by Dani Hoots
There were many workers inside the palace, doing their daily job as normal, ignoring Bill and his men. They wore fantastic outfits, kimonos of all styles, as they went about their business. I simple gawked at them, wondering if I could get my hands on one. But the realization that I wasn’t here on vacation kicked in. I was here to be taken as prisoner to the King and Queen.
We walked further into the palace, more decorations and scrolls covering all the walls. I didn’t say a word as Bill led me, only a couple of his men now following us. I wished I could read his face, but the darkness made it near impossible.
Bill stopped me in front of two grand doors. Dragons were carved into the wood, along with cherry blossoms. “This is it, Alice, the moment you have been waiting for.”
I held my breath as the doors began to open.
CHAPTER 19
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The room was magical, and if it weren’t for being worried for my life, I might have enjoyed it. Glorious golds and reds swirled up the walls with more paper lanterns floating in the air above us. Steps led up to where the King and Queen sat.
The King wore a traditional deep blue robe, the same color as night, with small stars that were sprinkled on it. If he stood in the window, I probably wouldn’t have seen him. It appeared that he had brown hair, but it was hard to tell as his face was masked in the darkness. Did that mean he was going to disappear as well?
The Queen, on the other hand, wore a light color, almost like that of a cloud. Light pinks and yellow and purples accented the brightness of her kimono. She wore a light blue belt that made her seem more like a dream. As I entered, they stood up.
“At last, we meet the spectacular Alice,” the Queen said as she stepped down the steps. “Was she a bother to capture, Bill?”
“No task is too hard for my queen.” Bill bowed down. I just stared at her. Her golden hair draped loosely on her shoulders. I wondered what beauty the darkness hid beneath. Her skin and hair seemed to be perfect, and she must have had such great beauty underneath.
She stopped in front of me. “What is it? Have you never met a Queen before?”
“I have not,” I answered, realizing that I had been staring. It was probably incredibly rude of me and I felt stupid for doing such a thing.
“Well, now you have,” she answered. “But what I want to know is why my dear Malcolm left my side and went after you. Why you are more important than his Queen, the Queen he swore loyalty to.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
She let out a sharp laugh. “Such modesty, my dear girl, will get you killed. Now answer my question.”
“I really don’t know. They abducted me from the real world and brought me here, I’m still not sure why,” I explained.
“Hm. The real world? Is this world not real?”
“I… I just meant my world.”
“Both this world and that world go together, they cannot be separated, each ties into the other,” she snapped. “They are, in a sense, one and the same. Although I haven’t seen your world, I would believe it is much like this one.”
I glanced around. “Not quite, but sure.”
The Queen stood there for a moment, as if examining me. “I still don’t quite get it. My best men left me. Malcolm, Melvin, Davis, all three of them left me for you. I don’t understand why you are so special.”
I shrugged. “I really don’t know.”
“And they were in the Red and White Kingdom?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes ma’am. That is why her capture took so long.”
“Not because Malcolm is a better soldier than you?”
Bill didn’t answer, which made me start to wonder if what Malcolm had said earlier about him being better at tracking and fighting was true. I guess he had showed this entire kingdom how powerful he truly was.
But then I messed up, and here I was.
“I thought so,” the Queen added. “But Bill, do you have anything to say on the matter? Is this not the Alice of legend?”
“Your majesty, this is the girl the boys had with them. Howard even gave his life for her. She is the one,” Bill explained, trying not to upset the Queen any further.
I felt my heart fall into my stomach at the mention of Howard. He had given his life to protect me only for me to get myself captured. I was such a nuisance, I should have learned how to fight better, I should have been able to protect myself.
“Then explain to me how this girl can be connected to the Alice of legend.” She pointed at me viciously. “This girl is puny compared to her! She can’t be the one they risk their lives for.”
Bill didn’t say a word as the Queen approached me. Her face was right in front of mine and I could almost make out her eyes. I think they might have been blue.
“What makes you so special?! What makes you think you can overthrow this kingdom?” she yelled.
I wanted to back away, but there was nowhere to go. I was cornered with a Queen yelling in my face. Not something I could ever prepare for, that was the truth. I was scared that she might order my head to be chopped off, even though it was another Queen’s trademark.
“Answer me supposed Alice!” she demanded.
“I already told you I didn’t know,” I murmured. “It wasn’t my choice to be here. Your White Rabbit tried to kill me.”
She whipped around. “Where is that Rabbit?”
“Right here, your majesty.” The little white-haired boy appeared. I took a step back. He was as disturbing as the first moment I saw him. A little kid with rabbit ears, yet more dangerous than anyone I knew, or at least anyone I knew in the real world. Everyone seemed to be dangerous here.
“Tell me why you think this girl is the Alice of legend,” the Queen demanded.
“Because she has the same mind as her. Just look at her eyes. She has that curiosity that always got the old Alice in trouble,” the little boy answered as he stepped up to me, his face covered in a shadow now. Why he didn’t have one before, I wasn’t sure. Must have been because he was on Earth. “Yup, just like the old Alice.”
The Queen’s lips perked as she stared at me. “I suppose you would know since you brought the first Alice here.” She clapped her hands together. “Then it is settled, you are the Alice we are looking for.”
“I still don’t think I’m...” I began.
“Shush, you are only to speak when spoken to!”
I shut my mouth quickly. I didn’t see how this Queen was any different in temperament than the Queen of Hearts as Malcolm and Howard had said. Maybe the shadow was causing her to act like this, to act like all the queens before her.
“Now, what are we to do with our dear Alice.” She started circling me, which made me very conscious of my body. What exactly was she looking for. “You seem so ordinary looking. Although, so was the other Alice, but the other Alice took down the Heart Kingdom and tried to stop the Red and White Kingdom.”
“Your majesty,” Bill said. “We did find the Cheshire Cat with her. He seems to be helping Malcolm and the others.”
“Well, well, isn’t that strange? That little kitty never takes orders from anyone.” She tapped her chin. “You must be one special girl to have that nuisance wrapped around your finger.”
“He was with the others before I came along, it had nothing to do with me,” I explained.
The Queen laughed. “But everything has to do with Alice, it always does.” She spun around on her heel. “Take her to the dungeon. The boys will come for her and we will be ready to capture them as well.”
Bill bowed. “Yes, your majesty.”
He grabbed my arm and led me out of the throne room.
And that was my first encounter with the Queen of Dreams.
CHAPTER 20
Bill led me down through the palace. I couldn’t believe how many different floors there were. Although it had looked large on the outside, it must have gone deeper into the ground because there was no way it could go on for this long down into the ground. W
e seemed to walk on forever. There were no elevators, which surprised me and made me realize that a lot of people here were pretty fit. It must have been due to running around all over the palace.
Once we got to the last floor, I noticed the smell of salty water beginning to sting my nostrils. It was so strong I could taste it. It reminded me of summers at my parent’s beach house, if you can call the Oregon coast a beach. The water was always cold and you always seemed to need a jacket, even in the midst of summer. And don’t touch the water unless you are trying to play freeze-out.
We came to an area that appeared like a prison. I gulped as I smelled the stench of uncleanliness as many people down here probably hadn’t left their cell for a long while. I wondered how long I would be down here until I could escape or was taken somewhere else.
So I was right about this being the lowest level, as one would keep prisoners in the deepest part of a palace, I would figure. That way it would be harder for them to escape because they would need to go up a few levels to the exit. There was no way that was possible without being seen.
Which meant escape was going to be very difficult in this place. Great.
Opening one of the doors, Bill shoved me inside. “Don’t worry, Alice, soon your rescuers will come, and we will be waiting.”
He laughed as he shut the door behind him. To say he was cocky was an understatement. Gathering myself, I peered around at my new surroundings. This room wasn’t as brilliant as the others were, which made sense. This was the prison. The light was dim, all the walls were beige, and there were not any beautiful lanterns to guide my way through the room.
There was a barred window on one of the walls, letting in a little light from the starry sky. I went over to it and peered out. Waves thrashed about just below it, letting in a mist of salt water. That was where the smell was coming from. There wasn’t anything else under the palace except water, which also meant escaping that way would be near impossible. These people knew what they were doing.
“Wish they put in an actual window, eh? Keep that cold water out,” a voice said behind me.
I jumped, startled, and spun around to find a tall man standing behind me. He had a long trench coat on and his fists jammed into his pockets. He peered out the window next to me.
“Glad they didn’t take my coat away or I would be freezing down here in this cell.” Turning back to me, he held out a hand. “Name’s Kenny.”
I slowly shook his hand, surprised I didn’t notice another person in here with me earlier. Maybe I just assumed I was alone. Some of the areas were pretty shadowed, he must have been hiding. “Alice.”
He opened his mouth widely. “So you’re Alice, glad to see the boys finally found you.”
“You know Malcolm and the others?” I asked, surprised that I had been thrown into a prison with someone else that knew the situation we were in. I wondered if all the other ones were full or if Bill had simple forgotten he was here. Either way, I was glad to have some company.
“Aye, they are friends of mine. I helped them out here and there.” He gestured around. “Until I got caught. Which was just a matter of time, really. I’m very unlucky when it comes to getting captured…” He trailed off, as if he had many memories of being captured. I wondered how many times he had been locked away.
I examined him. He had quite a cute face, actually, like a puppy dog. He was a bit older than me, probably about thirty. As for his eyes, they were large and brown. That’s when it hit me. “Wait, your face isn’t masked with a shadow.”
He raised his eyebrow. “Just now noticed that? Brilliant, you are.” He sat down on the ground, cross-legged. He was quite a character indeed. “Now, tell me, what did the idiot boys do to get you trapped down here? Why did they mess up protecting precious Alice?”
I turned, letting my eyes focus on the distant shore across the water. “It wasn’t them, it was me. I screwed up.”
“Ah, what did you do then? Had to be pretty bad to land you down here,” he teased. I didn’t appreciate his attitude, not in this situation at least. I had messed up badly and he only saw it as fun. I could see why he found himself in prison more often than not.
“I let Bill capture me through the mistake of following the others to the Circus,” I answered. “It was… terrifying, to say the least.”
“The Cirque de Rêves. I know it very well.” He rubbed the scruff on his chin. “Morpheus has definitely done a fantastic job being the God of Dreams, or I should say Nightmares. You have to at least give him credit there. None of us realized he was so powerful until it was too late. Hell, none of us even suspected a thing. I should have never let the King and Queen…” he trailed off, staring off at nothing. After a moment he blinked then smiled to me. “So I take it you didn’t survive it too well either.”
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t.” I looked down at the water and remembered jumping into it in my mind. The memory would always haunt me now every time I saw the ocean. “Malcolm had to take the shadow out of me.”
Kenny nodded. “That boy eats darkness for breakfast, nothing can scare him. That’s what makes him such a good warrior, but also one scary-ass villain if he wanted to be.”
“How do you know Malcolm?” I asked as I moved away from the window and sat across from him. I was done being reminded of that Circus. I wanted to take my mind off it.
Kenny smiled. “Oh, me and Malcolm? We go way back, and I do mean way back.” He started rocking back and forth, as if excited to tell his tale. He acted like a little kid yet he appeared to be in his thirties, and I figured he must be a lot older than that being in Wonderland. “I used to be a knave for the Queen of Hearts, you know, until I stole one of her tarts. Those damn tarts, she didn’t eat them, she just let them sit there until they wasted away. It was a disgusting waste of great food. So I ate one and I liked it!”
“Just like the story then…” I was actually quite amused at how that still pissed him off, being so many years ago. I mean, did time still move the same here? If so, then it was over 150 years ago.
He shrugged and scratched the back of his head. “I suppose so. I had a trial and everything. Malcolm was there, he lied for me, said I didn’t do it. He was always a trouble maker, even back then. Though more comical than anything. He just hated the injustice of the system and caused the Queen a lot of trouble.”
“He doesn’t seem to be a troublemaker now.”
Kenny laughed. “You wouldn’t consider going against the Queen and King of Dreams, bringing you here, and trying to stop the Circus troublemaking?”
He had a point. Although he wasn’t as blatant as Chase, he had caused a lot of disruption in Wonderland. I really hadn’t thought about it that way. No one here saw him as a hero, they all saw him as the enemy. “I guess when you put it that way.”
“He is and always will be a troublemaker. Although he stood up for me, there were others who testified against me, and the Queen found out Malcolm was lying. Although he had caused a lot of trouble, there was never any evidence against him until then. So we were both sentenced to the Dark Forest for life, never to come out again. We shrugged it off, being two young guys that never imagined anything defeating us. So we were dropped in the middle of the forest, in the darkness. The things we saw there...” he trailed off, his eyes becoming dark as if he was gone, lost in his memories for a moment. He came back and smiled. “Let’s just say nothing can scare us after that experience.”
“How long where you there for?”
He shrugged. “Who knows, really. Alice found us, tamed us in a sense, and brought us back. Or at least she tamed me.” His voice became serious, which was strange after talking to him for a bit. I didn’t think he could ever be serious. “Malcolm, on the other hand, was a different story.” He slapped his knees, coming back to his cheery self. “But that is not my story to tell, now is it?”
I wondered what he could have meant by that. Malcolm seemed so nice, but everyone I talked to had known him in the past and say he had li
ved in darkness. What could that have entailed? I wanted to ask more questions about Malcolm, to get to the answers of what people had been hinting at, but by the sound of it, Kenny wasn’t going to give away any secrets.
“So how did you get thrown in this cell?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s simple. I got caught doing stuff I wasn’t supposed to. I spied on the White Rabbit and let Malcolm know what he was up to. I also did some research in trying to find you. Bill caught me. Good ol’ Bill, he’s always so persistent. Usually I like that about him, it’s sexy. But this is completely different, now he isn’t his usual beautiful self. Have you seen his face? No, because it’s shadowed in darkness. It’s a shame, really, he has such a lovely face.”
I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, so I decided to focus on the beginning of his rambling. “So you are the one who found me?”
He grinned. “Yup, did all the research myself. I know your school, where you live, all those paintings you have.”
“Umm… That is not something I wanted to know.”
His eyes widened. “Sorry, that made me sound like I was a pervert. I’m not a pervert, I was just stalking you.”
I shook my head. “That’s… Never mind.”
“I only did it so we could find the right Alice to help us save this Kingdom. No other reason, believe me, I would never think of doing anything else.”
“Well you must have made a mistake, I’m not the Alice you are looking for.”
He made an amused face. “Psh! I am never wrong. You are the Alice, I should know since I’ve met the old Alice. You are her and always will be her.”
I hated it when people kept saying I was the same Alice as before. She was legendary, much stronger than me as I understood, and then here I was trying to live up to her legacy. “But I am a weakling, I am not strong. There is no way I could battle like her, or bring down any kingdoms whatsoever.”
“You would be surprised what you are capable of, just look inside yourself and you will find out.”