The Straw King (Dorothy Must Die Novella) Read Free

looked down at the red stain spreading across his chest. He lifted one hand as if to touch the wound, his expression bewildered. And then, slowly, he toppled sideways and hit the ground with a thud, his eyes open. A glistening red pool spread outward from his inert body.
    The Lion growled, but the Scarecrow was speechless. In all of his reading, he had heard of nothing like this ever happening in the history of Oz. Battles, perhaps—but not cold-blooded murder. That was the domain of the witches. Over the years, a few people and animals had gotten caught in the cross fire of their seemingly eternal battle of Good versus Wicked. But Ozians didn’t kill other Ozians, not like this.
    There was no time to think. With a scream of triumph, Jinjur fired another shot into the air, and her army surged toward thepalace, trampling the Royal Army’s body into the ground. “Now it’s your turn, Straw King!” she screamed. “You and everyone who serves you will bow to us—or die!”
    “We have to get out of here,” the Scarecrow hissed, snapping to attention. The Lion growled again and lashed his tail.
    “I say we fight,” he snarled. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the Scarecrow almost laughed.
    “Don’t be foolish,” the Scarecrow said. “There’s only two of us, and this awful girl has an entire army who won’t hesitate to—to—” He couldn’t quite bring himself to finish the sentence. The Royal Army’s broken body was seared across his vision.
    “The palace is full of Munchkins!” the Lion exclaimed. “Surely we can hold off these upstarts. The Munchkins will fight for us.” Already, they could both hear screaming and crashing as the invaders made their way through the palace. The sounds of breaking glass and splintering wood filled the air.
    “The Munchkins don’t know how to fight,” the Scarecrow protested. “None of us do. No one’s ever had to fight an invading army in the history of Oz.”
    “Speak for yourself,” the Lion growled. “I’m not cowardly. I’ll fight.”
    “I’m not cowardly! I’m sensible .” The Scarecrow weighed their options. He didn’t like the idea of leaving the Munchkins. But running away would buy him time to come up with a plan—a strategy for how to deal with General Jinjur.
    “Jinjur only said she’d kill people who opposed her,” the Scarecrow pointed out. “As long as the Munchkins follow herorders, they should be safe. She’s here for us, not them.”
    Shaking his head, the Lion paced to the window and looked out. The courtyard was empty; all of Jinjur’s soldiers had poured into the castle already, and they hadn’t bothered to leave a guard outside. The body of the Royal Army lay in the mud where they had trampled him, broken and battered. Suddenly they heard metal clattering on the stairs, and a girl’s voice yelling “He’s in here!” A chorus of bloodthirsty shouts followed her pronouncement. “Kill him!” someone else screamed. “Tear out his stuffing and burn it!”
    “Jump on my back!” the Lion barked.
    “What?” The door banged open so hard it slammed into the wall and splintered, and girls ran into the room, taking aim with their weapons.
    “Just do it!” roared the Lion. The terrified Scarecrow lurched forward, grabbing the Lion’s mane desperately. Even before he had swung his leg over the Lion’s back, the Lion leapt out the window as bullets zinged past him. “Hold on!” the Lion shouted as the Scarecrow shrieked wordlessly in fear. The ground rushed toward them at unbelievable speed. The Scarecrow would have covered his eyes, but then he’d have to let go of the Lion’s mane.
    The Lion hit the ground with a thud that knocked the wind out of both of them, but there was no time to recover. Screaming girls hung out the window they’d just jumped from, and bullets thumped into the dirt all around them. Somehow, the Scarecrow had kept his deathly tight grip on the Lion’s mane during the landing. He could feel