Thump. Thump thump. Thump thump thump. “What the…?” one of the soldiers said.
The limbs of Glass Eyes clomped down around them. Arms chopped off at the shoulder joint, legs ending at the top of the thigh, hands and feet and torsos, all with a spaghetti of wires and lab-grown veins spilling from holes where no holes should have been.
From the direction the card soldiers had expected their death to come, the silhouette of a Wonderlander appeared out of the smoke-a Wonderlander they would have recognized anywhere. The hat, the dramatic swing of the coat, the spinning blades on his wrists: Hatter Madigan.
CHAPTER 15
F OR A manufactured species with questionable brain power, the Glass Eyes were fighting with surprising intelligence. Rather than face Wonderland forces in the open of wide avenues, squares and parks, they used the cityscape to their advantage, as defensive cover. They moved purposefully from building to building, sheltered position to sheltered position, battling card soldiers as they converged on Genevieve Square.
The moment Alyss had been located, the knowledge of it spread to every Glass Eye in the city-or so it seemed to Bibwit Harte, who, with the walrus-butler, was watching the invasion on the holographic viewing screens in the palace’s briefing room. Wonderland’s queen had been sighted, there followed the slightest hesitation in the Glass Eyes’ movements, and they all began to fight their way toward her.
“Oh, oh, I can’t watch,” grieved the walrus. He tried to cover his eyes, but his flippers were too short to reach and he waddled around the room in even greater consternation. “I’m not watching, I’m not watching!” He turned his eyes anywhere but at the holo-screens. “What’s happening, Mr. Bibwit? No, don’t tell me! Oh, why can’t Queen Alyss simply defeat those horrid things with the strength of her imagination? Please tell me that something good is-”
Clicketyclacketyclicketyclicket! Clacketyclicketyclack! “What. Are. Thooooooose?” the walrus moaned.
On the holo-screen airing the happenings in Genevieve Square, a swarm of scorpspitters released by the Glass Eyes was scuttling toward Alyss and the others. Never before had a Wonderlander seen these scorpion-like contraptions that could shoot bullets of deadly poison from their “tails”-not even Bibwit, who assumed they were the latest in a long line of armaments invented by Redd. But before a single scorpspitter curled its tail into a C to take aim at the queen, she imagined into existence a horde of disembodied boots with steel-plated soles, which hovered momentarily in the air, then-
With a slight nod, she brought them down hard, stomping the scorpspitters flat, squishing their armor-carapaces and making abstract art of their wiry guts.
“Ooh, now why can’t Queen Alyss do that to the Glass Eyes?” the walrus-butler cried.
“Because Alyss cannot, even in her imagination, be in all places at once,” Bibwit explained, “not with the intensity required to defeat a scattered enemy. Whether she produces a construct with enough reality to deceive the eyes or she brings into existence an actual weapon or boot, imaginings require tremendous precision of thought and attention to detail. She could perhaps mount a successful defense in two locations simultaneously; she has the strength for that. But to imagine herself in every Wondertropolis neighborhood, battling all the invading packs of Glass Eyes simultaneously, would spread her gift too thin and she would fail.”
Waddling laps around the room, alternately looking at the ceiling and the floor-anywhere but at the holo-screens-the walrus-butler heard none of this. Bibwit himself was hardly aware of what he’d said. In times of great stress, the pale scholar became more verbose than usual.
“At least the palace has been locked down,” he observed, hoping to calm the walrus as, on the walls around them, the uncontrollable nightmare of battle raged in Wondertropolis’ streets. “So we are safe.”
But even the walrus-butler wasn’t naive enough to believe this. They were safe only so long as Queen Alyss Heart remained so, and right now-the animal cast a fretful eye at the nearest holo-screen-things looked very bad indeed.
They were surrounded. Directly ahead, cannonball spiders rocketed closer and closer while, on their left, a cannonade of orb generators eclipsed all but death. On their right, umpteen decks of razor-cards cut through the distance toward them and, at their backs, spikejack tumblers churned air in prelude to churning their flesh.
The Glass Eyes were trying to overwhelm the queen, to catch her imagination off guard. I won’t let it happen.
Alyss flicked out her fingers and a cannonball spider shot out from each of them, hatched in midair, and clashed with those shot by the enemy. Halfway between Wonderland’s queen and the Glass Eyes, the mechanical spiders fought, dismembering one another as heartily as they would have dismembered any Wonderlander, while-
Thrusting her scepter skyward, Alyss veered the incoming orb generators away from her and the others, imagined them streaming out high over Wondertropolis to land in the Volcanic Plains, home of the jabberwocky.
Can’t let it happen.
Dodge, the chessmen, and generals were standing with swords raised in the futile hope that they might deflect enough razor-cards away from themselves to survive. The missiles were nearly close enough to shave the hair off their arms when-
Fith, fith, fith! Fith, fith, fith, fith, fith, fith, fith!
– Alyss imagined them into neatly stacked decks, grounded and harmless. Immediately, she whirled around to face the spikejack tumblers and sent them crashing into one another. Their spikes latched, holding the tumblers together to form a sort of worrisome jungle gym that hit the ground and skidded toward them, scraping and gouging the pavement.
“When I give the go ahead, go ahead,” Alyss said, the spikes of a jungle gym having come to a stop less than a gwormmy-length from her face.
“What?” the four General Doppels cried at once. “Run when I say so.”
Dodge frowned.
“We have to get out of this square,” she said. “Find a better vantage from which to fight.” “Wondronia’s just up Brillig Way,” the knight offered. “We’ll have the most number of options there.” “To Wondronia Grounds then,” Alyss said. “But first, you’d all better duck.”
They barely had time to drop to the pavement before she spun, her scepter held horizontally above her head with both hands, sparks of imagination spewing from its ends, shooting out in all directions and-peewthungk! peewthungk!-laying low the surrounding Glass Eyes with heat-seeking accuracy.
“Now!”
The chessmen and generals took off, razor-cards ripping from their AD52s, cover fire issuing from their crystal shooters. Running behind them, Dodge kept close to Alyss.
“You should get back to the palace,” he urged.
She guffawed. “I understand. You were preoccupied and didn’t notice that I just saved your life?” “The queendom needs you safe,” he said. “I need you safe.”
“But I’m the only one who can defeat Redd.” “For Issa’s sake, Alyss!”
Ahead of them, the chessmen and generals were battling their way into the elaborate complex of buildings that made up Wondronia Grounds.
“You want me to return to the palace,” Alyss said, “then you have to come with me. The Cat nearly killed you once, Dodge. If you insist on fighting him again, I won’t let you do it alone.”
A few more strides and Wonderland’s queen and the leader of her palace guard would have caught up with the chessmen, just a few more steps and-
A Glass Eye leaped out from behind a parked smail-transport, blocked their way. “Did you drop something?” Dodge asked the assassin. “’Cause I think I see your…” he unsheathed his sword and swung, decapitating the Glass Eye in one blow, “…head over there.”