A face appeared before her: colorless, sunken eyes, ravaged and diseased-looking skin, matted hair. “Hello, niece.”
Alyss felt herself lifted out from under the table, held aloft by her long, black hair. “So you were to be queen, were you?” the woman snorted, unimpressed.
“Aunt Redd?” “None other.”
“Let her go, Redd.” It was Genevieve.
“Are you telling me what to do?” Redd sneered. “Look around. The time for giving orders is over.” “Please. Let her go.”
Redd became impatient. “You know I won’t. You brought this on yourself, Queen Genevieve. I can’t afford to leave any Hearts alive-except myself, obviously.”
“You can have me instead.”
“Stupid sister. I already have you. And by the way, if you’re still expecting your king, I regret to inform you that he won’t be returning home. Ever.”
Redd’s scepter issued forth a cloud of red smoke, in the middle of which flickered a series of images: King Nolan and his men ambushed as they approached Heart Palace, Redd marching up to the king and killing him with her sharp, knobbly scepter.
“Father!” Alyss cried.
“Oh, my sweet king,” Genevieve gasped and sent eighteen steel-tipped cones, each with a point as sharp as a dagger, zooming toward Redd, who lazily raised a hand; the cones froze in midair, then clumped on the floor. The heavy chandelier above Redd’s head came loose and fell toward her. Redd made as if to brush a gnat from in front of her face and the chandelier crumbled to dust.
“Is that the best you can do, sister?” Redd scoffed.
A series of double-edged spears cartwheeled toward her. She knocked them aside one by one, bored with her own strength, tired of Genevieve’s pestering.
“Playtime’s over,” she hissed.
Redd pressed her index finger against the ball of her thumb and Alyss started to choke; it felt as if her throat had swollen shut. It didn’t matter that her mother had failed, she herself had to think of something, to imagine something. But she couldn’t focus. A wheel of cheese rolled against Redd’s foot. A pair of slippers danced in the air.
Redd laughed. “You were to be queen with an imagination like that?”
Alyss thought she was going to explode from lack of air. She fumbled with the jabberwock tooth hanging on her necklace and jabbed the pointed end into Redd’s forearm as hard as she could. It stuck.
“Ah!”
Redd released her grip and Alyss dropped to the floor. Before she’d even sucked in one lungful of air, she and her mother were racing down a hall, their feet barely touching the ground. They charged into the queen’s private rooms, past the couches and overstuffed chairs, past the royal outfits hanging in the wardrobe, and headed for the bathroom, where-
The Cat stepped in front of them, lunged. It looked like the end for both of them, but something whirred past the princess’ head and-thomp!-into The Cat’s chest. The Cat fell at their feet. Hatter stepped over the beast and removed his top hat from the fatal wound.
“Take Alyss and go,” Queen Genevieve said, pointing at the looking glass. “As far away as possible.” “But, Your Majesty-”
“I’ll follow you, if and when I can. You have to keep the princess safe until she’s old enough to rule. She’s the only chance Wonderland has to survive. Promise me.”
Hatter bowed his head. His life’s mission was to protect the queen. So long as Genevieve lived, he should remain and fight the enemy. But he understood that Wonderland’s future depended on Alyss’ survival. The queendom was more important than any single queen. He lifted his eyes to Genevieve’s. “I promise,” he said.
Genevieve knelt down in front of her daughter. “No matter what happens, I will always be near you, sweetheart. On the other side of the looking glass. And never ever forget who you are. Do you understand?”
“I want to stay with you.”
“I know, Alyss. I love you.”
“No! I’m staying!” Alyss threw her arms around her mother.
A wall crashed down and there stood Redd with a platoon of card soldiers behind her. “Aw, how sweet. Let’s have a group hug,” she said, moving toward them, hardly looking like the hugging type.
Hatter grabbed Alyss and jumped into the looking glass. Genevieve smashed the glass with her scepter and turned to face Redd, unable to believe it when, in her peripheral vision, she saw The Cat, on the floor with a gaping hole in his chest, open his eyes. His wound healed and he jumped at her. It all happened in an instant: Genevieve conjured a white bolt of energy from her imagination and thrust it into The Cat, killing him a second time. The card soldiers stepped forward to attack the queen, but Redd stopped
them. She yanked the jagged bolt out of The Cat and twirled it like a baton. It turned red in her hand.
“Well, sister, what can I say? I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’m tickled to death to see you go.”
She slammed the bolt into the floor. Dozens of black roses sprouted from the point of impact, their thorny stems wrapping themselves around Genevieve, pricking her skin and binding her fast. The rose petals opened and closed, toothy mouths eager for a bite of royal flesh.
“Off with your head,” Redd ordered, pulling the energy bolt out of the floor.
“No!” Genevieve struggled against the stems of the roses. Her people would be abandoned to Redd. And Alyss…just a child.
Redd swung the bolt hard. Genevieve’s head went one way, her body another, and her crown rolled along the floor like a dropped coin. Redd picked up the crown and put it on her own head.
“The queen is dead. Long live the queen…me.” The platoon of renegade soldiers cheered.
Redd kicked The Cat where he lay on the floor, tongue lolling in his mouth, the picture of death. “Get up! You still have seven more lives.”
The Cat’s eyes fluttered open. “Find Alyss and kill her.”
With a wave of her hand, the looking glass was once again whole. The Cat jumped through, in pursuit of the only living Heart besides Redd.
CHAPTER 11
C RYSTAL TRANSPORT, also known as looking glass transport, was not unusual in Wonderland. Most looking glasses served as portals to the Crystal Continuum, a network of byways that enabled any and every Wonderlander to enter through one looking glass and exit from another. Focused looking glasses led to specific destinations (like the corner of Wondertropolis Way and Tyman Street). Unfocused looking glasses allowed travelers to choose their own destinations, provided that there were
looking glasses at those destinations out of which they could be reflected. In Queendom Speramus states: “As a body underwater tends to rise to the surface, a body entering a looking glass wants to be reflected out.” It took practice to stay inside the Continuum and master basic navigational skills. An inexperienced traveler might enter a looking glass in his own home, thinking to pay a visit to a friend across town, only
to be reflected out of a looking glass at his next-door neighbor’s house.
The traveler might then enter his next-door neighbor’s looking glass, only to be reflected out at the house next door to his next-door neighbor, and so on and so on until he reached his friend across town. Given time and experience, he would be able to make the trip with fewer stops. Covering long distances in the Crystal Continuum was tough, nearly impossible for all but the most experienced traveler. But short trips were within the skill range of everyone.