by Frank Beddor
return to London and marry Leopold, to be the loving daughter of Dean and Mrs. Liddell and lose herself in that orderly and controlled life she had worked so hard to establish. Here, things were obviously in a
bit of a tumult. But who was she trying to convince? It was pure fantasy, the idea that she could return to relatively innocent days in England. The Pool of Tears, Redd, and The Cat: She would be hunted down no matter where she was.
The whispers of the surrounding trees and shrubs became fainter, the sound of cracking branches and paw-crushed leaves closer, louder, even over the heavy footfalls of the spirit-danes. They would not be able to outrun The Cat. Alyss was sure of it and gripped Dodge tighter around the waist.
“They’re faster than we are,” she said.
“Good! Then we’ll have to fight!” Dodge spun the animal around and hardly had time to raise his sword before he was locked in combat with two of the card assassins.
Alyss lost her balance and fell to the ground. “Alyss!” cried Bibwit.
But The Cat was upon her. “How you’ve grown,” he hissed. “The last time I saw you, you were only this high.” He held a paw level with his waist and grinned, baring his fangs.
She tried to run, but he batted her back in front of him. His tail puffed up and he spat. Again, she tried to run and again he swatted her back, toying with her as a kitten toys with a cockroach before killing it. She knew what she should do-imagine something, conjure a defense, but it had been so long since she’d been able to use her imaginative muscle that…Try anyway. Have to…She did try, shaking and frowning with the effort. But it was no use. Nothing happened.
The Cat raised his paw to strike. Alyss took in what she supposed would be the last things she ever saw: Dodge jabbing his sword into a card assassin, which folded to the ground, dead; the remaining assassins attacking him with increased fury; Bibwit hurrying toward her, saying, “I’m a scholar, not a warrior. In a battle of wits perhaps I could…” as he thrust himself between her and The Cat.
“Redd will not like such behavior from her secretary,” The Cat hissed, claws glinting.
Bibwit squeezed his eyes shut. “A nano orb at rest tends to stay at rest and a nano orb in motion tends to stay in motion so long as neither is acted upon by an external force,” he whispered, as if he might indeed combat The Cat’s physical strength with the superior strength of his mind. He went on to recite a host of learned titbits that he was amazed he had time to utter considering the usual efficiency and speed of The Cat when piercing some poor soul to the quick.
Alyss was just as amazed as Bibwit, though for different reasons. Her eyes were wide open and, just as The Cat was bringing his paw down on the tutor, five white pawns dropped from the trees, two of them taking the blow meant for Bibwit. A battery of white chessmen jumped from the brush, and a camouflaged pack of Redd’s Cut dealt themselves out with the sound of rapidly opening and closing scissor blades. The Skirmish of the Whispering Woods was in full blood.
Alyss tugged at Bibwit’s sleeve.
“Oh,” he said, opening his eyes to the scene.
“Leave here!” a rook shouted at them. “We’ll keep them at bay! But go! Now!” Though engaged in a deadly contest with a Three Card, the rook managed a bow to Alyss. “Princess,” he said.
Dodge came galloping up on a spirit-dane, lifted Alyss into the saddle behind him. Bibwit clambered up after her, and the three of them sped off as the clashings of steel on steel, the guttural grunts and hoarse cries of combat faded into the distance. Alyss turned for a last look at the raging Cat, at the brave chessmen who had put themselves in mortal danger for her sake.
“Most of them won’t make it,” Dodge said, urging their spirit-dane toward Wondertropolis, where they would skirt major thoroughfares on their way to The Everlasting Forest. “But you’re safe. For now.”
CHAPTER 32
“T HEY SHOULD have returned by now.”
“I warned you,” said Jack of Diamonds, nonchalantly popping dried dormice feet into his mouth. “Hope for the best, but expect the worst.”
“They should have returned,” General Doppelganger said again, pacing back and forth in the tent, an activity that apparently fell short of soothing his anxiety, for he split into the twin figures of Generals Doppel and Ganger and they paced; but this did not ease their minds either, and the generals melded back into one.
“It will come as no surprise to me if Dodge fails,” said Jack of Diamonds. “We should be planning for a future we still have the power to shape.”
He glanced uneasily at Hatter Madigan, who’d been sitting silent and still in a corner of the tent, a
pocket-sized holographic crystal in his hand, ever since General Doppelganger told him of the Millinery’s bloody demise. Every so often, Hatter pressed his thumb against the back of the crystal and its image came to life, a female Wonderlander laughing and saying something in a teasing tone. Hatter made Jack uncomfortable. What was going on in that hatted head of his? What if he had gone slowly insane from his thirteen years of exile with its mysterious traumas and challenges? An insane fellow with such deadly skills…To lessen his fears, Jack tried to engage the Milliner in a little chitchat.
“Tell me, Hatter. On your travels, did you have much time to explore what the fruit pies were like?” Ever so slowly, Hatter turned to face Jack and blinked several times, as if adjusting his eyes to the sight
of the wigged gentleman.
Jack laughed uneasily. “Just trying to break the monotony of all this waiting.” He held a handful of dormice feet out to Hatter. “Dormouse foot?”
Hatter looked away, said nothing. A cheer sounded from outside. Hatter stood, pocketed his holographic crystal, and walked quickly out of the tent. General Doppelganger and Jack of Diamonds hurried after him, and if ever there was a welcome sight to a mourning Milliner, this must have been it: Princess Alyss, safe and apparently healthy, surrounded by happy Alyssians, gwynooks, and tuttle-birds, the forest trees adding their voices to the chorus celebrating her return. A welcome sight, to be sure, yet Hatter showed little emotion-a slight upward flicker at the corners of his mouth. Dodge caught his eye and the two nodded to each other in mutual respect.
“Is it…Hatter?” Alyss asked, spying his top hat in the crowd. The Alyssians parted to let him through.
“I am pleased to find you well, Princess.”
Alyss looked at her surroundings. “Am I well? I shouldn’t say so.”
Hatter lowered his head. “Yes, there is no excuse for my losing you and I accept full responsibility. If you choose to demote me to an inferior post as a result of my failure, I hope I may accept it with grace. But Princess, there is much to do if you are to be successful against Redd.”
Alyss sighed, and when she spoke next she sounded more like a monarch than she would have thought possible. “It’s not surprising, Hatter, that you blame yourself for this ‘failure,’ as you call it. But I do not blame you. Who’s to say it wasn’t I who lost you so many years ago? I just meant that all of this”-with a gesture she indicated the Alyssian headquarters-“is a bit of a shock to me after so long a time away.”
Hatter stepped aside as General Doppelganger bustled up to her, bowing repeatedly, then splitting in two. “Princess Alyss!” Generals Doppel and Ganger simultaneously cried. “We are ecstatic to find you safely returned to us! Welcome, Welcome!”
The assembled throng was too busy celebrating to notice the cloud that had darkened Jack of Diamonds’ brow at the sight of the long-lost princess. But Jack was nothing if not willing to turn an unforeseen circumstance to his advantage. He worked his lips into a smile and, sensing a lull in the greetings, butted his way through the crowd.
“Ranking fellow coming through,” he said. “Out of the way, out of the way.”
His prodigious rear knocked people left and right with every stride. He presented himself to Alyss. “Ah, Princess! Surely, you remember your favorite childhood playmate, Jack of Diamonds?”
Alyss
glanced at Dodge, who fell to picking at the edge of his sword with great intensity.
Jack took her hand and kissed it. “I have been pining after you for ages, my princess. I’m sure you recall that we were to be married? I have not taken a wife in honor of your memory, and I flatter myself that
you will still have me, provided you are as pleased as I am with my manly figure.” He turned this way and that, modeling his physique for her.
Whether it was the unappetizing figure of Jack of Diamonds twirling around like a fairy, the expectant, joyous faces crowding around her, or both, Alyss herself couldn’t say. But she suddenly felt that it was all too much.
“I think…if I could just lie down for a short while,” she said. “The princess wants a bed!” a nearby gwynook shouted.
“Princess wants a bed!” echoed a Two Card and, as the white knight and his pawn bustled off to make a bed for Alyss, Alyssian after Alyssian repeated this fact as if it were cause for celebration in itself, yet another remarkable happening for which they hadn’t dared hope.
CHAPTER 33
W ITH ALYSS resting in his tent, General Doppelganger organized a meeting to discuss tactics. Bibwit
Harte, the white knight, Jack of Diamonds, Dodge, and Hatter Madigan assembled in the Alyssian War Room, which wasn’t so much a room as a patch of ground in the thickest part of the forest headquarters, furnished with a crystal-topped Hovering Table™ and matching chairs, as well as four EZ-Erase® gemstone writing boards that served as walls, on which every Alyssian military campaign of the last several years had been drawn up, hashed out, organized.
“But can she lead us?” General Doppelganger was asking. “She must,” said Hatter.
“What lunacy!” boomed Jack of Diamonds. But after seeing Hatter’s expressionless stare, he added, “I
mean…what lunacy, with all disrespect, sir.”
“There is no doubt she will need as much training and education as can be had in the short time we have,”
said Bibwit Harte.
“All I see is a young woman unprepared to conjure even a jollyjelly with her imagination, let alone battle
Redd for control of the queendom,” said Jack of Diamonds. The general nodded, thoughtful. “Knight, what do you say?”
“She is the princess. The line of succession rightfully ends with her. If she is willing to lead us-” “If she’s able, you mean,” muttered Jack.
“-then we must let her, if we are truly to be called Alyssians.”
Dodge, when present at these meetings, usually kept silent and listened to the exchange of strategies, disagreements over protocol, and interpretations of intel reports with stifled exasperation and anger: They were the self-proclaimed saviors of the queendom; they should have been engaging Redd in battle, not talking about it.
“I’m wondering,” he said, gazing at nothing in particular, and the mere fact that he had volunteered to speak caused a sudden hush, “how Redd knew where Alyss was.” He fixed his look on Jack of Diamonds.
“Are you accusing me of something?” “Suppose I am.”
“Gentlemen!” the general started.
“Then I need not suppose you’re a simpleton,” said Jack of Diamonds, “because I’ll have it for a certainty.”
Dodge stood, hand at his sword.
“We have enough trouble fighting Redd,” interposed Bibwit Harte. “It won’t help our chances if we are fighting among ourselves.”
Jack of Diamonds chortled, smug and dismissive. “Gentlemen, I don’t wish to fight. I have great respect for Mr. Anders’ accomplishments on the field of battle, but he knows nothing about politics. He is, as I’m sure you’ll agree, too apt to use his sword when he might better employ his tongue.”
“And you are too apt to powder that wig instead of fighting alongside us when it counts.”
Jack waved him off. “Let Mr. Anders believe what he wants. My only concern is Alyss. There’s no doubt in my mind that she is our lost princess, but I don’t think her mentally or physically capable of leading a charge against Redd.”
“It will take time,” Bibwit concurred.
“It will take the Looking Glass Maze,” said Hatter. “And that,” Bibwit agreed.
Jack of Diamonds slapped his forehead in disbelief. “Not that old bunk. The Looking Glass Maze was proven pointless long ago. Redd herself never went through any maze.”
“All the more reason why she can be defeated,” said Bibwit.
“General, I urge you…let us agree to the summit and stop this idiocy before it goes any further. An opportunity such as the one Redd is offering won’t come again.”
“No queen can reach her full strength and power without passing through the maze,” said Bibwit.
Jack of Diamonds lost all patience. “Yes, by all means, let’s run along to the maze! Hurry, hurry, to the all-important Looking Glass Maze while our future survival hangs in the balance!”
“We can’t simply ‘run along,’ as you say,” instructed Bibwit Harte. “Only the caterpillars know the location of the maze. Alyss must meet with the caterpillars.”
“But they haven’t left the Valley of Mushrooms since Redd became queen,” said the white knight. “Then she will have to go to them.”
“She’ll need a military escort,” Dodge said.
Jack of Diamonds pulled his wig down over his face and spoke into its thick, powdered curls. Though muffled, his voice was audible: “If you want to force her into a confrontation she’s ill-equipped to handle, all I can say is, May the spirit of Issa help anyone who should fall under your people’s care. You’d
march them off to their deaths.”
“Why are you so eager for us to compromise with Redd, I wonder?”
The question came from Dodge. But Jack only buried his face deeper into his wig and groaned. “Bibwit,” the general said, “shouldn’t you be getting back to Mount Isolation in case Redd suspects
something?”
“I’m not going back. The Cat has seen me with Alyss. My place is here now, with her.”
It would have been nice to maintain a spy in Redd’s court, but the general understood. “Well, we’re glad to have full use of you, at any rate.”
Bibwit’s ears twitched and a moment later they all heard it: someone quickly approaching. Hatter stood, hand at the brim of his top hat, and Dodge jumped up, ready to fight. But it was only the rook, battered and bruised from his skirmish with The Cat in the Whispering Woods.
“You made it,” he said, smiling at Dodge.
“You made it. I’ll get the surgeon.”
The rook shrugged him off. “I’m all right. Surface wounds only. We lost four-fifths of our men, though. Didn’t even take one of The Cat’s lives. But the princess is safe?”
Dodge nodded.
“That counts for something.” The rook lowered himself into a vacant chair. “So what’d I miss?”
“Well,” said General Doppelganger, “most here believe that Alyss must pass through the Looking Glass
Maze if she is to successfully challenge Redd. But I haven’t yet voiced my opinion.” Jack of Diamonds peeked out from his wig, hopeful.
“I think we should give Alyss the opportunity of meeting with the caterpillars in the Valley of
Mushrooms,” said General Doppelganger. “Let her try the maze, if she is able.” “Nooo,” Jack said and again buried his face in his wig.
“But in the meantime…” The general yanked Jack of Diamonds’ wig off his face. “Inform Redd that we’d be pleased to attend her summit, if she’s still willing to have it in light of Alyss’ return.” To the others, he said, “Responsibility to the cause requires we have alternate plans should the princess fail.”
“She won’t fail,” Dodge said. “I won’t let her.”
CHAPTER 34
R EDD MOON had risen. Its bloody light burned down on the Chessboard Desert through a
cloud-clotted sky, toxic vapors burping continuously out of the factory engaged in manufactu
ring Redd’s war machines.
The Cat skulked through the halls of the Mount Isolation fortress, his own unease dwarfed by the violence of the sky over the steaming desert-a sky that became visible to him only as he entered the spiral-shaped hall leading to the Observation Dome, where Redd waited for proof that her niece was no longer among the living.
This was not a briefing The Cat longed to make. He entered the Observation Dome and found his queen staring out of a telescopic panel at Wondertropolis, the walrus-butler busy polishing the other panels with a cloth.
Redd’s back was to him. Without turning around, she said, “I see you but I don’t see my niece’s head,”
and before he could utter a syllable, her scepter speared him.
The walrus gave a little jump and started for the exit. “Oh! I’d better check on-” “Stay where you are!” Redd shouted.