Page 106 of Of Brides Of Queens

If she had birthed an ancient daughter, there would be no need to create one over twelve hundred years, but I did not say so. “You found Prince Deliver.”

Cassandra nodded. “I did not need to eat or drink or worry about shelter or air. I walked through sand and burning water and storm with a sureness in my step that was not my own. The moon came and went, reminding me of how she had been there for me in the sandstorm. She came and went hundreds of times before I found the monster. And when I found him, the wordsthat came from me were not mine, but I was powerless not to speak them.”

Ancients had warped the path of the first mother.

I shuddered at the loneliness she must have endured. The despair of isolation, and the cruelty of being shackled to life. Yet these were the uncomfortable prices of ancients. In the sandstorm, and with the presence of the moon, and with her acceptance and fear filling her, she had become the perfect vessel for them. “You forged a contract with King Raise to wither before your time so that you might leave your daughter with one powerful body part, and that she might have the same choice, and her daughter after that until a daughter refused to wither.”

Her eyes sparkled. “Then forty-nine other mothers did so. You see, I remained a creature filled with foreign power and purpose until I birthed my daughter. Some of whatever had filled me also filled her, but less of it. I did not need food or water or shelter, and those strengths enabled me to supplement her with what food, water, and shelter she required. She did not need much. Just a little each month, and my passage through the world to find the monster prince had shown me what survival might involve. My daughter was a fast learner of the subject, and she grew more adept at seeking out sustenance and shelter than I. My heart rejoiced because I suspected thatherdaughter would be filled with even less of this creature’s protection and purpose. I despaired also, because if each daughter possessed less ancient purpose than the last, then who could say if the deal I had forged would come to fruition?”

Yet it had. “Did you know that what you were doing would make a queen?”

Cassandra peered at the tower again. “Not at the start, but in my limited human way, I did absorb some of the ancient force in me. I had brokered a deal to leave one powerful body part to my daughter. I was addicted to the idea that she would withertoo—and what mother would feel that unless a grander scheme was afoot? But I did, and the deal I had brokered gave her this withering choice too. It must be that these powerful parts would accumulate and eventually make a powerful person.A powerful beingmade of the same substance as the force within me. But unlike me, she would not be its creature. She would be unlike anything to walk the world.”

I looked at the tower as her gaze drifted back to it. Erected in a barren place, without surrounding buildings, and devoid of monsters, the tower appeared lonely indeed. Cassandra had walked in loneliness after The End without a friend to depend on. She had been the first. Even her daughter had at least had the memories and advice of her withering mother to go by and pass on.

I was the first queen, and I would not betray fifty mothers by crumbling. “I have floundered in queendom, First Mother, though less and less. I think of you in the sandstorm, and I think of you alone at The End in search of a prince. I will not let you down.”

Cassandra did not look away from the tower. “I know, Daughter. You are my blood, and so I know.”

She stood, the strange woman from times long gone with pastel blue hair and clothing made of materials never seen. The first of fifty mothers walked to sit cross-legged next to my mother’s grave.

She extended a hand.

Black hellebores swelled to fill Mother’s grave, and they pushed her to the surface again. She sat cross-legged in their cushioned midst.

Mother took Cassandra’s hand, and with her other hand, she revealed a needle.

She had threaded the needle—and the needle was horrible in its warp and bluntness.

I took the tool from her and crouched by their joined hands. “Cassandra, thank you for your resilience in loneliness when you had no path to follow and no one to share it with.” I shifted my gaze. “Mother, I will be worthy of all you provide. I swear it.”

Her eyes did not shimmer. Nothing could penetrate her belief in me. “You already are, my patch.”

These women were me. I was made of them. And the next step was clear, though I had no rhyme nor reason for doing so yet.

I pushed the needle through Mother’s palm and then Cassandra’s. The warp and bluntness made this difficult, but neither woman flinched. They had withered, so they knew that short pains were nothing to drawn-out pains.

I gripped the end of the needle and pulled it through their palms, then dragged the black thread through until the small knot stopped me. I tied off the thread, slicing away the excess with my nails, then I set the needle on the stone where Cassandra had perched earlier. Assumedly, I would need the needle for forty-eight other mothers.

“I see how this next part might go,” said Cassandra.

I did too.

I slipped my hand into my jacket pocket and pulled out the garter, then placed it on the stone beside the needle.

Mother passed the black pearls and lace gloves to me, and I set them on the stone as well.

Do not ever reveal their whereabouts now, nor in ten thousand years.See had bid me to hear his warning, and I had. This barren place could not be walked by King See, nor any monsters but me.

Here, my bridal gifts were safe.

I glanced at Mother’s grave, sensing my looming return to more colorful and warmer surroundings. “Will my mind be better, Mothers?”

“Yes,” answered Cassandra. “Passage through the hellebore grave has cured you.”

“I am more ancient than before,” I mused. “I have often woken from slumber this way, but stepping into increased ancientness from one moment to the next is more jolting.”

I kissed my gaunt mother on the forehead, then stepped into her grave to sink rapidly through hellebores.

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