A Tale That Could Not Be
Chapter 23: Queen of Hearts

“Selvina, you say?” asked the queen as she sat on her red, heart-shaped throne.

The knave nodded. “Yes, my queen. She says that she is volunteering to be your servant.”

The queen raised an eyebrow in interest and pursed her lips in thought. Her hazel eyes pierced into Selvina’s soul as she stared down at her, sitting high on the elevated throne. She wore a regal dress of red and black with only a scant amount of heart shapes on the fabric. The dress puffed out at the shoulders and dove deeply at the neckline, revealing a golden amulet with a sparkling sapphire in its centre, the jewel contrasting greatly with the rest of her outfit. The queen’s long hair, a strange hue of dark red that was nearly black, tumbled down from her head in curls. A heavy aura of intimidation emanated from the queen and it kept Selvina rooted firmly on the spot.

She could hear White Rabbit trembling beside her but dared not look at him, lest the queen saw it as an insult of sorts. All she could do was watch and wait.

The queen folded her hands over her lap and narrowed her eyes. She licked her red lips and then said, “Tell me, Selvina, why is it that you wish to become my servant? I would be a foolish queen not to know what the common rabble say of me behind my back.” She shot the rabbit a fearsome glare and Selvina heard him whimper. “Leave now, rabbit!!”

“I’m sorry, Selvina,” White Rabbit whispered before scurrying away.

Selvina would have much preferred that he had stayed but she didn’t want to endanger him any more than she already had. He had done his duty and Selvina felt no disappointment or sense of betrayal as he left.

The queen continued. “Why am I to believe that you wish to serve me when the more likely case is that you wish to infiltrate my castle?”

“I want your help with something,” Selvina said weakly, cursing herself a thousand times over at how pathetic she sounded.

The queen laughed a terrible laugh, somewhere between insanity and mockery, and it made Selvina sweat. “You want me, the greatest queen to have ever lived, to help you, a simple nobody?”

“I lost my friends…”

“Aww, you poor thing,” the queen said with mock concern as she leaned down to eye Selvina closer, pursing her lips tightly and making them bulge. “You wost yo’ poh fwiends? How sad. Boohoohoo.” She then sat back and rolled her eyes. “You must not understand how busy it is being a queen, especially one as important as I. I can’t be helping every random stranger with everything. If you want to find your friends, go look for them. They are none of my concern.”

“I have looked everywhere! I know how crazy this sounds but I came to you because there is nowhere left to go. Please, your highness, all that I ask is that you let me serve you so that I can perhaps become someone to you, someone you may wish to help one day…”

“You would be a servant, girl, and I can’t name you a single one of mine because I simply do not care to know them.” She then grimaced and said in a tone of disgust, “They are servants. They are beneath me.”

Selvina was running out of options fast and she did not know where to steer the conversation. She remembered the courtyard and how lovely she had found it. The queen was clearly high on herself and Selvina thought she knew just how to use it to her advantage.

“You have wasted enough time already, insignificant pest,” the queen said with a sigh of annoyance. “It is about time you leave to do your servant duties and never bother me again.”

“Great Queen of queens,” Selvina said, bowing low and spreading her arms wide, “it was foolish of me to disturb you like this. I am but a lowly peasant, truly.”

“Yes, that is true. I mean, just look at those dreadful boots.”

“I am no one to you and yet here, on this day, I pledge my life to your service. I dedicate all that I am and all that I will ever be to being your greatest servant. I will do all that you ask of me for someone like you deserves better than what you have now.”

“You could say that again…” the queen mumbled.

“Your courtyard truly awed me with its beauty and though it pales in comparison to yours I must add that I was perhaps expecting a little more…”

The queen’s eyes bulged and her back went rigid in surprise. “What did you say?!”

“I only meant that someone as great and powerful as you should own a courtyard that makes someone want to get on their knees and pray in the mere presence of it. If you are truly the queen of queens, that makes you a god, does it not? Gods have courtyards of gold and diamond and have thousands of worshippers. Do people worship you, oh wonderful queen?”

“They do worship me!”

Selvina, her heart racing and her body sweating in hopes that her daring plan worked, glanced around and shrugged. “I see no worshippers, your highness.”

The queen immediately snapped her gaze to the knave, who up until now had stood silently at her side. “Where are my worshippers?! Why are they not here?”

The knave stared ahead, never meeting the queen’s eye, and replied, “The people worship you in their homes, milady, because you said having them here would stain the red carpet.”

The queen narrowed her eyes and growled. “I don’t remember saying that.”

“Yet you did, your highness.”

“Silence! Off with your—I mean, just shut up! This girl is right! I am the Queen of all queens, knave, and I should have worshippers! I am a goddess in my own right, am I not?”

“That you are, queen of queens.”

“Then get some worshippers in here now! I also want more gold and diamonds in the courtyard! I want Wonderland to know that I am its one true goddess now. The people will pray to me and worship me and only me. I give them shelter and I give them safety and I give them life! Me! Me! Me! Not anyone else! Do you understand?”

“Yes, your highness.”

“Good!”

“What of the girl?”

“Who?”

“Selena, I believe is her name.”

Selvina stood straight as the queen tapped her chin with delicate fingers and looked down at her. She appeared deep in thought and a moment later she exclaimed, “Off with her—no, wait, too soon. I know, send her to the dungeons!”

What? Selvina thought in alarm. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go…I need to stay close to her. I need to know where Wendy and Goldilocks are. She was suddenly reminded of the fact that she had not yet seen Pan. She wanted to glance about and look for him but instead remained focused on the queen. She would see nothing without a head…

“The dungeons?” the knave asked curiously.

“Yes, throw her in there. Give her a little extra hay. Make her comfortable. She has good ideas. I may go see her if I need more.”

“Of course, your highness.”

Selvina wanted to get on her knees and plead to the queen but that might undo everything that she had done and instead did nothing. Without another word, the knave guided her out of the throne room, down several halls, and eventually down a long staircase that led deep underground. Selvina thought a million times to turn around and flee but her body kept placing one foot in front of the other despite her efforts. She soon found herself on level ground and walking down a dark tunnel with cramped cells dug into the rocky walls. Flickering torches gave off meagre light and their smoke crept along the tunnel ceilings like wispy snakes.

The knave stopped in front of a cell that was marginally larger than the others and opened its creaking door. He gestured his hand toward the inside of the cell and said, “Get inside. From now on this is your home. I suggest you make yourself comfortable.”

Selvina stepped inside, finding some sick humour in how she was once again locked in a cell by some lunatic with too much power for their own good. The pile of hay was rather large, however, and Selvina lay down on top of it, looking up at the ceiling. Perhaps all she would have to do is wait for the queen to visit her. She had fooled her once already and she could maybe do so again.

To pass the time, Selvina thought up clever ways to trick the queen. It was entertaining for the most part and before she knew it she was napping rather comfortably on her pile of hay.

Across the hall, in the opposite cell, a chain rattled.

Selvina was awoken by frantic banging on the bars of her cell door. She sat up with a start and looked ahead to see the queen knocking her sceptre, a golden rod with a heart-shaped jewel at its tip, against the bars furiously. Beside her, partly in the shadows, stood the loyal knave.

“Get up!” the queen screamed. “You have slept long enough! I, the Queen of Hearts, the Red Queen, the Queen of Queens, the Goddess of Wonderland wants to speak to you, Sabina.”

“Selvina,” the blonde teen corrected as she slid off her pile of hay and brushed some of it off of her dress.

“What?”

“Nothing, your highness,” Selvina said once she was at the door. She didn’t want to infuriate the already infuriated queen.

“Listen, Sabrina,” the queen started, “I was thinking about you wanting to serve me and I believe that you would do better at my side. I need someone who can see the truth of things and I can’t trust any of my current servants to do that. You will continue to come down here to sleep but if I you behave I might give you a room in the castle one day.”

Selvina bowed low. “You are too generous, your highness.”

“Yes, probably. Anyways, come with me upstairs. You will sit beside me and watch how a real goddess rules her kingdom. Your job will be to detect any traitors and anyone who you think might turn against me.”

Selvina was grateful that she would be close to the queen. Though she doubted her effectiveness at detecting traitors she wasn’t intending on being at the queen’s side for long. “Thank you so much, queen of queens. You are greater than any could ever believe.”

“Yes, yes, I know all of this. Now let’s go. Get out of your cell and follow me. You need a change of clothes…”

The knave unlocked the cell door and allowed Selvina to walk out of it. The queen, meanwhile, was staring into the dark cell across the hall. She was whispering curses and spitting into it and Selvina waited in awkward silence for her to finish.

When the queen was done, she turned around and immediately started walking down the hall. The knave and Selvina followed close behind. “The villain in that cell is the greatest traitor of all, Silvia,” the queen said without turning her head. “You must never speak to her. She is a fiend and as evil as they come. Promise me that you will never talk to her.”

“I promise, your highness,” Selvina said, glancing back quickly at the dark, shadowy cell.

“She had beautiful hair,” the queen continued. “Shining like gold it was but I read somewhere that blondes cannot be trusted and it stands ever so true. I was recently delivered a new blonde and she had an untameable spirit within her but I dealt with that quickly.”

Goldilocks! Selvina thought with shock, doing her best to hide any reaction. “What, did you do with her, queen of queens?”

“Shaved her head! Hahaha! Just like that villain back there. I shave the heads of all blondes and then keep them locked away so I can keep shaving their heads over and over and over. Do you know what I do with all that hair, Salami?”

Selvina, doing her best not to cringe at the name she was given, shrugged. “What do you do?”

“I make clothes! Yes! I make pretty dresses and blouses and gowns with the golden hair and then I wear them. I am not blonde, as you can see, but wearing clothes made of blonde hair is even better. You will have to see them! I simply must show them to you.”

“I cannot wait,” Selvina said, despite wanting to actually puke. It was just human hair, she reminded herself, and yet the notion of wearing clothes made of someone else’s hair disgusted her intensely. Goldilocks was now reduced to nothing but a hair farm. It was a horrible fate yet Selvina was relieved that she was at least alive. Hair didn’t grow on dead bodies so as long as she served a purpose she would be kept alive. That gave Selvina more time to save her. Wendy’s location and fate was a mystery but hopefully she would learn about her soon.

“What do your friends look like, Sally?” the queen asked as they began climbing the staircase out of the dungeon.

Selvina paused before answering. If she described Goldilocks she may get in trouble somehow for being a friend of a blonde. She decided to describe Wendy and Rapunzel instead. “One of them is older than I am, though not really old, and has brown hair, hazel eyes—”

“I have hazel eyes!” exclaimed the queen excitedly.

“Yes, you do,” Selvina said, slightly taken aback at the sudden outburst. “They are beautiful eyes as well, your highness. Anyhow, she also has—”

“Not now, Sandy. I changed my mind. I don’t care to know about your friends right now.”

Selvina frowned in irritation. She wanted to slap the queen in the face but held her hand back. Selvina was also keenly aware of the knave that followed her. Were she to act out now he would stop her and either kill her or imprison her forever. Selvina needed patience, something she unfortunately had in very short supply.

As they ascended the staircase and walked down the halls of the castle, Selvina looked around. She memorized the rooms, the halls, the doors, and any places she thought might hold Goldilocks or Wendy. Somehow, someway, she’d wander down these halls and find them. For the moment, however, she did her best to remember them.

Once back in the throne room, the queen had a small, velvet, backless chair pulled up on her throne’s left side and gestured to it. Selvina sat down with her back straight and her head held up. The knave took position to the queen’s right side, where he stood as silent as a statue.

A servant, head bowed low, walked up to the throne and gave the queen a bow so low his head brushed the ground. “Your great highness, there is a man here to see you. He wishes to speak to you on matters of a reward.”

“A reward?” the queen asked with a deep frown. “For what?”

“He was the one to bring you the blonde and the brunette a few days ago. He has waited patiently for your audience but is now requesting it himself.”

“Ah yes, Peety Weety. He always brings the best servants. Let him in.”

Peety? Selvina thought with a chill running down her spine. Could that stand for Peter Pan? Struggling to stop herself from trembling with fear, Selvina remained still and soundless as the door across the throne room opened.

And Peter Pan walked in.

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