Page 59 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

“What monstrous envision of nature do you intend for my queendom?”

“Much as what I have always done.” Her voice trailed off. She sensed how this would go.

I stood, and she sprawled backward on stone. “You are to encourage wildness and tangled beauty. We will have native oasis and lush reminders of easier and mythical times. Those who look upon your nature art must always feel inspired to goodness of self and tender care of surrounding world, family, and community.”

Horror etched upon her face. “B-butgoodnessandtender care?”

“Just so. The kingdom of change is now mine, so you will paint my vision upon that part of my territory also.”

Her face hardened. “I had sworn to never do so.”

“Unswear it. I care not how you justify betraying your past words to yourself. My pawns shall keep me aware of how things go.”

My skeleton announced, “The princess promised herself to always work against a queen.”

That much was obvious. The startled Princess Change gaped at the armchair and skeletal legs sticking out between tapestries.

I asked her, “What equipment shall you require to keep the ground?”

“Nothing more nor less than the equipment in your new sheds.”

That I had sheds was news to me, but queendom proved ever fluid in such matters. This was once a hotel, after all.

How laughable to think back.

I swept past the princess, and she was rolled away across stone by the balloon of my power. I said to her, “Attempts to free your king will be in vain, Princess, but I suppose you will try anyway.”

The skeleton monster wiggled her toes, and I dipped my head in her direction, but many thoughts filled me as I swept into the courtyard. A glittering hellebore awaited. I was growing used to the nightly occurrence. Mothers flocked in, more and more by the night to join the twenty-six stitched in vigil. More than half had come, and I could not rest until fifty were present. That felt crucial.

I blinked up to my conservatory, so filled with ancient ponderings. The distraction was immense.

“My queen?—”

I paused, then blinked out of my musing daze. Had she been calling me for long?

Princess Bring blinked to catch up. “My queen.”

The princess had done away with clothes altogether and was entirely naked.

“Princess Bring, how might I help you?” I asked softly, and I could hear that my voice was far away and still that of a musing mind.

Her gasping breaths jiggled her. She could not immediately speak for the newness of my voice and power. The princess could not look closer to my face than my shoulder.

She eventually said, “You are more magnificent than ever, my queen. I have a piece of information from a pawn. One drawn out by the squelch, slime and blob of me.”

Indeed. The visual was a curious one. My lips did not move, but my words arose, nevertheless. “I am listening.”

Her blobs rippled with the flow of my voice. “I-I just left Vassal. He was rather undone by my sliming ministrations and became lured into a confessional place, perhaps believing that our physical intimacies mean emotionally more than agreed upon.”

Poor Vassal.He was the loving type. “You have discovered the reason taking pawns sneak in before dawn.”

She nodded damply. “Yes, and?—”

My brow cleared. “I see the whole.”

I blinked up the stairs again.

Princess Bring blinked behind me. “Are we… still speaking about Vassal’s confession, my queen?”

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