There was a moment of silence while the king’s and Mundoo’s armies stared at each other. All the way around the palace, the Cards stood perfectly still and disciplined, waiting for one of the two opposing armies to make a move. Silence permeated the air. Finally, one of the Spades began stomping his feet and clanking his sword against his shield. The other Spades followed. Soon, the two thousand men lined up behind her began bellowing and shaking their swords at the Cards. The Yurkei made calling sounds that resonated within their throats. The Spades joined in, their voices rising and falling like thunder over the open ground. It was the sound of a united army, and it filled Dinah’s heart with a fierce desire to protect them.
Bah-kan climbed off his steed, a bundled package in his outstretched hand. Gingerly, he unwrapped a single white arrow, elaborate carvings covering its abnormally large head, and nocked it into his bow. Every eye on the south side of Wonderland Palace watched in silence as he pointed the bow into the sky and released the arrow. It climbed higher than any arrow Dinah had ever seen. Once the shaft reached the apogee of its trajectory, it exploded into a streaming trail of shimmering gold that draped the palace, such a lovely sight to start an ugly war. The arrow was the signal; Dinah’s small army was ready, and Mundoo could make his advance.
Morte began to buck underneath Dinah, anxious to run into the fight.
Wardley rode up beside her and looked at Morte with doubt. “Are you sure you don’t want to ride with me?”
Dinah didn’t answer, her eyes trained on the army awaiting her. Sir Gorrann, Starey Belft, Bah-kan, and Cheshire rode up behind her now, their heads bowed in reverent silence. It was time. Ki-ershan brought his steed up beside Dinah, with Yur-Jee flanking her other side.
“Your Majesty.” Yur-Jee gave her a wide smile, the first Dinah had ever seen from him. He hit his chest. “READY!”
Dinah let her eyes linger over the dear men who fought for her crown, their faces so determined, each man silently praying to the Wonderland gods. Only Cheshire looked unbothered. In fact, he looked downright bored. A small smile crept across her face. Of course Cheshire would be bored.
The sound of trumpets filled the air, blasting their deafening cacophony from the palace. Dinah felt the sound deep within her, traveling up through her lungs to the tips of her fingernails. It has begun, she thought.
On the opposite side of the palace, Mundoo proudly rode a swiftly galloping Keres, his hands meeting together over his head in the symbol of the crane. His army grew silent as they remembered those who had gone before them into the valley of the cranes. Then he turned, straight for the Heart Cards, and drew his sword. With loud whoops, Mundoo’s troops began galloping wildly toward the king and his Cards. Morte’s haunches gave a violent jerk and the ground beneath him began to rumble, as if it were opening up.
“Steady,” she breathed. “Steady. We have to wait.”
The sound of sixteen thousand hooves filled the air, shaking the ground, and a collective roar from the Cards below answered back as they pointed their weapons.
The King of Hearts waited patiently for them to arrive, his Heartsword held tight, his arm outstretched to signal the archers. Mundoo’s army continued its charge. The archers on the north turrets raised their arrows. All of Wonderland held its breath. Then, at the king’s dropped hand, the Wonderland archers unleashed a sky’s worth of dark arrows, each one tipped with a red glass heart. The arrows climbed mercilessly into the sky before their heads pointed downward and began their descent onto the galloping Yurkei warriors. Dinah’s breath caught in her throat as the bright red shower of death raced toward them.
Mundoo gave a shout, and at his command, each Yurkei warrior reached down to untie a white bag that had been lashed to his saddle. Mundoo gave a final cry, and the Yurkei warriors ripped open their bags, just as the arrows began raining down upon them. Thousands of huge white cranes launched themselves from the bags, happy to be free. The cranes appeared in the sky as a great white cloud hovering over the Yurkei, a cluster of white wings so thick that for a moment, Dinah couldn’t even see the Yurkei army. The arrows destined for the Yurkei buried themselves in the birds and littered the ground around them, a sea of white and red. The surviving cranes flapped and screamed, now defensive of their tribe, swooping down and creating chaos among the mounted Heart Cards, plucking weapons from their hands and impaling eyes with their long beaks. Once the cloud of cranes had lifted from above the Yurkei, Dinah saw that in those few moments, all the Yurkei had drawn their bows.
The Wonderland archers never knew what hit them. A flurry of arrows buried themselves in the heart, eye, or head of each one. The Yurkei never missed. Screams of pain echoed through the valley, and Dinah saw men falling from the towers. Swifter than she had ever believed possible, the Yurkei reloaded their bows and sent their second barrage of arrows straight into the line of mounted Heart Cards now riding toward them. Their horses screamed and buckled as their riders fell.
Mundoo and Keres pulled ahead and ran straight past the king into the line, followed by four thousand Yurkei warriors. The king turned his Hornhoov and followed him into the fray. From there, it was hard to make out what was happening. The two lines of horses broke against each other, and the mounted Yurkei swarmed over the Cards like a crashing wave. The sounds of war—gut-wrenching screams of metal on metal, shrieks of pain, cheers of victorious combatants, and the last gasps of the dying—echoed from the valley.
Dinah turned her eyes toward the army that awaited them. The Cards on the south side had obviously heard Mundoo’s advance and the sounds of agony echoing from the other side of the palace. The line that earlier had stood as still as statues was now agitated and nervous. The Cards were talking to one another: “What are they waiting for?”
We will hold, she thought, we will hold until your minds break. She realized too late that it wasn’t she who would make the decision of when they advanced. Morte was prancing and smashing his hooves into the earth so violently Dinah could barely stay on him. If Morte bolted, she would arrive first at the line, without an army behind her. That couldn’t happen. She held him as long as she could, and when she felt that his patience was wearing thin, she turned back to her army, trying desperately to memorize each face of the men who fought for her. Her eyes found Sir Gorrann, who gave her a strong nod. Shakily, she stood in her saddle. Morte realized the gravity of the moment and for once stood perfectly still, his head raised with pride. As Dinah stood, the Spades raised their weapons in a show of unity, and the Yurkei lifted their hands, making the sign of the crane.
Dinah raised her voice to be heard over the terrible sounds of battle below. “My loyal army! You were once enemies, and today you stand united against a fearful and weak king. Today your names will be entered into Wonderland’s history books, and someday you will tell your children about the morning that changed everything.” The Spades erupted in wild cheers. “Today we will take back what is rightfully ours, be it our land, or rights”—she paused—“or a crown!”
The army erupted in deafening roars, and the sound of their swords clanging together rose over the plains.