A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(83)

“And that’s still not including the armies of the Elf Empire and the Troblin Territory,” Mother Goose reminded them. “If General Marquis manages to convince them the way he convinced the prisoners, then it’s over. We’ll never win this war.”

“Then we’ll have to get to them first.” Alex joined the discussion for the first time. “We need to do whatever it takes to make sure the elves and the troblins are on our side. They may not have a great relationship with the Happily Ever After Assembly but I doubt they want to see the world taken over by the Armée any more than we do. Does anyone know how large the elf and troblin armies are?”

“The trolls and goblins have an army of seven hundred, I believe,” Tangerina said. “And the elves have a thousand soldiers.”

“Then that’s good news for us,” Alex said. “After we convince the troblins and the elves to join us, that will raise our army to much better odds of survival. Plus, we have the fairies on our side; we can’t forget to include them.”

All the fairies behind the podiums objected at once but Xanthous was the loudest. “Fairies can’t go into battle; it’s against the Happily Ever After Assembly code of magic!” he protested.

“Screw the code!” Conner yelled, and the room went silent. “The code is there to ensure peace and prosperity for the fairy-tale world and soon there may not be a fairy-tale world left! If we want to win this war we will have to fight fire with fire, and Xanthous, no one has more fire than you—and no one can stir the waves better than Skylene—and no one can sting like Tangerina. We’re going to have to use every resource possible.”

The fairies were morally opposed to the idea with every fiber of their beings, but Conner was right. As long as they were using their magic for the greater good, they had no choice. Alex folded her hands together and looked at the floor as she thought more about what needed to be done.

“All right, I think I have a plan. Everyone listen closely,” she said, and gained the room’s undivided attention. “We don’t know where or how the Grande Armée will strike first—we have to assume it could be anywhere. I want all the kings and queens to write to their commanding officers at once and tell them to split their armies in half. Half of each army will stay in its respective kingdom so nothing is left unguarded. The other halves will go into hiding—I don’t care where they go as long as they stay out of sight—they are not to come out of hiding until they see my signal.”

“But why split up the armies?” Xanthous asked.

“That way no kingdom is left unguarded, in case it’s attacked,” Alex explained. “And if a kingdom is attacked, its entire army won’t be lost.”

Alex turned to face the fairies. “I want you to be with the soldiers guarding the kingdoms,” she said. “Rosette will go to the Corner Kingdom, Skylene to the Northern, Xanthous to the Charming, Tangerina to the Eastern, and Violetta and Coral to the Bo Peep Republic. Mother Goose and Emerelda will stay in the Fairy Kingdom and look after the Fairy Godmother.”

Alex turned back to address the entire room for the conclusion of her plan. “My brother and I will personally go to the troblins and elves and plead with them to join our side. As soon as we recruit the elves and troblins, I’ll signal all the remaining armies, the ones at home and the ones in hiding, and lead them in a strike against the Grande Armée.”

Everyone carefully went over this plan in their heads. It may not have been a perfect strategy, but it was the only strategy they had.

“What’s going to happen to us?” Cinderella asked. “Do we go home to our kingdoms or do we stay at the Fairy Palace?”

“Neither,” Conner said, and stood by his sister. “If the Armée finds you, they’ll kill you—they have a history of killing royal families and aristocrats—to them, death is the only surrender. We have to keep you moving at all times so they can never find you. I would suggest we put you all on a flying ship like the Granny but if the Armée saw that in the sky they would freak out and definitely shoot you down.”

“Then what can we place them on that’s both secretive and continuously moving?” Alex asked.

Her words rang a bell. Conner knew he had heard of something recently that met this description; he just had to think. He thought back to the very beginning of this whole ordeal, when he was standing in the cemetery listening to the Brothers Grimm stories, and the answer came to him. The Brothers Grimm hadn’t just provided a warning, they had also provided a plan.

“I’ve got it!” Conner said. “We’ll put them on an enchanted path just like in the story ‘The Secret Castle’! The path could weave through the kingdoms like a snake, never traveling in the same direction twice and never leaving a trail behind it!”

“That’s brilliant!” Alex said. “And the only people who will be able to find it are the people who know about it! As long as the Armée never knows about the path, they’ll never find it.”

Conner stepped closer to Alex and whispered something in her ear so only she could hear. “Do you think you can create the path, Alex?” He didn’t want to fill the room with hope if Alex wasn’t capable of the enchantment.

Alex took a deep breath. “Yes,” she said. “I know I can.” She looked up to the top of the stairs where the others sat. “Red, we can use the carriages you arrived in. They were very plain and didn’t bear any symbols of royalty.”