Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

The wolves chased the trolls much of the night and most of the morning. There wasn’t much choice but to run. In the confusion of the surprise attack, the trolls had lost most of their weapons and supplies. It wasn’t till they were near their own border that they were able to regroup. That was when the wolves pulled back, watching closely to see whether the trolls would step across into their own kingdom.

“What do we do now?” Blabberwort asked her brothers.

They were huddled on the edge of the river that divided their kingdom from Wendell’s. Many of their people had already made the crossing back into their own territory. But Relish’s children weren’t quite ready to go. They washed their faces in the river and drank deeply between gasps.

“Suck an elf!” Burly said, “What a humiliating loss! They had us running like rabbits.”

“Untried troops who don’t know how to fight at night.” Blabberwort quoted her older brother from the day before. “They won’t stand a chance against us! Yeah! Not much.” She had a deep bite on her right arm. She’d bandaged it on the run, but it was bleeding through. So, she washed it in the river and reapplied the bandage.

“How was I to know it was wolves he was talking about? Untried human troops would have fallen easily against us.”

“Yeah,” Bluebell agreed.

“We can’t let it end like this,” Blabberwort said, tightening her bandage with her teeth. “We’ve got to reorganize our people and immediately go back into battle.”

“But do you think they’ll will follow us?” Bluebell asked.

“Yeah, we got beat pretty bad,” Burly said.

“Are we trolls or mice?” Blabberwort challenged.

The two brothers thought for a minute.

“You don’t think Dad would leave it like this, do you?” Blabberwort demanded.

“No. Don’t suppose he would,” Burly agreed. He dipped his hands into the water and wiped his face. “He’d want us to go right back in there and take the enemy!”

“Exactly. So, that’s what we gotta do.”

“But will they follow us?” Bluebell asked again.

“They will if they get some kind of immediate victory. And if we have a real bloody plan of action.”

“Yeah, with lots of destruction!” Burly said. His eyes lit up with visions of burning castles and screaming captives.

“But what kind of victory can we give ‘em?” Bluebell asked.

“You still got those magic powders of Dad’s, right?”

“Yeah. Back at the castle.”

“Good. There was one among them that I heard Dad talk about once. Some kind of fairy dust. It’s the one in the little blue leather bag. I don’t know exactly what it does. But he said he was keeping it in case he had an enemy he wanted to get rid of. Someone he wanted to have disappear permanently. No fuss, no mess, no body to get rid of, just poof and they’d be gone forever.”

Burly nodded his head seriously. “Nicey nice. But who are we gonna get rid of? That Wolf guy? He’s surrounded by a whole load of wolf soldiers. He’ll be hard to get close to.”

“Not him,” Blabberwort said, giving her brother a shove. “That girl Virginia. She’s the one who killed Dad. She’s the one we should get rid of.”

“Why don’t we just kill her?” Bluebell asked.

“Because, if we kill her there’ll be a body and a grave. Something to rally around, like that stupid glass coffin they got of Snow White’s.”

“Yeah,” Burly agreed, “That’s gross.”

“Give ‘em a body and they’ll use it as a rallying cry for revenge. But, if she disappears, that guy Wolf will leave the army and go looking for her. Maybe he’ll even go away forever!”

“Yeah,” Burly agreed. He was getting it now. “And without their big hero, the wolves might not be so keen on following Wendell. Then he’ll just have humans soldiers again.”

“So, you see. In this way we get revenge for Dad and for the beating we got last night, all at the same time.”

“But what if the wolves still decide to fight with Wendell, even after that Wolf guy is gone?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan there. One that I think our people will like. Wendell isn’t the only one who can get allies, you know. All we gotta do is make sure we got a giant supply of magic mushrooms and dwarf moss. Get what I mean.” Blabberwort dug the elbow of her uninjured arm into Burly’s ribs.

“Yeah,” Burly said, “A nice GIANT supply.”

“There’s at least three of those guys that I think we can get on our side.”

“Nicey nice.”

“And once we got a few victories, others of their kind may join us too.”

“But, but,” Bluebell said, “The giants like getting high so much. Will they be able to fight good?”

“They don’t need to be good fighters,” Burly said. “With their size they can crush the enemy just by walking forward.”

“Yeah,” Blabberwort laughed. “What do we care if they stagger a bit while they do it? Burly, you get our people together and lead them back into battle. We don’t need a big war, just some little skirmishes to distract Wendell’s troops for a few days. Meanwhile, I’ll go see the giants and try to talk them around to our side. Then, if they say yes, we’ll stop the fighting against Wendell and start making plans for our next campaign.”

“Yeah, with our new allies,” Burly said. “Ourr people will be real impressed if we get the giants to fight with us.

“It won’t be all the giants yet, you understand. But I’m pretty sure about these three guys. They’re always complaining about how nobody respects ‘em anymore and how they’d like more say so in the Kingdoms.”

“What about me?” Bluebell asked. “What do I do?”

“Oh,” Blabberwort said. She put her arm around her little brother. “You have the most important job of all. You’re the smallest and quickest, so you’re the one who's going to sneak into the Fourth Kingdom while Burly here distracts Wendell’s army for a few days.”

“I am?” Bluebell wasn’t entirely sure if this was a good assignment or not.

“Yes. You go to Wendell’s castle and look for that girl Virginia. She’s probably there. And with the war going on here, Wendell probably hasn’t left too many guards.”

“Yeah,” Burly agreed. “On account of he sent most of his forces down against us.”

“You’re going to throw that fairy dust over that girl Virginia and make her disappear forever. Once that is done, we can tell our people that our revenge against Dad’s murderer is complete. That’ll be victory number one.”

“Yeah! Then we can get down to the really important stuff,” Burly said, “Like total domination and the destruction of the Nine Kingdoms.