Poisoned Piece: Falkbeer
The first indication that things were going right was the disappearance of the eyes. Fearing the worst- and fearing false hope even more- he fell into a defensive position and squinted against the light that entered the room as the door swung open.
Duchess entered, wearing one of her more demure outfits and carrying a few articles of men's outerwear.
"Quickly, put this on!" She ordered, swinging the coat over his shoulders and depositing the hat on his head.
"What?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"I've bribed the guards, but they'll be back soon," Duchess explained. "Please, we've got to leave now!"
Jack slipped his arms into the sleeves of the jacket, and allowed Duchess to pull him by the arm out of the Eye Room and into the hallway. He waited until they were safely away from any heavily guarded area before he began to resist, using her momentum to tug her back towards him.
"Why are you doing this?" he demanded.
"Isn't it obvious?" she replied. He looked at her in disbelief. No it bloody well was not obvious! "I care about you. I always have."
He didn't dare believe it.
"You work for my mother. You always have," he replied. Duchess looked up at him, eyes glittering with unshed tears.
"Loving you has its price," she whispered.
At that moment, he could not have been more shocked if his father had popped out of the woodwork, declaring that he and his mother would be on holiday for the next several years, and Alice was to rule in their absence.
"We need to leave," she said again, and then they were off.
"I've come to return a library book," Alice called.
"How doth the little crocodile improve his shinning tail?"
"He pours the waters of the Nile on every shinning scale."
Duck did a double take as he let her in, and then a triple one for Charlie, who smiled amiably up at the other man from underneath his helmet.
"Hello!"
Duck didn't answer, instead pulling the lever that would deposit them into the library properly. The sudden drop wasn't nearly as terrifying the second time around. Neither was the sight of Owl and her sawed off shotgun and suspicion.
Not to say that either experience was pleasant, or even neutral, but it was much less terrifying.
"I thought you were joking when you said they'd probably want to shoot us," Charlie said from behind her, disappointed. Owl peered up at him, blinking in a manner that benefited her namesake.
"Is that… a Knight?" she asked.
"He is indeed," Alice replied, more grateful than ever that he'd come along with her. She hadn't thought before what a Knight would mean to the Resistance; she'd just wanted not to be alone while she did this. She still didn't, and made a mental note to try and keep Dodo from getting a clear shot at Charlie after they got past these two. And not get shot herself.
Jesus Christ, how had Hatter managed this again? Tasty delicious bribes she reminded herself, reaching carefully into the satchel tucked under her jacket.
"He was also nice enough to pick some cucumbers. Would you like some?"
The Queen was not in a good mood.
True, she had retaken control of the Looking Glass; Tea production was once again on the rise; her Carpenter was still at work and still dedicated to it. In short, her power was secure.
But not unthreatened.
She'd been so close- so, so close- to eliminating all of those who would oppose her. Her rebellious son had be caught consorting with the Resistance, Alice had been in her grasp, and Caterpillar was dead. Then Jack had slipped away, assisted by that treacherous Duchess, and Alice had been rescued by a Knight and a Tea Shop owner of all things; the fact that neither of them had be apprehended in the intervening day spoke to the Resistance's continued activity.
Either that, or Alice was far, far nervier than she thought, conspiring with her son to overthrow her from the very beginning.
She wasn't without recourse, however. Carpenter was, sadly, too valuable to try and use against anyone, but the Tea Shop owner, this Hatter… he had promise. And a history with her favorite assassin she'd been unaware of. That spoke of a potential for something ever greater than leverage.
Mad March, ever the showman, timed the application of a hot iron to Hatter's shoulder to coincide with her arrival, so that she was greeted with screams as she walked through the door.
"Why's a raven like a writing desk?" Hatter gibbered, gasping painfully.
"Has he cracked?" The Queen asked.
"The clockwork's not ticking properly," Hatter continued, almost in answer to her question.
"He won't crack," March answered.
"Must be crumbs in the butter."
The Queen moved until she was standing directly in front of the prisoner, crouching slightly so that they were at eye level. "Am I right in thinking that you and he worked together once?"
"Your hair wants cutting," Hatter spat out. She didn't wait for March to answer her.
"Would you like to do so again?"
Mad March cocked his head, interested. "What's the catch?"
"You'd be responsible for him." At first, at least. If Mad March became even more difficult to control, Hatter could be his replacement. "It would also take time. The Tweedles would need to make the necessary adjustments."
"It'll take a long time, then," March said, casually laying the hot iron against Hatter's arm. He tried and failed to hold back another scream; her nose wrinkled against the renewed smell of burning flesh. "He's very stubborn. If you can manage it, he'll be worth the effort though."
"Alice is safe," Hatter gasped. "It's worth it. Alice is safe."
Dodo was unsurprisingly unimpressed with her arrival. Alice was surprised by the presence of Caterpillar. Charlie seemed to shock everyone by existing, and was in turn impressed with their hideout.
"Remarkable!" he enthused, taking a closer look at the bookcase. "We had libraries in the City of the Knights, but I had to board them up. The animals were getting into them, and nothing spoils a good read like finding out the middle of the book is currently be utilized as a squirrel's nest."
"Didn't you go up in a puff of smoke?" Alice asked Caterpillar, careful to keep herself between the Knight and Dodo, for all the younger man appeared more likely to put his head through his desk than pull out a gun.
"Were you not captured by Suits?" Caterpillar retorted. Alice raised an eyebrow.
"I rescued her!" Charlie chimed in.
"She bought cucumbers!" Owl exclaimed.
"She also lost the ring," Dodo said, giving her a withering look.
"That was, admittedly, not her fault," Caterpillar said. "I had asked for the ring to be bought to the city."
"Why her? Why not just the ring?" Dodo cried, exasperated. "She's only an Oyster, she can't-"
"Carpenter's her father," Caterpillar said.
Dodo gaped. "She's an Oyster!"
"My name is Alice!" she protested. She was getting really, really tired of being referred to as 'the Oyster'.
"So was Carpenter, originally. I'd hoped he could be reminded of that."
"I'm a Knight," Charlie said, obviously having trouble following the conversation.
"So they're both Oysters! How does that help us?"
"We could through them back," Owl suggested around a mouthful of cucumber. "That would be rid of Carpenter and his Tea."
"We need Carpenter," Caterpillar replied. "Unlike the Walrus, he might be inclined to help with the Tea-heads once the Queen is overthrown. Alice is the key to reminding him who he is: someone who will want to undo the damage he's caused."
"He doesn't know what he's doing," Alice shot back. "He's been brainwashed, for crying out loud. He didn't even remember me, or Mom, or his friends…"
There was, at long last, silence in the library.
"You were getting through to him," Caterpillar said firmly. "With a little more time, you will."
"So you plan on trying to get him out again," Alice said.
"If at all possible," Caterpillar said. "We were hasty getting him out that time: it seemed prudent, what with the Queen out for blood, to reunite the two of you as soon as possible. Now we shall have to try slower methods. We may even smuggle you inside."
"Now hold on a minute-" Dodo began.
"There's also Hatter," Alice interrupted.
"What about Hatter?" Duck asked.
"Alas, he was captured during our rescue of Alice," Charlie informed them mournfully. "No doubt the Queen has taken him to the casino-"
Dodo let out a loud groan. "We'll have to evacuate."
"What?" Alice asked.
"Evacuate. Leave. Sacrifice 150 years worth of hording books, because Hatter will talk."
"No he won't," Alice denied. It was a knee jerk reaction.
"Yes he will," Dodo scoffed. "They won't even have to do anything to him, he'll give us all up to save his own skin!"
"How can you say that?" Alice cried. "Do you have any idea what he's done the past three days? He's lost his home, been chased by a Jabberwock, and rescued me twice, getting roughed up all the time and never losing site of the fact that the Queen needed to be overthrown and I was holding the means to do it! All this after you shot him and put a price on his head! He isn't going to talk. Unless we get him out of there soon they're going to torture then kill him!"
The part about his never losing sight of the Resistance's objectives wasn't true, strictly speaking. He had, after all, for a very brief period of time, entertained the idea of moving to her world and leaving the chaos of Wonderland behind. There had also been the heat in his eyes when he looked at her that made her want to believe that he hadn't been doing this entirely for Wonderland. That didn't change the fact that whenever it counted, he'd pulled through for all of them.
"You're the one who put a price on Hatter's head?" Caterpillar asked, frowning.
As he and Dodo began to talk around the room's other occupants again, Alice exchanged impatient looks with Charlie. This was going to take a while.
She only hoped they had enough time for it.
It was only a small thought, but it was odd enough that he had to repeat it to himself several times over, turn it about to find where it came from.
It's the same color as the shutters back home.
"Bad batch?" Walrus asked
"There's something off, but I can't pin it down," Carpenter replied, sniffing at the batch of Nostalgia.
The same color…
"Here," he said, passing the vial over. "What do you think?"
It was ridiculous. He was Carpenter; he was a Wonderlander; and he'd never had blue shutters. It was that girl, that was all. The same traitors that had kidnapped him had likely slipped him something that left him open to suggestion. He would just have to work through it.
He ignored that fact that Alice had never mentioned the shutters.
Next chapter can be read here.