“With pink hair like that, you can only belong to the royal family of Emerald City. All of Oz thinks the Wizard murdered you because he was more powerful at magic. Why would Locasta keep you alive? It’s sloppy, and everything we’ve learned watching Uptown is that Locasta is crafty.”
Galen cleared his throat. “I think I know that answer.”
Gugu’s purr got a little deeper. “You are a curious thing. How did you come to that hair color, boy?”
“My mother. She guarded the Fisher King’s prison until he seduced her. She’s working with the Fisher King and Locasta to steal magic from Oz. The two girls you think are Wicked Witches are here to fight him. The Fisher King means to capture them, impregnate them, and steal their magic until they are dead.”
“I’ve been alive a long time, and I don’t remember this Fisher King,” Gugu purred.
“A forgetting spell was cast so you wouldn’t. You would remember the Fisher King as King Grant. A boring King with a boring rule who barely made the history books.”
“So, why are you in my forest?”
“I brought them here,” Zusim said. “You have spies in Uptown. They have my mate and my unborn child. I need to save them.”
“You expect me to believe a Flying Monkey was able to conceive a child with someone who is not a Flying Monkey? I didn’t know you to be a liar before, Zusim.”
I heard bones snapping as Zusim transformed. “The woman you know as the Wicked Witch of the West was trying to break our ties to that cursed Golden Cap. Somehow, her spell gifted us the ability to shift into men. That is how Glinda is my mate, and it is how the prince of the Flying Monkeys you see before you is mated to the Sentinel of the West. There will be a new generation of Flying Monkeys born from us.”
“Untie them,” Gugu ordered. “No magic, baby witches. I’m just starting to trust you.”
I sat totally still while a bear tore my ropes with his claws. I sat up and started rubbing the blood back into my hands. When I finally started getting feeling back into my hands, I started trying to get dirt out of my mouth.
Gugu chuffed. “Apologies for the dirt, baby witch.”
“My name is Frankie, and my cousin is Saffron,” I said, spitting dirt out of my mouth. I was getting pretty tired of the moniker baby witch.
“Very well, Frankie. Let’s talk. Do you intend for my people to fight for you?”
The bear that untied me growled. “I wouldn’t mind fighting Locasta. You know she’s been experimenting on talking animals.”
“Wait, hold up,” I said. “Why is she experimenting on talking animals?”
The bear flopped on his hindquarters. “Shira, one of our wolves, was captured and managed to escape. Locasta was trying to find out what magic made us talk.”
Galen came to stand next to me. “The Fisher King is probably trying to figure out how to steal magic from talking animals.”
Toto had come with us. Ozma said he spoke when they were in the Nome King’s realm, but he’d never spoken around me when he was with us. He trotted up to the bear.
“Well, hello. I come from a land where animals don’t speak. We think, but we can’t verbalize in a way humans can understand. As soon as Dorothy and I ended up here, my instincts changed, and I realized other animals were talking. I was too embarrassed to try it myself until I had no choice and my human was in danger. It’s something about Oz’s magic that makes you able to speak. Animals in other realms can’t.”
“The reasons we talk are irrelevant. How can we help you?” Gugu asked.
“Do you know anything about Locasta’s prisons?” Daxar asked. “We’re trying to break Glinda out without being seen. We can call a bigger army, but it puts Galen at risk. If the Fisher King finds out his son is alive, he will step up his plans and attack Oz.”
Gugu smiled. “Then change your plans. Use my army and not the one you can call.”
Chapter 23
Galen
I
had my reservations about coming to the Forest of Gugu, but now I was glad we were here. No one had outright said it, but if the Fisher King saw the corpses I called, he would know I was alive, and he would attack Emerald City to get to me. I would put all my new friends in danger. I’d put Frankie in danger. I knew she could handle herself, but she couldn’t fight my father’s ring.
I liked Gugu. Now that he trusted us, he led us to his court. He had his own way of teleporting. We were gathered around his table with a huge meal in front of us. Zusim warned us we couldn’t hunt when we got here because we wouldn’t know which animals could talk or not, and we didn’t want to offend Gugu. There was meat for the carnivores, and I was eating this wonderful thing called lentils I’d never had before.
Shira, the wolf Locasta captured, was with us. She had all the intel on Locasta’s jail. She paced the table with her tail twitching.
“The jail is a front. They take you through these underground tunnels to a side castle off Locasta’s property. There are labs there where they experiment on you. They may have closed it off since I used it to escape, but there’s a back door that was unlocked that night. They pump us full of sleeping potion, so we stay docile, but the man working that night missed my cell. When he finally remembered, I had come to. I attacked him and escaped.”
Zusim pounded his fist on the table. “How safe is this sleeping potion for pregnant women?”
Frankie touched his arm. “It’s safe, Zusim. We’ll get her.”
“So, what is your big plan?” Shira asked. “Locasta spends a lot of time in that jail, and if she has Glinda the Good, she’ll practically have moved in.”
“That’s where I come in,” Dorothy said. “She’ll want to talk to me. I’ll claim I’ve come to her for help getting home because Glinda has disappeared and won’t help me. I’ll ply her with compliments and butter her up. Frankie will be there cloaked and invisible. She’ll be protecting me and plant a hex bag while she’s there. Hopefully while we’re doing that, the other’s get Glinda out.”
“How do you intend on doing that?” Shira asked. “The place is swimming with guards.”
“Were there wards on the walls, and can you tell us where they keep the high-profile prisoners?”
“You said she’s pregnant? There’s a suite there they’d probably keep her in. And yes, there are wards on the walls. What you need is a distraction. They’ll want to capture me again since I escaped. I’ll distract them and lead them away. King Gugu’s army will be waiting for them. You can move in and get Glinda.”
It was a good plan. It was better than what we had before. I was glad Zusim showed up with more information. We would never have set foot in the Forest of Gugu if it weren’t for him. We needed to get going. Glinda being pregnant was keeping her safe for now. My father would want her to have a healthy baby because he would have a second source of Sentinel magic after he killed her. That didn’t mean Glinda wasn’t being abused just enough not to cause a miscarriage.
Zusim nodded. “When can we move? I need to get my mate and child.”
“The Forest of Gugu butts up against Uptown. Locasta won’t set foot in here. When Shira escaped, she came straight here, and Locasta’s men stopped at the entrance of the forest. You can safely teleport to the edge of the forest, and then you will have to make it to the jail on foot. My spies can teach you how they sneak in and out of Uptown,” Gugu said.
I stood up. “We should get going. My father is going to want his hands on that baby. Glinda is safe for now, but that doesn’t mean he’s not hurting her. The faster we get to her, the better.”
Frankie grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I was getting used to her touching me, and I was starting to yearn for it. I loved to feel her soft skin on mine. Maybe one day, I’d get up the guts to kiss her. Would she punch me in the face? Would it be totally mortifying, and I’d have to leave?
I was getting close to not caring and just finding out.
Chapter 24
Frankie
T
&nb
sp; he animals in the Forest of Gugu had similar potions to what we did in the rest of Oz, but they were made from totally different ingredients than what I was used to. The potion ingredients I used were sourced all over Oz. Some ingredients only grew in certain regions and had to be imported. Gugu could make a teleportation potion with what grew in his forest. I was totally freaking out. This was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It was an entirely different way of doing magic.
Gugu must have built up his patience in his long life because both Saffron and I were hanging on his shoulders, wanting to know everything about what he was doing. We both had no idea there was more than one way to do the potions we grew up learning.
Gugu just gave me a smile and a gentle nudge from his personal space. “I know how you do potions. We can’t exactly import ingredients here, and I knew we would need them. I know every animal and every plant in this forest. Some plants with the right properties can do the same thing your potions do.”
“What about the animal parts? Do you use those?” Saffron asked.
Gugu’s laugh was part purr and more of a rumble. “There’s more than talking animals in this forest. Some of the talking animals who live here have to eat other animals to survive. When that happens, we honor the animal by using all the leftover parts. The bones are ground for potion ingredients, and we save hair and blood. Our magic has perks that will help you get Glinda out.”
“How so? Can you teach us how to do magic like you?”
Gugu just rumbled again. “Little Sentinel, the only reason I’m agreeing to let you in the room to watch me is that this magic could help you beat this Fisher King. The Fisher King knows his magic, and he knows Oz magic, but he doesn’t know our kind of magic.”
Saffron pressed closer to Gugu. Saffron loved cats. She had several non-talking cats as pets back at her cave. I could tell Saffron was trying to restrain herself from scratching Gugu’s chin, even if Gugu was an enormous leopard and not a simple housecat like her pets.
“What do you mean it will help us when we try to rescue Glinda?”
Gugu’s canines showed as he grinned at us. “Locasta has magical alarms set up to protect her secrets. Think about it, little Sentinel. You can’t key an alarm for magic you don’t know about.”
That was fucking brilliant. I was starting to have hope we could do this without losing anyone. Even with Shira’s distraction, there were bound to be guards inside that didn’t chase her. There would be a fight, and I didn’t know how well trained the guards at Locasta’s secret prison would be. The guards we fought at Mombi’s cabin were easily dispatched, but we were also fighting in tight quarters.
“So, we could all teleport without setting off her alarms?” I asked, getting excited.
Gugu just purred. “Yes. We were already making plans to get Shira out when she escaped on her own. I also have an invisibility potion for you for when you go to guard Dorothy. Dorothy is also helpless against blocking hexes. I’ve got something she can carry in her pocket that should prevent Locasta from manipulating her.”
“Why are you risking your people to help us? I thought all of you stayed here in the forest because you didn’t want to deal with the people of Oz?”
Gugu chuffed. “Is that what they say about me? The animals that live here and the ones that come to live here yearn to be closer to nature. We want to sleep under the stars and be more animal than say Winkie. People assume we are tame because we can talk, but we yearn to be wild sometimes. We still keep an eye on the North. We haven’t trusted the North since talking animals there started fleeing here because their family members started going missing.”
Saffron couldn’t help it. She started scratching behind Gugu’s ears. I was worried he was going to bite her hand off, but he just purred and leaned his head into her hand.
“We’re going to free everyone in that jail, not just Glinda. If there are talking animals in there, we’ll get them out.”
Gugu was really enjoying those ear scratches. He was purring up a storm.
“They’ll be sedated, little Sentinel. I’d best send the lions, tigers, and bears to help you.”
“Oh, my,” Saffron said. “We’ll have a fierce army with them.”
“Now, I will teach you this magic, but some of these ingredients only grow in my forest. I think you know we don’t export. If you intend to use magic you learned here and need ingredients, you will not enter my forest and take it. You will ask permission and wait to be granted it. I will ask what you intend to use it for, and if I don’t like it, you won’t get what you need.”
My mother drilled into me using magic responsibly, and I’d never dream of using Gugu’s magic for something evil, but I totally got it. Gugu didn’t want this getting out, and he was trusting me with something huge. Word couldn’t get out the Forest of Gugu had its own potions, or people who used magic badly would start trying to get into the forest and steal it. My job was to protect Oz, and that included the residents of the Forest of Gugu, even if the North wasn’t my territory. It wasn’t like Locasta was doing her job.
Now I couldn’t help it. I buried my hands in Gugu’s fur and started scratching his head.
“I’d only use your magic in extreme situations like this. I don’t foresee something like the Fisher King and bad Sentinels happening again.”
“Grab that vial of powdered bone and two raven’s feathers from that jar. We need to make you totally invisible, little Sentinel. Can you keep your cloak up that long?”
“Yes, I can. My mother used to test me when I was learning it. I can keep it up for eight hours.”
“What about you?” Gugu asked Saffron.
“My mother was just teaching me that when she died. I practiced it on my own, but the most I can manage is three hours.”
“Scratch my head harder, little Sentinel. I have a potion that will cloak you for longer. We don’t need Locasta sensing Sentinel magic.”
“We’ll need some for Galen too,” I said. “I think he knows how, I just don’t know for how long.”
“Is this boy a possible Sentinel in the North when Locasta is disposed of?”
I growled. I knew it was a possibility.
“Maybe, but he doesn’t want it.”
“He might not have a choice,” Gugu pointed out.
I knew that. I had been avoiding thinking about it.
Chapter 25
Frankie
G
ugu’s teleportation potion got us right to the gates of uptown. Well, Dorothy and I. The rest of my group teleported inside the city. I was invisible, and Dorothy just stood there and waited to be let in. The Northern man at the gate was an armed soldier. He glared down at her.
“State your business,” he demanded.
I was reminded again of what a good little actress Dorothy was. She looked shy and scared. “I’m sorry, sir. My name is Dorothy Gale. I’m here to see the Good Witch of the North. She helped me once, and I was hoping she would help me again.”
The soldier at the gate whipped out a piece of enchanted parchment and scribbled out a message. It had to go to Locasta or someone close to her. They replied back right away, and we were let into the city. I slipped in behind Dorothy and stayed close to her back to protect her.
I hadn’t been to the North since I was a child and there wasn’t a lot I remembered about it. I remember a lot of purples. Purple was the chosen color of the North. All the Gillikins were wearing purple, and all the buildings were purple. Locasta’s castle was large, purple, and looming in the distance. We were led through the good areas of town to get to the castle. I knew the bad areas were where the black market was.
Locasta was waiting on the front steps when we arrived. She was wearing a simple white dress with a tall, white pointed hat. Her face was lined and wrinkled, and she had her white hair gathered in a bun at her neck. Her back was stooped a little, and her hands were gnarled. Now that I knew she could drop that act at any time, I kind of wanted to just deck her in the face to see what she r
eally looked like.
Locasta held her hands out. She had this sugary sweet voice. “Dorothy, my child. I’m so glad to see you. Back in Oz again, I see. How do you manage to keep ending up here? You aren’t supposed to be in Oz, my pet. You’re supposed to be back home.”
“I don’t know,” Dorothy said, a tear forming in her eye. “I just want to go home again. Can you send me home? I was with Glinda, but she disappeared. I thought I could trust her. I thought she would help me like last time. You helped me last time too. Can you help me get home?”
“Now, now, dear. Come inside. We’ll have tea. Tea and biscuits always makes me feel better.”
Locasta wove her arm through Dorothy’s and led her to a sitting room. A servant brought tea and biscuits almost as soon as they sat down. I was right behind Locasta, waiting to knock her out at any minute. Locasta hadn’t sat down yet.
“Let me scan you for magic, pet. I need to see if that Glinda used any on you, and I need to see if you have magic. Maybe you are a powerful sorceress, and you are here for a reason.”
I was scanning Locasta while she was scanning Dorothy. She really was checking her for magic. She spoke the truth. Locasta seemed satisfied and hobbled over to a chaise and sat down.
“Did Glinda say anything before she went missing?” Locasta asked.
Dorothy just up and started bawling. “No. She just straight up avoided me. She told me she would give me a place to live and I’ve made friends there, but she hasn’t talked to me or tried to help me. Please, I just want to go back home.”
“And I think you need to be back home, my pretty. Oz is such a dangerous place. I’m starting to wonder if Glinda has gone Wicked like Azami and Adora.”
Oh, I wanted to fling a hex at her head so badly. I remembered the hex bag in my pocket. Galen said to put it near her bed. Dorothy looked like she could handle herself. We were in a sitting room in Locasta’s chambers. I snuck into her bedroom as quickly and quietly as possible. I shoved it under the mattress and rushed back out to protect Dorothy. Ozma would end me if something happened to her girlfriend.
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