“Ahem hem hem,” Blue burbled, exhaling a cloud that formed the words Oh well. He puffed on his hookah for a time, the soft peh peh peh of his lips the only sound in the room. “I, an unnaturally large caterpillar, will reveal to you that of yourself which yet you know not,” he said at length. He exhaled a cloud, which briefly took on the shape of a butterfly before transforming into a jumble of scenes: Redd, struggling with a crystal in the shape of a locksmith’s key, with Bibwit at her side-or no, it was just a member of the tutor species; King Arch tugging on the whisker of a colorless caterpillar; Redd taking hold of a dusty, time-ravaged scepter. The cloud then resumed the form of a butterfly, which folded its wings and-
Alyss awoke. Only a faint hint of sweetness in the air. Blue was gone, Dodge sitting on the edge of her bed.
“Do you smell that?” she asked.
He nodded. “A caterpillar was here.”
Alyss sat up, annoyed. “If Blue has something to tell me, why can’t he just come out and say it? Why does he have to bother with all of his inexplicable scenes and symbols? No wonder so many Wonderlanders think the oracles are useless.”
“But you don’t, Alyss. What did he show you?”
Despite her parents’ warnings, despite agreeing with Dodge about the impossibility of protecting him from his own worst impulses-
I don’t want to tell him. No, because, at the very least, the caterpillar’s warning meant that Redd would soon return to Wonderland. Or that she already had.
“He said he would reveal myself to me and then I saw King Arch trying to pull a whisker off a caterpillar.” She sought Redd with her imagination’s eye, but since she didn’t know where to look, it was
like knocking on any random door in Wondertropolis and hoping her aunt would answer it. “That’s all?” Dodge asked.
“Yes.”
“We should inform Bibwit and the general,” he said, standing. But on his way out, he paused in the doorway and delivered the news that had originally brought him to the suite: “None of the card soldiers at the Pool of Tears has checked in with Central Command. Not one is answering his crystal
communicator. The knight and rook have been sent to the pool and will soon report back.”
Redd. So Dodge knew she’d been lying, was already preparing himself for a confrontation. She wanted
to explain-explain what, exactly?-but words wouldn’t come, and her lie hung heavy between them like a fog.
CHAPTER 34
T HE ENCAMPMENT was as rowdy as ever when it happened: the air rent by a scream of such pitch and intensity that every Doomsine fell to the ground in pain and slapped hands, paws, or hoofs over their ears. Wives, soldiers, servants, animals, tailors and tavern keepers, everyone devoted to serving Boarderland’s king collapsed as if punched. And no matter how desperately they tried to stop up their ears, still the unending scream penetrated their skulls.
Having conjured earplugs of appropriate density, Redd Heart walked unperturbed along the encampment’s temporary streets, accompanied by the equally unperturbed Vollrath, Cat, Alistaire Poole, and Siren Hecht. The group might have passed for a wicked ex-queen and friends out for a bit of sightseeing if not for Siren, whose mouth was open to twice its normal size, her vocal cords issuing forth their life-paralyzing vibrations.
Redd sighted Arch’s tent in her imagination and paraded her troops to it. Outside of the tent, two figures were bent to the ground in wincing agony, one of them in elbow-length gloves.
“Knock, knock,” Redd said at the entrance.
Inside, Arch and his intel ministers were foundering on the floor, holding anything within reach to their ears-pillows, decorative crystals, coats. Redd flashed Siren a look; the assassin shut her mouth and the hideous shrieking stopped. Slowly, the intel ministers raised their heads. Arch was squinty-eyed with doubt when he saw his visitor.
“Redd?”
“I realize it’s been a while, Arch, but did I mean so little to you that you don’t even recognize me?” The king reached a hand out to touch her. “No. But you seem…out of focus.”
She was about to slap his ring-laden hand away when Ripkins and Blister stormed in, Ripkins with sword drawn and Blister stretching his bare hands toward The Cat and Alistaire Poole. Without turning from Arch, Redd imagined the handle of Ripkins’ weapon too hot to touch-“Ah!” he cried, and dropped it-and she hurtled both bodyguards backward, out of the tent and across the street, through a wives’ tent, across a second street, through a shoemaker’s tent, across a third street and into a glassblower’s hutch. They crashed through the hutch’s back wall, the whole structure collapsed, and they landed hard
in the rubble of an alley, prevented from getting up by the heavy, iron-like slabs Redd had conjured on top of their limbs and torsos.
Back in Arch’s tent, Her Imperial Viciousness pushed out her bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. “The way you avoided me after mother thought she’d stop me from being queen,” she whined to Arch, “it makes an heiress suspect you’d only been interested in her power and influence.”
“You know that’s not true, Redd,” Arch said, struggling to his feet. “I was as unimpressed with your parents and their government as you were. While you were in line to succeed your mother, they assumed our gallivanting was not-altogether-harmless fun you would outgrow, and I could be as rowdy with you
as I liked. But for me to have contact with you after they removed you from succession…” He shook his head. “They were my most powerful neighbors. For reasons of diplomacy and national stability, I couldn’t do it.”
“And what of my hateful time on Mount Isolation and the thirteen years I ruled Wonderland? What are your excuses for not seeing me then?”
“I should ask about your excuse for not seeing me. I think we’ve been equally guilty in neglecting our relationship-or equally innocent, whichever you prefer.”
Redd grunted, unconvinced. Arch’s intel ministers were still recovering from Siren’s screams, fingers at their ears to try and clear the ringing out of them, but the king himself had taken on his usual aplomb, acting as if he’d never suffered at all.
“You’ve returned at an opportune time,” he smirked. “Alyss has been facing difficulties, Wonderland having recently defended itself against an attack of…Glass Eyes.”
Redd looked painfully gaseous all of a sudden, her face taut in an expression of pleasure. “If anyone else had dared to copy my inventions…” she said. “I see you’ve taken advantage of my absence.”
“Would you care for me if I didn’t? Don’t think I presumed to tamper much with your creations, Redd. Of the Glass Eyes produced here, the only difference was in whose voice they recognized as their authority. But in honor of seeing you again, and in lieu of a fruit basket, allow me to offer you what is left of the manufacturing facility that Lord and Lady Diamond were overseeing in Boarderland.”
Redd cackled. “Arch, it’s impossible to stay angry at you when you’re so devious. But what makes you think I need my old Glass Eyes? I have a formidable army on Earth already assembled-you’re acquainted with the talents of some of my soldiers.” She indicated Siren Hecht. “And I shortly intend to navigate my Looking Glass Maze, which I should have done long ago. It will make me the strongest
Heart in history, and I will then reduce my young niece to an irksome memory. So you and I will again be neighbors. I trust your masculinity isn’t too offended?”
“Wherever a female must be in power, Redd,” Arch smiled, “you are, and have always been, my only choice. For how long can I expect to have the current displeasure of your company?”