Chapter IV: The Plot Thickens...
Mallymkun and the miniature Hightopp stood outside the door to the throne room of the White Palace in Marmoreal. The two banged on the silver-painted wooden door as hard as they could, until it was opened by the White Rabbit...
Who promptly fainted, immediately upon seeing the shrunken Mad Hatter.
The Hatter, meanwhile, slapped his palm to his face.
"McTwisp? Is everything all right?"
The owner of this new, golden voice approached the door, dressed in robes of purest white, with skin almost as pale, and eyes like melted milk chocolate. Mirana, the White Queen, looked down concernedly at the fallen Rabbit...and then her eyes landed on the dormouse and the tiny Hatter.
For a second, there was dead silence.
Then the Queen began to laugh hysterically.
Tarrant's eyes were now spirals of green, orange, and blue.
"T-Tarrant!" the Queen gasped out, trying to calm herself. "Wh-What...?"
"Please, yer Majesty," the Hatter sighed. "Dinnae ask meh..."
The Queen, still giggling herself to death, turned her gaze to Mally, who shrugged.
"Pishsalver in the tea," she explained, flatly.
"I see," the Queen said, her serious voice not matching her smile, which would have put Chessur into a stupor. "Was it Thackery?"
"No," Mally said, smirking. "This time it was me."
Mirana's eyes widened.
"You, Mally?"
The dormouse nodded.
The Queen laughed even louder than before...so loud, in fact, that it awakened McTwisp, who lay flat on his back.
"Help," he peeped.
The Queen, her dainty, manicured hands quivering with laughter, helped the White Rabbit to his feet. The lapin stood shakily, and then turned to Tarrant.
This time it was Mally who facepalmed, as the rabbit once again fainted.
The Queen, by this point, was trying to wipe tears from her brown eyes, and having difficulty breathing.
"Oh, my," she giggled, finally starting to calm down. "C-come with me, you two. I'll fix some upelkuchen in no time."
"Och! Finally!" Tarrant cried, lifting his gaze to the heavens.
The Queen chuckled, and, with a graceful pirouette, began to move down the hallway. The White Queen never simply walked...she seemed to fairly float across the floor.
Mally and the Hatter followed her, Mally moving a bit faster than her shrunken "friend." She ran up to the Queen and scurried up her leg, nearly causing Mirana to fall over in surprise as she climbed up her dress and settled on her shoulder.
"Psst!" she whispered. "Your Majesty?"
"Hm? Yes, Mally?" the Queen whispered back, and continued to walk, still momentarily stupefied.
Mally whispered something to the Queen, who grinned.
"I understand," she said. "Don't worry...your secret is safe with me, dear."
Mally smiled gratefully, a sense of mischief overlapping her expression.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
When they reached the Queen's laboratory, the Queen turned back to look at the Hatter below her.
"Tarrant, wait right here."
"An' th' dormoose?"
"She'll come with me," she said simply. "The Bandersnatch is locked up, so I wouldn't worry."
The Hatter's eyes still swirled, but the green in them was gone.
"Very funny."
"I'm not trying to be," the Queen shrugged, and entered the room, Mallymkun still perched on her shoulder, shutting the door behind her.
"Now, why don't you want to give this to him right now, again?" the Queen asked, as she searched the cabinets for the ingredients.
"Because I'd like for him to experience what it's like to be my size, for a change; I sometimes get the feeling he takes things like that for granted…nothing yet has proved me wrong."
The Queen raised an eyebrow in her direction, a small jar in one hand.
"He won't think any less, or more, for that matter, of you in doing this."
Mally shrugged in response.
The Queen shook her head slightly and continued to look for what she needed.
"Let's see," she murmured, heading over to a mixing bowl. "All of the usual ingredients for cake, of course…eggs, butter, milk, flour…hamstrings…"
The White Queen put everything in and mixed the batter up.
"Now, for the real fun: a snip from a snail, a puppy dog's tail, sugared-spice, the fingernail of a baby, a bit of treacle-pepper, three teaspoons of Wishful Thinking – that's my favorite – and, for good luck and strength…"
She trailed off, and glanced around.
"Er…you don't see Nivens anywhere, do you, Mally?" the Queen asked, a little anxiously.
"No…"
The Queen sighed.
"Good," she said, and threw in a rabbit's foot.
Then she placed it into the oven.
"It will take three hours for the cake to cook."
"What do we tell Hatter?"
The Queen grinned.
"We give him a slight delay in time."
"How slight, Your Majesty?"
"Oh, not much…"
The two smirked in unison.
"Where will you keep the cake, Mirana?" asked Mally; while many rulers preferred titles to names, the White Queen didn't really mind one way or the other.
"Here, where it's safest. All we'll have to worry about is keeping it out of the March Hare's reach. I don't want upelkuchen splattered all over the walls…"
Mally nodded in understanding.
"Take care of him, won't you?" the Queen pressed. "We don't want to lose our Hatter."
"I'll watch after him like a dog."
Always have.
"Well, Bayard can relate to that…let's get out there and inform him of the delay."
"Thanks again, Your Majesty."
"Oh, think nothing of it, my dear…even monarchs have a sense of humor. Now…"
Here the White Queen held out one hand, and the dormouse clambered up back onto her shoulder.
The Mad Hatter was pacing in the hall…he didn't cover much ground in his current state.
The instant he saw the Queen, his once more green eyes lit up in delight.
"Oh, Your Majesty! Mally! Where is the cake?"
The Queen half-heartedly faked a frown.
"Well…I have good news and bad news, Hatter."
Tarrant's smile faded, and his eyes, still green, grew skeptical.
"What's the good news?"
"That the cake is being baked as we speak."
"And the bad?"
The Queen and Mally shared (what looked to the Hatter like) a nervous glance.
"Ah…you see, upelkuchen takes three days to bake, and I don't have any finished cakes available…"
There was an almost tangible quietness about the hall.
"Th-th-three DAYS?" spluttered the Hatter.
"I'm afraid so."
"Y-you mean I have to be this small for th-that long?"
"Again, I'm afraid so."
"B-b-b-b-but…"
"Aw, don't worry yourself, Hatter!" chuckled Mally, dropping down and coming up to him. "I'll be keeping an eye on you."
"That's what worries me," was the VERY serious answer.
Mallymkun rolled her eyes.
"Even if Mally hadn't already been planning to, I've given her strict orders to make sure nothing goes wrong between now and the third day. This a new size for you, and its best that someone close to it act as your guide. She's the closest, in more ways than one, to you, so…"
"And if she fails?"
The Queen smiled and shrugged.
"Well, we'll figure that out later. I doubt she will. After all, what can go wrong in three days?"
Then a flash of fire filled all minds, and the Queen's smile vanished.
"Oh," she said to herself. "Right…"
"Does this mean we have to talk to Chess again?" Tarrant asked Mally, sounding very much like a pouting child.
Mally smirked.
"Well, we do have to tell him how utterly useless he was. Again."
And hope he doesn't know how long upelkuchen REALLY takes to make…