Page 112 of Of Brides Of Queens
“I wager that he is. Thank you for the report, Princess. You are upholding your end of the deal beautifully.”
She released a breath. “Yet you would only keep me here while no harm comes to others in your care. If you had been here during the recent battle, you might have tossed me to my king to save those in your walls.”
I kept my silence. In her uncertainty, the princess mused aloud. Sometimes she forgot that I existed.
The princess set the radio on the couch, then took up a pace in front of the double doors. Her forehead lowered like she wore a frown, and then her pace was abruptly ended as she faced me. “Is it true you have invited all royal monsters to an elaborate dinner affair tomorrow night?”
“It is.”
She paced again. “I suppose that you will not divulge your agenda to me. No, she will not do that.”
The princess paused by the door and rested a hand upon it. Two pawns lurked on the other side, but they were not in her thoughts. “She that inspires,
She they desire,
Should only shimmer
Like a star
Without its power,
Lest starlight steals
All they are,
To build her tower.”
I did not wish her to venture down that path. For a princess, she was unnaturally discerning. “You should not read much into human culture trends.”
Her tone was deadly serious. “But I do, Queen Perantiqua. And if kings were smart, they would do the same. The humans in Vitale are a forecast of the weather to come. If a person knows that, then they might dress accordingly and better survive the night. Your efforts to downplay the poem have confirmed truth is there.”
My smile faded.Bother.“You have a keen intellect.”
She curtsied in her suit. “As do you, Your Majesty. You possess of any number of great qualities, and yet I feel as only a princesses might that much is untapped in you yet. The poem is a forecast of what you will become.”
“A possible forecast, Princess. The verse speaks of shoulds and naught more.”
“It speaks of two possibilities,” she countered. “One where kings fail to control you, and one where they succeed. Will you shimmer like a star with its power or not? If you do, then you will steal all theyare to build your tower.”
She had the right of it.Drat.
Princess Raise turned away from the door at last, and I could only assume she looked at me. The intellectual respect between us was nothing to sneeze at. I would not seek to redirect her or play things down. There could only be a deal between us. “You have reason untold of a princess. Which possibility do you believe will come to be?”
“The one where you steal all they are to build your tower.” She curtsied in her suit again.
“The one where I steal allyourking is to build my tower. That is what might concern a princess who loves her king.”
The princess crossed to sit on the couch opposite again. “Naturally this was my first concern. Yet as humans have recited, I have sought to deepen my thoughts.”
Very unusual indeed. This princess was no mere witness of other’s reason. She had misled me, indeed,orher reason grew in tandem with my power. “I would hear the depth of your thoughts.”
The width of her face pushed out. A smile? “That is what I enjoy about you, Your Majesty. You enjoy to hear of understanding when we might find it.”
Other princesses did not offer up understanding in this fashion, and why was she complimenting me so much? “You wish for something from me.”
“And you wish to keep a poem from the ears of kings. They may dismiss the songs of humans, but they would not dismiss the warning of a princess.”
I leaned forward. “How would that princess escape to warn them?”
