I tilt my head, worrying I am not going to grasp this fully.
“All questions in this game are answered by saying ‘Hookah Hookah,’” the Pillar explains, his eyes on the Executioner. I am more curious than ever to know whatever is happening between those two. “I ask you, ‘How are you?’ You answer, ‘Hookah Hookah.’ I ask you, ‘Where have you been?’ You say...”
“Hookah Hookah, I get it,” I say. “So how is anyone supposed to know if the other is telling the truth?”
The Pillar and the Executioner exchange mean looks for a moment.
“It’s how you say it, Alice,” the Executioner explains. “If you can convince me with you tonality and facial expressions it’s the truth, then it’s the truth.”
Chapter 30
I don’t have enough time to object.
The Executioner demonstrates the game by asking the Pillar, “What’s your name?”
“Hookah Hookah,” the Pillar says, as if he’s just used to answering it this way. It’s mind boggling how believable he sounds.
“Where are you from?”
“Hookah Hookah,” the Pillar answers with a home-sick expression on his face. I suppose that deeper in his mind he was saying ‘Wonderland.’
Then the Executioner turns to face me. “Do you think the Pillar is a good man?”
Now, that’s a shocker.
Sneaky. The Executioner just asked the question I’m not sure how to answer. The game demands confidence and truth in the way I say Hookah Hookah.
It takes me a while to answer. “Hookah Hookah.”
In my mind, the answer is ‘I don’t know.’ It’s the truth. I try my best to sound as if I mean it.
The Executioner’s sharp eyes pierce through me, his fingers reaching for his gun.
I shrug.
“Good answer,” he says. “I don’t know either.”
What? He read my mind?
“My turn,” I say. “Do you truly believe I will not shoot you without waiting for the next question?”
“Hookah Hookah.” He nods toward his guards standing all around us.
Okay. He can actually read my mind. And I am toast because of the guards. But wait!
“But this means that even if I catch you lying in this game, I won’t be able to shoot you,” I argue. “Because your guards will shoot me first.”
“Smart girl,” the Executioner says. “In this game, only you or the Pillar will end up dead. Can you see how nonsense always plays in my favor?”
Chapter 31
Somewhere in the streets of London
The mayhem in the streets of London fascinated the Cheshire.
All those lowlife human beings getting in fights with each other, some of them taking it far, as in really hurting one another. That was just fantastic.
He roamed the streets on foot, possessing one person after another and contributing to the madness. A punch in the face here. A tickle there. Setting a place on fire here. It was all fun.
Revenge on humankind felt so sweet he was about to purr like his ancestors once did.
Blood was everywhere on the streets. Traffic had stopped hours ago. This was better than anything he’d ever seen. He wondered what kind of plague it was, but couldn’t put his paws on it.
Lewis Carroll turned out to be one mad nut, even crazier than all the rest. How hadn’t the Cheshire ever known about this man’s crazy tendencies to spread chaos to the world?
But even though he enjoyed possessing a soul after another, it suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea of who he really was.
Of course, he was a cat in a way or another. But he’d even lost his recollection of what he looked like as a cat many years ago.
Who was he, really? What did he look like? What was the look that really suited his personality?
Had the Cheshire been lost among the many faces he’d possessed, now that he was just a nobody?
His thoughts were interrupted by a phone call. Yes, he possessed many souls, but always passed on his phone so he’d be in contact with whoever wanted to benefit from his expertise.
Like all cats, the Cheshire needed to make a living.
“It’s Margaret,” the Duchess told him on the line. “I need your help.”
“You know I stopped assassinating for you long ago.”
“Yes, but this isn’t about assassinations,” she explained. “I want you to send someone after the Pillar in Columbia.”
“What’s the Pillar doing in Columbia?”
“He’s looking for a cure for the plague.”
“Why? I was beginning to just enjoy it. Did you know it doesn’t affect Wonderlanders?”
“No, I didn’t. That’s good to hear. But the Queen made her point.” Margaret explained how none of them would benefit from the end of the world. Not an argument the Cheshire was fond of.
Who said I wouldn’t be happy with the end of the world?
Although he’d never been on good terms with the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland, he’d started to warm up to her and Black Chess a little. After all, he’d been a bit too lonely in this real world.
It was time to choose a side. Black Chess or Inklings.