Dominion Rising: 23 Brand New Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels

by White, Gwynn

  At that, the Queen’s maiden smacked her first ball and the game began.

  We watched as the players worked their way around the yard. Beaumont, it seemed, was quite good. His flamingo apparently had a case of rigor mortis. When the final shots were made, Beaumont completed first. The henchman and the Queen’s girl finished second and third, followed by Beaumont’s surviving companion.

  “You play well,” the Queen told Beaumont.

  “Oui, Madame. I played as a boy.”

  “Very good,” she said then rose. “Kneel before me,” she told Beaumont and his companion.

  Frowning, Beaumont and his man knelt.

  “Kiss my ring,” she said, holding out her hand.

  “But Madame, you’re not wearing a ring,” Beaumont protested.

  “Are you calling me a liar?” she asked.

  Beaumont stiffened. “Non, it’s just that—”

  “Off with their heads,” she yelled, and before the men could move, another guard swept in and decapitated Beaumont and his man.

  “Bloody hell,” Jack exclaimed.

  The bodies were dragged off. Two of the Queen’s girls went to retrieve the heads. One of the girls brought Beaumont’s head back to the Queen. She held the head, looking into his face, completely undisturbed by the fact that blood was leaking all over her dress.

  “He’s a handsome one, isn’t he,” she said to one of her girls, who merely smiled.

  The Queen brought the head close to her and kissed his lips.

  “Yuck,” she protested. “Bad breath. Next game! Who wants to play next? You?” she asked the portly man.

  “N-n-no, thank you,” the man stammered nervously. Curiously, his wife yawned and looked around as if nothing off was happening. “I have what you wanted,” he added in a loud whisper. He pointed to his coat pocket.

  “Good,” the Queen said pertly. “Take him and his wife inside,” she told one of her girls.

  “Oh, thank you. Thank you,” the man replied. He pulled his unaware wife along behind him.

  “Up for a game, Countess? Why don’t you play my guests in the second field?” the Queen offered. In a garden row just beside ours, another game had already been set up.

  The Countess motioned for the Japanese group—who looked like they were not sure if they should run, cry, or fight—to follow her.

  “Now,” the Queen said, turning her attention to us. “What to do with my unexpected guests.”

  “We also have some business to discuss,” William told her.

  Ignoring him, the Queen looked at me. “I haven’t seen you in a while, Bandersnatch. Someone told me you were off the chess board.”

  “I was.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “I think you know why.”

  The Queen looked at William. “Couldn’t pull off the job without your girl? I didn’t think so. Must have been an awkward reunion.”

  William didn’t say anything.

  “Caterpillar. You’re so serious,” she said with a laugh then rose. “Alice, wasn’t it? Let’s have a match. You and the Knave against me and my girl.”

  When the Queen stepped beside me, she looked deep into my eyes. She was still the same dangerous woman…even if she now looked like she was my junior.

  “Very well,” I replied.

  “Alice,” Jack protested.

  “He’s afraid I’m going to behead him,” the Queen said.

  “Seems prudent.”

  “He and your Caterpillar did steal my tarts. Did you know?”

  I looked back at William. The expression on his face told me he feared that I did, in fact, know the truth. “Yes.”

  William sucked in his lips and shook his head softly. Guilt stole over his face.

  “Caterpillar wormed his way out of that one, made a new deal. Which is, of course, why I have the Bandersnatch in my house once more,” she said then leaned in close. “Did you snatch what I was after?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very good. Let’s play.”

  The balls were lined up, and we began. William shifted nervously as we moved around the green.

  “Got it! Beat that, Bandersnatch,” the Queen yelled as her ball rolled through the wicket.

  “Well done,” I said through gritted teeth. I took aim with my mallet, knocking the ball through the wicket, but it rolled into the tall grass. We just needed to get through this. It was almost over. Very soon, we would all be free.

  One of the Queen’s girls, then Jack, took their shots after me. Once again, the Queen made a deft shot. I followed my ball into the grass and smacked it miserably back toward the green. The shot went wide, which made the Queen cheer.

  Around the grass we went. I caught William’s gaze out of the corner of my eye. He was on edge. This was too easy, too nice. Nothing with the Queen ever went this easy. And from the stains of blood on the grass, I did not expect things to end well. It didn’t matter if the diamond—fake though it was—was in my pocket. She could just as easily loot it from my dead body as she could from my hand.

  We were just nearing the seventh wicket when the queen pulled off her hat and dashed it to the ground. “I’m hot,” she cursed then stomped the hat. Standing very close to her, I saw beads of sweat dripping down her forehead. They were tinted orange. She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. When she saw her skin was marred with the red liquid, she huffed heavily. “We’re done. I’ve won. Countess, you’re finished there. Off with their heads,” she said, motioning toward the foreign visitors.

  It took a moment for the Japanese guests to understand her words. The automatons and the Queen’s guards closed in on them. They screamed and tried to flee, but it was too late.

  “Bring their blood,” the Countess said to her henchman, who nodded.

  “Frances,” the Queen called to the Countess. “Inside. Now. Bring the book.”

  The Countess nodded.

  The Queen headed back inside. Her consort sat in his chair, barely aware that anything was happening. He simply smiled and gazed absently forward.

  “I recognize him,” William whispered as we followed behind the queen. “He’s a Scottish Lord. He went missing about a year ago.”

  “A year ago?” I asked, remembering the box we’d delivered to the Queen via the Medusa.

  “I guess they presumed him dead,” William said.

  “He might as well be,” Jack said.

  We followed the Queen of Hearts into the abbey. She led us to the room where we’d first met her. There, her long table was set out and had a number of instruments thereon.

  The henchman entered the room behind us carrying a large copper bowl. Inside were the heads of three of the Japanese girls. Their blood pooled at the bottom of the basin.

  “Get to work,” the Queen told the Countess.

  The Countess didn’t look at us as she worked busily. She arranged objects, dried herbs, bits of bone, hair, and other oddities as she flipped through the book she’d brought with her. Seeing her manner was so easy, I began to wonder if I was misguided to place my trust in her. What if, after all, the Countess was in league with the Queen?

  The Queen pulled off her thick scarf and unbuttoned her jacket. She stripped down to her corset. She was just a dainty thing, and she was undeniably beautiful. But more than that, she was dangerous.

  “Bring Newell,” she told her henchman. He disappeared down the hallway.

  “Let’s see it,” the Queen said. She turned to me and opened her hand.

  “First, your word that William’s debt—and Jabberwocky’s—is paid. None of us are indebted to you. Your word.”

  The Queen rolled her eyes. “A stickler for formality, Bandersnatch?”

  “Afraid so. Mad times. Can’t be sure of anything without a promise.”

  “Fine,” the Queen said with a huff. “The debt is clear…if.”

  “If?”

  “If this is the Koh-i-Noor. Tell me, Bandersnatch, how did you procure it?”

&nbs
p; “All that matters is what we won, not how we worked.”

  “But that’s the question, isn’t it? I’ve had eyes on you and Caterpillar, and on that diamond, for days. We’ve seen you at the exhibition, but no one saw you lift the diamond. When did you take it?”

  “Last night.”

  “How? No one saw you.”

  “I wouldn’t be a very good thief if anyone saw me, now would I?”

  At that, the Queen laughed.

  A moment later, the henchman entered with a wiry-looking man who was wearing large round glasses and an oversized suit.

  “Sit,” she demanded shrilly. She set the diamond in front of him.

  The man gasped.

  I kept my gaze straight. I would show nothing.

  “Is it the real diamond or not?” the Queen demanded.

  “Where did you get this?” the man exclaimed. “How?”

  “Shut your mouth. Now, tell the truth or I’ll cut out your tongue. Is it the Koh-i-Noor or not?”

  The man pulled a jeweler’s monocle from his pocket and pressed it into his eye socket. He lifted the diamond and studied it closely.

  I bit my tongue hard. If the lie was discovered, I would have to murder her right there. There was no other way out. I looked at the floor, hoping the Countess was as good at concealing what she knew. So far, she had not betrayed me. If she was planning to do so, now was the moment.

  “Lifeless hunk of rock. Dull. Large. Not a shimmer to it,” the man said then set the jewel aside.

  The Queen turned on me, fury in her face.

  She opened her mouth to speak when the gem master interjected. “Yes, this is most definitely the Koh-i-Noor.”

  A massive weight of relief washed over me.

  “This dead looking stone?” the Queen asked sharply.

  The man nodded. “It’s a grand but lifeless thing.”

  The Queen turned and smiled at me. “Very good, Bandersnatch. Now, get him out of here,” the Queen said then motioned for her henchman to take the gem master from the room.

  “Prepare the potion, Countess,” the Queen said then turned to me. “Why don’t you stay? It will be very exciting to watch. And you’ve always struck me as someone with curious eyes.”

  “Watch?”

  “Watch. Watch me be reborn.”

  22

  The Mock Phoenix

  The Countess stood over the table mixing items into a silver bowl. As she dropped each item therein, she intoned just under her breath. I’d known the Countess since I was a girl. I always admired her, called her friend. And I knew very well that her interest in the occult went beyond occasionally browsing her Uncle Horace’s old books. I had always fashioned her more a tinker than a mage, but I could see how those lines could easily blend. She poured the blood from the bowl that contained the heads of the Japanese ladies, then added blood from two other vials.

  A nauseous feeling swept over me. The smell of death and decay perfumed the air.

  “Now, the diamond,” the Countess said.

  “Grab that mallet,” the Queen instructed William.

  William clenched his jaw together. Smothering his feelings, he picked up a wooden mallet that been sitting just beside the door.

  The Queen set the faux Koh-i-Noor on the table. “Smash it.”

  “But it’s a diamond,” Jack interjected.

  The Countess turn to William. “It is hard, but it will break. Put your back into it.”

  Frowning, William took aim. He lifted the mallet high then, with a hard swing, he brought it down.

  The table cracked under the pressure, the tabletop splintering. The Countess reached out to steady a candlestick before it fell over. In the concave of the table, the rock lay shattered into three large chunks. Diamond powder lay all around them.

  The Countess took the mallet from William then smashed the rest into powder. When she was done, she collected all the powder and dropped it into the concoction.

  She looked at the Queen. “I have made it as written here, but there is no saying it will work. At best, it will do as the Priest of Sekhmet has described in this writing. At worst, you may become very ill. This is not without risk. I have done everything I can. You cannot hold me accountable if something goes wrong.”

  The Queen narrowed her eyes at the Countess. “If it has been done properly, then we have nothing to worry about, Frances.”

  “And if the translation is off, or if the spell is a lie, you may become gravely ill, Anastasia,” the Countess hissed.

  The Queen glared hard at her. “Just say the words.”

  From her bag, the Countess pulled out a cloth on decorated with Egyptian cartouche. She draped it around her neck. “Get back,” she told us and the Queen’s henchman.

  We all moved toward the door.

  A terrible feeling racked my stomach.

  The Countess then began intoning in a language I did not recognize.

  “The Goddess Sekhmet was a destroyer. She was a Goddess to be feared. We are all going to die,” the Queen’s henchman said.

  “This is not how I thought this day was going to go,” Jack said.

  My stomach shook. The diamond was a fake, but the Countess’s spell was real. What would happen now?

  As the Countess spoke, the sky began to darken. In the distance, I heard the crack of lightning. Outside, the wind blew hard, and the clouds began rolling strangely. Everything went black. Twinkling lights shot across the sky. The small fire in the fireplace grew higher.

  The Countess lifted a silver rod, and chanting some unknown words, she struck the rod on the side of the bowl.

  The sharp sound followed by a strange vibration swept across the room. My hair stood on end.

  “We need to go,” Jack whispered.

  The Countess lifted the rod once more and spoke again.

  I looked at William who was staring with wide eyes. He turned to me. “If this works, if she takes on this power, what will happen? We need to stop the Countess,” he said, then reached for his gun.

  I shook my head. “No. Wait.”

  “Friends, we need to leave,” Jack said again as he moved toward the door.

  The Countess lowered the rod once more, knocking it on the side of the bowl.

  Lightning cracked. The mixture inside the bowl began to swirl of its own accord.

  “Yes,” the Queen screamed. “Yes!”

  The Countess lifted her rod a third time. The wind outside whipped hard. Thunder rolled and lightning cracked. The flame inside the fireplace burned wildly, the flames leaping out of the confines of the fireplace.

  I heard the door behind us open. I looked back to see that Jack had left.

  “Alice,” William whispered. He had his pistol in hand. “We can’t permit it.”

  “Wait,” I said.

  “Alice?”

  “Do you trust me?”

  He nodded. “With my life.”

  “Then wait.”

  The Countess dropped the rod a fourth time. The liquid in the bowl flared with bright purple light. Then, all at once, everything went silent.

  Her hands shaking, the Countess poured the liquid from the silver bowl into a glass goblet which she then handed to the Queen. The liquid moved and sparkled, purple flame flickering at its surface.

  “To eternal life,” the Queen of Hearts said, lifting her chalice in a toast. Eyes closed, she drained the cup.

  We waited.

  At first, nothing happened.

  The Queen opened her eyes and glared at the Countess. “It didn’t work,” she screeched. But before the Countess could respond, the Queen’s body jerked. She dropped the crystal goblet. It fell to the floor, smashing into pieces.

  She jerked again.

  Orange light flashed through the Queen’s body. It moved down her limbs, twisting like vines of fiery light just underneath the Queen’s skin. Her hair broke free of its pins. Her long locks blew in a wild torrent around her. The Queen opened her eyes. I gasped to see they were alive with
brimstone. Orange light shot from her fingertips. Everything in the room began to tremble.

  “It worked,” the Countess whispered, fear and awe in her voice. She stepped away from the Queen. “It worked.” The Countess passed me a frightened and confused glance.

  “I feel it. I am immortal,” the Queen screamed.

  “Alice,” William said, reaching out to take my hand. “We need to leave.”

  It wasn’t possible. The gem wasn’t real. It shouldn’t have worked.

  The Countess grabbed her book and moved toward us.

  The Queen laughed wildly. Surrounded by a halo of light, she began to rise off the ground. She floated at least a foot above the floor, her entire body alive with orange light.

  And then, there was a strange rumble in the sky.

  Lightning cracked.

  A sharp wind blew, blowing open the windows. An awful smell perfumed the air. The scents of sulfur and rot rode on the breeze.

  “Sekhmet,” the henchman whispered.

  A strange voice spoke on the wind. It echoed around the room. It was soft, female, and very angry.

  “What is it? What is she sayi—” the Queen began, looking at the Countess.

  But her words were cut off midspeech by a strange, sick laugh that echoed around the room.

  The Queen’s body froze in place, suspended in the air. The orange light died down, and we watched in horror as the veins under the Queen’s skin began to grow black and pulse toward the surface. The glow in her eyes dimmed. They began to turn solid black.

  The Queen tried to break free. “What’s happening? What’s happening?” she demanded of the Countess who backed toward the door.

  Her face twisting, the Queen’s mouth suddenly clamped shut. Her body twisted oddly and then we heard a terrible crunch, then another, as the Queen’s body jerked from side to side like invisible hands were breaking her into pieces.

  At last, she let out a terrible scream.

  An invisible force slammed her to the wall, and then to another wall, over and over again. At the last moment, as the Queen hung in the air very still, that strange voice spoke once more.

  The Countess gasped.

  And then the Queen exploded.