Chapter 21 #2
This rehashing of the past, catching up over tea and stories, had been a truly welcome reprieve, but this topic was treading on particularly thin ice.
Even if nobody but the four of us were aware that the king’s charms eventually did work on me, I wasn’t willing to explore the story further—let alone its bitter end. Let alone its current, highly awkward present.
Of course, the Duchess needed no encouragement. “What an enchanting story! Anyhoo, I am so glad you two have found each other again,” she cooed, eyes glittering.
Startled, I almost choked on my spit. “Oh, no, no, I can assure you—”
The king spoke over me. “This is a temporary arrangement.”
“Very, very,” I added with a dismissive wave. “Very temporary.”
“Hmm.” The Duchess narrowed her eyes and took a sip of tea, clearly not believing a single word. “I suppose,” she mused. “To have managed to dismiss such things as the past, here we thought you’d forgotten all about us.”
The king merely narrowed his eyes at her.
The Duchess put her hands up. “Well, my dears, it could have been as easy as a spell, could it not? And we all know how potent these types of spells can be. Intentions hold meaning. A few words could hold great power. If one would choose to forget oneself, I am sure it could be done.” She tilted her head. “Or undone.”
Perhaps the king had had enough of the Duchess being particularly cryptic today. He pushed back his chair to stand. “If you will excuse me,” he, at least, bid before turning to leave.
“Oh!” Abandoning her futile curtsy midway, the Duchess followed the king’s departure with her eyes. “My, he still can be quite uptight, can he not?”
Leaning back in my chair, I checked the clock above the mantelpiece. “More so now, I believe,” I couldn’t help but comment.
“I suppose the king still knows his way around and can find a room on his own?” Chez tossed a ball of string between his paws.
“It is getting rather late,” the Duchess pointed out, before turning a warm smile back at me. “Though I must say, it is very good to see you in person again, my dear.” She moved to clasp my hands in hers.
I returned her smile. “I cannot thank you enough, Duchess, for all your help.”
She sat back against her plush armchair.
“Are you certain you won’t be reconsidering your plans of venturing into the Hatter’s house?
” She shook her head. “I should warn you. I’ll not be able to help you there.
There have been some…” she paused as if to think of an appropriate term, “bizarre goings-on over there. Something my magic has yet to penetrate. And if you are right, it could be similar to the phenomenon at the river. I confess I have already spent many moons in vain trying to figure out how to dispel that anomaly.”
I sank into my seat at her ominous words.
I had already come this far. There was no turning back for me.
Besides— “There is no way back to the other side of the river. I am certain His Majesty is eager to return to his castle as well. We must find the magical doorways that the Hatter once operated.”
Chez’s brow furrowed. “I thought you said those anomalies were unstable.”
“Actually, I’ve been giving this quite a lot of thought, and I believe there may be different kinds.
” I squared my shoulders. “My theory is that the magical doorways which the Hatter once controlled were likely naturally occurring. Not artificially generated like those maelstroms. As such, the doorways which those fantastic machines conjure are unnatural—and therefore unstable.” I couldn’t help a frown.
“This might also be the reason why it affects the citizens of Wünder so much. It tears away their humanity, making them like ghosts, despite their hearts being intact.”
“But you were unaffected?”
I pursed my lips, not sure how I felt about that. “So it would seem. The king certainly struggled with it.”
Chez tilted his head and mused, “Do you suppose it is because you come from another land, or because you wear His Majesty’s mystical heart?”
Quite a few more theories were rattling around in my brain. I wasn’t eager to share all of them just yet. I lifted my shoulders. “Inconclusive.”
The Duchess shook her head in thought. “I will say, in my previous profession, for over a thousand years, I had only ever come across one so powerful. His Majesty’s heart is a very rare ember.
” She took a deep breath. “Your own, of course, I never had a chance to study before—ahem, a certain assassin decided to steal it and wear it for himself.”
Almost absently, I stirred my tea. “It’s a shame it won’t be possible for us to swap our hearts back.”
The Duchess’s eyes narrowed. “Wherever did you hear that?”
I blinked, my surprise preventing me from responding for a few moments. “What do you mean? The king told me…” I trailed off as his actual words came back to my mind.
There is…a prevailing difficulty in switching them back right now.
Leaning forward, I put my hands on the table. “Wait.” I was caught between the edge of eager hopefulness and bafflement. “Are you telling me it is actually possible to swap our hearts back right now? The king told me it could not be done.”
The Duchess gawked at me, almost in offense. “Could not be done?” She gave a casual wave at Chez. “Fluffy, would you go get it, please? I am sure you know the object to which I am referring.”
Chez hopped off the table with a mewl before disappearing around the corner.
I followed him with my gaze, my frown deepening. “Get what?”
“I was working on this a few moons ago. I will admit it was a bit trickier since the Red Queen was…retired, but certainly not impossible for me. I am an expert, after all.” She gave me a regal, self-assured smile.
I cracked a grin in marvel. “My lady, you are the only expert.”
Chez pounced back into the room and, hopping back onto the table, set down a small shiny trinket dangling from his collar.
With a spell from the Duchess’s finger, the little trinket grew into a lantern-sized, very familiar spherical container made of glass, framed with an ornate, polished brass metal cage adorned with intricate filigree patterns.
My breath caught in my throat.
It was the only vessel capable of carrying hearts in the entire land of Wünder.
A stock of the Duchess’s trade and the Red Queen’s vicious rule.
Outside of this fantastic vessel, or a human body, mystical hearts would simply wither away.
The Duchess had stopped making them once the Red Queen’s heart-harvesting era had been put to an end.
But here it was.
One last Heartlamp.
“Is it…really possible?” My eyes widened in awe. “When I asked the king regarding this, he said he’d already considered it. He’d said he had already consulted you.”
The Duchess’s blue eyes glazed over for a moment. “Why, yes, he did, didn’t he? It is quite odd that I don’t seem to recall—” she stopped short. “Oh.”
Chez was briskly shaking his furry head, as though he himself was snapping out of a trance. “Son of a—”
“Oh.” The Duchess’s tone lowered. She shook her head slowly. “That crafty, gorgeous specimen of a man.”
I looked from her to Chez. “What? What is it?”
She waved one hand in the air. “His Majesty cast a memory spell on me so I would forget.” She gestured to Chez. “Cast a spell on us. So we would never tell you.”
My pulse started to race. “Tell me what?”
“Yes, yes, I remember it now. A few moons ago, His Majesty had come to me with the quandary. He was intent on swapping your mystical hearts back. And I had told him there was only one option. He considered it. Then he rejected it.”
My mind spun. “But why?”
There was a pause before the Duchess replied, “I am sure you are aware, our conventional process of ‘heart harvesting’ does not necessarily put any weight or care toward the well-being of the person whose heart was being taken. However, in your case, both your life and the king’s would need to be preserved quite carefully.
It’s very tricky to return stolen hearts.
It’s never been done, or should I say, it’s never been done well.
That one time, there was a misstep in the spell—ahh…
” She clicked her tongue. “Tragedy. I explained this to His Majesty, and he ordered me to abandon my task. He said he would find another way.”
My heart hammered in my chest, as if in knowing recognition. “When did you discuss this?”
The Duchess put a finger to her chin. “Oh, about seven moons ago.”
I almost stopped breathing. Seven months. The king had known about this solution for seven whole months. He hadn’t told me. Not only that, he had lied to me when I’d explicitly asked him about it. He had even erased Chez’s and the Duchess’s memories so I would never find out.
It didn’t even make any sense. He’d told me that the magic in my heart, which he was wearing, had already dissipated.
If he was so eager to get his own mystical heart back, why would he hide such crucial information?
Was he really so hungry for power that he wasn’t even willing to try if it meant endangering his tyrannical reign over the land?
I would have been willing to risk my life if it meant getting my heart back.
I wasn’t even sure if I could journey back to my world if I was still wearing his cursed heart.
It was entirely possible that I was trapped on Wünder if I was not made whole first. But it was a gamble I had been willing to make.
The Wicked King was content to keep me imprisoned, to keep me cursed. He’d said it over and over. I belonged to him. He owned me.
That crafty, gorgeous specimen of a man.
He was a coward.