Page 13 of Wondrous

“I wish I knew,” he said. “She’s not the only one, though. There are others.”

“Other girls?” I said, and it made my stomach clench. “Here in Wonderland?”

“Captain?” the severe soldier was back, and several others were also frowning in our direction.

I had no desire to get Tobias in trouble. “I think we’re ready to go,” I said as brightly as I could. Taking a step back from Tobias, I added politely, “Thank you for the handkerchief, Captain. I wouldn’t want to present myself to the Queen in such a state. It wouldn’t be respectful.”

The corner of his mouth twitched, and he inclined his head toward me. “Not at all, miss,” he said. “Two and Nine of Clubs will see that your cart is returned safely to the Hare’s cottage, and he and the Hatter informed of your whereabouts. I’m certain this won’t take too much of your time.”

I could tell from the forced confidence in his voice that he wasn’t certain at all, but what could I do? I nodded and allowed another soldier to help me up into a much sleeker cart than my own, painted black, with the heart insignia of the Queen. Alicia was lifted up beside me, less gently—owing, I suspected, to the tear in the other soldier’s card—and we set off.

Chapter 7

The Queen’s castle, viewed from a distance, was like a strange and beautiful cake. It was mostly turrets, as if the Queen had wanted her home to communicate castle in the clearest possible way, built from three kinds of stone: Some turrets were gleaming white marble, others were black jet, and the rest were a pale pink stone I’d only ever seen in Wonderland, which coated your hand in a fine candy-colored powder when you touched it. The roof tiles were made of some sort of shell that glimmered in the light like sugar glaze. It was not an inviting place, on the whole, being such a bizarre thing and full of shadows from the jumble of turrets, but it was difficult to look away from.

Fortunately, the soldiers didn’t take us through the hedge maze but approached the castle from the west, where the Tulgey Wood crowded up against the Queen’s croquet court. I knew—because I had seen them doing it—that the Queen’s soldiers were sent out periodically to hack the forest back from the smooth plane of grass and dig up seedlings.

Alicia had been silent the entire journey. I had thought she might be apologetic, or at least pretend to be, but instead she wore a sullen look and scowled at me whenever we brushed elbows, as if I had done her some grave injury by not allowing her to murder me. I would have found her infuriating if I hadn’t still been fairly scared of her.

I had tried to get more information out of Tobias when we stopped to rest, but he wouldn’t be prevailed upon and only sighed and gave me apologetic looks. He had invited me to eat with him, but I found the sight of him obliviously chewing at nothing as his food and drink slopped onto the grass too depressing and soon excused myself.

I felt ill as we rode up the promenade, a cold sweat dampening my back, as I could not help thinking of the last time I’d been dragged before the Queen of Hearts. I’d been put on trial for a prank that was all the Cheshire Cat’s doing, convicted, and nearly decapitated. I wondered if I could slip away somehow, but that would mean Alicia would have an audience with the Queen alone. Somehow, this made me prickle with jealousy, even if Alicia’s audience ended with her head being taken off.

I sank lower into my seat as the cart clattered over the cobblestones. Not for the first time, I wondered if the Cat had been right and I was just as mad as everybody else in Wonderland.

The soldiers led us through the grand foyer, which was a lot of stone and marble archways and a tessellated floor with a pattern of hearts, hearts, and more hearts—the Queen wasn’t one for subtlety in anything, including decor. Tobias held the tall mahogany door to the banquet hall open for us, giving me a nervous smile that he probably thought was reassuring, just like he thought his paper chest had a heart in it.

Poor Tobias! I thought with a stab of guilt. He can’t help what he is. I must remember that.

I froze as I saw what awaited me in the banquet hall. I’d been expecting the Queen of Hearts, but the two thrones on the raised dais were empty. Sunlight streamed through the tall windows lining the hall, woven with leaf shadow on the side that faced the Tulgey Wood, from which echoed the haunting call of jubjub birds, audible even above the din. The hall held a dozen long feasting tables, and over half of those seats were occupied.

The hall was filled with girls. Upland girls.

The majority seemed to be around my age, but some were as young as twelve or thirteen. Besides being roughly teenagers, they seemed to have nothing in common, either in appearance or dress, and not all of them were speaking English. I caught snippets of conversation from a half dozen languages at least, and to my amazement, I could understand them all. And yet, perhaps it was not so amazing—quite a few Wonderland creatures spoke in their own tongues, which I had never struggled to understand. Something in the magic of the place dissolved the usual barriers between people.

Only a few girls looked up when Alicia and I entered. I had the sense that people had been arriving for some time, which made our own arrival old hat. Alicia marched up to the front of the hall, head held high, and seated herself on the bench closest to the two thrones, even though she had to wedge herself in between two other girls, who were forced to shift to make room for her. I didn’t want to talk to anybody from my world, especially girls my age, and also I was quite happy for Alicia and me to be at opposite ends of the hall, so I took a seat at the back, where there were fewer people. My table had only one other occupant, whose head was bent over a book.

I scanned the room, trying to estimate how many Uplanders there were—about fifty, I thought, though I couldn’t see everyone from where I was sitting. What on earth were they all doing here? The sight filled me with an unpleasant jumble of feelings. I’d come to Wonderland to get away from my world.

“I’m Alistair,” my table companion said abruptly, and I gave a start, looking at him for the first time. He was tall, with dark hair and a snub nose that reminded me of Edith. He wore a gentlemanly suit, despite appearing to be only fifteen or sixteen, but the suit was rumpled and dirty, and his tie had been removed and shoved haphazardly into a pocket.

“Hello, Alistair,” I said politely. “It’s not all girls, then?”

“It’s my middle name,” the boy said, as if I hadn’t spoken. I noticed a sheen of sweat on his forehead, despite the coolness of the hall. “Alistair. Not Alice.”

“I didn’t say you were called Alice,” I said slowly. “My name is Alice.”

“Yes,” he said. “I know.”

He began to laugh quietly, darting glances in all directions as he did so, dwelling with a kind of befuddled horror on the card soldiers. I realized then what the problem was.

“It’s all right,” I said, patting him on the arm. “This is your first time in Wonderland, is it? Don’t worry about the soldiers. They’re rather—unsightly, but they won’t harm you, provided you give no insult to the Queen.” I left unsaid the fact that the Queen of Hearts was frequently inclined to harm people.

He shook his head once, violently. “I’ve been here before. Once, when I was a little boy. I managed to make it back to the Long Hall, to my world, and I swore I would never come back. But then, a few days ago, I started seeing that bloody rabbit hole again, just where it was the first time—beside the bridge I take to get to school. I tried to ignore it, but it was as if it got a little bigger each day. I never wanted to come back! But it was like something was pulling me. I just wanted to see if it had been real. But as soon as I fell down the rabbit hole, they were there, waiting, and they dragged me here.”

“The soldiers?” I said.

He didn’t answer my question. He didn’t seem like he was entirely conscious of me, so strongly was his attention drawn toward the card soldiers. The one nearest us, Four of Hearts, looked as if he had been assembled haphazardly—his legs were set too far apart, and his neck and head were off-center.