FOUR

“I’m just a traveler,” Hex whispered, barely able to get the words out past the pressure of the monkey’s spear. It seemed like a bad time to explain that he had no more idea than the monkey did who he was or what he was doing here.

“What, like a tourist?” The monkey snorted. “Are you kidding? Nobody comes here without a reason. What do you think this is, the Riviera? Look around you, human.” If Hex had tried to look around, the monkey’s spear would have decapitated him, but now did not seem the best time to point out this small fact.

“I came with a—” He faltered. A what? Pete was hardly his friend. “A guide,” he wheezed.

“Don’t you think I would have noticed two of you?”

“I don’t know where he is. He was just with me, I swear it. I lost my memories in the poppy fields, and he—”

“Oh, great,” the monkey groaned. “A delusional hallucinating junkie. Just what we need. As if Oz isn’t going to hell in a handbasket already. Do you even know how busy I am right now? I’ve got fourteen reports to finish by the end of the week, and my boss is on a rampage, I have all this data on the rival factions and no one will listen to me when I point out their strategic flaws because they say my methods are too newfangled, as if we’re supposed to just swing around in trees hooting for the rest of our—” The monkey sighed deeply in frustration. “Anyway, what am I supposed to do with you?”

“You could move that spear,” Hex whispered. The monkey scowled down at him, but it lessened the pressure of the spear a little and gestured roughly for him to sit up.

“Thank you,” Hex said in a normal voice, gingerly rubbing his throat.

“Don’t thank me just yet,” the monkey said curtly. “Dealing with you is way over my pay grade. I think it’s time for your first audience with the queen, human. Get up.”

The monkey kept the spear trained on him as he cautiously got to his feet, surreptitiously looking around for Pete. There was no doubt about it: the mysterious boy had vanished. He was totally on his own—and he had no idea why he was even here or what he was supposed to do next. “Thanks a lot,” he muttered under his breath, but the monkey heard him.

“Are you sassing me?” it snapped. “I’ve always thought humans were stupid, but you seem to be an extra-special case of idiot. Can’t you see I’m a fierce warrior?” The monkey waved its spear threateningly. Hex considered responding to this, and then decided his safety was worth more than his dignity—for now anyway. “Come on. I don’t have all day. If you hold me back I’ll make you finish my statistics reports—and believe me, anyone as dumb as you won’t make it through the first of my equations. Customized them all myself. You wouldn’t be able to make head nor tail of them.” The monkey poked him firmly, and Hex obediently began to walk. On this side of the wooded wall, the forest looked a little more like an ordinary jungle. Heavy green vines dangled from the treetop canopy far overhead. Brightly colored birds flitted past in a whoosh of jasmine-scented air. The ground was covered with thick, broad-leaved plants that gleamed wetly in the dim green light that filtered through the branches. It was a beautiful place, actually, although his first choice of companion would definitely not have been a talking monkey with an itchy trigger finger.

After they had been walking a little while—the monkey’s spear at his back the whole time—they came to an immense rock face. At its base, a monkey-high crack fissured the rock. Hex could see light on the other side. “In you go,” the monkey said. “Better duck. You don’t want to lose your head until Queen Lulu decides it’s time.” It cackled hysterically. Hex, gritting his teeth, stooped low enough to clear the top of the natural doorway. The monkey followed him nimbly. Hex caught sight of the scene around him and stopped short, his jaw dropping in awe.

The monkey village looked like some little kid’s dream. Hundreds of feet up, the huge trees were filled with wooden houses that seemed to grow directly out of the trunks. The houses were connected by an intricate system of hanging walkways that swayed gently in the breeze. And there were monkeys everywhere: monkeys swinging from vines, monkeys leaning out the windows of their little houses, monkeys hurrying along the walkways, monkeys lounging on park-like platforms where bright flowers grew in carefully tended patches. Even from the forest floor Hex could see they were all dressed, like his captor, in well-fitted but incongruous clothes. He made out monkeys in suits, monkeys in dresses, monkeys in uniforms—even one lone monkey in a wedding dress and veil, looking for all the world like a monkey cupcake. His captor did not allow him much time to look around, shoving him roughly forward. “No funny business on the stairs,” the monkey snapped, pushing him to a perilous-looking staircase that wound its way up from the ground, looping dozens of times around the trunk of one of the trees until it reached the dizzying heights of the forest canopy. “You’re my first prisoner, and I’m not going to lose you! Finally, the queen will have to pay attention to me. I’ve captured a human! You’ll probably be executed! Everyone will take me seriously!”

The staircase didn’t even have a railing; each of its steps had been cleverly wedged into the living wood of the tree itself. Hex swallowed past the lump in his throat, wondering if his former self had been as afraid of heights as his present self was. He took a deep breath and started up the stairs.