Page 18

Chapter Eighteen

Self-care existed in many forms

I frowned at my attire. Having clambered from a grave before dawn, and then enjoyed the deepest of monstrous slumbers, I had woken in a conquering mood. Tonight I would force King Bring to his knees, confident in the knowledge that one of my sneezes could shake the entire city and beyond. After that, I would trip through hellebores, suffer through the disapproval of my ancestral mothers as I recovered from the surge of power from becoming ultimate ruler of the entire world. After that , I would corner King See for several days while we satiated lust and figured out how to transcend love at last.

Simple.

This breezy attire from Valetise spoke of lazy home days and the attendance of simple errands that would not greatly stress. This outfit spoke of not lifting a stitched-on finger. The loose embroidered pants were coupled with an embroidered top. Both lilac, and both revealing my underwear beneath. “I am not meant to conquer the fifth king today?” I whispered.

Despite my whisper, Valetise sucked in a sharp breath at the rumble of thunder in my voice. But she flashed a grin soon after. “I cannot say, my queen. My guess would be no.”

“What is my outfit tomorrow?”

“Daylight slumber has not revealed to me what you must wear tomorrow.”

There went my hopes of predicting a conquering.

I withheld a groan. “And Picket? Has he come to terms with love and duty both?”

“He softens to the idea, my queen. We have shared some small and soul-affirming touches. Now that his purpose finds fruition, and brick wall turns to a vicious picket fence he feels a loosening in his obsessive duty. There might be more space for love and lust soon.”

I blinked. “This is well. I am glad for you both. Love should be shared by some in this world. Did you say a vicious picket fence, Valetise?”

“Yes, my queen. The copper tips are laced in poison, he has told me. Your pickets are sharp enough to slice through ligament and pierce bone. Each picket in the fence towers as high as your King See. ’Tis a wondrous thing to behold, for Picket merely spends a great deal of time banging at the brick walls he has painstakingly built, and then there is an eruption of dust, and the section arises in picket fashion.”

I had been mostly conquering kings and recovering in hellebores lately. “I feel sorry to have missed his display, though I have heard his toil and bang. I must take time to view his craft.”

“We all know how conquering has claimed your time.” She slipped a needle from her calloused arm and stitched the waist of my top tighter.

I sighed. “There is a lot to keep track of as a queen.”

“Your team exists to help you.”

I nodded. “I have not spoken to any of them of queendom matters in over a week with being in Raise’s kingdom, and then through the grave. That is the source of disconnect I feel from queendom matters.” I peered down at my relaxed outfit. “I fathom what tonight must be about.”

The monster walked around me in her swishing, voluminous skirt. “Just so, my queen. Are you near fullness of power, do you suppose?”

“I believe that I must be, dear Valetise. If Picket feels less driven in purpose, then that is as good as sign as any to believe that the sandstorm might soon calm.”

“What then, my queen?”

Then I save or ruin the world.

I could not think of that yet. The notion still threatened to drown me.

Princess Bring arrived, and I walked through my private lounge to greet her in the larger lounge.

The princess was naked. How different this version of her from the monster I had first met.

“How lovely to have you back,” she exclaimed so genuinely that she dripped on the floor.

“Princess Bring, how do you fare?”

“Damply, my queen. Thank you for asking. Pawns satisfy my needs very well. I found there were many centuries of lustful imaginings trapped within me, and once free, they were all out at once. It is a good thing you have fifteen pawns. A lesser number of them might have seen them succumb to exhaustion.”

Even my werebeasts? “I am sure they are honored to receive your magnificence, Princess.”

She lengthened. “They are. Every one of them.”

I stopped. “Might I put my hand on your shoulder, Princess?”

She did not hesitate. “You may.”

I did so, and was intrigued by the viscous feeling of her slime. “No one could be surprised that any monster was honored to receive your attention, whether in touch, conversation, look, or smile. My heart bursts with the new happiness and confidence of you.”

She rolled her blob over my hand in what might be a pat. “Quite simply, you inspired me and challenged me to find my spark. I was stuck in a trench, you see, and I had become lazy with attempts to climb out. Thank you, my queen.”

“You might thank me, dear friend,” I replied, then said on the air, “ as long as you thank yourself first .”

I released her, and she curtsied, shivering at the brush of my voice.

“I must speak with pawns,” I told her. “I must speak with princesses.”

She blobbed after me. “I will arrange both.”

“Anything else to report?”

“Princess Change takes care not to dig by your mother’s grave during the night, but she sneaks out to do so in daylight.”

My eyes narrowed. “She digs at my last nerve.”

“Yes, my queen. She drowns in a lake of shame, for her confessions resulted in the shackling of her king. She seeks to make it up to him with freedom.”

By stealing back her bouquet? While that might dent my power and spin my queendom into some discomfort, we were well past the point where the removal of a bridal gift could undo me. “Anything else?”

“Pawns are very sick, my queen. Mostly all of them.”

I stopped in my tracks. As I stared at her, my mind revisited the sorry state of my bringing pawns. They had looked positively dry, and I had not seen them in over a week. I had chalked their dryness down to stress. “They have caught the kings’ plague. But ’tis the kings’ plague. What of Take’s pawns?”

“Very unwell, Your Majesty. All crisscrossed with black veins. Lethargic. I do most of the work nowanights.”

“You have not caught the plague during your time with pawns?”

“No, my queen. I did not realize they were sick until well after we had all started our affairs. All of them except the seeing pawns are sick to some degree, but I have not contracted whatever afflicts them.”

Yet.

There was no trace of plague on King See either. I supposed that had something to do with our hearts beating in tandem and destiny and the like. “Do any princesses show signs?”

“Not that I have seen, Your Majesty.”

Kings were sick, which had made sense. But for pawns to follow… that implied a culling of monsterdom. That erased my connections of a plague deadline, and made the plague more of a certain thing that I might just manage to prevent.

Bother and drat.

“ The queen discovered the truth of matters and did not like them at all,” said my narrating skeleton monster from the corner of the lounge. Her armchair tended to appear in public places, such as this lounge or the throne room and dining hall. Those conversations I wished to remain private, were private. My private spaces had remained empty of her presence too. How she knew when to appear and not was a power all of her own. I did like how she got to the heart of matters.

I smiled. “There are no skeletons in the closet in this queendom. Not even the queen’s.”

“Your Majesty?” Princess Bring said uncertainly, but the skeleton tipped her invisible hat.

I said to the princess, “Order pawns to look after themselves this night. They are not to stress themselves. They must be focused on self-care. Gather all princesses in this lounge immediately.”

I paced the lounge until princesses gathered. Take took the other armchair, and the others sat on the three-seater couch opposite us.

Princess Take and Raise appeared drawn by recent events but at peace. Princess Change was dutifully despondent and numb, but I could sense a simmering in her too. She would not cease trying to free her king until he ceased wishing to be free. Though he apparently did not wish for that at all. So shame did drive her, as Princess Bring had informed me. How could I help her to override that?

I rubbed my temples. “There exists a plague on kings and pawns. Perhaps this will spread further in time—to princesses and humans and animals and a queen.” To Valetise, Picket, and my new narrator.

Princess Raise said, “This did not worry you before, my queen.”

“I had believed ancients gave me a deadline to conquer kings, and that once this conquering occurred, the plague would miraculously resolve. There is still some sense in that, but I have gathered you so that we might consider other healing avenues to explore. This is not something to sit back and allow to play out, if at all avoidable. I have been recently and often warned of the danger of passivity with time.”

Princess Take said in awe, “My queen, you have grown wise indeed.”

I felt fear, more so, though I was far closer to fullness. Maybe that was true power—the knowledge of potential loss. On my shoulders hung the weight of one thousand burdens. I could bear these in the freshness of new queendom while bursting with hope. If these burdens existed in twelve hundred years? What weariness of heart would reside in me?

My narrating monster stated, “ The queen felt more fear as the most powerful than she ever had as the weakest.”

That was truth, no more and no less.

I scanned the princesses. “Each of you has a natural affinity in the running of my queendom. Speak of what you have recently observed. By chance, we might figure out more of this plaguing puzzle.”

Princess Take said, “I settle into the role of marshal with ease. I have seen that pawns adore their queen, Your Majesty, even tormented werebeasts. Though I anticipate some resistance from them in acts of defending their queen, I believe your conquering of their king has given them more clarity than ever.” She smirked. “And I will ensure all else is clear for them. They will not escape punishment.”

“For the other pawns, I defer to your methods of… teaching, Princess Take. In matters of fragile werebeasts, I have formed an understanding with them. For every choice they make between king and queen, they owe me a tithe. The nature of this tithe will tie them more firmly to my queendom. I am of the opinion that the longer they spend in my queendom and in positive company, the quicker they will recover their spark.”

Princess Bring burst out, “I would wish them all the cheerful sparks in the world!”

As I would wish her too.

“I see the wisdom in this,” said Princess Take. “I shall discipline them such. But in short, from the perspective of marshal, there is no upset within your walls because your underling monsters adore you. Outside of your walls, I feel no confidence in allowing your valuable cargos to be transported without my personal presence. There is much to threaten their safe arrival from human mobs.”

I looked at Princess Raise.

She laced her fingers together and rested her elbows on her knees. “Operations of human skulls and skeletons are at an all-time high, my queen. Around the globe. A world war approaches, humans fear, as it becomes clear that the efforts of skulls are to take over pulses entirely. The various sectors of Vitale, which have always denoted different kingdoms, begin to unite against the criminal activities of the skulls. But many humans agree with the skulls that ’tis time for a revolution.”

I leaned back on the armchair. “Which king denotes the skulls?”

Princess Raise spread her hands. “I had initially connected that the skulls belonged to King Bring, as he remained unconquered. You recall that I had previously separated the various actions of humans to align with the intentions of yourself or five kings?”

“I recall.”

“That may have proven true at first, but their actions grew… murky and mixed until I could see neither here nor there. They did not appear to be operating with six agendas at all. There seemed to be two agendas.”

I answered, “Mine and another.”

She exhaled and nodded. “As you have conquered, you have changed the split and push of humans, and this applies to their skulls and skeleton crews also. There are yours, and then there are all others.”

“And all others rise up against me. So skulls represent the ruling of kings on the whole.”

“I guess you could say that,” she answered, as the other princesses sat in confusion. “Over centuries, the concept of skulls and skeletons has become the flag for those who oppose how the pulses are run—the resistance, so to speak.”

Resistance to pulses.

That was a human disguise for resistance to a new queen’s rule. The humans and skulls represented all kings… So did the skulls’ unrest signify the inner resistance of Kings? Or did their unrest continue because I was yet to conquer King Bring? “ Or have I underestimated the role that humans play? Is this a detail of obsession? Must they also be conquered for a queen to rule in truth?”

“Kings never ruled humans as such,” said Princess Bring. “The kings might whisper here and there to trigger war, and also tend to their needs to keep them strong for the next war, but kings were never concerned with how humans otherwise lived.”

Monsters had stayed hidden while living in darker hours. “There must be a scrubbing away of all things king. I must reset humans as all monsters have been reset. I have greatly underestimated the importance of humans.”

“You believe the resistance of humans is causing the plague?” Princess Change spoke for the first time, and derisively at that.

I replied, “I am interested in doing everything I can to save the monsters around me, including your king.”

“He does not wish to be saved. This plague is designed by ancients. This is ruin taking hold at last.”

She was right, of course. “Yes, Princess, the scales have been tipped to ruin, and now ruin runs its own course.”

The other princesses gasped.

Princess Change smirked.

“ Shame and guilt made Princess Change less likeable,” said the skeleton from her armchair.

The princess lost her smirk.

“Perhaps this is not the slide of ruin,” mused Princess Raise. “Recall that we once spoke of a time when all kings were unified at the olden rock. That is how we first figured your obsession, my queen. When kings all agreed, the concept of skulls was formed. If the plague is linked to the time when all kings were united, then dealing with the unrest of these human skulls could indeed heal pawns and kings. Perhaps the beginning must be revisited.

“Perhaps the answer rests in… reversal.” There was a telling kind of inner click within me.

She brightened. “Exactly. Reversed! If monsters affect humans, then cannot humans affect monsters?”

I had needed her kingly connection, and she had not disappointed. The princess was exquisitely correct.

“Princess Raise,” I said. “Thank you for great insight. Kindly use your staircase to check the locked door in the cave of the olden rock, then report back.”

“What am I looking for?”

“Confirmation of my thought.”

She hesitated, then left the lounge. I tapped my finger on the armchair after.

Princess Take cleared her throat. “We might also consider the origins of the plague, my queen. Was King Bring not the first to succumb?”

Princess Bring squelched in haste to look at her.

“ He was ,” I said without actually speaking. The remaining princesses shivered and gasped at the breeze of my voice.

But my mind considered something new. “King Bring samples each curse and charm he makes. He survives these samples and is strengthened by them, because the victims of his charms and curses drink them too.”

We all looked at Princess Bring.

Princess Change stated the obvious, “You never drank the curse intended to kill you.”

I sighed, then said, “So I had believed the matter simple. Bring would grow weak, and conquering him would be easier for it. Then, once I was queen, I could figure the matter out—or he would die.”

Princess Bring whispered, “Has that altered, Your Majesty?”

“Now I believe kings are crucial to the fate of the world.” I tuned into Princess Change’s reaction.

She did not disappoint. She was very excited to hear such a thing. But only one curse had existed to kill an immortal. If there was another way to kill a king, no one yet knew of it—or so I expected. Making a new curse would require a power sacrifice from one king, and the want of King Bring to make another curse and be strong enough to create it too. Sick kings were not strong kings. Shackled kings could not make a power sacrifice either.

“You believe the world will end for good if a single king dies?” whispered Princess Take. “But they are all sick. My king is sick.”

“ Princess Take did not care for any king but hers,” stated the skeleton.

Princess Take glared at the narrator in the armchair. The skeleton waved at the princess, unaffected by her towering ire.

“You see the fullness of our predicament,” I said.

“We must save kings and pawns.” She burst upward and began to pace.

The princesses were many steps behind.

“ The princesses were many steps behind a queen, and she suffered them,” said the skeleton.

I grinned, then said, “Perhaps matters were never so simple as that. Perhaps I was misled by a curse unconsumed. Perhaps King Bring’s sickness had everything to do with frayed seams, and a crumbled union. He was not able to hold his seam together for long enough for me to deem fit to mend it—which I chose not to anyway. Perhaps the plague earned its foothold in that weakness. From there, the plague spread to all fraying seams and the kings trying to keep them closed. If seams hold the world together, then one flapping seam could have triggered the slide to The Real End. Alas, theories and theories are still mere theories without The End to give us answers, and the answers come too late after The End to be any use.”

My mumblings were lost on princesses. They were not privy to the verse chanted by ancestral mothers to unlock the meaning of my words, even if they might have heard the original poem of kings while playing the part of witness to their lieges.

I replayed the verse in my mind.

Up and out

Weaves golden fate

Feeling ancient in gifted wisdom.

Five powers grasp

All icy demise

Free from her olden prison.

If throne is seat

Union is seam

Skulls are skin

Shackles are stitch.

Until ancient in truth

Tarry not

Linger never

Lest the world becomes forever buried.

Five powers no longer grasped the world’s icy demise, nor mine. Three of the kings were shackled in my tower. One of them was conquered and walked free, and he would willingly shackle himself whenever necessary. The fifth was sick and overdue a conquering. Soon no king would be free of my “olden prison”—which must be my conservatory, the place that also existed in the grayscale place of terror where my mothers sat vigil. Kings’ thrones had become seats, and their unions were still seams, but while I had perhaps mended the unions of Take and Raise, I had done the opposite to the unions of Change and Bring.

Otherwise, my stitches were the shackles of kings. That had been instinctive, and no great issue to figure out.

Princess Raise burst back into my chambers. “The door has the plague, my queen! Was that your thought? Is it confirmed?”

“A door cannot have the plague,” drawled Princess Take.

“Black veins through it as black veins through pawns and kings alike,” retorted Princess Raise. “The door surely has the plague too.”

My heart sank. As expected, confirmation. The door protecting the olden rock that ancients had used to create monsterdom was dying. If the door was sick, then the olden rock beyond would fall victim to plague soon enough, if it had not already. That was the heart of monsterdom.

Monsterdom was dying—that had been my thought. I did not say so aloud, but I knew so in heart and mind and power.

“Skulls are skin,” I muttered. “That line of the verse has gained clarity too.”

“What?” grunted Princess Change.

“Skin. The cover of what is hidden beneath.” I raised my head. “Human skulls are indeed important. Maybe not as a cure for the plague, but in the fullness of my queendom. Mothers told me that kings must be lesser, that they must be placed in my prison, by my stitch. They told me that humans were crucial to the resetting of the world, where a queen rules instead of five kings. Yes, we must deal with human skulls immediately. I have been arrogant in dismissing their role, believing that the verse referred to kings as the skulls. Princess Raise is correct—if we affect humans, then they can affect us in return. Perhaps by gaining control of humans, I can influence the wellness of monsters.”

I felt certain humans were important in some way. With the lives of kings and pawns on the line, I would grasp at whatever straws I could in the hopes one straw proved vital.

Princess Bring was very quiet. Princess Change was simmering away.

Princess Take stared at them, then at me. “Well if no one will ask the real question… How will we erase human skulls in Vitale along with the skulls in seven hundred and thirteen other pulses? My queen.”

Quite easily.

Her befuddlement served as a reminder of what I was now—the most powerful monster in existence with a connection unseen by any immortal.

Goodness, but ancientness of connection was a double-edged blade. Power beyond measure and ever ill-equipped with enough connection to make sense until the last breath.

“Dear Princess, do not worry so about trifling issues. The answer is a simple and delightful one.”

She blinked. “But how?”

I arched a brow. “By doing what a monster does best.”