Yellow Brick War (Dorothy Must Die, #3)(51)

So the five of us joined hands, and Mombi began to mumble the familiar words of the teleportation spell that would take us all there.

I was an old hand at flying by now, but it still didn’t lose its thrill. I felt the familiar jerk of magic lifting me up into the air, and the sensation of the bottom of my stomach dropping out as we rose into the sky, our hands still linked. Far off on the horizon, I could see the pale stripe of the Deadly Desert; in the opposite direction, the tall peaks of the mountains. For just a moment, in that glorious weightless space, I could pretend that I wasn’t going back into battle—just flying over the jewel-bright landscape of Oz with the wind in my hair and the sun on my back. I could see the same joy in Nox’s face. Even Mombi, who hated heights, was smiling as we hurtled toward our destination.

Then Nox’s expression changed. I turned my head to follow his gaze and gasped out loud.

We were flying into a storm. Out of nowhere, dark clouds gathered into a churning inferno before us, looming directly over the ruined Emerald City.

I’d seen the changes in the city on the ground, and that had been bad enough. But from the air, it was terrifying: the bombed-out buildings, the empty streets scattered with broken gems. From here I could see there were bodies in the ruins, too—twisted and broken like the buildings around them. I swallowed hard. At the center of it all, the twisted spires of the Emerald Palace stabbed upward into the dark, oily-looking clouds. The palace seemed to radiate a tangible sense of menace. Dark, serpentine vines twined up its twisted towers, and smoke boiled out of some of its broken windows. What had once been orderly gardens looked more like a jungle, thick with thorny plants I didn’t recognize. The air was filled with a deep ticking noise, like the world’s biggest grandfather clock was somewhere inside the palace. “The Great Clock,” Gert said grimly. “She’s already trying to use it.”

“Hold on!” Mombi yelled, her grip tightening on my hand. As we drew closer to the storm, gusts of wind began to buffet us, hard and insistent as fists. One blast was so strong it almost pulled me out of Mombi’s grip. On my other side, Gert squeezed harder, too. The witches began to chant.

“Don’t let go, Amy!” Gert yelled over the rising wind. She didn’t have to tell me twice. I held on for dear life as Gert and Mombi’s chanting rose in strength to meet the force of the storm. We were almost on top of the palace now. Suddenly, I could make out a teeming mass of figures in the overgrown and tangled gardens surrounding the palace.

“There’s still an army there!” Nox shouted. The ground was rushing toward us at a terrifying speed. The plants in the garden reached up with spiky branches, and a long vine uncoiled from one of the palace’s towers and whipped at us furiously.

“Look out!” I screamed, but the vine lashed across Mombi’s arm before she could move, leaving a broad, ugly gash. She yelped in pain and let go of me. I felt my other hand slipping out of Gert’s grasp.

“The plants are attacking!” Glamora shrieked. “They’re defending the palace!”

“Amy!” Nox yelled frantically on Mombi’s other side. The vine wrapped around Gert’s legs and yanked her away from me. Glamora cried out as I plummeted toward the waiting thorns. Just as I was about to slam into the ground, a huge gust of air picked me up and sent me spinning gently. Nox, I thought, struggling to get my bearings. Nox had saved me.

Gert sent a blast of fire at the vine still tangled around her legs, severing it in midair, and it reared back as she crumpled to the ground. I ran over to her. “I’m fine!” she gasped. “No time! You must hurry!” On the ground, the ticking noise was even louder and more incessant. I felt like it was trying to crawl inside my head, and had to resist the impulse to cover my ears.

“Soldiers!” Nox yelled. I reached for my knife and whirled into a battle crouch. My reflexes were back, and none too soon. These soldiers were different from the ones who’d attacked us back at the Woodman’s palace. They were entirely mechanical, whirring and buzzing like a clockwork army. Some of them stood on two legs and looked almost human; others had wheels, or tons of jointed legs like a centipede. Some carried weapons in metal claws, and others had swords and spears embedded in their tin torsos.

Nox flickered in and out of sight, teleporting himself back and forth between the soldiers as he hacked at them with his knife. A terrifying howl split the air, and I saw a line of three-headed miniature clockwork Totos descending on us from the direction of the palace. Their eyes glowed with an eerie red light that reminded me of Dorothy’s shoes. Each head’s jaws bristled with dripping, serrated fangs as long as my forearm, and the mechanical dogs’ tails were edged with jagged steel plates that they whipped back and forth. I readied myself to fight.

A fireball sailed over my head and landed among the tin soldiers, sending several of them flying. Glamora leapt to my side. “We’ll hold them off!” she yelled, sending another spray of flame into the oncoming army. “You and Nox find Dorothy!”

I ducked a stray blow and came up swinging, cutting a soldier in half on my upswing. “How will we get to the palace?”

“Nox can take you into the palace. We can only hold them for so long—you have to move as fast as you can.”

Behind her, Mombi threw fireball after fireball into Dorothy’s clockwork army; though each one landed, there were always more soldiers to rush in and fill the gaps she made. Nox was moving so fast behind me he was just a dark blur. Gert’s face was pale, but she was hovering over the battlefield, lashing out with a glowing blue whip she’d fashioned out of magic. I couldn’t just leave them out here to die.