Page 11 of Of Sockets Of Stitches (Unworldly City #4)

Chapter Ten

There could never be

Such a show

From a love

Not transcended.

“ R eckoning boils within you,” muttered Princess Take.

Princess Raise nodded, and I could imagine if she had possessed a face, then her eyes might be rather wide.

As the champions of my queendom, princesses could feel such things as my obsession and reckoning. I imagined that if we survived The Real End, then they might always perceive my purpose and help to keep me from madness and excess of vice.

I said on the air, “ Tell me of kingdoms. ”

Princess Take sucked in a sharp breath, rubbing her arms. “Y-yes. Yes. Yes. Kingdoms have shrunk to accommodate the enormity of your queendom, which occupies much and most of Vitale. The heart, of course. ”

Of course.

She continued, “I have been busy with pawns and minions reallocating the riches of kingdoms into your possession and walls.”

I tapped a finger on the armrest of my soft chair. “But kingdoms remain.”

“Kingdoms remain, my queen. This speaks of a return of kings to kingdoms.”

Kings to kingdoms.

No.

Thrones had become seats, and kings did not sit on seats. They must be reduced. I could see how this might go, but fate would sound its trumpets soon enough. I would not steal its fanfare. “Of pawns, Princess Take. Tell me of them.”

She pouted. “Pawns do not stray from their allegiance to you.”

My lips curve. “Do you pout for the yearning of punishment?”

“I had assumed they would need reminders sometimes.”

My bloodthirsty princess. The most ancient of her kind, though not the most capable in connection. “I am heartened that you did not punish them unnecessarily. That will not be tolerated in my queendom.”

The black around her eyes flooded outward into a semblance of a masquerade mask. A blush of sheepishness? Indeed. Did she have a dungeon room prepared and stocked with all manner of gleaming device? Or had she dealt out small punishments as marshal that was not earned? I must keep aware of her.

I fixed my sights on Princess Raise. “Pulse leaders are contained?”

“Yes, my queen. Presidents around the globe are locked away. Most humans scatter and fear and die. They turn on each other as they are prone to.”

That was inevitable in this turbulent time, but I would not like them extinct.

In the chant of fifty mothers, humans were the skull.

A body without a skull was a decapitated sort of thing, and my instincts warned against headlessness.

There existed a curious relationship between monsters and humans that was not yet understood.

Monsters could affect humans, but I wondered if humans could affect us in return.

They were necessary in some way. “What of the humans in Vitale?”

“Your thatched village won the war against all odds, my queen, as you would assume from your rise to power. Now that you have completed kingly obsession, the humans already appear less tumultuous—no doubt this new calm reflects the last challenge of kings dying away.”

Her connection was kingly indeed.

Princess Raise held up her radio, which she liked to play day and night to listen to human affairs.

In this way, she was able to connect the movements of kings and queens.

“There is a pattern, from what I can tell. The pulses closest to Vitale suffer least, and those farthest from Vitale suffer most. I imagine that proximity to your power is the difference. Otherwise, I have noted during walks through the city that humans copulate more than ever. They take no safeties in their bodily unions, which is a far cry from the careful breeding programs of the last many centuries.”

Intriguing. They must be coupling out of fear of survival. “What of the mythical Mistress Stitch? How has she stuck in the minds of humans since our haunt?”

Princess Raise snorted. “You are well ingrained. Symbols of you exist everywhere. Most thatched homes include a small shrine dedicated to you, and in fear of you. Your arrival has been linked to the demise of humankind, and this has worked greatly in your favor to solidify your presence. Children speak in hushed voices of Mistress Stitch. Only the clever or foolish adults speak their disbelief in you, and even that is sparing. The influence of kings is truly eradicated, and as the older humans die away, you will become forevermore ingrained in human culture. ”

Good. I had needed to conquer humans just like princes and princesses and kings, but the battle was not over.

Now I had to keep humans from extincting themselves until the beginning or end of the world.

“You both sense the boil in me,” I said softly so as not to blast them across Vitale.

“The reckoning of the world is upon us, and more sand fills the tunnel to the center of the world with each second of each night and each day. I must consider the end of the world without delay. What do your champion instincts say?”

The princesses were quiet.

Princess Take crossed her long legs, revealing porcelain skin through the high slit in her dress.

“There is something in the idea that all monsters had to be won and conquered for you to become queen and face the reckoning of the world,” she murmured.

“Do monsters play a role in this reckoning? Yes, they must.”

Princess Raise hummed. “Humans are ever the sign of unrest. If they are to survive in a queenly world, then how does that look? How does their society come together again?”

They both settled into quiet, and I imagined that if Princess Bring was more than a baby, and if Princess Change was not locked in the coldest agony of soul, then their musings would fill the current silence.

“How will you save the world?” blurted Princess Take.

The faceless princess shook her head. “More like why does the world need saving? Why did it reach this point of ruin?”

They had sparked my deeper thoughts, and that was what champions were for. “How is one matter, and why is another. Why could very well reveal the how, so where to discover a why?” An ancient “why” never understood by humans.

Princesses did not answer my ramblings, because asking questions of reckoning was the limit of them.

I tilted my head when dust floated from the stone ceiling.

We all paused to note the shaking of my queendom. Not a shaking from the heart of it, as only I could do such a thing. This was a physical shaking by a powerful monster.

A king from above.

Did someone seek to free themselves?

I swept toward the door, princesses quick in my wake.

When I arrived at the conservatory, pawns already filled it.

“Never!” King Bring was shouting.

Has Been replied, “Queen’s orders. Pass them over.”

“Any pawn who tries to remove her ashes from me will meet his true end.”

I could hear that King Bring meant it.

I floated forward. “And what of a queen, sir?”

Pawns hastily parted to create a path to King Bring.

I stopped before the king’s back. He looked out over his previous kingdom—the pillar reaching to the sky. The panel he was shackled to spun in place until he faced me.

Though plague no longer streaked his face with black, weariness streaked his face in its place.

He sagged. “Queen Perantiqua, I do not deserve to keep her ashes. I allowed ruin to turn me from my union during her immortality. Such guilt and shame fill me. Such resentment. I cradle her ashes next to my heart as a reminder of all that vanity drove me to. They remind me to turn from the failings of pride. They remind me of my burn for revenge.”

His eyes blazed red, the same color as his crimson skin.

The king glared at the back of King Change.

Though Princess Change had taken the deadly curse from my mother, really, and really, Princess Bring had taken up the curse into her blob all on her own.

If she had not, then the plague on monsters would never have ended.

King Bring’s burning revenge was misdirected.

“Princess Bring died so that you and monsters would be saved,” I told him.

He blinked away his red eyes, and the etch of weariness deepened .

“Will you disrespect her in life and death?” I asked coldly.

King Bring hung his head. “I will not.”

“Then what remains to do with guilt and shame and resentment?”

“If something else remains to do with them, then I cannot yet admit that truth,” he whispered. “I will ponder your words, for you already know the answer. I must find this for myself. The journey is very important.”

I smiled at his wisdom, for I had rarely seen that quality in this king. He spoke again, but my gaze wandered to the glimpse of his kingdom through the opening.

Princess Raise had spoken the exact truth during our interrupted meeting. Kingdoms were much smaller. Thatched roofs extended from my gates to the perimeter walls of the city. Fire, smoke, screams. I noted those too. Humans were in great turmoil.

But such beauty of queendom too.

Princess Change had not wished to encourage wild growth, but she had obeyed that order. Lush vibrancy had never existed in Vitale before—not in my human existence either. I could see the startings of lushness in the world. I could see its potential.

I became aware that pawns, kings, and princesses observed me. I supposed that a question had been asked, most likely from King Bring, whose jaw was an embarrassed ruddy red.

“King Bring, the journey is important. Are you deeply convinced of the importance?”

“I will be better in the memory of her where I was never in her life,” he choked.

I understood this king. His weaknesses too. While his princess was weaker in power, she was steadfast and true in heart. Without King Change dealing out ruin on the Brings’ union, I believed the pair might find happiness again.

Unions were seams, and the seams of the world were frayed, and only golden fate could deem fit to mend them. I was golden fate, a creature of patch and stitch, and I had deemed the Brings union fit to mend.