by S. D. Stuart
Dorothy twisted the West Marshal’s arm while she stood, forcing the West Marshal down to the floor at her feet. “That experience you are having right now. It’s you, melting.”
The West Marshal tried to speak, but it came out only as a gurgling sound.
Dorothy tilted her head. “I’m sorry. Are you confused?”
West Marshal’s nod was nearly imperceptible.
Dorothy smiled. “During the short time I spent with Nero, he taught me a valuable lesson on how to stay alive. After I drank the water and you watched me so intently, I knew what you wanted. So I gave it to you.”
The West Marshal looked up at her, her words came out in a hoarse whisper. “How?”
“How did I know I wasn’t poisoned?”
The West Marshal nodded.
Dorothy looked over Caleb. “I didn’t. But I figured if I was, there was little harm in pretending to die sooner.”
The West Marshal’s eyes glazed over and her arm went limp in Dorothy’s hand. Dorothy grabbed the West Marshal’s star from her corset before she let the lifeless body collapse on the floor.
Dorothy stood over the body of the West Marshal and looked at the tiny metallic star in her hand. It was so small and insignificant on its own, yet people had died to keep it. People had killed to get it.
What did not make sense were those who killed so others could have it.
She looked over at Caleb.
He shook his head as he stood up from the floor. “You were never the target.”
“And yet you thought I was the one poisoned.”
He walked slowly toward her. “Amanda switched the bottles around. I didn’t know which bottle you would get.”
“Why were you saying sorry as you came in here?”
He held his hands out, palm side up. “I didn’t want you dying thinking that it was me who wanted you dead. That is the last thing I wanted.”
She threw the West Marshal’s star to the floor at his feet. “I think this is what you want.”
Caleb looked down at it but did not pick it up. “No Dorothy …”
She yanked the East Marshal’s star off her corset and threw it at him. “That’s right, you wanted both of them.”
It hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, landing with a ringing clatter next to its twin. He bent down and picked them both up. “Nero wants these.” He looked back up at her, the sadness in his heart reflected in his eyes. “I want something else.”
She was sick and tired of Nero getting whatever he wanted and she wasn’t about to let those sorrowful kitten eyes affect her judgment.
“Why do you help him? What does he have over you?”
“He does not have anything over me. He saved me as a baby and raised me as his own son. I owe him my life.”
She shook her head. “You owe yourself the truth.”
“What truth? You mean what Jetharo said?”
She nodded her head. “Yes. Don’t you want to find out if Nero has been lying to you your entire life?”
“Of course I do. But first I have to get you somewhere safe.”
“Why do you care what happens to me?”
“Because I’m in love with you.”
All the anger and hatred she felt evaporated in an instant. “You … love me?”
“Ever since the day you beat down those thugs in that back alley.”
“What am I supposed to do with that?”
“You do not have to do anything with that. But right now I have to get you somewhere safe.” He held out the two Marshal stars to her. “And the safest place for you is behind these stars.”
“And how are those going to protect me?”
“With these, you are the most powerful person in OZ.”
“All that power won’t get my father.”
“We take these and give them to the Wizard …”
She interrupted him. “He’s not the real wizard.”
“He said he could find your father in exchange for the two Marshal stars. What does it matter who he really is if he can do that?”
She looked him square in the eyes. “I’m not going back there on his terms.”
The door creaked open and her head snapped toward the sound. Two guards shuffled in and looked at the dead Marshal at her feet.
She grabbed the Marshal stars from Caleb and pinned them on her corset.
She stood up straight and cleared her throat. The two guards snapped to attention.
Her voice cracked a little when she started to speak but then she forced herself to sound commanding.
“I want you to bring Jetharo from the dungeon to me.”
The first guard took a step forward and lowered his head. “The previous Marshal always visited him in the dungeon where she could remain safe with him behind locked bars.”
“I am not the previous Marshal. Find Amanda and lock her up in the dungeon.”
The guard clicked his heels. “As you wish.”
The two guards pivoted on the balls of their feet and marched out of the room.
Caleb tilted his head and looked at her curiously. “What do you want with him?”
She let the breath out she had been holding and let her shoulders droop after the guards left the room. She took three deep breaths to calm her beating heart. “He knows OZ better than anyone. If anybody can help me find my father, he can.”
“Do you think he’ll help you?”
“I sure hope so.”
“And what if he doesn’t?”
“Nobody else can help me.”
Caleb looked at the floor. “There is another way.”
She tilted her head to the side. “If you know of another way, tell me.”
He looked back at her, his face serious. “The phony Wizard still thinks that I am with Nero. I could take the two Marshal stars to him and get him to confirm whether Nero has your father or not.”
“Won’t he expect you to give him the Marshal stars?”
“I would have to take you with me as my prisoner. He would be too suspicious if you willingly gave up both stars. It would be better if he believed you were already subjugated.”
“You think you can convince him that you tricked me?”
“I can be very convincing when I need to.”
She heard a scuffle outside the door right before it opened and Jetharo was shoved inside. He muttered a few choice words under his breath as the guard ignored him and closed the door.
“What is the meaning of …” At that same moment, he saw the West Marshal dead on the floor. He looked up at Dorothy. “Oh. I see. There’s a new marshal in town.”
“How well did you know my father?”
“He and I were going to escape together. I guess I knew him as well as anybody could know him.”
“Right before she died, the West Marshal told me that Nero has my father.”
He nodded his head. “That’s possible.”
“Can you help me get him back?”
He regarded her for a moment. “Tell you what. There is something I need from my castle. If you go and get it for me, I can help you get your father.”
Dorothy nodded. “We can help you get back into your castle …”
He cut her off. “I don’t need to get in. You just need to bring something out.”
Caleb leaned in and said, “Can I speak to you over here for moment?”
She let him lead her over to a corner and he whispered so Jetharo would not overhear them.
“I do not like this. Everybody wants you to do something for them in exchange for their help.”
“I don’t know what else to do, Caleb. If he can help me get my father, I’m willing to do anything.”
His eyes darkened. “Are you willing to risk your life?”
“I’m willing to do whatever I have to, to find my father.”
He leaned in close, but his voice was raised well above a whisper. “It is a fool’s errand. We would need an army to storm his castle. Not to mention that we still need to go after Nero. I
t is not possible. We can find another way.”
“What if I get you your army?”
Caleb laughed. “You wouldn’t be able to convince any of the people here to go up against the Wizard’s castle. It was designed to keep him in. It’s also very good at keeping everyone out.”
There was a knock at the door. Dorothy raised her voice to be heard through the closed door. “Come.”
The door opened and a guard sheepishly shuffled in, his eyes cast down toward the floor. “It appears that Amanda has escaped in the airship.”
Caleb quickly responded. “Which way was she headed?”
The guard looked up at him, apparently happy he was not addressing the Marshal directly. “She was pointed to the Southeast.”
Caleb looked back at Dorothy. “She’s going to Nero’s casino.”
Dorothy furrowed her brow. “How do you know?”
“There’s nothing else in that direction.”
“There is something else in that direction.”
It was Caleb’s turn to furrow his brow. “What else is in that direction?”
She smiled. “Your army.”
She walked back over to Jetharo. “This thing you want, is it something I can carry?”
He smiled. “Oh yes. It will fit in your pocket.”
She glanced over at Caleb, who did not look pleased. “Then it’s settled. I will build your army, we will get what you want out of that castle and you will help me rescue my father.”
Chapter 29
Caleb had been right. The safest place for her was behind the Marshal stars. They put her in charge and everyone around her immediately obeyed her every command.
After convincing Jetharo that she could help him take back his castle, she had commandeered the second-fastest airship in all of OZ.
Apparently, Amanda had taken the fastest.
Dorothy stared out the window of the airship’s gondola. The expanse of OZ spread out below her from horizon to horizon. She should be thinking about many things.
Finding her father.
Defeating Nero.
Becoming ruler of OZ.
Instead, her thoughts kept returning to what Caleb said when they were alone in the banquet hall.
His words had cooled the fires of hatred she felt toward him and toward everything that came between her and her father.
She quickly realized she felt safe when she was with Caleb. Moreover, she believed him when he said he would stick by her side no matter what.
Nevertheless, she did not come to OZ to find love.
She came to find her father.
As much as she wanted to find her father as soon as possible, they were not headed for Center City or Nero’s casino just yet. Even though she felt she held all the cards, Nero still possibly held her father. She would have to gather an army before she confronted Nero.
Not just any army would do.
She needed an army of brave warriors.
And she knew exactly where to find them.
The bravest person she had met in OZ was Munch. He had given his life to help her. All she needed to do was convince his clones that they were exactly like the original in more ways than one.
Caleb approached from behind and stood next to her. “I don’t think you should be storming the gates of the Wizard’s castle.”
“I have to get the clockwork key for Jetharo from the royal chamber. The Wizard’s not going to let us just walk in and start poking around for a loose stone in the wall.”
“Do not forget, he sent you to kill the West Marshal and bring back her star. He’s expecting us to just walk back in.”
She turned to him. “But I don’t think he would let us walk right back out.”
He continued to look out the window and refused to make eye contact with her. “He would if he thought you were my prisoner and I was taking you back to Nero.”
“And why would he do that?”
“He made a deal with Nero. He could stay there as long as he kept looking for this clockwork key.”
She let in a sharp breath. “Nero knows about the key?”
“Nero knows a lot about the secrets of OZ. From what I have heard, that key unlocks the biggest secret of them all. And Nero wants whatever that key unlocks more than anything else in this world.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not giving Nero the clockwork key.”
He turned fully to look her squarely in the eyes. “Do not worry about my loyalty. Nero lied to me about my family and my people. I no longer have any allegiance to him.”
He turned away and stared silently out the window for a moment before adding, “Amanda will have reached Nero by now. If he has your father, like the West Marshal said, we need to contact him to negotiate a trade before he can do anything to him. That is of course, if the West Marshal was telling the truth.”
She continued to look out the window. “She thought she was about to kill me. I don’t see any reason why she would lie.”
“I could think of a hundred reasons.”
“Like what?”
“You, of all people, should have realized by now that people lie more than they speak the truth in OZ.”
She turned to face him. “What about you Caleb? Have you lied to me more than you told me the truth?”
His eyes softened. “I’m not proud of that. But I am telling you the truth from this point forward.” He gave her a playful smile. “And that’s the truth.”
She wanted to smile back but instead returned her attention to the window. What she first thought were storm clouds on the horizon half an hour ago had turned into dark broiling clouds that seemed to emanate from the ground. She gasped audibly when she realized the pitch-black clouds were actually plumes of smoke from the fires that raged throughout the city they were approaching.
The city that was their destination.
Munch’s city.
They landed the airship beside a pile of rubble that used to be the wall that kept Munch and his kin safe from the outside world.
Dorothy’s heart pounded furiously in her chest as she clambered over the rubble. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw what remained of the city.
Broken bodies and broken buildings were scattered everywhere like toys in a child’s playroom. The tears in her eyes from the acrid smoke mingled with the tears from the pain she felt deep in her soul.
All of this was because of her.
A tiny voice called out to her from close by. “Marshal?”
She looked around and spotted the tiny figure trapped under a collapsed wall.
She rushed over and started pulling chunks of broken rock off him. “Hold still, I’ll get you out of there.”
Relief washed over his face. “I knew you would come. I told them Munch would bring you back to protect us. Some of my brothers doubted, but I never did.”
Caleb joined her and together they pulled the rubble off the clone of Munch. When he was clear, Caleb lifted him up. The clone tried to stand but his face wrinkled with pain and he collapsed to the ground.
He looked up at Dorothy. “I think my leg is broken.”
Caleb fashioned a splint from the surrounding debris and supported the clone to a standing position.
More cries for help drew their attention and they spent the next three hours pulling more clones from piles of rubble.
Soon there was a small ragtag group of clones gathered around her and Caleb.
The first clone they had saved looked around at the rest of the clones and then back at Dorothy. “Where’s Munch?”
She looked at him without blinking. Slowly, she looked at all the clones as they waited for her response.
How could she tell this man the very person that gave him life, gave them all life, was dead?
Caleb cleared his throat and spoke for her. “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Munch died saving Dorothy’s life.”
The little man smiled even though sadness was written everywhere else on his face. “I knew he could be br
ave. I am the one that finally convinced him to go to you, you know. I’m glad to know he died a hero. But it is sad to know that we will all die with him.”
Dorothy was taken aback by this last comment. “What do you mean you will all die with him?”
The clone looked up at her, sadness reflected in his eyes. “The lifespan of a clone is 2 to 3 years.” He waved his arms around him at what remained of the burned-out city. “And that is the best case scenario. We have a machine that can transfer our thoughts from one clone body to another, but without any new bodies for us to move to …” His voice trailed off into silence.
Another clone stepped closer and continued where his brother left off. “It takes about six hours to make a fully grown clone. But we need a clean sample from the original for every clone. We’ve tried to make a clone from a clone, but the results were …”
He glanced around him at the other clones before looking back at Dorothy. “Less than satisfactory.”
She looked around at all the tiny faces who knew their days were numbered and then back to the leader of the small ragtag group. “Can you take a sample from me?”
The clone shook his head. “No. Munch was unique. He was genetically modified to be the perfect original for the cloning process. Without him, we are all doomed.”
Her entire plan of convincing the two hundred clones in Munch’s city to follow in the brave footsteps of the original evaporated like mist on a warm summer morning.
There were no less than a handful of battered and bruised clones left alive after the brutal attack. Not enough to form an army and take back the Wizard’s castle before challenging Nero.
She had only one choice if she ever wanted to see her father again.
She unpinned the Marshal stars from her corset and turned to Caleb.
She held out the two stars to him. “I guess we’ll go with your plan.”
Chapter 30
The man who had become the Wizard with Nero’s help stood on his balcony overlooking Center City and watched as the airship descended to the airfield.
Nero had told him he would put him in power as long as he located a simple little item for him. He often wondered if Nero would eliminate him if he ever turned over what he had been asked to find.