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I forced my jaw shut before any more spilled out.

“I thought you said a house fell on Crow,” Rexi said, completely missing the emotional point of my ramble.

Kato sent her an icy glare, so she raised her hands and backed off.

I took a few measured breaths before trying to be coherent. “Kato, I can't help you with Blanc. I can never use whatever”—I pinched the green, curly, crackling ends of my hair—“this is again. The last part of the curse can't come true, not if I can help it.”

“I understand, I think.” Kato still looked disappointed, despite his words. He whistled sharply, and Bob came trotting without delay—as in he must have been eavesdropping outside the entrance.

“Please take them to my mother's old room. I'm sure they could use the rest.” Kato's tone of voice basically added
whether
you
want
to
or
not.
“When you're done, Bobbledandrophous, join me at the White One's cell.”

Bob bowed and shuffled Rexi and I out in a flurry of his feathered wings.

“And, Dot,” Kato called just before I reached the exit. “While I don't agree that destroying evil would somehow make you the same as her, I won't force the issue. For now.”

“Rule #68: When you're afraid, hold your head high and whistle a happy tune. This remedy is also known to increase dwarf productivity by a multiple of seven.”

—
Definitive Fairy-Tale Survival Guide, Volume 1

“Time to greet the suns, Priestess,” a very chipper voice cut through the fog of slumber.

Prying my eyes open took some effort, but when I finally succeeded, Bob's smiling face took up the whole door frame. Morning people should have to live in their own country or something and not bother the rest of us.

“Unh, need…more…sleep.” To say that I'd had a restless night would be a gross understatement. Between Rexi snoring and grunting in her sleep and me worrying that one of Griff's cronies would do the volcano thing in my new room, I hadn't actually had any peaceful rest.

“Apologies, Priestess, but my lord instructed me to wake you. He and the rude human are waiting for you.”

Rude
human? He must mean Rexi.
She wasn't kicking me out of bed, so she must have already gotten up.

I stumbled to the door and shooed Bob away. “I'll just change and be right there.” Luckily, the late queen and I were the same size—coincidence, not a sign. We certainly didn't share the same taste in fashion. I threw on a blue gingham frock and headed out.

Rexi sauntered down the hallway, her knapsack bulging to capacity. “I've found all sorts of useful supplies around this dump, so I'm all ready to go.”

I quirked an eyebrow at her. “Where are you going?”

“We are going to go see your stalker wizard whether he wants the rest of us or not.”

I wasn't particularly happy our plans had been changed without me. “I thought we were going to the spring somewhere over the rainbow?”

“Kato says without the help of the Emerald Sorceress…” Rexi trailed off.

“We'd never find it.” Kato came toward us from the other direction. Instead of continuing the thought, he stopped. “That dress.”

That's all he said—then stared, making me self-conscious. “Is it okay if I wear this? It was just lying there, and my other one's toast so…” I waited for him to say something.

He smiled, then quickly coughed. “It…suits you. If you don't mind it being simple and used, you're welcome to keep it.”

I couldn't tell if that was a compliment or another dig. “Well, vintage is in this season, so it'll do.”

“Yeesh,” Rexi groaned. “Just get to the whole homicidal rainbow sprite.”

“Excuse me?” I asked.

Kato straightened, turning royal know-it-all again. “The spring Verte wanted you to go to has special powers that might be able to undo the wish. But the spring is invisible. It moves so no one knows where it is, and it's guarded by a sprite that uses deadly rainbow sorcery.”

If that was true, how did Verte ever expect me to be able to find it? “Are you sure?”

“I spent most of the night doing research,” Kato said. “I also poured through the chimera archives and found lots of references to a
Book
of
Making
. Supposedly, you can use it to bind or bend magic to create what the user imagines. We don't have anything like that here anymore, so the most likely place I could think of was the wizard's workshop at the Ivory Tower.”

An image flashed into my mind while Kato was explaining. A book I'd seen before. “Is the cover engraved with a quill and sparkly red ink?” I asked.

“How did you know?” Kato countered, his furry forehead all crinkled.

The morning sluggishness gave way to excitement. “When I watched Blanc's story, the Maker used a book like that. And I saw one at the Maker's workshop that popped up in the forest. If you want it, we'd better hurry because that bibliobug was chomping it down pretty fast.” I smirked at Rexi. “See? I told you we were supposed to be there.”

She pursed her lips. “I still think you're delusional. I vote we go see the wizard.”

Kato wiggled in between us. “We should do both. If the book is there, we will need someone who can read the spells.”

“So Maker hut first, then Wizard of Oz,” I said with finality.

“Oz?” Kato and Rexi asked in unison.

I waved them off. “Griz and Crow were talking about keeping me away from
Oz
, so I figured that's the name of the realm where the wizard lives.”

After gathering a few provisions, Bob escorted the three of us to the secret exit, also known as the way out for people without wings. He couldn't come with us; he was in charge of everything until Kato came back—preferably on two legs again. After a quick private conference between the two of them—no, I didn't eavesdrop—Bob came over and lowered his muzzle to my height.

“My lady, please continue to look after Lord Kato in my stead. He tries to hide it, but being the Beast King is not an easy task, and I worry his heart will harden to obsidian because of it. But already, I can see he has grown from his time with you.”

“He's grown because he eats nonstop—”

Bob cut me off and swiped a giant paw across the floor, literally sweeping me off my feet and into a crushing embrace. “May your embers burn ever brightly and warm the hearth until your return.”

A sizzling sound came from the top of my head, and a big, wet drop landed on my shoulder. I couldn't help but think that while it was really nice to be cared about, it would really suck if he cried me to death. But my hair was still flaming when he gingerly set me back on my feet and gave me a watery smile before flying back to keep his own hearth safe.

“Are you coming, Dot?” Kato shouted when he and Rexi reached the end of the obsidian tunnel.

I jogged the distance and joined them outside in the lush rain forest. “Wow, what is this place? It's amazing.” For the first time in days, I felt at peace. Maybe because I was surrounded by so much green and it reminded me of home, but even our forests were nothing compared to this jungle.

“These plants are huge!” Rexi went to examine a red hibiscus that Bob would have had to stand on tiptoe to sniff.

I was not a small girl—I've always been tall for my age—but this place made me feel like a Munchkin.

Kato's forehead creased, and the lines around his muzzle drew in. “It's not supposed to be like this. Last time I was here, it was just an ordinary forest. It's like somebody went around and sprinkled Miracle Grow Dust on everything.”

A strong gust of wind threatened to blow my skirt into a compromising position. Peering up at the shadow that crossed the sky, I discovered the source of the wind. A creature twice the size of Kato streaked across the first sun, long and wormy with all-encompassing butterfly wings. I dubbed it a butterpillar given the combo of the wings and eight-dozen hands and feet. It settled down in an open spot not too far from us and started smoking a hookah, blowing gray
O
's with the puffs.

“Is that normal?” I whispered, still staring in awe.

“No,” Kato answered in equal awe. “I can't say I've ever seen one of those before.”

As we tiptoed away, the butterpillar eyed us with curiosity, but he made no move to either eat or halt us—just slightly tilted his head in acknowledgment.

This time we actually had a map, so we headed northeast, back to Sherwood Forest.

“All this fresh air and walking can't be good for me,” I said well into the afternoon, after continuous hours of trudging. The distance went by much faster by Air Chimera. Kato had insisted we go on foot, since a huge flying beast would be an easy target for the storm-cloud riding Griz.

For the first time, I really wished Verte had gifted me slippers rather than heels. “I think my blisters have blisters,” I complained.

“I know!” Rexi said, brightening. “We've got a beast of burden right here we can ride.”

The temperature around us dropped at least ten degrees, enough that my breath became visible.

“Guess that was a
no
on the ‘loyal steed' thing.”

“Never,” he growled. “And even suggesting that I'm a horse or mule makes you an—”

Rexi drowned him out with the clinking sound of rummaging through her knapsack. She pulled out a small piece of chrome, a crinkly gold leaf, a seashell, a crumpled parchment sheet, some hot-pink panty hose, then finally, apparently, found what she was looking for—a teacup that looked exactly like the ones at Crow's.

“Why do you have that?” I asked as she dipped the cup into the stream to fetch a glass of water. Just seeing that tacky porcelain rose again gave me the shivers.

She shrugged and sipped without looking my way. “I like to keep the realm clean by picking up and recycling things that people carelessly leave behind. You know, one person's trash is my souvenir.”

“In other words, you have Obsessive Compulsive Klepto Disorder.” I sighed.

Kato stuck his nose in the bag while Rexi wasn't looking. “Hey, that's the snowman figure my mother gave me when I was a kid.”

Rexi snatched her bag back, hugging it to her chest. She looked ready to protect her
treasures
to the death.

I patted Kato on the head. His horns were frosting over. “Let it go, snow boy. Let it go.”

“You know what this trip needs?” Rexi asked, completely changing the subject.

“One less member?” Kato mumbled.

“A traveling song to make the journey go faster. I'll start.” She coughed in a few weird pitches, presumably to warm up her vocal chords. “Heigh ho! Heigh—”

“NO!” Kato and I shouted in unison.

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes and clomped off in silence.

Of course that couldn't last too long. Soon, she fell into step beside me, munching on something that vaguely resembled a sandwich. With a full mouth, she said, “So this decrepit wizard really has the hots for you, huh? What's he like?”

“Hard to say, really. He didn't really talk about himself in the letters. They were mostly poetry and nonsense about undying love. But the gifts he sent were nice. And he's actually not your typical gray-bearded, hunched old man wizard. He's very handsome.”

“Well, rich, good-looking, and powerful.” Rexi clucked her tongue. “Guess your love triangle is going to be a bit lopsided.”

Up ahead, Kato rumbled low in his throat.

“You're cracked,” I said and shook my head at Rexi. Whispering, I added, “There's no triangle, circle, or any other shape. One thinks he loves me as a replacement for someone else I happen to remind him of. The other needs me but doesn't even like me.”

Rexi clucked her tongue. “Later, when we're alone, we need to have a chat. Your cluelessness is bordering on a crime, and friends don't let friends be as dumb as you.”

Friends?
Is that what we were? Weren't friends usually um…friendlier? Rexi reminded me of a marshmallow that'd been burned to a crisp: acrid and a tough-to-swallow exterior but all ooey gooey inside. I know we hadn't really seen the gooey part, but I was nearly positive it was there.

I stopped for a second to stretch. When I looked back up, Kato wasn't in front of us anymore. “Hey, did he ditch us?”

“Guess so.” Rexi pointed. “He's over there and walking the wrong way.”

She was right. He'd shifted south.

“Where are you going? The forest is over there.” I jogged over to him and yanked his horn, but he didn't stop.

Kato jerked his head to the side, like he was trying to get water out of his ears. “It's Rexi's blasted whistling. It's messing with my head.” He kept walking.

“Nobody's whistling.” I was starting to have a really bad feeling about this. Instead of yanking on his horns, I grabbed them both and planted my heels in the grass. They left a rut as Kato dragged me with him.

“Rexi, help! Something's wrong.”

Even with both of us hanging on, we couldn't keep Kato from moving forward. It was like he was in a trance; he didn't even acknowledge we were tugging on him. His icy blue eyes were just empty puddles.

Looking across the lake, I could see what had to be the China Isle. Even in its current state, I recognized it from pictures I'd seen. Something was making the cup-shaped houses spin and twirl, dancing in a frantic tea party around the Town Hall Teakettle. The kettle was bubbling over with, well, bubble tea.

“Oh, pix.” As if to emphasize my point, the wind kicked up and carried a small stray bubble so that it popped in front of me. A splash of tea landed and sizzled against my hair. I doubled over like I'd been punched.

Rexi stayed with Kato, but cursed and twisted her upper body to try and get away. “Can't stop. The music…”

I could hear just the faintest tune on the wind. Kato, with his sensitive ears, must have heard it before we did.

As the third sun sunk, the last bits of light shone down on the lake where a tea saucer served as a boat for five figures on top. No larger than hand's height, a small band of metallic bugs played a myriad of instruments. They were being conducted by my least favorite Bumpkin.

“Glam it all. What do you think you're doing, you pixing stick?” I shouted to Moony.

“Do you like my cousins, the Jitterbug Band? The Pied Piper loaned them to me for this one-night-only engagement. The Gray Witch has offered a bounty and a place in the New World Order to whomever captures you. Double if you're dead.” This time, Moony's smile no longer threatened retribution. It promised it. “Enjoy the music while you drown like rats.”