Queen Lili was the most beautiful and most terrible creature Alice had ever seen. Her long hair was like white threads or spider silk. It floated and glowed as if it were alive. The queen’s long dress was also a shimmering white. It looked as if it were made simultaneously of lace and velvet, of snow crystals and drifts, of white gems and sheer, cold light. Her face was smooth and unwrinkled, but still it was the face of an old woman. Her eyes were as hard as ice, and their gaze seemed as if it could pierce and kill a person with a single glance.
And yet the queen was so beautiful and enchanting that Alice had to remind herself that they had come to do battle with her. Otherwise she would have run to the queen and asked her to hug her and stroke her hair and tell her how lovely she was. Alice felt Marissa shift next to her and guessed that she felt the same. Alice squeezed her hand tightly. They stayed where they were.
“Alice and Marissa,” Queen Lili said with a smile.
Her voice was like frigid water that poured over the girls.
“Finally, you’ve arrived. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Queen Lili spread her arms as if she really expected them to run into her embrace.
“For many years, perhaps centuries, I have longed for you. And now you come here to live with me.”
Alice and Marissa looked at each other. What was going on?
“We didn’t come to stay,” Alice said. For a moment, Queen Lili looked dumbfounded.
“What do you mean, you didn’t come to stay? Even though I’ve made Sisterland the most wonderful and enchanting place in the world?”
The queen’s tone was sincere.
“We came here to put an end to your tyranny and to save our own world!” Marissa said in a firm voice.
Alice was happy that Marissa could remain so assertive. The whole time, she felt like rushing to the queen and assuring her that they really did want to move into the White Palace. Something in Queen Lili’s voice and bearing utterly beguiled Alice.
“Does your world need saving?” the queen asked.
“Of course it does!” Marissa exclaimed.
Now Alice’s irritation boiled over too. She remembered her dream of her parents and sister suffering.
“People are drowning in the snow there and are going to start freezing to death soon.”
The queen seemed to ponder this. Then she waved her hand and laughed. Alice had never heard such a frightening laugh, yet even so, it captivated her.
“My, my. I think they’ll learn to live with their eternal winter. I think that’s a small price to pay for Sisterland having an eternal summer with everything beautiful and blooming. I’ve expended a lot of time and energy to make this a kingdom of dreams. I’m not going to allow the snow troubles of some distant world to concern me.”
“If you wanted it to be summer here eternally, then why is your White Palace all ice and snow?” Marissa asked.
For a moment, Queen Lili was silent. A wounded expression flashed across her face.
“That is the price of Sisterland’s miraculous summer. Someone must endure the cold that intrudes from your world. I have chosen my fate.”
Alice and Marissa exchanged a glance. Suddenly the queen looked small and fragile and alone.
“But the people in our world haven’t chosen endless blizzards and freezing cold! You’ve stolen all their warmth, just like you’ve stolen their shadows!” Alice said angrily.
Queen Lili approached the girls. With every step, they felt the icy blast grip them tighter. She motioned toward the large mirror.
“This is the Mirror of Shadows. My greatest creation. It is a magical object that allows the warmth from your world to pass into Sisterland. It took a long time for me to discover how to trap the heat, but then I realized that I could use people’s shadows. The mirror draws the shadows over the boundary between the worlds, and the shadows bring the warmth with them. Who needs a shadow anyway? A shadow isn’t anything.”
As she spoke, Queen Lili seemed to grow larger. Her presence filled the entire hall.
“But why?” Alice asked. “Why wasn’t Sisterland enough for you the way it was?”
“It wasn’t miraculous enough,” the queen said in a quiet voice. “It would have been enough for me, but it wasn’t for Anna. When she left, I decided to make Sisterland such a splendid place that no one would ever want to leave again.”
The Mirror of Shadows began to show the Garden of Secrets and all the magical, beautiful things the girls had seen there. Alice realized that the queen had been watching them through the mirror the whole time they’d been in this world.
Sisterland was a dream come true. Sisterland was everything a person could ever want.
The queen was right. Alice and Marissa had been happier in Sisterland than they had ever been.
“Tell us about Anna,” Alice said, both to distract the queen and because she wanted to know. “Who is she?”
Queen Lili took a breath as sorrow filled her eyes.
“Anna was my best friend, my soul sister. Or so I thought. She came here from another world, from your world.”
The queen wiped her eyes, as if wanting to forget.
“But let us not speak of her. I would rather talk about you and what a wonderful future awaits you here in Sisterland.”
“But we have to return home,” Alice said. “And people need their warmth. And they even need their shadows. People aren’t complete without them. It can’t be winter without summer, and there can’t be light without shadow. And besides, you’ve made this place too perfect and safe for your own residents. They need danger and excitement and adventure—and cold too. No one wants to live in a dream all the time!”
Now Queen Lili was right in front of the girls. Her breath was like a freezing kiss on their foreheads.
“You don’t have to return. You could stay here, and this could become your home. You don’t even really remember what it was like in your world. You’ve almost forgotten your families entirely.”
The queen’s words tangled around the girls like a soft, fluffy dream. It would have been so nice to stay and rest in it.
“The Mirror of Shadows is also a door. If you open it and walk through the mirror, you will remain here eternally. Only your shadows will return to your own world. But no one will remember you there, and no one will miss you. It will be as if you never existed there. Perhaps sometimes on sunny days, your shadows might flit across the snow, but that is all.”
The queen placed her hands on the girls’ heads, as if to bless them. Part of Alice wanted more than anything for the queen to enfold them in her arms. However, Queen Lili stepped away.
“Choose carefully. If you use the door, you will enjoy all the miraculous things Sisterland has to offer. You could become my daughters.”
The queen’s expression turned soft and longing.
“I have been alone for so long…,” she sighed.
Alice wanted to believe her. But then somewhere in the back of her mind flickered memories of her family and home, which refocused her mind.
So instead, she said firmly, “You aren’t our mother. And you killed Ai-La.”
“Ai-La was already old, perhaps older than this world and all its creatures. Her time had come.”
“You lie,” Marissa hissed. “You were holding the dragons prisoner! Your icelisks and snow blowers attacked us! We want to go home!”
Queen Lili’s face turned cold again.
“So you’re just like Anna. She left me too—I imagine because she grew bored with Sisterland and began to hate me.”
“If you tried to force Anna to be your friend like you have with us, then it’s no wonder she left,” Alice said.
The queen’s shoulders slumped as if she’d been struck. It already looked as if she was giving up and admitting defeat. But then she turned her gaze and all her attention on Alice, and Alice felt the power of Queen Lili. It pulled her to the queen like the strongest magnet. Alice couldn’t tear her eyes away from the queen’s icy eyes. And when the queen began to speak to her, Alice felt as though she were the only person in the world.
“Alice, oh, little Alice. You’ve never had a best friend before Marissa? Think what a gift I’ve given you by putting the two of you together here. And what I’ve given I can also take away. You wouldn’t want that, would you? You wouldn’t want to return to your own world without ever finding each other again? You wouldn’t want to give up Marissa?”
Alice couldn’t reply. It was as if the queen’s voice had frozen her in place and made her mute. Of course she didn’t want to give up Marissa.
“You can play the hero, but isn’t it too high a price to never see your best friend again?”
Fear grew in Alice. The queen had so much power and authority. What if she did something to Marissa?
“Step to the mirror. Open it with your key. Only then can you be together forever.”
Alice was cold. Her teeth chattered. There was no feeling in her fingers. She knew what she should do. She knew what was right. But at the same time, she felt herself walking toward the Mirror of Shadows, intending to do just as the queen demanded.
“Alice!” Marissa shouted. “Don’t listen to her!”
Alice saw as Marissa tried to run to her, but her friend’s shoes were frozen to the palace floor, and she fell to her knees.
As if in a dream, Alice lifted the key and watched as her hand moved it ever closer to the keyhole. Queen Lili’s power was so strong that she couldn’t fight back.
Just as the key was reaching the keyhole, Alice felt a warm touch on her wrist. Marissa had taken off her shoes and run barefoot.
“Don’t believe her,” Marissa whispered. “No matter what happens, I will be your best friend and your soul sister. Nothing and no one can keep us apart.”
Alice looked into Marissa’s eyes. They could do this. They had promised each other that together they could be heroes.
Marissa grabbed Alice’s hand that held the key. Alice saw a triumphant smile flash across the queen’s lips. She thought they were opening the door after all.
“Down with tyrants!” Alice and Marissa shouted together, and smashed the key with all their might into the center of the mirror, which shattered. The shards reflected Queen Lili’s expression of despair as she cried out in horror. From her cry came a wind that grew and grew in force. Alice and Marissa clutched each other by the hand. The gale howled and wailed around them. It grew into a swirling hurricane that swept them up off the floor, into the air and through the destroyed ceiling of the White Palace. They rose higher and higher.