Shadows of the Emerald City (9 page)

He took a few clunking steps towards her. Tin or not, he still felt as if he had muscles and those muscles had not been flexed in a while.

“
I do. Tell me.”

The woman sighed and began plucking the bristles on the end of her broom. “Well, records vary, but it’s been somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred and sixty years
.
”

What little of his heart was left sunk within his chest. That crystal ball had put him to sleep for
that
long? How much longer would he have slept if this woman had not come looking for help? He peered back to the heap of useless tin bodies and wanted to collapse to the floor. Seeing them heaped together like that, discarded and of no use, made him think of the Woodkin village.

“
Why has this happened?” he asked the woman. He knew that he could not cry, but he tried his best.

“
I don’t know. But looking at you right now, I think I know why you were brought here—why you were of no use.”

“
It’s because I still think like a man,” he said. “After the Woodkin village, I…I don’t know. It affected me and I don’t think it was supposed to.”

“
Come here,” she said, beckoning him forward.

He was walking towards her before he realized it. There was a pull to her, a magnetism that he didn’t understand. But he assumed, from her wardrobe and the broom, that she might be a witch. They were pretty scarce when he had been human, little more than legends. But that was almost two hundred years ago. There was no telling how much had changed in Oz since then.

As he came to her, she placed a hand on his shoulder and ran her other palm along his frame. She started at his brow and made her way down his cheeks, his neck, his chest. Her touch was cold but there was still something nearly sensual about the examination.

“
Ah ha,” she said as she neared his chest. “Your heart still beats. As I understand it, the transformation into a Tin Man should have removed it.”

He thought of the Woodkin village and of the wife that had left him in his other life.

“
I wish it had,” he said softly.

“
You know, dear,” the witch said lightly, bringing her sharp face closer to his. “I can fix that if you want. Come with me—
work
for me—and I can fix it. And then, without a heart, you can live a very long time. There are Tin Men that worked on the Road with you that are still alive today and making very good lives for themselves. They show no signs of aging, no signs of guilt, remorse or regret. Many people actually envy them.”

“
They remained in Oz when the Yellow Brick Road was finished?” he asked.

“
Oh yes. The Road is legendary now. Those that helped build it are held in high regard. You could be among them. All you have to do is let me take your heart.”

He didn’t have to think long. He felt it within him even as she mentioned it. It felt foreign. Part of him knew that it no longer belonged to him. The moment he stepped into that Woodkin village with his axe raised he had forfeited his heart and anything else human that remained within him.

“
I’ll come with you if you’ll just take it away.”

When she smiled at him he once again found himself wanting to be rid of his heart. Her smile chilled him; a chill that seemed to pierce the wretched muscle that stubbornly remained in his chest.

“
We can work with that,” she said, turning her back to him and heading for the door.

He followed her out of the warehouse, thinking of what the magician had told him about purpose so long ago. And as he trailed behind the witch through the streets of Emerald City, he was very aware of the faint beating inside of his chest. He counted each one, knowing that they would be his last.

She had rescued him from the pile of bodies and told him that she needed a place in the woods cleared. She had plans on building a new cabin out there where she could marry a man and raise their children.

This had turned out to be a lie. As she lay him down on a mat in her cottage and placed several emeralds on his chest, she explained it all to him. There was a slight hesitation within him as she told her story but he fought it off. If what she said was true about the Tin Men that had helped with the construction of the Yellow Brick Road, then there was nothing to think about. He might even be able to put those missing one hundred and sixty years behind him.

“
Our time is incredibly short,” she told him. “This spell should only take about an hour to work. Once your heart as been removed, I believe you will need about another hour or so to rest. Once that is done, I need you to go out onto the Yellow Brick Road and stand by the entrance to the woods. Pretend that you have rusted—like you have been there for a long time.”

“
Why?”

All of the emeralds were aligned as she needed them and, ignoring him, she took a moment to close her eyes and meditate. In the corner of the room, three monkeys sat in a corner watching her. They had wings on their backs and something about the way they looked at him made Nick think of bats.

“
Earlier today, something happened in Munchkinland,” the witch finally said. “I believe it was the Great Funnel Wind that did it. A house just dropped out of the sky, you see. Any other day, I’d say it was just some sort of tomfoolery put on by the Wizard to strike fear into the Munchkins.

“
But the house landed on my sister. It killed her dead as anything and I got no explanation. Some little bitch came out of the house, totally unscathed, and said it was an accident. She played dumb…like she had no idea.”

“
Who is she?”

“
No clue. She says she’s from a place called Kansas. I’ve never heard of it and I’ve been a great many places, mind you. Those ungrateful Munchkins…you’d think some great God had dropped from the sky. They were praising her and dancing and singing. Meanwhile, my sister lay squashed under that damned house.”

“
What do you need me to do?”

The witch sighed. “I’d better wait to tell you after your heart is gone. I don’t know how it will react.”

Nick nodded.

“
What I will tell you is that the stupid little girl is awfully desperate to get back to this Kansas place. The Munchkins have her following the Yellow Brick Road, thinking that the Wizard can help.”

Nick had a good idea of what she was going to have him do. And while it did make his heart tremble, it simply reminded him of how badly he wanted it out of his body.

“
Are you ready?” the witch asked him.

“
Yes.”

She spread her hands out and began muttering something under her breath. Nick watched as a fine mist of reds and oranges rose from his chest and gathered around the emeralds that she had placed there.

Moments later, Nick’s heart thumped a single time and then settled in his chest. When it left his body, he smiled lightly. As he lay there and waited for further instructions, he was sure that he could hear its pounding echoing in his head.

If the stupid little dog hadn’t have perked its ears up in its sleep, Nick would have never sensed the other presence in the night. He turned slowly, wondering if the Scarecrow had awakened. But the figure that stood behind him was slender and draped in a robe as dark as the night itself. Even if he hadn’t have figured out the identity of the stranger from these details, the broom gave it away.

“
Don’t torture yourself over it,” the witch whispered to him. She then waved her hand upwards and flexed her fingers. A brief flicker of light filled the night and then the Tin Man actually heard the breathing patterns of the girl, her dog and the Scarecrow change as they fell into a much deeper state of sleep.

The Tin Man studied the witch’s face for a moment as she looked to the girl named Dorothy. There was malice in her stare but faint traces of awe as well. “I fear you may have to accompany her for the duration of her pointless little trip,” the witch said.

“
She’s going to Oz, you know,” he told her. “She wants to see the Wizard.”

She grinned at him. He never noticed until then, looking at her in the shaded moonlight, that her teeth were yellowed and sharper than most people’s. “And do you know why?” she asked him.

“
It’s like you said. She wants to return home. She seems sincere about it.”

“
I’m sure she is. And what about the Scarecrow? I understand that they’ll be asking the Wizard for his brains, too?”

“
Yes.”

She walked closer to him and placed her hand on his chest, her palm touching the left side of his tin plate. “And what about you? Are you having any second thoughts about our trade? Is there anything you may be asking the Wizard for?”

“
No,” he said quickly. As he said this, he found himself gripping his axe. He didn’t want to attack the witch, but he wanted to hurt
something
. Perhaps he’d slice the dog in half. Or maybe he could tear into the Scarecrow.

No.
If he was to carry out any violence in the future, it would be on the girl.

“
You know,” the witch said. “You’ll likely come to the place in the woods where you helped slaughter the Woodkins tomorrow. Are you ready for that?”

“
I believe so.”

“
And there are all manner of odd creatures in that area of the woods these days. Cranes, wild horses and those insipid lions. I’m sure
Little Miss Kansas
will end up attracting someone else to your traveling party.”

“
If you don’t mind my asking,” Nick said, “if she bothers you so much, why can’t I simply kill her right now while she sleeps?”

“
I’d love nothing more,” the witch said. “But she needs to make it to Oz. She needs to see that moron of a Wizard.”

“
Why? Do you want her to succeed now?”

“
Hardly. It’s just that she gives people hope. You should have seen those Munchkins bowing and dancing around her. So foolish. But they adore her and the hope she provides.”

“
Well then, what would you have me do?”

“
Wait until you get to Oz. Wait until the Wizard is fawning all over her like the Munchkins. Wait until she
knows
she is going home. And
then
attack.”

“
Won’t I be arrested and punished?”

“
Likely. But you’re made of tin and your heart is no longer an issue. What’s the worst they could do to you? Besides, politics in Emerald City are shadier than people think. I am certain I could pull a few strings. Not
everyone
is in love with the little bitch.”

The Tin Man nodded. He looked to his axe and regretted that he would not be using it.

“
Okay then,” he said. “I’ll wait.”

The witch nodded to him and straddled her broom. She looked to him almost lovingly as she floated from the ground. As she gained momentum and faded into the distance, he watched her lift her hand, removing the sleep spell she had cast upon his companions.

The Tin Man looked to Dorothy. The spell broke. She sighed in her sleep and the faintest traces of a smile came to her face. Her dog chuffed and settled its head onto its paws. It awoke slightly, cast him a curious glance with one beady eye and then returned to sleep.

Nick sat up the rest of the night. He sat perched on a fallen log, looking to the outskirts of the forest. The Yellow Brick Road barely showed through, casting a sickly glow into the night.

To Nick, it would never be a road, but a graveyard.

He thought of the Woodkin bodies beneath it and a hollow place in his chest filled with something akin to heat. He gripped his axe tightly, looked to the girl from Kansas and scowled at her.

He wondered what it would be like to murder the girl and not feel those old stirrings of guilt and remorse from within. He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his heart was gone now; the thought of killing the girl neither bothered nor elated him. He simply saw it as a task to be accomplished.

Still, he peered out to the Yellow Brick Road and wondered if the ghosts of the Woodkin people knew he was here. With the thought of feeling those phantom eyes on him, he wondered if fear was linked to the heart.

And he wondered if ghosts would even bother haunting him if they knew he was without it.

As it turned out, the witch had been right. The following day, their group grew by one. The lion had pounced out of the woods at them, terrifying the girl, her dog and the wobbling scarecrow. But Nick had planted his feet, gripped his axe and was ready to strike. When he realized how harmless the lion was—he was, in fact, as terrified of the girl as she was of it—Nick eased up.

And even though Nick did not attack the gentle beast, he knew right away that the end was near. He was pretty sure that Emerald City was still at least three days away and there was no way he could continue to act merry in the presence of these idiots. He remembered the magician in the back of the carriage so many years ago, speaking to him about purpose. Well now that he finally had a purpose—a
real
purpose—he was bursting to fulfill it.

As he walked quietly behind the small group of odd travelers, he thought of the witch and what she was asking of him. Basically, she was asking for his services…for him to carry out her dirty work. Hadn’t he been subject to similar treatment many years ago? Hadn’t that same treatment caused him to be junked, to be stored away forgotten while Oz took pleasure in the horrors and hells he had endured for the sake of that damned road? What was the point in submitting to servitude again when he knew where it would eventually lead? Was this newfound evil purpose worth it?