The Land of Stories--Worlds Collide Read online

  All the characters in the commissary shared glances with wide, timid eyes. The Blissworm cheered—it couldn’t wait for the battles to begin.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Conner said. “This is a much different fight than you signed up for. If the witches are involved, then we’re easily outnumbered, especially if they have my sister. I was confident we could defeat the Literary Army, but I’m not sure we can win the war.”

  Conner rubbed his hands together, desperately trying to think of a way to get the odds back in their favor. Jack had a seat beside him and placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

  “For once, I’m with the Blissworm,” Jack said. “We’ve seen a lot of scary situations over the years, but we’ve always gotten through them together. Yes, there were many times when a little of your sister’s magic went a long way, but we would never have pulled through if it weren’t for both of you. Now look around, Conner—you’re surrounded by an army from your imagination! That means there’s a piece of you inside each and every one of them, and even if it’s just a fraction of your bravery, your aptitude, or even your wit—I know those bastards won’t stand a chance against us.”

  It was the exact pep talk Conner needed to hear, and it also inspired all the characters in the commissary. Jack’s words even made the pirates of “Starboardia” look up from the television for the first time in days.

  “It’ll be dangerous,” Conner said.

  “We love danger!” the Lost Boys shouted.

  “Some of us may get hurt,” Conner added.

  “Speak for yourself,” the Cyborg Queen said. “I can adjust feelings in Settings.”

  “And regardless of what happens, at the end of the day, we’ll all be heroes!” Bolt said, and flipped through the air.

  Conner couldn’t help but smile at his characters’ willingness to help him. He’d never thought his own creations could inspire him so much.

  “All right, all right,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge, but we can do this. Tomorrow morning we’re going to go into the fairy-tale world and we’re gonna kick some Literary-Mythological-Witchy butt!”

  All the characters cheered. The Blissworm was happy they were finally on the same page.

  “DID YOU HEAR THAT, MEN?” Robin Hood said. “WE’RE ON THE EVE OF WAR! WE SHALL FOLLOW THE SORCERER VALIANTLY INTO BATTLE AND WILL BE SHOWERED WITH RICHES AFTER OUR VICTORY!”

  “Robin, no one is getting paid,” Conner said.

  “OH,” Robin Hood said. “THEN WE SHALL BE SHOWERED WITH COMPLIMENTS FOR OUR GOOD INTENTIONS! AFTER ALL, PRAISE IS THE CURRENCY OF THE BRAVE!”

  Suddenly, the doors opened and Bob and Charlotte rushed into the commissary. They were flushed and out of breath, as if they’d run the whole way there. A moment later, Trollbella entered behind them—they had moved so fast, she couldn’t keep up.

  “Mom, I’ve got good news and bad news,” Conner said. “The bad news is Jack and Red didn’t find Alex, but the good news is—”

  “We know where your sister is!” Charlotte panted.

  Conner couldn’t believe his ears. “You what?”

  “Turn on the news!” Bob told the pirates. “Channel Four! Hurry!”

  “But Ricky just let Lucy perform in his club!” Auburn Sally said.

  “CHANGE THE CHANNEL!” the entire room yelled in unison.

  The pirates reluctantly changed the channel, and everyone gathered around the television to watch the news. A reporter appeared on the screen, broadcasting live from somewhere in New York City.

  “I’m standing on the corner of Thirty-Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where police have stopped all vehicles and pedestrians from going any farther,” the reporter said. “The NYPD are preventing everyone from entering a two-block radius around the main branch of the New York Public Library. Police officials have yet to say the reason for such precautions, but one thing is certain, something dangerous is happening at the library.”

  The news station played shaky footage from a helicopter flying over the library. It was difficult to see anything except the red and blue police lights surrounding the building on all sides.

  “This isn’t the first peculiar incident in the area this week,” the reporter continued. “As I mentioned earlier, just a few days ago the wreckage of a bathroom mysteriously appeared in the middle of Bryant Park, just behind the library. The dumpers have yet to be identified.”

  “Did she just say they discovered a bathroom?” Conner asked.

  “We rushed here as soon as we heard!” Charlotte said.

  “We’ve just learned police have begun evacuating all the residences in the area as well,” the reporter said. “As I said, very little information is being shared at this time, but according to eyewitness reports, the iconic lion statues at the library’s entrance have been vandalized.”

  The helicopter footage showed a close-up of the library’s sprawling front steps. Once the camera refocused, everyone could see that the lion statues were absent from their perches. Instead, they could be seen standing right in front of the library’s entrance, as if the beasts were guarding the front doors. For a split second, it almost looked like the statues were moving.

  “Did you just see that?” the reporter asked. “It appears the statues are being manipulated somehow. The one on the right looks like it’s growling at the approaching police—Oh my, the lion statue has just knocked the officer to the ground! The police are retreating! I’ve never seen anything like this! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we were witnessing magic!”

  Conner went pale and looked at his friends in disbelief.

  “Oh my God…” he said. “We’ve got to get to New York City!”

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE FROG IN THE MIRROR

  Froggy hadn’t seen sunlight in weeks. All he had to look at, day and night, was the macabre sight of Morina’s basement. The missing children from the Corner Kingdom and Charming Kingdom still lay peacefully in their beds as the witch’s horrible spell drained them of their life force. The children’s youth and their vitality were magically transferred into potion bottles at the foot of their beds, which Morina usually sold to customers in her shop upstairs. Luckily, the witch hadn’t returned in days to switch out the bottles, giving her captives more time before they were drained completely.

  The longer Froggy was forced to witness the dark magic, the more it angered him. He desperately wanted to free the children from the witch’s cruel spell, but he couldn’t even free himself. No matter how hard he hit or kicked the plate of glass between them, it never budged. Unfortunately, neither he nor the children could be saved without magic powerful enough to counteract the witch’s enchantments—and Froggy wasn’t convinced such magic existed anymore.

  If there had been any passing observers, Froggy would have appeared as a reflection without a source. Inside the mirror, he was completely alone in a pitch-black world, and the view of Morina’s basement hovered in the air like a window without walls.

  Regardless of how far he traveled in each direction, there was absolutely nothing but darkness for miles around. As he searched the strange world, he’d often wander so far from the basement that it would shrink to just a speck of light behind him. As much as it pained him to watch the cursed children, Froggy was afraid to lose sight of it completely. Morina’s basement was his only source of stimulation, and he worried he might go mad without it.

  Life inside the mirror was affecting his mind enough already. The longer he was imprisoned, the faster time went. A simple daydream could cost him a few hours if he wasn’t careful, and if he fell asleep, a day or two would pass by before he’d wake up. It also became increasingly difficult for him to remember where he was, how he had gotten there, and most concerning, who he was. Each passing moment felt less and less like reality and more like a bad dream.

  “Get a grip on yourself!” he said. “Your name is Charles Carlton Charming. You were born twenty-five years ago in the Charming Kingdom. Y
ou were the fourth son of King Chester and Queen Clarice. Your brothers’ names are Chance, Chase, and Chandler. Your mother passed away when you were a boy and your father died shortly after Chance married Cinderella. You have two nieces named Hope and Ash and have always wanted a big family of your own.”

  Froggy held his head and paced in a circle as he recalled the information. Whenever he felt his sanity start to slip, he found that reciting facts was the quickest way to restore it, but it became harder each day.

  “When you were a teenager, you made the mistake of courting a witch named Morina. You discovered she practiced dark magic, so you called off the engagement. It enraged her so that she cursed you and made you look like a frog. It made you ashamed of your appearance, and you lived in seclusion for years. You built a home underground, where you read thousands of books and drank lily pad tea. Then one day, you found twelve-year-old twins in the forest and they changed your life forever!”

  The memory of meeting Alex and Conner in the Dwarf Forests made him laugh. Had he known then about all the trouble they’d get him into, he probably would have run screaming in the opposite direction. But now, he was thankful for every second of life he had to claim.

  “The twins are the ones who nicknamed you Froggy. Thanks to them, you’re friends with Jack and Goldilocks, you’re engaged to Red Riding Hood, and you were recently elected King of the Center Kingdom! You managed to create a wonderful life despite Morina’s spell! She couldn’t stand how happy you became, so she cursed you into this blasted mirror! But you can’t let her magic get the best of you—you can’t let yourself fade away!”

  This wasn’t Froggy’s first exposure to mirror entrapment, so he knew what to expect. A few years earlier, he’d witnessed the Evil Queen using the legendary Wishing Spell to free the man trapped in her magic mirror. Tragically, by the time the man was rescued, all his memories, his personality traits, and his physical features had melted away. Without a doubt, Froggy knew the same effects had begun creeping over him.

  “You can’t let the darkness consume you,” Froggy told himself. “There is too much you’ll miss out on if you give in to it! You have to find a way out of this prison so you can have a future with the people you love! You must hold on to your identity so you don’t suffer the same fate as the man from the Evil Queen’s magic mirror! You must fight off this horrible curse so Morina doesn’t win!”

  Froggy had no idea how to free himself from the mirror, but he knew he’d never find an answer by lingering around Morina’s basement for eternity. So, putting one webbed foot in front of the other, Froggy journeyed into the great shadowy world surrounding him until Morina’s basement disappeared from sight.

  He wandered aimlessly through the darkness for what felt like hours, but he never found anything. It was so dark, he couldn’t see his hands or feet, let alone something he might collide with. With every step, he worried he had made a grave mistake by leaving the basement and feared the oblivion would drive him insane.

  “Please, let me find something that proves I’m not alone,” he prayed aloud. “I just need something—anything—that can guide me to help!”

  Suddenly, a speck of light appeared in the distance ahead. It was only the size of a pinhole but seemed as bright as the sun against the darkness. The discovery filled Froggy’s stomach with butterflies—maybe he wasn’t alone after all! He ran toward the light as fast as he could, and it grew into the shape of a tall rectangle—perhaps it was a door! As Froggy neared the anomaly, he realized it was another plate of glass, and his spirits sank. Had he walked through the darkness in a giant circle? Was the view of Morina’s basement the only thing that existed in the dark world?

  Froggy’s heart skipped a beat when he noticed that the glass plate was much taller and wider than the plate he was used to. Perhaps he had found something new! He peered into the glass and found, not the missing children as expected, but a massive great hall with pale brick walls, green curtains, and silver chandeliers.

  “My word—it’s a palace!” Froggy exclaimed happily. “Wait a moment, I recognize this place! I’ve been here many times before—it’s the entrance hall of the Northern Palace! This must be the view from another mirror! The darkness must somehow connect the two mirrors.”

  Suddenly, hundreds of other square and rectangular plates of glass appeared all around him like floating windows. The bizarre phenomenon startled Froggy so much, he croaked—it’d been a while since he’d been excited by anything. He looked through the glass plates and saw into sitting rooms, drawing rooms, bedchambers, and hallways—all locations he recognized as well.

  “I can see through all the mirrors in the Northern Palace!” Froggy said. “This must be how the man in the Evil Queen’s magic mirror was such a capable spy! He was using the darkness as a path between mirrors!”

  The discovery made Froggy’s heart flutter. Perhaps the more he learned about the strange dark world, the closer he was to finding a way out of it. He desperately searched all the mirrors for someone to communicate with, but oddly, he couldn’t find a single soul in the palace.

  “That’s peculiar,” he said. “I’ve visited Chandler and Snow White a number of times and their home has never been this empty.”

  Finally, Froggy peered through a small circular mirror and found a cook in the palace’s kitchen. She looked exhausted and was placing a bottle of wine and three glasses on a serving tray. The cook must have felt Froggy’s eyes, because she stopped what she was doing and looked up before he could say anything.

  “Hello!” he said happily.

  “AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” the cook screamed.

  She dropped the tray and glass shattered across the kitchen floor. Her reaction was so dramatic it scared Froggy, and he impulsively ducked out of sight. He wasn’t really surprised by the cook’s response, though—his appearance usually gave people a fright. He couldn’t imagine how alarming it’d be to see an enormous frog in a mirror when they weren’t expecting it.

  “WHAT’S GOING ON IN THERE?” yelled a gruff voice.

  Froggy peeked through the mirror again and saw a soldier storm into the kitchen, but he was unlike any man Froggy had ever seen. The soldier was seven feet tall and had an unusually flat, square body. The number three was displayed on the upper right and lower left corners of his armor, and three symbols shaped like clovers were set in a line down the middle.

  “Forgive me, sir!” the cook pleaded. “I was fetching wine for the emperors and thought I saw something in the mirror!”

  The soldier glanced at the mirror, but Froggy ducked out of sight before he could be spotted again.

  “Stupid woman,” the soldier said. “Quit this foolishness and get back to work! Any more nonsense and you’ll be thrown in the dungeon!”

  “Yes, sir,” the cook said with a bow. “It won’t happen again, sir.”

  The cook quickly swept up the mess, placed three new glasses and a new bottle of wine on her tray, and hurried out of the kitchen.

  “I don’t understand,” Froggy thought aloud. “Who are these emperors? What happened to Chandler and Snow White? And where are all the servants and guards who used to work here?”

  Froggy followed the cook from mirror to mirror as she traveled through the palace. She entered the spacious dining hall, and Froggy appeared in the mirror above a large fireplace. He had been inside the Northern Palace’s dining hall many times before, but he barely recognized it anymore.

  All the portraits of the White Dynasty had been removed and replaced with paintings of a red-faced queen, an old hag wearing an eye patch, and a pirate with a hook. The three people pictured in the paintings sat around the table, enjoying a feast that could have fed hundreds. Froggy thought they were unattractive in their portraits, but they were even more hideous in the flesh. The barbaric way they scarfed down their food was equally unpleasant to witness.

  “Your wine, my emperors,” the cook said, and bowed to the table.

  “IT’S ABOUT TIME!” the queen yelled, an
d hit the table with a clenched fist. “How dare you keep your emperors waiting! Do it again and you’ll lose your head!”

  “My deepest apologies,” the cook said.

  The cook trembled in the emperors’ presence and could barely keep her hands still enough to pour wine into their glasses. When she was finished pouring, she bowed and rushed out of the room. The pirate and the queen raised their glasses before taking the first sip, but the hag didn’t join them.

  “None for me,” she growled. “I’m not much of a drinker.”

  “To us,” the pirate toasted. “May the three great emperors continue their mighty reign as the conquerors of the new world!”

  “Hear, hear,” the queen said. “And may our upcoming invasion go as smoothly as the last!”

  The pirate and the queen clinked their glasses together and drank the wine in one gulp. The hag wasn’t in the mood to celebrate and angrily threw a half-eaten lamb shank across the room.

  “How much longer will we have to wait?” she moaned. “It’s been weeks since we heard from the witch! How cruel of her to tease us with such a conquest, then force us to stay put! Our army is ready—why can’t we invade the new world now?”

  “The new world?” Froggy whispered to himself. “What are they talking about?”

  “I agree with Westie!” the queen said. “It’s impossible to enjoy the luxuries of this world when we know there are far greater pleasures in the other. What is taking the witch so long to contact us? I’m starting to doubt her competence!”

  The pirate chuckled at their annoyance and twirled his moustache with his hook.

  “Ladies, your eagerness is sabotaging your judgment,” he said. “Remember what the witch said: As soon as the portal opens, she will lead the other witches into the new world first. Once they’ve weakened the new world’s defenses, and the new world’s defenses have weakened them, she’ll send for us. We’ll charge through the portal and claim the new world for ourselves! It’s a guaranteed victory if we stick to the plan. Patience is a virtue—”