Page 89 of Fated to the Wicked King

My eyes lit up. Guilty conscience? Hope bubbled in my heart for the first time. Perhaps whatever evil I had done in my past, I had tried to undo it. Perhaps I had tried to redeem myself. Perhaps I wasn’t truly as vile as the General was saying.

I clenched my jaw in determination. “General, please. It’s not too late. We have to stop this before we hurt any more people.”

A piercing burst of feedback shrieked across the forest, causing all the ghostly workers to wince as they clapped their hands over their ears.

I flinched at the sting. I wanted to cover my own ears, but my hands were still bound.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” the Hatter called out from beneath a control panel.

Whatever he was doing, it was wrong.

The fantastic machine was sending out pulsing waves, jarring vibrations across the clearing, bits of scrap metal and tools shook on top of tables, shivering across every surface, rattling the rabbit’s cage.

Hissing, I wrinkled my nose. “Hatter, what in the fresh tides are you doing? Are you modifying the Grand Harmony Widget?”

Blinking, I stopped short. I was sure I intended to say ‘primary harmonic regulator.’ “The Grand Harmony Widget,” I tried again.

Huh. Either reality was unraveling, or the mystical land of Wünder preferred to redefine language to suit itself. Possibly both.

The Hatter didn’t seem to notice. His tool clanged loudly. “Not to worry. It’s merely unpredictable.”

My jaw dropped at his nonchalant response. “Unpredictable?” The last thing one should want in any experiment was something unpredictable. The operating principles of the fantastic machine, messing with otherworldly energies, were already delicate as they were. This was even worse than I’d thought.

“Did you remember to tweak the Resonance Teapot? You also need to disable the Topsy-Turvy Twister, otherwise, it’s not going to work,” I called out my warnings—regarding more technical terms which I imagined the mystical land didn’t care to understand.

“It absolutely will,” the Hatter insisted.

“It absolutely won’t.”

Finally pausing his task, the Hatter frowned and turned to me. “How sure are you?”

I gave him a flat look. Who did he think he was dealing with here? “Completely.”

He scratched his chin. “Would you show me?”

I wriggled my arms behind my back. “Well, sure, if I had hands available.”

The Hatter shot the General a quick, prompting look.

The General’s eyes narrowed at me in suspicion. “Can you fix it?”

“Of course I can.” My glare was decidedly self-assured, mocking. “Look, if you truly knew me at all, you would know I cannot simply stand by shoddy work.”

He wagged his finger. “No tricks.”

“Please.” I lifted my shoulders in meaningful emphasis. “I have no desire to stand beside an unstable, reality-ripping device.”

The Hatter waved a hand to untie me.

“Tannis, watch her,” the General snapped.

As soon as my hands and feet were unbound, Tannis’ shadow fell over me. Tamping down my scowl of displeasure, I approached the open panel on one side of the machine. All at once, my displeasure found an entirely new focus.

I easily identified a critical assembly whose removal would render half the machine useless, harmless. But I also couldn’t help but groan at the internal configuration. “Look at this mess! You installed these contraptions backwards. And those thingamabobs shouldn’t be routed into the same chamber.”

The Hatter crouched beside me with a pair of pliers and a solder.

“Do you see the problem?” I gestured to the twisted machinery, directing the Hatter where he needed to make adjustments, before stepping toward the dials. “I’ll watch the readings and compensate for you.”