Page 41 of Of Brides Of Queens
I knew nothing of her, then again, King Raise understood the value of information more than any king except Take. WhileTake understood the power of spreading information, Raise understood the power of keeping it all.
Sign, Seal, and Deliver stood at attention in front of my wall of bars.
Deliver explained, “Princess Raise is in confinement.”
Confinement.“I do not follow.”
“Our liege desires that she signs an updated contract, and the princess refuses. Our liege ordered level one protocol upon her.”
Seeing my expression, Seal hastily said, “Worry not, Lady Queen. He has never gone higher than level two with her. As I understand it, her refusal holds… sexual intrigue for him.”
Oh.That made more sense.“He enjoys when she tells him no.”
I pondered that. Raise likely only enjoyed this refusal because she was married to his purpose. “How long has he confined her?”
“Three years,” Sign said.
My eyes widened. “That is an extended foreplay indeed. Can it be that she enjoys such suspense after a few nights?”
“I would say not,” Deliver said. “Three years is not a long time, but not a blink. Our princess—how does a prince say this.”
Huckery scoffed. “Everyone knows that something went wrong with the union.” He looked at me. “The princess refuses her king’s purpose though married to it. Their union is surely warped.”
“Watch how you speak of her,” snapped Seal.
Loup growled in return.
I let them bicker, absorbed in more ancient thoughts. A princess able to shirk her king’s purpose? My intrigue knew no bounds. I would love to know whether she questioned the loss of her purpose before agreeing to union.
While princes were as ancient as one another, having spent one hundred years in the womb before The End, princessesvaried in the lengths of their slumbers and therefore their ancientness. Princess Bring had told me that her slumber lasted twenty years. Princess Take’s slumber lasted for fifty. Two princesses had slumbered for thirty years, and so I could assume one of them was Princess Raise.
What about this princess allowed her to refuse her king’s purpose? Iverymuch wanted to know, and so I could count on the answer holding great importance in the scheme of obsession. Curiosity was a great force. “One final question.”
Silence fell as my voice rang out.
Vassal sighed. “A symphony not unlike melting ice on winter flowers.”
I asked, “Which princess married a king first?”
“Princess Change,” Huckery answered. “Ninety-nine years after the dawn of the new age.”
The End.“I see.”
King Change had turned from the pact made with brother kings one hundred years after The End. What a coincidence. But I felt no great curiosity about this, so I moved on.
“Then? Who came next?”
“Princess Raise,” supplied Sign.
Raise married second, but how was she able to refuse her king?
Toil called out, “The princess of our liege was next.”
Bring.
Which left Take, no doubt after a lengthy love triangle war between King See and Take.
Change
