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pleasure.
    â€œI should get out of the queendom more often,” she said happily. “There’s nothing like a good vacation to make you appreciate home, right?” Hex almost laughed out loud. Iris was the only person—well, monkey—he could imagine who would describe being attacked by a monstrous Lion while plotting a murder as a “vacation.” He wondered again about his own home. Had he wanted to go back? Or had he been happy here?
    â€œWe should keep moving,” Pete said. “The Lion isn’t stopped by pretty scenery. Neither are the Tin Woodman’s soldiers.”
    â€œSoldiers?” Hex asked in surprise.
    Pete nodded. “Not everyone in Oz can access the kind of magic you did in the clearing. The Lion is doubtless on his way to warn Dorothy and Glinda, if he hasn’t already. And once they learn that someone with that kind of power is just wandering around Oz—well, it won’t be long before they’re hot on our trail.”
    â€œDorothy,” Iris said, and spat on the ground. Hex was shocked.
    â€œWho is this Dorothy?” he asked.
    â€œShe used to be the best thing that had happened to Oz,” Iris said, “but then she turned out to be the worst.” Hex waited for Pete to cut her off, but to his surprise, Pete let her continue, her voice growing even more passionate as they walked. “For a long time, a terrible usurper ruled Oz,” she explained. “He came from the Other Place in a beautiful balloon that floated inthe sky. This was a long time ago, of course—the citizens of Oz were much more trusting then. He deceived everyone in Oz and made them believe he was a good and kind Wizard, when he was nothing of the sort! He didn’t even have magic—just a bunch of fancy tricks. He made the people of Oz build him the Emerald City, and then he shut himself up in the palace so no one would realize he was a fraud. He stole the throne from the fairies, the rightful rulers. We tried to stop him, but he was too powerful.”
    â€œThat’s not exactly true,” Pete said drily. “The citizens of Oz have never done much to stop anything from happening.”
    â€œThe monkeys did!” Iris said hotly. “We saw through him from the very first! We knew he was trouble! We called him the Traitor! We never bowed down to him!”
    â€œYou didn’t try to stop him until it was too late,” Pete said. “Until he sold you into slavery. And all of this happened before you were even born, Iris.”
    â€œAre you going to let me finish or not?” Iris snapped, and Hex was surprised to see tears in her eyes. Pete relented, waving at her to go ahead. “That was when Dorothy first showed up,” Iris continued. “She came from the Other Place.”
    If Dorothy was from the Other Place, and he was from the Other Place—did that mean they were related somehow? Had he known her? Something stirred at the back of his mind. He was so close, he thought, to putting it all together. So close to remembering who he was. But understanding was still on the far side of that shimmering wall—close enough to touch, but separated from him by a barrier he couldn’t yet cross.
    â€œDorothy defeated the Traitor, and sent him back to the Other Place, and no one has heard from him since. Good riddance, if you ask me. She went back, too, and Ozma took the throne”—Iris gave a respectful little curtsy, as if this Ozma could somehow see her—“and everything was as it should be. But then Dorothy came back. Nobody knows how or why she got here, but this time everything was different. She was different. It was as if something—or someone—had brought her back to destroy Oz. At first, no one realized anything was wrong. She stayed in the palace with Ozma, and they had all sorts of banquets, and everyone who was anyone was invited— I didn’t want to go, of course,” Iris