Vow of Deception (The Ministry of Curiosities #9)(75)

"Naturally," the commander said.

"And on one other condition."

I felt the gazes of both Seth and Gus on me.

"And that is?" the commander shouted.

"That you help us capture her enemy in this realm first."

Beside me, Seth grunted. "I like your thinking, but they'll never agree to it."

The commander leaned on the saddle pommel and shifted his weight. "Why would I do that? We outnumber you." He indicated his army behind him. "We can just take her."

"You could try," I said. "But she'll kill herself before she lets you. She's inside now, holding a gun to her temple. If you refuse my request and storm the house, she'll fire it."

He cocked his head to the side. "Gun?"

One of other riders came up to him and said something. He was considerably younger than the commander. He spoke in tones that didn't carry to us, but whatever he said held the commander's attention. When he finished speaking, they both looked at us.

"Well?" I asked. "Will you help us in exchange for Alice?"

The commander shifted his weight forward again and I realized he did that when he was thinking. The advisor beside him said something. He looked to be in earnest.

The commander nodded. "Miss Alice will be returning to Wonderland to stand trial," he called out to us. "If she is found guilty, she will die anyway. Here or there, it matters not."

"Jesus," Gus muttered.

"I don't believe you," I said. "You would not be negotiating with me if it didn't matter. You would have taken her before now, dead or alive. But I suspect you don't want to deny your queen a trial."

The distance between us was great, but I could just make out the commander's grunt. The advisor nodded sagely. My hunch was correct then—Alice was worth more to them alive than dead. She was, after all, the queen's niece, and the Queen of Hearts wanted her to face trial in Wonderland.

At the advisor's prompting, the commander nodded. "We agree! But I want to see Miss Alice first."

"No!" Seth shouted back.

"I am here," came Alice's voice behind us. She held a pistol to her head.

The commander straightened. The advisor closed his eyes in relief. Then he opened them and wheeled his horse back to the line of soldiers. He ordered them to stand down, to lower their weapons. They obeyed him and the commander did not seem to care that his underling was barking orders at his men.

"What now?" Seth asked me.

"Now we approach," I said. "Carefully. Alice, take my hand. We'll go together."

"I don't like this," Seth said.

"We ain't got no choice," Gus told him.

"Charlie," whispered Cook from the doorway. "Want me to ride to Marchbank?"

"The Gillinghams' first," I said. "Tell Harriet to meet us at Swinburn's house. Then inform Lord Marchbank."

Alice's hand touched mine. I held it firmly and gave her a grim smile. I wanted to reassure her, tell her it would be all right, and that I knew what I was doing.

But I couldn't offer her false hope. I did not know if my plan would work. The more I thought about it, the more I doubted that we could pull it off. So many things could go wrong.

We walked together to stand before the commander. Seth and Gus stood behind us. The commander's steely gaze flicked over them then me and settled on Alice.

He bowed his head. "Miss Alice."

She clutched me tighter. "Who are you?"

"Loren Ironside, General of the Wonderland Army. We have met but you were too young to remember."

"Clearly."

He grunted, as if her off-handed comment amused him. She hadn't meant to be funny.

The advisor returned. He too bowed his head. "Princess—" At a sharp glare from General Ironside, the advisor coughed. "Miss Alice. It's a pleasure to see you again."

"We've met too, I suppose," she said. "When I was young and living in Wonderland."

"I was ten when you…left, and I remember you well. Markell Ironside, at your service."

I glanced between the two men and saw the resemblance. Both had clear, clever green eyes and dark hair, although the general's was tinged with gray. Where the general had probably been handsome when he was the advisor's age, the burdens of battle had settled into the tired grooves across his forehead and hardened the set of his mouth.

"Father and son?" Alice asked.

"Guilty," Markell Ironside said with a quirk of his lips.

The general grunted again and I still could not decipher what it meant. He was harder to read than Lincoln.

"Tell me, sirs, what is all this about?" Alice asked. "Why am I under arrest for treason?"

"There'll be time to discuss it later." The general wheeled his horse around. "Get on the cart. All of you. Take us to your enemy so we can vanquish them and go home."

"Not vanquish," I said. "We need him alive."

"Forgive him for being terse," the advisor whispered. "He's feeling his age."

Under different circumstances I would have liked him.

"This is not a joke," Seth snapped. He muttered something very rude under his breath.