Page 9

So many questions, not enough answers.

I suppose the Tinman is on to something: If now isn’t the perfect time for a drink, I don’t know when is.

Glasses poured, I come around the matching chairs and hand over the drink. “Here.” The Tinman takes the offering and when his fingers brush against mine, I lurch back from the sudden chill.

“It does take some getting used to,” he admits.

“What?”

“The metal. The cold touch of it. The way it looks like an arm but feels like a machine.”

“It just caught me off guard,” I say.

“Sometimes it catches me off guard, still to this day.” He chuckles to himself and slings the drink back, downing it in one breathless gulp.

I sit in the chair beside him, nursing mine. The rum is spicy and sweet and smooth, but I don’t want to be drunk with an axeman in the middle of nowhere until I know where I stand with him.

“Did you free Gabriel?”

His shoulders rise with a breath, then sink on the exhale. He stares into the empty glass. “The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz took him.”

“What? Why would he want your brother?”

He spins the glass and a drop of amber liquor rolls around. “To find the gods, apparently.”

I frown, watching him. I don’t know who to trust now. I thought I could trust Rook, but look where that got me.

“I thought the gods were gone?”

“So did I.”

“So then … does Rook think the gods are just hiding in a bush somewhere?”

“You’d have to ask him.”

I take a drink and let the alcohol burn down my throat before asking, “Will he hurt Gabriel?”

“If you set aside the fact that the Wizard already cursed Gabriel once, probably not. Gabriel was always his favorite.”

I’m gathering there is a lot about this entire situation that I don’t know. I feel like a child trying to collect beach sand in a bucket with too many holes.

“The Wizard of Oz cursed Gabriel? But he favors him. What’s the story there?”

The Tinman cuts his gaze to me. “Did we not tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“The Wizard of Oz is our brother. Our middle brother.”

I let that information roll around in my mind.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. When I mentioned going to see the Wizard, the Tinman and Gabriel clearly reacted to the information in a way that was much different from everyone else in Oz.

Ana, the Provost of the Hollow, acted like the Wizard was the second coming of Santa Claus. The Tinman and Gabriel only acted with distant contempt.

“When I asked you if you’d take me to see the Wizard, you said you’d sooner feed yourself to a dragon.”

“Did I?” he says in a tone of voice that says he very clearly remembers he did.