Page 40 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

“Good,” said See. “You are well again.”

His hand hovered over my head as though he might stroke my hair. He lowered it without doing so.

Ah, yes.That would be too caring.

I straightened to rub my temples. “How do you look at such things without becoming frozen in fright?”

“With care. Even then a king of seeing might freeze. I was well on the way to doing so when you walked into my palace as a human.” He released me, then stepped back. “You require my knowledge of war.”

“Your rhyme and reason,” I replied. “I have this of all other kings, thanks to princesses.”

“And what shall you do with rhyme and reason of the seeing king?”

There was an arrogant pulse in me that felt annoyed he wished to understand matters of a queen. But I had recently been humbled, so I pushed back the first haughty inklings of my eventual mantel. “That remains unclear to me. I have understood that I am meant to rise above kings, as you have connected too. Other than that, I know not.”

“To conquer us,” he said quietly. “Let us not call this obsession other than what it is. What do you need to conquer kings?”

I met his milky gaze. How much should a queen relay to a king? A king who could draw her back from the cliff of too much burden, but a claiming king. “You are less mad tonight than recently.”

He bowed slightly. “Do you wonder why?”

“I would know why before I answer your question.”

“Because I see much, Perantiqua, and I see much of other kings. You recall that they are my primary concern in that they must never be allowed to come between us?”

King See was a complex creature with towering ancientness. And the contrast of his crude claiming madness against his deep complexities only intrigued me.

I undid a buckle. Not to do so would be dishonest. “I recall.”

His focus lowered. “I currently have nothing to worry about from kings, and so I am very clearheaded. There is no threat to my having you as it stands.”

“Nothing except my own sentiment,” I retorted.

His lips curved.

I undid another buckle, the one at the base of my throat. His conceit did stir my lust, and I could only be honest about such things. “I would know why other kings are nothing to worry about.”

“You will see why soon enough when you meet with King Bring.”

First pawns, and now a king. What had King Bring gotten himself into? My curiosity to know nearly overwhelmed my urge to stay here.

But would I trust a seeing king with the details of my obsession? He had guessed that I would require keys, but he did not know of poems uttered by ancestral mothers and how that poem related to the original poem of kings.

Though King See felt very in control this night, he could be driven to some instability tomorrow night. Either by himself, or by King Change.

“What I require from you is your rhyme and reason, sir.” I whispered the words in a bizarre attempt to lessen the blow of rejecting his question.

Disappointment clouded in his milky gaze. “And so it will be. Then I will tell you how I war, maiden, without hearing the details of your obsession.”

And I waited after, to see what he might demand in payment. This request pushed outside the scope of “tutorage of war” after all.

Such a demand never came.

So perhaps an offer could be made. “Please begin, sir. There are many more buckles to undo.”

ChapterTen

How delightful

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