Alyss again imagined wads of the sticky substance shooting from her sleeves, gumming up the guillotine’s works and keeping its blade from falling.

Nothing.

She imagined the blade turned into water and splashing down on the Alyssians’ heads. Nothing.

Redd laughed. “The lovely thing about being here,” she said, gesturing at the maze, “is that I’m able to imagine your imagination powerless. Ah, if only that were the case on the outside. But enough chitchat. If you’re going to die-which you are-I’m sure you’d like to get it over with. These people are no threat to me without you. There is only one way you can save them: Give yourself up. You might as well. I’ll eventually kill you anyway. Then you and your friends will be dead. However, to save myself some trouble, I’m giving you a choice.”

But how could Alyss be sure that, if she sacrificed herself, Redd would allow her friends to live, let alone live freely? Wasn’t it more likely that once Alyss was dead, Redd would kill the Alyssians because she could? But what if, because of some unknown leniency in Redd, she did allow them to live? They had fought on behalf of White Imagination for thirteen years without Alyss. If, by sacrificing herself, she could secure for them the promise of longer lives, didn’t duty demand her sacrifice? They might yet manage to escape; Hatter might find a way. The spirit of White Imagination would live with them. It lived only so long as they did.

Thinking it the final act in her short, troubled life, Princess Alyss Heart knelt down before her aunt. “Here’s to my legacy,” Redd said, lifting her scepter. But the moment its cold blade touched the tender

back of Alyss’ neck-

Zzzomp!

– the scene vanished and the princess stood directly in front of the white heart scepter. She reached for it and, as her fingers closed around the scepter’s shaft, she was transported by the magic of the maze back into the puzzle shop, amid the chaos of battle once again raging between the Alyssians and Redd’s soldiers.

T HE KEY to the Looking Glass Maze pulsed with radiance. Alyss was surprised to see it in her palm, but an Intended never left the maze with less than when she entered-although hopefully, as in Alyss’ case, she left with much more.

Holding the glowing cube in one hand and the white heart scepter in the other, Alyss stood unflinching amid the fighting. A Four Card tried attacking her but she blew at him and he went crashing back through a wall of the puzzle shop.

“Princess!” Homburg Molly shouted.

“She has the scepter!” Bibwit’s joy would have had him speared on the end of a Two Card’s blade if

Molly hadn’t jumped in front of him with her hat-shield.

A couple of Three Cards broke away from Hatter, but before even he could react, with a quick one-two, Alyss jabbed the pointed end of her scepter into the medallion-sized area above their breastplates. The card soldiers folded up, forever inactivated, as a seeker careened into the shop and snatched the glowing cube out of Alyss’ hand. Molly was about to throw her hat at the creature when-

“Let it go,” Alyss said. “We don’t need it anymore.”

She could hear the seekers disperse through the sky, heading back to Mount Isolation. Now for the rest of the card soldiers. Alyss banged her scepter on the floor and it splintered into many smaller, identical scepters. With a sweep of her hand, the miniature replicas launched themselves into the vulnerable spot of every single card soldier, each of which folded, no longer a menace. The Alyssians stood in sudden peace with the dead members of The Cut scattered about them.

Dodge, General Doppelganger, the chessmen-all turned to their princess. The vaguely luminescent quality she’d had as a child was now unclouded by immaturity, uncertainty, or reluctance. She stood like a sun among them, radiant with newfound strength, and any lingering doubt in the Alyssians’ minds about her ability to lead them vanished at the sight of her.

“I’d say she’s ready, wouldn’t you?” the rook said.

The Alyssians cheered, all except for Dodge, whose opportunity for revenge had never been so close. Alyss’ luminescence faded to a steady glow as she studied her childhood friend. Her experience in the maze had made her more wary of his behavior. She would have to keep an eye on him, as she would on anyone who stoked their potential for Black Imagination with the tinder of hatred.

“More of The Cut will be coming,” General Doppelganger warned. “Let them come,” Alyss said.

She left the puzzle shop and the Alyssians followed. She walked out into the middle of Emerald Drive and gazed up at the rotted buildings and towers of the surrounding neighborhood, as if able to feel the pain of these inanimate structures, the toll exacted by Redd’s rule on her beloved Wondertropolis. Then she turned her imagination to the holographic billboards around the city. Without so much as a wince of effort, she imagined her own face in place of their usual advertisements and reward offers.

“I’ve finished running from you, Redd. It’s time for you to run.”

As Alyss spoke the words in Emerald Drive, her holographic images voiced them on every street. Wonderlanders paused amid lawful and unlawful pursuits to stare at the beautiful woman speaking from signs on which, until now, they had only ever seen Redd. More than a few wanted the mistress of Black Imagination to remain in power, knowing how to profit in a world such as hers, but most, though not yet daring to cheer aloud, celebrated Alyss’ rise in their hearts.

“I, RUN?” Redd guffawed. She squinted out the Observation Dome as Alyss’ transmission ended. “Alyss Heart’s misplaced confidence will be the death of her.”

“Today, Wonderland will be rid of Alyss Heart for good!” Jack of Diamonds asserted with a puffing out of his already puffed-out belly. He was perhaps too eager to please, because Redd flicked an annoyed glance at the Wig-Beast. “I…I beg your pardon for speaking, Your Imperial Viciousness,” he said.

“Beg all you want, you powdered and pampered idiot. If I don’t get into the Looking Glass Maze soon, it will make no difference to your fate.”

The Cat grinned and smoothed his whiskers. The Lord and Lady of Diamonds, the Lord and Lady of Clubs, and the Lord and Lady of Spades-who together made up Redd’s Cabinet of Military Oversight-shuffled their feet, cleared their throats, and in general enacted every nervous tic available to people unsure of how to ingratiate themselves with their moody, unpredictable leader.

“Your Imperial Viciousness?” the Lady of Clubs ventured. “With all due respect, even if Alyss is not a threat, we think you should move the Heart Crystal to a more secure location.”

Redd thought this funny, in a pathetic sort of way, since neither the Lady of Clubs nor any of the other cabinet members knew where the Heart Crystal was.

“‘We’?” protested the Lady of Diamonds. “The Lady of Clubs speaks for herself, Your Imperial