There was a long, tense pause as the battling stopped all around the clearing. Alice stared at the Red Queen’s finger, which was only inches from her neck. She was still breathing too hard to speak.
The nearest Red Knight tossed his sword down on the ground. “We follow you no more,” he said to the Red Queen, “Bloody Big Head.”
“How dare you!” shrieked Iracebeth. “Off with his head!”
Another Red Knight threw down his sword, then another, and another, and gradually every single Knight in the clearing disarmed himself, staring defiantly at the Red Queen. She stamped her feet furiously, and then her shrieks of rage grew even louder as the crown lifted off her head and started to float through the air. Iracebeth grabbed for it, but it wafted out of her reach and over to Mirana, where it settled gently on the White Queen’s head.
“Iracebeth of Crims,” said the White Queen, “your crimes against Underland are worthy of death. However, that is against my vows. Therefore, you are banished to the Outlands. No one is to show you any kindness or ever speak a word to you. You will have not a friend in the world.”
The Knave of Hearts sidled up to the White Queen and bowed unctuously. “Majesty,” he said in his slippery, slimy voice, “I hope you bear me no ill will.”
“Only this one,” Mirana said, pointing without looking at him. “Ilosovic Stayne, you will join Iracebeth in banishment from this day until the end of Underland.”
The Knave went very pale. Knights seized his arms and chained him to Iracebeth. The former Red Queen leaned toward him, batting her giant eyes. “At least we have each other,” she said.
In a panic, Stayne pulled out a knife and tried to stab Iracebeth. She screamed as the Hatter threw a pair of scissors and knocked the knife away. Stayne dropped to his knees before the White Queen.
“Majesty, please kill me …” he begged. “Please.”
“But I do not owe you a kindness,” the White Queen said, looking down at him with no pity in her eyes.
“Take off my head!” he pleaded.
Knights dragged the unfortunate pair away. As they vanished into the woods, everyone could still hear Iracebeth screaming at Stayne. “You tried to kill me! HE TRIED TO KILL ME! He tried to kill me!”
Her voice faded into the distance, and a soft breeze seemed to send a sigh of relief through everyone in the clearing. All at once, the Hatter burst into an enthusiastic dance.
“Oh, the Frabjous Day!” he sang out happily. “Calloo! Callay!”
“What is he doing?” asked Alice, amused. She had taken off some pieces of her heavy armor and was breathing more easily now.
“Futterwacken,” the Cheshire Cat answered her, grinning.
The White Queen knelt beside the body of the fallen Jabberwocky and caught a drop of its blood in a vial. She stood up and handed the vial to Alice as the Hatter let her go.
“And blood of the Jabberwocky,” said the Queen. “You have our everlasting gratitude. And for your efforts on our behalf, I give you this.”
The Queen handed the vial to Alice. She held it up to the light, surprised by the color of the blood inside. “Will this take me home?” she asked.
“If that is what you choose,” said the Queen.
Alice lifted the vial, but stopped as the Hatter put his hand on hers.
“You could stay,” he said, his gaze warm and full of promise.
“What an idea,” Alice said softly. “A crazy, mad, wonderful idea.” She looked around at all the strange and wonderful beings she’d met in this and wonderfully strange place. She imagined what it would be like to stay—to talk to animals every day, to ride the Bandersnatch and explore Underland, to dance the Futterwacken with the Hatter whenever she chose.
But thoughts of her mother and sister and unfinished business intruded, and she knew she could not stay … at least, not now.
“But I can’t,” she said to the Hatter, taking his hand. “There are questions I have to answer. Things I have to do.”
She poured the new potion into her mouth. “I’ll be back again before you know it,” she promised the Hatter.
“You won’t remember me.”
“Of course I will!” she said. “How could I forget? Hatter … why is a raven like a writing desk?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea. Fairfarren, Alice.”
All of Underland began to shimmer around him, and his hand disappeared from hers as everything dissolved into—
—the meadow where Alice had first chased the White Rabbit. Alice found herself clinging to the edge of a rabbit hole. She pulled herself up and out of the hole. Grass was tangled in her long hair, and her clothes were wrinkled and torn. She shook her head, trying to remember what had happened. How odd. Had she fallen asleep?
She stood up and brushed off her skirts.
Whether she wanted to or not, she thought, she’d better get back to Hamish and the party.