Bewitched in Oz Read online

  “Are you sure you want a drink? You seem like you’re in a hurry,” she said.

  “No. Yes, I mean, I’d love a drink.” Ned smiled, finally looking right at her. Zerie found herself grinning back. She couldn’t help it, he was so cute!

  “Thanks for fixing our clockwork maid,” she said.

  “Not a problem.” Ned pulled his chair a little closer to hers. “Zerie, you and I have always liked each other, right?”

  Zerie’s heart jumped into her throat. Was he telling her he felt the same way she did?

  “Right,” she whispered.

  “So be honest with me,” Ned began.

  “Here’s your juice!” Grammy sang out, bustling in with two big cups of fresh apple juice and a plate of fresh-baked bread. Ned moved his chair back, and Zerie felt a stab of disappointment. Grammy put the drinks down on the little table and handed the bread to Zerie. She gave Zerie a wink on the way back to the kitchen.

  “I love your grandma’s bread!” Ned grabbed a piece and stuffed it in his mouth. Zerie sighed. Whatever moment they’d been having was clearly over.

  “So you were saying . . .” she prodded him.

  He nodded. “Right. We’re friends, so I know you’ll tell me the truth,” Ned said.

  “Of course,” Zerie replied. Not that she’d been doing much truth-telling today, except when she accidentally told all her friends how she felt about Ned.

  “Were you and Vashti in the woods with Tabitha?” Ned asked.

  Zerie frowned. In an instant, all her thoughts vanished about lying and her friends and Brink’s illusion of Ned. “Excuse me?” she asked.

  “Was Tabitha there with you?” he repeated.

  Why would he want to know that? Zerie wondered, a chill creeping up her spine. Maybe the Springer boys were really spying after all. Maybe Brink had been there watching Zerie and her friends do magic, and maybe Ned knew about it. Had he seen Tabitha using her talent at home? She’d said she was careful, but who knew what Ned could’ve seen through the window. Tabitha’s talent was incredibly strong. She would be the one Ozma would be most interested in. Why else would Ned ask about her?

  “I know you three girls spend a lot of time together,” Ned went on. “I see you going off toward the forest a lot.”

  “You’re spying on us?” Zerie cried.

  “Spying?” he said. “What do you mean?”

  “Why are you watching us?” she demanded. “What are you trying to see?”

  “Well . . .” Ned hesitated. “Nothing. I’m just trying to figure out what you girls like to do. I know you’re all best friends, and so I thought you could tell me what . . . what Tabitha likes to do.”

  Zerie stared at him for a moment, speechless.

  “Never mind.” Ned stood up quickly. “I’m sure you have to go help your grandma. Goodbye, Zerie.”

  He rushed out the front door before Zerie could respond.

  “Well, I certainly misread that situation,” Grammy said, laughing, from the kitchen doorway. “I thought Ned might have a crush on you, honey, but I guess he likes Tabitha.”

  “I guess he does,” Zerie murmured.

  And now Vashti and Brink—and Tabitha—knew that Zerie liked Ned. And it was pretty obvious that Vashti liked Ned, too. But Ned liked Tabitha.

  What a mess, Zerie thought. How was she supposed to be around her friends again after this embarrassing day? Was she supposed to tell Tabitha that Ned had feelings for her? Tabitha was such a loyal friend that she knew she’d stay away from Ned just to avoid hurting Zerie.

  “You all right?” Grammy asked.

  “It’s been a strange day,” Zerie replied. “I wish I could wave a wand and make it yesterday, when everyone was normal.”

  Grammy sighed. “Even the magic of Glinda the good sorceress is not powerful enough to do that, I’m afraid.”

  “I know. I just don’t want everything to change.” Zerie frowned. “I like my life the way it is, and now Vashti is mad at me, maybe. And Ned likes Tabitha. And Brink . . .”

  Her words trailed off. She wished she could discuss Brink’s talent with Grammy, but his secret wasn’t hers to tell.

  “Don’t you worry—your friends will always be there for you, even if you have a few bumps in the road. Friends need one another, they’re always strongest together.”

  “You always say that.” Zerie gave her grandmother a smile.

  “That’s because it’s true! You can’t stop things from changing, Zerie, but some change is good.” Grammy brushed a stray red curl off Zerie’s cheek. “You never know what tomorrow will bring.”

  .4.

  The willow tree was scratching at her window again.

  Zerie rolled over and buried her face in the pillow, trying to block out the sound. Every time it got windy at night, the old willow woke her up.

  “Zerie.”

  She pulled the blanket up over her ears.

  “Zerie!”

  The willow doesn’t usually talk, Zerie thought sleepily.

  “Zerie, wake up!”

  She opened her eyes. Her bedroom was empty. She yawned and snuggled back down. Whatever dream she’d been having was over now.

  “Zerie!” This time the voice was louder.

  Zerie bolted upright in her bed and peered into the darkness. “Who is that?” she whispered, frightened.

  “It’s me,” said nobody. “Oh! Sorry.”

  Suddenly Tabitha appeared right next to the bed. Zerie gasped.

  “Sshhh!” Tabitha hissed. “You’ll wake up your family.”

  “Well, what are you doing just appearing like that?” Zerie complained. “How did you even get in here?”

  “I’m invisible,” Tabitha pointed out. “I came through the front door and walked upstairs.”

  “You’re getting pretty cocky about your talent,” Zerie grumbled.

  “I know.” Tabitha giggled. “Listen, you have to come out to the woods.”

  “Now?” Zerie asked. “It’s midnight.”

  “True. But after you left today, Vashti and Brink and I got to talking—”

  “Brink?” Zerie interrupted. “You talked to him after that? He completely humiliated me!”

  “He was showing us his talent, like we asked him to,” Tabitha said gently. “Anyway, we all decided it would be safer to practice at night. Too many people can see us when we go into the woods.”

  “Well, nobody ever seemed interested before today,” Zerie pointed out. “What makes you so sure we can trust Brink? I still think he was spying.”

  “He has as much to lose as we do. If he gets caught using magic, they’ll take him away to the Forbidden Fountain too.” Tabitha stood up and held out her hand. “Come on. We were doing something amazing today before . . .”

  “Before Brink,” Zerie finished for her.

  “Wasn’t it exciting, though?” Tabitha asked. “All of us doing magic together?”

  Zerie thought about it. It had been pretty amazing, what they had done with the apple. “I’m not sure why we never tried to work together like that before,” she said. “Grammy always told me that friends are strongest together. But we weren’t ready, I guess.”

  “And you have to admit, Brink’s illusion was incredible,” Tabitha said.

  “I do not have to admit that,” Zerie said, but she let Tabitha pull her up out of bed.

  “You thought it was really Ned,” Tabitha told her. “And so did Vashti. You two wouldn’t have acted so crazy if you realized it was just an illusion. Which proves that it was a really good illusion.”

  Zerie groaned. “How am I ever going to face Vashti again? She likes Ned as much as I do. We acted like idiots, and all over a boy who isn’t interested in either one of us.”

  “You don’t know that,” Tabitha said.

  “Yes, I do.” Zerie clapped her hand over her mouth. She wasn’t supposed to tell Tabitha about Ned’s crush on her . . . was she? She wished she could ask Vashti about it.

  “What’s going on?”
Tabitha asked.

  “Nothing. Let’s go.” Zerie grabbed her cloak and headed for the door. Then she stopped. “Wait. I can’t make myself invisible. What if one of my brothers sees me? Zane is such a light sleeper!”

  Tabitha bit her lip, thinking. “Could you make yourself move really fast? Maybe if you went quickly, it wouldn’t sound like footsteps? You’d be gone before anyone noticed.”

  “I guess I can try,” Zerie said doubtfully. She wasn’t sure what her family would do if they caught her sneaking out at night—or practicing magic—but she knew she didn’t want to find out.

  “I’ll meet you outside,” Tabitha said, melting into invisibility.

  Zerie took a deep breath. Tabitha seemed so comfortable with her talent now, as if it hardly took any work at all. But Zerie still felt uncertain.

  She closed her eyes and pictured it: the walk from her room, down the hall, avoiding the creaky board at the top of the steps, downstairs to the front parlor, around the overstuffed chairs, to the front door . . . and out to the yard.

  She could see the route in her mind, all the familiar objects of her house shrouded in darkness, the clockwork maid powered down for the night in the kitchen, the little glowworm-lamp shining in the front window where Grammy always kept it. She could imagine herself moving through the house, ending up outside, where the stars were shining bright and the red grass was cool and wet with dew.

  “You forgot to close the door,” Tabitha said.

  Zerie opened her eyes. She was standing in the front yard, just as she’d pictured it. “How fast did I go?” she asked.

  “You beat me out,” Tabitha replied, softly closing the front door. “I barely even saw you, you were moving so quickly.”

  Zerie grinned. “Let’s go practice magic!”

  .5.

  Brink and Vashti were already in the woods when Zerie and Tabitha arrived. They had planned a different count of trees this time, one that brought them deeper into the woods. Zerie felt a little hurt to think that her two best friends had made these plans without her—and with Brink Springer.

  Still, she was here. She might as well work on her talent.

  “Hi, Zerie,” Brink said.

  “Hi.” She didn’t meet his eyes, or Vashti’s. Vashti didn’t say anything, and an awkward silence settled over them.

  “Let’s get started!” Tabitha chirped. “What should we do? We were all working together earlier, but I’m not sure how to bring Brink’s talent into that. Any ideas?”

  Nobody said a word.

  “Well, what if Zerie made something move really fast and I made it invisible?” Tabitha suggested. “Look!” She plucked a nightdrop, which had opened its tiny white petals wide, making a star shape that glowed softly in the darkness. “What can you do with this?”

  Zerie looked at the little flower, then back at Tabitha. “Nothing?” she said.

  “Please try, Zerie,” Tabitha pleaded. “Remember: Friends are strongest together.”

  “Don’t you quote Grammy at me,” Zerie grumbled.

  “Maybe if I can make the nightdrop spin, you can keep it spinning, like the apple,” Tabitha suggested.

  “Or you can make it close up again,” Brink put in. “Like it does in the daytime.”

  “How am I supposed to do that?” Zerie scoffed. “My talent is speed, not flowers.”

  “Right, but if you speed up the flower, it will close,” he replied. “Nightdrops open up at night and close in the morning. So if you make the flower’s cycle go faster, you can close up the petals.”

  Zerie stared at him. “You mean I should . . . speed up time?”

  Vashti gasped. “Is that even possible?”

  Brink looked startled. “I didn’t mean it that way. I only meant you should speed up the flower itself.”

  “But I only know how to speed things up the normal way,” Zerie protested. “By making them move faster.”

  Vashti laughed. “There is no normal way to speed things up,” she said.

  “I guess that’s true.” Zerie laughed, too, catching her friend’s gaze. But the instant their eyes met, Zerie remembered the way they’d bickered earlier, sniping at each other over Ned. Embarrassed, she looked away.

  “Try it, Zerie,” Tabitha said.

  “But that’s just my talent. I thought we were going to use all of our magic together,” Zerie protested.

  “Let go of the flower, Tabitha,” Vashti said.

  Tabitha did.

  The nightdrop fell toward the ground—then stopped itself and floated back up. Vashti was staring at it, concentrating hard as she levitated the tiny bloom.

  “Well, I don’t want to make it invisible when you’ve never done it before,” Tabitha said thoughtfully. “And I can’t think of a way that illusions would help.”

  “Me either,” Brink agreed. “But I’m happy to just help Zerie for tonight.”

  “No, you need to practice,” Tabitha said. “You try to create an illusion of something besides your brother, and I’ll try to make something invisible besides myself.”

  Their voices faded into the background as Zerie watched the nightdrop. It was beautiful, floating there in midair. Nightdrops were always beautiful, but somehow being up high, gleaming with its white light, made this one more special. It was as if a star had come down from the sky to float between her and Vashti.

  Zerie felt a stab of guilt as she looked at her friend’s dark, pretty face, lit by the nightdrop. She and Vashti had never fought before. She wasn’t sure how to move past it.

  “Are you doing it?” Vashti asked.

  “Yes.” Zerie shoved everything out of her mind except the nightdrop. Its tiny petals were unfurled as far as they could possibly be, but she’d seen the flowers all curled up many times. She knew that as the hour grew late, the petals would slowly close, starting from the small, pointed tip and rolling inward to the middle. Then, when all the tips were rolled, the petals themselves would draw together, hugging tight to make a little white ball.

  She closed her eyes and pictured that ball. It looked like a teeny-tiny pearl on top of a pedestal of green.

  “Zerie! You’re doing it!” Tabitha cried.

  Slowly, Zerie opened her eyes and looked at the nightdrop, floating gently in front of her, curled into a ball.

  “I knew you could,” Brink said.

  The nightdrop vanished.

  “I did it,” Tabitha whispered. “I made it disappear.”

  “Halt! In the name of Princess Ozma!” a harsh voice yelled.

  And then something came crashing through the canopy of trees—something large and heavy. Another crash, another figure dropping from the sky. Vashti screamed, and Zerie felt Brink grab her arm and pull, hard.

  “Run!” Vashti yelled. “Tabitha, run!”

  Brink was tugging on Zerie, yanking her through the trees. She only became aware that she was running when she glanced back over her shoulder to see why Vashti was yelling. Tabitha stood still, right where they had left her. She was staring at something in the forest, something Zerie couldn’t see. She nodded, as if someone were talking to her.

  “Tabitha!” Vashti screamed again, and now Zerie could make out Vashti’s shape huddled up against one of the tree trunks about ten feet away from Tabitha.

  “Stop,” Zerie demanded, digging her heels into the carpet of nightdrops. “We can’t leave them.”

  Crash! Another dark figure came hurtling through the treetops.

  “They caught us! It’s Ozma,” Brink whispered frantically. “Come on, run.”

  Why wasn’t Tabitha moving? Zerie jerked her hand out of Brink’s and rushed back to Vashti. “Vash, let’s go,” she hissed.

  “We have to help Tabitha. She’s stunned or something,” Vashti said.

  She stepped away from the tree and suddenly something came flying in between them. Zerie screamed and Vashti fell backward. A six-foot-tall figure, half-man and half-ape, stood over her . . . and spread its huge, leathery wings.

&nb
sp; “Winged Monkey,” Brink moaned from somewhere in the darkness. “It’s the Winged Monkeys!”

  Past the gigantic monkey’s armor-clad legs, Zerie could see her best friend lying on the ground. Vashti was sobbing. Zerie’s cheeks were wet, too, she realized.

  They were caught! They were doomed.

  ROOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!

  The sound, deep and otherwordly, came from everywhere at once, echoing through the branches and bouncing from one tree trunk to another. It was loud enough to make Zerie’s teeth vibrate, and without thinking, she covered her ears.

  The monkey in front of her was just as startled by the strange sound. It shrieked in surprise and flew up into the air.

  “Run,” Brink cried.

  Zerie lunged forward and grabbed Vashti’s hand, hauling her to her feet. Together, they raced through the red trees, trying to follow Brink ahead of them. There was screeching behind them, and the beating of strong wings against the air.

  “Don’t look back,” Zerie told her friend. “Don’t look back!”

  “Cut to the right, that’s the way back to Pa Underhill’s garden,” Vashti panted.

  “Brink! Go right!” Zerie called. She didn’t wait to see if he’d heard, she just turned and ran, clutching Vashti’s hand.

  “Let go! Stop! You said I could trust you!” It was Tabitha’s voice, but it was far away now.

  Zerie let out a sob as she fled.

  The monkeys had Tabitha.

  “There! The edge of the forest,” Vashti said. “We can hide under the collard greens— they’re tall.”

  Zerie jumped over the low stone wall and immediately dropped to her stomach, crawling under the broad leaves of the collard greens until she was hidden from the sky.

  “I don’t think it will work,” she moaned. “They couldn’t have seen us through the treetops, but they knew where we were anyway. They’ll find us here, too.”

  “No, someone must’ve told them we were there,” Brink said from nearby. Zerie felt a rush of relief that he’d made it.