Page 2 of Of Brides Of Queens
I peered into the courtyard below where twelve monsters had exited their ground-floor rooms to congregate.
Like every evening.
And like every evening, another three monsters walked through my wall of bars who had not stayed at my hotel last night—or ever.
Fifteen conventionally handsome men stood to attention on the cobblestones and tipped their gorgeous faces to view me. They were the embodiment of sculpted gods from mythologies. They were carved to perfection. They were designed to inspire trust and convince a mere human of immense power. Just a touch of otherworldliness. Just enough to lure—human minds were so limited about such matters after all. But here were men whom one might hope to catch on a warm summer day as they toiled in labor, clad without tunic. One might wait with bated breath to catch his eye across the room, while also writhing in fear that he might eat her whole.
I wrinkled my nose.
Where was dusk? I greatly preferred their true forms.
As I thought the thought, dusk stroked her fangs over their carved faces and tore away their conventional masks. The godlike shroud cloaking them from humans’ fragile minds was lifted to reveal the truth.
I locked gazes with fifteen monstrous princes.
My fifteen pawns. Apparently.
Fifteen pawns filled with my queenly will. They were any manner of blob and fang and mange and leathery skin. Hairless some of them, and too hairy others. Slimy, bulbous, disjointed, and in possession of extra limbs and eyes.Goodness.I sighed in relief to see them as they truly were. Magnificent, and so grotesquely equipped for everything they had to do.
The princely pawns stood in groups of three, and for good reason. Each trio had been warped by ancients to uphold the purpose of one of the five immortal kings.
“Lady Queen, what is your purpose?”
My gaze was dragged to Prince Sign, who was among the trio of princes Ileastwished to look upon. Their king had irritated me greatly with his insistence I owed him eternal servitude.
Though… this lean prince with gray and waxy leather skin who stood before me wasn’t to blame for his king’s actions. As I perused the rips in his skin and the extra arm he’d formed to better carry out his purpose, I took a moment to redirect my irritation to the king who had caused it.
“I am undecided on purpose this dusk,” I replied, then narrowed my eyes when Sign shared an exasperated look with his brother princes, Seal and Deliver. Perhaps he did deserve an iota of my irritation after all.
“Lady Queen, you did not have any purposeyesterday,” Prince Toil informed me in a gentle tone that let me know he cared. Maybe he did care, but he’d also beenorderedto care by his king.
King Bring would like nothing more than to steal my undergarments away and make me his daylight plaything.
Toil’s brother prince slapped his lowest blob on the cobblestones. His annoyance was too clear, and my brows drew together.
The cobblestones clunked and leaped. “Carefulwhat you are about, Prince Hex.”
His next sound was a soft squelch of apology, accompanied by the lightest wobbles of embarrassment from the rest of his trio. But Hex met my gaze. “The thing is, Lady Queen,amI Prince Hex tonight? Or Pawn Hex? Just Hex? What am I, and what shall I do? I am called here and there, to your will and the purpose of my king. I do not know where to be, nor what to do.”
How they were meant to juggle their king’s purpose and my will was anyone’s guess, so they should be glad that I had yet to discover any will at all.
“Are you our lady or our queen?” asked Prince Deliver.
Until now, they’d seemed content to call me both as Lady Queen.
Ancient surety creeped into me—the tiniest amount and not enough, really. “I am your queen. You are my princely pawns.”
The pawns were driven to their knees as usual, all of those that possessed knees. The werebeasts of King Change extended a manged foreleg and sank their saliva-moistened snout and fangs forward in a monstrous werewolf bow. The blobs dripped slime as they bowed.
“I told you,” someone said. Prince Sigil, I thought. “We’re princely pawns.”
Vassal muttered back. “What does that mean?”
Sigil retorted, “Why, that we’re… princes and pawns. Orsuperiorpawns. Or… inferior princes?”
The princes fell into hushed squabbling. Belonging to five kings as they did, the monsters didn’t get along on the best night.
Each dusk had stalked the same path for the last week. The same irritating question about my purpose. A steely declaration of my queenship that drove pawns to their knees.