No Place Like Oz: A Dorothy Must Die Prequel Novella(20)

He sighed. “You first,” he said. “I don’t for a moment believe that you wished your way here. It doesn’t work that way.”

So I told him the story: of my terrible birthday party, of the shoes, and the note that had come with them.

“They must have come from Glinda,” I finished. “Who else could have sent them?”

“It certainly sounds like her doing,” the Scarecrow mused. “But until now, I believed that Glinda was dead—or gone for good.”

“No,” I said, so emphatically that it came out as something approaching a shout. “No. Someone’s done something to her. She’s still in Oz, and she’s in trouble. That’s why she brought me here. To save her.”

“You may be right,” he said. “We’ll go to see Ozma tomorrow. She needs to be apprised of the situation.”

Every time anyone said the name Ozma, a terrible feeling came over me. I’d never met her and I barely knew who she was, but I didn’t like the sound of her. “Who is this Ozma?” I finally was able to ask. “And why aren’t you the king anymore?”

A look of something like regret passed across the Scarecrow’s face. He glanced down at his plate.

“Ozma is Oz’s true monarch,” he said. “She’s a direct descendant of Oz’s founder, the fairy Lurline. She was just a baby when the Wizard rose to power, and unable to inherit her throne. Still, the Wizard worried about the power she would eventually be able to wield. It’s hard to seize control of a kingdom when you have the True Princess swanning about in her prime. So he sent her to the North—to Gillikin Country. What happened to her there is a mystery. Only a few people are privy to all the details, and I am not one of them. What I do know is that she eventually managed to grow up, and made her way back to the Emerald City to reclaim her crown. Unfortunately for me, that was just a few months after I’d been made king. I ceded the crown to her immediately, of course.” He sighed and shrugged. “It was nice while it lasted.”

It sounded like a bunch of hooey to me. “So this Ozma can just march in and kick you out on your rear end? That’s not fair!”

“I had no choice. It is the way of Oz that Lurline’s heirs should rule. The people were happy with me as their king, but I must admit that Ozma has been a good ruler, too. The kingdom has never been more peaceful, or more prosperous.” He sounded cheerful, but it was obvious he was putting on a brave face.

I scowled. “I don’t care,” I said, outraged by the injustice. “You would have been better. You deserved that crown! What did she do to earn it, except show up when it was convenient for her?”

“Oh, it’s not so bad,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I like it here amidst my corncobs. There’s plenty of time to think, here. And Ozma made me one of her top advisers—she always calls me into the palace when she needs someone with real brains.”

“What about the Tin Woodman? What’d she do with him? Send him off to be sold for scrap?”

The Scarecrow chuckled. “Now, now, Dorothy. There’s no need for that. The Tin Woodman is still where you last saw him. He still lives in the Wicked Witch’s old castle, if you can believe it. He’s spruced it up quite nicely; it’s nothing like it was before.”

“And the Lion?”

“Still ruling over the beasts, just as ever. He lives deep in the Forbidden Forest, in Gillikin Country.” The Scarecrow sighed. “He’s become a bit of a recluse, though. The three of us haven’t been in the same room since I left the castle.”

It broke my heart to think about. Glinda missing; the Scarecrow deposed; my friends scattered across Oz. I had expected to come back to Oz to find it just as I’d left it. But nothing was the same.

“Now let’s take a look at these shoes of yours,” he said, after BonBon had served me an after-dinner root beer float.

I stood, extending my foot proudly, and the Scarecrow studied the mysterious shoes.

“Have you tried removing them?” he asked after examining them for a bit.

“Why no,” I said, surprised that it hadn’t even occurred to me. But as hard as I tugged at the heels, they wouldn’t so much as budge.

“Just as I suspected,” he mused.

“How strange,” I said. “How will I bathe?”

The Scarecrow chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll find a way. At any rate, they’re magical, that much is evident. And they seem to have fused themselves to you. The red is certainly Glinda’s signature. But she . . .”

“It has to have been Glinda,” I said. “I’ve never been so certain of anything. Especially after she appeared to me and asked for help earlier today. We have to help her.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” he said. “Tomorrow, we will travel to the palace. Ozma will have heard of your arrival and will be expecting you. She’s very interested in you, you know. The princess is an avid student of history, and she’s always been fascinated by your story.”

“I’m not so sure I care to see her,” I sniffed. “She doesn’t sound very pleasant in my opinion.”

The truth was that I didn’t trust the sound of her. Was it just coincidence that Glinda had disappeared just after this new princess had seized the palace?