Page 28 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

At the end of the tunnel, I stopped, and regarded the solid wall before me. The wall was not made of the same rock as the cave. The wall had been built.

I studied the five holes in the wall. They were at various heights, and I assumed they matched the height of kings’ hands.

Their left hands, I fathomed.

Keyholes.

“And so it is,” I said softly. “That a queen must win the keys to kingdoms.”

Or perhaps I could skip that.

Holding my breath, I rested my fingertips on the wall. When nothing happened, I placed both palms against the metal wall, then pushed. Not a budge.

I drew forth my power and pressed against the wall next. Harder.Harder.

Nothing.Oof—I released my held breath.

There was a totality in the strength of the wall that told me the material kings constructed it from was rather more than mere metal. This metal was infused with the power of five kings.

“You sealed an olden rock away.” I stroked the highest keyhole that would belong to King See. “You all agreed to seal the olden rock when the pact was broken? Or are you hiding something?” Or protecting something. Themselves?

Or monsters.

Without more to go on, my theories were too numerous to be of much help.

“Five keys.” I drew out thesin a hiss, and there was a joy in the word, and a blasting of fresh aroma.

Obsession had more form.

Yes, keys must be mine. “How to win each of you?”

I stared at the wall for a great length of time, then returned the way I had come with far less fear than when I had entered.

“You were in there for so long,” said Princess Bring. “Dawn is almost upon us.”

I nodded and set off for the city. I would not forget the path here. “I am well, Princess.”

“Did you learn anything of obsession?” she asked.

“I did.” And should I trust that knowledge to princesses? I believed that I had to. I would not have found the cave, nor had any current form to obsession without their help last night. I would not be so arrogant as to believe I had the time to uncover the stepping stones by myself. Not this time. “I require five sets of keys. Each king has one in his possession.”

“A key?” asked Princess Raise. “My husband has never spoken a word of this.”

“Nor my king,” said Princess Bring. “Though I do not doubt your connection, my queen.”

“They each have a key,” I said. “I must gather all five to enter the cave and approach the olden rock that is their shared source. Or so I fathom at this early stage.”

We set off back to Vitale in the gradually lightening sky. There was a relief in the idea that I would be inside the walls of Vitale again soon, and I studied this feeling during the walk, concluding that it was remnant of the fears drilled into me as a human.

“Do you expect that Princess Change will be snooping, my queen?” said Princess Bring between moans of ecstasy. I could not imagine the experience of sand on blob, but I was happy for any monster finding such erotic pleasure. Surely this joy was an indicator that blob was meant for sand.

I wrenched open the enormous gates of Vitale with my power, and heard the cries of alarm from the guards and operators on the other side. Ten soldiers armed this gate at all times, and learning to operate the mechanisms that opened and closed the gates was a job held in the highest esteem. The humans could not see me nor the princesses, so to them, a great gust of wind must have appeared to jerk open the impossibly heavy gates.

“I will hear about that on the radio for a month,” Princess Raise drawled. “The gate of Vitale flung open for the first time in history, and then a second time in the same night.”

“Humans feel good when there is something small to worry about,” I answered.

“I do not consider that humans will believe this as a ‘small’ something,” she muttered.

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