A/N: Here's chapter 8.
Disclaimer: I don't own it.
"Damn," said Elphaba.
"What?" asked Liir nervously, earning himself another one of Elphaba's looks.
"The broom- something's wrong," she said. "I can't keep flying- I'll try to put us down in an alley, somewhere isolated-"
Then they plunged, into a lunging plunging fall, twisting and bucking and weaving crazily, plummeting to the ground. Liir thought he was going to vomit…that was if he didn't get smashed into the ground first.
"Aaaah!" he screamed, unable to help himself. He felt his pants wet, and apparently so did Elphaba, that or she was just annoyed by his scream, for she gave him another disgusted look as she managed to alight the broom rather gracefully in an alley. Liir instantly fell to the ground, dry heaving.
"Oh, come off it, it wasn't that bad," said Elphaba.
"Hey, Elphie, look," said Fiyero. Elphaba turned to follow his pointing finger. ELPHABA LIVES, declared a wall.
"Well, I guess that cat's out of the bag," said Elphaba.
"Whoa, wait," said Fiyero. "That's Nor's writing!"
An hour later, Fiyero, Liir, and a heavily scarf-sheathed Elphaba sat around a table in a nearby pub, drinking coffees.
"All right…so…Nor escaped, and she was alive as of about a week ago, and obviously higher-functioning than that Sow reckoned, as she wrote a message she knew someone would get on the wall…" Elphaba began.
"All right, but where do we go from here?" asked Fiyero.
"I don't know…I could try to go through some of the old underground channels, but it's been more than fifteen years…some of them could be dead, or in Southstairs, or just out of hiding…"
"What about Lady Glinda?" Liir asked suddenly.
"Glinda?" asked Elphaba, startled.
"Yes… she got me into Southstairs. She's very kind. She's a lot more aware than she acts, too," Liir went on. There was something he'd never seen before in Elphaba's eyes, a kind of youthful look, mixed insecurity and anticipation.
"Glinda," she whispered again, awed.
"Well, I guess it's off to the rich district, then," commented Fiyero. Elphaba whacked him on the ear with a rolled up napkin.
"Says the Prince of the Arjikis with 'business interests in the Emerald City'," commented Elphaba rudely.
"Keep it down, would you?" asked Fiyero.
"Oh, hush, no one knows or cares who you were fifteen years ago."
"Thanks so much for that touching remembrance."
"You're quite welcome, Your Royal Highness."
Fiyero tried to pull at Elphaba's long braid.
"Hey," she said, almost laughing. Liir watched them, joining in the laughter.
Like a family, he thought in wonder. Like a real family.