Red Queen by Christina Henry

Author:Christina Henry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-06-22T13:35:40+00:00

Alice opened her eyes and found she was nestled in the roots of the trees like in the arms of her mother. The ground beneath her body was warm, warm and rich and pulsing, like a vein with ripe red blood running inside it. She touched the roots on either side and they shivered beneath her fingers, like a cat seeking affection from its owner.

There was something different about the tree, Alice thought as she drifted in a sort of dreamy half-awake state. The branches were different. Then she noticed that there were leaves on the branches, lovely green leaves as bright as jewels. There had been no leaves when Alice arrived, which made sense if it was spring and the branches hadn’t started budding yet.

(The only reason you think it is spring is because of that boy and his goose, the goose that was supposed to be nesting. You don’t really know what time of year it is. In fact, Miss Alice, if anything is clear from this trip it’s that you don’t know very much at all. You’ve been stumbling about in Hatcher’s footsteps ever since you left the hospital, and when his footsteps were not there anymore, you stumbled around in circles. There’s not much to you, Alice, though Cheshire seems to think there could be.)

The ground beneath her pulsed again, and she began to get a funny feeling. A funny feeling that there was something underneath that was trying to get out.

If there is something underneath, you probably don’t want to be lying just there, a voice said, a voice that sounded more like Cheshire’s than like Alice’s.

Alice would normally be very cross at Cheshire’s interference, but what he said was sensible. She ought to move before something terrible happened, like this pulsing earth opening up to swallow her.

She rose, but very slowly. Somehow even the thought of being eaten by the mountain couldn’t seem to work up any urgency. Thick knots of pollen drifted from the tree above, landing softly on her face. She swiped at her cheeks and found she was entranced by the glittering stuff on her fingers.

Move along, move along.

“Oh, very well,” Alice said.

She didn’t particularly want to move along, but the ground was acting very funny. Waves rolled along beneath her feet, lifting her up momentarily and then setting her down again.

“This is really all very strange,” Alice murmured. “One of the strangest things I’ve seen, and I have seen lots that is strange. More than my fair share, as a matter of fact.”

A shadow fell over Alice, and she looked up to see Pen standing there. The giant shrunk down to a normal-sized person while Alice watched in amazement. Quite a handsome person, in fact, with somber green eyes and thick brown curls and the ropy muscles of a farmer.

“Pen,” Alice said. “What happened to you?”

“She crushed my heart,” Pen said, very matter-of-factly. “I was fighting off those wolves and thinking it was nothing to crush them with the rocks, and then suddenly I heard her voice in my head again.

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