Page 21

Chapter Twenty-One

The queen must die

“N o sign, Your Majesty,” said Princess Take.

“No Sign or no sign?” I asked.

“Forgive me. No sign of King Bring.”

Bother and drat. King Bring was a fool—though I might hide from an all-powerful monster queen who wished to conquer me too. “Send for Princess Bring.”

“I have spoken with her?—”

“You do not possess the same ability for connection as me. Summon her, kindly.”

Princess Take curtsied.

I sighed after she departed. Since my return from hellebores last night, my tether had been as short as the wick of a dying candle. My subjects did not deserve such treatment. I felt very stretched in wellbeing, and could not care for others’ wellbeing in this state.

This was a day for self-care, and hopefully some conquering before dawn.

The dragging squelch of Princess Bring grew louder until she slimed before me. I was perched in my usual armchair in the larger of my lounges. “Princess Bring, we must find your king. Do you have any notion where he could be?”

“I have spoken to pawns of places he might lurk, my queen.”

Truth. Almost. “Something has occurred to you, however.”

She lowered her gaze to the stones, and at her second of hesitation, I did my best to hold in a terrible booming order that wished to explode from my lips. I must feel strained indeed to be at shouting point with this princess of all princesses.

“Yes, my queen, but I am not certain of the success of such a notion.”

Candor announced from the corner, “ She was certain of the success of such a notion.”

Lie. The feeling inspired was monstrous, and Candor had confirmed the source. “Princess Bring, why do you lie to a queen?”

She looked up and her eyes moistened with the wettest of fear.

I clarified, “Find confidence in your ideas, Princess, they are often great ones.”

Princess Bring released a breath. “My queen, shall I share the idea with you?”

I tried not to clench my teeth. “Please.”

“My king naturally believes that union with you, or perhaps the death of you, is the cure to his plague. He cannot storm nor conquer your queendom. You are too strong and too protected. I believe there is a logical sense in seeking to draw him out.”

“In tricking and trapping him. In hoodwinking and hedging him. In the appearance of my weakness,” I said, following her line of thought.

She curtsied. “Just so. King See’s royal gala approaches, and this presents a setting to outsmart him.”

I frowned.

She said hastily, “Or not. I do not wish to interfere with romantic and seductive plans. I have had much daylight activity and you have not had any at all…”

I arched a brow. I did not need to be reminded of how little daylight activity I had enjoyed lately. Now she mentioned it, some screaming pleasure was all I wished to enjoy in the name of self-care. “Your plan is sound. I do not know of this royal gala, Princess.”

Her blobs sagged in relief, then regained their turgidity. “My sincere apologies. You were through hellebores, Your Majesty. Here is the invite.”

“ The princess was hiding something,” said Candor.

I regarded Princess Bring closely. She had never forgotten a thing. The smallest of tidbits could not escape her notice or memory. Indeed, she appeared wan. Stretched out. A little dry. “Princess Bring, how do you fare? What do you hide? Please tell me you are not a’plagued.”

She shook her top blob. “No, Your Majesty. Just stressed by the events surrounding the capture of my king.”

I tilted my head at Candor, who nodded. “I had thought you did not care for your king.”

She paused. “My stress does not originate from care of my king. Nor disagreement with his capture. Though I will say that many centuries of union does not evaporate in months, and so my feelings rise and fall like the moon, tugging me here and there. I do not relish such confusion, my queen.”

I softened at her confessed turmoil. “You have the largest of monster hearts. I wished you would not be in knots about a king who poisoned you and wished to erase your immortality. Yet that is part of your inner beauty, Princess Bring.”

“He did try to kill me, so why do I feel such urges?” she whispered, ever damply.

Because the Brings were victims of Change’s ruin. Perhaps I should share the truth with her. She may find healing in knowledge. The matter warranted greater reflection first. For now, empathy must suffice.

I rested back, all-powerful but ill-qualified to advise on conflicts of the heart. Her words could as easily apply to my romance with King See.

He did try to kill me, so why do I feel such urges? she had whispered.

While I might say, “He will not love me, so why do I feel such urges?”

I had an answer after all. “Destiny, dear princess. You feel such urges because of your destiny with King Bring.”

“Who am I to fight destiny?” she stammered. “No one at all.”

I smiled. “You are a monster. That is who might fight destiny.”

“Would you?”

I felt her attention keenly, and that of the silent Princess Take. Would I fight the destiny I shared with King See? “I cannot speak of what I might do in one day or month or century. Right now, I will not fight my destiny with King See. But a colder and harder queen might prevail where this version of me cannot. Resilience grows, after all.”

“ Princess Bring was undone by her thinkings of union,” said Candor.

So she was, and so I gently said, “We tip into the jaws of despair. Let us reset. Tell me of this royal gala, if you please.”

Her blobs rolled over one another to push a letter to the surface of her slime. The seal was already broken, so I spread the thick paper against her slime.

To all monsters,

Plague is upon us, be it the beginning or end.

Let us celebrate in monstrous company as once we did.

A royal gala, two nights and two days.

In my palace, all are welcome to stay.

With Sight,

King See

I might have focused on any number of lines in the letter, but my mind focused on the “two nights and two days.” Two days, specifically. For the day was when daylight activities might be had. Queendom matters had made such demands of me lately that I had not had the usual time with King See. We usually found a few hours each week. Yes, our meeting was overdue.

Of course, such absence had only warmed my thoughts of him more . Yet I could not connect what else to feel after absence from a person whom I valued in body, mind, and company. To feel a dwindling of warmth could not serve us. Lukewarmth? Not powerful enough to last an immortality… Cold certainty of our destiny? I released my exhale in a rush.

The princesses exchanged a glance.

I inhaled and straightened. “Have you replied to this invitation?”

“I wished to consult you on the topic of shackled kings. You see, King See has requested that all monsters attend. Three are shackled in your conservatory. Most other monsters belong to your queendom. So unless you give permission for all to attend, the royal gala might be less of a royal gala, and perhaps not one.”

That was true enough. “You might reply and accept his invitation on behalf of all monsters. Princess Take, I imagine transportation of shackled kings will not be a problem?”

She curtsied. “None, Your Majesty. I will transport them on the copper conservatory panels. ’Tis no matter if you do not doubt the strength of their shackles.”

I answered, “I do not. That is settled. Onward to the finer details of duping King Bring. Set pawns loose in the city. They are to mutter here and there of the queen’s sudden affliction with the plague. She is hiding her sickness well, but grows daily weaker. I will be transported to King See’s in a wagon surrounded by sickly pawns only. No princesses. There will be no smiles. No joy. No hope. During the royal gala, my pawns will appear to die, leaving me apparently defenseless.”

“A picture of despair,” murmured Princess Take. “We understand perfectly.”

I nodded. “I am very sickly indeed.”

“The queen is dying,” said Princess Bring, and she sounded unaccountably sad, such was her large heart—the largest of any of us.

I pressed a hand to my forehead and fell back on the couch. “The queen is dying.”