Chapter VII
Leah was led into the Casino, separated from Alice once they entered the incredibly garish building. Her Suit, another nameless man in black, pushed her through the corridors and into an actual casino. He didn't bother asking where she wanted to go, or where they needed her. Instead, he brought her to a blackjack table.
The Suit bent down to remove her shoes, but hesitated when he noticed there weren't any to remove.
"Huh," He mumbled to himself. "That makes this easier."
He produced a small bottle of something, and pressed a bobble. A wave of scented air hit Leah in the face and when it had, she went dumb. She assumed it was whatever forced the Oysters to remain compliant, so she acted accordingly.
Without another word, the Suit left.
The moment she heard the door close behind her, Leah rubbed her nose and tried to remove the smell. It burned, and she didn't know why. Like perfume with too much alcohol in it.
When she glanced up, she noticed the look of fear on the dealer's face and saw her hand glide somewhere out of sight.
"No, no, no," She chastised lightly. The dealer paused. "That won't be necessary. I'm here on behalf of the Queen." The poor young woman who's only job was to deal cards went utterly pale at the mention of the Queen. Good. "I'm here to do an inspection." Leah whispered.
"Inspection?"
She nodded. "I'm here to make sure that everything is up to par, that the Oysters are getting the proper entertainment for all of the good Wonders." She continued. "And you're doing very well." The dealer relaxed enough that a shaky smile touched her painted lips. "Now, I'm going to have a look around, but you mustn't tell anyone I'm here, alright?"
"Right, of course." The dealer nodded.
"Good,"
Leah gave her a smile as she slinked away. Before eyes could be drawn to her, Leah disappeared behind a pillar. The glamor instantly engulfed her body and by the time she emerged from the other side, never breaking in step, she was dressed no differently than one of the many young women working in the Casino. Hidden within the disguise, she was free to roam the grounds looking for Jack just like she told Alice she would.
As she did, Leah smiled to herself. She might have been a Truth Seer, but if she wanted to, Leah could lie with the best of them.
Leah searched what felt like the entire building, and still no Jack. He shouldn't have been that hard to find. True, she'd met him only once, but he was easy to remember. Jack Chase was tall, dark hair, square jaw, and damn good-looking. He should have stood out, but no. There was nothing.
As she walked through the halls on her way to another floor, swarms of Suits flooded the area. The men ran by her without a second glance. All of them were mobilizing on something important, and it wasn't until one of them said something in passing that she knew what the trouble was.
"The Queen wants the Oyster captured. She's with some guy and an old knight. They're heading for the roof."
Leah knew in an instant that they were talking about Alice, Charlie, and Hatter. She spun around and her glamor changed. She was no longer the young woman in the red and silver metal dress. She blended in with the Suits instead.
Hatter's lungs hurt as he did his best to catch his breath. It'd felt like he'd been running for days. It wasn't true, but that's how it felt.
He slammed the side of his hand into the elevator's buttons, nearly breaking them when he had.
"Up?" Alice demanded.
"Ya got a better idea?" He shot back.
"Yeah, back down." She said angrily. "We have to get-"
"We can't get Jack, Alice." Hatter was losing his patience and he felt a bit guilty for snapping at her, but he couldn't stand it anymore. She couldn't genuinely think they stood a chance of swimming through Suits to get Jack back. "I told ya, you can't bargain with the Queen. Did you think she was just gonna let you and your boyfriend go once she got the ring?"
"No," She said.
"No, exactly."
"Because he's her son."
Hatter felt the air in the elevator grow almost too dense to breathe. He shot her a stare. Alice wouldn't meet his eye.
"The prince?" He asked. She didn't answer. "Jack Heart is your boyfriend." Again, she remained silent. "Unbelievable."
"Look, that's not why we have to go back, okay?" She was still agitated, and he completely understood. "We have to go back for Ran… Leah."
The fact that Alice had stumbled over the name and did her best to correct it didn't shock Hatter. What did was the fact that he knew who both of them belonged to.
"Miranda's here?" He couldn't remove the disbelief, nor did he want to call her Leah. He didn't know why, he just didn't. Somehow he knew that the woman he saw wasn't Leah, which would make no sense if he said it out loud, but it was true. That face belonged to Miranda. Leah was someone else.
Alice nodded. "She came here with me. They put her in the Casino."
Hatter couldn't express the level of anger he felt at hearing that. Jack he didn't know. Jack was much easier to dismiss, even more so now that Hatter knew the truth, but Miranda? Whether or not her name had stayed the same didn't matter to him. He knew her. He'd spent a goodly amount of time with her, and he couldn't just leave her in the Casino.
But what was he supposed to do? Dozens of Suits, maybe more, were on their tail. If they didn't get out of there immediately, they'd be captured and God only knew what the Queen would do to them. Prison probably wouldn't be an option. The most likely outcome would be Hatter, Charlie, and Alice waving goodbye to their heads.
Both angry and filled with helplessness, Hatter reacted. He lashed out and slammed his fist into the wall of the elevator. The metal groaned and collapsed beneath the strength of it, bowing outward in the shape of a fist. He could even see the imprints left behind by his knuckles when he withdrew his fist.
He looked down at it to check for marks, to see if he'd finally managed to hurt himself, but there was nothing. There never was.
The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened with a ding. Hatter charged out with Charlie and Alice behind him. Two Suits noticed them the same instant and a fight broke out quickly. Hatter took one of them, leaving the other for Charlie. He took out his anger on him, beat the poor guy worse than he probably deserved, but he couldn't help it. He was angry, scared, frustrated, and again felt helpless. It was a bevy of emotions that had no other outlet than to fuel him in the fight.
A final punch to the face sent the Suit to the ground. He didn't get back up.
When Hatter turned, he saw Charlie bop his Suit in the head. Somehow, that seemed to be enough for the man in black to collapse. Hatter arched a brow.
"What now?" Alice asked. Well, she more demanded to know.
Hatter glanced around. They were stories above ground, far too high to even contemplating jumping or climbing down anything. They couldn't take the elevator, but there was something. Three, brilliant pink, mechanical flamingos were lined up along the edge of the roof.
"There," He said. "We get on those."
He and Charlie jogged towards them, though Alice was slower to join. "I'm not getting on one of those things." She said sternly.
"You don't have a choice." He told her shortly.
"You don't get it. I have a thing about heights."
Gunfire suddenly began to sound loudly. Suits were shooting at them from the far end of the roof.
"And I've got a thing about bullets." He said tersely.
The ding of the elevator never sounded so loud, but it pierced the air, echoed well above the bang of the gunshots. Hatter's stomach sank as he thought about what could possibly be waiting for them. Sure enough, a split second later a Suit emerged from the elevator.
"Hey!" He shouted as he charged for the trio.
Hatter leapt off the flamingo. "Get on, Alice. I'll take care of this guy."
Hatter charged the stranger with his fist raised.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The Suit shouted as he held up his hands.
It happened in an instant, but it left Hatter blinking as his mind struggled to comprehend it. A mist, wispy and white, consumed the Suit. It faded in an instant and when it did, Miranda was the one standing in his place.
"It's just me." She said.
"How…" Was all he managed to get out.
The gunshots drew closer, tearing Hatter almost violently out of his delirium.
"Come on!" He shouted at her.
Hatter tried to grab her arm to pull her over to the flamingos, a natural reaction he thought. But she swayed out of his grasp. He never touched her, never came close. It was another instance of her recoiling from his touch. But Hatter didn't have a chance to dwell on it.
The pair of them ran for the flamingos. He tried to get Alice onto one, but the moment they saw Charlie speed off at a ridiculous speed, he knew there was almost no chance. He didn't know how to convince her.
Miranda grabbed Alice and forced the terrified young woman to look at her. "Alice," She said sternly, but with an undeniable kindness. "You're going to be fine, alright? Just hold on and close your eyes."
"I can't. I can't." She breathed, repeating the word far more than once.
"Yes, you can."
Somehow, that simple phrase or the way Miranda said it seemed to fill Alice with enough confidence that she climbed onto the flamingo behind Hatter.
"Aren't you coming?" Alice asked shakily.
"I'll be right behind you. I need to handle these fools, first."
"Okay," She muttered.
Hatter was ready to press the only button on the flamingo when he saw Miranda move. She strolled toward the oncoming assault with a level of confidence that surprised him. She swayed her hands in a fanciful way. It was beautiful and hypnotic and to his surprise, seemed to hold a purpose. Hatter saw the wind move, gusts of it gather around her. It built and built.
When she thrust her hands in their directions, the wind followed suit. It slammed into the Suits, forcing them to hit the wall with a disturbing strength. They crumbled and didn't immediately rebound.
Hatter didn't press the button until Miranda was on the third flamingo.
They sailed through the air on the ridiculous speed. He began to relax, to breathe a little easier until they heard it. The loud booms of shotgun blasts drew ever closer.
To his horror, Charlie went down in a trail of black smoke. He disappeared in the lake. Miranda was next. Hatter and Alice were no different. No matter how hard he tried, he still fell into the water, as well.
She was wet. Again.
She had fallen into the lake. Again.
Leah was beginning to hate the damn thing. She'd spent more time in the water in the last two days than she could remember having spent in it in her youth.
She trudged up the rocky shore and took a seat on a fallen log. When her body was given a chance to rest, whenever her muscles no longer ached, she'd go in search of the others.
Leah prayed they were alright.
Sometime later, Alice and Charlie were back at Charlie's camp. Hatter had gone in search of his contact. Alice didn't know if she trusted whoever Caterpillar was, but she didn't have much of a choice. Part of her didn't want to see Hatter go, and she feared he wouldn't return, but there was no other choice.
Alice was still reeling. Her father was alive. While she'd held out hope through the years, to hear that it was actually true was overwhelming. It was amazing, actually, and she couldn't express how happy it made her. But she was frightened, too. What if it was a lie? What if she somehow couldn't connect with him?
The cons didn't bear thinking about. Alice did her best to focus on the pros.
But then, she couldn't help but think about Jack. They had dated for months, but she had no idea he was royalty. Sure, the accent spoke to that romantic, fantasy part of her brain, the part that liked to associate posh English accents with the royal families, but she never thought it was real.
It broke her heart to hear him speak so cruelly to her, but when the watch met her hands, it was all wiped away. At least mostly. Still, she was conflicted when it came to Jack. The only one that was constant was Hatter. Not 'Leah', not Jack –Hatter.
A small smile curled Alice's lips as she thought about him.
Sitting comfortably on the pile of furs that Charlie had given her to sit on, she was lost in her thoughts when the White Knight spoke.
"How old were you," He said, drawing her eye. "When your father disappeared?"
Alice only then realized she'd been smiling while stroking her father's watch. He must have thought that was what she'd been thinking about. Regardless, she answered his question.
"Ten," She told him.
Charlie nodded and a heavy, yet week smile touched his lips. "I was ten, once." Alice smiled softly, too. "I was ten when the armies came." His head dipped. "I was one of three squires to the real White Knight. I was in charge of the Great Lance, but when the time came," his voice began to crack, "I ran. I hid for three days and when I emerged, everyone was dead." Alice's heart broke. "The Knights, the Mystics, and even the noble Red King on his throne." She could see his eyes begin to glisten. "When they needed me most, when it counted, I failed them."
Alice felt her eyes prickle with the promise of tears as well as Charlie went on to say that, in a way to try and honor their memory, he took the White Knight's armor and his name. He had been waiting for a chance to redeem himself and upon her arrival in Wonderland, he decided that it had finally come. Alice felt the desire to hug him, to wrap her arms around the knight and hold tight to make him feel better, but she didn't. They didn't do anything.
As the minutes ticked by, Alice decided that she had a question to ask.
"What was it like here, before the war?"
"Oh," Charlie let out a small sigh and smiled. "It was glorious." He said. "When the sun hit the buildings just right, the kingdom glowed."
Alice smiled, too. "What about the Red King? What was he like?"
"He was a kind and noble king." Charlie said with the same air of respect that Alice doubted ever changed. "He was a good man, and fair. Along with the Mystics, Wonderland prospered. Her people and the magical creatures in the woods lived side by side. We were happy."
There is was again, a mention of the Mystics. Alice had read the stories as a girl, but she couldn't remember ever reading about them.
"What are Mystics?" Alice asked with genuine curiosity. "Hatter mentioned them before, too, but I've never heard of them before."
"Oh, the Mystics were three sisters, Calithea, Calisto, and Cordelia."
Alice felt a twinge of memory. Leah said she was a triplet, and that her real name was Cordelia.
"What uh," Alice had to force herself to get the question out. "What did they look like?"
"They were lovely." His voice took on an airy tone once more, filled with a childlike wonder that she could easily hear. "I still remember the first time I ever saw them. I thought they were angels." He let out a chortle that caused Alice to giggle a little to herself. "Skin so fair it glowed, brilliant gree eyes. I remember they were identical, expect for their hair."
"Their hair?"
"Yes," He nodded. "Calithea, I remember, had hair as dark as a raven's wing. And Calisto had hair the color of fire. Cordelia, she had hair as white as mine!" He chuckled. But, as before, his smile began to fade and the same sadness as before seeped in. But they fell to the Queen of Hearts, too."
Alice let the subject lie. She didn't want to press anymore and, as selfish as she knew it was, she was glad when she heard that Charlie's Cordelia had white hair and white skin. That didn't suit Leah with her brown hair and tanned skin.
Everything else, the fact that she had two sisters and shared the Mystic's name must have just been coincidence.
After a while, Charlie yawned and told Alice that he planned to take a nap. She nodded and let him slip off to his hammock. A few minutes later, she heard him snoring.
She smiled softly at him, but couldn't sit still anymore. Something made her want to walk. Perhaps it was the lingering anxiety, she couldn't say, but for whatever reason, Alice rose, retrieved the coat Hatter had given her, and went for a walk.
She didn't travel far, though. Instead, she found herself standing on a hill overlooking the White Kingdom yet again. It was tragically beautiful.