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“Archers, hold!” one of the riders yells, but the men in the distance are still screaming and I think they’re being picked off one by one by the monkeys.

There are five beasts remaining, two hanging back in the shadows, waiting, while the three in front form a circle around Tin and me.

“Put down your weapon, Tinman,” one woman says, “and we can prevent any further harm.”

“What’s your goal?” Tin asks. “Kill us or apprehend us?”

The group is silent.

One of the beasts gets close to me, snarling with pale, sharp teeth. Its eyes are wide and bright against the tiger stripes on its head.

Rook has command of the flock and told all of Oz to kill us on sight, but if they wanted us dead, I think we’d already be dead.

“Apprehend us then,” Tin surmises. “And take us where?”

His hand still firmly on his axe hilt, Tin holds it over his shoulder and paces around the group.

“Let me guess. You heard the Wizard offer a reward for our death but you can’t bargain with a corpse. So you take us in and tell the Wizard you’ve captured his criminals and will turn them over for a higher price.”

Again, the group is silent.

Tin takes another step and as he does, his grip on the axe shifts just slightly. “I don’t blame you,” he says. “I would have done the same thing.”

He swings. His blade hits the man nearest him. Blood spurts through the air, coating the beast he rides. The beast, sensing its rider floundering, bucks and the man slides off the saddle, dragging on the ground.

“Attack!” another woman shouts, and her kalidah charges toward Tin, sure and steady.

Tin spins and swipes again, then again, catching both rider and beast.

The two riders hovering in the shadows whistle to one another and their beasts barrel toward us.

Where did the flying monkeys go? Are they still fighting the archers?

For monsters so big and stocky, the kalidahs move surprisingly fast and the flat head of one rams into me, sweeping me off my feet.

I fly backward, arms pinwheeling, legs kicking as if my body is instinctively looking for solid ground.

And as I sail through the air like a doll, my heels click together.

Air pops.

Light flashes behind my eyes.

The heavy, dark chill of the forest is gone.

And when I land hard on my back, some of the fall is softened by a thick, braided rug.

I blink away the stars. Flickering light dances over dark emerald walls.

A voice floats out of the darkness, rich and tempting.

“Kansas,” it says. “What a surprise.”

TWENTY-FOURDorothy

I’m on my feet in an instant, but my vision sways and I have to catch myself on the back of a nearby sofa.

Where the fuck am I?