Dorothy Must Die Novella #7 Read Free

She slept alone, in a small cave with a thin mattress on the floor, and Nox brought her her meals. She had risked her life to find the Order, but since she’d gotten here, she had lived in a weird limbo.
    Gert had shown her to the cave where she slept the afternoon she arrived, and brought her a bowl of warm, nourishing broth that sparkled with an eerie green light. “Drink up,” she urged. The soup fizzed in her throat as she swallowed it, and almost immediately she could feel her whole body tingling as the strength returned to her arms and legs.
    She’d slept like a dead person until Gert woke her up again—she assumed the next morning, although in the windowless cavern, she had no way to tell. Gert had introduced her to gruff old Mombi and sweet, pretty Glamora, and then she’d brought Lanadel to the training cave where Nox awaited her. That first day had been brutal—and so had the day after that. But as the days passed, her muscles gradually adjusted to the constant, punishing routine of her training. She knew there were other trainees, but she hadn’t met them. She hadn’t met anyone at all, other than the witches.
    It was as if Nox was waiting for her to do something special—demonstrate some impressive skill or undiscovered talent—before she would be allowed to do anything other thaneat her meals in silence and train obsessively with him. After a few weeks, she was so lonely that she was halfway tempted to run back down the side of Mount Gillikin and seek out somewhere else to go. Except that there was nowhere else. The Order was all she had now, for better or for worse.
    Melindra was the first person other than Nox, Mombi, Glamora, or Gert that she’d talked to since she arrived. And it was hard to use the word “conversation” to describe the terse interactions she had with Nox. More like he barked orders, and she followed. And Melindra was funny, friendly . . . and gorgeous.
    Melindra yawned widely and dunked her head in the warm water. “What I want to know is when we get to fight ,” she said when she came back up, breaking into Lanadel’s thoughts.
    â€œYou haven’t been sent on any missions yet?” Lanadel didn’t know what she was expecting. Everything about her life now was so new. So confusing. And so filled with pain. Every day felt like being torn in a thousand different directions—as if there were dozens of different Lanadels inside her, trying to get out.
    â€œOh, they sent me out to do some recon,” Melindra was saying, and Lanadel snapped back to attention as the other girl continued. “You know, trying to establish the strength and size of Dorothy’s army, that kind of thing.”
    â€œThose creatures are Dorothy’s army?” Lanadel thought of the creatures who’d torn through her village. Of what they’d done. The idea that there might be a whole army of them was so horrifying she could hardly bear to think about it.
    â€œSupposedly.” Melindra shrugged. “I don’t know. I couldn’t find much. Lots of rumors in the Emerald City, but I couldn’t get near the palace without any kind of undercover setup, and I’m no good at that stuff. I can never keep my mouth shut. I got word back to the Order, and they sent another one of our best to try to get into the palace and find out what’s really going on. She’s still out there.” A flash of worry crossed Melindra’s face. “We haven’t heard from her in a long time, but I’m sure she’s fine.” Melindra sounded like she was trying to reassure herself as much as Lanadel. “Anyway, Dorothy has guards everywhere, that’s for sure, and her servants are terrified of her—or at least, the ones who manage to get out into the city sometimes. Supposedly she doesn’t like it when they leave the palace. But secret armies, weird experiments on