“It’s you,” I whispered, afraid, but more relieved because I’d been sure I’d imagined him. Time’s Teeth, I’d been so sure the conversation in the woods had never happened when the Cheshire didn’t show up in the Thirteenth Hour trial—yet here he was. Grinning. Talking. Its fluffy fur changing with numbers every blink, its ears sharp, perked up.
“Yes—I am I. And you are you,” the Cheshire told me. “You haven’t answered me yet.”
For a second I was confused—mostly by my relief. “Oh. Right, erm…I don’t-don’t know why.” He’d wanted me to tell him why I was walking backward very well.
“Well,Iam no expert on the matter,” he said, slowly moving to the side, stretching his legs and his neck in an almost natural way before he sat up at the base of the metal branch. The tree was really constructed like a real tree, and it seemed the Cheshire didn’t have trouble pretending it was wood. “But, if I had to guess, and guessing is my fifth favorite thing to do, I’d say it usually happens when you’ve lost enough of the parts of you that slow you down.”
My brows narrowed. “What…what exactly does that mean?”
“How shouldIknow—I’m only but a Cheshire.” Pulling his paw up to his mouth, he began to lick it, only he did so backward, from the tip, down.
“You didn’t show up in the Thirteenth Hour trial,” I said, and I tried not to sound like I was accusing him.
“Yes, yes, there were too many eyes. You did well, if I may say. You chose all the wrong things again—bravo, O-ra.”
“I don’t think I choseall wrong,” I muttered—becauseI hadfigured out that the clock didn’t need to be correct to work.
“No, I suppose you wouldn’t. How’s the monstrosity now? Has it had enough?” And he made a point to try to see through the metal canopy over us—the tree was indeed large. But the Cheshire was looking in the direction of the Great Clock.
“It’s not a monstrosity,” I thought I should say. “And no, the Great Clock is still stuck.”
“Remind me again, why is that? Why did this glitch happen, O-ra? Do not get me wrong, I rejoice that it did.”
“Because of the curse. Because of…the traitor who unleashed a curse on Time and tried to ruin the world.”
Silence.
The Cheshire lay down on his belly again, licked his lips and his whiskers like he was tasting something, and he didn’t necessarily like it.
“Such big words,” he ended up muttering.
“I still…I still don’t quite believe it myself.” My head lowered. My eyes closed. “It feels like something’s wrong. I was home and everything was going as it should and then?—”
“You lost everything.”
My head snapped up again. “No, I…I just woke up here and the Great Clock had stopped.”
“Oh—oh, right!That wasbefore.” The Cheshire nodded, and it was like he’d run those little claws down the inside of my mind instead of the metal branch. “Do go on about your curses and your ruins and your traitors.” Again, he stood up, and he began to descend from the tree—backward. It was still as strange to watch as the first time, the way his tail moved, the way his every step was perfectly precise, even though he couldn’t see where he was going.
Curious.“There’s nothing to go on with. We’re stuck inside this Labyrinth and we can’t get out. I can’t even choosenotto go into a trial because my legs will just take me there, backward if they have to.”
“Yes—I did say you’re walking backward well, did I not?” The Cheshire stopped and sat on the concrete and looked up at me with that wide grin.
“Well, it’s not just me,” I muttered. “And…and someone died at the tea party. Don’t know if you heard.”What didhe hear, I wondered? Where did he go when he wasn’t lying on trees when nobody else was around?
Where did helive? Backward wasn’t a place, was it?
And why had Time cast him out in the first place?
“Well, yes. No tea party is a proper tea party without death,” the Cheshire said, and my stomach twisted a little bit.
“That’s an awful thing to say,” I said, surprising myself with my own words.
“Why, thank you, O-ra.” The Cheshire grinned wider before he stood up, pleased with himself—but I hadn’t paid him a compliment. On the contrary.
I shook my head. “I don’t understand you.” And I didn’t understand most of what went on in the world around me anymore, either.
Laughter, short and sharp. “The way you brag makes me want to blush,” the Cheshire said.
