The Wicked Will Rise

“For leaving you guys. For screwing up. If it weren’t for me . . .”

Mombi rolled her eyes and shook her head dismissively.

“Look, you did good, kid. Didn’t kill Dorothy, but the way I hear it, she’s on the run now, and that’s a start. Heard about what you did to the Tin Woodman, too. Good for you. We got the magic back, for now at least, and that’s not nothing. We tore the whole damn city down while we were at it, too, just to show Dorothy we could. Got that princess out of the palace, hopefully for good. Plus”—she wiggled her eyebrows—“we weren’t the only ones who got beat up. I had the pleasure of taking a big chunk out of Glinda’s pretty face. Been waiting a while to do that. So buck up, girl. Could be worse.”

Mombi gave me a weak little swat on my arm. I knew that my guilt wouldn’t disappear completely until I saw with my own two eyes that Nox was safe—and that he didn’t hate me leaving him when I should have stayed behind to fight—but knowing that Mombi had forgiven me made me feel a little bit better. I gave her a thin smile and opened the door, eager to tell Pete about everything that I’d learned.

I felt a surge of disappointment when I realized I wasn’t about to get my wish. Pete wasn’t there. Instead, Ozma sat cross-legged on the floor, amusing herself with a game of cat’s cradle using an old string she’d found somewhere. She was so engrossed with her private game that she didn’t even notice us come in.

“Oh,” Mombi said sourly. “It’s you. Did the boy go back into his hidey-hole?”

That got Ozma’s attention. She looked up and stuck her tongue out at Mombi. “Go away, witch,” she said. “You’re not my mother.”

I should have been proud of her, but I was too busy being annoyed for the umpteenth time to learn yet another thing that had been kept from me. “So how long have you known about him?” I asked.

“Known about him? I created him, didn’t I? Wasn’t until more recently that I learned he could still come out to play, but I wasn’t too surprised. Doesn’t matter much, in the end, does it?”

“Obviously it matters. I’m sick of being in the dark about everything,” I said. “You should have told me. It could have been useful to know.”

Mombi gave a little chuckle. “You still have a lot to learn, don’t you?” she said. “In a war, here’s how it works: we tell you what you need to know to do your job, and you don’t ask questions. That way, when they torture you, you can’t give up anything important.”

I put my face right up against Mombi’s.

“That changes now,” I said. “If I’m going to be a part of your little revolution, it’s going to be as an equal, not as your stupid pawn. From now on, you tell me everything, and I’ll decide whether I listen or not.”

Mombi looked at me like she didn’t get what the big deal was. “Sure,” she said. “Not many secrets left to tell anyway, but if I come up with something I’ll be sure to let you know right away. Until then, I need to rest these old bones.”

She flopped into my hammock and stretched her arms. “At least I’ve got a nice place to heal up. Those monkeys may say they hate magic, but if there isn’t something magical about these beds then I’m no witch. Pity though”—she gestured toward Ozma—“I was so looking forward to letting the boy give me a foot massage, just like old times. He was so good at them.”

I didn’t understand Mombi. Sometimes she seemed almost human, and then sometimes, like now, she . . . didn’t. She had practically raised Pete. No. Scratch the practically. She had raised Pete. Maybe she’d done it under unusual circumstances, but still. She was basically his mom, she hadn’t seen him in years, and now, when she’d almost had her chance, she didn’t seem to care at all that she’d missed it.

The last time I’d seen my mother she’d been in the passenger seat of Tawny Lingondorff’s beat-up red Camaro, riding away from the home we’d shared together, knowing the cyclone was just about to hit. She hadn’t even looked back.

“Is that all Pete was to you?” I asked Mombi, feeling my face flush. “Just someone who rubbed your feet? Don’t you care about him at all? I guess it figures. He told me all about what it was like growing up with you. He said you treated him like shit.”

“Oh, not that old sob story again,” Mombi moaned. She looked perfectly relaxed in the hammock, her eyes closed, her head thrown back. It made it all the more infuriating. “You try to do a good deed for a child in need and all you get for it is bellyaching. Do me a favor and save the soul-searching for a day when there’s not a revolution happening.” Her eyes snapped open, and she looked me up and down carefully. “In the meantime, you and I have other things to talk about. First of all, I believe that a certain item has come into your possession?”

I nodded. I was still pissed off at her—but I knew this was important.

I unstrapped my bag and pulled out my first trophy: the Tin Woodman’s mechanical heart, which was still beating like a watch that didn’t know time had stopped.

Mombi plucked it from my hand and cradled it at her chest. She ran her fingers over the surface and squinted carefully at it from every possible angle.

“You did good, getting this,” she said.

“Not just that,” I said. I tried not to let my pride show as I pulled out the Lion’s tail. “I had a run-in with the Lion after we left the Emerald City. One to go.”

Mombi’s eyes widened. “I guess we trained you well,” she said, as she took the tail and compared the two items. She stretched the tail to see if it had a breaking point and tapped the metal heart against her teeth as if trying to judge exactly what it was made of. I just stood there, antsy and eager to get them back.

“Fascinating,” she mused. “The Wizard wasn’t lying about one thing—they’re magic all right. But I can’t read the spells on them, and I don’t sense any special tie to Dorothy. And who enchanted them? The Wizard didn’t have the power to put any spell on anything back then—especially not spells this strange.”

She scrunched her eyebrows together. “I wonder . . .”

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, who knows. Good for you, getting them. That takes some kind of gumption.”

I put my hand out, and Mombi raised an eyebrow at me, then handed them back. “Someone’s awfully attached,” she said. “Be careful with those. We don’t know what they do, and I don’t trust the Wizard past the length of his pinkie finger.”

I was barely listening as I placed the objects back into my bag.

“Now,” Mombi said. “Do you have anything else to gather up?”

“Gather up?”

“Of course. Belongings. What, you thought you were staying here? The pool party’s over, sweetie.” She jerked her head toward Ozma. “Wouldn’t be much fun anymore now that your plaything’s packed himself back up in the toy box anyway, am I right?”

I didn’t tell her I was pretty sure I could turn Ozma back into Pete whenever I wanted to. A girl’s got to have a few secrets here and there.

“You’re in no shape to travel,” I said.

“Me?” Mombi laughed. “Who said anything about me? We both know I’m no good to anyone right now. I’m going to stay right where I am until I’m feeling better.”

“I’m not going to just leave you like this,” I said.

Mombi gave a wry, weak chuckle. “Oh, yes you are,” she said. “And don’t think I’m not going to enjoy myself. I deserve a little R & R. If I do say so myself. You’ve got work to do, though. I want you to seek out Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow. She’s never been much of a joiner, but she’s helped the Order before and she’ll help us again. She wants Dorothy gone as much as anyone, and she has power. Wouldn’t be surprised if other members of the Order were on their way to find her, too.”

I considered it. I had decided a while back that I was done taking orders from Mombi, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave the comfort and relative safety of the monkeys quite yet. On the other hand, if Nox was headed to find this rainbow lady, that was where I wanted to be, too. “How do I get there?” I finally asked. I hadn’t made up my mind, but I would hear her out.

“Ahh, now there’s the rub. The Rainbow Citadel is no easy place to find. The way it usually works, Polychrome only opens up a door when she wants you there. Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to get in touch with her at the moment. So you’ll have to find the back way in.”

“Okay, fine. So how do I do it?”

“It moves around,” Mombi explained. “That’s what makes the Rainbow Citadel so safe—and it’s how Polychrome gets away with having as much power as she does. Only way to get in uninvited is to find the back door. And no one finds the back door. Dorothy spent a year looking for it a while back. Tore apart half the kingdom, offered up a reward to anyone who could give her a clue, but no cigar. Eventually she gave up—wasn’t worth the hassle, I guess.”

“If Dorothy can’t find it after all that, then how am I going to?” I asked.

“You won’t,” Mombi said. “But I have a feeling she can.”

The witch crooked a finger at Ozma. “Come to dear old Mombi,” she cooed sweetly. When Ozma kept her distance, Mombi rolled her eyes. “Bring the little darling over here,” she snapped.

I gingerly took the reluctant princess’s hand, eyeing Mombi warily. Ozma didn’t look pleased, but she didn’t resist.

“You’re not going to hurt her, are you?” I asked.

“No, no, no. We need her,” Mombi said, looking Ozma up and down wolfishly. “As stupid as she looks, there’s still power in there. Somewhere. She’s a fairy, you know. She’s connected to Oz’s lifeblood in a way that none of the rest of us ever could be. If anyone can find the Rainbow Citadel, it’s her. It’s magic, she’s magic, it’s the way these things work. She just has to want to find it.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” I said. “I don’t think Ozma wants anything. Except maybe to play patty-cake.”

Mombi ignored me and placed her hands on Ozma’s cheeks. Ozma looked like she was going to run away, but the witch held her firm. “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “I’m just an old woman. Wouldn’t hurt a fly, would I?”

Mombi stared deep into Ozma’s eyes and bit her lip in a look of mild concentration. A small, purple dot of light began to form in the center of the witch’s forehead. Mombi plucked it off like she was removing a piece of dirt and placed it in her palm, closing a tight fist around it.

“Just hold still and close your eyes, my darling.” As if in a trance, Ozma obeyed.

I watched the whole scene with a slightly sick feeling in my stomach. “Ozma’s shielded from most magic,” Mombi explained nonchalantly. “But when you’re dumb as a brick like she is, certain spells can get through well enough.”

She opened her hand, revealing that the pinprick of energy had taken the form of a glowing indigo spider the size of a nickel. She plucked its wriggling body up and placed it on Ozma’s temple, where it sat for a second and then crawled down, across her cheekbone and onto her earlobe, finally skittering into her ear canal and disappearing.

“Yuck.” I shuddered.

“Oh, don’t be a ninny,” Mombi scoffed. “It’s just a little spell of intention. She won’t even feel it. Barely does anything except give her a little push in the right direction. Think of it like this: if I whispered I want doughnuts in your ear while you were asleep, you’d wake up craving doughnuts, isn’t that so? This isn’t much different, except that I’m too old a woman to stay up all night muttering in Ozma’s ear, especially with those enormous flower earmuffs she loves to wear. Just wait—she’ll be able to guide you to the Rainbow Citadel now. Just follow where she leads, and keep an eye on her along the way. Make sure she doesn’t walk off any cliffs or into any glass doors. And for god’s sake don’t let her get captured. She’s more important than she looks, you know.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “So let’s say I agree to go looking for this Polly character?” I asked. “What do I do once I find her?” I asked.

“You ask her to help you find Nox and Glamora, not to mention any other stray Order members she can get a line on. You show her those little trinkets you’ve got in your goody bag, and see what she makes of them. You have her point you in the direction of Dorothy, who, may I remind you, still needs to be disposed of. You ask her to return the shawl she borrowed from me last time she paid me a visit. Oh, and have her take a look at Princess Dumbbell. Polychrome knows a fair bit of fairy magic. Now that we’ve finally got Ozma out from Dorothy’s watch, maybe we can fix whatever spell Dorothy used to turn our beloved monarch’s brains into royal scrambled eggs.”

“Oh, that’s all?”

“Should I give you a list, or will you remember?”

I didn’t say anything.

I looked from Mombi to Ozma and back. I weighed my options. I could stay here. I could go off looking for Nox on my own. I could look for the Scarecrow and Dorothy without any clue where either of them were. Or I could just take a nap.

Call me stubborn, but I didn’t really feel like obeying Mombi just for the sake of following orders. On the other hand, what if orders were, in this case, also the right thing to do?

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll go. But I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for Ozma.” I looked over at her. If there was a chance of fixing her, I wanted to give her that chance. I was doing it for Nox, too, but Mombi didn’t need to know that.

“I don’t care why you’re doing it,” Mombi said. “Just go! I’ll find you when I’m myself again.”

“Now?” I asked. “Can’t we wait till the morning?”

“Certainly not. Leave in the middle of the night and no one will notice or ask questions. Secrecy, my dove! Even up here, you never know who’s watching. Anyway”—Mombi looked around pointedly—“I only see two hammocks, and three of us. What would you propose to sleep on?”

“Can I at least say good-bye to Ollie and Maude?”

“Can’t you see I’m too weak and weary for all this tiresome chitchat? Tell no one! And if you encounter anyone on your journey, keep your trap shut. Or, better yet, kill them.”

I wasn’t prepared for this. I’d been looking forward to one more comfortable night’s sleep, at the very least. But Nox was out there somewhere, needing my help. And the bug Mombi had dropped in Ozma’s ear must already have been working, because she was making for the door.

I knew it was no use. I took a look at my dirty clothes heaped in the corner and decided I was better off traveling without them. I turned to Mombi, but she had already fallen asleep, and was now loudly emitting an unpleasant combination of a snore and a moan.

It was time to get moving. I followed Ozma out of the Princess Suite. This time, I took a page from my mother’s book and didn’t look back.