Chapter 38
“Twas afraid o’ this,” Nimmie said as Alice came to stand beside her, looking down into a deep, sloping valley of trees which disappeared into heavy fog, as though clouds were billowing from the ground.
“Can’t we go round? Follow the ridge line to avoid the fog?” Tinkerton asked.
“Nah, th’ jaguars be plentiful on this ridge, but they be th’ least o’ our worries.
We go down an’ up,” Nimmie said, making a swooping gesture with her hand.
“Make sure th’ Cap’n’s tick tocks are cranked fully.
” With a hop, Nimmie began to slide down the leafy bank into the foggy forest, followed by Blinkem, who nodded to Alice before sliding down after the Munchkin.
“Captain Tick Tock, the Clockwork Man,” Tinkerton said to himself. “That’s got a nice ring to it.” Tinkerton rewound the robot’s turnkeys and, with Tinkerton holding his hand, he began to go down the slope. The sight of the captain walking hand in hand with his creator was so endearing.
“Are you frightened, Tinkerton?” Alice asked.
“Me? Yes.” He laughed as he noticed Alice looking at the hand he held of the captain’s. “But I’m worried the slope is too great, and he will roll down the hill, and everything inside will jostle. Have to look out for Captain Tick Tock!” Tinkerton said, trying out the name on his robotic creation.
The captain’s head swiveled to Tinkerton. “Thank you for your concern, but I am secure.”
“Well, it makes me feel better if I assist you down this hill,” Tinkerton said, like a parent helping a child over a puddle.
“Yes, Tinkerton,” the captain said. Alice figured it would be easier if two were helping with the robot, so she took his other hand. The captain’s head swiveled to her. “Does this help you feel better, as well, Miss Alice?” the robot asked.
Alice smiled at his innocent blue glass eyes and twitching mustache. “You know what? It does.” Tinkerton smiled sweetly at her.
“Thank you, Miss Alice. You may call me Tick Tock, until I have earned my captain designation.” Apparently, the name very much suited the robotic gentlemen. Tinkerton beamed, his blue eyes wet with pride.
So, the three followed Blinkem, who, as it became foggier and foggier in the forest, shouted back about holes or fallen logs that Alice and Tinkerton navigated as they helped Tick Tock down the hill.
In the deepest part of the forest, they reached a brook.
Alice knew this only from the sound and then, when she was close enough to Nimmie, she could see her crouched down, sipping from the fresh water, before she began munching on sunflower seeds.
The fog was so thick that unless you stood directly on top of something, you wouldn’t see it.
There was a faint splashing sound, and the fog swirled in different directions around Alice. They weren’t alone!
“Are you lost?” a soft voice spoke into her ear. Alice jumped, reaching her arms out. She then heard footsteps patter around the wet leaves beside the brook.
“Who’s there?” Nimmie demanded.
“It’s not safe here for you, Alice,” a voice whispered, weaving between Alice, and then Alice heard a clang of the captain’s metal. “Ouch!” Tinkerton shouted.
“We’re under attack!” Nimmie screamed manically. The fog swirled as she jogged about, and Alice imagined Nimmie was swinging blindly into the fog. Well, she didn’t imagine; she could hear her grunting and shuffling.
“Tinkerton, are you okay?” Alice called.
“Yes, I just tripped. Hit my head on Captain Tick Tock’s helmet.” Tinkerton’s voice sounded like the blow had smarted.
“Tick Tock, if you please, until I earn my designation.” Tick Tock’s metallic voice firmly reminded Tinkerton of this fact.
“Yeah, yeah,” Tinkerton groaned.
From the mist, a figure materialized before Alice, as though the droplets of water converged into a single entity draped in glistening silver robes.
Her skin shimmered as if coated in a fine layer of frost. “We are the mist maidens,” the figure declared in a breathy voice.
Alice was rendered speechless. Where had the figure come from?
“You do not belong here, Alice. Chaos searches for you,” she warned, causing a chill to race down Alice’s spine.
“You must follow our direction,” she commanded as two more striking women with frosted skin emerged from the mist.
“How do you know my name?” Alice asked.
“The daughter of the roses summoned us to guide you,” the women said in unison. Alice thought of Rosemarie’s mention that the Adepts watch from afar.
“Rosemarie?” Tinkerton, who had followed the voices, called out, finding Alice with an outstretched hand. He stood in awe as Alice did. “What news does she have?” Tinkerton finally asked. The maidens said nothing to Tinkerton.
“Are you the Adepts?” Alice asked of the women who gazed only at her.
“We are not. We are of the mist,” they whispered.
“Rosemarie worries of danger at Palace North, for she cannot reach Tattypoo. You must not go to Palace North. Go instead to the Palace of Rubies. Go now,” they hummed as Blinkem, whom Alice had thought was halfway up the other side of the hill, startled her, his hand reaching for hers.
“We should do as they say,” he said. “They can lead us out of here.” Alice nodded, for she had decided to trust him.
She expected he would release her hand, but he stood for a moment longer with his warm hand holding hers, as if the mist was the darkness shielding anyone from seeing the stolen touch.
Alice felt her heartbeat in her fingertips, and then he let go.
“Who the hell are ya’ two talkin’ to?” Nimmie yelled, now at a further distance than before. She had gotten turned around. “Now, where the hell’d ya go?”
The mist maidens put their foreheads together and breathed out heavily, silver mist swirling from them, before taking one long, in-sync breath.
They held the breath and turned up the hill.
As they blew out the air they held, the fog billowed away, forming a winding path up the hill.
They continued to blow, their air commanding the mist. The path did not collapse on itself.
Once they were out of breath, it stayed, like a tunnel through the clouds.
“Go now, seek refuge at the Palace of Rubies,” the mist maiden said. Nimmie, who had found her way back to the spot beside the brook, looked upon the women in amazement.
“Beggora!” Nimmie exhaled. “Spirits!”
“Chaos follows you, Alice.” The three mist maidens spoke as one, staring at her. Their eyes began to sparkle as the silver lurlicite caverns did. They gestured to the path up the incline and vanished into the thick fog.
“That was somewhat helpful, very bizarre, and mostly terrifying,” Tinkerton said. “Come along, Tick Tock.”
“Yes, Tinkerton,” Tick Tock said, taking his hand.
As they climbed the hill through the cloud tunnel, no one spoke. Alice’s mind raced with thoughts of the danger she might be leading her companions into. Did they regret their decision to follow her into the woods? And how did everyone seem to know not only who she was but also where she was?
Alice wondered if Blinkem, Tinkerton, and Nimmie were grappling with the same questions.
She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
As they reached the summit and breathed a collective sigh of relief, Tinkerton put his hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes.
“Any idea why you’re being hunted, Alice? ”
“No.” Alice couldn’t think of a single reason. “And… I didn’t want to say anything, but… one of the gnomes that came up out of the well called me by my name.”
“A gnome did?” Tinkerton said as Blinkem’s pale eyebrows shot up.
“Well, shur, ye go huntin’ ’cause ye be wantin’ somethin’ dead,” Nimmie chimed in, sounding like a teacher addressing her students.
“So, if them gnomes an’ whoever else is after Alice, it’s ’cause she’s got somethin’ they want or they’re seein’ her as a threat.
We need to keep movin’; the Ruby Palace is just a wee bit down the road, and we can’t let whoever’s after Alice get what they’re after. ”
Tinkerton nodded in agreement. Blinkem quickly grabbed Alice’s hand again and squeezed it firmly before letting go. Alice was relieved, for, while she had always been content doing things alone, now she feared being left by herself. “Do you know why I’m being hunted?” she whispered to Blinkem.
“I do not,” he said. “But Tattypoo, she will know. If we can find her.”
Alice nodded. Please let nothing have happened to Tattypoo, she thought.
Evoldo felt the figure looming in his study at Roseland. “How do you slip in and out without notice? It is remarkable, and unnerving.”
“Spare me,” Mombi said from darkness, erect beside the case of black emeralds found during early mining in Ev. “Worthless rocks,” she grumbled, flicking one so that it bounced against her stern furrowed reflection in the mirrored backing of the cabinet.
“Why are you here? You should never be seen here.” Evoldo crossed his arms and leaned against the desk, so that Mombi would know he did not fear her. Not entirely, at least. “Especially as everyone thinks you are still imprisoned off-realm.”
“Coward. It is your brother, Eckhart, who released me from exile, not you. You worry over nothing when it comes to my matters. There are, however, things you should worry over.” Mombi turned to the bookshelves, scowling over the collection.
“Your niece for one,” she said, turning, her sharp eyebrow raised.
“What of Languidere?” His stomach dropped. Mombi stepped toward him. Her dark eyes reflected no light.
“That niece of yours should be caged. Preferably burned. Her mind is sick with fantasy that will surely expose and end you. She summoned me to Thorncrest, and now she owes a debt which I have come to collect. Enchantment of jewelry.”
“Fine.” Evoldo pulled from his desk a hefty sack of gems. “This should do it. Anything else?”
Mombi dumped the sack of gems into her gloved hand and inspected the lot of rubies and emeralds. “Did I mention the enchantment was to bind flesh?” she said, dropping the jewels back into the sack.
Evoldo gave a roll of his eyes before pointing back to the shelf where the black emeralds were displayed. “Take one of those useless rocks.” Mombi grinned, and the sight of it was strange and unnerving.
“I’ll take the lot,” she said with one sweep of her hand across the shelf, and the black emeralds clinked like glass pebbles into the sack. She tied the sack to her belt and stood without moving.
“Are we done?”
“Not quite,” Mombi said. “Where is the girl Alice?”
“Where is the king?” Rosemarie’s inquiry sliced through the air like a blade.
She had become exhausted of avoiding her husband.
Maneuvering Roseland’s halls, sidestepping Evoldo at every turn.
But there were no more excuses left. The knot in her stomach was only growing.
She could no longer ignore what she had heard—what she had known deep down all along.
“His study,” the guardsman said.
Rosemarie exhaled slowly, steadying herself.
Her legs carried her forward before her mind had fully agreed.
She had wanted so desperately not to see him as he was, to believe in the space between rumor and reality.
But with Evoldo, reality had always been worse.
And now, she had no choice but to confront it—his dalliance with Languidere, and his unsettling interest in Alice.
“Roquat has commanded you share the girl’s whereabouts, and everything you know about her, with me,” Mombi said sharply.
“I have told you all I know, and I have assured you that you will know once I hear something.” Evoldo had grown tired of the exchange. “The port collapse was his forsaken gnomes’ doing. Shouldn’t they have her by now?” He wondered how he was still on the hook for anything regarding Alice.
“Get me the location of Alice, so that I may retrieve her. If you do not, Roquat will find a way to make both of us suffer. Do you understand me?” Mombi was unflinching, and Evoldo knew what she said was true. Some form of punishment was looming if Roquat did not get what he wanted.
“I don’t serve you, Mombi!” Evoldo’s temper began to churn. The lack of sleep was unnerving him.
“No. You serve Lord Roquat, and since you are the only one who has seen the girl, it is you who is responsible for finding her location so that I may finish a job that neither you nor the gnomes were capable of. If I fail, you will pay. I will see to it.”
“I told you, once I know you will know, Mombi. Now, leave my sight!” Evoldo was half tempted to throw the gold letter opener at the damn witch but would risk being castrated for the outburst. Fortunately, Mombi immediately turned toward the door.
Rosemarie was short of breath as she fled from the doors of her husband’s study where she’d stood listening. Her husband’s arrangement between the witch Mombi and his servitude to Oz’s greatest threat, Lord Roquat, was a betrayal that was unforgivable.
Rosemarie rounded the corner and ducked beneath the grand stairwell of the foyer.
Her throat closed and her chest tightened, and she was fighting both nausea and fear as Mombi’s footsteps echoed toward the door.
A bolt of pain wrenched in Rosemarie’s stomach, sending her to her knees.
She tried to gasp air through her tightening lungs.
Black spots filled her vision. The room spun.
Her hands fell to the cold marble as she collapsed.