The Oz Series
Chapter 60
Part of the Ozma of Oz: The Land of Ev and the Nome King arc.
What happens
Hearing the Nome King's condition, Ozma becomes silent and thoughtful, and her friends look at her uneasily. Dorothy urges her not to do it, warning that a wrong guess will enslave her. Ozma answers that with eleven guesses she surely ought to guess one object correctly, rescuing one of the royal family and remaining safe herself, after which the rest may attempt it until all the enslaved are freed. The Scarecrow worries what happens if they fail, joking he would look nice as bric-a-brac, but Ozma courageously declares they must not fail and that abandoning the adventure would be weak and cowardly, so she accepts the King's offer and goes at once into the royal palace. The King, climbing down from his throne with difficulty because of his fatness, approaches a cave wall, waves his hand to create an opening, and Ozma boldly passes through after a smiling farewell.
Ozma finds herself in a splendid hall grander than anything she has beheld, with great arched ceilings, polished marble walls and floors tinted in many colors, thick velvet carpets, heavy silken draperies over the arches, furniture of rare carved woods covered with satins, and a mysterious rosy glow flooding each apartment from no particular source. She passes from room to room, delighted, but the palace has no other occupant since the King left her at the entrance, which closed behind her. Upon mantels, shelves, brackets, and tables cluster ornaments of every description made of all sorts of metals, glass, china, stone, and marble, including vases, figures of men and animals, graven platters and bowls, mosaics of precious gems, and pictures on the walls, making the palace a museum of rare and costly objects. Ozma begins to wonder which ornaments are the transformations of the royal family of Ev, but with nothing to guide her, since everything seems lifeless, she must guess blindly, and for the first time realizes how dangerous her task is and how likely she is to lose her freedom trying to free others, understanding why the cunning monarch laughed good-naturedly. Unwilling to abandon the venture, she looks at a silver candelabra with ten branches, thinks it may be the Queen and her ten children, touches it, and utters the word "Ev," but it remains unchanged. She then touches a china lamb in another room, thinking it a child, but again fails. She makes her third through tenth guesses, and still not one is right. Growing pale even under the rosy light, with only one guess remaining and her own fate depending on it, she resolves not to be hasty and strolls through the rooms again, then in despair decides to leave it entirely to chance: she faces a doorway, shuts her eyes, thrusts aside the heavy draperies, and advances blindly with her right arm outstretched. Her hand contacts an object on a small round table, and in a low voice she pronounces the word "Ev." The rooms are then empty of life; the Nome King has gained a new ornament, for upon the table rests a pretty grasshopper seemingly formed from a single emerald, all that remains of Ozma of Oz. In the throne room the King looks up, smiles, and calls "Next!" Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman start in dismay. When Tiktok asks if she has failed, the King cheerfully confirms it, noting the next entrant may have twelve guesses since there are now twelve persons transformed. Dorothy offers to go, but the Tin Woodman claims it as his privilege as commander of Ozma's army to follow and attempt her rescue; the Scarecrow bids him be careful, and the Tin Woodman follows the King to the palace entrance as the rock closes behind him.