Morte was pawing the ground impatiently and beginning to nip at the tent. His hooves brought ripples up from the grassy surface, where the water underneath sloshed and bubbled. “I’ll meet you at the blighted ponds. He cannot wait.”
Dinah bowed her head with reverence once she reached Morte, and he lifted his leg for her to vault onto his back. Morte ran with abandon for the blighted ponds. Dinah relished the damp wind on her face as they flew across the wet valley. The ponds were not far, which was convenient, for it was where the army drew their water from seemingly endless pools of refreshment. Alongside the clear, delicious pools of perfectly cool water, there were other ponds, the blighted ponds. She had seen them almost every day for the past few weeks, and even now stared at them with amazement. The murky pinkish waters were topped with a foamy froth that looked delicious, but smelled and tasted atrocious. Every now and then a creamy, shimmering bubble would rise up from the fathoms below. Bordering on the edge of the moss, the bubble would creep a few feet over the ground and then begin to float slowly toward the nearest living creature. They were easy to avoid if one watched out for them, for they drifted at a snail’s pace; but if they touched the skin, as one unfortunate Yurkei warrior had found out, they burst open, bathing the unfortunate victim in a warm splash of effervescent pink. Seconds later, skin, blood, and veins would begin to turn white and harden. The warrior was left petrified within minutes, a creamy pink bubble formed over his lips. The Yurkei had been afraid to touch him to give him a proper burial, and so they had left his body behind in the blighted ponds. The next day when they had returned to gather water, the warrior’s body was gone, and in its place was a new rosy pocket of water. It had consumed him, and he had become whatever had eaten him from the inside.
Dinah watched with caution as Morte drank mightily from one of the clear pools. There were no roaming bubbles so far, but she could see the blighted ponds rippling in the distance, a sea of foamy pink bubbles against the green moss.
“I hate this place.” Sir Gorrann rode up beside her, his mare panting with exhaustion. He looked over at Morte. “Gods, he’s fast. Cyndy here was galloping her fastest, and we were still at least a half mile behind you.”
Dinah smiled and rested her hand on Morte’s chest. He shot her an annoyed look and stepped away. “He wasn’t even truly running. When the King chased us, he was running so fast I could barely make out the landscape.”
“Mmmm. He’s an incredible monster, isn’t he?” They both glanced over at Morte as he happily stomped a toad to death.
Dinah trained her eyes on the ever-shifting ponds. “Tell me, Sir Gorrann, what do you think of the Spades’ demands? This is why you agreed to find me, right? Why you said you would work with Cheshire? This was your agenda. You wanted to make sure that I survived and made it to the right people so that I could advance the cause of the Spades. Is that correct?”
He looked out into the distance. “Yeh would be correct. I never hid that I had an agenda, not from yeh. If I can’t bring back Ioney and my Amabel, at least I can better the lives of those men that I would call brothers. But I will fight for yeh, Dinah. I believe that yeh will be a great queen, and I will fight even if yeh don’t agree to the Spades’ demands. They are fair demands. There was nothing that seemed… in excess.” He paused and took a sip of water from one of the clear ponds. “Of course,” he continued as he wiped his mouth, “If yeh don’t accept the Spades’ demands, yeh will not have an army. Yeh will have a thousand Yurkei warriors, three hundred Rogue Cards—who are useless if yeh ask me—and the King will wipe all of yeh from Wonderland like the dirt under his feet.”
“Can we win?” Dinah asked.
Sir Gorrann watched with a wary eye as two champagne bubbles began drifting toward them, so light and friendly on the wind. “Perhaps. But we will surely not win without the Spades. Mundoo was counting on them joining us when he marched north. Without them, we haven’t a prayer. The Cards don’t fear the Yurkei near as much as they should, but they will fear a line of Spades.”
“Then it is done.” Dinah watched a pretty pink bubble burst across a low rock. Within seconds, the moss covering its surface shriveled and turned white. “And when you are allowed to marry, will you marry again, Sir Gorrann?”
He looked out at the low valley, now filled with several hundred floating pink bubbles, all very slowly making their way toward them. “For many of us, there is only one person who can fill the spaces of our heart.”
Dinah thought of Wardley, the way his breath had washed across her face, the way the scar on his shoulder had stretched when he raised his arms to wash his body. She loved every part of him. For her, there was no other. “Yes.”
His gold eyes rested on her face, the crinkles in his eyes showing the first signs of a smile. She snapped her fingers for Morte, who didn’t come, so she began walking quickly toward him.