CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE ONLY WITNESS

Alex and Conner sat by their grandma’s bedside all night. Neither of them could think about sleep at a time like this. They were afraid if they left their grandmother it would discourage her from waking up. They hoped that if she felt their presence for long enough, it might activate that last bit of magic inside of her.

An emergency Fairy Council meeting was called early the next morning to discuss the matters at stake. Since the Fairy Godmother was absent, Alex asked Conner to accompany her. The twins always thought best when they were together and they hoped they could help the Fairy Council assess the current situation. Alex took a seat in her chair and Conner leaned against its arm. Although their grandmother’s seat was empty Conner wouldn’t sit in it; he didn’t want to feel like it was available.

The meeting had already started and they could tell the conversation was heated when they walked in. All the fairies were standing at their respective podiums staring daggers at Mother Goose.

“Let me get this straight,” Emerelda said. “An army from the Otherworld has been trapped in a portal for two hundred years and now they’ve arrived and plan on taking over our world?”

“That’s it in a golden eggshell,” Mother Goose said. She shifted in her seat as the others glared at her.

“And why didn’t you bring this to anyone’s attention?” Tangerina said, absolutely infuriated. Her bees flew aggressively around her beehive. They would have attacked Mother Goose had she given them the word.

“I didn’t want to worry the Fairy Godmother,” Mother Goose said. “I thought I could take care of the situation myself and was too embarrassed to involve anyone else. The Brothers Grimm and I trapped them inside the portal and then, luckily, by the time their two hundred years were up, the portal had been permanently closed by the Fairy Godmother. I thought I was in the clear for good until she became ill.”

“So you didn’t tell anyone about this because you didn’t want anyone to worry or think less of you?” Skylene asked. “That seems like jumping into a lake to avoid the rain if you ask me.”

Mother Goose looked at the twins, especially at Conner, and then told the council something she had never told anyone before. “A very long time ago, before any of you were on this council, before the Fairy Godmother and I lost the color in our hair, gained the wrinkles on our faces, and when we were both much thinner—before Ezmia and Alex—I was the Fairy Godmother’s first apprentice,” she confessed.

All the fairies looked at one another, floored. Of all the things they involuntarily knew about her, Alex and Conner were impressed she had managed to keep this a secret.

“It only took me a few months to realize I wasn’t cut out for the job,” Mother Goose explained. “Sure, I was capable, but I just wasn’t willing. I was too much of a free spirit to take on that kind of responsibility. So I passed on the highest honor a fairy could have and became the laughingstock of the kingdom. The Fairy Godmother said she understood but I knew she was disappointed and it killed me. I promised myself I would never let her down again, so in the 1800s when I was careless enough to get caught by those greedy French fries, I tried to handle the situation the best way I could so I would never have to see disappointment in those eyes again.”

None of the fairies knew what to say so they just shook their heads. Conner felt sorry for Mother Goose. After growing up with a sister as precocious as Alex, he knew very well what it was like to constantly disappoint people. Now he understood why Mother Goose hadn’t been honest with him about the portal.

“Oh come on,” Conner said to the fairies. “Give Mother Goose a break! You’re all standing there shaking your heads as if you could have handled the situation better. Well, no offense, but at least she came up with a solution. I can’t remember the last time I saw any of you solve anything. Every time there’s a crisis it’s usually Alex and me who figure out what to do.”

“How are we not supposed to take offense at that?” Xanthous asked the others.

“My point is, glass people shouldn’t throw stones,” Conner said.

“The phrase is ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,’ ” Alex corrected him.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “Well, you get my point.”

Mother Goose smiled at Conner and mouthed, “Thank you, C-Dog.” Emerelda massaged her forehead as she thought about what to do next.

“There’s no use in blaming anyone for what has happened—we need to move forward to find a way to fix it,” Emerelda said. “Alex, what do you think we should do?”

She couldn’t believe Emerelda was asking her. “Me?” she asked.

“Yes, of course you,” Emerelda said. “Unless your grandmother miraculously recovers, you’ll be acting as Fairy Godmother.”

This was a heavy thing for both the twins to digest. When people referred to Alex as the next Fairy Godmother, she always assumed they meant someday in the distant future, not now.

Alex bit her thumb and looked at the floor while she thought it over. “We need to see this army first, so we know for sure what we’re up against,” she said. “The more we know about them, the easier it will be to find a solution.”

“The last thing I heard them talk about was an attack on Pinocchio Prison,” Conner said.

“Why would they be attacking a prison?” Rosette asked.

“The general said they were recruiting,” Conner said.

Suddenly the room grew very tense. All the fairies eyed one another and frantically whispered among themselves.

“I told you, that General Marquis is a smart man,” Mother Goose said.

“Wait, am I missing something?” Conner asked. “What use can he get from recruiting a bunch of criminals?”

“There are some pretty powerful characters in that prison,” Mother Goose said. “Trust me, I know most of them. And the prisoners in Pinocchio Prison are only the ones who have been caught. The Dwarf Forests and the backwoods of every kingdom are crawling with criminals, and when they see their friends have joined an army fighting against us, they’ll all want to join, too. If the general succeeds in recruiting them, we won’t just be fighting an old army, we could be fighting a war.”

Conner gulped. He was sorry he had even asked. Coral was having difficulty processing the information, too. She politely raised a hand and asked a question.

“So are you saying that it’s possible the Happily Ever After Assembly may be up against—?”

“Everyone else?” Mother Goose said. “All the creatures in the other kingdoms have been waiting for an opportunity to overthrow the fairies and the humans. This could be their chance.”

Coral looked like she was about to cry. She cradled Fisher even tighter in her arms at the thought of what tomorrow might bring.

“The witches, the ogres, the trolls, the goblins, the elves—they’ve wanted us gone since the Dragon Age!” Violetta added. “They’ve just lacked the organizational skills to challenge us.”

“And those are skills the general can provide,” Mother Goose said.

While Conner and the fairies started to panic, Alex was adamant about her original plan. The more information they had, the more options they would have. She raised her wand and a bright bolt of light shot out of it, silencing the room of frightened fairies.

“We’re worrying about a lot of ifs,” Alex said. “We don’t know if the prisoners have joined the general yet. Those criminals are in prison because they couldn’t follow the rules of a society; what makes us think they’ll follow the general’s commands?”

She made a very good point—there was no use in worrying unless they had evidence to worry about.

“My brother and I will go to the prison and see if they were successful in recruiting the prisoners,” Alex said. “We’ll need a way to get there without being seen—and a flying ship or a unicorn isn’t going to go unnoticed by men from our world.”

“You can take Lester,” Mother Goose said. “That’s why I rode him around the Otherworld—if anyone sees him in the sky they just assume he’s a normal bird.”

“Great,” Alex said. “We’ll leave as soon as possible and get a better idea of what we’re up against.”

None of the fairies argued. For the first time Alex’s word was final and it was respected. With no time to lose, Alex and Conner immediately followed Mother Goose up to the grand balcony. She whistled for Lester and he swooped toward them from the towers above. She pulled his reins down and whispered their plan into his ear.

Froggy and Red were also on the balcony, showing the view of the gardens to Bree and Emmerich. Bree walked over to Conner as soon as she saw him.

“Hi, Bree,” Conner said. “How did you sleep?”

“Oh, you know,” she said. “As well as anyone could their first night in a new dimension, I suppose.”

Conner smiled; he remembered that restless feeling all too well. As tired as she was, Bree still had an excited light in her eyes as she looked around the palace.

“I’m so sorry you guys are stuck here. We’re going to get you home as soon as possible,” Conner said.

“It’s my own fault for wanting an adventure,” Bree said. “I made you take me, remember?”

This made Conner feel a little better. He looked over at Emmerich as Froggy pointed out the different parts of the gardens below—he looked like he was having the time of his life. He reminded Conner of himself during his and Alex’s first trip into the Land of Stories. He would have given anything to face those problems again.

“I’ve just talked Lester through it,” Mother Goose said. “He knows to fly high enough so no one will see you.”

“Squaaa.” Lester nodded.

“Then let’s get going,” Alex said.

They climbed aboard the giant goose and took off into the sky, heading in the direction of the prison. They flew over the gardens of the Fairy Kingdom, over the sparkling waters of Mermaid Bay, and saw Pinocchio Prison at the center of the peninsula in southern Eastern Kingdom ahead of them.

“There it is!” Alex pointed out. “Lester, circle the prison until we can see something!”

Lester nodded, and looped the sky above the prison. There was destruction everywhere—Alex and Conner could see the entrance had been blown to bits from all the way in the sky. However, there was no trace of prisoners or soldiers anywhere.

“I think it’s safe to get a little closer,” Conner said.

Lester gradually descended, circling the prison as cautiously as possible. The closer they got, the more certain they were that no one was around. They looked for somewhere to land but the prison was covered in enormous spikes to prevent anyone from doing just that. Alex waved her wand at the prison’s roof and the spikes turned into tall blades of grass for Lester to land on.

“Okay, let’s see if there’s anyone left inside,” Alex said. She pointed her wand at the roof again and a small hatch appeared. They opened the hatch and dropped inside, landing on the prison’s highest floor.

The air inside was very smoky. All the cells on the top floor were wide open and empty. They looked down the center of the prison and saw that all twenty-nine floors below them were exactly the same.

“I don’t think anyone’s here,” Conner said. “It’s like they had a fire drill and never came back.”

The twins jumped when they suddenly heard a voice that wasn’t either of their own. Sitting in a cell on the top floor, by herself, was a woman.

“Pssst!” she said. “Over here!”

Alex and Conner approached the woman with caution. Whoever she was, she was still a prisoner and couldn’t be trusted. The woman was only a few years older than Red but wasn’t aging nearly as gracefully. Her hair was thin and messy and she had bags under her enormous eyes. She wore a plain black dress and no shoes.

“Down here!” the woman called up to them from where she was sitting on the floor. Her voice sounded alarmed but she seemed perfectly comfortable. “You’ve got to warn someone! An army raided the prison earlier today and took the prisoners with them! They’re trying to take over the world!”

Alex and Conner leaned down to speak with her. She stuck her head through the bars as far as it would go.

“We know about the army and are trying to stop them,” Alex said. “We’ve come here to find out more.”

“Were the prisoners taken captive or did they join them?” Conner asked.

“They joined them,” the woman said. “The soldiers opened every cell and gave each prisoner the option of staying or joining their army. And as you can see, it was an almost unanimous decision.”

“Why didn’t you leave with them?” Alex asked.

The woman looked at them like they were insane. “I’m not going out there,” she said and shook her head. “There’s nothing for me out there. I mean, perhaps at one point there was, but not anymore. I belong right here in my cell.”

“You’ve been in here for a long time, haven’t you?” Conner asked.

Alex thought there was something curious about her. She saw there was a plaque on the wall next to the woman’s cell and Alex stood to read it.

THE LADY GRETEL

SENTENCED TO LIFE IN

PINOCCHIO PRISON FOR THE

MURDER OF SIR HANSEL

Alex gestured for Conner to look at the plaque, too. “Conner, it’s Gretel from ‘Hansel and Gretel’!” she whispered to him. “She killed her brother!”

“What?” he whispered back.

“It’s all right, you don’t have to whisper,” Gretel said. “I know what that plaque says. I know who I am. I know what I did.”

Alex suddenly had so many questions. “Why did you kill your brother?”

Gretel dreamily stared off into the distance. “Because it was the only way I could be free.”

“Free from what?” Alex asked.

“From ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ ” Gretel said.

“The story?” Conner asked.

“No, the label,” Gretel said. Their inquiring looks begged her to explain more. “After my brother and I survived the gingerbread house, all I wanted was to have a normal life—but that’s not what Hansel wanted; he wanted us to be heroes. He told everyone we knew about what happened to us in the woods and then those people told everyone they knew and soon word spread and we became household names around the kingdoms. We were treated like royalty; parades were thrown for us, we were honored with medals everywhere we went, they even named a holiday after us.”

“That sounds pretty nice,” Conner said.

Gretel’s eyes shot up at him. “No, it was terrible,” she said. “Because no one cared about me, they just cared about ‘Hansel and Gretel.’ I just wanted to be Gretel, just Gretel, but no matter what I did no one would let me be just Gretel. It was like my brother had become an invisible ball and chain I was forced to carry around for the rest of my life.”

“But he was your brother,” Alex said. “Didn’t you love him?”

Gretel grunted and stuck out her tongue like she had tasted something foul. “No, I couldn’t stand him!” she said. “Hansel may have seemed like a nice young man but all he cared about was himself and the attention he got! He used to drag me around with him just so he could get more admiration! Hansel also took all the credit for what happened in the gingerbread house—even though I was the one who tricked the witch and pushed her into the fireplace! He wouldn’t even be alive without me! Had I known then what I know now, I would have let the witch eat him!”

“So you killed him instead?”

Gretel nodded. “It was an accident. One day we were walking through the trees and he started mentioning all the places he had planned for us to go, all the people we would meet, and all the awards we were going to receive in the upcoming days. Well, I got so mad I pushed him—but I didn’t see there was a cliff behind him!”

“Did you tell anyone that it was an accident?” Alex asked.

“I was planning to,” Gretel said. “But then I realized this cell allowed me to be something that the rest of the world didn’t—just Gretel. So I pleaded guilty and have been here ever since. And so, today when the soldiers asked me if I wanted to join their army or stay in this cell I didn’t have to think twice.”

Gretel sighed at the thought of all the peace her cell brought her. Conner looked at Alex and circled his temple with his finger. “She’s nuts!” he mouthed.

But Gretel wasn’t finished with her story. “The worst thing one person can do to another—besides eat them, of course—is to reduce their identity to being only half of something. When someone is treated as half of or less than half of one identity, they’re not being treated like a human at all. Everyone should have the right to individuality.”

Conner slowly stood up and walked away from the cell. “Well, thanks, Lady Gretel!” he said. “We should get going now. We need to figure out where this army went.”

“Wait!” Gretel said. “I can tell you! The army and the soldiers went back to their camp, but the general and his men were headed somewhere else!”

“Where?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know where, just somewhere else,” Gretel said. “The prisoner across from me—they call him the Masked Man because of the sack he wears over his head—he was talking to the general before they let him out. He convinced the general that he needed a dragon to get rid of the fairies and take over the world! He said it was the only way the general would win!”

Alex and Conner exchanged the same confused look. “A dragon?” Alex asked. “But they’ve been extinct for hundreds of years. Our grandmother and her friends were the ones who fought them off during the Dragon Age.”

“Apparently the Masked Man knows where to find one,” Gretel said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. He’s a very unusual man. He’s been in that cell for almost a decade now. He likes to talk to himself at night—sometimes I swear I heard someone else in there with him, but that would be impossible.”

Conner walked to the cell of the Masked Man and peeked inside. “Hey, Alex, this guy has a lot of stuff in here.”

Alex joined him at the cell. The door was still open and they walked inside together. Just being in it gave them the creeps. The walls were covered in bizarre carved illustrations of winged creatures, pirate ships, and animals with big ears and feet. There was a pile of coal and he had carved the pieces into the shapes of hooks, hearts, and swords.

An oval mirror in a silver frame hung on the wall.

“What does a Masked Man need with a mirror?” Conner asked.

“I have no idea,” Alex said. “But we should get out of here. We need to fly by their camp and see what the army is up to.”

They left the cell and went back to the hatch in the ceiling. Alex pointed her wand at the floor and the stones rose to form a small staircase for them to climb through the hatch.

“Good-bye!” Gretel called out. “I hope you can stop them!”

“Us too!” Conner said before climbing onto the roof.

“Good-bye, just Gretel,” Alex said. “Thank you for your help.”

By the time the twins climbed to the roof, Lester had eaten all the long blades of grass. They hopped aboard the giant goose and took off into the sky again.

“The general told half of his men to set up camp somewhere in the southeast where the portal spit us out,” Conner told his sister. “I bet they’ve regrouped by now.”

Alex took Lester’s reins and steered him into the sky high above the south of the Eastern Kingdom. Alex and Conner searched the ground as they passed over it, not sure what they were looking for. However, as soon as the camp came into view they knew exactly what it was.

Hundreds of trees had been cut down to make way for the expansive camp the soldiers had built. There were dozens and dozens of large beige tents set up and the timbered trees had been used to build a wall around the camp.

There were thousands of soldiers setting up and marching around the camp and the soldiers weren’t alone. A thousand or so recruits from Pinocchio Prison were scattered around the camp as well. Giant ogres did the heavy lifting as the soldiers built the camp, witches wove broomsticks out of tree branches, and soldiers trained goblins how to fire cannons and trolls how to shoot rifles.

To Alex and Conner’s horror, their target practice was a line of wooden fairy dummies.

“Mother Goose was right,” Conner said. “They’re preparing for war.”