Wonderland (Intergalactic Fairy Tales Book 1) (21 page)

Alice dove for it and tucked herself into a ball. Snicker-snack pressed into her side, but the cold metal did her no harm. Then a searing pain lit her leg on fire. A guard had managed to get the slightest blow to land on her calf as she pulled herself back to her feet. She crumbled back to the ground in a graceless heap, her left leg completely useless.

Her brain told her this was the end. Any second another blow would come to knock her completely senseless. Her body wasn't ready to quit though. Her arms burned with exertion and her eyes were almost crusted shut with other people's blood. Even though she knew they weren't going to kill her, this was still a fight for survival. She would give it all that she had.

Snicker-snack sang her agreement. The battle wasn't done until you weren't able to continue or until the last enemy was slain. Together they worked out a floor routine that cut the legs out from under several more guards.

Lyla could be heard shouting a battle cry that moved ever closer to Alice's position and Bandy, as she'd dubbed him, was still howling and snarling, though much more hoarsely.

Just one more, she kept telling herself. They aren't endless. Eventually you will have killed them all and you'll have to figure out how to fly the ship with only a rodent and a mutated dog for crew. That thought brought about a wild fit of laughter which scared off a few of the lower ranking cards. Nobody could blame them; a girl sitting on the ground, covered in blood and dicing up enemy after enemy while howling with laughter was a disturbing sight.

Then one of her enemies toppled before she had a chance to cut him down and Lyla appeared next to his head when he hit the ground. Together the two of them stemmed the tide of card guards for another couple of minutes while Bandy continued his rampage within earshot.

Guard after guard threw himself at Alice and Lyla, only to join his comrades on the mounting pile of bodies around them. To their left, Bandy let out a horrible cry and then went silent. Apparently he'd fallen, because a new influx of guards hit them from that side.

The pain in her leg had subsided enough that Alice managed to stand. It was a mistake. No sooner had she reached her full height than a guard pushed over the pile of bodies and tangled her feet. They took full advantage of her momentary loss of balance and several blows rained down on her at once. Each one was like being stabbed with an electrified red hot poker. Every muscle in her body spasmed and then went so taut that she couldn't even fall to the ground. Sparks and red blotches filled her vision and then, still on her feet, she lost consciousness.

She slipped in and out of awareness while they carried her onto the ship. She didn't want to be awake. Every time she would drift off she would startle and her eyes would pop open. Something was missing. She had to get it. No, that wasn't right. She knew Snicker-snack would be taken, she wasn't important. Someone! Someone was missing. Lyla. She had to find Lyla.

"Shhh, I'm here, Alice. Don't fret. Go back to sleep. No need to call out," said a small husky voice.

She wasn't calling out. The only thing she could hear was a frantic muling sound, probably poor Bandy. She tried to argue with Lyla and found that her mouth was already in use. Her throat was raw. Then she realized that muling sound was actually her.

"All is well Alice," said Lyla. "I won't let them hurt you any more."

That time Alice realized that Lyla was actually curled up under the edge of her shirt on her shoulder. She wasn't lost, so Alice let darkness claim her again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Turbulence shook Alice awake, just as they were circling The Red Palace to come in for a landing. Her muscles ached from all the clenching, and she had a terrible headache, but otherwise she seemed to be intact.

She was slumped into a seat near a window with two guards staring down at her nervously. "Boo!" she said, and they jumped back, nearly dropping their clubs. Alice couldn't help laughing, even though it caused her immediate muscle pain.

Outside her window loomed the digital billboard that rested atop the palace. It showed a picture of a card guard standing next to the queen with his sword held in a fighting pose. "Join the palace guard today! Immediate openings in a number of prestigious positions!" it proclaimed.

"If they televised what just happened, I'm not sure those positions are going to be so easy to fill," said Alice.

"Shut your mouth," grumped one of the guards. "I lost a lot of friends hauling your arse back in here."

"Then you might want to blame the queen for that. She's the one that only gave you those short little clubs to bring in someone wielding a sword that cuts through metal as well as air," said Alice smugly. "I bet there are any number of high tech guns she could have given you that could have knocked me out at a hundred meters."

"It's not for us to question the queen's orders," said the other guard in the seat across from her. His chest was painted with the number four.

"Good job, Number Four. Said like a good little soldier who will get himself killed in just the way his queen wants."

The other guard reached over with his club and jabbed her in the ribs, sinking her back into oblivion.

When she woke the next time, she’d been returned to her cell. They hadn't bothered to put her on her cot. The floor was cold and hard, pressing against her aching body in a hundred unpleasant ways. "Aaaaugh," she groaned.

"Oh, Alice," said Dee excitedly. "You put on such a great show. There was blood everywhere. If they'd had just a few less guards, I think you could have won the day."

"Blech," responded Alice. Her tongue tasted like she'd spent the night licking dirty ashtrays while holding a mouth full of pennies.

"Leave her alone, Dee," Dum chided. "She's bound to be in plenty of pain. The jerks didn't even bother to put her on her cot."

Alice found a glass of water next to her cot and took a drink. "Can't blame them," she said. "I did just kill a good deal of them." Her mind swam with the images of blood and other less pleasant things. She could barely believe it was her that had done such violence. She wouldn't change anything though. If she had to kill a thousand of them to have a chance at saving her friends, she'd do it. That's when she remembered that Seamus and March were in the jail as well. Five of her friends' lives were depending on her.

“You really did give them a good stomping,” said Dee. He seemed really and truly proud.

Alice took another sip of her water and smiled at Dee. “You would have done better.”

“D’aw,” said Dee, his cheeks turning red. “You’ve barely even seen me fight, and your puppy nearly took off my arm.”

“Wait a minute,” said Alice. She looked around the room in confusion. “How did you guys see me fight?”

“Turns out these walls are a lot more high tech than they look.” Dum tapped the cell wall. “When they dumped you off in the Imagisphere, every cell in here had a huge screen to watch you on.”

“What about Lyla and Bandy?” asked Alice. “Are they all right?”

“Bandy?” asked Dum. “Oh, the Bandersnatch. They didn’t kill it. Nice job turning it to your side, by the way. Nobody could have predicted that one.”

“Ugggh,” groaned Lyla from a shadow underneath Alice’s cot. “Hurt everywhere.”

Alice scooted along the floor to Lyla, every muscle screaming in protest. Her skin itched where dried blood coated it and cracked. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, no thanks to you,” groaned the dormouse. She stretched and yawned, showing her tiny teeth in the cutest way.

Alice tried not to smile, and failed. “Thanks to me? What ever did I do?”

“The next time you feel the urge to taunt the guards and get hit with one of those nasty clubs, make sure I’m far away.” She scowled up at Alice who smiled even wider.

“Oh, Lyla, I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize it would go through me and hit you too.”

“Well, it did,” groused the dormouse. “But I think you might have opened their eyes a bit to the fact that the queen doesn’t really care about their lives.”

“How’s that, then?” asked Dum.

Alice recounted seeing the billboard and taunting the guards for him. He grinned and Dee clapped for her. “That was worth a good jolt. Maybe you’ll get a few of them to abandon their posts.”

“That was my thinking. If we’re going to escape from here, having as few guards as possible around seemed like a good plan.”

“Do you have a plan for how to get out of here then?” asked Dum.

Alice looked down at Lyla and grinned. “I just might, if I can persuade Lyla to do a little running from cell to cell. Our friend Seamus is just down the hall and I think he could be a great help.”

After several hours of communication back and fourth through Lyla, a plan was in place. There was serious doubt as to whether the hatter could pull it off or not as his mental state had seriously declined since being imprisoned. At one point Lyla said he’d tried to set her in a maze he’d made from his shirt and told her to find her way to the cheese. Even if Seamus did manage to pull it off, there was still no guarantee that anything would come of it.

In any event, all there was to do was wait. Whether it was to be hauled off to the Imagisphere for another battle to the death, or whether it was for her escape plan to take shape.

“You really should try and get some more sleep, Alice,” said Dum. He sat on his cot and leaned against the plastic wall that divided their cells.

“I can’t sleep until I know whether or not he’s going to show up,” said Alice. “If he does, we need to be alert and ready to go.”

“He might not show up for days,” said Dum. His eyes drooped closed and then he jerked and sat up a little straighter. “You can never predict what that guy will do. He could be here already, just waiting to make a grand entrance.”

“That’s not fair,” said a wry voice. It was too clear to have come from anywhere but inside Alice’s cell. “I’m not prone to theatrics. I just don’t like doing what’s expected.”

“Cheshire,” said Alice in a whisper. “You got our message.”

“Yes, and I hardly think it amusing that you replaced all the commercials with Alice brand catnip ads.” A disapproving frown appeared at head height. “The other subtle hints placed all throughout the programming were quite enough to get my attention. No need to taunt me with my genetic predisposition to roll around in that bothersome plant.”

The thought of Cheshire rolling around on the floor like her cat Dinah with catnip was too funny and Alice burst out laughing. When he was visible, Cheshire always had a dignified air about him. His eyes appeared above his smile so that he could give her a disapproving glare. “Sorry,” said Alice, covering her mouth, still unable to stifle her giggle. She’d have to thank Seamus for working his wizardry through the prison wall televisions.

“Well, if you called me here simply to laugh at me, then I guess you’ve got what you wanted. I’ll just be on my way.” The cat’s mouth and eyes drifted slowly toward the door of the cell. “I love what they’ve done with this place. Very modern for a prison. I can see why you fancy a nice long stay here. Too bad you’ll be dead within a couple of days.”

“Please, wait,” called Alice, finally getting her giggling under control. Mention of one’s inevitable demise tends to have that effect. “I need your help. We all need your help.”

“Well, that much is obvious,” sniffed Cheshire. Between one second and the next he was a whole person, dressed in a simple pair of black pants and a black shirt. He sat down on the bench next to Alice and looked off into the distance. To a casual observer it would appear that he didn’t care in the least what she might say to him, then he nodded slightly.

Alice took that as a sign that she should explain, so she started by asking a simple question. “Were you just being boastful before, or could you really steal the vorpal sword from the queen’s collection room?”

“I don’t boast,” said Cheshire, turning his nose up. “I can steal anything from anyone.”

“Good, then I need to you to steal the vorpal sword before night falls and the queen dumps me in the Imagisphere again.” The statement came out so bold and presumptuous that she felt the need to follow it up with a polite request. “Would you be willing to do that for me?” Cheshire’s silence prompted her to continue. “I don’t really have much to offer you in the way of payment, I’m afraid. I would owe you a tremendous debt.”

“I’d do that just for the fun of it, Alice,” said Cheshire. He turned his head to meet her gaze and gave her his trademark grin. “I’d love to see you tear out of this place again with that sword in hand and thumb your nose at that awful queen.”

“Great,” said Alice, clapping her hands. “Let’s get started. I imagine they’ll be fetching me out of here again soon.”

Cheshire frowned and lowered his head. “I wish it were that easy. I could steal the vorpal sword from her treasure room, but it would take days or possibly weeks of planning.”

Alice slumped down onto her cot and heaved a great sigh. “And here I thought I was so clever getting Seamus to call you up here. We’ll all be dead in a few days if I’m being honest with myself. If Bandy wouldn’t have joined our side, we’d have been doomed last night.”

“All is not lost, dear Alice. Let me talk some things over with you and I may just have a plan.” His beautiful yellow eyes flashed with mischief.