Francesca, The Great and Terrible: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance

by JB Trepagnier

  I needed to talk to Ozma when she got back. Locasta went to the East and used the Munchkin’s hate of the taxes to twist them for a reason. If Galen had taught me anything about the Fisher King, he never did anything unless there was a plot brewing underneath somewhere.

  The Munchkins used to be a kind and gentle bunch, but they were also fickle. Maybe we could nip whatever plan the Fisher King had for the Munchkins in the bud if Ozma could do away with the Wizard’s taxes. As far as I knew, no one liked them, and Oz got along fine without them before.

  “I have a plan for the Munchkins,” I announced. “Is Galen okay to join the school.”

  Professor Ixius just shrugged. “I suppose. I didn’t sign up for the school to make decisions like this. I signed up to teach fighting.”

  “You have my friends and me teaching fighting,” I pointed out. I grabbed Galen’s hand and pulled him out of the office. “That was the easy part. You’re going to have to meet Ozma when she gets back, and she’s going to give you the third degree even worse than any of us did.”

  Chapter 11

  Frankie

  G

  alen was technically enrolled in Emerald City Academy, but didn’t go to any classes that day since we only had history and no teacher. I couldn’t even get to know Galen on our downtime because we were trying to figure out if Glinda was hiding or she’d somehow been taken. Galen seemed to think the Fisher King wanted Saffron and me alive, but Glinda, he would kill her in a heartbeat. For all we knew, he had Glinda now draining her magic.

  Our magical lessons were still pretty basic. Equora was still just teaching potions instead of teaching ingredients and how they worked together. Students were being a lot more careful than the first few classes, and fewer people were getting expelled because something exploded in their faces.

  Ixius was actually sober for fight training, but it was more of the same. He barely did any teaching. At most, he walked around and made corrections while my friends and I did all the work. I’d never met a lazy Winkie before Professor Ixius.

  What we were really waiting for was class to be over. Ozma was due home. We dropped our staffs and went running for the door as soon as we were dismissed. We went pounding down all twenty flights of stairs out to the front gate to wait.

  I’ll say one thing for Ozma; she knew how to make an entrance. The twenty-one Captains were all marching in formation in front followed by a huge golden chariot being pulled by The Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger. There was a large man made out of tin that I didn’t know behind them. It wasn’t Nick Chopper, so they must have met him on their journey. Dorothy was standing right next to Ozma on the chariot, and it looked like they were sharing clothes now.

  Unlike Glinda and her splendid gowns, Ozma dressed for missions like she expected a fight. She was in tight green trousers and a brown leather vest. She still had her hair glamoured red, but she still got a huge reception coming through the gates with people thinking she was Glinda’s niece and not their new queen because she made such a show of it.

  Maybe there was still a little Tip left in her. She didn’t wait until the chariot finished its journey back inside the palace. She vaulted over the rim and came jogging towards us. Galen had his hair covered by his cloak because we thought she shouldn’t see it in public. Ozma must have rubbed off on Dorothy because she just jumped off and came running too.

  Ozma was wearing some crazy belt. It was pretty, but it reminded me a lot of Emerald City—flashy and way too many jewels. It didn’t match the rest of her simple outfit.

  “What’s with that belt?” I asked.

  Ozma just laughed. “We stole it from the Nome King after we solved his riddle, and it ended in a fight. Toto surprised us all by talking. It turns out he could this entire time. He just chose not to. He helped us after we all got turned into trinkets for the Nome King.”

  “Men and their shiny things,” I said, rolling my eyes. “What does it do?”

  “From what I can tell, it grants wishes like the famous silver slippers. I can use the belt to wish Dorothy home.”

  I frowned. I thought that was what Dorothy wanted this entire time. I thought if she had a way home, she would have taken it as soon as the option was available.

  Dorothy just cleared her throat. “We should go talk somewhere private.”

  “I agree. I’ve got some information on you and the Fisher King, and there’s someone you need to meet.”

  Galen had been hanging in the back with his cloak over his face, but Ozma could feel his magic and called me out on it right away.

  “Yes, you’d better introduce me to the person you’ve found whose magic hums like that.”

  “Let’s do it in my room,” I said. “There’s some protection spells I need to put on your room and Dorothy’s room before you go back in there. Promise me to hear him out before you flip out, okay?”

  “You’re going to have to explain to me exactly what went on here while we were gone that you are stepping up protection on our rooms, Frankie. I don’t mind, but I need to know what’s going on.”

  “Come on. My room.”

  We all filed into my room. Galen didn’t sit with us. He leaned against the wall with his cloak over his eyes. Ozma took in all the sheets on the walls and reflective surfaces.

  “Did something happen with Glinda while I was gone? I felt like I could trust what she was telling us when we talked. I know she was lying to you about Daxar, but maybe it was for the safety of everyone here,” Ozma said.

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m starting to wonder if maybe Glinda isn’t hiding, but it’s that she’s been kidnapped somehow. I think even with all the traps and security in Emerald City, someone got her. You know the Wizard used magic to kill my parents and kidnap me. He didn’t work with Mombi and Locasta again, but he did work with other sorcerers to make sure no one could do that to him. Glinda put the same protections on the school. You can’t murder or kidnap someone by magic in these walls.”

  “Then why all the traps and puzzles in her rooms?” Saffron pointed out. “That was a tricky lock on the door. It took both Oprix and me to get the puzzles unlocked, then Idris had to fight with the door. That wasn’t an easy puzzle.”

  “You solved it, though,” I pointed out. “Maybe Glinda knows more about us than we think.”

  “Why the one-eighty, Frankie?” Oprix asked. “You were always so vocal about Glinda being suspect.”

  I just shrugged. “Galen needs to fill Ozma in on what he knows.”

  “And why he hums with magic like that. The only reason I didn’t address him first is that I trust Frankie and Saffron not to bring an enemy inside these walls.”

  Ozma was going to flip her shit when she found out about his parents. I had a bad temper, but so did she. I was trying not to pull my sword out and behead him as soon as he told me. The only reason I didn’t was that my instincts were warring with each other. My gut was still saying I could trust him, but my brain and all my training said to just kill him right there.

  Before Galen could pull his hood off, I decided to get Ozma’s attention. “Remember that you trust me when he takes his hood off. Listen to his entire story when he gets to the shocking parts. I did, and that’s why he’s here.”

  Ozma just rolled her eyes. “I spent twenty-two years thinking I was a poor Gillikin boy named Tip. I don’t think I reacted all that bad when you told me I was really a girl and a princess.”

  No, she didn’t. She took it pretty well, actually. I didn’t spend a lot of time with Tip, but he seemed clever and laid back. When we let Ozma out, she was clever, but a little intense. I don’t think Tip would have told Glinda off like Ozma did when Glinda came bursting in the room when we were trying to talk.

  Galen finally pushed himself off the wall and let his cloak fall off. Even Dorothy, who came from that strange place called Kans-ass, gasped when the sun coming through the stained-glass window hit his hair. Ozma bolted to her feet with magic crackling at her fing
ertips.

  “You have five minutes to explain why you are here and why your hair is that color.”

  Galen didn’t make any sudden moves. He just raised his hands like he meant no harm. “My hair is this color because I inherited it from my mother. I’m here to help you defeat the Fisher King, and I have information that can help you.”

  Ozma didn’t shake the magic out of her hands. If anything, it sparked a little harder. “If only Sentinels know about the Fisher King, then you’ll have to excuse me for wondering how you know a damned thing that can help us.”

  “My mother is the woman who stayed behind to guard the Fisher King’s prison, and my father is the Fisher King. They are both horrible people. I was a part of their plan, and I wanted none of it. As soon as I figured out how, I ran away.”

  Why hadn’t I asked him about that? Everything I knew about the Fisher King was that he used people and never did something unless he had a reason. He was probably using Galen’s mother, and he probably had a reason for having Galen. Why didn’t I ask Galen what his purpose was?

  “What was your purpose? Getting close to us and winning our trust?”

  Galen just rolled his eyes. “Nothing like that. I was meant to keep all the Fisher King’s new wives in line while he drained their magic. I would have been an entertaining jailer for all of you when he got his hands on you. I don’t view women the way he does, and I don’t know why my mother puts up with it. She acts like it’s a gift when he pays attention to her and when he does, it’s usually to insult her or strike her. I know she can fight, and she could probably beat him in several forms of combat, but she never fights back.”

  “Oh, Galen,” I said, getting up to hug him.

  I’d never touched him before. I just felt like he needed a hug. He sort of just patted me on the back like no one ever touched him like that before. I was betting they hadn’t. This was probably Galen’s first hug.

  I felt sorry for him. His father abused him, and he had to watch his mother getting beat up, knowing she had the power to fight back. Galen’s entire existence was to keep his father’s prisoners entertained while he slowly murdered them. Galen wasn’t born out of love or a night of passion. His birth was planned for evil purposes.

  Galen could have ended up different. He said the Fisher King was charming. Galen could have been raised in a way that he was okay with what the Fisher King wanted to do with us. He would never have run away, and he wouldn’t be here trying so hard to win our trust knowing what we would think about him when he told us the truth.

  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with that idea because after I was done, Ozma got up and pulled him into a hug too. Galen just stood there awkwardly while she squeezed him. Ozma pulled back and held him at arm’s length.

  “I grew up without getting any hugs too. Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it. Mombi raised me, and I understand abusive parents. I ran away when I could too.”

  Even though Galen was awkward as all fuck when we both hugged him, his smile lit up his face. “Hugs are nice. I wouldn’t mind more of them.”

  Idris let out a little growl because Galen was looking right at me when he said that. Was Galen into me? We hardly knew each other. He knew more about me than I did about him because he crept around Emerald City spying on people. I wondered why that didn’t bother me. If I found out anyone else had been cloaking themselves in invisibility potion to watch me and seemed to know what I got up to with Daxar when that was supposed to be private, I would have given them a solid beating.

  I guess because of Galen’s story, and that he had to watch me to find the best way to approach me, I got it a little. If he had said the slightest thing wrong the first time we met, he wouldn’t have his head right now, and I’d be totally ignorant about the Fisher King.

  I’d have to make Idris and Oprix understand Galen needed to heal from what he went through with his parents. I could help him do that. If Galen was going to fight by my side, I needed to get to know him. I couldn’t fight beside a stranger. That was asking for trouble. I made a lot of threats about punching people in the face and giving them a solid beat down, but Glinda the Good was the first person I’d ever actually punched before. I tried to solve everything with words because that’s how my mother trained me and raised me. It did feel pretty damned good to break Glinda’s nose, though.

  “Galen will be staying in our room, and we got him enrolled in this school,” I announced.

  Ozma gave me this evil smile. “Dorothy told me about the classes here on our journeys. Frankie and Saffron are doing most of the teaching anyway. If Glinda doesn’t want to teach history, I don’t see why Galen can’t. He doesn’t have a geas on him and can tell the students the truth about the Fisher King. They can decide for themselves if they want to stay here or not. Glinda wasn’t honest when she was recruiting students.”

  Galen just shook his head. “There’s not a lot known about the forgetting spells that were done for the Fisher King and the Sentinels. My mother taught the Fisher King the spell that made everyone forget him. She and Locasta tweaked it to turn everyone against the Sentinels. Locasta isn’t as strong as the other Sentinels, but she’s not a weak sorceress by any means. She’s cunning, and she hides it behind the face of a kindly old lady.

  “Before they came up with the spell to make everyone forget the Sentinels, their original plan was to figure out how to reverse the original spell that made everyone forget the Fisher King. Most of the talk I’ve heard is that if enough people start talking about the Fisher King or the Sentinels, it will break the curse, and people will remember everything. My parents gave up on that. It had been so long since my father held the throne, even with the curse broken, no one would remember him anyway. Teaching the students here about the Fisher King might not be safe.”

  Ozma ran her fingers through her hair, and it changed back to pink. She started pacing. I already knew what she was thinking because I had been thinking it for most of my time at this school, and since I found out about the Fisher King.

  “It’s not right,” Ozma said. “Glinda told everyone they were coming here to learn to be Sentinels, but we all know that was a lie. We would need a new Sentinel in the North and possibly the South if Glinda is up to no good, but no one here is qualified, even with a knowledge transference spell for the basics. Galen could take one of the points, but that leaves one empty.”

  Galen shook his head. “I’m not Sentinel material. My parents didn’t train me like a Sentinel. I know the same magic almost every sorcerer knows when it comes to teleportation and invisibility, and I know how to brew my own potions from scratch, but my parents only trained me in the darkest of magic. You forget what they had me for.”

  That was exactly why he should be a Sentinel somewhere, and Ozma knew it. She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the sofa. Why was I jealous he was sitting right next to her?

  “There’s a black market in the North full of bad magic. If I had to choose, I’d make you Sentinel of the North.”

  “I know. The Fisher King’s prison is near the North. Most of the ingredients were supplied by my parents. Shut down the Fisher King and my mother, and you shut down the black market. You don’t need me in the North.”

  “Galen—”

  “Ozma, I don’t think Galen actually wants the job,” I said, interrupting. “I know he’s got the chops for it, but there’s no point in forcing him. Galen, what do you want to do when this is over?”

  Galen just shrugged. “I’ll never get away from magic. It’s in my blood. I just want a simple life: a wife and a home. I just want to love and to be happy. I visited the West when I first ran away because I was looking for Frankie. I liked the West, and I liked the Winkies. I wouldn’t mind settling in the West when this is over if I manage to live through it.”

  Once again, Galen was looking right at me like he was trying to make a point. I thought I understood that look. Galen wanted to live in the West with me. I think everyone in the room understood what he was tryi
ng to say. He didn’t have a lot of experience talking to girls and that this was probably a conversation we should have had privately after we had gotten to know each other.

  Idris and Oprix both knew exactly what he was trying to say too because Idris growled, and Oprix grumped. Dorothy and Ozma exchanged this look. There was something behind that look that I needed to figure out.

  “I’ll drop it for now, but none of us can fight our birthright. What are we going to do about Glinda?” Ozma asked.

  “I’m starting to think she’s not hiding; she’s been taken somehow, and it has something to do with Daxar. It’s either that or she’s gone back home to her castle in the South. I don’t think she would go back home with everything going on. She wasn’t lying when she told us all she wanted was to find you and restore Oz. I just don’t know what she’s up to with her methods.”

  “Locasta could have her,” Ozma said. “We took Mombi, so she took Glinda to bring to the Fisher King.”

  “I can’t get into the jails to see Mombi. I’ve tried. Glinda left orders.”

  “Maybe you can’t,” Ozma sniffed. “I can. Tomorrow after your fight lessons, we’ll all go to Mombi’s cell. Come on, Dorothy. Let’s go to bed.”

  Just before Dorothy and Ozma shut the door, I saw Dorothy slip her hand into Ozma’s. Were they more than just friends? Interesting.

  Chapter 12

  Frankie

  I

  think we were all a little shocked when Ozma and Dorothy joined us in magic class. Emari and Emarus had already met Galen because they came by to chat after we met with Ozma. I liked Emarus with Saffron. He was super sweet to her, and she needed someone to be kind to her after everything. Ozma must have talked to Ixius about enrolling in the school because she was already waiting at a table these awful Munchkins always sat in.