I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate. I knew that flight spells were some of the most complicated and difficult magic that there was, but if I could just come up with something to at least slow myself down, maybe I’d have a chance of survival. I tried to focus on everything Gert had taught me.
I pictured the energy running through my body, twisting and reshaping itself until it was pulling me upward, back into the sky.
And then I was floating.
Seriously. It had worked. I hadn’t expected it to do anything and now I was actually flying.
My eyes sprung open.
That’s when I realized I hadn’t done it at all. Four furry hands had hooked themselves around me, a pair under each of my armpits.
Monkeys. The kind with wings. They were soaring up into the sky, and they were taking me with them. The buildings beneath us began to shrink. The lights receded.
“Amy,” a familiar voice chirped. “We’ve come to save you.”
It was Ollie. He was flying again.
“Ollie!” I exclaimed, still too confused from the last few minutes of insanity to form any coherent thought. “How . . .”
I craned my neck over my shoulder. It was Ollie all right—with one big difference. He’d been given wings.
“You can do a lot with magic,” he said mischievously. “The problem is getting ahold of it.”
Then I saw that his wings weren’t your ordinary feathery white monkey wings. They appeared to be made from old newspaper and coat hangers, held together with little bits of tape.
“They could be more fashionable, but I was in a rush,” the other monkey said. It was a girl’s voice, smooth and soothing in contrast to Ollie’s excitable chirp. Familiar, even though the last time I’d heard her speak, she’d been hoarse and half delirious. “Anyway, they do the trick, as you can see.”
I craned my neck to look at Maude, a huge smile spreading across my face despite my confusion.
“Maude!” I shouted through the rushing air. “You’re okay!”
“Thanks to you,” she replied. “Figured I owed you a save.”
“How did you find me? Where are we going?”
“Oh,” Ollie replied. “It wasn’t hard. The talisman I gave you when you rescued Maude—it doesn’t just lead you to us. We can also use it to keep tabs on you.”
“Looks like we came just in the nick of time,” Maude said drily.
I let out a deep breath. We were sailing above the Emerald City, toward the western gates. The air was cool and refreshing against my face and the moon loomed huge above us. We were zipping along, the landscape sliding by. I hadn’t realized monkeys could fly this fast.
Under different circumstances, it would have been fun. But once I’d had a chance to catch my breath, I was able to review the events of the evening. Also known as the complete disaster that had been entirely my fault.
The plan had gone into effect. The witches had done their part, but I’d botched mine in every possible way. I’d let Dorothy get away not once but twice tonight, and I’d come this close to getting myself killed in the process.
“Take me back to her,” I said, having no doubt the monkeys would know who I meant. “I can’t leave the job unfinished.”
“Um, no,” Maude said. “We didn’t save you just so you could rush off and commit suicide.”
“Yeah,” Ollie added, “we’ve got a better plan.”
I turned my head as much as I could, watching the palace disappear on the horizon. I’d failed. Dorothy was still breathing, which meant someone was still suffering.
“What is this plan?” I asked, resigning myself to the monkeys’ clutches.
“We’re off to see the Wizard,” Ollie replied.
Chapter Forty-Four
A few minutes later, Ollie, Maude, and I landed in a field just outside the city walls. A few paces off, a ramshackle building—maybe an old guard tower, the only structure in sight—looked like it might collapse in on itself at any moment.
The Wizard was waiting for us.
And so was Pete. They were standing in the field, side by side, the moon glowing on their faces. The Wizard tipped his hat at me as I stumbled out of Ollie’s arms and onto the grass. Pete gave me an awkward little half wave.
There was a part of me that was so relieved to see him that I wanted to throw myself into his arms. But a bigger part of me was exhausted, wary, and above all confused. I reached down to gingerly press the cut on my stomach, but it wasn’t so bad. Just a flesh wound.
“Amy,” the Wizard said, all businesslike. “We have a lot to talk about and not much time.”
“Hold up,” I said. “How do you know . . . ?”
“I’ve been following your adventures closely since your arrival in Oz,” the Wizard replied before I could even get the question out. “As best as I’ve been able to, at least. It’s not every day that someone from the Other Place arrives here. When it happens, it has a way of shaking things up. For better or for worse. Of course I take an interest. I’m from there, too, you’ll remember.”
I looked at Pete. “And you? Have you been spying on me for the Wizard all this time?”
“Amy . . . ,” he said. But, as usual, he didn’t answer. The silence hung in the air.
“I assure you that everything will be answered in time,” the Wizard said. “You’ve escaped for now, but Glinda is surely looking for you at this very moment. You may need to fight again before the night is through.”
“Good,” I replied, ignoring the ache from my abdomen and actually feeling a rush of energy. “I’m ready now. Send me back to Dorothy and let’s finish this.”
The Wizard shook his head emphatically. “The consequences of that would be disastrous,” he said. “Dorothy cannot be killed yet. Not even by you.”
I stared at him, remembering what Nox had said about him being a manipulator. Dorothy had seemed pretty scared when I was about to stab her, and even more so when I’d tackled her off the roof—not at all like some magical immortal.
“Okay, sure,” I replied. “I’d still like to try it.”
The Wizard guffawed, a twinkle in his eye. “I love the enthusiasm, but you still don’t understand how Oz works. I wouldn’t have expected the Order to teach you everything, but . . . surely they know that you’re out of your league against Dorothy.”
I folded my arms across my chest.
“Out of my league? They told me I was the only one who could kill her.”
“That may be true,” he said. “And, it may not. It’s just a theory, and, after all, Mombi and her friends have been wrong before. But let’s just say the witches’ theory is correct. Just for the sake of argument. Do you suppose that Dorothy doesn’t know about it? Do you suppose she hasn’t gone to great lengths to protect herself?”
“Of course she has,” I said. “That’s why I had to spend all this time pretending to be a maid—so that I could get to her when she was weak.”
“Her Highness has wrapped herself in intricate layers of protection, it’s true. And with the Order’s help, you’ve already managed to breach many of those walls. But the princess is not the only player in this game. She may not even be the most important player. There are things protecting Dorothy that she herself doesn’t even know about. Just as you don’t.”
“She doesn’t know about them. I don’t know about them. The Order doesn’t know about them. And you do?”
“Oh, Amy. I’ve learned a bit of magic, here and there, since I returned to Oz, but let’s face it—I’ll always be a bit of a humbug when it comes to that sort of thing. My real wizardry has nothing to do with spells at all. It has to do with knowledge. I knew about you the moment you arrived here, didn’t I? Even the most unbreakable of spells are meant to be broken. You just need to know a thing or two. It’s the knowing things part that just so happens to be my specialty.”