Page 69 of Of Monsters Of Kings

“I’m coming. Her arms and legs keep getting in the way.” The man heaved me along another few steps, then swore any number of obscene things before swinging me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Did she put up a fight then?” the second lisped.

The man carrying me grunted. “Easy as capturing a baby.”

The sack over my head hid my frown. “I don’t appreciate you saying so because I was made to feel very childish only a week ago.”

“What’s she yapping about?” a third asked.

Of course there were three. I brightened. “Are you princes then?”

“You have a date with King Change,” said the one carrying me.

The three of them snickered in an ominous kind of way.

There was a creak of a door, and I was jostled through my wall of bars. After that, the whipping of my white dress around my legs and the breeze on my skin let me know we traveled at great speed. I listened to the even breaths of the prince carrying me as he ran with impossible smoothness through Vitale. The trio spoke as they ran, too, though with the way the wind snatched away their words, I couldn’t make anything out.

I’d miss my conversation with King See this evening.

Part of me felt relieved. The rest of me had almost been ready to speak with him.

“I’d hoped the three of you would come by,” I shouted in a lull of their conversation. “I’ve written a letter to King Change that I wished you to deliver. Now I can deliver it myself.”

The whipping of my dress around my legs slowed, but that was the only indicator that the princes had adjusted their speed.

“What’s she saying, Loup?” the lisping one asked. “That she wants to see King Change?”

They snickered again, and the low staccato sound of my captors—dare I say it—was enjoyable to the ears.

“Be careful what you wish for, wench,” said Loup.

I didn’t see a need for that language. “Kindly address me by Lady Patch.”

My dress stopped moving altogether when the prince carrying me came to a dead stop. The footsteps of the others halted too.

The one holding me—Loup, was it?—blew out a breath. “That’s a fair request. We can do that.”

“No reason we can’t,” lisped the second.

“Speak for yourselves,” the third spat out. “I don’t trust her tricks. You saw how See and Bring’s princes are spending their time there, doing her bidding. It’s not right. She’s up to something.”

We started off again.

“I beg your pardon,” I said stiffly. “I’m not up to anything. If you must know, Bring’s princes are meant to capture me, and See’s princes are there to stop them. It’s simple, really.”

The hostile prince muttered, “I don’t like it.”

I’d never met an unreasonable prince, and I was curiously eager to assuage his suspicion. My reassurance was halted as Loup tossed me to the ground.

Oof. Hard.

Metal judging by the coolness and the ringing boom as I’d landed.

I reached to pull off the sack, then paused. “Does removing this cover interfere with your plans?”

A sigh from the unreasonable one. “We would’ve restrained your hands otherwise, wouldn’t we? What kind of prisoner are you?”

I pulled off the sack in time to see Loup reply, “A polite one, I think. Her conversation is delightful and intriguing, you must admit, Huckery.”

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