Author's Note: Thanks to Drew (Fiyero) for the idea of the Kalidah in the last chapter. Sorry I forgot to add that last time…=P

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Chapter 13

Glinda delicately pinched her nose and made a prim face of disgust.

"That-thing smells like wet fur," she announced indignantly, pointing to the Kalidah carcass that was still sitting, dripping and beginning to smell slightly rancid, in the middle of the entrance hall of Kiamo Ko.

"The really frightening thing would be if it smelled like rosebuds, or honeysuckle, or some other dreadful sweet thing," muttered Elphaba from where she was standing over the couch, examining Boq's injured leg.

"If you'd help me skin it," said Fiyero, who was walking in a large circle around the carcass, "I'm sure it wouldn't smell like wet fur anymore."

Glinda made a strangled choking sound and clapped her hands over her mouth. Gerema grinned at her, not nicely.

"Are you quite all right, Miss Glinda?" she asked, "You seem to be looking a little like Miss Elphaba."

Both women turned to glare at Gerema. Fiyero pulled out a pocketknife and began skinning the carcass. Glinda shrieked and buried her face in the couch. Chistery followed, patting her on the shoulder sympathetically. Elphaba finished bandaging Boq's leg and went over to help Fiyero, but he waved her away.

"Don't, Elphie, the fur is all wet."

Elphaba humphed in frustration and went to sit next to Glinda. Just then, Boq moaned and tried to sit  up, crying out in pain when he tried to move his leg. Elphaba grabbed him by the shoulder, forcing him to lie back down.

"Let me go!" Boq shrieked, struggling with Elphaba.

Glinda tore herself away from the sofa at last and went over to help calm Boq down. He quieted immediately at the sight of her face.

"Wh-what happened?" sputtered Boq.

"That happened," said Elphaba matter-of-factly, pointing toward the now half-skinned carcass. Boq screamed again, and nearly fell off the couch. Glinda tutted disapprovingly and sat down on the couch, pulling Boq's head into her lap.

Gerema went over and helped Fiyero cut the meat off the Kalidah carcass and hang it over the fire. Then they dragged the rest of the dead animal a little way outside the door, in hopes that the cool weather would preserve it and keep scavengers away at least until the morning.

Fiyero came back in a moment later and dried his hands on a towel. He went over to one of the big armchairs and pulled Elphaba onto his lap. She struggled with him for a moment, blushing and half-heartedly trying to squirm away from him, but eventually she gave up and settled back against him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"What's going to happen to us?" asked Glinda after a moment. Everyone turned and looked at her.

Gerema sat down cross legged in front of the fire, staring intently at the cooking meat. It was crackling softly, and beginning to give off a slightly appetizing smell.

"What do you mean?" Fiyero countered a moment later.

"Well, we can't go back to the Emerald City…not with the tiktoks running things. You heard what the Princess said; we'll be killed if we do. But I mean…if they really are taking over all of Oz…and they're machines; they can't be stopped—won't they eventually find us out here too?"

An uneasy silence descended over the room, like a collective sigh from everyone. A log broke in the fire, sending up a small shower of sparks. The wind howled outside and the shudders creaked. An especially bright bolt of lightning lit up the cracks in the shudders and made the fire look dark. A moment later, a low growl of thunder rolled in from some distant land. It seemed somehow like a message, a prophecy, a symbol of their fate. Elphaba shivered and Fiyero tightened his arms around her. Boq moaned softly.

"I guess," said Elphaba slowly. "They will for certain if we don't do anything."

"Not you too," moaned Boq.

"What?" asked Elphaba.

"Everyone keeps saying we need to overthrow the tiktoks, mount some kind of resistance."

"We do," said Gerema. "That is exactly what we must do."

"But…how?" whined Glinda. "They're…hundreds of invincible machines! And we're…us."

"And even if we do manage to overthrow them, then what? Who rules then?" asked Boq.

"Whomever we put in place," said Fiyero thoughtfully. Everyone turned to look at him. He cleared his throat uneasily. "I mean…assuming that *we* are the ones who overthrow the tiktoks, that would make us the current leaders. So whomever we decide to put in place would rule."

"And your suggestion is…?" said Elphaba.

"Whoa, whoa," interrupted Glinda, "Now you're assuming that we're actually *going* to successfully overthrow the tiktoks?"

"Assume failure and you will fail," said Elphaba simply.

"We're doomed," said Boq darkly, "and you've all gone batty."

"You know," said Glinda thoughtfully, "they say that the last Ozma is still alive, hidden somewhere."

"More than that," said Fiyero, they say she's hidden out here. In the Vinkus."

"You believe those rumors?" asked Boq.

"In every rumor there is at least some seed of truth," replied Elphaba enigmatically. "And it would explain why the tiktoks were out here in the first place. They can't have much other interest in the Vinkus; there's certainly no immediate threat to them and their tyranny."

"Then even if she is out here she'll certainly be destroyed." Boq sat up and looked at Elphaba, who was staring distantly at a spot on the wall. The orange firelight looked strange against her green skin. Boq thought that he could practically see her mind working, struggling to untangle the threads of the mess they were in.

"Not if we get to her first," she said finally. A loud crack of thunder shook the floorboards, made them all jump. It seemed like a sign somehow, a judgment from the universe. As if some greater power was listening. Elphaba shook herself. That was nonsense. But it certainly saved her the job of having to persuade the others.

She looked at each of them in turn, Gerema, who was sitting in front of the fire, Glinda, pensively smoothing a deep wrinkle in her enormous blue skirt, Boq, alternately flexing his leg and wincing. Each one met her gaze with a single nod of assent. Finally, she turned to Fiyero. He nodded solemnly, then kissed her temple. She gave him a look of disapproval, then stood and faced the others. Sometime during the last few minutes, perhaps with that colossal crack of thunder, she knew she had become by some unspoken agreement, the leader.

"We leave when this storm lets up," said Elphaba, ending the discussion.

Fiyero stood behind her.

"I'm going to bed. We'll be safe in here as long as it's raining, but we need to be prepared to leave as soon as it stops. We may not have much time before the tiktoks arrive once the weather clears up."

He turned and started up the large spiral staircase that led to the towers and inner rooms. Elphaba followed, turning back to glare when Glinda snorted in a decidedly unladylike manner. Fiyero led her down the corridor to what had once been his bedroom when he and his family had lived in Kiamo Ko, looping an arm around her waist as soon as they were out of sight of the others. Elphaba realized suddenly that this was the only part of the huge old castle that she'd never had the strength to venture into. She felt a pang of guilt at that, and pulled away from him.

She was amazed that the castle had remained almost completely untouched during the weeks that she'd been gone. Somehow she had expected that the Wizard's troops would have sacked the place the moment word got out that she was dead. Apparently the madness which had broken loose in the city with the tiktok uprising had diverted attention away from her old hideout. For the most part, everything was exactly where it had been, sheets on the beds, molding food in the cupboards.

Fiyero stopped in front of a closed door and began struggling with the handle. It stuck, as though it hadn't been opened in years. Finally, he pushed the door open with his good shoulder, revealing the room beyond. Elphaba's heart sped up at the sight of it. Somehow she'd regarded it as forbidden territory, a silent punishment, when she'd been here before.

Fiyero grabbed a blanket off the shelf and spread it over the bed, then pulled Elphaba down beside him, kissing her neck and running his fingers through her hair.

"You okay?" she asked softly, turning to face him and gently running her hands over his injured shoulder.

He nodded, then sighed deeply.

"Now I am." He leaned forward, resting his head against her neck. "For a while there I honestly thought we weren't going to get back."

She kissed him, gently at first, then harder, until they were both gasping for breath.

"You scared me. You disappeared again."

"Elphie…" Fiyero pulled her into a tight hug. "you're just going to have to learn to live with the uncertainty. We both are."

She sighed and nodded. Fiyero lay back against the bed, pulling her down on top of him and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Listen," said Elphaba after a moment.

"What?"

"The storm's dying down."

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