While Redd’s forces were occupied with the decoys, Alyss and her companions made it to the outskirts of the Chessboard Desert. The checkered land stretched before them, the promontory of Mount Isolation visible in the middle distance. The white knight and rook were tending to their men, bandaging wounds suffered in the Emerald Drive skirmish, instructing them to double-check all ammunition supplies
and be sure weapons were functioning properly. Dodge kept to himself, studying the sword in his lap as if to ensure that it would be able to do what he’d set his mind to: taking The Cat’s lives. Alyss should have been entirely focused on developing a sound military strategy, but she couldn’t help glancing at Dodge every now and again, her attention divided.
Revenge cannot possibly purge him of hate, but he won’t listen to me, won’t listen to anyone. “Alyss?”
“Yes?”
From the expressions of Bibwit Harte, Hatter Madigan, Homburg Molly, and General Doppelganger, it was clear that she had missed something.
“There is a lot of desert still to cross,” Bibwit said, indicating the distance to the fortress.
“And the problem of storming Mount Isolation, so ideally suited for defense,” added the general. “We’ll need an army greater than Redd’s.”
“Our objective is to remove Redd from power,” Alyss said, loud enough for Dodge to hear. “Our objective is the Heart Crystal, not vengeance.”
Dodge didn’t look up from his sword. He heard me. I know he heard me.
“Where Redd is, that’s where we’ll find the Heart Crystal,” said Bibwit. “She’ll want to remain close to it to maximize her strength.”
“But can you conjure a force of the size we’ll need, Princess?” asked General Doppelganger. “I don’t know.” To conjure several doubles of herself was one thing, but an entire army? “You must try,” Bibwit said.
She looked to the others. Hatter made a silent, respectful bow. Molly nodded, eager. The chessmen watched, waited. Even Dodge was watching. To conjure an army she would need to be extremely focused and precise. The millions of details of dress and weaponry-if a single one weren’t imagined
vividly enough, it would compromise the whole and her imagining would fail. She may have felt stronger than ever, but strong enough for this?
Her scepter, once again whole, showed the intensity of her effort. The white crystal heart at its top glowed brighter and brighter, flashed and zapped as it became a cloud of electrical charges with lightning-like bolts of energy sprouting out of it, encircling Alyss. When these fireworks stopped and
Alyss again focused her sight on her surroundings rather than her internal visions, she beheld an enormous army of Alyssian soldiers standing in formation and fanned out behind her. The soldiers were a short distance off and she couldn’t even see to the end of them, there were so many.
I did it. I-
Someone was laughing. Alyss turned.
“I’m sorry, Princess Alyss,” Homburg Molly said, slapping a hand to her mouth but unable to keep from laughing.
What had come over the girl? Bibwit, never one to take appearances for granted, approached Alyss’
conjured army for a closer inspection. “Ah.”
The army consisted of toy soldiers, figurines no larger than the tutor’s ears.
“The princess is too far from the Heart Crystal,” he said. “She cannot defeat Redd from here.”
General Doppelganger split into the twin figures of General Doppel and General Ganger and the two of them paced, in perfect step with each other.
“Well, we have to get to her somehow!” General Doppel said.
“But without an army of soldiers that are of a more normal size,” said General Ganger, “our cause is lost.”
It was Alyss’ turn to approach the soldiers. To her, they had looked suitable enough. She picked up one of the toy soldiers and imagined it marching back and forth in her hand. “I have an idea,” she said.
CHAPTER 52
T HE FORTRESS was surrounded. Regiments of The Cut had been amassed from across the queendom and stood ready to defend Redd’s stronghold. Their ranks formed the front line and, behind them, as the second line of defense, were platoon after platoon of Glass Eyes. Both the card soldiers and Glass Eyes were armed with the full array of weaponry available to them in Redd’s Wonderland-orb generators, whipsnake grenades, crystal shooters, cannonball spiders, AD52s, all manner of knives and swords.
As the suns rose on a new day, Redd was breakfasting on spicy, crunchy tuttle-bird legs in the Observation Dome. The Cat and the members of her cabinet, none of whom had eaten since the previous midday, looked on with hungry eyes but said nothing. Jack of Diamonds had wisely excused
himself from the dome, but more because he feared Redd watching him toy unsuccessfully with the key to the Looking Glass Maze than because of his stomach’s grumbling.
Redd’s teeth crunched down on the only remaining tuttle-bird leg, the last scrap of night’s shadow faded with the day, and they all saw it at once. Gazing out through the telescopic glass, it would have been
impossible to miss: An Alyssian army, seeming to rival the population of the queendom itself, massed a short distance off and waiting to attack. Like Redd’s forces, the Alyssians were armed with orb generators, whipsnake grenades, cannonball spiders, AD52s.
“How has Alyss gathered such an immense army?” the Lady of Spades asked. “They’ll just have a larger body count,” Redd fumed.
Sitting astride a spirit-dane at the head of the soldiers, Alyss raised her arm and held it above her head a moment before bringing it down in a quick motion. The Alyssians charged toward the fortress.
“Deal the first hand,” Redd ordered.
Outside, The Cut launched orb generators and cannonball spiders at the advancing Alyssians-direct hits many of them, which should have taken out entire columns of the enemy. The card soldiers followed up the barrage by charging into the smoke and flame. Confident, Redd eyed the scene from her perch in the dome, but when the smoke cleared she saw her soldiers surrounded by tiny Alyssians. Her weapons had had zero effect and the miniature army continued to push toward the fortress.
Redd’s face contorted with a sudden realization. “How could I have been so stupid?”
The Cat was trying to decide if this were a rhetorical question when she roared, “It’s a construct!” With a dismissive swing of Redd’s arm, Alyss and her army began to shimmer, the billion points of
energy that formed them momentarily visible before exploding apart into nothing. Redd scoped the queendom with her imagination’s eye. “Where are you, Alyss? Where is my dear little niece?”
Alyss and the others could hear the explosions and the rasping, metallic sounds of The Cut racing toward the conjured army as they came upon the fortress from the opposite side. Until now, their approach had been covert; they’d traveled only over the desert’s black squares of tar and volcanic rock to camouflage themselves from Redd’s lookouts. But to enter the fortress they would have no choice but to show themselves in open warfare.
Under cover of the black rock, Hatter flicked his top hat into blades and winged them at the card