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		News from Glinda's Great Book of Records

Ork in Oz, The

1974
Author(s): Brenton, Jack Brenton, Larry
Illustrator(s):
Publisher(s): Re-Printers
Genre(s): Fantasy

Comments:
After many years of traveling and trying to regain her lost magic, Blinkie ends up in Ev. She stumbles across the Giant with the Hammer (from Ozma of Oz), and entering into his compartment, begins to learn how to control him. She swings her hammer into the mountainside, crashing into a storage room filled with Nomes. Kaliko arrives to see who has intruded. Realzing that she's unaware that they're Nomes, he fools her into believing they're a small community with little magic, and offers her a magic ring to depart. The ring is enough to satisfy her, as it freezes its victims, so that with it and her control of the Giant with the Hammer, she intends to revenge herself against her former enemies. Blinkie then happens upon an Ork, who she tricks into revealing the location of Orkville. After freezing his wings, she heads off with him on the Giant's shoulder to Orkland to attack them first. She freezes all of the Orks wings, including Orville's, who had years earlier saved the Scarecrow from her in Jinxland. Orville manages to escape, though he cannot fly, and must swim across the sea and run across the land. Meanwhile, east across the Deadly Desert, but west of Hi-land and Lo-land, lies the Ivalane Valley, and in the southern part of it lies Ivalor. There the people were once prosperous, having sold goatmilk from their royal goats. But for a year now, they go about covered head-to-toe in canvas sacks to avoid the stings of the Wasps of Wisp. A bitter man from the Mountains of Moran to the east, Wisp had once trained the Stinging Bees who he had traded to the Wicked Witch of the West in exchange for magic (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). Now his trained wasps allow him to terrorize the land of Ivalor to the west. When Irving, the son of the chief goatherd of Ivalor, meets Orville the Ork, who has traveled by foot to their dominion only to be attacked by the wasps, Irving rescues Orville from them. Irving's parents welcome Orville into their home, and he tells them of his plan to go to the Emerald City to get help. After he departs, Irving decides to follow him to also ask Ozma for help, a fortunate choice as he is there to save Orville who falls into quicksand. Meanwhile, Mombi decides that it is time to relearn magic, and travels to the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West. She discovers the location of her hidden cellar, but most of what's down there has been emptied or destroyed by Glinda. In a rage, she smashes shelves, getting a brown sticky residue on her hands, but also discovering some odd items that remain, including the silver whistle the Witch had used to summon the Stinging Bees and the brass bell that summoned the Wolves. She attempts the latter to no effect, but the whistle summons from afar Wisp, who arrives by means of his wasp-driven chariot. He is suspicious of Mombi at first, but greed overcomes his doubts as she spells out her plan to steal the Magic Picture, and give Wisp control of the Winkie country of Oz. Mombi also discovers by accident that the brown substance has given her the power to shoot flames of fire. Disguised in the elaborate costume of a minstrel, Mombi gains access to the Royal Palace in the Emerald City, and is ushered in by Dorothy herself. Blowing on the silver whistle, she summons the wasps of Wisp. While the Ozites scramble to escape the wasps, Mombi steals away with the Magic Picture. Ozma and the Scarecrow take the Red Wagon, Sawhorse, Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger to Glinda's, but en route, Ozma and the two large cats are frozen in place, leaving the Scarecrow and Sawhorse to take Ozma and travel in haste. At the West Witch's former castle, Mombi looks for wicked magicians to assist her. She looks up Wartwick the Wizard in the Magic Picture, but discovers that he's now a rock. She asks to see Wanda, but discovers that she's reformed. Several other searches prove fruitless as well. When she asks to see Blinkie, she discovers her in the mouth of the Giant with the Hammer. At once, Mombi and Wisp fly off on the wasp-driven chariot to find her at Orkland. Blinkie is surprised to meet Mombi and the Wisp, but Mombi explains to her the plan. With the power of Blinkie's ring, she's able to freeze persons simply by looking upon them in the Magic Picture. Glinda becomes the first victim, as is everyone in her castle. The Wizard and Dorothy are next, followed by Ozma and the Lion and Tiger. The Scarecrow and Sawhorse, however, cannot be frozen. So it's off to Glinda's palace that the wicked party heads. Discovering that Glinda and her handmaidens are all frozen statues, the Scarecrow reads the Great Book of Records and discovers what's transpired. Despite having to break the law against practicing magic, the Scarecrow and Sawhorse search Glinda's magic equipment and discover a bottle of Rainflower tears which can undo freezing Nome spells, but it cannot work without the magic words, which they don't know. The Scarecrow tries another bottle of blue ooze, but only manages to flood the room with it. Then another bottle, and with this one he erases his face. The Sawhorse discovers it's magic erasing liquid, and sets about repainting his face, but the results are closer to Picasso than the Scarecrow. Yet, he's able to speak and hear again. Concerned about Mombi finding Glinda's room, they disguise it as a broom closet, and then go about using the magic erasing liquid to erase the words from the Magic Book. After several attempts, they then go about hiding Ozma in a ubiquitous tool shed so that she'll not so easily be found. Irv and Orv, meanwhile, reach the Deadly Desert just in time to hide from the wasp-chariot, which has landed to rest. When it takes off, Orville and Irving clasp onto the bottom of it, and ride it to Glinda's palace where they drop off safely. But when Orville goes about exploring the palace, he is caught by the evil trio. Irving goes to hide in a laundry shoot, sending him to the bowels of the palace. The wicked trio burst upon the Scarecrow and Sawhorse, who defy them, but are unaware of Mombi's new power of fire. She sets the Scarecrow on fire, forcing the Sawhorse to grab him and jump out the window and into a nearby pond, after which they escape to the Emerald City. Paying them no further heed, Mombi begins searching for Glinda's magic room. Failing to find it, they determine to find Ozma, but the Ork—still a prisoner of Mombi—uses the magic erasing liquid on the Magic Picture and then eats the page of the Magic Book. Unable to use the Magic Picture, Blinkie and Wisp go off in search of the place where Ozma is being held while Mombi attempts to learn how to unfreeze the freeze spell so that she can take the Magic Belt when Ozma is found. Irv, meanwhile, deep in the bowels of the castle, meets Pervus the Packrat, who trades him his jacknife for an old spyglass of Glinda's. Pervus explains that his ancestor Patronius was the reason Glinda was able to defeat the Wicked Witch of the South, who once ruled there, by stealing the keys to the dungeon where the Quadling people were kept, allowing them to dig tunnels underneath the palace and spy on the witch for Glinda. That gives Irv the idea to use the tunnels to spy on Mombi. So with Pervus as a guide, Irv discovers Mombi practicing magic on Orville. The spell finally works and Orville's tail is unfrozen. The packrat dashes out to steal the potion of Rainflower tears, but during the chase it falls and breaks. With Mombi distracted, Orville and Irv fly off to the Emerald City. There, the non-meat people, the Scarecrow, the Sawhorse, Tin Woodman, Tik-Tok, and Scraps, have gathered to plan an assault on the evildoers. Pervus, meanwhile, hides Ozma outside of the shed inside an unknown object just before Mombi can find her. Irv and Orv realize that to awaken Ozma they need the Rainflower tears, but the only place it comes from is Orgland in the Munchkin country. In Org, they seek the advice of an old woman who turns out to be a cannibal ogre named Org, who captures them and brings them into his underground lair where he intends to eat them. Orville outwits him. however, and they escape with the potion they need. En route to Glinda's castle, they encounter a Rak along the way. It is Mombi attacking her enemies (including Blinkie in the Giant with the Hammer) and allies. Due to Irv's quick thinking, Ozma is unfrozen, and uses the belt to turn Mombi into a crow. Ozma transforms the wasps into grains of sand, and returns Wisp to his mountain home. Blinkie is restored to her size on the caveat that if she attempts to practice magic again, she will shrink back to 18 inches. Ozma restores Mombi, removing her memory of magic and sending her back to her Gillikin home. Warning signs are placed around Org's home, and Irv goes with Orv back to Ivalor.