Spades: The True Wonderland Awaits. (Of Wonderland Chronicles Book 1) (10 page)

Chapter 20:
Explanations

Blayke poked his head into my bedroom. "Are you still angry with me?" he asked cautiously.

The only reply that he got was a pillow tossed at his head.

He yanked his head back into the hallway and no doubt winced when the pillow crashed against the wall with a loud thump. He poked his head back into the room and gave me a shaky smile. "Guess that's a yes," he mumbled as he stepped into my room, and I glared at him.

"Get out," I snarled, but he only stepped closer to the bed. I lifted up a pillow to throw at him, but he moved so quickly that I didn't even see him; he lunged forward and knocked the pillow out of my hands.

"That's enough of that," he said, taking the pillow from my hands and sitting on the edge of the bed.

I started kicking at him, but he grabbed my feet with a gentle grip and pulled them on to his lap, gently massaging them absentmindedly. I growled under my breath and would have turned away from him if it weren't for the fact that he still had my feet in his hands and showed no intention of releasing them any time soon.

"I'll tell you," Blayke offered softly and I froze.

"What?" I asked, blinking. "You'll tell me about the species of Wonderland?"

"And what you're going to face." He nodded. "Now c'mere. Lay your head on my lap or no deal."

In all of my curiosity, I did as he said; I laid my head on his lap and he began to comb his fingers through the silvery strands.

"I'm first going to start with the Faeries, since you already know about them. As you know, Faeries often live in the forests. We're mainly forest dwellers; we prefer a small house high up in the trees of a forest over anything else. But Faeries have evolved to live underwater, to live in the clouds, to live amongst honey bees. We can live basically anywhere. But the rule is that we have to have a piece of the forest with us." Blayke showed me the carving of a tree in amber that he said he had collected from the forest. "That's the only requirement as to what we do. Faeries are very much free spirits; we do as we please, which is why the royals hate us so much. We don't bend to another's will unless we respect them. That's why the Queen of Hearts has many Faerie servants, and the Queen of Spades has none.

"Next are the demonlings. Demonlings are creatures with demonic origins. Creatures like the Cheshire Cat or Rabid Knight are good examples of demonlings. The Cheshire Cat can disappear and reappear wherever and whenever he wants, because he's related to a ghost demon. As for Rabid Knight, we, the Resistance, don't know much about him. From what we can tell, he isn't actually a demonlings except in behavior and appearance; he doesn't have the family to label him as a demonling. The Resistance's theory is that Rabid Knight was cursed by one of the royals with the appearance you saw. Somehow, he angered one of them and that was the price. So he serves the Queen of Spades to get revenge on the royal who cursed him and took away his family. Personally, I think it was the Queen of Spades, but no one seems to agree with me. There are many arguments as to which royal it was, but we haven't concluded anything. All we know is that Rabid Knight isn't an actual demonling; he just looks and acts like one.

"Next we have the Darklings. The Darklings are a mysterious species. We don't know much about them except their appearance is mostly humanoid with a twist. Some of them have tails, some have claws, others have fangs, etc. All we know is that Darklings can pose as humans without much difficulty at all. From what we know, the history of the Darklings is a long and dangerous one. They evolved from Native Americans from your world who stumbled into our world in an attempt to escape the gruesome fate that they were sure to have to suffer. The Native Americans kept to themselves, only breeding within their own kind, for, as they said, they didn't want to sully their Native American tribe, the Arapahoe, with other species in Wonderland. They wanted to remain human, but Wonderland magic has a funny way of taking species' intentions. It allowed them to remain mostly human with animal twists to identify themselves. Some of the Darklings you've heard of include the Carpenter from the story that you have in your bag. Another one is the 'Mad Hatter' as the book calls him. He prefers the title 'the Madman of Diamonds'.

"Finally, we have the Drow. I know the Drow are what you are most interested in, Bryony, so be sure to pay attention. I'm not telling you this twice, and you can't tell anyone I told you this. I'd be skinned alive if they knew."

I nodded. "I'm listening, very carefully. I don't want to miss a single word of your explanation. Meadow didn't tell me much, only that all of the royals are Drow," I explained, and Blayke smiled down at me fondly.

“So the Drow are also known as Dark Elves. They are related to Faeries loosely, so the two can interbreed and create a half-breed that can also have children. You can tell when a half-breed has occurred, because the child will have green or dark blue eyes or dark brown. Basically, if a Drow child has any color that's dark, not light, for eye-color, they're a half-breed.

"A characteristic of the Drow that's very easy to recognize is their hair; they either have very dark hair like dark purples and black, or very light hair like silver or light purple. Another characteristic of the Drow is their ears. Their ears are often pointed, either with small ears or very long ones. Faeries also have pointed ears, though, so it can be easy to mistake a Faerie for one of the Drow. An invisible characteristic of the Drow is their magical abilities. The Drow are very talented with magic; they can do just about anything.

"The Drow are all Royals, because only their DNA is able to wield the strong magic power the crowns possess. The Drow evolved until they were able to use the magic in the crowns to propel their magic to even further heights. One of the most powerful and accomplished Drow that ever lived was Valeria of the Court of Diamonds. She was crowned as Queen at a young age and was the first to discover that Drow could manipulate the magic inside of the crowns. She's incredible. I knew her once; we fell in love, but she became prideful and too ambitious and absorbed too much power from the crown. In the end, her body combusted because she wasn't able to hold that much power. No Drow has tried to absorb that much power since her. I assume it's because they all underestimated their abilities. Valeria was able to control all of her magic with ease, but she didn't have much magic storing capacities. She had very little magic on her own and relied on the crown to make her powerful. It's almost pitiful, don't you think?"

But I was too deep in my own thoughts to reply. Mostly, I had this burning sense of envy deep in my chest. Blayke had fallen in love before, and it wasn't with me. For some reason, I had very strong feelings for him. I wouldn't call them love, because I didn't know him so well as to be in love with him, but it was an intense like, bordering on love. For all I knew, Blayke was still in love with Valeria and would never look my way twice.

I opened my mouth to question him, but he leaned down and captured my lips with his. After a few moments of kissing me deeply, he pulled away, and I licked my lips just to taste him on myself.

"No, I don't have feelings for Valeria anymore. Those feelings died when I saw that she was lying about herself. I can't stand liars," Blayke explained, smiling warmly at me, so fond of me that it made my heart weep. "I much prefer a girl who's brave enough to stand up for many different species that she knew nothing about."

Then he leaned down and locked his lips with mine once more.

Chapter 21:
Vision

In my dream, I was Alice, and I wandered through the Tugley Woods, the trees ready to eat me. I was holding the trees back with a sword - the Vorpal Sword that could cut through anything; apparently, I was destined to stop the Jabberwocky and slay it with the Vorpal Sword. The trees obeyed the pull and push of the Vorpal Sword and cleared a path for me.

My feet crunched the twigs and leaves underfoot, and I looked around, examining the Tugley Wood. Some of the trees smiled at me, and others gave me a glare that could curdle milk. All of the trees were just a bit different - not only in personality but in appearance, too. Some had milky white flowers, others had no flowers at all, and some didn't even have leaves on their dark branches.

There was suddenly the sound of marching, and my eyes widened; I knew it was the card soldiers marching with Rabid Knight to come and get me. I grabbed the skirt of my dress and rushed over to a tree that I somehow knew was friendly. "Dear tree," I said, and the tree nodded slightly. "If you would, please slow those chasing me down. I must join the Faerie of Spades, the Mad Man of Diamonds, and the Dark Prince of Hearts. Only they will be able to lead me to the Jabberwocky's lair."

"I will do as you ask, Alice," the tree said, and I thanked it before running off.

My ankles were covered in gold and silver anklets that jangled with every bouncing step I took, and my lacy, blue pinafore dress with a white apron covering it swished about my legs, sometimes appearing as though it was enchanted, trying to grab my legs and trip me. But I always shook myself free and continued to run. I had no choice. If I wanted to continue living, I had to escape the Queen of Spades' grip of steel over all of Wonderland; almost all of the creatures in Wonderland had bowed to her will and had turned against me, the Rebels' champion of choice.

But something in me told me I wasn't the right champion. She was to come from blood rich in Nobility and Power. She was to be related to the Royal Court of one of the Suits. She was to be Drow nobility. I was not her, but I could do my best to help Wonderland while the real Chosen One grew up and became the Chosen One.

The thought of the Chosen One kept me running. I had to run, I had to escape to get the Vorpal Sword to the Rebels before the Queen of Spades' card soldiers caught up to me; if I didn't, I was sure to die.

I did not dare look back for fear I would see the fearsome Rabid Knight, in all of his mangled glory. He was awful, with a few patches of fur over red, irritated skin peeling away, and red eyes that flashed without mercy, without a soul inside the husk of a body that was Rabid Knight. It was as if he was a corpse that the Queen of Spades had animated to do her bidding; Rabid Knight could not do what the Queen of Spades said not to.

I kept running and running and running.

But it was in vain, for the card soldiers had looped around and now stood in front of me. I threw the Vorpal Sword at one of the Tugley Wood trees, and it caught it, hiding it within its heart. I memorized the tree, the grooves in the wood, the oddly shaped leaves, and bowed my head, waiting for death.

The Queen of Spades walked up and slapped me across the cheek. "Stupid girl!" she hissed in my face. "Did you really think that you could escape with my precious sword? Where is it, you stupid brat!?"

I smirked at the Queen, giving her a confident look. "Somewhere where you would never dare to look, somewhere you would never even think about looking. I can guarantee until my successor comes here, no one will retrieve the Vorpal Sword. It will stay as it is, right where it is, because you are too much of a coward to retrieve it."

The Queen of Spades slapped me across the cheek once again. "Tell me where it is!" she shouted in my face, and I spat at her.

"It's in the heart of a Tugley Wood tree!" I exclaimed triumphantly, and glared daggers at the Queen of Spades.

The Queen of Spades' face paled, and she gritted her teeth. "OFF WITH HER HEAD!!!!" she screamed, and I chuckled.

"I win," I said, and then I no longer had a head.

I woke up screaming.

Chapter 22:
Heart

Blayke basically sprinted into my room and was by my side within seconds of my awakening. He brushed my silvering hair from out of my eyes and off of my sweaty forehead and smiled gently down at me. "Nightmare?" he asked, and I nodded. "Why don't you tell me what happened in your nightmare?"

So I dragged him so that he was next to me in my bed and was lying down beside me. I laid my head on his chest and took a deep breath. And then I began to tell him the story of my dream.

"I was Alice, my ancestor, Alice Liddell. I was wandering through the Tugley Wood with the Vorpal Sword in hand, trying to find you, the Mad Man of Diamonds, and the Dark Prince of Hearts. I was going to bring the Vorpal Sword to you because I somehow knew that I wasn't the Chosen One, I wasn't the one to save Wonderland. I was going to bring the Vorpal Sword to you and the Mad Man of Diamonds and the Dark Prince of Hearts so that you could guard it until the real Chosen One came. But then the Procession of Spades came along into the Tugley Wood after me. I began to run after pleading with one of the trees to slow the Procession down, but it didn't work. The Procession of Spades caught up with me and in a last ditch effort to keep the Vorpal Sword out of the Queen of Spades' hands, I threw the Vorpal Sword at one of the friendly trees and memorized it. It grabbed the Vorpal Sword in its 'hands' and swallowed the Vorpal Sword into its heart. The Queen of Spades came up into my face, slapped me, and demanded to know where the Vorpal Sword was. I told her it was where she would never dare look because she was a coward and spat in her face, and she slapped me again. She demanded once more to know where the Vorpal Sword was, and I told her that it was in the heart of a Tugley Wood tree. She paled and decided that I would be beheaded. I was then beheaded, and I woke up as me again," I explained, and Blayke paled.

I examined his face suspiciously and bit the inside of my cheek and gnawed on it. "Is that true?" I asked, blinking innocently to dissuade him from thinking that I suspected anything. "Is that really what happened?"

"No," Blayke said, shaking his head, but his expression told me otherwise. "Alice did hide the Vorpal Sword, but she wasn't beheaded, obviously - otherwise you wouldn't be here."

But I had my suspicions. However, I really didn't want to be right; I didn't want the truth to be what I thought it was. That would terrify me. I didn't want to be right, so I believed Blayke. I swallowed down my feelings of suspicion and believed him instead.

"Then why did I have that dream?" I asked, and Blayke shrugged.

"Overstressed nerves?" he guessed, and I kissed him on the cheek.

"Stay with me so I don't have nightmares?" I asked, and Blayke nodded, smiling at me.

"Absolutely," he said, and I snuggled into his chest, falling asleep upon smelling his unique scent.