“It is for me,” Ella’s mother hugged her child, fully and tightly for a long time.
“But how?” Ella asked. “You died when I was only a child. Yet you are here now in front of me and I can touch you. Oh Mother!” Ella began to sob in a wave of emotions all too overwhelming in its release.
Then her mother pulled away and looked into the face of her lost daughter.
“I haven’t much time here, my child. What is the last thing you remember, Ella?”
Ella looked puzzled as she struggled to grasp hold of a memory. “It’s like a fading dream, just some odd impressions,” she shook her head trying to remember. “It’s so disconnected as if I am imagining rather than recalling it from memory. I guess the last thing I remember is standing at the steps of the house waving good bye to Jovette and Gael as they left with my stepmother for the festival. Everything else is sort of fuzzy.”
“That night was a long time ago, Ella. Well over a dozen years ago, I’m afraid,” her mother looked at her.
Ella was dumbfounded at the revelation, “but ... it seemed like yesterday?” She said with confusion wrinkling her brow and the sad realization of how much time may have passed.
“Much has changed, and I’m afraid magic was involved from that very night until today; and not all of the magic was good, I’m sorry to say. Even if its intentions were; none of it should have been used on you from the start. What you recall is the last night before magic took control of your life.”
“Such a long time; over twelve years… My goodness what has happened?” Ella whispered.
“You’ll find out eventually, in dreams and stories, but it will be less of a memory and more of a disconnected recollection, eventually. But now... you have a second chance, Ella, to live the life you should have led. Perhaps the life you might have had, if I had been around. You will have to leave the castle, and soon,” Ella’s mother’s spoke with marked concern.
Ella searched her memories to try and recall something, anything, but each time she thought she could recall something over recent times; it was pulled away, except for one memory that shone like a light in the darkness of her recollections.
“I remember someone,” Ella started to say and a light seem to flicker in her eyes at the recollection. “Jack!” She said, happy to recall a memory that filled her with warmth and even saying his name brought on a feeling of happiness. “Jack. I remember Jack.”
This puzzled Ella’s mother for a moment; she searched for her own recollection and the faded recollections of the God Mother fairy she had shared her psyche with.
“The lad from Cornish,” she said, finally pulling from Fae Gaia’s distant recollections. “He was a poor farmer, seemed sad.”
“I … I was in love with him,” Ella realized. “But...that was twelve years ago. Where is he now? Why would I remember him?”
“There was a bond there, a certain commonality that you shared. A connection that was unique and special to you. He was the first person that you were able to relate too. That is the light that shown through your darkness, Ella. It makes sense that you would remember him above all else.”
Ella’s mother winced and held her forehead for a moment, then dizziness over took her and she swooned in her child’s arms.
“Mother?” Ella asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Just tired… need to rest my eyes…” her mother replied sleepily, “Suddenly… feeling very tired.”
“Don’t leave me again,” Ella begged as tears fell about her cheeks.
Cinderella’s mother gave one last soft smile as she closed her eyes. “I’ve always been with you,” she whispered. “Now you must go live the life you should have. If Jack is your love you must find him. If his is your light, then you are his. He will still be out there for you. Remain hidden. Don’t speak to anyone and leave the castle as soon as you can. Find Jack. So happy to see you again... So proud of my daughter… dearest Ella, I will love you always….”
In that moment, Cinderella’s mother‘s head fell limp, and her body relaxed with one last exhale of breath. Then her skin began to glow and sparkles overtook her still body; a soft wind dispersed the sparkles into the air, and a moment later her mother was no more. Gone as well was Fae Gaia’s sword.
“I love you always, Mother,” Ella whispered, softly crying, not entirely tears of sadness, though, for she was happy to have seen her mother again. She wiped a stream of tears from her cheek, and focused on her mother’s dying wish.
“Find Jack?” Ella said as she steeled her tears away. “After all this time where could he be?”
CHAPTER 50
JACK ARRIVES
With barely a whisper in his steps, Jack exited through the polished threshold of the looking glass. He was back in Marchenton and, much to his relief; he was his normal size again. A warm afternoon breeze greeted him as the sun shone through the rippling red canvas of Alice’s spacious royal tent. The tent had two tall support poles spaced apart in the center and enough room to give the Queen of Wonderland private quarters, but also a receiving area with a throne and a table that was full of tactical papers, maps and figurines to plot a battle. Jack quickly realized that the tent was empty.
Jack glanced back, realizing he had stepped through Alice’s personal body length looking glass. To his surprise, that mirror’s face that had been a normal polished silvery finish was now blackened and dark. Ghostly words began to form on the face. Eerily, the writing appeared in reverse...
ƎЯOM OИ Ǝᙠ ⅃⅃AHƧ ᗡ⅃ЯOW ᗡИƎ ИA
and took Jack a moment to process.
AN END WORLD SHALL BE NO MORE.
Jack knew the temple of An End World; he had traveled back to Marchenton through there previously. “How bad could it be?”
Then more words appeared.
.ƎƆI⅃A ,ƎᖷAƧ Ǝᙠ .Ǝ⅃OHW ИIATИUOM ƎHT WO⅃⅃AWƧ ⅃⅃IW ИOITꟼUЯUƎ ИA
Again it took Jack a moment to decipher the words...
AN EURUPTION WILL SWALLOW THE MOUNTAIN WHOLE. BE SAFE, ALICE.
“Okay, that doesn’t sound good,” Jack remarked. From what he recalled the temple was forty miles to the north. “And if that mountain erupts we may not be far enough away. I need to find Alice,” he said, thinking aloud. “Maybe she can stop all of this, if there’s still time.”
The sounding horns of retreat interrupted, followed by loud shouts from outside the tent, spurring Jack back to the reality of the situation. He ran to the closed flap of the tent’s entrance to see what the commotion was about.
About to step outside the tent, Jack stopped, realizing at the last moment that his outfit would make him quickly recognizable. He was still dressed in his old battle leathers from the Marchenton army. A desperate scan about the royal tent and even Alice’s private quarters, Jack had come up empty. His own attire trapped him. If he walked out among Wonderland’s army, he’d quickly be captured. Jack needed a disguise.
He tossed his sack with the defunct invisibility cloak and the cap into a corner and carefully placed his sword nearby. Taking sheets and bedding and some boxes, he hastily piled them up in his arms, the sheets in messy cascades dragged on the floor hiding his legs and the boxes piled several high, obscuring much of his body. Arms wrapped around the bulky boxes, Jack cocked his head out from behind the pile and pushed through the tent flap to the encampment. All around the royal tent there were hordes of soldiers dismantling tents and racks while they marched back through the encampments. He was as behind enemy lines as one could get, and smack in the middle of a retreating army. Jack quickly spied a solider that was of his own similar height and called out to him.
“You there, soldier. What are you doing?” Jack asked, trying to obscure his face and doing his best authoritative voice.
“We’re breaking camp, uh... sir,” the young soldier nervously replied. “We’ve been ordered back to Wonderland.”
“Oh, well, yes, of course. Obviously,” Jack tried his best to not stammer as he continued in his deception.
Peering quickly from behind the obscuring boxes in his hand, he glanced at the soldier, sizing him up. “You are a Three of Spades, are you not? Infantry?” he asked, recalling what he could of his exposure to Wonderland military rankings. “Give me a hand in here for a second—need to get the queen’s tent ready to pack up.”
The low ranking soldier hesitated.
“That’s an order, Three of Spades,” still sensing the solider reluctance, Jack continued. “This is the Queen’s tent, son. Don’t worry about where the orders are coming from; just give me a hand for a second.”
The soldier gave a quick salute and offered to take the stack of boxes from Jack as they moved back inside. “Right this way,” said Jack as he slipped in behind the unsuspecting soldier as the two entered the queen’s tent.
Moments later Jack emerged from the tent now dressed in the uniform of a Three of Spades infantryman, leaving an unconscious and naked solider tied to the queen’s bed. He stood for a moment, unsure if he was trying to get his bearings to find Alice or to see whether his disguise was fooling anyone. As no one was rushing to kill him now, he was more confident his plan would work. Jack kept his own boots, adjusting them under the shin guard of his borrowed armor. Then he stuffed a small pouch into his leather gauntlet, securing what little Wonderland mushroom he had left. Jack shifted the weight of his sword on his belt, watching carefully as Wonderland soldiers paraded by him unaware. Jack was trying to figure out where he could find Alice. Then he noticed a dark shadow passing over him. Looking up, Jack saw a gryphon and its rider in the air. He quickly recognized the red armor of Alice, who rode upon the gryphon’s back, bracing a long billowing white flag of surrender. She shouted for her army to break from battle and to retreat back to Wonderland immediately.
In this sea of armored soldiers, Jack knew it was pointless to try and signal to her or even shout above the din of the battlefield to get her attention; then something else back on the ground caught Jack’s eye. It was the White Rabbit, moving swiftly through the crowd with ill purpose, with what looked like an archer’s longbow concealed in wrappings.
“Rabbit,” Jack muttered quickly under his breath, “you are up to no good.” Quickly, he followed after Rabbit, trying not to call attention to himself. It was difficult trying to navigate through the crowds of soldiers and camp staff as they set about their rushed orders in degrees of organized chaos. Rabbit moved swiftly through the disarray though and Jack had trouble keeping sight of him. By the same token, Jack figured that the distance between them made it a pretty good bet that Rabbit didn’t realize he was being followed.
“Where is he going?” Jack wondered as he ducked around crates and darted between tents, still trying to keep up with Rabbit. Jack heard Alice shouting orders to withdraw as she flew about, circling the battlefield. As she did, Jack noticed Rabbit tilted his head, keeping her within sight. Then, as Alice directed the gryphon off towards the far end of the battlefield, towards the distant siege towers, Rabbit hopped quickly, changing direction to follow.
Jack recalled what he had seen rabbit carry and realized what was happening—Rabbit was tracking Alice and was going to shoot her down. Jack knew he had to stop him before it was too late.
This time Jack cut through a small gap between two other tents and found himself almost stumbling into Rabbit, as he hustled through a mass of soldiers. Not looking directly at him, Jack watched Rabbit out of the corner of his eye, and could see that Rabbit didn’t recognize him. However, he kept oddly looking over at him. Almost as if Rabbit sensed there was something odd about this particular Three of Spades walking next to him.
“Out of my way, soldier!” Rabbit finally ordered, brushing past Jack in his disguise.
But in a few hurried strides, Jack was back in step next to Rabbit and a gap in the crowd opened. Jack timed a small window of opportunity.
“Gods save Queen Alice,” Jack whispered loudly from underneath his helmet.
“What did you say?” Rabbit turned his head like a shot, almost recognizing Jack’s voice as he leveled his sharp, pink eyes glaringly at Jack. With all of his might, Jack drove his shoulder hard against the White Rabbit sending them both sprawling into a nearby tent.
The two rolled into the opening of a nearby pavilion tent, empty with the exception of a few crates stacked in the middle next to the single support pole that propped up the center of the round tent.
The bow and quiver slid across the dirt coming free of their wrappings as Rabbit was pushed through the tent flaps and tackled to the ground. Jack recovered his feet in a smooth motion, though his helmet had jostled free from his head when he landed hard on the dirt floor.
“Doing some hunting with a local bow, Rabbit?” Jack said as he caught his breath.
Rabbit scrambled to his feet, preparing to rage against the solider for his clumsiness.
His anger was only fueled when he saw the true identity of the soldier.
“Jack!” Rabbit growled his name as he gave a loud angry stomp with his metal foot. “Fur and whiskers! You don’t give up do you?” Rabbit bellowed.
Jack pulled his sword from its scabbard and brandished the weapon defensively in front of him.
“Can’t let you kill Alice, Rabbit,” Jack said.
“Dear boy, I’m quite late,” said Rabbit. “As much as I’d like to kill you right now, I really have more pressing matters.”
“Like killing Alice?”
“Like saving Wonderland from Alice!” Rabbit seethed as he narrowed the gap between the two of them. Rabbit desperately needed the leather wrapped bow and quiver, which lay on the ground nearby. Slowly Rabbit edged closer to it. Rabbit pulled out his stolen dwarven dagger.
Jack lowered his sword at Rabbit. “Wonderland saved itself, Rabbit. I was there, I saw it happen. Alice isn’t queen anymore, regardless of what you and the other Aces were plotting. Wonderland has its new queen.” Jack was almost pleading with the White Rabbit, and mistakenly he let his guard down for a bit as he tried to explain. “You don’t have to kill Alice.”
“Liar! I don’t have time for such games and I will not be stalled by your pathetic attempts at fallacy!” Rabbit shouted angrily. Seeing an opening in Jack’s defense, Rabbit swiftly closed the distance with a hop and extended his powerful leg. Jack quickly brought his sword up and managed to block the full force of the attack, and with a loud clang and flash of sparks as metal connected with metal his sword landed a blow off rabbit’s metal foot. Unable to counter the force of his kick, Jack stumbled to the side. Quickly, before Jack could regain his footing, Rabbit circled him and this second time Rabbit’s powerful kick landed squarely on Jack’s chest. So powerful was the kick it knocked the wind from Jack’s lungs and dented the chest plate of his stolen armor. Rabbit’s attack sent Jack off of his feet and into the tent’s wooden support pole. The pole snapped in two as Jack slammed against it. The tent’s canvas roof began to collapse around them both; Jack was wheezing for breath and rolling on the ground in pain, still too stunned to recover and it was all Rabbit could do to grab up the bow and quiver and scramble outside, covering the bow and quiver up again.
Clear of the collapsed tent, Rabbit contemplated making sure Jack was dead this time but a quick check of the sky told him that he needed to focus on his mission. Rabbit couldn’t be bothered with any more delays, and tucked the dagger back into his vest. All around him other tents were being struck and taken down. He was about to call over one of the nearby quartermasters and tell him that the man under the tented canvas was a traitor. But as Alice flew overhead, heading into perfect range above the battlefield, Rabbit was pressed for time; his window of opportunity was closing.
“I’m late,” he said and cursed to himself. Then he bounded off after Alice, shouting to one of the tent dismantling teams that there was a body in the collapsed tent.
Rabbit darted behind some canvas and crates away from the crews that were dismantling the tents. Now, hidden from view, Rabbit took aim with the stolen bow and the royal fletch
ed arrows of the Marchenton army. His keen eyes focused and he drew an expert target. Then Rabbit, without hesitation, let the deadly arrow loose as Alice flew into his sights.
Rabbit did not aim for Alice directly though, instead the arrow found its mark piercing the lead gryphon’s unarmored head and digging into the beast’s soft temple. The arrow struck the gryphon’s head and killed it instantly in midair. The momentum sent both beast and rider crashing down and they slammed into one of the remaining siege machines, a giant tower shaped like the knight chess piece that stood a hundred feet tall and now left abandoned at the first signal for retreat.
Rabbit wasted no time; he bounded in full sprint to reach them where they had fallen before anyone else could. Throne or not, he would make sure Alice died.
Jack tossed aside a flap of canvas and struggled to his feet. He caught a quick glimpse of the White Rabbit headed towards a damaged siege tower at the far end of the field.
Then a thick, beefy hand with dirty fingernails fell on his shoulder.
“Hey there, the White Rabbit said there was body underneath that tent,” a gruff voice said behind him
Jack whirled around face to face with a larger outranking Eight of Clubs. “Know anything about it Three of Spades?”
Jack hardly paused, “No sir!” He replied not missing a beat. “Already wuz in there myself to see what ol’Rabbit was talking about, I didn’t see nuthin ‘cept for some boxes. Someone started dismantlin’ the tent while I was stills in it. Dunno where they ran off to. Started and stopped. Got their orders confused, I guess,” Jack said thinking quickly, he had played his role quite convincingly.
The higher ranking officer looked at him. “Looks like you need to get your armor fixed…big dent. And where’s your helmet, Three of Spades?”
“Musta popped off when I crawled out. Mind if I dig it out?” Jack asked laughing nervously. His stomach was turning knots. At any moment, his quick thinking and thinly veiled deception might be challenged. And he knew that the more he stood here the more Rabbit was getting away.
Shards Of The Glass Slipper: Queen Alice Page 31