by Robert McKay
"I'd carry you away from here on my own back if I could, lovely girl. Don't worry about me. I'll take care of myself."
With that, Laxana left the jail. Alice pressed against the plastic wall to watch her go as long as she could. The duchess turned and gave her a wave just as she passed out of her sight.
None of her friends spoke for a while and that was just as well. Alice wanted some time to be alone with her thoughts. She pondered the nature of strength. She'd been taught all her life that strength came in one form: physical prowess. That was clearly an idea brought into being by strong people, probably men. Laxana was definitely strong in a different way. She'd lived through horrible things that Alice could only imagine and come out the other side unbroken. Just thinking about her gave Alice hope. Hope that she could make it through anything, despite her meager amount of physical strength.
"I've made up my mind," said Alice to nobody in particular.
"Made up your mind about what?" asked Dee.
"I've decided that I'm not going to die today," said Alice.
"That's a good decision to make," said Dee, a large grin spreading over his face.
"I'm going to thumb my nose at whatever the queen throws at me," said Alice, surprised to hear the steel in her own voice.
"Yeah!" said Dee, pumping his fist in the air.
"I'm going to make the queen wish that she'd never met me!"
"Yeah," cheered all three of her companions.
"No," said a card guard standing outside her cell. "You are going to be a very tiny snack for the Jabberwock, and all of Wonderland is going to watch you die." His grin was as malevolent as any that she'd seen on the queen. On his chest was painted the number ten. "Open two thirty-eight!"
A group of at least ten guards tromped up behind him, clubs at the ready. Their wicked hum filled the air, telling Alice that if they touched her, they would give her that horrible jolt of pain. They weren't taking any chances tonight. The queen was nowhere to be seen.
Alice looked up to find a security camera that she was sure the queen was watching on and gave her best smile before stepping out with the guards. Lyla had made herself scarce, and was now nothing more than a spot of warmth pressed against her thigh through the cloth of her pocket.
Unlike her last march down the hall of the jail, this time there were two prisoners pressed against their cell walls to watch her pass. Seamus and March were in cells near the other end of the jail. Too far away to be seen or talked to from her own cell. Seeing them there sunk her heart all the way down to her toes. She didn’t dare reach out to them or acknowledge them with more than a look, or her guards were sure to club her and probably them too. Already she could see the wildness in their eyes, the madness returning from too much time spent without their Tea.
Only a couple of hours ago, seeing them in those cells would have broken her, sending her into a spiral of depression and sobbing. Now, after her talk with the duchess and her newly found determination, seeing them trapped in this place because of her only stoked her fire further. She would survive this ordeal and she would find a way to rescue her friends.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The march to the elevator was awkward and the ride to the dock level of The Red Palace even more so. The guards didn't put away their clubs and they never let go of the pain buttons, so every move was a constant struggle not to accidentally take down one of their own or Alice. At one point there was a shout from the back of the elevator and the clatter of armor hitting the floor.
Alice did her best not to snicker. All this trouble for one little girl, she thought. It wasn't until she glanced around the elevator that she noticed most of the guards had bandaged injuries to their arms or legs. That time she did allow herself a small laugh. The guards pretended not to notice. These guards were the ones that she had defeated on her way out of The Red Palace the first time, and with that knowledge, she could see just how scared of her they were. She supposed little girls could be an awful lot of trouble after all. It was just the confidence boost she needed.
The elevator doors opened on the dock level and the guards ushered her out. They didn't go anywhere near The White Rabbit. Instead, they took a rather ordinary looking silver behemoth that could have held hundreds of soldiers. She was ushered to a seat and surrounded by guards, still clutching their batons with the pain button pressed.
The ride to the Imagisphere was uneventful, if quite a bit bumpier than their ride with The White Rabbit had been. Lyla stayed hidden away in Alice's pocket, wiggling every now and then, so Alice knew she was still well.
In a few minutes, the Imagisphere loomed large before them, its pale green atmosphere taking up most of the small window she could see from her seat. It looked perfectly calm and boring, but there was no telling what horrors waited inside it for her.
Upon landing, one of the cargo doors on the side of the ship opened and a brave guard took her by the arm and pushed her toward it. The rest clustered around and watched her walk down the ramp. None of them followed. As soon as her foot left the ramp, the door closed and a blast of air blew, pushing her hair into her face. Just like that, the ship was gone and she was left alone. Well, probably not alone, but without guards.
Alice brushed the hair out of her face and surveyed the land around her. The Imagisphere had been transformed into a thick jungle. Massive trees covered in moss and vines loomed around her and below them was a wall of dense greenery that would be hard to even walk through. The clearing the ship had left her in wasn't much larger than the ship itself.
At the far end of the clearing, something glinted in the light. It was strange that there was daylight in the Imagisphere when it had been dark on the planet below. It made sense in several ways, not least of which because the whole moon-sized place could make itself appear any way it wanted, but it was still strange to see.
Having been given no instructions, Alice decided to stay out of the jungle for the time being. The longer she looked at it, the less inviting it was. Jungles were always talked about as dangerous places full of exotic animals and plants that could kill you with little more than a touch. If this was one the queen had designed, it was probably worse than that.
The sun glinted off the object at the far end of the clearing again, so she walked warily toward it. It was hard not to second guess every impulse she had. Knowing that the sole purpose of the landscape was to kill her had her literally jumping at shadows.
As she closed on the object it became clear what it was. A sword. And not just any sword, the vorpal sword. Her fear warred with her other emotions for control of her body. In the end, she threw caution to the wind and sprinted the last several meters to the sword. It was on a stand with its blade partially exposed so that it could catch the light. Obviously she was intended to find it. But why?
Now that she was standing within reach of the sword she became wary again. She remembered the energy field the sword had been housed in the first time she had seen it and sighed. There was no way the queen would give her such a powerful weapon if she wanted her to die. The sword was definitely a trap.
Alice huffed and slumped to the ground. She stared up at the sky, beseeching it for answers. She knew from her experience playing croquet that there were hundreds of cameras floating in the air that could chronicle everything that happened and feed it back to Wonderland.
The queen was watching her from somewhere down there and laughing at her petty little game. Alice just had to figure out how to beat her at it.
She looked back at the sword and then up toward the cameras. This wasn't any regular execution. If it was, she would have just been hauled out and had her head chopped off like a normal prisoner.
Still, there was no need to take too many chances and get herself killed.
On the ground, next to the stand the sword rested on, were a few small rocks and some leaves. Alice scooped them up and tossed a few pebbles at the sword. A couple of them hit their target and pinged off with no noticeable effect. So far so good
. She decided to try the leaves as well, since they were living matter and might be more likely to be zapped by a force field that was meant to kill people. At least that's what she told herself.
She tried tossing a couple of the leaves that she wadded into balls, but they were too light and fell short.
A sound from the jungle halted her attempt to wrap a leaf around some pebbles. Alice strained her hearing for several seconds, but didn't hear anything further. Still, her hands were much less steady on her next attempt to bundle the leaf. Just when she about had it wrapped up, there was another sound, this one closer and a lot louder. There was no trying to write that one off as her imagination. It had clearly been something large moving through the trees.
The jungle was so dense that it was hard to figure out which direction the sound came from, even when it was repeated. Every turn of her head seemed to indicate a different direction. She wanted badly to believe that it was just a trick of sound and not that there were actually many things moving toward her from different directions.
Alice returned to her leaves and pebbles and worked as frantically as she could. Finally, she had a bundle that she thought would stay together long enough to test her theory. She held it up, took careful aim, and tossed it. A combination of poor coordination and jangling nerves sent it flying high over the sword. "Gaaah!" she howled in frustration.
The rustling was now a continuous sound, definitely coming from her right. It was almost on top of her.
Lyla popped up out of Alice's pocket and clambered up to her shoulder, sword drawn. "What is it, Alice?"
Alice let out a startled cry and nearly jumped out of her skin. She'd forgotten that Lyla had stowed away in her pocket. "Ohmygod, I forgot you were in there. Something is coming from the jungle over there," said Alice pointing to her right. "And the vorpal sword is right there, but I'm too afraid that it's a trap to touch it."
The rustling sound grew to a deafening crash and a massive ball of fur and muscle bounded out of the jungle.
There was no more time for testing. Either she grabbed the sword and risked death from a force field, or she ran away, unarmed, from a frumious Bandersnatch. It wasn't much of a choice.
Alice snatched the vorpal sword from its perch and, finding herself still alive, darted off to her left and into the jungle. Only a few steps in, it was nearly impossible to go any further. Sharp leaves cut her face and brambles pulled at her clothes.
"Use the sword, Alice," shouted Lyla directly in her ear. Even then it was hard to hear her over the baying of the Bandersnatch on their trail.
Alice yanked the sword free of its scabbard and waved it in front of her, never slowing her progress. The Bandersnatch must have been having an even harder time of it because of its extreme size. Occasionally, at least, Alice could duck under a nasty tangle of branches. The Bandersnatch would have no such luxury. A single swipe from the sword sent branches tumbling to the ground and opened a path before her.
The sword sang joyously in her mind, obviously happy to be reunited. The reunion song was short-lived though, as the sword took stock of Alice's situation. The sword cautioned her against cutting too many branches. That would keep the Bandersnatch from being able to easily follow the same path she took. From then forward she paid careful attention and only cut down foliage that made it impossible for her to pass. She turned randomly, not wanting to give the creature a straight path to follow her on. After some time, her arm began to tire from swinging the sword so much.
"I think we've lost it for the time being," said Lyla, her small ears rotating this way and that. "I'm sure you must be growing tired. We should take a moment to rest."
Her breath was coming out in gasps. She hadn't even noticed. She nodded and slid the sword into its scabbard and finally took the time to belt it around her waist. Both of her hands ached from gripping so furiously while they fled. Once she had her sword belted on, she sat on a stump with a heavy sigh. "Bandersnatch again."
"Aye," said Lyla. She continued to pace back and forth on Alice's shoulder, her ears scanning for noises. "It was the same beast that we bested yesterday. It doesn't seem too happy to see us again."
"Do you think it really remembers us?" asked Alice.
"Certainly. Those things have incredible noses. It probably tracked us with your scent to begin with. If we don't keep moving, eventually it will sniff us out. Don't want to make too much noise either. They don't hear as well as I do, but they aren't deaf."
Alice stroked the hilt of the sword idly while she continued to catch her breath. The sword played through possible scenarios with her on how they could kill the Bandersnatch. They all seemed painfully familiar, as if she'd read them before. The more information she sifted through with the sword, the more familiar it became. She started to write it off as repeated information that the sword had told her before, then she recognized a particularly ridiculous move that played through her mind. It was something she'd seen in a pirate movie last year. It was tweaked so that it might be useful, but it was definitely the same move. "It doesn't know anything," said Alice. "It's just using all the stuff that's already in my head."
"Beg pardon?" asked Lyla, scratching her head.
"The sword," said Alice, swatting the hilt in disgust. "It doesn't know anything on its own. I thought it was telling me all of these amazing moves that had been programmed into it, but its just been recycling all the stuff I've seen in movies or read in books. I think a large portion of the moves I've used so far were just ballet moves that I learned when I was little and my mother insisted I take classes. This thing is completely useless."
"It seems like it's served you pretty well so far," said Lyla. "You took down a bunch of the queen's guards and did it without killing any of them. That's ridiculously hard."
"I guess so," said Alice, not entirely convinced.
"No, I don't think you understand," said Lyla, a bit of an edge in her voice. "Most people would have been lucky to walk out of there alive, and that's if they were aiming to kill everyone who tried to stop them." She waited for Alice to really think about what she just said. When her eyes got round, she continued. "Yeah, now you're starting to understand. You walked out of there without a single scratch on that cute little head of yours. Do you think you could have done the same with any other sword in your hand?"
"No," admitted Alice. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. Of course the sword had helped her get out of the palace. "Then why does it seem to be only showing me things I've seen before?"
"Don't ask me to puzzle out the programming the hatter put into anything he's made. It's nearly as mad as he is. But if I had to speculate, I'd say the sword is trying to show you things that you are somewhat familiar with. It can't make you move a certain way, so it blends what you already know with what it knows and finds the most effective way for you to fight."
"That sounds reasonable," said Alice. "I guess it probably knows moves that I could never do because of my size as well. It wouldn't do much good for it to show me those."
"Exactly," said Lyla. "Think of the sword as just a really competent teacher. It does its job so well that you barely realize that you're learning."
"I've been thinking," said Alice. She looked around at the jungle surrounding them. "We can't just keep running all night."
"True enough, though you're the one doing all the running. I'm just along for the ride." Lyla slapped her tiny paw down on Alice's shoulder.
"So, let’s find a place to fight."
"Now that sounds like a plan that's more to my liking!"
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Bandersnatch snuffled its way along the trail that Alice had cut through the jungle. It was clear, wide, and straight as an arrow. The Bandersnatch didn't charge down it in a hurry, which indicated that it was rather intelligent.
Alice watched it come from her perch in a tree on the other side of the clearing. Lyla was somewhere below, winding her way through the underbrush.
Slowly and steadily the Bander
snatch made its way into the clearing which was much smaller than the one the ship had landed in, though still large enough to play a game of football in. It would sniff along the ground for a few feet and then hold its nose up in the air and look left and then right. If it weren't so big and bulky and didn't have that strange leathery tail it would look almost like a hunting dog. So, that is to say that it looked nothing like a hunting dog.
Alice watched intently as it took its time wandering around the clearing, still dense with brush that came up to Alice's knees. It finally made its way back in line with the patch she'd cut through the jungle just below the tree she was sitting in. "Now, Lyla," she whispered to herself. "Now."
A few terrible seconds passed and then a startling shriek came up out of the undergrowth just in front of the path. Alice clenched the sword tightly in both of her fists and held it at waist level, blade pointed down. The Bandersnatch charged after Lyla, who was making more noise than seemed possible for a creature of her tiny size. Everything was going according to plan. The vorpal sword yearned to bite into the flesh of such a wild and powerful creature.
Just before the Bandersnatch passed under her, Alice leaned forward and pushed herself off the branch and into the air. Her blade was pointed perfectly at the base of the beast's neck. It would die instantly. Unfortunately, the ragged hem of her shirt, where she had cut away the tiny skirt, caught on the tree. Jumping from over three meters in the air was a big enough scare. The tugging sensation at her back caused her to jerk reflexively to try and protect herself from whatever had grabbed her. Too late, she realized it wasn't anything to worry about.
Alice hit its back with a resounding thud that sent stars dancing across her vision. The vorpal sword missed its mark by half a meter and opened a deep cut in the creature's shoulder and front leg. She tumbled off, clutching at her stomach, gasping for air that wouldn't come. It felt like she was dying. Maybe a rib had punctured a lung.
