Chapter 6
"I'll tell thee everything I can;
There's little to relate.
I saw an aged old man
A-sitting on a gate.
'Who are you, aged man?' I said, 'and how is it you live?'
And his answer trickled through my head, like water through a sieve.
He said, 'I look for butterflies that sleep among the wheat;
I make them into mutton-pies, and sell them on the street.
I sell then unto men,' he said, 'Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread- A trifle if you please…'"
.oOo.
By the time they had arrived at the gates of the White Queen's castle, night had descended upon them. The Hatter had found the silence that had descended since Helen's slumber to be much too unbearable and so he had sung a little song from his childhood, the memory of which he could not recall. He was surprised that such a song had emerged from the depths of his memory and he wondered from where he had heard it.
Helen slept in his arms, as small as a child, though her features were anything but. She did not stir, she did not sigh, she did not dream as others would have. She simply slept, looking close to being one of the dead were it not for the gentle rise and fall of her chest. He had studied her through the last legs of their journey, somewhat baffled by the strangeness of the Upperlander that had stumbled upon the March Hare's home. The words of the raven, Erom, drifted across his mad mind, the musical voice filled with longing and sadness.
She is important…
Important to whom? Why was this mad woman even here? What was happening in Underland that the Oraculum did not or could not foretell? Helen did not provide the answers; she simply spoke in riddles and rhymes that he did not fully understand. There was something intriguing about her though, something that called to the depths of him. As if he should somehow know this woman, though in what way he was not sure…
The knights of the White Queen, who stood guard at the gates, saluted him and Chessur as they passed. They were recognized as members of the court, though they did not spend their time there as some would have. Their efforts against the Red Queen's forces on that Frabjous Day had earned them their freedom from her tyranny. It was a shame that the Hatter's mind could not have healed on that day as well. He was not as he used to be and he did not trust his temper enough to stay at court as he used to back before the Red Queen had gained the crown. Since Alice had gone back to her world, there was no one else he felt an attachment to at the White Queen's court. He felt safer in that clearing in Tulgey Wood with his closest friends, the closest thing to a family he could ever have since that terrible day so long ago…
"Where did you hear that song?" asked Chessur, his luminous green eyes looking to his old friend. "I've never heard you sing it before."
The Hatter merely shook his head in reply, his bright green eyes having lost there vibrant energy. He was suddenly very tired from this entire ordeal, tired of these strange feelings and broken memories that Helen had triggered since their meeting. Had it only been half a day since she arrived? Time had frozen in that clearing, since the Hatter had made an attempt to kill it there while in waiting for Alice's return before that Frabjous Day. Time had not appreciated his "attempted" murder and had frozen the evening at precisely six pm. Since then, the clearing had been forever stuck in the hours of dusk while the rest of Underland went through morning and night. Of course, Time could not keep the entire land frozen, so the Hatter was grateful that there was some semblance of days everywhere else he traveled.
"I cannot recall," said the Hatter in reply to the cat, his pale face looking slightly paler in the light of the half moon. "It might have been something a family member had sung from when I was a child but I'm not certain…"
Chessur studied the Hatter with interest before his eyes fell down to the small form of Helen. "Interesting. How is it that you have not recalled it before now?"
The Hatter glanced up at the blue streaked, gray cat that floated beside him, a frustrated look in his eyes. "I do not know and I would appreciate if you would let it be."
The cat merely grinned and floated on ahead of him toward the grand staircase of the castle. The White Knights on guard at the staircase saluted the Cheshire cat as he floated by and again to the Hatter, who continued to walk with a sense of urgency, though they were now safe at the castle.
He glanced down at the sleeping Helen, the sight of her face, so still and silent, brought uneasiness within him. He was struck by the thought that he missed her strange riddles, rhymes and off tune singing. She had brought a much needed and amusing change to his usual day and the fact that that it had been cut silent so quickly did not settle easily with him. It was nice to have met a human that was as mad as he, if not more so. He could not help but wonder though, what it was that had made her mad in the first place…
.oOo.
The White Queen's throne room as was large and airy as the rest of her castle. Windows allowed the moonlight in and it complimented beautifully with the rest of the white and silver décor of the room. The gentle light from the torches and candles added to this feeling of heavenly ambiance and the Hatter felt much more at ease than he had since starting the journey.
The Queen of Underland, Mirana of Marmoreal, sat upon her elegant throne at the head of the room. She was a beautiful woman with long locks of silvery hair that rivaled that of the silvery white of her dress. The dark eyebrows above a pair of equally dark eyes gave a hint of something more to the gentle queen, though exactly what no one could say for sure.
"Ah!" The White Queen smiled in surprise, the sight of the Hatter and the Cheshire cat having been unexpected this day. "Tarrant! Chessur! What a wonderful surprise." She looked to her courtiers with a gentle smile and bowed her head to them. "If you would please excuse us…"
"Of course your Majesty," said the courtiers as one, bowing in unison before they turned in flurry of white skirts and trousers, their equally white wigs resembling puffs of clouds as they drifted out the nearest doorway. The Hatter started to laugh in his dizzying way, the thought of what Helen might have said at the sight of them drifting through his mad mind at the same time and suddenly wishing she were awake to see it.
Once the throne room was empty, save for the Queen and her guests, she was up from her throne and descending the staircase to meet her friends. She moved with a grace that was otherworldly, her delicate hands held up in the air as if every motion were a dance to her. The Hatter had been right in thinking that Mad Helen had mimicked the way the Queen moved. They both held a grace that was a pleasure to the eyes and he could not help but smile at the thought. Dear Mad Helen, mimicking the movements of a queen she had never met, that was indeed funny to think of.
"My dear friends," said the Queen, stopping before them and sighing in a dramatic way. "I fear it has been much too long since I have seen you. Please tell me, how fairs Thackery and Mallymkun?"
The Hatter bowed his head to the Queen, being careful not to move Helen, although there was no way of waking her. "All is well in Tulgey Wood, your Majesty. The tea party commences as it always has…"
Chessur gave a bow as well, tucking a paw across his furry chest, though his grin remained ever seductive in its feline way. "Though an unexpected guest had paid a visit." The cat cast his luminous eyes down toward the tiny, sleeping form of the mad woman in the Hatter's arms.
The Queen, at first confused by the Cheshire cat's statement, followed his gaze and noticed the tiny woman wrapped in an unusual white robe, stained with dirt and mud, in the Hatter's arms. A light frown touched the Queen's face as she studied the face, an inkling of familiarity settling within her heart of hearts. "Who is this?"
The Hatter glanced down at the woman in his arms, silent for but a heartbeat before he looked at his queen. "This is Mad Helen," he said in reply, as if it were enough to explain who she was and where she had come from.
Chessur studied his old friend, noting the silence that followed that statement, and sighing in exasperation. "She is an Upperlander who had wandered into Tulgey Wood."
The Queen glanced at the cat and her frown deepened just a fraction. "An Upperlander? Do you mean from Alice's world?"
The cat merely shrugged in response, not entirely certain if that were so. "I did not see her come from the direction of the Room of Doors. She had appeared through the trees and brush, it might have been from the South or the East…"
"From Snud? Or Queast?" The Queen studied the tiny woman, noting the marred flesh of her right cheek and not liking the sight of it. "She does not look like a native of either land and she does not have the air of coming from Alice's world." She paused, deep in thought, before her dark eyes glanced at the Hatter. "Why do you call her Mad Helen?"
"That is what she calls herself Majesty," said the Hatter in reply, a light smile playing on his pale features. If the White Queen had met Helen earlier in the day, she would understand exactly why she would be called mad.
The Queen noted the smile on the Hatter's face and curiosity caught her even further. When had she last seen the Hatter smile in such a fashion? The last she could recall was when Alice had been here in Underland. That darling girl had such a positive affect on Tarrant but it had not been meant for her to stay, though the Hatter would have thrived much better than he had if she did. It had been her choice to leave and though Alice had been fond of Tarrant, she had chosen to go home. She hadn't been back since that Frabjous Day. How long had it been since Alice had left?
There she went again, her thoughts drifting on and on when she should be focused on this tiny woman in the Hatter's arms. Silence fell as both the cat and the Hatter waited for the Queen to focus her thoughts. The Queen's eyes studied the woman even further, the tangled mess of dark curls, the burnt flesh, and the complete silence as Helen did not react at all to the sound of the voices that spoke around her.
"Why does she not wake?" The Queen asked, looking between the cat and the Hatter.
The Hatter and Chessur glanced at one another, unsure of how the White Queen would react to the answer. A silent look past between the two and the cat sighed, a frustrated look appearing in his large, luminous eyes. "She was given Slypnuth by a raven who calls itself Erom." He noted the shocked look on the Queen's face and continued on, knowing that she would have the same understanding of the situation as they did. Which, at the moment, was not a lot to go by considering what the raven had been able to tell them. "The raven had given the sleeping draft to the woman because it had said-."
"She was important," said the Hatter, interrupting the cat as he stared down at Helen with confusion and curiosity in his bright, green gaze. He looked at the Queen and he swallowed, his pale face touched with a faint shadow, a sure sign of his temper rising. "It had put her to sleep to speak with us but it couldn't explain who she was or why she was here."
The Queen studied the Hatter, noting the shadows beneath his eyes and deciding it would best to act quickly. She glanced down at the sleeping form with confusion and slight amusement. Whoever this woman was, she already had a dizzying affect on the Hatter, though in what way the Queen had yet to determine. She had to find the remedy for the Slypnuth and knowing her ancestors, they had kept the recipe for that potion somewhere locked away in the library's deepest parts.
"Is she normally this… small?" She looked to the Hatter, a dark brow raised in question.
At this, the Hatter laughed, a mad laugh that would have scared a sane person straight from the room. It was a blessed thing that both the Queen and the cat were used to his fits of madness by now and the Queen sighed heavily, a breath slipping past dark rouged lips. "Hatter!"
The Hatter stopped and coughed, catching himself and feeling slightly off kilter. "Er… I'm fine," he muttered. It was strange, he rather enjoyed the fact that Helen would laugh with him in his moments of madness. Who else could laugh with him aside from Thackery and Mallymkun? Chessur did not share in their madness, not entirely, and would not share in those fits of pure insanity. Dear Mad Helen had fit in quite nicely at their tea party and he was faintly surprised at how that simple train of thought had ended. He missed Helen's madness, it made him feel… normal, if that were possible at all in this place.
"We had to hide her, so the raven had said. There were things watching her," said the Hatter, after a very awkward pause. He said no more after this and stared at Chessur expectantly.
The cat sight heavily and rolled his eyes, his tail swaying lightly as he began to purr. He was tired from the day's events so far and wanted nothing more than to go back to the wood and hunt. That was something that he knew, that he could depend on. This whole business with the woman named Helen was proving more stranger by the moment. He had always refrained from joining in on things that had nothing to do with him. Yet, he had to blame his own curiosity for this particular predicament. There was something about Helen that called to him and he was curious enough to find out exactly what.
"Your Majesty, we have no clue as to what is happening." The cat turned over on his back, purring away as he stretched in a very lazy way. "This woman had appeared from no where, spouting riddles and rhymes, madder than Thackery if it were possible. There was no mention of her in the Oraculum, not before this day or after, especially not on this day." He turned right side up and frowned, studying the sleeping Helen with concern. "She had no place there so we had decided to bring her to you. That was when the raven appeared and had given her the Slypnuth. It could not speak of what was happening. It had said that there were old spells that it was bound to, there were… things that were following us because of her and she appears to be in the middle of it all, though why that is..." The cat trailed off and shrugged in reply, there was no answer to that question. That was why they were here in the first place, to find an answer to the mystery of why this woman was here.
The Queen was silent for a moment, taking in this bit of information as her frown deepened. "What of this raven? This Erom? Where is it now?"
As if it knew it had been called, the ebony bird appeared upon the Hatter's tattered top hat in a plume of gray and black smoke, bowing its head in respect to the White Queen. "My apologies your Majesty," said the raven, its musical voice bringing a reluctant smile to the Queen's face. "I did not mean to thrust this upon you." It glanced down, catching the eye of the Hatter and noting the hint of red in his green eyes.
The bird quickly flew from the hat and landed on the outstretched hand of the Queen, who looked simply delighted at the sight of it. "A raven… Has it been so long since we have seen one like you here in Underland?" Her question remained unanswered, hanging in the air as their thoughts began to drift to when the kingdom had last seen a raven in Underland. She could not recall ever seeing one in her entire life…
Her smile had faded as this perplexing thought prodded her and poked at her, taunting her with its mystery. There was something terribly wrong here… Why could she not recall these things? Her dark eyes met the raven's and the bird shook its small head in reply.
"I cannot speak your Majesty, I am sorry," it said in its soothing voice, easing the frustration that was welling within her. "All I can say is that you must awaken the girl. Awaken her and she will speak what I cannot." It looked at the sleeping Helen and its dark eyes grew misty. "Though what she speaks is all rhymes and riddles…"
The Queen sighed a sweet sigh and reached out to stroke the bird's graceful dark head. "So it must be… Though I still do not understand how the Oraculum had not foreseen such an event on this day…"
"That cannot be answered, not here and not by me," said Erom as it ruffled its feathers and glanced at the Cheshire cat, not liking the way he eyed it. "I can say that the recipe for Waikunth can be found at the back of the library. On the top most shelf, beside a dark blue book…"
The Queen studied the raven, her own curiosity peeking as she thought of all the books that rested within the castle library. She looked to the Hatter, noticing that he had taken to studying the marred flesh of Helen's face. How had such an accident occurred to this woman? Who was she?
"I suggest we place our sleeping Mad Helen somewhere more comfortable," said Chessur as he floated around the Hatter and let loose a bored yawn. "She'll need a good bite of Upelkuchen before she can drink anything as strong Waikunth."
"Of course," said the Queen, a bright smile playing on her dark rouged lips as she set the raven on her shoulder and clasped her hands. "That is something I am very familiar with." She looked at the Hatter and Chessur, noting the tired looks on their faces and her felt her heart grow warm at the sight. Even thrust by the madness of a complete stranger, they still felt the need to make sure this woman had made it safely. "Firstly though, let us get you rooms for the night. I am sure you are all very tired and it does not appear that dear Helen will awaken before you."
The Hatter laughed at this, a real laugh of amusement as he adjusted his hold on Helen. She was tiny but his arms were growing tired and a nice warm bed was sounding so wonderful at the moment…
"Erom, my sweet, would you like to stay with Helen? I am sure you would feel better with her." The Queen looked to the raven, smiling in such a sweet way that the bird smoothed its dark feathers with delight. Even a raven could not help but be charmed by the White Queen of Underland.
"As your Majesty commands," said Erom in its musical voice, bowing its head to the Queen.
"Come then," said the Queen, smiling at her friends and turning in a whirl of silvery white skirts. The raven managed to remain on the Queen's shoulder as she glided in her dancing way toward one of the many doors that led further into the castle.
Chessur followed after the Queen, his large feline eyes on the bird the entire way, though he knew better than to try and pounce. The Hatter followed after the Queen, his gaze dropping down to the silent face of Helen. She did not stir, she did not sigh, she did not even dream. She simply slept, her chest rising gently with each breath. It unnerved him how much he wanted to see those dark orbs, to see that bright smile from before as she laughed and danced. She was mad, but there was something within that madness that he envied. That brief moment of happiness she had shared while in his and Chessur's presence. When could he recall feeling such happiness? With Alice… With his family…
"Raven," said the Hatter, looking up from the sleeping Helen to catch the eye of the ebony bird. "Have you any idea why you are like a writing desk?"
Erom stared back at the Mad Hatter, its dark eyes blinked and then it ruffled its feathers and looked away, its beak turned slightly up in the air.
The Hatter studied the bird as the group made their way through the halls of the castle and he noted the dark, glossy feathers. He remembered Helen's answer to that riddle and he laughed, a dizzying laugh that neither the Queen nor the Cheshire cat made any attempt to calm…
