Page 63 of Demon Queen
He scowled at me. “You cannot trust the White Rabbit.”
Dorian roared and I clapped my hands to my ears while the rest of the vampires were kind of blown over. Dorian walked through them, and since he was lava, no one touched him.
The cell at the end was full of White Rabbit who stood, looking glum, but then perked up when he saw me riding Dorian-bear.
“Well, well, well. I haven’t seen that for a long time,” he said with a pleased smile. “It will be a worthy death.”
“We aren’t here to kill you. We need to know about the throne room. Can I ride into battle with Dorian and have the same effects as if I were on the throne?”
The tall pale man with long pointed ears blinked his pink eyes at me. “That’s what you want to know?”
I shrugged, sinking my hands in Dorian’s lava fur. It was freezing in there. “Also if there’s some way we could protect you from the Zombie Queen so she doesn’t kill you for saving my life, that would be cool.”
He stared at me unblinking and incredibly creepy. “Impossible.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I figured, but I thought I’d ask. And about the throne bear thing?”
He blinked and purple sparks went off around him. “What would you give me if I help you?”
“What do you want?”
He blinked again, and again with the purple sparks. “I want a place in your court.”
“My court? Oh. Well, Regis was saying that we need an executioner.”
He flashed a blinding smile. “An executioner? Regis isn’t capable of killing for you?”
“Well, he killed Maurice without asking if it was okay, so it would be good to find someone who thinks first, kills second, or maybe third or fourth. I had to eat him forever to bring him back to life. I mean, I imagine he’ll regenerate at some point. Regis said he would.”
“Ah. And the Mad Hatter? If you manage to retake the demonlands, what will you do to him?”
“He’ll likely die in the battle, won’t he? And if not, he’ll retreat to the Zombie Queen.”
“And if I ask you to give him mercy?”
I stared at him, purple sparks were going off around him like crazy. “Well, as the executioner, I suppose you’d have that choice. But if it proved to be problematic to our kingdom, you’d have to go after him and take care of it.”
He raised his chin and studied me. “Yes, if you ride into battle on the fire beast, holding the Scepter of Rebirth, your demons will be indestructible. It’s very heavy, so it’s best if the war ends before you grow weary. Also before your Wilkie becomes a casualty. In fact, it would be best if there was a distraction while someone went through the back passages and took Wilkie and the scepter before anyone knew there was a war.”
“And you’d do that?”
He raised his pale brows. “Me? Certainly not. Your steward would be far more capable of slipping in and out of those caverns than me. I would have suggested Drigo if you didn’t turn him into a ridiculous myth. He’s not going to sneak anywhere. Also,you can’t just trust me. It’s worrisome that you’d be so foolish when you know how untrustworthy I am.”
“I see. Are you a zombie?”
He blinked at me. “Pardon?”
“Would you die without the Queen keeping you alive? Why do you work for her? You clearly have your own opinion, or I’d be dead, so what does she have on you?”
“Ah. She gives me her blood from time to time. That keeps me alive. Your blood isn’t mature enough to sustain my life, but in a few hundred years, it would be.”
I blinked at him. “So you’d want some of my blood in a few hundred years?”
He smiled sweetly. “No. I’d want all the Queen’s blood when she is defeated.”
I held up my hands. “We aren’t going to war against the Zombie Queen.”
His smile became even more creepily angelic. “Not yet. But everything is falling into place, just as the seer saw. When you do defeat her, I want her blood.”
