Alice in Deadland Trilogy Read Online Free PDF

was pushed into the room
for her audience with the Queen of the Biters.
     
    ***

THREE
     
    When Alice entered the room, she found herself in what
resembled an office of some sort, with a large couch at one end and a desk with
a high-backed chair at the other. The Queen was sitting in the chair, but had
her back turned to the door, so Alice could see little more of her than a
gloved arm resting on the chair's side. Bunny Ears was standing behind her and
making vaguely threatening growling noises. Alice had no idea how they
communicated, but she thought a fair attempt at translation would indicate that
he was reminding her not to try anything since he was right behind her. That
suited Alice just fine, since she was so terrified that any act of bravado was
the last thing on her mind.
    'Dear, please sit down, and don't mind Rabbit there. He's
just very protective but is otherwise quite gentle.'
    Alice found it impossible to contain a dismissive snort as
she considered how anyone could think of a vicious Biter as gentle. The Queen
seemed not to notice, or at any rate, take any offense, and so Alice sat down
on the couch and waited. When the chair swiveled around, Alice's curiosity was
in overdrive and she was leaning so far forward that she was on the verge of
falling off the couch. Then she got her first glimpse of the Queen, and to say
that she was let down would be quite the understatement of the century.
    The Queen of the Biters looked like a friendly librarian at
the local library, complete with her grey hair tied in a neat bun, and dark
tinted glasses perched on the edge of her nose, framing an aging, tired, but
kind face. Of course, Alice had never been to a library, and had never seen a
librarian, but the figure she saw in front of her was the farthest thing
possible from the fearsome Biter leader she had half-expected to see. As the
Queen got up, Alice saw that she was most certainly not a Biter, with her face
unblemished, and that she was evidently Indian, for she wore a saree that hung
loosely around her thin frame.
    'Are you the Queen?'
    The old lady smiled, as she came closer to Alice.
    'My name was Protima, though nobody has called me by that
name in a very long time. In our world, I guess I am considered the Queen,
though what I rule over is something I myself am not very sure of. Now, young
lady, let me take a look at you and see if what has got these fellows so
excited has any basis in fact or not.'
    When the Queen came closer and took off her glasses, Alice
gasped and shrank back.
    The Queen's face may have looked as unblemished as that of
any healthy human, but her eyes were red, dilated and lifeless, the eyes of the
undead. When she grinned, Alice saw crusted blood on her lips and around the
corners of her mouth. Alice began to scream, but a gloved hand was clamped over
her mouth.
    'Shh, dear. There's nothing to be so terrified of. Yet.'
    With that, the Queen grabbed a lock of Alice's hair and
pulled on it hard enough to make Alice grimace.
    'Well, it is real blond hair. When these fools came in
blabbering about a blond haired Alice, I was sure they had got it wrong. Who
would have expected a young blond girl in the middle of what was once Delhi?'
    Alice was sitting frozen in place. Somehow, the combination
of her unblemished face and her ability to speak so articulately made the Queen
even more fearsome than the most outwardly bloodthirsty and fearsome Biters
Alice had ever encountered. Finally, she mustered up the courage to speak.
    'Are you one of...'
    She never got a chance to complete her question as the Queen
snapped back.
    'One of the undead? One of the Biters? What other hateful
label were you planning to use? That's always been the problem with humans. You
take anything you fear and cannot understand and make it an object of hate. So
much easier to hate and destroy than to seek to understand.'
    Actually, Alice had been about to just say 'them', but she
was too scared to interrupt the Queen's rant, so