Checkmate (Insanity Book 6) (6 page)

We stop and get out and the taxi driver refuses to take any money, which doesn’t strike me as an Italian behavior. He shoots me a pitiful glance then says in English, ‘I pray for you’ before he guns away.

“What was that all about?” I ask The Pillar.

“I told the taxi driver you were an insane girl who still thinks that Wonderland exists,” The Pillar says nonchalantly.

“Why?”

“It helped us get a free ride, didn’t it?” He pulls my hand and shows me ahead. “Now let me tell you about this place.” He points at the people gathered around the large chessboard. “The famous Chess Game, or like the Italian like to call it: Partita a Scacchi di Marostica.”

“So this is where the Chessmaster wants us to obtain his Carroll’s Knight?”

“It has to be. Right here, the first ever chess game in history took place.” He points at the live chess pieces, men and women dressed as such, gathering, each upon a block and pretending to be bishops, pawns, rooks, knights, kings and queens.

“Really?” I say. “I mean I never thought the first chess game was ever traceable.”

“You’re right about that. Let’s just say this is the first documented chess game in history, here in Marostica in 1454. There is no doubt this is where the Chessmaster wants us to be.”

“The only question is why.”

“I imagine we’re about to find out,” The Pillar says. “Usually there is a yearly festival in the memory of that game, in September of each year.”

“It’s not September, so why are people gathered and celebrating?”

“My assumption would be that it’s been planned by the Chessmaster.”

A woman wearing what looks like a rook’s top on her head approaches us and asks for tickets. The Pillar talks her out of it. She smiles pitifully and tells me she is going to pray for me.

“You have to stop that.” I tell him.

“It got us a free ticket, didn’t it,” The Pillar says. “Besides I’m only telling the truth. You’re a mad girl who thinks Wonderland exists. The game we’re about to see, accompanied by dancing and music, involves scores of costumed participants and human chess-pieces.”

“So this isn’t really a chess game?”

“No such thing. They’re reciting a traditional story of a local ruler with a beautiful daughter. She had two suitors, but rather than letting them fight a duel, the lord proposed a chess match with the winner receiving her hand in marriage and the loser marrying her younger sister.”

“So she didn’t have a say in the matter of her marriage?”

“They’re not called the dark ages for nothing,” The Pillar says. “What strikes me as interesting, though, is the fact that the first documented chess game in history was about two men trying to win one woman’s heart.”

“Are you trying to sound sentimental?” I mock him.

“Nah, I’m trying to remind you of your similar situation. You still don’t know who you’ll end up with. Jack or the mysterious future husband, but anyways, let’s…”

This is when the Chessmaster’s plan starts to reveal itself.

A tall man dressed as a black knight in the game on the large chessboard acts like he is about to checkmate the white Queen, but with a mallet in his hand, he threatens to knock off her head.

Chapter 14

I am about to run toward him and stop him, when The Pillar squeezes my hand, pointing at the armed men in the higher castle, all pointing their weapons at the crowd below, including us.

People panic in a rage of murmur, unable to comprehend or object against the situation. None of us understands what’s going on until a large screen nearby broadcasts the Chessmaster live on TV.

“So, I believe that two persons have solved my puzzle,” the Chessmaster rubs his handlebar mustache, staring too close at the camera. “And that’s where the game begins.”

“Who is broadcasting this?” Someone asks, but none answer due to their paralyzing fear.

The Chessmaster proceeds. “Whether you’re watching this on TV or are actually in Marostica in Italy, you will get to see live footage of what’s happening now. To put it simply, the man with the sword will chop the head of the woman in the Queen’s outfit if my next puzzle isn’t solved. Anyone who interferes will be shot by my men in the higher castle. Any other interference by air or military, I will kill the next president,” he looks sideways at the sweating leaders of the world, trying to figure their next move in the chess game that may save their lives. “I believe I’ve clearly explained myself.”

“Did he mean us when he talked about the two persons in Marostica?” I whisper to The Pillar.

The Chessmaster answers me instead. “Please step forward, Alice and professor Pillar.”

“It’s just Pillar,” he says pompously. “I’ve given up on that professor part some time ago.”

“Don’t try to sound smart,” the Chessmaster says. “You have no idea who I am or what I can do.”

“Why are you doing this?” I shout at the screen.

“Well, first of all, it’s fun,” the Chessmaster says. “My other reasons should stay concealed for the moment. Let’s just say this will help you find Carroll’s Knight for me. Let’s start with my first question or this woman in the white queen’s dress will die.”

Neither The Pillar nor I say anything. We’ve seen too many lunatics and know they’ve usually planned everything in advance.

“Here is my first question,” the Chessmaster begins. “What was Lewis Carroll about to call the Alice in Wonderland book when he first wrote it?”

I am about to tell him Alice’s Adventure’s Underground, but The Pillar squeezes my arm again. “Too easy,” he hisses. “I doubt it’s the right answer.”

“But it
is
the right answer,” I insist. “You told me so.”

“Just think about it, Alice. The man looks like a loon. He wouldn’t give it away so easily.”

I try to make sense out of The Pillar’s words, but the sight of the man lowering his sword toward the woman in white scares me. I snap. “It’s Alice’s Adventure’s Underground!” I shout out.

The Chessmaster says nothing, but pulls on his handlebar mustache again. One rub to the left. One to the right. “Wrong!”

And suddenly we’re back in the dark ages again. The man’s sword chops off the woman’s head instantly.

I shriek, watching her bloody head roll all over the chessboard, not knowing how my answer is wrong.

“Checkmate!” The Chessmaster roars with laughter in the microphones. “Want to play again?”

Chapter 15

It’s hard to imagine the world’s reaction to what just happened, not to mention those watching this on TV, probably among their children at home. As for us here in Marostica, we’re in a dreadful state of fear, since it seems like the Chessmaster has eyes in the sky. He seems so invincible.

“I haven’t heard the right answer yet,” he announces on the screen. “Until I do, more heads are going to roll.”

The man with the sword approached the next woman on the board, the one who wears the uniform of a knight. She already shivers when he comes close enough.

“You’re a liar!” I tell the Chessmaster. “I know my last answer was right.”

“No, it wasn’t,” The Pillar says, looking disappointed he hasn’t figured it out sooner. “Lewis Carroll’s first choice of the title for Alice in Wonderland were many. He listed them on a single page in his diary, which can still be found in the archived papers in the Surrey History Center in London.”

“What?” I am totally mad at The Pillar. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Because it’s such trivial information no one ever mentions anymore.”

The Chessmaster applauds The Pillar with clapping both sides of his moustache. “That partially answers my question. Now let’s make it harder. There are four titles on that page.” The Chessmaster neglects my comments. “One of them only counts, because Lewis actually sent it to the printing house before he changed his mind.”

I turn back and face The Pillar. The woman’s life is in his hands now, and I am sure I don’t have enough time to Google it, if this is the kind of info I can find on Google.

“That’s easy,” The Pillar shrugs, glancing at the poor woman. I think he isn’t sure of the answer but spits it out anyways. “Alice’s Hour in Elfland was the original title.”

“In Elfland?” I say.

“Right answer,” the Chessmaster says. “Weird, but right.”

“I’m assuming you won’t let the woman go anyways,” The Pillar steps forward, flashing his cane. I’m terrified at the thought.

“Well, you assumed right,” the Chessmaster says. “May I ask why you assumed so?”

“Because you’re a lunatic, that’s part of it,” The Pillar says. “And because you’re not here to spill blood and insinuate chaos. You have a bigger plan in mind.”

The Chessmaster smirks, brushing his mustache. “Next question.”

“Let the woman go first,” I demand.

“Don’t bother, Alice,” The Pillar says. “He won’t stop until he gets what he wants, which I am not sure what it is.”

People suppress their shrieks all around us. They stand frozen in their places, some of them eyeing the snipers in the high castle, some of them watching the man with the sword on the chessboard.

“Next question is,” the Chessmaster says. “Name three masterpieces written in the same era Alice in Wonderland came out.”

“David Copperfield by Charles Dickens,” The Pillar shoots his words faster than the speed of nonsense. “Water Babies by Charles Kingsley, and Great Expectations, also by Charles Dickens.”

“That’s impressive,” the Chessmaster claps again. “Why so fast?”

“Because it’s common knowledge that in spite of the three masterpieces being the world’s most awaited novels in that era, it was Alice in Wonderland that topped the bestseller list,” The Pillar says in one breath. “Now let the woman go.”

The Chessmaster neglects the comment and shoots another question. “What was so special about Alice’s character in the book?”

“That’s a vague question,” The Pillar says.

“Let me rephrase, it was a ‘first’ about Alice’s character in Lewis Carroll’s book?” the Chessmaster says. “Something that hadn’t been done earlier in literature.”

The Pillar grimaces, searching for answers, but it’s me who surprisingly knows. I don’t know how. It could be part of my lost memories coming back, or something that had been buried in me for years I just forgot about it.

“She was,” I begin, realizing that what I am about to say puts so much weight on my shoulders if I am the Alice in the book. So much weight that I feel I am not really doing enough to save the world or stand up to the model Lewis had made out of me.

“She was what?” The Chessmaster nears the screen, eyes glinting.

“She was the first female lead in children’s literature, ever,” I say. “Before her, children’s books had only male heroes.”

Chapter 16

My words don’t seem to affect the crowd around me. They’re nothing but the right answer to them, so the woman won’t get her head chopped off like the last. But to me, they make me ashamed of myself. Lewis had written about me as the first girl in a children’s book to stand up to adults and speak her mind freely and criticize the mad society she – or he – lived in. And still, I let him down and turned into a Bad Alice at some point in my life.

“Magnificent,” the Chessmaster says. “I am now sure it’s you and your old caterpillar who can find Carroll’s Knight,” he doesn’t explain why and says, “But first, I need to give you the first clue, and to do so, you need to answer a question you don’t have an answer for.”

“You mean you want to kill this woman anyways, like the one before?” I clench my fist. “Why is it important you kill them?”

“Life is a game of chess, Alice. One move at a time. With each move, doors either open or close for the next. Some of us are lucky to come upon several doors in a row. Pure luck, if you ask me. Some are doomed with a closed door after their first move,” the Chessmaster says. “Now here is my last question, which I promise to let the woman go if you answer correctly — but then again, you don’t know the answer, and The Pillar isn’t allowed to contribute.”

“I am ready,” I say.

“No, you’re not, but here it is: what was the color of the cover of the 1965 version of Alice in Wonderland’s book, published by McMillan at the time?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“The kind that kills,” he says. “Lewis Carroll insisted on that color, even though his publishers thought it would scare kids away.”

I glance at The Pillar who looks like he knows the answer, but if he tells me the woman dies. I myself have no idea. A color that Lewis Carroll insisted on two centuries ago? Why would his book’s color matter? Should I just make a guess?

“I don’t know the answer,” I tell the Chessmaster.

“Then the woman will die. Thank you very much.”

We all watch the man with the sword about to chop off her head when an old man calls out from the crowd. “Stop!”

The man with the sword actually stops, and even the Chessmaster seems to be interested in the old man from his screen.

“Stop! Don’t kill my wife.” The old man steps ahead with both hands in the air. “I will tell you what you want to know?” He is speaking to the Chessmaster.”

The Pillar and I exchange glances.

“Do tell,” the Chessmaster says. “Before it’s too late.”

“I will tell you how to get Carroll’s Knight,” the old man says, now hugging his wife, who was about to get her head chopped off.

“So this is what it’s about?” The Pillar says. “This whole game was a threat to make whoever knew the secret about that Carroll’s Knight speak up before his loved one dies. This was never about Alice and me or the puzzles.”

“Genius, isn’t it?” The Chessmaster winks.

“Sick,” I retort.

“I had my doubts if it were the first woman or the second,” the Chessmaster elaborates. “Since no one came to save the first woman, it wasn’t her. But the second is. And her husband knows the whereabouts of Carroll’s Knight. The book’s cover was red, by the way,” he mocks me. “The color of the Red Queen, but that’s a whole other story. Now let’s hear it from this old man who knows the secret to Carroll’s Knight.”
Chapter 17