Chapter 15 You Believe in Me, I’ll Believe in You
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
YOU BELIEVE IN ME, I’LL BELIEVE IN YOU
After a washing spell, Finlo packed up camp. We’re heading toward a mountain range that, while beautiful, looks treacherous.
“Don’t worry your beautiful head,” Finlo says. “We’re not going over. We’re going through.”
I swallow, thinking about how dark it could be inside one of those massive mountains.
Earlier activities had my body thrumming as I walked with the group, and there was a gleam in Fin’s eyes that wasn’t there before.
Part of me worries I’ve ruined the already insane, whimsical man. My other part is devilishly ruminating on what more I could show him.
“You’ll need to be careful as we move through the caverns. The Nocturna Bats love blood and don’t care from whom.”
“Bats?” I squeak, grabbing Fin’s hand.
“You’re safe with us,” he reassures me.
Winston turns, giving Fin a knowing look after hearing the same sultry lilt to the Hatter’s tone I did.
Glancing at me over his shoulder, his look isn’t so forgiving. He knows what we’ve been up to and doesn’t seem to approve.
I swallow, answering his ire with a warm smile.
Lewis eyes the interaction, giving me a questioning look after Winston turned back around.
I shake my head at Lewis.
Fin is none the wiser, as he seems to float on a cloud of happiness. Hopefully, that same cloud doesn’t get us both eaten alive by bats in the caves up ahead because he’s too lost in his head.
This morning was fun, don’t get me wrong—more than fun. But the massive, dark opening of the cave we’re approaching has me swallowing over a thick lump in my throat and gripping Fin’s hand for dear life.
“Are we sure we can’t go over them?” I ask the group.
“Going over would take days. We don’t have that kind of time,” Lewis reasons. “We must get Fin back in time to hat the Red Queen.
I swallow, halting. “Wait. You’re going to leave me in… wherever we’re going?!”
“I’m going to leave you in Ozryn, yes.” Fin’s questioning look tells me he doesn’t understand my distress.
“You’ll be perfectly safe with Her Majesty,” Lewis answers, and I find it odd I’ve never heard him refer to the other queen that way. Then again, the other queen is a real piece of work.
“Lewis is right. You’ll be safe at the White Palace.”
I have so many swirling questions, but I keep them at bay as I feel Winston’s accusatory glare boring into my cheek.
Nodding, I agree to go forward. I don’t feel like I have any other choice.
The first few steps into the cave aren’t so bad. The walls have a bioluminescent glow, so it’s not as dark as expected. Still, I jump and clutch Fin with every noise I hear.
Flying creatures buzz past incessantly, causing me to duck or swat at them.
“Don’t hit them; they’re quite sensitive,” Fin warns as one flies past my ear, leaving behind a buzz that shivers.
“Well, if they’d leave me alone, I would do the same,” I growl, ducking when I hear one zooming past.
“I think it’s the same one, honestly.” Fin chuckles, and I give him a narrowed look.
“Then if it gets swatted, rightly so. One shouldn’t torment someone one has just met,” I snarl.
“Have we met?” a tiny voice asks, and I scream when I turn to see a fly in the shape of a horse on my shoulder.
“Oh, get it off me!” Dancing around, I flick at the bitty creature, earning looks from those around me and a devilish laugh from Finlo.
“I am not an it, Madam. I am Acacius.” His front hoof stomps.
“What are you?” I whisper as he flies off my shoulder and hovers before my face.
“I knew it was you,” he breathes. “Oh, she’ll be so happy to see you again, Eleanor.”
I swallow. “Who?”
Finlo scoffs. “He’s a horsefly, of course.”
Lewis gives him a scolding look. “Rarely are things called what they truly are on earth.”
I’d argue that things here are rarely called what they should be called, but that argument could take us down a very dark path, and we don’t have time to go back and forth.
“Well, it’s hard for me to believe horseflies talk, so forgive me for how startled I was,” I tell Acacius.
He laughs, which is more like a small whinny. “Once, you told me if I believed in you, you would do the same.”
“Believe in me? I’m a normal girl. Just Eleanor. Well, woman, now,” I argue.
“You’re one of a kind in these parts,” Acacius counters. “All those years ago, I believed in you and what you stood for; I only expect the same respect.” He puffs his chest up with pride. Pride former me placed there, and something in my belly buzzes at the notion.
“Well, what I said stands.” I nod my head, solidifying my decision.
“Good. Then I’ll lead you to the other side.”
Finlo exhales shakily, as if there was more riding on my interaction with Acacius than I realized.
The horsefly buzzes away, dropping before Winston to lead us through the caverns.
Leaning toward Finlo, I ask, “Did we need him to lead us through?”
He gives me a look. “Of course, he guards the exit. We would’ve been turned around if he hadn’t approved our passage.”
“I mean…” I joke with a smirk, forgetting that sometimes our upbringings create a language barrier.
“What?!” he prods.
“It’s only… how would he turn us around and refuse us passage? He’s so tiny.”
Finlo flicks a worried glance ahead of us as if worried the tiny creature heard me. “Acacius is a general in the White Queen’s Guard, Tiger Lily. If he had denied us, we would not get out of these caves.”
I swallow, wondering if he, too, can grow as I did when rescuing Prospero from the Red Queen.
Everything here is so preposterous, edging on insane. But sometimes, everything almost makes perfect sense. What worries me is that I’m seeing sense in the insane.
Once we’re on the other side of the caves, looking down from a cliff we’ve exited on, I take in the vast land beyond.
“Wow.”
A city, or rather, a kingdom, sprawls out below the mountains, butting up to the base of a massive palace, irradiant in the sunlight. The palace is a stark contrast to the Red Queen, gorgeous in structure and breathtaking.
“That’s where we’re going?” I ask Fin in a hushed tone. The others are discussing something loudly, and I don’t have the nerve to listen.
“No. It looks jumbled up here, but we’re going through two cities before getting to the palace, which is Ozryn. Though all of us folk consider this entire land the White Queen’s Territory.”
I look down at the vast land. It doesn’t look like two cities, but perspective is everything.
“How are we getting down?” I ask, turning to glimpse Lewis as he leaps over the edge.
My scream catches in my throat. Running toward the edge, I look to where Lewis cascades through the air, disappearing through the lush treetops.
“Lewis!” I scream.
Chuckles come from behind me, and I narrow my worried gaze on Finlo and Acacius. Winston must’ve already leapt to his death because he’s nowhere in sight.
“It’s not funny! He could be hurt! That’s hundreds of feet down!”
“Are you sure this is the right Eleanor?” Acacius asks Finlo.
Finlo ends his laughing, something dark fluttering through his eyes. “I’m sure. She’s changed, but she’s the right one.”
Acacius chuffs. “We’ll see about that.” Turning, he flies over the edge, descending much slower than Lewis had.
“Fin, look. I’m not great with heights; even being this close to the edge feels harrowing. There has to be another way down.”
“Don’t worry, Elli-roo, if you jump, so do I.” He winks at me.
“What?! How does that make it any better?” I scream as he scoops me up and leaps over the edge of the cliff.
My stomach leaps into my throat, the feeling of falling freely causing all the air to lurch out of my lungs as fear grips me tightly. I can’t scream. Shit, I can’t breathe.
Fin never lets me go, and I clutch onto him like he’s my life raft before we finally break through the trees.
Momentarily, I’m transported back to when I appeared through the hole in the ground, but then, I remember other flashes of falling, falling through a hole in Mother’s garden, falling through a hole at the base of a tree, walking through a portal at the back of Father’s wardrobe.
My mind is muddled as Fin turns us in the air, his back facing the brunt of the coming blow.
“Fin,” I breathe.
“Ready, Tiger Lily?” He grins.
“Ready for what?” I manage.
Glowing purple around us registers as we finally land, bouncing on the pillow softness of massive… mushrooms?
Fin’s laugh is childlike and free, like he’s come home. It’s like he can finally be himself now that he’s out of The Bog, and I wonder why he lives there if this is how he feels when he’s home?
I roll out of Finlo’s arms, laughing deliriously as adrenaline surges through my body now that I’m safe.
“You were so afraid,” he says, lifting onto an elbow and leaning over me where I lay on my back. Tucking hair behind my ear, he steals my breath with his intensity. He kisses me softly and slowly before pulling back. “Sometimes the fall is worth it.”
He rolls away, sliding off the mushroom top to the ground below, and I’m left bereft in his absence.
“Come down when you’re ready!” he shouts at me, and I grin.
Moments like this, I wonder how the hell I’d ever leave Wonderland and return home. That thought leads to the next: Had leaving Wonderland been so traumatic, my mind blocked the memories from me on purpose?
No. I distinctly recall Ariadne saying there are security measures Wonderland takes, stealing one’s memories of this place from its visitors.
Makes sense.
If everyone knew this place existed outside of the hardships of human life, Wonderland wouldn’t be the same.
It would be ruined.
Finlo and I catch up with the group outside the city: Dawnkep, I’m told.
“This is where I leave you. I need to get back to the caves,” Acacius announces. “The guards will know you’ve been given safe passage through the palace gates because I’ve allowed you through.”
“Thank you, Acacius,” I say when no one else speaks. “I’m sorry about earlier. About the swatting,” I add the last bit softer, not wanting to incite more laughter from the group.
He grins, fluttering his tiny wings hard to stay in my line of sight. “Don’t worry about it, Eleanor. We all need to be reminded how to be kind now and again.”
I grin, still feeling ashamed of how I acted. “It won’t happen again, friend.”
He beams at me before buzzing away.
Finlo takes my hand. “Which inn will we stay in tonight?”
I open my mouth to speak before realizing he’s not talking to me. He’s talking to Lewis.
Winston still isn’t anywhere to be seen, making me curious.
“The Drunken Dragon? Oh, maybe The Jolly Jester, we haven’t gone there in a while. The ale is divine.”
“Shouldn’t we hurry to speak to the queen? It’s time sensitive, getting you back to the Red Queen.”
Fin smirks. “Yes, but time is funny in the White Queen’s Realm. It’s very… illogical?” Fin eyes Lewis.
“Irrelevant is more like.”
I don’t know what they’re spouting about, but follow along with their antics anyhow.
After all, I don’t remember this part of Wonderland. Curiously, my mind has remembered the more harrowing portions while choosing to hide the good ones.
“To the Jolly Jester!” Finlo shouts gleefully.
“The Jester of Jolly!” Lewis jokes.