Oz Has Spoken: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 3)

by JB Trepagnier

  I didn’t have time to think about what Ivia’s testimony could mean for this trial. I shot her a quick thanks and ran to my bedroom to change. I didn’t want to start my testimony off on the wrong foot by showing up late with my shirt on backwards.

  Chapter 32

  Frankie

  T

  he fields the trial was taking place in was packed to the gills. We had to have the Northern guard escort us to our seats. I had to remember a lot of Oz still thought my mother was a Wicked Witch because Saffron and I were getting some dirty looks and hisses as we passed people. The dissent in the crowd got even louder when they laid eyes on Saffron and me. I already knew they would have trouble accepting what Saffron, and I had to say.

  Thankfully, I was called first instead of Saffron. It would give me a better idea of how they intended to treat her once they got their hands on her. I could deal with verbal abuse. I couldn’t watch someone doing it to Saffron.

  I made my way up the stage and took a seat in front of all of Oz. My spine was straight, and my face was the picture of calm. I was on a raised platform with the jury of judges to my left.

  “State your name and where you are from.”

  “Francesca of the West.”

  “Who was your mother?”

  “Azami, Sentinel of the West.”

  “Don’t you mean Wicked Witch of the West?” the Gillikin judge asked.

  “Did I stutter?” I asked. “My mother was no Wicked Witch. She was a loving mother who spent her life training me to help people, and she dedicated her waking hours to helping the Flying Monkeys. My mother healed countless Winkies, delivered babies, and saved the West when the Wizard tried to invade. The only reason none of you remember most of that is that you were cursed not to.”

  The Gillikin judge just scowled at me. “Yes, we all keep getting told we are cursed. If all of Oz was cursed, how did you escape this curse?”

  “Several people escaped the curse, actually. You can’t curse someone to forget themselves and the spell involved me too. The forgetting spell targeted the four Sentinels and turned them into Good Witches or Wicked Witches. Everyone in the same room as one of the Sentinels was spared the curse because it didn’t enter the room. The subject of the curse was in the room so that the magic couldn’t enter. A Winkie family and all the Flying Monkeys were spared. We were eating dinner when the spell was cast.”

  “What about Azami’s enslavement of the Winkies?”

  “Never happened. The Winkies are farmers. After the Wizard enacted his bizarre tax system, the Winkies were hit hard. They had to work harder on their farms to pay the tax and still put food on their tables. The Wizard wanted my mother to enforce the tax, and she refused. I think all of Oz knows it was always the Wizard’s men that came knocking on your door if you didn’t pay your taxes and never anyone who practiced magic.”

  I heard a murmur go up in the crowd because they knew I was right. No one, Good or Wicked Witch, ever enforced those taxes. It was always the gangs the Wizard hired who showed up, and either arrested you or just took the taxes after beating you. I decided to just go with what I knew since I had their attention.

  “I was with my mother when she and Adora were summoned to Emerald City. I was very young then, but I remember the Wizard making a lot of demands, and my mother and Adora refusing. There was a lot of yelling and the Wizard told them they would pay before we left. I remember asking if we would be in trouble for not doing what he asked. I was too young to understand what the whole tax thing meant. I just knew this man wanted my mother to do something she didn’t agree with and he got mad when she said no.”

  The rest of the judges hadn’t asked me a single question. The Gillikin judge got up to pace in front of me. Pridius looked annoyed. He asked me up here and Daxar’s father looked irritated he was keeping this up. I shouldn’t even be on the stand with my father and Daxar’s father as judges. Or else, Pridius and Daxar’s father shouldn’t have been judges at all since Daxar and I were both involved in this.

  No one on this panel could say they didn’t have a stake at seeing someone pay for the attack on the East. Not even the Scarecrow could say he was impartial after befriending Dorothy and what was done to her. Given the fact that it was really Locasta that enchanted Nick Chopper’s axe and how much he blamed Adora before, he had no place deciding her sentence.

  I knew all the men in front of me were good men—except maybe the Gillikin judge. I hadn’t decided on him. Even though all his questions were about my mother, they were directed at my cleavage instead of my eyes, and now just wasn’t the time to check out my tiny rack.

  “Would you say your mother was an angry person, Francesca?” the Gillikin judge continued.

  I knew what he was doing. He was trying to piss me off and get me to lose control in front of Oz so he could claim I was just like my mother, and I was just framing poor Locasta.

  “No, I would not. And I would prefer to answer these questions looking you in the eye instead of you looking at my breasts. My mother never lost her temper with me, no matter what I did. She calmly explained to me why what I did was wrong and we talked it out. That’s what Sentinels do to everyone, not just their children. My mother and Adora tried to do this with the Wizard because they thought he just didn’t understand why his taxes and paper money concept wouldn’t work in Oz and he just got furious and yelled. My mother and Adora only slightly raised their voices to get his attention because he was screaming like a spoiled man child because he wasn’t getting his way.”

  “Were there any other witnesses to this outburst besides you? Can anyone else back up your story.”

  I just laughed in his face. “Every single citizen in Oz. Ask yourself, if the Wizard summoned you to the new palace he built and told you he was making everyone give most of their resources to him to keep him comfortable to the point that everyone in Oz would have to work harder to feed themselves and their own community, would you have just agreed with him right there?

  “I’ll let you in on a little secret. He was sharing the fruits of your labor with the goons he sent to arrest you and steal from you. They ate your produce, your animals, and lived quite comfortably without having to work for it. The only labor they did for food and lodging was to steal from you for the Wizard. That is what my mother and Adora said no to—knocking on your doors to arrest you, beat you, and steal from you so the Wizard could live the high life.”

  The crowd was getting rowdy, and I knew they were swinging to my side. The Gillikin judge knew as well as I did if he asked me any more questions, he was going to totally lose his audience that thought I was the daughter of a Wicked Witch.

  He just grumped and turned back to his seat. “That’s all the questions I have. You can step down.”

  As soon as I stood up, so did Daxar’s father. “We are not done here. The South has some questions for you.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said, sitting back down.

  “How old were you when you lost your mother?”

  “I was sixteen. I was older than Dorothy was when the Wizard sent her up against a grown woman and a trained warrior. Dorothy and I have spoken about that day. What happened was an accident, and we are friends now. I don’t blame her for what happened to my mother. The Wizard should not have asked a child to murder for him.”

  “The story goes that Dorothy threw a pail of pure water at your mother, and she was so evil, the pureness of the water made her melt. Do you have anything to say to Oz about that?”

  “Actually, yes, I do, and thank you for asking. My mother bathed in pure well water and loved going swimming. One of our favorite things to do was to go to the lake behind our castle and play in the water. It wasn’t water in the pail that was thrown at my mother. We had been doing some deep cleaning in the castle and it was pure acid in the pail.

  “Dorothy was not from Oz. My mother put her to work in her kitchen. I can only imagine she was giving her something to do while she figured out how to send her back home. Dorothy tol
d me ovens are operated differently where she comes from, and a fire started. The reason everyone thought it was water was because Dorothy was just a child and she thought it was water that she threw on my mother when her sleeve went up trying to put the fire in the kitchen out.”

  “I understand you were the one that found your mother. That must not have been pleasant.”

  “It was horrible. I had nightmares about it for years. I still do sometimes, even though I know it was just an accident.”

  “You enrolled at Emerald City Academy with Dorothy Gale. The two of you were students together for several weeks. Tell me, why didn’t you take your revenge before you knew the truth?”

  I shrugged. “I kept telling myself I wanted it, but revenge is beneath a Sentinel. I couldn’t kill Dorothy for what she did without a trial and not without clearing my mother and aunt’s names first. I’m glad I showed restraint and didn’t act on it. Dorothy is an amazing friend now, and she helped us every step of the way when we were trying to bring down the Fisher King.”

  “What would you say your mother had to do with your decision not to take revenge on Dorothy?”

  “If she could have somehow come back to me and talked to me, she would have told me it’s not the Sentinel way to seek revenge. She would tell me I knew better and that it’s beneath me. She would remind me I needed closure, not blood, to heal. She would have been right. Killing Dorothy wouldn’t have made me feel better in the end and I would never have found out the truth about what happened. I also would have lost out on a very good friend.”

  “And I have a hard question for you now, Francesca. You may have been too young to know. You say your mother and Adora stood up to the Wizard because they knew the polices he wanted to enact would hurt the citizens of Oz. You say Sentinels talk out their problems. It sounds like the Wizard wasn’t willing to listen to what they had to say. Do you know if they had a plan for him?”

  “Actually, they did. Everyone called him The Wizard because they thought he had strong magic. He crash-landed here in a balloon. When my mother and Adora met with him, they realized he had no magic at all. He just had simple tricks. He also had an accent that meant he wasn’t from anywhere in Oz. He wasn’t telling the truth then because people made him king, but they thought he was from across the Deadly Desert and made it here in that balloon. Adora, Glinda, and my mother were trying to figure out how to send him back where he came from instead of killing him. Sentinels only kill if they have to.”

  “I notice you left Locasta’s name out of that. If she’s really a Sentinel and not a Good Witch, why wasn’t she helping?”

  “My mother complained about that all the time. They asked her to. They wanted her too. She kept saying Mombi was acting up again, and so was the black market in Uptown. She said too much was going on in the North to help with the Wizard. Then, the forgetting spell was cast and two Sentinels were named Good Witches and the other two Wicked Witches. That kind of spell requires at least two people with Sentinel level magic. My mother and Adora thought Glinda and Locasta were plotting against them and cut off contact.”

  “You said Glinda was working with them before. What happened when the divide between the Sentinels happened?”

  “Locasta was fine with it. My mother and Adora just stopped communicating with her, and she never reached out to find out who cast the curse. Glinda didn’t give up. She sent messages every day trying to get at least three Sentinels working together to fix this, but the damage had been done.”

  “So, your mother suspected Glinda and Locasta. Did you also suspect Glinda? If so, why did you enroll in her school?”

  “I suspected Glinda too. At the time, I thought there were only two people capable of casting that spell, and I knew it wasn’t my mother or Adora or they wouldn’t have gotten the short end of the stick. Glinda reached out to Saffron and I after our mothers died, but we ignored her. We talked about it when we heard about the school. We intended to go to Emerald City to figure out exactly what she was doing because it sounded a lot like she was trying to take our birthright. My friend Oprix couldn’t come East with us because he couldn’t fly and people were hunting Saffron. He already knew we would try to spy, so he just waltzed in, confronted Glinda, and enrolled us.”

  “What happened after you enrolled? Did you come to trust Glinda?”

  I realized what this was already. Daxar’s father was a Quadling and loyal to Glinda. When I started giving my testimony that my mother was never Wicked, and it was just a spell, the citizens of Oz would be like I was for so long. If only Locasta were the bad one, why was Glinda given the title Good Witch too? I wasn’t just clearing my mother’s name. If they were calling Glinda, I needed to set the stage for her too or people wouldn’t believe her.

  “Not at first, but I trust her now. Glinda was trying to protect something precious when she started the school, and from what I learned, if you break a forgetting curse incorrectly, it will hurt people. I questioned everything Glinda did from day one, but she arranged tutors for both me and Saffron to continue our Sentinel training. I will say, I didn’t spend a lot of time around Glinda growing up and neither did Saffron. She knew our mothers better than she knew us, but she managed to pick perfect tutors for both of us.

  “I realized Glinda was on our side when she went missing. I thought she was avoiding us, but then I realized it was much more serious than that. She was being held in this horrible secret prison in the North where they were doing experiments on talking animals, and the Fisher King was stealing magic from people. I can’t describe to you how horrible it is to see someone who has had their magic drained. They look like a husk of themselves. We couldn’t save them after we rescued Glinda.”

  The Gillikin judge pounded his fist on the desk. I really needed to learn his name since he was so fascinated with my boobs, and I had a feeling I would talk to him again.

  “That’s ridiculous! The Gillikin don’t torture talking animals. We don’t torture anyone.”

  I looked at him calmly. “I agree. The Gillikin don’t. The Gillikin are a gentle people. Locasta built up a legend around bad magic with the black market she supplied ingredients to, then fed into your fear of Wicked Witches after the forgetting curse. She created an army and convinced a few select soldiers that the people and animals at that prison were traitors to Oz and they were torturing them to uncover a plot to destroy Oz. There was a plot to destroy Oz. They were just helping it, not rooting it out.”

  “So says you,” the Gillikin judge grumped.

  “Would a severed talking head convince you?” I asked. “We have one as evidence.”

  Apparently, that wasn’t common knowledge just yet. There were gasps and screams from the audience, no matter what part of Oz you came from. Daxar’s father’s eyes were sparkling with amusement.

  “That’s enough, Francesca. We’ll get to that. That’s all we have for you today. Why doesn’t everyone take a break before we move on?” Daxar’s father said.

  Chapter 33

  Daxar

  M

  y father knew damned well I wasn’t on any Quadling council anymore, but he yanked me away when the judges took their break. He didn’t like it when I told him I intended to stay with Francesca after I heard about the stink she made about all of us staying together. I would be damned if I would be left out of that. We had to keep up appearances at Emerald City Academy since I was the headmaster, but I was hoping after this trial, Ozma would repeal those stupid laws, and I could convince the other men that we should mass propose to her.

  My father pulled me to a corner. “Relax, Daxar. I’m not asking you to get involved in politics. I’m telling you I like her — a lot. I can see why you fought so hard to stay in her room. Keep that one close and don’t fuck this up.”

  “She’s amazing, isn’t she? She was right, though. Pavius needs to stop looking at her like that when he’s questioning her. She’s already said she doesn’t like it and she will not do anything to him until her mother’s name is
cleared.”

  “Pavius is a bit of a prude for someone who undresses women with his eyes like that. He likes to look, but never touch, and he likes them her age. I’ll talk to him. I’ll remind him he’s representing the North and he will question a lot of young women. He will not want all of Oz to think Gillikin men have conversations with women’s breasts.

  “Go to her and tell her I’m proud of her. If she’s angry at me, tell her I’m sorry for the questions, but it wasn’t just her mother’s name we are clearing. This is a mess. We need to clearly lay out the innocent and guilty to break this spell, or it won’t be broken and Oz will be at war.”

  “Thank you, father.”

  “I don’t suppose we could dine together so I could get to know her outside this trial? I never thought I’d meet the woman who would get you to settle down.”

  “I’ll ask, and I’m sure she’d love that. We ate breakfast with the queen of the Flying Monkeys. She’s met Idris’ mother. She should get to know you too.”

  “Erm, not to pry, but if Idris is one of her men and he’s a Flying Monkey, how exactly does that work?”

  I hadn’t told my father Idris’ secret because it wasn’t mine to tell. Ivia and Idris would reveal that when they were ready to. I had a feeling when Ivia did it, it would shock and befitting the style of a queen.

  “I have a feeling you’ll be learning that very soon, but it’s not my place to tell you.”

  “Go to your woman, Daxar. Pavius didn’t seem to perturb her, but you know her better than I do.”

  “Of course.”

  “Glinda requested a private box where she could see everything, but no one could see her. I’m guessing there’s a secret there that will out at this trial, but I’m guessing that is where Francesca is. It’s off to the side of the stage.”

  When I left the backstage area, I saw exactly what he was talking about. I surveyed the crowd. Most of them were still pretty terrified after Francesca let it drop that we had a talking head as evidence. They were going to totally lose it when we brought the Fisher King’s head out.