Malice in Wonderland Bundle 3

by Lotus Rose

  Sleepy B scrunches up her face. “Are you feeling okay?”

  Malice frowns. “Of course I am, you little fanged urchin! Why does everyone keep asking me that? I just want to show you a little affection. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Errr, nothing,” Sleepy B says, “But well, why?”

  “Because you’re you! Wonderfully you! Now give us a hug!”

  Sleepy B stares at the ground and looks uncomfortable. “Oh, I dunno. Uh, everybody’s watching.”

  Malice scowls and tries to stare the girl down. “What? My hugs aren’t good enough for you?” She feels her heart sputtering, accompanied by that cold sensation in her chest.

  Hatter chuckles uncomfortably. “Oh, leave the lass alone. She’s just shy, she is.”

  Malice whirls to glare at Hatter. “How dare you speak to me in such an insolent manner, servant. As Queen, I should perhaps order the brat to hug me!”

  “My Queen!” the Jabberwock says. “Get ahold of yourself. Is your heart malfunctioning?”

  Malice lets out a shout of frustration. “Of course it is, you decapitated dimwit!” She presses her hand to her cold chest. “Oh, and now it’s stopped. Great. You see what you obnoxious lot did to me?”

  “Oh dear,” Sleepy B says. She begins gnawing on her fingernails.

  “Such a horrid habit,” Malice mutters.

  Humpty is standing now, a few feet from Malice. He says, “Could you take some more?”

  Malice shouts, “No, I can’t take some more! I ran out, okay? The secret’s out: I’m bad at portion control! Then this loutish servant here...” She points at Hatter. “...had to give me his little ‘we’re just formal’ speech and it set me off. And not only that, I have a pounding headache from my withdrawal, because, guess what?! I’m addicted!”

  “How can we help?” Humpty says in that annoyingly weak manner of his.

  “Well, if you have been hiding any black rose behind my back, now would be the time to give me some.” She looks around and meets eyes with everyone. They are all either denying they have any, or trying to look innocent.

  “Ah,” she says, with a sneer. “So you’re all going to keep up the charade? Well the punishment shall be severe if I find out any of you have been holding out.”

  “You’re the only one who even had a black rose,” Hatter says.

  “Shut up, servant.”

  “If I had any, I’d give you it,” Humpty says.

  She points at him. “You! Don’t go trying to act all sweet and helpful, you nincompoop! I’ve seen you casting glances at me all day, moving your mouth as if you had something you wanted to say...”

  He looks taken aback and surprised. “I’m sorry about that.”

  Malice’s eyes open wide. “Oh, ho ho! So I was right! I bet you were waiting all along for this lunch break...so you could get me alone to have some kind of little talk, just like my servant, Mister Mad Hatter did! Am I right?”

  “Well...” he says. “I did want to talk to you, yes.”

  “Ah,” Malice says while looking around at all the horrified and uncomfortable expressions on the group’s faces. “I bet you were just sitting there stewing...pun intended...trying to gather up enough courage in your pathetic, meek shy, little beating red heart. But my heart has thankfully stopped beating, so I no longer have to tolerate your insufferable sappiness! I should snap your twee sapling neck right now for being so twee, but now I must admit, my curiousity is piqued. I wish to hear your somber little speech—no doubt it’s about us keeping our respectful, and nonromantic distances from each other so, please!... I wish you to deliver your little speech out here in the open, for all to hear!”

  “But—” Humpty stammers. He looks around at everyone, as if seeking someone to rescue him.

  Miserable meek sod.

  Sleepy B says, “Could you blame him for wanting to keep his distance from you?”

  “What was that, Clawy?” Malice shouts.

  Sleepy B crosses her arms with a tight mouth, refusing to reply.

  “You misunderstood,” Humpty finally manages to get out.

  Malice makes a show of turning her ear toward him, but he doesn’t say any more, his mouth opening and closing silently.

  Malice sneers. “That’s it? Come on, chum. I’ve grown quite weary of your half-finished sentences and stammered words.”

  Hatter says, “Come on, lay off the lad. Let’s just enjoy the meal and wait for your heart to start functioning again.”

  “You mean the Tin Knight’s heart,” Malice says. “I get the feeling he’ll be coming back for it.”

  Hatter sighs. “The food’s getting cold...”

  “Yes, it shall soon turn to ice,” Malice says. “But first, I must hear Humpty’s little speech. Come on, boy, give us the short version, so everyone can eat.”

  All eyes focus on him.

  His posture straightens. He seems to be nervous from the scrutiny. “Well, I just wanted to tell you...”

  Malice waits a few seconds before groaning. “Spit it out!”

  Humpty closes his eyes. “I was gonna tell you that I want to think of our going on this quest as a new beginning. It’s our chance to start afresh, let bygones be bygones and start over. I wanted to ask you if you’d agree to that.”

  “What?” Malice says. “You weren’t gonna say we should keep our respectable distances?”

  “No.”

  “You weren’t gonna say we’re just friends and you don’t see a romantic future between us?”

  He shakes his head meekly while staring at the ground.

  “Huh!” Malice say. “Well color me surprised. I suppose if my heart was working right now, I’d be mightily heartened, as it were. Well, I suppose I shan’t beat you up now. Well, let’s eat!”

  “Yes, let’s!” Sleepy B says. “The aroma has been making my poor tummy rumble!”

  Malice inhales, and, yes, she smells the scent of roasted meat and stew that no doubt would be mouth-watering if she wasn’t so preoccupied with her desire for the black rose.

  The others move closer to the picnic blanket, in preparation to receive their portions. Malice stays back, since she isn’t hungry.

  Malice’s head tilts to the side. “Curious,” she mumbles to herself, because there is another scent mixed in with the food. A flowery scent. She moves her head around while sniffing at the air.

  It’s the black rose! I knew it! Someone here has hidden away a stash!

  The others are engaged in their feeding frenzy, so Malice attempts to track down the location. After a few more moments of sniffing, she kneels down, opens Hatter’s satchel and begins rustling.

  Hatter calls out, “What are you doing? Those are my things.” He walks closer to her.

  Malice is inspecting a shaving kit she’d brought out.

  She looks over at Hatter and glares. “You thought you could keep it from me, eh?”

  Hatter swallows the mouthful of the bird leg he’s holding. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’ve been hiding some of the black rose!”

  “No, I haven’t,” Hatter replies.

  “Don’t bother denying it! I can smell it! The scent is so strong now, it’s like I’m choking on it!” She brings out something wrapped in cloth and tied with a blue ribbon.

  Hatter lifts his hand. “Careful, now. That’s my teapot.”

  “Aha!” Malice exclaims. “Why so defensive? I believe I can surmise why.” She sniffs at it, and immediately her nose is filled with the scent. “The black rose is inside here!”

  “I assure you, it’s not,” Hatter says. “You’re imagining it.”

  Hatter and Jabberwock exchange glances, the Jabberwock says, “There’s not any in there, right?”

  “Of course not,” Hatter replies.

  “Nice try,” Malice says. She sets the wrapped teapot on the ground and squats in front of it. “I’ll have your head for trying to keep this from me!”

  The Jabberwock mutters, “She’s gone mental.
”

  Malice shouts, “I heard that!” while working to untie the knot in the ribbon.

  Hatter says to Humpty, “Her craving is making her smell things.”

  Humpty nods and says, “Hallucinating, like.”

  Malice expects Sleepy B to make some sort of snide comment as well, but the girl has left the group for some reason, not that Malice cares.

  “I’m not hallucinating, look!” Malice says. She pulls the cloth away from the teapot. The lid is already off and she peers inside only to find it’s empty. “What? What trickery is this?”

  “See?” Hatter says. “It’s your craving, making you imagine things.”

  “Obviously some sort of invisibility spell,” Malice mutters. She reaches inside the teapot to feel empty air. She yowls in frustration.

  Humpty holds his hand out toward her. “Malice, love, calm down.” He takes a couple of steps toward her.

  Malice raises the teapot in the air and Hatter gasps. “Stay back! Or I’ll smash it!” she shouts.

  “You’re being irrational,” the Jabberwock says.

  “Yes,” Humpty says. “Why don’t you just join us for our meal and wait for your heart to work again?”

  “You idiots! Quit trying to calm me down! I need some black rose right now, don’t you get it! I can’t stand it anymore!”

  Humpty cringes while keeping his eyes on the teapot.

  “Oh, right,” Malice says. “Don’t worry, I’ll spare this, because I enjoy my tea as well.” She sets the teapot on the ground. “Instead, I’ll do this...” She grabs the mini-crossbow from the satchel, and aims it at Hatter’s chest. She hasn’t had much practice with the weapons, but she believe she can at least hit somewhere on the madman’s body. “Don’t anybody move, or he gets it.”

  Hatter moves his hands in front of himself. “We’re on the same side, Maly.”

  “Now you’re speaking to me like we’re all familiar, eh? Well, My Servant, Mr. Mad Hatter, mister thief. Mister hoarding scrounger, you’re going to tell me where you hid the black rose or I’ll shoot you. Doubt you’ll die, but it’s sure to sting.”

  “There’s no—” Humpty says, but the Jabberwock shushes him.

  “Three...” Malice starts.

  “I assure you,” Hatter says.

  “Two...”

  “No one has...”

  “One.”

  “...any.”

  Malice shrugs, shifts her aim toward the center of his chest and pulls the trigger.

  Hatter flinches, but he’s not skewered, as she’d hoped. The crossbow hasn’t fired.

  She looks down in confusion to see that no bolt is loaded in it.

  Gah! I feel like such an idiot! They let me blather on this whole time with an unloaded weapon. Why I should—

  That’s when she feels things wrap around her neck and the lower part of her face. Something soft and wet is pressing against her mouth and nose, covering them.

  She recognizes the all-too-familiar smell of formaldehyde.

  Now Sleepy B’s voice whispers in Malice’s ear. “Cease your tantrum, Queeny.”

  Everything goes black.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  MALICE OPENS HER EYES and winces. She doesn’t understand why the light in her chambers is so bright, since she always keeps the windows covered until after she wakes up in the morning.

  She hears Sleepy B’s voice say, “Ah, you’re finally up.”

  Malice groans at the girl, because Sleepy B’s presence means Malice herself is not actually in her own chambers. In fact, she’s lying sideways on the ground.

  Sleepy B is seated on that fallen tree trunk, with that magical book of hers set open on her lap.

  Malice attempts to sit up, but fails.

  “We tied you up,” Sleepy B says. “Didn’t want you to wake up and try to kill everyone.”

  “I won’t, now,” Malice croaks. She winces, because she still has her pounding withdrawal headache.

  Sleepy B replies, “I kept checking your pulse and your heart started beating about half an hour into your nap. We weren’t sure it’d keep beating, though, so we kept you tied up.”

  “Thank you,” Malice says sweetly. “Sorry I was so beastly.”

  “Me too. Your malfunctioning heart shall pose problems if it continues.”

  “Quite,” Malice agrees.

  “Is she awake?” the voice of the Jabberwock calls out from somewhere out of sight.

  “That I am!” Malice calls back. She cranes her neck to see that Humpty, Hatter, and the Jabberwock are sitting in the grass a short distance from the stream. They’re playing some kind of card game. The Cat is there, too, floating in his usual manner.

  Malice tries to make eye contact with Hatter, but she’s having difficulty keeping her neck at such an awkward angle. “Sorry I tried to shoot you, Hatty.”

  “I know that wasn’t the real you, My Queen.”

  Malice sighs to herself. For a while there, during lunch, he had slipped, and was referring to me in such informal terms.

  Sleepy B says, “Come, let’s get you out of those ropes. Your heart’s still working, right?” She presses two fingertips to the side of Malice’s neck.

  Malice jokes, “You aren’t afraid I’ll snap your neck?” But her voice trembles, as she realizes she is only half-joking.

  The team is gathered around Malice now. The Jabberwock says, “Well, we can’t have you shackled up all the time. You’re the Queen!”

  Humpty unties her wrists. “Thank you, love,” she says.

  The Cat contributes, “They tell me you were behaving quite below par.”

  “If only I had my medicine...” Malice hints wistfully.

  “If only...” the Cat mutters.

  And now Humpty unleashes her feet, so she tells him, “Thank you, dear.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Malice sits up. “I must apologize, I had a momentary lapse. I truly thought I could smell the black rose. Oh, how the mind can play tricks on us, eh?”

  Humpty says, “Hopefully, your cravings shall pass.”

  “I’m sure they will,” Malice says. “This was my first day of quitting ‘cold turkey’ as they say. I’m sure my condition shall improve henceforth. So, shall we resume our trip, then?”

  Hatter says, “It is already late into the afternoon, and we’re settled into a good campsite, so we’d like to stay here till morrow, if it pleases Your Highness.”

  Malice sighs at his formal address. “Of course, sir.”

  A voice calls out from somewhere amongst the trees of the forest. “I come in peace!” It sounds like the voice of a child, that could be either a boy or a girl.

  Malice worries that someone working for the Tin Knight or Dorothy has found them. The others are rushing to gather up their weapons, and the Jabberwock has drawn his sword.

  The Jabberwock calls out into the trees, “Who goes there, and what do you want?”

  The voice replies, “My identity I do not wish to reveal, for I am a servant of Dorothy, but today I wish to help Alice. Dorothy must never find out I’ve come to you. I have information for you.”

  “What information?” the Jabberwock says.

  “May I come out to speak to you? It’s only me. There are no others.”

  Hatter and Humpty are holding crossbows now—even Sleepy B is holding her miniature crossbow, though last Malice checked, the girl hadn’t even been given any lessons on its use. They are all looking to Malice for guidance.

  “Very well,” Malice calls out. “But you should know, we have no quarrel with Dorothy or the Tin Knight.”

  “Ah, but I suppose those two idiots have one with you.” A young girl with a handkerchief over the lower part of her face steps out from behind one of the trees. She has long brown hair, is wearing a green blouse and skirt. “You are Alice, I presume?”

  “Maybe,” Malice says. “What’s it to you?”

  “Because I want to help you acquire the Tin Knight’s heart so you can use it for y
our own.”

  Malice now realizes their visitor is no little girl—she’s an adult woman who is short, with a high-pitched voice.

  Malice exchanges glances with the rest of her team who, though they’re not aiming at the woman, still have their fingers upon the triggers.

  “Lower your weapons, team, so that we may speak more cordially with our new friend.” And her team does as she commands.

  “Are you a dwarf?” Sleepy B says.

  Malice isn’t sure if the woman would consider it a rude question or not—Malice shoots Sleepy B a look, anyway.

  “I’m a munchkin,” the woman answers. “A member of Dorothy’s tribe. I’ve also served under the Tin Knight, whom I despise.”

  “Do you no longer serve him?” Malice says. She grits her teeth involuntarily from a sudden sharp pain in her head, but she hopes no one noticed.

  “I still do, which is why it is very dangerous for me to be speaking to you. I have information that would be very helpful for you, but if I am to tell you, you all must never reveal this meeting took place. If for some reason, you encounter me in my usual life, you mustn’t reveal we’ve ever met, mustn’t acknowledge me. For it could lead to my death.”

  “Ah, so we have a spy!” the Cat says. “Such exciting espionage!”

  Malice shoots him a look. “I vow to keep your secrets,” she says to the munchkin. “Team?”

  They all vow as well.

  Malice says, “Won’t you come closer, so that we may speak more pleasantly? Fancy a spot of tea, perhaps?”

  “No thank you, Queen Alice, I shan’t speak long. And I shan’t reveal much, for I fear the more I say, the easier it will be to guess my identity. I have probably already revealed too much. Oh dear, it is very dangerous for me to be here.”

  “We are grateful you decided to risk it,” Malice says.

  “Why, then?” Sleepy B blurts out.

  “I beg your pardon?” the munchkin says.

  “Why are you doing this?” Sleepy B says.

  “Quite simply, my motive is revenge. I despise the Tin Knight. He betrayed me in the past. I don’t ever want him to get his heart back. He can wallow in mud for eternity with that pig’s heart of his.”

  “Pig’s heart?” Hatter exclaims.

  “Yes,” the munchkin replies. “That’s what the Wizard gave him after the Tin Knight had his ticktock heart stolen.”