Madness Solver in Wonderland

by E E Rawls

  Madnes rolled his eyes. “So, you are blaming me.”

  “No. Thanks to you, I was able to grow up independent, become someone who doesn’t need to rely on others. What I do blame you for is not helping me find my real mother the day she went missing.”

  “But I saw her! She was standing right there beside you that day—looking and acting the same as ever, except for being ill,” argued Madnes. “You were convinced she was some imposter—a robotic replica that your real mother had been switched with. But I couldn’t see it, Oz. I couldn’t believe you. Then the next thing I knew, you and your family had moved away from Oswick...” He paused and exhaled. “Now, I hear your mother had died. A robot can’t die, Oz.” Madnes stuffed his hands in his pockets.

  “She was a robot—a fake—pretending to be ill and die. I know it wasn’t my real mother...” Oz murmured bitterly.

  “Then what’s that got to do with seeking the Madness Solver power? Hurting my friends to get to me? You do realize that your father only wanted you to become the next Madness Solver so that he could have that power—you—under his control, and not have someone like me out here ruining his schemes?”

  “I have my own reasons for wanting it. And it has nothing to do with the king.” Oz raised his chin. “As for hurting your friends, it was the quickest way to make you use up your power. I know your secret; I know all about what will happen once the clock on your wrist turns full circle.”

  “And you want that for yourself?” Madnes stared at him, incredulous. “You want to die young, like I will?”

  “The end result is worth it,” Oz stated, marching on as Madnes’s steps faltered and slowed.

  “That’s it...” Madnes halted, staring after the crowv prince with sudden realization. “That’s what you’ve been doing, all this time.”

  Oz paused and turned halfway to look back at him, gaze icy yet with a hint of wariness beneath the surface.

  “You’re still looking for her. You believe your mother is still alive somewhere. That’s why you want this power—to find her.”

  Oz’s mouth hung slack, and Madnes knew he’d hit the mark.

  A frosty mask made Oz expressionless once more, and the prince marched on.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Madnes continued. “Instead of hurting my friends, ruining Nico’s life, just to get this power, why didn’t you ask for my help?” He marched after him. “Did you think I wouldn’t listen or care?”

  “As if I would ever ask you,” growled Oz. “You didn’t believe me when I first told you my mother had been replaced by a fake. So why would you believe me years later? No, I don’t need help from you. I can solve my own problems.”

  “You idiot.” Madnes rushed him from behind, catching Oz with an arm hooked around the neck. Oz fought to get free, jabbing his elbows back into Madnes’s ribs. But Madnes ignored the pain, holding him. “You bat-blind, porridge-headed idiot! If you had told me, back when you came to visit Oswick, I would have believed you and been willing to help!”

  “Yes, now that you’ve seen Wonderland, seen the impossible, you’re willing to believe your ex-best friend,” Oz spat.

  “I’m sorry I was afraid; I’m sorry I chose not to believe you back then. I can’t change the past! But I can do something now.” He suddenly let go, and Oz stumbled forward, rubbing his collar. “If you say she’s still alive somewhere, then I’m going to find your mother,” Madnes stated, passing him by. “With or without you.”

  Madnes ran down the metallic tunnel, and Oz, breathless with shock, started after him. “What? Wait! You can’t just— Madnes!!”

  Chapter 41:

  Traced to the Source

  OZ’S VISION ADJUSTED to the darkness as he pursued Madnes. The energetic human was soon out of sight. And when the tunnel’s metallic, dust-encrusted surface came to a sudden dead end, Oz’s boots skidded to a stop. Before him rose a metal door contraption—bolts, locks and gears holding it shut.

  How was this supposed to open? Where had that Madnes gone off to? He was sure there were no other tunnels but this one. So, where was he?

  Oz drew close, inspecting the door’s mechanisms.

  No trace of a keyhole to be found; it must open some other way...

  A gear turned. Locks and bolts released.

  The door was suddenly opening.

  Heart thumping, Oz ducked to the left, pressing his body flat against the tunnel wall.

  “Oz, pssst! What are you doing?”

  Oz blinked at the human peeking around the now-open metal door, Madnes flashing him a smug grin before disappearing.

  He’d already gotten inside? How had Madnes unlocked the...?

  Oz growled and slipped in after him. It must be thanks to the power’s knowledge that he’d gotten the door open.

  A cool gust blew hair back from his temples as he stepped inside. The glow from light rods, spaced along the walk and ceiling, cast the atmosphere in a greenish haze. A grated floor scuffed under his boots, and a musty scent hung in the air with traces of something bitter.

  Oz let his eyes scan the space and its branching paths. Equipment lay everywhere. Conduits laced the walls like tree roots around faintly beeping boxes.

  He drew close to one of the luminous green boxes and leaned toward the glass. A spongey substance was growing inside, like a green fungus, and tiny particles like powder covered it—a dusty, glowing powder.

  “There’s the source of your illness.”

  Oz whipped his head around. Madnes stepped up, hands in pockets. “I wasn’t sure at first, but getting a good look at it now, I’m certain this dusty powder is what’s making the crowv ill,” said Madnes.

  Oz examined the particles once more. “What makes you so sure?”

  “I spotted this fungus growing on rocks and tree bark, back when we made our way down to the river,” Madnes explained. The glow cast greenish shadows across his features. “Some had this same yellowish powder; and it doesn’t look natural, if you ask me.”

  “Is the Madness Solver telling you this?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “If a crowv brushes against this, they catch ill. That’s what I think.”

  “Why is this being cultivated and planted in the forest? Does someone want the crowv to die out?” Oz started to fume. He pulled back from the glass and continued down the grated path.

  Madnes hesitated before following.

  The path led to an open circular doorway, and Oz didn’t hesitate to go through. But the sight beyond hit him like a wall of bricks, and his built-up anger paled.

  A cavernous space stretched before them, and lined in neat rows throughout were glass caskets. Conduits ran to them, and little lights lit up a face inside each one.

  Oz stumbled backwards before falling to his knees, going numb all over. It was Madnes who went to the nearest glass casket and peered inside. “Ah...” Oz could hear the heaviness in Madnes’s voice, “Now everything makes sense.”

  Gritting his jaw until it ached, Oz forced himself up and went to where the human stood. Inside the casket was what he feared to see—what was inside each of these caskets, rows upon rows of them. A face, eyes closed in death, and the hum of conduits surrounding a crowv body.

  “Those black patches,” Madnes pointed them out on the body’s skin. “They match what we saw on the bones by the riverbed.”

  “What...” it was an effort to speak. “What are they doing to my people?” Oz growled. “Who is doing this?”

  Madnes bent down, tapping the cords and conduits on the underside of the raised casket. “These are syphoning something from the body. Tell me, do crowv have special powers or something like magic in them?”

  Oz took a moment before he could think. “Yes. It’s not magic, like what you’re thinking, but a power in our genes. It’s what makes us crowv and able to transform. Why? You think it’s being syphoned out?”

  “Yes.” Madnes straightened. “I’m thinking the illness is a clever ploy to collect crowv bodies for whatever work is b
eing done here. Think about it,” he faced him. “When a crowv falls ill, they leave the village so as not to spread the illness to anyone else. They leave to die, most likely coming down to the riverbed for water and comfort. They’re weak and alone, and that’s when they get captured and brought down here to this lab. It’s like the perfect crime. No one expects them to come back, so no one ever goes looking or discovers the truth.”

  Oz’s muscles tightened. “And that’s how the illness can follow a village, even after it moves. The people running this laboratory can plant the illness wherever they like and scare the crowv into thinking their surroundings are cursed!” He stepped back from the casket, his vision taking in the many rows filling the cavernous hall. “They were killed for their power... How many years has this gone on? How much power? And for what?” His chest burned. “When I find the one responsible for this...”

  “A Terraforming spell’s crystal is nearby.” Madnes hesitated, hand raking his bangs back under his hat. “This...could be connected to it.”

  Oz looked at him sharply. “Are you saying this was all to generate those crystals and the spell?”

  “...I’m afraid so. Gathering up power, over the course of however many years, to create seven crystals.” His eyes shut, pained. “I guess they’re just gathering back-up power, now. Not much other reason to keep running this place.”

  Oz bit his lip so hard it bled.

  Father wanted the Terraforming spell. Did he know at what cost it was being made? Did he knowingly use Oz’s people—his mother’s people—to do this? Were the crowv nothing to him but a source of power to be used?

  ‘Mother...where are you?’ Hot tears stung his eyes.

  Chapter 42:

  Do Away With

  OZ STARED AT THE CASKETS—HIS murdered people—anger writhing through his soul.

  Father would pay for this. Oh yes, he would pay.

  “Come on, Oz.” Madnes urged him. “The crystal must be close by. There’s nothing more you can do for them now.” His glance indicated the dead.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Oz uttered darkly. He trailed after Madnes into the next room over. A metal contraption, like a giant container, filled this cramped room, and Madnes skirted around it.

  “I’m not sure what the crystal will look like—I mean, I think it’ll be something crystal-ish,” said Madnes. “But— Hey, what are you doing?”

  Oz spread his wings and flapped up to the top of the giant metal contraption, which rumbled and hummed with syphoned crowv power. Several levers poked out from its bulging surface and Oz grabbed hold of one, yanking it down.

  “Oz! What are you—?” Madnes started.

  The lab’s greenish lights flickered. The humming shifted to a steaming gurgle.

  Something beeped, and a sign flashed red: Warning.

  “You’re overloading it,” he exclaimed.

  “A nice bomb to wipe out this place, don’t you think?” Oz landed back down.

  “Sure, except we need to find that crystal before it does!”

  “Get your Madness Solver backside moving, then.”

  Their footsteps clamored down the next tunnel, and between Oz’s and Madnes’s strength, they wrenched the next locked door open, creaking it inward. A circular room lay beyond. Gadgets and beeping things lined the curving wall, with people in hazmat suits attending them. But most noticeable out of everything was the gleaming diamond-shaped crystal at the room’s center, raised on a platform.

  “Easier to find than I thought,” Madnes commented. “But with that alarm going off, there are people everywhere. We need to distract—”

  “Graaah!” Oz charged ahead, both hands elongated and darkening into claws. He slashed left and right, plowing through the lab workers like grass.

  “Or we could just do that,” Madnes finished and shook his head. “We can’t leave them here with the bomb, though.”

  “Keep them alive, after what they’ve done?” Oz turned, veins throbbing, the last of the workers downed to the floor. “These are murderers!”

  “Your hands aren’t exactly clean, either. Don’t pretend you’re better than them,” Madnes shot back, and Oz stared for a second before looking away. “They’ll be punished—don’t worry about that. And maybe they’ll be of use to us, too,” he added.

  Oz shifted his anger to the crystal, claws raised.

  Mother wasn’t here. The crowv woman must be inside a different crystal, not this one. He charged, knife claws wide.

  At first, he’d planned to betray Madnes’s group and fight to save the crystals from being destroyed. He didn’t care about Oswick or Earth’s Terraforming destruction. He had only come along on this trip to find Mother.

  But now, after learning what had happened to the crowv, he wanted to obliterate every speck of these cursed crystals and everything the king had planned.

  He slashed, claws striking the crystalline surface with a screeching ring.

  Oz landed and turned to eye his handiwork, only to find that the crystal was still there—whole and unblemished.

  Madnes charged next, throwing all his weight into a flying side kick through the sparkling rock.

  But there wasn’t so much as a shatter under his boot, and the force of the kick sent him stumbling back instead. “The crowv power inside the crystal is too strong. We can’t break it like this,” Madnes panted.

  “I doubt the explosion will affect it, either.” Oz let his claws retreat, hands human once more.

  Madnes wrapped his arms around the base, lifting the crystal up. “A little help here?” he said, arms strained around the slippery load.

  “Seriously? That’s your genius plan?” Oz snorted.

  “Well, it’s either that or we die while trying to think up something else. I don’t know about you, but I’m not keen on exploding.”

  Oz rolled his eyes and reached for the crystal, only to have Madnes throw its full weight at him. “Take care of that, will you? I’ll drag these people out.” Madnes trotted off.

  Oz growled around the crystal, though it sounded more like a grunt. Between the crystal’s weight and time running out, he left arguing for later and began a hurried run toward the red blinking word Exit above a door.

  The world went dark for a moment past the exit, as it followed through a carved-out cave. Then light appeared from an open rock mouth, and he came out into afternoon sunshine. The din of rushing water hit his ears, and drippings from the rock ceiling quickly plastered his hair. He was standing behind a waterfall—the same one they’d seen earlier.

  Oz sidestepped along a ledge leading from the right of the watery cascade—not easy to do while bearing a huge crystal nearly his own size.

  He was almost to the riverbank when the ledge beneath him rumbled.

  He craned his neck to look back, watching as smoke began frothing out of the cave mouth and into the waterfall. His forehead creased while he waited.

  A top hat emerged, followed by Madnes streaking out of the cave and into the waterfall. Clothes smoking; arms, shoulders and back burdened with a pile of unconscious workers.

  The rumbling intensified, and flames burst from the cave just short of Madnes, as the giant container underground exploded. Oz watched as they all fell into the river, and then Madnes struggled to grab everyone to shore.

  “He should have been named Idiotnes instead of Madnes,” he muttered. He watched curls of flame and smoke rise from underground.

  ‘Good riddance.’

  Oz huffed and went to help “Idiotnes” recapture the lab workers.

  Chapter 43:

  Revised Plan

  “THE CROWV CAN’T STAY here—not with that chemical powder spread about the forest,” Madnes said around a bowl of green pea stew.

  The night encircled the group seated around one of several fire pits in the crowv village as the meal was served.

  “Agreed. I’m sure the White Duchess won’t mind taking them under her care, temporarily.” Cheshire’s whiskers twitched
. “If that’s all right with you, prince?”

  Oz’s brow furrowed. “I don’t see any other options,” came his tart reply.

  Madnes shot a frown in Oz’s direction and shifted his pillow seat toward Pelur. The dragon knight was busy swallowing down whole cabbages and pea pods. “Pelur, do you think you can carry the lab prisoners and help guide the crowv back to the duchess?”

  The knight nodded, mouth too stuffed to speak, like a chipmunk preparing for winter.

  “Well, we now know how ol’ Red King powered up his Terraforming spell,” Cosmic Hunter spoke around a twig toothpick, an arm propped over his knee. “Who’d a thought such a scheme was goin’ on? Downright evil.” He took out a knife from one of his belts and began sharpening its edge.

  “There are many other villages,” the elder crowv spoke. Weariness lined his voice now, after having listened to their grim discovery. “They are most likely living under the same threat as us, My Prince. You must help them.”

  Madnes shifted his gaze back to Oz. It was clear the prince was conflicted over something, but he gave the elder a curt nod. “Of course. They will be taken care of,” Oz assured. His gaze didn’t meet the crowv’s but went past, as if distracted by something only he could see.

  “Speaking of threat,” Harrey interrupted, still chewing. “There’re six more crystals out there, and time’s running out fast. How’re we gonna find them all before our home’s gone?”

  The same thought had been crossing Madnes’s mind. He didn’t like what he was about to suggest, but like Oz had said: options were limited.

  “I think we should split up,” said Madnes.

  Silence rolled around the fire pit.

  He looked around. While no one’s expression disagreed with him, none seemed eager about the idea either. “It’s not ideal, I know,” he admitted, “but we can cover more ground that way. Each group will meet back at the duchess’s palace once they have their crystal.”

  Cosmic grinned around the toothpick. “Sounds good t’ me, boy.”