by Eva Chase
“About an hour ago,” Dum added. “She went to Hatter’s. We were waiting for you.”
“Good,” I said with a smile of my own. Lyssa hadn’t taken long to make the return trip at all. Which meant I’d better get to work. “Thank you for keeping an eye on the Pond of Tears and for informing me immediately. Dee, would you ask Chess to bring her around? She knows him now.” The less additional strangeness we exposed her to while she was making her decisions about us, the better.
“On it,” Dee said with an eager salute. He set off in the elevator, and I motioned Dum over to my worktables.
“There are some materials I’d like to try,” I said, retrieving a list from one of the shallow drawers. “It’s too late in the day for me to make much use of them, but you can determine where they’re most easily and discretely procured and bring them around first thing in the morning.”
Dum scanned the list with a quick glance I knew would commit the contents to his memory. “For the big effort?” he said.
“Yes. I’m hoping we may have our chance to go forward with it soon.”
A pleased gleam lit in his hazel eyes, but it dulled a moment later. I knew a shadow of doubt when I saw one.
“What is it?” I asked. “You know you can bring any concerns you have to me.”
“Of course, White Knight. You always guide us well.” He rubbed his mouth, still hesitating. “It’s only—the Otherlander. When they come, they always cause more turmoil than anything else, from the stories I’ve heard. Are you sure we want to bring that element into the mix, especially if we’re that close to our goal?”
“We may be that close to our goal because she’s here,” I said. If Hatter’s observations were correct… she might be exactly the missing ingredient our rebellion had needed. The leap to help us over that last lingering stumbling block. Now that she was here, I wanted everything else working as smoothly as it possibly could so we could seize our moment as soon as it presented itself.
“If the queen gets wind…”
“The queen doesn’t have the faintest idea,” I said reassuringly. “I was just out by the palace scouting before you came by. The faster we bring the Otherlander into our circle, the more easily we can make sure the queen never finds out, not before we’re ready.”
Dum nodded slowly. The tension that had come into his stance fell away.
“They say around the court,” he said, in a tone that suggested the idea amused him, “that these girls from the looking-glass want to take Wonderland for themselves. What could they want with us?”
“That’s the queen’s paranoia for you,” I said. Occasionally I was glad for the tight grip she kept on certain information. The full story would only complicate our rebellion. “She expects everyone to have an eye on her throne. I’ve met this girl already, Dum. The last thing she was looking for was some kind of war. Besides, how could one girl threaten the entire palace?” I shook my head with a wry smile.
“I would have said as much to the fellow I overheard, but I might have lost my head in the process. We’ll see how the tables turn, won’t we?” He took one last look at my list and gave me a sharp nod. “First thing in the morning.”
When he was gone, I sank into the smooth leather of the chair behind my desk and gave myself a moment to breathe.
Chess would have Lyssa here soon. She’d seemed impressed by her first venture into this office. She’d seemed impressed by me. I’d keep building from there.
The White Knight before me, the man who’d mentored me for the role, had been the Inventor too, though perhaps not as successful. I’d watched him fumble with schemes and gadgets that couldn’t quite live up to his ambition as many times as I’d seen him come through. But the one thing he’d faltered on was his belief in gathering all the available information before one went forward with a plan.
I knew what he’d have done if he’d been here for Lyssa’s appearance. Perhaps it was time I took her to visit our own Queen of sorts, to discover what I could about what her presence might accomplish for us. Presented as a favor for her benefit, of course.
Lyssa might not be looking for war, but that was exactly what we needed her for. If I was going to lead my people to victory, I’d better win over her mind, heart, and soul before she left here again.
CHAPTER TEN
Lyssa
A fter the long fall, I was so braced for the shock of the water that the sudden gush of it over my skin and surge upward gave me a twinge of relief. Clutching my tote bag close by my side, I kicked and paddled with my free arm up to the glinting surface.
Now, prepared, the trip to the surface didn't take half as long. I wasn't even winded when my head broke from the water. I drank in the salty scent rising off the pond and the thicker floral aroma wafting from the vibrant foliage along the shoreline, and my face split with a grin. The beaming sun warmed on my hair as I set off for the closest bank with a lopsided breaststroke.
Was even the weather here always this bright, or had I just gotten lucky twice in a row?
On the bank by the shimmering rocks, I wrung a few cups of water out of my dress, tugged it straight, and headed down the path. The scents were even headier, the colors even richer than I’d remembered. How could the real world not look dreary compared to this? I spun in a slow circle, letting the scene flood my senses, giddy in a way I’d never felt before.
And as long as I had the mirror, Wonderland was all mine. A secret I never had to share with anyone.
I bounded farther down the path, as close to skipping as I’d come since I was a kid. The overgrown flowers with their petal-framed faces leaned together in conversation where I’d seen them before.
“Hello!” I called with a wave.
The daisy gaped at me, and the tulip started to sputter something about rude interruptions, but I’d already moved on.
No one was walking on the red-and-blue cobblestone road today, at least not right now. From the position of the sun in the sky, if it worked the same as it did in my world, it was about the same time of day as it’d been when I’d left Aunt Alicia’s house: early afternoon. If Hatter’s walks were a regular occurrence, he’d probably already taken today’s. But it wasn’t as if I needed him to show me the way into town.
My heart kept thumping eagerly as the bizarre buildings of the city came into view up ahead, but I slowed my pace a little. There was no need to rush this experience. I ambled along the streets, checking out the nonsensical structures with more thought than I’d been able to give them yesterday, surreptitiously noting the wide array of figures ranging from fully human to fully animal heading this way and that around me.
A woman in a layered silk dress with a head like a doe’s was pushing into Hatter’s shop as I reached it. I wavered for a second, watching from the edge of the window.
Hatter came out from behind the counter to point out a few possibilities to the deer woman. He was dressed in what I guessed was one of his usual suits, the jacket and pants the same maroon as the pork pie hat perched on his spiky dark blond hair, the tie bright orange. Not a combination I’d have expected to work on anyone, but like last time, he pulled it off somehow. He plucked one veiled confection off a shelf, and then nimbly swapped it for another when the woman shook her head, his hands moving with a swift grace that reminded me of how he’d spun me on the club’s dance floor.
Which reminded me of the sudden spike of desire that had shot through me at his touch—and the shock that had broken through that heat when he’d mentioned Aunt Alicia.
I might have wanted to come back to experience this place again, but I also had a mission.
Since I was starting to feel like a stalker peering through the window like this, I gripped my tote bag tighter and reached for the door.
Hatter’s head turned as I came in, his mouth forming a shopkeeper’s welcoming smile in the instant before his gaze stopped on me. He stiffened, his smile faltering with a twitch of his lips.
Great to see you too, I thought with an ed
ge of sarcasm. What actually came out of my mouth was a hesitant, “Hi.”
“Let me finish with Ms. Forrest, and then I’ll be right with you,” he said in a business-like tone, recovering his cool. The deer woman was beaming at her reflection in one of the shop’s mirrors. They exchanged a few more remarks—but as far as I could tell, no money—and then she sashayed out. Hatter whirled on me.
“Didn’t you go to an awful lot of trouble to get yourself home a couple days ago, looking-glass girl?” he said. “What are you doing here again?”
Despite the exasperation in his voice, there was just enough warmth there and in his eyes to make me hope he wasn’t completely unhappy that I’d shown up. “Getting home turned out to be pretty easy,” I said. “And after I got back, I realized I ended up kind of liking it here. Also, I’ve got some questions you’re not getting out of answering this time.” I raised my eyebrows at him.
Hatter’s mouth twisted, but he held my gaze. “Fair enough. In that case, let me invite you upstairs again.”
He didn’t bother locking the shop door or putting up a closed sign. Theft must not be much of a concern around here. “Has it just been two days since I left?” I asked as I followed him up the stairs to his apartment. I hadn’t been sure how much time might have passed, considering how little had in the real world while I’d been here.
“Almost exactly,” Hatter said. “Was it longer for you?”
“No, the same.” I didn’t know how to wrap my head around that. Did time slow down while I was here and then speed forward to catch up? I guessed it didn’t really matter, as long as I could keep coming here without losing days at a time in the real world.
The upstairs apartment looked pretty much the same as yesterday, other than a few used plates and mugs scattered on the table. A sudden prickle of embarrassment ran down my back, thinking of how I’d accepted Hatter’s hospitality last time without even thinking of politeness. I’d been overwhelmed, but I’d still imposed on him.
Well, I could make up for it today by cleaning up the mess he’d left for himself. I scooped up a couple of saucers and teacups and carried them to the sink.
When I’d started the water running and turned to clear the rest of the table, Hatter was watching me with bemusement, his mouth slanted at an odd angle that could have been moving toward a smile or a grimace. “What are you doing?”
“Atoning for the mess I left you with last time,” I said. “And for dropping in on you two times without warning. Unless you prefer having dirty dishes all over the table?” I’d feel more comfortable sitting in a tidy room, but it was his home, not mine. Who knew what was normal for Wonderland?
“No,” he said, with something closer to a smile. “By all means.”
He was just sinking into the wingchair at the table when the stairs at the other end of the room creaked. Hatter sprang back up again as his daughter burst into the room. She was wearing another black dress, this one with a fluffy tulle skirt, and she’d woven black ribbons into the thin braids that mingled with her coffee-brown hair.
“She’s back!” she said. “She’s…” Her head cocked. “…washing the dishes?”
“Doria,” Hatter started.
She breezed right by him to peer into the sink as if she’d never witnessed it full of bubbly water before. “Decided you like it here, huh?” she said, flashing a grin at me.
“I did, actually,” I said.
Hatter snagged her elbow and eased her to the side. “Lyssa and I have a few things to discuss. Could you keep an eye on the shop until I can come back down, please?”
Doria folded her arms over her chest with a huff. “Fine. But you owe me. No complaining about the club tonight.”
He tugged on one of her braids with a wry smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. “It’s a deal. Thank you, Mouse.”
With obvious fondness, he watched her flounce down the stairs. The guy was hot even when he was being gruff, but seeing his face light up like that made my heart thump off-kilter.
“Mouse?” I asked as I set the last of the dishes in the rack. I hadn’t noticed anything mousey about the teenager, literally or otherwise.
Hatter’s expression shifted back to wariness as his attention returned to me. He settled into his chair. “An old nickname. We used to call Doria ‘Dormouse’ when she was tiny. After a while, the ‘Dor’ got dropped.”
His ‘we’ brought out an itch of curiosity. Him and her birth parents? Had he taken her in because they’d been friends? What had happened to them?
But those weren’t the kinds of questions you asked a relative stranger, not if I wanted him to answer the ones I’d actually come to ask him. I dried off my hands and decided to sit in the beach chair again.
“So,” I said. “Since you’re here to discuss things with me, are you going to tell me how you knew my grand-aunt Alicia?”
“There’s not a lot to tell,” Hatter said, steepling his lithe fingers in front of him. “She came through the looking-glass too. Presumably the same one you did. She visited Wonderland a few times, and that was that.”
His voice was carefully flat, but I thought it got a bit sharp toward the end of that explanation. Had Aunt Alicia done something that had upset him while she was here? From his comment in the club, it’d sounded as if they’d been friendly. I had trouble picturing the regal silver-blond-haired woman who’d read me stories chatting with Hatter or any of Wonderland’s other inhabitants.
“How long ago was that?” I asked. She could have been here as recently as a month or two ago, maybe. I wasn’t sure how much her illness had debilitated her before she’d gone to the hospital for her final days.
Hatter’s gaze turned vague. “I’m not sure,” he said. “In Wonderland, we tend not to keep track of the years all that closely. Judging from you, it’s been a long time. The last time I saw her, she couldn’t have been much older than you are.”
“Oh.” I blinked at him. Aunt Alicia had been fifty years older than me. “Then, how could you even—”
“You can’t judge anyone’s age by their appearance here,” Hatter said, focusing back on me. “Once we’re grown, wherever we start from, we only age in fits and starts, mostly at the end. And that end tends to be further off than Otherlanders can count on, as I understand it.”
I tried to reconfigure everything he’d just told me around the man in front of me. “So, you’re, like, at least seventy-something?”
He shrugged. “I told you, we don’t keep track. Not a whole lot changes around here from day to day, year to year. Maybe that’s why it takes so much longer for us to get older. If some conversion were possible between Wonderland and the Otherland, I’d imagine we’re all about as old as we look to you in any way that counts.”
Okay, I was getting diverted from the most important subject. Aunt Alicia couldn’t have told Hatter anything about me or what she’d hoped for me when I hadn’t even been born the last time they’d talked. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t help unravel the mystery.
“Did she ever say anything to you about a key?” I said. “I think she might have left it somewhere here in Wonderland.”
Hatter’s eyes flickered, and I knew before he spoke that I’d struck gold. “What makes you ask about that?” he said.
“She left me a note with the box that it’s supposed to open. It sounded like… she wanted me to find the mirror and come through to Wonderland. And that once I’d done that, she thought I should have the key. I’d like to know what she left for me in that box.”
“How strange.”
I gave him a pointed look. “I can tell you know where it is. Why wouldn’t you want me to have it if that’s what she wanted? I wouldn’t even know it exists if she hadn’t nudged me in the right direction.”
Hatter sighed. “It’s a bit of a journey,” he said. “If we left now, it’d be dark by the time we got there, hard to find the right spot.”
Was he serious or just being difficult? Before I could push for a bet
ter answer, Hatter’s hat shot right off his head as if blown by a brisk wind. It flipped over and landed in the air on top of a figure that was just shimmering into sight standing beside him. I bit back a startled squeak.
“I think I rather like this one,” Chess said, tipping the hat at a jaunty angle on his rumpled auburn hair. “It suits me, don’t you think?”
Hatter held out his hand with a scowl. “What have I told you about showing up unannounced—and invisible? Sometimes I think you want to give people a conniption.”
Chess made a tsking sound. “Watch how you swing that temper around, or it might smack you in the face.” He set the hat back on Hatter’s head. “I did announce myself, to the young lady downstairs. A little surprise simply livens up the visit.” He turned to me with a grin that only showed a hint of his cat-like fangs and dipped into a brief bow. “I heard our Otherlander friend was back in town and wanted to pay my respects. What brings you to this fine realm today, lovely?”
The grin, the compliment, and the memory of his lips brushing against my hand two days ago sent a strange flush over my skin. I willed it not to touch my cheeks where they’d see. “I was hoping to find something here. Hatter was just telling me that’s impossible today.”
“Ah, well, then you’ll just have to stay until tomorrow. Hatter has a spare room—he can put you up, no problem at all. Isn’t that so?”
Chess beamed at his friend. From the mischievous glimmer in his light blue eyes, I suspected he’d known exactly how Hatter would feel about that offer. The other man made a non-committal sound, scowling at Chess.
Guilt pinched my stomach at the thought of being an unwanted guest, but my need to find that key overrode it. If I was here first thing in the morning, I could make sure we got going, no more excuses.
“That sounds perfect,” I said, and bobbed my head to Hatter as if he’d been the one offering. “Thank you so much.”
He aimed his glower at me, but his expression softened a little. “As long as you’re not expecting five-star treatment, you might as well use the room.”