Page 73 of Of Monsters Of Kings

The king’s head tilted up. “You call this a cave?”

“Yes, sir, a wondrous cave. What do you call it?”

“A grave, one hopes. The perfect grave.”

“Who will the grave belong to?”

The king walked the perimeter of the den, and I circled opposite him.

“You are foolish and optimistic,” he stated, ignoring my question. “See sought to claim you. Young monster, what path will you take? One to strengthen me, or one to weaken me?”

My path had naught to do with him. “I cannot fathom my path, sir, and so I cannot answer your question.”

“I’d expect not, foolish thing.”

“If you could but tell me your purpose, then I could perhaps figure out an answer for you.”

“My purpose is to help this world into the ruin it needs,” said King Change.

His forthright answer stunned me. He did seek the world’s ruin then. Bring’s princes were right. “Why does the world need ruin?”

“Because there’s too much pain. Far kinder to end the life of a maimed beast, don’t you think?”

I wasn’t sure what to think on such a heavy matter, but I had seen animals beyond saving in childhood and understood part of what he suggested. “If the life cannot be saved, perhaps ending the life is merciful.”

“What if a life will never be the same even if salvageable? If such a life is saved, it will exist in misery and despair, a half-life only. Some things cannot be fixed. When do we submit to the knowledge that the answer is not to fight for life, but to accept the mercy and finality of death?”

I didn’t know enough to engage in the conversation on the same level as him. “I cannot say, sir.”

“I’d expect not, foolish thing. But will you help the world submit to its fate? That is my question.”

“I don’t imagine I’ll help the world do anything.”

“You will. That is clear from how See has favored you, and from Take’s interest and Bring’s obsession. Kings do not become involved with mere monsters.”

I wasn’t sure any of those things were true aside from Take’s interest, and I would rather do without that. What I knew was this king made my insides shiver. I felt frightened where I had rarely felt so, and not because he would become a monster soon with the onset of night, but because of the way he looked at this tree and forest and his kingdom.

I saw a haunting forest fit for monsterdom, and he saw horridness that should end. I saw this as a whimsical, hidden cave, and he saw a grave already dug. What was more, I suspected that King Change might seek to kill and end anything monstrous simply because they weren’t conventional, and that in itself was a terrible failing of character. I’d only met those who celebrated uniquities. I’d never met a monster who considered himself one in essence, and so I feared becoming monster in front of this king and having my vulnerabilities and uncertainties preyed upon. A person who placed such importance on convention must be an unpredictable type of fellow. For that fellow to wear a crown and rule a kingdom… I should know more of this king so that I might safeguard myself.

“Do all of your subjects turn into beasts at dusk?”

“We are all cursed, yes. I am forced to curse more to counter the foolish movements of the other kings to save or hold fast the world.”

I took a breath. “You mean to say that if Bring charms or curses the life of a subject, then you must change one of yours into a beast?”

“You understand something, if not all.”

His tone mocked, and yet my fright of him was such that I didn’t reprimand his poor manners and inhospitable behavior. “The everyday occupants of Vitale become beasts, you say? Mere humans change at dusk?”

“Those I have touched do not change in the physical manner I do, nor that my princes do, but they become beastly in their own way, whether upon themselves or others.”

My thoughts turned to the landlady who’d clawed my cheek with her slap, and to the laws in Vitale that said an invalid must be turned out of the walled city. There was beastliness in Vitale, certainly, and I’d never imagined these aspects originated from a king’s power and purpose. Change’s power forced vices out of the shadows, and there was a beauty to that.

I continued to circle the perimeter of the cave opposite the king.

He said, “My princes tell me you seek my one-fifth snuffing share of the snuffed space, Hotel Vitale. They have said you would be much obliged. Tell me, what are the limits of your obligation.”

“I would not ruin a world,” I told him plainly. “I’m not sure about such matters yet.”

---