Massive bouquets of flowers overflow from carved emerald crystal vases. Streams of magic swirl in the water they hold giving a new life to the blooms that move and sway and twirl in a dance that elevates their exquisite loveliness the way only magic can.
“Wait here. Do. Not. Move. Someone will come for you soon enough,” the Guardian says as he walks away from us and out the front door of the palace.
“It was not a pleasure to meet you!” Ardie calls after him.
People dressed in green uniforms mill about, and none of them appear to be coming for us.
“Wonderful,” Nick sighs.
“They better not leave us standing here for hours again,” I say, irritation creeping in already.
“I doubt everyone here is as rude as that old zombie,” Ardie says.
“Do not be so sure,” Nick says as he eyes every person who passes like they might attack at any second.
Toto nuzzles my chin to soothe my growing irritation when a cloud of the green glittery mist appears before each of us in big poofy puffs. Worried it’s another attack, my heart pounds but then four uniformed servants emerge from the clouds of magical mist.
A zombie with jade hair and light bluish skin appears before Ardie in a green palace uniform. He has one line of glittering green paint on his cheekbone. And in a green palace uniform with the same glittering green line of paint on his cheekbone, a gecko shifter appears before Werelion. A lanky, tall human man stands before Nick. And before me is a lovely girl in a green palace uniform with deep green hair done elaborately and fastened with combs encrusted in emeralds. Her eyes are vibrant green and she even wears shimmering emerald makeup on her eyes and lips. On her cheek is the same glittering line the other three wear. The line is thick, brilliant, and precise at the top. On the bottom it fades, blending into her cheek in green satin and faint glimmers. She smiles and speaks as their magical mist dissipates.
“Welcome to the Emerald Palace of the Great and Terrible Wizard, Oz. He regrets he cannot see you today for he has urgent matters to attend, but he grants you audience. We will notify you when he calls for you. Until then, the palace and all the city is at your disposal. Whatever you may need, please ask and we will do our best to accommodate you. For now, we will show you to your rooms where you may rest and recover from your journey. The humans will stay in the west wing while the shifter and the zombie will stay in the east wing—”
“You’ll separate us?” Werelion asks, his voice trembling with concern, and I’d have to agree.
“Is that necessary?” I ask and she offers a soft smile before she responds.
“The east wing has chambers for zombies and shifters. We do not arrange zombie rooms for sleeping. And rooms for shifters vary, but we have a suite for a large feline shifter with many amenities I believe you will appreciate. If you’d rather stay in the human wing you are welcome to, although I do not recommend it. You will be much more comfortable in the east wing.”
“I think it’s safe, and I’ll be there with you,” Ardie says. Werelion takes a breath to calm himself and shudders a nod of reluctant agreement.
“Let us get cleaned up,” Nick suggests.
“This way, miss,” Jellia says and holds out her hand as she walks, leading me away from the group. The man guiding Nick goes the same way while they lead Ardie and Werelion in the opposite direction.
Toto rustles in my arms and jumps up so his little paws are on my shoulder. He looks to Ardie and barks. The people around stop, surprised and fascinated by my little guy. Ardie nods to his zombie servant out of politeness and hurries over to Toto, scratching behind his ears.
“Dorothy, would you mind if I came to pick up Toto early to take him on a walk around the city?”
Toto’s tail wags at the suggestion.
“Of course Toto can go with you.”
Toto gives my cheek a lick and Ardie smiles before hurrying back to his zombie servant. When I turn back to Jellia she is smiling, looking at Toto like he’s the cutest thing she’s ever seen, and I don’t blame her—he’s adorable. She starts down the hall again and so does Nick and his butler or whatever they are. With Toto in my arms, I follow them down the long corridor and up a few steps to a large open room.
Wide, ornate doorways line the walls and a copper rimmed parquet of polished pale green crystal and in the center of the floor, dark opaque green marble-like stone surround a mandala-like emblem. The design is geometric and intricate, and the glimmering symbol at its center looks like a kaleidoscopic Star of David. Jellia leads us all to the middle of the room and over to a door. It slides open for her, and when she steps in, we follow.
It’s a small room much like the one the Guardian led us into before it dropped us in that arena. Nick and I exchange concerned looks as the door closes. Jellia turns the knob the same way the Guardian did, and when she turns the dial to the final symbol, she pushes the jewel button. We take off, the entire room moving us through twists and turns, up and down at what feels like an incredible speed.
“Where are we going?” I ask her, very apprehensive.
“To your chambers. Because you are a guest, you can enter one of these and it will take you to your room. I must specify with the dial because I have my own chambers here. If you want to go to another’s chamber or another place in the palace, you can use the key we provide for you in the baskets in your rooms.”
“Baskets?” Nick asks, his brows drawn together.
“Welcome baskets!” Jellia beams. “Everything you need we provide for you while you are here. The Welcome baskets help to acquaint you with our palace and our city.”
The door slides open to a stunning vestibule filled with emerald vases bursting with redolent, magical flowers that sparkle and dance. A large mirror hangs on the wall in an elaborate emerald and copper frame. Two couches rest beside two doorways with two emerald and copper coatracks beside each door. A blaze of fiery green magic lights what looks like a fireplace, but it’s clearly not for fire.
“Your chambers,” Jellia says, stepping out into the vestibule. We follow and the door slides closed behind us. “My lady, this is your suite. Sir, this one is yours. If you each place your palm on the stone, the door will open for you. If you would ike to ring another’s door, press their doorstone and they will hear a chime inside alerting them to your arrival. Shall we?” she says and moves toward the door on the left while her male companion moves toward the door on the right. When Nick and I both step toward our doors, our eyes connect. This is the beginning of the end. Who knows how much longer we have together. The wizard could call on us in the morning.
“See ya,” I blurt, not knowing what else to say, doing my best to fight how sentimental I’m feeling. So I smile, and he smiles back before we both turn toward our doors. When I place my palm on the giant faceted emerald in the wall—or the ‘doorstone,’ as she called it—the door slides open.
16
The Emerald Palace
When I step inside the grand room, she follows and the door slides closed after her. As I survey the room before me, my jaw drops. I gape at my ‘suite’ that is more like a giant penthouse in the tower of a gigantic jewel. It’s at least ten times the size of the house I landed here in and that’s only what I can see. There are doors that lead to rooms I’m sure are also gigantic. Green crystal décor and architecture with crystal lattices frame giant crystal windows. Even though it is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, it’s still reminiscent of a time that’s passed, like that Great Gatsby era with its extravagance and Deco style luxury where everything looks like the top of the Chrysler Building.
Flowers dance and sparkle in icy craquelure vases, making the room smell wonderful. Plush emerald velvet furniture with copper and emerald gemstone accents and inlays adorn the space and radiate opulence. The engravings on the walls are very wallpaper-like—shimmery magic sparkles inside the emerald wall giving it a glow that warms up the lavish space. When I reach out to the wall beside me and touch the florid curl of an engraving
, scintillas rush toward my finger. As I move my finger along the wall, the scintillas follow creating a new pattern throughout the room that coordinates with my inadvertent design.
“I liked yours better,” I whisper to the wall and place my palm on it. The scintillas race to my hand and the engravings shift again to something even better than the first with a tasteful amount of curls and whirls. It’s not as ornate, but I prefer a less busy pattern. Somehow the wall could tell that, I guess.
“I see you’ve discovered another wonder of Oz’s magic. The entire room will adjust to your needs and desires. If you are hungry, ask Oz and the food you desire will appear,” she says as she takes my bag from me before I put Toto down. “He is your pet, yes?”
“Yes, he is. He’s an animal from my realm called a dog.”
“A dog,” she repeats as if to commit the name to memory. “He is charming.”
“His name is Toto. He’s the best.”
“Would you like to wash?”
“Yes, I’d love to, but I can’t take my boots off, so I’m hindered.”
“Oh, my,” she says as she looks me over. “You also cannot remove your breeches?”
Breeches? She’s looking at my jeans so I guess she means my jeans.
“Right,” I say as she appraises my lower half.
A pair of emerald scissors emerge from the wall beside us, held up by the green mist, and land in Jellia’s hand.
“It appears we must cut them off.”
“I have no other clothes.”
“Oz has placed many items in your closet for you. If you have been in this garment as long as I suspect, we should cut them off of you as soon as possible.”
Can’t deny she’s right. These jeans could stand on their own by now. And I’d love to change my underwear. But I’ll only be able to wear skirts or bottoms I could fit the boots through.
“How will I put clothes on after? I can’t take the boots off.”
“There are many items you can wear. Do not worry. Come,” she says and charges off down a hallway.
I follow, picking up my pace to catch up and she turns into a bathroom bigger than any bathroom should be. There’s an emerald plunge pool that takes up one entire end of the room. Little enclaves stand throughout the space divided by striking crystal formations. A door to a smaller room with an emerald and copper toilet stands to my right. And behind me, the other end of the room comprises walls of mirrors reflecting endlessly with emeralds everywhere. I glimpse myself in the edge of the endless mirrors, and I am a mess. No wonder Nick wants nothing to do with me other than friendship—I look like a crackhead.
“Let’s do it. Let’s cut them off,” I blurt before thinking it through and as she comes toward me with the scissors I step back. “Wait… Do you guys have undergarments for me? I—”
“Yes, miss,” she says.
“Please, call me Dorothy,” I say, feeling terrible I hadn’t told her my name when she told me hers. I’m never so impolite. “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself before—I’m in a bit of a strange headspace.”
“Strange headspace?” As she positions herself at my side, scissors at the ready, I unbutton my jeans pulling them down over my hips to my knees. She makes the first cut.
“I’m a bit out of sorts. I’m not from here.”
“Is it true you fell from the sky?” she asks, her green eyes glinting with wonder and what I think is fear.
“Yeah. In my house. That’s how I got these,” I say and proffer my arm to my foot, showing her my boots. “The house I live in landed on the Vampire Witch of the East while I was in it. Next thing I know, her boots appear on my feet. Now I can’t take them off. I’m hoping the Wizard can help me.”
“Oz can do that,” she says as she finishes cutting off one leg of my jeans and moves onto the next.
“I’m counting on it.”
Once she gets my pants cut off, she removes my underwear in two snips. Fascinated by the design of my undergarments, she says she can make me similar items if I prefer the style, which I do. I don’t think I want to rock a farthingale or pantalettes or whatever ancient undies they wear here, at least not for more than a day or two.
I take off my shirt and look at all the patches and I can’t lose this. I hated the thing for so long because it represented the worst time in my life, but also because it’s the result of me lashing out. These patches meant so much to my mom—they were from a time in her life she loved, that shaped her and meant something to her. And when she died, I was so mad at her for dying that I took them and sewed them on this stupid shirt. I can’t lose them, so as she takes it from me I say, “This shirt is very important to me. Please, don’t lose it.”
“Do not worry,” she says with a smile and takes it from my hands.
I remove my bra, and when I’m in only my boots, Jellia takes me through each station of the in-room crystal spa. First, she covers me in the fragrant oil and macerated petals of flowers unique to the Land of Emerald called an Emerose—it smells wonderful and feels magical on my skin. The sheer greenish blue tint and light shimmer of the oil makes my skin sparkle like a Vegas showgirl’s but sends enchanting scintillations along the surface of my skin before effervescing into magical green mist. With the shimmer gone and only the oil left on my skin, she walks me to the next station where she exfoliates me with a glittering emerald scrub made of fine emerald sand. Misty green hands emerge from the surrounding crystal walls to assist Jellia in scrubbing all the dead skin off my body. It must be a lifetime’s worth judging by how much they are scrubbing. After a long and thorough exfoliation, the mist surrounds me and whisks the little emerald pieces off of my skin.
At the next station lies a glowing emerald slab encircled by illuminated shoots of hexagonal emerald clusters that form decorative, throne-like formations. As I stand gazing at the glorious piece of magically grown furniture before me, Jellia slathers iridescent green mud onto my back and arms. Hands of shimmering mist come out to help her, and soon I am covered from my hair to my toes in the emerald clay. Jellia leads me over to the emerald table and when I go to climb onto it, a twinkling green fog engulfs me, lifts me onto the emerald slab, and lies me on my back. From there, the magic takes over. Hands of mist and glitter place emerald crystals all over my body in mandala like patterns.
When the mist places the last crystal, pure force shoots through me. Every breath intensifies the buzzing of the potent energy in my spine spreading through my entire being. The feeling is unlike anything I knew before I came to Oz. Magic has a distinct feel to it and I am sure this is magic but it’s unique, like an awakening on a biological level, like this magic event caused a switch to flick on inside me and it opened a floodgate of power.
The buzzing of the energy grows so strong it makes a sound, a low hum, resonant and round. It gets louder and louder until it’s the loudest sound I’ve ever heard. Vibrations in my body and brain are so severe my teeth chatter and I worry my eardrums might burst. The transcendental hum oscillates before it strengthens again, my eyeballs clattering in their sockets so hard they might fly out of my head if I open them. The buzzing in my brain becomes so strong I worry my head will explode.
And then it does—a loud pop followed by a burst of light from the top of my skull beams into the emerald headboard of the slab I’m on in a luminous, swirling rainbow. When the light hits the stone, the emerald illuminates in a pulse that penetrates the entire room turning it a clear crystal with rainbow twinkles throughout. And then it’s as though the room takes a deep breath, the light expunging from my body oscillating once before it disperses. The surrounding stone goes green again.
Encased in green mud with emerald crystals all over me, my skin tingles as the green mist emerges and massages my tight muscles in the most delicious way. I melt into the emerald slab beneath me, and I trance-out going into a meditative state where no thought or recognition of time enters my mind. When my eyes open, I have no clue how much time has passed, but I know I have never felt better.
“What was that?” I ask as I sit up. Jellia stands, her hands clasped before her, staring at me with fear in her wide eyes.
“I do not know. I have seen nothing like it.”
“What did it look like?” I ask her, having no clue what that looked like from the outside.
“I… You lit up from within and raised off the pallet. With the mask… and the light…” she says and looks confused.
“What?” I ask, afraid to hear her answer.
“You looked like the stone, like you were an emerald. Your luminance grew so bright it was almost blinding, then a rainbow of light burst out of you and took over the room.”
“Oh, my,” I say and exhale the breath I was holding.
“You must be a very powerful sorceress,” she says, a tremble in her voice. She’s afraid of me.
“I’m not a sorceress. It’s the boots. They give me magic. Without them, I’m just a regular, powerless human,” I say, hoping it relaxes her. I don’t want her to fear me.
As the mist removes the mandala of crystals it created on my skin in puffs of green smoke, a wary expression takes over her painted face at my answer.
“Are you sure?” she asks with a skeptical squinch of her eyes and I sit up, wondering about that. Am I sure?
“You know, I’m not. The world I’m from has no magic at all. We can achieve the illusion of magic through technology—something I’m not sure if you guys have here—and the majesty of nature can feel magical, but we have no real magic like you guys have. So, if I were magical somehow it would be a new thing that came from me being here. I was never magical before. The instant I arrived, I killed that Vampire Witch with my house. Then her boots appeared on my feet. It’s possible I would have been magical without them, but it seems logical it would be the boots, don’t you think?”
“Yes,” she says and smiles.
“But maybe I’m magical now, although it seems like wishful thinking.”
Dorothy In the Land of Monsters Page 24