I looked at Ollie.
“Why are we stopping?”
“This is the human entrance. You can’t very well climb up there like the others, can you?”
I looked up to where he was pointing. Most of the monkeys traveling with us had simply scampered up into the branches.
Ollie pressed his palm into a barely visible indentation in the trunk and a door slid open, revealing that the tree had been outfitted with a makeshift contraption kind of like a dumbwaiter. Ollie crawled inside and beckoned for us to follow, and once we were all in, he and Maude and I all took turns pulling on the rope that turned the pulley and raised the platform carrying us up, up, up, into the darkness.
Ollie was completely out of breath and I wasn’t doing much better by the time we emerged from the passage onto a narrow platform.
The monkey village was like the world’s coolest tree house crossed with something out of a Swiss Family Robinson theme party thrown by Martha Stewart. Throughout the village, wooden houses of all shapes and sizes had been built into the treetops, all of them connected by a network of suspended walkways constructed out of roughly hewn planks and twisted vines. Everywhere I looked were monkeys in human clothing. There were monkeys in sharp little three-piece suits, monkeys in sweatpants and T-shirts, monkeys in nurses’ uniforms, and even monkeys in tiny little ball gowns who looked like they could be on their way to the monkey Oscars. Most of them weren’t using the walkways; instead, the ones with places to be were swinging from vines and scampering across branches, looking perfectly unaware of the fact that we were at least five hundred feet up.
We were greeted by a monkey who seemed not at all self-conscious about the fact that she was wearing a French maid’s uniform.
“Welcome back,” she said to Ollie in a voice too low and gruff for her tiny size. She gave him a quick pat on the back and a kiss on the cheek before turning to the queen, sinking into a clumsy curtsy as I fought to stifle a giggle. “Greetings, Your Highness,” she said to Ozma. “I’m Iris. We are honored to have you join us in our village.” After lingering on the queen for a few moments, Iris directed her attention to me. Her smile faded. I was starting to realize that these monkeys didn’t quite trust me.
“Hi,” I said awkwardly. “I’m Amy.”
“Yes,” she said. “Queen Lulu has been awaiting your arrival. Ollie will take you to her while I escort Her Majesty to the quarters you’ll be sharing.” With that, Iris took the wide-eyed Ozma by the hand and led her away.
“I don’t think your friends are that into me,” I said to Ollie.
He just shrugged. “The Wingless Ones have a bad track record with witches.” Before I could protest he was already moving, scampering off across a rope bridge. I followed.
Because the canopy blocked out almost any light from the sun, the village was lit instead by strange, floating lanterns that looked like oversize, translucent lemons. They hung in the air along the walkways and over the tree houses, their glowing light giving the otherwise dim village the feeling of a fancy garden party just about to start. (Not that I’ve ever been to a fancy garden party, but back in Kansas I did sometimes used to watch HGTV with my mom. When we were getting along, I mean.)
“Sunfruit,” Ollie explained, seeing me staring at the lamp-things as we made our way across the walkways. “Try one.” He plucked a fruit from where it hovered and expertly shucked a piece of soft, thin rind from the top, revealing a yellowish, glowing goop inside. He handed it to me.
The sunfruit felt warm in my palm and had the rubbery consistency of a gummi bear. I was a little afraid of it, but I didn’t want to offend him, so I stuck a finger in, scooped out some of the slime, and tasted it.
I was expecting it to be kind of gross. I wasn’t prepared for it to be pretty much the most delicious thing I’d ever eaten. It tasted like ten things at once: like saltwater taffy and pineapples and fruity drinks with little umbrellas. It tasted like summer, and the last day of school, and the beach. I closed my eyes and savored it for a second, suddenly realizing exactly how long it had been since I’d taken the time to actually enjoy something. These days, distractions like that were pretty hard to come by.
I could have spent the next hour trying to separate out all the flavors of the sunfruit, but Ollie was already tugging at my sleeve. “We don’t want to keep Queen Lulu waiting. She is a wise ruler, but she gets frustrated easily. You’d rather not see her when she’s angry.”
I took his word for it, but I continued scooping up more of the sunfruit as we kept walking. A few minutes later, we came to a spiral of stairs that had been built into the outside of a thick-trunked tree. “The queen will see you alone,” Ollie said. “When you’re done, you can find your chambers near the waterfall.”
“A waterfall? Up here? In the trees?”
“Can’t miss it,” he said, jumping from the path and grabbing on to a vine with his tail. He swung around and hung there upside down, looking me in the eye. “Thank you, Amy,” he said, and I knew that he wasn’t just thanking me for saving him, or for saving his sister.
Then he was gone into the leaves.
I took a deep breath and began to make my way up the rickety wooden stairs that twisted up toward the canopy. I took each wobbly step carefully, hugging the tree as closely as I possibly could, trying not to think about the fact that I was probably the first fully grown human to use this path in years. You’d think the day I’d just had would have cured me of my fear of heights, but nope.
Look, fear’s not always rational, okay? Anyway, there’s a difference between being afraid and being a coward. At least there was one thing I could take comfort in: if you’re afraid, you must still be a little bit human.
When I finally made it up through the canopy, I discovered that the “palace” wasn’t really a palace at all. Just a large, round hut that sat on a spacious platform of planks above the leaves.
Inside, Queen Lulu was sitting on a large throne constructed out of sticks and branches in the middle of a filthy room strewn with banana peels, clothes, and piles upon piles of newspapers, books, toys, and other junk. She wore bright red lipstick, a poufy pink tutu, and pink, rhinestone-encrusted cat-eye sunglasses. She sat there eyeing me, all the while fanning herself with a paper fan.
“Well, well, well,” she squeaked from behind her fan. “If it isn’t famous Amy Gumm. Welcome to my queendom.”
So she was no Kate Middleton. Still, I wasn’t sure what to expect from her as I approached her throne, and I figured that even a queen in a tutu expects a certain amount of respect. I bowed. “It’s an honor to meet you, Your Highness,” I said.
“Charmed, I’m sure,” Queen Lulu said. Her voice was squeaky but tough, too. “I hear you’re a hero type, the real deal. You and your daring rescues! Oh, sure, we’ve heard all about those around these parts.”
“Uh, thanks,” I said. “I don’t know. I was just doing what anyone would have done, I guess.”
“Well, bless your heart,” Lulu said. She set her fan aside and casually scratched her armpit. “Shall we call our debt all settled up here, then?”
“Debt?” I asked.
“Yeah, debt. You saved Ollie and Maude, they saved you. Even-steven. No more monkey business.”
“Oh,” I said, taken aback. “I mean, okay. It wasn’t like I was keeping track or anything.”
Queen Lulu lowered her sunglasses and looked out over them. “Let’s cut the crap,” she said. “You seem like a nice girl, but I want to make sure we have things straight here. I allowed Ollie and Maude to help you out this one little time, but we Wingless Ones aren’t going to get involved in whatever nonsense is brewing in Oz these days. What Dorothy and the rest of them do down there? That’s someone else’s ball of beeswax. We’ve got a good thing going up here in the trees.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about? To tell me you’re staying out of it?”
“You got it, sweetheart. I know your type. You come aroun
d, you stir up trouble, and before you know it I’ve got all my monkeys wanting a war with the Emerald City. Thanks, but no thanks. You’re lucky I let you come here at all.”
Um, obviously I hadn’t come here trying to get the monkeys to go to war. Come to think of it, I hadn’t even asked to be brought here at all. Really, all I wanted in the world was a nap. A really, really, really long nap. And a shower. And maybe some ice cream and some bad TV.
Even so, Queen Lulu’s attitude was seriously pissing me off. Without really meaning to, I placed my hands indignantly on my hips. “Seriously? How can you act like what Dorothy does isn’t your problem? You may be hidden up here for now, but she’ll burn this place to the ground as soon as she gets around to it. Wouldn’t you rather live somewhere where you didn’t have to hide? Where you didn’t have to cut off your wings?”
Lulu picked up a banana from a bunch that was sitting on a table by her throne and peeled it. Royalty or not, she chewed with her mouth open.
“Come on,” she snorted. “We monkeys have had the short end of the hot dog for as long as Oz has been Oz. I may be the boss-lady now, but in my day I’ve hauled more than one witch around like I was a common chauffeur. Dorothy, the Wizard, Mombi, and her stupid little Order—they’re all the same to me.”
“The Order wants freedom for everyone.”
I surprised myself at how strongly I felt about it. The truth is, I’d never totally trusted the Order myself. Because, sure, Dorothy was evil, but who was to say that they weren’t more evil? They used to be wicked witches, after all. Who’s to say they weren’t still?
But look. You have to be loyal to something, right? I might have my own doubts about Mombi and the rest of them, but I had thrown my lot in with them, and I had to stand by my choices.
Queen Lulu was giving me a dubious, I’ve got your number kind of look.
“Don’t give me the babe-in-the-woods act, babe,” she said. “Let’s just say you and your wicked little friends do manage to kill Dorothy. You think I’ll be the one resting my hairy heinie on that shiny emerald throne? Not a chance. I’ve dinged enough dongs in my day to know it’ll be the same as it ever was. Maybe worse. Meet the new witch, same as the old witch.”
As she’d been talking, Queen Lulu had been working herself up into a frenzy; now she sprang to her feet and bared her teeth, her sunglasses askew.
I knew I should just nod and agree with her. I wasn’t going to change her mind, and she looked about one wrong word away from swinging across the room and wrestling me to the ground. But I’ve always been pretty bad at shutting up and smiling. Come to think of it, that might have been part of how I’d gotten myself into all this in the first place.
“What about Ozma?” I asked. “Things were good when she was in charge, right? Not all leaders are the same.”
Lulu cackled uproariously. She laughed until she was wheezing, and then, when she was tired out, she collapsed back into her seat and kicked her legs up. “Sure. Ozma was a doll way back when. But we all know that broad’s about six stamps short of first class these days. She’s great if you want to hear a whole lot of nonsense, but she’s not exactly monarch material, am I right?”
Okay, fine, she was right. But that didn’t change my point.
“So what? Should we just be on our way then?”
“Aw, don’t get all bent out of shape. You and Miss Princess can stay as long as you want. I do have my principles, after all, and anyway I’m a big softie. But I don’t want any trouble—and that means no magic while you’re here, got it? We don’t go in for that type of thing. And I know the kind of magic you do.”
“Fine,” I said. “No magic.”
Queen Lulu looked pretty much totally unconvinced. “Show me your hands.”
“My hands?”
“You think I was born yesterday? For all I know you’ve got your fingers crossed behind your back. Don’t think you can pull one over on me.”
I stared at her. Next was she going to knock twice on her throne and call no take-backs? But as ridiculous as it all sounded, I could tell from the way she was glaring at me that she meant business.
I dutifully held my hands out to show I was on the up-and-up. Lulu cleared her throat, like, I’m waiting.
I sighed. “I promise not to use magic while I’m in the village—”
“Queendom.”
“Queendom of the Wingless Ones. No take-backs,” I added for good measure.
At that, the queen nodded smugly and picked up her fan again. She fluttered it in front of her face. “Very well,” she said. “Now if you please, I must meet with my high council. I’m a very busy majesty, you know.”
I turned to leave, and then, with my hand on the door, I thought of something and spun around.
“Have you heard anything about the Order?” I asked.
“Not a peep,” she said dismissively. “They’re probably all pushing up daisies. Now skedaddle.”
“You must have heard something,” I pleaded. “Mombi told me nothing happens in Oz without the Wingless Ones getting wind of it.” When in doubt, lay it on thick.
That was a lie, of course. Mombi had never once mentioned Queen Lulu. But royal types can never resist flattery. Lulu’s eyes softened.
“Well,” she mused. “It’s true that I try to keep up with the latest news. The Order isn’t the only one with spies. Even up here, it does pay to have the scoop—and I am the queen.”
“Please,” I pushed. “I just want to know—I need to know where they are.”
Lulu just sighed. “Sorry, toots,” she said. “Only thing I know is that your hag Mombi worked her old abracadabra and went right up in smoke. Took her pals with her. Poof! All I’ve heard since are the sweetest nothings.”
“What about . . . ,” I started.
She put a hand up to stop me and checked an imaginary watch at her wrist. “I believe my next appointment is coming up,” she said irritably. “Now shoo. I’m a very busy monarch. If you want someone who can sit around making small talk, I’d try the Duchess of Tree People. She’s the biggest blabbermouth you’ll ever find.”
When I still didn’t move to leave, Lulu’s patience finally decided she was over it. “Begone!” she yelled, picking up a banana and hurling it across the room like a boomerang, aiming right for my face. I ducked just in time for it to bounce off my head.
I was done. I’d heard about the types of things monkeys liked to fling, and I was pretty sure I was getting off easy with just a banana. This was my cue to leave.
But as I was heading out into the night, ready to make my way back down into the jungle, I heard a rustling in the trees, and then the low chirping of monkey voices. The queen’s council. I couldn’t quite hear what they were saying, but from the tone of their whispers, it sounded important.
I knew I had promised, but I couldn’t help myself. It came so easily this time that I barely even thought about what I was doing: I felt myself sinking into the shadows. As four monkeys approached the queen’s chambers, I slithered after them. They let the door slam shut behind them, and didn’t even notice when I passed right through it.
Everything was different in my shadow world—wherever it was. It was sort of like back home when we tried to steal cable from the trailer next door and everything came out kind of staticky and garbled and sometimes upside down, but you could make it out if you kind of squinted and moved your face really close to the screen.
The queen’s throne room flickered and wavered, but I saw four monkeys clustered around at her feet. At first it sounded like they were all speaking some other language, but the longer I listened the more I was able to catch snatches of the conversation until finally I managed to make some sense of it.
“We cannot have her here,” a monkey in green corduroy overalls and a propeller beanie was saying. “You didn’t see her . . .”
Lulu waved him off. “I wish I had,” she said. “You want the truth, I wish she’d finished him right off. The Lion can rot. See if I care.”<
br />
“You don’t understand. She was . . . she was not human. Something overtook her—a darkness unlike anything I have ever encountered.”
I jolted. They were talking about me. Even though I had some idea of how I’d looked when I’d been fighting the Lion, I didn’t like to hear it described like this.
But it was true. I had touched the dark, and I had liked it. And as much as I wanted to think that it was just a case of getting carried away in the fight, it wasn’t so simple. How could it be, when I was watching them through this cold, eerie veil of shadows?
“I must agree, Queen Lulu,” said a monkey in a curly red wig. “Princess Ozma is one thing, but the presence of the other one puts all of us in danger.”
“She is a—”
“Enough!” Lulu snapped. “I’m the boss, applesauce, and the boss-lady has made up her mind. The little witch stays. The princess stays. I have my reasons. Now tell me what you hear of the rest of Oz. Has Dorothy been found?”
A monkey wearing a pink velour sweat suit rose to her feet. “We believe that Princess Dorothy has fled the city, along with the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. No one has seen them since last night.”
“Glinda?”
“Glinda was gravely wounded in battle and is thought to have returned to her fortress.”
“Oh, of course,” Lulu sniffed. “That witch talks a big game, but she couldn’t be a bigger candy-ass if she dropped her pink little undies and sat on a pile of gumdrops. Now what about the rest of the witches—what about the Order?”
I held my breath, and then realized I had no breath to hold. When I was a shadow, I didn’t have a body.