“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why didn’t you come when I sent you the card?”
“I didn’t want to be stuck in Underland again. You sent card sharks after me!”
Jack’s brows snapped together. “Card sharks? No.”
“Then who–” I remembered the woman in the red suit, pointing the policemen in my direction. I said grimly: “Oh.”
“Mother Dearest, I presume,” said Jack, nodding. He still looked worried. “I was hoping she wouldn’t find out.”
I stared at him even more suspiciously. “Find out what? What have you done?”
Was it my imagination, or did he look guilty? “I may or may not have incited rebellion.”
“You what?”
“I didn’t mean to,” he said, looking away.
“What do you mean you didn’t mean to?”
“It all happened so suddenly! There were vigilantes, and people dying, and–”
My mouth must have dropped open at some stage, because he looked at me and away again quickly, and added: “Do shut your mouth, Mab. You’ll catch flies.”
“There aren’t any flies in Underland. Do you mean to say that you’ve done something noble for the first time in your spoiled little life?”
“I wouldn’t call it noble exactly. It was more of an accident.”
“Leaving a bloody handprint on the door?”
“You still remember that, do you? No, that was in the rules. This is against the rules.”
“Is Hatter safe? What about Hare?”
“Who do you think suggested I send for you? They think you might be able to help, and I get the impression they think you’ll be safer here.”
I couldn’t help the glad smile that warmed my face, but I also couldn’t help asking: “Is that why the Queen wants me as well?”
“I imagine so,” said Jack. He looked actually tired– aristocratically, nobly tired, of course, but tired just the same. “The timing is simply too coincidental. It could have something to do with our blood bond, though, for all I know. She’s tricky like that.”
“You said that was just an old ceremony!”
Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. “Obviously I need sleep. I’m beginning to lose track of my lies.”
“You could just try not lying,” I said flatly.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Mab. There’s nothing more dangerous than the truth. I’m not going to go bandying it about, willy-nilly.”
“This is why you don’t have any friends.”
“I don’t have any friends because my mother likes playing with little warm things, particularly the male ones. It has nothing to do with my veracity.”
“Or your habit of speaking like you just swallowed a dictionary, I suppose?”
“Darling Mab,” said Jack, smiling coldly. “Always so spiky and morose. Tell me again why your foster homes never kept you for longer than a few months? Ow! Must you always resort to violence?”
“It’s part of my rules,” I said. “I’m surprised you didn’t know. Being engaged and everything. Wait, how did you know I’d come ho– back exactly here, anyway?”
“I didn’t,” said Jack. “That was also one of your mad little friends: the Hatter sent me a message yesterday. I didn’t even know you were coming back until then. And if it comes to that, I’d like to know why you’ve been ignoring my card again. It’s horribly rude of you.”
“You break into my flats and leave things on my pillow. That’s creepy.”
“I prefer to think of it as polite attention. In case you’ve forgotten, we're to be married this year.”
“Oh yes! That reminds me!” I said, firmly. “Don’t change the subject again: you’ve been lying to me!”
“That injures me, Mab.”
“And so will my fist, if you don’t start talking. The blooding ceremony when I was a kid– that really does mean something, doesn’t it? More than just your mad mother deciding that we’re to be married.”
“I didn’t exactly lie,” said Jack. “It is an old ceremony. It’s just a bit more ah, official than I may have led you to believe. And a lot more binding when we’re in the same world.”
“What if I go back to my own world?”
“That would be a pity,” said Jack. “You’d miss all the action. Oh, and your knightly friend could die.”
“Sir Blanc! What’s wrong with Sir Blanc?”
“He’s a lot cleverer than he used to be, but not quite as wise,” said Jack. “Anyone with any sense would have hidden himself away after he got his wits back. Instead, it seems that Sir Blanc has been working with your other friends for the last few years, travelling all over Underland to meddle with reflections he really shouldn't have been meddling with. Mother Dearest didn’t realise in time that they’d been tampered with and before she knew it there was an attack on the Heart Castle...which I may or may not have assisted.”
“Opened the doors for them, did you?”
“Something like that,” Jack said.
“It’s not like you to be modest,” I remarked.
“Oh, I haven’t yet gotten to the part where I fought off four card sharks and rescued a beautiful maiden.”
I frowned. “Rescued a–”
“Relax, darling,” said Jack, with a glittering smile: “That’s you. I wouldn’t dream of rescuing any other damsels. You’ve no need to be jealous.”
“Why would I be jealous?” I began, and then, goaded: “Oh, never mind that! Where is Sir Blanc, and what went wrong?”
Jack was still smiling, but he said: “I take it you remember Mother’s Mirror Hall?”
My eyes widened. “Of course I do! Sir Blanc sneaked into the Mirror Hall?”
“Some months ago, apparently: he’s been working hard at hiding certain important details from Mother. He was trying to influence the battle from within the Hall when she caught sight of him. She sent card sharks in and sealed it so that no one can get out. No one else has dared to try and go in after her.”
“So he’s still stuck in there?”
“And running out of food, or so I’m told. Mother’s in there, too. I had an idea that she thought I was dead, but if she went to the trouble of finding you and took the time to send card sharks after you, no doubt she knows that I helped the rebellion.”
“You think she wants to kill me in revenge?”
“I’d say yes, but it seems too simplistic for her. She’s more likely to want you as leverage over me. You know, stop rioting and rebelling or I’ll kill your fiancée.”
“But if she’s stuck in the Mirror Hall, what can she– oh.”
Jack nodded grimly. “Exactly. She’s trying to change Underland in the reflections. We’ve already lost more than a few of our leaders. Hatter and Hare thought that if you were in Underland she’d have a bit of a harder time changing things. I thought that we could go in after her.”
“We?”
“Well, I’m coming with you, obviously.”
“When did you get so brave?”
“I’m not,” said Jack. “I’m still a coward. If we run into Mother Dearest while we’re in the Mirror Hall, I’ll run and leave you to your fate.”
“Thanks,” I said, grinning. “Where are Hatter and Hare? Are you taking me to them? Are they coming too?”
“Well, that’s the thing,” said Jack. “They haven’t exactly approved the mission.”
“But you said–”
“You shouldn’t listen to what I say: I keep forgetting that I don’t have to lie any more.” Jack paused, frowning, and explained: “They wanted you here. They don’t necessarily want you there.”
“Oh,” I said. Hatter and Hare were still acting as though I was a child. Allowed to do small, helpful things, but to be kept away from danger. “Well, we’d better not tell them, then. Are you sure you want to come with me?”
“I knew I could count on you to do exactly what you were told not to do,” said Jack. “Mab, you are delightfully predictable. Can you take us to the Mir
ror Hall without attracting Mother’s attention?”
“No,” I said. “She’ll know as soon as we get there. Do you still want to come with me?”
“Yes,” he said. “She won’t kill me.”
“Are you sure?”
Jack said: “Yes. Yes of course,” but there was enough of a pause between the words to make me sure that he didn’t believe it himself. “Look, Mab, can we get on with it? I’ll change my mind if I have to stand here thinking about it much longer.”
I suppose we could have planned it better. We could have actually made a plan if it came to that. I don’t think it would have come out any better, but maybe it would have. Who knows? The Queen, on the other hand, had certainly had time to plan, and plan she had. As soon as I stepped into the ripples with Jack, he was torn from me. I didn’t realise until a moment later in the Mirror Hall that she’d been expecting us—expecting both of us—and that she’d sent Jack straight to one of the mirrors. There were card sharks with him, pinching and tearing and tugging at him, and they weren’t gentle about tying him up to one of the Heart Castle chairs.
“There you are at last!” said the Queen. I looked around swiftly: there were so many mirrors that it was difficult to tell which Queen was the one who spoke. Jack was easier to see; he was the only Jack there. Sir Blanc was in the next mirror along, pounding furiously at the glass.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I said. Jack, in his mirror, said something rude and pulled furiously at the ropes that tied him. The card sharks only chattered their laughter at him and leapt back into the mirror hall through his glass. “You wanted to see me?”
“You’ve been a festering thorn in my side since the first day I saw you,” said the Queen, drawing closer. It was easier to see which one was really her, now: she was using up too much effort to reflect herself through the hall, and it was making the copies glitter as though seen through glass.
“Well, you’ve only got yourself to blame, haven’t you?” I said. I didn’t waste my energy reflecting myself. I’d need it all soon enough. “You’re the one who brought me here in the first place.”
She gave an impatient shrug. “Nonsense! Do you imagine that I could have kept you from Underland? No, I’ve seen your sort before: by hook or by crook, you weasel your way into Underland, and the results are always catastrophic. Riots, anarchy, rebellion– no, I preferred to control the narrative.”
“Is that what my engagement to Jack was about? Controlling the narrative?”
“Partly that, partly common sense. I’d rather keep any of your progeny very close to me: one never knows if or when the gift will out in the children.”
“And you thought that if the rest of Underland knew I was allied with the Heart family they would be less likely to fall in behind me, even if I did try to cause trouble.”
“Indeed. And who knew? Perhaps you could be persuaded that the Heart way was the best way. I thought that if I could get to you early enough, you might imprint.”
“I’m not the imprinting sort,” I said.
“So I noticed. You should have tried. Now I’m afraid that I will have to be more convincing.”
“Is that why you’ve got Jack tied to a chair?”
“Don’t take me for a fool. I’ve seen you both together: you’d no more allow him to be hurt than he would allow you to be hurt.”
“She obviously doesn’t know how much I dislike you,” I said to Jack.
“Obviously not,” he agreed.
“I see you’re determined to make things difficult,” said the Queen. “What a shame. Card sharks! Fall in!”
Card sharks segued from the frame of Jack’s mirror, numbers One through Four: all of them were chattering excitedly, and all of them had a pair of very large scissors. Jack went perfectly white and said something even ruder than before.
The Queen said: “For every minute that you defy me, one of the sharks will cut off a piece of Jack. Lest that should fail to be convincing...” she let the sentence trail off as dozens more of the card sharks filed into the Mirror Hall, surrounding us.
I laughed, and as I did, I saw the first signs of fear in the Queen’s face. “You shouldn’t be laughing,” she said, but she was breathing too quickly. “You should be either running or surrendering.”
The card sharks flocked me, their teeth chattering in anticipation of gory pleasure, and in the mirror opposite me, Jack was tearing his arms and legs bloody by thrashing madly in his chair.
“Relax, Jack,” I said. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
His breath hitched in his throat. “Mab–”
“What, you’re worried about these things?” I looked around at the card sharks scornfully, and in the reflections, I Saw them differently. “They can’t hurt me. They’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
The Queen shrieked as the card sharks collapsed in a slithery, papery pack of cards around me, their pips showing hearts. She pointed one trembling finger at me and said: “You! I unmake you!”
I felt something move in the mirrors, and for a moment I saw the flash of reflection that had me never coming to Underland, never meeting Hatter and Hare, or Jack, or Sir Blanc. The Queen Saw Underland as if I had never sullied it, and at first I Saw it too. Then the mirrors seemed to stutter, and the reflection ground to a halt.
“I’m not an Underlander,” I told her, feeling as though I had to gasp in relief but unwilling to show her how frightened I’d been. “You can’t unmake me.”
“Unmake Mabel, and you’ll unmake Underland,” said Sir Blanc, from his reflected prison. “Underland is made after her reflection: it shall never again be yours for the shaping. Child, you must finish this game. Unmake the Queen.”
“I would think very carefully before I did that, were I you,” said the Queen. She was afraid, deathly afraid, sweat dotting her white brow. I was already thinking very carefully, and she knew it. She also knew that it was quite possible I wouldn’t think in the same way as she did. “You’d let him die? No, worse than die– you’d let Underland continue as though he’d never existed? Reflect me out of Underland, make it as though I never was, and you’ll never have known Jack.”
I saw the dawning of understanding in Jack’s black-flecked eyes. They met mine, fear and resignation fluttering there in plain sight. He said: “G-give me a kiss before you do it, Mab.”
“Don’t be silly,” I said. “I’m not going to kill you.”
“You’d better,” he said. “All things being even I’d really prefer not to cease existing, but I do think it’s the only way.”
“You must unmake her,” urged Sir Blanc, and I found I could still think of the old, witless Sir Blanc with regret. “The boy is correct, we must seize the chance.”
I turned to face Sir Blanc. “I’m sorry, Sir Blanc, but it’s time for you to go.” I opened his mirror to the outside world and reflected him back out, then closed it again. He would come after us as quickly as he could, but he would have a bit of a journey to get to the physical place of the Mirror Hall, and no other mirror would let him in.
“A good choice,” said the Queen, smiling at me.
“Shut up,” I said, stepping into Jack’s mirror. “Nobody asked you.”
“An interesting choice,” she said. “But ultimately dangerous, don’t you think? Now you’re a reflection in the Mirror Hall: a rather perilous place to be.”
“Oh no,” I said, with one hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I think you’ve misunderstood.”
“It’s all right, Mab,” he said. “Unmake her. It won’t end until she’s gone, or never has been, or whatever mad little scenario it takes.”
“You’ve misunderstood, too,” I said, and smiled at him. “Shut up, Jack.”
He gave a soft sniff of laughter and held his tongue. The Queen, on the other hand, looking at me curiously, said: “I’ve sealed the reflection. You won’t be escaping this mirror very quickly, I’m afraid. It will give me some time to decide what to do with you. A ransom from your little friends, perha
ps. Or a call to surrender. Who knows? Perhaps I shall choose to be merciful.”
“You’ve misunderstood,” I said again. “I See you, and you’re just a reflection.”
“I’m not a reflection,” she said uneasily.
“Are you sure?” I asked. I could See it so clearly: her, caught in the reflection of the mirror’s frame that had once been a frame for the mirror Jack and I were in. I had a moment’s regret for what I was about to do: I would never again be able to do so much with so little effort as I did here in the Mirror Hall. And maybe that was best. The Queen had had this power, and she had misused it. “Are you really sure? Because I See you within the frame of a mirror, and you’re only a reflection.”
“I am not a reflection!” said the Queen, striding for the edge of the frame. She recoiled when she reached it, thrown back into the mirror in which I Saw her. “What have you done?”
“I told you,” I said. “I told you twice. If you’re not going to listen I won’t repeat myself.”
Jack said: “Mab?”
“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry, I have to do it.”
“Do it now,” he said, an edge of old madness to his black-flecked eyes. “Do it now before she finds a way out!”
“I knew I should have drowned you at birth,” said the Queen, with terrifying calmness. “I almost did, you know. I could have started again with a girl. I could have– I should have started with her. She’s twice the Heart that you are, you miserable little whelp.”
“You’re broken,” I said to her—to the mirror—to the Mirror Hall itself.
I Saw it shatter. I Saw her shatter, screaming. And I Saw the pieces falling around Jack and I in a shower of glittering glass and reflection as every last reflection died in the Mirror Hall. I ducked my head under the intermittent shower of glass and felt it sting my scalp as the Queen screamed in fractured sound and died. Glass danced at our feet and sang against the walls, and then there was a tinkling kind of silence. I cautiously raised my head and Jack shook out the glass from his hair. Most of it had missed us, but the rest of the hall was littered with shards and splinters.
I let out a shaking breath and said: “This is going to take a bit of cleaning up.”
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