“The only reason I don’t kill him,” he remembered the woman saying, her voice sounding like the scrape of iron against iron, a corrosion of vocal cords, “is because he’s not important enough.”

CHAPTER 17

M OLLY’S HEAD felt like it had been cracked open and poorly fit back together. Her shoulders ached. Her forearms tingled raw, as if skinned. Her swollen hands were so sensitive that it hurt to make a fist. It hurt to do most things-including blink, so she lay with her eyes closed, remembering what had

happened: the Lady of Diamonds; the carved wooden chest that was supposed to have gone to Queen

Alyss; her suspicion of a plot to upset Alyss’ reign (which, judging by her present pains, had not been ill-placed). But an attempt on the queen’s life? The Lady of Diamonds was bolder than she had supposed. Alyss had to be informed.

Molly forced herself to sit up and open her eyes. What the-? King Arch was sitting in a chair next to her mattress. What was Arch doing in Wonderland?

“She lives,” he said.

A minister scurried in on silent feet and whispered in the king’s ear, which was when she realized: Arch wasn’t in Wonderland; she was in Boarderland. But how had she ended up in Boarderland? Where was her gear? And what was she wearing that encased her like a second skin? Instead of her usual pants and belt, she had on a formfitting one-piece made of some unfamiliar pink material, and there were no visible buttons or clasps by which to remove it. The collar fit tightly about her neck, the leggings tightly around her ankles, and the cuffs of the long sleeves came close to choking off the blood supply to her hands. She hated tight-fitting clothes. Worse, she hated pink.

“Send her in with the dumplings,” Arch told the minister, who left as quietly as a curl of smoke. The king smiled down at Molly. “And how are we feeling after our much-needed nap?”

“Where are my things?” “Right there.”

He pointed to a table across the room, on which her homburg, Millinery coat, backpack, belt, and

wrist-blades were neatly arrayed. Standing on either side of the table were two creatures from a species she had never seen before.

“You underestimate me,” she said, and lunged for her gear.

Her legs gave way as if they’d been shorn of all muscle. Her arms were useless and she was unable to steady her vision, as if her eyes were swirling in their sockets independently of each other. She fell to the floor. Far, far away she felt someone pick her up and set her back down. Her head began to settle and she found herself on the mattress.

“It seems, Molly, it is you who underestimates me,” Arch said. “I should’ve perhaps told you the item

you’re wearing is a drug-delivery system. When you make any sudden move, it will secrete through your skin a certain something that…Well, I hope you’ll never succumb to the illusory charms of artificial

crystal, but let’s just say that this certain something produces an effect similar to a night of overindulgence with such unhealthy ingestives.”

“What do you want with me?” she asked.

“You had an unpleasant tumble.” He nodded toward the unfamiliar creatures. “My Ganmede friends and

I are nursing you back to health, that’s all.” “By drugging me?”

Molly tried to intimidate him with her most vicious glare, but not getting much of a response, she fell to pulling at her collar and the cuffs at her wrists.

“You might as well try to remove your own skin,” Arch said. “Please understand, Molly. I have no intention of harming you. The Lady of Diamonds has caused you enough inconvenience, I think. Your flattering outfit is simply a precaution in case you overreact at finding yourself here. I hope that soon you’ll choose to stay here as my personal guest.”

Molly rose to her feet-slowly, steadily. “I have a duty to my queen, who will be missing me. I would like to go home now.”

“I wouldn’t be so hasty. The queen you left might not be the one you return to.”

He was trying to trick her into something. She would be smart. She would keep her mouth shut, learn as much as possible, and report back to Alyss.

“I want you to know that I find it appalling how the Lady of Diamonds attempted to deceive you,” the king said. “You’re to be commended for protecting the queen from opening the Lady of Diamonds’

‘gift,’ however much your doing so has jeopardized the queendom itself.” Seeing Molly’s questioning expression, he explained: “Yes, it seems your little adventure in the Crystal Continuum has limited the mobility of Queen Alyss’ army, a circumstance the Diamond clan has taken advantage of to try and gain the crown.”

Molly didn’t believe him, refused to believe him. Besides, the Lady of Diamonds could never defeat

Alyss Heart.

Arch rose from his chair and paced about the tent. “The Diamonds came to me for support, but as you can see, my loyalty lies with Queen Alyss rather than with a scheming lady of rank in her queendom.” He was at the table, picking over her wrist-blades and coat and backpack as if they were a merchant’s untidy wares. “I should never have been so dismissive of you when we first met at Heart Palace. I should have realized that you possessed formidable skills, since it’s not anyone who can take Hatter Madigan’s place.”

Molly said nothing.

“Your parents must be extremely proud of you.” He turned abruptly to face her. “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot that you don’t have parents.”

King or not, he was lucky she didn’t have access to her homburg.

Arch sat back down in his chair and, with practiced nonchalance, asked, “Do you know much about the people who brought you into this world?”

“I know enough.”

“Really? Is that why you don’t seem very curious about them?” “There’s nothing to be curious about,” she said.

“Nothing to be…? But don’t you want to know why they gave you up?” “They didn’t give me up!”

She flung herself at him, but her legs refused to obey her, her arms belonged to somebody else, and her head filled with kaleidoscopic jelly. When her wits were again hers, she was back on the mattress.

“I apologize,” Arch said. “I should have taken into account how the trials of life can break a family apart for reasons that have nothing to do with ill will or a lack of love in any of its members. With Redd in control of Wonderland as she was, the actions of your parents might have only appeared uncaring, when in fact they were just the opposite-necessary to your survival.”

“Uh-huh,” Molly said, hating him.

“Do you, by chance, remember how old you were when you last saw your mother?”

She wasn’t going to answer. She would tell this man nothing, especially not that she’d been just three lunar years old when Weaver left the Alyssian camp in the Everlasting Forest and that, if not for the holographic crystal of her mother posing in front of the Unnatural History Museum shortly before Redd’s coup, she wouldn’t even know what the woman looked like.