Page 22 of Of Sockets Of Stitches (Unworldly City #4)

Chapter Sixteen

The answer was a choice.

“ I would appreciate your connection right now,” I murmured to Princess Bring. The child princess happily squelched and slimed in her chamber. Only the tops of the bed frame and couches were visible above the sand that pawns had relocated from outside Vitale’s walls.

Pawns grunted as they heaved in fresh sacks of dirty sand.

“She’s going through it faster and faster,” said Sanguine.

Indeed, the sand in the chamber gleamed from the sliming ministrations of the princess. She seemed to grow fastest when eating or… exfoliating with dirty grains.

I smiled when the blob princess—now to the height of my knees—dove into the new sand with delight. Pawns cooed sweet nothings to the small child monster… in early monsterdom I never could have guessed that pawns could share such an expression of adoration.

This was joy. This was what I existed for .

I rose and brushed at the sand on my plum gown. The neck of the satin dress was a high and stiff collar that framed my face. “And so a queen must do what must be done.”

Princess Bring tilted her top blob in question.

“Worry not, little princess,” I said. “All will be well.”

She chirped a squelch and went on her merry exfoliating way.

I waded through the sand to the door and left Princess Bring in the adoring care of pawns.

I floated along the first level, and then blinked up the stairs in six-foot leaps. Too soon, I was on the rooftop and standing before a king.

I looked into King See’s milky gaze.

He peered back.

And what did I glimpse of his heart and mind? Naught. As ever I held theories. Some were born of my vulnerability and hopes, and some were born of cynicism and distrust. Was that a glimmer of hope in his eyes? Or a glint of calculation?

Did his breath hitch from a sense of desperation, or from a sense of guilt?

A queen could not guess.

So I would never know, and I could fathom why ancients had blinded him to me, and me to him. Without change and uncertainty, how could a mystery entice? How could intrigue last eons?

I said to King See. “The words I say and this choice I make are the easy part. The harder part is to embody and believe these words and this choice. That part could prove impossible, and that makes this part easier, really, because that impossibility lends this moment perspective.”

He straightened in his shackles. “I would hear your words to know your mind. I would hear your choice to know your heart.”

King See occasionally displayed this flair for poetic prose.

Other kings were silent, though their silences ranged from hopeful to entertained to sneering and to jealous.

I was warmed to find that King Bring’s jealousy originated from the perspective of wanting the interaction between me and King See for himself and Princess Bring, instead of wanting me .

How clearly I saw four kings, and how unclearly I saw one.

I raised my chin. “King See, I forgive you. I forgive you for betraying me to force me to navigate the only future that led to saving the world. I understand your reasons for doing so, and I appreciate the inner turmoil that treating me in such a way must have caused you. Thank you for betraying me as you did.”

Perhaps the last sentence was not entirely convincing. I tried again. “Thank you for betraying me as you did.”

Resentful and bitter.

I pursed my lips.

“Think of your happiest memory, then try again,” mumbled King Raise from where he stared down into his stairway kingdom.

I thought back to Princess Bring happily squelching in dirty sand. “Thank you for betraying me as you did.”

“Much better?” King Raise said after a prolonged pause.

I would work on that.

See exhaled. “You believe me.”

“ How did he get that?” muttered King Take.

I had to agree with King Take. “I came here to speak words and a choice, sir, as I said. Nothing more.”

His milky gaze shuttered. “Ah, yes. I fathom. You speak the words in the hopes they come true. In the hopes they will save the world.”

“I do, and I fear they meant even less than I wished them to.” How very annoying. “I do hope to make myself believe those words and you.”

How was that to be done? A queen had no ideas beyond this one. Speaking the words and choice had seemed the obvious first step. Without acknowledging my intent, how could that intent grow into a sentiment?

“From declared intent, may come true sentiment,” murmured King See.

I narrowed my eyes. But surely he could not read my mind.

Surely. “You are aware of our timeline. You will need to ponder this matter night and day for a solution. A queen will not be responsible for the entirety of our destiny, and she feels like being far less than half responsible after your betrayal.”

Turning from him, I walked to King Raise, who was shackled to a panel on the ground. Like all kings, he faced his previous kingdom, and so Raise peered downward to look upon the thousands of stairways that he used to be sovereign of.

Soon to be governed by his duchess, though the kingdom would always belong to me.

Or perhaps it was a duchy now.

The panel rotated him up to face the sky, and then stood him upright in front of me.

“Sir, you are free of my stitch.” I called my stitch back and it wiggled into place to join two of my patches. “Sir, you are free of my shackle.”

His shackles creaked open and clanged to the copper panel.

King Raise remained frozen, and then lifted his arms as if in a dream. He rubbed his wrists. “But free?” he whispered.

“Free,” I said. “In the sense that you are my subject and obligated to always support my queendom in every way possible. If you do not, then you will reside here again until trust can be rebuilt. Do you fathom how long that would take?”

He paled. “I would not dream of working against you, mighty queen.”

I doubted this king would. If he did, though he did not yet know it, I would shackle his princess here in his place. Or should I say the soon-to-be Grand Duchess Regnant?

And did I anticipate defiance from her ? No. But immortality was long, and monsterdom was ever changing, so I would not leave kings and duchesses in any confusion about what would happen should they work against my queendom.

I clasped my hands behind my back. “Raise, you are now a duke. Your duty is to manage the stairway duchy in line with the ideals of my queendom. All humans are my subjects, and none belong to you. All monsters are mine forevermore. Your purpose remains the same—you will grow your power, and thus mine, by raising. Be warned that I will not tolerate distraction from your purpose. Princes might not exist to keep you to task any longer, but a queen exists instead.”

Fear radiated off the sudden tension in his shoulders. “Yes, my queen. I hear what you say, and I will do what you command. I… am a duke.” He glanced at other kings. “What are they?”

“Nothing, currently. Their titles are empty, and they have naught.”

That appeased him. Raise squared his shoulders. “I am a duke. I will not drift from my purpose, my queen. You have my word.”

King Raise was ever a foot soldier, so he would certainly drift from his purpose, but his failure would give me leverage to replace him.

Just in case his princess did not convince him in a timely manner.

And when he failed, which would be soon, then a princess would become a Grand Duchess Regnant, and King Raise could moon over his union all that he liked.

King Raise glanced at the others. “Will you free anyone else?”

I shook my head. King Change would remain shackled…

because he could not change, which was of growing concern.

King Take would remain here because he was rather carnally desperate from lack of princessly satisfaction, and freeing him would interfere in the healing of his union.

King Bring would re main because he had not earned the inner right to see Princess Bring.

I glanced at Bring. “How goes your inner work, sir?”

“Denial clings to all I unravel, Great Queen. Just when I feel a breakthrough has been had, I see that I have denied some or other of my wrongdoing. Then there is ever the confounding point of how much vanity and evil was mine, and how much was caused by another.” He lifted accusing eyes to King Change. “You were meant to be my brother.”

Change sneered. “We ceased to be brothers when we became beasts. Each of you has deluded yourself for an age. Weakness . You cling to each other because you cannot fathom the magnitude of what happened and what might happen—and what we were put in charge of. Your denial runs deeper than you can imagine. Do not bother seeking to undo it.”

King See said from behind me, “You are my brother, Change. You are all my brothers. We shared unthinkable experiences before monsterdom, and we have shared them since. I do not care that you think differently from me, for the love I have for you is real.”

His forgiveness was so very authentic.

How did he do that? My attempt had been fragile indeed, but then… I had forgiven King Change too.

By understanding him. I exhaled as the thought reverberated.

King Change did not scoff at See’s words. “See, of all kings, I have thought best of you most often. But we are not brothers. We are monsters, and monsters do not deserve family or good feeling.”

If Change had rooted the reason for rejecting kingly brotherhood in his ruin, then nothing would convince him otherwise.

So I would not waste my time and energy on the matter.

As the other kings argued the point with Change, I circled the olden rock. As I circled, my power was drawn into the rock and out to its twin through the grave. So that was the point of the olden rock—even when I did not enter the grave, I could access its knowledge and gifts.