Alice

11. Fire

11. Fire

One day, as we were having tea, the Queen popped it on me.

"Alice, I have an assignment for you."

"An assignment, Your Majesty?"

"Yes. That imbecile nephew of mine has been smuggling in books from the world above. I want you to expose him and bring the books to me."

I set down my teacup. No, I told myself with finality. Absolutely not.

"Wha- What's wrong with that?" I asked, struggling not to sound panicked.

"It's illegal for anyone to leave Wonderland. It's even more illegal to bring things back from Above. Besides, it would make him miserable to have none of those stupid books. I do enjoy making people miserable." She sipped her tea daintily. "You'll do it, of course. Won't you, Alice?"

NO! I wanted to scream. I will not help you make Jack any sadder than he already is! No, no, no, NO!

But I didn't. I sat there. Staring at my tea. Then, with as much effort as I could muster, I said, "Yes."

I had to. If I refused, I risked blowing my cover and destroying the entire plan. Jack would understand. I hoped.

I didn't tell him what I was supposed to do. I couldn't. The Queen would find out, and then we'd all be in trouble. So, as we were relaxing in our spot by the lake, I took a deep breath.

"Jack?" I asked.

"Yes, love?"

"Love". He just had to call me that now, I thought. That made it even harder.

"I was wondering....."

"Yes?"

"Where do you keep all of your books? Not in the library obviously. Do you have them stashed somewhere?"

He smiled. Then he stood up and took my hand. "I'll show you."

He led me through the castle. No, I thought. Don't show me. Don't. I wasn't aware of where he was taking me. I wanted desperately to fight against him, to stop him from telling me. He shouldn't have trusted me.

I didn't realize that we were headed to the North Tower until he was turning the doorknob. He led me into the brightly lit room. He walked over to a panel in the wall and slid it back. Behind it were shelves and shelves of books. So, so many books. Everything from the classics to Harry Potter. More books than I had. And that was seriously saying something. In that moment, I forgot why I was here, what I was doing. I started to reach for one of the books, when I heard sounds at the doorway.

We both whirled around to see several guards bursting through the doorway. They'd followed us. Two guards grabbed Jack, and the rest started grabbing armfuls of books. Jack had a stunned look on his face. He looked at me, confusion on his face. I couldn't look him in the eyes.

"Miss Alice," one of the guards addressed me. "Her Majesty will want you present."

Present for what? But I knew. No good could come from this. And it was all my fault.

I followed, zombie-like, behind the procession to the court room. The Queen's face lit up when she saw everything.

"Well, well, well! My night has been made! What have you found gentlemen? A stash of contraband books? Now, how did those get here? We don't have any of these silly stories in Wonderland!" Before anyone could say anything, she went on. "You have been going Above, haven't you?"

Jack said nothing.

"I take that as a yes. That in itself is a capital offense. But smuggling books! That's even better! And then there's the biggest one-" The Queen leaned forward in her throne, and her voice became low and deadly. "You went into the North Tower," she hissed.