Page 91 of Of Brides Of Queens

He patted the hidden pocket as he bid me goodbye.

Perhaps the moon would not wait to deal out her consequences. A king was about to learn what I truly thought of him, whether I liked it or not.

Princess Bring could not return to this kingdom.

Chapter Nineteen

Meetings fabled

Turning tables.

As I landed on the ground—on my left leg slightly before my shorter, right leg—laughter bubbled in me at the sheer relief on the faces of my bringing pawns.

“You did not call us up,” Sigil blurted on a sigh.

Hex sagged against my wooden steed, which savagely kicked him away. Victim of Sigil and Toil’s rumbling laughter after, Hex glared at the mount, muttering, “We worried the whole night away.”

“I am sorry to hear that my pawns worried about helping me,” I replied.

They fell over each other to reassure me of their pawnly devotion as I pulled myself onto Mother’s steed.

“Home,” I announced, feeling relief within my grasp. “A bath is in order.”

Perhaps I could soak this rawness away.

Toil bowed one blob over another. “Yes, my queen, and here is a message for you first.”

The letter was stuck to the slime on his back. He turned, then stretched taller, so I could simply pry open the seal and spread the page flat on his back.

Queen Perantiqua,

You upheld your side of the deal.

I will uphold mine.

The princess comes to my palace this night.

With Sight,

King See

And what did he mean by this? For how long had Princess Take already been in his palace?

“I have read the contents,” I told Toil, who collapsed to his usual height and sucked the letter inside of him somewhere.

The letter had inspired a great urgency, and I barked orders at the steed. As soon as the mount exploded forward in a rigid gallop, I connected that See had wished to inspire this panicked feeling.

I did not slow us to a trot.

My three pawns blinked after me while my mind whirled in frenzy.

King See wished me to race to his kingdom after the picnic with Bring. He wanted King Bring to learn of where I had immediately gone too. This was a claiming behavior—though Seewasupholding our deal, on his own ambitious terms.

See wished to know, tosenseon me,if anything had transpired between me and Bring.

At an intersection where sorghum extended between buildings in one direction, and millet in the other, I pulled on the ruffled reins to stop us.

Another thought had creeped in, and that thought had nothing to do with See’s claiming reasons for sending a letter at the exact moment he had.

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