The Librarian (Book Two: Unhappily Ever After) (13 page)

TIME PASSED, AND eventually the Tinman came across a tiny town in Munchkin Country where the men and women were preparing for a journey of their own.

"Where are you going?" the Tinman asked.

"Haven't you heard?" a munchkin with rosy cheeks answered. "The Gnome King has come to grind down the road of yellow bricks. If that's true, we aren't going to wait around and see."

He pointed down the yellow brick road. It wound through the meadow and passed right through their small town.

"It's all
her
fault, you know?"

Taylor turned to face him, fearing this munchkin knew more than the rest of them.

"A girl very much like you dropped a house on the Witch's sister. That's when all of this began. There's a natural order to our world. That little girl changed things. I swear... if I ever see her again... she'll pay for what she's done."

"Things will get better," Taylor declared.

"Are you sure?" the munchkin asked. "No one knows what's going to happen. How can you be sure of
anything
these days?"

Taylor didn't answer, and the Tinman prodded the horse along.

THEY WERE ABLE to cover ground quickly once traveling on the solid path provided by the yellow brick road.

Just before dawn, they began hearing painful screams coming from just beyond the horizon. It was a horrifying sound, but they rode on as they'd learned to do. A few hours later, the Tinman pulled on the horse's reins, stopping the wagon when he saw the road descend into a meadow at the base of a small hill.

Wesley and Hope quickly hopped out of the wagon.

"What? We stuck again?" Hope asked snidely.

Neither Taylor nor the Tinman turned to answer.

"Guys?" Hope prodded. "Hello?"

Taylor couldn't take her eyes off the scene in the distance. Neither could the Tinman. Finally, Wesley and Hope followed their silent stare into the meadow below.

More than a dozen Gnomes were supervising a crowd of slaves agonizing to pry yellow bricks from the earth before tossing them into a colossal machine nearby. The machine was a mess of turning gears and thrusting pistons that belched steam through a bent exhaust pipe. It sat on wheels, and there was a loud grinding noise whenever the slaves threw a brick into its wide mouth. Once its sharp teeth were finished, the machine spit a stream of gold into a wagon that trailed behind it. There was a mountain of the yellow dust in the wagon. Thousands of bricks, pulverized.

"My god," Wesley said beneath his breath.

The Gnomes were strange beings made of stone. They looked like the jagged face of a mountain, and each was armed with a long whip. The whips cracked whenever someone stopped to rest or slipped on the uneven terrain. The lash was usually punctuated by an agonizing scream as the slave hurried back to work.

The Tinman watched intently as a winged monkey flew into sight with a new captive in hand. The monkey swooped low to the ground and dropped the young woman before arcing skyward and disappearing into the clouds.

The poor girl landed hard, tumbling to a stop near one of the Gnome's feet. The Gnome wasted no time. He yanked the girl into the air then shoved her toward the other slaves. She immediately fell to her knees and went to work loosening the next brick. The Gnome hadn't said a word. He didn't have to.
 

"Do you see her?" Taylor asked the Tinman. She knew he was scanning every face trying to find the Munchkin Maiden.

"She's there. I can feel it."

Taylor gave a half-hearted smile.

"I
do
see your friends."

"What? What friends?"

"Weren't you looking for a scarecrow and lion?"

Taylor snapped her head around to look. Wesley rushed to her side. Sure enough, the Cowardly Lion was shackled with a leather harness attached to the Gnomes' machine. He was being whipped whenever the Gnomes needed him to inch the machine along. Not as useful to them, the Scarecrow was bound to the machine's face like a hood ornament.

Wes couldn't believe it. "What are the chances we'd find them here?" he asked.

"You're lucky," Hope said.

He nodded, but he wasn't sure he agreed. Nothing about their journey had felt lucky. Why this?

Tay looked up at the Tinman. "You have to help us free them, too. You don't understand. I'll—"

"I told you I was only here for my fiancé." He moved his sad eyes into the valley. "But you're right," the Tinman continued. "We can't leave them like this." He raised his hammer. "We're going to save them all."

A LITTLE AT a time, the Munchkin Maiden made her way toward the new girl as a Gnome hurried over to shackle her feet and cuff her hands. With her head down, the Maiden couldn't miss the polka dot pattern of fresh tears that had fallen into the golden dust at the new girl's feet.

Waiting until the Gnome was gone, the Maiden got close enough to gently touch the girl's hand. "Don't be afraid," she whispered. "I'll help you."

The new girl wiped her tears, and the Maiden quietly showed her what was expected. They worked together, using small tools to dig two yellow bricks up from the ground before carrying them over to the great machine and tossing them in. They watched as the machine convulsed, grinding the bricks into powder.

An angry Gnome approached them. "Get moving girls!"

The new girl hurried away, but the Maiden grabbed her hand. "Go slow," she explained. "That's the trick. Otherwise you'll get tired, and they'll whip you when you stop to rest." She leaned in to whisper something in the new girl's ear. "Besides, you'll want your strength when it's time to escape."
 

The Maiden knelt down beside the road and grabbed a small pickaxe. She used it to dig at the next brick for a few moments, but when she saw no one was watching she started to hammer away on the chains at her feet.

The new girl grinned slightly. She'd definitely made the right friend.

"I've got news for you," a man beside them said. "I've worked with metals my life whole life. You aren't going to break these chains."

"You aren't even going to try?"

"Do you remember what happened to the old man they caught?" the man asked.

The Maiden looked over at the machine and shuddered. The new girl followed her gaze. She hadn't noticed before, but upon closer inspection she saw there was dried blood on the swirling teeth of the great machine. Someone had been ground down just like the bricks they were prying from the ground.

"That's probably what they'll do to all of us once we're done," the Maiden suggested.

The man sighed. "We'll never be done, miss. This road goes on for miles in both directions. And if we do live to see it finished, I'm sure the Gnomes will just takes us back into the mountains with them to work in their mines. They won't stop until they've secured every precious metal and jewel in Oz. These truly are the end days."

The Maiden shook her head. "I used to think like that," she said. "But miracles happen just when you're about to lose hope. That's why they're called miracles, after all." She looked into the distance. "Besides, I have to escape."

"Don't we all," he added.

"It's not the same. I have someone to get back to."

"We all do, dear. Don't you think I'd like to see my little girl?"

"I know," the Maiden said. "I wasn't trying to make little of your pain. But if I don't escape, who's going to put my fiancé back together again?"

Even the new girl reacted to the strange statement, looking up at the Maiden in confusion.

"What happened to your fiancé?" the man asked.

"The monkeys ripped him apart when they took me. It was terrible. They ripped him limb from limb. Don't you see? I
have
to get back."

Sure she was in shock, the man was careful with the words that came. "Sweetheart, you don't want to go back. Your fiancé... they killed him... you won't be able to put him back together again."

The Maiden smiled. She'd forgotten to share her fiancé's
peculiar
condition. "Oh," she said. "I must sound crazy. No, you don't understand. I
can
put my love back together again. You see, my fiancé, he's made of tin."

She went back to work, hammering away on bricks, occasionally missing on purpose so that her hammer's head struck the chains on her feet. She'd completely missed the spark of recognition in the man's eye. He knew her fiancé, you see. He'd built him.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE I'm doing this," Hope mumbled. She was looking down her nose at Taylor and Wes from atop the wagon. She was in the driver's seat but wasn't happy to be there.

"You'll be fine," Taylor explained.

"Yeah," Wesley said. "Trust me."

"I can't believe this was
your
idea! You're supposed to be the smart—"

Wesley smacked the horse before he had to hear any more. It took off, galloping wildly down the road with the wagon. Hope nearly fell out of her seat as the wagon bucked beneath her.

"Wes!" Taylor exclaimed.

"Like you weren't thinking the exact same thing!"

The kids watched the wagon descend the hill. Wesley was laughing until he looked over and saw Taylor was too. He leveled cold eyes at her and smirked.

"What?" she asked.

He started for the woods. "C'mon. Let's go."

Taylor was confused as she went after him. "Hey!" she said. "You were laughing, too!"

HOPE GAINED CONTROL of the wagon just as it rolled to a silent stop within sight of the Gnomes. Too busy to notice the intrusion, both the Gnomes and the slaves were completely unaware of her presence. Hope had no idea what she was supposed to say and blurted the first thing that came to mind.

"What's going on here?!"

The Gnomes looked up in unison, their block faces nothing more than a few holes cut into the boulder that sat atop their stone shoulders. They were repulsive creatures and reminded Hope of the ugly sculptures first graders sometimes bring home from art class.

"Get her!" one of them finally yelled.

The slaves stopped to watch as three Gnomes marched toward her. Hope jumped from her seat, hopping down from the wagon and stumbling just a bit as she began to run away.

They pursued her up the hill, but the Gnomes were awkward creatures with stubby legs not meant for running. They had little chance of catching her until one flicked his whip and caught Hope's ankle, pulling her to the ground.

Hope scrambled to get up, but whenever she was about to right herself the Gnome would yank on his whip again and she'd fall. He was laughing. They all were. They had her surrounded in no time.

"Get to your feet, woman! You have work to do!"

Hope rolled onto her back. She looked up at her captors, and a crooked grin crept onto her face. The very idea that she dared smile infuriated the Gnomes even further.

"Do I look like I'm joking, outsider?"

One of them pulled Hope to her feet then shoved her down the hill. But his anger quickly turned to alarm when he turned to follow and saw what was waiting.

All of the village children had piled out of the wagon's buggy to confront the Gnomes. The Tinman, too. And while the kids weren't that intimidating – even with the tools they held like weapons – all three Gnomes saw there was blood on the hammer in the Tinman's hands. He had already done some damage and looked anxious to do some more.

Hope's smile grew as she looked back at the Gnomes. "Did I forget to tell you about my friends?"

WITHOUT THINKING, THE other Gnomes ran to offer help, leaving the slaves unattended near the monstrous machine. One of them looked back and barked an order. "Keep working, you! This won't take—"

The Tinman bashed the Gnome with his hammer before he could finish. Several children threw themselves on top of him, doing their best to pin him to the ground. When he finally came to his feet again, the Gnome had a skinny boy on his back and a little girl wrapped around one of his legs. He was no match for the nimble children. They held tight as he swatted and shrugged, clumsily trying to shake free from their grip.

This was how much of the battle progressed. The Tinman would send a Gnome crashing to Earth with his hammer, and the kids would pounce and try to keep him there. They weren't winning, exactly. Even the Tinman's rage-powered hammer wasn't enough to hurt the Gnomes – they were made of stone, after all. To the Gnomes, the village children were a nuisance more than anything else. But they were slowing them down. And distracting them.

The plan had worked to perfection.

Taylor and Wes snuck from the woods and darted through the meadow toward the slaves. Making sure to go unseen, Wesley slid through the grass and hid behind the machine while Taylor hurried to free the Scarecrow.

"Who are you?" The strawman's voice was scratchy and weak. "You should go. If the Gnomes find you—"

"It's fine," Taylor whispered. "We're here to help."

Wesley poked his head out just in time to see the Tinman take another Gnome down.
 

Just inches away the Cowardly Lion was hiding beneath giant paws and trembling. "W-w-what's h-happening?" he stuttered.
 

"Where are the keys?" Wesley asked.

Without looking, the Lion pointed toward a ring of brass keys hanging from a hook nailed to the machine. Wesley grabbed it and started toward the slaves.

Nell's father shuffled over to greet Wes. "What's going on?" he asked. "Who are you?" His shackles jangled as he moved to get closer.

"Are you the Tinsmith?"

"Yes, but—"

"I'm friends with your daughter. We're here to rescue you."

"You
know
Nell?"

Wesley started to answer, but the Tinsmith cut him off.

"What do you mean
we're
here to rescue you?"

Most of the slaves were watching the action unfold just fifty yards away. Although the wagon obstructed much of their view, and the darkness of night offered little visibility, some were starting to recognize the children.