Page 28 of Of Brides Of Queens

He flushed. “M-my queen. Lady.”

The other pawns had lingered, and I had not been aware they listened.

Shock colored Hex’s voice, “You have need of supportive words, Lady Queen? We would never have you in need of anything. Not air, nor breeze, nor starlight.”

“You are the hilt of the dagger, Lady Queen,” said Vassal. “You could stab anyone. Do not stab yourself.”

“Armor,” Sanguine snapped. “She needs better armor around her heart. What pawns are we? No pawns at all, I say! We must be better.”

I grimaced. “Sanguine, do not take too much upon yourself. While you are each important in blanketing my well-being, I am most directly responsible for such armor. I am working on that. There is much to do.”

Sigil softly reprimanded, “Your heart is very important. As important as a mind or body.”

“More important!” Toil snapped at his brother prince. “Lady Queen, you must carve out time for such things.”

“Where does this time come from? I would know because I do not have nearly enough of it. And me immortal.” I chuckled and looked up at the black between stars, but no answer was forthcoming.

The other princes fell into bickering over the ranking of heart, mind, and body. Change’s soul-tortured werebeasts did not enter the discussion of my wellness at all. Then again, they knew best that how a personshouldfeel didn’t mean a personwouldfeel that way.

I abandoned my search for answers in the blackness between stars and realized that Has Been had slipped away to deliver my letter.

I called to Huckery. “Your liege gathers his fifth against me.”

Huckery didn’t answer.

“I would prefer that you answer yourself, princely pawn.” Though I could force his answer.

He rolled his yellowed eyes at Unguis and Loup. “Our liege has forbidden us to say anything.”

“Yet you could, as I am your queen. Does that not tell you that your liege no longer has the power to forbid you when it comes to me?”

Unguis nodded his beastly head, dislodging a chunk of fur. “Yes, and the matter does feel complicated. Then there is his punishment. I am not fond of these, though I am aware I deserve them.”

The feeling that inspired was terrible indeed.

The cobblestones of the courtyard rattled in place, but an ancient presence of mind stopped me from a hasty reply. Kings did punish their princes from time to time, and I knew this to be true. Princes could punish their kings in return when they drifted from purpose. My quibble was with the last part of Unguis’s comment. The deserving part. From what I’d seen, other princes were pragmatic about such things. If they erred, their king would punish them due to their job being completed poorly. But Unguis believed he deserved punishment because of who he was and what he wasn’t. When Change punished his princes, it was to punish their sense of self and ideas of worthiness.

This was a darkness indeed. A conventional grotesqueness lacking utterly in the prestige of monsterdom.

I would convince Change’s princes they were worthy indeed, but I wouldn’t do that by pulsing my will into them or forcing them to betray their king.

To achieve this, I would do the opposite. “I am your queen, and yet here tonight I declare that you will serve me of your own free will. You are the fastest and most furred and manged of my pawns, and I can only respect such monsters.”

Three blank looks met that. Loup’s tongue lolled out of his mouth. Unguis chuckled, low and staccato, believing that I jested. They didn’t know what to do with positivity nor compliment. What was respect? They had no clue. But theywould. Change had much to answer for, and I wished to make him accountable more than I wished to save the world.

Though unless a queen learned war, there would be no accountability from kings, so she should start there.

Is leaped down from above, and I pressed a hand against my chest, laughing.

“My, thank you for the fright,” I exclaimed over the gasped exclamations about the beauty of my laughter from the courtyard.

“I had hoped to do so,” Is replied. “Thank you for your laughter, my queen. I am reborn.”

I peered upward. “You’re welcome. Where did you come from?”

“I leaped rather high to get here, Lady Queen.”

Of course.“I appreciate your promptness.”

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