I tilted my head. “Shall we each go around and declare our purpose, King Take? Why do you ask me for mine, when you do not ask other rulers? I have said that you shall hear my purpose first of all. Is this why you whisper for humans to create corn husk dolls of me? In punishment for the delay in declaring purpose?”
King Take’s smile was awful to behold. “I whisper no such thing in punishment for a delay. You might speak your purpose to whomever you wish. I care not for it any longer. I wish to render you to nothing for tempting my princess with your flesh where only mine truly has. I might have dealt with you in the matter if you had bothered to negotiate my approvalbeforeseducing her. But you did not. Now, by destroying you, so I will also destroy See. For he dared to bargain my princess’s bridal gift away.”
He turned fang on King See, who sipped from his goblet. His silver cufflink glinted in the firelight, and I could not help but think the view far more pleasing than Bring’s sensual sprawl upon a chair.
“You have dared far more, King Take,” See replied in bored tones. “You are all give and notake, for lack of a better word.”
Platters of food squeezed from the walls just as violence seemed in danger of erupting. Pawns took the trays with only a small show of surprise before delivering them to the table. Mother had supplied a feast worthy of kings and princesses tonight. “Thank you,” I said to the walls. King Bring was glancing around in some confusion. The others masked theirs better.
The Changes tore into the food before them with ruthless abandon, and I could not help but marvel over their gluttonous eruption and forget Take’s hisses for a time. Goodness, they did not believe in chewing. Their throats must be very accommodating. In this, I felt no wrongness, so they must be meant to eat in such a way.
Good for them.
Raise paused in kissing a path up his wife’s arm. “My agenda is to whisk my princess back to my kingdom. I will stop at nothing until she darkens my halls and shadows my heart once again. She is my thundercloud and winter freeze, my dusk abyss.”
Take wrinkled his already death-shriveled nose “You steal my appetite away with your sickening romance. Be silent if you must kiss and woo. Better to skip such things and shove into her a few times and be done.”
“You never kiss your princess?” Raise retorted. “Is that a recent change because she now prefers to kiss a queen? For I had believed you did kiss her in the private of your castle. Before.”
Black flooded the space around Take’s eyes and bordered his mouth also. “Careful, stairway king,” he hissed.
Princess Take blurted, “I live for my king’s kiss.”
Her king snapped his gaze to her, and something passed between them. A doubt from him. A challenge too. A crack in his trust.
My! But how ironic.How unexpected. All this time, King Take had set on a path to break my heart. Yet here, as confirmed by a doubtful and challenging stare-off,Ihad cracked his heart instead. My grin was wide indeed, so I must have grown cold enough to enjoy such matters.
His princess leaned forward to kiss King Take, but he turned his cheek, and so she froze with her hands in the air and her mouth puckered.
A crack most certainly.
See laughed loudly and with no care of the Takes’ excellent hearing. He must greatly enjoy this show. As I did. Goodness, how cold I had become. Though I would not relish the Raises’ heartbreak half so much.
King See raised his goblet to me, and I could not battle away my grin as I rose mine in return.
Would Princess Take storm out in anger? Would she redouble her efforts to kiss him? Would she stare at the table in submission? Such rejection must be awful to withstand with so many royal witnesses.
Princess Take slipped from her chair and disappeared under the table. Everyone but the feasting Changes listened as buttons were popped, and when the wet sounds of Princess Take’s mouth on his cock filled the dining hall, I had my answer. She was redoubling her efforts to kiss him. Just not the expected anatomy, and one King Take must feel more comfortable with accepting.
Princess Take should not be underestimated because she understood him truly.
Her king closed his eyes and rested his head back against the chair as the Changes’ continued to tear through the food. What a delightful contrast.
See sipped at his goblet, but his focus was on me, and I wagered the wet sounds of the princess’s mouth had warmed histhoughts of me. I expected he would love nothing more than for me to do the same. But if See was determined we would be more than love, then I was determined we would be more than lust.
I lifted my empty goblet to my mouth, and Mother filled it with a rich red wine on the way. As I sipped, I noted the Raises’ faces moved. They spoke silently in a lovers’ language. An entire conversation passed between them, and they held the utmost confidence that no one could understand.
King Bring said over the choking sounds of Princess Take, “Queen Perantiqua, you know that my agenda is saving, and that Change’s agenda is to ruin. And so you know all of our agendas. Will you not speak yours now that Take has released you from your promise to speak it to him first?”
“Sir,” I replied. “As of yet, I have no purpose. But recent advice has given me cheer on that front, and perhaps I shall know my agenda soon.”
“You will speak it to me first,” Take said between groans. “I did not mean what I said.” His hands disappeared under the table, and I rather assumed from his jerks and her splutters that he was thrusting to the back of her throat. I hoped they could work things out.
I traced the rim of my goblet. “I have promised you this, King Take, and your previous words were spoken in anger, so I will uphold my word. For now, let us raise our goblets and appreciate this midnight for an unusual one. One where kings and princesses and a queen can sit at the same table.”
Princess Take was not really sitting, but I could ignore that if everyone else planned to.
The Changes did not pause in their feast to raise a goblet. Take did not either, otherwise occupied, and his princess had her mouth full already.