herself She’d smiled at him and it hadn’t been a friendly smile It had been a triumphant smile A mocking smile A cruel smile Glinda wasn’t Good Glinda was evil Brink drew in a breath and concentrated on the darkness His eyes weren’t adjusting to it the way they normally would He needed light Brink thought about the hurricane lamp he kept on his bedside table at home and wondered if he could create an illusion of light He imagined himself sitting in bed glancing over at the lamp as he reached to turn it off He did this every single night so the lamp was as familiar to him as his red wooden nightstand his well-worn blanket and the smell of oil drifting up from the workroom where his dad and his older brother Ned built their clockwork machines Brink had never spent much time staring at his hurricane lamp but now he conjured the image in his mind and studied the
rounded glass that made up the base the copper dial that controlled the wick the reddish oil that filled it the flame that glowed bright and cheerful in the top The flame Yellow with a hint of blue at the wick Magnified by the glass that surrounded it warming the air Lighting the room Brink could picture the flame perfectly could feel the image of it struggling to push its way out of him and form in the empty air An illusion that looked absolutely real He did it all the time But this time nothing happened Brink sighed It was no use He couldn’t make an illusion His friend the Glass Cat had said that Glinda’s Palace was protected by such a strong enchantment that no magic would work there other than her own Did that mean he was still in Glinda’s Palace Slowly Brink lay down on the cold rough floor He concentrated on the space around him Was he in a room He couldn’t sense any walls
Could he be under a spell one that made him blind Could he be in some sort of underground pit where no light reached him The ground beneath him felt like rock Brink turned on his side and pressed his cheek against it Somehow the hardness of it comforted him He couldn’t see a thing but he could feel this solid surface He closed his eyes and tried to think of home His father tinkering with a clockwork His brother sitting on the porch Brink’s pounding heart slowed a little and he felt his shoulders relax A whirring sound Brink caught his breath surprised He hadn’t noticed it before but now that he had calmed down he heard a sound clearly Or rather he felt a sound His whole body vibrated with it The entire floor vibrated in fact He sat up then stood up The sound was quieter and the vibration was gone Brink eased himself back down to the floor
stretching his body out on the cold hard rock The sound hummed loudly in his ear and his body vibrated again It’s moving Brink realized with a shock The ground is moving But how could that be If he were in an underground pit the ground wouldn’t move If he were in a normal room it wouldn’t be so dark It must be an enchantment he said aloud It was comforting to hear a voice even if it was only his own I’m in one of Ozma’s airships and they’ve put a spell on me to blind me It was the only explanation The malevolent way Glinda had smiled at him made it clear that she was no better than Princess Ozma She had most likely been in league with Ozma right from the moment the princess had banned magic so she had zapped him up here and placed a magical blindfold on his eyes He was in the airship on his way to the Emerald City to stand before Ozma The ruler of Oz would
