Page 24 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
When I arrived at the conservatory, pawns already filled it.
“Never!” King Bring was shouting.
Has Been replied, “Queen’s orders. Pass them over.”
“Any pawn who tries to remove her ashes from me will meet his true end.”
I could hear that King Bring meant it.
I floated forward. “And what of a queen, sir?”
Pawns hastily parted to create a path to King Bring.
I stopped before the king’s back. He looked out over his previous kingdom—the pillar reaching to the sky. The panel he was shackled to spun in place until he faced me.
Though plague no longer streaked his face with black, weariness streaked his face in its place.
He sagged. “Queen Perantiqua, I do not deserve to keep her ashes. I allowed ruin to turn me from my union during her immortality. Such guilt and shame fill me. Such resentment. I cradle her ashes next to my heart as a reminder of all that vanity drove me to. They remind me to turn from the failings of pride. They remind me of my burn for revenge.”
His eyes blazed red, the same color as his crimson skin. The king glared at the back of King Change. Though Princess Change had taken the deadly curse from my mother, really, andreally,Princess Bring had taken up the curse into her blob all on her own. If she had not, then the plague on monsters would never have ended. King Bring’s burning revenge was misdirected.
“Princess Bring died so that you and monsters would be saved,” I told him.
He blinked away his red eyes, and the etch of weariness deepened.
“Will you disrespect her in life and death?” I asked coldly.
King Bring hung his head. “I will not.”
“Then what remains to do with guilt and shame and resentment?”
“If something else remains to do with them, then I cannot yet admit that truth,” he whispered. “I will ponder your words, for you already know the answer. I must find this for myself. The journey is very important.”
I smiled at his wisdom, for I had rarely seen that quality in this king. He spoke again, but my gaze wandered to the glimpse of his kingdom through the opening.
Princess Raise had spoken the exact truth during our interrupted meeting. Kingdoms were much smaller. Thatched roofs extended from my gates to the perimeter walls of the city.Fire, smoke, screams.I noted those too. Humans were in great turmoil.
But such beauty of queendom too.
Princess Change had not wished to encourage wild growth, but she had obeyedthatorder. Lush vibrancy had never existed in Vitale before—not in my human existence either. I could see the startings of lushness in the world. I could see its potential.
I became aware that pawns, kings, and princesses observed me. I supposed that a question had been asked, most likely from King Bring, whose jaw was an embarrassed ruddy red.
“King Bring, the journey is important. Are you deeply convinced of the importance?”
“I will be better in the memory of her where I was never in her life,” he choked.
I understood this king. His weaknesses too. While his princess was weaker in power, she was steadfast and true in heart. Without King Change dealing out ruin on the Brings’ union, I believed the pair might find happiness again.
Unions were seams, and the seams of the world were frayed, and only golden fate could deem fit to mendthem. I was golden fate, a creature of patch and stitch, and I had deemed the Brings union fit to mend.
And if I healed their union, then the world would heal in whatever magnitude the Brings’ union represented, so I was beginning to gather.
But what exactlydidthey represent? As the Brings healed their union, I would closely observe the effect on the world.
“Mother,” I thought.
Monsters shivered and gasped at the whirl of my voice. The panels holding the other kings turned them to face me. Includinghim, who I could feel listening to my every word and thought. Somehow.
