'He wants WHAT?!'
Elphaba leapt up and pointed an accusing finger at the quaking Dorothy. 'I knew you would bring me misery! You thieving little thing, how dare you come here and demand the book of spells!'
Dorothy trembled in her chair and wailed piteously 'I'm not a thief! I only came here to ask you for it because that's what the wizard wants!'
'And what the wizard wants, the wizard gets, is that it?' Elphaba advanced on the wretched girl, eyes blazing at the indignity of it all. How should the wizard get what he didn't deserve when others had to live in fear and enslavement for the rest of their lives? And now he had this snivelling child coming here to beg on his behalf for the books of spells! She leaned across the table, almost in throttling range; her fingers itched to close themselves around that childish throat.
'You'll never get it' she hissed, 'never!'
Dorothy burst out sobbing. The lion was cowering under the table at this point and the tin man was frozen to the chair. The scarecrow gently prised the witch's hands from the table and softly murmured something soothing. Elphaba's anger subsided slightly and she allowed herself to be sat back in her chair. The silence was like a thunder clap around the room, punctuated with the girl's snuffled hiccups and quiet wibbling coming from under the table. The tin man leaned down and drew out the frightened lion by the tail. A face peered out fearfully from by the table leg nearest Dorothy. Elphaba took no notice.
'You are a mere child, you won't be able to give him that book without suffering some misfortune on the way' she growled through her teeth. Dorothy raised her face from the grubby handkerchief to stare in terror at what that might mean.
Fiyero coughed slightly, trying to diffuse the tension. It didn't work. Dorothy turned alarmed eyes to him. 'What will it do to me?' She whispered. Having not seen the book and not knowing what it contained, he was unable to answer.
'It is a powerful magic in that book.' Elphaba told her, still glowering. 'It is almost indescribable, it is barely legible but it is powerful.'
'What does legible mean?' Asked the tin man interestedly.
'It's not easily read' said Fiyero.
'I'm not that good a reader' said Dorothy tremulously.
'Nobody asked you to read it!' Snapped Elphaba immediately. The girl cowered back in her seat, hiding behind her handkerchief once more.
'You couldn't understand it if you spent the rest of your life trying to' taunted the witch.
'Then surely it's for the wizard to interpret' retorted the tin man. Elphaba's eyes flew to him. He was sitting there stoically with his tin axe beside him. At the chance of a fight, Elphaba thought that he would stand up and mechanically demolish everything in sight. She considered getting him on her side and then realised that he wasn't on anyone's side, he was just there on orders and he didn't seem to care whose. That just left the lion.