Blue seemed to know what she was thinking. “Alyss Heart, your mother was a warrior queen, as you discovered the hard way. She passed through the maze to assume the throne and to make the most of what she innately possessed, but her strength could only carry her so far. Redd was always the stronger of the two. But you, Alyss Heart, have the strength of generations in your blood. Successfully navigate the maze and you will discover this for yourself.”
“And if I’m unsuccessful?”
Blue ignored the question. “Everything you have experienced up until now has had to be if you are to become the strongest queen Wonderland has ever known. It has been necessary to forge in you the wise and judicious temperament that will guide you as protector of the Heart Crystal. Hatter Madigan will lead you to one who knows where to find the maze. Look for a puzzle shop. You will know the key to the maze when you see it, but you will have to return to Wondertropolis.” Blue formed an O with his lips and exhaled a thick stream of smoke directly at the princess.
When Alyss awoke, she was alone. She walked back through the mushrooms to Dodge and the others. The caterpillar counsel sat coiled on their mushrooms, smoking contentedly. Their expressions did not change at the sight of Alyss, but the Alyssians looked at her, expectant.
“It’s back in Wondertropolis,” she said. There were groans all around.
“That’s like entering the jabberwocky’s lair!” fretted Bibwit. “Or stirring up the seekers’ nest, or-”
The green caterpillar puffed a cloud of smoke at the royal tutor. The smoke enveloped him and his expression slackened, relaxed.
“Oh, well.” He grinned, dreamy. “I suppose we must do what we must do.”
“Where in Wondertropolis?” Dodge asked.
“I was told only that Hatter can take us to someone who will know.”
The others turned to the Milliner, but even he, who was able to maintain his composure in battles that would have sent most Wonderlanders running for their mothers’ skirts, was a little exasperated by this.
“Me? How can I know anyone? I’ve hardly been in Wondertroplis in thirteen years. The people I knew are all dead.”
Bibwit, still feeling the effects of the caterpillar’s smoke, put a hand on Hatter’s shoulder. “Relax, my good fellow. The oracle wouldn’t say it just to hear himself talk. There’s got to be a reason. Relax and think.”
So Hatter thought. What would he have done thirteen years ago? To whom would he have turned for help? Where would he have gone?
“There is one place,” he said finally. “I don’t know if it still exists, but I used to go there whenever official sources didn’t yield the information I needed.”
“Well then, that’s where we’ll go,” General Doppelganger said.
“Let’s go already,” fumed Dodge. He didn’t much care if they stirred up the seekers’ nest; on the contrary, he rather welcomed it.
CHAPTER 46
I T WAS a long, exhausting journey without the ease of travel once afforded by The Crystal Continuum. Not wanting to risk further encounters with jabberwocky, the Alyssians skirted the Volcanic Plains, and luckily-though strangely, considering Redd’s usual aggression-their trek was uneventful. They hadn’t seen a single Glass Eye or card soldier, just the occasional flock of seekers circling high overhead.
They stood gathered at the base of an abandoned building, gazing out at a dingy Wondertropolis alley. “Where is it?” General Doppelganger asked.
“There.”
Hatter pointed as two Wonderlanders tripped up the front steps of a basement tavern and stumbled into the alley, drunk.
“That’s the place?” General Doppelganger asked. “It looks more than a bit…unsavory.”
“It’s the only place I know,” Hatter said. He cast a studious eye over his confederates: Bibwit in his scholar’s robe; the general, Dodge, and Alyss in their Alyssian uniforms. No amount of camouflage could hide the fact that they were not average Wonderlanders. Still, they didn’t have to bring unnecessary attention to themselves by flaunting their rebel colors, so Hatter folded his top hat into a stack of deadly blades and placed it in his inside coat pocket. He removed his coat and draped it over his arm. “Ready?” he asked.
Alyss nodded, conjured hooded cloaks for herself and the others, and the Alyssians crossed the alley and entered the tavern. They paused in the doorway to let their eyes adjust to the gloom, giving the bartender and a toothless old smuggler at the counter an opportunity to size them up. The rest of the patrons were too absorbed in their drink to notice the newcomers, slumped half-conscious on their
tattered bar stools or passed out altogether.
“We don’t have to put ourselves on display, do we?” Dodge said. “Let’s sit down.”
They had hardly settled around the nearest table when the bartender jerked his head toward a corner of the tavern, and out of the vacuous dark stepped a girl wearing a homburg hat and a long overcoat not unlike Hatter’s. She approached the Alyssians to take their order.
The shy girl I saw at camp, who brought tea when I had my first talk with Bibwit. “You?” Bibwit said, surprised.
“Me,” the girl confirmed. “But…how did…I don’t…”
It was the first time any of them had seen Bibwit Harte at a loss for words.
“My child,” he said, recovering himself, “I don’t know how you survived the raid on our camp, and of course it’s pleasing to discover you, as it would be pleasing to find any of us alive, but…what are you doing here? You’re too young to be working in a place like this.”
“I’m thirteen. Old enough, I think. And lucky to be working at all.”
Alyss glanced at Dodge, and the questioning, slightly perturbed expression on his face told her that they were thinking the same thing. Is this who we’re supposed to meet? It must be. It’s too much of a coincidence. But the girl was so young-not at all what Alyss had been expecting.
“How well do you know the city?” General Doppelganger asked. The girl shrugged. “Better than most.”
Hatter caught sight of a vein in the shape of an h below her left ear. His face hardened. “She’s a halfer. Civilian and Millinery spawn. Not to be trusted.”
“Hatter-” Bibwit began.
“I don’t need your trust,” the girl said. “I serve the princess…if she’ll let me.” With a bow too subtle for those around them to notice, she directly addressed Alyss for the first time: “Homburg Molly, at your service, Princess.”
Alyss dipped her head in response. “We are looking for a certain puzzle shop. Do you know of it?” “I think I do.”
“How can we be sure you won’t lead us into a trap?” The question came from Hatter. “You can’t.”
“Hatter, I don’t think we need fear the girl,” said Bibwit Harte. “And judging by the looks we’re getting from the other patrons, we could use a friend in this place.”