TWENTY
Dorothy
“East Enders? You meanpeople?”
“Yes.” Ana clutches at the handle of her mug. “Enders would just disappear. It took us a while to figure it out. We’ve always known Delphine’s source of magic was living things, but we thought it was limited to plants. But as the years went on, her paranoia grew and so did her thirst for power. That’s when we learned she could also use people.”
I let all this sink in. I don’t believe in magic. Or rather, I didn’t, until I woke up in a distant land covered in darkness and witnessed, with my own eyes, a dead body turn to dust, silver slippers disappear from thin air and reappear in an onion cabinet, and a woman literally step out of a cloud of light.
“If Delphine’s source of magic is people, maybe that’s why Rook was beaten and tied to a pole.”
“Who?” Ana says.
“My friend. The one at the doctor?”
“Oh, right. I suppose it’s possible, but why wouldn’t she just kill him?”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s a good point.” I take another drink from my ale, welcoming the warmth of the spice. “So, what are the powers of the other witches? Or what sources do they use?”
Ana thinks. “Well… let’s start with the South. Becauseher power is very similar to Delphine’s. Hers also comes from living things. The West gets her power from fire. The North gets hers from metal.”
“You don’t think the Witch of the South would do this?”
“Glinda the Good? Oh no! Never! She’s sworn off killing. It’s why her power has weakened. Besides, her source, while living, is limited to the animal kingdom. But again, she would never.Never.”
The Witch of the North mentioned she was also good, but the label certainly means more when someone else uses it to describe you.
Is Glinda truly that virtuous?
The silver slippers are suddenly hot on my feet. Cleo insisted I take them, but now I’m doubting that decision. Stealing shoes off a dead woman would certainly not earn me the moniker Dorothy the Good.
“Now that the Witch of the East is dead, who will take her place?”
Ana shrugs again and drains the last of her ale. “It’s not for the Enders to concern themselves with the business of witches.”
“Do you think… the other witches… Will they seek revenge? Against me? For killing one of their own?”
Ana laughs. “For killing Delphine? Absolutely not. She was the least liked. None of them held any allegiance to her. You’ll be fine.”
I sigh with relief. I hadn’t considered that possibility until just now.
“Thank god.”
“Speaking of the gods!” someone shouts. It’s one of the council members, a woman with short black hair tied back in a stubby ponytail. “We should toast to them!”
“Oh, good idea, Lu!” Ana says and waggles her fingers at the server behind the bar.
In the hour or so Ana and I have been chatting and eating some of the patrons of the tavern have thinned out, and the council members leave their tables in the back to gather around us, making room where they can.
The server comes over with a tray with eight shot glasses set out on it. Each glass has a few inches of a dark amber liquid inside.
“Ozrum,” Ana explains. “Remy, can we have an empty glass so I can show Dorothy how to toast the gods?”
Remy comes around from the counter with an empty shot glass and hands it to Ana. Ana takes it and places it in front of her on the table. “Start here,” she says. “In the north position, like on a compass. And you say, ‘North,’ and tap the glass. Then down, and you say, ‘South.’ Then keep moving on the compass, tapping the glass at each direction.’”
“So it goes, North, South, East, West,” Lu adds.
“And then the center,” Ana adds. “And ‘Oz, Oz, Oz!’ With three taps. And then you drink!”
