Bewitched in Oz

by Laura J. Burns

  Vashti let out a sob, and Zerie realized that her own cheeks were wet with tears.

  The Wizard glanced at the Winged Monkeys. “You can remove their chains now,” he said, lowering his voice. “They won’t try to use their talents here.”

  The Monkeys unlocked the chains, and Vashti threw herself into Zerie’s arms. “We’ll stick together,” she said.

  “Always,” Zerie agreed.

  Now that the Wizard had sentenced them, the vast gates of the Royal Palace began to open, swinging slowly and silently outward until they took up half the area of the square. Next a long line of green-coated soldiers marched forth in tight formation, taking their places on either side of Zerie and Vashti, and in a line behind them.

  “Let the sentence be carried out!” the Wizard boomed.

  The soldiers began to march, and the girls had no choice but to walk toward the palace or be trampled.

  The square was empty, but Zerie got the feeling that thousands of eyes were watching her walk from behind the blank walls. This seemed like a lot of pomp for an empty courtyard. One or two soldiers would’ve been enough.

  And why did the Wizard keep speaking so formally and so loudly? Whenever he used his normal voice, he was actually sort of nice to them.

  It must be an illusion, she thought. The square might be full of people, but we can’t see them.

  The Wizard caught her eye and gave the slightest wink. “You young girls are frightened enough,” he said quietly. “There’s no need for you to see the hordes out looking for a witch trial.”

  “That’s a big illusion, hiding all the people,” Zerie said as the palace gates closed behind them. “Brink couldn’t do anything like that.”

  “Maybe he never had any talent at all,” Vashti replied. “Maybe it was always just the Wizard working magic that would fool us into trusting Brink.”

  Zerie frowned. She didn’t know what to think anymore. The Wizard was being friendly but sentencing them to certain doom. The Emerald City was filled with people but looked empty. Brink had held her in his arms but betrayed her to the enemy.

  “Zerie, look!” Vashti pointed ahead.

  They were marching through the main garden of the Royal Palace of Oz, and everything was laid out in a dizzying pattern of diamonds and circles overlapping. The bricks of the pathway were green, and every flower on every plant was green, and the stonework that made up the gigantic fountain in the center of the garden was green marble encrusted with emeralds.

  But the water that bubbled up from within was crystal clear.

  “The Forbidden Fountain,” the Wizard told them, stretching out his arm to allow the girls to step in front of him.

  And there, in front of the fountain, stood Tabitha.

  Their old friend was as beautiful as ever, with her silky golden hair pulled up into a net strung with emeralds and pearls. She was dressed in a gown of gold and green velvet, as if she had become a part of this place. Tabitha smiled as they approached.

  The soldiers marched Zerie and Vashti up to the low wall of the fountain, and then retreated, marching into a circle formation around the Forbidden Fountain, with the girls and Tabitha inside and the Wizard on the outside.

  “Tabitha,” Zerie cried, reaching to hug her friend. But Tabitha took a step back, and Zerie’s arms fell to her sides.

  “Tabitha. Don’t you remember us?” Vashti asked. “Oh, no. Zerie, what if we forget each other?”

  “Please don’t worry,” Tabitha said with a serene smile. “This is all for the best. You’ll see.”

  “But . . . you’re not you anymore,” Zerie told her. “Are you?”

  Tabitha didn’t answer, instead gesturing to the fountain. “Don’t fight the movement of the water,” she said. “If you give yourself up to the fountain, all will be revealed. It is of vital importance that you obey what you read.” She shot Zerie a strange look as she spoke, but then turned away again with that bland smile.

  “Prisoners! Approach the Forbidden Fountain,” the head soldier commanded. He and all the other soldiers in the circle took two steps inward, crowding the girls closer to the fountain wall.

  Zerie leaned over the low wall and looked down. The basin was made of pure gold, gleaming in the sunshine. And on the lip of the fountain wall lay a small plaque.

  “All Persons are Forbidden to Drink at this Fountain,” Zerie read.

  “Enter the fountain!” the head soldier barked. They all took two more steps inward, leaving the girls no room to stand. There was no choice but to climb into the fountain.

  Obey what you read, Zerie thought as the water in the golden bowl began to swirl in a circle. It was such an odd thing for Tabitha to say.

  “Vashti,” she said as her feet hit the icy cold water. “Keep your mouth closed. Don’t drink the water, that’s what the sign said.”

  “But they’re putting us in the fountain. Isn’t that sign for people who haven’t been sentenced?” Vashti asked, her teeth chattering from the cold. Her hand clung tightly to Zerie’s.

  “I don’t know. But try not to drink. Maybe it won’t work if we don’t drink.” Zerie’s teeth were chattering, too, and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. The Water of Oblivion was cold, so cold, and it was stealing her strength.

  “Zerie . . .” Vashti’s voice was frightened, and then suddenly Vashti fell, landing in the water with a splash. It hadn’t looked so deep from outside the fountain. The current pulled her away, wrenching her hand out of Zerie’s, and she was gone.

  I don’t want to forget my magic, Zerie thought, and then the swirling water knocked her legs out from beneath her, and she was caught in a spiral, being pulled down, down, down in the Water of Oblivion.

  The cold water closed over her head.

  Everything went black.

  .19.

  “Zerie Greenapple! It’s time to wake up!”

  “I don’t want to get up, Grammy,” Zerie murmured. “I’m so tired . . .”

  A light, tinkling sound filled the room, and Zerie frowned in her sleep. That didn’t sound like the willow tree scratching at the window. It sounded like a girl laughing. There had been a girl in her bedroom once, waking her up. Tabitha.

  “Tabitha!” Zerie bolted awake, sitting straight up in bed.

  Except she wasn’t in bed. She was sitting, drenched, on the sand in a strange green cave. The roof and walls were made of dark stone with veins of glowing green snaking through it in all directions, and the sand itself was green. The water lapping at her feet, though, was crystal clear and bracingly cold.

  Zerie blinked at the water, a vast lake filling nearly the entire length of this huge cavern.

  “Here you are, my dear—this will make you warm,” said the girl with the tinkling laugh. She placed a warm golden blanket around Zerie’s shoulders, and Zerie snuggled into it, gazing up at this young girl with an impossibly beautiful face. Her lips were a rich pink, her eyes sparkled like diamonds, and her blond hair glowed like fire in the dark cave.

  Zerie didn’t need to look at the tiara on her head to know who this girl was. “Princess Ozma,” she said.

  “Indeed I am. And you are Zerie Greenapple,” said Ozma. “I’ve been watching you for a long time.”

  Zerie frowned, trying to remember how she’d gotten here. She looked around. Vashti was on the sand next to her, also wrapped in a blanket, and smiling at her. She saw Tabitha sitting next to Vashti, holding her hand.

  And Zerie remembered every single thing she’d ever known about both of them.

  The Fountain hadn’t erased her memories.

  “You outlawed magic, and we were sentenced to the Forbidden Fountain,” Zerie said, turning back to Ozma.

  “Yes. Only I know the source of the Forbidden Fountain. I discovered this cave many years ago, and I told no one,” Ozma replied. “As long as you don’t drink the Water of Oblivion, you don’t forget yourself. But you can ride the water down to its source.”

  “I don’t understand,” Zerie said.
<
br />   “I’m sorry I had to put you through so much fear, but it was the only way,” Ozma replied. “My ban was not to truly forbid the use of magic, but to find out those who had it. Only with the resources of the Winged Monkeys and my other spies could I find those citizens of Oz who possessed a talent for magic. And only by pretending to take away their talent could I protect them.”

  “Protect us?” Zerie asked. “Protect us from what?”

  Ozma’s beautiful face grew sad. “The Land of Oz is under attack by a greater evil than it has ever known. This evil is powerful in the ways of magic. So only those with magic can help me fight it.”

  “You mean, you were looking for us so you could ask for help?” Vashti asked. “Not so you could remove our magic?”

  “Princess Ozma would never steal anyone’s inborn talent,” Tabitha replied. “But our enemy would. That’s why you needed protection. We all must pretend that our magic has been taken, while in secret we must practice until our talents are as strong as they can be.”

  Zerie could hardly believe her ears. “All this time, everything we thought we knew was inside-out.”

  Ozma nodded. “Will you help me save Oz?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Zerie cried.

  “We’ll do anything,” Vashti agreed.

  “Thank you, girls. But it is dangerous,” Ozma cautioned them. “My enemy cannot know that I am gathering this circle of companions.”

  “We’ve faced a lot of danger recently,” Zerie told her. “We can handle it. But may I know, Princess, who this terrible enemy is?”

  “It is the great sorceress herself,” Ozma replied. “Glinda.”

  “Glinda?” Vashti gasped. “But we were going to her for help! We were going to give ourselves to her. We went right up to her palace, and we didn’t even have our talents there. We would have been trapped, helpless!”

  “That is precisely why my soldiers took you before you could reach her,” Ozma said.

  Zerie felt as if the cavern was spinning, and she couldn’t catch her breath. “Brink,” she said, terrified. “Brink was at the gates of Glinda’s Palace. You didn’t take him. He would have gone to Glinda and . . . and . . .”

  “Once he crossed the bridge, my soldiers could not touch him,” Ozma said sadly. “I’m afraid our enemy has captured Brink Springer.”

  “I thought he betrayed me,” Zerie said. “But instead I left him there alone, to face the greatest betrayal of all. He thought he would get help from Glinda.”

  Princess Ozma placed a small hand on Zerie’s shoulder. “My heart aches at his loss,” she said.

  “No.” Zerie stood up, sure of what she had to do. “He’s not lost, Princess. I’m going to save him. I will do whatever it takes to rescue Brink.”

  “Then we’ll help you,” Tabitha said. She came over and took Zerie’s hand.

  Vashti took Zerie’s other hand. “Of course we will.”

  “Thank you.” Zerie smiled at her two best friends. “I know that between the three of us, we’ll find a way.”

  “Of course you will,” Princess Ozma said gently. “Friends are always strongest together.”

  Laura J. Burns

  Laura J. Burns has written more than thirty books for kids and teens, touching on topics from imaginary lake monsters to out-of-control Hollywood starlets. She has also written for the TV shows Roswell, 1-800-MISSING, and The Dead Zone. Laura lives in New York with her husband, her kids, and her two exceptionally silly dogs.

  Bewitched in Oz is published by Capstone Young Readers

  A Capstone Imprint

  1710 Roe Crest Drive

  North Mankato, Minnesota 56003

  www.capstoneyoungreaders.com

  Copyright © 2015 Capstone Young Readers

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Burns, Laura J., author. Bewitched in Oz / by Laura J. Burns ; illustrated by Liam Peters.

  pages cm. -- (Bewitched in Oz)

  Summary: Sorcery is forbidden in the land of Oz, so for two years Zerie, Vashti, and Tabitha have practiced magic in secret, fearing that otherwise their talents will be taken away--but when they are finally exposed they discover that there are more dangerous secrets in Oz than they ever suspected.

  ISBN 978-1-4342-9207-0 (library binding)

  ISBN 978-1-62370-129-1 (paper-over-board)

  ISBN 978-1-4965-0068-7 (ebook PDF)

  ISBN 978-1-62370-241-0 (ebook)

  1. Oz (Imaginary place)--Juvenile fiction. 2. Magic--Juvenile fiction. 3. Children's secrets--Juvenile fiction. 4. Best friends--Juvenile fiction. 5. Consptiracies--Juvenile fiction. [1. Fantasy. 2. Magic--Fiction. 3. Characters in literature--Fiction.] I. Peters, Liam, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.B937367Be 2014

  813.6--dc23

  2013050829

  Designer: Kay Fraser