Chesh swung his spiked tail with tremendous force, slamming into the Black Knight and sending it crashing into the castle wall. Great cracks spread along the stone wall from the force of the impact. Chesh, still in his monstrous form, narrowed his eyes, hoping for a victory.
However, like all the other times he had struck the demon, the Black Knight shrugged the strike off and advanced once more. One hand glowed purple and when it was only a few paces away it threw it forward.
Chesh rolled aside, expecting a projectile of some sort, but once he was back on his feet he noticed, to his delight, writhing tentacles of dark magic attacking their creator. The Black Knight swung its blade wildly, severing the tentacles slithering out of its open palm and striking it like angry serpents. Eventually the tentacles stopped appearing and for a moment the Black Knight seemed confused.
Chesh resumed his attack. He assumed something in the magic of Wonderland was affecting the Black Knight's casting abilities and thanked his good fortune. He raced past, slashing at the knight's face, and then tripped it up with his tail. Now behind his enemy, Chesh raked its back with his claws with as much power and speed he could muster.
The Black Knight spun around and slashed wide, scoring a deep slash across the Cheshire Cat's chest, sending him leaping back in pain. The knight rushed on as the spiked cat monster pressed a clawed paw on its bloodied chest. The Black Knight shot out another glowing open palm but this time instead of tentacles that spread out of it there was a great explosion of dark light. The Black Knight's open hand broke apart from the premature blast and had it growling in anger and stopping its charge.
Chesh, injured and feeling weak, sensed an opportunity to attack but decided against it. The Black Knight could cast no spells in Wonderland but its sword was dangerous enough. He instead shrunk to his regular size and form and faded away. He had done all he could to slow the enemy down. He hoped it was enough.
The Black Knight, having no one to fight, turned its furious gaze back toward the castle and marched ahead.
****
"Where is it?" Alice asked the March Hare as she appeared in the courtyard with Hatter and White Rabbit, breathing hard from her ceaseless run from the dungeons.
The March Hare stood in front of a contraption that consisted of wooden planks, beams, slides, baskets, ropes, weights, several mice on wheels, a huge wooden hand with clenching fingers attached to a pole, a large pot of steaming tea, and a single chair. Gripping his huge spoon in both hands, the Hare sat on the chair and eyed the castle's closed gates ahead.
"It's coming to the gates, good General," he replied to his queen's question. "Now watch me send it away!"
Hatter, standing beside Alice, eyed the contraption and nodded with appreciation. "A fine dinglewhopper, my friend. It has to be the finest I have ever seen. Give us a good show, eh!"
"Excuse me, it's a what?" Alice asked with a raised eyebrow.
"A dinglewhopper!" Hare and Hatter exclaimed simultaneously.
Alice furrowed her brows in confusion but just shook her head. "How curious. Very well, then... What does it do, dingles whops?"
Hare and Hatter burst into loud, sustained laughter.
"Oh, queen Alice," Hatter said, giving her a pat on the back as he wiped a tear of joy. "You are the greatest."
Alice, having no idea what was so funny, just smiled and shrugged. She had grown rather accustomed to Wonderland's bizarre weirdness by now and knew when not to ask too many questions. Sometimes it was best to just accept things as they were.
Suddenly, the closed gates burst apart into dozens of pieces. Standing beyond them, eyes red, tattered cap billowing, and sword gripped tightly, the Black Knight stood. It studied everyone gathered for a moment and then stepped into the courtyard.
"Give me Selvina!" it shouted, its voice like a fierce gale over a frozen field.
"Now!" the March Hare ordered. Immediately after, the mice in the wheels began running and Hare took a long sip of the hot tea. A ball rolled down the planks and slides, dropped into a basket, lowered and lifted several weights, and then the wooden hand launched forward. Sweeping in from behind the March Hare, it slammed into his back, closed its fingers tightly around him, and carried him off his chair. It then spun around and around its pole so quickly it was difficult to follow. The lifted weights, dangling from their weak ropes, eventually snapped off and fell. This apparently had something to do with the closed hand as immediately after the spinning hand came to an abrupt stop and shot the March Hare toward the Black Knight.
Crying a war cry and gripping his mighty spoon tightly, the speeding March Hare closed the gap between him and the Black Knight in a flash.
Alice, Hatter, White Rabbit, and all those gathered about watched with held breaths.
March Hare flew past the Black Knight and continued on through the shattered gate and into the garden of burning hedges, howling the whole way.
"Dinglewhoppers aren't known for their pinny-pointy accurateness," Hatter said with a sad shake of his head. "I say it was a good try, though!"
"But he missed!" cried the White Rabbit in a panic.
Alice gulped and eyed the Black Knight, disheartened by March Hare's failed attempt but not voicing it. So many had tried to defeat this demon and all had failed. Her plan was all that remained. It was her only hope. It was Wonderland's only hope.
"Hey!" she called out to it. "You want Selvina?"
"Give her to me!" the Black Knight growled, stomping over to Alice, passion burning in its eyes.
"What are you doing?" asked White Rabbit, hopping about in terror. "This is madness! You're bringing it closer!"
"That's the point," Alice said, her eyes on rapidly approaching knight.
"That's our Alice," Hatter added, giving White Rabbit a wink.
"I know where she is!" Alice shouted at the Black Knight, waving it over. "Follow me and I'll take you there!" Her heart beating madly and her skin bursting into sweat, she hurried into the castle as the Black Knight pursued. She was still exhausted from her run up from the dungeons but she found it surprisingly effortless to keep a safe distance from the menace behind her.
Fear, sometimes, can do wondrous things, she surmised.
Into the castle they went, through halls, across passages, turning corners, down stairs, and eventually into The Room of Doors. Along the room's circular wall were thirteen closed doors. In its center was a pedestal with an empty bowl.
Alice skidded to a stop, her body going cold, as she remembered a most important detail that she had forgotten.
She needed fairy dust for the doors to work.
The Black Knight entered the room and gazed around quickly, completely ignoring Alice. It went for the first door and opened it, revealing the wall behind it. With a growl it slashed the door to pieces. It then moved to the second door and, opening it to the same result, destroyed it as well.
Alice stepped back in terror. If she didn't place fairy dust into the bowl before the Black Knight destroyed all the doors her plan, and Wonderland, would be ruined. She had no idea where the fairies had gone and she had no time left to run back into the castle in search of them.
Desperately, she yelled, "Wait! Stop breaking the doors!"
At the fifth door, the Black Knight stopped and turned around, eyeing Alice through narrowed eyes. "Where is Selvina? You said she was here!"
"She is!" Alice said, struggling for something to say. "Just...wait."
"I have waited enough." It advanced toward Alice and raised its sword.
"No!" Alice cried out. "I know where she is!"
"LIES!"
The sword came slamming down, crashing into the floor where Alice had been a moment before. Weaponless, she ran around the room as the Black Knight chased after her, swinging and chopping and slashing and stabbing wildly. Alice felt the rush of air as the blade crept ever closer to striking her. Exhausted as her body was, she knew she couldn't hold up the pursuit for too much longer.
She rolled to the side and the knight's sword stabbed into the ground, cracking the floor and sending stone chips flying every which way. With a great sweep it cleaved the pedestal in two and the empty bowl went flying. Alice rose to her knees and leapt at it, barely managing to catch it before it hit the ground and broke apart. The Black Knight chopped its sword at Alice and she rolled her body away in time. The blade now rested on the ground mere hairbreadths from the queen's body. Instead of raising it, the Black Knight shoved it forward. The sword scraped across the floor and sliced into Alice's body as she rose up with all haste.
Crying out in agony, she leapt back, blood streaming from a cut on her abdomen. She still held the bowl but she was weakening by the moment and her arms and legs shivered. She glanced around the room and found to her dismay that only a single door remained intact, the others demolished from the Black Knight's wild pursuit.
Her cut burning like a thousand fires, Alice fell to her knees, unable to keep herself up. The Black Knight, sensing victory, walked over to her and looked down, its scarlet orbs void of all pity. Without a word, it lifted its blade and pressed it against Alice's chest, sinking it into her flesh and through her ribs.
Suddenly, the entire room burst into blinding white light. The Black Knight stepped back in surprise and swung its sword about haphazardly. Alice, feeling lightheaded and spent, collapsed to the ground, the bowl still cradled in her arms. Through her fading vision she noticed small shapes moving through the light, several of which flew toward her. She felt heat on her chest and the bowl in her arms began to pulsate with energy.
The blinding light faded and Alice was able to see again. Smiling weakly as life began to leave her, she noticed fairies hovering the bowl and shaking glittering dust off of their wings and bodies into it. Beyond, Hatter opened the final door on the wall, revealing a thick jungle beyond. Hare, standing nearby and enraged at his failed dinglewhopping, charged and tackled the disoriented Black Knight into the open portal. At the last second, before he went through with it, several fairies and Hatter leapt at him and pulled him back into the room as White Rabbit leapt and closed the door shut with a bang.
As the door closed, so did Alice's eyes.
****
Surrounded by the choking jungle foliage, the Black Knight roared in fury, slashing and chopping in rage. Trees fell by the dozens and animals burst out of hiding to flee the area in terror. When its tirade was over, the Black Knight took a moment to regain its bearings.
Still on the island, it thought to itself. I can return. I can go back. I must find Selvina.
It raised its ruined palm and with a bit of focus, surrounded it with dark light. A moment later, the light faded and the palm and fingers were regrown along with the armour that had covered them.
Magic works again, it thought with some satisfaction. I am strong again. I must—
"Head to Corbeau," a familiar voice called to it, shattering its thoughts. "Leave this island and Wonderland. Selvina is not there. The empress has her. Go to Corbeau immediately. Find Selvina and kill her and anyone that gets in your way."
It was the voice of its master. He had found Selvina. At last!
With the closest thing to joy the Black Knight could feel, it ran through the jungle as quickly as it could. Nothing challenged it and some time later it reached the coast completely unopposed. The Black Knight did not slow down as it ran into the crashing waves. Its demonic mount waited obediently and it climbed atop of it quickly. With a flick of its tail the terrible sea serpent shot forward as the Black Knight held onto it tightly.
Finally, I will find Selvina, the Black Knight thought with morbid excitement. Finally, I will end her and Master will be free.
****
Back in the Room of Doors, which consisted now of only a single one, the defenders of Wonderland stood around their fallen sovereign. White Rabbit wept into his hands and Hatter held his hat on his chest, his eyes leaking heavily. Hare's ears were flatted against his body and he struggled in vain to keep tears away, muttering that he had to remain strong for his general. The fairies hovered around her body, most of them weeping. The queen and princess of the fairies sang a mournful tune as the king and prince fought tears of their own.
"We tried," King Oberon was saying, his echoing voice cracking. "We tried to heal her. We tried..."
Cheshire Cat appeared then, his normally smiling face etched in an expression of complete torment. With one paw on his own bleeding chest, he floated over to his queen and curled around her face, giving her cheek a pat with his free paw.
"Dear Alice," he whispered, "you saved Wonderland once again. Rest now, my queen and worry not, I will be keeping you company."
With that, the Cheshire cat snuggled up to his beloved queen and greatest friend, closed his eyes, and slept forever.