“How can she help?” I queried, sipping my tea.
“She has her methods,” she replied with a short laugh. “It usually ends in a new set of armor or item of furniture. Of course, those in the forest have no complaints, they must eat something.”
I frowned. “How many are caring for them?”
“Several dozen. The little folk send what grain and cloth they can, Tati provides fruit, feathers, and meat, and the Pumpkinheads provide vegetables. I keep supply medicines and cleansers among the communities.”
“And Glinda?” It was a stupid question given what I knew of her, but it was worth knowing for sure.
“Sends her wolves to hunt down the weakest. Those less able to run or hide. She does her best,” she remarked bitterly. “Tell me, how are you adapting to life here?”
I put my saucer on the table before us and turned in my seat. “I don’t think I am,” I answered honestly. “It’s still all like some really bad dream.”
She smiled sadly. “Unfortunately, this is reality here. Tati does what she can, we all do, but the destruction her power wreaks leaves her limited as to how she can handle her sister and, in her reluctance to do too much harm, she gave Glinda the advantage.”
My eyebrows rose of their own accord at her candid comment.
She saw my expression and explained, “I can and will outline her failings. I am not Sayer and she is not Glinda. In trying to do good, she did nothing, and the cost was high. She’ll tell you that herself. But another reason, a deeper reason, is that she doesn’t want absolute power. She never did. She chose the North because there were no people to rule.”
“But she seems so well liked,” I said, picking up my cup again and helping myself to a cookie. “Surely the people would rather have her than Glinda?”
Bree smiled. I could see the love she had for her mistress in her eyes as she did. “They would,” she replied, “but with her family’s record for tyranny with any amount of power, I think her choice was well made.”
I shook my head. “That’s bullshit. Your family doesn’t define who you are. Being an asshole is a choice you make all on your own.”
She laughed and put down her cup. “I agree. But we are influenced by those around us. I understand Dorothy suffered when she left here. I would argue that her experiences shaped the people around her. Her daughter loved her and grew up to be a compassionate, patient woman. Her daughter—”
“Is an asshole,” I interjected. I didn’t want her to have any misconceptions. My family had its faults just as Tatiana’s and hers did.
“Yet you are more like your grandmother.”
Somehow, I didn’t think Grandma had this much male attention.
I shrugged. “Maybe. I tend to keep to myself, too, you know?”
“Do you really?” She sounded surprised. “Why?”
“I work a lot, and my job isn’t exactly...” I took a deep breath. “I dance for men. It pays well, but there are a lot of misconceptions around the job, it’s kind of taboo, you know? So, I work, I hang out at the bar where I work, sometimes have coffee with a few of the other dancers, but it’s easier not to have to handle people’s judgment.”
“So you have no partner?” she pressed.
I thought of earlier with Fallon. Of what we shared. Not the act, but the feeling that came with it. Was he my partner? What about Sayer? I hadn’t come to a conclusion about him yet and I didn’t know if I were ready to.
I shook my head. “Guys like to watch me dance. They don’t want other guys watching their girl dance. It’s cool, I don’t have an issue with that, I’m just not changing my life to fit someone else in.”
“And what about Fallon?”
I looked at her sideways. “What do you mean?” I hedged.
“Not just Fallon,” she said with an amused smile. “I mean, I heard my brother fell head over heels for you the second he met you. Fallon had much the same response, and the tension between you and Nox is... tangible.”
Surprised by her apparent acceptance of the strange situation, I grimaced and asked, “Tatiana mentioned that, huh?”
“I heard all about you from Fallon, actually,” she replied, picking up the teapot. “More tea?”
I gave her a questioning look and presented my cup.
“Keeping him still while I tended the burn was easier with him concentrating on you. He told me about your arrival at the Ruby Fortress. How you faced the inhabitants of your fortress and claimed it for your own. How you took on the responsibility of your new position, not for personal gain but out of compassion for the people.
“He told me how my brother described your instant dislike of Glinda.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I clarified in mild protest. “I just can’t stand pink and her voice gives me a headache.”
Bree laughed, putting the teapot back on the table. “It really is a terrible affliction, that voice of hers.”
“Hmm. I wondered what the world did to deserve it.” I took another cookie and nibbled the edge before asking, “I still can’t fully believe she’s like this, my great grandmother thought she was wonderful. Has she always been so… wicked?”
She nodded her head solemnly. “I’m afraid so. She ordered the exe—”
“I heard,” I interrupted, not wanting to hear the details again. It made me sick. “Nox told me. Does that mean Sayer really did... did he do it?”
“I wasn’t there,” she said, her voice strained, “but by all accounts, the two tribes went into the building for talks, and only Glinda and Sayer came out. Nox being the exception, of course.”
And we’d come back to Nox.
I took a large bite of my cookie and looked at the tapestry on the wall. I hadn’t paid much attention to it the night before, but I was suddenly incredibly interested.
It was the city. The Emerald City, my great grandmother had called it.
The palace loomed over the lower levels, with the many cylindrical towers reaching into the sky. The fields outside were full of flowers, the forest to the north a mass of healthy green. It was nothing like the wasteland I’d seen, or the decaying wood I’d walked through.
“Was it really made from emeralds?” I inquired quietly.
“No. It was a trick of the light,” she said softly. “The city was sculpted from a huge prism rock by the first witch. The lower levels were just plain stone painted to match the grand towers. They’re all black and grey now, a charred ruin after what Glinda and Tati did to it. Tati didn’t want to. She grew up there, the city was her home and she loved every inch of it, but Glinda kept on pushing and eventually her hand was forced.
“Such a shame it came to that. It really was the most beautiful place...”
“Maybe it can be rebuilt,” I suggested, looking at the rest of the woven image.
“Not until Glinda is stopped. She won’t have it. Any attempt to restore the city will be met with wrath,” Bree concluded, with a stern shake of her head. There was a hard edge to her tone that surprised me, and when I looked at her face, she was almost scowling up at the image.
“Why?”
“She believed the city was hers. As the eldest of the sisters it was her right, and her mother gave it to the wizard. Naturally, Glinda was incensed, but she was very careful in her planning. Who would have suspected it was she who brought a child from another world to carry out killings on her behalf? Of course, she rushed to the child after her first trap was sprung, assuring her the witch was wicked and not a loss at all, and sending her on her merry way. Her meeting the yellow mane lion was a happy coincidence. The same with the scarecrow and the woodcutter. They each played a part in her scheme. By the time Dorothy returned home, leaving the slippers behind, Glinda had set the wheels in motion. The slippers answered to no one and neither did the winged guard. Of course the fighting started, and the city was razed, but Glinda got what she wanted. She was free to claim the East. She was free to build her army and pinpoint you. She even found the perfect lure in my broth
er.”
I turned my head sharply and pulled in my brows at the mention of Sayer. If she noticed, she showed no sign, her focus still trained on the tapestry.
“But as luck would have it, she underestimated you. Everyone did,” she continued. “Sayer knew the effect you had on him, he’d been watching you for a time, hoping to find a way to avoid bringing you here. It must have pained him to hand you over to Fallon, to return to the palace when every part of him told him his place was at your side. But he believes, and Fallon believes and now Nox believes, that when all this is over you will love them regardless of what each of them must do to win this... they know they have you.”
“He told you all that?”
“He didn’t need to. I can see it in each of their expressions when you’re mentioned,” she said, turning her head toward me and smiling. “They won’t let you down.”
I don’t know what she saw in my eyes, but she reached out and took the saucer from my hands and asked, “Why do you fight it?”
“I’m not fighting anything. Sayer isn’t here and Nox...” I sighed. I didn’t know if I was fighting or just avoiding, but I didn’t want to answer her regardless. I’d jumped from Sayer to Fallon, it was true. And I had feelings for both of them that were confusing and not usual. The normal thing was one partner, wasn’t it? That’s how it always was. And now there was Nox. I didn’t know what was going to happen there, but if he kept touching me the way he had yesterday, I could guess. I couldn’t just split myself between three guys. Could I?
Maybe I could. I was doing okay with Fallon while Sayer was still in the mix, albeit he was absent. The real question was, did I want to discuss my private life with a complete stranger? She may have shown me nothing but warmth and welcomed me into her home, but I wasn’t usually one for sharing. “There are more important things to worry about,” I replied instead, trying to shift the turn our conversation had taken.
She patted the top of my hand and got up, taking the tea tray with her. I thought she was going to just go, but she looked back down at me and added, “Perhaps. But it can make all the difference knowing you have people you can absolutely rely on.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded, and watched her take the tray and leave the room.
Chapter 17
Nox found me in Fallon’s room.
We were sitting cross-legged on the bed, looking down at a book, the pages filled with his words. I loved looking at it, it was beautiful. The way it sloped to the right, each letter carefully connected to the next, the wide loops and spaces making each gracefully crafted word a joy to read.
I was adoring having him fully reply to my questions and had managed to coax a good amount of information from him. He’d turned the tables by writing down questions for me to answer, and when Nox walked in their eyes met in an undecipherable way.
I looked from him to Fallon, trying to figure out what was going unsaid between them, but there was nothing to tell what it was.
Then Fallon nodded his head, just once, and Nox turned directly to me and asked, “Do you have a minute?”
I glanced to Fallon for his approval. He took my hand and smiled, nodding toward the door.
“I’ll be right back,” I murmured, before kissing him. “Don’t run off.”
He gave me a half smile and I turned to leave him and found Nox gone.
“I mean it,” I said, glancing back at Fallon. “I won’t be long.”
When I stepped into the hall, Nox was leaning on the wall opposite the door.
“What’s up?” I inquired, leaving the door ajar.
“We should think about moving. We’re running out of time,” he stressed, giving me a meaningful look.
“We?” Part of me had expected him to take off. To go back to the West, to his life, like he had that night in the forest.
“You. Tati. Fallon. Us,” he listed, looking directly into my eyes. “I’m not going anywhere, Ella. We’re all affected. We’re all here living this. We may not have known it, but we waited for you. We’ve protected you. We all have your back. But she will be moving, and if we don’t move too, then she’ll take the advantage.”
Whatever that meant, I wouldn’t allow it. We’d all come too far. “How?”
“She’ll gather her forces, or more likely have Sayer do it—saves time.”
Anxiety contracted my chest. That sounded like battle. We didn’t have the numbers and with no way of knowing what Sayer would quite literally drop on us, we were screwed. “What forces?”
“I heard she was building an army. She has hundreds of Wyrms at her disposal at the least. You can match her easily, but if you’re not prepared when she strikes, you stand to lose everything.”
“Where will she attack? Here? The fortress?”
He shook his head. “No, closer to home. The city is her aim, that’s what she wants as her palace—a central point she can rule from. If you get there first, if you restore the defenses, we can make our stand there.”
We. He was with me every step of the way. “Why are you helping me?” I asked.
“I’ve watched from the shadows for years. I’ve done all I can with what I’ve had, but it wasn’t ever going to be enough. Then I found you. I’ve watched you. The people here love you. They know you really care. I told you what happened to my people and I’d rather die fighting for what they believed in than swear fealty to her. We can’t stay here, need to move.”
I looked back to Fallon’s door. Had he heard all that? I’d tell him everything later anyway, but I’d rather not have a conversation behind his back.
“I think this is a conversation we all need to have together.”
He nodded. “Tati should be back soon. Shall we go and get lunch while we wait?”
I looked back at Fallon’s door, torn between going and staying. I didn’t want to leave him.
Nox chuckled. “Tell him to get himself together and we’ll all go.”
I didn’t need to tell him anything. His door swung fully open and he stepped out wearing his usual leather pants and a black tunic. His hair was neatly combed back, and his skin glistened with a thin coating of the lavender salve Bree was using to treat his burns. It was working well, that side of his face now pink with little evidence of injury.
“Looks like he’s together,” I observed brightly, before turning and leading the way to the sitting room.
It was strange, but for the first time since we left the town in the West, I felt completely at ease. Whether it was knowing we were safe for a time or just having them both close, I didn’t know, but I liked the idea.
When we arrived in the sitting room there was a table set for six. There were only bowls and side plates, spoons and knives at each setting, with a large tureen and basket of bread rolls in the center of the table. Bree was sitting with her hands clasped to her chest, her eyes closed, and her lips moving quickly in a silent prayer.
I paused in the doorway, and the guys stood silently behind, while all of us let her finish.
“Thank you,” she said when she opened her eyes. “I made soup. Please come and help yourselves.”
“Gladly,” Nox replied, barging past me and into the room. “Seems like it’s been forever since breakfast.”
Bree laughed. “I’ll fetch more bread.”
“No, no,” he protested, striding straight past the table and to the door on the opposite side of the room. “I’ll get them, I remember where you put them when you pulled them from the oven.”
I watched him with my brows raised as he left the room.
Bree was still chuckling when I sat down beside her, and she commented, “He’s wonderful company.”
I glanced at Fallon as I pulled in my chair, and said, “We haven’t really gotten to know him very well.”
Fallon poured himself a drink from one of two jugs on the table and smirked.
“I expect that will change now,” she replied, before standing and serving me first.
I looked at the empty seats. O
ne was clearly for Tatiana, but the sixth had confused me. “Who’s missing?”
“Remi,” she answered, filling her own bowl. “He returned to the fortress shortly before you arrived. I was praying for his safety.”
“Why did he go so quickly?” I asked, watching her step around the table.
She paused when Fallon shook his head and gestured to her seat, then Bree smiled and sat back down.
“He called by for an update on your safety. When he received it, he returned to the fortress. I did try to persuade him to stay, but he said he was needed. Training is going well and he hopes to see you soon.”
Just as we were finishing lunch, Tati returned from the border. She looked awful, charred, and exhausted as she flopped into the seat beside me and sighed. Her armor clattered, and I eyed her with a frown. Bree instantly got up and served her a bowl of soup.
“Finish your lunch,” she insisted. “I can—”
“You are exhausted,” Bree countered. “What happened out there?”
Tatiana looked around the table. Fallon was staring at her intently, his bowl pushed far in front of him, and his arms resting on the table top. Nox was much the same, only he sat back, with one elbow resting on the carved chair arm, and fiddled with one of his braids.
“It was difficult to tell. The unrest in the Wyrm colonies is getting out of hand. The females are frantic. No sign of the males. Their instinct, when something is amiss, is to turn and attack the Lioneag colonies. I managed to send a few dozen eggs back, but many were smashed and the females are mourning over their nests.”
Bree delivered the soup, stroked her hand gently over Tatiana’s hair, and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry, love.”
It was such a small, natural gesture that it almost passed me by, but the realization that Bree and Tati were, well, Bree and Tati, was something of a revelation to me. I didn’t even consider it, after Sayer had so vehemently denied a relationship between him and Glinda. But Tati wasn’t her sister. She was kind and thoughtful. She considered others and fought for what was right. Of course Bree loved her.
The Quartz Tower (Kingdoms of Oz Book 2) Page 14