Down the Rabbit Hole

Chapter 25 Cheshire

Rage. That's all I could feel coursing through me as we ran towards Hare's burrow. We don't know how much time has passed here, but even a minute is too long for Alice to be chained and alone. I haven't been able to calm myself since I saw the image of her barely alive and chained to a wall. All I can think of is what I'm going to do to the person who's holding her. The old laws can only hold me back so far. If there is a single mark left on her when I find her I swear the one holding her is going to have the same marks ten fold. I feel an ancient feeling in my gut that I have not felt since the guardians formed a better order in this world. It was deeper than rage and more poisonous than the shame I let course through me for years as I failed.
Hatter and I are both panting as we see the Hares peach trees come into view. We can hear laughter in the garden as we get to the gate. Hatter doesn't even pause to announce us before he hops the gate and runs to the back garden. I'm right behind him when we see Hare and Duchesses shocked faces as we round to the back.
"Hatter?  What's wro-" Before he could finish Hatter punched him in the face, knocking the words out of his mouth. Duchess screams in shock as Hatter doesn't stop hitting Hare.
"What did you do to her? Where is she?" Hatter screams in his face. Hare merely looks at him in shock with blood running down his face.
"Who?" Hatter screams in frustration before he hits him a few more times. Once more in the face and twice in the ribs.
"Why aren't you stopping this Cheshire? He'll kill Hare if he keeps this up." Duchess falls before me and pleads.
"Why would I stop this? I want the same answers as him, if the roles were reversed, Hare definitely wouldn't survive. Consider this a mercy." I look at her bored. She has tears starting to run down her face, but I don't feel a thing. This numbness is nice.
"Where is Alice? Where have you chained her up? I want answers!" Hatter finally stopped hitting him and screamed in his face. The pain in his voice is choking the air around them. Hare sputters a bit before he says.
"I haven't touched her. I. I wouldn't hurt you like. Like that." Hatter finally releases him and lets him fall to the ground before he kneels beside him and he starts to sob. The pain and anger mixing into his despair the noise that came from his throat barely sounds human.
"Then who could have her?" His voice barely a whisper. Hare holds his sleeve to his nose as he looks at me.
"Care to fill us in? After that I need the story behind what got my ass kicked for no reason." I nod and go to sit by Hatter as he tries to pull himself together enough to figure out his next step in finding her.
"Alice was taken. Straight from Hatter's bed. Not long after you left him at his table I'm guessing. They went to sleep in his bed and when he awoke, she was gone without a trace. We thought that maybe she had gone back to her world, probably overcome with what had happened between them. If you weren't aware they fully bonded their magic. We went to her world and her family had not seen her since she crossed with me a few hours before. Her family is interesting. We went to her home and she wasn't there either and we found the lost Spades_"
"What?!" Hare and Duchess interrupts me but I just glare at them. They look down sheepishly and I continue.
"As I was saying, we found the lost Spades line. Apparently they've been watching over Alice for five years when she moved to her home. They could not track her. In this world or in the other. And they tried using both our blood since we were with her last. Nothing. As we were about to cross back home, Alice sent us a vision of where she is. She's chained in a stone room. She doesn't look like her magic is holding her strength like it needs to. We need to find her and fast. You are the only one who seemed to have a real problem with her crossing over here Hare. So naturally you're the one we thought might be holding her." I conjure up a clean shirt and cloth for Hare which he accepts.
"Well, at least that makes more sense than Hatter going absolutely mad and loosing his damned mind. By the magic my friend I had hope you never think so low of me again." He spits out some blood before he sighs and claps Hatter on the back.
"I would never harm Alice. Duchess set me straight after I had stumbled upon you two. She made me see the error of my ways. I had planned to come and see you after a short time to tell you I was sorry for all the harm I had caused. Though I also wanted to allow you and Alice to have some private time together so I didn't see you like that again. I went by a short time ago to see if you two were available for tea and company, but your house was empty and the table cleared so I assumed that you two had gone for a walk or a trip to tour Wonderland. I never thought that she may be missing or I would have been hunting around here as you looked for her in the other world." Hare asks me.
"How can we help? We are willing to do what you need us to do to find her." I nod.
"Who can you think of that could enter royal land without invitation and leave no scent or mark behind?" They both look at me thinking before I see the realization hit Duchess.
"A fixer. Only they know how to get into places without invitation and leave nothing behind. There's only one real fixer who could sneak into royal land though." Her face pales a bit as she talks. She's afraid of this fixer. The guardians and I have heard about these "fixers" but as long as they posed no threat to the laws or the magic we allowed them to do as they pleased. Others business and dirty dealings were not what we concerned ourselves with.
"Who is this fixer and how do we find them?" Hatter finally speaks and his tone is murderous. We'll have to hold him back when we question this fixer so he doesn't kill him before we get our answers. Duchess looks nervously around before she answers him.
"His name is Hunter. He's a Bandersnatch hybrid. My family has used his services before." I quickly put together why she's nervous. She's afraid that one of her family members has used his 'services'. And that puts her and the rest of her immediate family at extreme risk of loosing her head if I deemed it fit. If someone in her family has taken her then I only intend to punish those who knew about any part of what has happened to Alice.
"I only intend to punish those who are directly involved with keeping her locked up." She breaths a sigh of relief and nods.
"I can send for him and depending on where he is he can get here soon. We always pay more than his fee so if he thinks he can double his pocket gold, then he'll get here much faster." She gets up and almost runs into her home. If this leads directly to Alice I'll have to remember to reward her well. Hatter is still silent, but I  still see the smoldering anger inside him. No words in this moment can bring him any comfort, it will only stoke his anger and he may just go mad before we find her. No empty words or false comforts will help any of us. The tension surrounding the air in the garden seems to be keeping us all in a state of suspense.
Once Alice is safe again I plan on talking with the other guardians about these 'fixers'. We may need to lay down some new laws about the loopholes some people have found in the old laws. Duchess runs from her home she looks excited.
"He'll be here soon. He was all to quick to jump on the opportunity for more gold. Cheshire and Hatter I suggest you stay out of sight at first. We don't want to scare him off to quickly." Hatter looks at her blankly before he silently moves behind some decorative bushes.
"Thank you Duchess." I join Hatter and we do the only thing we can do. We sit and wait.