Page 35 of Of Brides Of Queens

I saw. And did not. “You wish that you were not my pawns?”

Their shocked gasps and hasty pleading refusals did stroke my immortal ego.

“Then,” I said after a time, “you wish that I would not protect myself against your liege?”

“No?” Deliver asked, then glanced at Seal, who glanced at Sign.

Three princes stumped. This was a stumping situation, so I could easily forgive their uncertainty.

“I would hope,” I said, pushing the bothersome crown up on my head, “that there will only be a few instances like the tribunal where I must put you on the spot to act against your liege. I would prefer to give you warning in the future, though there must be times when this is not possible. Find solace, my pawns, in the certainty that if my will exceeds the purpose of a king’s command, then ancients must intend it such, and who are you to question their goals?”

“No one at all,” whispered Sign, peering fearfully at the sky as if Ancients might lurk there. I might, too, if I’d been warped by them for one hundred years in the womb.

As things stood, I was not a queen who enjoyed hurting another’s heart, so though I could not be less of a queen with them, I could act to heal their hearts and outweigh the toll of my queenly actions.

“Deliver, Sign, Seal,” I called down. “Will you join me for a fright this evening?”

Grunts and sneers rang out from the others. Of all my pawns, I had only shared a fright with Huckery.

Sign’s eyes widened so much that I worried the surrounding skin would tear. “Lady Queen, we would behonored.Vastly honored.”

I walked down to the courtyard in time to see Mother pushing the wooden steed from her grave.

I withheld my groan, though Valetise had dressed me in a baby-doll dress with gartered stockings that would make mounting and riding the steed a breeze. “Thank you, Mother.”

Has Been knelt down to give me a boost with his large white hands.

I sat sideways on the mount and adjusted the thin straps of my bouncing dress that brushed the tops of my thighs. “I know the perfect place. Let us go.”

“What willwedo tonight?” grumbled the slimy Sigil. “I’d like a fright too.”

My stairway pawns enjoyed Sigil’s annoyance and began to laugh in their nervous and barking way. Though I did not relish division between my pawns, I did enjoy hearing more laughter in my queendom. Not so long ago, princes used to fill Hotel Vitale with their chuckling chimes and staccato snickers.

I twisted to look at Sigil. “Attend your kings, dear pawns. There will come a night where you cannot, and so enjoy the simplicity of this dusk hour. Anticipate future frights with your queen. Though Hex, I asked you to move our new rope monster somewhere safer the other evening, did I not?”

“Yes, my queen,” replied Hex. “And so I did.”

I glanced at the rope. “Did he worm back here then?”

“I can move him again, if you like.”

I nodded. “Please do, Hex. I don’t like to think of monsters walking on him.”

The wooden steed grated forward, and the rope only just managed to open the gate, and then remained upright to bow as I passed.

“Good on you,” I told it. “You are growing in strength. Hex shall move you somewhere safer though.”

The gate clanged closed after us, and the four of us set on our easterly way.

“Where will we go for a fright? It has been centuries since I gave a scare that wasn’t to my brother princes,” Seal said from where he walked behind my steed. He was breathless with anticipation.

My eyes rounded. “Centuries, you say?”

“We are kept busy with our liege’s purpose.”

“And still you are monsters who must give frights as well as receive them,” I chided.

Sign mumbled, “Just so, Lady Queen. Sometimes it’s hard to do all the things one knows one should.”

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