AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I finally understood that Callister wasn’t an asshole...he was grieving, and I wanted to do something to comfort him. I wished there was something I could do, some way to bring his brother back or undo the damage inflicted by the Red Queen.
But all I could do was find the Vorpal Sword and kill something called a Jabberwocky.
It sounded so outlandish, but I was dreaming. And even if I wasn’t, it was still a lot to process. I needed to take things one step at a time.
“What did Callister’s brother do that made the Red Queen so angry?” I asked after a little more walking. “Was he cheating on her? Was he planning to steal her throne?”
Chess and Hatter shared a weary glance before Hatter shook his head.
“You’re not remotely close,” said Chess. “The Red Queen’s rage boiled over when she discovered the Red King had placed a bright pink flower on her bedside table. Everyone in the Kingdom of Hearts and Roses knows that the Red Queen mustonlyhave red roses. Not pink, not purple, and for heaven’s sake,neverwhite. They must only be red. She took this to mean the king no longer loved her and she had him beheaded that same day.”
“She put his head on a spike in the center of her rose garden as a reminder to everyone in her court,” Hatter chimed in.
“What the actualfuck?” I gasped. “How is she still in power?”
“Simple,” Chess shrugged. “Everyone’s terrified of her.”
“That’s why you have to defeat her,” said Hatter. “I think Callister might be jealous that it has to be you,” he added with a bitter laugh. “He’d rather it was him. Can you imagine losing your brother because his delusional wife was angry over the color of aflower? No wonder Callister is the way he is.”
I felt a dark, ugly wave of disgust run through me at the thought. The Red Queen was truly monstrous, even by Wonderland's twisted standards. "What else has she done?" I asked, eager for more ammunition against my enemy.
“What else has she done? Oh, Alice...Alice...where do we even begin?" Hatter pondered, his eyes gleaming with a manic light as he recounted the atrocities committed by the deranged ruler. "She ordered the beheading of every rose gardener who planted pink or white roses instead of red. An honest mistake, but the woman couldn't abide anything that wasn’t a direct order from her.”
"Then there was the time she transformed an entire village into stone statues," Chess interjected, the horror of the memory flickering across his handsome features. "All because they failed to pay tribute to her on her birthday. She didn't care that they were starving, or that their crops were destroyed by her own hand."
“She ordered fireworks to be set off in the middle of a drought because she was bored one evening,” Hatter said.
“The crops went up in flames, all while she watched from her balcony,” said Chess. “And she ordered the fire brigade to stay near the castle so it wouldn’t burn down. Half the village was left homeless, and all of them were starving, so she simply turned them to stone. Problem solved.”
As we navigated the treacherous terrain, Hatter and Chess regaled me with tales of the Red Queen's insane rage and murderous ways. They talked about how she had forced her own subjects to dance upon hot coals for her entertainment, their screams echoing through the night like a twisted symphony.
I could only stare in stunned silence.
The woman was crazier than the Mad Hatter and the March Hare combined.
“She’s absolutely batshit crazy, isn’t she?” I asked.
"Her insanity knows no bounds." Hatter shook his head, a mixture of anger and sorrow etched upon his face. "She even tried to force a marriage between herself and the King of Spades, just to consolidate power. Thankfully, it never came to pass. The King of Spades declared himself to be so deep in debt that the Queen decided it was more hassle to marry him than it was worth.”
“But if the King of Spades married her, wouldn’t he be able to take over the Red Queen’s throne?”
Hatter burst into shrieks of laughter while Chess merely shook his head.
“Not likely,” said Chess. “Wonderland is similar to the game of chess in that Queens are always more powerful than Kings.”
“Even if the kings are young and strong,” Hatter added. “Makes no difference. Queens will always outrank a king.”
“Wow! She's worse than I imagined!” I whispered, my fists clenched in righteous fury. Not only had she terrorized Wonderland's people with her brutality, but she'd torn families apart, leaving scars that would never fully heal.
She’d hurt Callister.
“Yes, she’s worse thananyonecould’ve ever imagined,” Chess agreed, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "But you mustn’t let your anger consume you. It's exactly what she wants—for us all to become as twisted and broken as she is."
The more I heard, the angrier I became—not just at the Red Queen, but also at Callister for his lack of support in helping me save Wonderland.
“She wants us twisted and broken...just like Callister?” I suggested offhandedly.
“He’s nothing like her,” Chess replied with a slight bite to his words, making me wonder if I’d hit a nerve.
