The Librarian (Book Two: Unhappily Ever After) (17 page)

"You're working with Mr. Stanford?"

"I'd love to say I was here to protect you, but this is all I was after." She held up the amulet, and Wes felt like he'd taken another blow to the body.

"If it helps," she continued, "Douglas
really will
bring her back. I promise. He's a good man. He's waiting for her now. We'll meet them tonight, and you can tell her just how sorry you are. We're girls, Wes. We get over this stuff pretty fast."

"What about the librarian?"

She shook her head. "He won't be so lucky."

Wesley couldn't believe it. How could he be so stupid? It was right there in front of him the whole time. Of course Douglas had someone working on the inside. It's exactly how Wes would have written it.

Hope watched Wesley shift his gaze to the horizon.

"Don't even think about it," she said sternly.

"I'm supposed to trust you?"

"It's your only option."

He didn't respond.

"They've got a head start. You won't catch them."

He didn't answer.

"She doesn't want you around!"

He winced.

"You've seen what this place has become, Wes. People are dying." She softened her voice. "You won't make it."

Wes turned and leveled cold eyes to meet hers.

"What happens if you don't find her, Wes? What happens if you get lost?" She showed him the amulet once more. "We've been here too long. Eighty-eight minutes, remember? You get left behind, and she'll blame herself for that, too. Is that really how you want all this to end?"

Wesley looked to the ground for answers that weren't there. Hope offered her hand, and he could almost feel its pull on him. He reached for it, slow and reluctant, sure it would bring relief the minute he was in her grip. But then, something occurred to him and he abruptly pulled away. Something Taylor had said about him in the library.

Wesley's a writer
, the memory echoed.
A great one.

He backed away.

"Wesley? Don't—"

"She doesn't get to leave me," he said. "She doesn't get to leave me, and this story isn't over until I tell her that."

With that, he turned his back on Hope and began to run away, slowly at first, but quickening his pace with every stride. Hope watched him crest the hill, her hand out until he disappeared on the other side.

She never saw Wesley Bates again.

DOUGLAS CAME ONTO the castle's balcony and found the Witch waiting for him with her back to the doorway.

"You sent for me?" he asked.

"I did."

"I take it you've made a decision, then."

The Witch didn't answer. Douglas saw she had her attention fixed on something in the distance, and he joined her near the balcony's rail.

"I can see them, you know?" She spoke in a somber tone. "They're coming again, just as you said they would."

Douglas followed her gaze with his own, but thick patches of mist were still hanging in the air and allowed for little visibility. He couldn't see anything beyond the canyon that guarded the Witch's castle.

"There's a strange man with them this time. He's made of metal, it seems. And the girl, she's...
different
."

Douglas found watching her to be quite strange. She appeared to be staring into space, but he remembered that
Oz
author L. Frank Baum had gifted her with an eye as powerful as a telescope. It enabled her to see anything happening within her kingdom. Until recently that had only been Winkie Country, but things had changed in Oz. A lot.

The Witch threw her hands into the air and cackled laughter. "We'll just see about them," she croaked. "My Black Bees finished them once before. We can play this game over and over if they like." She snapped her fingers at a guard standing near the doorway. "Fetch my silver whistle! We'll just see about this!"

"The bees won't be enough," Douglas explained.

"Really?" the Witch sneered. "Tell me, dear. Is that in your little book, too? They worked just fine the last time."

"They did," Douglas answered. "But can a bee sting a man made of metal?"

This gave the Witch pause. Her sneer weakened as she looked out into the murk again.

"I won't wait forever," Douglas continued. "I'm sure
someone
in Oz would love a chance to obtain the power I'm offering."

The Witch scowled at his subtle threat, but her attention shifted when the guard returned. She took the whistle and blew it. A high-pitched whine sounded through Winkie Country.

Moments later, the bees appeared in a massive swarm on the horizon. The swarm looked like a black cloud moving toward them at impossible speeds. It rustled and buzzed and seemed to dance before them. When the lead bees turned, the rest followed in a surge that sent a wave of color and shape cascading from one side of the swarm to the next. It was like a waltz or a tango, one of nature's most dazzling displays. It was a dance deserving of beautiful music, but there was nothing but the dreadful drone.

When the bees arrived, the swarm's sound was so intense Douglas was sure his ears would rupture. He covered them just as a giant bee appeared from within the swarm: the Queen.

"Go to the strangers!" the Witch howled over their constant buzz. She pointed the way. "Kill them all this time, and don't come back 'til you have!"

The Queen turned to lead her swarm. While most were the size of a balled fist, the Queen was a little smaller than a tricycle Douglas had bought Randy on his first birthday. She had red eyes, yellow stripes and a stinger that looked like it might rip a person in two before delivering the poisonous venom that dripped from its tip.

Douglas watched them leave, and for a moment, he was sure the swarm had taken the shape of an arrow aimed in the direction the Witch had pointed – toward Taylor Williams and her fairy-tale friends.

THE WITCH'S CASTLE appeared to Wesley shortly after he left camp. It seemed to float on the horizon, the sky behind it the color of a fresh bruise. Its sighting gave Wesley some relief, but only a little. He knew he was heading in the right direction; but that didn't mean he was on the right path. If Taylor and the others were heading toward the castle from a different angle, he would never catch them, no matter how much faster he was moving than his friends.

Regardless, Wes continued in quick fits and starts through the wasteland. He only slowed to a quick walk when he needed rest. Then, after a brief respite, he'd push himself to run again. He'd been on the go for about an hour when the sight of bloodstained grass brought him to a sudden halt.

Fear raised a lump in his throat. He inched forward, eyes squeezed shut, needing to see but refusing to look. Was he too late? He finally forced his eyes open when his sneakers hit something wet.

Wesley was standing in a puddle of blood, the headless carcass of a dead wolf at his feet. He looked about. There were dozens of dead wolves, each with a gaping, ragged wound where its head should have been. Wes looked down and saw one of the wolf heads near his foot. Horrified, he kicked it away with a grimace.

This was a scene that had been too dark to include in the movie, but Wesley knew it well. In the
Oz
book, the Wicked Witch sent all manner of creatures to stop Dorothy and her companions from reaching the castle. The first beasts dispatched were the forty wolves at Wesley's feet.

But something was wrong. Something didn't sit well with Wes. In the book, the Tinman killed the wolves with his axe. So how had Dorothy and the others made it past the pack without him? How had they even made it to the Bees in the first place?

Wesley stepped through the clearing, doing his best to avoid the carnage at his feet.

He and Taylor had come to fix the
Oz
tale, and while they had done much to correct the story's course, that didn't mean events ahead would unfold exactly as expected. Somehow, Dorothy and her companions had found a way to defeat the wolves without the Tinman's help. In this new version of
Oz
, there was no reason to think the bees couldn't turn the tables on Taylor. Maybe having the Tinman wouldn't be enough. Maybe Taylor was heading for trouble they couldn't even imagine.

Wesley looked up at the castle then lowered his head and began to run again. He was incredibly tired, but he was prepared to push himself a bit harder the rest of the way.

RANDY AND BONES joined Douglas. Together, they followed the Witch into a dome-shaped room with a massive crystal ball as its focal point. The huge ball was perfectly clear and rested on an ornate stand that was carved from dark wood remarkably similar to the wood used for the woodcarvings in Astoria's library.

 
The Witch began to stroke the impressive piece. As soon as her wrinkled hand was atop the ball, a cloud of pink smoke appeared within the crystal and began to swirl like a storm taking shape.

Douglas and Randy stepped forward to join the Witch just as the pink smoke settled near the bottom of the sphere to reveal four figures standing within the haze: the Tinman, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and—

"Dad!" Randy exclaimed. "That's Taylor!"

Douglas raised a hand to his son. The boy turned silent.

"Here they come," the Witch said in her sinister voice. A piece of pink smoke broke free from the cloud. Randy watched the smoke turn black before taking the shape of the swarm.

The witch snarled into the crystal orb. "You strangers will wish you
never
returned!"

TAYLOR LOOKED BACK, checking the way they'd come. The sun was rising quickly now. She knew Wesley was likely awake and wondered how he had taken the news of her midnight departure.

 
"It won't be as hard if you stop looking back," the Tinman said. "Not looking back has helped me. Well, it's helped
some
."

Taylor offered an understanding nod. She patted the Tinman on his back, ready to say something until the Cowardly Lion cut her off with a meek roar.

"Look," the Scarecrow cried, his arm flopping as he pointed at something in the sky ahead. "They're coming! Just like before! Just like you said! They're here!"

All four looked toward the swarm of Black Bees approaching in the distance. It was moving straight for them, pulsing, ready to consume anything in its path.

"W-w-what are we g-g-going to d-d-do?!" The Lion could barely talk despite the Tinman's efforts to calm him down.

"What do
you
think we should do?" Taylor asked the Scarecrow.

"I'm the
last person
you should ask!"

"No you're not," she said. "You can do it. Think! How can we force them to sting the Tinman?" Though she couldn't explain why, Taylor felt it was important the companions find a solution for the bees on their own.

Quickly shuffling from foot to foot, the Scarecrow struggled to think. "Umm... umm..."

The bees were closing fast. The Lion hurried over and poked his round face into their conversation. "They're c-coming!" he said. "We n-n-need to hide!"

"That's it!" the Scarecrow exclaimed.

"W-w-what?!"

"Hide!"

The Scarecrow unfastened two of the buttons on his shirt and quickly began to yank straw from beneath it. "The two of you can hide beneath my straw," he explained. "The bees won't see you, and I'll be nothing but a pile of old clothes." He pointed to the Tinman. "They'll go straight for him!"

Taylor checked the swarm.

They had two minutes.

Maybe three.

"But c-can't the b-b-bees smell fear?" the Lion quaked.

"No!" Taylor said a little louder than she intended. "It'll work." She rushed over to the Scarecrow. "C'mon! I'll help!"

"WHAT ARE THEY doing?" the Witch asked nervously, her eyes still on the miniature beings inside her crystal ball. "My bees will want to finish the Scarecrow, too."

"They're going to hide beneath his straw," Douglas said.

"But why? My bees will seek them out."

"But they'll sting the Tinman first. And what happens to a bee once his stinger is broken?"

He watched as his question registered with the Witch. She whirled around to watch, finally understanding the Tinman's importance and how he would affect events to come.

TAYLOR COULDN'T SEE it from her vantage point beneath the haystack, but she could hear the swarm's deafening buzz as they closed in.

"Can you see us?" Taylor asked.

The Tinman stepped back to examine his work.

"I can see his tail."

"T-t-tuck it in!" the Lion stuttered.

The Tinman did as he was told then turned to face the onslaught. The swarm raced toward him then came to an abrupt halt, stopping to hover just short of the metal man.

"They've seen us," the Lion said. He was chewing nervously on the tip of his tail.

"No they haven't," Taylor whispered. "Shh!"

The Tinman watched as the Queen appeared from within the swarm. The giant bee hovered, measuring the Tinman as if curious to know why he wasn't running away. She moved forward, circling to see how he would react. When the Tinman didn't move, the Queen darted toward him, her rear twisted so that her stinger took the lead. She was vicious in her attack, striking her mark with fury.

But the Tinman's chest didn't give way as expected. Instead, the Queen bellowed in pain, her mammoth stinger bent in half as she sputtered toward the ground.

The swarm seemed to scream, swelling in size as it filled with rage. It rushed toward the Tinman and instantly consumed him in a teeming, black mass.

Taylor carefully pushed her face through the straw for a better view. The Tinman had completely vanished in the swarm's attack. The throbbing cloud had enveloped his entire body. She saw glimpses of him, of course. A hand here, a bit of his leg there. Then, as the bees fought to avenge their Queen, the swarm began to shrink as bees fell to the wayside with broken stingers, none understanding that theirs was a losing battle.