Weaver was waiting for him in her
tent.
“She’s there,” he said. “I’ve only got my wrist-blades and my belt. Do you have access to weapons?” “I’ve heard of a dealer in the Kyla district. Contraband. But—” “If our daughter’s to live, we have to find him.” CHAPTER 41
C HESSMEN GUARDED the palace’s perimeter, card soldiers had been dispatched to key points in Wondertropolis, and military outposts throughout the queendom were put on alert. In the palace’s war room, the screens showing Vollrath, The Cat, and the two unidentified strangers blinked on and off as if from a momentary power failure. Before the failure, Vollrath and the others were visible; afterward, they were gone.
“I’ll find them,” Alyss said. Directing her imaginative sight to the outcropping of rock where the enemy had just been, she scanned the surrounding Boarderland terrain. When she located them, they were farther away than she would’ve thought, speeding headlong in a vehicle unfamiliar to her, as it had been freshly conjured by Redd—a three-wheeled machine built to cover rugged land, in which her aunt sat above and behind the others in a throne-like seat, a staff topped with a long-dead heart in her hand. “I see them,” she announced. “Redd’s with them. She has her scepter.” “We should attack before she attacks us,” Dodge urged. “Attack Boarderland?” The general looked doubtful. “We’d have Redd and Arch to contend with,” said Bibwit. “We already do, I’d bet.”
“She’s traveling away from Wonderland?” Alyss murmured. Racing deeper into Boarderland, her steel-wool hair buffeted by the wind, Redd turned and seemed to stare right at Alyss, as if she could sense her niece’s imaginative eye upon her. The corner of her lips curled in a sneer, she swung her scepter and, in Heart Palace’s war room, Alyss jumped, startled; her imaginative sight had gone black.
“What is it?” Bibwit asked.
“She blocked my sight.”
“Not good,” the general fretted, splitting in two. “Not good at all,” said Generals Doppel and Gänger, each entering coordinates on their crystal communicators, ordering troop deployments to the demarcation barrier.
Alyss tried again to settle the eye of her imagination on her aunt. She flashed on images of Redd in a valley and on a hill. Then she realized, there were hundreds of them: Redd in her three-wheeled transport trundling across an open plain; Redd in her three-wheeled transport bouncing up a rocky escarpment; several Redds spread out on the Glyph Cliffs; an untold number of Redds along the banks of the Bookie River; innumerable Redds marching along Boarderland’s side of the demarcation barrier. “We’re getting reports!” Generals Doppel and Gänger cried.
“She’s there,” he said. “I’ve only got my wrist-blades and my belt. Do you have access to weapons?” “I’ve heard of a dealer in the Kyla district. Contraband. But—” “If our daughter’s to live, we have to find him.” CHAPTER 41
C HESSMEN GUARDED the palace’s perimeter, card soldiers had been dispatched to key points in Wondertropolis, and military outposts throughout the queendom were put on alert. In the palace’s war room, the screens showing Vollrath, The Cat, and the two unidentified strangers blinked on and off as if from a momentary power failure. Before the failure, Vollrath and the others were visible; afterward, they were gone.
“I’ll find them,” Alyss said. Directing her imaginative sight to the outcropping of rock where the enemy had just been, she scanned the surrounding Boarderland terrain. When she located them, they were farther away than she would’ve thought, speeding headlong in a vehicle unfamiliar to her, as it had been freshly conjured by Redd—a three-wheeled machine built to cover rugged land, in which her aunt sat above and behind the others in a throne-like seat, a staff topped with a long-dead heart in her hand. “I see them,” she announced. “Redd’s with them. She has her scepter.” “We should attack before she attacks us,” Dodge urged. “Attack Boarderland?” The general looked doubtful. “We’d have Redd and Arch to contend with,” said Bibwit. “We already do, I’d bet.”
“She’s traveling away from Wonderland?” Alyss murmured. Racing deeper into Boarderland, her steel-wool hair buffeted by the wind, Redd turned and seemed to stare right at Alyss, as if she could sense her niece’s imaginative eye upon her. The corner of her lips curled in a sneer, she swung her scepter and, in Heart Palace’s war room, Alyss jumped, startled; her imaginative sight had gone black.
“What is it?” Bibwit asked.
“She blocked my sight.”
“Not good,” the general fretted, splitting in two. “Not good at all,” said Generals Doppel and Gänger, each entering coordinates on their crystal communicators, ordering troop deployments to the demarcation barrier.
Alyss tried again to settle the eye of her imagination on her aunt. She flashed on images of Redd in a valley and on a hill. Then she realized, there were hundreds of them: Redd in her three-wheeled transport trundling across an open plain; Redd in her three-wheeled transport bouncing up a rocky escarpment; several Redds spread out on the Glyph Cliffs; an untold number of Redds along the banks of the Bookie River; innumerable Redds marching along Boarderland’s side of the demarcation barrier. “We’re getting reports!” Generals Doppel and Gänger cried.