CHAPTER THREE
THE FALLEN EMPEROR
The civilians were so thankful their kings and queens had escaped execution, they all stood a little taller in the dried-up lake. However, to avoid being the target of the emperor’s building frustration, they kept as still and quiet as possible.
Inside the ruins of the Northern Palace, in a large chamber that Queen Snow White and King Chandler once ruled from, the Masked Man paced feverishly in front of his new throne. The large chair had been built from the pieces of all the other thrones of the kingdoms the Literary Army had conquered.
“I don’t understand how your idiot soldiers didn’t know the platform was rigged!” he yelled. “Why didn’t they check it?”
The Wicked Witch of the West, the Queen of Hearts, and Captain Hook stood before the Masked Man. The new emperor had fallen into a daring routine of blaming the literary villains when something didn’t go exactly as planned.
“Our soldiers?” the Wicked Witch of the West said. “You’ve been commanding our armies since we arrived! If you wanted them to inspect the platform before the execution, you should have ordered it!”
The literary villains had endured about as much as they could stand from the Masked Man. It was thanks to them he was emperor in the first place, but instead of fulfilling his end of their bargains, the Masked Man was bossing them around as if they were his servants. Power had clearly gone to his head, and that was far enough.
“I’ve heard enough about how we have failed you!” the Queen of Hearts barked. “It’s time you coughed up what you promised us!”
“You promised me Peter Pan!” Captain Hook shouted.
“And you promised me the silver slippers!” the Wicked Witch of the West hollered.
“And you promised me HEADS!” the Queen of Hearts roared.
The Masked Man didn’t have an ounce of empathy for the literary villains. Their frustration was nothing compared to the rage boiling inside of him.
“You will get what I promised once the royals have been recaptured and executed,” the Masked Man said. “You agreed to make me an emperor, and I won’t be a true emperor until all my adversaries have been destroyed!”
Footsteps echoed through the throne room. The Masked Man and the literary villains turned to see Mr. Smee sprinting toward them. The pirate was sweating, wheezing, and shaking—like he had been running from something terrible.
“Excuse me, Your Excellency?” Smee panted.
“This better be important,” the Masked Man said.
“It’s about the creature in the dungeon, sir,” Smee said.
The creature responsible for turning the Fairy Council into stone was kept in the dungeon in the very same cell that once contained the Evil Queen. It was a monster of legendary power, so the Masked Man had ordered all of Captain Hook’s pirates to patrol the dungeon and keep an eye on it.
“Yes, what about it?” the Masked Man asked.
Mr. Smee was trembling so much, his knees rattled together. No matter how he put it, he knew the emperor would be furious when he heard the news.
“It escaped!” Smee said. “Somehow it managed to take off its blindfold while it was in its cell! When the pirates went to feed it, they looked it in the eye and were turned into stone!”
Like steam from a teakettle, so much anger built up inside the Masked Man that a thunderous howl erupted from his mouth. He wrapped his hands around Smee’s throat and strangled the pirate. The day had turned into an epic disaster, and unfortunately for him, it was about to get much worse.
A horn was blown outside to announce the return of the Literary soldiers who had been sent after the royal families. The Masked Man dropped Smee and bolted outside to the balcony. The Wicked Witch, the Queen of Hearts, and Captain Hook followed him.
From the balcony, the Masked Man could see the Winkies and card soldiers slowly emerging from the forest. They were all battered and bruised; many couldn’t even walk without the help of another. They had come back with far fewer horses than they left with. The flying monkeys descended from the skies, but looked just as bad as the Winkies and cards, if not worse. They were so discombobulated that many missed the balcony and smacked into the walls of the palace.
Worst of all, there was no sign of the royal families anywhere. The Masked Man grabbed the closest winged monkey by its vest and shook him violently.
“WHERE ARE THE ROYAL FAMILIES?” he roared.
“They escaped!” the monkey screeched.
“HOW DID THEY GET AWAY? YOU OUTNUMBERED THEM TEN TO ONE!” the Masked Man screamed.
“They had a very strategic plan we weren’t prepared for! They had backup waiting in the woods! Men on horses, men in the trees, they even had a boy who flew!”
The Masked Man felt like his heart had fallen out of his chest. If it weren’t for his mask, they would have seen all the color drain from his face. He prayed he had misheard the winged monkey and that his ears were playing a cruel trick on his mind.
“Did you just say ‘they even had a boy who flew’?” he asked.
The winged monkey nodded. “Yes, sir,” it said. “He wore clothes made out of leaves! He flew up from the trees and threw firecrackers at us!”
“PETER PAN!” Captain Hook growled. “You said he’d be trapped inside the book until we retrieved him!”
The Masked Man threw the winged monkey on the floor and clutched his chest. He felt like he was having a heart attack. Every time he thought the situation couldn’t get worse, he was proved otherwise.
“No, this isn’t possible!” the Masked Man said. “If Peter Pan managed to escape, that would mean my niece and nephew did, too!”
The Masked Man turned to the literary villains, and his fury quickly dissolved into fear. The Queen of Hearts and Captain Hook were more furious than he had ever seen them. With Peter Pan and the royal families out of his reach, the Masked Man wasn’t capable of fulfilling his end of their agreements. They had followed him into the fairy-tale world and given him the use of their soldiers and cavalry for nothing.
“Listen, I can still give you what I promised,” he said. “I just need more time!”
Captain Hook and the Queen of Hearts slowly moved toward him, backing him into the railing of the balcony.
“LIAR!” the Queen of Hearts roared. “No royals, no HEADS!”
“And you can’t give me Peter Pan if you don’t have Peter Pan!” Captain Hook said through a clenched jaw.
Afraid he was about to be knocked off the balcony, the Masked Man fell to his knees and groveled at the Wicked Witch’s feet.
“I can still give you the silver slippers!” he pleaded. “Not all is lost!”
“I won’t be fooled by any more of your lies!” the Wicked Witch of the West said. “Your reign ends today!”
The Wicked Witch of the West tapped the floor with her umbrella, and two of her flying monkeys grabbed the Masked Man by the arms. They flew him as high into the sky as they possibly could and dangled him above the forest. The civilians in the dried-up lake alerted one another to the sight, but no one knew what was happening.
“DON’T DO THIS!” the Masked Man cried. “YOU’RE MAKING A MISTAKE! MY NIECE AND NEPHEW WILL DESTROY YOU WITHOUT ME!”
“Our biggest mistake was trusting you!” the Wicked Witch of the West shrieked. She tapped her umbrella again and the flying monkeys dropped the Masked Man. He plummeted toward the earth, screaming the entire way down, and landed somewhere deep in the forest.
“Look, the emperor has fallen!” The Wicked Witch of the West cackled.
It was obvious to the civilians that the literary villains had just staged a coup. Now that the Masked Man was gone, the civilians wanted to cheer, but the emperor’s death didn’t mean their troubles were over.
“If we aren’t getting what we came for, then what should we do now?” Captain Hook asked. “Return to Neverland, Oz, and Wonderland?”
The literary villains thought it over, but now that they had seen the fairy-tale world with their own eyes, their own worlds weren’t that appealing. With the Masked Man gone, they had unlimited power over the strange land, and power is easily addictive when placed in the wrong hands. It seemed the fairy-tale world had much more to offer them than their own worlds did.
“I rather like this world,” Captain Hook said. “There are no Lost Boys, mermaids, or Indians to fight. And if Peter Pan is here, there’s no reason to return to Neverland.”
“There are no White Queens, Mad Hatters, or Cheshire Cats to pester us,” the Queen of Hearts said. “Why return to Wonderland when I have plenty of heads to roll right here?”
“There are no wizards, Munchkins, or Good Witches to stand in our way,” the Wicked Witch of the West said. “And I have more power here than the silver slippers could have given me in Oz!”
The literary villains shared a menacing smile.
“Let’s stay in this world and rule the empire ourselves,” the Wicked Witch said. “Perhaps if we work together, we’ll achieve even more than what the Masked Man promised us.”
The villains turned their gaze to the civilians in the dried-up lake.
From the way the three villains glared down from the balcony, the civilians knew the nightmare was far from over.…