The End of Oz
Page 14

“Look,” Nox said, his teeth gritted. Whoever she was, her barbs had landed. “I don’t know who you are, but you should really think about—”
“Oh, Nox,” she said. “Has it been so long? Have you really forgotten me so easily?”
Suddenly lines began to appear in the sinister mask. One by one, silver sections peeled away from her face like petals of a flower unfurling. As each section opened, the silver disappeared in a puff of gleaming smoke.
Underneath the mask her face was ordinary. Neither pretty nor plain. Something in the middle—a face almost remarkable for how completely unremarkable it was. I had the feeling if I glanced away from her I’d immediately forget what she looked like.
There was something almost uncanny about her ordinariness. Something almost . . . enchanted.
But next to me, Nox breathed out hard with a noise of total shock.
“Lanadel?” He was staring at her, his mouth actually open. I’d never, in all the time I’d known him, seen him so astonished. I looked back and forth between the two of them.
“Wait, you know her?” I asked. The air around her was charged with unmistakable, naked hostility as she stared Nox down, and to my utter surprise, he looked away first, his cheeks flooding with color. As if he was embarrassed—or ashamed.
“Who I used to be doesn’t matter anymore,” the woman said.
“But you’re—you’re—” Nox was still trying to get out a sentence.
“Not dead? Not so lucky for you, I’m afraid.”
“I didn’t—you weren’t supposed to—”
“Survive?” She smiled. “I’m so sorry to disappoint you, Nox. Listen, I don’t know why the road coughed you up at my doorstep, but this is not a good time to rehash our past.”
She stood up and walked away from us, the silky robe clinging to her body. As with her face, there was something almost impossible to pin down about it. She wasn’t tall, she wasn’t short, she wasn’t thin, she wasn’t curvy.
Somehow, everything about her avoided description. As if her whole being was a disguise.
“Why are you here?” she asked curtly.
I took a deep breath. I had no idea how Nox knew this woman, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to. But I could tell that she was on the verge of doing something bad. To all of us. And I needed us to get out of her palace in one piece. All of us.
“We don’t know,” I said. “The truth is—”
“Amy,” Nox said, a warning note in his voice. I knew what he was hinting at. Telling this person everything might be incredibly stupid—especially if she was on the side of the Nome King. But somehow, I didn’t think she was. The road had brought us here for a reason. Maybe it had meant for us to meet her. Besides, I was tired of the Wicked way of doing things.
“Nox, no more secrets,” I said. I saw something flicker in Langwidere’s eyes—something that could have been respect. “Like I said, we don’t know why we’re here. The road brought us across the Deadly Desert and dumped us.”
I quickly explained how we’d ended up running away from Oz, the road whisking us off. I didn’t tell her everything, because that would have taken all day. But enough.
She didn’t say much while I explained—just stopped me a couple of times to ask more questions about the Nome King. When I told her that the Nome King and Glamora had killed Mombi, her eyes widened, but she didn’t comment.
Nox stayed quiet. It felt good to be the one making the decisions. And why shouldn’t I? I’d been through as much as he had in the time since I’d met him. I’d trained like crazy and fought like a warrior.
Nox wasn’t in charge of me anymore. We were equals.
When I was done talking, she was silent for a long time. Madison had sat down on the hard stone floor and rested her head on her knees. Despite her bravado, it was clear she was overwhelmed. I knew how she felt. And she didn’t have the grandmotherly Gert to help her adjust like I’d had. I was tempted to join her. I was exhausted—we all were. But I stood my ground.
“Lanadel,” Nox said suddenly. “Langwidere—how did you get here? What are you doing here?”
She walked to one of the narrow windows overlooking the wasteland outside. The mirrored walls refracted her every move as if we were in an amusement-park fun house. The effect was spooky and distracting—as she moved it got harder and harder to pin down which image was her and which was her reflection.
“After you and Mombi sent me here to spy, the Nome King captured me,” she said. She held up one slender wrist and I saw a thin silver bracelet from which dangled a glittering ruby padlock and key.
Wait a minute. This girl had been in the Order? What was going on? I stared at Nox but he shook his head, warning me to stay quiet. Quiet was not exactly something I did well.
“He . . . interrogated me for information about the Order,” she continued. Her voice was steady, but I thought about what I’d seen of “interrogations” in Dorothy’s palace, and shuddered. “When he had what he wanted, he turned me into his spy.”
“You work for the Nome King?” I interrupted. If that was the case, we were in trouble.
She shrugged. “I stay alive. For now, that means keeping him happy.”
“Does he know we’re here?” Nox asked.
“Well, I haven’t told him,” she said. “But I wouldn’t have to. And he’s as connected to the magic of Ev as you are to Oz. If the road brought you here, he probably felt it.”
“So we’re not safe here?” Madison asked from the floor, lifting her head.
Langwidere glanced at her and smiled without warmth. “In these times? You’re not safe anywhere.”
Madison stood up and glared at her. “Okay, fine. Then can you just kill us now? Because I’m really tired and I’m pretty sick of listening to people talk.”
For the first time since she’d taken her mask off, Langwidere looked startled. And then she started to laugh. This time, there was nothing cruel about it. It was the laughter of a much younger and more innocent girl. Maybe the person she’d once been, before the Nome King got to her.
I was starting to feel almost sorry for her. Almost.
“You can rest here,” she said. “For now, at least.” She glanced at Nox, her eyes hardening again. “Until I decide what to do with you.”
“So you’re keeping us prisoner?” Nox asked.
“I’m entertaining you as very honored guests.” She smiled mirthlessly. She’d said “honored” like it was a curse. “These are strange times,” she added, looking out the window again. “You’re the second visitors we’ve had from Oz in a matter of days. The Nome King’s up to something, and I want to know what it is.”
“The second visitors from Oz?” I asked.
She turned back to us and raised an eyebrow. “You mean you didn’t know?”
“Know what?” Nox asked.
“Dorothy’s here,” she said.
Nox and I looked at each other and then back at her. “Dorothy’s alive?”
“Very much so, I’m afraid.” She shrugged. “Until I kill her, that is.”