“Come on…uh, Jack,” she said struggling to recall his name as she held out a hand to him. “We don’t have all day.”
“Who are you?” he said as he stood up brushing the dirt from his clothing. The woman put her arm around him.
“I don’t know. I think my name started with an L though,” the woman said. “But it doesn’t matter. I haven’t met you yet so you wouldn’t know me.”
She grabbed the person and gave a tug on the thing tied to her. They made their way up whatever it was called, and soon they saw something floating in the whatever that was. Someone else was pulling the thing tied to them and he was pulling them through the stuff. Then suddenly—
***
Jack and Lily tumbled down the embankment and fell into the boat, nearly knocking Haigha over the side as the leaves and dirt fell about them.
Names of things and their purposes immediately flooded back in to their thoughts.
“Jack!” Jack shouted out happily. “My name is Jack!” How easy it was for him to remember his name now. “How did you find me?”
Lily groaned as she untied the yarn. “You’re lucky. That’s twice I saved you, Jack. Living backwards means you can remember things that have already happened and things that haven’t happen yet. So as long as I remembered not meeting you, it would not have been possible to have forgotten your name. It gave me a little bit of protection in there. But I am woefully out of practice. If I had been in there much longer I would have forgotten things as well. The yarn rope was so I wouldn’t get lost.”
Jack looked at the sheep. “You made the rope knowing I’d get stuck in there. Why didn’t you stop me in the first place?” he voice strained in exasperation.
“I made the rope simply because you had already gone into the woods. I just started it earlier so I had more time to finish it. If you were not going to go into the woods I never would have made it in the first place! So the fact that I was already making means that you were already going to end up in the woods. I tried to warn you before you climbed up the mushroom. Feather!” the sheep remarked defensively, “and you are welcome!” she huffed.
“Okay, Mother,” said Lily, trying to calm her mother down. “Please watch your language. Everyone is safe. Jack, did you get enough pieces of the mushroom?”
Jack reached into his tunic and pulled out a two pieces of the magical fungus. “Just this,” he sighed. “But I don’t know which sides they are from.”
“No more souvenirs, Jack.” The sheep scolded.
Haigha shook his head, “offlanders,” he grumbled to himself. Using one of the oars he pushed away from the steep embankment and they continued along their journey.
CHAPTER 44
A CLOAK, BELT, SWORD, CAP AND SOME SHOES
Wonderland, Two Weeks Prior
A soft, yet urgent knock fell upon the heavy double door s of Queen Alice’s private chambers.
With a click the door slipped open and Alice quickly closed the door behind her, locking it with one hand behind her. She clutched a canvas bag, cinched tight with leather cording.
“I’m not accustomed to sneaking around my own palace, Jack,” she said, as she locked the doors behind her. “I brought you your old outfit, the one you arrived in,” she tossed it on the large four-poster canopied bed. From beneath the silken ruffles of the Queen’s bed, Jack rolled out. Quickly slipping a knife back into the sheath he held in his other hand, he tossed it on the bed next to the sack and started to loosen the leather cord.
“Just in case it wasn’t you,” he nodded at the knife.
Jack stood by the bed rummaging through the bag, as Alice stepped close to him. She touched him on the shoulder; he stopped and looked at her. Jack could see fear in the eyes of Wonderland’s queen.
“I saw the letter. It was in your handwriting. Anyway, it was enough evidence for the court. You didn’t steal them, did you? Tell me the truth,” she whispered. Alice’s eyes shined with welling tears.
“It was a forgery! Not my handwriting… It was not even signed. I swear to you. I did not steal the queen’s tarts,” Jack said, pleading desperately for Alice to believe him. “Rabbit is up to something. He’s been trying to set me up ever since you announced me King Apparent. Besides they are the tarts of the Queen of Hearts, mummified pastries, you want to talk about stale? Why is this even a big deal?”
“Because it is. It is a serious offense,” Alice stressed. “Wonderland is a world of chaos kept in line by the thinnest of rules.”
“Mad rules! Created by a mad world! How can you expect anyone to follow them? Where I come from, the first rule of rules is that rules are supposed to make sense,” Jack said as he pulled a simple faded undershirt down over his head.
“Obeying a rule, whatever it is makes the most sense. If the rule says don’t steal the queen’s tarts. Then that’s the rule,” retorted Alice.
“But I didn’t steal— oh never mind!” Jack said exasperated at the conversation. “Can’t you just pardon me? You are the Queen of Wonderland.”
“I nominated you for a King. Any obstruction or pardon on my part would be seen as favoritism through the vetting process. I’m not even supposed to help you at all,” Alice was close to crying, her voice quivered. “You have to get out of here Jack, it’s not safe. I cannot protect you anymore,” she said with sadness, “Even queens have rules to obey. It’s only a matter of time, Jack. Rabbit has all of the palace guards on alert.”
She reached up and softly brushed a fallen lock of walnut colored hair from his eyes.
“Rabbit’s back so soon? Damn. I hoped the Bandersnatch in Tulgey Wood would have delayed him a bit more,” Jack said and began to rummage about the sack, hastily gathering the last remains of clothing and tossed the empty sack aside.
“Where is the rest of it?” Jack asked as he rushed to dress in his army tunic and protective leathers. The same ones he wore when he climbed the beanstalk with the rest of the Marchenton’s doomed army.
“That was it. I checked your whole room,” Alice replied.
“Did you go to the chest in the back of my closet?”
“I looked,” Alice answered, “but it was empty.”
“It wasn’t empty,” Jack said disappointedly. “It was invisible. It was a cloak, a belt, sword, a cap and some shoes. It was all wrapped in the cloak. But it’s a cloak of invisibility. You wouldn’t have been able to see it. That’s why I said to reach into it. Damn it, Alice! I need those things,” Jack started towards the door. “I have to get them.”
“Don’t curse at me, I’m the Queen!” She pouted defensively behind her title. Jack paused and stared at her for a moment, giving only a single incredulous raised eyebrow of disbelief.
“Sorry, but I was in a rush trying to help you not get killed,” Alice shook her head trying to hold back tears. “Look, there’s no time now.”
“Helping me not get killed would have been to reach in and grab the items wrapped in my invisible cloak. Those were important,” Jack scolded. “Now it’s harder.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again defensively.
“No, I’m sorry,” Jack offered. “I know you were trying to help. We’ll figure something else out,” he said apologetically. He could see Alice was upset.
Then Alice’s gaze dropped away from Jack. “You have to leave.”
“I know,” Jack said, frustrated. He put his hand on her arm in reassurance. “I’ll hide out somewhere till this blows over.” He offered a scoundrel’s smile.
“Rabbit will find you anywhere in Wonderland. I mean… you have to leave Wonderland. You have to go back to your land. I don’t want you to, but if you are caught they’ll take your head.”
Alice pulled away, doing her best to fight through tears; she stepped over to the wall and pulled a red tapestry back. “Rabbit has all of the looking glasses in Wonderland locked down to prevent your escape. But there is one other way.”
Behind the solid colored tapestry she revealed an empty wall with a damask wallpaper
pattern. At the bottom was a small door, barely a foot tall.
“This escape tunnel will connect to that secret passage that we take to get to the boat dock on the river for our getaways. My footman, Frog, will take you by boat to the Isle of Snark.”
“I’m not getting small,” Jack pointed down to the tiny door, “no way.”
Alice ignored him and continued, “On the Isle of Snark is a small ruined temple with a looking glass. It’s old and mostly forgotten. It was used to connect to an ancient temple back on your world. Just use the phrase I taught you.”
“The thing about brillig and slithy toves? Yeah I remember,” said Jack. “I thought you said Rabbit locked down all the looking glasses?”
“Yes, in Wonderland. But not on the Isle of Snark,” she smiled, “which is not in Wonderland proper. I don’t think Rabbit had thought of that one… yet.”
She held up a small delicate looking bottle with a clear liquid. “I love you, Jack Spriggins,” Alice whispered, tears freely rolling down her checks. “And I believe you are innocent. But you have to run. I will sort this out and clear your name. I will come and find you.”
She reached up and kissed him passionately a last time.
There came a clamoring of armored footsteps and a sudden authoritative pounding on the door.
“My Queen, we must check your quarters!” shouted the voice of a palace guard as the door handle shook hard in its locked position. “Please!”
Jack pulled away from the kiss. “Thank you Alice.”
“Do you love me, Jack?” Alice whispered to him as the knocking pounded in heavy thuds. Jack grabbed the bottle, plucked the stopper off and emptied the bottle in a swig, noting a pleasant mixture of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast flavor.
“You are my Queen of Hearts,” he replied with a slight smile as he quickly shrunk to ten inches tall.
“I wish I could go with you,” Jack heard Alice say but he was now too tiny to continue the conversation. With a wave goodbye, Jack scampered through the tiny door and into the dark tunnel. He heard the drapery fall back into place behind him as he closed the tiny door just before he heard the muffled sounds of guards entering the room he had just left and Alice angrily chastising them. The Isle of Snark he thought to himself. What would Marchenton look like after all this time away? Jack wondered. He had been glad to get away from the giants, and living in a royal palace with Alice these past few months had been incredible, Jack thought. A chance for a brand new life and he all but left his poor commoner life behind in Marchenton. But then, Jack thought, there were always thoughts about… her.
Ella.
***
wonderland, present day.
They rounded a sharp bend in the river and much to Jack’s surprise; the old sheep bleated rather loudly that they had arrived at the palace.
“See my boy; the less you try to get somewhere, the quicker you end up there,” the sheep said with a proud nod as her glasses slipped down her soft velvety snout.
Jack leaned back in the boat, “Okay, you got me. I don’t understand how it works or why. But you were right.”
“Understanding how something works takes all the fun away from the thing actually working. The problem with you offlanders is you try to apply logic to things that don’t need logic to exist, obviously it happened so logically it must work.”
“Alright Mother,” Lily spoke up. “Jack said you were right, you don’t need to make a fuss about it.”
Jack recognized the steep cliff wall that flanked one side of the river, with dense overgrown trees and brush that hung over the bank. From here he and Alice would travel the river in disguise, away from her duties as queen, as the two reminisced about their offlander experiences. But Jack did not remember seeing the river full of so many boulders. The boulders varied slightly in size but none of them stood above the water less than six feet; some almost as wide as the rowboat themselves. There were dozens of them, all close together from one side of the bank to the other. Haigha stopped rowing and pulled the oars up from the water.
“Why did you stop rowing?” Jack asked.
“There’s a problem,” Haigha said. “There’s no way we can get through that.”
“That’s not the problem,” Lily said. “It’s a bale of mock turtles, and a huge gathering of them, no less.”
Jack looked again at the boulders. “Those … those are turtles?” he said in disbelief.
In the distance Jack could see the small cave opening that he knew led to the underground tunnels and into the palace. There was a small rocky sandbar there, enough for a small rowboat to land. But there was another huge rock on the beach that Jack knew was not there before. It was very large, taking almost the whole sandbar and blocked the entrance. Jack also noticed that all of the boulders he saw were similar in the rough, lumpy shaped and a mottled green color.
As he looked again, he saw a great head, like that of a giant cow, lift from the water slowly chewing, with a sad face and drooping ears. They seemed to take little notice of the boat.
“They are feeding on river lobsters,” the sheep observed. The slow current pushed the boat closer.
“Are they dangerous?” Jack asked. “One is blocking the entrance we need to get to.”
“They are not very dangerous. Dangerous I could handle… these are worse than dangerous. They are depressing.” Lily began to sniffle; tears began to fall from her eyes. “Mock turtles emit a pheromone that causes anything around them to cry and become very sad.”
“It’s a defense against predators.” The sheep too, began to cry as she explained through her sobbing. “The predator becomes too sad to try and eat it.” The old sheep broke down in tears.
Jack looked over at Haigha, who had curled up, withdrawn, and gazed forlorn at his reflection in the water.
“But I don’t feel anything,” said Jack.
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Lily cried. “You are an offlander.”
She leaned on her mother’s wool shoulder and sobbed uncontrollably. “It’s not fair,” she moaned in despair. “This whole thing is pointless,” Lily, choking back her tears was barely able to speak. “We’ll never get there, now.”
Under the obvious influence of the mock turtles, Haigha, Lily and her sheep mother fell into a deep depression, each lamenting their lives, wanting to only talk about their own problems and how dreadful everything was.
“I’ll never be queen, I wasn’t good enough,” Lily sobbed. “I should have never even left the old shop. Why did I even bother to try? I miss the shop, why can’t we just go back, like it used to be.”
Haigha said nothing, just a soft, barely audible sobbing as he continued to stare at his reflection.
Jack looked about. Everyone in the boat except him had collapsed, too sad and depressed to do anything.
“Come on, guys. Snap out of it. Things aren’t that bad, it’s just the mock turtles, you said it yourself.” Jack pleaded.
“No!” Lily cried. “It is that bad! It’s worse than that, you don’t understand. You are just a stupid offlander. Things are horrible right now! Everything is horrible. And it’s all your fault.”
“No Lily, it’s my fault,” the old sheep bleated through her sobbing. “I never should have let Alice take your place. I was a horrible mother to you. Look at me now; I’m just a lonely old sheep. Feather!” again Lily’s mother sobbed.
Then Jack realized there was a danger. That someone exposed to this for a long a period, might become so sullen that they may just give up on life entirely, too depressed to go on, they would enter a catatonic state, or worse. He feared that Haigha was already spiraling downward, so withdrawn he had become from everything around him. And it had all happened so fast.
The boat continued to float on at the mercy of the slow current, passing by several of the mock turtles as the stared dully back, chewing lazily in the river.
Jack had to do something. He had to get them away from the mock turtle
s.
“What happen to the oars?” Jack asked Haigha, suddenly realizing the oars the hare had pulled up were missing.
Haigha shrugged. “What’s the point? We’re never going to get out of this, Jack. I just let them float away, like my life is just floating away. I’ve served the White Queen all of my life and what do I have to show for it? Nothing.”
Jack looked back down the river and saw two paddles drifting far out of reach. He shook his head. “There is no time for this,” he grumbled.
Looking about the boat quickly, Jack found the yarn rope Lily’s mother had knitted; the one that Lily had used to save him in the forest.
“Looks like I get to return the favor,” He said.
“Why bother?” Lily mumbled. She had collapsed to the floor of the boat, her legs pulled up against her body. “It won’t work, Jack.”
“Yes it will.” Jack said. “It has to.”
He tied one end of the yarn rope to a cleat near the bow of the rowboat and tied the other end securely about his waist.
Then he gently eased himself over the side and into the river.
“You’ll probably drown, Jack.” Lily muttered. “We’ll all drown. And no one will ever know. It’s just as well, really.”
“Lily, shut up!” Jack shouted. “You are not helping.”
“I’m no help to anyone, don’t you get it? I’m useless!” overcome with sadness she began to sob again.
Jack began to swim toward the sand bank, the yarn rope becoming taught under the strain of the pulling. Nervously, Jack navigated through the gathering, trying not to get close to the large shells of the mock turtles that floated in the water. Swimming between two of them, their shells loomed on either side of him like a canyon. There were points when he feared he might be crushed as he made his way between them, warily grabbing on to their hard and slimy edges to pull himself along. Occasionally, the boat would rock and bang with a wet thud knocking against the one of the slow moving mock turtles.
Shards Of The Glass Slipper: Queen Alice Page 22
