A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(111)
Queen Cinderella and King Chance were tied to the first pole, Queen Sleeping Beauty and King Chase were tied to the second, Queen Snow White and King Chandler were tied to the third, Queen Rapunzel and Sir William were tied to the fourth, and Queen Little Bo was tied to the fifth. Jack and Goldilocks were even included, and were tied to the sixth pole. Froggy and Red were tied to the seventh.
“If you would just listen to me for one second, I could explain I’m not the queen anymore,” Red tried telling one of the Armée soldiers. “She’s the queen now—she won the election and therefore being publicly executed is one of her responsibilities, not mine!”
She rapidly jerked her head in Little Bo’s direction, but the soldier wasn’t listening to a word she said.
A handful of the Armée soldiers began drumming while others lit torches and stood near the royals. The Fairy Council was about to witness a horrible execution. General Marquis stood on top of the center carriage and made an announcement to all the fairies in the gardens and at the palace before him.
“Fairies! This is your one and only opportunity to surrender to the Grande Armée!” he declared. “Take this opportunity and I will spare the leaders of your world. Fail to surrender and you will watch them die horrible deaths!”
“Choose the first option!” Red cried up at the Fairy Council.
The fairies living in the gardens peeked out from the plants and trees. They were horrified by what they saw, but there were too many soldiers for them to do anything.
“You have until the count of three,” the general shouted. “One…”
The fairies in the gardens looked up to the Fairy Council members on the balcony. They silently pleaded with them to do something.
“Two…”
The Fairy Council whispered among themselves but no one had a solution.
“Three!” the general shouted with a dissatisfied frown. He had been expecting the fairies to surrender but to his surprise, they stayed on the balcony and did nothing. “Your time is up! Les graver sur!”
The soldiers threw torches onto the piles of dried hay and sticks around the poles and the executions began. Many of the queens screamed, and the kings yelled for help. The flames climbed higher and higher. They were seconds away from being burned at the stake unless the fairies helped them.
“Mother Goose, stay here and watch over the palace,” Emerelda said. “The rest of you, follow me. We will not surrender but we must stop this before someone gets killed.”
“Please hurry, Alex,” Xanthous whispered to himself.
Several flashing lights appeared at the edge of the gardens and Emerelda, Xanthous, Tangerina, Skylene, Rosette, Violetta, and Coral appeared in front of the soldiers. All the cannons and rifles were raised at them, waiting for orders to fire. Emerelda lowered her hands and the fires at the base of the poles faded.
“Stop putting out those flames unless you want my men to open fire!” the general yelled.
There were too many guns and cannons pointed at them for the fairies to properly shield themselves in time. If the general ordered his men to fire, there was no way the fairies would survive.
“You are an evil man, General Marquis,” Emerelda called back to him. “And unfortunately for you, you’ve attempted to dominate a world that does not tolerate the wicked. We may not be able to stop your Armée from taking our kingdom today, but you will be stopped. You will not win this war—this world will not let you! This world doesn’t want you here! Untie these men and women at once and admit your failure with dignity, or suffer the consequences when the other armies arrive.”
The Grande Armée soldiers looked around the fairy gardens nervously, but the general’s attitude was not affected in the slightest. Emerelda’s warning only made him angrier. He had been given so many ultimatums he couldn’t tolerate one more.
“Fire at will!” he roared at his men.
The Armée loaded their cannons and cocked their rifles. The gardens buzzed with panic as the observing fairies feared the Fairy Council were about to be murdered in front of their eyes.
Suddenly, a bright light filled the sky as a shooting star appeared. It caught everyone’s attention, especially that of the general and the Grande Armée soldiers. They had never seen anything like it in their world—but neither had anyone in the fairy-tale world. It was too bright to be an average star and it grew bigger and bigger as it traveled closer and closer to the Fairy Kingdom.
“Take cover!” the general ordered his men, and dove off the carriage. All the Grande Armée soldiers fell to the ground and covered their heads. The Fairy Council and the fairies in the gardens stayed still as they stared up at the star in amazement—they knew this was an act of magic. Alex and Conner had arrived.
The star hit the center of the fairy gardens with such a strong impact it caused a massive breeze to sweep through the plants and extinguish the flames growing around the poles. Once the breeze faded and the dust lifted, the Fairy Council could see Alex and Conner aboard Lester in the center of the gardens and they were surrounded by the armies of the Charming Kingdom, the Bo Peep Republic, the Eastern Kingdom, the Northern Kingdom, the Corner Kingdom, and the Great Troblin Lake. The twins’ spell had worked.
It was one of the most spectacular things anyone in the Fairy Kingdom had ever witnessed. Everyone looked around in astonishment—especially the incoming soldiers. Only seconds before this they had been in their own kingdoms.