by Robert McKay
Alice smiled down at Dee, snoring loudly on his cot. He may not be very smart, but he was loyal and kind and she couldn’t ask for much more in a friend. “How long have I been asleep?”
“For most of the day,” said Dum, pointing at the windows in the back of their cells. “It’s almost dark.”
“Where’s Lyla?”
“She’s right here,” said a tiny voice near her feet.
"Oh, Lyla," said Alice, trying to keep a smile off her face. "I know they didn't capture you, so why ever are you here?"
"I didn't want to leave you alone," said Lyla, a shy smile lighting up her small face until she cleared her throat. "Besides, the guards were talking about feeding you to the Jabberwock, so I thought I might be able to get my revenge if I tagged along."
Alice held out her hand for Lyla to climb aboard and raised her to her face immediately when she did. She nuzzled the tiny dormouse with her cheek, the closest thing she could think of to a hug with a person so small. Lyla, for her part, squeezed Alice's cheek and then pretended not to care.
"So, what's this about the Jabberwock?" asked Alice.
"Don't really know much. Just heard one of the guards going on about how beheading was too good for you, and that you'd make a good snack for the Jabberwock." Lyla climbed up Alice's arm and took a seat on her shoulder.
"What do you think, Dum?"
"I think that whatever it is, it can't be good," said Dum, sighing. Alice urged him to continue. "The queen loves a good beheading, so if she's not going to do that, what she has planned is going to be much worse."
"I don't think it could get much worse than beheading," said Alice. Her whole body shivered at the thought.
"Oh, there's plenty worse than beheading," said Dee, sleep still heavy in his voice.
Lyla glared at him, but his eyes were still half closed and she was so tiny that he didn't notice.
"There's flaying, boiling, dismemberment, eating alive--"
"Dee," said Dum, his voice a hoarse growl.
Dee took in the horrified look on Alice's face and lowered his head. "Sorry," he muttered.
Alice shook her head, trying to dislodge all of the horrible thoughts that were conjured up by Dee's words. They didn't want to be dislodged though. Now all she could do was picture herself in each of those situations and others she remembered from the more grisly pirate tales she'd read. Her breath came in short ragged gasps and her vision started to go dark at the edges.
"Long, deep breaths, Alice," said Lyla softly in her ear. "Nice and slow. Don't you worry now. I won't let any of that stuff happen to you. Do you believe me?"
Soft paws stroked the hair behind her ear and Alice focused on the soothing words that Lyla kept repeating in her tiny, husky voice. Slowly, her breathing returned to normal and her vision cleared from the dark tunnel it had been reduced to. The images of torture still danced in the back of her mind, but they weren't overwhelming any more.
"Well, well, well," said a cold feminine voice from the corridor. "Down here just a few hours and already you've made friends with the rats. How fitting." The queen glared at her with such malice that Alice took a step back. "Watch out little rat, before you know it, this one will steal your most prized piece of cheese and use it against you." She held up her right hand and brandished the vorpal sword. "I doubt you'll have the resources to take it back from her like I did though. You see, little rat, I always get what I want and nobody ever gets away with taking what's mine."
"Hide," Alice whispered to Lyla.
"Never," said Lyla, stiffening her back and raising her chin proudly.
"Guards!" called the queen, her voice shrill and echoing in the close confines. A pair of card guards tromped up to her and saluted. "Why are there rats in my jail?"
The guards’ mouths dropped open and they looked at one another and then followed the queen's gaze over to Lyla, perched on Alice's shoulder. "Must have snuck in with the prisoner," said the guard bearing the number three. The other guard winced. His number was eight. He must have known that was a bad answer.
"How is there any sneaking going on in my jail?" asked the queen, her voice barely above a whisper and full of venom.
"I, um, I don't know, your majesty," replied Number Three, his lips trembling.
The queen's demeanor changed immediately. Her hateful sneer was replaced with a winning smile and her eyes glittered with sincere delight. "Well, then, that's just fine. If you don't know, you don't know. But what are you going to do about it?"
"I'm going to catch the rat and get rid of it!" said Number Three, seizing the words like they were a flotation device and he was lost at sea.
"Not bloody likely," retorted Lyla.
"How delightful," said the queen, clapping her hands with girlish enthusiasm. "And if you don't?"
"Then I'll resign my post?" asked Number Three after thinking for several seconds.
"Well, it will be hard for you to resign if you don't have a head, but I'd hardly think it necessary at that point," said the queen, her voice still dripping with honey.
By then Number Three was shaking so badly that his companion practically had to hold him on his feet. "Open two thirty-eight," called Number Eight down the corridor, and shoved his companion inside as soon as the plastic door to Alice's cell raised high enough to admit him. "Close two thirty-eight."
The guard stumbled into the cell and looked Alice over, his eyes wide with terror. Alice almost felt bad for him and then she remembered the bite of the baton that he carried at his waist and the lunges of all the guards trying to kill her in the lobby. "Where did it go?" demanded the guard.
Alice simply shrugged. Lyla had started moving the instant the door opened. She was gone so quickly that Alice wasn't even sure where she'd gone.
The guard spun around in circles, looking down at the floor. He drew his baton apparently planning to club Lyla to death. Still the little dormouse was nowhere to be found. After a few frantic seconds of spinning the guard turned to his companion standing outside. "Do you see it?" he begged.
Number Eight didn't so much as blink an eye. The queen nodded approvingly at him. "See, that's how you get to be an eight," she said, still in her painfully cheerful voice. "You don't disappoint your queen. Now, find that rat."
Alice pondered trying to steal the guard's sword which still hung from his belt, but discarded the idea. There was no way that would end well for her, even if she did manage to dispatch him. That was probably why Lyla hadn't used the open door as an opportunity to escape and try to do harm to the queen. Instead, she was currently climbing up Number Three's back.
The queen and Number Eight watched silently, the guard casting wary glances from his companion to his queen.
Number Three jumped and shouted, finally feeling Lyla on his back. "It's on me, it's on me," he screamed. For the moment, it appeared, he was more afraid of rodents than losing his life.
That was unfortunate for him, but it only seemed to provide the queen even greater joy. "Oh, it's just a rat," taunted the queen, her bright smile never wavering. She fingered the hilt of the vorpal sword idly. "Hit it with your club," she said helpfully.
The guard either took it as an order or thought it a helpful suggestion and began an ill-advised assault on his own back with his baton. Each time he struck, he called out with pain, but continued to rain blows on himself. None of them ever even came near Lyla, who had climbed around to his front and was just mounting his shoulder.
The guard must have caught a glance of her because he suddenly stopped flailing about and stood perfectly still, his whole body trembling.
"I'm no rat!" shouted Lyla, drawing her sword and running across the guards chest and stopping on his other shoulder.
The guard spluttered, his face wrinkling in confusion before a thin red line appeared on his neck. He dropped his club and it hit the tile floor with a loud rattle. The queen and Number Eight leaned forward, unable to see what was happening since the guard was facing away from them. Alice
had a perfect view. The guard reached up and clutched at his throat and tried to speak. Blood poured from his open mouth instead. A few seconds later it gushed around his fingers and he collapsed to the floor and began to convulse.
Lyla scurried over and climbed up to regain her perch on Alice's shoulder. "I'm a dormouse!" she said, wiping her sword clean on a rag and then sliding it back into her sheath on her back.
The queen clapped with delight. "Oh, that was wonderful. We should have more rats down here like that one. They could terrorize the prisoners before they go up to lose their heads!"
"I'll get on that as soon as we're done here, your Majesty," said Number Eight.
"Make sure they don't have swords though. I don't want them spoiling my beheading fun."
"Absolutely no swords, your Majesty," said Number Eight, nodding.
"Now, as for you, Alice, I have something even more fun in store. In a couple of hours you're going to earn back some of the esteem that I lost because of your little stunt with Karl." The queen hefted the vorpal sword. "You'll even get to play with your little toy some more."
"I don't want to play your sick games," said Alice. She crossed her arms and turned her back. She knew there was no way that anything the queen came up with would be good.
"That's fine dear, I could have my guards come and take you by force, but I won't. Instead I'll just start removing parts from your friends here every time you refuse," said the queen, her pleasant demeanor never faltering.
Alice spun around, her eyes wide. She knew that the queen would do exactly what she said, but there was still nothing to stop her from hurting her friends anyway once she did what was asked. "Fine, I'll do what you want, but you have to promise not to hurt my friends as long as I'm cooperating."
"Look at this!" said the queen, clapping her hands and grinning. "Even with no leverage the girl is bargaining. You could have gone far if you'd only learned to play along a little earlier." She shook her head and pouted her lower lip.
Alice opened her mouth, a denial on her lips, and then sighed, biting her words back. Nothing she said was going to change the queen's mind and if she went too far it could get her friends hurt. Still, she couldn't say nothing either. "I'm just sad that I didn't do more than cut off his arm," she said through gritted teeth.
"So much fire," said the queen, nodding appreciatively. "You'll need it in a few hours." She turned and marched off, Number Eight following behind her. "No harm will come to your friends as long as you're providing me with entertainment," she called back over her shoulder.
"This can't be good," said Lyla.
"Not at all," agreed Dee and Dum in unison.
"You should have just let her have us," said Dee. "We can handle it."
"I have no doubt you could handle it, my strong friend," said Alice. "I just know that I couldn't ever bear to watch it, and then, when I gave in, your sacrifice would have been for nothing. Better that I give in now while you are well and whole."
"You truly are a remarkable young woman," said Dum, a sad smile turning up one corner of his mouth. "If we get out of here, we'll follow you anywhere."
"Not me," said Dee. "I ain't following her into a room filled with snakes, no matter how many of my limbs she keeps on my body." He shuddered and then gave her a quick wink.
"Fine," said Dum with a laugh. "Anywhere but a room filled with snakes."
"Horrible creatures," said Dee, rolling his shoulders. "All squiggly."
Everyone had a good laugh again and then settled down in their cells to wait to see what the queen had waiting for Alice.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The next few hours were complete torture. There was nothing to do but sit and wait for the next terrible thing to happen. Dee tried to lighten the mood by juggling his boots and his balled up socks. It was amusing and everyone laughed and then returned immediately to sober silence.
Most of the time Alice just watched the sun set outside her window. It really was a beautiful sunset. It didn't matter what happened to her, the universe would continue. There would still be beautiful sunsets and love and heartbreak. What did it matter if she died?
Immediately, she thought of her parents. They didn't understand her, but she knew they would be devastated to lose her and that mattered. She didn't want to do that to them. That's when it struck her how much she truly missed home. Tears slid slowly down her cheeks. There didn't seem to be a way to make everything work out well. If she lived through whatever torture the queen was going to put her through, then the best she could hope for was to be stuck in this twisted world. Forever. At the queen's twisted beck and call.
"I wonder if that's what happened to Laxana?" she asked nobody in particular.
"I don't know what you're thinking, but you're a smart girl, you probably got it right," said the duchess, her voice thick with tears.
Alice turned to find the duchess standing outside her cell in normal clothes; gone was the beautiful gown and tiara. Her face was red and her eyes were puffy. "I'm so sorry this has happened to you Alice."
"It's not your fault," said Alice. She stood and walked over to the front wall of her cell and leaned her head on the thick plastic.
"It is. I was trying to keep you to myself so things like this wouldn't happen. I should have stepped in when she tried to give you to Karl. I was a coward."
"I said it's not your fault," repeated Alice. "I don't blame you for not wanting to lose your head for a girl you just met."
"But I should have tried. I heard what the queen is doing to you and your friends. You're willing to die for them and you just met them." Tears streamed down her beautiful face. Some people are ugly criers. Their face gets all red and splotchy and it creases in ugly ways. Laxana wasn't one of them. She just looked sad and sweet. "I guess if I were a stronger person I wouldn't have been here in the first place though."
"The queen did terrible things to you, didn't she?" asked Alice.
"Yes, she used my body to make her money, just like she had planned to do with you." She closed her eyes and leaned against the cell. "I let her think I'm a predator now, like the rest of her horrible court, so that I can save the girls that she finds before it's too late."
Alice longed to reach out and hug the duchess. She was just as much a victim as Alice was herself, maybe more so, since no one had been there to help her. "Don't cry," said Alice. "I'll be fine."
"That's what I kept telling myself," said the duchess, her eyes still closed, lost in private thoughts that Alice didn't want to even guess at. "And I still tell myself that every day. It's not fine. She still does horrible things to people, children, every day, and I do precious little to stop it. Nobody does."
"There's nothing you could have done," said Alice. Tears had started running down her own face. “You were just a child."
"And now I'm an adult and I'm going to do something about it." Laxana opened her eyes. Determination glowed behind them and her jaw was set. "I'm going to get you out of here," she whispered. She reached into the large purse slung over her shoulder and pulled out some sort of device with a metal tank on it. "This thing will cut you out of here in no time. I’ll distract the guards.”
“By letting them poke big holes in you with their swords?” hissed Lyla. “Put that thing away before you get us all killed even sooner.”
Laxana frowned at the dormouse. “But I have to do something.”
“You are doing something,” said Lyla. "You're helping save the kids that she brings through here. You are living in your own personal nightmare to save children. That takes strength. There may come a time when you find something else to do with that strength, but this isn't it."
Alice nodded and put a hand up to Laxana's face even though she couldn't touch her through the wall. "We can take care of ourselves. Just your being here gives me strength. Put that device away and talk to me. That's all I need right now."
Laxana stood up straight and put the device back into her purse. She wiped at the tears on her face and t
ook a slow deep breath. "You're right, the two of you. I can help in ways that won't get any of us killed." She reached out a hand and touched it to the plastic so that her palm met with Alice's. "Thank you, Alice, and you too, little dormouse."
Lyla stood up straight and beamed at Laxana. "You got it right, you called me a dormouse." She turned to Alice and said, "I knew there was a reason I liked her." To Laxana, she said, "Oh, and the name’s Lyla. Pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," said the duchess, managing a small smile.
After a short comfortable silence, Alice spoke up. "So, do you know what she has planned for me?"
Laxana frowned and shook her head. "Only that she was impressed with the way that you fought your way through her guards when you ran away, and that she's going to put you in the Imagisphere to do some sort of fighting contest."
"Well, that's more than I knew," said Alice. She rubbed her chin in thought. "I've heard a lot of talk about the Jabberwock from the guards. Is she going to put it in there with me?"
"I haven't heard anything from the queen directly about it, but I've heard the rumors too, so it's likely."
"Is it as bad as I've heard?" asked Alice, her eyes wide.
"Probably worse. Nobody's ever faced the Jabberwock directly and lived to tell the tale. Mostly she just puts people in the room with it so that it's roar can drive them mad. But it's a horrible beast with razor sharp claws as long as your arm and fangs as long as your leg. It breathes fire, and while I've never seen it fly, it does have wings."
"Thank you. Knowing what I'm up against helps," said Alice, giving her a half-hearted attempt at a smile.
"I'll be rooting for you," said Laxana. "If there's anyone that can do this, it's you. You've shown more fire and determination in the face of the queen than anyone I've ever seen. I know that it will serve you well in the Imagisphere."
"Thank you, Laxana," said Alice. She kissed her fingers and held them up to the plastic. "I'd kiss and hug you if I could. Don't do anything to put yourself in danger."
