“I am not even registering anything you say.” I hold my head tight to stop it from exploding. “Can you just tell me where the circus is?”

“It’s right here in front of you,” she says. “You came all the way up here to find something all the way down there.” She points at Wonderland below.

I follow her gaze, and there it is in the distance: the circus’s tent.

Chapter 51

Meeting Hall, Buckingham Palace, London

Dr. Tom Truckle watched the Queen take the stage.

People stood up and clapped enthusiastically as she embarked on a stepper to reach the podium. The smug smile on her face was prominent as she asked them to “shut up” and “sit down.”

“Thank you for accepting my invitation for the most important event in the history of mankind,” she began. “I have chosen you for reasons only the likes of us can understand. Each one of you has a past I sympathize with and understand clearly.”

Dr. Tom thought he knew what she meant as he glanced at the list of members on the back of his card. But he needed to wait to confirm his suspicions.

“But before I lay out my plan, I’d like you to watch something.” She signaled to Margaret Kent, and a screen came down behind her. “What you’re going to see now will stir a few bad memories, but it’s a must.”

Dr. Tom watched the screen flicker, curious about what he was going to watch.

Chapter 52

The Maze, Wonderland

Time remaining: 9 hours, 23 minutes

It’s quite a maze to get to the circus.

I tried to memorize it while I was atop the Snail Mound, but now I’m not sure I won’t get lost down here.

It’s a hedge maze, curving left and right, but I’m determined to finish it and get to the circus in the center—that’s how it appeared to be from atop the spiral mound.

I notice that as I walk, the sky starts to turn blue again, and I seem to hear voices in the distance. The circus?

Hedge after hedge, curve after curve, I am going crazy. Whenever I think I am close to the sound, the maze ends.

I have to start all over again.

In my mind, I focus on the direction of the sound. Is it coming from my left side? Right side? Does it sound a bit muffled here because the maze is blocked? Does it flow better there?

The sounds are of a cheering crowd. Everyone seems happy about something. I am getting curiouser and curiouser.

More steps in, I stop in my tracks again.

Someone stands in front of me. Someone I didn’t expect to see in here.

“Fabiola?”

“Nice to see you again, Alice.” She is wrapped in white from head to toe. Her dress flutters to a light breeze and her smile is ever so enchanting.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” I say.

“I am not really who I am in this world, if that makes any sense.”

“No. It doesn’t make any sense.” I chuckle feebly. “But what does?”

“I understand.” She nods. “You’re in the Bridge of Time between past and present, real and unreal. It’s an aftermath of the March Hare trying to open portals to Wonderland with his gardens.”

“So this isn’t Wonderland?”

“It is... and it isn’t.”

“Here we go again,” I mumble.

“It’s like a memory where some things are true and some are lies.” Fabiola is trying her best to make sense of it. “I have no idea how I am here, just like you. But I know why I am here.”

“Why are you here, then, Fabiola?”

“To warn you. Whoever led you here with this maid’s dress and asked you to seek the circus wishes you harm.”

“What kind of harm?”

“The worst of all—emotional harm.”

“Why does he want to harm me, whoever it is who’s playing games?”

“It’s the only way for you to remember—at least a few things.”

“How I killed my friends in the bus?”

“No. That should come later,” Fabiola says. “You’re about to remember what really happened in the last days of Wonderland. Why the war is coming; a truth that I’ve tried to conceal for so long, even from myself.”

“I thought Lewis Carroll locked the Wonderland Monsters in here, so they wouldn’t bring chaos into the world,” I say. “I saw him do it when I was in the Tom Tower. Isn’t that Wonderland’s biggest secret?”

“Not at all.” Fabiola shakes her head. “Ever wondered why he locked them up?”

“I assumed they are evil.” I try to think of a better word. “That they want to hurt people in the real world.”

“That could be part of it, but it’s not the real truth.” Fabiola’s eyes are watery. “You see, there is a reason why the Wonderland Monsters, led by the Queen of Hearts, are incredibly powerful.”

“I had expected them to be led by the Cheshire,” I say. “I mean, he seemed the most evil, with his power.”

“The Cheshire is merely a hint to the dangers Wonderlanders could bring upon the real world. There is a reason why the Wonderland Wars could be the end of the world. A much grander reason,” Fabiola says. “Ever wondered why the Cheshire hates humans so much?”

“Because humans killed his ancestors in an eye-rolling story I have never heard anything like before.”

“That’s hardly scratching the surface,” Fabiola says. “Something happened to the Wonderland Monsters that made them this way—not that they weren’t obnoxious in Wonderland, but the twist of evil in their personalities happened later.”

“Why don’t you spell it out for me, Fabiola? Why all the puzzles?”

“Because memories are mostly visual. You have to see them to remember—of course, that’s if you’re the Real Alice. I’m not going to go over this again.”

“Apparently, this Hatter thinks I am her.”

“We all hope you’re her,” Fabiola says. “I know I didn’t believe it first, but trust me, I want to believe you’re her. But I don’t want to waste your time, as you have to go to circus and see what happened in the last days of Wonderland. I just wanted you to take notice of the door in the hedge to your right.”

I turn my head and there it is. A wooden door I hadn’t seen before.

“It’s okay that you haven’t seen it,” she says. “Sometimes, when we’re fixated on reaching the end, we miss the important things along the way.”

“You want me to open it?”

“Not now,” Fabiola says. “I’d prefer you open it on your way back. Its impact should be more to the point then.”

I let out a long sigh. I’m tired. I am really tired. My mind is about to fry. If I just get one normal thought to hang on, I think I’ll feel much better.

“I know it’s hard.” She steps over and touches my cheek. Her hands are warm. I feel at home. “And it’s your choice to walk the distance or not. I mean, you could have just given up on a rabbit with a bomb threatening the children in London. A sane person would have done that.”

“You mean only the insane walk the distance?”

“It’s an unusual way to put it.” She laughs. “But it’s true. Insanity isn’t always a curse. For those who know how to use it, it’s a bliss. Now, I have to go, Alice.”

She pulls her hand away and I feel lost. I feel without a family. Lonely, as usual.

I can hear the crowd in the distance cheering. Again, they sound so happy. I wonder how this could be bad at all.

“One more thing,” Fabiola says. “Once you reach the end of maze, you won’t be in Wonderland anymore. The Bridge of Time will take you to the 19th century.”

“In the real world?”

“Yes.” She nods. “The circus, Alice, was in the real world. It was the first moment in history when Wonderland and the real world collided.”

Chapter 53

Meeting Hall, Buckingham Palace, London

Tom Truckle squinted at the screen in the dark.

The movie was out of this world. It was as if some loony director had made a movie about Wonderland, pushing everything up a notch. A great movie, indeed. Except that the Queen was calling it a documentary.