by Eva Chase
Chess clapped his hands. “What’s settled is settled, then. What will you do for the rest of the day?”
I hadn’t had time to think that far yet. “I guess I’d like to explore the city a little more. And…” My gaze slid back to Hatter. “Is there anyone else here you know my grand-aunt might have talked to?”
A shadow crossed his face. “No one you can still talk to now,” he said.
“Are you looking for someone?” Chess asked. “Ah, that Otherlander you asked me about the other night, perhaps?”
“Yeah,” I said, rubbing the side of my neck. “Well, sort of. I’d just like to know more about what she did here, what she was like then.”
“I didn’t know her all that well,” Hatter said preemptively.
Chess tapped his chin. “You know, our White Knight makes it his business to hear a lot about all sorts of things. I’d say he knows at least a little about everyone and everything that’s ever been part of this world.”
My spirits leapt. I hadn’t been sure if I’d have any excuse to see Theo again, but I definitely wasn’t turning down the opportunity. “Do you think he’d have time to talk to me?” I asked. “I mean, it seems like he’s pretty important—he must be busy, and he just helped me a couple days ago…”
Chess waved off my concern. “No one is ever too busy in Wonderland. And the Inventor got his second name because he makes it his business to champion all causes. We could stop by right now if you’d like.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lyssa
With Chess’s habit of appearing out of thin air, it was easy to forget that he was a pretty substantial man until I was walking right beside him. He had to be around six feet tall, a couple inches taller than Hatter and several more than me. As he sauntered down the city street, his sculpted muscles flexed against his burgundy-and-yellow striped shirt and indigo slacks.
Studying his handsome leonine face surreptitiously, I couldn’t help wondering how old he really was. I’d have pegged him as twenty-five or so, but from what Hatter had said, that didn’t mean much. Did it even make him definitely younger than Hatter, or could people age at different speeds from each other here?
“You said you heard I was back in town,” I said. “Who did you hear it from?” Not from Hatter or Doria, as far as I could tell. Who else would have noticed me?
“Oh,” Chess said with an enigmatic air, “gossip always travels, and the flowers do like to gossip.”
I could believe that. Were there more of those immense talking flowers here in the city? I glanced around as if I might see one strolling by us. No flowers, but I did spot a man in a particularly lurid costume that included a red-and-pink striped tunic and a bulging red… hat? Helmet? It was hard to tell. He strode out of a shop up ahead with his chin high.
Chess slipped a firm hand around my forearm. “We’re going to take a little detour,” he said with the same blasé tone, and tugged me into a winding alley between two of the nearby buildings.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder. Had he been worried about that weirdly dressed dude for some reason?
“A journey over new ground can unearth new thoughts. If we get where we’re going, we’re still getting there.”
“Are you even capable of giving a straight answer to anything?” I muttered.
Chess grinned at me, amusement glinting in his eyes. “Certainly. With concentrated effort.”
I groped for something else to ask in this moment when he appeared willing to make that effort. “How do you know Hatter?”
“By now, we all know just about everyone here,” Chess said. “Few paths fail to cross.”
“Well, sure, but you seem like…” Maybe friends was too strong a word. “…like you’ve spent quite a bit of time around each other.”
Chess cocked his head, apparently giving that point even more concentrated effort. “I know I can trust him to be who he is, and he knows he can trust me to be who I am. It may sound strange, but that’s more than either of us could say of most in this place.”
“Is that why you work with Theo, too?”
“For the most part. The White Knight wears so many roles it’s difficult to be sure quite who he is, but whoever he is, I’m certain he has our best interests at heart and the wherewithal to defend them.”
“Defend them from who?” I asked as we emerged into a different major street.
“Whoever he might need to, I suppose,” Chess said.
The silver tower shone to our left. In a second-floor doorway on a building between us and it, two men were, um, enjoying each other’s company quite a bit, one pushing the other up against the doorframe. I tugged my gaze away, but the sight brought back the various PDAs and near-orgies I’d observed on my last visit.
“So… people here seem to ‘get off’ in the traditional way, with each other, quite a bit,” I said awkwardly. “I’m surprised there aren’t more kids running around.” I hadn’t seen anyone pull out a condom packet yet.
“One of the ways of our mad world,” Chess said with a wink. “I gather in the Otherland you take a pill to avoid buns in ovens. Here you have to take one to make it happen. There are no diseases of any kind in Wonderland. Those who want to indulge have no reason to hold back.”
“Oh.” That sounded… very convenient if I wanted to follow Melody’s encouragement into a quick fling while I was here. I didn’t know if the pill thing applied to me, but my birth control implant would take care of that side of things.
Maybe that wasn’t the best topic to be considering when I was standing next to one of the most attractive men I’d ever met, on my way to chat with another, though. At least, if I wanted to carry on a coherent conversation.
Chess ushered me through the Tower’s doorways into its elevator chamber and announced himself the same way he had before, although this time he identified me as “Lyssa” instead of “a guest.” The elevator launched us upward with a jolt that made me grab Chess’s arm for balance. His biceps twitched with what felt like a flinch.
“Sorry,” I said quickly, spreading my feet to steady myself that way, but Chess set a reassuring hand on my shoulder.
“Feel free to make use of me as often as is convenient,” he said with a smirk that sent a fresh flush through me. Maybe he’d only been reacting to the sudden motion just like I had.
When we stepped into Theo’s vast white office, the so-called White Knight was waiting for us, leaning against the front of his desk. He straightened up and stepped toward us, exuding the same potent confidence as before in every movement he made.
He had the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up over his forearms, and the open collar revealed a small V of his muscular chest. For a second, possibly thanks to my recent conversation with Chess, my brain short-circuited from hotness overload. What was I doing here again?
Thankfully, Chess was not affected the same way. He gave Theo a cheeky salute. “Your Knightliness.”
“Chess,” Theo said with a nod, and his dark brown eyes came to rest on me, all warmth, a hint of concern, and no sign at all that he was irritated by the interruption. “And Lyssa. I hope you’ve returned of your own accord and that this visit is a wanted one.”
“It is,” I said. “I, um—I’m sorry to bother you.”
“Lyssa came looking for information about another woman who made the trip through the looking-glass,” Chess said, patting me with the hand he’d left on my shoulder. “I figured if anyone in the city might have answers for her, it’d be you.”
The corner of Theo’s mouth quirked upward. “A reasonable assumption. I’ll do what I can.”
“I’ll take my leave, then.” Chess gave me another little bow. “A pleasure as always, lovely.”
I felt a weird twinge of disappointment that he didn’t kiss my hand again before he left. But it was hard to linger in that sensation when Theo was ambling closer to me. He motioned me to the wall beyond the worktables. “This isn’t the most comfortable space fo
r a conversation. Would you join me?”
“Of course,” I said automatically. My gaze drifted over the shelves of mechanical bits and assembled contraptions as I passed them. Curiosity nibbled at me. “What kinds of things do you invent?”
“That depends on what problems people bring to me,” Theo said. “Yesterday I put together a device for locating lost puppies and a machine that could replicate identical cakes.”
I caught myself just before I gaped at him. “Of course you could do that. This is Wonderland.”
He smiled. “It still takes as much skill and practice as any devices built in the Otherland, I’d imagine. But there’s something very satisfying about breaking a problem down into its base components and rebuilding it from the inside out.”
I’d never heard anyone put the act of invention that way before, but now that he’d said it, I couldn’t think of a better way to express it. “I bet there is. I don’t think my problem should require a whole lot of inventing.”
“Even if it does, I’m your man.”
He led me into a smaller room with a shaggy rug and a cluster of boxy armchairs. The color scheme was less stark, all pale grays, beiges, and peaches rather than blank white. I sank into one of the chairs, finding it comfortingly cozy despite its shape. A crisp warm scent laced the air as if there’d recently been wood burning in a fireplace, but I couldn’t see anyplace it could have come from.
Theo sat down across from me and leaned forward with his elbows resting on the chair’s arms. His chestnut curls drifted across his forehead with the motion. “Why don’t you tell me about this person you’re looking for?”
“I’m not exactly looking for her,” I said. “It’s— The mirror I came through, it’s in my grand-aunt’s house. My late grand-aunt. But I’ve found things, and Hatter said something… She came through to Wonderland too, a while ago. Hatter said it was a few times, but that he didn’t know her very well. Chess hasn’t met her at all. She never mentioned anything about it to the rest of the family, as far as I can tell, and it was a long time ago, and I can’t ask her now. I’d just like to find out anything I can about what she did here.” Why she stopped coming back. Why she’d wanted me to come here.
“Of course you do,” Theo said, with so much assurance that any qualms I’d still had about bothering him with this melted away. “It must be disorienting, stumbling on this place unexpectedly and then discovering someone from your family had experienced much the same thing without you ever knowing.”
“Yes,” I said with a rush of relief. He’d hit the nail on the head. “I think she willed the house to me so that I’d find the mirror and end up here, but she left me so little to go on… I just want to understand.”
“I’ve heard tales of many Otherlanders who found their way into Wonderland, even those before my time. What was her name?”
“Alicia,” I said. “Alicia Tenniel. Hatter said it was when she was my age—that would be around fifty years ago, in my world, anyway.”
“Alicia.” He drew out every syllable of the word as if it would summon his memories. And maybe it did. “I have heard mention of her. I don’t believe anyone spoke of her doing more than arriving here and mingling with us for a short time, as you have. You said you believe that she intended for you to find your way here. What makes you say that?”
“Well, there’s the fact that she left the house to me at all. I hadn’t seen her in something like fifteen years—not since I was a kid. And I found a note she wrote to me, telling me that there were things I’d only understand after I’d been here. At least, I assume she meant here.”
Theo nodded as if my rambling made perfect sense to him. “What sort of things did she want you to understand?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “The note was on a locked box, and she left the key here, so I haven’t been able to open it yet. Which doesn’t really make any sense, because how could she have written a note to me fifty years ago, when I wasn’t even born yet, before she locked it and brought the key here? Or she came back again, and no one I’ve talked to saw her that time. But Hatter says he knows where the key is.” I pressed the heel of my hand to my temple. “Maybe I should stop expecting anything that happens here to make sense.”
Theo chuckled. “That might be wise. But I think I can tease out some sense for you. The box may contain an item that she knew anyone who went to Wonderland would find meaning in, and she secreted away the key before she knew who she’d want to give that gift to. Or perhaps there are other ways of opening the box that only she knew.”
“I guess either of those is possible,” I agreed. Hell, I could have taken the thing to a locksmith and asked to have the lock broken open. Somehow that would have felt like cheating, though. Like I hadn’t earned whatever she’d left for me after all.
“Is Hatter going to help you find the key?” Theo asked, and suddenly I had the sense that if I said no, he was prepared to march right over there and command Hatter to do so. And that Hatter would hop to it.
“Yes,” I said. “He said it’s a long trip, so he’ll take me there tomorrow. And then I guess I’ll slip back home through the club tomorrow night if Chess doesn’t mind distracting the guards by the door again, so I can use it.”
“I’m sure we can arrange safe passage for you,” Theo said, “if you do decide to leave us that early. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you’d like to investigate your grand-aunt’s activities further. I can arrange anything you might need. Just ask, and I’ll find a way.”
He held my gaze so steadily that my heart started to thump a little faster. “Thank you,” I said. “I really appreciate how much you’ve helped me already. I don’t want to impose.”
“You’re not,” he said firmly. “Making sure every person in Wonderland is safe and at ease is my job.”
He reached across the space between us and took my hand, so carefully I could have slipped his grasp before he’d closed it if I’d wanted to, but so smoothly my fingers instinctively curled around his in return. Determination rang through his voice. “You’ve come a very long way, Lyssa, and you deserve answers. I aim to see that you get them. There’s one more thing I can offer, if you don’t mind experiencing a little more Wonderland weirdness.”
When he looked at me like that, talked to me like that, with his hand sending a shiver of heat right up my arm, I wanted to be someone who never backed down from anything, let alone a little weirdness. I’d survived plenty of that already. What had I come back here for if not to wallow in the weird?
“Okay,” I said. “Sure. If you think it’ll help. Do you have a lost-facts-finding invention?”
He smiled. “Not exactly. A colleague of mine lives one floor up. She has an… interesting way of looking at the world. The past and the future blend together with the present. It can be difficult to follow her observations, but she might be able to see more than anyone here could remember.”
He stood up, still holding my hand, and I followed him to the elevator. He waved it open without a moment’s hesitation. Walking that close to him, seeing how set he was on helping me, sudden emotion filled my throat.
“Thank you,” I said when we stepped into the elevator. “I was kind of nervous about coming back here—not because anything bad happened last time; it’s just so different from what I’m used to. But now I know for sure I made the right decision.”
I beamed at him, and Theo went still as he gazed back at me. I might have thought I’d said something wrong if another smile hadn’t crossed his face a moment later.
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “I have to admit I was hoping I might see you again. I get the impression you’re an interesting person to know, Lyssa Tenniel.”
The words made my heart skip more than the brief hitch of the invisible elevator did. This level had only an open doorway leading into a small fore-room. Theo paused there and knocked on the door. “It’s Theo,” he said.
“Theo! Come in,” a bright voice replied.
The room on the other side was a sprawling living room draped in softness. The pale blue-gray carpet under my feet felt like thick velour. Silk tapestries with swirling patterns hung across the walls. The space was scattered with plush furniture in a variety of shapes, all of it a slightly darker shade of blue-gray.
The woman who’d answered Theo’s knock sat on a chaise lounge in the middle of the room, her fleecy white dress draped all the way down her legs and across its cushions. Glints of pins held her tawny brown hair in a heap of curls that crowned her head. She looked up at us without stopping her knitting. The silver needles in her hands hooked and jabbed in a rhythm that might as well have been a dance.
“Hello,” she said to me in the same bright voice. “I’m sorry I wasn’t prepared for company. I forgot that you were coming by.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “I mean, we only just decided…” My voice trailed off as I remembered what Theo had told me. Had she known we were coming before we had? Had she seen our future conversation?
We hadn’t even gotten into any talk about Aunt Alicia, and my head was spinning already.
“This is Mirabel,” Theo said to me. “Though some people call her ‘the White Queen’ the same way they call me ‘the White Knight.’ Mirabel, this is Lyssa, come to Wonderland through a looking-glass.”
“Of course she has,” Mirabel said. She offered me a gentle smile. “Please sit. I will try to order my thoughts. I don’t always remember or follow… My mind is not what it used to be.”
She made a vague gesture with one hand that drew my eyes to a ruddy twist of a scar on one side of her forehead, mostly hidden by her hairline. An accident—or someone had attacked her? Why would anyone here have wanted to hurt this woman?
“Your mind is still generous with its gifts,” Theo said. At his prompt, we both sat on a sofa facing Mirabel. “Will you share those gifts with us today? Lyssa is seeking information about a woman named Alicia Tenniel who came through the looking-glass from the Otherland decades ago. Anything you can see from the past—or, I suppose, the future—we welcome hearing.”
