Page 103 of Of Brides Of Queens

A low growl. “Yes, a while ago.”

So Change was not causing this pain. The agony was due to a garter. Possessing a third bridal gift must have come with a large leap in ancientness—too much for the confines of me. This was usually the point of forced slumber, but slumber had not found me. Too late to see slumber as the gift it had been.

I staggered, and Loup swung me into his arms.

“What ails you, my queen?” Unguis asked, a panicked edge to his voice.

“I am more ancient suddenly,” I whispered so as not to shake my senses. “All thoughts and memories must be studied through this new ancient lens, but this is happening with every thought and memory at once. This is beyond my limits.”

My head lolled as the rapid whirling of the warping heightened, but no slumber came, and how could it when there were princesses to save and attack.

Obsession must continue.

I must hide the garter.

My warping mind pushed outward against the confines of my skull, somewhat like an explosion, and I groaned low. My vision blurred.

I had not felt such squeezings and shimmerings in months. Could I relent to slumber, perhaps? But for how long would I do so? One month, one year, or one thousand years?

“Hurry,” Huckery growled.

They sped me to my queendom. And Loup’s smooth run triggered rhythmic agony despite its smoothness.

“Take me to Mother’s grave,” I murmured. Or did I? There was a blackness in sight and feeling that made me question whether things were real and happening.

Save your mind.

Such shoutings and bangings in my head, and I could understand that soon insanity would claim me.

I could no longer feel the slight sway of Loup’s run. There was a roughness against the backs of my legs and under my head.

“You are by the grave, my queen. You are here,” Loup blurted. “What would you have us do?”

And here they were committing an act of saving. They were not nearly as believing of ruin as they expected.

“What would you have us do?” he urged again.

Do?

I was meant to do something, yes. There was something very crucial to do.

To… hide, and yet insanity was a more pressing matter. The jumble of it beckoned me, and I could feel a peace about the sensation that allured. I had come this far without much insanity, though, and all I could think was that if I submitted to that peace, King See would never know that I had seen his face. I had seen it in its monstrous and exquisite fury. There would come a night where I might love to stare at him for a long while.

Though he did not like love, and he would immediately guess the truth if I stared so.

What was I meant to do? I could not recall through the distant shouts surrounding me.

Hellebores rustled and stroked my cheek.

“Mother,” I said on a weary exhale.

Such shoutings and bangings. In me and around me.

Another stroke of a hellebore carved the tiniest path in my reason.

With trembling fingers, I reached into my leotard. There was an object of silk and lace there.

I gripped the garter tightly.

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