“I have reason to believe this net
extends over Heart Palace,” Hatter said, explaining how Arch
had
ordered him to return to the palace with a supply of green caterpillar thread, how he’d been instructed to scale the palace’s tallest spire and weave the thread onto the Weapon of Inconceivable Loss and Massive Annihilation in a certain pattern. With her imagination, Alyss scanned the sky above the palace. Yes, it was there: the web, not attached to the spire but within reach, its mesh finer over Wondertropolis than over the queendom’s outer regions. “Arch couldn’t have managed it alone,” she said. “Does Redd know?” “I can’t say, Your Majesty.”
“We have to cut it down, Alyss,” Bibwit said. “Whatever it does—and I don’t think we want to find out—we must cut it down.”
But Alyss was remembering the images Blue had shown her: King Arch sewing a web that ensnared her; Hatter sewing one that gave her freedom. “No,” she said. “Hatter, you are to sew the green thread where you are, exactly as it appears in the diagram Arch gave you. Contact me when you have finished all except the last thread.” “Yes, Your Majesty,” the Milliner said and signed off. Alyss thought she had begun to make sense of Blue’s mysterious message, even though she could only guess at its meaning and hope that her guess was right. Or at least not disastrously wrong. CHAPTER 45
O N A suburban street where Wonderland children frequently played, outnumbered and outgunned card soldiers were saved from a bombardment of razor-cards by a shield that repelled the projectiles back upon the Glass Eyes who fired them…
In an Outerwilderbeastia safari park where families often vacationed, a platoon of pawns was able to defend itself against several Boarderland tribes with the help of orb cannons that automatically reloaded and launched generators…
Along hiking trails in the Everlasting Forest, Fel Creel warriors on the verge of routing two full hands of card soldiers suddenly found themselves being routed by the ground upon which they stood, as it crumbled beneath their feet and sucked them down into unknown depths… Supporting her troops from the crystal chamber, Alyss had been able to hold Redd’s forces in their current positions for more than a quarter of a lunar hour. But she could feel fatigue overtaking her, even with the Heart Crystal so close. Redd’s invasion of Wondertropolis seemed as inevitable as the seasons. Can’t keep this up. Can’t be at all places at once. “The Pool of Tears, Alyss!” Bibwit shouted. She turned her imaginative gaze upon the pool: Two and three at a time, figures were splashing from its surface.
Are those…skeletons?
They were. Innumerable skeletons swimming to shore along with Master Sacrenoir and others of flesh
ordered him to return to the palace with a supply of green caterpillar thread, how he’d been instructed to scale the palace’s tallest spire and weave the thread onto the Weapon of Inconceivable Loss and Massive Annihilation in a certain pattern. With her imagination, Alyss scanned the sky above the palace. Yes, it was there: the web, not attached to the spire but within reach, its mesh finer over Wondertropolis than over the queendom’s outer regions. “Arch couldn’t have managed it alone,” she said. “Does Redd know?” “I can’t say, Your Majesty.”
“We have to cut it down, Alyss,” Bibwit said. “Whatever it does—and I don’t think we want to find out—we must cut it down.”
But Alyss was remembering the images Blue had shown her: King Arch sewing a web that ensnared her; Hatter sewing one that gave her freedom. “No,” she said. “Hatter, you are to sew the green thread where you are, exactly as it appears in the diagram Arch gave you. Contact me when you have finished all except the last thread.” “Yes, Your Majesty,” the Milliner said and signed off. Alyss thought she had begun to make sense of Blue’s mysterious message, even though she could only guess at its meaning and hope that her guess was right. Or at least not disastrously wrong. CHAPTER 45
O N A suburban street where Wonderland children frequently played, outnumbered and outgunned card soldiers were saved from a bombardment of razor-cards by a shield that repelled the projectiles back upon the Glass Eyes who fired them…
In an Outerwilderbeastia safari park where families often vacationed, a platoon of pawns was able to defend itself against several Boarderland tribes with the help of orb cannons that automatically reloaded and launched generators…
Along hiking trails in the Everlasting Forest, Fel Creel warriors on the verge of routing two full hands of card soldiers suddenly found themselves being routed by the ground upon which they stood, as it crumbled beneath their feet and sucked them down into unknown depths… Supporting her troops from the crystal chamber, Alyss had been able to hold Redd’s forces in their current positions for more than a quarter of a lunar hour. But she could feel fatigue overtaking her, even with the Heart Crystal so close. Redd’s invasion of Wondertropolis seemed as inevitable as the seasons. Can’t keep this up. Can’t be at all places at once. “The Pool of Tears, Alyss!” Bibwit shouted. She turned her imaginative gaze upon the pool: Two and three at a time, figures were splashing from its surface.
Are those…skeletons?
They were. Innumerable skeletons swimming to shore along with Master Sacrenoir and others of flesh