Luke had never seen so many flies before. Sometimes you might see one or two, buzzing at the top of the ceiling, but now the Bin Kingdom was thick with them. There must have been hundreds.

“War? Malcolm, what do you—”

“Get down!”

Luke ducked behind the cage just as a huge fly circled the city walls. He recognized the droning buzz he’d heard filling the desert earlier.

“Warflies, Your Highness,” Malcolm whispered. “The Bin King has been secretly breeding them for weeks! We knew he’d been using them to spy on us from the ceiling, but we had no idea he had something like this planned….”

This was no ordinary fly—it was more like a flying fortress. Its sides were wrapped in tinfoil armor, and strapped to its back were catapults and slingshots and trebuchets. Twenty Green soldiers stood behind the weapons, surveying the ground below.

“They hit us right after Demon left,” Malcolm explained, “when we were at our most frightened and vulnerable. Three dozen warflies attacked the kingdom at once. We didn’t stand a chance! They defeated our army, ransacked the city and sent the Blues marching to the Bin in chains!”

Sure enough, Luke could see a great crowd of blue on the other side of the desert.

“But why did they attack?” he whispered. “We’ve never done anything to the Greens!”

Malcolm’s face darkened.

“It was all Demon’s doing, Your Highness! When he appeared through the Bedroom Door, the Bin King sent two warflies to get a closer look and report their findings. One of them flew too close to Demon’s accomplice, and the purple monster attacked without warning, crushing the warfly in midair!”

Luke gasped. “He killed a Green soldier?”

Malcolm shook his head. “The fly rider made a lucky escape, landing on the second warfly as he plummeted to the ground. He was carried back to the Bin in a terrible state, and was able to tell the Bin King everything he had seen: Demon kneeling down before you in the desert and talking to you; another monster appearing through the Door; you fleeing the city just before the Bin King’s warfly was attacked….”

Luke’s stomach dropped. “No…you don’t mean—”

“Yes! The Bin King thought you commanded those monsters to attack!” Malcolm cried. “He thought it was a declaration of war!”

Luke was aghast. “But that’s insane!”

Malcolm shook his head. “The Bin King is a paranoid tyrant—it was all the excuse he needed. He’s always wished to rule the entire Floor himself: your father and the Red Queen were able to keep him in line, but once King Adam died, we were certain the Greens would try to attack. That’s why we had to crown you so quickly—we thought that without a king on the Blue throne, the Bin King would finally take his chance!”

Luke stared at the devastation around them.

“So…what do we do now?”

“There’s nothing we can do, Luke!” Malcolm wailed. “The Blues are defeated! The Bin King will surely attack the Reds next—they may be the largest tribe on the Floor, but they’re little more than disorganized savages. They’ll be nothing against the might of the Bin King’s warflies! The Red Queen will fall, and when she does, the Greens will rule from wall to wall! The Bin King won’t rest until he has your head on a spike!”

Luke wasn’t listening to Malcolm anymore. He was looking at the remains of his kingdom. He had asked the Great One to take it away from him…and gotten exactly what he had wished for. Because of him, thousands of men, women and children had been enslaved.

“What have I done?” he whispered.

Luke’s eyes filled with tears. He had failed the very people he was sworn to protect. There was no way he could ever undo what had been done.

A shadow fell across him.

The Bedroom Door was opening again. The giants stood in the Doorway.

“D-Demon has returned!” Malcolm cried. “Run, Your Majesty, before it’s too late!”

But Luke stayed where he was, staring up at the giants’ faces. They were looking at the Floor, taking in what had happened…and they were horrified.

They weren’t monsters. They were just like Luke.

Except I’m a tiny boy, thought Luke, and they’re two giants who can crush whole cities with one hand….

And all of a sudden, Luke knew exactly what he had to do.