Page 114 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
“Niyna gifted her life and power to me not long ago, fiftieth daughter. Fate has demanded the power of two mothers for this battle, and so you will give the stitch of your thigh and the stitch of your spine in the fight.”
My heart sank. I had known that Cassandra must go, but I had expected another day in her ancient company. “Mother…”
She smiled. “Do not mourn me, but rejoice me. The rage I have felt across centuries at the withering of fifty mothers and daughters sweeps through me as a storm. I relish the release of it at long last. Ancients may have used our line, but Ruin shall feel my wrath. I will not fail you, Daughter.”
Like all mothers but mine, Cassandra was locked in the most vibrant part of her life, but her youthful face was etched in knowledgeand in haunting determination. Cassandra had lived filled with ancient purpose that removed all her choice in withering, and then she had watched forty-nine descendants go through the same. I had never considered what guilt Cassandra might feel that she had been the first mother. I had only felt the anger and resentment of some mothers with thought tomyactions against them.
“You have never failed us, Cassandra,” I answered.
She shifted her focus to me, and her eyes shone. “I have never wished to, and that has proved enough for me, fiftieth daughter and queen of us.”
“We will go hand in hand, Mother,” I whispered to her.
Cassandra nodded and looked to the sky, settling into whatever undead vigil remained to her.
I called, “Valetise and Picket.”
My simple monsters walked to me hand in hand, and from their grim faces, I could guess that they had deciphered the truth. “You overheard?”
“I would never eavesdrop,” declared Picket, then said sheepishly, “But Unguis and Loup heard of matters from Huckery, and then Sign and Deliver were wondering about how romance is healing the world, and then Toil, Hex, and Sigil said how Valetise and I were lucky, seeing as how we were in romance but you had not asked us to walk into evil. Marchioness Take was feeling spiteful and told us that we would be next and not to celebrate too soon.”
I blew out a breath and cast a look at the marchioness who was smirking this way from the tower where she sat in the company of other champions. “I am sorry that the truth arrived to you in such a way, for yes, I wish to ask this of your romance.”
Valetise leaned into Picket’s side. “My queen, I served you from first monsterdom, and I serve you forever. There is no monsterdom without healing this seam, and so the choice is easy for me. I go now by choice, or later without any.”
My heart was full for her words. “Valetise, you are wise beyond your threads.”
She flushed and curtsied.
Picket wrapped a ropey arm around her and glanced my way. “My queen… I would walk into evil with my heart too. I could never be lost while I am with her, and yet I fear what lays beyond.”
I frowned. “Speak your mind, Picket, and without fear.”
The worried crease of his brows eased. “I am a simple monster, my queen, one who enjoys the honest labor of a job well done. My purpose is to picket, and Picket is my name. I fear becoming more or other, you see, for Huckery told Unguis and Loup, who spoke with Sign and Deliver, who spoke to Toil, Hex, and Sigil, and then the marchioness told me that I would likely need to become a viscount or the like, which I certainly do not wish to be!”
His eyes were wide indeed, and I would no sooner make Picket a viscount than I would have made a foot soldier into a king. “Picket, ease your mind, for you are exactly as you are meant to be. I would never seek to alter you, and your feelings of rightness in purpose and self are true and pure. You will walk into evil as you are, and return from it to picket again.”
The tension in his fibers eased. “My queen, my mind is reassured.”
Valetise rested her head on his shoulder. “We will do what is needed, my queen.”
They walked away as they had come to me, hand in hand. Whatever grief had plagued me earlier, now only warm and strong feelings for the rightness of monsterdom filled me.
Such confidence in me.
Such selflessness without mindless servitude.
My voice carried through the air: “How proud I am of monsters.”
And if those were my last words to monsters, then those were words I would carry happily in my heart upon my death.
I walked to my tower. The conversation between See and No Change must end, though the edge of panic in See’s tone had become steadily more evident. He was painfully witnessing that nothing would alter his brother.
“Huckery,” I said, pausing before him. “’Tis time.”
Huckery nuzzled Candor’s cheek, then padded behind me.
We walked to the top of the tower, and See and King No Change broke off their conversation at my appearance.
