Faith was led through a heavy archway into a courtyard, where a small fountain stood in the middle of a huge lowered terrace. The steps that led down to it were grey, adding a very, very subtle contrast to the stark black and white. The walls opened up to the sky, and white castles scoured the battlements, watching for any foes or visitors that may appear. Across the courtyard, huge black doors with ornate white designs stood imposingly.
The procession across the courtyard took an extraordinarily long time to Faith. Cat and Rabbit had rushed her all around Wonderland. Now she wanted to hurry more than ever, and this was probably the slowest she had gone since arriving. She clasped the bag that Morag had given her but her hand tried to scramble past, feeling for something that wasn't there. Jeremy's pendant. Frantically her hand moved, searching for her last remaining good memory of her brother. A pawn to her left gave her a strange look and plodded a little faster. Faith didn't care. If she had lost that pendant, there was no way that she could - oh, thank goodness.
Her hand clasped the chain. It had twisted behind her neck, so that the pendant part hung down her back and the clasp fastened at the base of her throat. She breathed a sigh of relief and quickened her pace. She wanted to speak with the King.
The bishop stopped them about halfway through the courtyard. "Hold!" he called. Faith didn't stop all at once, but did significantly slow down. The bishop glared at her and she halted. "I will speak with the King, and it will be up to him as to whether he will speak to Faith."
She groaned. It was a small sound, but the innate silence of the place amplified it so that there was not a chess piece that didn't hear. The side of the bishop's mouth quirked in something that was half an annoyed grimace, half an amused grin. "I will not be long," he promised.
Whatever his promise, it was about an hour before she could speak with the White King. "Cat!" she called despondently.
He appeared. "You don't seem to need help. Why are you calling me?"
"Company," she replied. "The chess pieces are still a little leery of me." He raised his eyebrows.
"Indeed. What have you been doing in my absence? Stirring up trouble in the Red Queen's forces, I hear."
She briefly described the standoff, remembering most of the charges against her, but listing only about half. "Samien and I, we had words, but that was really about all that happened."
"Until the white pieces came..."
"And saw me with my knife against his throat."
"And the red pieces about to attack you, I'd imagine."
"Yeah," she nodded. Then she thought for a little while, back to what had gone on between them. "His eyes were a little strange. It was like I'd seen them before, almost."
"Well, maybe you did," he said pointedly. "Wonderland hasn't been this way forever." She laughed.
"You're right, as usual, Cat. D'you think I'll get to see the King soon?"
"You certainly break tangents often," he teased. "Maybe, maybe not. There have been a few spies seen about recently, so the bishop is probably in there arguing against letting you in, however kind he may have acted before. But the King does want to see you, so it will take quite a bit to convince him otherwise."
Faith sat down hard against a wall. "I'll be in here for forever," she grumbled. "Cat?"
"Yes?"
"When will we be able to have that conversation?"
Cat sighed. "Not yet. Soon. After you leave the Pale Realm."
"That'll be soon?" she asked disbelievingly.
"Oh yes," he assured her. "They may be reluctant to let anyone in, but they're quite wild about getting them out."
The bishop slid out of the gate, looking important. Faith jumped up in anticipation. "Will the guardians of the Castle Challenge step inside!"
"Bastard!" Faith ground out, frustrated.
The next fifteen minutes were spent pacing, with the white pieces calmly watching her, puzzled at her impatience and mildly suspicious of it as well.
The bishop slid out again. "Will the guardians of the Knight Challenge step inside!"
"Is that us? Didn't he say knight?" whispered the male.
"No, stupid. He meant the 'Night' Challenge!" the female hissed. Faith seized the opportunity to slip inside herself, creeping past the pieces as they tried to convince the Knights that yes, the bishop really did mean them. She hurried down the hall and up a flight of stairs, then through another hall, until she stood at a huge, elaborate set of doors adorned with the image of a white crown and sceptre.
"If there was ever any chance of me seeing the King, let these open," she muttered, sending up a desperate prayer. She pushed one of the doors open slightly, enough for her to slip in. The King was pacing around, waiting.
"You are not the bishop," he said suspiciously, hearing her footsteps but not yet facing her.
"No," she replied, suddenly nervous. He stood a full two heads taller than her. "I'm Faith."
"The bishop let you in? He told me he was going to fetch the knights." But he seemed slightly pleased... Faith hoped he did, anyway.
"He did," she said quietly. "But I couldn't wait. It took a very long time for me to get here, and I couldn't wait."
The King turned to face her for the first time. His face was grave, and there was desolation in his eyes. Faith understood what she was fighting for. She was fighting to be rid of the pain in his eyes. The pain that echoed in her soul. It hurt to see the utter despair in his face, because she knew that it was inside of her as well.
"You seek me, but you say nothing."
"I'm sorry," she said. "I have much to ask."
"Before you do," he interrupted gently, "I have to ask you to show me your hands." Confused, she held them up. "Palms facing me, please."
He took the one with the scar and peered at it. Finally a grin broke through the melancholy exterior. "You ARE Faith," he smiled. "Alice's heir."
"I'll have that the rest of my life, you know," she was a little peeved that it was only used to identify her to one person. He smiled.
"Yes, I do. I'm not the only one it is proof for, however."
"Well then, who else?"
"I don't believe that this is what you wanted to see me for."
Faith sighed. "It's not. There's a lot that I want to ask."
"Wait."
"Again!" She must have seemed dangerous at that point, because the King looked as though he were reconsidering.
"Before I answer any questions, there is something that you must do for me."
"No. I want my answers first."
"If we stop and banter now, it may be too late!"
"For what?!" Faith burst out.
"My lord," said another bishop, sliding in. He was pale (if it's possible to describe a white chess piece that way) and visibly shaken.
"Yes?" the King asked anxiously. Faith suddenly grew rather nervous.
"The Red King has ordered that the White Queen be executed in twenty minutes."
The White King turned to Faith. "That is what you must do. Rescue my Queen, and you may have anything that you desire."
"Where do I need to go?" she asked the bishop. She ignored the King - she was not interested in reward. The bishop pointed to the distance, and she saw red-and-black chequered tiles. "A checkers game?" she asked dubiously.
"No, it is chess. It is traditionally (for them) red and white, but the Queen has a distaste for the latter colour."
Faith rolled her eyes and took off at full speed, headed towards the red village.
"Did you tell her where she needed to go?" the King asked the bishop in a low voice.
"She never gave me the chance," he replied, bewildered.
"By the way, Faith, what you seek lies within the high tower," Cat said languidly. Faith looked for his grin.
"It's going to get a lot more difficult once I get in, isn't it?"
"Most assuredly." His tail twitched, and soon the rest of him appeared. "There are quite a few corners in this land. A certain little trinket of yours may be valuable."
Faith reached down inside her sweater, pulling the leather cord out. Her jewel had gone from its original blue to red. Danger was near. A clock in the distance chimed four. "The Pale Queen will be executed at precisely 4:15," he warned.
Fifteen minutes left. She darted down a narrow alleyway, away from the danger, and dashed across a bridge that ran over a red lake. It had been grey in the Pale Realm, she noted. Now, here in the Scarlet Dominion it ran like blood. She ran into the tower that the bridge connected to and grabbed a shield from an armoury rack, and threw it on the ground in front of her. What she was about to try demonstrated her insanity more than any crazy stunt she had tried yet, she thought. She only hoped that it would work.
The ruckus that the shield made on its way down was enough to drown out her exhilarated whooping, but unfortunately also caused enough of one that a few pieces were bound to notice. Breathless, she hopped off as it shot off of the steps, impaling an investigating red knight through the neck. It gave a feeble whinny of shock and collapsed. Faith ran quickly, headed for the tower, which she was steadily drawing closer to.
She was almost there, and thirteen minutes left. She was amazed at how quickly she had gone, but she didn't slow. A bishop charged and she took out her knife and threw it. The combined force of her throwing the knife while running at full speed and him charging created a spectacular display. The bishop's base flew up, while his head went back. His body somersaulted and she ran past it as it came to a stop. "Faith is on a roll!" she mouthed to herself, pumping a quick fist in the air. The purple herbs were starting to take effect.
She darted through a byway that led to the next branch of the river. From there, it led straight to the castle. The only thing blocking her path was a gate that extended down to the top of the water. She glanced into the river periodically as she ran, and saw nothing inside. Still, something wasn't right. When she reached the gate, she dipped her fingers into the water. It burned like shite! She shook it off and smelled it. It didn't smell acidic; was it merely hot?
Eleven minutes. There was a shout from behind her, and she looked back. Several strong red pieces were attacking. Faith reached behind her for the ice wand and pulled it out. They still came at her, and she started blasting. They froze and she quickly pushed the wand through a hole in the gate, and swung herself underneath to relative safety.
It hurt! She sat for a moment, then stood and grabbed the wand, shaking herself off. Then she was off again. Everywhere the water had touched burned, but at that point, she didn't care. She had to save the Pale Queen. The tower should be just ahead, at a long flight of spiral stairs. Crap, she had to climb all of those! She darted up the long, curved staircase, resolving to make her descent much easier.
She reached the main floor with eight minutes left. From there, there were two hallways; identical and very long, with many doors. Furthermore, not only did she not know which room the Queen would be in, but she had no idea what the hell she was supposed to do once she found her. A noise sounded behind her; a strange creaking sound. Faith darted through an open doorway and peered out from behind the doorjamb. Several strong red pieces appeared. They had with them the Pale Queen, who was barely conscious. "Ah, shite," she muttered. The red pieces didn't hear, and began setting up their execution chamber a few doors past hers. Then they sent a castle to alert the King that the Queen was ready for execution.
Once the castle was out of sight of the door, Faith let him see her, stepping out of the room and darting around the corner he had just turned. "Hey!" she called, a little more quietly than she normally would have. "Don't you want me dead, too?" He seemed confused, but recognition dawned and he charged. She grabbed her knife and stabbed his throat. He gurgled slightly, and fell.
"What was that?" one of the other pieces asked.
"Nothing. Hey, could you help me? This blade's heavy, and the King wouldn't like not witnessing this."
She darted back, ice wand at the ready, and stood in the doorway. A bishop and a knight were arguing over how to best work the guillotine. Faith rolled her eyes and raised the wand. The knight looked up and she fired before he could whinny a warning to the also-doomed bishop, who was next to receive the blast.
The White Queen stared at Faith in amazement. "You!" she exclaimed in overjoyed relief. "I had a dream that my husband would send a saviour to rescue me."
Faith quickly cut the bonds that held the monarch to the table, and when the Queen was free, she extended her hand. "We're not out of danger yet. Hurry and follow me."
"Indeed!" the Queen exclaimed joyously. Faith ordinarily would have been a little irritated at the excessive happiness, but it felt good to rescue someone minutes away from death.
"Come on," she said, and pulled her out. The area was empty and they hurried to the stairs, Faith running and the Queen sliding fluidly across the tiles. Faith fired the ice wand at the stairs, forming a very cold slide down and jumped on, steering with her feet. The Queen followed her lead and the two rocketed down, landing at least ten feet away. "Whoa." Faith was a little dizzy, but kept a solid lead, running down the passageways until they reached the stream, and prepared to dive in.
The Queen, who had unquestioningly followed Faith that far, hesitated. "Is there no other way?"
"Unless someone can break down that..." and trailed off, for that was exactly what the Queen was doing. A large section of the gate lay in shambles moments later, and the Queen turned to Faith, very pleased with herself. Faith did not blame her. "Let's go," she said. The Queen nodded and followed again.
They had just reached the Scarlet Dominion's borders when six strong red pieces stopped them. "We'll have to fight this out," Faith said quietly to the Queen.
"Fight?" the Queen asked uneasily. Faith turned to her disbelievingly.
"The Queen is the strongest piece in chess! If you fight with me, we can take these things together and be all the faster!"
"But..."
"If you don't, they'll kill you, me and your husband once the strongest white piece has been knocked out of play!" Faith exclaimed angrily.
"My husband?"
"They'll kill him if we lose! We have to defend him!"
The Queen's placid expression twisted into an angry snarl. "How dare they that would kill my husband!" she yelled, and battle was on.
Faith slashed a knight's chest using the knife in one hand, and bashed the side of his head with the mallet in the other. The Queen pummelled and smashed with her fists, mangling and crushing bones and faces. The knight collapsed and Faith twisted away from an incoming bishop, swinging the mallet at him once he came close enough. His blood sprayed onto Faith's sweater, and she kicked him away and attacked another piece. The Queen, meanwhile was utterly destroying a knight, pounding his skull with her stone fists. BAM! CRASH! CRAACK!
In very short order, the two stood in a pile of mangled red bodies, and Faith sighed in relief. "Thank you," she said, turning to the Queen.
"For what, dear?"
"For helping. You were amazing!"
"Oh, thank you," she said bashfully. "You were quite a whirlwind yourself."
Faith laughed. "And you had all the crushing power of a hurricane. Now, let's get you back to the King."
"Just a moment, dear." Faith turned.
"Yes?"
"Could you jump into the grey stream? I'm afraid that you're rather red all over."
Faith looked down at herself. No more blue sweater, purple dress or pale skin. Now her legs were beet-red, her sweater was purple and her dress had turned something of a magenta colour. She was quick to comply, but first she unstrapped all of her weapons. Off went the knife at her right hip, the jackbomb at her left rear, the mallet at her back, and the ice wand strapped to her left hip like a sword. Then she took off her sweater for a damage check. It was in surprisingly good condition, and the healers had stitched it up as well, using stark white thread on the deep blue.
She walked into the grey stream, with the sweater in hand. The Queen frowned down at her, puzzled. "Don't you need to take off your boots?"
"No, I actually think they're waterproof." The Queen nodded admiringly.
"Now, douse your head as well. Your face is rather pink, too." Faith had little doubt that it was less red than her legs had been, and stuck her head underneath the surface, throwing her head back up when she felt it had been long enough. The Queen cleaned and polished her weapons. Her knife shone its original silver; the mallet was its normal colour again, which appeared to be lavender. Her jackbomb, always multicoloured, took on a less reddish hue. The always-gleaming ice wand didn't need to be touched.
The procession across the courtyard took an extraordinarily long time to Faith. Cat and Rabbit had rushed her all around Wonderland. Now she wanted to hurry more than ever, and this was probably the slowest she had gone since arriving. She clasped the bag that Morag had given her but her hand tried to scramble past, feeling for something that wasn't there. Jeremy's pendant. Frantically her hand moved, searching for her last remaining good memory of her brother. A pawn to her left gave her a strange look and plodded a little faster. Faith didn't care. If she had lost that pendant, there was no way that she could - oh, thank goodness.
Her hand clasped the chain. It had twisted behind her neck, so that the pendant part hung down her back and the clasp fastened at the base of her throat. She breathed a sigh of relief and quickened her pace. She wanted to speak with the King.
The bishop stopped them about halfway through the courtyard. "Hold!" he called. Faith didn't stop all at once, but did significantly slow down. The bishop glared at her and she halted. "I will speak with the King, and it will be up to him as to whether he will speak to Faith."
She groaned. It was a small sound, but the innate silence of the place amplified it so that there was not a chess piece that didn't hear. The side of the bishop's mouth quirked in something that was half an annoyed grimace, half an amused grin. "I will not be long," he promised.
Whatever his promise, it was about an hour before she could speak with the White King. "Cat!" she called despondently.
He appeared. "You don't seem to need help. Why are you calling me?"
"Company," she replied. "The chess pieces are still a little leery of me." He raised his eyebrows.
"Indeed. What have you been doing in my absence? Stirring up trouble in the Red Queen's forces, I hear."
She briefly described the standoff, remembering most of the charges against her, but listing only about half. "Samien and I, we had words, but that was really about all that happened."
"Until the white pieces came..."
"And saw me with my knife against his throat."
"And the red pieces about to attack you, I'd imagine."
"Yeah," she nodded. Then she thought for a little while, back to what had gone on between them. "His eyes were a little strange. It was like I'd seen them before, almost."
"Well, maybe you did," he said pointedly. "Wonderland hasn't been this way forever." She laughed.
"You're right, as usual, Cat. D'you think I'll get to see the King soon?"
"You certainly break tangents often," he teased. "Maybe, maybe not. There have been a few spies seen about recently, so the bishop is probably in there arguing against letting you in, however kind he may have acted before. But the King does want to see you, so it will take quite a bit to convince him otherwise."
Faith sat down hard against a wall. "I'll be in here for forever," she grumbled. "Cat?"
"Yes?"
"When will we be able to have that conversation?"
Cat sighed. "Not yet. Soon. After you leave the Pale Realm."
"That'll be soon?" she asked disbelievingly.
"Oh yes," he assured her. "They may be reluctant to let anyone in, but they're quite wild about getting them out."
The bishop slid out of the gate, looking important. Faith jumped up in anticipation. "Will the guardians of the Castle Challenge step inside!"
"Bastard!" Faith ground out, frustrated.
The next fifteen minutes were spent pacing, with the white pieces calmly watching her, puzzled at her impatience and mildly suspicious of it as well.
The bishop slid out again. "Will the guardians of the Knight Challenge step inside!"
"Is that us? Didn't he say knight?" whispered the male.
"No, stupid. He meant the 'Night' Challenge!" the female hissed. Faith seized the opportunity to slip inside herself, creeping past the pieces as they tried to convince the Knights that yes, the bishop really did mean them. She hurried down the hall and up a flight of stairs, then through another hall, until she stood at a huge, elaborate set of doors adorned with the image of a white crown and sceptre.
"If there was ever any chance of me seeing the King, let these open," she muttered, sending up a desperate prayer. She pushed one of the doors open slightly, enough for her to slip in. The King was pacing around, waiting.
"You are not the bishop," he said suspiciously, hearing her footsteps but not yet facing her.
"No," she replied, suddenly nervous. He stood a full two heads taller than her. "I'm Faith."
"The bishop let you in? He told me he was going to fetch the knights." But he seemed slightly pleased... Faith hoped he did, anyway.
"He did," she said quietly. "But I couldn't wait. It took a very long time for me to get here, and I couldn't wait."
The King turned to face her for the first time. His face was grave, and there was desolation in his eyes. Faith understood what she was fighting for. She was fighting to be rid of the pain in his eyes. The pain that echoed in her soul. It hurt to see the utter despair in his face, because she knew that it was inside of her as well.
"You seek me, but you say nothing."
"I'm sorry," she said. "I have much to ask."
"Before you do," he interrupted gently, "I have to ask you to show me your hands." Confused, she held them up. "Palms facing me, please."
He took the one with the scar and peered at it. Finally a grin broke through the melancholy exterior. "You ARE Faith," he smiled. "Alice's heir."
"I'll have that the rest of my life, you know," she was a little peeved that it was only used to identify her to one person. He smiled.
"Yes, I do. I'm not the only one it is proof for, however."
"Well then, who else?"
"I don't believe that this is what you wanted to see me for."
Faith sighed. "It's not. There's a lot that I want to ask."
"Wait."
"Again!" She must have seemed dangerous at that point, because the King looked as though he were reconsidering.
"Before I answer any questions, there is something that you must do for me."
"No. I want my answers first."
"If we stop and banter now, it may be too late!"
"For what?!" Faith burst out.
"My lord," said another bishop, sliding in. He was pale (if it's possible to describe a white chess piece that way) and visibly shaken.
"Yes?" the King asked anxiously. Faith suddenly grew rather nervous.
"The Red King has ordered that the White Queen be executed in twenty minutes."
The White King turned to Faith. "That is what you must do. Rescue my Queen, and you may have anything that you desire."
"Where do I need to go?" she asked the bishop. She ignored the King - she was not interested in reward. The bishop pointed to the distance, and she saw red-and-black chequered tiles. "A checkers game?" she asked dubiously.
"No, it is chess. It is traditionally (for them) red and white, but the Queen has a distaste for the latter colour."
Faith rolled her eyes and took off at full speed, headed towards the red village.
"Did you tell her where she needed to go?" the King asked the bishop in a low voice.
"She never gave me the chance," he replied, bewildered.
"By the way, Faith, what you seek lies within the high tower," Cat said languidly. Faith looked for his grin.
"It's going to get a lot more difficult once I get in, isn't it?"
"Most assuredly." His tail twitched, and soon the rest of him appeared. "There are quite a few corners in this land. A certain little trinket of yours may be valuable."
Faith reached down inside her sweater, pulling the leather cord out. Her jewel had gone from its original blue to red. Danger was near. A clock in the distance chimed four. "The Pale Queen will be executed at precisely 4:15," he warned.
Fifteen minutes left. She darted down a narrow alleyway, away from the danger, and dashed across a bridge that ran over a red lake. It had been grey in the Pale Realm, she noted. Now, here in the Scarlet Dominion it ran like blood. She ran into the tower that the bridge connected to and grabbed a shield from an armoury rack, and threw it on the ground in front of her. What she was about to try demonstrated her insanity more than any crazy stunt she had tried yet, she thought. She only hoped that it would work.
The ruckus that the shield made on its way down was enough to drown out her exhilarated whooping, but unfortunately also caused enough of one that a few pieces were bound to notice. Breathless, she hopped off as it shot off of the steps, impaling an investigating red knight through the neck. It gave a feeble whinny of shock and collapsed. Faith ran quickly, headed for the tower, which she was steadily drawing closer to.
She was almost there, and thirteen minutes left. She was amazed at how quickly she had gone, but she didn't slow. A bishop charged and she took out her knife and threw it. The combined force of her throwing the knife while running at full speed and him charging created a spectacular display. The bishop's base flew up, while his head went back. His body somersaulted and she ran past it as it came to a stop. "Faith is on a roll!" she mouthed to herself, pumping a quick fist in the air. The purple herbs were starting to take effect.
She darted through a byway that led to the next branch of the river. From there, it led straight to the castle. The only thing blocking her path was a gate that extended down to the top of the water. She glanced into the river periodically as she ran, and saw nothing inside. Still, something wasn't right. When she reached the gate, she dipped her fingers into the water. It burned like shite! She shook it off and smelled it. It didn't smell acidic; was it merely hot?
Eleven minutes. There was a shout from behind her, and she looked back. Several strong red pieces were attacking. Faith reached behind her for the ice wand and pulled it out. They still came at her, and she started blasting. They froze and she quickly pushed the wand through a hole in the gate, and swung herself underneath to relative safety.
It hurt! She sat for a moment, then stood and grabbed the wand, shaking herself off. Then she was off again. Everywhere the water had touched burned, but at that point, she didn't care. She had to save the Pale Queen. The tower should be just ahead, at a long flight of spiral stairs. Crap, she had to climb all of those! She darted up the long, curved staircase, resolving to make her descent much easier.
She reached the main floor with eight minutes left. From there, there were two hallways; identical and very long, with many doors. Furthermore, not only did she not know which room the Queen would be in, but she had no idea what the hell she was supposed to do once she found her. A noise sounded behind her; a strange creaking sound. Faith darted through an open doorway and peered out from behind the doorjamb. Several strong red pieces appeared. They had with them the Pale Queen, who was barely conscious. "Ah, shite," she muttered. The red pieces didn't hear, and began setting up their execution chamber a few doors past hers. Then they sent a castle to alert the King that the Queen was ready for execution.
Once the castle was out of sight of the door, Faith let him see her, stepping out of the room and darting around the corner he had just turned. "Hey!" she called, a little more quietly than she normally would have. "Don't you want me dead, too?" He seemed confused, but recognition dawned and he charged. She grabbed her knife and stabbed his throat. He gurgled slightly, and fell.
"What was that?" one of the other pieces asked.
"Nothing. Hey, could you help me? This blade's heavy, and the King wouldn't like not witnessing this."
She darted back, ice wand at the ready, and stood in the doorway. A bishop and a knight were arguing over how to best work the guillotine. Faith rolled her eyes and raised the wand. The knight looked up and she fired before he could whinny a warning to the also-doomed bishop, who was next to receive the blast.
The White Queen stared at Faith in amazement. "You!" she exclaimed in overjoyed relief. "I had a dream that my husband would send a saviour to rescue me."
Faith quickly cut the bonds that held the monarch to the table, and when the Queen was free, she extended her hand. "We're not out of danger yet. Hurry and follow me."
"Indeed!" the Queen exclaimed joyously. Faith ordinarily would have been a little irritated at the excessive happiness, but it felt good to rescue someone minutes away from death.
"Come on," she said, and pulled her out. The area was empty and they hurried to the stairs, Faith running and the Queen sliding fluidly across the tiles. Faith fired the ice wand at the stairs, forming a very cold slide down and jumped on, steering with her feet. The Queen followed her lead and the two rocketed down, landing at least ten feet away. "Whoa." Faith was a little dizzy, but kept a solid lead, running down the passageways until they reached the stream, and prepared to dive in.
The Queen, who had unquestioningly followed Faith that far, hesitated. "Is there no other way?"
"Unless someone can break down that..." and trailed off, for that was exactly what the Queen was doing. A large section of the gate lay in shambles moments later, and the Queen turned to Faith, very pleased with herself. Faith did not blame her. "Let's go," she said. The Queen nodded and followed again.
They had just reached the Scarlet Dominion's borders when six strong red pieces stopped them. "We'll have to fight this out," Faith said quietly to the Queen.
"Fight?" the Queen asked uneasily. Faith turned to her disbelievingly.
"The Queen is the strongest piece in chess! If you fight with me, we can take these things together and be all the faster!"
"But..."
"If you don't, they'll kill you, me and your husband once the strongest white piece has been knocked out of play!" Faith exclaimed angrily.
"My husband?"
"They'll kill him if we lose! We have to defend him!"
The Queen's placid expression twisted into an angry snarl. "How dare they that would kill my husband!" she yelled, and battle was on.
Faith slashed a knight's chest using the knife in one hand, and bashed the side of his head with the mallet in the other. The Queen pummelled and smashed with her fists, mangling and crushing bones and faces. The knight collapsed and Faith twisted away from an incoming bishop, swinging the mallet at him once he came close enough. His blood sprayed onto Faith's sweater, and she kicked him away and attacked another piece. The Queen, meanwhile was utterly destroying a knight, pounding his skull with her stone fists. BAM! CRASH! CRAACK!
In very short order, the two stood in a pile of mangled red bodies, and Faith sighed in relief. "Thank you," she said, turning to the Queen.
"For what, dear?"
"For helping. You were amazing!"
"Oh, thank you," she said bashfully. "You were quite a whirlwind yourself."
Faith laughed. "And you had all the crushing power of a hurricane. Now, let's get you back to the King."
"Just a moment, dear." Faith turned.
"Yes?"
"Could you jump into the grey stream? I'm afraid that you're rather red all over."
Faith looked down at herself. No more blue sweater, purple dress or pale skin. Now her legs were beet-red, her sweater was purple and her dress had turned something of a magenta colour. She was quick to comply, but first she unstrapped all of her weapons. Off went the knife at her right hip, the jackbomb at her left rear, the mallet at her back, and the ice wand strapped to her left hip like a sword. Then she took off her sweater for a damage check. It was in surprisingly good condition, and the healers had stitched it up as well, using stark white thread on the deep blue.
She walked into the grey stream, with the sweater in hand. The Queen frowned down at her, puzzled. "Don't you need to take off your boots?"
"No, I actually think they're waterproof." The Queen nodded admiringly.
"Now, douse your head as well. Your face is rather pink, too." Faith had little doubt that it was less red than her legs had been, and stuck her head underneath the surface, throwing her head back up when she felt it had been long enough. The Queen cleaned and polished her weapons. Her knife shone its original silver; the mallet was its normal colour again, which appeared to be lavender. Her jackbomb, always multicoloured, took on a less reddish hue. The always-gleaming ice wand didn't need to be touched.