“Doc,” Titus said, looking for guidance. “What’s our play?”
“Let this play out,” Doc said. “I have a feeling.”
“I love risking hundreds of lives on a hunch,” Kate said. “I’m going for the girl.”
“Kate,” Titus warned. “If you run out there you’ll be obliterated like the shadow-man was.”
“Not if he misses.”
“You ready to take that chance?” Titus said.
Kate frowned at him, but remained in place.
“No, I don’t have the power here to cast you out, not by myself,” Lady Dreamless said. “But if Alice decides it’s time for you to go, she does have that power.”
The Vizier shifted his gaze to Alice.
“No, you don’t,” he said. “You might have at the beginning, but not anymore. I’m a part of you now.”
“Yes, you do, Alice,” Doc said. “You’ve had it all along. This is your world. You built every inch of it. You brought your friends to life, and you carried your town to another dimension, all by yourself. All he ever did was tell you that you had the power within yourself to do it.”
Alice stared at Doc, eyes haunted and strangely old.
“Are my parents really waiting for me back home?” she said.
“Yes, they are,” Doc said. “I promise.”
She pointed at the Vizier with an accusatory finger. Titus could see the strength returning to her. The better she looked, the more the Vizier seemed to shrink back to human size. The power siphoning is a two-way street, Titus realized. She’s taking back what’s hers.
“You killed my friend,” Alice said.
“You can make another one,” the Vizier said. “I’ll show you how.”
“You don’t just create friends. You don’t just make kingdoms,” Alice said. “They should be earned. I forgot that.”
“Your mind was clouded,” Doc said. “It’s not your fault.”
“It is my fault,” Alice said. “I was greedy and childish. He told me what I wanted to hear. I’ve always known something was wrong, but this was… This was too much fun. All of these people suffering in fear because of me. You were imprisoned because of me. This is all my fault.”
“Yes, it is,” The Vizier said. He smiled, and his mouth seemed to spread wider and wider until it split his entire head, a grotesque, wide curve filled with gleaming teeth. “But we can fix it. You have the power to make the people of your town forget how this happened. They won’t know who’s to blame. I can make sure no one is ever mad at you for this. Don’t betray me, or they’ll know.”
“Queen Alice,” the gruff voice of the armored bear said. “It doesn’t matter who’s to blame. We just want you to come home.”
Alice gazed down at the bear, a ridiculous sight in armor and eyepatch, but there was such unconditional love in the little character’s furry face it nearly broke Titus’ heart to look at it. If you’re lucky, once in your life, someone might look at you like that, he thought. It didn’t matter that it was some teddy bear the girl had accidentally breathed life into. It was a living creature now, and its heart belonged to this kid who had nearly broken the world.
“This is madness,” Titus heard Kate say, but she sounded more awed than cynical.
The werewolf went back to Alice. Her eyes glistened with tears. It’s unfair that someone so young knows she’s made such terrible mistakes.
“I want to go home,” Alice said.
And then her expression went from tearful to furious as she returned her focus to the Vizier.
“Get out,” she said, her voice ferocious.
“My queen, you need me,” the Vizier said. His power flickered.
“I’ve never needed you, have I,” Alice said. “But you need me, don’t you. You’ve needed me all along.”
“Please don’t do this,” the nightmare said.
“Alice of Earth, do you wish to part with his creature?” Lady Dreamless said.
“I want him away from me,” Alice said, not a shred of doubt in her voice.
Lady Dreamless flexed her fingers, and a long whip of brilliant red light appeared in her hand. She swung the whip overhead like a circus performer.
The Vizier moved fast. He cast another bolt of sickly purple energy at Lady Dreamless. Doc released the spell he’d been holding back and another arcane shield sprung up to deflect the blast.
“Titus, now,” Doc said, and Titus, muttering a spell he’d learned from Leto not long ago that would help his aim strike true, threw his enchanted spear at the nightmare. It lanced through the Vizier’s torso like a harpoon and stuck there, the blade emerging bloodlessly from the other side. The weapon seemed to do no real physical damage, but it was enough to distract the nightmare. Another spell fizzled in the Vizier’s hands as he reached down to clutch at the spear’s tip.
“No,” he said.
The room flashed with a blinding red light as Lady Dreamless arced her whip down into the empty air between Alice and the Vizier. Something snapped; Titus felt it more than saw it, a sense of tension breaking, like an elastic band giving way, but on an epic scale.
Alice was knocked backward, rolling down the stairs of the dais. Both Sir Teddy and Kate ran to her—Titus, despite the shock of everything leading up to it, almost laughed at the way Kate’s graceful sprint contrasted with the bear’s stumpy gait. The nightmare screamed, his voice seeming to come from all directions at once.
“I worked too hard for this!” he yelled. “I waited for centuries to get away from the Dreamless Lands! I won’t go back!”
“You’re not going back,” Lady Dreamless said. Her demon hounds sprang forward then, jaws slavering with something like lava, charging toward the nebulous, eerie shape of the Vizier’s true form.
Before they could strike, though, a new player entered the room. His voice, slick and confident, made Titus’ hair stand on end.
“Looks like I’ve arrived just in time to collect what I was looking for,” King Tears said.
Beside him, a young blond man stood shell-shocked and wide-eyed, taking in the unbelievable chaos of the room as if he were watching a film.
“I’m here for the girl’s power,” King Tears said. “Very convenient of you to clear her of pests before I take her.”
“You don’t want to be here, Tears,” Doc said, his voice far more fearful than angry.
“This is why you’ll always lose, Silence. You don’t take the big risks,” King Tears said.
The necromancer began casting a spell. Titus didn’t recognize it, but he knew just enough to understand the spell was opening a connection, not unlike what had just been holding Alice and the Vizier together. He reached out for Alice, mystical energy gathering around his hand like an insect swarm.
But the spell didn’t connect him with Alice. The Vizier intervened.
“You’ll serve my purposes,” the Vizier said, leaping between King Tears and Alice, away from the slavering jaws of the demon hounds. His body stretched out as if in a funhouse mirror, and he was sucked into the spell King Tears had begun casting. The necromancer reacted as if struck; his whole body convulsed and he let out a barking cry that sounded as though he’d been kicked in the gut.
“No, no, not you, you’ve ruined it!” King Tears said.
“I didn’t ruin anything,” the nightmare said, using King Tears’ mouth. The evil magician’s skin went from gray to pitch black, like crude oil. The white tattoos across his skin glowed brightly from within. When he opened his eyes, lavender light spilled out, and when he smiled, his teeth turned to filed points.
“Yes,” the Vizier said from within King Tears’ body. “This will do for now. Goodbye, Alice. It was almost fun playing in your sandbox. I’ll miss you when you’re gone.”
He began casting a spell, index finger targeting Alice. Doc started calling out more magic words. Titus broke into a run, not sure what he’d do if he got there in time, but he had to do something. The teddy bear stood in front of his queen protectively, comic
ally ineffective for what was to come. And Kate stood ready, one hand grabbing Alice’s sleeve, as though she thought she yank the younger girl out of the way of the spell.
But then King Tears and the Vizier roared in pain again. The spell that crackled forth from his fingertips went off-course, tearing into the ceiling above the throne. Stone fell in huge chunks, and Lady Dreamless and her hounds disappeared in a cloud of dust and debris.
Titus saw a spike of silver jutting from King Tears’ shoulder, piercing him straight through from the back.
The unicorn, Titus thought. The damned unicorn got him.
King Tears wheeled on Silverhoof violently, and with casual brutality, sent the unicorn sprawling violently across the chamber, crashing into the nearest wall. Her hoofs scraped the floor weakly for a moment, then went still.
Titus knew he needed to get the villain’s attention and howled, more to distract him than as a war cry. King Tears, blood pouring from the wound in his shoulder, laughed.
“Killing a unicorn and a werewolf in the same day,” the Vizier said from within the necromancer. He stepped over the prone body of his blond companion, who was crawling across the floor looking for an escape. “All we need is a dragon to finish the trifecta.”
“No,” Alice said, and the room grew instantly still.
Titus turned to see Alice floating above the floor, awash in bright vermillion waves of arcane energy. Power sparked from her clenched hands like sparks. Kate was to her left, but backing away cautiously, ready to move.
“You won’t be killing anyone else today,” Alice said. “And I’m done being used.”
Chapter 57: Alice, the queen
Alice felt like a fever had just broken in her. That strange clear sensation after being sick for so long you’d forgotten how it felt to not be sick. Waves of relief flooded her limbs, her mind. Her thoughts were no longer sluggish or dulled. How long was I like this? she thought. How long was I being manipulated?
Along with clarity, power surged into her body as well. She lifted off the ground though she had no idea she could fly. She could sense the magic around her, invisible energies just waiting to be used.
The man whose body the Vizier now wore smiled at her, his old body gone, disappearing within this stranger’s form. They were like overlapping evils, she sensed; malignant, powerful, greedy. They wanted her magic. That much was crystal clear. And they’d killed her friends.
The castle rumbled. She felt the structure beginning to splinter. Without her will holding it in place, the castle would not hold. Perhaps the whole dimension would not hold. But that was a concern for later. Right now, she had to face the being who had stolen her life, and another being who came here wanting to do the same.
“You’ve never cast a spell on your own,” the Vizier said. The face he now wore smirked at her arrogantly. “You don’t know how magic works without me. You need me, Alice.”
“Believing that is how I got here in the first place,” she said.
“And yet here we are,” the Vizier said. “I thought you’d enjoy ruling a world perfectly designed to make you happy. Clearly, like all humans, you want more than your fair share. Well, it was a good run, moppet. But if I can’t have your power, no one can. Not even yourself.”
Behind the Vizier, the girl with the flaming hair darted in, landing a punch to his face before he could react. He grabbed her by the front of her uniform, though, and threw her with the same brutal strength he’d used on poor Silverhoof. The fire-haired young woman slammed into the wall, but instead of falling, she left a spider web-shaped indentation in the stonework.
The werewolf was circling the Vizier’s new body as well, but hanging back, looking for an opening. The nightmare paid him only the slightest bit of mind.
“Alice, let’s put an end to this mess. Send them all away and we’ll rebuild. It’ll be so much fun,” he said
“You still think you can talk me into joining you after everything you’ve done?” she asked.
The magician in the red glasses, the one the Vizier had thrown in the dungeon, walked warily toward he confrontation, hands outstretched.
“King Tears. I know you’re in there,” the bespectacled wizard said. “I’d much rather reason with you right now.”
“The idiot necromancer can’t come to the phone right now,” the Vizier said. “He’s busy.”
The Vizier winked at Alice.
“I saved you the trouble of dealing with him,” he said. “He came here to take your power, you know. Not like me, not to help you build a world. He was going to drain you dry and use it for himself. And you think I’m evil.”
“You are evil,” Alice said.
“Moralizing is so boring,” the Vizier said. “Okay, then, little pet. We’re going to crack you like an egg now and pour out your magic like a yolk.”
With horrifying speed, the altered body of the magician lunged forward, fingers extending into long, scythe-like claws made of shadow and poison. Instinctually, Alice reacted. She did not move defensively, or step back, or call up a mystical shield. She lashed out with an arcing motion, and the Vizier’s hand separated from his body above the wrist, spinning away like discarded garbage.
“How did you…” the Vizier said, staring at the bloodless stump of his hand in shock.
“You’ll never hurt anyone again,” she said. She clapped her hands together, then made a slashing motion downward. A bright beam of red light followed her gesture, bifurcating the stolen body the Vizier hid within. Then, she flipped her hands to that the backs were pressed up against each other. She mimicked ripping something in half.
Neither the Vizier nor King Tears had time to scream or cry out. In a split second they were cut in half down the middle by pure magical energy, and then the body they shared was torn asunder, turning to ash before it hit the ground. The ash drifted through the room like dust in a forgotten tomb, swirling in the slight breeze.
Alice’s view across the throne room was clear, now, her nemesis gone before her very eyes. Another of the young heroes had appeared at the entrance of the chamber, a boy wearing a silver and blue uniform. He had a woman in his arms with robotic limbs, none of which seemed to work.
“What the hell just happened,” he said, the puzzlement on his face readable despite his half-mask.
Before anyone could answer, the castle rumbled, shaking hard enough to almost knock the newcomer off his feet. The fire-haired girl stood up, calling out to her friends.
“It’s coming down!” she yelled.
The magician in the red glasses began casting spells, throwing the debris from the ceiling away to look for the elfin woman who had helped Alice break the hold the Vizier had on her.
“Run!” he said. “I’ve got to find Lady Dreamless. The rest of you get out of here!”
“Come on,” the other young woman, the one in the dark body armor, said to Alice as she started to run for the exit. Comically, she held Sir Teddy under her arm like an indignant football, ready to carry him to safety.
“What’s going on,” Alice asked.
“Your hold over the castle has faded,” the werewolf said. “I think this whole place is falling.”
“No it isn’t!” the strange, blue-haired girl said, striding into the throne room confidently, arms outstretched as if to hold the castle up with her hands. As impossible as that seemed, the building had stopped rumbling and shaking. “I can hold it for a few minutes. Get everyone out, my dudes!”
The fire-haired hero trotted past the blue-haired one toward the magician.
“Do I even want to know where you left the zombies?” she asked.
“Someone hadn’t filled their pool in for the summer yet,” the blue-haired girl said.
The magician had successfully uncovered both the massive dogs who had been buried. One limped along on its own, while the girl with the flaming hair picked the other up to carry it out. Beyond, the magician himself helped Lady Dreamless to her feet, and together they staggered down what remained
of the dais.
“Come with us,” the werewolf said, his voice surprisingly gentle despite his terrifying appearance.
“Silverhoof,” Alice said, pointing to the inert form of the unicorn.
“I’ll get her. You just head outside,” he said.
Alice believed him. She floated rather than ran down the stairs to the exterior of the castle. As she did, she watched as her guards, hundreds of them, began to fade away like ghosts, disappearing like half-forgotten dreams.
What was real here? Alice asked herself as she left the castle, the costumed heroes close behind.
The last to leave was the blue-haired girl, backing out clumsily until she was across the moat. She yelled over her shoulder.
“Everyone accounted for?” she said.
“We’re out!” the fire-haired girl said.
“Even the fairy?”
“Even the fairy!
“Okay!” the blue-haired girl said. She dropped her arms to her sides, and with it, whatever power she’d used to hold the castle together. Instantly, it began to crumble to the ground, coming apart as if it were held together with nothing but imagination.
Which, Alice knew, was true.
Chapter 58: Things fall apart
None of this will ever make sense, Kate thought as she sat down on the soft grass outside the fallen castle. Magic. She knew it was real. She’d seen its impact. There was no doubt in her mind. But she knew only what she could do with her own body, the limitations of the physical self. And here she was, watching Doc and the goddess of some forgotten dimension triaging a dying unicorn.
The kid was crying now. She’d earned it, Kate thought. What she’d done inside that castle took an iron will. And it had cost her something, too At some point during the final moments of the battle, Alice’s hair had gone pure white, not the white of old age, but rather almost luminescent, a soft, pale glowing corona framing her face.
The Indestructibles (Book 5): The Crimson Child Page 27