The ride back to Salazen Grum seemed much too short to Nell. Sooner than she had expected, the mare carried her through Trotter's Bottom, through the Tugley Wood, and she had just entered the Red Desert. It seemed more barren than usual. She had only been gone half a day, but it felt as if she had been gone for eternity. She didn't know how to feel as the castle appeared from over the hills. In the distance, she could see red knights marching back and forth before the drawbridge. No doubt the Red Queen had increased the amount of guards due to the riot the previous day.

Nell halted the mare for a moment. She traced the shape of the diary that was pressed to her chest beneath her bodice and sighed. She hoped that the White Queen's scroll could spare her from being beheaded. She asked her mare to walk forward and her hooves began to clank across the wooden drawbridge.

A red knight took notice of her, and ordered some of his companions to block her. They lined across the bridge, spears in hand.

"Turncoat," hissed Number One, the leader of the army.

Nell raised her nose in the air and tried to take on the air she had held so well back in court. "Tell the Red Queen that Lady Nell Cerise has returned from Marmoreal, and she brings word of Alice," she lied.

Number Ten let out a roaring laugh. "The only thing you bring word of is the execution block!"

Nell gritted her teeth slightly. The rumors had already spread. They didn't really have the standing to mark her 'a turncoat,' that was up to the queen. Unless the queen herself had publicly announced to the peasants of the village and everyone at court that she was to be declared a turncoat, Nell was simply still Lady Nell.

The queen must have not publicly announced anything, for if she had, the red knights would have already torn into her. The situation was most peculiar, and Nell knew she had to hold the air about her that she had worn so proudly whilst she was still at court.

With no time to react properly, Number One reached up, grabbed hold of Nell's arm, and ripped her from the mare's back. She fell hard and cried out. She regained her wits and went to sit up, but Number One placed a heavy metal foot on her chest and held the tip of his spear to her throat. She began to cough. She attempted to draw back as Number One made an iron fist and it wailed her directly in the stomach. The diary provided no cover for her, as it had ridden high in her bodice and was in danger of popping out the top of her corset. She weakly managed to reach two fingers into the bodice, and when they met the texture of the thing, she pushed down farther against her body.

As Number One raised his spear, a force came from behind him, and bashed into him heavily. His foot was removed from crushing her chest and before she knew it, he clunked on the cobblestone beside her.

Nell felt a pair of arms hoist her from the ground. Her head was spinning and she thought she was going to vomit. Her figure was spun around and then draped backwards. When her vision came to, she found herself looking up at Ilosovic Stayne.

"Stayne," she whispered his name in surprise.

"The Queen is to not know of this," he shot quickly at her. He stopped at the castle wall, and leaned his back against it. Supporting his weight on the wall, he reached around himself, and pulled his cape loose from his armor. He then began to swaddle Nell's figure in it, until she was completely covered. He twisted the heavy material into a makeshift hood and pulled it close to her head, concealing her long ginger tendrils. He then straightened his posture, adjusted her weight in his arms and he began moving forward through the entrance. "Stay silent," he bade her. "We cannot have someone seeing you, or the Queen will kill us both, for sure."

A feeling of relief bordered with peace began to fill her. It was apparent that Stayne had not changed his mind about her, and for that she was grateful.

Stayne carried her through the castle as if she were a fragile bundle. He was careful not to rock her too much, as she had just been assaulted by the best of the red knights. He avoided all eye contact with courtiers he passed; they all knew better than to question the Knave.

With much determination, he carried her to the second floor. He knew the Queen was taking tea in the throne room in an effort to relax her temper, and that the girl would be safe in her own chambers.

Once arrived, he gingerly placed her cloak-clad figure upon her bed. She let out a painful moan before her eyes shut, and her head fell against the crimson pillow.

Stayne slid his hands from his gloves, and began to unwrap the cloak from her. He paid close attention to her mid-section as he slid the cloak from underneath her and he tossed it to the floor. Nell had bit her lip in the process of getting walloped and a stream of crimson blood trickled from the right side of her mouth. He wiped it with the hem of the cloak.

The girl had been through so much the past day and a half. As soon as she had escaped with the Hatter, Iracebeth had doubled the patrol on the grounds, and had rounded out a large search party. The monarch had taken much interest in finding Lady Nell and have her dragged back to Salazen Grum. Luckily for Nell, she had managed to elude all of the search parties, and had dumbly returned to Salazen Grum by her own accord.

Foolish girl, Stayne thought as he tucked her bed quilt around her. He got to his knees and leaned in at her.

Nell moaned again, and her bright eyes fluttered open.

"I bid you, Lady Nell, you must remain here," he said worriedly. "The Queen must not discover you. She and I are leaving for the Outlands tomorrow morning. We are to prepare the Jabberwocky for battle. She is determined to return home after the Frabjous Day and hold a kingdom-wide execution for Alice."

Nell reached a weak hand out and took his. "She mustn't win, Stayne," she whispered. "She will destroy us all."

He brushed a hand through her long hair. "As much as I hope for Alice to succeed, I must remain loyal to Her Majesty in the case that she does not."

"Aye," Nell replied softly. "And what to become of me?"

"You must stay in your chambers until we are gone from the castle. We are leaving at first light. If you are to leave Salazen Grum for good, I suggest you do so before we return tomorrow evening." He got to his feet, collected his cape and put his gloves back on. He halted before her chamber door, and sighed. "Lady Dahlia and the rest of the court have been dismissed permanently. The Queen will see no one besides myself. I will inform Dahlia of your return, and that after the Queen retires, she is to come and see to you."

Stayne fled the chamber hurriedly.

For what seem like months, Nell drifted into a sleep so deep that she became lost in her own subconscious. Her mind flashed many odd visions that had no real explanation to them. Things like roses, the castle at Salazen Grum, the Red Queen on her throne, the White Queen kneeling in a garden, her hands dug into dirt, the Hatter the day she was brought into court. Images of all those she knew on a personal level.

One vision stood out like a sore thumb amongst the others.

It was as if she were having a flashback. The view of her tiny six-year-old feet that stuck outward as she sat in a room filled with crimson everything. In her left hand was a stuffed animal that horrifyingly resembled what she knew the jabberwocky to look like. The toy began to move up and down, and its wings flapped. The child whose eyes she looked through let out an impressionable dragon's roar and then began to giggle afterward.

"Nell!" echoed a familiar voice.

Dahlia traipsed into the room.

"Nell," she said. "The queen is waiting for you."

Nell's eyes shot open before the little girl could answer Dahlia.

She moaned and placed a hand to her head. Her blood pumped heavily through her veins, her eyes were sore and the tenderness of her mid-section was most unbearable. Remembering Number One's foot heavy on her chest, she sighed, and painstakingly hoisted herself into a sitting position.

Night had come to Salazen Grum and the world outside her balcony doors- which were propped open- was as silent as could be. Nothing seemed alive.

Her chamber doors squeaked open and in stepped the shadowed figure of Dahlia. She was carrying a lit candelabrum and she was in her night shift. Nell felt strange looking at her, for Dahlia had not her false ears on, nor the face makeup that she wore when she went to the queen. Her long, dark hair was down and it, to Nell's surprise, was waist-length. She was so used to seeing her with her hair pinned up.

"Dahl," Nell whispered.

Dahlia scurried to the bed and flung her free arm around Nell's neck.

"Oh, Nellie, my pet, I was so frightened you were dead!" she cried.

Nell pulled from Dahlia's grasp. "Why presume such a thing? Are there rumors?"

Dahlia shook her head gently, careful as to not have her long hair touch the flames of the candelabrum. "They say that the queen will stop at nothing until you and Tarrant Hightopp are executed. She's been having search parties round-the-clock."

Remembering what Stayne had said, Nell nodded and shifted her gaze to the firelight in Dahlia's hand. "And what of the courtiers?" she asked, picturing Lord Burgle and Lady Snout, if those really were their names. Like their oddities, their names, too, surely were faux.

"They're gone. Lord Burgle managed passage across the sea to his homeland. Lady Snout was escorted back to her parent's manor in Snud. I'm not entirely sure of the others, I've heard no news."

"And what of you?"

"Banished from court."

"Why do you remain here?" Nell asked.

Dahlia sighed. "The queen has forgiven me. She claims that I am unlike the others, although I partook in their little falsifying gambit. I have a mind to settle in Marmoreal. I hear the White Queen is quite the gracious woman."

Nell smiled. "She is the kindest soul in all of Underland," she chided smoothly.

Dahlia pursed her lips. "I'm not sure how I will look in white, though," she giggled as she pulled at her crimson nightshift.

Nell giggled with her until there was a streak of pain in her middle. She steadied herself. She reached a weakened hand into her bodice and pulled the diary out. Whilst she had slept, the book had pressed itself to her skin and it hurt to peel it from her person. She held it out to Dahlia, who set the candelabrum on the nightstand and took it.

"What in Underland…"

"It's the Queen's personal journal. The White Queen gave it to me. She said that the clues to my past are buried within Iracebeth's writing," she explained.

Dahlia gasped when Nell referred to the queen as 'Iracebeth.' She couldn't remember the last time she had heard the Red Queen's birth name. She had been the one to look after Nell the past six years and she deeply longed for an opportunity to arise so the girl could find her family. It seemed like the night she plucked her from the street, filthy and frightened, was an eternity lost in the hands of time.

"No key?" asked Dahlia. She fiddled with the brass lock.

"The White Queen thinks Iracebeth is hiding it in her heart box."

Something lit up in Dahlia's eyes. "I know that box! Her Majesty keeps her trinkets in it."

Nell was annoyed at the fact that yet another person had mistaken a journal key for a common trinket. She pushed the thought aside and replied: "I must find that key."

"However will you get past the guard at this hour?"

"Simple. Stayne advised me to do what needs to be done after him and the queen leave for progression in the morning. Knowing that there is mutiny afoot, no doubt that Her Majesty will take along the entirety of the army."

"Her paranoia always did get the best of her," Dahlia commented.

Silence then seeped into the room. Nell's eyes fell on the bright moon outside her window, and Dahlia twiddled with a string on her nightshift. The two women remained quiet for a few moments until Nell sighed.

"I am sore," she said as she shifted her weight uncomfortably.

Stayne had told Dahlia of everything that had taken place on the drawbridge. The news had made her sick to her stomach and she had spent the remainder of the day waiting until she could slip to see Nell without drawing attention to herself. Nell looked beat and she still had a smear of blood on her chin from her bloody lip.

"Come," beckoned Dahlia. "It is safe for you to bathe."

Once again Nell found herself sitting still in a warm, soothing bath. Dahlia had sprinkled some sort of salt into the bath water that when it dissolved, the whole washroom smelled of patchouli and rose petals. Dahlia had snuck into the chambers to poke around for a nightshift for her to slip into when she was finished soaking her sore body. Bathing complete, Dahlia helped her from the tub; pat-dried her with a towel, slid the clean nightshift over her head, and helped her back into bed. Dahlia took the liberty to slip Nell a small vile of sleeping potion, and once the girl was asleep, she fled from the chamber. She would help Nell into the Red Queen's chambers come morning.