It was a surprisingly straightforward task to sneak into the Royal Palace at Lamia, given that Prince Char grew up within its walls his whole life.
After he showed Ella the Hall Of Records, he left to see his uncle.
"We'll talk about it after your coronation," Sir Edgar told him, after hearing everything his nephew had to say.
Then, Prince Char said to Sir Edgar that he wants to marry Ella. "At the same time and in the same place as my father proposed to my mother."
After the Prince left, Heston slithered out from his hiding place.
"You were right about that girl, Heston," said Sir Edgar, confident that they were alone.
"And l'm afraid she's been filling our Prince's head with dangerous new thoughts," hissed the snake.
In the Hall Of Records, Ella's search had hit a dead end.
Olga had decided to hide herself, Hattie, Olive, and Mandy so they could remain within the castle unseen and without arousing suspicion.
When Ella asked why, her stepmother simply said that it was "urgent business".
That meant that she was, for the moment, the only person in the room who was able to make any progress.
Or lack thereof.
"Benny, show me Lucinda!" she told the talking book, and received a vision of the troublesome Fairy sleeping in a bed.
Ella studied the vision closely. "Dun Flyin Retirement Community for Fairies?"
Suddenly, Sir Edgar marched into the room.
He tipped over a wastebasket on purpose.
"Oh, dear. How clumsy of me." He sneered. "Pick it up."
Ella couldn't stop herself from bending over and retrieving all the crumpled up balls of used documents and parchments.
Then, Sir Edgar commanded Ella, "Touch your toes."
A childish grin appeared on his face seeing her bend forwards, outstretched fingers making contact with her shoes.
"Now pull some faces."
The very sight of Ella hooking her index fingers onto each corner of her mouth, then pulling them as wide as they could, while sticking out her tongue, made him snicker.
"Here's a good one… dance like a chicken."
He instantly started cackling in laughter when she stooped forward a little as she tucked her hands into her armpits and wiggled them about, while strutting and kicking her legs like a farmyard poultry digging up its wormy breakfast.
After hyperventilating to regain his composure, Sir Edgar handed her a dagger and finally revealed to her his master plan.
He wanted her to strike down Prince Char when he takes her to the Hall Of Mirrors at midnight.
With him out of the way, Sir Edgar would finally be King and all of Frell would be under his complete control.
And Ella would be the one to get all the blame.
"There's one more thing," Sir Edgar added, as his voice turned cutting. "You will tell no one of this plan."
Ella left the Royal Palace and went to find Lucinda, but the staff at Dun Flyin Retirement Community for Fairies informed her that the Fairy had been kicked out the week before.
Feeling hopeless, Ella found herself a place to sit down and started writing.
Dear Char,
This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, and I hope you'll understand.
We can't be together.
I can't tell you why.
Please believe that this is the only solution.
I wish you the best.
I really do believe you're going to be a great King.
Goodbye forever,
Ella.
Now,
if she stayed clear of the Prince until midnight had passed,
then Char would be safe.
But how long could that last?
After the letter was sent, Ella bumped into Slannen.
The guards were under orders not to allow non-performing Elves to enter Lamia, and quite literally kicked him out when he tried to protest.
She wanted Slannen to tie her to a tree in a field outside Lamia, to stop her from doing Sir Edgar's bidding when the clock struck midnight.
"You are one freaky chick," Slannen shook his head.
A bright flash appeared right in front of them.
When it died away, it revealed Olga, Hattie, Olive, and Mandy.
Olive had an enormous diamond wedged in her mouth.
"I stand corrected," added Slannen.
"Sorry we took so long," Olga apologised. "We managed to hide in the dungeons in case Edgar showed up. I never recalled the Royal Palace ever having this many Witch traps."
"Yeah, but... " Ella asked, finding it impossible to keep her eyes off of Olive, who appeared to be trying to swallow the gigantic diamond. "What's up with her?"
Olive responded by uttering some unintelligible muffled murmuring while jumping up and down on the spot.
"It was either that or let Olive give us away!" Hattie rolled her eyes in annoyance. "So I told her to stuff it!"
"Did you find anything useful?" asked Slannen.
Olive spat out the diamond and pulled out some papers from her magic satchel.
"Sir Edgar has a Dragon base here, in the mountains," she pointed at the heavily annotated maps and diagrams. "But we weren't able to dig up more. The Red Guards almost found us!"
Slannen took the papers and held them so Ella could read their contents too.
"Why does he need so many Dragons?" she wondered.
"To oppress everyone in Frell?" guessed Hattie.
"Or... " Olga said grimly. "Lands beyond... "
Hattie, Ella, and Slannen all turned pale with dread.
Dragons were perhaps the most feared and mightiest of all the creatures of Frell, and with good reason.
Their deadly breath could lay waste to even the strongest castle walls from great distances.
While special weapons that were capable of defeating them did indeed exist, a Dragon's massive wings and powerful flying abilities granted it a vital mobility and altitude advantage over any opponent.
And with the numbers Sir Edgar had at his command, woe betide anyone and anything and any place those Dragons were sicced on.
For Ella and her party, the stakes were now higher than ever.
Now, not only was the freedom of Frell at stake, but that of every other kingdom in the world as well.
A/N
The pieces are all coming together.
Sir Edgar has basically assembled himself a Dragon Air Force with which to launch a series of devastating air raids against all of Frell's neighbours.
I got the idea from Drago Bludvist and his Dragon Army from How To Train Your Dragon 2.
Hold onto your hineys!
'Cause things are about to get hot!