"She wouldn't dare make me a slave," cried Dorothy, trying her best to pull away from her captor.
"Just let her try it!" blustered Pigasus, scuffling unwillingly along on the other side. But paying no attention to their struggles, the Guard lifted his foot and kicked three times on a black ebony door in the wall, and a tall Watchman dressed in a black leather suit admitted them to the Royal Circle. It was all so different from what Dorothy had been expecting she almost forgot her anger. Enclosed by the black marble wall was a strange and enchanting garden. Now, Dorothy had never seen a black garden, nor dreamed one could be so beautiful. Here sable willows mirrored their feathery branches in long shining pools, here black plum and cherry trees flaunted their fragile black blossoms, and jet black fountains sent their smoking waters high into the quiet air. Vast satiny expanses of lawn were dotted with a hundred beds of dusky roses, tulips, velvety pansies and daffodils. Built all round the circular wall was a low but sumptuous black castle, and seated on an ebony throne in the center of her stately black garden was the Black Queen herself, looking, Dorothy was thankful to discover, much more like a Queen than a witch. Gloma's face was sweet and serious, her hair fine and glossy as a raven's wing. She was dressed in a trailing robe of black chiffon that billowed in lacy clouds round her feet. A sparkling crown of jet and long jet earrings were her only ornaments. On each side of the Black Queen crouched a sleek black leopard and behind the ebony throne stood ten tall foresters with gleaming axes. "Like headsmen in a medieval history book," thought Dorothy as she and Pigasus were dragged rapidly forward. Gloma, gazing dreamily into a black crystal set on a marble stand before the throne, seemed entirely unaware of their presence till the harsh voice of the Black Guard announced them.
"Hail! Black and Imperial Majesty!" called the Guard deferentially, approaching the throne. "Two prisoners, a pig and a Princess, whom I found wandering unlawfully in our forest, and whom I took the liberty of blacking."
Dorothy, jerking away from the Guard, was about to explain how she and Pigasus had lost their way, when Gloma jumped to her feet with a sharp, agonized scream.
"Blotz, General Blotz, what have you done?" panted the Black Queen, beating her hands wildly together. "Your stupidity has ruined us all! You have blackened and insulted my most dangerous and mortal enemy! Go! Leave! Begone and never darken my doors again! Oh, why—why did you do it? Why have you brought her here? After all these years must I too be destroyed and obliterated?" Sinking back on her throne, Gloma covered her face with her hair and began rocking backward and forward in agitation and sorrow.
"Why, why—I believe she's afraid of you!" puffed Pigasus, twitching his tail with excitement and interest as General Blotz, looking quite dazed, began to move unhappily toward the gate in the wall.
"Quick!" he grunted as the ten foresters back of the throne rushed forward to surround them. "Do something, Dorothy, while she is still afraid of you. Make her unblacken us. Tell her to set us free. Hurry! Hurry, before she discovers you are only a harmless little girl." But Dorothy, only half listening to the pig, boldly thrust aside the foresters and ran over to the Black Queen.
"Why are you afraid of ME?" asked Dorothy, speaking rapidly but distinctly. "I did not come here on purpose. Pigasus and I are lost and need your help."
"Help?" shivered Gloma, shrinking as far away from Dorothy as possible. "Why should I help you? Are you not Dorothy, the mortal girl who destroyed the powerful Witches of the East and West?"