Part 12: A Long Way Down
Author's Note: Wow! I received a ton of reviews right away for that last chapter, so thank you all very much! I finally broke 200! *happy dance!*
I have two more standard chapters, then about three epilogue-ish chapters. Please continue to read and review! Thank you!
Also, I would like to apologize; it appears that some of my formatting just "went away" on some earlier chapters posted here, so I am sorry about that!
And, I'm sorry this is so late. I'm a very distracted person; I took up drumming, the Japanese language and obsessions with another fanfic series recently. All good things, and all good for writer's block as well.
Valoren had a particular philosophy in his dealings with people such as Iracebeth. Shall the perfect then be the enemy of the good? For them, he would take what he could get; be it perfect, good, despicable...
Like his wife, whose personality was sometimes questionable as she tried to avoid crossing the line into her sister's evil state, he was an odd creature. Mirana had moments where she betrayed her love of power with the scent of buttered fingers; he was more open about deception.
And he was not sorry for what he had done.
The last thing the consciousness of Iracebeth saw was a devilish little smirk on those powder lined lips of his, "You always did let your emotions get in the way of your better judgment."
As soon as her eyes closed, however, he breathed a sigh of relief. He could not believe that his plan had worked so well, half of him had expected to be out on the chopping block by now.
Mirana's form swayed a bit; the convulsing of her limbs became slighter. Valoren, whose hands were still bound, jumped forward just before the tiny form crumpled to the ground. He was not able to catch her as well as he would have liked, but he did catch her and save her head from a bruise.
Inside her own head, the real White Queen could feel her consciousness, like a tiny bit of light, gaining strength. It grew and stretched until it filled her mind. It was a bit like fizzling; it fizzled out from her head and crackled around. Her fingers and toes tingled as she inhabited her own skin again. Much like a limb that had been pressed upon for too long, her body was waking up to its rightful owner and it felt rather strange in the process.
When those eyes finally opened again, she was staring straight up at a man whose very existence had been questioned for many years, "Valoren?"
He had a grin that would rival that cat's, "Hello Mirana."
"I thought you were dead."
With a smart raise of his eyebrows, he mused, "Enchanted, rather."
"Why did you not come to me? I could have helped you."
"If I had known, I wouldn't have stayed away for anything in the world."
A smallish pale hand reached up and caressed his cheek and he leaned into such a touch. His skin was nearly as light as his wife's, though maybe not so much so. Though his hands were not free, he seemed to hold those delicate fingers to his face by sheer force of will.
Buttered fingers be damned, live ones were so delightfully warm.
Mally bounced around the campsite, her hatpin sword waved out in front of her. Nivens, Bayard, Bielle, and a very distraught Thackery observed her with a bit of curiosity.
The March Hare shifted from foot to foot, his feet in agreement with her sentiment, his mind, not yet onboard, "Dormouse!"
"Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not just going to wait around here for the king and Hatter to come marching back!"
"What about Alice?" The bloodhound was concerned, it is in the nature of dogs to be concerned.
The Dormouse harumphed, "Alice too." She folded her tiny arms, "I say we storm the castle!"
"With what weapons?" Bielle was concerned but practical.
"My sword!"
"You don't perhaps have one of those for everybody?"
"Share!" Shouted Thackery, pulling on his ears.
"Of course I don't."
"Then, how do we get in?"
She paused, "We could try the door 'round back."
"Wouldn't it be locked?"
"Yes, but I could get inside through the cracks in the walls and then you and Bielle could tunnel under the door with Thackery and Nivens."
"I suppose we could."
They all looked at one another; a nod was shared, as well as a sense of severe apprehension.
"Onward to Salazen Grum!" Cried Mally, thrusting the sword up into the air with the feel of a warrior.
"Mally!" Nivens curled closer into himself, "Keep it down, please!"
She shrugged and sheathed the blade, "If you can't stand the steam, McTwisp, then get away from the teapot!"
The Duchess was looking for a way out, an escape route, a quiet exit. Or perhaps a noisy one, so long as she got away.
When Mirana had fallen forward, Iracebeth purged from her system, she knew she had lost this battle. She merely felt fortunate that it was not her head bouncing down a flight of stairs.
As the White King and Queen were reunited on the steps of the throne platform, she rose from her seat, slowly, slyly, and slipped away, back towards the wall.
There was an escape route near her, a door that led to a tower. Perhaps climbing upwards was not the best way to go, but it was possible that she could hide there until nightfall and sneak away?
Suddenly she wished there was not so much of her to conceal. What she wouldn't give for a vial of Pishalver potion right now!
With careful steps, she moved further and further to the side until something odd stopped her. In front of her, yet hidden behind a pillar, was a tiny little girl. The little child was taking no notice of her, only peeking out at the scene in front of them, her little hands pressed to the red stone.
This child was oddly familiar, and she had never seen that bright orange of a hair color on any female. The light blue dress though, that was calling her memory. The Duchess was finally able to make the connection between the shrunken girl and her own recollections, even if she was only a few inches tall.
This was that horrid little vile beast that had stolen from her. Stolen her son, stolen her potions, and destroyed a perfectly good captive cell that she had painstakingly installed in her basement. An Alice-like creature. What had her son said? She was Alice's daughter?
The Duchess would be damned if she would let the brat of such a troublesome woman take any victory from her.
Margaret; that was her name and the elder woman sneered. It was time that someone got rid of her.
Bielle whipped around again and again. She spun faster, the collar of Thackery's coat clenched in her teeth. When, for all purposes, the mad hare should be screaming out in fear, he didn't. March merely clapped his paws together and laughed that insane, giggling laugh of his. Finally, she released him like a discus and he vaulted over the moat. He was still laughing, until he slammed into the castle walls and slunk down to rest on the ground.
"Sorry!" She called after him, cringing when she heard the thwump of the impact.
Thackery came to rest on the ground right next to Nivens, who was still rubbing the bump on his head. Mally had quite insisted that the White Rabbit be thrown first, lest he faint from the stress of anticipation. It was a legitimate concern, being that if he had fainted and fell short of the bank, he could easily drown in the murky water. Or so she said.
McTwisp mused that perhaps the dormouse might want to be rid of him. It wasn't his fault he had a nervous condition!
Bayard laid down his head on the ground and the adventurous mouse jumped upon his back to hold upon his collar. The two adult bloodhounds turned to their latest group of pups.
"Go back into the forest and wait there."
"We can't come with you?" The chorus of yips came back.
"Absolutely not, now go back to the woods." Bielle scolded.
The little group left, tripping over their own tails along the way.
With them gone, the pair looked at one another and then walked back to a good distance.
Digging padded paws in the grass and dirt, they both flexed blunted claws, "Hold on tight, Mally."
She complied, locking her arms around his collar.
Though they both would have liked to bay as they ran, they couldn't, and instead, barreled forth to the edge of the moat. With great leaps of feet and faith, both of the hounds cleared the thinnest part. They landed safely, albeit a bit too close to the two rabbits, who covered their eyes in defense. Keeping as quiet as possible, they walked over to the long forgotten door, which was still heavily bolted.
Mally took advantage of the erosion near the door bottom to slip underneath, "I'll go find out where they're keeping them, once you get inside, hide and wait for me."
With that, she was gone, and the four animals were left to dig out a space beneath the door large enough for them to fit through.
Alice breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the tender caress between husband and wife. Mirana was back, and what was more, she had a friend returned to her. Part of her remembered a scene like this. Perhaps she had seen a White King, way back upon her first visit; once in passing.
She let her arms fall limp in front of her, until another pair of hands grasped her own. Then her muscles tensed again, but in a perfectly wonderful way.
Hatter wasn't looking directly at her; he was still waiting upon the declaration from their newly returned ruler. As best he could, his hands were entwined with hers. Soft skin and rough skin, calloused fingertips and thimbles, hands worn from caring for the young and hands worked hard in skilled trade. They tightened upon hers as a white guard stepped up to assist the queen to her feet. Valoren could not reasonably do so, being still so bound.
With a distinct air of peace and calm about her, Mirana instantly raised her arms, and embraced her husband. She allowed herself to kiss him, gently, delicately, promisingly. Being in front of so many witnesses would not permit her to conduct herself as one would never imagine that the White Queen would. That would come later.
"My love, can you release us?"
"Hmm?" Her eyes flitted back and forth, searching his for some clues.
His only response was to raise his shackled arms to her giggling laughter, "Oh, I -" How lucky she was that her pale skin did not so easily blush!
Mirana began to look for the keys that were supposed to have been on her person, but seemed to have grown legs and scampered off somewhere. Keys were as temperamental as frightened mouse babes sometimes.
They were neither in her pockets, upon her throne, or lounging on the floor. It was when they were so quickly discovered missing, that the White King raised his eyes from the red stones to discover that someone else was missing.
Slinking around the final pillar, the Duchess looked up at the same moment that Valoren caught her very eyes. His eyes were ice, and all her earlier bravado was stripped from her being. There was no way to avoid the inevitable capture, and surely, the following execution. Mirana may have vows of peace, but her husband did not.
"Mother," With such a low tone emanating from his throat, "Wherever are you going?"
"I, I was-" She turned, and with that, the jangle of the stolen keys in her pocket rang forth, begging their rescue from her.
Letting her eyes wander, she found them upon the tiny figure of the little girl. The little girl had turned to see the commotion and was staring up, frightened, at the large figure behind her.
Margaret knew she had precious little time to run, let alone just will her limbs to move again! The Duchess had years of experience on her, and lunged forth, capturing her in her immense fingers. Such pressure on a tiny body was too much to bear, and Margaret dug her little fingernails into the soft flesh; she clawed and scratched for dear life. Indeed, she could barely breathe and panic was setting her mind on fire.
With one last act of desperation, despite her smallish stature, she screamed, "Mother!"
Alice heard her. Tarrant heard her. The King, the Queen, and all the guards, heard the plea.
Mirana raised her hand, "Let her go."
"I hardly think so."
"Let her go and you can leave here, unchallenged."
"Absolutely not!"
"You have my promise, on my very honor." The White Queen stepped forward, shifting her palm to face upward, begging for the small, suffering child to be placed upon it.
"I have your promise maybe, but do I have hers? When she is all grown up?" She actually shook the girl who was less than five inches tall in her anger, and both Alice and the Hatter began to move forward, violently terrified of what this monster might do.
"For that matter, do I have his?" With her free hand, she gestured to Valoren, "Your word is true Mirana, I know this, but can you keep that dog on his leash?"
"My lady," The voice of Eiron drifted through the crowd, "It is finished, give up the child."
The Duchess had never harbored delusions that her manservant was ever on her side, really, truthfully, but she hated him all the same for it.
"Please," Alice begged, her hand gripping Tarrant's so tightly he thought she might break it.
"Don' ya be hurting me girl." In fear, his brogue came through, "The little one did naugh' to ye."
Margaret was choking in her grasp, the sound reached her parent's ears and they cringed. How were they to play this scene? What could they bargain with?
"I'll go in her place," Offered Alice, taking another step forward, "I know that I'm the one you're upset with."
"No." The Duchess was sincere in her disdain for the Champion of Underland. Alice had betrayed the one thing that would upset her the most, and the Duchess had no qualms over exploiting it, "I can make you suffer."
Valoren made his first mistake, he moved only slightly toward her. She was startled, believing he was moving to kill her, and she made for the door to the tower.
A foolish move, she chided herself in her mind, damn foolish! Whether it was unlucky or not, she found the door to be open and pulled it from the latch, dashing inside. She slammed the door shut behind her and closed the interior lock. For a moment she leaned against the wall and breathed heavily.
Margaret was finally able to breathe again as her hand relaxed and she gasped for air.
Mirana was fairly shocked at the proceedings, having only just come back into herself, "Guards!"
The White Guards sprang to her side, relieved to finally be of service to their true liege again.
"Please, open that door, quickly, quickly!"
Bishop, Knight, and Rook headed guards went to work on the hinges.
Hatter paced back and forth quickly, balling his hands into fists, "These!" He jangled the chains, "These! Off!"
Mirana and Valoren looked about them, but no one was carrying a weapon of the strength needed to sever chains.
Where was that wretched Stayne when you actually need him? Hatter cursed that thought as his frantic mind came up with it.
In the corner a diminutive Eiron raised his hand, cautiously, wary of the madman who had access to large pieces of metal. History had taught him to steer clear of people that were in their wrong minds, and the abuse to his body by the Duchess proved the rule.
"Yes?" Valoren caught sight of him.
"I have the keys."
Nearly everything in the room halted at this declaration.
"You do?"
"I made replicas awhile back; I was hoping I would get the chance to escape sometime soon." He shrugged.
"That's good thinking." Nodded Mirana.
"Yes, 'tis. Now, will ye get these bloody chains offa me!" Scowled the Hatter, his eyes getting dangerously close to golden tones.
Mirana looked at the simpering servant and motioned with her eyes at Tarrant's less than patient form. Eiron sighed a bit and walked over, only slightly reaching out with the keys to avoid getting too close.
Once the locks were unbound, the upset man flung them at the wall where they cracked against the rock.
Eiron moved onto Alice, who held out her hands absentmindedly, her entire self focused on the guard's efforts to undue the door lock.
Those chains clattered to the ground with a hollow sound. Alice could hear it in her mind, that echo was in her own heart. She wished so dearly to be able to brandish the Vorpal sword again, to meet this foe in honorable combat. Some part of her felt as though the strength had been sapped from her and she was at the mercy of a creature that would threaten to break her very life in two.
Valoren was the last to be let free. He looped one of the cuffs through his belt so that they fell at his waist. In the absence of his formal sword, these might prove useful. He remembered that sword now, silver, with blue accents. Always for show and never for action, he sighed, that Jabberwocky had not returned to Underland before he'd met the wrong end of perspective potion.
The White Queen observed all that was around her with interest, especially Alice. She mused over the woman's strained expression and noticed it to be decidedly different than that day on the battlefield so many years ago. Not fearful, but helpless, and she thought that it must be a very different thing to step forward for one's own neck, than to step forward for those that one loves.
Mally's entrance into the main hall at Salazen Grum was slow going. The abundance of guards running about had forced her into hiding nearly every couple of minutes. If not against being noticed, than certainly against being stepped on and quashed into the dirt!
She approached the main building and looked all around her for any potential attackers. It stopped her fairly fast in her tracks. There was a woman in the tower adjacent to the hall, someone Mally had not seen nor heard word of since the end of Iracebeth's reign.
The Duchess, a member of both royal courts, though exclusively adhering to Red Policy, was climbing the tower. Mally watched her go through one window, then she appeared again in the next.
The Dormouse observed her continuing ascent, unaware that she was exposed for the entire world to see. All the world, and apparently, all the guards, did not give a second glance to her.
Allowing herself to relax as much as was possible, Margaret choked as she regained her air. Looking over the edge of the hand that held her, she saw that she was still too far up to simply hop down and make a run for it.
"Don't get any ideas, you little brat." Hissed the older woman, leaning in close.
"Let me go!"
"Not on your life." The Duchess looked upwards and then back at the door. The sheer force of the guard against the wood was beginning to force the heavy panels to bend and shake.
She began to make her way up the stone steps. In such a dismal space, the only light came from the various windows that wrapped around the circular path. With as much speed as could be mustered, she continued onward, step after plodding step.
"Where are you going?" Margaret kept asking, "There's no way to get out of this tower!"
The Duchess simply ignored her.
"Your majesty!" One of the white guards called out to the queen. Mirana looked over to see that they had finally loosened the hinges of the door and were pulling it free.
Alice ran towards the newly opened entryway, she shoved a few of the guards aside, others stepped away to let their champion through. Tarrant followed her lead, and stayed on her heels as they flew up the castle steps.
Valoren pulled Mirana to him and kissed her quickly, "I'm going after them. Please, stay here."
The White Queen was too shocked by the capture of her lips to respond to the request, and she merely stared at him with blank eyes. Her husband smiled at her, and without turning, ordered the guards to remain in the throne room. With that, he followed the agitated parents into the heights of the tower.
Mirana shook her head slightly. Staring from the doorway to the window, she realized she couldn't possibly see anything from here. The tower opened to an observation platform if it was the one she believed it was. And why shouldn't it be as she believed?
Taking her skirts in hand, she fled the court hall and tripped down the steps until she reached the open air of the main yard. Frantically, her eyes followed the tower upward until she saw the platform. She had to remember to force herself to breathe as she waited for something, anything, to happen.
The Duchess stumbled out onto the observation deck. She had been here before, watching executions and forcing herself to laugh at Iracebeth's petty temper-tantrums.
"Stop!" Alice, winded, was not too far behind her. The young mother took a deep breath, trying to restrain the urge to attack in favor of her better sense.
Preemptively, she held out her arm and caught Tarrant as he ran out after her, "Please, Hatter!" With her fingers dug into the fabric of his coat, she pleaded with him not to fly into madness. He was not brought back so easily, and remained somewhere between the man she knew and loved, and a dangerous opponent.
As Valoren came up the stairs, he halted before he was sure he could be seen, and waited there. He was not sure if his presence would only put the insane Duchess further over the edge of sanity.
"Please, let her go!"
"I already told you, you can't guarantee my life, and I am not interested in negotiating."
"Yer trapped. I donnae think even ye can get yer own safety."
He was right, of course. Behind her was a fall into the castle courtyard that no one would survive, and in front of her, an entire army of hostile persons; not including the two that she would initially have to get by.
She knew that she was not likely to get out of this situation alive.
Alice locked eyes with the woman, and looked into the cold gaze of a heartless creature. She had a gaze to recall the stare of the murderous Jabberywocky.
The Duchess raised the hand that held Margaret and showed her to her mother, "I told you, I can make you suffer."
Time was a curious thing in Underland, and as it was, it suddenly stopped for Alice. She felt paralyzed from everything, even thought, as the Duchess, in a most inappropriately casual manner, threw the tiny form of her daughter over the edge of the tower wall.
When she finally was able to move again, when time came back to her, she could only feel herself scream.
"Margaret!"