“Don’t you care who sees you?”
“Everyone is looking for Ozma.”
“I’ve never heard the heir’s name before. It’s always just been the heir. So, it’s Ozma?”
“Yes. She was only a few days old when her father was murdered, and she was taken from the palace. Only a few people know her real name. Those documents were taken with her.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. How did he know all this? It was about time he started telling me some truths. “If only a few people know this, how do you know about it?”
Galen just shrugged. “I listen. I spy. I’m very good at not being seen when I don’t want to be. You’d be surprised what people say when they think a kid is in the room. But I was always listening and coming up with my own opinions.”
What did that even mean? Were his parents responsible for Ozma being kidnapped? Why the fuck was his hair green?
“I’m going to need a little more to go on than that, Galen. Why is your hair green, and how do you know about Ozma?”
Galen bowed his head so that his green hair fell in his eyes. “Everything in time, Francesca. I can tell you Locasta and Mombi were working with the Wizard to steal Ozma and dispose of the king. Locasta and Mombi are old friends.”
Ha! I knew it. I knew they were working together. Old Tattypoo had a whole bunch of dirty laundry, and I was going to air it out for her as soon as I figured out how this all fit together. How did my mother and Adora play into all this? I needed to figure that out too because I was getting justice for Saffron and me.
“How does this all play together?”
“Ozma will be powerful, as are you and Saffron. The queen should have survived childbirth. Care to guess who her midwife was?”
I was starting to piece this all together. “Locasta sent Mombi as the midwife in a glamour. She killed the queen, and she was supposed to be looking after Ozma. Instead, she snuck in, killed the king too, and teleported out with the baby in the chaos.”
Galen bowed his head to me. “Very good.”
“But if Ozma is a girl, why are we looking for Tip? Even if it was a glamour, wouldn’t Tip know he was a girl?”
I saw Galen whip out his vial of invisibility potion. “Don’t you dare!”
“It’s late, Francesca. Find Tip. I’m trying to find him too. Tip is the key. Goodnight.”
I lunged at him like I could tackle him and make him stay. I was getting sick of Galen and his half stories before he sent me off to bed and disappeared. If he had been listening and watching, why couldn’t he tell me everything?
Who the fuck were his parents, and why was his hair green? Why did I still feel like I could trust him despite everything?
Chapter 42
Idris
F
uck Glinda and that green-haired boy. I wasn’t looking for him anymore. I was looking for Tip. Glinda was up to something. I was close to trusting her after our meeting, but after the little stunt in the North? No way. Francesca came back from training really late, telling us all about the heir. Ozma was a pretty name. I had no idea why we were looking for a boy when the heir was a girl, but I was going to find Tip.
Glinda must have been taking her time to make her move in the North. We went through a boring week of class. Well, our magical classes were interesting. Every time Francesca did magic inside our rooms, she taught Oprix and me. I was getting pretty good at magic outside of Flying Monkey magic. History was still canceled, and fight training was utterly boring.
I was still training Dorothy, who had totally lost her backbone. She had all this bravado when she was picking on Saffron and Francesca, but now, all she did was cry. Even with all that emotion in her, she couldn’t call any anger to give me a good hit with the staff. She still hadn’t made things right with Francesca like I told her too.
We were back in fight training, and she was back to looking at her feet. I couldn’t fight a helpless girl, nor could I yell at a crying one. Francesca hated that I was helping her in fight training too. She didn’t yell at me about it, but I don’t think she understood when I said I felt bad for her. I think if it were up to Francesca, she would just let Dorothy get expelled because no one would fight with her.
That was an option, but Francesca didn't see clearly when it came to Dorothy. If she had been brought here because she was a distant relative of the Fisher King, then the safest place for her was here if we couldn’t send her back home. If she got expelled and left here angry, we’d have another enemy on our hands, and we already had too many of those than I cared to think about.
Dorothy was pissing me off, just staring at her feet and sniffling.
“Do you want to die, Dorothy? You’ve been here before. You know Oz is a dangerous place. You got lucky the first time. You won’t get lucky a second time. If you want to survive while they figure out how to send you home, pick up your staff, and grow the fuck up.”
Oh, now I did it. I made her angry. Her brown eyes were flashing with anger when they came up to meet mine. She might actually hit me this time. Good. I needed her angry. She was only eighteen. She deserved it if Francesca or Saffron decked her, but she didn’t deserve to die, and I didn’t think either one of them would kill her in the end.
“What do you know, anyway? I got lucky last time because I had friends with me. All my friends are off ruling Oz now. My friends at this school have abandoned me. Are you telling me your group is going to be my friend now? Frankie and Saffron are going to be my friends?”
Now, I was angry. “First of all, those Munchkins weren’t your friends. They were ass-kissing sycophants. I told you to make things right with Francesca and Saffron, and you haven’t. You know what, I also said I wasn’t going to fight train you until you did. Make things right with them, or you can spend fight training alone,” I snapped throwing my staff down and flying over to Francesca.
I had a huge wingspan as a Flying Monkey, and I kicked up dirt and knocked over a few Munchkins. The Quadlings all shielded their eyes. Francesca and Saffron were back to back demonstrating to a group of Quadlings how to work together and fight more than one opponent. The Quadlings broke their circle, and Saffron and Francesca both lowered their staffs.
“What happened this time? She ran off, crying again,” Francesca asked.
“She’s infuriating. She wants friends here, but she wants them to all come to her like that’s how friendship works.”
Professor Ixius came stomping over after it looked like he got a message from someone.
“Francesca, go after Dorothy Gale,” Professor Ixius ordered.
She flat out dropped her staff at her feet. “You have got to be fucking kidding me. If you want her to stop that incessant crying, send someone else.”
“Headmaster Daxar’s orders. Go!” Professor Ixius yelled, pointing at the door. “All of you, resume your training.”
Great. I couldn’t go after them. Francesca was right. If Daxar wanted her back in class with no tears, Francesca was going to be the worst person to send. I really hoped Francesca didn’t kill Dorothy Gale.
Chapter 43
Frankie
G
reat. I was doing the professor’s job again. Saffron and I were practically teaching our magical and fight training classes. Why did I have to go deal with Dorothy too? I was pretty much the worst person in the entire school for that job. I was going to kill Daxar for telling Professor Ixius to send me.
Dorothy’s aura left a trail of black through the school. I followed it up twenty flights of stairs up to Daxar’s office. She was sitting outside his door, sobbing. Why the fuck hadn’t he let her in and dealt with this?
She sniffed and wiped her nose. It looked like I was the last person she wanted to see too. “He won’t let me in. I can hear him in there. He must be busy. If you want to see him, you should probably come back.”
I scowled and crossed my arms. “He’s not answering the door because he apparently expects me to deal with you. What the fuck is your problem? If th
e Munchkins don’t like you anymore, make friends with the Quadlings.”
“Can I talk to you? Just talk. I know I’ve made a bad impression. Can I explain things?”
I flopped down next to her on the floor. I needed to sit for this because I had a feeling I was going to be listening to her whining all through lunch.
“There’s no magic where I come from. It’s not like here. Witches only exist in stories, and people can’t fly. I was nine when a tornado hit Kansas. I was trying to make it to the storm cellar, but my dog ran away, and I went to catch him. I didn’t make it to the cellar and had to hide in my bedroom. The tornado picked our house up, and when I looked out the window, I could see the winds spinning around us. I was sure I was going to die. The house crashed in Oz, in the East. I had no idea it landed on Saffron’s mother until I came out, and all the Munchkins were cheering, and the Good Witch of the North told me I killed a Wicked Witch. I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. I wasn’t okay with my house killing anyone either. I just wanted to go back home to my aunt and uncle and their farm.”
“That doesn’t explain what you did to my mother or why you stole my aunt’s shoes off her corpse. What happened to those shoes? They belong to Saffron.”
“I was just a scared kid who just killed someone. I had a kindly old lady who told me she was a Good Witch. She pulled out this magical tablet that she said would give her an answer on how I was supposed to get home. She said the tablet told her I was supposed to take the shoes and go see the Wizard. That’s what I did because that was the only solution I was given to get home.
“I met the Scarecrow, Nick Chopper, and the Cowardly Lion on my way to Emerald City. We all had something we wanted from the Wizard. He appeared to all of us differently, but he told us all the same thing. He wouldn’t grant any of our wishes unless we killed the Wicked Witch of the West. All I knew about her was that she was Wicked and that she enslaved the Winkies.
“I didn’t want to kill another person. I was still upset about my house falling on someone. My friends said we would be freeing the Winkies and ridding Oz of evil if we defeated the Wicked Witch of the West. I thought to just capture her and bring her to the Wizard, but she sent wolves and crows after us to kill us.”
“Those wolves and crows weren’t there to kill you. They were there to chase you out of the West with no bloodshed. That wolf clan and that crow murder were both royalty in the West, and the spell didn’t affect them because they were with my mother when it was cast. Your Nick Chopper and Scarecrow murdered good wolves and good crows. They only started fighting back when you struck first and didn’t run.”
“I’m sorry, Frankie. All I can say is that we didn’t know, and we thought they were there to kill us. We weren’t trying to kill your mother. We wanted to just capture her and bring her to the Wizard so he would send me home. When I got to her castle, she tried to put me to work. I thought she was making us her slaves. The Flying Monkeys hurt Nick Chopper and the Scarecrow. All I had with me was the Cowardly Lion, and she put him in a cage.
“She sent me straight to the kitchens and told me to stay away from the island in the center. There was this bucket there, I thought it was just water, but I stayed away from it. The kitchens in Oz are not like back home. I didn’t know how to operate the ovens here, and I started a fire in your mother’s kitchen. When she came to put it out, she shoved me out of the way so I wouldn’t get burned.
“The sleeve of her dress caught fire. I thought the bucket on the island was just water, so I threw it on her, and it was horrible. I still have nightmares about what happened when the contents of the bucket hit her skin. No one ever told me it was acid until you did when I came back. All I’ve ever been told was that it was water and she was so evil, pure water was her weakness. Everyone told me she was evil when I left, but that day still haunts me. Everyone was acting like I was this huge hero, but both women I killed, it was just an accident, and no one told me either of them had daughters.”
That was a version of my mother’s death I hadn’t heard. The only people who were there were Dorothy and my mother. Hearing a child set the oven on fire and thought the pail on the table was water made me feel a little better, but just a little. An accident five years ago was one thing. What happened at this academy was another.
“When you did find out about Saffron and me, you and your Munchkin friends weren’t nice to us. You threw food at my head.”
“Can I confess something, Frankie? I told you Kansas is very different than Oz. When I got back to Kansas and started talking about fairylands and killing Wicked Witches, everyone thought I was playing a game. Time moves differently where I come from than it does here. I had only been gone a few hours when I got back to Kansas. No one believed me, and I got angry when everyone kept telling me Oz wasn’t real.
“The kids at my school weren’t very nice about it. They were pretty mean about it actually. They played pranks on me, beat me up, and threw things at me. They’d sneak to my uncle’s farm, steal eggs from his coop, and throw them at the house. I guess when I got here, and the Munchkins were treating me like their queen, it went to my head a little, and I treated you and Saffron just like the kids back home treated me. I’m sorry.”
Huh. Was I actually softening towards my arch-nemesis? I swore if I ever laid eyes on Dorothy Gale again, I was going to kill her. I didn’t at this academy because I was here to spy, but I swore when I found out what I needed here, I was going to get my revenge on her. It sounded like we shared similar nightmares about my mother’s death. I actually had something in common with her. More than I initially thought if she had been harassed about her visit here.
“Why do you live with your aunt and uncle? Where are your parents?” I asked.
“They both died when I was little. My Auntie Em and Uncle Henry took me in, and I live with them.”
Well, fuck. We were both orphans too. I’ll be totally damned.
“I never knew my father. Did you know yours?” I said.
“From what I remember of him, he was caring and loving. They both passed away when I was six, so I don’t have many memories of them. Auntie Em tells me stories about when they met and what she remembers about when she saw the three of us together, but I don’t have a lot of memories of them. Frankie? After what I did to you and Saffron, both the first time I was here and the second, why did you defend me when the Munchkins were picking on me? I didn’t deserve it.”
“Dorothy, I didn’t know your side of the story before. My mother and my aunt, those were just accidents. What you did when you got here a second time, I guess I get it in a weird way. I wouldn't stand for that kind of shit, even if you did it to my cousin and me first. Something happened with the Munchkins when the spell was cast to make everyone forget the Sentinels. They didn’t use to be this way.”
“For what it’s worth, I did talk them out of a lot of things they wanted to do to Saffron that were just too mean.”
“I appreciate it, Dorothy. Saffron is just a kid, and the Munchkins have been hunting her since you left the East. If it were up to them, they would have killed her by now.”
“Killed her? But she’s only sixteen!”
“They’ve been hunting her for longer than that. Why the stunt with the bow on the roof? Have you ever even shot a bow before?”
“I was scared out of my wits! I didn’t want to do it. The Munchkins kept trying to talk me into it. They finally wore me down, and I said I would do it. They kept insisting if Saffron could do it, then anyone could. They wanted to knock her down a peg by having me do it in front of everyone. I don’t know why I finally agreed to it.”
“Do you always do what your friends tell you to do?”
Dorothy just gave a bitter laugh and stroked her little black dog’s head. The dog wasn’t letting out that strange yelling noise anymore.
“I don’t have any friends, Frankie. After I got back from Oz, everyone thought I was insane and didn’t want to be seen talking to me. Toto is my only friend.”
/>
“Toto is the dog? Why does he make incomprehensible yelling noises instead of just asking for what he wants?”
Dorothy seemed to find that hilarious. Her tears had stopped ages ago, but now she was actually laughing.
“He’s barking. That’s what dogs do where I come from. Animals don’t talk in Kansas or anywhere else. They make different noises, but it’s not speech. Toto might not be able to speak, but I know what all his barks mean.”
I started giggling. “So, he makes that noise because that’s how he talks? This entire time, I thought he was yelling like a savage because he was either stupid or you spoiled him.”
Dorothy was giggling too. “Oh, he’s quite spoiled. I slip him table scraps, and he sleeps in bed with me. But he’s not stupid. He helps herd the chickens on the farm, and he knows several tricks. He helped us the first time we were in Oz too.”
“How do you know what those noises he makes mean?”
Toto noticed I was staring at him, and he must have known we were talking about him. He came trotting over to me, plopped in my lap, and curled into a little ball. Now what? Would he even understand it if I talked to him?
“That means you’re his friend now. He wants you to scratch his head.”
I scratched the little dog’s head. I had a hard life because of that spell, but it sounded like Oz made Dorothy’s life hard too. She didn’t ask to come here either time and based on her story, my mother and my aunt were accidents. Dorothy wasn’t a cunning foe. She was a scared child, and now she was just a friendless eighteen-year-old.
I’d have to explain things to Saffron, but if our mothers were here, they’d want it this way. I had to make peace.
“Why don’t you sit with us in class and meals? We can be your friends while you’re here, and we won’t ask you to pick on people or do stupid stunts. We just ask you be yourself.”
Dorothy gave me this shy smile. “I’d like that.”
Saffron was going to be so pissed, but she was going to have to sit and listen like I did.
Sentinels of Oz: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 1) Page 18
