Lana had never thought she would see the day when showing her face was more dangerous than her mom showing hers.
Even with the necklace, her face was plastered in Wanted Posters everywhere, as was Elphias's father, Shartine. The only physical feature her mom had that anyone seemed to remember was her green skin, which she hid with the same charm that had been placed on Lana's necklace. It helped that everyone still thought that she was dead. Her dad was still a hero of Oz- which seemed almost too easy to Lana.
Glinda had sent Shartine to find the scarecrow in the chaos just after Amira had taken off the necklace. She had remembered that he had been the one who brought Lana to the Emerald Palace in the first place, and wondered if he had known more than he was letting on. But Glinda couldn't have been the only one that had made the connection. Amira had let her escape. Were they walking into a trap?
If they were, they weren't walking very fast, they couldn't exactly skip down the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. They had worked out a system where Dad would have to scout out a path where they could remain mostly unseen, then hurry the rest of the group to the next hiding space.
Lana tried to remind herself that she was lucky. Lucky that the mob hadn't caught her. Lucky that she hadn't fallen to her death. Lucky that no one had recognised her. Lucky that Mom had found her not too soon after she had collapsed in the Uncrossable Desert.
But she didn't feel lucky. She felt like a curse. She could have learned sorcery from her mom, but she had wanted to see Oz, to meet people other than her parents. And because of that, Elphias, Glinda and Byra were all in danger, and Amira was going back to enslaving the Animals, and all her mom's hard work had been undone.
"This is taking too long." Her Mom muttered through clenched teeth, voicing exactly what everyone else was thinking. "We should just fly there."
Dad had convinced the rest of them that they should try to keep her Mom's survival a secret, but he wasn't there at the moment, and Lana's resolve was fading. Elphias and Glinda were probably being tortured as they spoke, how could she argue with a course of action that would get them to the City faster?
As she got to her feet, her Dad walked in- Elphias and Byra behind him.
She started to run forward- only for Shartine to push her aside and run over to Elphias, enveloping him in a hug.
Suddenly feeling nervous, Lana decided it would be best to give the father and son a few minutes alone as they could be in there relatively small hiding place, and went to Byra. "How did you find them?" She asked her Dad.
"We were the ones who found them." Byra said. "Boq and the Lion were able to smuggle us out of the Emerald City- they say that they're happy to help us whenever we need them by the way-"
"Boq is happy to help me?" Asked Lana's mom.
Byra stopped, looking over at her. There was an awkward silence.
"Did Elphias tell you-" Lana started to ask.
"I know everything." Byra said. "I'm sorry, I'm being rude. I'm Byra."
"And I'm the Wicked Witch of the West. Nice to meet you." She held out her hand, and Byra shook it, looking nervous.
"We've been worried about you guys, last we heard Amira had enslaved the Animals, and Elphias and Glinda had been imprisoned-"
"Glinda still is." She looked over at Elphias, who was still with his father. "I think Elphias hit his head at some point- he doesn't remember what happened while he was in the dungeons very well. But whatever it was…" Byra let her voice trail off.
"What about you?" Lana asked.
"Nothing big." She fidgeted. "Listen, I started to go after you when you ran off, but Amira grabbed me, and by the time she let me go I had no idea where you were-"
"I understand." Lana said quickly.
Byra avoided her eyes. "I should have tried harder to find you."
"Well, you're not the only one." Lana said quietly.
"What?"
Lana glanced around the cave, and saw that her parents were together, and Elphias was with his father. She spoke quietly, not wanting any of them to hear.
"I caused this. I put everyone in danger- and then I ran away. I'm not a hero like Mom, I told myself I needed her help to rescue anyone. But I didn't even try."
Neither girl spoke for a long moment, until Elphias walked over to them. Lana looked over him, taking in how battered he looked, how he was missing an eye.
"Elphias." She said. She hugged him, and felt him stiffen as she did so. She stepped back. "Oh Elphias!"
Not for the first time, she felt completely useless. Why couldn't she say more? Why did she feel so uncomfortable around Elphias, of all people?
"I've missed you." He said, but he couldn't seem to look at her. Lana fought back tears, reminding herself that Byra and Elphias had probably had it worse, because of her, and she had no right to feel sorry for herself.
Elphias glanced around the small cave, then began to speak, loudly. Lana was surprised and a little impressed, as she knew how shy he could be. "My mother's still being held by Amira's father, Count Hymdjer." Lana shot Byra a questioning look, but she shrugged. "I know a way to get into the dungeon, but I need your help." He looked over at Lana's mother, then, looking a bit intimidated, over at Lana. She tried to nod reassuringly.
Elphias explained how he was helped by one of the servants, but when the adults pressed him for details, he couldn't provide them, and began to lose confidence. Byra piped up in places, but couldn't add much as she wasn't actually there, and had only heard about it later.
When he was done, no one said anything for a long time.
"Someone's gotta say this." Lana's father said slowly. "This is probably a trap."
"It doesn't matter." Said Elphaba fiercly. "We still need to rescue Glinda. We just need to figure out a way around the trap first. Byra, you said that the Boq and the Lion might help us."
She nodded.
"Do they know about me, they sort of blame me for all of their problems especially Boq-"
"Elphias explained. They have a lot of other people on their side, they've got this whole network that smuggles Animals like me out of the city." She hesitated. "There was also a servant in the Emerald Palace who helped me, said his name was Tyron."
"Great." She said briskly. "Elphias, you said there was a secret passageway?"
He nodded.
"We're not using it." She said. "We're sneaking in through the Emerald Palace."
As Elphias opened his mouth to protest, she said, "We won't help Glinda by getting ourselves killed." Her expression softened. "Don't worry, I've snuck in the Palace before."
"Have you ever snuck in with so many people?" Asked Lana.
"No, and I won't do so this time." She said. "None of you are coming."
Lana started to protest, and then realized that everyone else was doing so as well. The cave was filled with a loud clamor, and no one was listening to what anyone else was saying until-
"Quiet!" Lana's mother said loudly, cutting through the noise. Everyone did so. "Now-"
"Let me go." Lana's father interrupted. "I'm not wanted or anything."
"Unless Amira remembers seeing you take Lana to the Palace in the first place."
"She wasn't there." Lana said. "She didn't come until a week after I did."
"She still might have found out from someone else."
"She hasn't sent anyone after me yet or anything." Said Lana's father.
"It might be part of the trap." Lana's mother fired back.
No one spoke for several moments.
"Fine." He said. "I'll just go scout out the rest of the the rhoute then."
"Are you sure you're fine with this?"
"Yes."
"Because last time you agreed to me doing something dangerous alone, you secretly followed me so that you could swing down onn a vine, shout a ridiculous one-liner, then got caught and was nearly tortured to death and was only saved because I turned you into a scarecrow."
"Really?" Asked Byra.
Lana nodded. "I'll tell you all about it later." She said. She paused, suddenly unable to find the right words to explain why they all needed to go. "Mom, just by being here, we're all already part of this. We chose to be part of this. We need to be able to see it through."
"It's too dangerous-"
"You do dangerous things all the time, why can't we? Byra's the same age you were when you defied the Wizard, Elphias and I aren't that much younger."
"You've never done anything like this before-"
"We all got out of the Emerald Palace."
"Security will have tightened since then. And we know there's a trap."
"Alright, fine. We've never done anything like this before. There's a first time for everything."
"This isn't some kind of field trip."
"I never said it was."
"The more people come along, the higher our chances of getting caught."
"The higher our chances of getting caught when we sneak in, yes, but what about when we get into the dungeon itself? There's going to be guards there. There might be more. They won't let you take Glinda without a fight-"
"I don't need your help. I've gone against higher numbers before."
"My mother's life is in jeopardy." Elphias said quietly. "We're not taking that risk."
Her mother closed her eyes for a moment, taking several deep breaths.
"Fiyero, go scout out the route." She said finally. "We'll discuss this further later."