Even though they shared features, they had their differences too. Galen’s nose had a bump in it from where the Fisher King broke it, but it just added to his features. Dorothy had a scar through her eyebrow. She was proud of that scar. She claimed she got it fighting a chicken. Why anyone would want to fight a chicken was beyond me, but Dorothy bragged she won the fight. Esiro’s scars were hidden, but her dress didn’t totally cover them up. I could see the crisscross of scars from a whip peeking out above the neck of her dress.
Galen handed his sister a mirror. I don’t know what reaction I was expecting. Shock? Horror? Awe? Esiro just stared, and we all just sat there in silence. She finally handed the mirror back to Galen.
“Locasta can drop that old lady curse any time she wants. She has green hair too. What exactly does that mean for me?”
I sighed. We might as well put it on the table. “There were two twins with green hair when your father was first defeated. One stayed behind to guard his prison and eventually became his wife and your mother. The other took over as Sentinel of the North and Locasta is descended from them. You are distantly related to Locasta, and the seat of Sentinel to the North is the birthright of you, Dorothy, or Galen. Galen doesn’t want it and Dorothy hasn’t said. It’s a lot of training and—”
“I want it,” Esiro said, cutting me off. “Anyone can see Dorothy is in love with Ozma, and Galen is in love with you. I have no ties to anywhere but the North and I have a desire to fix it. There were people there that were kind to me. The Gillikin people may be gullible, but they don’t deserve to be punished for it.”
Ozma grinned, and I knew exactly why. Dorothy wasn’t being asked to choose between her love and duty and neither was Galen. Galen was right. Oz really did find a way to right things when evil came. I wish it could have righted things before my mother and Saffron’s mother died and things would not be easy to fix, but we had an ally now with all the dirty details on Locasta.
“You must start private training with Dorothy and me,” Ozma said.
Galen cleared his throat. “If you’re going to be Sentinel in the North, you must go through training with me too. So will Dorothy. The three of us don’t just have Oz magic. We are children of two different realms. I must teach you how to use the Fisher King’s magic.”
Esiro just let out a little growl. “If the Fisher King is the entire reason Locasta was such a bitch to me, then I’ll kick his ass too.”
Oh, I liked Esiro, but she was just as hot-headed as I was five years ago.
“Esiro, we all have our reasons for wanting revenge, but we can’t do anything until we know we can win. You need to train, and we can’t make our move until Locasta makes hers or we will have all of Oz against us.”
Esiro just gave me this smile that made me break into goosebumps. It was the look of someone who had seen some shit and didn’t back down from it. They would face it head-on and beat it back.
“I know that, but you forget, Locasta treated me like I was just a stupid serving girl. She had me waiting with her favorite biscuits while she discussed all her plans. I know exactly when and where Locasta will make her next move.”
I think we were all grinning at Esiro. Locasta needed to learn a Sentinel wasn’t above a servant, and we should cherish all children.
“I’ll call a meeting in the morning,” Ozma said. “We should get you rooms.”
“We have two empty rooms here,” Galen said a little too quickly.
I knew Galen was desperate to keep her close and get to know her. I was hoping Esiro wanted to stay with us because I wanted to get to know her too. I wanted to help her. The Fisher King and Locasta hurt her just as much as they hurt Galen, and that didn’t sit well with me.
Esiro just shrugged. “I’d like to stay close to my new family and sleep in a real bed instead of on a straw pallet. If I stay in these rooms, will I have an actual bed?”
“You can have my old room. There’s a huge, comfortable bed in there. I’m sleeping in Frankie’s room now.”
Esiro finally relaxed a little and gave us a friendly smile. “So, not only am I as strong as Locasta when it comes to magic, I’ve got a brother, a sister, and two potential sisters-in-law?”
Ozma beamed at her. “Some brothers-in-law too once I’m done repealing a few laws.”
Chapter 11
Frankie
I
really needed to find the time to take the new additions to my room to a tailor. Galen was borrowing Oprix’s clothes, and now Esiro was borrowing Saffron’s. I couldn’t because today was a history day lesson, so we had an early morning meeting so everyone could meet Esiro. Right after that meeting, the Scarecrow was supposed to be giving his speech so we could draw out the mole. We had a lot on our plate today.
We all met in the throne room, and Glinda’s mouth was hanging open when Esiro took a seat next to Galen and across from Dorothy.
“I can’t believe what I’m seeing. It was almost unheard of when the twins with green hair that started the Sentinel line were born. It hasn’t happened since. I can’t imagine what kind of magic that was used that there are three of you. I know it was probably for evil purposes, but it’s kind of a miracle.”
Galen grimaced. “We probably weren’t his first attempt. He would have considered the other children failures and gotten rid of them.”
I growled, and Glinda looked horrified. Idris and Oprix were clenching their fists like they wanted to punch something. Ozma was holding Dorothy’s hand like she was trying to soothe her. Esiro just sat with her back ramrod straight and addressed the table.
“If my father is anywhere as awful as Locasta, then nothing shocks me. Instead of getting butt hurt and offended at all the bad things they’ve done, we need to focus on beating them. We can sit here, clutching our pearls about what they did and didn’t do, and they’ll be in the background moving pieces to kill all of us.”
“Esiro is right,” I said. “We all know the Fisher King, his wife, and Locasta are awful. We don’t need to dwell on it. Esiro, you said you knew Locasta’s plans. Do you know who her mole in Emerald City is?”
“She had a contact in Emerald City. I don’t know their name. Locasta doesn’t use the names of people she doesn’t find important because she can’t be arsed to remember them. She always referred to her contact in Emerald City as the Munchkin Soldier. She talks to herself a lot. I remember when he wrote to her the Oz army was being formed. She had this entire conversation with herself like I wasn’t in the room. She was weighing the benefits if he would be pleased or not. I never knew who he was until Gugu told me, but everything she did was to please him.”
“Of course, it had to be a Munchkin,” Saffron groaned. “Why can’t the Munchkins stay out of this?”
“Locasta thought the Munchkins were all stupid. She and the man she was working with intended to turn them all into slaves. Anyway, she’s making her move in three moons. The Munchkin she’s planted in your army will disable the guard at the gate late at night when there’s only one. They plan to sneak an army into to storm the palace and capture several women the man wants. She hopes to have rallied the Quadlings, Munchkins, and Winkies to attack Emerald City.”
“How exactly does she plan to do that?” I demanded. “The Quadlings love Glinda, and my father is a prominent Munchkin. He knows the truth about what Locasta is doing. The Winkies may have turned against my mother, but they are peaceful people.”
“Locasta really talked about this in front of you?” Idris asked.
That was a good point. We brought Esiro in, and we were letting her sleep right next to us, but how did she know all of Locasta’s plans? Sentinels wrote nothing down and it wasn’t like Locasta would have a conversation with her about it unless Esiro was on her side.
“I get where you are going with this,” Esiro said. “Locasta is totally mad. Like, stark raving. It’s not just everything she did to me. I think pretending to be a sweet old lady to everyone in Oz and hiding what she’s really like cracke
d her brain. You should see her when she thinks she’s alone. I might as well have been invisible to her unless she wanted to insult me or have me beaten. She paces her bedroom ranting to herself. I think she’s got some voice in her head that she talks to. She’ll pause during her rants like she’s listening to something in her head.”
“Can the Fisher King do that?” I asked Galen. “Can he talk to people in their heads?”
Galen shook his head. “If he could, he would have used it to try to find me. Think about it. Locasta would have to be mad to follow my father. He wants Sentinels to drain their magic, and he’s got a silver tongue. He probably worded his agreement with her she’d be given a position as an honored second wife as long as he needed her. The Fisher King most likely intends to drain her too. If she were sane and remembering her training, she would see she’s not safe with him.”
“Locasta is a lost cause. Esiro is right. We can’t sit here talking about how awful they are,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “We can’t fight off an attack from all four corners of Oz. We need to change tactics. I have an idea, but only if Glinda can tell us it will not break the forgetting spell and hurt anyone.”
“We’re all listening, Francesca,” Glinda said.
“It’s high time we tell people the truth. Ozma needs to show herself. Her real self and tell people she was being held hostage in the North. Glinda needs to tell people Locasta kidnapped her and was torturing her in a secret jail in the North. We tell them Locasta has been manipulating the Munchkins, and that she was the one responsible for all the curses in the East. We can clear Adora’s name. Nick Chopper is high profile. We tell everyone it was Locasta and not Adora that enchanted his axe.
“We don’t have to tell them about the Fisher King just yet. We can say Locasta is planning a coordinated attack across all of Oz with a sorcerer with the power to raise the dead. People already fear bad magic. We need to warn them, or it will be a slaughter, then everyone will turn on us.”
“Frankie is right,” Ozma said. “People need to know about what Locasta did to me, and they need to know she’s been working with Mombi this entire time. I think there are three of us that need to talk. I need to talk about my time with Mombi, Glinda needs to talk about what happened in that jail, and Esiro needs to talk about what Locasta is like when she’s not faking it.”
Esiro frowned. “Are you suggesting we rally everyone to attack the Gillikins? Even the soldiers who beat me and tortured all those people in the jail were manipulated. Locasta told them everyone in that jail were traitors and had all these horrible stories made up about what they did. The soldiers were all told the prisoners were part of a vast conspiracy in Oz and that the North needed to be hard on them to find out what it was to save it.”
“What story did she give them about me?” Glinda demanded.
“I was with her when she would visit the jail when she had you sleeping. I wanted to do something about it, but they outnumbered me. She told the soldiers you had everyone thinking you were a Good Witch, but all the Wicked Witches in Oz answered to you, and all the bad magic was at your order. They were told the babe in your belly was innocent, but you weren’t. Locasta said she was bringing in her specialist to question you. I guess she meant the Fisher King?”
Oh, great. Oz conspiracy theories. When those got started, they blew totally out of proportion. Everyone wanted to add a little to it to make it a even more scandalous. The citizens of Oz could be called famous for one thing. Taking something with a simple explanation and turning it into something huge. It was how the Wizard got elected and why those forgetting curses were so effective. Turn two Sentinels into Wicked Witches, and the conspiracy theories were sure to start. And they did.
I had to know how deep this particular story went. “How many people in the North think Glinda is the supreme Wicked Witch?”
“Locasta has two hundred soldiers in her army, but not all of them are in the loop. Just the soldiers at her jail know what really goes on there. She was pretty pissed almost all of them got slaughtered breaking Glinda out because it meant bringing more in and twisting them into what she needed. Locasta would bring them into her room and chat with them over tea and biscuits. She was vetting them to see who she could and couldn’t turn. They thought she was just friendly, but she just saw who had the right disposition.”
So, not all of her soldiers were twisted, torturing fucks. Could we use that? Word of the speech would get back to the North, and Locasta would have to do damage control. She would use the same story about Glinda she used before, but we had Esiro and Ozma. Esiro didn’t look like the same serving girl they remembered and the stories about Mombi and Locasta were so legendary, there may be doubts about Ozma’s story.
Could Locasta spin our entire speech to her favor? Skepticism wasn’t a strong point in the citizens of Oz. Us telling them one thing, then Locasta telling them another would confuse them. Most people in Oz were honest, and you didn’t have to worry about someone lying to you.
“It could work,” Daxar said. “I’ve invited all the prominent families in the South, and I sent your father a raven. He’s coming, and he’s bringing all the important people in the East too. Dorothy asked Nick Chopper to come and bring any influential families in the West.”
“I invited friends in the North. They know my family fled, and I told them they would get answers at the meeting in Emerald City,” Frabess said.
Idris frowned. “Kazax will need to be there watching the crowd. He’ll report everything back to my mother. She’ll know if she needs to send more Flying Monkeys.”
“Why did you invite all those people if the speech was just meant to catch the mole before?” Oprix asked.
“I asked them to,” Glinda said. “I knew Locasta and the Fisher King would make a move soon since they lost me. I felt it best to warn the rest of Oz something was coming.”
Well, I was glad Glinda was thinking like a Sentinel again. Now, I had to. I would have to break some rules for us to win this battle.
“I know it’s not done, but Ozma, Dorothy, and Esiro might need knowledge transference spells instead of training. If the Fisher King is moving in three moons, there’s not enough time to teach them everything they need to know. Same goes for everyone else fighting.”
I expected someone to fight me, but they all agreed with me. I would have a constant headache, but we needed to prepare. Speaking of preparation, didn’t Ozma and Glinda need to write speeches? It was supposed to happen after lunch. History was canceled for the big speech. I wasn’t big on speeches, but I knew they took time to write.
None of them looked nervous, and none of them were rushing out of the room to go write something down.
“Don’t you all need to go write a speech?” I asked.
They all shook their heads.
“I don’t need to put to paper how evil Locasta is,” Esiro said.
“I think I’d talk about what Mombi and Locasta did to me better if it came from the heart,” Ozma said.
“Same,” Glinda said. “I think we would all speak more freely if we were off script.”
I really hoped we didn’t fuck this up. The future of Oz was resting on those speeches.
Chapter 12
Idris
K
azax pulled me aside before the speeches for man talk. He’d been mostly silent in all the meetings we’d been having. He would not speak until we had a plan and knew who to kill. He knew better than anyone we couldn’t make a move just yet. Well, now we could. In three moons, Locasta was making hers so we could make ours. I wonder if she had any clue we were onto her or we were playing right into her hands.
“You will stand with us during the speeches,” Kazax said.
“Is that an order?” I said, cocking an eyebrow at him.
“Yes, it is. It will scare people enough as it is without having them suspect you have a relationship with whom they think is a Wicked Witch. Let them think someone has the cap and has called for us. They will think we ar
e there for their protection.”
I sighed and ran my fingers over my fur. “I’m tired of hiding my relationship.”
“Eventually, you won’t have to. Now, come on. We need to get out on that platform.”
I followed the Flying Monkeys out to the platform and made a line behind the podium. I made it a point to stand directly behind Francesca. I braced my feet apart and stood with my hands behind my back like a soldier. I made it look like I was staring straight ahead, unblinking, but I was scanning the crowd looking for any threats. Oprix was on the stage, as was Galen, who was glamoured to look like a Winkie. Dorothy had her old face on, and Esiro looked like she had when she first arrived. No one had their green hair showing.
The Scarecrow took the platform next to Nick Chopper and the Cowardly Lion. He cleared his throat.
“I know you all came to hear me give a speech. I have good brains. Excellent brains. I have the best brains around. But this speech is best given by the people directly in charge of what is coming. You see, I’m not the real ruler of Oz. Not anymore.”
The crowd started murmuring as Glinda took the podium. “I’d like to introduce you to someone before I give my speech. I suspected she was alive, just taken. There was a ruler before the Wizard. King Jogran had a daughter. The girl you know as my niece is not actually my niece, but his daughter, Ozma. She’s the next in line to the throne. She will take over as queen, and she has a story to tell about where she’s been for the last twenty-three years.”
I watched Ozma stand. She wasn’t in her usual trousers and vest. She usually dressed a lot like Francesca, but today, she was dressed more like Glinda. She gracefully walked to the podium and stared the crowd down, like she was daring them to cut up when she revealed herself. When she had everyone’s attention, she ran her fingers through her hair, and it turned pink.
Oz Has Spoken: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 3) Page 5