Bewitched in Oz Read online

  Zerie felt weak with relief when she saw Vashti stand up. But even from this distance, she could see how upset her friend’s expression was.

  “You did it, Vashti!” Brink called. “You levitated yourself for the whole time.”

  “I almost fell, and I bet I never even got you two off the ground,” Vashti called back. “Did I?”

  Zerie still felt too exhausted to talk, so she was glad when Brink kept going. “You only started to fall because I distracted you—I’m sorry,” he called. “I gave you a push so Zerie could keep you moving quickly.”

  “It was teamwork, just like what we did that time with Tabitha,” Zerie called weakly. “Friends are strongest together, remember? It worked great, Vash.”

  Vashti still looked as if she might cry, and Zerie felt helpless to comfort her.

  “Two down, two to go!” Brink called cheerfully. “Vashti, since the bow-vines are on your side, maybe you can weave a bunch of them together to make a rope.”

  “Sure. Yeah, I can do that.” Vashti snapped out of her funk and turned to the trees to gather some vines.

  Brink sat down next to Zerie. “You’re really good at that—making people feel better,” she told him.

  “Vashti gets upset about her talent not working the way she wants. I figured it would be helpful to have her work on something she’s fantastic at, like weaving. She’s going to make us the strongest rope ever,” Brink said. “And then she’ll feel more confident again.”

  “See? You’re really good at it. I think cheering people up is your other magical talent,” Zerie told him.

  He blushed. It made Zerie feel embarrassed suddenly, and her face heated up, too.

  “Are you okay?” Brink asked after a moment. “You usually need to concentrate and visualize before you move something fast, but this time you just . . . you just did it.”

  She nodded. “I’m all right—tired, but all right.”

  “You’ve been getting stronger and stronger on this trip,” he said. “I guess I’d better start practicing my magic if I want to keep up with you.”

  “Oh, please. You’ll never keep up with me,” she said, teasing.

  Brink laughed and shoved her arm.

  “Make an illusion now, while we’re waiting,” she suggested.

  “Okay.” Brink sat still for a long time, so long that Zerie wondered if he was falling asleep. Then suddenly she noticed something out of the corner of her eye—somebody approached them and sank down onto the ground next to her.

  Zerie turned, and jumped in surprise. The person on the grass was her. It was Zerie Greenapple in her gingham shirt and blue linen pants, with her curly red hair and her green eyes, wearing a slight smile.

  “Aaahhh! Make that stop!” Zerie cried.

  The other Zerie vanished.

  “Why? What’s wrong?” Brink asked.

  “That was me!” Zerie said. “That was weird. I mean, it was me.”

  “Right. I told you I can only do things that I see all the time, that I know really well,” Brink said. “I’ve seen you constantly today.” He was looking at her with such intensity that Zerie felt exposed all of a sudden, as if he could tell what she was thinking and feeling. It made her feel squirmy, and she got to her feet and moved away from him.

  “Vash! Is the rope almost done?” she called.

  “Yes. But I’m not sure I can throw it all the way over,” Vashti replied from the other side of the trench. “What if it falls into the trench?”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” the Glass Cat put in, stretching her back into a high arch. “You incompetent people will spend the whole night trying to get through one trench! I will take the rope over to them.”

  She grabbed one end of the bow-vine rope in her glass teeth and leapt to the bottom of the trench. In another minute, Zerie could see her climbing up the wall on their side, the rope trailing behind her.

  “It must be nice to be a cat,” Brink commented.

  “Especially one made of glass—she’s indestructible,” Zerie agreed.

  The cat clawed her way up over the edge of the chasm and dropped the vine from her mouth with a puckered expression. “That tastes terrible,” she spat. “Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through these things.” And with that, she jumped back into the trench.

  Zerie and Brink laughed.

  “How should we do this?” Zerie asked. “If we tie the rope to one of the tickle bushes, we can both climb down it. But then we won’t be able to untie it and use it to climb back up the other side.”

  “I’m making another one,” Vashti called. “It will take too long if we have to keep passing the rope back and forth. By the time you get to the bottom, I’ll be able to lower this new rope down to you.”

  “Good idea!” Zerie replied. “We’d be lost without you.”

  Brink tied the vine rope around the thickest tickle bush he could find. Then Zerie slung her bag over her shoulder, took a deep breath, and climbed over the edge of the trench. She’d always been a good climber—growing up in an orchard meant she could climb trees before she could walk. She lowered herself quickly to the bottom, about twenty-five feet down. But Brink took a little longer. He clung tightly to the rope and moved slowly.

  I guess Brink isn't used to climbing, Zerie thought, watching him as he moved. She couldn’t help herself—she just wanted to stare at him.

  He really was cute, maybe even more than Ned. Ned was handsome, but he didn’t have the same entertaining personality that Brink did. Brink liked to tease her, and that was fun. And Brink was incredibly helpful whenever she needed him. It wasn’t something she would have noticed back home, but out in the wilderness she was learning just how dependable and kind he really was.

  “This place is crazy.” Brink was panting when he finally reached the bottom.

  “Oh. Yeah, I guess it is,” Zerie replied.

  The truth was, she’d been so preoccupied by thinking about Brink that she hadn’t even looked around yet. Now that she did, she saw that he was right.

  The trench wasn’t very wide, but there were two entirely different environments in it. The side they had just come from was covered with the reddish tickle bushes. They grew sideways on the wall and all along the floor. Nothing but tickle bushes as far as the eye could see, running along that one side and right up to the middle of the trench. But the other side was covered in deep purple chewing-gum trees—they didn’t reach the top of the trench, which is why she hadn’t noticed them from above. Still, they grew so thickly that it was like a small jungle at the bottom of the trench, filled with trees and vines . . . all of them growing right up to the same straight line in the middle. It looked as if a giant had drawn a line dividing the trench length-wise, and then colored one side red and the other side purple.

  “Weird.” Brink held out his hand. “Let’s go.”

  “Okay.” Zerie put her hand in his, trying to be casual about it. They were just two friends helping each other through a trench. It wasn’t as if they were holding hands.

  Together they stepped over the line that divided the bushes from the jungle. Brink shoved aside purple branches and vines with his free hand, and within two minutes they reached the far wall.

  “Vashti! Can you see us?” Zerie called.

  “Not really, it’s pretty dark down there,” Vashti’s voice came back. “But I’ll drop the rope down near your voice.”

  Another bow-vine rope crashed through the treetops. Brink jumped up to unsnag it from a gum-tree branch, and then he tied it around Zerie’s waist. “Ready?” he yelled to Vashti.

  “I have it tied to a tree up here,” she called back.

  Zerie took hold of the rope and climbed quickly to the top. Vashti helped her over the edge and hugged her. Then they untied the rope from Zerie’s waist and dropped that end back down for Brink.

  Vashti handed Zerie a purple flower from one of the trees. “It’s good,” she said.

  Zerie gingerly put the flower in her mouth, where it instantly
melted into a chewy, fruity blob of gum.

  By the time Brink made it to the top, both girls had learned how to blow big purple bubbles, and the eastern sky was turning gray. It had been a long night.

  “How far to the next trench?” Brink asked the Glass Cat. “Can we make it tonight?”

  “About a mile through the jungle,” she replied. “Then we’ll come to the trench that is half jungle, half desert.”

  “Desert?” Zerie said. “Are they all like this, split into two different environments?”

  “Of course,” said the cat, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I told you there would be different ecosystems. It’s The Trenches.”

  “So each one has two different things? What comes after the desert?” Brink asked.

  The cat’s tail flicked angrily. “How should I know? I’m intelligent enough not to venture across a desert. I’ve always stopped at that trench before.”

  “Well, I think we should wait until tomorrow night to try the desert one,” Vashti said. “If we cross the next trench tonight, we’ll end up on the desert side when the sun comes up. That wouldn’t be good.”

  A sudden growl caught their attention.

  Zerie gazed across the trench they just came from—and her heart stopped. There on the other side stood the most fearsome creature she’d ever seen.

  The wide green eyes of a tiger met hers, and the tiger’s lips drew back in a snarl, revealing long, sharp teeth.

  With another growl, the thing stood on two hind legs, its dark form rising up like a nightmare to six-foot height. It was a bear—its entire body was covered in dark, thick fur, except for the claws, which gleamed white.

  “A Kalidah!” Vashti screamed.

  Zerie couldn’t speak at all, she was so frightened.

  “No, it’s two Kalidahs,” the Glass Cat said casually.

  Sure enough, another nightmare creature appeared behind the first, roaring at them over the trench.

  “Can those things climb?” Brink asked.

  “Not as well as a regular tiger,” the cat replied. “But you’ve left a rope hanging there to help them.”

  As she spoke, the first Kalidah grabbed on to the vine rope with its bear hands and swung down into the trench.

  “They’re coming after us,” Zerie cried. “Run!”

  .12.

  Zerie was halfway through the jungle when she realized her friends weren’t with her. She skidded to a stop and shook her head. She must’ve used her magic and run too fast, leaving them behind. She hadn’t even been aware that she was doing it, but the fear of the Kalidahs had driven her.

  She closed her eyes and pictured the edge of the trench where she’d left Brink and Vashti, and she imagined the path back there.

  When she opened her eyes, her friends were staring at her.

  “Did you just go somewhere?” Brink asked.

  “Yes, I ran, and I guess it was fast because you two couldn’t catch up,” she replied.

  “Catch up? You were only gone for a minute,” Vashti said. “We didn’t even start.”

  “Well, start,” Zerie said. “Those Kalidahs are coming. We have to run!”

  “Run where?” Vashti asked frantically. “The cat said it’s a desert after the next trench. There’s nowhere to hide! They’ll catch us for sure.”

  “Okay. Okay, okay, okay,” Zerie murmured, trying to think. “So we have to hide. They never found us in the ditch with Ednah and Edmond. Maybe they couldn’t get through the tickle bushes.”

  “Tickle bushes! I think I can do that illusion,” Brink said. “I’ll make it look like the bushes are growing over the top of the trench. Both the Kalidahs are down inside it now.” He stared at the trench, concentrating.

  “I can help.” Zerie took his hand, closed her eyes, and pictured the bushes on the far side of the hole. They could grow very thick, their branches long and intertwining. She imagined the bushes growing, maturing, tangling together, extending out over the chasm until they reached the tops of the trees that grew inside the trench.

  “You’re doing it!” Vashti whispered.

  Zerie opened her eyes. The trench had a cover now, red tickle bushes lying like a carpet over the top. “How much of that is illusion and how much is real?” she asked.

  “It doesn’t matter. You made them grow and then I used the new, bigger bushes as the basis for my illusion,” Brink said. “I didn’t know I could do that.”

  “I still hear the Kalidahs,” Vashti said. “If they figure it out, they’ll be up here in no time. Where should we go?”

  “To the next trench,” the Glass Cat said. “Where else?” She took off running into the jungle. The three friends followed.

  Zerie felt as if she was jogging through molasses. She’d run farther than this before in no time at all. Her whole body yearned to move faster, as fast as her magical talent could take her. She’d made Brink and Vashti move as fast as she did once, when the Foot Hills were about to stomp them. But making the tickle bushes grow had used a lot of magic, and she felt tired. She wasn’t sure how much strength she had left. So for now she just ran along slowly, following the cat.

  “Where’s the trench?” Brink asked breathlessly when they’d been running for ten minutes. “The cat said it was a mile in, so maybe we should slow down. If it just drops off in the middle of this jungle, we could fall in before we ever even see it coming.”

  Vashti stopped running immediately, panting. Zerie stopped, too, though she wasn’t even winded.

  “Do you hear anything?” Zerie asked. “Maybe those Kalidahs are still down in the last trench. Maybe the illusion worked and they think they’re trapped.”

  “I doubt it. I don’t think the illusion would last after I stopped paying attention to it, do you?” Brink asked. “The only bushes over that trench now are the ones you grew there.”

  “Where’s the Glass Cat?” Vashti peered through the jungle, which was getting lighter every minute. The sun was rising above the canopy of purple gum trees.

  “She was there a minute ago,” Zerie said, pushing aside some of the vines to get a better view. All she saw were trees and vines. No cat.

  “Well, we know which way to go. She’ll turn up.”

  Brink began walking again, so Zerie and Vashti did, too, though Zerie couldn’t shake the feeling of unease about the cat. She didn’t like being in a jungle without their guide.

  “There.” Brink pointed. “I think that must be the trench. It’s so bright.”

  Zerie nodded. Up ahead, a light shone through the dense trees. The three friends crept along slowly, eyes on the ground, waiting to see a drop-off.

  “Look up,” Vashti said, grabbing Zerie’s arm. “It’s the desert on the other side.”

  Sure enough, when Zerie gazed straight ahead, she saw pale sand, blazing in the first beams of dawn. She looked down, searching for the edge of this trench. They had to be standing right on top of it.

  “Here. It’s hard to make out.” Brink knelt and ran his hand along the plants on the ground. “The chasm starts right here, but the underbrush and the trees grow right over the edge so you can’t see it.”

  “That’s scary,” Zerie said. She took hold of the closest tree trunk and leaned out over the side of the trench. Far below, she could see a line along the bottom, dividing the trench in half. This side of the trench was jungle. The other side was desert. It looked as if there was a boundary on the ground, and the plants and the sand each stayed on their own side. The line ran as far as the horizon in both directions. “How will we get down this time?”

  “I brought the last rope with us,” Vashti said. “But I don’t want to leave it hanging again for the Kalidahs. Can we climb down this one by ourselves? There are vines and trees growing from the wall.”

  Suddenly a snarl echoed through the air, followed by the sound of something crashing through the trees.

  “What do we do?” Zerie asked, trying not to panic.

  “Vashti, you can levitate y
ourself down into the trench,” Brink said. “Zerie, climb down and start making the jungle plants grow. We’ll have to stick to the jungle side for now. We have to build a hiding place at the bottom—one where we can spend the day and the Kalidahs won’t find us.”

  “But what about you?” Zerie cried.

  “I’m going to use my talent,” he answered. “Wish me luck.”

  The growling and snarling grew closer.

  “Float,” Vashti whispered, closing her eyes. “Float.”

  She lifted off the ground, and Zerie gave her a gentle nudge toward the trench. “Don’t go over it, go into it,” she reminded her friend.

  Vashti didn’t answer, but she began to float down into the chasm.

  The trees nearby were shaking, leaves and vines flying as the Kalidahs smashed their way through the jungle.

  Zerie grabbed a vine and lowered herself over the edge so the Kalidahs wouldn’t be able to see her. There she stopped, pressed up against the wall, clinging to the plants. She couldn’t leave Brink.

  Peering over the edge, she saw him kneeling, motionless. And then there he was again, in the trees, away from the trench, walking east. And again, another Brink, walking west.

  Zerie stared, awestruck, as she appeared next to him, and again. Two Zeries, going in different directions. Then Vashti appeared in both places. Zerie was stunned by how perfect Brink’s illusion was—the fake Zerie and Vashti and Brink looked exactly like the real ones. The illusory friends began to run, one set of three going east and the other going west.

  Please let it work, Zerie thought. Please.

  There was a confused bellowing from the Kalidahs. And then one dark form headed off to the right, crashing through the trees after the first fake friends. The other went left, following the second illusion, snarling and rending the jungle.

  Zerie sighed in relief. The Kalidahs were off their trail—for now, at least. She pulled herself back up over the edge and hurried over to Brink. He still sat silently, not even seeming to notice her. “I know you’re holding the illusion for as long as you can,” she told him. “You keep concentrating, and then when the Kalidahs are far away, we’ll both climb down together.”