Page 75 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
I trailed my fingers over the chest of a statue of armor. “You did not warn me.”
“Warnings carry consequences. You had to meet that moment fearlessly and naïvely.”
I could choose to remark on his highhandedness, but then… his tone was so mild. Always so mild. I had only ever celebrated the uniquities of monsters, so how could I find offense in his?
“But if I heal the Changes union, then you will warn me?” I had picked the Changes randomly from the number of princesses and their counterparts, but See stiffened, then relaxed.
He hardly did either of each, but enough that a queen could notice. I floated closer, unspeaking.
“Their healing will be different,” he answered, and the mildness of his tone was greater.Rage.I had learned once upon a night, that increasing mildness from this king meant rage.
“Indeed,” I murmured. “Will you warn a queen, though? Or must she be fearless and naïve?”
“In that healing, I will not. In others, there is no need. You are aware of what shall happen.”
I circled behind him, trailing a fingertip over his shoulders. His shoulders stiffened again, and this time they did not relax. “If you choose when to warn a queen, or wait until a warning is redundant, then what is the point of a seeing monster?”
“I am ever blinder, Perantiqua, as you know. I studied the futures in great detail during your six-month absence, but I am left to whittle away and guess at what futures remain with each of your actions, and with each action of lesser monsters too. Icannot be sure that I am correct. There is great harm in providing incorrect information, or even in providing the correct information. Warnings carry consequences,” he repeated.
I stood before him. “Unless I should enter the haze again. Then you might see how the futures properly lay. For a time. Until then you must whittle.”
His thin lips curved. “I should imagine you like the idea of blindfolding your prince consort.”
From the warmth in his voice, I could surmise his ideas of blindfolding included nudity and perhaps a bedroom, but the idea did not appeal when black sickness had just taken a beloved monster from me.
I turned from him.
“She will return,” See said to my back.
My eyes widened. “You speak of my duchess?”
“I do. When all is healed, she will return. And that is the point of me.”
His large hands cupped my elbows, and he pressed his lips against my ear. “A seeing monster provides his queen with hope when she needs it, and only then. For she is very capable in her crown. A prince consort stands with his queen, now they have transcended love.”
The words carried a subtle wisp with them, almost too faint to grab at. I murmured, “And against her when required.”
As I must do to him.
I felt his breath on my neck. But I would not shiver in delight. I would not.
He rumbled, “It is nearly dawn, and I was about to depart for your queendom. Why did you come here? As much as I hope that you came for my company, I fathom that it is not the only answer.”
Why had I come here? For comfort? Perhaps, though I could not admit to that yet. He was not the only monster who could keep secrets of the present and future.
From a deep place of musing, I replied, “To think that I once followed your princes here as a human. To think how simple that choice was—the choice to beg a skull for employment. How life has altered.”
His breath and grip slipped away as I wandered forward.
I passed down the hall and to the stairway beyond. His gothic kingdom had sucked inward to a princedom as the bellows of an accordion might collapse when squeezed. Everything of his previous kingdom was here, but in a more restricted fashion.
The stairway did not reach as high, and the short hallway that had existed between the stairs and his throne room was gone. The top of the landing was now inside the domed room, and a seat resided there instead of a throne. The seat was still regal and comfortable, and befitting of a prince consort.
The dome was still more open to the night sky than closed, and perfectly designed for a seeing king.
See would continue to sit here andsee, yes, but he would not sit here as often as before. Because a prince consort must support his queen. He must give me hope whenneeded. I could not feel the truth of his purpose in my heart. How could a monster exist just to nurture and uphold a queen?
That had so rarely been the relationship between us.
