Shell, who undertakes 'missions of mercy' in Southstairs, which involves 'comforting' female prisoners by injecting them with extract of poppy flower and taking sex as payment, brings him to the Under-Mayor, Chyde. She enables Liir to access Southstairs by arranging a meeting with Shell, Elphaba's younger brother. Liir becomes convinced that Nor is in Southstairs, a subterranean city that operates as a maximum-security political prison, and seeks the aid of Glinda, appointed acting ruler of Oz after the Wizard's departure. When they reach the Emerald City, the others go off to receive what they were promised by the Wizard, leaving Liir alone. In return, she promises that she will try to learn about the fate of Nor, Fiyero's daughter, who, with her family, was taken by the Wizard's forces. Nastoya is slowly dying, and she asks Liir to find a way to enable her return to Elephant form before she dies. Nastoya is an Elephant who, because of the Wizard's pogrom against Animals, availed herself of a witch's charm that enabled her to transform into a human. While traveling, they meet Princess Nastoya, the leader of the Scrow, a Vinkus tribe. The novel follows Liir's dreams as he lies unconscious in the mauntery.Īfter Elphaba's death in Wicked, Liir accompanies Dorothy Gale, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and Toto back to the Emerald City. The Superior Maunt recognizes the young man and identifies him as Liir, the young boy who left the Cloister with Elphaba a decade or so ago. Oatsie brings the man to the Cloister of Saint Glinda in the Shale Shallows. The Vinkus has lately become dangerous due to 'scrapings', mysterious killings that involve the removal of the head's facial features, but this man's face has not been scraped. Oatsie Manglehand, a woman who leads the Grasstrail Train, discovers the body of a young man, badly bruised and near death, by the side of a road in the Vinkus.

Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire