The Wisdom of Madness: The Ministry of Curiosities, Book #10

by C. J. Archer

  She turned her attentions to Gus. "Make sure he makes a better choice than me," she whispered. "And say goodbye to the orphans and your aunt. I shall miss them."

  She thought she heard him choke back a sob but when he stepped away, he didn't lift his face, so she couldn't tell.

  Then came Seth's turn. They shared an awkward hug. Alice could think of nothing to say to him and he offered nothing in return. Her throat was too clogged with tears anyway.

  She cried when she hugged Charlie, and she felt Charlie's small frame shudder with emotion. Alice had few friends growing up, isolated as she had been by her parents. Charlie was her first true friend. Somehow, through her tears, Alice managed to tell her so.

  "And you are mine," Charlie said into Alice's shoulder. "I'm going to miss you."

  "And I you. Take care, Charlie. Stay safe. Remember me."

  "Of course I will. Do not forget your promise to visit."

  "I will, first chance I get." Neither mentioned the unlikelihood of that happening.

  Alice stepped toward Sir Markell and lifted her chin. She closed her hands into fists and dug the fingernails into her palms to stop them shaking. She would not let him see her fear. "I am ready."

  "No!" Seth grabbed her hand. "Don't do this, Alice. We'll fight them. We'll fight them all. You don't have to go." The anguish twisting his features almost undid her. Did he really love her that much? Or was his chivalric pride dented because he felt he hadn't protected her?

  "I want to go, Seth. I am a princess of Wonderland. This is my destiny." They may be only words but they ricocheted through her. This felt right. It was her destiny, no matter what Leisl said about free choice. Alice didn't belong here, she never had. She belonged in Wonderland.

  Home.

  Sir Markell escorted her outside ahead of the general. The wall of soldiers spread across the lawn watched her, some openly curious and others indifferent. The sun struck their swords, and she raised a hand to shield her eyes from the glare. Several of the soldiers took that as a sign of hostility and shifted their stance. Beside her, she felt sure she heard Sir Markell huff out a humorless laugh, but when she looked at him, his jaw was rigid.

  He directed her forward and down the steps. He did not touch her but she felt his presence keenly. He was so tall—so broad and masculine. Even if she wanted to get away from him, she doubted it would be possible. It was definitely impossible to get away from the army. Charlie could not raise enough corpses in time to save her now.

  Alice blew out a measured breath, but it did nothing to calm her racing heart. "Is the journey to Wonderland difficult?"

  "No," Sir Markell said. "It'll be over in a flash, and you won't feel a thing. Your Highness, when we get there—"

  "Sir Markell!" The general strode toward them holding a watch by its chain. "Bring the prisoner to me."

  Prisoner. Alice's insides recoiled. "My name is Alice." She thought she saw Sir Markell smile before he looked away.

  General Ironside hesitated. "Miss Alice, if you please." He held out his hand and she took it. The soft leather of his glove was warm against her bare hand.

  She wished she'd thought about practical matters like gloves, a coat and a good pair of boots instead of her inside shoes. It might be cold in Wonderland, and prisoners were unlikely to be treated to comforts.

  The general began to chant some words and Alice felt a pulsing sensation in every fiber of her body. She lifted a hand in farewell to her friends standing on the steps of Lichfield Towers and tried so hard to hold back her tears. But Charlie looked so worried, so forlorn, that Alice couldn't help releasing a sob.

  "No!" Seth broke away and ran toward Alice.

  Charlie reached for him but he was too fast, and Lincoln's arm, clamped around her waist, too strong. Seth kept running, but he was not alone. Gus lumbered behind, his strides not nearly as graceful but he kept up a fast pace through sheer strength alone.

  "Seth!" Gus shouted after him.

  "Don't!" Charlie cried out, struggling against Lincoln.

  Lady Vickers screamed. She picked up her skirts and rushed forward, but she was too slow and too far away to reach him in time.

  Eva wasn't, however. She too broke away. Despite the hindrance of her skirts, she caught up to Gus. While he looked worried, she simply looked determined. David chased after her, shouting at her to stop. She paid him no mind.

  The pull of the watch's magic increased. Alice felt pieces of her begin to disintegrate, like dust caught in a breeze. She could still see Seth and the others coming for her and wondered if they saw her whole. They were so close now. Gus reached out a hand to grab Seth but missed and stumbled.

  "No further, Seth!" Alice shouted. But she couldn't even hear her own voice. The rush of air was too loud, like a waterfall. It filled her head, yet she continued to scream at Seth to stop.

  He did not stop. The edges of her vision blurred and blackened. The world closed around her, and all she could see was a tunnel filled with Seth, and behind him, Gus, Eva then David.

  Seth lunged. He knocked Alice, and she careened into Sir Markell who stood behind her. They all went down in a tangle of legs and arms, and she landed heavily, knocking the breath from her lungs. Everything went dark.

  Slowly the light returned. It took her a moment to realize she was staring up at a sullen sky, the threat of rain hanging in the air. It had been sunny a moment ago.

  "Alice?" Seth's face came into view. He looked worried. "Are you all right?"

  "I…I think so." She held out a hand for him to assist her to stand, but Seth didn't take it. Sir Markell stepped in and lifted her. He held her until she felt steady. Alice touched her aching head. She must have hit it on the ground when she landed.

  "You fool," Sir Markell snarled. "You damned fool. You don't belong here!"

  Seth didn't appear to hear him. He was too busy taking in his surroundings. Behind him, David dusted off his trousers while Gus helped Eva to stand. She quickly glanced around before her gaze settled on Seth, as if she needed to satisfy herself that he was all right.

  The twinge of jealousy in Alice's chest quickly faded as she too took in her surroundings. They were all there—her friends, Sir Markell, his father the general, the army and even their catapult and battering ram. They stood in a grassy meadow edged with trees on three sides. To their left, the wooden buildings and thatched roofs of a village belonged to a different time. But it wasn't a different time; it was a different place.

  Behind the village, a road coiled up a hill like a snake and disappeared behind high stone walls. Castle turrets and towers erected from the same dark gray stone rose above the walls like stern governesses overseeing their charges in the village far below.

  The thread of a distant memory tugged at Alice, but when she reached for it, she couldn't grasp it. The thread disappeared before she could make sense of it.

  She didn't need to remember to know where she was. "Wonderland," she whispered.

  "Welcome home, Your Highness." Sir Markell's whisper brushed her ear and stirred something within her, something as small and fragile as a butterfly's wings.

  She looked sharply at him. He winked.

  "Sir Markell!" the general barked. "What are you saying to the prisoner?"

  "Alice," Alice reminded him without taking her gaze off Sir Markell. She wanted him to wink or smile again, something that marked him as a friend, not an enemy.

  "Get away from her." It wasn't the general who snapped at Sir Markell and pulled him back but Seth. He was all heaving chest and clenched fists, not a shred of fear in his eyes as he stared down the man who had an army at his back.

  Sir Markell crossed his arms.

  "You shouldn't have come, Seth," Alice said. "Now you're stuck here too. And them."

  Poor David had gone rather green, so different to his sister. Her curious, clever gaze darted about. Gus stood behind Seth, backing him as he always did. They might bicker but they loved each other like brothers. It was no surprise that Gus ha
d followed Seth through the portal.

  "Don't worry about us," Seth said to her. "We're not under arrest."

  Thank God.

  But Alice's relief was shattered when the general shouted, "Seize them!"

  Chapter 3

  Eva

  Eva clasped David's hand. She felt him tremble and wished he hadn't come. He wasn't made for this. He wasn't like Seth and Gus, with their fighter training, brawny physiques and experience with the otherworldly. David was made for desk work, not brawling. Their mother had been determined that her children wouldn't grow up too Romany, afraid as she was of the discrimination that clung to their culture, but in doing so, she had perhaps raised them to be too English.

  Eva hardly dared breathe as several soldiers broke ranks to detain them. Despite knowing things the others didn't, Eva was afraid. She had not foreseen this. She had not foreseen anything at all of Wonderland and their time in it, but she had seen beyond. She had trusted her mother's instincts too. She had foreseen some of this. When it became clear to Eva why Leisl had left her the message to go to Lichfield, she had accepted her fate.

  What scared her was David's part to play. Their mother had not mentioned him being here. He wasn't supposed to be there.

  "No!" Alice cried. "They're innocent! It's me you want. Let them go."

  "They are not under arrest," the general said. "But they must come with us until we know what to do with them."

  "And who decides that?"

  "The queen."

  "So no one can visit Wonderland without the queen's permission?" Alice scoffed. "That's ridiculous."

  "She has you there, Father," Sir Markell said lightly.

  The general shot his son a flinty glare. "I am your general. You will address me as such, Sir Markell." To Alice, he said, "These are exceptional circumstances. Your friends will try to rescue you and so must be kept under guard. They will not be harmed and will be returned to your realm, if that's what the queen wishes."

  What he did not say, but what Eva feared, was that the queen might want them dead.

  Seth and Gus struggled until one of the soldiers punched Gus in the jaw. "We'll go quietly," Seth assured them, hands in the air in surrender. He slowly lowered them again and sought out his friend's shoulder.

  He looked as Lincoln often looked—serious, in command, as taut as a drawn bow. He'd never looked more dangerous or more appealing.

  Eva licked dry lips.

  The general directed half of the army to lead off. They formed themselves into two columns and marched toward the village. The second half fell into step behind the prisoners. Eva was under no illusions—they were prisoners in this strange land, no matter what the general claimed.

  Alice fell back from Sir Markell and into step alongside Seth. "You shouldn't have followed me," she said. "They are all here because of you."

  "I can't let you face this alone." Seth glanced over his shoulder at Gus, Eva and David. "They shouldn't have followed me."

  "Where you go, I go," Gus said.

  Seth's features softened a little, making him seem more like himself. Would he ever return to being the happy-go-lucky boy-man she knew? Eva suspected it would depend very much on what happened here in Wonderland. She wished she knew what to do, what to say. She liked that old, familiar Seth. Liked him very much.

  Seth scowled at her over his shoulder. "Why did you come, Eva?"

  He made her feel like a naughty child who'd been caught in a room she shouldn't be in. He'd never been anything other than charming to her. The change unnerved her, made her feel more off-balance than being in a strange land did. "I'll be needed."

  His brow plunged but it was Alice who spoke. "You shouldn't have come. None of you should have. This is my destiny, not yours."

  "Don't tell me where my destiny lies," Eva spat.

  Alice bristled and Eva regretted her harsh tone. This wasn't Alice's fault, and Eva needed to remember that she didn't know what Eva knew. As far as Alice was concerned, Eva ought to be home in England, training to become a nurse. She didn't know that Eva's life was based on a lie or that their fates came to a crossroads in Wonderland.

  "She's right," David said. "You shouldn't have come, Eva."

  Eva sighed. She didn't want to fight with him too.

  The village was like something out of a storybook. The buildings were made from a mixture of dark stone and wood with pitched slate roofs. None were higher than two levels, and all were crammed close together on streets as narrow as some of London's alleys. The streets themselves were little more than cleared strips of compacted dirt with trenches dug on either side to act as gutters. There were no pavements to speak of, and thanks to recent rain, the soldiers' boots flicked up mud as they marched. Eva's skirts quickly became caked in filth. Thank goodness she'd worn boots, not soft indoor shoes like Alice. The satin wasn't made for these conditions. Her feet must be squelching.

  Word quickly spread among the residents. All along the street, windows and doors opened and curious faces peered out to watch them pass. They murmured to one another and whispered behind their hands, but there was no hostility in their eyes. It was difficult to gauge the general mood, however. Whenever Eva thought she detected hope in one set of eyes, she'd see sorrow in the neighbor, or fear, even wariness. More than one young man admired Alice, the beautiful, fair former princess of this land. Did they remember her? Did they want her back? Or were they glad to see her being led to prison?

  Eva's questions were answered, in part, when one elderly man bowed as Alice passed. "Have faith," he said quietly. "All is not lost."

  Alice paused and gaped at him.

  A soldier broke ranks and lifted his sword to strike the man.

  "Halt!" The general pushed forward. "Leave him be."

  "But, sir—"

  "I said leave him!"

  The soldier fell back into formation.

  "Think you can protect her, Loren?" the old man said. The two men must have known one another well to be on a first name basis. "Think the queen'll treat her fairly?"

  Ironside ignored him.

  The walk through the village was excruciatingly slow. Eva felt like a sideshow act at the fair—ogled, assessed, gossiped about. Ironic, considering her mother had been a fairground fortune teller. It was how she'd met Lincoln's father—the Prince of Wales—and Eva's own father. She'd told both their fortunes and seen her future twined with theirs. Eva often wondered which event begot the other—did the events become true because her mother saw them and acted, or did her mother see them because they were inevitable?

  How much was fate really a choice? Her mother always said it was, but Eva couldn't be entirely sure. All she knew was that she had to come on this journey. She had to. If she hadn't…it didn't bear thinking about.

  The hidden vials sewn into the hem of her skirts bumped against her ankles. They were small, and safely protected by layers of gauze, yet she still felt they were as conspicuous as Alice's beauty.

  The walk became a steady climb as they approached the hill on which the castle stood. Guards standing to attention saluted as the procession passed through an iron gate. The road forked and many of the soldiers peeled off to the right to follow the branch that seemed to traverse the base of the hill, while the rest of the soldiers, the general, Sir Markell and the prisoners all forged onward and up.

  Dirt gave way to cobblestones, shielded on the steep side by a thick wall that reached to Eva's chest. The village below spread out like a blanket. It was bigger than she’d originally thought, sprawling along the valley before coming to an abrupt end on the banks of a wide river. Several small boats were docked there but no ships. It was nothing like the chaotic, industrious Thames.

  They passed through another gate, and then another, both topped with guardhouses and manned by soldiers. They stepped into a courtyard surrounded by a high, thick wall on one side and the castle wall on the other. There were two exits, not including the way they'd come, and Eva could see another courtyard up ahead thro
ugh an archway. People stopped what they were doing, except for a groom leading two horses away. He disappeared around the corner of the castle, his wide-eyed stare glued to Alice.

  Alice, however, wouldn't have noticed. She'd tipped her head back to look up at the castle. The bare stone walls were punctured by the occasional small window or arrow slit, and were topped with crenellated towers that punched heavenward. This was no Buckingham Palace, built to show off the monarch's wealth. It was a working castle, fortified to withstand sieges.

  A man dressed in a black tunic, belted at the waist, emerged from the castle's arched door. He walked briskly toward them and asked to speak with General Ironside.

  "What is it?" the general barked.

  The man spoke quietly then stepped back. He waited.

  The general frowned at him. "Even the— Even Miss Alice?"

  "Yes, sir."

  The general hesitated. It was the first sign of uncertainty Eva had seen from him. "I'd like to speak with someone of authority. Where is Lord Indrid?"

  "Indisposed, sir."

  "Convenient," Sir Markell muttered.

  "My instructions come from the queen herself," the man said. "She awaits your report in the war room. The soldiers can see to the prisoners."

  "They're not prisoners," the general told him. "They are our guests. Miss Alice, as a member of the royal family, should also be treated with respect and not thrown in the dungeons. I demand to speak to Lord Indrid."

  Dungeons!

  "So you are going to jail us," Seth said. "I might have known we couldn't trust you, Ironside."

  The general put up a hand for calm, but it was his son who spoke. "Allow me to speak with the queen before you decide where they should go." He stepped forward but the man blocked his way.

  "It has already been decided, Sir Markell. They are to go to the dungeons until Miss Alice's trial."

  "We ain't going nowhere," Gus said, crossing his arms.

  Seth stood by his friend, arms crossed too.

  Eva curled her fingers around David's hand. He patted her shoulder but it did nothing to soothe her nerves.