Page 58 of Wondrous

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I don’t think logic like that applies to him.”

“Clearly the cart itself is magic,” Alex said, shrugging as if it were obvious. “It doesn’t need anything to pull it. Your friend the Hatter told it to find you, or perhaps it sensed you needed it, and so it trundled off on its own.”

I ran my hand over one of the iron wheels. The idea appealed to me. It was a little creepy, imagining the cart as a living, thinking thing, one that might have opinions about me or my tea shop, but there was also something comforting about it.

“Thank you,” I murmured to the cart. I could have sworn I heard a quiet chuckle in response, though I couldn’t tell where it had come from.

“Ready?” Alex said.

I looked around the table. Never had I seen a more ridiculous tea party, and that was saying something. We’d decided the party should seem as grand as possible, which meant lots of guests. Unfortunately, there were only four of us, which wasn’t very grand. Consequently, we’d set a place for each of the hedgehogs. Maria had put little hats on them, woven from the wool she’d brought with her, to make them look smarter. Naturally the hedgehogs were too small to reach the table from a folding chair, so we’d used cushions to add extra height. It was a struggle getting the hedgehogs to stay put, of course, so I’d fed them crickets and berries until they became sluggish, and fully half had fallen asleep. Hedgewitch was curled up in the sugar bowl, cubes of sugar scattered around her.

“I suppose so,” I said, trying to bury my trepidation. All I could think about was my last encounter with this particular mock dragon, from which I’d only escaped with the help of the sleepiness teacup—which was gone.

I adjusted the teapot in the middle of the table. It was afternoon now, and cheerful sunlight spilled into the forest clearing where we’d chosen to lay our trap. The jubjub birds were warbling in their sinister way, and it seemed impossible that, any moment now, we might have to face the third mock dragon.

But that was what we were hoping. We’d placed advertisements for our tea party along the paths, nailing them to trees or spearing them on branches. They were advertisements for Alice’s Traveling Tea Shop that I’d made myself several weeks ago. We’d penciled in the time and place of the party at the bottom.

“Do you really think he’ll come?” Maria asked.

“Even if he didn’t like Alice’s tea,” Alex said, “surely he’d want his revenge on her for casting a sleep spell on him.”

This was sound logic, though I couldn’t help wishing Alex hadn’t put it so bluntly. My stomach had knotted up so badly I needed to sit down.

“Where will the mock dragon sit?” Jack asked, settling himself on the chair beside me. Our tea table was rather misshapen and uneven. My folding table was too small to seat more than six, so we’d shoved it against a huge round stump and draped the tablecloth over them both. I would have wished for a more elegant presentation, but I supposed the owner of a Traveling Tea Shop couldn’t be too picky.

“Here,” I said, indicating the place directly across from me. No doubt the mock dragon would be too large for a chair, so we’d placed a blanket and cushion on the grass for him. The chair to the left of the mock dragon would be empty, while Grackle had claimed the place to the right. I had chosen to interpret this as a thoughtful gesture, while Jack had said flatly that Grackle was only sitting there because it would offer the best view if the mock dragon decided to eat us.

“Why don’t you give him the chalice?” Alex said.

“It’s not fully hardened yet.” I’d placed the chalice at the center of the tea table next to the teapot, where it looked as out of place as a lumpy half chalice, half teacup could possibly look. I wasn’t certain what I was going to do with it—perhaps if I threw it in the mock dragon’s mouth, he would choke on it.

“Mind if I join you?” someone said from the shadows, making us all start.

Alicia stalked out of the forest. Her red hair was pulled back from her face in a taut braid, and she had a sword strapped to her back and a rope coiled at her waist. Together with her leather breeches and breastplate, she was the spitting image of a heroic warrior, the Alice of the White Queen’s prophecy. Her face had more color in it than the last time I’d seen her, and she stood up straighter, as if her days in Wonderland had strengthened something inside her.

Everybody else, hedgehogs included, stopped what they were doing and stared at her. Grackle was the only exception—he coldly continued chewing holes in the silk scraps Jack had put on a plate for him.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

Alicia shrugged and pulled out a chair. “There’s plenty of room.”

“Not for you, there isn’t,” Maria said.

Alicia ignored her. “Aren’t you going to offer me tea? That isn’t very civil.”

“It isn’t very civil to try to murder your host,” I snapped.

“I didn’t,” Alicia said, covering her mouth in mock outrage. “What a liar you are!”

I glared at her. “You absolutely did try to murder me, not one week ago. You tried to shove me into a hollow.”

“Oh.” She gave another shrug and helped herself to a scone. “You weren’t my host then.”

I placed a hand on Jack’s arm. Fortunately, it didn’t seem that Alicia had noticed how, for the briefest of seconds, Jack’s outline had seemed to shimmer between that of a boy and something distinctly monstrous.

“What are you doing here, Alicia?” Maria said, her voice hard. “When we last saw you, you seemed very determined to work alone.”

“And where’s my whump-thumper?” Alex demanded. “I liked that one. I put extra green salts in it.”