by C. J. Archer
Gus dropped into a squat, a knife in his hand. Seth removed a pistol from the waistband of his trousers.
"Don't shoot!" Alice cried.
"Alice—"
"No, Seth. This is my world, my home, and I will not have you shooting innocent people."
"They're not innocent," Seth said. "They're going to take us to the dungeons."
"They're just following orders. Besides, you don't have enough bullets. You'll be overpowered and then we really won't get out of here alive. Put your weapons down and let's go quietly. We'll sort this out in a non-violent manner." She glared at him until he lowered his pistol to the cobbles.
Gus did the same with the knife. The general signaled his men to check their pockets for weapons. More knives and guns joined the first. The soldiers checked David then approached Eva.
"I say!" David protested. "You can't manhandle my sister like that."
"Leave the ladies alone," Seth growled. "Or I'll rip your throat out, Ironside."
"We're not armed," Alice quickly assured the general. "I give you my word."
The general signaled for them to be taken away. "Go quietly and no harm will come to you. I promise."
"Thank you, General. I'm very grateful."
Eva blew out a breath. Her vials were safe. For now.
"We'll see that you're released soon," Sir Markell said. His uncertain glance toward the castle didn't instill Eva with much confidence.
They followed the small cohort of soldiers along the path the groom and horses had used before entering the castle through a yawning door barred by an iron grate. The guard on duty used a heavy key to unlock both door and grate. Unlike the soldiers dressed in crimson, he wore all white.
Inside, they were met by another guard and another locked, barred door. The air felt cooler, damper, and it was certainly darker. It grew blacker still on the other side of the second door. The only light came from the flaming torches positioned at intervals along the corridor.
"Christ," Gus muttered as they descended a narrow staircase in single file. "I can't see where I'm going."
Eva half expected Seth to tease him, but no one spoke. It wasn't a moment for teasing.
The base of the stairs was barred by yet another locked door. Once through it, the stench of stale air and human filth was overpowering. Eva and Alice covered their noses and mouths with their hands.
They headed along the corridor, passing cells. Eva thought them unoccupied at first, but once her eyes adjusted, she could see well enough through the bars. What she saw shocked her.
A fox stood up as they passed, balanced on hind legs. It clutched the bars in its paws and thrust its nose between them. "Your Highness," it said in a sonorous, male voice.
The party stopped and stared until the guards urged them on.
"Bloody hell," David murmured. "What is this place?"
"Wonderland," said an imprisoned donkey.
Charlie had told Eva about the white rabbit who'd visited Alice in her dreams, but she'd not truly believed it until now.
David swore in Romany under his breath. He never swore, and never spoke their mother's native tongue. Perhaps Eva should have mentioned the stories of the white rabbit to him. Then again, he wouldn't have believed her.
The leading soldier stopped at an empty cell. "Women in there, men there." He pointed to the opposite cell.
"We stay together," Gus said.
David clasped Eva's hand. "I won't be separated from my sister."
"Women in there, men here." The solider unlocked the nearest cell. "Get in."
"Together," Seth growled.
"For now," Alice said to the soldier. "Please."
He heaved a sigh. "Just get in."
They all dutifully filed into the cell and the soldier locked the grill. David clutched the bars and watched him walk back along the corridor. Eva slumped against the back wall and tried to breathe through her mouth. The stink invaded anyway.
"Eva, Alice, sit on the bed and rest." Seth eyed the bare wooden bench dubiously. "If that's what that is."
"At least there's nowhere for lice to hide," Gus said.
Alice wrinkled her nose. "I think I'll stand for now."
David wheeled around and stabbed a finger at her. "This is all your fault. None of us would be here if you hadn't surrendered."
"David," Eva snapped. "That's not helpful."
"If I hadn’t surrendered, you might all be dead," Alice said. "And I did not ask you to follow me. I wish you hadn't."
Seth grasped Alice's shoulders and dipped his head to meet her gaze. "I couldn't allow you to come alone. Besides, I've always wanted to travel to interesting places." He shot her one of his famous smiles, dimples and all. It gladdened Eva to see it, even though she knew it was false.
"This castle reminds me of a famous play I once saw," Gus said. "It had a mad king, though, not a queen. Lots of blood, fighting, and something about getting a spot out."
"Shakespeare," Seth said.
"No, that ain't it."
"It's Macbeth."
Gus clicked his fingers and pointed at Seth. "That sounds like it."
"Macbeth but with animals," Eva said, welcoming any conversation that would stop her brother from becoming too morose.
Alice peered out between the bars. "Are they animals or humans?"
Seth joined her at the bars. "We should have made the white rabbit talk when we had the chance."
"I wouldn't have told you anything," said a raspy voice from a cell across from theirs. A rabbit dressed in a waistcoat moved into the patch of wan light cast by a nearby torch. Some of his whiskers were bent and his fur was mostly brown from dirt and grime instead of pristine white. He was fully clothed. "It was forbidden."
"You!" Gus pointed a finger at the rabbit. "I hurt my shoulder trying to catch you, you slippery cur."
"Not a cur, a rabbit." The rabbit sounded weary. "Take a good look. Stare all you want and laugh. I'm beyond caring."
"Did they jail you because you failed to bring me back?" Alice asked.
"I hate you people," was his only answer.
Alice visibly baulked.
"You hate your princess?" Seth said.
"Haven't you heard? She's no longer a princess." The rabbit plopped down on the cell floor and scratched his head between his long ears. "The queen cast her out of the family and stripped her of her royal title. She's just plain old Alice, now."
"There's nothing plain about her. Take a look."
"Seth," Alice said, sounding as weary as the rabbit. "Don't."
"It's true," he muttered.
Her eyes suddenly flashed. "I'm so much more. Why can't you see it?"
Seth stumbled back a step. He blinked rapidly at her. "Of course you are. That's not what I meant."
But they all knew it was precisely what he meant. Like most people, he couldn't see past her beautiful face, her desirable figure. It was why most women envied her, and why many men fancied themselves in love with her. Eva hated to admit it, but she was one of those women. She must change that. She hadn't been fair to Alice.
It seemed Seth was coming to the same realization. He retreated to the back of the cell where he slid to the floor and sat with his knees drawn up. On a whim, Eva joined him.
"Don't feel bad," she said.
"I should have understood."
"Because people fall in love with your beautiful face?"
One corner of his mouth quirked. "I prefer handsome to beautiful."
"It must happen all the time."
"Not so much, of late."
Perhaps he simply hadn't noticed because women certainly stared when he walked into a room. Eva could personally vouch for it.
"It just never occurred to me that I saw Alice as simply a pretty face," he went on.
"Are you sure you do? I mean, just because she thinks so doesn't mean it's true. And just because you think her pretty doesn't mean you don't also see her other qualities."
He stared at Alice's back. S
he was still speaking with the rabbit through the cell bars, flanked by David on one side and Gus on the other. If she knew she'd hurt Seth's feelings, she didn't show it.
"If you truly love her, persist," Eva said.
Seth stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankles. "That's the thing. How do I know if I am in love with her? Shouldn't there be some sort of sign?"
"I suspect it's more of a feeling that you can't live without one another, or wouldn't want to." She watched him carefully but he said nothing, simply continued to stare at Alice. "My mother once said that you'll know love when you're prepared to give up everything to be with that person, even when everyone is warning you not to. She was referring to her and my father, of course."
"She gave up a lot to be with him."
"Her family and friends, her culture. Although I'm not certain she didn't want to give those things up anyway. She has often told me the Romany life wasn't really for her."
"My mother gave up a lot too for her second husband—her friends, status, good name and reputation. I've been unfair to her. I've reacted like a child, but I'm an adult now, and I do understand why she did what she did. I should have told her."
She nudged his shoulder. "See, you're not just a pretty face. You can philosophize too."
"That's not all I can do. I can ride a horse like an American cowboy, recite poetry in Latin, and tie a cravat in no less than nine different knots."
She laughed. "Goodness, you are positively a genius!"
"Shhh. Don't tell anyone. I quite like having a reputation as a twit."
"Seth," she said, quite seriously, "no one thinks you stupid, least of all the friends who know you well."
"You count yourself among them?"
She felt her face heat and was glad for the dim light. "Yes."
He kissed the top of her head. "Good. You've brightened an otherwise bloody awful day." He rose and put out his hand.
She took it and together they joined the others at the cell bars.
"Listen to this," Gus said. "The rabbit says the queen turns anyone who fails to do her bidding into an animal."
"My name is Sir Uther," the rabbit said with pomposity. "I was one of her advisors until…" He spread out his arms and performed a little bow.
"Some get second chances to redeem themselves," Alice went on. "Like Sir Uther. But if they fail again, they are sent down here to spend the rest of their days locked away in a cell, never to return to their human form. Others are tried and executed immediately. It's barbaric."
"How does she change you?" Eva asked.
"Magic," the rabbit said. "She found a spell book, long thought lost, and used it on me, them…Miss Alice's parents."
Alice gasped. "Did she turn them into animals?"
"Geese. Then she had them hunted and killed. They saved you first, Miss Alice, by sending you through the portal."
Alice's knuckles went white as she gripped the bars. "Did you know them?"
"No."
"You said the queen turns anyone who fails her into an animal," Seth said. "That means you failed her, Uther."
"Sir Uther. And yes, I did, stupidly."
"How?"
"None of your business."
"He passed information to the renegades," came a voice from another cell.
"Shut up, Ass."
A donkey brayed.
"Who or what are renegades?" Alice asked.
"Your supporters," Sir Uther said.
Alice pressed against the bars. "You…you wish me to retake the throne?" she whispered.
"I wish I wasn't in here, that's what I wish." The rabbit retreated into the shadows at the rear of his cell. "I wish I hadn't believed them."
"The renegades?"
The rabbit said nothing.
"Sir Uther!" Alice cried. "Tell me about the renegades. Are there many? Are they strong? What do they want?"
The white rabbit hissed. "I'd keep my mouth shut if I were you, Miss Alice. These walls have ears. It won't go well for you if you stir up talk of treason. "
"Would the queen turn us into animals too?" David asked.
"You, perhaps, but she'd just execute Miss Alice."
Eva's stomach dropped.
"She's too dangerous to have walking around Wonderland alive. The renegades have lived in hope for years that she was alive, and when they see that she is, they'll gather their forces and make a plan to overthrow the Queen of Hearts. Keeping the rightful heir to the throne alive is an enormous risk."
Eva touched Alice's arm as a show of support. A slight tremble rippled through Alice but her voice was steady when she spoke. "Thank you for your honesty, Sir Uther. I appreciate it, and I appreciate what you did to help the renegades. What has happened to you is awful, and you don't deserve this."
"Like I said, I wish I'd done things differently," the rabbit muttered.
"Spineless, that's what you are, Uther," said the voice from the neighboring cell. "You were twitchy and scared then, and you're twitchy and scared now. No wonder she chose a rabbit form for you."
The rabbit didn't respond. His cell had gone completely quiet. Eva felt the silence settle around them, thick and stifling. It was broken by the sound of boots on the stone floor. Several pairs, if Eva wasn't mistaken. She tensed.
"The queen commands your presence," the leading soldier announced.
"She's not going alone," Seth told him. "Where she goes, I go too."
"Don't fret, pretty boy. You're all going." He unlocked the door and directed them out.
Sir Uther rushed forward. His ears flopped and his paws tightened around the bars. "Good luck," he whispered. "May the gods and goddesses protect you."
Several armed soldiers escorted the party along the corridor, back the way they'd come.
"Good luck," the donkey said as they passed his cell. It was difficult to tell, but Eva could swear he looked worried.
Alice, however, didn't look concerned to be led away to an uncertain fate. She looked inspired.
Chapter 4
Seth
Seth had expected someone taller and more beautiful, like Alice. The Queen of Hearts was neither tall nor beautiful. She was stocky, and there were so many wrinkles on her brow and around her mouth that she looked as if she'd sucked on lemons every day of her life. It was how Charlie described Queen Victoria. She would have found the similarity amusing.
The prisoners had been brought up from the dungeon to what Seth assumed was an audience chamber, used for receiving subjects who were supposed to bow and scrape to the queen. It was cavernous but mostly empty of furniture except for a large carved wooden throne on a dais and a red carpet leading up to it. Men and women dressed in fine outfits of a medieval style and dripping in jewels, stood on either side of the carpet and watched as the soldiers ushered Alice forward. Seth spotted General Ironside and Sir Markell at the front, flanked by another six soldiers. More armed men stood against the walls, but they were dressed all in white, like the dungeon guards, not the red of the soldiers or black like the general and Sir Markell.
The queen lifted her hand and the soldier halted Alice. The queen rose and stepped off the dais. Her footsteps thudded with her every step as she proceeded toward Alice along the carpet.
"So this is her," she said in a booming voice that echoed off the beams.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Sir Markell said.
"How do you know?"
Despite the challenge in her voice, the queen's advisor didn't miss a beat. "Her story fits with what we know of her."
"And she looks remarkably like her mother," the general added. "Even you must concede that."
The queen's eyes flashed, and Seth thought she'd order him from the room or chastise him, but she merely turned to Alice. "Do you know why you are here?"
Alice straightened, looking regal despite her muddy shoes. Seth had always thought she had a dignified air about her, but it seemed amplified in this room. "I am the rightful heir to the throne and you fear me taking it from you.
"
Hell.
"Why did she say that?" Gus muttered. "She's in enough trouble."
The queen's nostrils flared. Seth quickly calculated how many guards and soldiers he had to fight to reach Alice before the queen struck her. There were too many, the distance too far. Not even Lincoln would make it.
"You are mistaken," was all the queen said. "You are not the rightful heir. I am. My brother, your father, was younger than me. He shouldn't have inherited from our father. I should have."
"Then why didn't you?" Alice asked.
"My father deemed my brother more fit to rule and named him as heir." The queen leaned in. "But he was wrong. I am better than your father ever was. He was weak. I am strong."
Fabric rustled, feet shuffled, but when Seth studied the small gathering, he couldn't determine which of them felt discomforted by the queen's pronouncements.
"I see," Alice said. "Thank you for the history lesson. So what happens now? Am I to be executed for being your rival?"
"Of course not. I am not a monster. You are to face trial first." The queen flapped her hand at a black robed man standing by the throne. "Proceed, Lord Indrid."
"Here?" Alice asked. "Now?"
"Why not?" the queen said. "You are here, as am I, and several witnesses. Lord Indrid will oversee the trial."
"What about a judge?"
"I decide your fate."
"Shouldn't there be a verdict before you decide her fate?" Eva snapped.
The queen ignored her.
"This is a farce," Seth said. "Let us go. We don't belong here. Alice doesn't want your damned crown. She'll return home with us and you can go on reigning here until someone overthrows you."
The queen arched one thin brow. "Is that your husband?"
"No," Alice said. "I am not married."
"Very wise. Husbands tend to think what is yours is theirs, even though I have changed the law to state otherwise."
"Well?" Seth went on. "Will you let her go?"
The queen returned to her throne and fidgeted with a large heart shaped ruby ring on her finger. "He acts like a husband."
"Let's get this over with then," Alice said with a tilt of her chin.
What was she doing? Why wasn't she putting up a fight? "Alice, don't." If Seth's warning reached her, she showed no sign.