She did what any parent would do, shielding her child from us as the small one drank. The moment the baby had its fill, it began to romp around the riverbank until the mother herded it back to the river and then gently pushed it in.
Bath time.I grinned as the young one rolled around and yowled in the water.
“The Red Queen has a herd of these patrolling the city?” I asked.
“That she does. She used the aether to bind them to her,” Henri said. “Don’t let the wee one’s cute demeanor fool you. They can be ferocious, intuitive, and very fast. Even in flight, most fae can’t outpace them.”
As I watched the baby traipse around in the stream, I realized just how wrong it was that my aunt enchanted these creatures to do her bidding. These animals should be wild, living in the forests of Faerie. They should be enjoying life, just like this pair. Being forced to serve someone else was something that I was all too familiar with, and it stunk.
“Are you getting all misty-eyed, Alice?” Hatter’s tone was light and teasing and immediately brought me back to reality.
He’d caught me. How embarrassing.
I took a hard bite of my apple, thankful for the juicy fruit. Even if the bars of food Henri packed had kept hunger at bay, I preferred fresh produce. “No way. Let’s talk strategy. I have a lot of questions about this caterpillar,” I said, trying to distract from my softness. “You claimed that he was a legend, and old, but really whatishe?”
“No one knows,” Dum replied with a few crumbs hanging off her face. “He’s been on Wonderland Island since before the fae came. He’s not of any fae race, and not a pure animal or shifter. He’s his own type of creature.”
He’d been here since before the fae inhabited the islands? That was a hell of a long time. Fae had lived in Faerie for thousands of years. And before the fae arrived, other creatures had lived here—the gods of old.
“Is he a god?” The question sounded stupid even to my own ears, but it was the best I had to go on.
“He denies it,” Dee said. “And I’m not sure why anybody would deny being a god. Particularly in times such as these.”
She was probably right, so I dropped the subject, and everyone finished their meals in silence.
“We should walk a little longer, find a place to hunker down, and then rest for a few hours tonight,” Hatter advised once he’d swallowed his last bite.
“I thought you said that we didn’t want to sleep at night because the Cheshire cat might be following us?” My eyebrows furrowed at this change in opinion.
“I don’t want to,” Henri replied. “But entering the forest at night would be foolhardy in the extreme. I’d prefer for us to get our bearings first—or at least try to.”
“Plus, we’re far away from where the Cheshire cat first found us,” Dee added. “More than likely, he’s lost our trail, and we’re out of his jurisdiction.”
“Jurisdiction? Do you mean that another cat could live in this area?”
Dee nodded, which I didn’t find reassuring.
“What if we come across another Cheshire cat?”
“We’ll deal with that then,” Henri cut in. “Once we’re closer to the Enchanted Forest, it’s likely that no one will claim that territory. It’s simply too—”
“Creepy.” Dee shuddered.
With that, everyone stood, and we resumed our hike.
Although I was the one who knew the least about where we were going, I could tell by the somber expressions on my friends’ faces that I wasn’t the only one who was anxious about entering the Enchanted Forest the next day.
Chapter 15
“That’s where we’re going?” I stared out into the sea of blood red leaves and bone white trunks. Thin trails of red ran down the trunks, as if the leaves were bleeding. “Why do the trees look like that?”
“Legend has it that millennia ago, a battle was fought here,” Hatter said, his tone low. “A great aether-blessed general placed the forest under an enchantment. One that forced his opponents to relive their greatest fear and deepest shame over and over. No one on the opposing side could leave. They got trapped here.”
He shot me a sidelong look. “The red foliage of the trees came from their blood—the white, from their bones. When you get closer, you’ll be able to see images of eyes in the bark, too.”
“Oh, just wonderful.”
“Yes, it’s disturbing,” Henri agreed. “Some say the enchantment is still in place and draws all sorts of monsters.”
