Page 62 of Wondrous

“Hmm, let’s see.” The mock dragon downed the rest of the tea, and Jack hastened to refill his cup. “They both collect shiny things? Coins, pocket watches, paper clips.”

I tilted my head to one side, pretending to mull it over. “That’s a bit better, although—”

“It’s not right, is it?” the mock dragon said, still drumming his talons. “Ah, I have it!” He paused. “No, I don’t. This is an impossible riddle.”

“Impossible needs only an apostrophe in the right place,” I replied, which was something the Hare had said to me once. I didn’t understand it, but the mock dragon nodded as if this was very wise.

“What else?” he muttered. “Could it be—no, that’s too obvious. Or—no, not obvious enough. Mmm.”

He muttered to himself for another moment, and then he looked up, eyes gleaming triumphantly.

“I’ve got it,” he said. “Both of them have—”

I never heard the mock dragon’s answer. Because Alicia shoved her chair back, drew her sword, and stabbed him.

Chapter 32

The mock dragon gave an earsplitting snort of shock, his talons scrabbling against the table, sending more teacups and hedgehogs rolling to the ground. He lifted his head in a scream and unleashed a fountain of fire. It caught the nearest tree, which burst into flame.

I made to dive beneath the table, but Jack grabbed my arm and shoved me toward the forest—just in time. The mock dragon was flailing, and one of his wings knocked the table over. It flipped three times before coming to a stop some yards away. The mock dragon spun around and fixed his dark gaze on Alicia.

He wasn’t hurt badly—I could tell that much. He’d shaken the sword free from his wing as if it were an insect that had stung him. Alicia must have known that, too, and yet still she stood there, facing the monster towering over her with nothing but her bare hands. Her face was pale, but she glared right back at him, seeming to size him up.

As the mock dragon opened his beak and drew a deep breath like the whoosh of a bellows, I wrenched myself free of Jack and charged at Alicia. I tackled her to the ground, using the momentum to roll us over and over, just barely managing to reach the shelter of the overturned table before the mock dragon unleashed a vast gush of fire.

We screamed as flame struck the other side of the table, licking its way around the sides. I smelled burnt wood and felt the painful heat, but it didn’t burn us.

The table, though, was a smoldering ruin. At the same time, the fire the mock dragon had ignited in the tree was spreading to its neighbors. Ash and embers fell around us like rain, and I glimpsed several terrible yawning chasms opening in the canopy above. More hollows.

The mock dragon drew another breath, but suddenly Maria had lunged between us, throwing her net over the creature’s head. It was the same net we’d used so effectively on the last mock dragon—but the difference, of course, was that the last mock dragon had offered no resistance. The monster before us gave a hiss of fury and wrenched the net from his head before it could ensnare him, then unleashed a blast of fire at it. The net was unharmed, but another tree began to burn. Maria screamed as a flaming branch plummeted toward her, and Jack pulled her out of the way.

“Let’s go,” he called over his shoulder as he helped Maria to her feet. “Before this whole place turns into another hollow!”

I tried to drag Alicia from the clearing, but she fought me. The mock dragon would have blasted us again, but Alex launched a firework, cleverly aiming at the back of the mock dragon’s head so he had to turn around, spewing fire as he did.

So much fire! The third mock dragon didn’t seem limited in his fire-breathing capacity, as the other two had. It was as if he carried the sun in his throat.

“What are you doing?” I cried as Alicia shoved me away.

“It’s mine!” she shouted, and pulled a dagger from some hidden sheath in her breastplate.

“Have you lost your mind?” I tried to grab her arm, but she only shoved me again, so hard that I toppled over backward. Alicia marched toward the dragon, her face hard and cold but also looking a little like she might be sick. The mock dragon, meanwhile, had been moving toward Maria, who had fled to the forest. But at the sight of another Alice, much closer at hand and conveniently not running away, he paused.

The mock dragon opened his beak. His flame had been stoked so high that I could see it burning behind his eyes, and I knew he could ignite the entire grove in a single breath.

“Alicia!” I shrieked. I managed to regain my feet, but I knew I wouldn’t reach her in time. I wanted to scream at the unfairness of it—we had been so close.

Sometimes close is farther than far, the Hare’s voice murmured in my mind, and my vision blurred with tears. I wouldn’t have a chance to say goodbye to him and the Hatter.

But suddenly, Jack was there. He threw himself into the air, changing shape mid-leap. He flew toward the mock dragon like an arrow, then coiled around him, once and then twice. The mock dragon snapped his beak at Jack, but Jack was all swiftness and grace and couldn’t be caught. He coiled once more around the mock dragon and retreated.

The mock dragon gave a hoarse shriek that was very much like a raven’s. It was strangled, though—he could barely open his beak. Something that looked like ivy made of mist was now wrapped around him—it gleamed here and there in the fiery light of the grove. The mock dragon thrashed and managed to free half a wing, but before he could regain his balance, Jack had shot back out of the forest and collided with his back.

The force of the blow sent the mock dragon reeling forward, toward a shadowy patch of forest. Then he was simply gone.

I stood motionless, as if I’d been enchanted. Ash swirled around me, a large flake landing on my hair, and still I didn’t move. Jack had dealt with the mock dragon so neatly that I almost felt afraid of him again. And where had the beast gone? Had Jack used some new and terrible jabberwock power of his?

Then I realized: The shadow that had swallowed the mock dragon wasn’t a shadow. It was a hollow.