“I am afraid to ask, but I need my key back.” The Pillar shrugs.
“You know it’s not your key,” I say, giving it back to him. “But I don’t want it. At least not now. And for the record, I don’t ever want to talk to you again after we save the world this time.”
“Are you so sure you’re going to save the world this time?” He tucks the key in his jacket pocket and rubs off some smoke.
It’s questions like these that make me doubt myself.
Of course I am not sure I’m going to save the world this time. And it scares me to even think about it.
I think about those children again. The world can’t end on their first day of freedom. They still have so much to enjoy and learn in life, or has the Executioner already sentenced them to death in his grip?
I realize I would have preferred to choke him myself instead of listening to the explosion.
And there is something else I realize now. That Fabiola was right. If you stare into the eyes of darkness, you will always get stained.
“I’m thinking of pull off my pants and let out gas into the smoke the Scientist will definitely notice me.” The Pillar rubs his chin. “I know it’s lame, but so were many of Carroll’s jokes.”
Lewis!
That’s the answer to how to get the Scientist’s attention. The Pillar’s key may be valuable to many Wonderlanders, but definitely not like the one I have in my pocket.
Sorry, Lewis, I will break our promise. But I have to give it a shot.
I raise the key in the air and stand in that same spot again. Carroll’s key reflects in a shimmering hue over the wall.
“You have another key?” The Pillar can’t take his eyes of it. “Who’s the liar now?”
I dismiss his comments, still staring at the wall.
Then it happens. Not the way I expected, but close. A loud, deafening horn blares in the festival.
Chapter 58
Queen’s garden, Buckingham Palace, London
“Welcome back, Carolus.” The Queen of Hearts stood in the middle of the rain, two of her guards holding her umbrella for her. “It’s time we solve this matter.”
“What matter?” Carolus spat rain in her face.
“Your headaches,” she said. “You know without me stopping the Executioner from giving Lewis his medication, you would have never been created in the first place.”
Carolus grunts, trying to step closer, but he was chained in heavy steel, and guarded carefully. Finally Margaret did her job right, the Queen thought.
“I’m like your god by the way.” The Queen smirked. “I could have given Carroll his medication anytime, and you’d have disappeared. You have any idea how unreal you are? You’re neither Carroll nor Carolus. You’re just a figment of his imagination that manifested somehow.”
“Don’t provoke me,” Carolus growled and broke free from the chains. The Queen’s guards stepped away immediately.
“Don’t threaten me!” The short Queen’s head ached, craning it up to him.
“What are you going to do? Cut my head off?” He laughed, still spitting rain at her.
“I don’t need to.” She grinned.
Instantly, Carolus’s migraine returned. He fell to his knees, gripping his skull.
“See?” the Queen chirped. “My men fooled you into thinking the pills they gave you were Lullaby when they only worsened your headache.”
“Stop it, please!”
“You should have asked for your cure back in Columbia instead of cooking up a plague,” she said. “But because you’re just a figment of someone’s imagination, you couldn’t think straight. All you thought of was ending the world for no apparent reason, just because you were in pain.”
“It’s not just that...”
“Stop it!” She kicked him in the foot. “Stay on your knees when I am talking to you. And listen to what I have to say.”
Carolus said nothing. All he could do was grip his head before it exploded.
“I will have the Executioner supply you with endless amounts of Lullaby.” She pointed her finger at him. “Under one condition.”
“I’ll do anything,” the vicious monster said pleadingly.
“If you tell me how to stop the plague.”
“I can’t,” he stuttered. “The plague is unstoppable. I just told you I knew because I needed my Lullaby pill!”
Chapter 59
Hookah Festival, Brazil
The blaring horn puts the festival to a halt.
Not only that, but most of the crowd around us scurry away like rats. The Pillar and I are left alone inside a haze of smoke and fire.
Neither of us say anything for a long time. Anticipation? Fear? I have no idea. But I can hear the footfalls of dozens approaching us from behind the smoke.
“It occurs to me that we’ve not been told if getting the Scientist’s attention could lead to our deaths,” the Pillars says, trying to see through the fog of hookah smoke.