Page 48 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
I blinked. “How so?”
“Your love is hate, but hate is soured love. You might unsour it at any time.”
That thought echoed my own conclusions, though doing so was a far harder task, especially when I was only doing it to save monsterkind. “What else?”
“When you informed King See that he was only enough for a weaker queen, you did not believe it.”
I withheld a sigh. I had known as much. “Anything else?”
“One more thing, my queen. You told him that he had successfully chased away love. You do not believe that either. You believe that he injured your love, and thatyouthen chased awayand stomped out the notion of love for good. Which as I said, is also a lie, as you remain in love, though it is soured.”
I had done these things. In self-preservation at first, and then from a sense of allocating my time and energy and heart to those who were more deserving. “There only remains the question of what to do about soured love. What to do quickly?”
Candor dipped her head. “And that is a choice that only you can make.”
Yes.And the answer was in the very question I had asked.What to do quickly?The choice had to be quick.
Forgiveness had to be quick.
That I did notwantto forgive was neither here nor there for a queen in general. But I mustbelievethe forgiveness, too, or it was no forgiveness at all, and that would not have any healing effect on the world’s heart. A queen facing her reckoning and the ruin of the world must forgive entirely and quickly.
I did not bother to hold back my sigh this time.
“Thank you, Candor,” I said. “Thank you for revealing his truth. Thank you for revealing mine.”
Chapter Sixteen
The answer was a choice.
“Iwould appreciate your connection right now,” I murmured to Princess Bring. The child princess happily squelched and slimed in her chamber. Only the tops of the bed frame and couches were visible above the sand that pawns had relocated from outside Vitale’s walls.
Pawns grunted as they heaved in fresh sacks of dirty sand.
“She’s going through it faster and faster,” said Sanguine.
Indeed, the sand in the chamber gleamed from the sliming ministrations of the princess. She seemed to grow fastest when eating or… exfoliating with dirty grains.
I smiled when the blob princess—now to the height of my knees—dove into the new sand with delight. Pawns cooed sweet nothings to the small child monster… in early monsterdom I never could have guessed that pawns could share such an expression of adoration.
This was joy. This was what I existed for.
I rose and brushed at the sand on my plum gown. The neck of the satin dress was a high and stiff collar that framed my face. “And so a queen must do what must be done.”
Princess Bring tilted her top blob in question.
“Worry not, little princess,” I said. “All will be well.”
She chirped a squelch and went on her merry exfoliating way.
I waded through the sand to the door and left Princess Bring in the adoring care of pawns.
I floated along the first level, and then blinked up the stairs in six-foot leaps. Too soon, I was on the rooftop and standing before a king.
I looked into King See’s milky gaze.
He peered back.
And what did I glimpse of his heart and mind? Naught. As ever I held theories. Some were born of my vulnerability and hopes, and some were born of cynicism and distrust. Was that a glimmer of hope in his eyes? Or a glint of calculation?
