Ora couldn’t wait to hear what the palace was like. Margot could tell that Ora cared about what happened to Go; but she also wanted to know about the royal family, what the castle looked like, and how the Prince was. If Margot didn’t know better, she would have thought that Ora wanted to be a princess in the palace more than she wanted to be a witch. Just then, the Witch of the Woods appeared in the doorway. “It is time for a lesson,” she said. Her voice was sometimes barely audible. Now it was a scratchy whisper, like branches clawing through the wind. And then the witch cut off one of her branches and burned it down to ash. She took the ashes and put them in a little glass vial. She spoke into the vial and the contents liquefied. And then she handed Ora the vial and ordered her to swallow the contents. Ora did so obediently. “Speak,” said the Witch of the Woods. “What’s happened to me?” Ora boomed in a mellifluous tone. “I gave you the gift of song. It will only last a few minutes.”
