“Didn’t Fabiola ever tell you?”
“No.”
“Think harder.” Mr. Jay’s voice was demanding.
“I know you think she should have told me when we were younger and were still close, but no, she never did,” the Queen defended herself. “Besides, Carroll seems to have had her scatter the piece all over the world, not long before his death. Fabiola and I were enemies by then.”
“Then we have no choice but to let Alice and The Pillar find those pieces for the Chessmaster, and wait to see what comes out of it.
“I understand.”
“We can’t afford the Chessmaster slowing down our plans. He is on neither sides, not Black Chess or the Inklings. We just have to play along and get him out of the way.”
“I think it’s personal.” The Queen suggested.
“Personal?”
“I am thinking the Chessmaster has a grudge toward Alice about something that happened in the past.”
“Something that none of us knows about? It’s puzzling me.”
A long period of silence thickened the air in the Queen’s room. She broke it by asking a question that had been puzzling her since she’d heard about the Chessmaster being Death. “Mr. Jay?”
“Yes?”
“I was wondering about this Death idea? I mean I thought we Wonderlanders were immortal. We’ve lived over a century and half already.”
“I know. And you’re right. It suggests that most Wonderlanders are immortals, but it’s not conclusive. In fact, if anyone had the power to kill them, it’d have been Lewis Carroll himself.”
“But he couldn’t. That’s why he had us trapped in Wonderland. So how come Death killed Lewis?”
“Lewis was human, don’t forget that.”
“Are you saying the Chessmaster can’t kill us, Wonderlanders?” The Queen said with a smug smile on her face.
“I think so…” Mr. Jay suddenly went silent.
The Queen could hear him conversing with someone nearby. He seemed to breathe heavier while listening. Finally, he returned to the Queen. “I think I just found the answer to your inquisition about the Chessmaster being incapable of killing Wonderlanders.”
“And?”
“It’s true. He can’t kill Wonderlanders.”
The Queen blew out a long sigh — and an accidental fart of mirth, though her dogs moaned in agony.
“Unless he finds their pieces.” Mr. Jay continued.
The Queen stood erect, horrified by the implication. Did Mr. Jay really mean what she just understood? “Pardon me?”
“In order to kill a Wonderlander, the Chessmaster had to find the chess piece that represents that character in Lewis Carroll’s chess squad.”
“You mean the ones he made from his bones are magically connected to us?”
“I’ve just been told so,” Mr. Jay says. “It seems that the Carroll chess pieces aren’t of a normal character. They’re chess pieces magically attuned to some of the most important Wonderlanders. If the Chessmaster gets them…”
“He can kill us, just like humans,” the Queen spilled out the terrible news. “So the White Queen piece killed Fabiola because she was the White Queen in Wonderland?”
“Exactly.”
“And the Rook?”
“Margaret was the Duchess,” Mr. Jay said. “She’s always been your right hand. The ‘rook’ in the corner of the castle you’re counting on. It protects you from harm and worked on your safety.”
“My God.” the Queen collapsed on her chair. “The Duchess is the Rook. That’s why she’s dead now.”
“And I’ve been told something else.” Mr. Jay says.
“What is it?” The Queen could sense the concern in his voice.
“I think you should run away, as far as you can.”
“What? Why?”
“I’ve been told that Alice and The Pillar just found the third piece.”
The Queen swallowed a lungful of her own fart right now. “Don’t tell me it’s a…”
“A Queen. A chess piece of a black queen.” Mr. Jay sounded disappointed. He definitely didn’t want to lose the Queen of Hearts. She’d always been a great asset. “I’m thinking you and Fabiola had always been competitive and rivals. If she’s the White Queen, then you surely are the Black Queen in Carroll’s eyes.”
There was a long silence in the room and on the line. Even the dogs went silent, waiting for Mr. Jay to spell it out.
“I think you’re going to die within a few hours,” Mr. Jay told the Queen of Hearts. “If not sooner.
Chapter 47
Somewhere in Tibet
“If you were a chess piece in Carroll’s army, who’d you be?” The playfully Pillar asks me.
Now that I know the third piece is a Black Queen, and that the clue inside it was a yellow note that clearly pointed at Kalmykia, I have nothing to lose but to play along. “The Queen of course.” I say jokingly.