Dorothy Must Die Novella #7 by Danielle Paige

Sure, he wasn’t great at the job, but he wasn’t turning Winkies into killing machines either. Dorothy’s not a savior anymore. She’s a monster. Any one of us can be corrupted. Any one of us can be a traitor. You can’t trust anyone.”
    â€œTurning Winkies into killing machines?” Lanadel asked dully.
    â€œThat’s what we sent Annabel to find out. That’s who’s responsible for what happened in your village. We’d heard rumors—that the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman were working together to create an army for Dorothy somehow. We needed to know the truth.” He sighed. “Turns out the truth is even more horrible than the stories. And that’s why we have to move now. That’s what I came up here to tell you. The healing pool helped, but Annabel’s still traumatized from what she went through out there. I don’t want to send her out again until I’m certain she’s recovered.” His face was blank. “But it’s time. Time for Melindra to go to the Emerald Palace—and time for you to go to Ev.”
    Lanadel stared at him, her mind reeling. That was what he’d been talking about with Gert? Ev, the fabled country across theDeadly Desert, supposedly a twisted mirror image of Oz? Ruled by a crazy, centuries-old king? The Nome King must have been the he they’d meant. She was supposed to be a spy in his ancient, corrupt court.
    Except that Ev didn’t exist. It was a story parents scared their kids with when they were misbehaving, not a real place. “Ev is just a myth,” she said. “And even Melindra can’t—I know what those creatures can do. You send Melindra out there, she’ll die.” She remembered what she’d overheard on the mountaintop. Even Melindra, with all her confidence and her strength, knew that a trip to the Emerald City was almost certain to be a one-way ticket.
    â€œI’m not sending her to fight,” he said. “I’m sending her to spy. Just like I’m sending you. Ev is real, Lanadel—as real as Oz.” She shook her head in disbelief, but he was serious. “And whatever is giving Dorothy her power just might come from there. Mombi and Gert have suspected for a long time that there’s some force in Ev that is partly responsible for bringing Dorothy back. You’re the one who’s going to find out.”
    â€œHas anyone from Oz ever even been to Ev?”
    â€œLurline,” Nox said. “Maybe.”
    â€œI don’t have experience. I can barely use magic. Shouldn’t you send Holly? Or Larkin?”
    â€œHolly and Larkin are good fighters, but they’re not . . . subtle. Neither is Melindra.” His voice was so flat it sounded refrigerated. “I need someone who can play the innocent. Someone who is still innocent. Someone like you. We don’t knowwhat you’ll find out there.”
    â€œSo you’re sending me into a total unknown and you’re sending Melindra to her death,” Lanadel said, her voice hot with fury. If she’d been angry at Nox last night, that was nothing compared to what she felt now. Nox had been trying to protect Melindra when he’d argued with Gert. He’d wanted to keep her out of unnecessary danger. But now he wasn’t thinking twice about sending her into the Emerald City. He wanted Melindra as far away from him as possible. And she knew exactly why.
    â€œThis doesn’t have anything to do with skill, does it? You don’t want either of us around. You don’t want anyone to distract you from your precious Order.” She knew what he’d told Melindra that night. That he hated watching his trainees die. But it was as if that Nox had been a different person. And the Nox in front of her now was all walls. There was no chance of getting through to the person who’d told Melindra how much he wanted to protect her.
    â€œThat has nothing to do with