Chapter 10

Epilogue

Elphaba closed her eyes and inhaled the cold sharpness of the evening air. Dusk was falling over Iron Town, and the high mountain peaks visible over the rooftops were black against the soft inky purple of the sky. She had hardly spent a moment outside of Frost's house for the past month, and this was the first time that Fiyero had been allowed outside at all since their arrival in Iron Town. Tonight, Frost had sent them both outside so that they could watch the great Northern Lights as they streamed across the mountain sky, saying that they could both use the fresh air.

She knew that Frost could sense Fiyero's growing restlessness, as well. It could not be more obvious that he was bored out of his mind staying in bed all day: bored, but too weak to do anything else. Watching him, she recalled with mingled pity and amusement the time during their Shiz days, back when they had loathed one another, when Fiyero had caught the flu and had been bedridden for a week. Glinda had coerced Elphaba into helping her in her attempts to keep him entertained. She remembered leaning against his doorframe, silently cursing Glinda for forcing her to spend time alone with her obnoxious boyfriend. The moment he saw her standing there, he rolled his eyes theatrically and groaned, "She sent you? Oh Lurline, just kill me now…" Elphaba had spent the next hour and a half sitting in the corner and scowling.

When she reminded Fiyero of this, he laughed. "Aw, I was secretly happy to see you."

"No, you weren't."

"Of course I was," he said with finality. "I just didn't quite realize it at the time."

She had done what she could for the past several weeks to help remedy his boredom and to distract him from his pain. They talked endlessly, of course, as they had always done. Elphaba often read to him, as well, from Frost's large collection of books on Ozian and Ixian history, legends and myths, and magic. She could tell that he was often not very interested in the texts themselves, as many of them were rather dry reads, but he seemed to find the sound her voice soothing, especially when he was struggling with the pain. Tobias helped as well, telling them both stories about his childhood and his family, including some very interesting anecdotes about each of his twenty-three siblings and sixteen aunts and uncles. He talked briefly about his mate and children, a sad smile in his eyes as he thought of them. But most fascinating of all were his tales of Frost's years of resistance to the Wizard, which were far more eventful than she had led them to believe. Of Frost herself, however, they saw very little. They had no idea what she was up to, and Tobias would not tell them.

Frost was, however, actively involved in helping them plan their journey to Ix. The first step of their preparation, of course, was figuring out how badly Fiyero's injuries would hinder him during their travels. The first time he got out of bed, about a week ago, he had managed to hobble around the room a few times, leaning heavily on Elphaba and using a crutch. Frost said that he was likely to need crutches, or a cane at the very least, for the rest of his life. When she told them this, Fiyero's face fell. Elphaba's heart wrenched, and she asked Frost, rather desperately, "What about the enchantment I did for Nessarose? With her shoes?" Elphaba could tell by the look on Frost's face what her answer would be before she spoke.

"I doubt it would do him any good, lass. Tell me, how well was your sister able to walk after you did that spell?"

Elphaba blinked a few times, trying to remember. Several terrible things had happened in quick succession after she had done the spell, most notably Nessa's attempted spell gone awry. She had been too preoccupied with both trying to save Boq and with the startling revelation that Glinda and Fiyero were engaged to pay much attention to how well Nessa could walk. "Well, uh… from what I saw, she could walk well enough. A little slow, maybe. And…" she closed her eyes, trying to envision the specific details of that day. "And I think there were moments when she was holding onto things for support. Her desk. And me."

Frost looked thoughtful. "By the sound of it, those shoes forced Nessarose to walk normally, which was presumably difficult for her, but possible. However," she said, turning to Fiyero, "In this case, walking normally would only do you more damage, lad. That leg cannot hold your weight. Shoes such as those might be a feasible option for you someday, but not for quite awhile. And by that time, you might find a cane to be more convenient and far less painful for you, anyhow."

Fiyero had only nodded, looking crestfallen, and had not spoken of the matter since.

Frost had, however, asked one of the town's refugees, a former tanner, to make him two leather braces, one that strapped around his knee and leg and one that covered the lower half of his back. They had been finished and delivered today, and he was now wearing them over his clothes. The laces were not done very tightly, as he still had bandages in both places, but now that he was out of bed and attempting to move around, he accepted the fact that, while not especially comfortable, the braces would both keep the worst of the pain caused by his movement at bay and would help to protect him from further injury.

Right now, he had his arm slung over her shoulders and was putting most of his weight on her as he walked, a crutch under his other arm. They were making their way slowly down the main street of Iron Town, bound for a grassy spot just outside the town that Tobias, now flying above them, assured them was the best spot for watching the lights. Half of the purpose for this little excursion was to find out just how recovered Fiyero was by now. Looking at him, Elphaba thought that if he was in an immense amount of pain, he was doing a very good job at hiding it, because right now he appeared to be positively delighted. He was looking around at the town, the mountains, and the sky and grinning ear to ear.

"What are you so happy about?" she laughed.

"Everything," he said, beaming. "Look around. The sky. The stars. The air, even! Sure, we've been living outside for Lurline knows how long, but…" His words were tumbling out in an elated rush. "I can see it all so much better now. And I can actually smell wood smoke and…and feel the wind, and I'm cold, and-"

"You're cold?" Elphaba cut him off, concerned.

"That's not a bad thing!" he exclaimed jubilantly. "It just means I'm me again."

Tobias, still gliding overhead, laughed. Even Lirah, slinking along several paces behind them to protect them from any ill-wishing villagers, chuckled softly at this. Lirah had since learned the truth about Elphaba and Fiyero and had even visited Fiyero about a week after the reversal. She now felt obliged to make up for having attacked him upon his arrival and for having accused him of murder. She had hardly spoken two words to Fiyero since then, but she seemed determined to redeem herself in deed rather than word.

Elphaba glanced around, suddenly very glad that Lirah had offered to escort them. A collection of Animals and humans had lined up along the edge of the street to watch them pass. More were peering out at them from the lit windows of the houses. There were far more present than she remembered seeing during the tour Frost had given her, and their expressions ranged from confused and curious to utterly awestruck to furious and hostile. Elphaba knew that rumors of their story must have already spread through the town like wildfire. She noted with wonder the sheer number and variety of the Animals present: there must have been at least fifty of them lining the road alone, and she could see several Dogs, Cats, a few Wolves, two Eagles, a small Ape, some Horses, a Bull, a jewel-toned Parrot, and the massive white Tiger, Onyar, whom she had met on her tour. She was impressed as she remembered the way in which all of them, even the largest ones, had managed to keep themselves completely hidden from sight or detection the night she and Fiyero had first arrived here.

"It's not far now," Tobias called to them as they passed through the shabby outskirts of Iron Town. Elphaba certainly hoped so, as she could tell that Fiyero was quickly getting tired. The road before them led into steep, rocky pasturelands. The stars were becoming clearer and the air colder. A thin ribbon of brilliant green and blue light was beginning to form in the sky, stretching over the mountains and off into the darkening horizon.

They stopped when they came to a grassy patch well-hidden from the eyes of any curious villagers by the fact that it was several yards below the top of the slope on which it rested and was concealed behind some large rocks. Elphaba helped Fiyero lie down on the ground, which would be far more comfortable for him than sitting up, and then laid herself down next to him. Lirah settled down several feet away, and Tobias perched on a nearby rock. All of them watched as the band of colored light grew brighter and began to shimmer in its path across the sky.

"Wow," Fiyero breathed.

Tobias nodded. "Aye. That's the Aurora for you."

"We could see it in the desert," Elphaba said, "but not this well. We're so close to it…" She reached toward the sky, as if the Aurora was a satin ribbon floating above her head that she somehow could reach out and touch. "It's beautiful."

"It is," Lirah agreed quietly, her voice full some emotion that Elphaba was unable to distinguish.

"You'll be able to see it in Ix, too," Tobias said. "It stretches all the way across the desert, to the best of my knowledge, although I'll wager it's called the Southern Lights there. How long until you two leave, by the way?"

"We're staying here for another month, at the very least," Elphaba told him. "And then we'll take brooms, I think."

"That is, if Frost ever gets around to helping you enchant them, Fae," Fiyero laughed. "What's been keeping her so busy all this time, anyway?"

"Well…" Tobias began, in a voice that suggested that he was not sure how much he ought to tell them. "She's preparing for a journey of her own, actually."

"What?" Lirah said sharply. "She's leaving?"

Tobias sighed. "I guess you might as well know. She's going to kill me for this…She wanted to tell you herself…"

"Talk," Lirah ordered.

"She's going to, ah, find out for herself the state of affairs in the Emerald City. I'm going with her."

"What?" Lirah hissed. "Are you mad? You can't go there!"

"It's a trip she's been considering for years, Lirah. When these two came along, she knew she couldn't wait any longer."

"What is she planning on doing there?" Fiyero asked, also sounding worried. "Helping Glinda?"
"Glinda wouldn't trust her," Elphaba pointed out. "She'd know better. She trusted Morrible, and just look how that turned out."

"We know that," Tobias said. "I'll remind you that milady is the daughter of politicians and has spent years in the royal courts of both Oz and Ix. She knows how to play such loyalty games. But no, this is not a venture to earn Lady Glinda's trust. As wonderful as Lady Glinda sounds, milady is not at all interested in trying to help anyone rule Oz. She only wants to help undo what the Wizard did, especially regarding the Animals, and to make sure nothing of the sort happens again. She's her own agent, but she'll gladly become an ally to Lady Glinda should Glinda wish her to become one."

"And why are you coming along?" Fiyero asked him.

He chuckled. "For the spectacle of it all, of course. And," he added with a flourish of his wing, "I'm damn useful, on occasion." Lirah sniggered at this.

"By the way," he added in a more serious tone, "Frost has been wondering if you might show her the spell that you used on your friend Boq."

Elphaba sat up. "What?"

"Yes. She's going to see if she might help him as well."

"She can't," Fiyero said suddenly.

"Why?" Tobias asked.

"If Frost just shows up and claims that she's going to change Boq back, Glinda is going to suspect that she somehow knows Elphaba. Glinda can't find out we're alive. No one can."

"Milady is capable of being sneaky, you know," Tobias said dryly. "For all Glinda has to know, Frost is just a powerful sorceress who wants to help out a victim of a miscast spell. She can do it without arousing suspicion. Although," Tobias added thoughtfully, "I do wonder why it is that you're so insistent on keeping your friend in the dark."

"She can't know. It's too dangerous," Fiyero said promptly.

"You don't know that for a fact, mate. How long has it been since you've been to Emerald City?"

Elphaba thought about this, and she grinned. "He has a point, Yero. Maybe Glinda- just Glinda- could know." Hope filled her heart at the prospect of finally letting Glinda know that the two people she cared about the most were alive and well (or, in Fiyero's case, simply alive).

Tobias nodded. "We might be able to tell her for you, if conditions are stable. Maybe you'd like to write her a letter or something, Elphaba?"

"Do you think we could?" Elphaba whispered. "I'd have to keep it very vague in case it falls in the wrong hands, and of course she'll be suspicious of it, but…"

"I don't see why not," Tobias said. "It's worth a try."

"That's not a bad idea, actually," Fiyero admitted. "But you're right, Fae. Keep it very vague. No details, no specifics. Don't even put our names on it."

"Of course," she said, unable to keep the relieved smile off her face, now that she finally had a chance to rid herself of something that had been tormenting her like a thorn in her side for years: Glinda doesn't know…She can't know…She'll never know…

"Wait," Lirah said. "What about your friend Bick?"

"Boq," Elphaba and Fiyero automatically corrected her.

"What about him?" Fiyero asked.

"I know little of magic," Lirah said, "but before Lady Fae's spell, you'd been wounded by the Gale Force, and then Madame Frost undid that spell, and now you're wounded again. Didn't you say that when Lady Fae did the spell on Boq, his heart-"

"Was shrinking," Elphaba finished, dread blossoming in the pit of her stomach. "He'll die if she changes him back."

"Wait…" Fiyero said after a moment. "That might not be a problem."

"How?"

"Because the Wizard gave him a 'heart', remember? It isn't really a heart, of course, but it's made of tin like the rest of him, and the Wizard had it put inside of him where a heart ought to be. Maybe if he gets changed back, then it'll just change with him."

"Or maybe," Elphaba said, unconvinced, "he'll die anyway because a hunk of metal will be stuck in his chest cavity."

"Or maybe," Tobias said gently, "You should stop worrying about it, Lady Fae, and let milady see what she can do for him. She won't let your friend come to harm."

Elphaba nodded, still uneasy, and went back to staring silently at the Aurora. Fiyero's hand found hers. "It'll be fine, Fae," he whispered.

"Okay," she replied absently, already lost, once again, in the beauty of the sky.

***

Fiyero did not know how long the two of them lay there without speaking. Tobias and Lirah were on the other side of the rocks, obviously trying to give them some privacy. He thought that Elphaba must have fallen asleep, but when he turned to look at her, her eyes were open and she was staring at the snow-capped mountain peaks.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her.

"The fact that we're actually leaving Oz," she said softly. "For good. I'm not upset about it, not at all, but… "

"But it's bizarre," he finished. "I know. I don't know about you, but I'm actually kind of excited about this."

"Me too, in a way. But-"

"But what?"

"Nothing. Never mind." She looked up at the sky again.

"But what, Fae?"
She turned back to him. "I'm scared," she admitted reluctantly, not meeting his eyes.

He reached over and ran his fingers through her hair. "Why?"

"I don't know," she said miserably. "I shouldn't be. But…we're about to-"

"We're about to start over, Fae," he said firmly. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

"Oh yes, we'll start over, provided that no one assassinates us when we get there…" She trailed her fingers over the leather laces of his back brace, visible beneath his open jacket. "If we get there…" she whispered. Her tone seemed to say, If you survive the journey…

"Hey, what happened to 'Everything's going to be fine'?" He stroked her cheek. "Remember what you said? We'll figure it out. We always do."

She still looked upset. On a sudden inspiration, he began to hum Dorothy's song in an annoyingly cheerful manner.

"Stop it," she snapped, clearly trying to keep herself from smiling. "You know I hate it when you do that."

He only hummed louder. Elphaba growled, and then sat up, bent down over him, and kissed him. Her kiss was more forceful than usual: he knew she was doing it to get him to shut up. He didn't mind. He slid his arms around her shoulders and kissed her even harder.

"Alright. Here's what we're going to do do," he said when they finally broke apart, both gasping for breath. "We'll go to Ix. And when we get there, I'm going to build you a house with my bare hands-"

"Oh really?" she said mockingly, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, maybe not with my bare hands," he amended, "but there will be a house. And it will be ours. And then I will marry you, and-"

"Who would marry us?" She was smirking now.

"Shush. That's not important. We'll be married. Symbolically, at least, if not literally. Fae, will you marry me?"

She laughed and kissed him again. "I do."

"Now that wasn't so hard," he said, grinning. "And we'll have a long, happy life together, and we'll have ten beautiful babies, and-"

Her face paled. "Ten?"

"Why not?"

"Because it's me who will have to carry and give birth to ten children, not to mention raise them! Let's just see how things go with one child to start out with, Yero."

"If we even have one child," he said, frowning.

"Why wouldn't we?" she asked.

"Because having a child requires drastic behavior."

She smiled wickedly. "And who said I was against drastic behavior?"

"You did," he said with a teasing pout. In truth, neither of them had brought up the subject of lovemaking since the night he had awoken when Frost had warned them against it. Though he hated to admit it, he realized that she had been right: he had felt so worn out and weak for the past month that he knew he could not have mustered the energy or enthusiasm necessary for such things until he had healed more. But by now, he was sufficiently recovered to the point that he could and would happily make love to her the moment she agreed to it, injuries notwithstanding. If Tobias and Lirah weren't nearby, he thought, he would gladly do it with her here and now.

"I said nothing of the sort," she said indignantly, and then kissed his cheek. "We'll talk to Frost about it. But keep in mind that I don't want to be pregnant while taking care of you and trying to cross that desert."

"But there's got to be something Frost can give you, like a charm or potion or something…you know, to prevent that sort of thing from happening…." he trailed off hopefully.

She buried her fingers in his hair. "Maybe there is, and maybe there isn't."

He rolled his eyes. "Now you're just taunting me."

"Yes, I am." She laid down once more, snuggling close to him as he wrapped his arms around her. "Though I do love you, Yero my hero."

"I love you too, Fae."

Fiyero gazed once more at the blazing blue ribbon in the sky. He had no idea what their future had in store for them. But for now, it did not matter to him if the future held peace and security for once in their lives or if it held yet more hardship. The woman now encircled tightly in his arms was the only thing he saw or cared about in his future.

And for now, he was content.