I was surprised at the private area Glinda was sitting in. It was plush and ornate with curtains and sofas. Was this built just for her? Glinda saw me first and came to kiss me on the cheek.
“Welcome to Locasta’s private viewing box, Daxar.”
“Yeah, it’s nice to actually get to sit in here instead of standing in the back for hours fetching her shit,” Esiro said.
It was strange seeing Esiro glamoured as a Gillikin peasant girl again. I was just used to seeing her with her green hair. Dorothy had taken some getting used to. I had seen Dorothy with her brown hair and eyes for much longer than I had Esiro. I was used to all the green-haired siblings now, and they were all glamoured now. Dorothy looked like the Dorothy I originally met, Esiro looked like a Gillikin peasant, and Galen looked like a Winkie farm boy.
As soon as Francesca realized I had joined them, she flung herself at me and buried her face in my neck.
“I need help,” she whispered.
“With what?”
“It’s so rude. I haven’t learned your father or the Gillikin judge’s names, and I just spent the better part of an hour answering their questions. Do I just call your father sir?”
I threw back my head and laughed at his reaction if she called him that. I pinched her bottom. “No, you call me sir. He’s only called sir by his children or the women he plays Quadling games with.”
“Oh,” she said, her hazel eyes wide.
I kissed the tip of her nose. “My father’s name is Roxar, and the Gillikin judge’s name is Pavius. My father is speaking to him so he doesn’t decide to question Saffron talking to her breasts too.”
Francesca growled. “If he looks at my cousin like that, I will say something.”
“You don’t have to. My father will say something. He says Pavius is harmless and likes to look, but he’s a bit of a prude about acting on it, so there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to him touching you. I know it’s still gross and if he does it again, I’ll pull Pavius aside and threaten to beat his face in.”
“Tell him the Flying Monkeys will give him a beating too. Francesca is family now,” Ivia called.
I looked over, and she had a napping Khuzin cradled in her arms. Elore had her human face on and was riding on Idris's shoulders yanking on his braids. This private box was big. Idris was running around the room with her. He’d shifted back into a man, so his huge wings weren’t knocking everything over.
Oprix joined us. “Tell him he’ll get a Winkie beat down too if he does that to Saffron.”
Francesca just laughed and kissed him. “I think we’ll all beat him if he does that to Saffron.”
Saffron finally cleared her throat. “I’m not a baby. I’m not even a virgin anymore.”
“No, shit?” Francesca squealed. “Was it last night? You have to tell me all about it.”
Francesca disappeared for girl talk, and I was left alone with Oprix and Galen. Idris was still playing with Elore, so I left him to it.
“What did your father say about Frankie’s testimony?” Oprix asked. “Do you think Pavius will be as rude to Saffron?”
“Pavius isn’t stupid. He will not try the same tactics on Saffron. He tried to get Francesca riled up, and all he ended up doing was making himself look bad. He knows all eyes are on the Gillikin people right now because of Locasta. He can’t afford to make it look like the Gillikin are as bad as her. Notice how he backed off when he noticed all of Oz swinging to Francesca’s side. He’s trying to exonerate Locasta, but he knows how this plays out. The North may love Locasta, but they will not want to go down with her. Francesca was only the first person called to the stand and we haven’t even gotten to the Fisher King yet.”
“When are we?” Galen asked. “I know why we have to break the forgetting curse, but there are other ways to do that than getting aggressive with Frankie and Saffron.”
I cleared my throat. It was my father’s idea to call both of them, not Pavius. My father sat for trials in the South, and he knew what he was doing.
“Francesca and Saffron weren’t just called to break the spell. It was to set the scene for how far spread Locasta and the Fisher King managed to hurt the citizens of Oz. My father didn’t want them to testify as Sentinels. He wanted them up there as two girls who had to grow up without their mothers because of the Fisher King and Locasta. My father doesn’t intend to question Dorothy like your sister. He wants her to talk about what it was like landing here the first time as a child and being used by the Fisher King and Locasta. Ozma will not be questioned like the queen of Oz. She will be asked about what she went through growing up without her parents in the hands of Mombi.”
“What about me?” Esiro demanded. “I don’t want to talk about my daddy issues. I want to see Locasta pay for her crimes against Oz and the Gillikin people.”
“You won’t be called for a while, Esiro. We need to introduce the Fisher King back to Oz, then tie Locasta to the Fisher King. My father considers you his key witness against Locasta. You don’t have to sit up there and be restrained like Francesca and Saffron have to. Be passionate and get angry, Esiro. Your time on the stand is your chance to let Oz know what Locasta is really like.
“Some of Oz might not believe Illyna. You forget polyamory has been outlawed for a long time. There will be people that think Illyna is just a jealous woman taking it out on poor Locasta because the Fisher King wanted to make her a second wife.”
I might as well be honest with them. Some prudish, misogynists in Oz would dismiss Illyna’s entire testimony as just that of a silly woman gone mad with jealousy. There were some so piggish that they would think she beheaded the poor Fisher King in a hormonal rage. I wasn’t pointing fingers, but those men even existed in certain parts of the South. They were everywhere.
Esiro placed her hands on her hips and glared at me like I was the one who thought that.
“Seriously? With all the testimonies and a talking head, it will come down to a jealous wife? What are they going to think of me? A bitter peasant?”
I wasn’t sure if I should touch her to comfort her. I hadn’t exactly spent all that time around Esiro on a personal level, and I didn’t have her permission. I thought she needed a hug, but one from me might not be welcome. I wasn’t into making women uncomfortable just for the fuck of it or even if I thought they needed it. Esiro had given no sign she wanted me to lay a finger on her and she hardly knew me outside of this huge plot.
Thankfully, she knew Galen and leaned in when he wrapped his arm around her. I could make her feel better with words. Sometimes, fighting or physical contact wasn’t the right answer. Sometimes, the right words could do better than anything else.
“Esiro, I don’t think you realize what power you have over this trial. Yes, there will be people that know you were her trusted servant, and there will be some that know they beat you for trying to run away. They may have doubts about your story. But think about it. If Locasta was really such a gentle person, why would her servant try to run away?”
“They’ll try to say I was just lazy and ungrateful for the opportunity she gave me,” Esiro grumped.
“That’s the beauty of it, Esiro. If you were lazy and ungrateful, and you were that close to her all the time, why did she keep you around and keep trying so hard to find you when you ran? The answer is not just because of your father. It was to silence you. Even if you weren’t the Fisher King’s daughter, she couldn’t let you roam around Oz spilling her secrets. Before you can even get to her deepest, darkest secrets, people will realize that.”
Esiro smiled at me shyly. “I see why Frankie is so into you. Pavius will be a dick to me when it’s his turn to question me.”
“As I said before, Pavius isn’t stupid. He will realize Locasta is guilty, and he will want to distance the Gillikin people from her. He’s not stupid enough to go down with her, nor will he want to rally the North for a war they will lose just because they don’t want to look bad because Locasta is crazy.”
“Waiting is driving me crazy. I just want to get on that stage and scream what she did to all of Oz.”
“Ah, savor the moment, Esiro. Let everyone give their testimony and know that yours will be the final nail in her coffin.”
Esiro beamed at me. I was glad I could make her feel better. She needed friends. She had only just met her siblings, and if she took up the Sentinel of the North, she would be separated from them. Galen would be in the West with us, and Dorothy would be in Emerald City with Ozma. I knew we would visit often, but Esiro hadn’t been given a chance to make friends with Locasta as her master. I wanted to be counted as one of those friends.
Just then, there was a hard knock on the door. One of the Gillikin soldiers stuck his head in.
“We are starting again. The crowd is getting restless. You need to get back to your seats.”
Saffron was up next. I was just as protective of her as everyone else was, even though she didn’t like me at first. She was still young and had a hard life. I still felt guilty about the fact that my hands had been tied with a lot of the bullying she endured at Emerald City Academy. Sometimes I thought about how I could have creatively gotten around my orders not to say anything to Dorothy or the Munchkins.
My father was an intimidating Quadling. Pavius would have to be pretty stupid to pull the same behavior with Saffron as he did with Francesca. So help me, if he tried, he would have to deal with me.
If he still didn’t listen, I would unleash the Flying Monkeys on him.
Chapter 34
Frankie
D
axar called it. Pavius didn’t try to question Saffron like he did me. He never threw out the Wicked Witch moniker once. He just asked Saffron to please clear up why everyone had such a low opinion of her mother. Saffron made me proud. She straightened her spine and looked directly at the audience instead of the judges.
“My mother didn’t realize how far the plot into the East went. She just knew someone was cursing Munchkins, and she was getting blamed for it. The Munchkins were understandably angry about the Wizard’s taxes. She couldn’t reason with them about anything. She couldn’t fully investigate who was cursing the Munchkins because it was like someone was whispering in their ear that not only were the curses her, but she was responsible for the taxes too.
“Everyone knows Locasta was in the East when my mother died, and she told Dorothy to take her silver slippers and go see the Wizard, but has anyone asked themselves why Locasta was there the exact moment a random house fell on my mother? We all now know the Wizard had no magical powers. He admitted it before he left Oz. Ask yourself why Locasta never challenged him like the other Sentinels. She flat out told a child who had just accidentally killed a woman that the Wizard had the answers for getting her home. As much as those shoes were my birthright and I wish I had them back, Locasta knew those shoes would have sent her home. Instead of telling her to use them, she sent her to the Wizard. I think all of Oz needs to be asking themselves why she did that as you form opinions as this trial goes on.”
“Since she is alive and at this trial, you didn’t seek revenge on Dorothy for killing your mother and stealing those shoes. What were your reasons?”
“The same as my cousins, though Dorothy wasn’t exactly nice to me at first, and there was a misunderstanding with the Munchkins while they were students at the academy. We’ve all cleared the air and made nice. I can call them friends, just like Frankie does.”
“I understand the Munchkins wanted you dead and tried to hunt you across the entire East.”
I rolled my eyes. Was Pavius trying to put the Munchkins on trial, so the Gillikin didn’t look as bad? He would not like the answer Saffron gave because it would tie back to Locasta and the North, just like everything else.
“Oh, the Munchkins did threaten me, and I went into hiding. But they never intended to kill me. Locasta told the Munchkins the safest place for me was a prison in the North. They were hunting me for her and she wanted me because the Fisher King wanted me for my magic. They thought since I was so young, I would be easy to capture, but my mother taught me well.”
Pavius turned about fifty shades of purple when he realized that question just blew up in his face. Pridius had been mostly silent. He hadn’t questioned me at all. He finally stood and went to stand next to Saffron. He placed his hand on the back of her chair and faced the audience. I don’t think there was a single person in Oz who hadn’t heard of Pridius of the East. My dad was pretty fucking famous.
“I realize I’m a judge and not a witness, but I want to confirm Saffron’s story. I was the one Locasta met with about arresting this young lady. The Munchkins originally just wanted to let her alone since she was so young. I would take her in and make sure she didn’t go down the same path as her mother. Locasta convinced us the safest place was with her, where Locasta could teach her Good magic instead of using it for bad things. She said she would put the child under house arrest until she could be trusted alone with her magic. We all thought that was the safest solution.”
Pavius looked like a kid who just got the biggest present ever now that Pridius had gotten up there. As far as I knew, my father wasn’t being called as a witness. Now that he was up there, Pavius was just going to roll with it. As much as I thought the other judges might be a little too biased to try this case, who the fuck chose Pavius? All he was doing right now was making an ass of himself and making the Gillikin people look bad.
“Pridius, we all know you to be an honest man, or you wouldn’t be on this panel. Is there any truth to this child’s story about Locasta being in the North right after the house landed on Adora? Is it not possible she got word and teleported to be of help?”
Pridius got this grin on his face like he knew what we all knew. Pavius was trying so hard to clear Locasta’s name that he was trying anything, and it was just making her look worse. He could have let my father sit down and there still would have been people in the audience who thought Saffron was a liar. Hearing Pridius confirm her story would swing a lot of those people.
“No, she didn’t get word. Locasta was in the East a lot and befriended a lot of Munchkins. She offered us her protection against the Wicked Witch of the East, but people kept getting cursed, anyway. We still thought she was protecting us, and there would have been more if it weren’t for her. She gave a lot of Munchkins totems and magical items supposed to prevent curses, but everyone cursed in the East never saw who did it and there were never any witnesses.
“Locasta showed up in the East at the same time the tornado did. She was standing right next to me when the house finally landed. She said we should go check to make sure no one had been injured, and sure enough, there was a pair of legs with silver slippers underneath the house. She told us we should rejoice that the Wicked Witch was dead and the curses would stop. It was then she told me she could keep Saffron under house arrest in the North until she was sure she could be trusted with her magic.
“I think we were all surprised when a child came out of the house with a dog in her arms. We all just assumed she had powerful magic like the Wizard to land here in a house and kill a Wicked Witch. The child insisted she didn’t know magic and was afraid of witches. She just wanted to go back home, but we had no way of getting her there. We couldn’t get her house back up in the air.
“Locasta suggested she take the silver slippers off Adora’s dead body. The Munchkins didn’t know much about those slippers, just that Adora always wore them, and they strengthened her magic. Saffron is right. The Munchkins never questioned why Locasta never told her to use the slippers to go home, but Glinda knew they could and taught her how to use them when the Wizard up and left without Dorothy and her dog.
“Locasta was pretty insistent the Wizard had the answer to getting Dorothy home and even did some sort of magic none of us could see. She told us it gave her the right answer. I suppose none of us also questioned the spell that told her the Wizard was the answer when the Wizard just up and admitted to everyone he wa
s a humbug who had been fooling everyone.”
Pavius wasn’t giving up. “Wasn’t the Wizard intending to take her home? She ran off after that little dog and missed the balloon. How do you know Locasta’s plan wasn’t to get rid of them both, and the little dog messed things up?”
Pridius just rolled his eyes. “The Wizard wouldn’t have admitted his ruse and left Oz unless the dog had exposed him. He had no way of sending Dorothy home unless he left himself. He lied and told her he could if a child murdered a grown woman. The Wizard would probably still be here fooling us if it weren’t for that little dog.
“If you’re about to tell me it all worked out in the end, we got rid of the Wizard, and Dorothy eventually made it home, then I want you to ask yourself something. If she really did do a spell that told her to advise Dorothy to see the Wizard, what kind of magic was it that gave that answer knowing a child would be asked to commit murder?”
“That’s enough,” Roxar said. “The East isn’t on trial here, and we are meant to be asking Saffron questions. Return to your seat, Pridius.”
“I didn't intend to be questioned. I just wanted the audience and the judges to know that the East can confirm Saffron’s story and we now stand firmly behind her. It would honor us to have her take her birthright as Sentinel of the East.”
Nick Chopper stood up. What the fuck was going on with the judges.
“I was in the East with an army of Winkies when Locasta caught. I know I said a lot of things about Adora and blamed her for enchanting my axe, but I didn’t actually have any proof, nor did I see her do it. She was just the only person in the East at the time that we all believed Wicked enough to do something like that.
“The West knows the truth now. The West also stands behind Frankie and Saffron. The West would also be honored for Frankie to take up her position as Sentinel of the West. Before I left for the trial, I set things in motion with the Winkies that stayed behind. I’m having my own castle built, and Frankie’s ancestral home will be restored to what it was before I moved in. Frankie has a home in the West now.”
Oz Has Spoken: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 3) Page 18
