Page 11 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

He did not wish me to know his rhyme and reason.

All of that blinked through my mind in aggressive ancient fashion, and with my fists clenched in the wake of the onslaught, I decided to whirl back and demand the lesson anyway. Princesses could wait a time.

Except a king had not waited to watch me connect hisrealreason for coming.

See was gone.

ChapterThree

Of Smells

Nine steps were required to walk from my private lounge to the larger lounge by the door. I dared not hope that nine steps had provided a sound-proofing effect.

Nine steps completed, I then scanned the larger lounge and the four princesses occupying it. Three on a couch. One on an armchair.

Maybe they had not waited very long.

“Your nipples are showing,” said Princess Raise, and perhaps there was a grin on her face that I could not see, but there was definite grin in her tone.

I adjusted my breasts again.

“They won’t go back in the same,” drawled Princess Take. “Take it from me and save your strength.”

I pursed my lips and abandoned the effort. The display of nipple felt fitting in a sense. We were all uneasy and underdressed in some sense or another. Princess Bring had been brave enough to leave her head of blob and slime uncovered by veil. She had been doing so since she declared herself living to King Bring.

Princess Raise had attended even after delaying Princess Change so I could attack her. Princess Take had been lured here despite all the angst the visit would cause her king. Princess Change had come having last seen me a mad queen when I ripped her dried bouquet from her. I had also acted in violence against Princess Take.

Though payment meant different things to different princesses. My humiliation might speak to Princess Change, but my body spoke to Princess Take, judging by the quickness of her breaths.

“Do you desire her so strongly then?” asked Princess Change in her most despondent and echoing voice.

Princess Take hissed, flashing fang. “I do not! I desire my one and only. I desire my king.”

“You were practically writhing on that armchair while King See made her scream,” drawled Princess Raise.

I sat on the last armchair. There seemed nothing else to do.

“I-I cannot speak for the hold she has on me,” said the princess after a beat. “But ’tis lust and nothing more.”

I glanced at her. “But that is all you feel for your king, you have often said.”

She clamped her lips shut.

Princess Take took care to only display lust for her king because King Take could not feel more forher. If she asked for more, he would become more of a broken thing. King Take would not allow himself to behave as a deserving and great immortal because he could only execute his purpose while believing the exact opposite.

Only the despicable existed. Only vice. Ancients wished him to sink into the depths of depravity where only lust and whim andtakingexisted.

I had been correct in guessing that King Take had been the most moral and steadfast of men in his human life, and thus the taking purpose, which killed humans and rendered them to shells, had destroyed him. But ancients had given him the most ancient of princesses for a reason. Her powers of connection were powerful enough to fathom her broken king, and how she must go about ensuring he did not become a ruining king—not out of a fear of saving the world, but out of a fear that King Take would never recover himself from true ruin.

And so Princess Take feared ruining more than anything.

“Princesses,” I said, dipping my head to each in turn. “Welcome.”

“Queen Perantiqua,” said Princess Bring, and she started to stand to curtsey.

I held up a hand. “Do not trouble yourself, and I must remark on the dewy quality of your slime tonight, Princess Bring. You glow.”

The wettest of squelches, and to my delight, the princess did not say anything in reply. Compliments did not require an answer, I had once told her. The only effort must be to believe them.

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