“Oh dear,” Gert said as she gazed down at Glinda and her legions. They wore matching silver armor, polished to a blinding glow that made me think uncomfortably of the Tin Woodman, and their silver-tipped spears glittered like diamonds.

“When did she get an army?” I asked.

“She’s always had an army,” Mombi said. “She just doesn’t use it very often.”

“What do you mean, very often?”

“General Jinjur invaded the Emerald City and deposed the Scarecrow before Dorothy returned to Oz,” Melindra said. “Didn’t they teach you this?”

“I skipped the history lesson on the way to the battle.”

Melindra rolled her eyes. Whatever problem she had with me, she hadn’t gotten over it. Great.

“Glinda summoned her army then and drove Jinjur out of the palace,” Mombi filled in. “Together, Glinda and the Scarecrow put Ozma on the throne.”

“Wait, I thought Ozma was the one who banished Glinda,” I said, confused.

Gert nodded. “She was. Glinda thought she’d be able to control Ozma—to rule Oz through her. But Ozma has—had—a will of her own. Glinda tried to oust her. Ozma banished her. It wasn’t until Dorothy returned to Oz that Glinda was freed.”

“Dorothy’s not with her,” Gert said, looking down at the battlefield, where Glinda’s troops were moving into formation.

“If she’s moving against us without Dorothy, that’s a big deal,” Melindra said. “She’s never openly gone against Dorothy’s wishes before. She couldn’t be more clear about trying to take power for herself now if she posted it on a banner.”

“If she is working with the Nome King somehow, he could have forced her hand,” Mombi said. “Either way, I don’t like it. Facing a united Dorothy and Glinda is bad enough—but with both of them acting on their own . . .”

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking those pretty little girls won’t tear you to pieces,” Melindra said. “Trains ’em herself, Glinda does, and you can imagine the kinds of exercises she thinks up.” We all shuddered collectively. “They’ll gut you soon as look at you. Some of the best fighters in Oz.”

“They used to be some of the only fighters in Oz,” Gert said.

“Well, those days are long gone,” Mombi said shortly, “and they’ll shoot us off the balcony if we stand here like fools for much longer. Nothing to do but go inside and prepare for battle. Luckily the walls are three feet thick. The palace will be easy enough to defend, as long as we stay inside.”

“We haven’t prepared for this,” Melindra said, and the tough girl sounded almost plaintive.

“You’ve trained for battle,” Nox said curtly. “That means you’ve trained for this.” Melindra flashed him a hurt look and I tried not to gloat.

Glinda’s army had finished moving into tight formations and the Sorceress hovered above them at the center of it all. Flanking her, Pete and Ozma sagged in their chains. The enchanted princess was staring around her with that all-too-familiar vacant air. Pete looked miserable and sullen. You deserve it, I thought in disgust, remembering the way he’d betrayed me and Nox to Glinda in Polychrome’s palace. Pete had escaped with Glinda—if escape was the right word for what she’d done to him.

I didn’t care if he was suffering now. I remembered Polychrome’s crumpled body, Rainbow Falls burning. Polychrome’s unicorn-cat Heathcliff lying broken and bloody. Pete could go to hell for all I cared. But Ozma was different.

Ozma was an innocent in all of this. But it was more than that, too. She was also the rightful ruler of Oz. There was every chance that she was the only one with the power to change anything. If only we could unlock it.

“We have to rescue her,” Nox said, echoing my thoughts.

“There’s got to be a way,” I agreed, and was gratified to see the flash of approval in his eyes. Maybe I was faking it until I made it, but Nox was right. Acting confident did give me a renewed sense of strength. How could what we faced possibly be worse than what we’d already been through?

Below us, a trumpet sounded, and Glinda rose even higher in the air to hover over her army.

“Good afternoon, dear Wicked,” she said, and even though she was speaking quietly and still hundreds of feet away, she sounded as if she was close enough to reach out and touch.

She and all her soldiers had smeared their faces with Perma-Smile, and their white teeth glinted out of terrifying grins as they looked up at us. “Welcome back to Oz. We’re so glad you’ve returned to see the new era that’s coming.” <