Stiltskin (Andrew Buckley) (11 page)

Robert shook the tiny vial of blood attached to a silver chain around his neck.

“This is a passport?”

“Yes, the blood of the White Rabbit will allow you to pass through any door and it will take you to a location in Othaside,” said Lily, “Travelling through a door without the passport will just send you to another location in Thiside. The contents of that vial are highly coveted. All Agents have the same blood that you have around your neck and there are some people who would kill to have it.”

The White Rabbit had shuffled back to his living room to pack some food for Lily after furnishing Robert with his first ever piece of jewellery. The tiny vial was made of glass but the silver necklace was intricately woven. Its actual origin was the Northern foothills of the Grimm Mountains where the seven Dwarves had mined for the last three hundred years.

“But why? Couldn’t anyone just come here and purchase some blood? You said it was a commodity. Commodities can be bought and sold.”

“It’s true and sometimes people are granted temporary passports, a watered-down version of the Rabbit’s blood, which diminishes in power within a certain time. In order to obtain a passport like that there has to be a good reason for the individual wanting it, and they must have something to trade. Not just anyone can get one.”

“But then the one I have and that you Agents have isn’t temporary?”

“No, it’s pure blood. That’s why people would kill to have it. One of the Agency’s primary missions is to monitor the use of passports and punish those who abuse the privilege.”

“Is that the Agency’s only mission?”

Lily stared into Robert’s dark eyes. “No.”

Something about the answer disturbed Robert and he felt there was more in that answer than a simple one-syllable word but the fact was that Lily’s eyes caused his brain to get butterflies and all curiosity was instantly dispelled.

The Rabbit ducked through the back door of the Exchange and handed a leather satchel to Lily.

“Thank you so much; we’ll send word when we find the Dwarf.”

“I’d certainly appreciate it. Robert Darkly, something else occurred to me while I was preparing your food. May I have a word with you in private?”

Robert looked to Lily, as if for permission, but found that she was staring sternly at the Rabbit who completely ignored her. A look like that would have turned any normal man to stone. As the Rabbit was a rabbit and not anywhere close to being a normal man, he was obviously perfectly safe from any such looks.

“I’ll wait outside,” said Lily resolutely. “Make it quick, we’re wasting time.”

Lily cast a warning glance at Robert and left through the large wooden door. Through the doorway, Robert could see what looked like a myriad of colours blending together as if someone had painted a watercolour picture and then left it out in the rain. Lily walked through the image in the doorway and the colours flowed over her until she vanished completely and the door creaked closed behind her.

“As much as we are cordial when in each other’s presence, there is a certain animosity that exists between the Exchange and the Agency.” The Rabbit shook his head sadly.

“Why is that?”

“It comes down to purpose. Without the Agency, life would go on. Without me, the Agency would have no purpose. I’m a threat and a necessity all at once. But let us talk about you for a moment. I imagine that you believe you are here on this magical journey for a reason, maybe to give your own life some purpose, but please don’t deceive yourself about the severity of the world that you now occupy. If you want my honest opinion, you’d be better off turning around and leaving the Exchange and all this behind you.”

“Look, Mr… Rabbit, I got fired from my job today and last night my girlfriend broke my heart. I don’t really have any friends or anyone I would call a friend, I’m not particularly handsome or smart and the only really significant element of my life is that weird, unexplainable things happen to me on a regular basis. I really don’t have much to lose, to be perfectly honest.”

The Rabbit scratched one of his long white ears. “Well, then, if you’re committed to remaining here, there are three things that I must impart to you. Firstly, you always have something to lose. Your blood is as valuable as mine, as valuable as anyone’s. It’s a commodity. Always remember that. Secondly, I packed a special little something in the passport that I gave you.”

Robert had absentmindedly been playing with the tiny vial around his neck, and he now looked at it.

“If you travel through a door without a passport it’ll just send you somewhere, randomly, within the same world which you currently occupy. If you travel with a passport you have the option to travel within the world or between them.”

“Allowing me to go back to Othaside, I know. But I don’t want to go back―”

The Rabbit held up a large, fuzzy paw to interrupt Robert and rolled his large, glassy eyes in his large, white, furry head. “Like I was saying, there’s something extra. The passport you hold gives you, and only you, the ability to enter a door that will take you anywhere you want to go. You can use this gift only once, so don’t waste it. In fact, maybe save it for when you end up in inescapable peril which, on your current course of action, you’ll undoubtedly run into fairly soon.”

“And the third thing?”

“The third is the most important. Under no circumstances should you seek out your father.”

Robert and the Rabbit stared at each other. After never hearing about his father for several decades and assuming that he was probably dead, this was the second instance within a three-hour period that someone had mentioned his existence.

“What do you know about my father?” asked Robert. He couldn’t help it.

Robert never saw the punch coming and when thinking about it later, he wondered if the term
rabbit punch
had been coined in Thiside. The Rabbit struck him hard across the face. The look of shock that Robert knew had plastered itself across his stinging face was completely ignored by the Rabbit who continued as if nothing had happened.

“I know enough that you should not seek him out and that’s all I’m going to say. Good luck, Robert Darkly. Travel well.” The Rabbit turned and began cleaning up his dead employees.

The White Rabbit in
Through the Looking Glass
was an adorable little rabbit of a nervous disposition who had an obsession with keeping time. The real White Rabbit was a five-foot-tall melodramatic creature who dealt in blood, spoke like a British noble and, as it appeared to Robert, had a slightly violent streak.

Robert left the Exchange through the same door as Lily. The watercolour wall on the other side of the door felt like motor oil as he pushed a hand through it. He pulled his hand back and considered, for the last time, whether what he was about to do was the right thing. He thought briefly about his life in Othaside. The job he had hated, the girlfriend who didn’t love him, friends who barely knew he existed, an angry landlady… It was a laundry list that didn’t bring him any sort of happiness.

But here, an opportunity had been presented to him. It could have been the thrill of uncertainty or maybe the beautiful amber-eyed woman waiting for him on the other side, or maybe it was the simple fact that all the weirdness that he had experienced in his life didn’t seem all that weird anymore. Robert Darkly took a deep breath and stepped through the doorway.

Back in the Exchange, the White Rabbit shed a tear for the seventeen rabbits lying dead around him. He glanced at the door as it creaked itself closed and he hung his head low. He’d seen the inevitability in Robert’s eyes and he knew what it would mean. He couldn’t predict the future, not by a long shot, but he had a good idea where events were heading.

obert stepped out through a doorway set into the foot of a tall mountain. The sun sat almost too comfortably high in a bright blue sky; green hills rolled away into the distance before ducking down somewhere beyond the horizon. A road made up of square bricks stretched away from the entrance to the Exchange.

Two birds, each the size of a small horse, with bright yellow feathers, dark blue plumes, and blood-red beaks flew low over the hills as if playfully chasing each other. They ducked and twirled, spun and plummeted, crash-landed into a grassy hill, rolled down to the bottom near a babbling brook, and began making passionate love as only two giant yellow birds possibly could.

“They’re Jubjub birds,” said Lily.

Robert hadn’t noticed Lily, who was standing a few feet away with two small men who looked similar to the two small men who had attacked him in the Exchange.

“I didn’t know that’s how birds, ya know, did that.”

“That’s not how birds do that, you idiot. That’s how a Jubjub bird does that,” explained the small man with a scar across one eye, his pointy red hat sitting slightly askew upon his tiny head.

“They look like they’re in pain,” commented Robert.

“Sqquuarrkkk,” screeched one of the birds.

“They’re fine, moron,” said the other Gnome.

“And who are you, shorty?” asked Robert.

Lily grabbed Robert’s elbow and led him away from the two angry-looking little men. “Listen very carefully, Robert.”

“Yes.”

“Ssqquurriinnkkaaka chaka chaka chaka nee,” squawked the birds in unison.