CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

FEEDING THE CREATURE

The villagers dug so deep into the earth they created a canyon beside the Grande Armée’s camp. A villager by the name of Farmer Robins had the misfortune of being the first to uncover the magma below the dirt. As soon as his shovel broke the ground, the lava gushed out and burned his hands. He screamed and fell to the ground in agony.

Although Rook had been warned to leave the south of the Eastern Kingdom, by the time he convinced his father that they should take Alex’s advice, the Grande Armée had occupied their farm and the villages nearby. Rook and his father were taken captive and brought to the camp to dig along with the other imprisoned villagers.

“Father!” Rook cried, and rushed to his father’s side.

Lava rapidly filled the canyon and the villagers frantically climbed out of it to safety. Rook and another man hoisted Farmer Robins onto their shoulders and helped him up out of the canyon just as its base filled with lava. The lava was so hot the abandoned shovels caught on fire before it even touched them.

General Marquis peered through his tent at the commotion and a small smile appeared on his face. He knew it was time to hatch the dragon egg.

The villagers were gathered in a group at the side of the canyon by the soldiers who observed them. They panted and sweated profusely from their quick climb. Rook held his father’s head in his lap; he was moaning in pain from his burns. He needed help but as Rook looked around the camp he realized there was no one there who could help his father. He had to figure out a way to escape the camp as soon as possible.

A few moments later General Marquis and Colonel Baton stood over the edge of the canyon looking down at the orange lava at the very bottom. The Masked Man was sent into the canyon to place the dragon egg in the lava and the commanders waited impatiently for him to return. Finally, they saw his covered face appear as the Masked Man crawled up the canyon wall.

“Oh boy, we’ve got a lively one!” he happily shouted up at the commanders. Parts of his tattered clothing had been burned off and the edges of his mask were smoky. Apparently the hatching process hadn’t been seamless.

“Did the egg hatch?” the general asked.

“Yes, it did!” the Masked Man said. “Congratulations, General, it’s a boy! And he’s a feisty lad! He nearly scorched me to death with his first breaths alone.”

The Masked Man surfaced and reached out a hand for them to help him up but the general and the colonel didn’t offer him any assistance. He pulled himself out of the ground and onto his feet and brushed all the dirt and ash from his clothes.

“And now what do we do?” the general asked.

“We feed him,” the Masked Man said. “He’s napping in the lava right now but he’s going to be very hungry in a few minutes. The key is to keep as much food down there as possible. As soon as he runs out he’ll climb up here to hunt, and we don’t want him to do that until he’s grown. Dragons are most aggressive when they first emerge from their nests, and we want him to save that energy for when he attacks the fairies.”

The general grunted after learning he would have to wait even longer. The Masked Man continued to test his patience more than any battle ever had. “What does it eat?” the general asked.

“Meat,” the Masked Man said as if it were obvious.

The general eyed the Masked Man peculiarly, hoping this might offer a chance to finally get rid of him.

“Don’t look at me,” the Masked Man said. “I’m nothing but skin and bone—he’s going to need protein to build his strength. Besides, once he emerges, you’ll still need me to show you how to declare dominance over him.”

“Lieutenant Rembert?” General Marquis ordered.

Rembert was among the soldiers keeping watch over the villagers and stepped forward. “Yes, sir?” he asked.

“Round up all the livestock we took from the villagers and bring them to the edge of the canyon,” the general said. “Gradually push the animals into the canyon as the Masked Man instructs.”

“Yes, sir,” Rembert said. “And what do you want us to do with the villagers now?”

General Marquis snuck a menacing glance at their captives. “Keep them alive for the time being,” he said. “We may need more food for the dragon later.”

Although the villagers couldn’t hear the general, it was obvious what he was plotting with the lieutenant. They whispered frantically among themselves and the families held each other a little tighter than before. Rook looked around the camp, trying to think of something—anything—to save his father and the other villagers from this nightmare.

A repetitive and turbulent vibration moved through the ground as a galloping horse traveled toward the camp. The soldiers and the villagers looked into the forest and saw Capitaine De Lange charging toward them on his horse, returning from battle. He was in a frenzy and covered a wounded arm. He jumped off his horse and ran up to General Marquis.

“General Marquis! General Marquis!” the captain cried.

The general was anything but pleased to see him. “Why are you not leading the battalion in the Charming Kingdom, Capitaine De Lange? Have you led your men to a victory already?”

De Lange fell to his knees and stared up beseechingly at him. “Sir, my battalion did everything we could, but we were outnumbered!” he told him.

“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!”

The general slowly caught his breath and walked over to the boy. “All right, tell me and I’ll let these people go free,” he said calmly.

“No,” Rook said. “Let them go first and then I’ll tell you where the royals are.”

The general stared directly at the boy, waiting for his left eye to twitch, but it didn’t. “Fine,” the general said. “But if you don’t supply me with the rulers, I will kill you myself.”

Marquis gestured for his soldiers to let the villagers go and Rook watched as one by one they were set free and ran into the forest. Many of them were hesitant to leave Rook with the soldiers but he assured them he would be fine. Farmer Robins was scooped up by two villagers and escorted out of the camp.

“Don’t do this, Rook! Don’t be a hero!” Farmer Robins cried out. He tried resisting the men helping him escape but his wounds were too painful for him to put up a fight. Rook waited until he was safely out of sight before giving the general the information he needed.

“I don’t know where they are, but I know how to find them,” Rook said.

“Then show us the way,” the general demanded.

Rook closed his eyes and let out a sigh. It wasn’t until after the deal had been made that he realized what he had done, or that by saving a few he had put many at risk. “Forgive me, Alex,” he said to himself.

Had the world been in a better state, traveling down the secret path would have been quite an enjoyable trip. The kings and queens aboard the carriages were exposed to areas of their own kingdoms they had never seen before. They visited with one another and discussed how to make life easier for their kingdoms by reforming the treaties of their trading agreements and they considered how their armies could work together to manage the criminals who traveled between their borders.

The plans were bittersweet, though, knowing as they did that the Armée was still at large and that it would be a while before life would return to normal and they could return to their kingdoms.

Every few hours they stopped to stretch their legs and Goldilocks showed the travelers a new self-defense trick or two as they had requested, and she was impressed by the progress they made in such a short amount of time.

The voyage down the secret path had become a unique bonding experience for all the men and women involved. Goldilocks seemed to be enjoying it the most. She was practically glowing after every lesson and her smile never left her face.

“May I just say, you have never looked more gorgeous,” Jack told his wife. “I’ve never seen you look so happy before.”

“You know me, I love a good adventure,” Goldilocks said. “Especially when I’m accompanied by my dashing husband.”

Jack laughed and squinted at her. “I know you too well to believe that for one minute,” he said. “There’s something else you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

“All right, I’ll tell you,” Goldilocks said. “Although I would never admit this in front of Red, being around the other queens—the strong, smart, and confident women that they are—has been highly enjoyable.”

Jack’s mouth fell open dramatically. “You mean to tell me my wife is enjoying girl time?” he asked with large mocking eyes.

“I think I am,” Goldilocks said, just as amused to confess it as he was to hear it.

“I think there’s even more behind that smile,” Jack said. “You only make that face when you’re about to surprise me with something. Come on, Goldie, you know I don’t like surprises. Just tell me if you have a secret.”

Goldilocks’s smile grew even wider. “Perhaps I do,” she said. “But like all good secrets, it deserves to be kept quiet until the right moment.”

Jack laughed and shook his head. “You and your secrets,” he said. “We could be married for one hundred years and I still would learn new things about you every day.”

“I hope that doesn’t bother you,” Goldilocks said with a wink. “I am a woman of many secrets and you’re just scratching the surface.”

An endearing smile came to Jack’s face. “Actually, everything I learn about you only makes me love you more.”

Goldilocks leaned in to kiss him but the horses pulling their carriage suddenly dashed forward and began galloping much faster than they normally did. They looked forward and saw that the secret path, which usually curved and looped across the land ahead of them, had become perfectly straight and shot directly into the horizon.

“What’s going on?” Goldilocks said.

“We’re headed southeast,” Jack said after glancing up at the sun. “Maybe Alex and the others want us back? Maybe the war is over?”

The carriages raced through the countryside and into the forests of the southeast. The horses began to slow down, however, when a young man came into view on the path ahead. He was in his mid-teens and was tall with floppy brown hair.

Red poked her head out of her carriage window to see what was going on. “I know I’ve never met that boy before, but I could almost swear I know who he is,” she said, wondering how.

The carriages stopped directly in front of him. The young man looked up at them with tears in his eyes.

“Who are you?” Jack asked.

“I’m sorry,” the young man said.

“Sorry about—” but Goldilocks didn’t have a chance to finish her sentence.

A hundred soldiers suddenly emerged from the trees and surrounded the carriages. Jack and Goldilocks quickly retrieved their weapons but there were too many of them to fight. The kings and queens in the carriages screamed as rifles and swords were pointed at them. There wasn’t anything anyone could do—they had been ambushed by the Grande Armée.

General Marquis was the last to appear out of the trees. He stood behind Rook and patted his shoulder. “Well done, my boy,” he said. “Well done, indeed.”