Frank Beddor

“If wearing this rag will in any way speed the process of gathering my furture soldiers, then I will waer it. But if it doesn't..."Vollrath bowed. "I will subject myself to your temper."You'll have no choice.”

“Redd's lact of knowledge astounded the tutor. Did she really understand so little about how a Wonderland princess became queen?She doesn't know what she doesn't know," he mumbled, and then: "Your Imperial Viciousness, perhpas we should speak face-to-face, without this velvet barrier between us. Are you decent?"I'm never decent!”

“As members of my cabinet," Alyss calmly explained, "you share in the responsibilty of ensuring a safe furture for Wonderland. I'm sure the four of you will agree that we're in a crisis and that trying times bring out the best in you. What queen wouldn't want such helpful cabinet members by her side in an hour of need? Forgive me for calling you here. I was thinking only of myself and others when I did it. But for the love of your rank if nothing else, advise me. How do you think we should conter this invasion?"Uh," said the Lady of Clubes.I know exactly how we should counter it! said her husband. "First and foremost, a decree must be at once...decreed! All ranking families are to remain indoors and well-protected until it can be guaranteed that every threat is violence is past! It's imperative that nothing inconvenient happen to us, for the population would then have no one to look up to!”

“How's our young guest?" he asked.As docile as any child could be, wearing a drug-delivery system as she is," said one of the ministers.She constantly demands to see her mother," said another, "and somewhat less constantly demands that we return her homburg to her.”

“It's didn't take a genis tactician to see that failure was imminent, Alyss more powerful that Arch had supposed. He would have to focus on his contingency plan and let the Glass Eyes attack on Wonderland fizzle out--a circunstance mildly disapointing, but not worrisome. Such a strategist was the king that he had a contingency plan for his contingency plan, and even, if circunstances required, a contingency plan for his contingency plan's contingency plan.”

“Suffering the nasty twisting of body parts that should never be twisted, the card soldiers fell, lifeless, and Arch's bodyguards were soon pushing through the tangles of Outerwilderbeastie, cruching twigs and leaves underfoot.Visit the labs?" Blister said, refurring the squate network of building in Wondertropolies' warehouse district, where a consortium of Alyss' scientists and engineers had tried to transform a host of captured Glass Eyes into a benign force. On the lab grounds were the incinerator baths--large pits into which the Glass Eyes were being herded and melted down, sorched into ash. There would be lots of Glasss Eyes to choose from at the labs, bbut Ripkins shook his head.To much security," he said.Find one that roaming?"It'll be easier for us to avoid notcie," Ripkins said.Yeah, but it'd be more fun to hit the labs.”

“Boaderland: Where women could be given away by their husbands to pay debts, and young, rowdy gallants from Wonderland, fresh from the rigors of formal education, came to indulge themselvs in roving pleasure tents; where maps were useless because the nation consisted wholly of nomadic camps, settlements, towns and cities, and a visitor might find the country's capital, Boarderton, situated in the cool sgadows of the Glyph Cliffs one day but spread out along Fortune Bay the next.”

“Hatter, my love, we never got a chance to say good-bye."--Weaver”

“Something stiffened, moved. Just as Alyss realized who it was, standing with bowed head at Sir Justice's grave--Dodge.--He whirled around, the point of his sword aimed at her throat.Not the warmest way to great your..." She was about tosay "queen" but changed her mind. "...friend.”

“Dodge," Alyss said, putting a hand to the parrallel scars on his cheek, that brand left so long ago by The Cat. She pressed her lips against each of them--four delicate kisses.When she pulled away, he was smiling.”

“Homburg Molly is my daughter, Homburg Molly is my daughter.”

“What. Are. Thooooooose?" the walrus moaned.On the holo-screen airing the happenings in Genevieve Square, a swarm of scorpspitters released by the Glass Eyes was scuttling toward Alyss and the other. Never before had a Wonderlander seen these scorpion-like contraptions that could bullets of deadly poison from their "tails"--not even Bibwit, who assumed they were the latest in a long line of armaments invented by Redd. But before a single scorpspitter curled its tail into a C to take aim at the queen, she imagined into existance a horde of disembodied boots with steel-plated soles, which hovered monetarily in the air, then--With a slight nod, she brought them down hard, stomping the scorpspitters flat, squishing their armor-crapaces and making absract art of their wiry guts.Ooh, now why can't Queen Alyss do that to the Glass Eyes?" the walrus-bulter cried.”

“When I give the go ahead, go ahead."--Alyss”

“When I give the go ahead, go ahead," Alyss said, the jungle gym having come to a stop less than a gwormmy-length from her face.What? the four General Doppels cried at once.Run when I say so.”

“A Glass Eye leaped out from behind a parcked smail-trasport, blocked thier way. "Did you drop something?" Dodge asked the assassian. "Caus I think I see you..." he unheathed his sword and swung, decapitating the Glass Eye in one blow, "...head over there.”

“Hatter!" She would have hugged him if she hadn't thought he'd be bothered by the dislay of affection. Pterry good timing." Dodge smiled. "A litte sooner and you would've been perfect.”

“The only reason I don't kill him," he remember the woman saying, her voice sounding like the scrape of iron against iron, a corrosion of vocal cords, "is because he's not important enough.”

“What do you want to do with me?" she asked.You had an unpleasant tumble." He nodded toward the unfamiliar creatures. "My Ganmede friends and I are nursing you back to health, that's all."By drugging me?"(Molly and Arch)”

“Molly wants to know her father's name," Arch said to them. "Why don't you give her a hint?"His first name with 'splatter,'" said Ripkins.And 'matter'," said Blister.Also 'fatter,'" said Ripkins.Likewise 'chatter'," added Blister.And his surname?" Arch asked.It rhymes with 'that again'," said Ripkins.And 'Flanagan," put in Blister.Also, um...'pad a fin'?" offered Ripkins.Arch and Blister looked at him.'Pannikin!'" he said proudly.Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Molly screamed. "You don't know what you're talking about!”

“I would find no value in the allegiance of a fool ready to give himself up to any old hag of Black Imagination who presented herself. I will accept your allegiance. For now. But if I ever decide you're useless, you are a dead man."To be killed by you is to be desired more than a life excluded from your service."(Redd and Sacrenoir)”

“My ministers have informed me that Alyss is ridding her land of Glass Eyes."Overriding the imperative that Redd embedded in them is harder than she thought," added Ripkins.In other words, they're designed to kill and nothing more."The bodygaurds bowed that this was so.Perhaps the trick is not the override their imperative," Arch mused, "but the reprogram them to acknowledge a differnent master. Everyone in Woderland--even the otherwise rebellious Redd Heart--is, was, or always has been occupied with inventing things. But what good are things if there no clever schemes in which to use them? I putthings to unexpected and imaginative use."--Seeing Redd”

“It had been an annoyingly peacful time in Boarderland, Blister cranky and despressed because he hadn't filled anyone with pus for nearly an enitre lunar cycle.”

“I miss you, dad.”

“Redd Towers Apartments, whose advertising slogan, 'If you lived here, you'd be home by now,' did little to fill vacancies.”

“Off with their heads!”