Page 54 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

Yes.He should have. “Leave reflections of the past to King See. He is best equipped to look without the mistake of regret. Follow me.”

There was a pulse with my order, and a small siphoning of my power. King Change rose and walked behind me. In this vulnerable state of his, I did not fear attack, and so I turned my back to a king, all the better to display my control over the sinister figure.

Such control must be displayed. Other kings would hear of this violent battle between queen and king. These kings would not guess how depleted King Change’s power had been after ruin, and so they would fear what I was capable of.They would hesitate to attack me. They would urge each other to be the first. Or they would unite to do so.

Yes, I would play on this controlling display to sow seeds of doubt.

King Change walked behind me as I strode from his kingdom with his olden key in hand. I placed the key inside the waistband of my leather trousers. Kings did not need to know the exact details of my obsession.

In the rubble beyond the forest, beastly humans waged war on my pawns. No wonder pawns had not come to my aid. Hundreds of humans were an annoying but towering task for twelve pawns. Even fifteen would have struggled—though my werebeasts looked on from their perch atop rubble.

“Cease,” I boomed.

Beastly humans dropped to the ground, crying out. They barely breathed. They had just heardher.

“The corn husk woman,”they said in awe. The humans craned to catch a glimpse of her. They should not try. Their minds would never handle the sight of me.

They were my subjects now. “Leave this place,” I told them. “Return to your homes and be better and happy.”

A beastly person may not know how to do either, and I could not guess how I was meant to manage them, or whether King Change still had a role in that. Time would reveal the workings of obsession. That, and a meeting with Princess Raise.

Pawns gaped as they stopped fighting and caught sight of the sullen, defeated king in my wake.

“The changing kingdom belongs to me,” I declared to pawns, then glanced at my werebeasts. “We return to my queendom.”

And we did, pawns, and king, and a queen.

Conquering triumph did not leave room for doubt, and madness still flowed in my veins somewhat, so I did not doubt that to my queendom I must go.

I did not doubt that I must go to the single place that existed in this version of my queendom and also in the version through Mother’s grave.

My conservatory was the heart of my monsterdom.

I led a king and fifteen pawns to the top of my queendom, and sure enough, shackles awaited him there. He would be shackled in the arched opening that overlooked his kingdom.Mykingdom now, and he could look upon the forest always and remember failing in ruin for eternity.

“Your new home,” I announced.

King Change, my puppet, stepped to the wall, then faced outward. I might admire such dignity in defeat, but that was a hard feat when the monster himself was detestable.

The shackles snapped shut of their own accord, but I paused when Mother rattled the copper panels.

“Thank you, Mother. I had quite forgotten.”

If throne is seat

Union is seam

Skulls are skin

Shackles are stitch.

I freed the stitch from my right knee and cast it toward the simmering king. Pawns, and the four princesses who had creeped in, watched as I stitched the shackles at his ankles and wrists. There was no escape from shackles such as these. A stitch had ensured that.

“Welcome to my queendom, Change,” I said. “We will figure out the rest together.”

“We will do nothing,” he answered.

We must agree to disagree on that.

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