Alice Games

by Michelle R. Reid

  “Of course,” White said in his silver voice. “How many years has it been since I was first picked as the Queen Candidate? Nineteen—twenty years?”

  She nodded and waited.

  “Do you remember the day I was chosen as the Queen Candidate? And you told me that Oz treats the Queens just like normal people. And that’s why the Queens don’t live any longer that other people. Yet, how old are you? One hundred? One hundred and five years old? It seems to me that Oz has extended your life.” He gave her a hard look.

  Her expression turned to pity. “It’s waiting for you to finally learn the lesson I taught you that first day.” She shook her head. “Oz won’t wait forever for you to let go of your pride—”

  “That’s not what I wanted to ask,” he cut her off. “My question was, why haven’t you died yet?” He turned, an ice blade forming over his hand.

  A yellow barrier appeared between them, and White’s sword thrust into it. He gritted his teeth and pushed harder. Oz’s protection wavered then suddenly cracked. Jewel Queen turned just in time for White to run her through the stomach.

  She gasped, blood trickling from her mouth, eyes wide with surprise. Her body jerked once, then went limp. White Wizard pulled his sword out and dumped her body on the ground.

  I screamed and covered my mouth with my hands.

  The room’s single scene broke into six different scenes surrounding me, cutting off the bloody balcony. The view looking out at Oz zoomed in all directions.

  On either side of me, so close I could reach out and touch it, the hologram’s ground splintered and cracked. I screamed again. This wasn’t real, but it was so realistic. The room shook so badly with the ground’s quaking it disoriented me. It sounded like a movie theater’s subwoofers were scattered around and turned up full blast.

  I clamped my hands over my ears but it didn’t do much good. The sounds vibrated through my chest and sent my ears ringing.

  Out of the cracks, sharp steeples erupted. Two castles thrust out of the ground, flanking me. Tall, thin and beautiful, they grew until the mirror images towered above the land. The one on the right could have been made out of rubies. The one on the left was made out of polished white marble that gleamed like diamonds.

  My knees gave out, and I collapsed to the ground. The image directly ahead of me displayed heavy mist, hanging just past a cliff. The mist began to swirl like a tornado, then suddenly the peaks of a green castle exploded through the clouds. It looked just like the other two castles, with multiple towers of different heights. But this castle wasn’t on land. It floated on the clouds. A drawbridge extended out of the huge, wooden front door and attached to the edge of the cliff. Emerald Castle. Where I was meant to be going.

  To my right in the small space between the Ruby Castle and Emerald Castle, a hologram of Red Queen appeared. She was seated in a plush chair, embroidering a piece of red cloth. Hareson sat at a desk next to her, a completely normal human and writing on a piece of parchment with a quill pen. As the ground started to shake, Red Queen and Hareson gasped and leapt to their feet, dropping what they were doing.

  “What is going on?” demanded Hareson.

  “The Queen!” Red Queen gasped in horror—she knew what had just happened.

  Hareson yelled in pain and bent over, clutching his head. Between his fingers, hare ears thrust out of his skull and extended up.

  “Hareson!” Red Queen screamed, and reached for him.

  A long, slender, red wand appeared in front of her face. It hovered in the air, glowing and sparkling softly.

  She gasped and stumbled back, staring at it. “What’s going on?”

  Face taut, Hareson gaped at the wand. “That—that’s the power of a Queen Candidate.”

  Red Queen’s eyes were wide as her right hand slowly reached out and grasped the wand. She started to glow red, her hair blowing back with the power. The glow faded, and she was left staring at the object in her hand.

  Between the Diamond Castle and the Emerald Castle, a hologram of a completely human Ace appeared. He lounged in a grass field, alone and staring up at the sky. As the ground began to shake, he jolted up to a sitting position and looked around in alarm. He faced my direction without seeing me and gasped, “The Queen!”

  His eyes widened in horror. “Red!” He jumped to his feet, then stumbled. Groaning, he bent over, clutching his head just like Hareson had.

  “What’s going on?” Ace gasped. Cat ears popped out of his orange hair and a long tail sprang out of the seat of his pants.

  He didn’t have time to investigate his new ears or appendage. The ground at his feet wrinkled, then cracked open, nearly knocking him from his feet. A long golden sword in a gold sheath rose out of the hole and floated in the air at eye level.

  Ace’s mouth dropped open. “A sword?” he whispered and glanced at the ground around him. “Why are you giving me a sword?” He wasn’t talking to himself, he was talking to Oz. He reached out and grasped the hilt.

  Gravity took hold of the blade, and it fell until Ace’s strength took over. His right hand grabbed hold of the handle, and he pulled out the sword. He stared at the double blade in confusion.

  The front door to the floating Emerald Castle slowly opened. A girl about twelve years old peeked her head out. “Hello? Is anyone there? Hello?” She walked out of the castle, blonde hair and blue dress swaying in the updraft from the cliff’s edge. “What a curious place,” she muttered. “Did I hit my head when I fell down that hole?”

  The image’s shaking and rumbling intensified. Holographic rocks fell from above, disappearing when they touched the ground. Mouth open, I looked up. Jewel Queen’s castle was crumbling, falling apart like it was held together with wet glue. Screams and the sound of stone ripping from stone filled the air. All at once the castle collapsed on itself, sandwiching all its layers into one, forming the maze I hated so much.

  It was enough. I was done with this place. Clawing at the ground, I scrambled to my feet and staggered to the door of the actual room. The ground wasn’t shaking but the images moved so much that my balance was off. I grabbed the side of the door and pulled myself through. The images immediately disappeared, but my heart was still pounding.

  “So the Alice Games began,” whispered Winstum and Dean.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Where was the exit? How could I get out of here? I didn’t want to see anymore. I knew they were just visions, but they really happened. It was real. And I wanted to get out. Now.

  I pelted down the corridors, taking every right turn as they came. It didn’t matter how many times I turned; there was never an exit, only endless hallways and rooms.

  Once I entered a room, and a scene appeared. A young woman—probably an Alice—stood in front of the Emerald Castle. She was beautiful in a blue dress, with her long blonde hair in curls down her back. She looked around at the people staring at her, then adoringly up at Ace by her side. He stood with his hand on his sword, body tense and a worried expression on his face.

  No, no more scenes. None of this made sense anyway. Why was Oz showing me these things? I didn’t even wait to see what the Alice was going to say, just turned and ran out of the room and took the next right.

  Finally I saw a difference from the dull gray of the stones. Light reflected off the wall ahead.

  The opening. I had finally made it to the end of this horrible maze. I rounded the corner, relief trying to choke me, and promptly skidded to a stop.

  It was an opening, an exit to the maze, but not one that I wanted.

  Snow fell thick just on the other side of the maze’s threshold, like there was a glass door keeping it out. Through the snow, blackened trees drooped under the weight of their burdens and past that, the outline of tall white castle peaks.

  This wasn’t a scene like everything else I’ve seen, this was an actual opening. Snow. This was White Wizard’s Domain.

  Movement between the trees made me gasp and lunge back around the corner of the maze. Heart p
ounding a million miles per hour and all the hair on my body standing up, I peeked around the corner back at the opening.

  An ice monster stood just outside the threshold of the maze, the vacant void of its eyes fixed on my location.

  A lightning bolt of fear seared down my back. I slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle a small scream.

  It lifted a clawed hand. It pressed against an invisible barrier between the Domains, gnashing its jaws together in frustration when it couldn’t get through.

  My hands shook as I slid around the corner and pressed my back against the cold wall. “It can’t get in. It can’t get in,” I repeated over and over to reassure myself.

  It was small comfort. It was bad enough that I was stuck in this maze with these bloody scenes, adding ice monsters roaming the area would be worse.

  My heart started to slow down some. I puffed out a breath and looked up at the cloudy sky. “Why did Oz bring me to the Diamond Castle?”

  White Wizard wanted to kill me. That was a fact. He wanted to kill me and Red Queen. Everyone else was too lowly for him to care about, that much was apparent. But what about Ace? What made Ace so special that White Wizard still kept him around?

  Ace was the Cheshire Cat. He wasn’t always, but apparently he’d been doing White Wizard’s bidding for a long time. I’d just witnessed that. It was one of the few things I understood.

  It felt like there was a black hole in my chest, threatening to suck out all my air and leave me numb. I shouldn’t be numb, I shouldn’t be so upset about Ace betraying me. It had been just words so far—Red Queen’s words. Nothing in Ace’s actions had shown that he intended to hurt me.

  It was all becoming too much. My emotions were in shambles, between thoughts of Ace and what I should do about Red Queen, and my nerves were strung about being lost in this stupid maze.

  But it wasn’t just any maze. I knew that now. It was the remnant of Jewel Queen’s castle. Another testament of how White Wizard had hurt Oz. And for what? His father’s pride, then finally his own? Because he couldn’t understand the lesson Jewel Queen was trying to teach him?

  Red Queen wasn’t chosen until after Jewel Queen died. Did anyone ever give her the same lesson? Was she ever taught anything about her role? What a heavy weight to have to try and figure it all out alone.

  “Gah!” I clamped my hands over my ears. “Does anything in Oz make sense?”

  I was seriously done with this maze. I pushed off the wall and hurried back the way I’d come. The hall divided into three. I stopped, frowning at the yellow path highlighting the whole floor. The reason why I came down this hall originally was because it was the next right turn in my constant right-only path. A logical path.

  What was is that Red Queen said? There was more to Oz than logic. After all, the very emotions of the Queen affected Oz.

  Frowning, I looked over my shoulder down the path to Diamond Castle. So the logical path took me to White Wizard. And Red Queen was anything but logical.

  I should continue my right-only path, there was such a high chance of walking in circles if I didn’t. Instead, I walked forward and went down the middle path. A part of me was hoping that a magic door would suddenly pop up and let me out now that I didn’t choose the logical path. It didn’t.

  It was just a long, skinny corridor. Then a short, fat one. Sure that I was going in circle now, I took the next left.

  “Shh!”

  “Shh!”

  I jumped and looked around wildly. Like before, Dean and Winstum weren’t physically there. But the urgency in their voices made the hair on the back of my neck rise.

  “He’s here.”

  “Quiet. He’s here.”

  Heart pounding like a jackhammer, I looked around. White Wizard? Was he mad that I wouldn’t go into his Domain? I wanted to call out and ask who was here, but at the same time, that could give away my location to whoever it was.

  Calm down, I ordered myself. Panicking wasn’t going to do me any good, and I’d already done a lot of it lately. I took some big breaths, working on slowing my heart rate.

  “Your fur’s all ruffled,” a lazy voice said from above me.

  I jerked toward the sound. The air whooshed out of me in relief. “Ace.” Then I paused. Should I be relieved?

  He lounged along the top of the wall, dressed in the same clothes as this morning—shirt included. His chin rested in the palm of his hand, and his tail flicked lazily. Brown eyes stared down at me in curiosity, even if he didn’t make any move to join me on the ground.

  I leaned against the opposite wall and looked up at him, surprised how just his appearance slowed my blood pressure. He was the enemy, right? Careful not to lose my cool, I asked, “What are you doing up there?”

  “Watching,” he responded.

  I shook my head. “How long have you been there?” And how had he gotten his shirt back? Not that I expected him to run around without one. But apparently he was able to sneak into Red Queen’s tent and get it without anyone knowing. In the short time it took me to put it down and walk across the camp. Not an easy feat.

  His shoulder jerked. “Not long. You’re pretty lost, aren’t you?” His head cocked to the side. “And shaken.”

  I let out a breath and looked away, my hand coming up to tug at my hair. Honestly, after what I’ve seen, who wouldn’t be? Still, it was a policy of mine not to show that side of me to anyone. My lips thinned in annoyance. “Is it that obvious?” I glanced back up.

  His ears twitched as he nodded. “Yes.”

  I sighed in defeat. Well, at least only one person saw me lose my head. “Sorry about that. I’m not used to seeing scenes and people appear out of thin air.”

  “Scenes?” Ace eyes widened processing my words. “You mean, Oz is talking to you?” Shock laced his voice. He sat up and looked around, body poised and alert. “Here? In the Jewel Castle ruins?”

  “Oz is talking to me? Is that what’s going on?”

  “What did you see?” His eyes were serious for once.

  I stared up at him, trying to figure out what I should tell him. It would be nothing new to him, right? After all, a lot of what I saw involved him. It seemed like everyone knew when Jewel Queen died and how, so it wouldn’t be interesting. And I’m sure everyone knew that White Wizard wasn’t a fan of Red Queen. That left one scene. When White Wizard murdered someone for the first time and Ace failed to arrest him.

  I played the scene over in my mind. Ace had tried to do the right thing in the beginning. It wasn’t until Red Queen was threatened that he caved. To protect her.

  I frowned. Ace was given a sword when Jewel Queen died, just like Red Queen was given a wand. That didn’t seem like the type of sword to just leave lying around. Why hadn’t I ever seen it on him? I’d only seen knives.

  “Ali?” Ace prompted.

  I blinked and focused on him. “Ah, sorry.” My hand flapped casually. “I don’t think I saw anything interesting to you. I don’t even understand what I saw.” It was only a half-lie.

  His ear twitched, but he didn’t contradict me.

  Sighing, I turned in a circle and gazed at the walls. I needed to change the subject. “I just wish I knew how to get out of here. If I could at least see where I was going, it would make things so much better. I hate running around without a point of reference.”

  My feet stopped, facing Ace up on the wall. A thought came to me so strong that my palm slapped my forehead. How stupid. I could have seen where I was going this entire time. And maybe I would have been spared all the anxiety and might not have seen those awful things. Why hadn’t I thought of climbing the walls? Only—Ace was up there now. If I went up there, that would be putting me in arm’s length of him. And I didn’t know if I could trust him—he was the Cheshire Cat. That said, I couldn’t stay here forever. The clock was ticking for me, and I was who-knows-how-far from the way home.

  Ace continued to watch me like I was an interesting movie.

  Determined, I faced the wall under h
im and took a breath. I really wasn’t athletic but I was going to attempt it anyway. The wall was seven feet tall. I only had a foot and a half to climb, as long as my spaghetti arms didn’t give out. I didn’t really want an audience right now, especially one that was trying not to smile over how serious I was being.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Something smart. Or something stupid. I’ll tell you in a minute,” I muttered.

  With that, I ran at the wall. My right foot lifted, connected with the wall and boosted me up. Encouraged, my left foot tried to mimic the movement. I went another foot up before the turf under my boot slipped. Gasping, I lunged forward and clung to the top of the wall, my head leaning over the corridor next to me. The dirt was a long way down from here.

  Ace leapt to his feet and reached for me. “What in Oz are you doing?” He grabbed my arm and started to pull me to my feet on top of the wall.

  My breathing came in shallow little gasps. “If I can see where I’m going, I can find my way out of here. Why wander aimlessly in the maze when I can just walk on top of it and be done all the sooner?” My body shivered up to a standing position.

  His daredevil smile opened wide over his handsome face. “That’s clever. However ...” He didn’t finish.

  Suddenly the wall jerked. Or maybe the ground did. Whichever the case, the wall that was only seven feet tall rose to be twenty feet tall.

  Ace bent his knees to adjust to the sudden change in height, the gleam of a challenge in his eyes.

  I yelped and grabbed at Ace. One hand clutched the material over his heart while my other arm clamped around his neck. My teeth clenched as I buried my face into his chest—enemy or not.

  He wrapped an arm around my waist and grabbed my elbow with his other hand. He wobbled us back into balance, then waited.

  When the wall stopped shaking, I glanced down at the ground, suddenly so far away. “What just happened?” My voice was fainter than I wanted it to be.

  He stared down at me, ears twitching mischievously. “What? Are you scared of heights?”