Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table dashed toward the gingerbread soldiers with their swords raised. The soldiers collected weapons from the candy arsenal and fought the young king and his knights. The gingerbread soldiers were easy to disarm and slay, but they greatly outnumbered Arthur and his knights; battling the giant cookies wasn’t going to be a piece of cake.
Alex’s location was no longer a mystery to any of the newcomers. She was clearly visible on the hill at the north end of the Great Lawn. So while the fairies and witches were dueling, Froggy hopped around the lawn looking for Conner and the others. The only thing on Rook’s agenda was getting Alex to safety, so he cautiously steered Cornelius through the fighting knights and soldiers toward the hill. Mother Goose and Merlin raced to the groups of Boy and Girl Scouts. With a snap of their fingers, the spiderweb around the Scouts’ feet vanished and the children were free.
“As I said to the Children’s Crusade of 1212: Get out of here, kiddos! This isn’t your fight!” Mother Goose said.
In true Boy and Girl Scout fashion, before running to safety, the Scouts ran to the candy cane cages and freed the witches’ prisoners. Oliver used a lollipop axe to slice the lock off the cage that held Conner and his friends.
“Hey, I know you!” Oliver said. “You guys were on my flight!”
“Oliver, you’ve got to get all these other people out of here,” Conner said. “Take everyone to the southwest corner of the park. You’ll find an opening to an abandoned subway tunnel at the base of a hill. Crawl into the tunnel and follow it as far away as you can get!”
“But what about you and your friends?” Oliver asked.
“We’ll be okay,” Conner said. “Believe it or not, we’re actually used to this kind of stuff. Now hurry—before the witches see you!”
Oliver nodded and saluted Conner. Once he got their attention, Oliver led all the Scouts, their troop leaders, the escapees from the Bethesda Fountain, and all the other captives off the Great Lawn and toward the southwest corner of Central Park.
“What should we do now? Get Alex?” Bree asked.
Conner glanced up at his sister, but she hadn’t moved a muscle since the battle had started.
“She’ll be fine for the time being,” he said. “But those dudes fighting the gingerbread soldiers look like they could use our help!”
Conner and his friends dashed to the arsenal of candy weapons. Conner and Goldilocks picked up candy cane swords, Jack took a lollipop axe, Bree chose a licorice whip, and although she had no idea what they were, Red selected gummy bear nunchakus. Once they were armed, Conner and his friends joined Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and helped them battle the gingerbread soldiers.
“You must be Alex’s brother!” Arthur said as he decapitated a soldier.
“That’s me,” Conner said. “Who are you?”
“I’m King Arthur and these are my Knights of the Round Table,” Arthur said.
“From Camelot?” Conner asked. “What are you guys doing in Central Park?”
“Long story short, I’m sort of your sister’s boyfriend,” the young king disclosed.
“Boyfriend?” Conner asked as he sliced a soldier in half. “Alex never mentioned she had a boyfriend!”
“Well, we haven’t defined the relationship yet,” Arthur said.
This surprised Conner more than anything else in the park so far.
“If we survive this, you and I are going to have a chat about your intentions,” he warned.
As their friends fought the gingerbread soldiers, Jack and Goldilocks saw Rat Mary and Hero on the other side of the lawn. The couple moved through the soldiers in the direction of their son, slicing through them as if they were overgrown weeds. Bree seemed to be enjoying the fight; she giggled as she swung the licorice whip around her like a lion tamer.
“Is that your girlfriend?” Arthur asked Conner.
“Sort of,” Conner said. “We haven’t defined our relationship, either.”
Bree cracked the whip with such gusto that all the gingerbread soldiers were afraid to get near her. Even Conner kept his distance.
“Wow,” Arthur said. “If I were you, I’d have someone ask her about her intentions.”
Red tried getting as involved in the fight as her friends, but she had no idea how to use her gummy bear nunchakus. Every time she tried swinging them, she ended up whacking herself in the face. The awkward movement made her easy to spot in the crowd.
“Red, there you are!” Froggy said. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“Charlie!” she exclaimed. “I’ve missed you so much!”
Red jumped into Froggy’s arms and kissed him all over his green face. A gingerbread soldier snuck up behind the couple and raised his lollipop axe above their heads. Red was outraged by the interruption.
“Excuse me? Can’t you see we’re in the middle of a reunion?” she asked.
Instead of using her gummy bear nunchakus, Red smacked the gingerbread soldier in the face with her purse. The blow knocked off the soldier’s head, and its body crumpled to the ground.
“I swear, these purchases are the gifts that keep on giving,” Red said.
Conner saw Froggy and worked his way through the gingerbread soldiers to greet him.
“Froggy! I’m so glad to see you!” he said.
“Likewise, my friend,” Froggy said. “I’ve spent days searching for you! I was trying to warn you the Literary Army was coming, but they beat me to it. Fortunately, your mother and the characters from your stories have also arrived and are dealing with the army as we speak.”
“Thanks for the update,” Conner said. “Let’s hurry up and defeat these witches so we can join them—they’re gonna need our help.”
While Conner and his friends finished off the gingerbread soldiers, the duels between the fairies and the witches were intensifying by the second.
Rosette and Arboris were going head-to-head in a heated brawl. The witch pointed at the grass, and large tree roots snapped up from the ground and knocked the fairy backward. Rosette retaliated by throwing a handful of seeds at the witch. A family of Venus flytraps immediately rose out of the dirt around Arboris’s feet and pinned the witch to the ground with their snapping mouths.
Bugs crawled out of Arboris’s skin and chewed on the flytraps until the witch was free. Arboris then hit the ground with her fist and sent a massive wave through the grass that knocked Rosette on her back. The fairy waved her hand, and a cluster of rosebushes with enormous thorns grew in a circle around the witch.
Rosette spun her finger, and the rosebushes began to twirl around Arboris like the blades of a blender. The witch screamed as the thorns scratched and sliced her. By the time the roses stopped spinning, Arboris had been decomposed into nothing but a pile of mulch.
“Even this rose has her thorns,” Rosette said, and blew on her fingertip like it was a smoking gun.