Page 120 of Of Brides Of Queens

This changed things greatly.

This made the saving or ruining of the world less like a boring game they had to play.

King Change laughed in celebration of the ruining. King Take joined his princess to peer upon the swathed pulp remains of Princess Bring.

Then he turned to me.

Black was as a mask around his eyes. “She drank wine fromyourgoblet, traitorous queen. You invite us to a royal dinner only to poison us! Did you intend for all of us to die here tonight?”

“I did not poison any goblet,” I answered.

King Bring’s cool gaze informed me that I could not win this argument.

He was right.

I should try anyway. “King See and King Bring also drank wine from goblets.”

King Bring shouted and doubled over suddenly. He gripped his second mouth and staggered to one knee. The immortal rulerpanted hard, yelling his agony until whatever ailed him loosened its hold.

I could not tell if this was an act, or if he had really drunk some of the curse.

Sweating, the king rose to his feet after, visibly shaken. “The effect of the poison was delayed in me, and not strong enough to kill a king, but whatever took my princess just tried to take me.”

Kings glanced at their goblets on the table, and then they glanced at me. Not all of them in accusation. Not Bring, of course, and See was more contemplative than anything else.

Change’s laughter had stopped as he regarded the plates of food before him. He checked his princess, too, though perhaps more out of fear of losing her power than true care.

“She would not have poisoned See’s goblet,” said King Raise. “She wishes to join with him and rule the world. Unchallenged. She only sought to poison the rest of us.”

They were putting everything together beautifully, but then there was the matter of the seeing king who watched me very closely. I returned his look. He had always seen too much, and I would prefer he did not sabotage Bring’s murderous efforts.

But his look told me I was too calm.

I pushed my throne back and faced kings, drawing up a rage. “I have not invited monsters to a royal dinner affair simply to kill them.”

My queendom did not shake with my rage, and See would notice the disparity.

“To kill a monster is beyond the vilest act,” seethed Princess Raise, still in her husband’s arms. “We have been deceived by your youth and uniquities. You are nothing more than a conventional creature.”

I growled. “King Bring was sitting next to his princess. Everyone knows of his disinterest in his princess. It was him!”

They considered that, but King Change scoffed away my accusation because my demise ensured more ruin for him, in that it might also ruin King See. And Bring would already be weakened by the death of his princess too.

“You will answer for this murder,” King Bring told me in an ancient voice. “You will pay for what you have done. You have robbed me of power and princess.”

In that order?

No doubt he would demand me in union as payment for robbing him. How handsome and predictable he was. “I have murdered no one this night, but I see that you must be convinced, King Bring. Kindly join me in a private room so we might clear up matters. If the rest of you could make yourselves comfortable, then I hope we shall not be long.”

“I have seen enough of a foolish queen tonight,” declared King Change. Grease and chunks of food covered him and stuck in his teeth. He pushed his chair back, and his princess rose with him.

As she rose, a rustle of dried flowers snapped closed the shutters of my mind. I was not quite aware of anything as I crouched, and then found myself staring at the front of a black coat embroidered with silver.

King See’s voice echoed strangely as if I swam underwater.

He said, “I will remain, as you bid, Queen Perantiqua.”

A hellebore was released from the ceiling, and King See caught it, tucking the bloom behind my ear.

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