Doppelgänger had activated the
holo-crystals embedded in the demarcation barrier’s pylons at
gate
crossing 15-b. Real-time images of both Boarderland and Outerwilderbeastia appeared on screens in the war room.
“What’s that?” Dodge asked, seeing movement in the distance of the Boarderland terrain. General Doppelgänger directed the holo-crystal to zoom in, and there, by an outcropping of rock as if waiting for someone, were a male and female of no known Boarderland tribe. They might have been Wonderlanders. Then again, they might have been earthlings. The third figure, however, with his long ears and nearly translucent complexion, was unmistakable. “That,” Bibwit said, “is Vollrath.”
Just then, Redd’s only feline assassin stepped around a boulder into view. “The Cat,” Dodge whispered. He had thought himself prepared, but the actual sight of his father’s murderer—smudged somehow, as if seen through a greasy window—made all of his earlier professed hopes for self-restraint now sound hollow, false. “Dodge?” Alyss said, watching the hand with which he gripped the handle of his father’s sword. It was shaking.
“Dodge?”
But he was no longer with her. His world could fit only two: himself and The Cat. CHAPTER 39
R EDD WOULD have preferred to be in the Chessboard Desert, within sight of Mount Isolation, the better to recall that long-ago day in all its heart-twisting gall. But every moment she remained in Wonderland without an army to support her was a risk; Alyss could sight her at any time. So she made use of the corrupt border guard introduced to her by Jack of Diamonds, and led Vollrath, The Cat, Siren, and Alistaire back into Arch’s kingdom. She wanted a location unexposed to elements and enemies alike, a refuge where she would not be bothered with present threats or concerns. Half a lunar hour’s walk from the demarcation barrier, she found it: a natural sculpture of heavy granite slabs and boulders thrown up by the land’s shifting tectonic plates.
“No one had better disturb me,” Redd warned. “No one will,” said The Cat.
“We’ll be standing watch, Your Imperial Viciousness,” Vollrath promised. “You’ll have all the time and peace you need.”
Redd slipped between a pair of boulders into a sort of room—roofless, with walls of pockmarked rock. She sat on the ground and closed her eyes. It took awhile; to forget or mentally shunt aside all thoughts of the present, the now, was not so easy. But after a few superficial dips into the well of memory, she was there again, living it—a seventeen-year-old princess, wild-eyed and tipsy from indulging in artificial crystal, sneaking home from forbidden fun with young Arch of Boarderland. Her parents, Queen Theodora and King Tyman, were waiting for her in her bedroom. “It’s late, Rose,” Theodora sighed.
crossing 15-b. Real-time images of both Boarderland and Outerwilderbeastia appeared on screens in the war room.
“What’s that?” Dodge asked, seeing movement in the distance of the Boarderland terrain. General Doppelgänger directed the holo-crystal to zoom in, and there, by an outcropping of rock as if waiting for someone, were a male and female of no known Boarderland tribe. They might have been Wonderlanders. Then again, they might have been earthlings. The third figure, however, with his long ears and nearly translucent complexion, was unmistakable. “That,” Bibwit said, “is Vollrath.”
Just then, Redd’s only feline assassin stepped around a boulder into view. “The Cat,” Dodge whispered. He had thought himself prepared, but the actual sight of his father’s murderer—smudged somehow, as if seen through a greasy window—made all of his earlier professed hopes for self-restraint now sound hollow, false. “Dodge?” Alyss said, watching the hand with which he gripped the handle of his father’s sword. It was shaking.
“Dodge?”
But he was no longer with her. His world could fit only two: himself and The Cat. CHAPTER 39
R EDD WOULD have preferred to be in the Chessboard Desert, within sight of Mount Isolation, the better to recall that long-ago day in all its heart-twisting gall. But every moment she remained in Wonderland without an army to support her was a risk; Alyss could sight her at any time. So she made use of the corrupt border guard introduced to her by Jack of Diamonds, and led Vollrath, The Cat, Siren, and Alistaire back into Arch’s kingdom. She wanted a location unexposed to elements and enemies alike, a refuge where she would not be bothered with present threats or concerns. Half a lunar hour’s walk from the demarcation barrier, she found it: a natural sculpture of heavy granite slabs and boulders thrown up by the land’s shifting tectonic plates.
“No one had better disturb me,” Redd warned. “No one will,” said The Cat.
“We’ll be standing watch, Your Imperial Viciousness,” Vollrath promised. “You’ll have all the time and peace you need.”
Redd slipped between a pair of boulders into a sort of room—roofless, with walls of pockmarked rock. She sat on the ground and closed her eyes. It took awhile; to forget or mentally shunt aside all thoughts of the present, the now, was not so easy. But after a few superficial dips into the well of memory, she was there again, living it—a seventeen-year-old princess, wild-eyed and tipsy from indulging in artificial crystal, sneaking home from forbidden fun with young Arch of Boarderland. Her parents, Queen Theodora and King Tyman, were waiting for her in her bedroom. “It’s late, Rose,” Theodora sighed.