Red Queen by Christina Henry

still feeling slightly like a meal-in-waiting despite Pen’s assurance otherwise. “I appreciate all you have done, and tried to do, for me. Perhaps it’s best if you leave me here. I’m certain I can find him on my own.”
    In truth, Alice felt no such certainty, but she wished to be about walking on her own two feet again and to feel once more like her own mistress. Besides, while Pen seemed kind enough and probably would not eat her, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t hand her over to the goblin or the White Queen if ordered to do so.
    Alice knew she would have to face the Queen, but she wished to face her as an equal, not a prisoner.
    â€œOh, I couldn’t do that, Miss Alice,” Pen said. “This forest is much larger than you think. You could wander for hours without finding your friend. But me, I know these trees backward and forward. I’ll get you to him, right enough.”
    And that,
Alice reflected,
was that.
She couldn’t get off Pen’s shoulder without assistance, and the only assistance he seemed willing to provide was the kind she didn’t want.
    Still, she supposed she could let him help for a time. Sooner or later he would wish to return to his brothers and then he would leave her alone. She hoped. Everything here looked the same to Alice anyway. She’d no idea how Pen could tell one part of the forest from another.
    After a while the gentle rocking side to side lulled Alice into sleep. For once, she did not dream, so when she awoke she was quite startled to discover it was dark, and she was no longer on Pen’s shoulder but cradled in his hand.
    â€œYou nearly fell to your death, Miss Alice,” Pen said. “Lucky thing I caught you in time. I’ve never seen anyone sleep so soundly.”
    â€œI was tired,” Alice said, stretching her arms overhead.
    She ought to feel alarmed, she supposed, by her brush with death, but mostly she felt refreshed. Alice couldn’t recall when she’d last slept without dreams. It was a lovely feeling to wake up without the tangled edges of clinging nightmares.
    â€œWhere are we now?” Alice asked.
    â€œNear the place where the forest ends and the mountain begins. There is a village at the foot of the mountain, about a day’s walk. But I can go no farther,” Pen said.
    â€œBecause of the Queen?” Alice asked.
    â€œNo,” he said, and some quality in his voice made Alice sit up straighter in alarm. “My brothers are calling me.”
    She peered closely at his face, trying to make out whether he was thinking of eating her or not, but all she could see was the gleam of starlight reflected in his enormous eyes.
    â€œI wanted to get you back to your man, but I walked all over these woods and couldn’t catch the smell of him again. I’ve never known someone to disappear like that here. I’ve never lost a man under my own nose.”
    â€œYou said yourself the forest is larger than one expects.”
    â€œYes, but it’s
my
forest,” Pen said. “No one knows these trees like me, every root and leaf and branch. If he was here, I’d have found him. That means he’s not here.”
    Alice shook her head. “You don’t know Hatcher. He’s . . . not like other people.”
    â€œNot talking about his manner. Talking about his
smell
. He had a smell, and then he didn’t. So unless he changed into something else, he isn’t here.”
    Alice deemed it wiser not to argue, and wiser still not to pursue the thought that Hatcher “changed into something else.” She’d wanted the giant to let her go, and now that he would finally comply she shouldn’t hold him here quarrelling about Hatcher.
    â€œWell,” Alice said rather pointedly. “I thank you, very kindly, for all you have done for me, Pen.”
    She waited, but Pen did not lower her to the ground as she expected. He seemed to have fallen