A Song Named Alice

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Inside the kitchen in the morning, as Meg cooks breakfast, Erik flips through the newspaper. "What are we going to do?" He says as he finishes the last page. 

"What do you mean?" She asks as she fries up the eggs. 

"Raven is out of the game right now and Tom won't help us too much to make sure that the Queen of Hearts doesn't kill Alice. There's only the four of us against all of Wonderland, and Asgard if they find out about what we're doing." 

"Oh," she pauses. After plating the eggs and handing some to Erik, she continues the thought. "That's true. If the Knave of Hearts comes back after us, we'll be in exceptional trouble. Even if it's someone else, we're going to have a problem protecting Edwin. What we need to do is get more people on our side. Do you think there's anyone who will join us if we give a little push at them?" 

"I can name a number of people, but we're going to need more than a little push. The Mad Hatter does what he can to protect Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and those two will follow whatever he does. But getting in between their irreplaceable bond and convince them to switch sides, I don't know if we can do that. We might not even have time." 

"Yeah," Meg agrees, slumping her head down on her hand. "I remember what All Father told us. Pleasance's time is coming to an end and fast. He must be frantically trying to find some way to help her right now. He hasn't contacted us once since two years ago." 

"I know. And he told us that if he finds a way to fix the contract on her, then he'd contact us so that we could stop Asgard and Wonderland in their race against time." He adds. 

"Who else could we ask? Not the Knave of Hearts, both Raven and Edwin could never get along with him." 

Erik looks up from his plate. "Why Edwin?" He asks. 

"Before I left the hospital, Raven told me he figured out the reason of Edwin's distance. I thought we knew the entire thing, but we didn't." 

"What more could there be?" He comes to an idea. "No, it can't be!" 

"Yeah," Meg agrees with his silent thought. "Edwin knows that the Knave of Hearts is the one who hurt Lacie." 

Washing his plate, Erik sighs. "I guess we definitely can't try to bring the Knave of Hearts to our side. Who else can we try?" 

Meg thinks over possible candidates. "Heimdall is too loyal to Odin to side with us, so he's out. Odin is the leader of Asgard, and although he may understand our reasons and give us amnesty, he won't be able to help us much. The White Rabbit is a no as well. I can't really tell what his reasons would be, but to me, it seems like he's loyal to the Knave of Hearts. And Forseti, ha! It'd be easier to try and recruit the Queen of Hearts." 

"You have that right," he agrees. "He doesn't side with anyone but himself. If only we knew his personal goal, we might trap him into siding with us." 

"Right," she says sarcastically. 

"If only Lacie was with us. Even if there was only the four of us, she'd be able to push us through. We'd be safe if she was around." 

"That's true," Loki says as he enters the kitchen. 

They turn around abruptly. "When did you get here?" Meg asks. "How much did you hear?" 

"Not much," he shrugs. "Just the last part when Erik mentioned Lacie. Why?" 

Erik hands Loki a plate of eggs. "No reason," he sidesteps the issue. 

As Loki eats, his thoughts reveal the truth. I heard everything, he thinks. From when you didn't know what to do, to the Knave of Hearts, to Lacie. All of it. But it doesn't matter, I know I'm in danger, I know Lacie is gone, I know what the Knave of Hearts did. And I'm trying to calm myself, so they don't need to worry about me more. Pay attention to protecting your own lives. You remember telling me that my dreams foretold that tragedy could be coming, right Erik?