Page 84 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
Valetise fastened an enormous, gilded chest piece into place around my neck and let it hang from collarbone to bottom rib. A statement indeed.
I floated from the room, and the princess hastened beside me. I said to her, “I suppose that I cannot rely on Duke Raise’sreason while he is in violent despair. Do the humans say anything?”
“They simply clamor for survival.”
For survival… but why now?
I burst from my quarters and lurked at the balustrade to peer upon their clamor. The humans could not see me, of course. Their minds would not allow it. But they could hear me.
I whispered to them, “Why do humans clamor?”
Screams. Cries. Silence. Whispers. Shrieks.
“Mistress Stitch,”they chanted.
Their clamoring intensified at my presence. How unexpected. Were they afraid?
Down in the courtyard, Picket rushed to and fro, shoving humans off the parapet with the help of my pawns.
“Picket, what do you sense?” I called.
He panted. “My queen, I sense that they are testing your fortifications.”
Testing my strength.
Mindlessly so. Driven by fate, not fear.
I tuned out their clamor and the rush of monsters. I tuned out my body senses, and paused to smile at the woman and child in me, who held hands. I settled into my mind and power and waited.
A wisp arose without difficulty, and I inhaled the connection.Ah
Butah.
I tuned back in. “Do what you can, good monsters, but I expect they shall overrun the queendom.”
Pawns gaped at me, even Huckery.
“My queen, you—” Picket blinked several times in a flurry.
I nodded. “I shall assist in the matter while I can.”
Gently, like a mother cat herding her kittens from danger, I batted at the humans atop the parapet. I curled my power around them to guide them down, then started to push mypower out. Slowly. I should not like them to trample one another, but a playpen for these humans would buy us time.
I erected a barrier over my queendom after, and when humans started to climb one another to get overthat,I sighed and created a roof over Vitale that would not allow them to find extinction that way either.
Their persistencewasadmirable. And concerning. I had to wonder what species infected everything around them, and then worked so hard to render themselves extinct. Monsters would be hard pressed to keep them alive in a saved world.
“That will do for now. Pawns, Sir Picket, kindly monitor the clamor of humans.”
Sixteen bows, in various forms.
Princess Bring blobbed behind me as I descended to the level below. Duke Raise’s bellows and screams were more evident now the clamor of humans was less.
“But what do you mean that humans will overrun the queendom?” Princess Bring exclaimed.
I did not answer as I pushed power ahead to open the duke’s door.
Duke Raise was inside. His tie was on, though loosened, and his shirt was gone. His trousers remained.
