Toto by A. J. Hackwith

Author:A. J. Hackwith [Hackwith, A. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

17

It appeared that, once the Wizard had sent you on a gig, word got around fast. At least, word got around to Coletta quickly enough. We found our guide absent as we were left at the gates outside the Wizard’s grand hall, and a guard handed Scarecrow a card with a memo informing us politely that our all-access pass to the Ozman’s Founders Club had expired.

“Oh, thank the Field Mother,” Lettie whispered fervently. “My lady had already booked me for something she called a wax intensive, and I was really terrified to find out what god-forsaken torture she would think up next.”

None of us were particularly cut up about losing the spa day, but it was the first signal that we were no longer high-society guests in the rarefied circles of the Emerald City. At least they’d allowed Dorothy a room to change out of her crazy folk-dress getup and back into proper clothes. She explained our encounter with the “Great and Powerful Oz” as we made our way swiftly out of the city and found ourselves, once again, on the yellow brick road outside the gates.

But we wouldn’t be following so clear a path now. While we were inside, Scarecrow had been clever enough to acquire a map. I frowned as he ran a stubby grass finger through a gnarl of black squiggles toward the foreboding symbol that marked West’s domain. “Another forest? Forest Kingdom, Lion?”

“Long ago, maybe,” Lion said forlornly. He didn’t even bother to look at the map. He was a few paces down the dirt path of the forest, sitting on his haunches as he stared at where a dark rise of brush started to dapple the grass, swiftly twisting into bleak, crooked little trees that grew into a distant lurch of charcoal pines that were too squat and bulbous and too much at odd angles to look restful. “But it’s been a necropolis of stone for as long as I can remember.” He got up and began to back away slowly, head hung low. “It’s…it’s no place for a coward like me.”

“Come, now.” Scarecrow tried to reason with him. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as all that.”

“It is,” Lion said morosely. “No hearts beat in anything that moves in that place.”

Crow, at least, had the good grace to look as unnerved as that statement deserved. He fluttered around Lion’s head to try to stop his retreat. “But we’re comrades!”

“Then you should leave too.” And when he passed, I’d swear Lion met my eyes with a heavy, meaningful look.

I felt a stone weight plunge to my stomach and I barked after him, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The noise caught Dorothy’s attention, and she turned away from packing the basket with Lettie. “What…Oh! Lion! You can’t leave us, please….” She started after him across the grass, and that was finally enough to slow Lion to a halt. The giant cat faltered, swinging his perpetually too-heavy head around as Dorothy crashed into it and wrapped her arms around it fiercely.

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