Chapter 9: Renewal
It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair.
Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.
~Charles Baudelaire
Casiphia rode with Alice to show her the changes that were taking place at the Red Castle on a cool misty morning when the waterfalls were apparent more by their sound than by sight. Ilosovic had left very early that morning to take care of some matters at Saluzen Grum, and the two women were happy to breakfast leisurely and allow him to go on ahead.
As the morning was still cool, Casiphia covered her light dress with her father's old green riding cloak, riding Quill behind Alice, who was perched atop the Bandersnatch.
"I love its gait," Casiphia called to Alice as she watched the Bandersnatch's rolling run from behind, its long tail swinging from side to side.
"It's surprisingly easy to ride up here," Alice called back. "I feel perfectly stable up here, even without a saddle. It's easier than riding a horse, I think."
Casiphia had her doubts about that, but kept them to herself.
Deliberately the lady-in-waiting did not choose a route past the ruins of the old castle where Alice had defeated the Jabberwock. Alice's memories of the place were likely to be disturbing, whereas Casiphia's were rich with the romance of her early days with Ilosovic, not to mention the bittersweetness of her childhood there, and she did not feel inclined to share or try to explain them.
As they approached Saluzen Grum, Alice could see for herself the changes that had so quickly overtaken the landscape. Tangles of green covered the hillsides, and the grass in the valleys was lush and bright. Everywhere wildflowers bobbed their bright heads, attended by all manner of insects, and animals occasionally stood up and waved to the pair and their mounts. Alice was particularly charmed by the badger in the cravat who called, "Good day!" from the mouth of his burrow.
"I'd like to say hello to Ilosovic when we get inside, if you do not object," Casiphia said to Alice as they arrived at the castle entry—no guards greeted them, and the drawbridge was permanently fastened down—and a frog leaped from the water to bid hello to Casiphia. "Hello, Ribbert!" she called back.
A stable boy ran out to greet them and take their mounts, looking nervous at the sight of the Bandersnatch but refusing to let fear keep him from performing his duties.
"I'm going to show you the gardens first," Casiphia told Alice, "because they're my responsibility and I'm rather proud of what we're accomplishing."
Indeed there was little sign of the Red Queen's formal layout, which had been replaced by a wilder sort of garden with far more varieties of flower than just roses. Bowers and alcoves invited passersby to linger, while small ponds glinted throughout the grounds and trellises adorned the castle walls.
"No more topiaries," Alice noticed.
"No, we invited some of the children from the court to come in and hack them apart," Casiphia said. "They especially had fun dismantling Iracebeth's head. I know, I know, that is terrible, but I thought they deserved some catharsis after living their entire lives under her rule."
They crossed a patch of grass to a bed of rosebushes. "Here, let me show you my favorite color," Casiphia said.
Plucking one, she handed it to Alice, who said, "How unusual, the petals are white on the outside and red on the inside. And they're so thick, the colors barely show through."
"You can see why I like the symbolism," Casiphia said, looking almost embarrassed. "But isn't that a fabulous rose, regardless?"
"It is indeed," Alice said. "I quite like those lavender ones at the end, myself."
"Take a few," Casiphia said. "These are not talking flowers, and the bushes won't mind. I expect there to be hundreds more blooms before next winter."
Alice snapped several of the blossoms off their stems, while Casiphia, spying a shriveled and spiny-topped rosehip still clinging to a stem from the previous winter, broke it off into her own hand. "You'll see," she told Alice, who was watching her curiously. Then the two women progressed across the grounds to the castle, Casiphia stopping once to speak quickly with a short, rotund man in a large hat, who carried a large pair of secateurs in one hand.
"My main gardener," she mused. "I have a gardener! I never would have thought."
Continuing up the cobblestone path that led to the castle, they entered through the main doorway, finding a crew of workers busily scrubbing windows and walls. "The stained glass is so beautiful, I couldn't bear the thought of it being destroyed," Casiphia explained to Alice. "I reckon if we make enough changes to the rest of the building, the presence of the windows will not be off-putting."
Casiphia led Alice down a long corridor that fed off the throne room, stopping at a storeroom that had been turned into a large office for Ilosovic Stayne and other administrative staff. There they found Stayne with his tall black boots propped up on a desk, pen and sheaf of paper in his lap as he jotted notes.
"Comfortable?" Alice asked him.
"Extremely," he said, but swung his feet down and scooted his chair up to the desk.
"Oh!" Alice suddenly exclaimed in delight. "There's a raven. On your writing desk! Maybe that's what they have in common—they're both here."
"There is always at least one raven here. They like me," Ilosovic shrugged. "Or else they like this room. I can't explain it." The raven, which had been preening, cocked its head to look at him. Then it fluttered up to his shoulder and had the affrontery to peck at his eyepatch.
"Shoo!" he said, startled. "Cheeky bugger." He waved the raven aside, and it obliged by hopping back down to the desk and settling perhaps two inches away from its previous perch.
"This was a storeroom for all sorts of effects Iracebeth no longer had use for," Casiphia explained to Alice. "Most of those were taken when the castle was ransacked after her downfall, but as you can see, there were a few old pictures and tapestries left that were worth hanging."
"What happened to the members of the Red Court?" Alice wondered.
"I suppose they slunk off back home to pretend they'd never been a part of this menagerie," Stayne said. "What happened to them there, I do not know, but I rather hope their families are more disinclined to overlook their dishonesty than Iracebeth was.
"I do know that two travelers closely matching the description of the executioner and his wife settled in Queast oddly close to Iracebeth's last day as queen."
"So he escaped punishment altogether, is that what you're telling me?"
"So I gather, and his chess partner, the cook, turned up there a week or so later. He really wasn't such a bad sort, just not one to think for himself. But yes, that would seem to be the case."
"That sickens me a little," Casiphia said sadly. "I realize you did provoke Mirana just a wee tiny bit when she was sending her sister into exile, but that just proves all the more to me that she acted out of anger and spite and not justice."
"Look at me," Stayne said. Casiphia did so, and he continued. "You know the expression 'all is well that ends well'? Perhaps it's for the best that I did not slink away and settle in Queast with our friend the executioner, don't you think?"
"You could be right about that, " Casiphia said, taking his hand and pressing a kiss into it.
Uncomfortable overhearing this exchange, Alice was drifting around the room, examining the hangings and objets d'art. Ilosovic started to add commentary, but stopped cold as Casiphia slipped behind him and dropped the rosehip she had brought inside down the back of his shirt. The raven squawked in delight as he sat bolt upright and began pawing at his back, trying to get a grasp on the mysterious object.
"Why, you..." he said, grabbing Casiphia's arm and pulling her down into his lap.
"You love it when I tease you, and you know it," she said, planting a kiss full on his lips.
"Is this what you're like when you're happy?" he asked.
"It would seem so," she said.
"Good, I like to see it. What was that, anyway?" he said, toppling his lady out of his lap and standing to shake the offending object out of his shirt. "Ah, a rosehip. I suppose I should be grateful it wasn't a dormouse."
He resumed his seat. "Now, out of here, both of you!" he ordered. "You are distracting me and I would like to get through these accounts today so I don't have to return here tomorrow."
Casiphia laughed and ruffled his hair. "Come on Alice, let us be on our way."
"First, tell me why you have an old divan in your—ohhh," Alice said as bits of information she had gleaned from both Casiphia and others came together in her head.
"You look a bit shocked," Casiphia observed. "Can I, er, put you at ease somehow?"
"I'm feeling somewhat...ill at ease with some of this, er, freedom," Alice said. "Where I'm from, these things are not done, or at least no one admits to knowing about them."
"Things are a bit upside down here, it must seem," Casiphia said. "You may learn to appreciate that. Here in the castle, in particular, we don't have the plethora of rules of conduct that seem to govern activities aboveground. For instance, those trousers you favor—I gather they would not be considered appropriate wear in your world, but here no one has any objection to a woman choosing to wear what she is comfortable in.
"There might be some who would say Ilosovic and I began our courtship backwards, but no one has judged us adversely for it—not for that, at any rate, although some may have had their share of problems with him in particular—and that bit of madness has not kept us from learning what we need to know about each other and how to treat each other.
"I'm sure that however you and Tarrant are ordering your romantic concerns, it will be the right way for the two of you to govern your affairs."
"This is exactly what I mean!" Alice cried. "Does everyone know everything?"
"You learn the ways of inhabiting a castle," Stayne said without looking up. "Be grateful that the gossip at Marmoreal is essentially harmless, unlike the gossip here which was mainly a means to curry favor or further competition."
Alice looked disgusted at the thought, which Casiphia found entirely appropriate. "We are mostly well-meaning and kind," she told the girl. "Admittedly, one sometimes has a nasty discovery, as I did with that wretched Oran, but behavior like his is not acceptable and may result in the departure of the guilty party. All the courtiers and much of the staff have grown up together, and we have worked out most of the complaints and aggressions over the years. Our job is to be friends to Mirana, and we cannot be that if we are not gentle and courteous among ourselves as well."
"Not that they don't get up to a fair bit of mischief. And throw things when they cannot think of a better way to express themselves," Ilosovic cautioned. Casiphia flipped a blotter at him to prove the point, which he neatly dodged. The raven wheeled off the desk with a caw of alarm, then settled back on the far corner of the desk.
"You mean it's not just—"
"Not just Thackery, oh no, not by any means. Get used to that, Alice, or your life with Tarrant and his cronies will be a difficult one indeed."
"I suppose I should practice my aim," Alice mused.
"I believe you will do just fine," Casiphia promised her. "But you can practice here if you like."
"Out, I said!" Stayne reminded them, and with one last snicker, they left him to his accounts.