's power seeks to keep you here."

"That's the resistance I feel?" I croaked, struggling to my feet.

The prince hushed. "Lady Patch, he will never allow you to leave. He'll feel this. He'll come."

I pressed my lips together against the implication that a king would allow me anything, then noticed how they lined up. I was in my daylight form again. What was happening?

I didn't have time to find out.

I bent my knees and pushed all my strength into my legs.

Sandpaper.

A shriek tore from me as Raise's power tore at my skin, but I didn't have time to assess the damage after heaving my body on top of the next landing.

"Am I close?" I whispered to Prince Sign, who watched in silence as I staggered upright.

The landing crumbled rapidly.

"You cannot leave, lady," the prince said.

I refused to let that be so. I gathered my will and strength. "I will be free of this place!"

My voice boomed from my mouth, and the prince leaped back when the sound rocketed through the kingdom of stairs.

The landing slowed in its crumbling.

I bent my knees and jumped.

Sandpaper again. No worse, and no better.

Unfortunately, I couldn't see anything of the top. As I lay panting on the next landing, staring upward, I reassessed. Maybe there was another way to do this. There had to be a way out.

A tiny pinprick of light appeared above.

"Lady Patch?"

The thin voice barely reached me.

I gasped, then cupped my hands around my mouth. "Huckery? Prince Huckery!"

"Lady, are you well?"

"I need help. I can't seem to escape Raise's kingdom."

"No wonder, lady. It's inescapable. I understand why you called for help."

I shot Prince Sign a look. "Did I?"

"The booming before, lady. Your statement ran with an air of certainty, and I felt inclined to help you also." The prince sounded baffled by the turn of events.

"Huckery," I shouted. "I need you to gather the other princes."

A pause. "We're present, lady. How might we help you?"

I'd somehow called twelve princes to my aid. "I can't say. I can't walk up the stairs, and jumping grows harder as Raise's power resists me."

A longer pause.

"We have just the thing. Never fear, lady."

My bottom lip trembled at his words. I was afraid. Not of dungeons and torture, but of living out immortality in a lonely maze.

Beside me, Sign muttered, "What in the love of the pulses are they doing?"

He had better eyes than me because all I'd noticed was the disappearance of the pinprick of light.

"We're coming, lady," Has Been shouted.

The familiar voice nearly undid me.

"I feel beholden to point out that this landing is nearly gone," Sign said to me.

I glanced down. Drat.

The arrival of the other princes had filled me with fresh resolve. I shot to my feet and bent my legs.

This jump was pitiful. I made it two landings up, and stone fell away as soon as my feet touched the platform. I scanned above, and my heart leaped into my throat when I spotted Huckery.

He swung between stairwells and held hands with Loup, who clung to Unguis with his other hand.

Gangrel was strung between Unguis and Sanguine, and Vassal connected all of them to Toil.

Sigil was next and clasped forearms with Hex.

Has Been came after.

Then Is.

At the very top, and not visible, I deduced that Prince Will Be anchored the rope of princes to my conservatory. Their rope wasn't long enough.

"We need more length," Huckery snarled.

The princes abandoned their hand-to-hand chain for a foot-to-hand one.

Their rope still fell short.

I had to jump higher.

I crawled to the next landing.

"They come to your aid," said Prince Sign, appearing beside me in a crouch. "Why do they come to your aid?"

King Raise's power pinned me to stone, and I couldn't answer.

"Lady," Huckery called. "You must come higher. We can go no further."

Tears pinched at the corners of my eyes. "I do not think I can close the gap."

"You must," the prince informed me.

The other princes shouted encouragement.

"Here," said Sign as he helped me to stand. "This surely isn't defiance. You'd likely stand again soon anyway."

I couldn't jump to the next landing. Bending my knees, I tried to hop halfway up the next stairwell. Knives sliced at me, or the feeling of them anyway. I didn't have the energy to check my body.

I hopped another few steps, then again before collapsing on the next landing.

Still too far.

"Keep going, lady," Loup cried.

I needed a rest first.

There was a great cheer from above.

"Dusk has arrived," Hex yelled. "We'll stretch our blob."

My monster form was back again? I smiled to check the news and nearly wept at the torsion of my lips. But we might not have long in this form.

Hex, Toil, and Sigil stretched like slime, and my breath caught when Huckery, now werebeast, lowered more. So close.

"Hold on," Is yelled down. "Our sinew is tough enough to hold us together. Will Be, Has Been, get dislocating."

Pop, pop, squelch.

Huckery lowered again, not as far this time.

"Our forms don't change as the other princes'," Sanguine mourned. "But wait!"

There was frantic whispering, then Huckery lowered again. I peered beyond but couldn't tell what the princes of Take had done.

"They've used their spears to add length, lady," Sign said. "You're very close." He scooped me up and set me on my feet.

"Thank you." I swayed.

Huckery was two landings above. I had to make it, and to do so, I'd need to ignore my instincts.

I blinked six feet up the next stairwell, then screamed at the slashing sensation. Red dripped from my fingertips, and I could assume the slashing was more than phantom sensation.

I blinked halfway to the next landing and sank into a bloody heap.

"Stop, please," Toil cried. "You injure yourself."

"I can't think how else to get to you, princes." My voice hitched.

Sign crouched on the steps below me. "This sight cannot be born, lady. Such things should never be done to you, and yet there is something that prevents me from helping you as these princes valiantly do. How is it that I am not as valiant as other princes?"

I swallowed. "You are very valiant, Prince Sign."

I stared up into Huckery's rabid eyes. His expression was grim, even for a werebeast.

"Did you see me give the landlady a fright?" I whispered.

He whined. "Yes, lady. The fright was most impressive for your first. Many aspects entertained me. I was sorry to leave before we could wring all laughter and enjoyment from the memory. I was called to my liege's side."

Relief coursed through me. "I'm glad you didn't leave by choice. I was disappointed not to share the aftershocks with you."

"Another time?" Huckery asked, then howled some.

My lips trembled. "Another time."

Prince Sign was silent beside me, and I was glad he did not crow about his earlier comment regarding the hopelessness of an endeavor to reach the surface.

Huckery snapped his fangs. "Prince Unguis, Prince Loup, there's nothing for it. We must use our cursed form to help."

" Huckery ," hissed Loup. "We're forbidden from aiding anything but ruin from dusk until dawn. Goodness is not for those cursed. Our king is clear on this matter."

"This might bring future ruin," Huckery said, but uncertainty filled his tone. "Perhaps saving Lady Patch is what's needed. Our liege didn't kill her after all."

"King See wages war on King Take over a trivial matter because of the lady. He would certainly wage war on Raise, too, if she should die here. King Bring would join with King See, and then our liege would only need to ally himself with the winning side to ensure an enormous step toward ruin. How does saving the lady assure any ruin?"

Huckery didn't answer.

Unguis lisped, "Saving her feels the right thing to do, though."

"It does," Loup agreed. "There is no purpose to saving her, nor any logical ruin, and yet everything in me is driven to do so."

Huckery locked gazes with me again. "I'm driven to this too. We are decided."

Without warning, Loup released Huckery's leg, and snatched the prince's patchy tail between his fangs instead. Unguis did the same with Loup, and then Gangrel switched his hold to Unguis's tail too.

The monstrous rope of princes reached the next landing.

I tried to blink myself closer.

My power was at an impasse against King Raise's. "I cannot go further, my princes. I am sorry."

"I can help you to stand," Sign mumbled. "You'd get there anyway."

He scooped me up, and I didn't have the strength to help as Raise's power crushed against my chest.

"Just jump off and grab her, Huckery," Has Been bellowed.

"No," Sign blurted. "The moment your feet touch stair, you're in Raise's kingdom." The prince cut off and pressed his lips together.

Then, bizarrely, Huckery lowered to where Prince Sign cradled me against him.

"Who helps?" Prince Sign muttered, squinting up. "Who is that?"

I couldn't answer with escape so close. The rope of princes swung less than five feet away.

"I'll need to jump," I said. I'd need to jump into thin air and risk falling through the kingdom back to the beginning.

I couldn't make it here a second time.

"I must leap to you, Huckery. Please don't let me fall."

The prince holding me sighed. "You aren't in any fit state to leap into thin air, lady. Mutt of King Change, are you ready for this precious cargo?"

"Do not call him so," I found the energy to snap at Sign.

His hold tightened. "Lady? I?—"

"Do not call them so. They are princes the same as you, and they seek to do right despite the order of their liege."

Prince Sign colored, and though I knew my reprimand wasn't entirely fair, I was too battered to apologize.

"I apologize, Prince Huckery," said Sign. "I misspoke. Are you ready then, lady?"

Huckery growled, and I was tossed through air, high up and between thousands of stairs. Panic seized my insides, and a shriek left me right as Huckery chomped a hold on my nightgown.

The light fabric tore.

I froze.

"He has her," came Sigil's shout. "Pull us up, lads."

We dragged higher in short bursts, and I had ample time to locate Sign's worried and resigned face below.

"Thank you, prince," I whispered. "I'm sorry for Raise's ire if he should have any."

The prince bowed. "I acted with my own mind. I am glad you might be free. Don't come here again, lady. I won't be allowed to help you a second time."

I wouldn't step foot in this kingdom ever again. "Farewell, prince. Venture to the surface sometime, if you please."

He bowed again, and we both winced at the rip of my nightgown.

Up and up I was pulled, and the tearing of fabric was awful to my ears. More awful was the slash and grate of Raise's power as it tried to hold me in his kingdom. The pain overwhelmed me many times, but I did register when Will Be and Is guided me into my conservatory. The effect of Raise's power disappeared.

I was free.

I listed and fell against the nearest body—that of a buxom brunette.

The masterful flare of her skirt caught my attention, as did the tape measures around her waist. The buckles of her shoes were familiar somehow too.

In a daze, and not entirely conscious perhaps, I lifted my head to look at her face.

Her smile was kind and monstrous. "My body arrived in the nick of time, lady. It's a pleasure to formally meet you. What have you done to your nightgown?"

A thirteenth monster had provided the extra length on the princely rope. She'd saved me.

"Valetise," I croaked at the suitcase who was no longer a suitcase.

This wasn't the strangest part of my night by any means.