Page 61 of Of Brides Of Queens

“Everything is normal to other monsters. Things are as they have always been. But with my new eyes, I see matters differently. I have seen kings sit very powerfully on their thrones, or even swing their feet while sitting on one. I have seen them take one capable step to the left and circle a room. They have displayed their coiled strength and menace in this fashion many times, occasionally blurring a short and beastly way whentheir agenda called for it. All in all, Princess Raise, I have seen them do very little.”

I rose, and my silk robe slithered to drape my body.

A calamity had begun outside. The first attack of Raise’s fury, no doubt.

“Pawns, you may go ahead,” I ordered. “Do what you do best to defend my queendom.”

They were unleashed and, in a whoosh, blink, and snarl, pawns launched from the third level to face what I expected was a human wave of Raise’s frenzied contractees.

I pocketed my surprise that Huckery, Loup, and Unguis had joined the others or even come to protect me from harm. I expected nothing from them. But they could ruin in my name in battle as easily as the others might save, so perhaps this order worked for them.

“I don’t understand,” the princess said with a sigh.

She didn’t? “A queen need not sit still nor move one step here and there. I might move where I like.”

“You cannot mean that you will fight my king’s fifthyourself?” Raise was stunned. Gob-smacked. Challenged in ideal.

Was I not a powerful and capable and immortal being? Could I not blink and crush and leap? There must be a reason for possessing these abilities.

“A new queen must,” I replied. “A wise queen will.”

Chapter Thirteen

Thank goodness for rubble and dust

Perhaps I should have hastened, for by the time I had arrived to face Raise’s fifth, they had already set fires to thatch and dummy renditions of me and had terrorized my sixth thoroughly. My sixth was rather small, and while I was unsure how to utilize humans in the war of immortal monsters, I did know they were needed.

Silk was not great fighting attire, I had found. Embers did catch it alight so, and now one of my legs was displayed from bare and filthy foot to stitched-on upper thigh. Smoke and ash coated me, despite the fact that I had done nothing other than stand before my wall of bars, push my balloon of power outward, and watch the antics of human and pawn.

Humans could not enter my balloon of power or see me, so by expanding my balloon, I was able to exhaust them. Nevertheless, they remained determined to penetrate the defense. Did they press the corn husk dolls of me against my power on purpose? I had to think so as some of the dolls had needles shoved in them, and some were dyed with blood.

I did not appreciate the personal nature of Raise’s attack.

Has Been rushed forward in lumbering leaps and bounds. Bullets found his white flesh, but that was no great issue for an immortal.

He plucked guns and knives from the closest row of fevered, dazed humans with his oversized hands. The humans weaved on their feet, weary beyond reason. Many fell to their knees in response to Has Been’s sheer nearness—though again, their minds would not let them see what he was.

Not at night.

Guns, knives, small bombs, and fire—King Raise had armed his fifth, and if I had not moved to defend my queendom, then I would no longer have an excess of humans.

As it was, I had moved quickly to corral my sixth within my wall of bars. The homeless humans had since occupied themselves with some rocking shock while my pawns and I battled outside.

Huckery dashed forward in a furry blur, and I wrinkled my nose when he ripped off the head of a human. I did wish he would refrain from killing.

But if Huckery did not ruin, his king would punish him. How conflicting and uncomfortable. A spying king might be very uncertain about my purpose because my pawns were going about business as their kings expected them to—by ruining or saving or a mixture of the two. Some of my pawns had chosen violence. Some had chosen to disarm. As it was, by the state of this battlefield, my purpose would appear to align with Take’s or Raise’s, even though my actions had been to save.

“And is this the third of your rapid attacks, King Raise?” I murmured. He had set fire to the thatched housing for his first act—and the dummies of me, of course. For his second, he had ordered his contractees to charge on my queendom.

They had drawn weapons shortly after, so was that the third act or still part of the second?

Loup padded over. “Lady Queen, our king summons us.”

“Will you go?” I asked.

Another whine. “Your will is stronger.”

Unguis and Huckery joined us, and I grimaced at the flesh dangling from Huckery’s yellowed fangs.

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