Alice In Chains (28 page)

‘I’m gagging for it!’ Alice shouted.

Albinous grasped the crown and began to withdraw his arm. As he did so a thorn twig caught on his sleeve, bent and snapped.

The Jabberwock’s serpent neck twisted round and the baleful light of its ghostly eyes fell on Albinous. The chessman tore himself free from the bush and began to back away, sword raised.

‘Do not try to stop me, beast, or you will suffer!’ he warned.

With a trumpet cry of anger the Jabberwock lunged at Albinous. As the soldier slashed at the descending claws a brilliant blue-white bolt of fire leapt from the Queen’s sceptre and struck the Jabberwock in the chest. The nightmare beast reared up and let out such a foghorn blast of pain that Alice and Juliet shrank back in their bonds and tried to bury their heads in their shoulders to shield their ears from the terrible sound.

The Jabberwock swayed, but did not fall. As Albinous turned to run the creature’s great whip of a tail lashed across the ground and scythed the legs out from under him with sickening force, sending him spinning through the air, the Crown flying from his grasp. Albinous struck the ground like a discarded rag doll, rolled over twisted and broken … and vanished.

The Jabberwock turned about, its head weaving about as he looked for the Crown that bounced and rolled down the slope towards the trees. With a hoot of pleasure the beast bounded after it.

The White Queen rose from the rocks, her cloak billowing behind her as she flew through the air with frantic strides. A second bolt from her sceptre struck the Jabberwock on the back of its head. As it reeled about, braying in confusion, she soared over it and dropped down on the still rolling Crown and snatched it up. The Jabberwock made a swipe at her but she tumbled aside. Alice saw her stagger to her feet and, with a look of grim triumph on her face, jam the Crown over her own filigree circlet and onto her head. She jabbed a finger at the Jabberwock.

‘Now, creature, I command you to die!’

Alice caught her breath. The Jabberwock snorted and raised its arm to take another swipe at the Queen. A look of puzzlement spread across her face, then she shrieked in pain, feebly clawing at the golden Crown. ‘No … Nooooo!’ she wailed, then collapsed in a heap and the Crown fell from her head.

With a puzzled grunt, the Jabberwock prodded the still figure, but she did not move. It reached for the golden crown.

Suddenly a bolt of red fire struck it in the back, sending it reeling and snorting, its tail lashing like a wounded snake.

‘That’s mine!’ a voice cried.

To Alice’s astonishment the Red Queen came racing
through
the air out of the trees. As the Jabberwock rose up to meet her she blasted it again.

Juliet gave a cry of wonder. ‘Look!

With a drumming of hooves Sir Blanche and Snowdrop thundered into the clearing. For a moment Snowdrop shied and bucked in fear at the sight of the Jabberwock, but Sir Blanche urged him on, lowering his lance and riding straight at the great beast. As he did so a huge figure dressed in britches and cloak sprang into view at the knight’s heels. As he caught sight of Alice and Juliet bound to their rack he threw back his head and roared.

Alice’s heart leaped in joy and confusion. It was Leonus!

As the Jabberwock swatted the Red Queen from the air into the trees, Sir Blanche’s lance skewered it through the thigh. It howled in pain and lashed its tail at horse and rider, sending them crashing to the ground.

Juliet gasped in horror. ‘No!’

Leonus bounded up onto the boulders and from there leaped onto the Jabberwock’s back, where he began to pound and tear at the creature with his great clawed fists. The huge beast wheeled and writhed about, scrabbling at Leonus who clung just out of its reach.

‘He’s all right!’ Juliet shouted.

Sir Blanche had climbed dazedly to his feet, recovered his sword and charged at the Jabberwock, hacking at its legs as it was still trying to claw Leonus from its back.

Then Alice heard a voice from behind her say, ‘Hold still while we cut you free,’ and she felt a knife begin to hack at the heavy ropes that bound her to the frame.

It was Suzanne!

Alice almost choked with joy and surprise. ‘How did you get here? And Leonus?’

‘After I told my Master your story he began making enquiries,’ Suzanne said rapidly as she hacked away. ‘He didn’t like the idea of the chesspeople still interfering
with
Boardland affairs, you see. Folk in Brillig don’t talk about this square much, but eventually he found out about the Jabberwock and its nasty habits. He’d been asking after the White Queen and heard early this morning she’d left with Juliet …’ Alice felt her legs come loose and Suzanne began working on the rope about her neck. ‘We went round to the hotel to see if Leonus would be interested in helping, and found him just coming round from the mugging. We guessed whoever had taken you must be mixed up with this place and so we got some horses and followed.’

The rope fell away from her neck and Suzanne began to hack at the bindings round Alice’s wrists.

‘And the Red Queen?’ Alice asked.

‘When we got here we found her trying to get through the barrier. None of us could afford to waste time fighting each other out there so I got us all through. As we followed your trail we found the White Knight having a wrestling match with his conscience. Seeing us made him decide to do the right thing …’

Alice’s arms came free. Feebly she slid her sperm-greased body off the frame and into Suzanne’s arms, receiving a passionate kiss as she did so. ‘God, you’re covered in the stuff!’ Suzanne exclaimed. ‘Is it what I think it is?’

‘Yes … don’t ask. At least … not now.’

As they crouched behind the frame she saw Juliet being helped down by Martes. The pine marten had swapped his fine clothes for cloak and riding boots, and had a small sword sheathed in his belt.

‘Thank you, Master Martes,’ Alice said with all the sincerity she could muster.

‘It’s been a pleasure to frustrate the plans of these chesspeople, girling,’ he replied.

There was a thud that shook the ground. The Jabberwock had dropped to its knees under the combined assault of knight and lionman. Its head was
weaving
about in confusion, it was bleeding in a dozen places and the light in its eyes was dimming. Suddenly it looked less monstrous and more absurd and pathetic. I suppose it can’t help what it is, Alice thought.

She was about to call out not to hurt it any more when a movement to one side caught her eye. The Red Queen was limping out of the trees towards the still form of the White Queen, beside which lay the Crown of Auria.

‘No, she mustn’t put it on!’

Alice scrambled to her feet, despite the pain in her twice-reamed groin and tottered in a bow-legged run towards the Crown. The others followed at her heels.

Just before the Queen reached it Alice snatched up the Crown and held it away from her.

To her surprise the Red Queen smiled. ‘I see you got here in the end, Alice. But there was no need to be dramatic. I wasn’t going to put it on. Look what it did to poor Lilian. I know it doesn’t work that way.’

Alice blinked. ‘Then how does it work?’

The Queen raised her sceptre and Alice saw the figurine of herself, bound by that single golden hair, mounted on its tip. ‘Like this …’

And Alice felt her arms move of their own accord and she placed the Crown firmly on her own head.

Twelve

ALICE FELT THE
power of the Crown flow through her.

For a moment she thought she would faint under the weight of knowledge. Senses she did not know she had expanded to encompass the whole wood about her and all within it. She saw both her friends and enemies in minute detail, outside and in, and felt the texture of every cell of their bodies. Above all she saw how simple everything was. Reality was but clay to be moulded as desired, if one only knew exactly where to press and twist and stretch it into a new form. And all that knowledge was contained in the Crown. Call it magic, call it a biomorphic resequencer and matter transmutator, it would have been powerful anywhere. But in Underland, where everything was already plastic and mutable, it could work miracles. All the wearer had to do was will it.

But Alice no longer had any will of her own!

She could neither move nor initiate any conscious action for herself. She belonged to the Red Queen and the power of her mind, focused though the figurine, was gripping Alice in an invisible band of iron. So she stood straight and still and waited for her mistress’s command, while a small part of her raged at her own impotence.

‘Reduce that ridiculous creature to a more suitable size!’ the Queen said, pointing at the kneeling Jabberwock.

Alice reached out and squeezed.

Leonus and Sir Blanche leaped aside with oaths of surprise as the Jabberwock began to shrink, braying and snorting in confusion. In a few seconds it was the size of a farmyard chicken. It twisted about its scrawny neck anxiously and went, ‘Peet, peet?’

Suzanne and Martes started forward but the Red Queen held up a warning hand. ‘Do not try to help your friend or assault me, unless you want her to be the instrument of your own demise!’ Leonus and Sir Blanche had run up but she stopped them with the same gesture. ‘Alice is my tool under my absolute control, as in potential she always has been.’

She glanced down at the plump form of the White Queen still sprawled on the ground and with a contemptuous smile prodded her with the toe of her slipper. The White Queen groaned feebly.

‘She didn’t realise the Crown was never made for us, but for inferior beings who needed its power,’ the Red Queen continued. ‘Of course it was a trap, since their minds could not handle such forces without eventual self-destruction. Perhaps it was placed here to demonstrate the fallibility of lesser beings. It would have been a mere curio had we not fallen so low as to grasp at any means of restoring our pride and greatness. That was what I discovered during my researches. So I prepared Alice for the role. She was never intended merely as a means to breach the final barrier, but my mediatory with the Crown. And now through her I will build anew.’ She raised her arms aloft. ‘The great game will live on again!’

And at her will Alice filled the sky above with the bursting showers and stars of celebratory fireworks. The others stared at the Red Queen in horror.

‘Your people almost laid waste to the Boardland in the past with your insane game; you cannot do it again!’ Martes pleaded.

‘I told my own queen there should be an end to these wars, now I tell you the same,’ Sir Blanche said. ‘Our day is done. Let us turn to gentler pursuits.’

‘I suppose you will hunt my kind again?’ Leonus snarled at her.

The Red Queen smiled. ‘Why not, if we choose? You should be honoured.’ Leonus’s fists clenched and he bared his fangs. ‘Go on,’ the Red Queen taunted. ‘Attack me and I will have your girling turn you into a kitten which I will feed to a pack of wolves!’

Leonus controlled himself with an obvious effort.

‘That’s better. What a magnificent beast you are, to be sure. I think I will take you as my special pet.’

The lionman growled but said nothing.

The White Queen groaned and slowly sat up, looking about her in confusion. When she saw the Red Queen she scrambled for her fallen sceptre. But at her mistress’s command Alice lifted it high into the air out of her enemy’s reach where it spun about and burnt away in a shower of sparks.

‘Not my sceptre!’ the White Queen wailed.

‘Yes, your power is broken,’ the Red Queen said.

Looking dazed, the White Queen dragged herself to her feet and faced her opposite number. Tears were running down her plump cheeks. ‘I just wanted to be as beautiful as you, Magenta! That was all. Must you cheat me of that too?’

The Red Queen’s face set. ‘And I wish to be the only Queen in the land. And unfortunately you are the single being I could never be sure of totally controlling, even through the crown. I will find other opponents for my games in future. You are taken, Lilian. Destroy her!’

‘No!’ Alice shouted.

That one word of defiance had been boiling up inside Alice since she had donned the Crown, seeking some way out of the prison about her mind. And there it was:
a
flaw, a tiny crack that it had forced open into a precious moment of free will.

As the Red Queen looked at Alice in astonishment, Alice reached out and the red sceptre with its gold figurine was torn from the Queen’s grasp and leaped into her hand. ‘Looks like you’ve been taken as well,’ she said.

‘You cannot defy me!’ the Red Queen said. ‘You are bound by pain, word and token!’

Alice smiled. ‘Bad choice of token on your part.’ She plucked at the golden hair that was twined round the figurine. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, I haven’t got hair any more, just feathers. This is no longer me. It just took a little while to work it out.’

And she tossed the sceptre into the air and willed it to vanish in a puff of flame. ‘And now your power’s gone too, Magenta,’ Alice said.

Her beautiful face a mask of rage, the Red Queen leaped at Alice with her hands extended like claws. Leonus’s great arm swung out and she was knocked off her feet to sprawl on her back, wheezing and clutching her middle.

‘And I’m nobody’s pet!’ he told her.

Suzanne looked thoughtfully at the White Queen, who was standing with her mouth open as though she still could not take in what had happened, then turned to Martes. ‘May I also give that woman a personal message, Master?’

‘Certainly, girl,’ Martes said.

Suzanne marched up to the White Queen and slapped her on the cheek so hard she fell to her knees beside the still moaning Red Queen. ‘That’s for throwing us off the train!’

Suzanne returned to Martes’s side and knelt by him. He patted her head affectionately, took out a leash that had been tucked into his belt and clipped it back onto her collar. She looked perfectly content.

Sir Blanche was staring at Alice with desperate hope in his eyes. ‘If you can really work such wonders, girl, I mean, Alice – Snowdrop, my horse, is badly injured …’