Fit the Fifth: the Flight
The next morning came with drooping grey clouds and halfhearted sprinkling raindrops. Alice, the Hatter, the March Hare, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Pepper, Mag, and the Bandersnatch were gathered to the courtyard, along with a flock of geese.
"How are we going to get there?" Alice asked.
The Hatter smiled and handed her a tiny vial. "Drink it all. It will get you to the proper size."
She did, and in a moment felt the familiar sensation of her clothes suddenly growing bigger and the ground spreading beneath her feet.
When she stopped shrinking, she called up to Tarrant, "I don't suppose you brought me something to wear?"
He dropped down a heavy, dark gray dress lined with some kind of very soft fur. She donned it quickly, then crawled out of her giant clothes.
Tarrant gave the Bandersnatch enough of the potion to shrink the fearsome beast down to the size of a bumblebee. Then he shrunk down to size and dressed in a smaller version of exactly what he had been wearing before. As servants whisked away his clothes and Alice's, he climbed up the back of one of the geese, using feathers as handholds. Once situated, he extended his hand invitingly toward Alice.
Normally Alice would have been a little bothered by the gesture, wanting to prove she could do it on her own, but the thought of holding Tarrant's hand didn't bother her in the least.
She let him help her up, then settled in beside him. The Bandersnatch curled up in her lap like a kitten.
"All cozied in?" Tarrant asked her, smiling. At Alice's nod, he patted the goose. "We're ready when you are, Ellieita."
The goose spread her wings and, with the others in the flock following, rose into the air.
Alice cried out in delight as they flew over the palace. Tarrant smiled at her.
"I've always wondered what it was like to fly!" she explained.
"You could always ask."
Alice leaned forward, grasping onto feathers to keep herself steady. "Ellieita, what is it like to fly?"
"Not as easy as it looks!" the goose called back over her shoulder.
Alice laughed.
After a long but highly enjoyable flight, the geese set down at a wharf by what looked like an ocean. Tarrant and Alice slid off Ellieita's back. Some of the other geese in the flock laid out the clothes they'd been carrying, then Tarrant handed out enough crumpet to grow them all back to sizes adequate to fill them.
The ship they boarded was not large, nor unusual in any way Alice could perceive. It looked much like the ones she'd become accustomed to in her work as a merchant. Without being asked, she joined the others in preparing to sail.
"You've done this before, I see," Mag said approvingly.
"Often. I sailed from England to China."
"I take it that's a long distance."
"It's halfway around the world. Where are we going, might I ask?"
A shadow seemed to cross over Mag's black and white face. "Most people just call it Snark Island. There are other creatures there, as well, but not any the likes of us would want to come across."
"Like what sorts of creatures?"
"That is where jubjub birds and bandersnatches live wild, for two of the most dangerous denizens. The jabberwock originated there, as well. In the surrounding waters are sea monsters both large and small. And in the high volcanic mountains there are creatures without names."
"Have you ever been there?"
"No. Few people have and lived to tell about it. It was rumored that in the Bloody Big Head's hunting parties, for every ten hunters sent one or two returned." She forced a smile and trilled a cheerier note. "But they were seeking out the most dangerous; we are avoiding those, and aiming merely for the most elusive."
"How reassuring."
"Of course it is dangerous, but we must save the White Queen."
Alice agreed.
The wind was steady and the waves were low and small. Under the clouded sky, the sea almost looked devious.
Pepper was looking over charts spread out on a table in the captain's quarters. Alice approached him quietly and looked over his shoulder. "That is a peculiar map," she noted.
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, most maps I've seen, in addition to lines of latitude and longitude and the compass rose, show some manner of landform, or at least some symbol indicating where one might be."
"Such a map would be useless in getting where we're going," the scholarly pig explained. "The only way to find Snark Island is to be lost."
As the day wore on, the clouds became thinner and the sea grew steadier. By evening the sinking sun cast a gold trail across the waves, and minutes later the lingering clouds turned gold and pink. A goose was keeping a lookout from the crow's-nest, Thackery was at the helm (which seemed entirely appropriate to Alice, if indeed getting lost was the way to find their destination), and the twins were asleep with their backs to the mast.
As she looked out at the sunset colors over the ocean, she didn't hear Tarrant approach until he cleared his throat. "You did well today. I should be used by now to being impressed by you, but can the girl sail!"
She smiled at his compliment. "It's nice to be at sea again. I always have loved the ocean."
"Let's hope the ocean does not love you as much, or it may try to keep you. That wouldn't do at all."
"Let's not worry about such things. Do you play chess?"
"I 'ave been known to queen a pawn or two."
"I saw a set in the captain's quarters. I'm sure no one would mind if we borrowed it."
Tarrant followed Alice to the captain's cabin. Pepper was asleep with his head on the table. They didn't wake him as Alice carefully picked up the chessboard without disturbing the pieces already arranged on it.
They found a quiet place on the deck to play. Alice picked up the red queen and the white queen, held them behind her back, switched them between her hands a few times, then presented them to Tarrant. "Choose a hand," she said.
"Just one? Perhaps I would like them both equally."
"But you must choose one, or we will never get to play."
After a moment, he touched the tip of one long index finger to her left hand. She opened it to reveal the white queen.
"What a fortuitous choice; you get the first move."
Tarrant opened by bringing out his knight. "I do confess, it has been some time since I played. And Time won our last game."
Alice moved her queen's pawn forward two spaces. "Was that before or after the unfortunate incident at the Red Queen's concert?"
He answered with only a smile. Then he moved his rook into the space vacated by the knight.
"I was quite concerned for your head at the Knave of Heart's trial," she said.
"Ah, that. I wasn't sure you remembered."
"I do. I've always remembered, but I thought they were dreams. How did the Knave get out of that scrape, by the way?"
"From what I heard, your astounding exit from the proceedings made everyone forget about the trial. And later, someone quite rightly pointed out that if the letter had been written by the Knave, who had it been written to?"
"An excellent question indeed. Did they ever find out?"
"The mystery remains unsolved, my dear."
She secretly smiled at him calling her dear. She coughed to cover it. "I can't quite remember all the words of the letter. I would say I got the gist of it, but I don't recall it having a gist."
Tarrant smiled at her. That wild, dazed smile of his.
"They told me you had been to her
And mentioned me to him:
She gave me a good character,
But said I could not swim.
He sent them word I had not gone
(We know it to be true):
If she should push the matter on,
What would become of you?
I gave her one, they gave him two,
You gave us three or more;
They all returned from him to you,
Though they were mine before.
If I or she should chance to be
Involved in this affair,
He trusts to you to set them free,
Exactly as we were.
My notion was that you had been
(Before she had this fit)
An obstacle that came between
Him, and ourselves, and it.
Don't let him know she liked them best,
For this must ever be
A secret, kept from all the rest,
Between yourself and me."
As he recited the verses, Alice recalled the day of the trial, the first time she had seen the insanity of the Queen of Hearts, and the ineptitude of her husband, the King.
And yet, though she was sure the Hatter had not changed a word of it, she somehow felt he was reading a love poem to her. Perhaps that was just her fancy. Of course it was just her fancy.
"Checkmate," she declared.
Tarrant forced his eyes from his opponent's face to the chessboard, where he hadn't noticed Alice's knight advance to the line of pawns. His expression dissolved from shocked to delighted. "It seems you have me captivated, milady."
For once Alice's quick wit failed her as she stared into Tarrant's eyes. At last she gave up on finding words for her thoughts and said, "Perhaps I should bid you goodnight. I'm sure tomorrow will be a long and hard day."
"Beyond a doubt," he replied.
They returned the chess set to its proper place, and Alice with some reluctance retired to her cabin.