Fic: Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble - Chapters 8 (Wicked)
Fandom: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Disclaimer: Wicked (c) Gregory Maguire.
Rating: PG, whole fic PG-13/R.
Summary: In a slightly different Oz, Elphaba Thropp ekes out her living as a bitter private eye in the Emerald City, the bad green apple of Oz, where rain rarely lets up, crime runs rampant, and sensuous socialites wrap themselves in cigarette smoke.
Chapters: Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 / 12
Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble
Chapter 8.
The chase was now on. Elphaba hired a coach without a coach man. She'd decided it would be better to drive it herself; as coachmen tended to be too careful with their carriages and horses to be much good if there happened to be a need for real racing. It was clear what she needed to do. If Madame Morrible had left for Shiz again this morning, she might now be too far to be caught, but that did leave only two places in which to intercept her - Shiz, or the road between Shiz and the Emerald City. There was only one road between these two spots that was fit for carriages in a hurry. Going down it they would meet - and then Elphie and her Fat Margie would have a chat with the qgood lady.
She parked the carriage outside her home. All she needed now was to stock up on bullets and warn Glinda once more to get away safe somewhere. She rushed up towards her office - to find the door to her office ajar. She stopped on the stairs, feeling a sudden chill in her belly.
It didn't have to mean anything. It could just be Tibbett airing out the office. It could even have been left open by mistake. It wasn't a mistake Tibbett would make, but then there was Glinda...
Tibbett always aired the office by opening the window and Glinda, despite first impressions, hadn't turned out to be remotely stupid. Elphaba reached into her shoulder holster and felt Fat Margie's familiar handle fit into her hand.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a clear, familiar voice from above, followed by a similarly familiar heavy rolling sound. The door was pushed all the way open and Elphaba looked up into the smiling, self-satisfied face of her sister.
Nessarose was seated in her wheelchair as usual, clad in expensive silks and velvets, her useless feet decorated in a pair of beautiful shoes. Two liveried men stepped up from behind her, one tall and lean, the other bulky and dark-browed. She knew them both from the old days. The lean one gave her a cold, meditative look, and though she didn't see any weapons on him, she figured she ought to play this one cool for now.
"What a charming surprise," she muttered. "Mind if I come up? It is my home, after all, that you've decided to break into."
"Oh, we didn't break in," said Nessarose. "I knocked on the door just like a civilised person can be expected to. I do admit I didn't call in advance, but then, my dear, you do have an unfortunate habit of hanging up on people. But yes, please, do come up."
Elphaba walked slowly up the stairs until she was looking down at her sister instead of the other way around. This was more like it. Nessarose wheeled herself back inside the office proper with practiced grace.
"You knock hard enough to knock off the lock?" Elphaba asked.
"Not at all. Your girlfriend let us in." Nessarose gave her sister a piercing look. Elphaba made sure to look suitably blank. "She is, though, isn't she?"
"None of your business, Nessie."
"You do flit about, don't you? I remember just a few months ago it was that dreadful barbarian prince. And before that, what was it - some horse-faced woman who smelled like manure and sweat. Eugh!"
"Nessarose," Elphaba said, her voice now dripping with rage.
"Now, Fabala, don't forget yourself--"
"I think it's you who's forgetting," Elphaba said dangerously. "You're not going to kill me - Papa would never forgive you. And as long as I live, I'm the real Eminent Thropp. Don't think you can come in my house and insult my friends forever, Nessa. I still have everything I need to destroy you - my name, my ancestry, not to mention a whole stack of incriminating files." She moved up closer to her sister, circling the chair. The liveried men tensed, ready to act, but Elphaba merely bent over her sister's shoulder to whisper,"Your Eminence is my gift to you. Don't forget that."
Nessarose smiled, and waved at the men to be at ease. "I remember, dear. Although you should know I also have something in my gift that you value."
"And what is that?" Elphaba said, straightening up.
"Miss Glinda." Nessarose looked up and smiled a prim little smile when she saw the look on Elphaba's face. Then she gave a little theatrical sigh. "Poor girl. She called Lurline's name when Mr Garrott here told her what she was being detained for. I can only hope that her time in the place we've secured for her will make her give up that instinctive pagan worship. I made sure my men would place texts sacred to the Unnamed God in her room."
"Where?" Elphaba barked. "What have you done with her, you little--!"
"Temper, temper!" Nessa laughed. "She's safe enough. All I want from you is a little help on the very subject I called you about yesterday. I want to know who it was who so brutally murdered and robbed my employee."
"I don't have time for this!" Elphaba said exasperatedly. "I'll help you - just let Glinda go and let me finish my case. Then I'll find out everything you want to know."
"Sure - after the Grimmerald has been given back to the museum or broken up into pieces by that crook Fiyero and no longer any use to me."
Elphaba stared, a chill running down her spine. "The Grimmerald," she repeated in a daze.
Nessarose broke into delighted laughter. "Oh, sister! You had no idea, did you? Did you even know the value of the thing you were looking for? I've been after the Grimmerald all along. It was Fiyero, I suspect, who first stole it from the museum and hid it in a practically worthless necklace, but it was I who put that idiot Crope up to nab it from that silly little Glinda. I expect he was too scared to tell you anything about the contract and just let you make your assumptions. Oh yes, I know you've talked to him. He was evasive enough when we met this morning that so much was obvious. You do have a way of persuading people to talk, don't you?"
"What would you want with it?" Elphaba demanded. "You have money, position - a stolen jewel is nothing to you but a liability."
"I don't want it for it's monetary worth, no," said Nessarose, moving her chair back and forth and inch at a time as she was used to doing when she was excited. Elphaba remembered watching her do so as a child on the floor of some Quadling dwelling or another. "Oh Fabala, once I tell you, you might even want to help me, if you could only overcome your own meanness and jealousy. Listen. I studied sorcery in Shiz, as you know, and I had access to all the old libraries, to all the Lurlinist blasphemies, Kumbric myths and other nonsense that had been recorded throughout the centuries. I studied it all - with a pure heart, of course, and the highest intentions. I knew well enough even then that one has to learn the devil's dictionary if one is to fight for the hearts of men."
Elphaba began to pace the room. It was hard enough to be reminded of their childhood, of carrying Nessarose over robe bridges, of her helplessness and long-gone sweetness. Here was the Nessarose of their teen years: full of pious nonsense aimed to flatter their father. Elphaba's eyes wandered down to Nessarose's shoes. They had been a gift from Papa, too - a useless pair of pretties for useless feet when Elphaba had been going around in old boots, fetching and carrying for Nessarose.
Nessa went on, eyes shining. "I'm glad I did, for I found something in the library, Fabala, something that was neither nonsense nor pagan misdirection, but something I never would have found in sacred texts or history books. The Grimmerald! It's not just a pretty thing, nor just a magical storehouse. It comes from another world - I'm sure of it!"
"Poppycock." Elphaba snorted.
"It is not poppycock," Nessa snapped. "I've corresponded with the museum scholars under a false name. They'd come to the same conclusion, but just didn't know what to do with it. It unlocks mysteries that are beyond our sorcery. It will give access to things that are possible in the other world, but not in ours. Fabala, it could make me walk!"
"Is that what this is all about?" Elphaba snapped, but she could see that it was. Nessarose had been hungry all her life for power, strength and independence, for adoration and servants, for control. The ability to walk was the only thing she had never been able to get.
"Would you deny me?" Nessarose almost screeched. "Some sister!"
"It doesn't belong to you!"
"I'll give it back once it's done its trick."
"What if it turns out you need to keep it with you to keep the effect?"
Nessarose fell silent for a moment, staring at Elphaba, but soon found her tongue again. "Enough! You don't get to question me. On this issue at least - thank the Unnamed God! - you simply don't get a choice, not if you don't want me to leave your little friend where I put her and throw away the key."
Elphaba paced the room, fists clenched, her face a mask of rage. How dare she - how dare she! She picked up a decorative knife of Gillikin design from where it was hanging on the wall and before the two bodyguards had time to react she had thrown it at Nessa.
The knife stuck quivering on the back of her wheelchair, right next to Nessarose's head. A strand of hair fluttered down onto her bodice. Nessa's eyes were wide open, her mouth a thin line, her pretty face white as ash.
That was enough for Elphaba, for now.
"I'll tell you everything I know," she said slowly, "everything you need, except for the location where I suspect the jewel is held."
"Not good enough--"
"The location I will reveal the moment I see Glinda freed," Elphaba added sharply.
"So you do know it!" Nessa laughed, delighted. "You're not too bad a detective then, sister. I had my hopes."
"Don't blather. Where is she kept?"
"Ah-ah! You first."
Elphaba hesitated. She hated the very idea of showing throat to Nessarose of all people. Elphaba Thropp, who broke noses before she ever broke the least confidence, who had faced torture at the hands of the Wizard's own experts and still smiled with a bloodied mouth at the man standing over her; Elphaba, who had laughed at the face of bloodthirsty killers, whose spirit had never been broken by words or violence - Elphaba would have to show throat to her pandering, spoiled, deceptive, hypocritical bitch of a sister, the one who has got a hold of everything that Elphaba had ever loved -
And that was the issue, of course, wasn't it? She had made the mistake of -
There was no time for this. Even as the warmth of realization flooded her senses, the fear that came with it bowed her head, made her submit, made her weak. She forced the words out. "Madame Morrible has the Grimmerald. We don't know where," she added quickly when she heard Nessarose's astonished gasp. "I have a broad location only. I was just on my way there when you lot showed up." She gave the liveried men a dark look. "You've just wasted everyone's time. If you needed the Grimmerald so badly you could have come and asked me about it straight up. You could have told me everything. It's your own secrecy that might mean the jewel is now bartered back to the Winkie Prince and smuggled out of Emerald City and into one of the impenetrable fortresses of the Arjiki before you have time enough to catch a glimpse of it!" Elphaba almost laughed. "I meant only to do what I was hired to do - return the necklace to Miss Arduenna. What do I care what happens to some magical bauble? I would have left you and Fiyero to fight it out. Now, I don't think there's much chance of you intercepting the exchange - not with all these delays with fetching Glinda and convincing me to care!"
"Then just give us the information!" Nessarose shouted.
"No bloody chance," Elphaba replied icily. "Not until you give me back what's mine."
-
The carriage ride felt like the longest of Elphaba’s life. She sat squashed against the window of her sister’s stately ride with Garrott beside her, his steady gaze forward. They were to meet another carriage holding Glinda on the edge of the city, Elphaba would inform them of the jewel’s location and then it would be a jolly ride to Shiz - provided her sister decided to keep her word. Elphaba tried not to be too pessimistic; after all, there was a first time for everything. Streets and buildings passed in a greenish blur as they traveled closer and closer to the border that led to the rest of Gillikin. Her nails had already left bloodied welts in the pales of her hands and it took all of her self-restraint to stop her lashing out at the woman sitting opposite her.
"Comfortable, sister dear?" Nessarose asked, her hands resting on her powerless thighs. Elphaba looked to her with a glare that could melt a hole in the wall opposite. "Suit yourself." Elphaba grunted, looking back to the window. She needed food, rest and time to think, none of which were presently available. Once they arrived at Shiz, where would be the most likely place for the jewel to be? Morrible’s office would probably be the best place to start and from there…. Well, then it would have to be guesswork.
The carriage wheels squeaked to a halt and Elphaba had already reached for the handle on the door. A large hand covered hers as she went to leave. Looking down she saw Garrott’s squeezing her fingers into a fist. She yanked her arm away when she heard the first knuckles crack and waited until her guard had left the carriage. On the other side of the road she saw Glinda being walked out in a similar predicament, a guard at a shoulder and… Elphaba tensed.
"I will not have a gun anywhere near her." She turned to her sister who was being helped from the carriage into her chair.
"Well, we wouldn’t want you to try anything stupid now would we?" Nessa replied spitefully, signaling for the blonde to be brought over.
Elphaba looked down, her expression livid. "I swear if you hurt one hair on her head then I will rip out your heart with my bare hands. Then maybe you’ll have an idea about what you have made me feel," she hissed, her face inches from her sister’s. Nessa turned her head to the side, beautiful nose tilted upwards and away.
"You’ve gone soft, Fabala," she replied in equally lowered tones. "I don’t know what she’s done to you but frankly, it’s pathetic."
"Look who's talking," Elphaba said darkly and glanced at Nessarose's legs. Nessarose blushed an angry red at last. Elphaba smiled, and turned to Glinda, her anger and satisfaction both melting at the sight. Glinda's eyes were sparking with anger, and she wrenched her arm away from the guard guiding her with an indignant huff. She stuck her nose in the air and walked daintily down the walk towards them like she was taking an evening stroll - a good act considering she was missing her hat. Elphaba almost laughed. What a joy was Miss Glinda Arduenna!
"The location, if you please?" Nessarose demanded sharply. "We don't want anyone getting hurt in all the excitement."
"No, indeed," Elphaba muttered, and moved behind her sister, laying a hand on her shoulder, sharp fingers digging into her flesh. Nessarose took the hint and gestured for the guard walking Glinda to put down his gun. He slipped it into his pocket. Glinda's eyes had found Elphaba, and her expression flowed between several emotions. Elphaba read no warning there, though; just confusion and frustration. All right, then.
"Your side of the deal, sister," Nessarose said quietly.
"Shiz," Elphaba muttered, still looking at Glinda. She looked harried, her hair slightly mussed by the wind, but unhurt - and so beautiful.
"Where in Shiz?" said Nessarose, her hand grasping at Elphaba's.
"Let me talk to her."
Nessarose gestured impatiently again, and the guard let Glinda go, shoving her a little towards the carriage. Glinda stopped and turned to glare at the guard, a wide-set older man with a broken nose who, to Elphaba's delight, looked a little chastised. Then she turned and ran the last remaining steps into Elphaba's arms. Elphaba swooped her up into her arms, spinning her slightly as Glinda gripped tight around her neck.
"I’m so sorry," she whispered against Glinda’s temple "I should have been…" Glinda shushed her with a kiss, pulling their faces together and burying her hands into long dark hair.
From behind her Elphaba heard a snort of disgust and she turned, still holding Glinda, to face her sister. "Something wrong, Nessie?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"You’re disgusting. Really Elphaba, is there no end to your sins? Must you disgrace me more with these… these actions!" Her face was still red but her pretty lip was curled in disgust. Elphaba grinned. Looking down to Glinda, she locked them in a passionate kiss, mouths moving one against the other. She felt Glinda’s arms pull her in tighter and she moved her hands down the lithe body until they reached her lower back.
"Enough!" Nessarose called, signaling to the guards. "If the two of you can not control yourselves then I will have to have you separated." She had regained her composure slightly, tossing back a stray hair.
Elphaba took the hint and broke about from her lover, a hand tracing her face. Glinda smirked, intertwining pink fingers with green.
"I’m never letting you out of my sight again," she whispered and Elphaba frowned.
"Shouldn’t I be telling you that?" she asked as Nessarose began wheeling herself closer.
"Where in Shiz, Elphaba?" the Governor demanded as she approached them. Out of the corner of her eye Elphaba saw the guards tense, one reaching inside his coat pocket.
"Girls' college, left wing," Elphaba answered. "That’s all I know for now."
"Well, I’m sorry but that’s just not good enough," Nessarose said slowly a grin forming on her face. "I need to know exactly where it is." Her voice was calm, collected and this worried Elphaba most of all.
"I’ve told you everything I know," Elphaba repeated, moving her body protectively around Glinda.
"Really? Well isn't that a shame," Nessarose said in the same quiet voice. She twitched her hand and Elphaba heard the click of a gun being loaded. She felt Glinda's grip tighten on her's, the smaller body tense against her. "Then I suppose you are no more use to me."
"You wouldn't kill your own sister," Elphaba said through gritted teeth. "You may be a monster but I thought that you had at least an ounce of common sense!"
"Check the aim, Fabala. It's not you he's looking to hit." Glinda gasped. Sure enough, Elphaba saw the barrel pointed toward her lover. The guard holding it looked to her, not a dredge of uncertainty in his eyes. Here was a man ready to kill.
"Would you really sink that low, Nessie? Really?" she asked coldly. When they had been little Nessarose had always proclaimed her happiness with a silly little clap that their father had adored. Whenever Elphaba heard it, that tiny pitter-patter of pale hands, she knew that something had gone correctly for her sibling. She had grown out of the habit, choosing now only to grasp her hands together at moments of ecstasy.
"For years, Elphaba, you have had the upper hand. No matter how hard I tried I could never make you pay for your abominations, never saw a weakness." She let out a high-pitched laugh, her hair coming loose completely and framing wild eyes. "Elphaba Thropp, can't be bought, can't be broken. You never cared for anything, not your property or even your own life and safety. But here," she gestured to Glinda who found herself standing straighter, "here in this little airheaded idiot I have finally found a way to break you!" She looked down to her hands. "But I never thought, in all of my life that it would be through love of all things."
Elphaba looked down, her brown eyes shining with anger, her fists clenched, fingers once again biting into her palms. How could she have let this happen? As much as she hated to admit it, Nessarose had a point. Her and Glinda's affair was a liability to both of them. She was about to speak when she felt Glinda pull away. She looked up, confused, when she saw the blonde advancing on her sister.
"Now you stop that right now!"
"Glinda, wait, it's dangerous!" Elphaba tried, but Glinda didn't stop - just carried on striding towards the chair. The guards looked to one another, confused over how to react.
"You and I were never great friends, I'll admit, but I watched you through Shiz - watched as you grew older and sillier with each passing day. You would preach about your god, explaining how all that you ever did was good and righteous while the rest of us were all atheistic pigs! Well I've had enough of it, and I know that if you were my sister I would have disowned you years ago." Elphaba watched in shock as Glinda stopped in front of the younger Thropp, her hands on slender hips. "You keep referring to me as a 'weakness' as if I'm just some flaw in someone else's character. But I am a person and I will not stand for this!"
"Guards..." Nessarose spluttered but Glinda could not be stopped now.
"Listen here!" she said, cutting off the other woman in mid sentence. "You think you can bully me, push me around? Don't be so sure. When I first met your sister I thought she was an arrogant, not to mention an exceedingly annoying know-it-all."
Elphaba shrugged. At least the girl was honest.
"But I have grown to learn that there is a heck of a lot more to her than that. She is brave, clever, funny and though she'd not admit it, an utterly selfless individual whom I happen to adore. I'm sorry if you have a problem with that, however it is clear to me now that love isn't something you have ever had to deal with! When your world falls apart, Nessarose, no one's going to be there for you, no one's even going to care. Elphaba has me. She has friends, too - people who love and respect her regardless of title or money. Even you must have heard of those. You think your legs are what makes you weak?" She laughed scornfully. "We all have our problems, my dear, but that is the least of yours. Why, even if Elphaba could not move, she would still be a thousand times the person you are. You seek love from god? Well then it is only because you have failed to find it here in Oz."
With that Glinda turned, squeezing Elphaba's hand as she passed and strolled into the other carriage. "We are going to Shiz, Nessarose," Elphaba said, her mind still reeling from what she'd heard. "Don't even think about complaining."
"Secular bitch," Nessarose muttered. "Fine. Okay. Fine! All you want is the necklace, right?"
Elphaba nodded, smirking, holding her fingers crossed behind her back. Glinda noticed it with some alarm, but Nessa didn't.
"All right then. Maybe you'll still be of use. You're a detective, you'll get to detect the location of the jewel. Guards." She gestured to her men. "These ladies will ride in the second carriage. Thorpe, Fossian, accompany them. Garrott with me. Like my sister said: we're going to Shiz."
Disclaimer: Wicked (c) Gregory Maguire.
Rating: PG, whole fic PG-13/R.
Summary: In a slightly different Oz, Elphaba Thropp ekes out her living as a bitter private eye in the Emerald City, the bad green apple of Oz, where rain rarely lets up, crime runs rampant, and sensuous socialites wrap themselves in cigarette smoke.
Chapters: Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 / 12
Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble
Chapter 8.
The chase was now on. Elphaba hired a coach without a coach man. She'd decided it would be better to drive it herself; as coachmen tended to be too careful with their carriages and horses to be much good if there happened to be a need for real racing. It was clear what she needed to do. If Madame Morrible had left for Shiz again this morning, she might now be too far to be caught, but that did leave only two places in which to intercept her - Shiz, or the road between Shiz and the Emerald City. There was only one road between these two spots that was fit for carriages in a hurry. Going down it they would meet - and then Elphie and her Fat Margie would have a chat with the qgood lady.
She parked the carriage outside her home. All she needed now was to stock up on bullets and warn Glinda once more to get away safe somewhere. She rushed up towards her office - to find the door to her office ajar. She stopped on the stairs, feeling a sudden chill in her belly.
It didn't have to mean anything. It could just be Tibbett airing out the office. It could even have been left open by mistake. It wasn't a mistake Tibbett would make, but then there was Glinda...
Tibbett always aired the office by opening the window and Glinda, despite first impressions, hadn't turned out to be remotely stupid. Elphaba reached into her shoulder holster and felt Fat Margie's familiar handle fit into her hand.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a clear, familiar voice from above, followed by a similarly familiar heavy rolling sound. The door was pushed all the way open and Elphaba looked up into the smiling, self-satisfied face of her sister.
Nessarose was seated in her wheelchair as usual, clad in expensive silks and velvets, her useless feet decorated in a pair of beautiful shoes. Two liveried men stepped up from behind her, one tall and lean, the other bulky and dark-browed. She knew them both from the old days. The lean one gave her a cold, meditative look, and though she didn't see any weapons on him, she figured she ought to play this one cool for now.
"What a charming surprise," she muttered. "Mind if I come up? It is my home, after all, that you've decided to break into."
"Oh, we didn't break in," said Nessarose. "I knocked on the door just like a civilised person can be expected to. I do admit I didn't call in advance, but then, my dear, you do have an unfortunate habit of hanging up on people. But yes, please, do come up."
Elphaba walked slowly up the stairs until she was looking down at her sister instead of the other way around. This was more like it. Nessarose wheeled herself back inside the office proper with practiced grace.
"You knock hard enough to knock off the lock?" Elphaba asked.
"Not at all. Your girlfriend let us in." Nessarose gave her sister a piercing look. Elphaba made sure to look suitably blank. "She is, though, isn't she?"
"None of your business, Nessie."
"You do flit about, don't you? I remember just a few months ago it was that dreadful barbarian prince. And before that, what was it - some horse-faced woman who smelled like manure and sweat. Eugh!"
"Nessarose," Elphaba said, her voice now dripping with rage.
"Now, Fabala, don't forget yourself--"
"I think it's you who's forgetting," Elphaba said dangerously. "You're not going to kill me - Papa would never forgive you. And as long as I live, I'm the real Eminent Thropp. Don't think you can come in my house and insult my friends forever, Nessa. I still have everything I need to destroy you - my name, my ancestry, not to mention a whole stack of incriminating files." She moved up closer to her sister, circling the chair. The liveried men tensed, ready to act, but Elphaba merely bent over her sister's shoulder to whisper,"Your Eminence is my gift to you. Don't forget that."
Nessarose smiled, and waved at the men to be at ease. "I remember, dear. Although you should know I also have something in my gift that you value."
"And what is that?" Elphaba said, straightening up.
"Miss Glinda." Nessarose looked up and smiled a prim little smile when she saw the look on Elphaba's face. Then she gave a little theatrical sigh. "Poor girl. She called Lurline's name when Mr Garrott here told her what she was being detained for. I can only hope that her time in the place we've secured for her will make her give up that instinctive pagan worship. I made sure my men would place texts sacred to the Unnamed God in her room."
"Where?" Elphaba barked. "What have you done with her, you little--!"
"Temper, temper!" Nessa laughed. "She's safe enough. All I want from you is a little help on the very subject I called you about yesterday. I want to know who it was who so brutally murdered and robbed my employee."
"I don't have time for this!" Elphaba said exasperatedly. "I'll help you - just let Glinda go and let me finish my case. Then I'll find out everything you want to know."
"Sure - after the Grimmerald has been given back to the museum or broken up into pieces by that crook Fiyero and no longer any use to me."
Elphaba stared, a chill running down her spine. "The Grimmerald," she repeated in a daze.
Nessarose broke into delighted laughter. "Oh, sister! You had no idea, did you? Did you even know the value of the thing you were looking for? I've been after the Grimmerald all along. It was Fiyero, I suspect, who first stole it from the museum and hid it in a practically worthless necklace, but it was I who put that idiot Crope up to nab it from that silly little Glinda. I expect he was too scared to tell you anything about the contract and just let you make your assumptions. Oh yes, I know you've talked to him. He was evasive enough when we met this morning that so much was obvious. You do have a way of persuading people to talk, don't you?"
"What would you want with it?" Elphaba demanded. "You have money, position - a stolen jewel is nothing to you but a liability."
"I don't want it for it's monetary worth, no," said Nessarose, moving her chair back and forth and inch at a time as she was used to doing when she was excited. Elphaba remembered watching her do so as a child on the floor of some Quadling dwelling or another. "Oh Fabala, once I tell you, you might even want to help me, if you could only overcome your own meanness and jealousy. Listen. I studied sorcery in Shiz, as you know, and I had access to all the old libraries, to all the Lurlinist blasphemies, Kumbric myths and other nonsense that had been recorded throughout the centuries. I studied it all - with a pure heart, of course, and the highest intentions. I knew well enough even then that one has to learn the devil's dictionary if one is to fight for the hearts of men."
Elphaba began to pace the room. It was hard enough to be reminded of their childhood, of carrying Nessarose over robe bridges, of her helplessness and long-gone sweetness. Here was the Nessarose of their teen years: full of pious nonsense aimed to flatter their father. Elphaba's eyes wandered down to Nessarose's shoes. They had been a gift from Papa, too - a useless pair of pretties for useless feet when Elphaba had been going around in old boots, fetching and carrying for Nessarose.
Nessa went on, eyes shining. "I'm glad I did, for I found something in the library, Fabala, something that was neither nonsense nor pagan misdirection, but something I never would have found in sacred texts or history books. The Grimmerald! It's not just a pretty thing, nor just a magical storehouse. It comes from another world - I'm sure of it!"
"Poppycock." Elphaba snorted.
"It is not poppycock," Nessa snapped. "I've corresponded with the museum scholars under a false name. They'd come to the same conclusion, but just didn't know what to do with it. It unlocks mysteries that are beyond our sorcery. It will give access to things that are possible in the other world, but not in ours. Fabala, it could make me walk!"
"Is that what this is all about?" Elphaba snapped, but she could see that it was. Nessarose had been hungry all her life for power, strength and independence, for adoration and servants, for control. The ability to walk was the only thing she had never been able to get.
"Would you deny me?" Nessarose almost screeched. "Some sister!"
"It doesn't belong to you!"
"I'll give it back once it's done its trick."
"What if it turns out you need to keep it with you to keep the effect?"
Nessarose fell silent for a moment, staring at Elphaba, but soon found her tongue again. "Enough! You don't get to question me. On this issue at least - thank the Unnamed God! - you simply don't get a choice, not if you don't want me to leave your little friend where I put her and throw away the key."
Elphaba paced the room, fists clenched, her face a mask of rage. How dare she - how dare she! She picked up a decorative knife of Gillikin design from where it was hanging on the wall and before the two bodyguards had time to react she had thrown it at Nessa.
The knife stuck quivering on the back of her wheelchair, right next to Nessarose's head. A strand of hair fluttered down onto her bodice. Nessa's eyes were wide open, her mouth a thin line, her pretty face white as ash.
That was enough for Elphaba, for now.
"I'll tell you everything I know," she said slowly, "everything you need, except for the location where I suspect the jewel is held."
"Not good enough--"
"The location I will reveal the moment I see Glinda freed," Elphaba added sharply.
"So you do know it!" Nessa laughed, delighted. "You're not too bad a detective then, sister. I had my hopes."
"Don't blather. Where is she kept?"
"Ah-ah! You first."
Elphaba hesitated. She hated the very idea of showing throat to Nessarose of all people. Elphaba Thropp, who broke noses before she ever broke the least confidence, who had faced torture at the hands of the Wizard's own experts and still smiled with a bloodied mouth at the man standing over her; Elphaba, who had laughed at the face of bloodthirsty killers, whose spirit had never been broken by words or violence - Elphaba would have to show throat to her pandering, spoiled, deceptive, hypocritical bitch of a sister, the one who has got a hold of everything that Elphaba had ever loved -
And that was the issue, of course, wasn't it? She had made the mistake of -
There was no time for this. Even as the warmth of realization flooded her senses, the fear that came with it bowed her head, made her submit, made her weak. She forced the words out. "Madame Morrible has the Grimmerald. We don't know where," she added quickly when she heard Nessarose's astonished gasp. "I have a broad location only. I was just on my way there when you lot showed up." She gave the liveried men a dark look. "You've just wasted everyone's time. If you needed the Grimmerald so badly you could have come and asked me about it straight up. You could have told me everything. It's your own secrecy that might mean the jewel is now bartered back to the Winkie Prince and smuggled out of Emerald City and into one of the impenetrable fortresses of the Arjiki before you have time enough to catch a glimpse of it!" Elphaba almost laughed. "I meant only to do what I was hired to do - return the necklace to Miss Arduenna. What do I care what happens to some magical bauble? I would have left you and Fiyero to fight it out. Now, I don't think there's much chance of you intercepting the exchange - not with all these delays with fetching Glinda and convincing me to care!"
"Then just give us the information!" Nessarose shouted.
"No bloody chance," Elphaba replied icily. "Not until you give me back what's mine."
-
The carriage ride felt like the longest of Elphaba’s life. She sat squashed against the window of her sister’s stately ride with Garrott beside her, his steady gaze forward. They were to meet another carriage holding Glinda on the edge of the city, Elphaba would inform them of the jewel’s location and then it would be a jolly ride to Shiz - provided her sister decided to keep her word. Elphaba tried not to be too pessimistic; after all, there was a first time for everything. Streets and buildings passed in a greenish blur as they traveled closer and closer to the border that led to the rest of Gillikin. Her nails had already left bloodied welts in the pales of her hands and it took all of her self-restraint to stop her lashing out at the woman sitting opposite her.
"Comfortable, sister dear?" Nessarose asked, her hands resting on her powerless thighs. Elphaba looked to her with a glare that could melt a hole in the wall opposite. "Suit yourself." Elphaba grunted, looking back to the window. She needed food, rest and time to think, none of which were presently available. Once they arrived at Shiz, where would be the most likely place for the jewel to be? Morrible’s office would probably be the best place to start and from there…. Well, then it would have to be guesswork.
The carriage wheels squeaked to a halt and Elphaba had already reached for the handle on the door. A large hand covered hers as she went to leave. Looking down she saw Garrott’s squeezing her fingers into a fist. She yanked her arm away when she heard the first knuckles crack and waited until her guard had left the carriage. On the other side of the road she saw Glinda being walked out in a similar predicament, a guard at a shoulder and… Elphaba tensed.
"I will not have a gun anywhere near her." She turned to her sister who was being helped from the carriage into her chair.
"Well, we wouldn’t want you to try anything stupid now would we?" Nessa replied spitefully, signaling for the blonde to be brought over.
Elphaba looked down, her expression livid. "I swear if you hurt one hair on her head then I will rip out your heart with my bare hands. Then maybe you’ll have an idea about what you have made me feel," she hissed, her face inches from her sister’s. Nessa turned her head to the side, beautiful nose tilted upwards and away.
"You’ve gone soft, Fabala," she replied in equally lowered tones. "I don’t know what she’s done to you but frankly, it’s pathetic."
"Look who's talking," Elphaba said darkly and glanced at Nessarose's legs. Nessarose blushed an angry red at last. Elphaba smiled, and turned to Glinda, her anger and satisfaction both melting at the sight. Glinda's eyes were sparking with anger, and she wrenched her arm away from the guard guiding her with an indignant huff. She stuck her nose in the air and walked daintily down the walk towards them like she was taking an evening stroll - a good act considering she was missing her hat. Elphaba almost laughed. What a joy was Miss Glinda Arduenna!
"The location, if you please?" Nessarose demanded sharply. "We don't want anyone getting hurt in all the excitement."
"No, indeed," Elphaba muttered, and moved behind her sister, laying a hand on her shoulder, sharp fingers digging into her flesh. Nessarose took the hint and gestured for the guard walking Glinda to put down his gun. He slipped it into his pocket. Glinda's eyes had found Elphaba, and her expression flowed between several emotions. Elphaba read no warning there, though; just confusion and frustration. All right, then.
"Your side of the deal, sister," Nessarose said quietly.
"Shiz," Elphaba muttered, still looking at Glinda. She looked harried, her hair slightly mussed by the wind, but unhurt - and so beautiful.
"Where in Shiz?" said Nessarose, her hand grasping at Elphaba's.
"Let me talk to her."
Nessarose gestured impatiently again, and the guard let Glinda go, shoving her a little towards the carriage. Glinda stopped and turned to glare at the guard, a wide-set older man with a broken nose who, to Elphaba's delight, looked a little chastised. Then she turned and ran the last remaining steps into Elphaba's arms. Elphaba swooped her up into her arms, spinning her slightly as Glinda gripped tight around her neck.
"I’m so sorry," she whispered against Glinda’s temple "I should have been…" Glinda shushed her with a kiss, pulling their faces together and burying her hands into long dark hair.
From behind her Elphaba heard a snort of disgust and she turned, still holding Glinda, to face her sister. "Something wrong, Nessie?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"You’re disgusting. Really Elphaba, is there no end to your sins? Must you disgrace me more with these… these actions!" Her face was still red but her pretty lip was curled in disgust. Elphaba grinned. Looking down to Glinda, she locked them in a passionate kiss, mouths moving one against the other. She felt Glinda’s arms pull her in tighter and she moved her hands down the lithe body until they reached her lower back.
"Enough!" Nessarose called, signaling to the guards. "If the two of you can not control yourselves then I will have to have you separated." She had regained her composure slightly, tossing back a stray hair.
Elphaba took the hint and broke about from her lover, a hand tracing her face. Glinda smirked, intertwining pink fingers with green.
"I’m never letting you out of my sight again," she whispered and Elphaba frowned.
"Shouldn’t I be telling you that?" she asked as Nessarose began wheeling herself closer.
"Where in Shiz, Elphaba?" the Governor demanded as she approached them. Out of the corner of her eye Elphaba saw the guards tense, one reaching inside his coat pocket.
"Girls' college, left wing," Elphaba answered. "That’s all I know for now."
"Well, I’m sorry but that’s just not good enough," Nessarose said slowly a grin forming on her face. "I need to know exactly where it is." Her voice was calm, collected and this worried Elphaba most of all.
"I’ve told you everything I know," Elphaba repeated, moving her body protectively around Glinda.
"Really? Well isn't that a shame," Nessarose said in the same quiet voice. She twitched her hand and Elphaba heard the click of a gun being loaded. She felt Glinda's grip tighten on her's, the smaller body tense against her. "Then I suppose you are no more use to me."
"You wouldn't kill your own sister," Elphaba said through gritted teeth. "You may be a monster but I thought that you had at least an ounce of common sense!"
"Check the aim, Fabala. It's not you he's looking to hit." Glinda gasped. Sure enough, Elphaba saw the barrel pointed toward her lover. The guard holding it looked to her, not a dredge of uncertainty in his eyes. Here was a man ready to kill.
"Would you really sink that low, Nessie? Really?" she asked coldly. When they had been little Nessarose had always proclaimed her happiness with a silly little clap that their father had adored. Whenever Elphaba heard it, that tiny pitter-patter of pale hands, she knew that something had gone correctly for her sibling. She had grown out of the habit, choosing now only to grasp her hands together at moments of ecstasy.
"For years, Elphaba, you have had the upper hand. No matter how hard I tried I could never make you pay for your abominations, never saw a weakness." She let out a high-pitched laugh, her hair coming loose completely and framing wild eyes. "Elphaba Thropp, can't be bought, can't be broken. You never cared for anything, not your property or even your own life and safety. But here," she gestured to Glinda who found herself standing straighter, "here in this little airheaded idiot I have finally found a way to break you!" She looked down to her hands. "But I never thought, in all of my life that it would be through love of all things."
Elphaba looked down, her brown eyes shining with anger, her fists clenched, fingers once again biting into her palms. How could she have let this happen? As much as she hated to admit it, Nessarose had a point. Her and Glinda's affair was a liability to both of them. She was about to speak when she felt Glinda pull away. She looked up, confused, when she saw the blonde advancing on her sister.
"Now you stop that right now!"
"Glinda, wait, it's dangerous!" Elphaba tried, but Glinda didn't stop - just carried on striding towards the chair. The guards looked to one another, confused over how to react.
"You and I were never great friends, I'll admit, but I watched you through Shiz - watched as you grew older and sillier with each passing day. You would preach about your god, explaining how all that you ever did was good and righteous while the rest of us were all atheistic pigs! Well I've had enough of it, and I know that if you were my sister I would have disowned you years ago." Elphaba watched in shock as Glinda stopped in front of the younger Thropp, her hands on slender hips. "You keep referring to me as a 'weakness' as if I'm just some flaw in someone else's character. But I am a person and I will not stand for this!"
"Guards..." Nessarose spluttered but Glinda could not be stopped now.
"Listen here!" she said, cutting off the other woman in mid sentence. "You think you can bully me, push me around? Don't be so sure. When I first met your sister I thought she was an arrogant, not to mention an exceedingly annoying know-it-all."
Elphaba shrugged. At least the girl was honest.
"But I have grown to learn that there is a heck of a lot more to her than that. She is brave, clever, funny and though she'd not admit it, an utterly selfless individual whom I happen to adore. I'm sorry if you have a problem with that, however it is clear to me now that love isn't something you have ever had to deal with! When your world falls apart, Nessarose, no one's going to be there for you, no one's even going to care. Elphaba has me. She has friends, too - people who love and respect her regardless of title or money. Even you must have heard of those. You think your legs are what makes you weak?" She laughed scornfully. "We all have our problems, my dear, but that is the least of yours. Why, even if Elphaba could not move, she would still be a thousand times the person you are. You seek love from god? Well then it is only because you have failed to find it here in Oz."
With that Glinda turned, squeezing Elphaba's hand as she passed and strolled into the other carriage. "We are going to Shiz, Nessarose," Elphaba said, her mind still reeling from what she'd heard. "Don't even think about complaining."
"Secular bitch," Nessarose muttered. "Fine. Okay. Fine! All you want is the necklace, right?"
Elphaba nodded, smirking, holding her fingers crossed behind her back. Glinda noticed it with some alarm, but Nessa didn't.
"All right then. Maybe you'll still be of use. You're a detective, you'll get to detect the location of the jewel. Guards." She gestured to her men. "These ladies will ride in the second carriage. Thorpe, Fossian, accompany them. Garrott with me. Like my sister said: we're going to Shiz."