Chapter 35

No, no, and no. Not again. I was becoming quite sick of hearing voices in my head that weren't mine.

::I don't care who you are, or what you're trying to tell me, just leave me alone! As if I don't have enough problems in dealing with my own mind already without various people poking through it of their own accord!:: The voice may have been familiar, but I was of no mind to investigate further as to who it belonged to. I wanted whoever it was out, regardless of what they had to say.

::Elphie, I'm trying to help you.::

::With what?:: I mentally shouted.

::Stop yelling at me already! Sweet Oz, if you knew who I was I bet you wouldn't shriek like you're doing now.:: she huffed. That injured huff belonged to Glinda; she was the only one I'd ever heard who used that tone at all.

::I do know who you are and if I was in a better state of mind right now I'd be more willing to hear you out, and I might even be babbling out random things I never got the chance to say to you before you were killed, but I am not in a particularly collected mental state as it is, so please, Glinda, just go!::

::Elphie, please, be reasonable -::

::What part of 'Get out of my head' don't you understand?::

::Elphie,Iknowyou'repregnant,andIknowwhat'sgoingonwiththeGaleForce,andIknowwhathappenedtoBoq!:: She strung the words out all in one breath, trying to finish before I started shouting at her again. Her strategy worked and it shut me up for the time being. Now she had me wondering what she knew and how much I could get her to tell me.

::What do you know about all this?:: I wasn't going to bother to ask how she knew, or even how she was speaking to me in the first place, at least not yet. It would be nice to know how these people were able to get into my thoughts and how, if possible, to keep them out. My once clear-cut view of the world had been shattered ages ago and I was at the point where nothing of the like would come as a shock to me anymore.

::Firstly, congratulations on your baby.:: she began, ::I hope you have better luck with children than I did.::

::What do you mean by that?:: I asked. I hadn't the slightest idea what she was getting at.

::I...when I married Chuffrey, we...tried...to have children, but when finally I did conceive...:: I head her breath shudder and could feel the pain in her voice, ::my son was delivered stillborn. A year later while I was still recovering from losing my child, Chuffrey died of a massive heart attack. I never got the chance to have another baby.::

My heart went out to her. If I'd only known what had been going on in her life and those of the others I'd once been close to I might never have holed myself up in Kiamo Ko, and maybe...no matter. It did no good thinking about what could've been done so long after.

::Glinda, I...::

::No, save the condolences. It was years ago, and it's not like I can change any of it now. What I mean is, I've been through it. I know the ins and outs of pregnancy, and I know you're going to feel worse before you get better and this whole ordeal is over. If you think you're body's been twisted out of shape now, well, you've got a lot ahead of you, my friend. Prepare yourself for it.::

::I'll remember that.:: I gave a wry smile I knew she couldn't see before continuing my press for information. ::What of the Gale Force?::

::You must leave this cavern system within the next thirty-eight days if you want to avoid the Force. If you stay beyond that they'll have you, no doubts about it. The sooner you leave the better chance you'll have of escaping them. That's all I know of it.::

::And of Boq?::

::The Force captured him. They took him when he refused to sell out you and Fiyero.::

::How did he know where we'd gone?::

::He'd heard enough about Kiamo Ko from Fiyero on his various visits to the Emerald City over the years, even more so once you'd showed up again. He figured it was a likely place for the both of you to disappear to. He was often seen poking around your old home there, trying to find the possible reason behind your disappearance, until some of the Force noticed him and questioned him about who lived there, what happened to them, where they were now, you know, things like that. Boq must have let something slip that was of some sort of interest to them, so they brought him before the monarch. He ordered that Boq be kept in the Palace until he decided to cooperate. When he still refused the Force seized his family and imprisoned them as well, and they also took possession of everything he owned. That's how they came into the ownership of his horses, both of which I see have passed to you.::

::Yes. They...it's a long story.:: I sighed, the weight of the information falling heavily on my already tired mind.

::I figured as much. But still, I didn't know he was so brave. If he'd shown any indication of it while we were still at school I'd never have brushed him off so many times. I might've actually considered going out with him once or twice.:: I could tell she hadn't changed much over the years. ::Anyway, the Force is still trying to get Boq to spill what he knows about you, and if he takes much longer to break, well, they'll be picking off his family one by one until he does.::

I was horrified. I admired the man immensely for holding to his silence to protect us like he'd been doing, and now the plight of he and his family would weigh on my heart until I eventually became sick to my stomach with worry about them. Now I had all the more incentive to get out of here as soon as possible; we needed to leave enough time to try to get them out. Boq had done so much for us, and even more so for Fiyero who'd been speaking to him for so many years longer than I had. I refused to leave them there in the palace to await their deaths. I couldn't desert them, especially since I knew that without Boq, Fiyero would never have healed from the knife wound in his arm, and I wouldn't have survived through the downpour the night we arrived in the Vinkus if he hadn't given me the oil. We both owed the man our lives. The least we could do was try to save his.

::Glinda?::

::Yes?::

::Thank you.::

::No problem.::

::One more question, exactly how is it possible for you to still speak to me, with you're being...::

::Dead? I don't rightfully know, Elphaba. It could be the result of a spell I don't remember casting, but who knows? I've heard it said that the Powers That Be can work in strange ways.::

::I think you had far too much contact with Nessarose back at Shiz once I'd gone, what with all her silly religious ramblings running rampant without me to diminish the effects of the words.::

::Still the same as ever, aren't you, Elphie?:: Glinda laughed, and I could practically see her regarding me with those blue eyes and shaking her head.

::If you say so.:: I was anything but the same as I'd been back then, but if she liked to think of me as such, I wasn't going to be the one to correct her.

::If I uncover anything else that might help you, you'll hear from me.::

::I'm sure I will.:: I finished, and she fell silent, withdrawing from me and leaving me alone with my thoughts once more. It had been a bit of a shock at first, hearing her speak, but it was nice hearing that characteristic voice again. I'd missed her more than I cared to admit. While I let my thoughts dwell on my friend, Juliette gently butted me with her forehead, trying to get my attention.

"What is it, girl?" She pointed her nose toward the door. Fiyero was standing in the entrance, in the midst of an intense stare-down with Taye. I watched as the man tried to inch his way to the side and slip past the overprotective stallion, but Taye wouldn't hear of it, lunging at Fiyero and letting out an angry roaring sound as he did so; that horse meant business. I shook my head and laid a hand on Taye's side, letting him know I was there. Running that hand up to the horse's neck, I whispered "I'll take it from here.", winking at the glossy black animal. He snorted and turned his back on Fiyero and myself, moseying back to keep Juliette company.

"In case you haven't noticed, my dear, he doesn't like you much." I said, bringing one hand up to rest on my hip.

"Yeah, I kind of took the hint back in the City when he tried to bite me."

"Well, he sees himself as the dominant male in this equation, and unless you find a way to assume authority over him while sustaining no permanent injuries, it looks as if it's going to stay that way."

"Oh, joy; I've been shown up by a pack pony." Taye looked back at us and snorted loudly, stomping a back hoof as if to say 'I heard that!'.

"Watch your mouth." I said, and added as an afterthought, "Or maybe I'll watch it for you." I stretched up to press a kiss to his lips.

"That's more like it; I've been missing those lately." he said in response to it, running his hands down my sides and catching my mouth with his in another. He moved his lips from mine down over the curve of my neck, my shoulders, my hair, back over my throat to brush my ears and eyelids before finding my lips again, the kisses running together as smoothly as a string of flawless pearls. I gave myself up to him, kissing back, until the baby decided to kick with a vengeance and I needed to catch my breath again.

"This child enjoys choosing the worst possible moments to move." I said. Fiyero laughed.

"So, are you through pampering your precious pet ponies or can I afford to steal you back from them?" he asked, entangling his fingers with mine.

"They seem to be through with me for now, so I guess it'd be alright by them if you borrowed me for a bit." I replied, glancing over at the pair of them who'd both begun tucking back into their lunch.

"Good. It seems those horses have the right idea at the present moment; you hungry?"

"Yes, actually."

"When did you last eat?"

"Last night."

"Cut the habit of skipping breakfast, will you? You've got two people to keep healthy for the next stretch of time and I don't expect either of them to starve." He pulled me over to the crudely constructed table and commenced to make me lunch, which I finished in record time. Afterward he asked if I'd let him get back on my broom, and, as he put it, watch him to "keep him from falling and breaking himself in half". I nodded and he was in the next room in a heartbeat, broom in hand, wondering what was taking me so long.

"You're just an eager little boy again, aren't you?" I said, pushing myself up, breezing past him, and getting down to business. "Mount up. We've got work to do."

"Why so stiff all of a sudden?"

"I have good reason to be, but I'll tell you when we're finished here. Now get on that broom already. I want you to keep yourself at about ten feet up from the ground, and fly across the room like I told you to before you scared the living tar out of me." He swung his leg over it and kicked off, and I saw him tense for a second before he leaned forward to accelerate. "Keep yourself calm and a scene like that won't happen again. That's it, good. You've got it." He'd made it across the room at a fair speed and I told how to turn himself so he could try it again. "There, practice going back and forth a few times, and when you're confident you can do it we'll move on."

"I'll try."

"No, you won't try, you'll do. It's so important that you learn, Fiyero, you have no idea." He really was a natural, though. After he'd gone across and back a few times, you could see it in the easy way he began handling the broom and the smoothness with which the movements ran together. You'd have thought he'd been at it for years.

"Alright, Elphaba, I think I'm ready to progress to the next step."

"Good, come down and I'll show you what to do. This part's easier to watch than to have it pulled apart and explained." When he was on the ground and I was in the air, I went on, only flying about four feet up from the ground so he could get a better look at what I was trying to show him. "All there is to making the fluid turns is, you lean in slightly to the handle and slowly swing yourself in the direction you want to go. The faster you swerve yourself out, the sharper and faster the turn will be. Have you got that?" I finished, and landed, handing over the broom. He nodded, looking fairly confident and took it from me, keeping himself fairly close to the ground and doing exactly as I had. I was impressed. The way he absorbed all this and executed it better than I had was masterful. After he'd done a few circuits of the room I was convinced of his talent.

"Alright, I've seen enough! It's highly embarrassing when you show up your teacher!" I laughed, beckoning for him to come down. "That was expertly done." Drawing him into a quick, tight hug, I whispered, "You never cease to amaze me. This is making the whole thing a lot easier for us. The faster you learn, the faster we can get out of here and do what we need to do before - before something happens we can't prevent."

"Thanks. Anyway, I'm wondering what you mean by 'what we need to do'. Before what?"

"Come here, I'll explain." I said, sighing heavily from the burden of the news I had to tell him, and pulling him back to the other room. I lowered myself onto our bed, tugging on his hand for him to sit with me. I spelled out the "conversation" I'd had with Glinda earlier in the day, giving him the details on how little time we had left, and on Boq's plight. He didn't question any of what I'd told him, even though I knew he normally would have had a hard time believing I'd spoken to a dead woman; the stakes were too high in this case to allow room for disbelief. By the time I finished his face was ashen, but set with an expression that showed he knew what we had to do and was willing to go ahead with it. "We have thirty-eight days."

"Is there anything else I need to know about flying that broom, Elphaba, because if that's it we can get out of here within the week. The faster we go, the better."

"Tomorrow I want to make sure you can put together everything I've taught you without faltering. Then, when I'm sure you can, we'll be ready to go."

"I'll drive it; I don't want you to have to worry about anything more than the baby right now." I was in no mood to argue with him, and nodded. I had no qualms about stepping aside this time; with my luck, if I drove the baby would kick violently at precisely the worst moment possible and both Fiyero and I would be thrown from the broom.

"I hope I can do this." I murmured, staring down at my hands, twisting my fingers together and untwisting them again. I'd tried to save lives before, but every time those I'd tried to save still died, more often than not because I'd made the situation worse. If this time was to be different, what could I possibly do to ensure that another whole family wouldn't die as a result of my "assistance"? What could I possibly do to ensure I wouldn't die as well?

"We can. We have to. If not, we're all gone."

"I know..." Floods of old worries I'd thought were long since dammed back broke through their barriers to engulf me all over again. Suppose we didn't succeed; what then? If I wasn't killed on sight, how would I live with the knowledge that I'd failed for the umpteenth time? I couldn't take another failure like that, having my efforts never come to fruition, leaving devastating consequences in their wake.

"Fabala? Are you alright? Your eyes, they're so vacant."

Quickly I came to again, trying to shake that nagging voice in the back of my head saying ::You've never yet succeeded in saving one person's life, much less an entire family. What makes you think this time will be any different?::

"It depends on what you mean by 'alright'."

"Listen, we'll...we'll find a way. Somehow, we'll get them out." He tried to be confident, sure of himself, to give me some peace of mind, but peace of mind never did come easily to me.

"Good, you did very well with that last one. Now I want you to try this..." I called, commencing to explain an intricate series of maneuvers to Fiyero for him to put the broom through. I'd started putting him through his paces early in the morning so hopefully we'd be able to leave by nightfall. So far, he'd been incredibly successful with the "choreography" I'd laid out for him, if you could call it that. He'd had a few little setbacks, such as when Chistery had flown up in front of him, causing Fiyero to have to stop short; if he'd been going any faster the abrupt stop would've almost pitched him over the front of the handle. The monkey had been called out of the air and severely berated, my angry tirade ending with a threat to clip his wings if it happened again. Needless to say, Chistery wasn't on terribly good terms with me the rest of the day, and retreated to the other room to sulk and, as we later discovered, plot his revenge.

When I'd gotten through testing Fiyero's abilities with flight I took the broom from him and slipped an arm around his waist, propping the broom against the wall as we went to sit and eat breakfast. The two of us got to talking and between the conversation and the food we forgot all about Chistery. The monkey crept away from us, taking to the air as stealthily as it was possible for him, grabbing my broom as he went and struggling to lift it with him into the room Fiyero and I used to practice flight. By the time I realized Chistery had made off with my broom it was too late; Fiyero and I discovered him sitting on the ground surrounded by the straw that had once made up the tail of my broom. The little monster had torn it all out.

My composure seemed to break like glass in front of my eyes and my face contorted with fury and a strong sense of futility as I regarded the creature sitting among the mess in front of me.

"What. Have. You. Done?" I screeched, my voice harshly reverberating off the stone. Chistery stared up at me from the remains of the broom and glared, reaching up indignantly to cover his ears and block out the sound of my voice. I was taking slow, deep breaths, exercising every ounce of control I had. It was so tempting to reach out, grab what was left of my broom and give that migraine of a monkey a good thwack with it!

"Chistery, get those paws off your ears and listen to me!" I said stonily. Chistery obeyed, knowing better than to push my buttons and make things worse. My hands balled themselves into fists, bit I forced myself to release them. "You have single-handedly destroyed our only means of escape. I don't know why I keep you, or why I spent so much of my time trying to teach you. All it's done is helped you to become far better at wreaking havoc. You, my dear, are going to be punished for this." If he got nothing out of what I'd just said, I knew he understood what "being punished" meant, and that was exactly what I planned to do. I turned on my heel and pushed past Fiyero, not wishing to see hide or hair of the little beast for a good long time. I holed myself up with the horses, throwing my arms around Juliette's silken neck and trying my best not to choke on the knot in my throat. The mare nuzzled her nose in my hair, whickering softly. Taye walked up to investigate and leaned his shoulder against me, his warm bulk a small comfort in itself.

::Boq is as good as dead. There's nothing we can do for him now, or for ourselves anymore. Dammit, Chistery!:: I mentally cried out, wishing I was anywhere but here, feeling anything but hopeless.

Fiyero came in a short while later to find me perched on Taye's back and touring at a smooth gait around the circumference of the fairly large room, holding tight to his mane until my knuckles turned white; I wasn't a very good rider to say the least. I'd never really had the chance to before now. For a short while it gave me something to concentrate on that wasn't pertaining to the broom or the monkey. It even took my mind off the baby, who'd begun to kick a lot more frequently than it had previously. The sound of hooves on the stone and my efforts not to fall from his back provided a welcome respite from the events of the past hour, if only the feelings of defeat were replaced by fear of falling off the horse. When Taye caught sight of Fiyero, however, he stopped short and sped toward the man with me still clinging to his mane. Coming to a halt inches from Fiyero, he snorted in his face and I managed to slide down from his back and turn the horse away from him before anything else could go wrong.

"I put what was left of the broom away where Chistery can't get at it."

"Fiyero, I don't want to talk about this now."

"I figured as much." He cupped my cheek in his hand, gently rubbing his thumb over my lips. "It's broken you, hasn't it?" His voice was soft, descending over me like a caress. I pressed my eyes shut and nodded once, unwilling to trust my voice enough to speak. Fiyero said nothing, just rested his lips against my forehead and took my hands.

::Everything's been lost to me now. If we can't get out of here, even our lives will be lost eventually...::

I don't know how long we stood like that, but sooner or later I heard the clunk of wood on the floor, suspecting Chistery had found the remains of my broom in wherever it was Fiyero had hid it. I pulled away and turned, a small blaze of anger flaring up again, but instead of Chistery there was a larger figure standing there, hunched over and leaning on a walking stick.

"What have you done to it?" Yackle shouted, her voice grating on my ears. "You've gone and ruined it again! Well, where is the thing? Yackle hadn't got all day!" She motioned for me to follow her and I went, leaving Fiyero unsure of what to do.

"Both of you, come! You," she said, pointing at Fiyero, "Where'd you put it? Go get Old Yackle that broom!" He obeyed, going to take the broom from where he'd hidden it. The old woman sat herself on a boulder that had been pushed against the wall. "Give it here, let's see what can be done about it." She took one look at the broomstick and her face seemed to tinge purple with anger. "Who did this to it? Who ruined it?" she cried.

"That little monster." I said, gesturing toward Chistery. The annoying creature had managed to understood our conversation so far and was trying to hide himself under the blankets on the bed. He wasn't doing a very good job of it, either; his tail was sticking out.

"Monkeys are like small children and soldiers; they're not to be trusted!" Yackle snapped, glaring in Chistery's direction. "Yackle expected better from you!" she aimed at me. I said nothing. "This will take Old Yackle a month to fix with bad joints like hers!" she said, and then grumbled something incomprehensible under her breath. "When it's been repaired Yackle will come and give it back. Don't let it happen again!" With that, she picked up her walking stick and clunker her way out, aiming a kick at Chistery as she went. The monkey yelped and scurried over, about to try and climb into my lap before thinking better of it and sitting at my feet instead. I ignored him and leaned against the wall, pressing my fingers to my temples.

::If she comes back with it a month from now, that'll leave us a week to get out of here. We'll still have a week...:: waves of relief washed over me and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.