Authors: Danielle Paige
It was spilling from somewhere over the treetops and crashing through an opening in the canopy into a series of basins the size of swimming pools, built into the tree trunks like stairs. The water cascaded over the edge of one and into the next, overflowing and spilling off into endlessness as it continued its unstoppable course toward the jungle floor.
In the pools, groups of monkeys were frolicking happily, scrubbing themselves and playing, hooting and doing backflips and cannonballs. They were having fun.
Looking at it like this, Oz didn’t seem so bad after all, and I stood there for a minute, just watching them play. It took me a few seconds to figure out why it looked so strange: this was the first time since I’d gotten to Oz that I’d actually felt like I was in the place I’d always known from books and movies. A place with witches and monsters, yes, but a place that was magical and joyful and, in the end, beautiful. A place that was happy.
It was the first time since I’d gotten here that I’d actually seen anyone really having fun.
Then I understood what Queen Lulu had been saying to me. This was why she wanted to stay out of it, why she wanted the monkeys to just keep to themselves and let the rest of Oz fight for power. The monkeys had made a place for themselves, and they wanted to enjoy it.
Would it be so bad to stay up here, I wondered? To just say
screw it
to the promises I’d made—to the war that was going on below us—and never go back down there to fight, and kill, and maybe die?
But it didn’t matter. I couldn’t stay. Not because I’m such a good person, but because I knew this happy feeling wouldn’t last. You can’t just cover your eyes and pretend like terrible things aren’t happening simply because you can’t see them, even if that is something that would seem like a good idea to a monkey.
Evil will always catch up with you. That’s why you have to get to it first.
I turned away, and realized that I was standing at the entrance to a tree house with the words “Princess Suite” burned into the
door in elaborate but sloppy cursive.
Princess Suite
. This had to be my room. I hoped it lived up to its name. After the day I’d had, I was ready for a little royal treatment.
The inside of the so-called Princess Suite wasn’t lavish—I’m pretty sure my servant’s quarters back in the Emerald Palace had been almost as big—and with only one room it wasn’t much of a suite. But it was cozy and welcoming, illuminated by sunfruit that floated along the edge of the ceiling. In opposite corners of the room, situated under tented curtains of gauzy mosquito netting that could be pulled shut for privacy, were hammocks woven from large palm fronds. Ozma was sitting on one of the hammocks. She lit up and waved when she saw me.
“Hey,” I said. Ozma smiled and fluttered her eyelashes. She shook out her hair.
It wasn’t a surprise that I was tired. Of course I was tired. The surprising part was that I was only feeling it now. I stripped off the servant’s dress I’d been wearing for Dorothy’s big party, now tattered and blood-crusted from my fight with the Lion, and sank heavily into the free hammock opposite the one in which Ozma was swinging happily back and forth, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.
As I lay down, I realized why she looked so content: the hammock conformed to my body perfectly, and maybe it was just that anything would have felt good at that moment, but it almost seemed to be massaging my aching muscles. It was like one of those vibrating chairs at one of those gadget stores at the mall,
except better because it didn’t make my butt feel numb.
I closed my eyes. I had a plan, and that plan was to fall asleep.
I wasn’t going to think about anything. I wasn’t going to dwell on anything that had happened, or on what was going to happen next. I was just going to forget the world.
I’d had trouble sleeping when I was little. I was always worrying about things, and so my mother had taught me a trick to clear my mind that I’ve used ever since. You close your eyes and relax and try to keep your breathing steady, and every time a stray thought enters your head, you picture it inside a soap bubble. Then you just blow the bubble away, and pretty soon you’ll be out like a light. Works every time.
It was a skill that was coming in handy around here. When you don’t know what’s happening tomorrow, it’s important to get your sleep where you can—because who knows the next time you’ll have a decent pillow? Or any pillow at all, for that matter.
Tonight I had more than the usual amount of thoughts to fend off. Actually, it was just one thought that kept returning stubbornly, no matter how many times I tried to banish it, of the fantasy I’d had while I’d been fighting the Lion, not just of killing him, but ripping him to shreds. Of the satisfaction I had taken in causing him pain, and the way I had wanted to laugh when I hurt him.
The monkeys were all terrified of me—even Ollie had seemed scared. I was a little scared of
myself
, to tell the truth.
But I had liked it, too. Even now, a part of me wished that
Ozma hadn’t stopped me, that I had done all those things to the Lion that I had wanted to.
I could still feel the thrill that had shivered through me when I had looked down to see black magic spilling from my knife and into my body, and I already missed it. I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to feel like that again.
And I’m not even sure if I fell asleep or not. What came next could have been a dream, but it didn’t feel like one. It didn’t feel like real life either. It felt like I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere on the way to dreaming, and had gotten lost, stuck in between the world of awake and asleep.
It was night and I was walking through a forest dense with thin twisted trees. For some reason I wasn’t wearing shoes, and slimy moss squished under my bare feet. I had somewhere to be, and so I was moving quickly, following a path that I somehow knew by heart even though it was too dark to see anything.
I had no idea what I was looking for, but I had the gnawing sense that there was something in these woods that I had lost—something that I had to get to.
So I moved through brambles and leaves and vines, feeling leaves scratching my face, stepping easily over branches and roots without even thinking about it. I was alert for danger, but I wasn’t the slightest bit scared. I felt a soft breeze on my face and it felt good.
In the distance, I heard an owl hooting, its call getting louder with every step I took, while at the same time the trees got straighter and taller and closer. I could have used magic to light
my way, but I didn’t mind the dark, and so I kept on going until finally I found myself in a small and perfectly circular clearing. The full moon hung as big as a pancake in the sky, looking spooky and cartoonish at the same time and illuminating the clearing in a ghostly silver light.
In the middle of the clearing was a dark shape. There was something strange about it: it was both clear and indistinct at the same time, solid and real but blurry at the edges. I couldn’t quite judge the shape or size of it. Was it some kind of injured animal? Or something weirder?
Whatever it was, there was something off about it—maybe even evil. Just looking at it made me feel a little light-headed, made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
But it also made me a little excited. And instead of running, or even hesitating, I took a step toward it. As I did, four heads turned toward me.
Because what I’d thought was a single animal was actually four hunching, cloaked figures who were huddled so close together that they appeared to have merged into one being. As they looked up, the moonlight hit their pinched, rotting faces, each one tinted a different shade of green, and I saw that they were each wearing raggedy, pointed hats.
All at once, the four figures opened their mouths and began to hiss.
Witches.
I took another step forward, and then another, feeling more confident the closer I got to them until I was filled with a
sensation that was something like joy. Their hissing grew feverish and high-pitched, and then, when I had almost reached them, they began to disappear, melting like black candles into the ground. Then they were gone, and I knew that I had found what I was looking for. In the ground, in the place where they had huddled, was a small pool that bubbled in the center. A fountain with water so black that it looked like liquid shadow.
I knelt to examine it, but before I could dip my finger in, something began to emerge from the water; a newer, darker figure that slowly began to take shape. From the dark and glittering mass of shadows, a girl emerged. There, standing in front of me, was Ozma.
It was the same Ozma I knew, except that it wasn’t. She had the same emerald green eyes and red poppies in her hair, the same tiny, delicate frame. But her skin was glowing, and her hair was swirling around her face in ropy skeins as thick as snakes. Her pupils were tiny flames.
And from her back sprouted two huge black butterfly wings, twice as big as her body and etched with an elaborate gold pattern. As she flapped them gently, they crackled with energy.
She extended a hand in my direction.
“Rise,” she said. I felt my feet leave the ground.
I opened my eyes. I think. Anyway, I was awake, and I was back in my room in the monkeys’ tree house village. Ozma was crouched over me, staring into my face with exactly the same look of intensity that she’d worn in my dream. Somewhere behind her pupils, I saw the glowing embers of what had recently been flames. Light streamed through the windows, casting her in an almost silhouette.
She reached out her hand for mine.
“Rise,” she said.
That one word startled me so badly that I almost flipped out of the hammock. But then the princess stuck out her tongue and blew me a raspberry, and when she started to laugh I felt my heart slowing back to a normal rate.
I was imagining things. It had only been a dream. Right? I put my hand in Ozma’s and let her help me up, trying to quiet my mind.
It was only a dream
, I told myself again.
But what if it had been something more? And what had it meant? Most importantly, why did I feel almost disappointed that it was over now? What did it say about me that I had felt myself approaching something truly evil, and that even though I’d had every opportunity to back away, I’d taken a step closer, and then another?
Some part of me had even wanted it. Maybe. I decided, for now, to just not think about that.
Standing up, I still felt a little unsteady on my feet from the day before, but the sleep had done me good and the soreness in my arms and legs was mostly gone.
Last night, I’d been too tired to really examine our quarters, but now I had a chance to look around. There really wasn’t a lot to see: I spotted a folding screen in the corner, the kind people coyly stepped behind in old movies to change. A large wooden bowl sat on a wooden pedestal by the window. It was filled with bubbling water, and a few large, pink blossoms floated on the surface. I walked over and splashed the water across my face gratefully. It tingled in a pleasant way against my skin before evaporating.
I was glad that there was no mirror here—I didn’t want to know how terrible I looked. Sure, I’d taken a quick dip in a stream yesterday when we’d been trudging through the forest with the monkeys, just to get the Lion’s blood off me, but I had a feeling that I was still a total wreck. How could I not be? Before last night, I hadn’t slept since the night before Dorothy’s big party.
Still, the water was refreshing, with a vaguely perfumed smell, and it felt good to wash up. I cupped another handful and pulled it through my hair, feeling days’ worth of dirt and grime coming off on my hands.
“So what the hell do we do next?” I found myself asking aloud. I wasn’t sure if I was talking to Ozma or to myself. I wasn’t expecting Ozma to be paying attention or to understand what I was saying, but at least she was someone to talk to. Look, I’d grown up with a mom who was on another planet most of the time, so I was used to having conversations with people who weren’t really listening. It was no big deal.
Anyway, after everything Ozma and I had been through together, I was starting to feel weirdly close to her. No, she probably wasn’t the friend I would have chosen for myself, but she was something. And with Star gone and Nox missing, friends were in short supply these days.
“We can’t stay here forever,” I said, taking advantage of her willingness to at least pretend to listen. “But I don’t know where to go next either. Do we go back to the city? Do we look for Dorothy? Do I try to find the Scarecrow so I can cut out his brains?” I shuddered a little at the thought of that one. I knew I had to do it eventually, but I
really
didn’t feel like it. “Every time I turn around, someone’s telling me to do something different; every time I sit down to think, there’s another mystery that I can’t solve. I just feel stuck.”
Ozma looked at me expectantly, and suddenly I found myself saying the thing I hadn’t even admitted to myself.
“I have to find Nox,” I said. “I know it makes no sense—he’s the last one I should be worrying about. But he’s the only one I trust.”
That’s the thing about talking to someone you’re not sure is really listening. Sometimes you end up saying stuff you don’t know you mean until it just comes spilling out.
But Ozma didn’t look surprised. Instead, she gave me a sly wink. “Nox Nox!” Ozma said.
Something about the way she said it piqued my interest. And after all, I was starting to think that maybe I was underestimating her. She had seemed to know that the magic was coming back to Oz. She had known the Lion was coming for us. Underneath all her idiotic chatter, it was becoming clear that she had some hidden depths.
“What about him?” I asked. Ozma just rolled her eyes and scowled at me like I was the dumbest person in the world. “Who’s
there
?” she said in frustration.
My shoulders drooped and I let out a groan, suddenly realizing exactly how much I’d hoped she’d been about to say something that was actually useful. “Whatever.” I scooped the filthy dress I’d discarded the night before up from the floor, and I was just about to put it on when I noticed that the monkeys had left me a clean outfit, neatly folded on a table by the door. Maybe Queen Lulu liked me more than she had let on, but more likely, she just didn’t want me walking around her village looking like a bum.