Page 13

Chapter Thirteen

Goodness

But a narration

In third person, no less.

T he upholstered armchair stuck halfway out of the stone walls between tapestries. The armchair belonged beside a fireplace, seat to a musing creature in possession of a heavy book or a strong drink. As matters stood, a skeleton sat upon the chair, and the chair was positioned my way, instead of toward any fireplace. I should rather say that what I could see of the newest monster in Vitale was skeleton. By all means, she could be otherwise above her mid-thighs.. She may not be a she at all. But there was something feminine about the monster’s elegant toes, and coupled with the high and soft tone of whispering in the walls, I did believe we had another female monster present.

There was a shyness to the arrival of her whisperings that made me feel she did not wish to be too noticed nor spoken at. So far, today, she had just sat there, assumedly watching me. We had not spoken. She had not whispered. Just sat there, watching on.

What was her purpose? I was metaphorically dying to know.

The doors opened, and surprisingly, the armchair and skeleton did not suck away in stone.

Princess Take swept in with the air of a person inspecting the space for an underabundance of cobweb, rather than a princess who must convince a queen of her meaningful contribution.

I did not greet her, but left the princess to her inspection instead.

“ Her pride demanded such behavior,” came a confident voice from the wall and an armchair.

I shot my skeleton monster a curious look. She spoke of Princess Take’s reason for delaying with an inspection.

“Who was that?” snapped Princess Take.

My lips torsioned. The newest monster was not whispering any longer. Not since a queen had conquered a king.

The princess dismissed the skeleton monster in the corner to continue her inspection. “Boring décor. Tasteless minimalism. Lacking in regality.” The princess sniffed. “Nothing unexpected.”

My shoulders shook, for Princess Take offered small amusement in immortality. There would not be many monsters by the end who would speak to me in such a way, and this princess might manage to walk the line between too much insult and an interruption to the norm. In plainer terms, this princess might humble me now and again. I could appreciate that necessity, for I would have ultimate power and rule all creatures forevermore.

The skeleton said, as clear as night, “ Insulting the queen helped Princess Take to accept the sorry change in her fate. ”

Princess Take whirled. “Who is that? I shall have your head!”

She spotted the skeleton in the armchair. Our newest monster did not seem particularly bothered by the angst she had inspired in a princess… who must exceed her in power.

How brazen and magnificent.

Princess Take glanced at me, and when I did not offer an explanation, she faced me and crossed her arms.

Her pride ached indeed. The princess wished me to beg her to stay, yet as beautiful as she was, she did not possess my power. A good thing, for I could not imagine what it might be to look upon her then. The princess was enough moonlight, but not too much.

“Well then?” she demanded.

I should not laugh at her. She was very upset and bristling.

“Princess Take,” I said very softly.

She screamed as if stabbed. Her arm-crossing was lost as the princess clutched her throat. “Y-your voice .”

My voice, yes. Two-tone since returning from mother’s grave. My usual voice, and then a rumble of thunder that would better belong to a giant. I had taken care to speak softly or not at all since returning for fear of overwhelming simpler monsters.

“Did the conquering of a king or a trip through a grave cause this change?” she whispered, and black flooded out in a mask around her eyes, reacting to her fear and awe.

I tilted my head. “ Both.” The word swept through the throne room as a breeze without truly arising from my lips, and the princess yelped, spinning in a circle and rubbing at her arms.

She was wordless, and how could she not be?

I was as a king now. I would imagine that a battle with another king might lock us in an infinite war where neither could ever win. Which was why kings did not fight at all, no doubt. I would certainly not win against two kings, though.

But a queen was finally, at last, as powerful as a king. My queendom had expanded to fill the city center and connect all kingdoms. And I had only just encouraged Picket not to work as hard, the poor fellow.

Other kings would not fail to notice the new size of my queendom, if they had not already heard tale of my march through Vitale with King Change trotting at my heels.

“ The queen was filled with thoughts of her grandness,” the skeleton stated.

I cocked a brow at the wall. The skeleton wiggled her toes. A cheeky monster indeed, though shy at first meeting. She certainly was not afraid to voice her honest thoughts otherwise.

“ Who are you?” demanded the princess.

She was not speaking to the skeleton. The princess swallowed hard as she gazed upon me, not quite able to look into my eyes. “What will you become?”

I was Perantiqua, and my mother had named me well, so I would always be perantiqua. On and on. Very ancient.

I whispered, “Your king cannot forgive you.”

She blanched, and her bottom lip trembled in a way that begged me closer. She was a siren. “My king is lost in himself.”

“ In his morality .” My thought carried through the air as if spoken.

Princess Take attempted a glare, but the effect was lost as she hastily brushed at her arms to be rid of the way my voice had whispered over her skin.

She stammered, “I-in exactly t-that. If I could have the power to sever the connection and set him free, but then I fear he would be adrift in the ocean without anchor. What if that anchor is the last tether to himself. To me and us?”

Tether, stitch, seam . “Your instincts serve you well in this matter, Princess. You do not have the power to sever the connection and so it is not for you to do such a thing.” I would tell her not to worry in that case, but she loved him and so would worry needlessly.

I sighed. I did not wish to possess such insights on love. More by the night and the power.

The princess sucked in a breath. “You are certain this should not be severed.”

“Not by a princess who does not have the power. Perhaps not at all unless the goal is to ruin.”

She lowered her head. “He will ruin if I am not by his side. I am his anchor.”

My chest rose and fell with the revealing words of a princess. “ Tether .”

The princess shivered as the breeze of my word brushed against her body again. “I s-suppose I am his tether. Yes.”

I was close to understanding how unions were seams. The knowledge hovered out of reach, but closer. Closer to a powerful queen. “Your king understands this, too, which is why he accepted your flesh while spurning the rest of you out of self-punishment.” In this way, as with his decision to take from Change’s beastly humans, King Take tried to lessen the impact of his purpose on his moral feelings.

And why were kings driven to their purposes? Why did ancients create princes to keep kings to their purpose too? Why was purpose so very dire in the fate of the world?

Ah, but of course.

Taking and changing and bringing, and not to mention seeing and raising, grew a king’s power. Kings had been forced to grow their power for twelve hundred years, with princes as their leashes. Ancients had needed them very strong for a queen.

A night might arise when I would need the strength of kings.

Princess Take was speaking. “I cannot understand how suddenly he switched! And when he decides a thing, convincing him otherwise is impossible because he believes so strongly in keeping his word.”

I could tell her that King Change had forced ruin on her union, but truth-telling did not serve me this dusk. “You are welcome in my queendom, Princess, and how will you serve the queendom?”

She pouted her full lips. “I have long felt the calling of what I must do.”

I waited.

“ The queen tired of waiting for the answer,” announced my skeleton.

The princess growled over her shoulder, but nevertheless said, “I am to oversee pawns. And all monsters in this queendom, if you must know. They are all over the place under your lax attention. Coming and going as they like, picking and choosing how to interpret orders. Or whether to carry them out at all. I shall sit in on dusk meetings with pawns and then ensure these orders are carried out.”

“Even against your king, Princess?”

She pressed her lips together. “I will cross that moat when and if I must.”

Which would be very soon. “You must. So reflect on this without delay. I am meant to rule kings. That future is inevitable.” I paused, then asked, “Is monster management the full nature of your role?”

“I will handle the transportation of goods too.” She lifted a shoulder. “Any transactions with kings. Any important convoys of materials or foodstuffs for humans, in this queendom and also in your claimed kingdom and any others you might… acquire.”

This princess did not mean to see me win against her king. She planned to learn how I could be best undone. She had agenda.

A secret too.

“You might keep your agenda, though you should believe in its futility. A queen cannot be undone.”

The princess’s gaze sparkled with rage. “Not even made of stitches as you are?”

“My stitches can shackle a king. You are ancient enough to answer your own question. But you peg the hopes of your union with my demise, I clearly see. You believe that with my departure or undoing, then all might be well with your king.”

“He is worse than ever since you walked into toothed beast’s yawn,” she snapped. Her breath shook after.

I believed such. “What if a queen is meant to wear the burdens of king? What if throne was to become seat?”

She stared, and I waited for her connection to catch up. “Must he still take in that future?”

“Yes, his power must always grow. Though he will take on my orders, not of his own volition.” So I expected. I could not entirely say.

The thought was not a full one, just the inklings of one. A king so tied and worn by moral despair might like to deny he had choice in the matter of taking. Such denial could make all the difference, and he might go on much happier in monsterdom. Perhaps happy enough to accept more than the flesh of his princess.

If a queen could shoulder the blame. I had not been tested in the matter, so I could not say one way or another how capable I might be.

The princess started to speak twice, only to stop.

I had presented her with a curious thought indeed. “What shall your job title be in my queendom?”

“Marshal,” she whispered. “I will be your marshal.”

“I accept your role as marshal in my queendom. Go forth in this.” Silently, and on a breeze, I added, “ Send in Princess Change. ”

Princess Take stumbled out. Princess Change strode in, numb and despondent. How boring of her, yet I had conquered her king, so I would try for patience. Though my expectations for the conversation were so low, that my mind stole away into obsession unexpectedly.

Which king would I conquer next?

I had anticipated an order to obsession, but I had not heard a list of kings where Change came first. Unless the order had to do with their ranking as human soldiers, because King Change was once their general a long, long time ago.

I frowned. Wait. But wait. That was untrue. Not the part where Change was general, but the part where I had not heard a kingly list where he was first.

Change was first to join a princess in union.

Union. The mysterious seams in a chant and in a poem. See was not joined in union, though… but perhaps I should disregard him in the order considering what my lover’s role may be in the conquering of him. I could not ignore that Change was only first in the chain of unions made. This, then, must be the order of conquering.

Who married second? “ Raise,” I thought on a breeze, and my queendom shook.

“ A queen preferred to make ancient connections instead of speaking to a princess,” said the newest monster.

This queen did, yes. Yet I had my next kingly target, and so good humor returned to me. I would stop ignoring a princess.

I smiled at her. “The path clears.”

“Y-Your Majesty?” asked Princess Change.

Goodness. Immense power did take me away with it sometimes. I softened my voice for her. “Princess, you would stay with your shackled king in my queendom instead of returning to tend your forest.”

She held her head higher. “I would.”

“Does guilt drive you or loyalty? In the urge to free him .”

She shrieked as my voice brushed against her. She gripped her gardening apron. “He is m-my king.”

Non-answer. “How will you make yourself useful?”

She fought for breath. “I have… naught to offer but the tending of plants, Y-Your Majesty. I shall groundkeep your queendom, both within your wall of bars and without in the areas of humans.”

“What monstrous envision of nature do you intend for my queendom?”

“Much as what I have always done.” Her voice trailed off. She sensed how this would go.

I stood, and she sprawled backward on stone. “You are to encourage wildness and tangled beauty. We will have native oasis and lush reminders of easier and mythical times. Those who look upon your nature art must always feel inspired to goodness of self and tender care of surrounding world, family, and community.”

Horror etched upon her face. “B-but goodness and tender care ?”

“Just so. The kingdom of change is now mine, so you will paint my vision upon that part of my territory also.”

Her face hardened. “I had sworn to never do so.”

“Unswear it. I care not how you justify betraying your past words to yourself. My pawns shall keep me aware of how things go.”

My skeleton announced, “ The princess promised herself to always work against a queen.”

That much was obvious. The startled Princess Change gaped at the armchair and skeletal legs sticking out between tapestries.

I asked her, “What equipment shall you require to keep the ground?”

“Nothing more nor less than the equipment in your new sheds.”

That I had sheds was news to me, but queendom proved ever fluid in such matters. This was once a hotel, after all.

How laughable to think back.

I swept past the princess, and she was rolled away across stone by the balloon of my power. I said to her, “Attempts to free your king will be in vain, Princess, but I suppose you will try anyway.”

The skeleton monster wiggled her toes, and I dipped my head in her direction, but many thoughts filled me as I swept into the courtyard. A glittering hellebore awaited. I was growing used to the nightly occurrence. Mothers flocked in, more and more by the night to join the twenty-six stitched in vigil. More than half had come, and I could not rest until fifty were present. That felt crucial.

I blinked up to my conservatory, so filled with ancient ponderings. The distraction was immense.

“My queen?—”

I paused, then blinked out of my musing daze. Had she been calling me for long?

Princess Bring blinked to catch up. “My queen.”

The princess had done away with clothes altogether and was entirely naked.

“Princess Bring, how might I help you?” I asked softly, and I could hear that my voice was far away and still that of a musing mind.

Her gasping breaths jiggled her. She could not immediately speak for the newness of my voice and power. The princess could not look closer to my face than my shoulder.

She eventually said, “You are more magnificent than ever, my queen. I have a piece of information from a pawn. One drawn out by the squelch, slime and blob of me.”

Indeed . The visual was a curious one. My lips did not move, but my words arose, nevertheless. “ I am listening .”

Her blobs rippled with the flow of my voice. “I-I just left Vassal. He was rather undone by my sliming ministrations and became lured into a confessional place, perhaps believing that our physical intimacies mean emotionally more than agreed upon.”

Poor Vassal. He was the loving type. “You have discovered the reason taking pawns sneak in before dawn.”

She nodded damply. “Yes, and?—”

My brow cleared. “I see the whole.”

I blinked up the stairs again.

Princess Bring blinked behind me. “Are we… still speaking about Vassal’s confession, my queen?”

“Yes, Princess. You might keep Vassal’s confession unspoken. That will maintain good feeling in the queendom. I understand the whole.”

“But.. I… Are you certain you know what I know? I cannot fathom how, as you were not there.”

Did I understand why taking pawns had started to sneak here and there? Yes, because Princess Take had also smelled of the same secret this dusk, and I was very ancient, so naturally had discovered the connection between the shared and fretful secret of taking pawns and a taking princess.

King Take had the plague.

Upon reaching the conservatory, I realized that I had not answered Princess Bring before leaving her. Goodness, how impolite. How distracting new ancient thought was.

The princess had left me to vast connection and the distraction of immense power, however. She knew that much occupied a queen, and no doubt I would grow used to such pondering ability in time.

But such was new distraction that the beating of another heart in tandem with mine had not registered until I halted in the entrance of my conservatory.

King See stood beside King Change. Both of them peered out at a conquering forest kingdom, and a truth and knowledge radiated between them that I—very annoyingly—could not hope to replicate, given that I did not share the same past as they.

I pouted, safe in the knowledge that both kings faced away from me. Just a little pout, then I would tuck it away again.

“So this is how it will be,” Change slurred.

King See replied, “Will be… I think not. This is how it is . There might come a day when this is how it has been. Perhaps then, brothers might be brothers and more than just the word.”

I narrowed my gaze at their comradery, but managed not to stomp.

The stone that King Change was shackled upon twisted, and I hurriedly banished pout and glare as the king faced toward me. His eyes were closed, and he appeared groggy beyond reason. Hellebores covered him from toe to neck, and I noted their subtle stroking and rustling. Only his head was left free of them. Did that account for his grogginess?

Kings would be kept in my prison by shackle, stitch, and hellebore. Was this olden enough, or would the olden answer be revealed once all kings were shackled in place?

King See faced me, and I could decipher somewhat of his look. Awe. Reverence. Knowledge and acceptance. Certainty. Fear.

Such distraction in me. I had forgotten what I had become since conquering a king. We were equal in power. Not for long, but here was a moment to appreciate our journey.

“Do not fear, King See. You might like to be shackled,” I murmured.

See blinked at the thunder and breeze of my voice that whipped around the conservatory.

Milky sights set on me again. “The idea of your shackle and stitch intrigues. As do your drugging hellebores—what respite for weary immortals.”

My lips torsioned. “Have you come to offer clever words?”

“I come because you have conquered a king.”

“As you see.”

King See clasped his hands behind his back in a way that gapped the front of his embroidered velvet coat. “I am not the only one to offer clever words tonight.”

I grinned, then crossed to my copper-framed mirror. The glass of the window entrance to Raise’s kingdom cracked as I treaded over it. I felt no fear of falling through a stairway realm. A queen was finding her fullness. “Small amusements must be enjoyed in immortality. I seek to keep myself humble.”

King See smirked. “I shall remind you of what you seek from decade to decade.” He bowed.

I was sure he would if the world did not end. “We shall see. Or perhaps you will not.”

He tilted his head. “You brag of a greater ability to connect than I, I connect.”

“I do.”

“What of remaining humble.”

“I only seek that. I must fail sometimes.” After he had laughed, I said, “That is to say that I do not brag about seeing what you have not. I speak of King Change focusing his power to blind you for centuries to his ruining acts upon kings, princesses, and other monsters.

King See stared at me, and I won the invisible prize of witnessing him dumbfounded.

Dumbfounded.

“I see how this would go,” See eventually said. He looked at Change, who cracked open an eyelid and chuckled drowsily before falling into hellebore haze again.

See approached him and inspected mange and scar. “Such sacrifice took from his very flesh. Brilliance in pursuit of ruin. That I will say for him.”

That was the truth and no more and no less. “Your power of connection stirs my lust.”

“As yours does me.” He told no lie, yet I could glean that See was hurt by Change’s actions too.

I faced my mirror to give him privacy.

I stared at my reflection and my stitches, then drew up the memory of twenty-six mothers in stitched vigil. I took care to feel each of their stitches on my body and the nature of the mother who had stitched it.

My body was a well of wisdom. Not only could I pull from my own ancientness, but I could also pull from the experiences of twenty-six mothers. That made me ancient in truth because how could I be led astray with so many to help me?

The stitch at my shoulder panged angrily, and the stitch across my upper thigh throbbed in understanding. I chuckled at my reflection. That is how I could be led astray. Mothers did not always agree—with each other nor me.

As in every other aspect of monsterdom, I must listen to myself first and foremost. Yet what a wonderful gift to carry the lives of fifty ancestral mothers with me always.

“You speak kindly to yourself?” King See mused.

I peered back. “Yes, I had expected the practice to feel uncomfortable with King Change present. I had braced myself for the challenge in his mocking company. But I am quite good at the practice now.”

He dipped his head. “Would you reassure a king that you will not remove your clothing during practice as I have chanced upon you?”

I hummed, and then abruptly decided not to tease him on the issue. I did not want a mad king around. “I will remain clothed, King See. I will do this to ease your madness.”

He was behind me and spun me from the mirror. He captured my hand and lowered cruel lips to the back.

“Thank you for respecting what drives me.” His kiss stole my breath and my insides hovered above me before settling back in.

Respect. The word annoyed me, and the word annoyed me because I had become more ancient. As ancient as a king. “Respect is important.” I saw his lips curve, though he remained bowed over my hand. I said in warning, “See…”

“The words stick so in your delicate throat. Are they pointy?”

“You push your teasing luck, sir,” I retorted. “And… they are pointy indeed. I concede naught else, but I admit respect carries importance.”

Wisely, perhaps having seen thousands such moments between lovers in his time, King See remained silent when he might have pressed me about love.

The thing was, I had seen much about love in monsterdom, and none of it very inspiring of confidence.

King See held out his crooked arm, and I held my breath to loop my arm through his. He released a pent-up exhale when I did so. At least we were both very tangled up in our destiny.

We walked to the bench overlooking my queendom. My vast queendom. I could only just see the very edges of it.

Princess Change was out amongst the thatched houses, pushing her hands into the soil. Princess Raise was speaking with Princess Take, who then set out of the wall of bars beside a laden wagon.

Princess Bring was flirting with Huckery, who appeared as confused as I had ever seen him.

“Who is next?” King See asked me.

I blinked. “I apologize, sir. Immense power is very distracting.”

“You will grow used to holding such power and functioning within the limits of others’ understanding.”

“I am glad.” I adjusting my heavy skirt. “I believe King Raise is next.”

“Is there an order?”

“Yet unclear. I feel a certain plucking when I consider Raise.”

“How will you go about the conquering of him? I imagine King Change was weakened after a recent ruining?”

I dipped my head. “I do not believe a direct attack would produce a victor.”

“But you have gone about small actions that would see your success.”

King See was gazing over my queendom when I looked up at him where he sat beside me.

“You know of the warping of their union,” I said.

“I do.”

I smiled at him. “I greatly enjoy your connection.”

An answering smile ghosted his lips. “You did not always, magnificent queen.”

I had to laugh at that. His connection had pestered me more than endeared me to him, that was true enough. “Do you fathom more of their warped union than I?”

“I wager not. Just that it is warped as all unions are warped.”

I inspected his face, so serious and a little detached. All-seeing. Mostly seeing. Burdened. Accepting. Waiting. “All unions are warped.”

He humbled. “Connection looms over you, I sense.”

I sighed. “Yes, I cannot quite figure out a section of a chant delivered to me by ancestral mothers.”

“I know the feeling, in different terms.”

What a wonderful and unexpected discovery to know that he did understand my feelings and experiences. “I value your immortal empathy, sir.”

“You did not always.”

I snorted somewhat and was reminded of Princess Raise.

But he spoke truth again. “I would have called that immortal lack of empathy.” He referred to the time he had demanded to know my purpose a mere week into my queendom.

“I suppose that I do fathom how to conquer King Raise.” I stood, and See stayed put.

But he said, “Love weakens those foolish enough to feel it.”

I still wished to believe that love would make me stronger than ever. That there was a way. Yet I had felt a greater force—not warm as such but powerful —in small times of appreciation and respect and shared experience with See. “That might be. That might not. In the Raises’ union, love is certainly a weakness. Such love is easily broken.”

His face was carved from stone when See looked at me. He did not ask if I intended to break love apart.

He did not offer to come either because he already understood what it was to be king—to rule one kingdom, and share in the ruling of the world. Ruling anything was a solitary and lonely venture at times.

Perhaps my seeing king did have an inkling of what it might be like for a queen—the only queen, and the only ruler of the world.

Yet an inkling was all King See would ever have of what I was. Only I would understand the whole.

Of what it meant to conquer kings.

A queen must wear the strongest and heaviest shackles of all.