Wanton Wonderland

by Eva Chase

I took a step back from Lyssa, scanning the road. We were surrounded by sparsely forested hills on both sides with the main palace gate looming straight ahead. I couldn’t see far enough along the wall to make out the next gates farther away. While we’d been charging forward, our force had seemed unstoppable. Now, as the gathered city folk waited on restless feet for further orders, the sensation of being boxed in crawled over my skin.

  We’d lost our element of surprise. Our enemies could watch our every move while our line of sight was cut off in every direction except behind us. No, this didn’t feel secure at all. I didn’t like it one bit.

  We’d stopped closer to the wall than I’d usually come on my furtive missions in days past. The smell of the roses grew more pungent, trickling down my throat with every moment we stood here. Flashes of images and the doctors’ muttering voices jostled my mind, with an undercurrent of more distant impressions from the pomp and callousness of my childhood. Rich fabrics. Raised voices. The crimson splash of fine wine and the scarlet of fresh-spilled blood.

  I stiffened my shoulders, holding myself in the present. I had to focus. I had to think.

  Breathing shallowly, I eased through the crowd toward a head of red hair that stood out amid the Clubbers. Dum caught my eye and drew himself straighter the second he saw my expression. The Knave was taunting Lyssa again, but I tuned his voice out. He was trying to keep our attention on him—to distract us from other things.

  “Go along the east side of the road, watching the woods,” I said, and handed Dum a few of my smoke bombs. He closed his fingers carefully around the egg-shaped devices. “If you see any movement, shout a warning and slow them down with the smoke and those sprightly legs.”

  A tight smile curled Dum’s lips. “I can do that.”

  “And the west side?” a light voice said at my shoulder. Chess’s grin flashed for a second before he shimmered into view.

  Just the man I’d wanted to talk to next. I gave him a few smoke bombs too. “You can put those stealthy fighting skills to good use, if you need to.”

  “Here’s to the very slim chances I don’t,” Chess said with a salute, and vanished.

  I was just turning on my heel, watching Dum reach the edge of the road and feeling decently satisfied with my preparations, when the forest on either side of us exploded with a flurry of movement.

  Guards careened down the slopes on either side, red and pink flooding toward us between the trees. There wasn’t time for Dum or Chess to really slow them down. Smoke burst on either side of the road, but too close to our haphazard army. It flowed over us as well as through the trees, and the guards were already on us.

  I caught glimpses of my Spades dashing to the defense, wielding the electrically charged batons I’d given out. Sparks flitted through the smoke. The city folk, who’d never really had to or been inclined to fight before, jostled against each other with panicked faces. A few steps away from me, one of the guards speared a young man straight through. My gut lurched.

  “Hold tight!” I shouted, even though I wasn’t sure they’d even know what to make of that suggestion. I squeezed through churning crowd to zap and smack aside a few of the closest guards with my own baton. My other hand wrenched my short sword from my belt, but I hardly had room to use it without risking slicing through my own people too.

  With a warbling roar, one of the jabberwocks reared up over the clouds of smoke. Its head shot into our midst and snatched up a guard. Before I could feel grateful for that, another of the feathered monsters let loose a stream of fire over a clot of Clubbers. Shrieks and the odor of burnt flesh mingled with the rose stink in the air.

  Lyssa’s bright voice, fraught with tension now, broke through the chaos. I couldn’t make out anything more than the word “jabberwocks,” but whatever she’d said and done, it at least made them back off from the fray.

  I snapped my baton left and right, sending one guard to the ground and another wheeling backward, but more were battering us from all around the road. Farther down, Mallo’s hair clung to her sweaty forehead as she exchanged blows with a guard holding a spiked club. Unicorn pummeled another pleated figure with his hooves. Hatter’s hands whipped out, one with his narrow dagger and the other with a hatpin. He caught one guard in mid stab, but he wasn’t quite fast enough to stop another from slashing through a woman’s stomach.

  My pulse rattled through my veins. What if they got to Lyssa? Hearts take me, what if they took down all of us? The rebellion we’d built over so many years might fall apart in the space of an hour. And then what would Wonderland be left with?

  Lyssa’s voice rang out again, this time clear enough to split through the clatter of the battle.

  “Retreat! Back to the city, now, as quickly as you can move!”

  The idea made me balk down to my core, but in the same moment, I understood it was our only real option. We were hemmed in here—we had no real chance of making it through the gate, let alone across the grounds to the palace. Our best hope was to pull back and regroup.

  The Clubbers around me bumped against each other as they tried to orient themselves. Fear still whitened their faces. “This way!” I hollered with a sweep of my arm. Several of those anxious gazes locked onto me.

  “Inventor!” one woman said, with a sob. “What do we do?”

  Even more of the city folk turned toward me, a hint of relief touching their expressions.

  “The Inventor will know what to do.”

  “Should we go?”

  “You’ve got to help us!”

  My stomach twisted at the barrage of hopeful but frantic voices. Their queen—their true queen—had just told them what to do, but that wasn’t enough.

  They’d known me, turned to me for help, for ages. She’d only revealed who she was a few days ago. How could I blame them?

  I dragged in a breath, and the scent of roses saturated my lungs. A cool thread of thought bloomed in the back of my head and curled tight around every other intention.

  I could spin this in my favor—have all the power I’d once assumed was mine in the space of a few heartbeats. Win their loyalty now even more than I’d ever had it before, and they’d turn to me every time afterward too. Lyssa might sit on the throne, but I’d be the one truly in command.

  Even as the idea crossed through my mind, the rest of me rebelled. Nausea coiled in my stomach. A chill raced over my skin.

  Lyssa and the others hadn’t really rescued me when they’d hustled me out of the palace a few days ago, had they? Its hooks had been in me still. If I was going to be free of the horrors of my family’s reign, I was going to have to rescue myself, once and for all.

  My gaze sought out Lyssa’s form through the haze and the turmoil. Her pale hair streamed around her, tinted with the reddish glow from the rubies on her vest. My mother’s treachery had battered and overwhelmed her just like my family’s had all of Wonderland, but she was still standing, unbroken.

  Like Wonderland itself.

  The understanding clicked into place like a wire into its slot. I’d wanted to champion Wonderland, to build it back into the realm it had once been. I could still do that with everything I had in me. Our queen was Wonderland. The realm’s fate lay within her. Being her champion was all I could ever have wanted.

  With that realization, the treacherous urge inside me crumbled away. The poison laced through my bloodline disintegrated. I raised my voice with all the conviction I had in me.

  “Friends!” I called out. “We must follow the Red Queen. Retreat toward the city, quickly, as she said! Listen for her commands. She’ll guide us true. We can overcome our enemies yet if we stand with her and do not falter.”

  I moved down the road, jabbing at the guards who tried to stop us as I went. One knocked my sword from my hand as I swiped at him, but I sent him stumbling backward with a thrust of my baton. The crowd surged around me, really moving now, displacing the guards from the road just with the force of so many bodies. We’d lost some, but most were still standi
ng.

  I dug into my pouch and produced a handful of skitter cubes. “Toss them at the ground by the guards,” I shouted, passing some along to the figures around me. “It’ll slow them down.” I hurled one of my own, and several of the new guards running at us skidded and fell on the silvery shards of metal that slipped beneath their feet.

  Our army swarmed along the road back toward the city, pulling away from the main force of the guards as they stumbled and tripped and our batons forced them back. The Hearts’ force gathered together between us and the palace, but we had no intention of making another attempt at it now.

  They pressed forward as we kept hustling on. They’d follow us all the way to the city if we let them.

  That realization sent a fresh chill through me. Lyssa’s jabberwocks had dispersed. There was nothing to stop the Hearts’ Guard from pushing any advantage they gained today even farther. We’d needed this retreat, but we couldn’t outright flee, not if we wanted to keep our freedom after.

  I wove through the crowd, gripping shoulders here and there to offer words of encouragement, toward where the sunlight glanced off Lyssa’s white-blond hair near the edge of the fray. The rubies on her armored vest still cast her with their ruddy glow, and relief rushed through me to see her unharmed other than a shallow cut near her elbow. Several of the Spades had gathered around her to help fend off the guards following our retreat.

  I motioned to Chess, and he leapt in front of her to shield her completely. Lyssa glanced back at me, her face so stark with tension it made my heart ache for her. I grasped her arm and leaned close to speak over the clang of blades.

  “We’ve survived the worst of it. We can hold our ground here. We have to show the guards they can’t push us back completely. You can show your people that this retreat isn’t a full-out loss.”

  “I don’t want any more of the Clubbers getting hurt because of me,” Lyssa said, doubt coloring her voice. My heart squeezed tighter.

  “Not because of you,” I said fiercely. “Because of the villains we’re fighting. No matter what else happens, you’ve been amazing, Lyssa. You’re our queen. You’re my queen, as long as I live. It’s an honor to stand here with you. Don’t let the bastards take what belongs to you.”

  Her grip on her sword tightened. I felt the power moving through her body as her spirit stirred to action. She shot me a quick glance, grateful and determined, and raised her sword to catch the sunlight, high enough that our whole force should have seen it.

  “We stand here!” she cried. “Fall in behind me, protect each other’s backs, and don’t give up your ground. They can’t move us if we won’t be moved.”

  Then she sprang forward, sweeping the sword down and across. A crackling wave of magic surged from the blade. It slammed the guards several feet back, blood welling through the rents in their uniforms, bodies crashing into those behind. When the ones farther back tried to surge past their injured companions, Lyssa lashed out again, toppling them too.

  The crowd pulled tight around me. The Clubbers still looked nervous, but their chins were high, their eyes bright. We’d survived this long, and they weren’t so scared any more that we wouldn’t survive longer.

  They believed in our queen.

  The guards spread out, attempting to circle our army again, but the Spades along the edges battered them with stones and tossed skitter cubes into their midst. Those still on the road between us and the palace milled around uncertainly.

  Our Clubber allies probably should have still been scared. The guards wouldn’t hesitate much before they came at us again, and we would run out of tricks like the skitter cubes soon. But for now, we’d shown we weren’t that easily cowed. That might just be enough.

  I wove through the crowd once, handing out my last few skitter cubes, nodding to my Spade companions. My pulse thumped with a ragged rhythm driven by adrenaline and hope. Then a choked hush fell over the fray.

  A grand figure had appeared on the wall by the gate, her tall crown gleaming and her eyes glimmering even across that distance. I stopped in my tracks. My innards tangled into knots at the sight of my mother, but my feet held steady against the ground.

  She knew what I was now. I’d only lied to her before to get where I needed to go. That time was past. All that mattered now was how to stop her from dealing out even more terror.

  She grazed her elegant hand over the heads of the Otherlander hostages the Knave had gathered. Her lips pursed into a tense smile. When she let them part, her cudgel of a voice carried all the way up the road.

  “False queen and false queen’s disciples, you have twelve hours to make your surrender. If the one of the line of Alice does not present herself to me for my justice within that time, the three on the wall will meet their deaths instead. And then the rest of you will follow them. Guards, to me!”

  She spun with a whirl of her massive skirts, and the guards drew back to congregate by the gate, leaving us with her ultimatum and her threat ringing in our ears.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Lyssa

  A couple of days ago, Wonderland’s city streets had been filled with partiers. Maybe those people had been caught up in drug-fueled whims they couldn’t control, but they’d given some appearance of being happy.

  Now we were laying out the wounded along the road beneath the gleaming silver tower. Dozens of Clubbers and Spades sprawled on blankets and mats or simply pieces of clothing laid out for a bit of comfort. Mallo, it turned out, had some medical skill, so she was moving from person to person checking on their needs, bandaging or sewing up wounds as need be, with Doria acting as her assistant. A few of the city people had volunteered their services too. Dum passed around tubes of the healing cream Theo had used on my bad cut weeks ago.

  The scent of the roses, even the smoke of their burning, had dispersed completely. A fresh bready smell wafted from the bakery on the corner, where the owner was hard at work making loaves to feed this crowd.

  I walked along the street with my sword at my hip and my scepter at my back, my nerves jumping despite the comforting warmth of the afternoon sun. But even though no music was playing and I heard more groans than laughter, this was better. These people had made their own choice, and they’d fought for what they believed in.

  They’d believed in me.

  The patients sat up a little straighter when I approached. Their faces lit up in spite of whatever pain they were feeling. Any friends or relatives keeping them company gazed at me with no hint of blame for the injuries dealt under my watch, only awe and an eager sort of hope.

  “Red Queen,” one woman said. “Thank you. We’re going to take Wonderland back for ourselves.”

  “Yes, we will,” I said, with all the confidence I had in me. “And thank you. I couldn’t do it on my own. We’re only succeeding because we’re willing to face the danger together.”

  “We were always in danger before,” the man beside her muttered. “It doesn’t matter how hard we tried not to notice. She was always looming over us—one wrong step, one wrong word…”

  “It won’t be like that when I take back the throne,” I promised him. “I don’t want anyone hurt. This isn’t about power or vengeance. When we free Wonderland, you’ll truly be free. A ruler is supposed to serve their country and their people, not the other way around.”

  “No one could watch you and not know you’re doing all you can for us,” another woman said, cradling the sling around her broken arm. “I’ll fight again if I can.”

  I went on down one side of the street and then up the other like that, giving everyone a chance to talk to me, letting them see how much I cared. My heart still weighed heavy in my chest, but I tried not to let that tension show on my face. I smiled and kept my voice mild. I thanked everyone for the risks they’d faced in the battle. It was all I could think to do, right now.

  It was hardest when the questions came. “Red Queen, when will we march again?”

  “What will we bring to the Hearts’ doorstep next?
”

  “How will we finally bring her down?”

  “I’ll talk with my advisors in the Spades, and we’ll have a new plan soon,” I told everyone. “Before the end of the day, we’ll hold the palace.”

  Or the palace would hold me, probably without my head. I didn’t think it’d help spirits any to comment on that possibility, though.

  Dum came over to me as I finished my circuit. His mouth was twisted as if he wasn’t sure he should be saying what he was going to.

  I paused. “What is it?”

  “I just—” He sighed. “You’d probably have said something if you had, but I have to ask: Did you see any sign of Dee when we were out by the palace?”

  His anguish for his brother showed all across his face. He had loved ones in the Queen’s grip too. I couldn’t imagine it was any easier knowing one of them had put himself there purposefully.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t. When we take the palace, the first thing we’ll do is search for him, all right?”

  “You don’t need— I understand he’s a traitor.” He looked down at his hands. “I’m not asking you for anything. It’s just hard for me not to wonder.”

  “Of course it is,” I said. “And I want to find him, so we can hear his explanation for himself. He doesn’t deserve whatever the Queen has in store for him—I’m sure of that.”

  Dum let out his breath. “Okay. Thank you.”

  He still looked pained. “You did everything you could to keep him safe,” I said, remembering how he’d always looked out for his brother. “You know that, right?”

  “Did I?” Dum said. “I’ve thought a lot about our last conversation, things I might have said differently or could have said but didn’t… I should have found some way to convince him to stay with us. Or maybe I should have gone with him and we could have found another way that wouldn’t have hurt the Spades, even if it was the death of both of us. He was ready to give up everything for family, and I wasn’t.”

  “Hey,” I said firmly, and waited until he raised his head. “You didn’t know what he was going to do. And you did what you thought was best for everyone that matters to you. It was a horrible position to be in—it still is—but he made his own choices. Try to remember that and to keep hope.”