White Rabbit Chapter 33

33.

It wasn’t long until the strong walls of the castle became visible in the distance. There were no more covered bridges and the trees ended succinctly at a safe distance from the castle. The troupe came to a clearing and across an open valley veiled in white wintry clouds there it stood. Swarms of dragonflies buzzed into the bright sky. It had thick towering gray natural rock walls and a large tower that jutted up and penetrated though thickening clouds seemingly with no end. On the tower there were slivers of black medieval-like windows spiraling up around it, allowing enough space for archers to shoot their bows. The archers were all dead. It looked very familiar to Delores and it felt as though it belonged to her. The castle was built to defend Ethereal from the evil that would become Torga. But the Queen and King who lived here before were no longer inhabitants and the Torgans’ ugly brown and yellow flag with the boar’s head crest flapped high up on one of the parapet poles. Sheep used to graze in the fields with roaming dogs that would keep trolls and other wild animals at bay. But there were no dogs. There were no sheep. They were all eaten and all that was left was the barren field.

            “Is there more you should tell me?” Delores asked Woodrow who had been unable to say anything since seeing the castle. He stared enamored.

            “Woodrow?”

            “Sorry…” Woodrow excused. “Well, I took you here. You’re on your own now. You have to do this alone.”

            “Who lived here before the Torgans took over?”

            Woodrow exhaled uneasily. He scratched his head and chin. “You, Delores. You lived here.”

            “I did?” It was dark and the full moon watched overhead.

            “Yes,” Woodrow affirmed.

            “I think I knew that,” Delores replied. The land and castle reminded her of a sprawling French, or Irish, estate that she knew well. They stood on the edge of the woods and Delores clutched her sword. “Howard,” she called. The moon wasn’t used to speaking and his voice cracked like a pubescent’s. He appeared quickly, smiling awkwardly, blinking madly and sniffing nervously.

            “Yes, your majesty,” he answered eagerly.

            “You are going to give away our location,” she said calmly. “Remain here but let there be daylight.”

            “Yes, your majesty.”

            Daylight again. Howard’s faint silvery face was nearly invisible but he was still smiling.

            “Now,” she began assessing the situation, “Are there any werewolves left?”

            “None, you majesty, outside of captivity,” Howard replied.

            “Teddy bears?”

            “A few.”

            “Gather all the teddy bears you can gather and anyone, or anything else that can fight for that matter. Go to the sempstress’ cottage and gather the mannequins and the sewing machines. There are at least thirty. Tell everyone we need their help but first we need a flag. Had we a flag before?”

            “No, your majesty.”

            “Very well. We need a blood red flag with a rabbit on it. White,” she said carefully.

            “A blood red flag with a rabbit that is white…” Howard repeated.

            “Yes. Large enough so they can see it. Tell everyone that we are attacking the castle and we will overthrow the Torgans but only if we have their help. We cannot do it alone. Tell the women in particular that they should above all be vested because they wouldn’t want to be impregnated by a Torgan. Tell them that I expect them to fight and not to lie down. Tell them in great detail what happens to them. Be descript. And let them all know this, from their Queen,” Delores said confidently, “my motto, our motto, will and shall forever be regardless of anything or anyone, ‘Live free or die!’ Shout it to everyone. Understood?”

            “Live free or die…” he repeated smiling. “Yes.”

            “Can you see the captives in the castle?”

            “There is one that I can see. The rest, I presume, are in the dungeon below.”

            “And the one you can see?”

            “The King, your majesty. They keep him in the rack to torture him. It is atop the eastern parapet.”

            “I cannot believe my castle would have a dungeon and a rack…”

            “They converted the wine cellar into a dungeon and made the rack themselves when they took the castle. And gallows.”

            “What happened to me when they took the castle?”

            “You were fortunately not there, your majesty.”

            “Where was I?”

            Howard looked at Woodrow who looked down at his feet. His feet made a heart in the dirt then erased it.

            “Where was I?” Delores demanded.

            “We don’t know. The King thought you were there so he raced to save you but you were not and he was captured. There was one there who looked like you. The Torgan Queen. I mistook her for you.”

            “It was a trap.” Woodrow said in the moon's defense.

“The Torgan Queen?”

            “She looks exactly like you, your majesty. But she wears white, has white hair, and is obsessed with logic, reason and common sense.”

“Ick!”

“She ruled Ethereal while you were gone. Everyone thought she was you…but white and less fun. She printed money with her likeness and there were weekly parades.”

            “The Torgans are ruled by a ostentatious queen?”

            “Yes,” Howard replied. “A male race ruled by a queen. Like bees.”

            “Sick! But if I was Queen all along why was I condemned to Torga when I came here?”

            Woodrow spoke up, perhaps tired of hearing Howard the moon speak like a know-it-all. “No one knew who you were, your majesty. No one had ever seen the Queen before, at least, since you were a child. You were much younger. I have a picture.” Woodrow pulled a wallet from a pocket inside of his cloak and flipped through the pictures. A squirrel, his mother, then two back from the front there was a picture of Delores sitting on Cleopatra. She was eight years old and she remembered the exact day the picture was taken. It was on a Easter Sunday and she was wearing a yellow Easter dress. “So please pardon the mistake.”     

            “Forgiven. So why do they torture the King?”

Howard answered quickly. “To find out where you are.”

“Where I am?”

“In the other world. If they finish you there then there will be no chance for you to finish them here.”

“Wait…So when did I return and rule with the King? I am confused. You said everyone thought she was me.”

“Because,” Howard replied, “no one really knew what you looked like.”

“Delores...excuse me, your majesty,” Woodrow said. “You must remember that we are not slaves of time. We do not age and there is no such thing as chronological order and logic and reason have no rule.”

Delores thought upon the woodchucks words. Her mind was blown. “Not slaves of time, yet. Torgan slaves you will be if you don’t gather all your forest friends and raise an army to defeat them.”

“Yes, your majesty,” they both said simultaneously. 

“So what of this book I wrote, White Rabbit…” before she could realize her mistake, or Woodrow could stop her from saying the last word when he sensed she was going to say it, there was a bright explosion of light and Delores closed her eyes tight so not to be blinded. When she opened them she was laying on an examination table in a dimly lit doctor’s office. She couldn’t move her body and the doctor was speaking quietly at the foot of the table to her mother in a thick accent.

            “How could I be so stupid!” she groaned immediately.

            A strange older woman was holding her hand next to her telling her not feel bad. “Feel bad for what?” Delores asked confused. She received nothing but a smile back. The lady was holding a Bible and Delores groaned, "Oh, Christ!" She thought at first it was another exorcism. The lady also had the same thick accent and Delores knew that she was in Denmark.  

            “Everyone makes mistakes, Delores.” She went on quoting some Bible verse about mistakes that she had bookmarked. Delores drowned her out. The woman looked at the doctor and the doctor furtively advised a nurse on the other side of the examination table to do something by twitching his first two fingers. The next thing Delores knew something covered her nose and mouth and she drifted to sleep.