Playing Hearts (16 page)

“Opened the doors for
them, did you?”

“Something like that,”
Jack said.

“It’s not like you to be
modest,” I remarked.

“Oh, I haven’t yet gotten
to the part where I fought off four card sharks and rescued a beautiful
maiden.”

I frowned. “Rescued a–”

“Relax, darling,” said
Jack, with a glittering smile: “That’s you. I wouldn’t dream of rescuing any
other damsels. You’ve no need to be jealous.”

“Why would I be jealous?”
I began, and then, goaded: “Oh, never mind that!
Where
is Sir Blanc, and
what
went wrong?”

Jack was still smiling,
but he said: “I take it you remember Mother’s Mirror Hall?”

My eyes widened. “Of
course I do! Sir Blanc sneaked into the
Mirror Hall
?”

“Some months ago,
apparently: he’s been working hard at hiding certain important details from Mother.
He was trying to influence the battle from within the Hall when she caught
sight of him. She sent card sharks in and sealed it so that no one can get out.
No one else has dared to try and go in after her.”

“So he’s still stuck in
there?”

“And running out of food,
or so I’m told. Mother’s in there, too. I had an idea that she thought I was
dead, but if she went to the trouble of finding you and took the time to send
card sharks after you, no doubt she knows that I helped the rebellion.”

“You think she wants to
kill me in revenge?”

“I’d say yes, but it
seems too simplistic for her. She’s more likely to want you as leverage over
me. You know,
stop rioting and rebelling or I’ll kill your fiancée.
”

“But if she’s stuck in
the Mirror Hall, what can she– oh.”

Jack nodded grimly.
“Exactly. She’s trying to change Underland in the reflections. We’ve already
lost more than a few of our leaders. Hatter and Hare thought that if you were
in Underland she’d have a bit of a harder time changing things.
I
thought
that we could go in after her.”

“We?”

“Well, I’m coming with you,
obviously.”

“When did you get so
brave?”

“I’m not,” said Jack.
“I’m still a coward. If we run into Mother Dearest while we’re in the Mirror
Hall, I’ll run and leave you to your fate.”

“Thanks,” I said,
grinning. “Where are Hatter and Hare? Are you taking me to them? Are they
coming too?”

“Well, that’s the thing,”
said Jack. “They haven’t exactly approved the mission.”

“But you said–”

“You shouldn’t listen to
what I say: I keep forgetting that I don’t have to lie any more.” Jack paused,
frowning, and explained: “They wanted you here. They don’t necessarily want you
there.
”

“Oh,” I said. Hatter and
Hare were still acting as though I was a child. Allowed to do small, helpful
things, but to be kept away from danger. “Well, we’d better not tell them, then.
Are you sure you want to come with me?”

“I knew I could count on
you to do exactly what you were told not to do,” said Jack. “Mab, you are
delightfully predictable. Can you take us to the Mirror Hall without attracting
Mother’s attention?”

“No,” I said. “She’ll
know as soon as we get there. Do you still want to come with me?”

“Yes,” he said. “She
won’t kill me.”

“Are you sure?”

Jack said: “Yes. Yes of
course,” but there was enough of a pause between the words to make me sure that
he didn’t believe it himself. “Look, Mab, can we get on with it? I’ll change my
mind if I have to stand here thinking about it much longer.”

I suppose we could have
planned it better. We could have actually
made
a plan if it came to
that. I don’t think it would have come out any better, but maybe it would have.
Who knows? The Queen, on the other hand, had certainly had time to plan, and
plan she had. As soon as I stepped into the ripples with Jack, he was torn from
me. I didn’t realise until a moment later in the Mirror Hall that she’d been
expecting us—expecting
both
of us—and that she’d sent Jack straight to
one of the mirrors. There were card sharks with him, pinching and tearing and
tugging at him, and they weren’t gentle about tying him up to one of the Heart
Castle chairs.

“There you are at last!”
said the Queen. I looked around swiftly: there were so many mirrors that it was
difficult to tell which Queen was the one who spoke. Jack was easier to see; he
was the only Jack there. Sir Blanc was in the next mirror along, pounding
furiously at the glass.

“Sorry to keep you
waiting,” I said. Jack, in his mirror, said something rude and pulled furiously
at the ropes that tied him. The card sharks only chattered their laughter at
him and leapt back into the mirror hall through his glass. “You wanted to see
me?”

“You’ve been a festering thorn
in my side since the first day I saw you,” said the Queen, drawing closer. It
was easier to see which one was really her, now: she was using up too much
effort to reflect herself through the hall, and it was making the copies
glitter as though seen through glass.

“Well, you’ve only got
yourself to blame, haven’t you?” I said. I didn’t waste my energy reflecting
myself. I’d need it all soon enough. “You’re the one who brought me here in the
first place.”

She gave an impatient
shrug. “Nonsense! Do you imagine that I could have kept you from Underland? No,
I’ve seen your sort before: by hook or by crook, you weasel your way into
Underland, and the results are always catastrophic. Riots, anarchy, rebellion–
no, I preferred to control the narrative.”

“Is that what my
engagement to Jack was about? Controlling the narrative?”

“Partly that, partly
common sense. I’d rather keep any of your progeny very close to me: one never
knows if or when the gift will out in the children.”

“And you thought that if
the rest of Underland knew I was allied with the Heart family they would be
less likely to fall in behind me, even if I did try to cause trouble.”

“Indeed. And who knew?
Perhaps you could be persuaded that the Heart way was the best way. I thought
that if I could get to you early enough, you might imprint.”

“I’m not the imprinting
sort,” I said.

“So I noticed. You should
have tried. Now I’m afraid that I will have to be more convincing.”

“Is that why you’ve got Jack
tied to a chair?”

“Don’t take me for a
fool. I’ve seen you both together: you’d no more allow him to be hurt than he
would allow you to be hurt.”

“She obviously doesn’t
know how much I dislike you,” I said to Jack.

“Obviously not,” he
agreed.

“I see you’re determined
to make things difficult,” said the Queen. “What a shame. Card sharks! Fall
in!”

Card sharks segued from
the frame of Jack’s mirror, numbers One through Four: all of them were
chattering excitedly, and all of them had a pair of very large scissors. Jack
went perfectly white and said something even ruder than before.

The Queen said: “For
every minute that you defy me, one of the sharks will cut off a piece of Jack. Lest
that should fail to be convincing...” she let the sentence trail off as dozens
more of the card sharks filed into the Mirror Hall, surrounding us.

I laughed, and as I did,
I saw the first signs of fear in the Queen’s face. “You shouldn’t be laughing,”
she said, but she was breathing too quickly. “You should be either running or
surrendering.”

The card sharks flocked
me, their teeth chattering in anticipation of gory pleasure, and in the mirror
opposite me, Jack was tearing his arms and legs bloody by thrashing madly in
his chair.

“Relax, Jack,” I said.
“You’ll hurt yourself.”

His breath hitched in his
throat. “Mab–”

“What, you’re worried
about these things?” I looked around at the card sharks scornfully, and in the
reflections, I Saw them differently. “They can’t hurt me. They’re nothing but a
pack of cards!”

The Queen shrieked as the
card sharks collapsed in a slithery, papery pack of cards around me, their pips
showing hearts. She pointed one trembling finger at me and said: “You! I unmake
you!”

I felt something move in
the mirrors, and for a moment I saw the flash of reflection that had me never
coming to Underland, never meeting Hatter and Hare, or Jack, or Sir Blanc. The Queen
Saw Underland as if I had never sullied it, and at first I Saw it too. Then the
mirrors seemed to stutter, and the reflection ground to a halt.

“I’m not an Underlander,”
I told her, feeling as though I had to gasp in relief but unwilling to show her
how frightened I’d been. “You can’t unmake me.”

“Unmake Mabel, and you’ll
unmake Underland,” said Sir Blanc, from his reflected prison. “Underland is
made after her reflection: it shall never again be yours for the shaping.
Child, you must finish this game. Unmake the Queen.”

“I would think very
carefully before I did that, were I you,” said the Queen. She was afraid,
deathly afraid, sweat dotting her white brow. I was already thinking very
carefully, and she knew it. She also knew that it was quite possible I wouldn’t
think in the same way as she did. “You’d let him die? No, worse than die– you’d
let Underland continue as though he’d never existed? Reflect me out of
Underland, make it as though I never was, and you’ll never have known Jack.”

I saw the dawning of
understanding in Jack’s black-flecked eyes. They met mine, fear and resignation
fluttering there in plain sight. He said: “G-give me a kiss before you do it,
Mab.”

“Don’t be silly,” I said.
“I’m not going to kill you.”

“You’d better,” he said.
“All things being even I’d really prefer not to cease existing, but I do think it’s
the only way.”

“You must unmake her,”
urged Sir Blanc, and I found I could still think of the old, witless Sir Blanc
with regret. “The boy is correct, we must seize the chance.”

I turned to face Sir
Blanc. “I’m sorry, Sir Blanc, but it’s time for you to go.” I opened his mirror
to the outside world and reflected him back out, then closed it again. He would
come after us as quickly as he could, but he would have a bit of a journey to
get to the physical place of the Mirror Hall, and no other mirror would let him
in.

“A good choice,” said the
Queen, smiling at me.

“Shut up,” I said,
stepping into Jack’s mirror. “Nobody asked you.”

“An interesting choice,”
she said. “But ultimately dangerous, don’t you think? Now you’re a reflection
in the Mirror Hall: a rather perilous place to be.”

“Oh no,” I said, with one
hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I think you’ve misunderstood.”

“It’s all right, Mab,” he
said. “Unmake her. It won’t end until she’s gone, or never has been, or
whatever mad little scenario it takes.”

“You’ve misunderstood,
too,” I said, and smiled at him. “Shut up, Jack.”

He gave a soft sniff of
laughter and held his tongue. The Queen, on the other hand, looking at me
curiously, said: “I’ve sealed the reflection. You won’t be escaping this mirror
very quickly, I’m afraid. It will give me some time to decide what to do with
you. A ransom from your little friends, perhaps. Or a call to surrender. Who
knows? Perhaps I shall choose to be merciful.”

“You’ve misunderstood,” I
said again. “I See you, and you’re just a reflection.”

“I’m not a reflection,”
she said uneasily.

“Are you sure?” I asked.
I could See it so clearly: her, caught in the reflection of the mirror’s frame
that had once been a frame for the mirror Jack and I were in. I had a moment’s
regret for what I was about to do: I would never again be able to do so much
with so little effort as I did here in the Mirror Hall. And maybe that was
best. The Queen had had this power, and she had misused it. “Are you
really
sure?
Because I See you within the frame of a mirror, and you’re only a reflection.”

“I am not a reflection!”
said the Queen, striding for the edge of the frame. She recoiled when she
reached it, thrown back into the mirror in which I Saw her. “What have you
done?”

“I told you,” I said. “I
told you twice. If you’re not going to listen I won’t repeat myself.”

Jack said: “Mab?”

“I know,” I said. “I’m
sorry, I have to do it.”

“Do it now,” he said, an
edge of old madness to his black-flecked eyes. “Do it now before she finds a
way out!”

“I knew I should have
drowned you at birth,” said the Queen, with terrifying calmness. “I almost did,
you know. I could have started again with a girl. I could have– I should have
started with
her
. She’s twice the Heart that you are, you miserable
little whelp.”

“You’re broken,” I said
to her—to the mirror—to the Mirror Hall itself.

I Saw it shatter. I Saw
her shatter, screaming. And I Saw the pieces falling around Jack and I in a
shower of glittering glass and reflection as every last reflection died in the
Mirror Hall. I ducked my head under the intermittent shower of glass and felt
it sting my scalp as the Queen screamed in fractured sound and died. Glass
danced at our feet and sang against the walls, and then there was a tinkling
kind of silence. I cautiously raised my head and Jack shook out the glass from
his hair. Most of it had missed us, but the rest of the hall was littered with
shards and splinters.