White Roses a.b

chapter 45

The walls of the well were dripping with treacle and Ash's heels kept sticking to the steps. The air carried that same sickly-sweet aroma. Normally Ashley would have been dreaming of treacle biscuits and treacle-nut cakes, but the smell was so encompassing it turned even her stomach with its syrupy thickness. She imagined it filling her lungs, drowning her.

After such a journey as they'd been on that night, she couldn't guess what would greet them at the bottom of the well. A treacle fountain? A sailboat made from her old boot? A fox, an owl, and a raccoon inviting them to tea?

She was not expecting to reach the bottom of the well and find herself in a circular room with a black-and-white-chequered floor and a small glass table at its centre. The room was expansive and tidy and . . . familiar.

Ashley turned in a full circle.

They were in the Crossroads, the thoroughfare of Hearts, and they were surrounded by doors. Nothing but doors everywhere she turned.

Her palms started to sweat, her pulse roaring in her ears.

She paced the room's edges, sure there must be a mistake. There must be something she wasn't understanding. Through one enormous keyhole she could see the beaches at Rock Turtle Cove. Through a tinted peekaboo window she recognized Main Street – the cobbler's storefront now abandoned. One heart-shaped door, she knew, would lead to the drawbridge of Heart Castle.

Her heart sank. 'This isn't Chess.'

'Quite the riddle, isn't it?' said Hatta, leaning against the rail at the bottom of the stairs, one leg crossed in front of the other. 'Choose a door, any door – they all lead to some horrible fate. Then they drop you down into a room full of doors.' His voice was humourless.

Ash spun on him. 'They dropped us back into Hearts. I thought you were taking us to Chess!'

He smiled at her, but it wasn't a kind look. 'I said I would take you to the Looking Glass, and so I have.'

Ashley shook her head, her insides roiling with anger, with frustration, with exhaustion. All night they'd wandered. Humoured those awful girls, looked at their awful drawings, listened to their awful poetry. Her stomach was empty, her feet were blistered, and her future was as uncertain now as it had been the moment she and Jest had run from the castle.

This was supposed to be a new start. Her and Jest, escaping into a new life together. And Hatta dared to taunt them.

'Ash,' Andy said, quiet and calming. He settled his hands on her shoulders and pulled her away from Hatta. Perhaps she'd looked on the verge of murder to worry him so, though Hatta seemed unconcerned. 'It's all right. Like he said, it's a riddle. The answer will seem obvious once we figure it out.'

She grit her teeth and jabbed her finger at Hatta. 'He already knows the answer! He's toying with us!'

'I'm making sure that you're worthy,' said Hatta.

'Worthy of what?'

'Everything,' Hatta snarled. 'Life is made of sacrifices, Lady Costello. I had to pass their test to enter the lands of Chess, and now you expect to go into Chess and be crowned a queen, without any trials? Why should it be so easy for you?'

'Sacrifices!' she screamed, not realizing she'd thrown herself at Hatta until she felt Jest holding her back. 'I'm leaving everything! My home! My family! My whole life behind!'

'Because you have no other choice.'

'No. Because I love Andy. I chose him. Who are you to judge me, to doubt me? Who are you to think you have any dominion over our lives?'