Page 70 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
Duke Raise turned his head to peer at me with an owlish gaze. “That is me.”
I dipped my head. Did I dare? I had four champions for the first time, yet one of them was untested. I could not bargain on four champions tomorrow night.
“What do you sense, sir?” I said on the wind. I could do naught else while gripped in reckoning.
His body rippled with a shiver that was not fear, but a heady taste of power and purpose. “I sense that it is me. I sense that it is great. I sense that she must be with me.”
Ah.Of course. I summoned his duchess.
Her staircase erupted from cobblestones seconds later, and if Mother had not yawned the cobblestones back, I imagined stone and rubble would have careened over Vitale, crushing baffled humans here and there.
Her staircase was grand indeed, as had her duke’s been. The duchess’s was formed mostly of purple velvet. The balustrades were a gleaming gold, and gold embroidery detailed the narrow and steep walkway that was so vastly different from the wide and spacious staircase of the prior king.
“How well your narrow and steep stairs reflect you.” My voice swirled around her. “You walk aloneand are unconcerned about comfort, but rather, how quickly you might get from one point to the next.”
Whereas her husband had formed the staircase that he had thought others expected to see of a king.
The duke battled between love and the power gripping him, but his duchess was able to ignore him to address me.
She bowed. “Yes, my queen. ’Tis so, and I am honored that you have noticed. You require me for reckoning, I connect.”
“We do. Kindly take the hand of your duke,” I hissed.
The duchess lit from within at my order, and the husband and wife rushed to each other, clutching their hands together.
No sooner had they done so than their expressions altered from joyous to confused. Then to fear in the next beat.
The duke whispered, “I cannot let her go. We are stuck in love.”
They were locked together?
I strode forward, but the cobblestones opened beneath them, and the Raises toppled from view. Without hesitation, Princess Bring leaped down after them.
A cackling Princess Take was next, and the changing princess soon followed her, her hands pressed against her body to better streamline her topple.
I was already moving too.
I dove in headfirst, noting that the hole was somewhat of a tunnel. A narrow one that would have only just admitted the Raises clutched together.Dark.
Do not touch the walls.
Do not look behind.
Myearsinformed me that we were not alone in this place. Black sickness was in pursuit of the villain in his story—us. As I hurtled through the world, ruin clawed at my boots. Its chase began as a whisper and scratch, and soon enough, as we toppled deeper and alerted more of the sickness to our presence, the chase became a frenzied roar. A fury.
After healing so many veins, I knew that my power was useless against this foe, so I tucked my chin and pressed my body into a straight line as Princess Change had done. I felt my blasting passage accelerate and saw flashes of molten core.
Surely the heat should be impossible. Surely I should be burned to a crisp, and my champions too.
But this was a weak, nearly dead world.
Ahead, a pinprick of light appeared. But gravity was slowing my ascent—or descent—back to the surface. I shoved power out behind to continue my hurtling pace.
The pinprick grew larger, and I could make out the faces of my champions and the duchess peering through the hole.
Nearly there.
My view of them disappeared, as did all light.
