Page 6 of Of Brides Of Queens

By now I had received letters from every king except King Raise, who preferred not to put his thoughts in writing.

I did not recognize the gold seal.

I whispered my thumb over the crescent moon tipped sideways to appear like an arch. A human might mistake the symbol for just that, unable to perceive that altering the moon in any way was a grotesquely monstrous deed.

Only one entity would dare to do so. “You are ancient.”

What did ancients have to put in a letter that they could not warp into ignorant being?

My heart thudded in a telling, doomy way, but alas, what could a queen do but open a letter?

Lady Perantiqua, aka self-proclaimed “Queen”,

You are hereby summoned to attend a kingly tribunal,

where the dispute of eternal servitude will be resolved.

Until morrow’s dawn and the boom

of the Ancient’s hammer.

Ever thirst for Thirst itself,

and on behalf of all kings,

King Take

The paper, so glossy and thick, nevertheless crumpled in my clench fist.

Self-proclaimed queen?Self-proclaimed?King Take hadn’t even bothered to call me Lady Queen Perantiqua like my pawns sometimes did.

Should I interpret, then, that kings rejected my queendom, or was King Take toying with my mind again?

Midnight blood pooled in my cheeks in a way telling of a rage.

They dared to summon me, like I was at their beck and call. Iwasa queen. Even if a new one and one filled with trepidation of declaring her purpose. Even if mybothersome crown kept falling down.

I shoved it back up, ripping out some blonde hair in the process.

Howdarethey.

I whirled, then stomped to the middle of the courtyard, glaring at the fifteen doorways on the ground level. Above each archway a prince’s name was carved.

“Kings,” I said scathingly. Their princes were now my pawns. That didn’t justhappento any monster. That happened to queens.

And what did they think about only having three princes each, while I had fifteen for the takingandconsidered them mere pawns? My lips torsioned in a smile. “I won’t point that out unless you are all determined to be unwelcoming.”

I smoothed the letter out to reread the contents. Fury leached away enough that my stomach lurched at the reason for the tribunal. The lurch drew away the remaining rage and then coldness was left behind.

You are hereby summoned to attend a kingly tribunal,

where the dispute of eternal servitude will be resolved.

King Take spoke on behalf of all kings, King See included.

“So did I anger him with my hasty reply at dusk?” I whispered. Perhaps I should not have dismissed his question so, but in my defense, I was a very pestered queen.

Any triumphant unraveling had been for naught, it seemed, for I’d had a week to make kingly friends, yet I’d set out to do so a week too late.