by Eva Chase
He was putting his faith in me, even above the man who’d guided him since he was a kid. I had to be worthy of that trust.
“He talked to me before he left,” he said in a low voice. “Tried to convince me that we should go on a mission to get Mom out of the palace. He wasn’t properly in his head—he could hardly stand still, he was so agitated. I told him there’d be a mission, that we were working on it, but he didn’t want to wait. He thought just the two of us should make a run at it.”
The two of them against the entire Hearts’ Guard? Nausea pooled in my gut. “That’d be a suicide mission.”
“I know,” Dum said. “I told Dee that, in softer words. I told him Mom was safer if we stuck to the plan, stuck together with the rest of the Spades, so we could see the rebellion through. If the guards caught us, which they almost definitely would, they might torture us for information before taking our heads. It’d put the whole cause at risk. I love my mother, but I don’t see how that would help her. I couldn’t calm Dee down, though. He was still all worked up when he walked away.”
“Did you see what direction he went in?” Theo asked.
Dum shook his head. “He went back into the cabin then. It must have been later he snuck off. I never thought—I’d have stayed with him if I’d realized he was frantic enough to make a go of it on his own. But that has to be what he’s done. He must have gone off to the palace.”
At the rustle of fabric, I realized we had company again. Doria had come over, Hatter right behind her, and Kip and Mallo had drifted back toward us too. From the looks on their faces, they’d heard at least the end of Dum’s account.
“If they get it out of him where we’ve been hiding…” Mallo said, so pale her beady eyes stood out even more starkly than usual. She didn’t need to finish that sentence.
“Dee wouldn’t tell them anything, no matter what they did,” Doria insisted. Her cheeks had flushed. She’d kind of admitted to me that she’d had a crush on the guy for a while, so I couldn’t blame her for wanting to stick up for him. But it wasn’t as if anyone could easily predict what they’d find themselves doing if pushed to the brink through torture.
Theo must have been thinking along similar lines. His mouth set in a grim line. “I hope that he won’t, but if the guards get their hands on him and realize he’s one of us, there’s no telling how they’ll force the issue.”
“Maybe he’ll think better of rushing in there once he’s out at the palace alone,” Kip said. “It’s one thing to think about taking on the whole lot of them on his own and another to be faced with the reality.”
I hoped he was right, but my stomach stayed tight. Mallo spat on the ground.
“We’re all going to end up stir-crazy stuck down here like rats in a warren while the guards pick off the city folk a batch at a time.”
She gave me an accusing look that might have made me wince with guilt not that long ago. But I had a queen’s sword in my hand, a queen’s armor over my chest, and a queen’s scepter at my back. Less than an hour ago, I’d commanded more magic than most of these people had witnessed in their lifetime. I’d commanded the desires of two of the most powerful men I’d ever met.
If the Spades needed to know that we’d do more than cower in tunnels under my rule, I could show them that now. Still careful, still weighing the risks, but taking the chances we could afford to keep everyone’s spirits steady.
“He might be out there working up his nerve,” I said. “Let’s go for him. Hatter, Chess, you come with me the shortest route through the city with the masks. Theo, you take the fastest Spades around along the fringes to meet up with us in case we end up with a fight on our hands. We’ll circle the palace grounds and bring him back if we can.”
Theo’s eyebrows arched as if he was a little startled by my taking charge, but he didn’t argue. After that split-second hesitation, he spun on his heel and swept his hand through the air.
“Mallo, Kip, you know who to round up. Grab a few small weapons too. I’ll bring some of those devices we’ve been working on. We move out in five minutes.”
He bent over the supply pile and offered me a couple of the dark metal eggs I knew would explode with a billow of smoke. “You should have some extra tools on hand too.”
“I’ll carry them,” Chess offered. “I believe our queen has her hands full.” He winked at me as he tucked a smoke bomb into each of his pant pockets.
“All right.” My breath snagged in my throat now that we were putting this plan into action. It still felt like the right thing to do, for both Dee and all the people looking up to me now. “Let’s go.”
As we hustled to the cave entrance closest to the palace, Hatter adjusted his suit jacket sleeves where he kept his stealthy hatpins. “Isn’t it about time you got yourself a real weapon, oh mad one?” Chess teased.
Hatter rolled his eyes with a tweak of his top hat. “I’ve got one of those too.” He patted his hip, where I noticed the end of a hilt protruding, the line of a dagger visible through the fabric of his slacks. “What weapons are you bringing, madder one?”
Chess grinned. “My fists do well enough when the bastards can’t see them coming.”
The spot where the caves slanted upward into a narrower passage led us into the cellar of what Chess had told me was a pillow-stuffing factory. Stray feathers drifted through the air as we clambered up the ladder into the back room where a few heaps of fabric and bags of down lay.
We were still several blocks from the road leading from the city toward the palace. Beyond the door, music thumped and wavering voices carried back and forth. I tugged my mask tighter over my face against the chemical scent of the roses.
We eased out right by the corner of the street and darted down the alley in the opposite direction. When we had to cross the main roads, we ducked our heads and bobbed with the music as we wove between the bodies as if joining their dance.
The sun was sinking by the time we left the irregular buildings of the city behind. In the sparse forest between the city and the palace, I tugged my mask down and drank in the fresh warm air, the smell of the dry earth clearing the last lingering hints of rose from my lungs. Until we got closer to the palace, anyway.
“We need to find Theo the material to make more of these,” I murmured.
“Dum’s been trying to track down the supplier he used to go to,” Chess said. “The woman hasn’t turned up. Either the guards have taken her or she’s wandered off in her reveling. He’ll keep looking.”
My mind started spinning through other possibilities for protecting ourselves from the rose’s drug so we could move around the city more freely, but every plan that came to mind seemed more ridiculous than the last. The Queen of Hearts had the upper hand here.
We couldn’t let her gain even more of one.
The tall stone walls around the palace grounds came into view up ahead. We slowed, scanning the forest and the area along the wall for both Dee and any patrolling guards.
“He might have gone to the looking spot by the laughing trees,” Hatter said. “Let’s head that way first.”
As soon as we came near the trees with their long thin leaves that vibrated together to create an eerie chittering sound, the hairs on the back of my arms rose. It wasn’t hard to figure why no one liked coming through this part of the forest, which was why it made such a good hiding spot for a rebel lookout. Hatter darted up the holds on the one tree’s trunk and descended a few moments later with a frown.
“No sign of him there, and I couldn’t spot him anywhere I could see from the platform. Theo’s group is getting close—we could intercept them if we continue that way.” He pointed in the direction we’d already been heading.
“All right,” I said, my throat constricting. The platform didn’t give a perfect view around the whole palace—Dee could have been around the other side, or in a particularly sheltered spot amid the trees. But every step we took without finding him, the more likely it was that he’d already gone into the pala
ce grounds.
Hatter touched my arm as we walked on, waiting until I met his green eyes. “If he’s out here, we’ll find him,” he said. “He was upset, but the twins aren’t stupid. He’d have to realize rushing in there on his own would only lose him his head.”
“They might have caught him even if he changed his mind,” I said, and then raised my chin. “But we can’t think that way. We’ll cover all the grounds around the palace just in case, like we decided.”
“That’s our queen,” Chess said, with a pleased glint in his eyes and his grin.
Hatter had directed us well. He paused and rapped on the truck of a tree three times, and an answering knock came from deeper in the forest a second later. With only the slightest rustling, Theo and the six Spades he’d assembled strode forward to join us.
He hadn’t brought Dum along, I noticed. He must have been worried about the guy’s emotional state, potentially losing both his mother and his brother in the same day. Dear God, please let us save at least one of them.
I pointed with my sword for us to keep along our circuit of the walls, and Theo nodded without a word. We walked on quietly, the Spades fanning out a bit between the trees to scan more ground.
The trees thinned up ahead where a road passed through the forest. As we slowed, a distant creaking sound reached my ears. I froze, my head jerking toward it. Toward the palace gate that opened onto this road.
With a shout and a thunder of booted feet, a horde of guards spilled onto the road and charged toward us. If I’d had an instant’s hope that they were stampeding off to tackle some other foe, it was destroyed the second several of them veered into the forest on our side, their gazes sweeping the shadows. Someone on watch must have spotted us.
“Shit,” Kip muttered, taking a step back.
The words rose in my throat to yell at the others to run. But even as my lips parted, doubt gripped me. There were dozens of guards rushing toward us. I couldn’t say for sure we’d make it to one of the cave entrances without them catching any of us—and even if we did, we’d have led them straight to our shelter.
And all the Spades would have seen of their queen was a woman who turned tail and fled rather than defending them.
My legs balked for just a second, and then I leapt into the road, raising my sword high. “Go!” I said to the others. “As fast as you can. I’ll slow this bunch down.”
“Lyssa,” Hatter said, his eyes wide, but I’d already swung around to face the onslaught of guards. Several more shouts were ringing out at the sight of me. Blades flashed in the fading sunlight, but they were nothing compared to mine.
My fingers tightened around the grip with all the conviction I had in me. The ruby flared. I didn’t want to spill blood, but if it was my people or the Queen’s, I had to protect mine.
When I’d sent out the sword’s magic before, it’d both walloped and sliced. Maybe I could control those effects more consciously. I focused all my intent on driving the guards back, and slashed the blade through the air in a sweeping arc.
Power surged through my body and across the road, radiating into the trees. It slammed into the wave of guards, a more concentrated punch than the deflecting magic my vest had protected me with in an earlier battle. They stumbled backward, doubling over, blood springing along cuts on their arms and their pleated uniforms waving tattered where some of the cutting magic had slipped through.
“I am the true queen of Wonderland,” I hollered at them, pitching my voice as forcefully as I’d heard Theo use his. “I will take back what’s mine from the people who stole it from me. I will protect the people you’ve abused. You know I don’t want to hurt you. If you’ll give up your loyalty to the tyrant on the throne and join the Spades, we’ll welcome you. But if you attack us, I have no choice but to push back.”
The guards at the front of the rush had taken the brunt of my magical smackdown. Many more pushed past their wounded companions. Their expressions were warier now, but they raced at me with swords and daggers drawn anyway. A few of the faces I glimpsed looked more terrified than furious, so much that my heart ached.
Then the Knave appeared by the top of the wall by the gate, jabbing his sword toward me and letting out a roar from his tiger maw. “Strike them all down. Kill the usurper!”
The guards’ faces hardened. They were making their choice. I’d already told them what mine would be.
I whipped my sword in front of me again, letting it sharpen this time. The magic crackled from its shining blade and sliced across the front line of the charge. The forerunners stumbled and toppled with a gush of blood down their bellies. The punch of power drove the figures behind them backward onto their asses.
My stomach turned at the sight of the men I’d likely killed, and my breath burned in my throat from just those two swings of the sword. I had to buy us a little more time to safely make our escape. Setting my jaw, I glanced around and made two swift jabs through the air toward the sides of the road.
Two massive trees toppled across the cobblestones to block the road, their emerald-green leaves shivering. As the Knave screamed at his men, I swiveled around. Chess tossed his smoke bombs over the fallen trees to cover our escape even more. Theo was waiting farther up the road. He waved us on, and Chess and I dashed to him, to flee the way he’d sent the other Spades running.
We hadn’t found Dee. I guessed we’d have to hope he found his way back to us on his own. But I’d staked my claim on Wonderland, and I’d shown the Queen’s defenders that I was a true force to be reckoned with.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Theo
L yssa’s brainstorm had grown from a small bit of company to a crowd in the course of a day. Sixteen of the city’s citizens sprawled or wandered around the shallow branch of cave where we’d laid out blankets and food for them. With only hours having passed since their last dose of that mind-muddling drug, the dazed look hadn’t completely left their eyes, but a few of them were starting to register that this wasn’t just some exclusive club they’d been invited to experience.
“I don’t understand,” said the woman I was crouched down in front of. She pulled her blanket closer around her trembling shoulders. “My head aches. I don’t remember what I’ve been doing for… I don’t know how long. How did I get here?”
“You know the smoke and ‘shrooms you’d sometimes take in Caterpillar’s Club?” I said, keeping my voice calm. “The Queen of Hearts has filled the whole city with intoxicants like that. Everyone up there has been partying like they’re constantly at the club for weeks.” I pointed to the stone ceiling.
The woman’s chin wobbled. “Why would the Queen do that? I don’t—I have my shop to check on. I—”
She shifted forward, and I grasped her shoulder. “You’ll need to stay here a little longer,” I said. “We brought you down here to get you away from the chemicals so you can clear your head. Your shop won’t be safe yet. But we’re working on it.”
I tipped my head toward Lyssa, who was at the other side of the cave talking with an older man with a hound’s head whose hands twitched in jerky movements. “The Queen of Hearts is afraid because Wonderland is finding out that she isn’t a real queen after all. Her family stole the throne from the true rulers, the Red royal line. And our true queen has come back to us. The Red Queen is going to lead our way back to the world we’re meant to have.”
The woman peered a Lyssa with a puzzled but awed expression that brought a smile to my face. “Our true queen,” she murmured.
“It’s never really seemed right, having one we’re afraid of, has it?” I said gently. “That’s because it wasn’t right at all. All along, a cruel imposter has been on the throne. We can have so much better than that.”
The puzzlement melted into pure relief. I gave the woman’s shoulder a light squeeze and stood up to see who else might appreciate exchanging a few words.
Looking at the people gathered there—my people, part of me still insisted—the impulse bubbled up to step into t
he middle of the room and command their attention, to guide them more like the White Knight than one of many Spades. More like a prince. The thought made me cringe inwardly.
Whatever influence my mother and the line of Hearts before her had inflicted on me, through exposure or genetics, I wanted to shed all of it. I could use those princely airs to reassure and to direct these people toward the ruler they ought to be focused on.
Lyssa caught my gaze on her and shot a small smile my way before stepping to welcome the next of the city folk. That woman’s head was lolling on her shoulders, but her eyes held on Lyssa for a few seconds as the Otherlander spoke. You’d hardly know she grew up in the Otherland, seeing her now. She’d found her true self here with us. Pride filled my chest, seeing the results of that transformation, even though I couldn’t really claim much credit for it.
I helped a goat-like man whose hands were shaking around his cup drink some water and reassured a teenaged boy who was still pretty out of it but had started mumbling about where his sister might be. “We’ll keep an eye out for her,” I told him. “If we see her, she’ll be invited here too, I promise.”
Lyssa finished her rounds at about the same time I did. I stepped into the passage beyond the cave with her, blinking my eyes against the brighter glow of the water there. Then I reached for her hand, as naturally as if I had no reason to think the gesture would be anything but welcome, but ready inside to pull back if she stiffened.
She’d wanted me earlier today—she’d given herself over, and then taken me over in a way I remembered with a fresh bolt of desire through my groin. But that didn’t mean every sore point between us was fully healed.
To my joy, Lyssa’s hand welcomed mine, her fingers curling to grasp my palm.
“You’re doing well,” I told her. “Every bit a queen—all the queen they could ask for.”
She smiled, but this time it looked tight. “I hope so. This afternoon… I wanted the Spades, at least, to see how committed I am. And now the Queen of Hearts knows for sure what I’m after. And I—I killed at least some of those guards…”
