“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.