Chapter 2: Head Start
Princess Langwidere knocked on the door of the Queen dowager's private suite.
"What is it?" inquired one of the Queen's ladies in waiting who answered the door.
"I must see the Queen at once," said Langwidere. "It's extremely important."
"I'll see if she's available," said the lady in waiting.
"I said at once," said Langwidere, pushing past her. "Your Highness!"
"Yes, what is it?" came the voice of the Queen from the other room.
Langwidere charged in. "Your Highness, you promised that I could keep my collection of heads as long as I lived. Now I hear that the King may not allow it. How can you let your word to me be broken?"
"When I granted you that, I didn't realize there were living women who had been deprived of their heads for your sake. I assumed the heads were all created by magic," said the Queen.
"I would never stoop to wearing artificial heads," said Langwidere. "Mine are perfectly natural, all of them."
"You didn't have anyone killed to get them?"
"No, I would never do that. They all have working replacements from Smith and Tinker that allow them to speak, eat, and so on."
"The rescue party from Oz that saved us from slavery to the Nome King included the Emperor of the Winkies. He told us how he had replaced his body, part by part with tin, including his head. But that was in Oz; they have immortality there. We don't, or Evoldo would never have sold his wife and children for a long life."
"Magic was involved, and it wasn't my idea originally." said Langwidere. "There was a clever young witch named Noir..."
"I may have heard of her," said the Queen. "There was some kind of plot against the King, wasn't there?"
"I'm getting to that. Noir studied monsters called Scoodlers, who live to the south on the other side of Oz, hideous creatures that eat people. They can take off their own heads to throw them as weapons, and take them back with no harm to themselves."
"Horrible!"
"Yes, but Noir turned it into something marvelous. She constructed a set of thirty cabinets, and in their presence a woman can take off her head and exchange it for another. She gathered a group of five other women. They used head-swapping as a secret ritual to bind themselves in a pact of loyalty, a coven of friendship and magic."
"If it was a deep secret, how did you learn of it?" asked the Queen.
"One of them was very outgoing, a redhead named Rose. She offered me a membership, and the others agreed that a royal relation might be useful. I met them all: studious Noir, party-girl Rose, farm-girl Dale, shy Violet, athletic Iris, and fashionable Velvet. But when I realized that they might be trying to build up power to overthrow the throne, I told King Evoldo," said Langwidere.
"It's surprising they were not executed," said the Queen.
"I begged for their lives," said Langwidere.
"That was merciful of you," said the Queen.
"I was afraid that if they died, their heads would also die and decay," said Langwidere. "At my request, the King ordered replacement heads for them from Smith and Tinker. I was given all the original heads as my reward, the first six in my collection. After that, I found more and more. Some were rebels and criminals, others simply could not refuse my royal prerogative to take what I liked."
"Were the replacement heads attractive?"
"Not really, but they didn't need to face the public anymore, because the King had them all locked up in his dungeons."
"Velvet's family connections are quite influential, and so are many of the others. The families have started a petition for the restoration of the heads. Most of the public has joined their cause and it's very difficult... our new King wants to be popular."
"They cannot have them! What would I do without my heads?"
"You could go back to your own original head."
"I discarded that thing long ago. The hair was showing slight traces of gray."
"You could take one of the replacement heads for yourself."
"That would be an outrage, not only to myself but to the dignity of the royal family. I could never appear in public again."
"There's nothing I can do."
"You promised me!"
"I wasn't aware there were original owners when I said that. And I no longer have power. It's in the hands of the King."
"He's your son. You must use your influence on him."
"I will not undermine the authority of my son. You will have to petition him directly. But take care. You must realize you are most unpopular. People remember how you ruled, and they are not happy."
"I did the best I could to hold the throne in the absence of the royal family. I never wanted to rule, but I had to. I spent ten minutes of my precious time every day on affairs of state."
The Queen looked stern. "From what I hear it was not good enough."
Langwidere turned on her most sad, persuasive expression. "Please!"
"No, it's out of my hands. I can do nothing for you."
"Then I'll find someone who can," said Langwidere, stalking out of the room with determination.