“Yeah, great. Thanks,” I say, and she gives me a wink.
“If you need anything, just holler. Night-night!” she says and saunters off down the corridor.
When the door to the elevator slides closed, the round crystal rose room detaches and lifts into the air, floats around the exterior of the castle, up several floors, and when it gets to an ornate tower, it reattaches to the outer wall before the door slides open.
We step out into a grand suite the size of a large house. The room we enter is round with pink wallpaper, platinum moldings, and a spiral ruby staircase.
“The bedrooms must be up the stairs,” Ardie says and we all climb the staircase.
Each floor is its own room, and Nick and I take the room at the very top.
As we unload our bags, I try not to break down. I’ve suppressed my emotions for this entire journey, but I feel like I might burst. If I look at him, I will unravel. Thoughts of leaving him, of never seeing him again, spin in my mind. The thought of living my life in safety and misery while he meets a beautiful girl, then another, and another, knowing soon enough I’ll be a faint memory eats away at my insides. He wouldn’t forget me, but he will move on, and I know I never will. Deep in my bones, in everything I am, I know he is my one chance at true love, and I miss him already.
“Dorothy?” he says behind me.
“Yeah,” I croak out, unable to turn and face him. As my eyes well up with tears, I take a deep breath hoping to stifle them.
“Dorothy,” he says, now right behind me, his hands running down my arms. When his arms reach around and hug me to him, I melt into his body, my hands caressing his strong arms as they hold me, and he says into my ear, “I love you, and I always will. Every minute of every day…” His voice breaks, and that’s it—I can’t hold it in a second longer. All the tears gush out of me, and he holds me tighter to him, “I will miss you, but I will be happy knowing you are safe and living a beautiful life. Live a beautiful life, Dorothy, for me.”
“Nick,” I say as I turn to face him, a total wreck, and he kisses me.
Love and deep sadness and something inside me screaming this man is the one explodes in my chest. As I hang on to him like my life depends on it because it feels like it does, I pull back and say, “Let me stay. Please, don’t make me keep this promise. I know you’re only trying to protect me. Quelala wants me—he’s made that clear—but I also know I can beat him. I know I can kill him because I know how.”
“How?”
“Holy water is the only way. Even if you chop off his head, rip his heart out and hand it to him, gut him, dismember him, nothing will work except holy water.”
“Holy water may be abundant in your realm, but here it is rare. The holy water in your bag is the only holy water I have ever come across.”
“Not true—I killed the Vampire Witch of the West with it.”
“That was plain water. Plain water was her weakness.”
“No. If that were true, she couldn’t walk around because there’s water in the air where she was in Winkie Land. Winkie City is a beach town. What I made was holy water—I said a hand-washing prayer over the water that my dad used to say on holidays before he ate bread when I was a kid.”
“A what?”
“Never mind, I made it and that means I can kill him. That’s why it had to be me,” I say, realizing it myself. “Because I knew how to make it.”
“But you cannot be sure of this,” he says, and he’s right, I can’t.
“Fine, but it’s a damn good educated guess. After I said a prayer over the water, I tossed it on her, and she melted. That means you need me.”
“But you don’t need me. Dorothy, you can leave. Go home. This is not your problem to solve. This is not your realm.”
“The rainbow sent me here to help. Oz prayed for me, and he thinks the rainbow brought me here to save you all and be a conduit for its power. If the rainbow wanted me to leave, he would have sent me back himself by that logic.”
“The rainbow? The image on the mountainside?”
“Yup. That guy.”
“Why you then?”
“Huh?”
“Why did he use you as a conduit of his power? If he is so powerful, he could use anyone. Why you?”
“Maybe he likes me? How the heck should I know?”
“Perhaps the rainbow is helping you through, helping to keep you safe until you can get home, because it sees how precious you are, and how wonderful, and that the most beautiful creature in all the realms fell into this nightmare, so it has protected you, just like I did, and Ardie did, and Toto did, and even Werelion did,” he says with a sad laugh.
“So, you think me coming here was just bad luck, wrong place wrong time? Because I don’t. What I see is so different from that.”
“What do you see?”
“I was as sad and gray as my home, but the colors were always a part of me. That rainbow has been with me for a long time, maybe always. Yes, it’s something separate from me, something outside of me, but it’s also deep within.
“In the darkest caverns of myself, I have a doorway to him and being here taught me how to open those doors. When it happened, I can’t be sure, but I believe it was before I ever came here, and I think that’s why the rainbow chose me. Oz is right about the rainbow hearing his cry for help and bringing me here—I can feel it’s true. Maybe the rainbow wanted to help. Maybe he brought me here because we have a connection. Or maybe it’s because here, I could be with you.
“You know I never expected love in my life. Something inside me knew my one true love wasn’t in my world and because of that I never expected to find that person. Falling in love was a fantasy I didn’t dare have because I knew it would only leave me disappointed. The best I figured I could hope for was that I’d meet a decent person and settle down when it made sense to settle down.”
“Me too.”
“But I didn’t know you existed then. Now that I do, nothing else seems to matter much other than being with you for as long as I can be.”
“Dorothy, you are my love and while I know you love me and want to be with me, I cannot let you because you will die if you stay here. You may know how to kill Quelala, but he is not so stupid to come near you. He will send so many people after you, and I’d rather you not be here when that happens.”
“No, he’ll come for me himself.”
“How could you know this?”
The reason I haven’t told him about the dreams yet is because he’ll only want me to leave sooner and my aim is to delay this for as long as possible.
“Dorothy?” he asks, now knowing there is something I’m not telling him, and I sigh because I can’t lie to him—I have to come clean.
“Quelala’s been showing up in my dreams for a bit.”
“What?” he asks, alarmed and maybe pissed I didn’t tell him.
“Yeah,” I admit and wince, waiting for him to explode at me.
“Why are you making that face?”
“Because I’m waiting for you to get angry—I’m bracing myself.”
“Angry? With you?”
“Yeah?”
“Why would I be angry with you?”
“Because I didn’t tell you?”
“I’m not thrilled you didn’t tell me, but I am not angry with you—I am angry with him for so many reasons, but threatening you in your dreams… Are you sure they are not just dreams?”
“Oz said he was speaking to me in my sleep. But he wasn’t threatening me.”
“Oh?” he asks, his brows knitting in confusion and a touch of suspicion.
“Quelala… wants me,” I admit with a sigh, knowing it will only make him want me to leave faster.
“Wants you?”
“Yeah, to take over the realms with him. The guy has a thing for me, but he said something that was super weird.”
“What?” he asks, his voice low and his jaw clenching.
“Because his powers of persuasion can’t influence me,
he says it means I’m his true love or his destiny or whatever,” I say with an eye roll. Even though his eyes narrow, he says nothing, and the silence lasts too long. “Please say something.”
“What am I to say? The issue is moot—you are leaving,” he says, clipped and curt.
“Okay.”
“But if he believes that, he is wrong. You are mine, Dorothy. No matter how many realms apart we are, you will always be mine.”
“I know,” I say, and he kisses me with all the passion in his beautiful heart.
After tossing and turning while Nick slept beside me, I got up and took a stroll around the palace. No one’s awake and I need solitude so I can cry and feel sorry for myself without shame. Maybe some fresh air might knock some sense into me because I’ve been so desperate I’ve been contemplating hiding in a cupboard or something so I don’t get sent home.
Nick is right about so many things, but my heart is telling me to stay. If Glinda can send me home, then I’ll go—Nick seems to need it—but if she can’t, it’ll be a huge relief. At the same time though, one thing I’ve learned in my life is that I can never know what to expect.
Life is chaos. Humans create patterns to order the chaos of life. Some do it better than others, but it’s humans creating the patterns, not the universe or entities outside of the physical realm of existence. What every being, no matter what their circumstance, is living with every second of every damn day is chaos. Chaos is our common denominator, the one thing we share with every other thing in our universe and maybe even beyond. As long as we exist, we will exist in chaos no matter how hard we try to put order to it.
Some people believe that there is no chaos and that the patterns are just so big we can’t see them, and our perspective is too close to comprehend them. When Nick and I had our vision of the multiverse, when all we could see were four realms, it was confusing—why only four, what’s all the white space, and so many other questions came pouring out—but when we stepped back, gained a broader perspective, there was an order and a very clear pattern. So much more we didn’t know was there became visible, and the pattern became clear.
Maybe I’m wrong, and chaos doesn’t exist on a grand scale the way I thought it did. Maybe my parents died for a reason. But if there is a reason, I despise that reason and I despise whoever made that part of my pattern. Fate, Destiny, whatever you want to call her, wrongs far too many of us, and if I believe she exists, I overflow with hate for her, so for years, I have chosen not to believe. If I don’t believe life is chaos, if I believe that was part of a damn pattern, if I reject the randomness of the universe, I’ll get too angry and the veil that was once gray will turn black. Instead, I will believe what I know to be true—existence is chaos and sometimes shit happens for no good reason. So, I may think I know what I will feel in a year or in five years, but I don’t. Anything can happen. Coming here proves that to me. And maybe I just need to go with it.
If I were on the outside looking in, if a friend were in my position and asked for my advice, I might say that she can’t predict the future, and he’s right to send her away if people want to kill her for real. If it were a friend, I’d remind her she only has one life and what good would it be to lose it for some romantic notion about a guy she hasn’t had the chance to be with in the long term to find out if it could even work between them. I’d tell her she was too young to be thinking about forever with a guy she just met no matter how crazy about him she is. But my heart tells me to be with him, that he’s the one. While my head sees things his way, my heart won’t stop protesting, and the dichotomy of those two things is making me nauseated and miserable.
“Looks like I’m not the only insomniac in the palace now,” I hear and turn to see Glinda sitting in a room to my left in a big chair in front of a magical fireplace with red magic flames. She sits in a beautiful pink bathrobe with platinum accents and sparkling pink fuzzy bedroom slippers drinking tea. “Tired of counting sheep?”
“Yeah,” I say with a sigh and walk into the room. It’s a massive library lined with red leather-bound books on shelves stacked high to the ceiling.
“Take a load off,” she says, and I sit in the chair across from hers. “Would you like some tea, darling?”
“Sure,” I say, and a ruby crystal tea cup just like hers appears in mist on the coffee table before me.
As she takes up the ruby teapot and pours my tea, she says, “This is magic tea, so don’t drink too much or you’ll get schnockered. Or do if that’s what you’re going for.”
“Thanks,” I say as I take a sip—it’s floral and delicious and relaxes me straightaway. “Where are you from?”
“New York City, darling. Well, I was born in New York City, lived in Connecticut. Greenwich. Went to Vassar, then I moved to Manhattan. I was working there. Archeology Department at the university. And that took me all over the world. That’s how I ended up here.”
“I’m from New York too. Lower East Side.”
“I thought you were from Kansas.”
“I live there now, or I was living in Kansas before I came here. But I was born in New York and lived there until I was thirteen.”
“I hear it. Are you Italian?”
“No, my dad was a North African Jew, and my mom was American,” I say and shrug.
“You said was. Does that mean your parents passed?”
“They died when I was thirteen. It’s why I went to Kansas. My aunt and uncle live on a farm there.”
“How tragic. I’m so sorry. And to move to Kansas from New York City of all places! How did you handle all that dust, darling?” she asks, and I chuckle.
“I didn’t like how gray it was. Even though this realm is scary and riddled with monsters, it has all the colors I was so thirsty for in Kansas. It has a lot I was missing in my life there.”
“You are preaching to the choir. Magic is hard to resist, and for someone in my field, it is hard to resist access to another world altogether, rich in jewels and precious metals. I told my family I married a Maharaja I met in my travels, and when I return, I bring them jewels and metals. It helped them out a great deal during hard times.”
“You go back?” I ask, surprised it’s possible to travel between realms at will.
“I do. Not long though. Can’t stay away too long. But I return to check in, show my face, and throw a little dough their way.”
“How? We came to ask you to send me back to Kansas, but I don’t want to go. I should go. Quelala is after me, I killed two vampire witches, and Nick drove them out of Winkie Land. Oz and Nick both think I need to leave for my safety, but I don’t want to go. I promised I’d go, and I know I should, but… I’m in love with him.”
“With whom?”
“Nick. The Axeman.”
“Wait…” she says as if she’s remembering something. “Do I know him?”
“Yes, you protected him from Gayelette’s love spells a few years back,” I remind her, and her eyes widen in recognition.
“Right! Oh, he’s grown up so well,” she purrs. “And he’s your beau?”
“Yes,” I say with a giggle, amused by her word choice.
“He believes you are not safe here?”
“I’m not. No one is.”
“I suppose that’s true, but you are a target, correct?”
“Yes, and Oz confirmed it.”
“Oz the Wizard?”
“The land. The magic or the entity that the land is comes into form and talks to me. He’s the one who sent me to kill the Vampire Witch of the West. The Wizard did, but Oz wanted it, and he promised me a way home, but he couldn’t send me there. That’s why we came here. But I don’t want to leave.”
“Go, then come back,” she says and shrugs.
“But how?”
“Your shoes.”
“These shoes?” I ask pointing to the silver boots I can’t get off.
“That’s right. Click the heels together three times, then say where you want to go. Take three steps forward and o
n the third step, you’ll be there. If you’re sitting, just step back and forth from one foot to the other three times. I brought this chair back that way.”
“No kidding?” I say with a shocked laugh.
“I kid you not.”
All this time I could have gone home. I could have gone anywhere in a few steps.
“Does it work in a realm without magic, like ours?”
“Oh yes! You have magic now. This realm can awaken it in you. Once it’s out, it never goes away, or at least not that I’ve found.”
“I’ll still have my magic there too?”
“Yes, and the boots will work just fine. Now you will never need to take one of those dreaded cruises to Europe. You can go to Paris anytime in seconds.”
“But I can come back here too?”
“You can go to any realm at all. I wouldn’t suggest it, but you can go.”
“And you don’t want these shoes back?”
“No, they’re yours now. I have new ones. They are pavé ruby pumps, darling. Gorgeous. Dazzling.”
“How did you get them, or make them?”
“Mombi.”
“Mombi? As in the Zombie Witch Mombi?”
“That’s her. I got very ill when I first arrived. Or I was ill when I arrived. Dysentery. I was in East Africa and got in my plane to get to a doctor and landed here. They alerted Mombi to my arrival. All the witches showed up, and I explained what was wrong, that I needed medicine. They didn’t have what I needed here, so she gave me the boots to get back for treatment, which I did. When I returned, she had already made herself another pair. When Gayelette stole mine, I went to Mombi and asked her how to get another. She gave me what I needed to make them myself, and I did.”
“What was that?”
“An element from outside the realm. It is nameless as far as I know and looks like pure, clear, colorless light. Like a heatwave, know what I mean? Like clear energy not of this realm. I paid a handsome price for it, but I got just enough from her to make my new pair and she gave me the incantation to make them not only magical shoes, but shoes that can carry you anywhere.”
Dorothy In the Land of Monsters Page 48
