24. Chapter 24
twenty-four
Jack and I remained in the enormous dining hall, and Tavish, too.
Aside from a pair of guards outside the doors, everyone else left shortly after Rye and Dorothy had.
Though I had the urge to go in search of Nick, I couldn’t have torn myself away from Jack. Aside from that, the conversation I needed to have with Nick would require privacy. Likely, Nick also needed some time and space to collect his thoughts—especially if my suspicions concerning his reaction to Dorothy’s outburst were true.
I wanted to speak to Rye privately as well. But he and Dorothy did not need me interrupting whatever long-overdue conversation they had to be having. I would have to be satisfied with a recap from Rye—if he felt inclined to share anything about the interaction.
Knowing him, he would brush me off with a generic explanation that would leave much to interpretation. He had promised not to lie to me anymore, but it could be argued that his conversations with Dorothy, along with the particulars of his relationship with her, were none of my business.
While Tavish sank into contemplative (and maybe even guilt-ridden) silence, I peppered Jack with questions about Langwidere, the Emerald City, and the friends still locked within its boundaries.
Jack answered all my inquiries in quiet tones, letting me lean against him, my head on his shoulder, the flower he’d brought me loosely grasped in one hand.
Every so often, I would shut my eyes, relishing the reverberation of his voice, his oaken scent, the essence of his presence—simultaneously like that of a wise old friend and an adoring child.
According to Jack, after Langwidere’s takeover, the princess had locked the city down, barring access either in or out.
Her forces had slaughtered several of the royal guards and overwhelmed and captured another portion of The Royal Army of Oz. She’d also somehow transformed whole troops, as well as resistant citizens and pop-up militias, to stone.
Like so much else, Rye hadn’t been able to anticipate her doing something like that.
These macabre “statues” now populated the grounds of the Emerald City Palace and its halls as well as the once-bustling squares and markets of the city proper. Jack couldn’t say if those who had been turned to stone were dead, but my thought was that they must be. He didn’t know where Langwidere had gotten the magic to do this, either. My suspicion, however, was that Glinda’s powers had once again been siphoned—and somehow, perverted—to perform the task.
Was that why the princess had wanted to trade for me? Because, like Glinda, I represented another tappable source of power? Or did she simply still want my head as a trophy because of the threat I posed?
Either answer could be the case. Especially since one of the Nomes Pae and I had defeated had stated that Langwidere wanted me alive.
I asked Jack about Captain Vin, Rye’s foremost guard—a formidable woman who I’d butted heads with more than once—but he said he hadn’t seen her. He confirmed, however, that Sergeant Elenanders had been killed during the breakout battle. My heart, buoyed to the point of bursting just an hour before, sank like a stone.
I hadn’t known Elenanders well. When he’d escorted me through the palace, though, he’d never seemed afraid of me. Always, he’d been kind. Did he have a family? I should have asked…
Maybe Rye would know.
My thoughts circled the loss of Elenanders only to be jerked in another dark direction with Jack’s next horrifying revelation. That Langwidere had harvested the heads of several beautiful young women in the castle. I wanted to ask if my former attendant, Corabelle, had been one of them, but I couldn’t bring myself to. Though that flame-haired young lady made me think immediately of another redhead. Ginger.
What had become of her and Mr. Beaufort—Andre? Had they, too, been captured?
Ginger was so beautiful. Of course, Langwidere would prize her head.
For my concerns surrounding Ginger and Mr. Beaufort, Tavish provided answers.
“Ginger and her man continued to stay on the upper floor of my tavern after Rye enlisted Sebastian as your faux guard,” said Tavish. “And those two. They either got swept up in the chaos of the raid or they were among the lucky few who got out of the city. Either way, they didn’t come back the night the city fell. It’s been my hope they found some safe place to stash themselves—the two had plenty of fans and admirers in the city. Could be they’re still out there. Like the squash told you, the streets had been on lockdown until recently. Though I’m sure the city’s been shuttered again since we sprung Cahal.”
No wonder Langwidere had gone mute about Cahal and hadn’t pressed Nick about the exchange. While Rye had assumed the worst had transpired, the best had instead happened.
Thanks to Tavish and Jack.
Tavish went on to explain how the businesses of the Emerald City had all come to a standstill in the days following the siege. All the inhabitants of the Emerald City were ordered to stay in their homes and not enter the streets for any reason.
Langwidere sent patrols out to enforce this decree—Nomes by day, Wheelers by night. Evian guards, too, marched the silent and deserted streets, though there were far more Wheelers and Nomes.
I’d already learned through Rye and Morella that Ev was a desolate realm, incapable of supporting a dense population. Clearly, Langwidere and the Nome King were working together, and the fact that Nomes, too, had entered the Emerald City boiled my blood.
Though Tavish hadn’t witnessed the initial invasion of the Nomes himself, he’d heard stories from other Ozians of how the Nomes had poured from the castle. Which meant the Nomes had likely breached the barrier of Oz via the same route Langwidere had. The palace mirrors…
Langwidere and the Nome King had conspired to invade Oz—perhaps since the moment The Wizard left, and Rye took the throne. Possibly even before…
Had Morella had some whiff of this scheme brewing? She’d known about the Nome King before anyone.
I tried not to dwell on what it would mean to have West’s unclouded counsel at this juncture. But “unclouded” and “Morella” were not things that would ever go together.
I would simply have to use the knowledge I’d gained from the witch in the time she’d nested inside me to my advantage. And no matter how loudly my gut screamed that she knew something about how this had all come about and, possibly, how best to combat these conjoined enemies, I’d have to resist the temptation to ask Pae if there was a way to…ask her.
Two formidable enemies were enough. Especially when I’d only just freed my powers.
With the darkest details out of the way, Jack and Tavish took turns giving me a status update on the bulk of the citizens both within the city and in the surrounding countryside. Relief came with the knowledge that most civilians had survived the siege.
Though I wanted so badly to ask Jack about Sebastian, too, I held off since Tavish was still present. Tavish knew Sebastian personally since Sebastian had started working at the cook’s tavern as a performer shortly after he, Ginger, and Andre had landed in Oz—looking for me.
I wasn’t sure how much Tavish knew about Sebastian’s refusal to escape with Jack, or if the tavern owner had been present for that conversation. My guess, since Jack had whispered this information to me and declined to tell Rye, was that neither Tavish nor Cahal had been present, and didn’t know of Sebastian’s refusal.
More specifics I’d have to wait for…
Back and forth Tavish and Jack went, one adding an observation on top of the other’s. I nodded along even as I began to doze, trying to retain every bit of information they delved out, like how, shortly after allowing normal operations to resume within the sealed Emerald City, Langwidere demanded tributes in the form of goods and money from all the business owners. And how the Nomes had begun to venture outside of the city limits at night to invade the cave systems where they mined Oz’s ore.
That still didn’t explain how Nomes had traveled as far as Gillikin Country and The Silver Mountains, but my guess was that at least one other entry point into Oz had been established by one or both parties. I couldn’t comprehend what it would mean for us if more portals presented themselves. At least, I didn’t want to…
Especially not when the day had taken its toll on me, leading my thoughts to be more fearful than productive. The expenditure of magic had drained me to the point of exhaustion. Still, I needed to hear, and register, all of this.
Rye and Nick had already been debriefed. Jack and Tavish had only arrived last night.
Jack had wanted to see me straight away, but Rye had insisted Jack wait. Nick had seen to the repairs Jack needed, and Rye had told them he needed to test me. Jack had agreed to wait only when Rye made it clear that he wanted to be sure I would defend myself against him.
Maybe that test had been necessary. It had pushed me to the brink.
I hadn’t fought Rye. But I had stopped him.
That had to mean I was strong. That had to be a sign that I was strong enough.
Right…?
My mind couldn’t decide the answer to that, either. Wrung dry like a tatty cloth, it refused to let me think beyond what I’d already learned that day. Which was more than most could have successfully chewed and swallowed anyway.
Still, I couldn’t fathom the thought of sleep. Not when there loomed the fear that, when I woke, I would come to find out this day had been an illusion. That the bracers still bound me. Sebastian would go back to being truly dead. Jack would still be gone…
The more I fought against the tiredness, though, the more it seeped into my bones, weighed me down, and dragged me beneath its influence.
One moment, I’d been in that misty mid-region between cognizance and unconsciousness, Jack’s voice trading with Tavish’s, each one commenting on the other’s observations for my benefit. The next, though, I entered the numbing blackness of obliviousness.
I didn’t stay there long. In seconds, the nothingness cleared, loosening like smoke before parting to reveal a familiar scene. And person.
Sebastian.
He sat on the fold-down steps of his caravan, one of his throwing daggers in hand as he whittled a block of wood. He’d carved trinkets for me in the past, whenever he’d had time while we’d been on the road.
This scene—this moment I’d wandered into. The realness of it threatened to choke me.
Right along with the sight of him. My best friend.
Could he be real? Could this be real?
My dream moments with Rye, summoned through my will, had been.
Perhaps this could be the same scenario even if, this time, I hadn’t consciously conjured the meeting. Maybe I had brought us both here through some subliminal means of magic.
Garbed in my old tan dress with its muslin apron, the one I’d been wearing that day we became separated, I drew closer to him, daring to hope this dream was another true encounter.
“Tip,” he said as my shadow settled over him, cast by a setting sun. Fireflies sparked in my periphery, and the grass lacked dew. So night rather than dawn would be upon us in minutes. Why did that give this interlude a timed, hourglass feel? As if, instead of granules of flowing sand, it was the deepening degree of darkness that counted down the seconds we had together in this realm.
“You were going to take Ginger’s place in the show, weren’t you?” He stopped carving the wooden creature he’d been working on—the lion—which had yet to receive all four legs, though it did possess a windblown mane. Along with an all-too-familiar majestic countenance.
Cahal. He’d carved Cahal.
Did this detail provide evidence that this really was just a dream, and that this Sebastian was a figment of my imagination? Or did it prove just the opposite?
“Sebastian,” I said, his name a sibilant whisper.
He peered up at me, amber eyes squinting against the fading sunlight. Their depths, so familiar, so beautiful, beckoned to the part of my heart that missed home.
I hurried to him and sank onto my knees before him, my hands taking one of his and squeezing. Warmth radiated from his calloused palm, and that made me want to trust my instincts that this wasn’t just a dream.
“I thought you were dead.” Closing my eyes, I cradled his knuckles against my cheek.
“Don’t have time to be dead,” he said. “Neither of us do. Too much work.”
A laugh bubbled up from somewhere deep inside of me, kicked up like long-settled dust.
“Sebastian, this is a dream,” I told him. “We’re in a dream right now. But…at the same time, I also think it’s real.”
He quirked a brow, but not like my words surprised him. A smirk teased at one corner of his mouth. “We would have put on one hell of an act, you know. You and me. But then, I guess the show—the real show—is far from over.”
Before I’d left Kentucky, I would have given anything to take Ginger’s place in their knife-throwing act. And that became the plan after I learned Ginger, his long-time show partner, was engaged to Andre Beaufort, the carnival’s strong man.
But then I’d toppled into Oz. Not long after that, Sebastian had found his way here, too.
“Why wouldn’t you go with Jack?” I gave his hand another squeeze. “Why wouldn’t you leave the Emerald City with him? Jack said you wanted to stay. But that makes no sense.”
“Langwidere,” he intoned as the encroaching darkness deepened. His utterance of the princess’s name shocked me, too. Because, until this moment, I’d thought he hadn’t remembered Oz. I thought the dream had lulled him into believing we were back home, still with the carnival. I’d hoped my questions would shake him into the here and now, into Oz. But he’d never thought we were anywhere else. This whole time, he’d been just as cognizant as me. “I couldn’t go with him because of Langwidere.”
In the deepening shadows, the fireflies flickered ever brighter, their glow the same luminous green as the Silver Spring waters. At least until a few of them sparked…crimson.
Sebastian set aside the lion. He stood, drawing me to rise while lacing his fingers with mine. “But before we get to that… You didn’t answer my question. About the show.”
I shook my head at him. Obviously, he knew this was a dream. So, why was he asking me about the show and the carnival? Things we’d left behind. Things that would now never be.
“You’re mad at me,” I guessed. “For leaving you in the palace—the city.”
“Of course not,” he said in a monotone, his expression lacking that usual hint of hidden mirth so characteristic of him. Always, no matter how serious Sebastian became—whenever he looked my way, anyway—a hidden essence of mirth always seemed to lurk beneath the surface. As though, no matter what life threw at us, the two of us shared some inside joke about it all. For the longest time, that’s how our relationship had always been.
“I knew you must have thought me dead,” said Sebastian. “I thought that had to be why… Well, I’ve been trying to reach you this whole time. This is the first time I’ve been able to break through, though. Maybe because Jack reached you to tell you about me—that I’m alive. Or maybe something else changed. I don’t know.”
I tilted my head at him. “What…do you mean you were trying to reach me?”
And what had he meant by “break through?” I thought I had been the one to establish this connection. Sebastian’s words, though, suggested that it had been him. But…how was that possible? Could it be he’d found a way to tap into Glinda’s powers, too?
“I can end this from the inside,” he told me, ignoring my question, eyes searching my expression, his own lighting with clarity and a hint of what struck me as madness. “When I heard Langwidere asked to trade for you, I knew you’d gotten out of the city. I knew you were okay. Then Jack came to get me. I didn’t know he’d already freed Cahal. He didn’t mention anything about him. I only figured out after they were gone what he’d been up to. That he hadn’t just been trying to smuggle me out. Still, I wouldn’t have been able to go with him because...”
Sebastian’s hand tightened around mine as he trailed off.
“Why?” I pressed, tears stinging my eyes. “You could have been with me by now.”
“I want that.” He cupped my cheek with one hand, his thumb clearing away a tear as it fell. “More than you know.”
I pressed my hand over his, clenching my eyes shut again, gritting my teeth. I needed to tell him the truth about Rye. But…how could I now? Like this? When he wasn’t even really with me. When we could be cut off at any moment. When I didn’t know how to explain.
“But Langwidere, she…” Again, he trailed off. Then he began anew. “Tip, the princess thinks… Langwidere thinks we’re friends.”
“We are friends.”
At this, Sebastian’s frown deepened into a scowl.
“No,” he said. “Langwidere thinks she and I are friends.”
“What?”
“Sergeant Lance and I got close, remember?”
My mouth fell open.
I hadn’t suspected that Lance, a young male soldier of seventeen, could be Langwidere. No one had because we’d all been looking for a princess. But Langwidere’s physique had been svelte enough to allow her to pass as a teen boy.
I’d failed Lance by not being more vigilant, because somewhere along the way, I still wasn’t sure when, Langwidere had killed the boy and taken his head. Had the change happened before Sebastian had befriended the young soldier? Or did I have it wrong? Had Lance befriended Sebastian, someone close to me, because he, Lance, had truly been Langwidere?
That seemed a more fitting scenario. Surely, she aimed to use him to get to me. Surely, that’s what she was doing right now. Manipulating Sebastian into believing she counted him as a friend. And Sebastian had fallen for it.
“This is madness,” I said. “You should have gotten out. You should have—”
“I throw knives,” he said, cutting me off. “I’m a carnival performer. I’m still learning how to fight with a sword. But as an entertainer, a trained actor, I can play this part. I can be her friend if that means you have someone on the inside.”
“I don’t want you on the inside!” I shouted.
“Rye would agree with me,” he intoned, those eyes piercing me through with their conviction.
My mouth opened at this declaration. No words came to rebut his statement, though. Because, of course, he was right. Hadn’t Rye been the one to strike the bargain with Sebastian that he, the king, would smuggle me out if Sebastian stayed in the Emerald City palace and created a distraction?
The two had conspired without me then. I wasn’t about to let the same situation play out twice.
“What are you going to do?” I demanded. “Cozy up to her so you can talk her out of taking over Oz? She’s not your friend, Sebastian, and I doubt she really thinks you’re hers. She’s using you.”
“You don’t understand.”
“You don’t understand!”
“Let me fight in my way,” he said. “Tip, let me do what I can where I am. I can help end this war.”
“Absolutely not,” I said. “You shouldn’t even be here in Oz!”
“I’ve talked to Glinda,” he blurted before swallowing hard, his voice thin with some emotion I couldn’t name. “I know where she is.”
My eyes bugged. “Glinda? Are…are you sure?”
“If I can get close enough to Langwidere, then I can maybe get to Glinda—free her. Then, this can all be over. And then you and I can be together.”
I shut my mouth with his utterance of that last word.
Because Sebastian still didn’t know that I had changed. That we had changed. My feelings for Rye weren’t a discussion for a fleeting dream, however. I needed to tell Sebastian that part in person. And to do that…
“I’m coming to get you,” I promised.
“Don’t,” he warned. “You can’t be anywhere near here. Langwidere expects you to make a move. Another move. She doesn’t know about Jack. She suspects you were behind Cahal’s escape. So, she’s on guard. The whole castle is. Coming back here… That’s a suicide mission.”
“You’re telling me I’m the one on a suicide mission?”
“She won’t hurt me, Tip. I told you. She thinks she and I are friends. Aside from that… Well, she wouldn’t dare try. I’m too valuable an ally. Trust me when I tell you, I can free Glinda.”
“You said it yourself just now that you’re not a warrior,” I argued. “If she’s telling you you’re valuable to her, it’s because of what you mean to me.”
“That’s not so,” he assured me. “There’s something you don’t know. Something big. Something that changes everything—for us. You and me, I mean. I can’t tell you now, but I will.”
“Tell me now,” I pressed. “There might not be a later.”
He started to speak again, but then he frowned and turned his head as if startled by some sound I could not hear. Then the darkness closed in on us—on me—erasing our surroundings.
And, in the next instant, Sebastian, too.