Page 108 of Of Brides Of Queens

I stared at the sky again. The haze was dissipating. “Should I not be?”

“There is the matter of how you arrived back at the queendom in the arms of a werebeast pawn, and then the matter of you disappearing through a grave, and then the matter of the entire night you were gone for where King Change attacked with his entire sixth, then King Take attacked having learned that his princess was untrue without his prior approval, and then KingRaise attacked also in a bid to steal back his bride beforeshemight be untrue.”

Terror thumped my heart twice again. “All of this in one night. King Raise was meant to negotiate calmly with me too. Though I suppose he entered a fresh rage at the idea of his bride succumbing to my seductions.”

“One day and one night,” Picket amended. “As to the rest, I could not say.”

“How did my queendom fare, sir?” Did hellebores rest me here because I no longer had a queendom?

“Marvelously, my queen, with the help of the shield you left behind. Three-sixths could not penetrate it. Or should I say one-half?”

He could if he liked.

The haze was nearly gone from the sky. I could connect that this was the shield he referred to, and that the shield had started to dissipate upon my return from the grave. I had not erected the shield consciously, so could I assume that two mothers stitched together in a gray-scale place were behind this? “Did kings test my shield, sir?”

His words arose from every fiber. “Your Majesty, no. There was talk from Princess Bring and Princess Raise that kings might fear failing to penetrate the shield, and so none of them tested this because other kings remained to witness their failure.”

My lips torsioned. “But of course. Now, I shall stand.”

The gateman extended a fibrous hand, and the feeling was understandably coarse as he helped me up.

My, but I was very naked. As naked as a person could be. Reborn, perhaps.

“Will there be anything else, my queen?” The rope returned to his bowed state. He must like to bend that way for lengthy periods.

“You might tell the pawns to congregate in the dining hall to await me.”

“Or perhaps your throne room that appeared yesternight?” he asked the ground.

I had a throne room. “That will do.”

The rope grew into a giant again and stepped over the wall, and I stood naked before my wall of bars to address the other monsters present.

The haze was gone, and three kings had departed before my return, their efforts of a day and night all for naught. Three kings had united in ruin against me, however, and that should not be laughed at because three kings rarely united over anything.

King Change would be gleeful at this twist.

Two kings were yet to depart.

One king groaned in the far distance, most likely using his hand at the naked sight of me. This king had surely not guessed that his princess would not return to his kingdom. Perhaps he had believed her locked in my queendom while I slumbered. Perhaps he wished to deny my rejection of him a while longer.

I would allow him that because such denial suited me. Once he knew, then four kings would unite in ruin, and I could not depend on another shield.

The fifth king witnessed me from atop a crumbling building just outside my sixth. I could feel the border of my queendom so exactly now, and that border had expanded since I had fled his kingdom with garter in hand.

King See had watched as three kings hammered their sixths against my queendom, and he had remained until my return, even with the groaning efforts of another king filling his ears.

What should I make of that?

I could not help thinking that five kings might eventually unite against me in ruin. Four of them would unite to ensure I onlyshimmered like a star without its power.And King Seemight unite with them to tear my tower apart in search of three items that could control me.

Or had he come to intervene if necessary? Had he come out of fear of my safety? King See could see all of me, it always felt, though not my past, present, and future.

I could see so little of his intentions and feelings, and nothing of his rhyme or reason.

But I could see him.

I could see his face, and everything he did not hide while in belief of my blindness. King See was relieved to see me and greatly enamored by my reborn state. His irritated glare over his shoulder marked his vast unhappiness with the groans of King Bring, and when he looked at me, there was an underlying certainty in his gaze that spoke of a belief inme, or at least in my return.

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