The School for Wicked Witches #2, page 3
“That is everything I know,” the warden said, folding his hands. “Now you will answer my questions. First: How did you manage to leave Nettle Tower at night?”
Ava sat up. This was interesting. Apparently, Warden Pike hadn’t worked out Henry’s trick with the living slime in the library door, and apparently Tinabella hadn’t told him.
Henry looked at her, clearly asking what to do. Ava’s mind raced. Would it be a good idea to lie and try to keep their secret escape route working? Or was it better to get everything out in the open? Would they even be able to lie to Warden Pike, anyway? In the end she shrugged one shoulder, leaving it up to Henry.
“I figured out a way to use the library door,” Henry said, opting for the truth, and he explained about his discovery and their midnight escape.
“Very well,” Warden Pike said when he finished. “That loophole will be closed immediately. How did you cross the boiling lake?”
Henry looked to Ava again. This time she nodded encouragingly.
“That was Ava,” Henry explained. “She held the water back so we could walk across the bottom. I knew a spell to keep our shoes from melting all the way, and we just hiked to the other side.”
Warden Pike’s left eyebrow flickered.
“You parted the lake, Miss Heartstraw? And successfully held it back for several minutes as you three crossed?”
Ava nodded. The right eyebrow flickered.
“Did you … encounter anything?”
Ava nodded again, gesturing to Henry.
“We saw this giant fish, or snake, or dragon maybe,” Henry said. “It looked at us, then it swam away.”
There was no mistaking it this time: Warden Pike’s eyes widened.
But whatever he was thinking he kept to himself.
“And the glass hills? How did you get past them?”
Henry and Ava turned to Crow, who bit his lip, squirmed, and finally raised his hand.
“Speak, Mr. Backpatch.”
“Thanks.” Crow’s right leg was bouncing under the desk. Ava understood why. Crow had kept his power secret for years and years. “That part was me. I, well, I melted us a tunnel, then we destroyed it after. I can, um, do Bone Fire.”
Warden Pike stared at Crow. “That is unexpected,” he said softly. He kept staring for several long moments, then pushed his chair back and stood, pacing behind his desk. “You have given me a great deal to consider. By every rule of Swickwit, I should kick all of you out and report you to the Witch Council of Oz for further punishment. But there are two points in your favor.
“First, you thought to leave behind the Oath Scroll. That was well judged. I would have come after you if you had not, but as it was, I decided to see if the outside world would live up to your expectations. I think we can all agree on the outcome.
“Second, you managed to escape from Swickwit, which no student has done in a thousand years. Do you know how long a thousand years is?”
Crow opened his mouth.
“No, you do not,” continued Warden Pike. He came to a halt. “But somehow you three working together had the power to do it. I confess I am … interested to see what that might lead to. So I will allow you all to resume your studies here. With”—he held up a hand as the friends made noises of relief—“the understanding that things will be different going forward.”
Henry and Crow thanked Warden Pike over and over. Ava did the same in mime.
“I have one question before we move on,” the warden said. “It is for you, Miss Heartstraw, so you may now speak.” He leaned forward, planting his hands on his desk. “What is it you want?”
Ava blinked. “What do I … want?”
“Yes.”
“Um, I want to come back to school here.”
“Are you certain? Not long ago you wanted to go to another school, and you got your wish.”
“Yeah, but now I want to go here.”
“And you will continue to want that? You are sure?”
Ava didn’t answer.
“I will ask again, Miss Heartstraw.” Warden Pike’s eyes were so cold Ava couldn’t look at them. “What is it you want? Really?”
Henry and Crow shifted in their seats. Ava couldn’t look at them, either.
What was this about? She was only eleven years old. How was she supposed to know what she wanted? She had a sudden sense of the significance of this moment. Whatever she said next might have a huge impact on her future.
And just like that, she found her answer.
“I want to be important.”
It was so simple, just five little words, but Ava knew to her bones that they were true. This was what she’d been chasing for as long as she could remember. Her dearest wish was to be valued and esteemed, and the idea of never reaching that point, of never becoming a big important someone, was terrifying.
Did that make her a bad person? Or selfish? Was wanting to be important … wicked?
Crow raised his hand. Warden Pike nodded.
“Aren’t you going to ask Henry and me what we want?”
Warden Pike flicked the question away. “There is no need, Mr. Backpatch. You want to be happy. Mr. Buffle wants to be safe.”
Ava almost gasped. She could never have put it so precisely, but Warden Pike had her friends exactly right, and from the looks on their faces, they knew it, too.
“It is crucial I understand what my students want,” continued Warden Pike, “so I can make the best choices for this school. I believe you have told me the truth, Miss Heartstraw, so we will move on to the final portion of our meeting: the consequences.”
Crow sat up. Ava squeezed her hands in her lap. Henry hunched his shoulders.
“First, you have all lost the privilege of free afternoons. You will be given useful tasks to fill the time between lunch and dinner. Second, you are all on academic probation. You have missed an entire month of classes, and you will be expected to catch up on your own time. Midwinter testing takes place in nine weeks, and you must pass every test. You too, Mr. Backpatch. No more Nettle do-overs. Especially now that I know what you can do when you try.”
For a moment his eyes seemed to cloud over, and Ava thought she saw his lips forming the words Bone Fire.
Warden Pike shook himself. “Should any of you fail to meet my expectations, I will remove you from this school and ensure you never use magic again.”
He stood tall, gesturing them to their feet before they could react.
“One more thing. When you three were discovered missing, your classmates were told you had attempted to sneak through the laboratory door and became trapped between worlds after damaging the portal. You must stick to this story. It will be simplest if you pretend not to remember anything since your departure. Can you do that?”
Thoroughly dazed, Ava and the boys nodded.
“Good,” said Warden Pike. “Leave your bags, they will be sent on ahead. Your class has already begun, but do not worry about being turned into desks for being late.” He lifted a hand, and flashing colors swirled between his fingers. “The entrance you are about to make should provide an adequate excuse.”
With a snap of Warden Pike’s fingers, the world disappeared.
The world reappeared, along with the four of them, on the roof of Nettle Tower.
The fog was coming in strong off the lake, blocking any view of the lower buildings and the water, but a wind from the north revealed the tops of the glass hills sparkling in the sun. Ava stared out at the other Swickwit towers. She sure was seeing the school from plenty of new angles today.
The roof of Nettle Tower looked as Ava would have expected: a disk of weathered stone tiles sloping gently away on all sides. A metal spike rose from the very center of the roof, and over to their left the tiles vanished, replaced by a writhing, twisting knot of withered gray-brown roots.
“Awesome!” said Crow. “Is that the classroom?”
He trotted over to see. Ava followed, less confident with the height than Crow but happier than poor Henry, who had both arms wrapped around the spike and his eyes clamped shut.
“Yes, that is the exterior of your classroom,” Warden Pike answered over the wind. “Do not attempt to walk on it.”
Crow and Ava knelt down for a closer look at the roots writhing endlessly over and around one another. There were more of them than Ava had imagined, and from out here they looked especially creepy.
She tapped into her water powers, feeling a rush of energy from the fog and the lake far below, and tried connecting to the roots, just to see if anything had changed—if maybe she had changed—since she left.
But the roots still gave her nothing. Not a flicker of water, or life, or any connection at all.
She didn’t understand. How could they be moving, then? Why were they up here? Why was this one spot out of the whole school made of undead roots?
“It’s really cool being up here,” said Crow, poking at the roots with a thumb. “And class already started, right, Warden?”
“Class has started.”
“Then come on!” Crow nudged Ava and hopped to his feet. “Let’s jump up and down and see if they can hear!”
“You will not jump up and down,” Warden Pike said, leading over a shaking Henry.
“We are going back to class, though, right?” Ava asked. “You said something about making an entrance.”
Warden Pike nodded. “Your return must convince your classmates of the portal accident story they have been told. So.”
He raised his hands and whispered three wet-sounding words.
Ava had one last moment to enjoy the wind and sunlight before she, Henry, and Crow were doused from head to toe in thick, sticky, unbelievably putrid yellow slime.
“Ew!” said Ava.
“Help!” said Henry.
“Cool!” said Crow. He clapped his hands, splattering slime everywhere. “Is this supposed to make us look like we’ve been stuck between worlds this whole time?”
“Well deduced, Mr. Backpatch.”
“Did it have to stink so bad?” asked Ava, trying to breathe through her mouth.
Warden Pike gave the shadow of a smile. “It adds to the effect. But we are wasting time.” He knelt, bowed his head, and pressed one hand flat to the squirming roots.
The roots became instantly still.
“You may walk on them now,” he said, keeping his eyes down. “It is quite safe.”
They did as they were told. Ava had to keep blinking the terrible slime out of her eyes to see. Henry grabbed her hand, and she gripped his fingers as best she could while he reached out for Crow, who was somehow still smiling.
“A little farther,” said Warden Pike. He still hadn’t looked up, and Ava wondered how he could tell where they were. “A step or two more. Perfect.”
Warden Pike turned his face to them then, his shining eyes flat in the sunlight. He lifted his hand from the roots. “Good luck.”
Ava tried to scream, but before she could finish drawing breath, the three of them were wrapped from ankle to shoulder and pulled down into slime-squishing darkness. Henry’s hand was yanked out of hers, and for an eternity—or maybe just several horrible seconds—her world became nothing but squeezing, slippery roots and the panicked pounding of her heart.
Then light and air returned, and she was falling.
Ava and the boys landed with a splat right in front of the blackboard in the middle of class.
There were gasps and yells, then silence.
Professor Mulch stood a few feet away, clearly having leapt back only just in time.
Henry groaned. Crow laughed, then winced, rubbing his arm and wiping slime out of his ears. Ava pushed herself up, gazing out at the kids watching them.
There were Beryl and Opal, Wolfgang and Dorian. Lavender-skinned Matthew Avalon had started wearing glasses. Tinabella, the bangs on her shiny black bob a little longer over her silvery face, was staring at Ava in pure shock.
The silence stretched on and on, filling the room like the slowly spreading stink of slime.
“Oh, great,” said Carmelie Wright, rolling her eyes. “They’re back.”
Ava stepped out of the peppermint-scented bathroom, drying her hair after the longest shower of her life, to find Tinabella standing in the doorway of their dorm room.
She lowered the towel, hugging her arms around her Nettle-green bathrobe.
The two girls stared at each other.
Tinabella hadn’t said a word as Professor Mulch helped Ava, Henry, and Crow to their feet. She hadn’t reacted as the professor told the class the three of them had vanished into a portal dimension and basically been outside time for the last thirty days. She hadn’t so much as glanced at Ava as the three returnees were sent to their rooms to wash and change into clean clothes.
Now here they were, alone together again.
“I moved your books to your desk,” said Ava.
Tinabella pulled the door shut behind her, glancing at Ava’s side of the room. It looked exactly as it had the night Ava left, now that she’d moved the mountain of books that had been piled on her bed.
“Cool.” Tinabella nodded. “Professor Mulch let us out of class early. Nobody could concentrate. Plus the classroom still smells super bad.”
“Sorry,” said Ava.
The moment stretched. Ava didn’t know what to do, or even feel. She’d been focusing on getting back to Swickwit since her first night at WOW Academy, but somehow she’d never really thought about what she was going to say to Tinabella when she did.
She and her ex–best friend had parted on complicated terms. Tinabella had turned on her after their disastrous escape attempt through the secret clocks, but she had also helped Ava and the boys when she caught them making their big exit.
Well, she hadn’t turned them in. That was almost the same as helping. It had been nice, and unexpected.
What happened next was beyond unexpected, however, as Tinabella crossed the room in four quick strides and wrapped her arms around Ava in a rib-crushing hug.
Ava froze, then hugged her roommate back.
Something in her heart gave a sigh of relief.
Tinabella released her. “If you ever tell anyone I did that, I’ll deny it,” she said, turning away.
Ava was too discombobulated to respond as Tinabella flopped dramatically onto her purple bedspread. Her side of the room also looked as it had the night Ava left—midnight-black walls, blue firefly lights, bunches of dried herbs dangling from the ceiling—though it was messier and filled with more library books than ever.
“Why didn’t you take over the whole room?” Ava asked, discovering another book half-hidden by her pillow, a small green volume embossed with decorative curls. She moved it to Tinabella’s desk, then settled down to finish drying her hair. “You said you were looking forward to that.”
Tinabella shrugged up at the ceiling. “Never really felt like it.”
Ava waited. She had a feeling there might be more.
“Plus,” Tinabella went on, “I figured you would be coming back. I mean, it seemed like a long shot that you’d actually escape and get to rejoin your old school.” She looked over, her bangs swinging. “So how’d you do it?”
Ava went very still.
“Oh, come on,” Tinabella said. “I don’t buy that stuck in a slime dimension story for one second! You got out, and you went somewhere, and you remember all of it. So start spilling.”
Surprised at the relief she felt, Ava told her. There were gaps, of course. Tinabella objected loudly when Ava would only say that Crow knew a trick that had gotten them past the broken glass hills, but Ava had made a commitment to keep Crow’s secret, and she held firm.
When Ava got to the part about the circus and their encounter with Vivienne Morderay, Tinabella sat bolt upright, her eyes shining.
“Vivienne Morderay?” she shouted. “You met the Vivienne Morderay?!”
“Well, if by met you mean she locked us in a cage and threatened us and we were super lucky to escape, then, yeah, we met.”
Tinabella looked more impressed than Ava had ever seen her. “I cannot believe it,” she said. “I am such a big fan. I mean, I know she’s, like, this super wicked person or whatever. But I heard all sorts of stories about her back in North Oz. That’s where her secret hideout’s supposed to be. They say she’s always covered in jewels and using amazing powers and basically just ruling everything wherever she goes.”
Ava frowned. Tinabella had an overly rosy picture of the famous villain.
“I’ve read everything I could find about her,” Tinabella went on. “But I didn’t know she went to school here! No one ever tells you where wicked witches come from, do they? It’s like boom, one day there they are. But they had to have been kids like us, right? And they had to learn their magic bit by bit.”
She jumped to her feet. “Ooh! What if this used to be her room?!?!”
“That would be … cool, I guess,” said Ava.
“So cool.” Tinabella stared around hungrily. “If she started out just like us and still made herself as powerful and in control as she is now …”
Tinabella made Ava go over every detail of her encounter with Vivienne Morderay again and again. She snatched the magic mirror when Ava got it out to show her, examining every angle and only reluctantly returning it. Finally, Ava, getting slightly annoyed, charged ahead and finished her story, leaving out that the giants attacking WOW Academy had been Henry’s own parents.
When Ava was through, Tinabella leaned back on her hands and looked at her, kicking her feet against the side of her bed.
“You had, like, a real adventure, didn’t you?” she said.
Ava nodded, trying to stop herself smiling. It felt good to have that acknowledged. Especially by Tinabella.
Tinabella sat up. “Wait, you said Warden Pike knows everything now. Does that include how you got through the library door the night you left?”
“Well, yeah. That was the first thing he asked. He said that loophole would be fixed. He probably already reset all the portals.”
Tinabella flopped back on her pillows. “Ugh! Why didn’t you lie or something?”
“What’s wrong?”
