Alice In Chains (14 page)

When Ruddle came round to gather the day’s crop he examined her offering with a slight frown. ‘Ah, well, it’s only your first. No doubt you’ll do better tomorrow.’

Alice watched him carry his basket of fruit out of the walled garden. With the gate only half closed behind him he paused, put the basket down and lifted his hat to scratch his head. It was only because she was the nearest to the gate that Alice noticed, and in any other circumstances it would have been an absolutely unremarkable gesture. But what she saw under his hat made her stifle a gasp.

Suzanne looked round at her. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Nothing,’ Alice said distractedly. ‘I’ve just realised something. I need to think it over. Tell you in the morning.’

How could she use what she now knew about Ruddle to her best advantage?

Ruddle was not her first concern in the morning, however. Alice woke up feeling sick. Suzanne looked at her anxiously.

‘You don’t look good. You, well … your petals are droopy and look sort of brown round the edges.’

‘I don’t feel good either,’ Alice said testily, trying to cover her fear. She had never felt ill before in Underland. What was wrong with her?

She was worse by the time Ruddle came round. He examined her then shook his head gravely. ‘I fear it is
the
residual effect of the potion you took that produced that strange pubic growth, Alice. Your body is rejecting the bulb. It will have to be cut away. I’m so sorry for you.’

She should be sorry? she thought wonderingly. For once her feathery bane was working to her advantage. She would be free of the damned plant. But what to do then? Her mind raced.

Ruddle drew out a sheath knife from his pocket, unsnapped the blade, and with a look of profound sadness, sliced through the root midway between Alice’s bottom and the soil.

It seemed to Alice that she could feel the bulb begin to shrivel within her. The tendrils that had so intimately threaded their way through her body were contracting. The spray of petals about her head sagged, then began to split apart, their ends fraying into finer threads. She was getting her hair back. Her nipple petals dropped in a shower. She would never be as sensitive there again. The petals about her pubes stiffened into feathers once more. She could have done without those. Ruddle pulled on the shrivelling root trailing from her anus. Alice gasped as the remains of the bulb popped out of her and hung from his hand, withered and dead.

‘Please, I feel so cold,’ Alice said pitifully. ‘I … can’t feel my legs and arms. They’re going dead!’

‘Poor girl,’ said Ruddle, sounding genuinely concerned. ‘I’ll take you to the greenhouse. You’ll be warmer there.’

He unbuckled her supporting straps and she fell limply into his arms. With the troubled eyes of all the other flowergirls on her, he carried her across the yard and into the warmth of the greenhouse.

Ruddle laid her down tenderly on the potting table and smoothed back her hair.

‘Please … some water,’ Alice gasped.

‘Of course. You just lie quietly.’ He found a tin mug and went out to the pump in the yard.

Alice heaved herself off the bench and almost fell to the floor, feeling horribly weak but determined. There would only be one chance to do this. She fumbled amongst the clutter on the shelf for what she was looking for, cursing the clumsiness of her fingers. Then she staggered over to the wooden slatted cabinet.

Ruddle came back in carrying the cup. ‘Here you are, Alice … what?’

Pale but resolute, Alice was standing with the tray of mutotisflos bulbs balanced on one arm and an open bottle of weed killer poised above it. ‘Take one more step and I swear I’ll pour this all over them,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what’s in it but it’s got a skull and crossbones on so I guess it’s not nice. What will it do to your precious bulbs, I wonder?’

‘No!’ Ruddle groaned in horror. ‘You mustn’t!’

‘Just watch me!’

Ruddle’s huge frame seemed to sag. He looked more like a small boy being forced to accept a scolding. He must really love these things, Alice thought.

‘What do you want?’ he asked faintly.

‘I want to get out of here,’ Alice said. ‘And I don’t want to go alone …’

In the end three of the girlflowers decided to stay as they were. Perhaps when confronted with the chance of freedom they found they no longer had the nerve to face it, or perhaps this was the right place for them, Alice did not know. It seemed a mad choice, but then this was Underland where madness was the norm. Either way there was no time to argue. They had their chance, what they did with it was not her business.

‘But what’s to stop him doing all this again?’ Suzanne asked Alice as they watched the last of the freed girls recovering the use of their legs.

‘A promise … and a threat,’ Alice said with a determined grin. She still had the bulbs and weed killer
at
the ready, though her arm was beginning to ache. Ruddle stood in one corner looking on mournfully.

When all the girls were strong enough to stand, she turned to Ruddle. ‘Take off your hat,’ she commanded.

He gaped at her incredulously. ‘What are you saying?’

‘Do it!’

With a trembling hand he lifted the battered old straw hat from his head. Underneath was a gleaming red crown.

‘Even though you ran away from the war, some habits are hard to break, aren’t they?’ Alice said. ‘And the name Ruddle, I think that’s another word for red ochre or something. Everybody, meet Carnelian, former king of Stauntonia!’

A murmur of wonder went up. Carnelian gazed round at them, suddenly looking very weary. ‘I was so tired of war,’ he said. ‘The joy goes out of slaughter after a while, especially when it’s the same faces again and again. You begin to wonder what the point of it all is. Once doubt crept in I began to notice how the natives were getting hurt and the land was being ravished. The more I studied them the more I found I loved beauty, whether it was the bodies of women or flowers. But there was no time for that when we had the next campaign to plan. So one day I just … slipped away. The King was gone and Ruddle took his place. By and by I made my way here and started to experiment. It was just a hobby.’

‘Call this a hobby?’ Suzanne cut in angrily.

‘Yes,’ Carnelian said simply. ‘I meant no harm. I really didn’t want to see beauty go to waste any more.’

Alice was beginning to feel sorry for him, but she had to see the thing through. ‘Do you believe that once you’ve said a thing that fixes it and you must take the consequences?’ she asked.

‘Of course.’

‘Then you’re going to promise that in future you’ll show any girlings who wander in here your special
flowers
first. No more knock-out plants. What happens next is up to them, understood?’

‘I promise I will not trick any girling into becoming a flowergirl,’ Carnelian said with a heavy sigh.

‘Remember, everybody here knows who you are now. If they hear of any girlings going missing, they can tell on you. The locals still remember what your kind did to Boardland, so I don’t think you’d be very popular.’

The King hung his head.

‘Now, everybody decide which way you’re going,’ Alice called out. ‘Apparently there are four exits so choose the right one. If you want to make for Uffish watch out for the Tweedle twins. Bye … and good luck!’

The girls milled about and began to file away out of the gardens. Suzanne stood by Alice. ‘I’m going to try to get back to Brillig. Are you still going there?’

‘If I can.’

Juliet was standing alone looking lost. ‘I just want to go home,’ she said hopelessly.

‘You’d better come with us,’ Alice said. ‘I won’t promise, but I’ll see what I can do to get you back.’

For the first time Juliet smiled. ‘Thanks,’ she said.

‘If you want to help, pick up three trug baskets from the yard, and three of the widest support straps you can find.’

‘Why?’

‘You’ll see.’

Now there were only themselves and the King left.

‘I’ll put the bulbs down outside the north gate,’ Alice told him. ‘You can pick it up when we’re gone. One more thing. In case you have any idea about breaking your promise, the “mistress” I’m running an errand for is your wife. Now you wouldn’t want me to tell her where you’re hiding, would you?’

Leaving Carnelian looking very pale, they joined Juliet in the yard and the three of them jogged along
paths
until they came to a gate like the one Alice had come through three days earlier. Beyond it was another brook and the barrier guarding the next square. So long to get so not very far, she thought bitterly.

Alice put the tray of bulbs down and said, ‘Jump!’

They sprang over the brook and through the shimmering curtain.

Six

ON THE OTHER
side of the barrier was another idyllic forest. It seemed to Alice that Underland had an endless supply of such settings, but its greatest appeal at that moment was that it appeared to be quite deserted.

She looked at Suzanne. ‘You’re the guide. Which way now?’

Suzanne ran her fingers through her newly restored shoulder-length dark brown mane. She carried her slim figure with a light step and her small nipples stood up cheerfully. Alice guessed she was a couple of years older than herself.

‘I don’t actually live around here, remember, but I know there’s a small town called Gyre somewhere in this square because I passed through it with my master. Trains run to Brillig from there, but we’d need money for tickets, and I don’t think they’ll allow girlings to travel unaccompanied.’

‘We’ll work round that when we get there,’ Alice said. ‘I suppose we’d better find a path or track and see where it takes us. You all right with that, Juliet?’

The third member of their party had been looking about her in silence. Her girlflower petals had turned back into long curling mid-brown locks, the ends of which she was twirling nervously about her fingers. She was even prettier than Alice had thought, with an attractive remnant of puppy fat about her waist and
rounded
bottom, contrasting with breasts only a little smaller than Alice’s own, capped by large brown nipples. Her face however was clouded and she looked at them anxiously.

‘Can we find some clothes first, please?’ she asked. ‘I don’t like walking round with nothing on.’

Suzanne and Alice looked at her in surprise. ‘Girlings don’t wear clothes in Underland,’ Suzanne explained.

‘But I’m not a girling!’ Juliet insisted.

‘You are here,’ Alice told her firmly, ‘so you’d better get used to it. If we want to travel inconspicuously we must look the part of properly owned and collared girlings running an errand. That’s why we’ve brought the baskets and straps.’

‘Oh, I wondered why you wanted them,’ Suzanne said. ‘Now I get it.’

‘You mean, we’ve got to wear collars?’ Juliet exclaimed. ‘But we’ve just got out of those horrid straps.’

‘And now they’ll pass as collars,’ Alice said, picking one up and buckling it about her neck. Suzanne did the same. Juliet fingered the remaining strap while biting her lip, then with great reluctance put it on.

‘See, it’s not so bad,’ Alice reassured her. ‘We’ll carry a basket each and pick a few flowers or something, so that if we meet anybody they’ll see what we’re doing and won’t bother us. If they do just keep your eyes lowered and try to look humble and you’ll be fine.’

‘I hate this,’ Juliet said. ‘I shouldn’t be here.’

‘We know you’ve had a bad introduction to Underland,’ Suzanne said. ‘What happened in the garden was OTT even for this place. But it can be wonderful, trust me. I’m sure you’ll find out where you fit in soon enough.’

‘I don’t fit in anywhere here,’ Juliet said sharply. ‘I just want to go home!’

Alice and Suzanne exchanged helpless glances. ‘First let’s find a station,’ Alice said.

* * *

They came upon a fairly well-used path running through the woods, which led to a lane that wound on between open fields. In the distance they saw a cluster of rooftops which they hoped was Gyre. As they went they picked bluebells, berries and a variety of nut that Suzanne said was safe to eat. These added convincing variety to their baskets and also doubled as rations.

Along the way they passed a weasel farmer driving a team of four naked and heavily harnessed girlings who were drawing his haycart. Alice, Suzanne and Juliet kept to the side of the lane with their heads bowed and he went by with hardly a glance. Once he was behind them, however, Juliet twisted round to gape at the cart and its straining team.

‘He’s an animal … and he’s using those women like horses!’ she said in amazement.

‘Of course,’ Suzanne exclaimed. ‘Didn’t you listen to any of the gossip in the garden? Half of it was about how well or badly our masters treated us. In Underland we do the work animals do, or did anyway, in our world. Here we’re usually bigger than they are so it makes sense.’

‘And there are no female animals, so we fill in there as well,’ Alice added.

Juliet looked from one to the other of them in horror. ‘But … you couldn’t let an animal do that to you!’

‘Well, you don’t usually have a choice,’ Alice said with a grin, trying to sound offhand to allay the girl’s evident concern. ‘It’s strange at first, but you get used to it. In fact it can be very good. Remember, animals are people here.’

‘I’d rather have sex with the right animal than the wrong person,’ Suzanne declared boldly. ‘Didn’t you realise my master’s a pine marten? He’s lovely. Sometimes he can be strict, of course, but mostly he’s very kind … and right now I miss him more than you know, and if you can’t say anything nice about that, then be quiet!’

Juliet looked at her in disbelief. ‘You’re … filthy! And this place is mad!’

They walked on for a while in strained silence, with Juliet trailing behind the other two. Eventually Suzanne said quietly to Alice, ‘I’ve never seen anybody react this badly before, at least not for so long. Whatever new girls say you can usually tell they’re really excited underneath.’

‘That’s how I was at first,’ Alice agreed. ‘I thought everybody who came here belonged, even if they didn’t know it. Either they find their own way or they’re brought by somebody like the White Rabbit who can sniff out submissives. You’re sure you don’t know how she got here?’