My mind spun, partly from being thrown and partly from Kai’s horrible revelations. “This whole time . . . you knew she was on Earth?”
Kai nodded.
“Then you are—”
“Responsible for all of this,” Kai finished. “Mull that over as you fall to your death. I’m sure Mauvrey will reflect on the same thing when I take care of her next.”
She sent me flying through the air until I hovered over the massive crack in the ground that dropped to the River of Tears, hundreds of feet below. She then used her powers to rip the swan cloak from my shoulders and levitate it back to her hand. “Can’t have you flying away,” she said cruelly.
I huffed indignantly—panicked, but attempting to stall. I did not have an escape strategy yet, but every moment floating here was a moment not plunging to my death. “If you are so smart, what is the plan, Kai? Daniel will obviously notice if Mauvrey and I go missing.”
“Again, SJ. Tact. A stylish swan cloak was not the only souvenir I took from our Swan Lake adventure. I also have this.” She removed a vial from her pocket, which I recognized instantly.
“Von Rothbart’s memory potion!”
“Thanks to some intel from Arian, Daniel is about to unknowingly exploit the only loophole in Midnight Law, one that Lena Lenore failed to provide us with. If the chosen hero forgets the person he is going after, the enchantment becomes null and void and he won’t turn to stone. So I am going to make the Hatter’s Mad Tea Party the most forgettable affair of Daniel’s life. I’ll restore him to the way he was before all of this, and all of you. Then it can just be the two of us again, like it should be.”
Kai slipped the vial in her pocket then pulled out the piece of parchment she had been writing on. She beckoned me with her finger—her magic bringing me forward until I was close enough to read the list of names.
Crisanta Knight
Jason Sharp
SJ Kaplan
Blue Dieda
Javier Marcos
Gordon Sinclaire
Girtha Bobunk
. . .
The list went on. It had a good twenty-five people on it—every ally and friend that Daniel had made since starting at Lord Channing’s. She was going to wipe Daniel’s memory of all of them! All she had to do was burn that list, mix it with the potion, and get Daniel to drink it. That would be far too easy since Daniel was literally at a tea party!
My body filled with shame and anger. Kai’s cruel remarks had merit. I had not been smart about confronting her privately; I had been a proper fool. What had I thought to accomplish? I was so full of emotion and passion that I dove in without thinking things through. I should have been prepared for Kai to turn on me. I should have come with some sort of backup. I should have at least had my slingshot ready.
Kai motioned with her hand and I went flying backward slightly past the edge of the cliff. Then the silver aura around my body vanished. I flailed my arms and dropped for a second before miraculously grabbing some rock several feet below the cliff’s edge. It roughly stopped my fall.
I panted heavily and clung there for a moment—wishing for many things at once, particularly that I had done some upper body workouts with Blue and Crisa at school. I could not hang on much longer.
Kai loomed over me. Seeing her unforgiving eyes gaze down at my peril as the wind blew her hair back, I felt my heart swell with more anger than fear.
“Goodbye, SJ. I won’t be seeing you again.” She levitated a boulder to hover above me. I gasped and did the only thing I could. I let go. Kai released her hold on the boulder a moment later. In free fall, I struggled to work my hand into my potions sack for the only thing I thought may save me.
Wind potion.
The specified orb appeared in my hand and I hastily crushed it in my fist. The potion’s silver winds wrapped around me in mini tornado form and whisked me sideways out of danger from the boulder, which continued its straight plunge down. My vision blurred as I fell with the tornado; it helped slow my descent, but also disoriented me.
SPLASH!
I impacted the River of Tears. My body instantly got tangled in the rapid current and towed under. Struggling to the surface, I managed a short breath before the strong pull of the rushing tears dragged me back down. Underwater, my ears detected a muffled roar.
I fought to the surface again and realized I was headed straight for a waterfall! In desperation, I paddled and kicked, but to no avail. There were no outcroppings of rocks within reaching distance. Then it was too late.
“No! No!” I screamed as I went over the waterfall.
None of my potions would help me as I tumbled through the deluge of water. No goo or explosions, not even the mini tornadoes would form properly with all this water falling over me. Even if they did, this drop was three times larger than my previous one. The tornadoes could not withstand that.
I tumbled in frenzy. Seconds, I had seconds before I hit the river at the bottom. At this speed, I would be flattened. What did I have to work with?
Mushroom!
I forced my hand into my pocket. Amazingly, the chunk of mushroom the blue caterpillar had given me had not fallen out. I shoved the mushroom into my mouth and swallowed. I did not know exactly how big I was about to get; I could only hope it would make me giant enough to handle this fall. I watched death come closer.
Forty feet.
I burped.
Thirty feet.
BAM!
When I blinked my eyes open, I found myself crouched in the river—one knee down as the waterfall drummed my back like a shower. I had expanded to the size of an apartment tower.
I rose from the river, now twice as tall as the waterfall. My clothes had somehow grown to fit my new size and had also magically morphed in terms of cut, color, and style. I did not understand how that made sense, but sense did not seem like a concept people in Wonderland placed much emphasis on. Past that, I had bigger things to deal with. Pun most certainly not intended.
I easily climbed up the tiny waterfall and then back up to the cliff. Kai was nowhere to be seen, but I suppose that was to be expected after several minutes of me falling, nearly drowning, and falling again. There was no time to lose.
I marched in the direction the tea party had been. Every step brought me closer to the treetops as the mushroom’s powers began to wear off. My size kept reducing by half—my clothes magically adjusting while my SRB activated and dried me off in a cyclone of silver sparks. Once returned to regular size, I broke into a sprint. When I finally found my way back to the Hatter’s Mad Tea Party, Mauvrey, Daniel, and Kai were gone.
“Where did my friends go?” I asked the Hatter.
“Where all friends go,” replied the Hatter. “They go somewhere old that was once new. But yours went without you. Just follow the hat and the rhubarb.”
My eyes zeroed in on a broken teacup on the ground next to where Daniel had been sitting. I rushed over and picked it up. Kai must have already gotten Daniel to take Von Rothbart’s memory potion. But what did she do with Mauvrey? I forced myself to take a breath.
One problem at a time.
I could not let Kai get too far. If she escaped this realm before I reached her, she could return to Arian with Daniel and I may never get him back!
I pivoted toward the Hatter and pressed my hands against the table. “Look at me.” The Hatter seemed more interested in the contents of his cup, so I snapped my fingers in his face. That seemed to get his attention. “I said look at me. Did Daniel—the boy who was sitting right here—drink any tea that the black-haired girl offered?”
“Well, it would have been rude of him not to,” the Hatter replied. “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.” He shrugged and took a sip from his own cup. “Strange tea hers was though, I wouldn’t have dranken it. The girl added her own seasoning to the pot when she thought no one was looking.”
“Why not stop her?” I asked, frustrated.
“What goes up the hi
ll and down the hill, and spite of all, yet standeth still? I don’t know the road the boy is on. I drink my tea and have my party. People come and people leave. Who am I to perceive or reprieve?”
The Dormouse muttered in her sleep. “Mousetraps, memory, monocle, treacle.”
The Dodo—who I had yet to see move—suddenly snapped his neck down into his teacup and began making gurgling noises, startling me.
I harrumphed with aggravation. “This is the most illogical place I have ever been in my entire life. This should not be called a Mad Tea Party because you all are off-center, but because you drive people mad.”
“Clever,” the blue caterpillar said with his slow drawl. “It’s not a bad branding policy for this venue.”
The March Hare reached for a platter of pastries on the table. He held it up to me. “Treacle Tart?”
The inane question made my brain want to explode, but I refrained from yelling.
“No, thank you,” I replied through gritted teeth.
“You should have one,” the Hatter suggested calmly. “Take it to go. The answers to all of life’s problems lie in pastries.”
The Dormouse woke with a start. “I heard the word treacle. I have a good story about some girls who once lived in a treacle well.” She glanced at each of us in turn. “Would anyone like to hear it?”
The Dodo sat up and blinked lazily. Then opened his beak and squawked.
The March Hare continued to push the platter toward me. “Treacle Tarts?”
“I said no.” I paced around the table, stuck for an idea. “What in the world is treacle anyway?”
“It’s a Heal-All potion and poison cure,” the Hatter replied, taking another sip from his teacup.
I froze. Then I whirled around. “I am sorry, what?”
“It’s been around since ancient times. The effects of the concoction are different for each person who consumes it. But whatever ails you can be fixed with treacle.”
The Hatter suddenly hopped on the table, grabbed a tart from the platter, and held it up in front of my face. “So delicious, nutritious, and auspicious.”
He gleefully flung the pastry backward and it landed in the dirt. Then he sat down on the table in front of me. “We bake the tarts in Wonderland and they sell like hotcakes—which is funny, since we stopped selling hotcakes years ago. Treacle Tarts are even used whenever the Queen and King of Hearts hold a trial.” The Hatter removed his hat, reached inside, and took out a list. “There are several trials scheduled for today and yesterday. The over-under for beheading sentences is three.”
He shoved the list back in his hat. The March Hare offered me the tray again and I plucked a tart from the stack, examining it carefully. The pastry had golden-brown edges and bright purple filling oozing out of the top.
“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” the Hatter said, posing the same question as earlier, eyebrow raised. “And why is a pastry like an answer?”
I locked eyes with him. “Why?”
“Because anything can be anything. Just open your mind. We’re not all mad. It’s merely perspective.”
I gazed at the pastry in my hand.
“Good luck.” The Hatter pointed to the arrow on his hat and then at a clump of leafy plants with red stalks that grew by the back of the clearing. “As I said, follow the hat and rhubarb.”
Oh my word, in his own crazy way, the Hatter had actually been trying to give me directions this whole time!
“Thank you!” I exclaimed. I hastily wrapped the Treacle Tart in a napkin then put it in my pocket. I took off at a run. The rhubarb plants extended deeper and deeper into the forest. The Cheshire Cat’s giant, white smile appeared in the trees every now and then as I hastened onward. To my dismay, I also started to hear the shrill call of nearing Jubjub Birds.
I could not worry about them now.
My path opened into another clearing. At the far side, I saw Kai and Daniel. They turned when they heard my footsteps. Before Kai could react, I had drawn my slingshot and launched a potion. She was not besting me again. The potion cracked at her feet and consumed her in a solid block of ice. Daniel barely jumped out of the way. I had rightly counted on his quick reflexes.
His face was colored in shock. “What in the—”
“Daniel.” I lowered my slingshot and approached him slowly. “Do you know who I am?”
“You’re the girl who just put my girlfriend in a block of ice.” He drew his sword and pointed the blade at me. “Now I suggest you thaw her out or you and I are going to be having a much different conversation in a second.”
“Daniel . . .” I said calmly. “Do you have any idea where you are or what is happening?”
He furrowed his brow; slight distress crossed his eyes “No, I . . . woke up with a migraine and my girlfriend told me I hit my head. How do you know my name? You don’t know me.”
“But I do. You are Daniel Daniels.” I continued to step forward gradually. “You are strong, and honorable, and surprisingly compassionate, though most people do not see that at first because you push them away. You treat all people as equals and do not care for authority. You lost your family in a fire when you were young. You grew up on the streets of Century City where this girl, Kai, was your only companion. Over time, you mistook that bond for true love. But you know in your heart that what you have with her is missing something. I can see it. A lot of people can. I imagine you have been ignoring it because you have been afraid of losing that bond, and because you feel afraid to put yourself out there and risk getting hurt again.”
I paused in front of Daniel. The tip of his sword nearly touched my chest, but I felt no danger. The aggression had left his expression and now his face was fractured with perplexity and fear. I slowly reached into my pocket and took out the slightly smashed Treacle Tart.
“Daniel,” I said, holding his gaze. “I realize this is strange for you, but your instincts have always been good. You have a strong sense for when something is right. Eat this tart, and all the questions swirling in your head will be answered. Please take that leap of faith and you will be glad you did. I promise. Just one bite . . .”
n eight-foot-tall plush monkey toy was the first thing I noticed when I leapt through the green portal. Following our departure from The Giant’s Keep, my friends and I arrived in an immense room with a gold-and-white striped marble floor and a navy ceiling bulging with glowing marbles. Dark violet orchids the size of flagpoles sprouted from planters fused to the left wall. Meanwhile, the entire right wall was a rounded window with bronze rafters intercutting it to make it look like an artistic interpretation of a clock. Daylight spilled through the window, illuminating the floor and the toys milling below us, monkey included.
None of the toys noticed us for the moment, so we gazed in wonder from the higher part of the grand staircase we stood on. A battalion of toy soldiers marched across the space toward open doors. Stuffed animals—rabbits, teddy bears, even a mint hippo—walked on two legs in the same direction, carrying supplies. While all the toys were proportionate to our height (the average soldier was my size while the stuffed animals were a few feet taller), the unalive supplies they transported—popcorn kernels, firecrackers, flowers, etc.—were giant. A single kernel, for example, could’ve served as an ample ball to play catch with.
“We’re in Toyland again,” Blue remarked.
“You’ve been here before?” Girtha asked.
“Last semester during the Vicennalia Aurora,” I replied. “But only for a few minutes.”
“Hello there.”
We spun to see several dolls in white dresses and nurse hats coming down the stairs behind us. The nurse with the most badges on her uniform had curly hair and wore a lot of makeup, but not in a tacky way. “What are you human children doing in the palace?” she asked.
“We’re in a palace?” Blue glanced around.
“The Nutcracker King’s palace, yes,” the head nurse replied.
It was so interesting to watch her speak. She l
ooked exactly like a doll, but she was alive. Her skin shone like plastic, but her limbs moved with human dexterity. Her mouth and eyes worked normally, but those eyes were a bit too big for her face.
“Sorry for the intrusion. You clearly have something big going on.” I gestured at the busy toys below. “In short, we’re following a green light trail that should be somewhere around here.”
“Oh, is that green light for you? We thought it was some sort of omen or the workings of our enemies. Come, I will take you to the king. You’ll want to talk to him about it.” She turned to her doll compatriots. “Continue to your units, ladies. I will handle this.”
The other nurses moved past us and our guide gestured for us to follow her back up the stairs. “I am Doloris,” she said. “I’m sorry if you were waiting long before anyone took notice of you. We are quite busy and honestly it is unusual to get human visitors outside of the holidays.”
“Why the holidays?” Chance asked as we mounted the grand staircase. It was wider at the base and narrow at the top like the skirt of a fancy gown, which, sadly, because of our monthly school balls, was the first comparison that came to mind.
“And what holidays?” Chance added.
“Christmas mostly,” Doloris responded. “That’s a big, beautiful holiday that happens every December 25th in the Earth dimension. I believe there are only a few realms that celebrate it in our dimension—Camelot, the North Pole, the Super Dome, and here in Toyland, of course. Wormholes to our realm rarely appear other than in the month surrounding that holiday. Once Christmastime does come along, portals and visitors are frequent.”
Our group reached the next floor. The carpet was a busy pattern of enormous red and blue blossoms complemented by small purple, pink, and orange flowers. The perimeter of the carpet running along the walls featured crisscrossed black-and-white striped leaves edged in gold embroidery. Dice had been converted into chairs and loveseats spaced throughout the hall. All of the doors were dominoes.
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