“She’s starved for it, certainly. But I don’t know if our boy is capable of love. He wasn’t built for it. We didn’t build him for it.”
“It’s funny, Gert,” Glamora said. “All that mind reading, and you still can’t see inside the heart. Our boy is starved for it, too. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
I backed away, shaking my head, and rushed down the hall. I did not feel that way about Nox. Maybe he wasn’t the total jerk I’d thought he was at first, but that didn’t mean anything. It definitely didn’t mean he felt anything for me.
My pulse was still speeding when I got to the training cave. Seeing him was already going to be different after last night—dancing together, hearing his story for the first time, and feeling the magic that had finally surged through me.
When I walked into the cave, he wasn’t alone. A glint of tin caught the light and blinded me for a second. It was the girls who had interrupted our dinner the other night, covered in blood. They looked fine now—better than fine. Annabel, the tall one with the unicorn scar, was stretching, while Melindra, the half-tin girl, leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, staring at me.
Something about the way Melindra flicked open her metal lashes reminded me of Madison back home. Like she already hated me and we hadn’t even met yet.
“Melindra and Annabel will be joining us today,” Nox explained to me without looking up. “Melindra, Annabel,” Nox said. “This is Amy.”
“We know who she is,” Melindra said. “The girl who fell out of the sky in a tin can to save us all.” There was something sarcastic in her voice, but there was something else, too—like she couldn’t decide whether she was supposed to be suspicious of me or if she was hoping everything they said about me was true.
“Nox told me that you escaped the Scarecrow’s labs,” I blurted. I’d been spending too much time with Glamora. One of her helpful hints about meeting new people was to tell them something you know about them. But for some reason I don’t think she meant bringing up that horrific time the person was tortured by a mad scientist Scarecrow.
But Melindra suppressed a smile, and I could see that it wasn’t such a mistake at all. She was proud—proud of who she was and of what she had been through.
“They wanted to make me join the Tin Man’s secret police,” Melindra said. “I wasn’t going to let that happen. So I got out of there and came here. No one’s ever done that before.”
I was impressed. I’d needed Mombi’s help to escape, but this girl had done it on her own. I wanted to ask her how but now didn’t seem like the best time.
“We need to see if Melindra and Annabel are ready to go back out there,” Nox said.
“We’re ready,” Annabel volunteered, without looking to Melindra to back her up. I couldn’t believe it—they’d been torn apart by the Lion, but there was still no question of not going back.
“Okay, then show us what you’ve got. Amy can spar with the winner,” Nox said. He still hadn’t looked at me, and now he turned around to busy himself with the equipment.
“Don’t even,” Annabel warned, watching my gaze follow Nox.
“Don’t what?” I asked.
The girls both giggled. It was weird to see the flesh-and-blood side of Melindra’s face contort in laughter while the metal side stayed stiff and emotionless.
“What?” I asked again.
“We’ve seen that look before,” Annabel said. “Trust me, it’s not worth it. Nox only cares about the cause. There’s no room inside him for anything else. Not that plenty of people haven’t tried.” She shot Melindra a knowing glance.
“I’m not . . . ,” I started, but I could feel myself blushing. “I don’t . . .”
I stopped myself.
Nox returned, handing a knife to Annabel, who thanked him with a flirty smirk. Nox ignored it. Or maybe he just didn’t notice it in the first place. Melindra shook her head at the knife and instead offered up a clenched fist. As she lifted it to her chest, a thin, glittering blade folded out from the top of her wrist as easily as a bird would stretch its wings. She looked out at me from behind it with a smirk.
Great, I thought. Melindra was a human Swiss Army knife, like Sword-Arm back in the palace. At least this one was on my side. She was on my side, right?
I leaned against the wall and watched the girls spar. I felt myself shrinking, in danger of disappearing again. I didn’t want to have to fight either of them. They’d both been at this way longer than I had. Plus, they seemed to hate me.
Why though? And what was Annabel trying to say about Nox? Was he playing me? Had every moment between us been planned to make me a better fighter?
I heard Annabel scream and I looked up just in time to see Melindra’s blade slashing across her chest, a bright-red streak of blood blossoming on her shirt. And then, just like that, she disappeared in defeat. Off to the spring, I guess.
Melindra didn’t drop her fighting stance. Nox looked over at me.
“Your turn, Amy. Keep your elbows up. You’ve been dropping them. And Mel, you’re a half step behind where you usually are. Focus.”
A few seconds later, it was me standing opposite Melindra, a knife from Nox in my hand. Although I had trained plenty of times with him before now, I was nervous to be facing someone new.
I didn’t have time to be nervous: the fight had begun.
Melindra was so light and fast on her tin feet that sometimes her metal and flesh seemed to blur together as she danced around me, landing jabs in my sides and chest.
It was clear that she was using magic, too. I tried to summon the power I’d found the night before with Nox. I was pretty sure that I wasn’t allowed to set my opponent on fire, but other than misdirection, that was basically the only magic I knew how to do. Not that it was working now—I felt my hands go hot a few times, but no flame appeared.
I dodged a blow from Melindra and something made contact with my shin—her metal meeting my bone. I made a desperate, errant swing and a miss at her flesh side before her other leg sideswiped mine, taking me down to the ground in an ungraceful heap.
“What do you think, Nox?” Melindra put a hand on her hip triumphantly. “Still too slow? Am I ready now?”
She reached out her hand to help me up. I ignored it and leapt to my feet.
We went at it again. This time, Melindra moved even faster than before, slashing and diving and feinting around me as I stumbled forward like my feet were made of cement, struggling just to keep my balance and avoid her blade as it whipped through the air in every direction.
“Look at you,” she said, not pausing in her attack. She swung her leg toward me in a powerful kick and I barely managed to get out of the way in time. “All this training and you’re fighting like it’s your first day. Am I making you nervous? Or is it someone else?”
I lunged for her, urging the fire to my hands, but it didn’t come. Melindra disappeared just as I was about to grab her, and I whirled and ducked just in time to avoid getting a haircut—or worse—as her sword grazed the top of my head.
“Oh, did I make you mad?” she asked.
She jumped up and seemed to hang in midair for a split second as she pulled her knees to her chest before whipping them out like a jackknife and shifting her momentum, flying straight for me.
Her feet collided hard against my breastbone, and before I knew what was happening I was on my back on the stone floor again, the wind knocked out of me. I watched with dazed double vision as she turned a graceful backflip and landed like it was nothing. Melindra whipped out her arm and pushed the tip of her blade into my throat, looking down on me with contempt.
“Poor little Amy,” she said. “All of Oz is depending on you and you can’t even take out a sorry half girl like me.”
She was pressing hard enough to hurt without actually breaking the skin. But the message was clear. I could kill you if I wanted to, but for now I’ll be nice.
“Shut up,” I wheezed through clenched teeth, still struggling to breat
he.
“Not the best way to impress boys,” she said, shifting her eyes sneakily toward Nox. “Especially a boy who cares more about the cause than anything else.”
“Shut up!” I spat again, feeling my face go red with anger.
“They all think you’re so special. I don’t know why. You can’t even do a simple spell. Go ahead. Try.” She pressed her blade harder. My face burned; my fingers tingled with heat.
Nox finally stepped in.
“Melindra,” he said, grabbing her by the arm. “That’s enough. Let her go. She’s doing her best.” From the disappointed way he was looking back and forth from her to me, I felt like I had let him down twice. First by letting her beat me, and then by not fighting back once she had me pinned.
Melindra rolled her eyes and snorted contemptuously, but she pulled her weapon away. “Don’t give her false hope, Nox,” she said. “You know as well as I do that you’re too good for her.”
She looked back at me. “Not so talented after all, are you? Just another outlander who thinks she’s special. We get used to that around here, you know.”
I’d had enough. Enough of being picked on. Enough of other people telling me what to do. Enough of feeling powerless.
“Shut up!” I screamed, my words reverberating through the stone chamber.
The burning feeling that had been building in my body rushed through me at once, and I lit up: I was on fire. The flames came shooting out of my chest in huge, curling tongues that all rolled together into one giant ball of fire that exploded out of me, rocketing straight for Melindra.
She stepped aside casually and the fireball shot right past her, hitting the wall of the cave with a pathetic fizzle. Nox’s mouth dropped open in surprise, but Melindra was unfazed. “That’s really the best you can do?” she asked with a sneer. I pushed past both of them without a word.
When I showed up in Gert’s cave she looked at me. “You burned your pretty hair,” she said, sounding completely unsurprised.
“Teach me,” I said. “I’m ready. I want to learn.”
“Get some rest,” she said. “Meet me in the training room tomorrow. You’ll learn.”
When I walked into the training room the next morning, it was empty except for a single stalk of corn growing in the center of the room.
“You ready for this?” Nox asked, appearing at my side without warning.
I glared at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Gert asked me to help,” he said without looking at me, and, as if she’d been summoned by her own name, Gert materialized out of nowhere. She drew her hand up in front of her and whispered something, and tiny green shoots began to spring up through the stone floor, quickly unfurling themselves into stalks taller than I was. Taller than Nox. Soon there were hundreds of them, and the cave seemed to magically expand to make room for an entire cornfield that had grown all around me.
I looked up to find that the ceiling had been replaced by a cold and artificial blue sky. When I glanced back at Nox, he was already disappearing into the green.
“Find him,” Gert commanded.
I lurched ahead, ready to chase after him.
Gert’s invisible hand stopped me. “Not like that. Pay attention. I like to say a few words when I cast a spell. It helps me focus. And it will also help you as you’re learning.” She wove her hands together and whispered an incantation: “What I seek, I shall find, what I see, will be mine.”
A white orb formed between her hands and rose like a flare, pausing in midair. Waiting for someone to follow after it.
I took a step forward.
Gert gave me a look of consternation. “No,” she said. “Make your own.”
“What if I set the whole place on fire by accident?”
She shook her head. She was frustrated with me, I could tell, but in her frustration—in her squinted, lined eyes and pursed lips—I could see something else, too. Something I didn’t see very often. She wasn’t just doing this because she wanted me to be able to help the Order. She wanted to teach me because she was worried about me.
“I’m here,” she said. “I’ll be helping you. But you can do it on your own. You’re almost there already. Just imagine what you want to happen. And then concentrate on that, and only on that. The magic is everywhere. It’s waiting for you to take it and make it your own.”
I closed my eyes, and my brain went right back to yesterday, when Melindra had me pinned to the ground.
“No, no, no,” Gert said, clucking her tongue. “Not that. Pick a moment not so filled with emotion this time. Try not to let the anger fuel you anymore. It’s too unreliable. Too uncontrollable. Pick an innocent moment where you aren’t setting the world on fire.”
I remembered my first training session with Nox, him leaning into me, his hand on my shoulder.
“Yes, there you go.”
I imagined reaching out for him with my mind, searching for him.
Something was happening. I could feel the tingle of energy rippling through me, seeping out through my pores. I pushed at it, shaping it, trying to make it into what I wanted.
In my mind’s eye, Nox turned from me and began to walk away. He grew smaller and smaller, and then he looked over his shoulder and beckoned for me.
I opened my eyes.
An orange ball of fiery energy, no bigger than a fist, was spinning in the air in front of me. I had done it.
Nox, I thought. Where are you?
At that, the flare jittered and shot ahead, into the corn. I followed it as it twisted and turned through rows and rows of stalks, not dropping my singular focus on finding him. It only took a few minutes before I found him sitting on the ground, looking bored.
His eyes lit up in pleased surprise when he saw me.
“You didn’t think I could do it, did you?” I asked. He just shrugged like, Hey, can you blame me?
“Now I have to find you,” he said, standing. “Go ahead. Just try and hide from me. But I’m warning you—I could find you anywhere.”
Over the course of the next week, I learned how to use misdirection to hide from Nox in the cornfield. I learned how to direct my fiery darts at a target instead of setting structures (not to mention myself) on fire. I learned how to concentrate on what I wanted—which meant figuring out what I wanted. It wasn’t easy, but Gert and Nox were patient.
Every afternoon, I would spar in the training room with Melindra or Annabel or Nox. I was still so much slower than the rest of them but I could tell I was getting better.
After a few weeks, I was stretching in the training room, about to go up against Melindra, when Mombi materialized in the corner of the room. I hadn’t seen her or Glamora in days.
“What is she doing here?” I whispered to Nox.
“Ignore her,” he said under his breath. But it was hard to ignore someone like Mombi. It felt like some kind of test. Was she here to check up on my progress? To see if I was ready yet? I still hadn’t beaten Melindra, which didn’t bode well.
Now that I’d fought her a million times, along with Annabel and Nox, I’d realized that Melindra was by far the best of us all. Most of my sparring sessions with her just boiled down to staying out of her way, which I’d gotten good at doing.
But she’d also seemed to develop a grudging respect for me. Now, when we fought, she was all business, not bothering to insult me or snipe at me. She always beat me. Then again, she almost always beat Nox and Annabel, too. When she had me where she wanted me, she’d just shrug, toss her hair, and raise her arm and its built-in blade up in victory.
Today, as Melindra and I began, I could feel Mombi’s critical eyes tracking me as I moved and dodged Melindra’s weapon. I managed to hold my own, ducking every time she swiped at me with her arm. I was proud that I hadn’t let her get within striking distance. This fight was lasting longer than most of our previous ones had, and I could tell we were both getting tired. Maybe today would be the day I’d finally beat her. Maybe all I’d needed was an audience.
>
Melindra forced me back toward the corner, near where Mombi and Nox stood. “She’s still reacting,” I heard the old witch mutter. “Not acting.”
Her words hit me in the gut almost as hard as Melindra did.
“Oof,” I cried as Melindra surprised me—feinting with her blade and then kicking me right in the stomach. Now she reared back, ready to strike again, this time with the sharp metal blade of her tin arm.
I did the only thing I could think to do. I disappeared.
I found myself outside of the cave where Nox had taken me the night I made it snow ashes. I took a second to catch my breath again. Mombi’s words had affected me more than I’d expected them to. I’d thought I’d made so much progress, learned so much in the past few weeks. But in an instant, she made me feel like all those lessons hadn’t even happened.
It made me angry that Mombi had shown up for just one fighting session and was passing judgment on me—she didn’t care how I was doing, how much I’d changed. All she cared about was whether or not I was ready to fight.
You are stronger than you think. Stronger than Mombi thinks, I told myself. You can take Melindra. Gert believes in you. So does Nox.
I repeated these lines a few times like a mantra until I began to believe them. I thought about Gert’s training, focusing on something other than anger to feel the magic begin to thrum in my fingers.
I concentrated on the room again and materialized just as Melindra was righting herself after having fallen through the air where I should have been standing. Without hesitating, I flipped through the air, and pinned Melindra to the ground.
Melindra’s eyes widened with surprise. “Ow,” she said. “Not fair!”
“There’s no such thing as fair out there,” I said. I’d learned as much from Nox.
I jumped to my feet.
“Need some help getting up?” I asked, extending a hand to Melindra. When I stole a glance at Nox, I saw him watching intently. It could have been my imagination but it looked like he was actually on the verge of a smile.
Dorothy Must Die: The Other Side of the Rainbow Collection: No Place Like Oz, Dorothy Must Die, The Witch Must Burn, The Wizard Returns, The Wicked Will Rise Page 16