Read Online Malice in Wonderland Prequel by Lotus Rose - Free Book Online

card had retrieved his weapon at this point. He pointed it at the Knight, but seemed hesitant to interrupt their conversation.
    The Light Knight chuckled. “Ah, I would love to rescue you, my little damsel in distress. But rescue you from what?”
    Alice lifted the chain in her hands, shrugged her shoulders and bugged her eyes. “Do you not see I am being kept captive? I am a damsel in distress, as you have said, being kept against my will here in Wonderland.”
    “Oh, balderdash,” said the Knight. “What little girl wouldn’t want to be in Wonderland? Why it is a magical world of fantasy and imagination!”
    Alice scowled. She rattled her chains feebly.
    The card meanwhile, shook his spear. “Pardon me. Excuse me. Hate to interrupt…”
    The Knight looked at him. “Yes, my good man?”
    “May I inquire as to whether you come here with good will or bad?”
    “Ah, my apologies my good card! But I am here on the Queen’s business. I have secured the young Alice’s services for the accompaniment of me upon an important quest! She is to be my squire.”
    “Squire!?” said the card. He lowered his spear.
    “That is correct. A most noble position indeed, in this most perilous, and heroic undertaking. Forsooth.”
    “What’s a squire?” said Alice. “What is forsooth?”
    “I’ll tell you what a squire is. A squire is the knight’s most valuable servant. The carrier of his weapons, the carer for his heart, who keeps his stomach full and his mind pure. Only the most specifically chosen can aspire to the greatness of the station. And…” The Knight took about a dozen clanking steps toward Alice. Unfortunately he tripped and fell, but managed to get up quickly enough. He lifted his sword in the air. “And…I choose you!” He brought the sword down with a vicious strike as Alice winced, but the sword struck on the chain links resting on the ground, severing them with a loud clank.
    “Behold!” he proclaimed. “You have now been temporarily freed to be my servant!”
    “Blimey,” Alice muttered to herself as she lifted her arm that was still cuffed, with about four feet of dangling chains still connected.
    The Knight pointed his sword at the dangling bits of chain, nearly gashing Alice’s cheek in the process. “Oh that will not do.” He whirled around ferociously upon his heel and barked at the card, “Do you have the key? My squire must be unlocked this instant!”
    The guard card had suddenly grown meek. “Of course my liege.” He set about putting his spear down so that he could pick up the keys.
    Alice crinkled her eyes at him. “What makes you think I want to be your squire? Hmm?”
    She held her wrist out as the card unlocked her.
    “What? Praytell why wouldn’t you want to? Honor! Heroism! Adventure! It’s all there! Did I not mention we are going on a quest?”
    Alice was rubbing her newly-unchained wrist. “A quest for what, then?”
    The Knight sniffed. “A dragon. I wish to slay a dragon.”
    Both Alice and the guard card exclaimed simultaneously, “A dragon?!”
    The Knight nodded solemnly. “A rival most vulgar and vicious. A dragon like no other. This dragon I daresay is a menace. The ultimate menace.”
    Alice pouted. “But I’m just a little girl. I fail to see why I should be called upon to battle menaces, ultimate or otherwise.”
    “Well, er.” He fidgeted. “Maybe the dragon menace isn’t quite as ultimate as all of that, then. The point of it is that you are exactly sufficiently capable of assisting me in my heroic aim.”
    Alice placed her fist upon her hip. “Again, I ask you, why exactly I would want to put myself in harm’s way?”
    “Well, because you’re a good girl, correct?”
    “Yes, I even have the two shoes to prove it.” And here she showed him her shoes. He espied them with overmuch delight, she felt.
    He said, “And dragons are ferocious and bad, and must be put a stop to, so of course you’d want to help, being the good little girl that you