Bewitched in Oz

by Laura J. Burns

  “Where’s Tabitha?” Vashti asked. “Where do they have her? Why didn’t she run?”

  “Why didn’t she make herself invisible?” Zerie added.

  “Look.” Brink crawled over next to them. “Through the leaves. Look up.”

  Zerie did. Her breath caught in her throat. There, against the moon, floated a humongous black shape. “It’s a ship. A Winged Monkeys airship.”

  Two monkeys, their giant black wings beating the air, appeared, silhouetted against the stars. They flew straight for the airship. And between them, held captive, was a girl.

  Tabitha.

  .6.

  For a long time after Tabitha disappeared into the floating ship, Zerie and her friends were silent. Hot tears ran down Zerie’s cheeks, and she felt Vashti crying beside her. Brink was a little farther away, lying still on his back.

  Zerie stared up at the stars, the moon, and the monstrous black ship. What were they doing to Tabitha up there? She must be terrified.

  “The monkeys are gone,” Brink whispered, and Zerie startled at the sound of his voice.

  “That’s true,” Vashti said. “I don’t hear their wings anymore, or the screeching. That screeching is so horrible.” Her voice dissolved into a sob.

  “But the ship is still there,” Zerie pointed out. “They’ve just gone inside.”

  “It means we can move, though. We have to get out of here,” Brink said.

  Zerie slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position. The top of her head peeked above the broad leaves of the collard greens, so she hunched a bit to keep hidden.

  “What do you mean, we need to get out of here?” she asked. “Get out of Pa Underhill’s garden?”

  “Yes, for starters,” Brink replied. “If they’ve stopped looking for us in the woods, they’ll probably start trying to figure out where else we could have gone. And this place is a pretty obvious choice.”

  “So you think they’re hunting for us?” Vashti asked. “Do you think Tabitha told them we were with her?”

  “She didn’t have to. They saw us,” Zerie said. Everything that had happened in the woods was coming into focus now that the immediate danger had passed. “One of the Monkeys landed right between us, Vash. He saw us both.”

  “And then something roared,” Vashti said, nodding. “What was that? Was it a Monkey?”

  Zerie shook her head. “I don’t know what it was, but it scared the Monkeys as much as it scared us,” she said.

  A strange sound echoed through the garden. Vashti gasped, and Zerie fell silent, listening. It was a quiet sound, and in any other circumstance she would have said it sounded like laughter. But Zerie was too upset to even imagine anyone laughing.

  “It’s stopped,” Brink said a moment later. “Do you see anything?”

  “No,” Zerie answered. “But now I really do want to get out of this garden.”

  “To go where?” Vashti asked. “We can’t go home. If the Winged Monkeys are looking for us, they’ll go to our houses.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “We can’t go home ever again.”

  Zerie felt as if her entire body had been submerged in ice water.

  Never go home again?

  Never see her little bedroom or hear the willow scratching at the window?

  Never smell Grammy’s cooking or feel her warm embrace?

  Never gossip with Zelzah or pick apples with Zepho?

  “Or we can turn ourselves in,” Brink said. “If we let the Monkeys bring us to the Emerald City and Ozma takes our magic away, I’m sure they’ll let us go home afterward.”

  Zerie narrowed her eyes, studying his face. He’d said himself that somebody had told the Winged Monkeys where to find them in the forest. And the only people who had known were him and Vashti and Tabitha.

  From the second he’d shown up in the woods, Zerie had suspected that Brink might be a spy, and now here he was trying to talk them into turning themselves in.

  “I’m not doing that,” she said defiantly. “My magical talent is mine, and no one has the right to take it from me.”

  “Even if it means leaving home?” Vashti asked. “Living in hiding forever? Knowing that the Monkeys are looking for you?”

  “Even then,” Zerie said with a lot more certainty than she felt.

  “Oh, I’m glad to hear you say that,” Brink said, a smile breaking across his face. “I completely agree.”

  “Then why did you say we should turn ourselves in?” Zerie cried, exasperated.

  “I didn’t say we should, I said we could. I didn’t want to keep you girls from having a chance to stay with your families, if that’s what you wanted,” Brink replied.

  “So those are our only choices?” Vashti asked. “We lose our magic or we lose our families?”

  “Yes,” Brink said.

  “No,” said another voice. “There is a third option.”

  “Who said that?” Zerie cried.

  “I did, of course.” Zerie blinked to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. It was a cat, but such a cat as she had never seen before. This cat was entirely transparent—she could see right through it, straight to its ruby-red heart. The small creature wound its way through the collard stalks, rubbing against each one as it walked.

  “You’re the Glass Cat,” Vashti breathed. “Ozma’s cat.”

  “I beg your pardon, I am nobody’s cat,” the cat said with a sniff. “Except my own, of course. Cats belong to themselves.”

  “But you’re friends with Princess Ozma. Tabitha told us stories about you.” Zerie could hardly take her eyes off the strange creature. “And if you’re friends with Ozma, that means you’re here to capture us, aren’t you?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I have helped you escape from the Winged Monkeys if I wanted you to be caught?” The cat turned her back on Zerie, sat down, and began licking her glass paws.

  “You helped us escape? How?” Brink sounded amused.

  “I roared, of course. Who did you think it was?”

  “You mean that sound? That incredibly loud sound?” Zerie said. “That was you?”

  “Cats don’t roar,” Vashti pointed out. “Cats meow.”

  The Glass Cat looked sideways at her. “Only cats with no imagination. I don’t see any difference between myself and a lion. Except that I’m prettier.”

  She was pretty, Zerie had to admit. The glass of the cat’s body caught the moonlight filtering through the leaves and made her sparkle.

  “I don’t understand,” Zerie said.

  “The Winged Monkeys are noisy and rude,” the cat said. “And they smell. I like to scare them.”

  “Okay, but what were you doing in the forest if you weren’t spying on us?” Zerie asked.

  “Oh, I was spying on you, just not for Ozma,” the cat replied. “I knew you were doing magic, so I came to see it. I can sense magic, you know. I’m a cat.”

  Brink shot Zerie a skeptical look. “Cats can’t sense magic,” he said.

  “You all seem to know a lot about what cats can and can’t do,” the cat said. She stood up and stalked off through the plants, her glass tail waving high over her back.

  “Great, now she’s offended,” Vashti said. “Wait! Kitty! You said we had a third option. What does that mean?”

  The Glass Cat stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “Never call me Kitty again.”

  “I won’t,” Vashti promised. “Sorry.”

  “Then I’ll tell you. You can go home and be caught by the smelly Monkeys. You can flee right now and try to find someplace to hide for the rest of your lives.” The cat turned around and stared at them all head-on. “Or you can journey to see Glinda the Good.”

  “Glinda?” Zerie repeated. “Why would we go to her?”

  “You are three witches on your own, and you’re not very strong with your talents yet,” the cat said.

  “We’re not witches!” Brink protested.

  The cat stared at him with her emerald eyes, not blinking.

 
“Sorry,” Brink said. “I won’t interrupt again.”

  “Glinda is the most powerful sorceress in the Land of Oz. She has the strength to fight Ozma,” the cat went on. “If you tell her your story—that you are being hunted like criminals simply for using magic—perhaps Glinda will take your side.”

  “You mean . . . we should ask Glinda to go to war with Princess Ozma?” Zerie’s voice shook as she spoke. “I don’t want to do that.”

  “Glinda won’t fight with Ozma. She’s Glinda the Good,” Vashti said. “Anyway, Glinda is still allowed to use magic. Ozma’s ban on magic doesn’t apply to Glinda or the Wizard.”

  “It’s precisely because she’s good that I expect Glinda will help you,” the Glass Cat said. “All good creatures oppose this ban on magic, or they would if they had any brains. Why do you think I’m out here in the middle of nowhere instead of in the Emerald City?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea,” Zerie said. “I find you very confusing.”

  “I left Ozma’s palace the day she announced her ban on magic, and I haven’t been back since,” the Glass Cat said. “I am extremely angry with the princess.”

  “You’ve been gone a long time,” Vashti said.

  “Until Ozma comes to her senses, I won’t go back,” the cat said. “Imagine if the ban had been in place when I was made! Before I was brought to life, I was nothing but a spun-glass ornament. Without magic, I wouldn’t be the beautiful and intelligent feline you see before you.”

  “We all agree with you that the ban isn’t fair,” Brink said. “But do you really think Glinda would fight the ruler of Oz?”

  “Glinda is Princess Ozma’s most important advisor. If you can convince Glinda that the ban must be ended, then she can convince Ozma.” The cat lay down and curled itself into a ball. “It’s your only chance if you ever want to save your friend,” she said, yawning.

  “Tabitha? You think Glinda will help Tabitha?” Zerie asked. But the cat was asleep.

  “I don’t know about this,” Vashti said. “First of all, Glinda lives really far away. And second, we have no real reason to think she’ll help us.”

  “But we don’t know that she won’t,” Brink replied. “It’s entirely possible that Glinda isn’t aware that the Winged Monkeys are hunting down witches.”

  “You said we’re not witches,” Zerie pointed out.

  Brink shrugged. “What are we, then?”

  Zerie didn’t have an answer.

  “Do you . . . do you really think she could save Tabitha?” Vashti asked.

  “Well, we can’t,” Zerie said. “We can’t fly, and our magic isn’t strong enough to fight the Monkeys. But Glinda’s is.”

  “We have to decide now,” Brink said. “The longer we stay here, the more likely it is that they’ll find us. Are we turning ourselves in, or running away, or going to Glinda?”

  Zerie forced herself to think. It was hard to push down the fear in her belly and the despair she felt at the idea of never seeing her family again. But she knew Brink was right—she had to decide. “I hate this,” she muttered. “I just wanted everything to go back to normal after yesterday, and instead it got even crazier.”

  “Well, I’m going to Glinda,” Vashti announced. “It’s the only way there’s any hope, for us or for Tabitha.”

  “I am, too,” Brink said. “I’d rather fight the magic ban than let it destroy my life.”

  Zerie looked at her friends, crouched in a garden with wide, scared eyes. They were being brave and making a bold choice.

  It would be easier to go to the Monkeys and turn themselves over. At least they wouldn’t have to sneak around anymore, and maybe once they entered the Forbidden Fountain, they wouldn’t even remember what it was like to have a magical talent.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. If she chose that, she could be with Tabitha. And afterward, she could come back home and be with Grammy and Mama and Pop. Everything would go back to normal. Normal without magic.

  “I always wondered what was down the road of yellow brick,” Zerie said. “When I was younger, I would stand there and stare at it.”

  “Then come with us,” Brink told her. “No matter what, nothing will be the same after tonight. You can speed up time, Zerie, but you can’t make it go backward.”

  “Okay.” Zerie blinked back tears. “I’ll go with you—friends are always strongest together. We’ll go to Glinda’s palace.”

  .7.

  “The road of yellow brick is to the west of Pa Underhill’s house,” Vashti said. “So if we go to the right, we can stay under the collard greens for at least half the distance.”

  “Hang on. We can’t just leave right this second,” Zerie argued. “I’m wearing my nightgown under this cloak.”

  Brink and Vashti both looked surprised. “I didn’t know about your nighttime magic plans, remember?” Zerie said. “Tabitha snuck in and got me out of bed.”

  Vashti and Brink were both dressed, since they’d planned to go to the forest behind her back.

  “Right.” Vashti turned her face away, and all the awkwardness between them suddenly came rushing back to Zerie’s mind.

  “It’s not only you. None of us can leave straight from here,” Brink said. “We’re going on a long journey. We need supplies. We need food.”

  “And blankets, I guess,” Vashti agreed.

  “Something to carry water in. And our sturdiest shoes,” Zerie said. “We’ll be doing a lot of walking.”

  “How can we go back to our houses, though?” Vashti asked. “The Monkeys will be looking for us there.”

  “It was dark out,” Brink replied. “They didn’t see our faces. They don’t know who we are.”

  “Unless someone told them. The same someone who told them we’d be in the woods,” Zerie pointed out.

  Vashti stuck her head up over the big leaves. “The airship is still there, but I don’t see any Winged Monkeys out in the sky, and the houses in the village are all dark. It doesn’t seem as though anybody is awake.”

  “We have to chance it,” Zerie said. “We can’t run off with no food or water. We’ll just have to get home, pack our things, and get on the road as quickly as possible—before the Monkeys figure out who we are.”

  “Will Tabitha tell them our names?” Brink asked.

  “No!” Zerie snapped. How dare he even ask such a thing? “Tabitha would never betray us.”

  “Okay, sorry,” he mumbled. “I don’t know her as well as you do.”

  None of us know you very well, Zerie thought. Even though she was making plans to escape with Brink, she still didn’t entirely trust him. It was weird how you could live near somebody your whole life and not really know much about them.

  “We should pick a place to meet up. Somewhere near the road of yellow brick,” Zerie said.

  “How about behind the old beehive?” Vashti suggested. “It’s right at the end of the path that leads to the road.”

  Zerie nodded. The beehive wasn’t a real beehive, it was a statue that someone had made so long ago that nobody in town knew when it had happened. In fact, none of them knew for sure that it was supposed to be a beehive. Personally, Zerie thought it resembled a cyclone. She’d always wondered if it had anything to do with the famous explorer, Dorothy of Kansas.

  “I’m going,” Vashti said. “If I think about it too long I’ll chicken out.” She stood up and stalked off toward her house.

  “Zerie. Move fast, and be careful,” Brink said. Then he took off running.

  Move fast, Zerie thought, suddenly realizing that this would be easier for her than for her friends. With her talent, she’d be able to get home and pack her things before the other two had even reached their houses. She could use the extra time to write a note to Grammy.

  As she hurried through the garden toward her house, though, she couldn’t think of a thing to say to her grandmother. She wanted to explain why she was leaving, but Grammy would already understand. She wanted to apologize for not saying goodbye, but as so
on as Grammy saw the Winged Monkeys, she would realize why saying goodbye was impossible. She wanted to say where she was going, but if Ozma’s troops saw the note, the whole plan would be ruined.

  Before she knew it, Zerie was standing next to her bed, fully dressed, with her bag on her back. She stood still and gazed around her room. Until today, her whole world had been as small as this little room—it held everything she loved, all her trinkets to remind her of her family and her friends. All her dolls from when she was little. All her favorite books and paintings. All her memories.

  Now the world felt big and terrifying. Tabitha was gone, and if Zerie stayed here in her room, she would be found and taken, too. Even if she hid under the covers, she wouldn’t be safe at home. Not ever again.

  Slowly, she snuck into her grandmother’s room. Grammy lay sleeping under her quilt, snoring gently. “Goodbye,” Zerie whispered. She kissed Grammy’s cheek as lightly as she could, making sure not to wake her.

  Back downstairs to the kitchen to pack some food. This part Zerie did quickly—as quickly as her talent could manage. Who knew how long it would be before the Winged Monkeys started busting down doors?

  Stepping outside, she closed the front door behind her and made a wish that it wouldn’t be the last time. Surely she would manage to make it home again someday, wouldn’t she?

  Zerie closed her eyes and pictured the path to the old beehive . . . and then she was there. She didn’t know how fast she’d been moving, but she was definitely at the statue before her friends. The place was deserted.

  Or maybe they got caught, she thought, frightened. It was so dark. The beehive was at least six feet tall, and hiding behind it meant that she was in the even-darker shadow cast by the moonlight. Zerie’s mind was working feverishly, and she wondered how she would even know if Vashti or Brink had been taken.

  Something blotted out the moon, and Zerie’s hiding place became pitch black.

  She pressed herself up against the beehive and gazed up. There, against the stars, was another airship. It had no lights, and it seemed to draw the darkness of the night into itself, becoming a terrifying void in the sky. The ship moved silently, floating over the village until it stopped over Brink’s house.