Page 111 of Of Brides Of Queens

Only one path remained.

A transactional arrangement to spark their curiosity. They would not deny their curiosity. Then I only had to prepare those in my queendom for the uncomfortable price.

“I will write five letters,” I told my pawns. “You will deliver them.”

Hex sagged. “Is that all?”

“There will be a royal dinner in my queendom tomorrow evening. I invite all kings and all princesses.” No one but King See and the two princesses had seen inside my queendom. Other monsters must feel very curious indeed about my territory.

Bring would leap at the chance to be near me. Take would seize the opportunity to learn how to break me. Raise would come to moon over his princess. Change would come in the hopes ruin might transpire, and that he would cause ruin if it did not.

More importantly, Change would bring his princess straight to me.

At my declaration, those of my pawns who could pale had done so.

I waited for them to erupt into shouted arguments with each other, but their usual bickering did not arise.

My pawns, in their coppered livery, bowed and folded blobs one by one.

And twelve of them, if not three werebeasts, murmured in unison, “Yes, my queen.”

“Prepare yourselves for morrow’s midnight,” I said under my breath.

For a monstrous and royal affair.

Chapter Twenty-Three

A confiding leap,

An unexpected turn.

Aflute played through the radio and a man sang soulfully in rich baritone, “She that inspires. She they desire.”

A choir echoed him. “She that inspires. She they desire.”

“Should only shimmer, shimmer, shimmer?—”

“Shimmer, shimmer, shimmer.”

I grimaced. “Kindly turn that off, Princess Raise.”

The princess did so, and after, she pondered the silent radio on her lap.

I lowered onto the armchair opposite and enjoyed the way my voluminous gray dress puffed around me.

Though I had started off meeting princesses in the conservatory, the largest of my personal lounges had become our new gathering place. Possessing two lounges in my chamber suite had seemed superfluous, but this one had proved useful for princesses. Which left me to wonder what the other was for.

“They sing of you,” said Princess Raise, and emotion had never filled her blank face more. The monster was perplexed and concerned. The greatness of my obsessive path loomed over her like a thundercloud about to unleash its torrent. This princess had sharp instincts indeed.

She added, “The humans in Vitale recite the poem endlessly. They play their renditions on the radio night and day. The humans of your sixth chant the poem in their sleep, and by day, they coo it to the husk dolls they have made in your likeness.”

This news was inconvenient for a queen who wished to keep a low profile until she grew powerful enough to protect herself from kings. I should have sent Take’s gateman away without hearing his verse. “How do my humans fair?”

“Your humans are well enough, Queen Perantiqua. They gratefully received grants from the president to erect new thatched shelters. Picket has been busy building walls when they sleep. Your humans call your queendom a gated, garden community. The other humans grow angrier and more envious by the day, and of course, the human citizens of Vitale believed this tension spilled over and led to the attack tonight.”

The matters of kings and a queen did spill so into quaint human life.

“Picket is wise to build walls,” murmured the faceless princess.

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