Rose investigates

Rose wondered where Clara had gone.

First, she'd been covered in honey and licked all over by the giggling maids, while a number of handsome young knights stood around and watched. Then, the maids had spanked her with a big wooden paddle, while the knights had talked about how much of a strumpet she was and how she deserved her punishment. Then, she'd been taken out of the stocks and dragged all round the castle at the end of a leash, with no clothes on, before being taken down to the kitchens and made to scrub floors while the maids lashed her red behind with switches. It had all been completely humiliating. Not the kind of thing Clara would normally miss.

But Clara hadn't showed up.

She had said she'd only be gone for a second. And then she'd disappeared. It wasn't like Clara. Which was why Rose was now walking up the stairs towards Clara's bedchamber. She was sure Clara had just forgotten about her, but she might as well be absolutely sure.

She opened the door.

"Ah," said Alice, sitting on the bed. "You're just in time. Clara and I were just having a polite conversation about who's really the Mistress of the Land of Fiction, and who's a naughty little girl who got ahead of herself."

"Mmf," said Clara. She was lying over Alice's lap with her dress flipped up and her bare red bottom pointed at the door. It was even redder than Rose's. Alice gave it another firm smack with her hairbrush, beaming in triumph.

"What's that?" she said. "Nothing to say? You see, my typewriter knows me, Clara. We've been friends for so long. Of course it's going to come back to me when I call it."

"Mmmff," said Clara, who was gagged with her own panties. The typewriter rested on her back. Rose started forward, not sure exactly what she was going to do, but knowing she couldn't just stay by and watch.

"Hey," she said. "Let her go."

"What do you mean, let her go? I'm the Mistress of the Land of Fiction. I can do anything I like."

"But it isn't fair."

"She made me run all across the Land without any clothes on," Alice snapped. "I'd say it's perfectly fair. Anyway, what are you complaining about? You're free. You don't have to put up with this little bitch's bullying any more."

"She's my friend. Yeah, maybe she bullies me, but maybe I like it that way. Anyway, I'll always stand up for my friends, no matter what. So you better let her go right now, or..."

"Or what?"

"I'll... fight you?"

"Rose suddenly remembered she was completely naked," said Alice, clicking away on the keys of the typewriter, "and all of a sudden became far too embarrassed to fight anyone."

"Eek!"

"She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she found herself in a distant land far, far away from King's Landing. She knew that if she wanted to get back to the Red Keep and rescue her friend Clara from Alice's evil clutches, she would have to travel many, many leagues across the Land of Fiction, through stories of all shapes and sizes. And she would have to do it all completely naked. Which presented a problem, because there was nothing Rose found more utterly, totally embarrassing than other people seeing her naked."

The bedchamber was silent. Rose had vanished. Alice smiled down at Clara, who looked absolutely furious.

"Now," she said, "with her out of the way, it's time to get my ****. My very, very thorough ****. I believe you have something called the Shame Room?"