A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(106)

“WHAT?” the general shouted.

“Outnumbered?” Baton shouted as well. “But that is impossible! We sent more than enough trolls and soldiers into the Charming Kingdom!”

Capitaine De Lange began sobbing at the general’s feet. He knew what the failure would cost him. “We counted the army correctly, sir! But we weren’t expecting that hundreds and hundreds of citizens would be fighting with them! The trolls surrendered or fled into the Dwarf Forests upon seeing them. We were defeated!”

The general took a step closer and stared into De Lange’s eyes. The lava at the bottom of the canyon behind him was nothing compared to the fire in Marquis’s eyes.

“Are you telling me our Armée was defeated by the peasant men and women of the Charming Kingdom?” General Marquis asked. His nostrils had never been so wide and his head was so red he looked like he was about to catch on fire himself.

Capitaine De Lange shook his head; he had much worse news to tell him. “Not just in the Charming Kingdom, sir! Civilians stood with their kingdom’s armies in all of the kingdoms. All of our calculations and predictions were correct—but we never could have seen this coming! Please believe me when I say we did everything in our power!”

The general turned his fiery gaze toward Colonel Baton, who was shocked by the news. “General, I oversaw the plans myself,” Baton said. “We were positive they would lead to victory.”

The general looked away from the colonel and promptly walked away from the men who had failed him. He had never been so disappointed in his entire military career.

“Lieutenant Rembert, your pistol,” General Marquis demanded.

The lieutenant followed his instructions and retrieved his pistol for the general. In the blink of an eye, General Marquis turned to Colonel Baton and Capitaine De Lange and shot them both in the foot. They fell backward and slid down the canyon walls. They moaned as they tried to get to their feet. A low growling noise vibrated up the canyon walls and the commanders’ moaning increased. A series of deafening screeches echoed next from the canyon, but they weren’t human. The sound was like a thousand nails were being dragged across metal.

“The dragon’s awake!” the Masked Man said, and the entire camp covered their ears.

In between the earsplitting screeches, the camp heard the colonel and the captain scream as they were eaten alive. The general’s wrathful stare never left his face.

Marquis handed Rembert back his pistol. “Congratulations, Rembert, you’re a colonel now,” he said. “Now feed those animals to the dragon once it’s finished with its appetizer.”

“Yes, sir,” Rembert said, and ran off to fetch the stolen livestock.

General Marquis paced up and down the edge of the canyon. He was experiencing the greatest failure of his life—and the general did not take failure well. More than half of his army was gone and it had been defeated by peasants of all things. He quietly plotted how his army was going to come back from this catastrophe.

The Masked Man approached him but kept his distance. “You started this war and you can still win it,” he said. “I’ll tell you again, once you have the dragon—”

“If you tell me one more time all I need is a dragon to win this war, I will feed you piece by piece to the dragon myself!” the general warned. “Any hunter knows you cannot kill a boar with one arrow alone. You need one for the head and one for the heart. The dragon may be an arrow I’ll fire into the head of this world, but if I had seized the capitals and the rulers of the kingdoms, I would have had this world’s heart. This army would have been unstoppable.”

Rook had been intently listening to their conversation the entire time. He realized he had information that the general wanted. “General!” he declared, standing with his hand raised. “If it’s the kings and queens you’re after, I know how you can get to them.”

He couldn’t believe what he was doing—it was as if his sense of survival had overridden all his other senses.

The general scowled at the boy and laughed at his pathetic attempt to get his attention. “Silence, before you are fed to the dragon next!”

“I’m serious,” Rook said. The other villagers pleaded for him to sit and stay quiet but he resisted. “The kings and queens were sent away long before your men arrived at the capitals. I saw it happen and I know where they are.”

General Marquis was already angry enough as it was and this village boy claiming to have answers he did not, was not helping. “Then tell me where they are,” he said, and walked closer to him.

Rook shook his head. “I’m not telling you unless you set all the villagers free,” he said.

The general was so upset by the mention of another bargain he looked as if lava were going to erupt from inside of him. “Perhaps I’ll kill each of the villagers in front of you until you tell me where they are?”

“Excuse me, General?” the Masked Man said. “With all due respect, what the boy is asking for isn’t very much. The villagers are useless so you wouldn’t be losing anything by granting him what he wants in exchange for whatever he might know.”

General Marquis gave the Masked Man the ugliest scowl yet. “You don’t have the right to give me advice!” he said, and struck him across the face.

The Masked Man fell to the ground and spit out a mouthful of blood. “I’m only trying to help, General,” he grunted. “If you lose this war, I lose this war, too! I’ll be sent back to prison! I want to see you conquer this world as much as you do!”