Second beheading in one day. I guess you could call that a record, huh?
When I examined what had been his head, turning it inside out and dumping the stuffing onto the ground, my suspicions were confirmed. All that came tumbling out was some straw, a few cotton balls, and some loose change.
Just as I suspected, the Scarecrow’s brains were gone. Dorothy had already gotten them. Now she had a full set: heart, brains, and courage. But why? What did she want with them?
I tossed the Scarecrow’s head onto the ground like the trash that it was, and stomped on it for good measure.
“Whoa,” Nox said. At first I thought he was reacting to yet another act of brazen cruelty from me, but then he put a finger to his lips and said, “Listen.”
I didn’t hear it at first, but then, in the distance, from deep in the palace, I detected a rumbling sound. The ground beneath my feet began to shake, and as it did, the octopus statue before us came to life; its arms began to wriggle and its eyes began to glow with a nasty green light. Slowly, its mouth slid open, revealing an entryway just big enough to step through.
I glanced sidelong at Nox. I’d never seen him look so terrified.
“I guess we can take that as an invitation,” I said.
TWENTY-FIVE
Inside, the palace was nothing like the place I’d gotten to know by heart when I’d been posing as one of Dorothy’s most loyal servants.
In fact, it was no place I’d ever been before, outside of a nightmare. At first, it was hard to even understand what I was looking at. The vast entry chamber we were in had been turned upside down and inside out. No. Scratch that—inside out and upside down implies a certain order to things, and here, it was like none of the normal rules of physics applied at all. Like something out of an M. C. Escher drawing, there were entire staircases that floated in midair, leading to nowhere, furniture suspended from the slanted walls, and, overhead, an entire jungle looked like it was growing out of the ceiling.
I had no idea what this was all about, but I knew, on instinct, that Lulu had been right about where we had to go. “The maze,” I said. It was the center of everything. It was where Oz had started. And now it was fighting back. “We have to get there.”
Nox wasn’t really listening. He appeared totally disoriented, like he didn’t remember who he was anymore, and was looking around desperately, with wild eyes, as if searching for any way out. There wasn’t one, at least as far as I could see. The door that we had just walked through had disappeared as soon as we’d stepped through it.
“Nox,” I said frantically, grabbing his hand. “Get yourself together. I know it’s hard, but we have to find Dorothy and Ozma. We don’t have a choice.”
“I . . . ,” he started to say. Then he just shook his head. He couldn’t make the words come out.
“I need you,” I said. “I can’t do this alone.”
Somehow, that seemed to have an effect. Nox bit his lip, nodded, and steeled himself. “Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I can do it. It’s something about this place. It just seems . . . wrong. It’s messing with me.”
“I know,” I said, but I didn’t quite get why it was affecting him so much more than me. It was true that it was disorienting—I could barely see straight, and, when I took a step forward, found myself moving backward instead, like I was on rewind. The main problem was that I didn’t know how in the world we were going to find what we were looking for in all of this.
That is, I didn’t know until a flash of red in the corner of my eye attracted my attention, and I spun around to find the source: Dorothy.
Across the room, Dorothy had Ozma on one of her mind-control leashes and Dorothy was leading her up a moving staircase. They spiraled upward, toward a green door that hovered in midair what seemed like a mile above us. I wasn’t even sure how it went so far up—the ceilings didn’t seem all that high, but the way space seemed to be working in here, it obviously wasn’t worth it to try to puzzle it out.
“There,” I said, pulling Nox with me as I began to run. Or tried to run: the faster I tried to go, the more the strange physics of this place slowed me down, until it felt like I was moving through Jell-O. At this rate, Dorothy would get away long before I was able to catch up.
“Do you think you can teleport?” I asked Nox. It was a risk—who knew whether teleporting would even work in here, especially the way my magic had been working ever since we’d entered the city—but it was one I had to take.
“I can try,” he said, looking uncertain.
“Are you sure?”
He gulped. “I think so,” he said.
I didn’t believe him. But what else could I do? Dorothy hadn’t noticed me yet, but she was already halfway up the stairs. “We’ll do it together,” I said. Holding Nox’s hand tight enough to cut off circulation, I held my breath and took him with me into the Darklands.
As soon as I entered the shadows, I knew I had made a mistake. His hand began to slip out of my grip. It was like trying to hold water. But through the hazy screen that separated me from the world above, I could see that Dorothy was almost to the door that would take her out of here.
So I rose back up into reality. It had worked. I was only a few paces behind Dorothy now, and she still hadn’t noticed me.
But Nox was gone.
Ozma was already through the door, and Dorothy was stepping through it. Panicking, I looked over my shoulder, and saw Nox, still back on the ground where we’d started, gaping up at me with a look of abject terror on his face.
“Go!” he screamed. “I’ll catch up.”
I could have gone back for him. Instead, I dove through the green door after Dorothy a split second before it closed. I was standing on the edge of the palace’s grand, formal garden, near the hedge maze where Pete had once told me was the place Oz had been born.
Dorothy and Ozma were walking toward the maze.
Long ago, Pete had told me that Dorothy was terrified to enter it: there was something about it that scared her, something that told her she would never survive if she tried to make it through to the center. But now, with brainwashed Ozma leading the way for her, she seemed dead set on getting in.
The maze didn’t scare me. I had made it through before. I knew how to deal with it. But I also knew that if I tried to get through it again on my own, there was every chance that I’d get lost, or lose track of my targets for good.
I decided that right now, stealth was the best option. And so I shrouded myself in a misdirection charm so that Dorothy wouldn’t notice me creeping behind her. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it couldn’t hurt. Ozma waved her scepter and opened up a gap in the hedges, and when she and Dorothy walked through it, I walked close behind them.
Ozma knew where she was going. She navigated the dark twists and turns of the maze without ever hesitating at which way to go. Every now and then, she paused at a place that didn’t even look like a path at all, waved her scepter again, and opened up yet another hidden passage. As Dorothy followed her, I followed them both, and soon we had reached the center.
It was different from the last time I’d seen it. Instead of the tiny cobblestone sitting area, with a tiny bench and a modest, sort of dirty fountain, we stepped through the bushes onto a giant, deserted plaza. The fountain at the center was now ornate and stately, with gorgeous, twisting designs carved into a huge marble basin, from which jets of water poured forth.
Standing next to it was the Wizard.
“Right on time,” the Wizard said, seeing Dorothy make her entrance. He flipped his pocket watch closed and tucked it into his lapel. “I knew I could count on you, Your Highness. You’ve always had a way of getting what you want. The only trick is making you think you want it.”
“Shut up, you stupid old man,” Dorothy snapped. “I’m not here to play your games. Step aside, so I can finally do what I should have done years ago—destroy that horrible place once and for all.”
The Wizard just smirked. “But can you?�
�� he asked.
“Enough with your insolence,” Dorothy said, slapping him across the face so hard that the sound echoed across the plaza. “Do what I say and prepare the ritual you promised me, before I decide to stop being so kind.”
The Wizard rubbed his cheek, but didn’t seem injured. “The thing is,” he said as Dorothy’s scowl transformed into an unexpectedly complacent smile, “you’re not the one in charge anymore. Not in here. Since you’ve been away from the city, I’ve been hard at work communing with the Powers That Be. Powers far greater than you, or Glinda, or any of the witches.” He gestured toward the palace, which, even deep in the center of the vast maze, was towering over the hedges. “You see what’s become of the palace, don’t you? It’s not just for show, you know. It’s a symbol of all that I’ve become, and of all that I’ll be.”
Instead of arguing with him, or fighting, Dorothy regarded him curiously. “Tell me,” she said. “What do you have planned?”
She sounded so obsequious and smarmy that I thought it had to be sarcasm, but when she dropped the leash by which she held Ozma and took a step back, I got it. The Wizard was working some serious magic, and Dorothy, who had always enjoyed enslaving people so much, was now at the other end of her own torture: from the glazed, vacant look on her face, it was clear that he had her under some kind of hypnotic spell.
As Ozma stepped to his side, the Wizard looked around. “Just a moment,” he said. “There’s something else, isn’t there? Do I spy a witch lurking in the shadows?” he asked.
He fluttered a hand in the air, and, feeling strangely compelled, I dropped my misdirection charm and moved forward, joining them.
“Ah,” the Wizard said. “How lovely to see you, Miss Gumm! Tell me, what have I done here to deserve not one but two of my favorite people on a day like today?”
“I . . . ,” I began to say. But I stopped. A certain kind of contentedness had come over me—not like my mind was being controlled, exactly, but more like I had been drugged, and nothing in the world could bother me now. “I don’t know,” I finally said. “You tell me, I guess?”
“Yes,” the Wizard said. “I believe I shall.”
He gestured to a place at his feet, and two small stools materialized, each one upholstered in green silk with a golden filigree. I took a seat, and Dorothy sat down next to me. It was unnerving seeing her behave so pliably. But, then, I was behaving the exact same way.
The Wizard gazed at us with fatherly kindness. “Let’s discuss some things,” he said.
TWENTY-SIX
“Have you ever—either of you—looked at the American state of Kansas on a map?” the Wizard asked.
Before either Dorothy or I could answer, or even nod a yes, he went on. “If you have, I’m sure you’ve noticed the shape that it is. Dorothy? Amy?” he prompted us like a doubting schoolteacher. “What shape is Kansas?”
Dorothy answered with confidence. “Oh, something like a round blob with a funny little hole shaped like a jolly fat woman cut right out the side of it,” she said.
I looked at her like she was nuts. If it was anyone except her, I would have felt almost sorry for her to be humiliated like this.
Not that I was in much better shape. I had no idea why the Wizard cared what shape Kansas was, or why I felt so strange, but it wasn’t exactly a hard question, if you were from there. And I knew the answer.
“It’s a rectangle,” I said. “With a little missing chunk out of the top right-hand corner. I don’t know why.” That missing bit had always bothered me; it seemed to set everything a little off balance.
The Wizard smiled dotingly. “Correct,” he said. “Amy gets a gold star. Dorothy wears the dunce cap for spinning foolish taradiddles.”
“But . . . ,” Dorothy said, sounding like a kid in school who just can’t believe she’s spelled an easy word wrong in the last round of the spelling bee. “They must have changed it,” she muttered.
The Wizard shook his head impatiently. I could see that he was getting to a point here—I just didn’t know what it was.
“Now, girls, can you think of another place that’s shaped like a rectangle—wider than it is tall—with a little chunk cut out of the corner?”
It struck me immediately. This time, Dorothy knew what he meant, too. We both answered at the same time.
“Oz,” we both said.
The Wizard gave a golf clap.
“Ding ding ding. Oz is exactly the same shape—and, it just so happens—exactly the same size as the great state of Kansas. There’s only one small difference, which is that in Oz, that little chunk missing from the corner is in the west—right where the legendary valley of Oogaboo would be if it existed, which it doesn’t and never did.”
I glanced at Dorothy, feeling a strange camaraderie with her. She looked as confused as I was.
“Look, just forget Oogaboo for now—that’s a long and extremely boring story that I barely remember myself. It’s something to do with tariffs and Winkie bylaws, if memory serves. In any case, it’s not important. Here’s the important question: why do you suppose that Oz and Kansas are so similar, geographically speaking?”
The answer came to me out of the blue. “Because they’re the same place,” I said.
I hadn’t even really thought about it; it was just sort of there, something that seemed obvious and familiar, even if it was absurd. Sort of like the concept of pi, I guess.
“Or something like that,” I hedged quickly, embarrassed at how stupid it sounded.
But the Wizard was looking at me with something like respect.
“Indeed, Miss Gumm. They are, in a way, the same place. Oz and Kansas occupy the exact same physical space, but on two separate vibrational planes.
“You see, when the fairies created this fountain, and called forth the Old Magic that would be Oz’s lifeblood, they weren’t just pulling it from out of nowhere. They were pulling it from Kansas.”
He gave me a meaningful look. “Explains why Kansas is so very dull, doesn’t it? The fact is, it used to be a place of power. Dark power. All this time, it’s been feeding Oz. Giving up all its magic so that this place could live. And yet, the balance has never been perfect. It’s always been a bit inefficient. I’m going to change that. I’m going to finally open up the door between here and there—merge them into one glorious place. And, of course, I’m going to put myself in charge.”
I was trying to piece together everything he was saying, but I still felt too muddle-headed.
The Wizard continued. “Now,” he said, “let’s have ourselves a little ritual. Well, not so little actually. You have no idea how complicated it was to arrange all this. Dorothy, may I have the items?”
Dorothy didn’t resist—she unstrapped her satchel and handed it over to the Wizard, who opened it and glanced inside, nodding with approval when he saw what he was looking for.
“Wonderful,” he said, first pulling out the heart. “I thought Amy here would be able to gather these for me, but when she became too much of a loose cannon, I decided that I needed some insurance. I’m glad I did. You did such a good job bringing me what I needed.”
The heart was pulsing with a strange golden energy, and the Wizard held it out and placed it in front of him, at the level of his chest. Instead of falling to the ground when he took his hand away, it stayed planted in the air, vibrating.
Next, he did the same with the Lion’s tail and the Scarecrow’s plush brains, which were glowing purple and blue, respectively.
“I had no idea when I gave these silly things to your friends that I was unwittingly working in the service of the fairies,” he said. “Creating the key that would unlock Oz’s true potential. Now, Dorothy, I believe it’s time for you to do your part.”
“Yes,” she said, zombie-like. She stood and took her place, standing next to the glowing objects. She suddenly looked uncomfortable, and the Wizard snapped his fingers in front of her face, freezing her like a statue where she stood. “Just in case she gets squirmy,
” he said. “Are you ready, Amy?”
I stood up from my seat, ready to obey him. But I wasn’t sure what he wanted.
“Yellow, blue, and purple. What’s missing?” the Wizard asked.
“Red,” I replied. “The color of the Quadlings.”
“That’s right. And what’s red?”
Then I understood.
“Blood,” I said. It came out in a whisper.
“Good girl. It’s your big moment. Isn’t this what you’ve been waiting for?”
“I . . . ,” I started to say. But even in my blissful, hypnotized state, I knew this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. It didn’t feel right.
The Wizard noted my hesitation. “You’ve always been so strong-willed,” he said. “It’s what makes you so special, and I respect that. But it’s your choice, Amy. This is what I promised could happen, if you brought me everything I needed. And you’ve succeeded—after a fashion, I suppose. So go ahead, take your prize. Everything’s in place, so fetch yourself a weapon.”
My blade appeared in my hand of its own accord, and I held it out in front of me.
“Just a moment,” the Wizard said. “Before you get carried away. Just one more piece of business. In order for me to draw upon the Old Magic that comes from Kansas and rule over Oz as its rightful king, I’ll need a queen. A real queen.” He turned his attention to Ozma, took her hand, and kissed it in a way I guess was supposed to be gentlemanly. It made my skin crawl.
“How would you like to reclaim your throne?” he asked her. “Would you like to be yourself again? Would you like to be my bride, and sit at my side as Oz’s fairy queen?”
Ozma looked confused. But she was already beginning to change. A pair of huge, shimmering, golden butterfly wings—fairy wings—had unfolded from her back. Her green eyes were glowing, and her black hair was whipping wildly in every direction. She began to hover a few inches from the ground.
“Ah, yes,” the Wizard mused, looking admiringly at her. “I’ve always wanted to see the true aspect of a fairy. Even in my past dealings with them, I knew that they were only revealing themselves in a form that masked their true selves. I can’t wait to see what you blossom into once the Old Magic is truly unleashed.”
The Wicked Will Rise Page 22