The Lost Wonderland Diaries by J. Scott Savage

Author:J. Scott Savage
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: 2020-08-20T16:06:31+00:00

Chapter 19

The Queen of Hearts

“Get to your places!” shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder.

“That is so not how I imagined the Queen of Hearts’s castle would look,” Tyrus whispered as the cards drove the carriage through a set of red gates.

Leaning out the window, Celia studied the building in front of them.

After all the stories she’d heard about how terrible the queen was, Celia had expected dark forbidding walls, vines with poisonous thorns, high turrets with sharp points and isolated towers, and gallows everywhere.

This looked more like an office building—straight lines, practical windows, and neatly trimmed rectangular bushes. Everything appeared organized and straightforward with individual cards moving smartly about their business.

“I don’t think I’m allowed to be here,” Sylvan whispered, her whiskers twitching.

“I’ll take care of you,” Celia said, patting her head.

“What now?” Tyrus asked the jack of hearts as he escorted them out of the carriage and onto the cobblestone drive. “Are you going to throw us in prison? Or cut off our heads?”

“Do you want to be thrown in prison?” the card asked.

“No,” Celia said.

“Then I will have my men escort you to your rooms where you may bathe, change into clean clothes, and enjoy light refreshments until the queen sends for you.”

“What about our rabbit friend?” Celia asked.

The card looked at Sylvan. “Does she need a change of clothes too?”

“No, your royalness,” Sylvan said.

The jack of hearts almost smiled. “Stick together, and you will be fine.”

That sounded far too reasonable. The Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll’s books was fearsome and unpredictable. “Are we going to be put on trial?”

The soldier, who had started to walk away, turned back, and Celia was once again shocked that he and the rest of the cards only had two dimensions. From the front and back, they looked completely normal. When they turned, it was like seeing a hologram disappear before her eyes.

“What would you be tried for?” the soldier asked when he reappeared. He faced Celia, his expression hard.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “Trespassing, or stealing tarts, or painting the roses?”

His face softened as one side of his mouth pulled up. “Have you been stealing tarts, young lady?”

She shrugged. “I haven’t seen any tarts to steal.”

“If you do, don’t.” He waved to his men. “See them to their rooms and make sure they have everything they need.”

“I don’t trust them,” Tyrus whispered to Celia as they were marched along a walkway that ran in a straight line from one building to the next. “This whole place is too . . . organized.”

Celia didn’t trust the cards either, but unlike Tyrus, she looked at the organization with a hint of optimism. Outside the castle walls, she’d come close to despairing. What hope was there of finding a way home when no one knew what was going on? Where the weed-covered roads twisted and turned with nonsensical signs? Or when there weren’t any roads at all? Maybe the queen was just as tyrannical as the book said, but this looked like the kind of place where things got done.

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