I step on the last white tile at the end, and suddenly it all stops. All the soldiers turn and face me, though I can’t see Fabiola, who is probably lying dead on the floor behind them. The horror on the Queen’s face is worth a nomination to Instagram’s pic of the year.
It puzzles me how stupid the Queen is. I mean, reaching the end of the chessboard will show the Chessmaster the whereabouts of Carroll’s Knight, and he will not feel the need to kill the Queen of Hearts anymore.
But being stubborn and war hungry, she can’t understand now. Once blood was spilling on the floor, she could see nothing but war in her mind. Maybe the Chessmaster is right about trying to kill the likes of her.
After a few moments of silence, I am catching my breath and calming down, we start hearing a rattling sound on the block assigned to the white knight on the life-size chessboard.
Another glass box rises out of it. This one opens from the top. It’s more like a podium with a price upon it.
A chessboard with white and black chess pieces is stacked upon its surface. These are the pieces carved from Carroll’s bones. This is what the Chessmaster killed so many people for.
I wonder if it’s worth it.
The Chessmaster’s men arrive and signal for the white and black armies to leave. He doesn’t care about the Queen or Margaret anymore. In the distance, I see Fabiola silently sprawled on the ground.
“So this is what I’ve been waiting for.” The Chessmaster arrives finally, guarded by his men.
He approaches the podium with care and checks the chess pieces one by one. He even sniffs them with a euphoric feeling I’ve never seen before.
“I told you I will find your bones, Lewis,” he whispers to them, but it doesn’t take a genius to read his lips.
“So that’s what you wanted?” I ask.
“It certainly and most delightedly is,” he says. “You know all the pieces are on this chessboard? It means that the pieces you’ve collected were fakes. Fabiola certainly cooked up a brilliant plan to hide Carroll’s bones. I mean, all this hocus pocus about the chess pieces being scattered all over the world and hiring the likes of Father Williams was one big distraction to the location of the real pieces. And look where she’s hidden them? In the Chess City that once was thought to be a portal to Wonderland,” he snickers, eyes fixed on me, “You remember Wonderland, Alice, don’t you?”
“Hardly.”
“But you must remember it,” he says. “And if you don’t, trust me, I will remind you.”
“Let’s stop the talking. You got what you wanted. Release the world’s leaders and wake the cities that are sleeping. I have no intentions on getting to know you better.”
“But you will know me better.” The Chessmaster places both hands behind his back and approaches me. “In fact, one day not so long ago, you knew me very well.”
“I don’t remember you.”
“But I will remind you of who I am, and what you have done to me.”
“So this is personal?” I shrug my shoulders. “I hurt you when were in Wonderland? Why would I regret hurting a monster like you?”
“You want to know why?” the Chessmaster’s breath is on my face. “Because I wasn’t a monster then. It was you who was a monster, Alice of Black Chess.”
Chapter 65
Underground Kitchen, Oxford University
“So The Pillar killing the Executioner was a hoax?” Inspector Dormouse wondered.
“Probably,” Tom suggested. “He made the world think he was freeing them from the worst drug empire in the world, while executing his brilliant plan.”
“What plan?” Inspector Dormouse asked. “We don’t even know why he killed the thirteen — or fourteen — men.”
“A deal that went awry, that’s all we need to know,” Tom said. “What matters is that it had nothing to do with saving the world or Alice being the Real Alice.”
“I heard a few members talking about this when The Pillar hadn’t arrived yet in one of the meetings,” Chopin said. “They argued that he used Alice to kill the Executioner for him. They believed Alice had certain powers or secrets that helped him do it.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Tom said. “The man is pure evil. He has the capacity and slyness to fool the world and come out with no blood on his gloves.”
“Still, I need to know what this is all about,” Inspector Dormouse said. “Fourteen people making a deal with the devil, in our case The Pillar, and then being killed years later by him. Why? Did they break the deal? Did he deceive them?”
“Hard to tell, Inspector,” Tom said. “Also, none of this tells us who The Pillar really is.”
“Maybe we will never find out,” Inspector Dormouse wondered. “Chopin, anything else? How about the fourteenth member?”
“It’s hard to tell,” Chopin said. “All I know is that The Pillar couldn’t find him.”
“Any reason why?”
“I overheard the Fourteen mention that the fourteenth member was so sly he managed to hide his identity from all of them,” Chopin said. “Meaning, he changed his name and escaped before the time they’d previously agreed upon.”