“And it said to go to Kalmykia?”
“No, it said to get the next piece from the giant down the hole.” The Pillar furrows his brows, funnily.
I need a moment to grasp the fact that The Pillar is always a step or two ahead. “Are you telling me that’s why you pushed us into the hole?”
He nods agreeably. “Or I could have simply run toward our plane and escaped. The monks hadn’t destroyed it yet at that point.”
“You knew there was a giant in the hole? I can’t believe it.”
“Was worth it,” he says. “Because after I killed him, I found this in his cave.” He shows me the third missing piece. I can’t make out what it is with him gripping onto it.
“And that third piece say we’ve got to go Kalmykia?”
He nods, a wide, broad, and magnificently childish smile on his face. “A new adventure, baby.” It’s like he’s not been hit to death a while ago. It’s like he isn’t in pain or dripping blood or having his cloths torn up. It’s like we’re not inside a ridiculous balloon in the middle of nowhere, racing against time to save the world. The Pillar is just happy we’re going to Kalmykia.
“What’s in Kalmykia, Pillar?”
“A most beautiful city, like you’ve never seen before,” he raises his clenched hand in the air. “But first, guess what the piece in my hand is, Alice.”
“Stop being childish. I’m not guessing. Just tell me.”
“Come on, Alice. It’s not like we don’t have time to kill until we get there?” he points at the vast nowhere we’re flying above. “You know how many people have embarked balloons and never found their way back down? Guess the piece in my hand.”
I have to give it to him. He is full of life. He just doesn’t care about our human worries. He just lives every moment as if it’s his last. I wonder if that’s because he thinks I am going to kill him soon, or if that’s just the irritable Pillar.
“Okay,” I say, finding myself giving into his joyful spirit, and forgetting about all the blood on his hands. “It’s a Bishop.”
“Wrong.” He winks. “Guess one more time.”
Chapter 46
Buckingham Palace, London
The Queen of Hearts hadn’t put down the phone, still listening to Mr. Jay reading the Chessmaster’s story to her. She hadn’t heard a story that scary before. Who wanted to collide with Death face to face, she couldn’t understand?
But the real question was: “What does Death want with us Wonderlanders, Mr. Jay?”
“That’s what’s puzzling me.” He said.
“It surely has something to do with Alice,” the Queen said. “He mentioned he wanted her to burn in hell.”
“Alice never mentioned Death when she used to work for Black Chess.”
“She was a wild one, Mr. Jay. She must have done something bad to him.”
“To Death?” Mr. Jay sounded skeptical.
“What else could it be?” the Queen said. “Or why would he bother with killing the masses to get that Carroll’s Knight?”
“I’d have to agree with you on this. Did you ever hear about those chess pieces Carroll carved out of his own bones?”
“Never before.”
“Didn’t Fabiola ever tell you?”
“No.”
“Think harder.” Mr. Jay’s voice was demanding.
“I know you think she should have told me when we were younger and were still close, but no, she never did,” the Queen defended herself. “Besides, Carroll seems to have had her scatter the piece all over the world, not long before his death. Fabiola and I were enemies by then.”
“Then we have no choice but to let Alice and The Pillar find those pieces for the Chessmaster, and wait to see what comes out of it.
“I understand.”
“We can’t afford the Chessmaster slowing down our plans. He is on neither sides, not Black Chess or the Inklings. We just have to play along and get him out of the way.”
“I think it’s personal.” The Queen suggested.
“Personal?”
“I am thinking the Chessmaster has a grudge toward Alice about something that happened in the past.”
“Something that none of us knows about? It’s puzzling me.”
A long period of silence thickened the air in the Queen’s room. She broke it by asking a question that had been puzzling her since she’d heard about the Chessmaster being Death. “Mr. Jay?”
“Yes?”
“I was wondering about this Death idea? I mean I thought we Wonderlanders were immortal. We’ve lived over a century and half already.”
“I know. And you’re right. It suggests that most Wonderlanders are immortals, but it’s not conclusive. In fact, if anyone had the power to kill them, it’d have been Lewis Carroll himself.”
“But he couldn’t. That’s why he had us trapped in Wonderland. So how come Death killed Lewis?”
“Lewis was human, don’t forget that.”
“Are you saying the Chessmaster can’t kill us, Wonderlanders?” The Queen said with a smug smile on her face.
“I think so…” Mr. Jay suddenly went silent.
The Queen could hear him conversing with someone nearby. He seemed to breathe heavier while listening. Finally, he returned to the Queen. “I think I just found the answer to your inquisition about the Chessmaster being incapable of killing Wonderlanders.”
“And?”
“It’s true. He can’t kill Wonderlanders.”
The Queen blew out a long sigh — and an accidental fart of mirth, though her dogs moaned in agony.
“Unless he finds their pieces.” Mr. Jay continued.
The Queen stood erect, horrified by the implication. Did Mr. Jay really mean what she just understood? “Pardon me?”
“In order to kill a Wonderlander, the Chessmaster had to find the chess piece that represents that character in Lewis Carroll’s chess squad.”
“You mean the ones he made from his bones are magically connected to us?”
“I’ve just been told so,” Mr. Jay says. “It seems that the Carroll chess pieces aren’t of a normal character. They’re chess pieces magically attuned to some of the most important Wonderlanders. If the Chessmaster gets them…”
“He can kill us, just like humans,” the Queen spilled out the terrible news. “So the White Queen piece killed Fabiola because she was the White Queen in Wonderland?”
“Exactly.”
“And the Rook?”
“Margaret was the Duchess,” Mr. Jay said. “She’s always been your right hand. The ‘rook’ in the corner of the castle you’re counting on. It protects you from harm and worked on your safety.”
“My God.” the Queen collapsed on her chair. “The Duchess is the Rook. That’s why she’s dead now.”
“And I’ve been told something else.” Mr. Jay says.
“What is it?” The Queen could sense the concern in his voice.
“I think you should run away, as far as you can.”
“What? Why?”
“I’ve been told that Alice and The Pillar just found the third piece.”
The Queen swallowed a lungful of her own fart right now. “Don’t tell me it’s a…”
“A Queen. A chess piece of a black queen.” Mr. Jay sounded disappointed. He definitely didn’t want to lose the Queen of Hearts. She’d always been a great asset. “I’m thinking you and Fabiola had always been competitive and rivals. If she’s the White Queen, then you surely are the Black Queen in Carroll’s eyes.”
There was a long silence in the room and on the line. Even the dogs went silent, waiting for Mr. Jay to spell it out.
“I think you’re going to die within a few hours,” Mr. Jay told the Queen of Hearts. “If not sooner.
Chapter 47
Somewhere in Tibet
“If you were a chess piece in Carroll’s army, who’d you be?” The playfully Pillar asks me.
Now that I know the third piece is a Black Queen, and that the clue inside it was a yellow note that clearly pointed at Kalmykia, I have nothing to lose but to play along. “The Queen of course.” I say jokingly.