A Dream So Dark

by L. L. McKinney

  Alice tensed, waiting for some sort of attack. Instead, the shadows around them began to shift and twist. Then came the snarls, low growls that rumbled menacingly. Fiends crawled into being, stepping out of the dark. They padded forward, hackles raised, maybe six or seven of them. At least … she thought they were Fiends. They were small, lithe, and on all fours like Fiends, but as they shifted, Alice noticed that their proportions were off. Their limbs were a bit longer, their torsos shorter. Their claws weren’t claws at all, but long and fingerlike, tipped with needle-thin talons. Their faces were flat, round. Black lips pulled back from feral snarls and jagged teeth, but that wasn’t what sent an icy jolt of fear through Alice’s body.

  It was the eyes.

  Each fiend had a pair of eyes at the center of what were clearly faces. Watchful eyes. Humanoid eyes.

  “Oh my god,” Alice whispered.

  Haruka whispered something in Japanese Alice was fairly certain was a curse.

  “Behind me, Your Majesty,” Xelon said.

  “What … what did you do to them?” Anastasia breathed, fear and disgust ripening her words.

  The Bloody Lady sneered as she peered at them down the length of her nose. “You don’t like my pets? Poor things, first such harsh judgment from my knight, and now this?” She extended a hand and one of the … not-fiends crawled beneath it, butting its head against her palm like a cat. She stroked red nails against the inky skin. “Well, such rudeness simply will not do. Let’s be done with this. Chester. The princess.”

  Faster than Alice had ever seen him move before, Chess flung himself toward Xelon and Odabeth, sword lifted. Alice sidestepped to meet him, their blades locking. Around them, the Not-Fiends leaped on the attack.

  Haruka dove forward with a swipe at the one nearest her.

  The Duchess’s whip came to life around her once more, lashing out at the monsters. Xelon placed herself in front of Odabeth, despite being bound. The princess drew her own short sword and gripped it in shaking hands.

  Alice twisted around to break free of the lock, facing her opponent, her heart crumbling. “Chess!” This close, she hoped to see some sort of recognition in those dull violet eyes, some sign it was him and not whatever he had turned into. But he stared at her blankly.

  “Please don’t do this,” she begged.

  Lifting his sword, Chess lunged. His shadowy blade hummed when it collided with the Vorpal Blade. Alice twisted in with his attack, working to block and defend. She couldn’t bring herself to go on the offensive. This was her friend! He … he wasn’t himself! She couldn’t hurt him.

  “Chess! You don’t have to do this!” She jerked to the side, barely avoiding losing a kidney.

  He said nothing, instead bringing his blade around for another attack. And another. Driving her back, slowly, steadily. Her arms ached with the force of his blows. Her heart ached as she realized she wouldn’t be able to keep this up. She was going to have to stop him, even if it meant hurting him.

  Around her the room dissolved into a maelstrom of flashing blades, slashing claws, and gnashing teeth. Alice’s mind swam as it tried to balance defending herself, watching out for her comrades, and not hurting one of her best friends.

  So when Haruka cried out in pain, Alice’s brain sputtered for the briefest moment, caught between focusing on her own fight and looking to the other Dreamwalker.

  Just long enough for a blow to slam into her chest. It drove the air from her lungs, and sent her hurtling backward. Pain flared along her body as her arms and legs banged against the stairs. Her weapon went clattering as she threw her hands out to try and stop herself.

  Ears ringing, her head spinning, she tried to breathe around a feeling like fire in her lungs.

  “Chester!” the Bloody Lady shouted. “Bring me the Vorpal Blade.”

  Alice lifted her head. The room spun, but she could see Chess stalking toward her, his movements jerky, as if he didn’t have full control of his body.

  The Vorpal Blade lay a short ways off. Chester stumbled toward it. Gritting her teeth, Alice pushed into a run. She couldn’t reach the blade first, but she could reach Chess.

  She tackled him, the two of them going down hard in a tangle of limbs. As Alice scrambled to try and get up, he scrabbled to catch hold of her.

  His fingers caught in her hair, and she shouted before driving her fist into his stomach.

  He wheezed but didn’t let go. Kicking, she tried to break free, but he had hold of her shirt. She should have been able to get away easily, but whatever that witch had done had made him stronger. He was taller than her, and heavier. His fingers clamped onto her arms and squeezed hard enough to send jolts of pain through her, like glass pressing up from beneath her skin. He twisted and drove a knee into her stomach.

  Pain ricocheted through her entire body, and she stopped fighting. When Chess let go, she rolled onto her side, arms wrapped around her middle. Her diaphragm struggled to do its job, and she coughed as her lungs were suddenly without air. Her vision fuzzy, she watched as Chess crawled the short distance to where the Vorpal Blade lay against the ground. He scooped it up, then turned back toward the throne. Alice pushed to her feet. Her legs felt like overcooked ramen.

  “Ch-Chess…” She stumbled after him, snatching at his shirt.

  He whirled on her, sword lifted. She caught his wrist and squeezed as he brought it down. She felt the bones grind, but he didn’t bat an eye. Twisting, she used the momentum of his swing to bring him around, wrenching his arm up behind his back. The sword came free, and at the same time, Chess pressed into the bend. With a queasy feeling in her stomach, Alice heard something in his arm snap. She felt it.

  He wriggled free and came at her with his good arm with a punch that could probably have taken her head off. She drew back, bending to snatch up the Vorpal Blade as she went.

  Straightening, she swept her gaze around the room. Three black bodies lay motionless. The Duchess and Haruka each faced off with a pair of Not-Fiends, with Xelon and Odabeth between them. Around the floor, the darkness curled and hissed, giving birth to more monsters. They were going to be overrun.

  Fingers pulled at Alice, and she turned to face Chess just as Xelon shouted, “Your Highness, no!”

  Light filled the room. Chess threw his good arm up to shield his eyes with a pained shout. Alice yanked away from him, twirling to catch his legs with her own and sweep them from under him. He hit the ground in a heap, and she was on top of him, pinning him with his good arm twisted up against his back. He jerked with another cry, and she felt her heart break.

  “I’m sorry!”

  “Enough.” Odabeth’s voice echoed around them, bouncing from the walls, the high ceiling.

  The light faded, revealing the princess, luminescent, the veins in her arms pulsing golden, as they had been in the pub. At the center of her brow, the Eye blazed.

  Around her, the Not-Fiends rolled and bucked as their bodies cracked and sizzled, the light burning their flesh. They hissed and yelped as they withdrew to the edges of the room.

  Haruka and the Duchess stared at the princess with twin looks of shock on their face that mirrored the same in Alice.

  Behind them, the Bloody Lady stared as well, but her face held an entirely different expression. There was no fear or wonder as she beheld the illuminated Odabeth, but a manic sort of joy, her lips splitting into a smile.

  “There you are,” she murmured, pressing a hand to her chest. Her fingers began to blacken, her skin taking on an inky quality before her nails dug into her flesh, peeling it away. As bits and strands of tissue came free, a stone revealed itself, embedded in her skin. Jagged black edges cut into tissue, angry red around the lines where the stone had clearly been broken away or in half.

  The Duchess’s gasp was audible. “The Heart…” she whispered, her voice shaking.

  Where Odabeth was light and brilliance, the woman became shadow and blood. The red of her hair, of her dress, painted her now, slick against her skin, similar to the
way pitch oozed to form Nightmares.

  The princess looked to the Duchess in surprise, and that was all the Bloody Lady needed. She flew forward, her feet barely touching the ground. Odabeth tried to pull away, but one black hand caught her around the throat. The other curled fingers around the Eye. “This is not a toy for little girls,” the Bloody Lady snarled, and yanked.

  The jewel came free with an audible snap. In an instant it was over. The radiance playing through Odabeth flickered out as her body jerked, then fell still, her feet dangling where the Bloody Lady had hold of her.

  At that point, everything slowed. Xelon screamed, the sound long and loud in Alice’s ears. The Duchess raised her whip. It unfurled and shot through the air. It wrapped around the wrist that held the now-dimmed Eye. The Bloody Lady turned, releasing her hold on Odabeth. The princess dropped to the ground. Xelon scrambled toward her as fast as she could, still bound.

  Alice pushed herself to her feet, eager to help, but the cold press of a razor’s edge made her freeze.

  “I wouldn’t,” an oddly familiar voice hummed.

  The Black Knight stepped around from behind her, holding the hilt of the sword pressed to her neck. At least she thought it was the Black Knight. He wore the same armor, and sounded like him, though the voice was clearer because of one major change. His helmet was gone, and Alice found herself staring at the face of a boy who looked around nineteen, with bright red hair and eyes so blue they practically glowed.

  “I’ll take that.” The Black Knight wrenched the Vorpal Blade from her hand. “On your knees.”

  Swallowing thickly, her entire body shaking with enough rage it made her vision blurry with tears, Alice lowered herself to kneel.

  To the side, Chess managed to get to his feet, one arm still hanging useless at his side. Behind him, Haruka and the Duchess had drawn in even closer to the unconscious Odabeth and bound Xelon. Not-Fiends, still hissing and snarling, closed in around them.

  “This is a mess.” The Black Knight waved a hand, and the creatures drew back but maintained their positions surrounding the four of them.

  “Alice,” Haruka called when she spotted her.

  “I’m all right,” Alice said.

  “And if you want her to stay that way, you’ll drop your weapons.” The Black Knight tapped the flat of his sword against Alice’s shoulder.

  Across the room, the Duchess’s face had gone slack. Her mouth hung open as she stared at them, her eyes wide.

  “I said drop your weapons,” the Black Knight repeated.

  Alice hissed when the blade bit at her exposed skin.

  The Duchess released her whip, the handle smacking the ground. Haruka dropped her sword with a clank.

  “That’s it. Let’s all just take a breath.” The Black Knight played his eyes over them before looking toward the throne. “What do you want us to do with them, my lady?”

  Near the throne, the Bloody Lady played her blackened fingers over the Eye, her attention so focused it looked as if she’d forgotten everything else that was going on.

  “My lady?” the Black Knight called.

  The Bloody Lady remained fixated on the Eye.

  “My lady,” he tried again, louder that time.

  The Bloody Lady looked up, surprise dancing over her face at first before she scoffed. “Glad you could finally join us, useless lump.”

  The Black Knight’s jaw tightened. “What would you like us to do with your prisoners?”

  The Bloody Lady glanced around at them with a strange sort of disinterested annoyance. It was like she had come home to a mess in her living room and she had no idea what happened. “Lock them up.”

  * * *

  Alice trudged along as she and the others were marched down a corridor, with actual Fiends on either side of them—Alice couldn’t believe she was glad to see the wolf-like creatures—and the Black Knight at their back. Those … abominations had stayed with the Bloody Lady.

  Stone walls rose on either side of the hall, chipped and cracked with age. The once-plush carpet was nothing but tatters and strips along the floor. This part of the palace wasn’t as pristine as where they entered.

  Haruka fell into step beside Alice with Xelon following behind, the chains of her bonds clanking. The Duchess, her arms full of unconscious princess, brought up the rear. The Black Knight kept his sword at her back.

  “How could you?” The Duchess’s voice, quiet as it was, cut through the silence like a knife.

  Alice turned to find she’d stopped walking.

  “Move.” The Black Knight nudged her with the tip of his blade.

  She didn’t even flinch. Instead she turned to face him. “How could you do this?” Her voice wavered, thick with more emotion than Alice had ever heard come from her. “After everything we went through, everything we lost?”

  The Black Knight stared at her, his jaw tight, his eyes bright. “Move.” He chewed on the word, forcing it from behind clenched teeth.

  “What happened?” Her words were a plea, begging for understanding. “Tell me, what is all this? Hum—”

  Smack! The Black Knight’s hand collided with the side of her face, and her head whipped around. Shock played through Alice and across the Duchess’s expression. The Black Knight’s had gone stormy. “Move. Or I run this through your heart.”

  The Duchess gazed at him. Alice’s body trembled where her muscles had tightened, ready to throw herself forward.

  “You already have,” the Duchess murmured, before facing forward again. They started walking, and she stared straight ahead, her cheek bright red.

  Alice’s mind whirled. What the hell was that about? Anastasia was lucky that asshole didn’t kill her! They were all lucky, actually, to still be standing. How long would that luck last? What was going to happen now that the Bloody Lady had the Eye and the Heart? And just who was she?

  The Fiends leading them veered off, and soon they were headed down a spiral of stone stairs. At the bottom, another dimly lit stretch of space was lined with metal bars. Cells, Alice realized, surprised at how … well, surprised she was. She’d never been in an actual palace dungeon before. It was just like in the movies.

  “Stop,” the Black Knight called before stepping around them. He moved over to a cell and pressed his hand to the wall. The stone flickered red beneath his fingers before the door swung outward. “Inside.” He gestured with the Vorpal Blade.

  Alice scowled as she went, not breaking eye contact. The others filed in behind her.

  “Don’t do this,” the Duchess murmured after the door clanged shut behind them. “I … I don’t know what is happening here, but we can talk through this.”

  The Black Knight glared at her through the bars before a smile pulled at his lips. “Enjoy your visit.” He turned to go back the way he had come. The Fiends drew back, pressing into the surrounding shadows and vanishing.

  “Visit?” Haruka asked just before a faint, raspy sound drifted from the deepest part of the cell, awash in shadow.

  Everyone whirled. Alice stared, willing her eyes to adjust, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the noise had come from another cell, or perhaps the castle settling like an old house.

  For a stretch of seconds, nothing happened, and no one made a sound.

  Then, ever so slightly, something shifted in the darkness.

  Thirty-Two

  NO CHOICE

  Once he was out of sight of the prisoners, the Black Knight relaxed his posture. His wounds continued to sing, his body wanting to give out.

  Rest, his shaky knees said. You need rest.

  Instead he trudged his way up the stairs and back through the dim halls of the Red Palace.

  His eyes trailed over everything, every inch, every stone, every crack, every frame, every fading portrait. None of it was familiar.

  He was surprised to find a small part of him had wanted it to be.

  “You’re the Red Knight,” Hatta had said. “You went missing, same as the Red Queen!”

  Mi
ssing. For a period of time that would explain why he couldn’t remember any of his past. It didn’t bother him before. Before, all he knew was he had a purpose and a duty to his lady, the woman who had freed him, had told him he would have the vengeance his heart so craved.

  Freed him from what, exactly? He couldn’t remember that, either. His faulty mind angered him, his lack of knowing frustrated him, because now he wasn’t sure who he could trust …

  And that scared him.

  Even so, he marched along to the throne room, stepping over the body of a felled Nightmare. Seated on the throne, Her Majesty had reverted to her natural form. The darkness and shadows had receded, though she was still covered in blood. An angry slash in her cheek bubbled faintly with pitch, the wound slowly closing. Her skin had taken on a sickly color, appearing ashen, grayed. Yet she still held herself with a regal grace as she angled around to face him as he approached.

  He bent forward in a slight bow, the wound in his side screaming. “M-my lady.”

  “Where have you been?” Her expression was calm, serene, but the bite in her voice was anything but.

  “I was waylaid during my retreat. I underestimated my enemy and paid for it dearly.” His side throbbed as if in agreement.

  “Do you think you’ve paid enough?”

  “I … forgive me, Your Majesty.”

  “Mmm. Bring me the sword.” She held out her hand expectantly.

  The Black Knight drew the blade and climbed the few stairs to the throne, his injury panging him the entire way. He then presented it with both hands. She took the blade and waved a hand dismissively. Reluctantly, he backed down the stairs to his previous spot at the base.

  She laid the blade over her lap, the fingers of one hand tracing the surface while the fingers of the other curled and uncurled, again and again where she held the Eye, which pulsed faintly in her grip, like a dying star.

  “I am glad you’ve achieved your goal in obtaining the Eye,” he murmured.