Alice

Chapter One

Fantastic, thought thirteen year old Alice. Artimus Bates. Blegh!

The Queen had sent for the queendom's finest scholar, Artimus Bates, to give Alice her lessons. It was the dawn of young Alice's thirteenth birthday, the first day of her queenly training. Alice had known this day was approaching, and though it meant her birthday, it also meant she would have to study the history of the seven kingdoms (two of which were basically queendoms), learn to keep her imagination in control, and train her mind in the ways of magic. Her family had ruled over the Levengale Queendom for over two centuries. It was tradition for the daughters, for they ALWAYS had daughters, to start their training on their thirteenth birthday.

Alice sat at the too long dining table for breakfast. "Mother, why so early? And why Artimus? He's a pompous fool!"

"Alice!" her majesty, Queen Anjelika Levengale, said. "Do not speak of Atrimus in such a manner. He is quiet capable, and he taught me and my mother. He's very knowledgeable. Now finish breakfast, he'll be arriving soon." The queen had ruled for thirteen years. She was corrinated the year Alice was born. Her mother, Alice's grandmother Queen Elizabeth Levengale, had been assassinated by the queen of the witches, Julianna. The Coven, as they were collectively named, had been a source of great disturbance in the Queendom. The Levengale Queendom was the biggest in the seven kingdoms. It has the highest rule, and power over all the others. If dispute arises and it cannot be conquered it falls in this queendom's hands for resolution.

That is why Queen Anjelika was crowned so early. If her mother had not been killed, Anjelika would have ascended to power when she was thirty instead of ten years yearly. Though young in age, Queen Anjelika had been a great Queen. Fair and powerful and tending to the needs of all the kingdoms as needed. Her reign had been a great one, and she would still be in power until Alice turned thirty.

Alice finished breakfast of eggs, toast, ham, and pomegranate juice and headed reluctantly to the court yard where Artimus would surly be waiting, perfectly on time as usual. Alice had first encountered Artimus when she was seven. He had been called to the Amethyst Courts to sit in on a hearing. He and Anjelika had been conversing on the meeting when Alice, unfortunately, walked by. Her mother introduced her and Artimus assessed her. "Well, she's a bit small for her age. You say she has a good imagination? We'll see." From that moment on Alice had disliked the man for not believing that she, a girl who conjured a living and breathing cat out of her imagination when she was only five, had a good imagination.

Imaginative powers had been inherited through ALL of the royal families, and the magic that allowed it was present in some common people too. It was simple enough. Think of something and will it into existence. It was harder to do the bigger the imagining, and it took concentration. Alice's mother and father, King Patrik, had called her a prodigy.

Alice had been right. Artimus was waiting for her as she entered the castle's northern courtyard. The space was walled on all four sides, opening into the hallways through pillared alcoves. There were trees of all kinds spaced though this courtyard in particular. Blossoming apple trees, silver maples, and sapphire pines were Alice's favorites.

"Hello, princess," Artimus said. He was wearing a long flowing green robe and pointed shoes. He was taller than Alice, balding and all his hair was white even the long beard he had grown. His violet eyes, which he'd inherited from his mother who was a Glowerhaven witch, a good witch not evil, surveyed her. Disapproval showed on his wrinkled old face. "My how you've grown."

"Hello, Artimus, your looking well." Alice lied. "Is that a new robe?" she said trying to make small talk and delay the lesson.

"Why yes it is, very keen eye. Now on to the lesson." her attempt had failed. "You lessons shall include subjects of history, physical training, intellect, magic, imagination, and political. Starting with the history of the…" and he blabbed on about the first kingdom, Lissendal. Alice had more important things on her mind. Nothing stupid like princes or what she was to wear, but important things like how she would rule the kingdom. She had observed how her mother had done it since she was old enough to comprehend. She wanted to be a good Queen and live up to the Levengale name. Patrik and Anjelika had insisted that Alice attend all the balls and gatherings since she turned eleven, trying to introduce possible male counterparts to help her rule the kingdom. But Alice wasn't interested in that, she was nervous about the job she would do on the whole. "Alice?…Alice, are you listening?" Artimus asked.

"Hmm, yes, yes you were talking about the fall of Genevieve the first." Alice had said hoping she was right. That was the earliest bit of history she remembered from Lissendal.

"Hmm, right ok well.." and he continued. Alice the Lucky score One, Artimus the Oblivious Score zero. Alice's attention drifted from Artimus' rambling lesson, to the wave of the trees, to the song of the birds, and then she began to imagine things. The first of which was that she had a pair of earplugs, they appeared silently and added to the comfort of the princess. Second she conjured a small tear in Artimus' new robes, but quickly thought it away, she couldn't do that. All and all the lesson had been as she'd thought, boring.

Alice retired to her room on the fifth floor of the castle. A long walk should one not be educated in the ways of the help. There were many secrets to the castle and the service knew many, using the passages to lighten their load when running errands. These passages were unbeknownst to others such as the King and Queen. Alice's room was a long rectangle. Fifteen feet wide and thirty two feet long. The walls were covered with rose wood paneling three feet from the floor. The room looked much larger than it was in reality due to the length and the high ceiling. There was an elaborate sapphire-colored rug on the floor, it had on it many piles of books ranging from novels to short stories to tomes of unnatural size. Her king-sized bed sat in its emerald bedclothes in the far corner, with her vanity and armoire in front of it. And decorating the walls were gigantic portraits of the past Queens and the royal families.

Alice ran across her room, grabbing a random book from the pile, and jumped gracefully on the bed, landing just as softly as she'd imagined.

***

Alice had fallen asleep a good way into The Tale of Frozen Memoirs, The princess' favorite tale of love, adventure, trickery, deceit, and overwhelming odds. Her dreams were filled with the nonsense Artimus had been spouting off. Apparently her subconscious had retained some of the knowledge.

~Alice was thrust into the castle of old. Her body a mist that seemed to wisp away with a passing breeze. She was observing.

Queen Genevieve sat on her highly decorated throne. Her resemblance to great-great-great-great-great grand daughter was uncanny. If only the portraits could capture her beauty. It seemed to Alice that she was in the Amethyst courts standing next to her mother. She may have believed the notion if the boy ahead of them had not addressed the past Queen. "My Queen, my name is Jack. Jack Nartrist. I have traveled far for the counseling of the great and powerful Genevieve."

"Proceed." Genevieve prompted.

Jack was thrown into the story of the first of the Witch Queen's offences. Her brutal slaughter of the Chrissenthal Kingdom. The attack on the palace and the surrounding unfortunate villages. Julianna had planned for a long time and it was her goal to conquer the smallest and most insignificant of the then Nine kingdoms. As Jack's story proceeded, Alice was taken it seemed to the scene of the slaughter.

The towns people ran in several directions. None sure where the threat was exactly. Alice could see pillars of green fire coming in plumes from most of the houses. Maimed people could be seen through windows and lain about on the streets. Several children screamed for their parents who were either already dead or had left them to the same fate. And then Alice saw it. The Coven.

Twenty-two women, in garments ranging from long flowing dresses to cut off uneven skirts and corsets of all colors, mostly black, were situated in a circle of linked hands standing around their leader. Julianna. Their focus so strong Alice could see their magic flowing into the air like fire and smoke of various pale colors. Julianna seemed to relish at the atrocity that was her insanity.

Julianna, Alice could hear, was speaking in a tongue Alice had never heard before. As the sounds left Julianna's crimson lips, more destruction reigned down upon the defenseless city of Chrissenthal. Surprisingly it had taken this long for a team of under trained military to arrive. The witches had kept them at bay by burning the gate white-hot. The circle dissipated and the witches took on the coming army. Thought the Coven was outnumbers Three to one, the witches also battled four at a time, sometimes ganging up on several small groups.

The sights that Alice perceived would be the cause of many nightmares, but she kept watching. Never had a dream like this one entered Princess Alice's mind. One so real she could even smell the blood and magic in the air.

A group of three witches, Alice noticed, began to take on five of the men. At once the men attempted a close-combat strategy. Using their swords to back the witches into a corner. A blonde haired witch with a scarlet bustier and gown snapped just as one of the soldiers lunged for her comrade. Purple needle-like objects flew to the man, hitting his hands, legs, and face. The points of contact began to melt and blister as the needles quickly became acidic. Another of the witches, a red haired girl with silver jets of hair that reached her ankles, punched the air in front of her as two other men charged her. The air took on a green twinge and the two soldiers were lifted off their feet. Both dropped their swords and gripped their throats. Apparently being strangled by the enchantment. The remaining two soldiers attempted to run, but the last of the three witches saw this attempt and retaliated in a most vicious manner. She threw her hands back behind her body and then thrust them forward, summoning cerulean ribbons from her long trailing sleeves. The ribbons lashed and cut the soldiers even through their metal armor.

Similar scenes were taking place all around the scared princess and she flinched with every spray of blood or crunch of broken bone. Obviously the castle would be overtaken. Alice didn't know that Chrissenthal Castle was where the Coven resided. Suddenly the scene shifted form the scream infested bloody battle to that of the castle's insides. The throne room to be specific. King Rathbone and Queen Lista sat unaffected by the demeanor Julianna's figure emitted.

And Alice heard for the first time the spidery, high-pitched voice of Julianna, "You city is destroyed, your military slaughtered, and by the sun's last rays I can guarantee that not another life shall live to tell the tale of Chrissenthal. Give me the Kingdom willingly and those who are still alive, though few, will live and my Daughters will cease their attack. Alice assumed that Julianna had, probably quite easily, infiltrated the castle when its military had been preoccupied.

The king and Queen sat even still unmoving, their faces emotionless. "ANSWER ME!" Julianna roared in a voice unlike her own. One she probably assumed when she wanted to threaten. It sounded like a lion's roar mixed with the rasping of an old hag. The king and queen stayed put. That angered the already murderous queen. She stared at the two of them for a moment and they stared back, unmoving, unblinking…not even breathing. Suddenly Julianna's face flushed of color as she realized what had happened. The royal family had set up doubles to delay the Witch Queen's assault on the kingdom. Even if they had left it to be conquered they were safe. The selfish fools, thought Alice. And at that moment Julianna thrust her hands towards the copies, making javelins of energy pierce the bodies and splattering conjured blood on the walls around them. The act made Alice sick.

Julianna wasn't finished as Alice thought she would be. She walked to the right. There hung a giant shield painted with millions of ever swirling runes. She lazily lifted her arm and flicked her wrist and the runes peeled off the metallic shield. The symbols and letters gathered together merging and changing, forming a big ball of ink and paint. Then, with another wrist flick, the orb of ink shifted, changed. It bubbled and pulled, twisted and lurched. Then its transformation was complete. The creature resembled a grey hound, but with the head of a horse and hoofs to match. It had overly large leathery bat wings and the entire abomination was jet black. Alice didn't know it but the creature Julianna had just created would become highly feared in her time. The beasts would soon become Necrohounds.

Julianna snapped and the dog horse thing followed her to the window. She placed her palma and fingers on the glass and there a red ring began to glow. She removed her hand and the red glowing ring expanded until the glass had all been touched by it. The next thing Alice saw was the window in its entirety shatter into fine dust. "Find them! And don NOT return until you do!" She said in her spidery voice. The dog nodded and expanded its giant wings. Then running at the window it leapt and dove, taking flight at break-neck speeds.

Julianna looked up, right where Alice was floating. "I'm coming for you," she said smiling which itself looked painful for her, "You might want to be waking up soon." and then she began to cackle in true witch fashion.~

Alice awoke with a start. She opened her eyes and was face to face with one of the witches from her dream. The red haired one, only there was much more silver. Alice made to scream, but the woman shushed her and Alice's voice was stripped from her body. "EH HA HE HAHEHA" the woman cackled when Alice's attempt to call for help had failed. The woman whistled a low short note and then flicked her index finger at Alice, inevitably tying her up. Alice couldn't think straight. Nothing was coming to her. Was her imagination failing her?

Another woman walked in, dressed similarly as the other. Alice had slept through and infiltration. The second woman, long blonde hair trailing behind her and her ruby red eyes set on Alice, strode through the room. Alice Imagined the first woman smacking the second, but her will was not strong enough to conjure the idea into her head. She was not as skilled as she'd though.

"So do we take her with us or what?" the first woman said.

"I suppose." said the blonde, she seemed to have superiority over the other.

Alice tried to resist but her bonds were too tight and the spell placed on her voice silenced even moans and sighs. She was perfectly silent. The red haired woman picked her up roughly and threw Alice over her shoulder.

"Morgaine! Handle the princess with a bit more care won't you," said the blonde woman and Alice noticed her body language. She held her arms at the elbows under her breasts. Did she feel insecure about something? Then Alice noticed the burns on her bony fingers. Maybe she was afraid of failing her master, her queen, her mother as they say.

The two of them turned as Morgaine nodded and headed for the door. The halls were empty but otherwise looked normal. Outside the windows the queendom looked fine as if the witches were not attempting to overthrow the queen. Maybe they aren't, thought Alice.

(moved to the newly created poetry and prose subforum)