A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking

Joshua wakes Mona just before dawn because the Carex are coming to the gate. The golems stand in a town square near the main gate, ready to fight the Carex when they breach the walls. Mona has small buckets of dough corresponding to each color-coded golem so she can send them orders. Mona can feel that half her gingerbread saboteurs are gone now. As they wait, Mona asks what will happen if they lose to the Carex. The Duchess speculates that Oberon will have the Duchess and Mona executed for their defiance, and then the Carex will raid and destroy the city.

Then, the Carex attack the wall. Archers shoot down at them and throw jars of Bob down into the crowd. The jars shatter and bits of Bob spread, burning faces, crawling under clothes, and doing a lot of damage. The Carex scream, panic, and retreat. Then a messenger on a horse approaches. It’s Oberon. He demands the Duchess’s surrender, but the Duchess refuses. Oberon rides back to the main force and the defenders on the wall prepare for the next attack.

The Carex attack again, this time with a giant battering ram to knock down the gate. Everyone watches while the Carex hit the gate, shaking the whole wall. Mona assumed it would take a few hours for the Carex to break through the wall, but now it seems it will only take moments.

Joshua warns Mona to prepare her golems. A few minutes later, the gate cracks open and the Carex pour into the city. They run into the town square and freeze at the sight of the golems. However, they recover quickly and attack, stabbing the bread men with swords. The swords do little damage and the golems fight back, swinging large pieces of wood as clubs and kicking the Carex with their barrel-shoes. Controlling the golems exhausts Mona. She is feverish, with a headache and shortness-of-breath. Aunt Tabitha tries to make her rest, but Mona reminds her they are fighting a battle for their survival, and she is the only wizard they have.

The Carex fall back, regroup, and attack again. This time, they hack at the golems’ legs. One golem, labeled Black, stumbles as the Carex cut through one knee. Mona can fix it with some raw dough, so the Duchess sends her with Harold down the wall and into the fighting below. Mona uses dough to reform Black’s knee, ordering the dough to cooperate with the rest of the baked golem. When she finishes, Mona sways with exhaustion and stands away from the crowd as Harold jumps into the battle. Suddenly, Elgar appears with a knife.

Mona realizes she is about to die. Harold is busy, and no one has seen Elgar corner Mona. Mona turns and runs down an alley, but she is magically drained and cannot last long. Eventually, Elgar corners her and lifts his knife, preparing to kill her. Suddenly, Spindle and Knackering Molly appear riding Nag. Nag kicks Elgar’s head and knocks him across the alley. Spindle jumps from Nag’s back to make sure he is dead and then digs through his pockets.

Spindle says he found Molly and convinced her to help. Aunt Tabitha comes down from the wall to tell Mona that two golems have fallen. Just then, a third golem falls and is hacked to pieces like a loaf of bread. Mona orders the remaining golems to defend the barricade between the Carex and the rest of the city. Then, she uses the last of her leftover dough to create a huge slug-like creature. She shoves the last of her magic into it, bringing it to life and ordering it to attack. It oozes down the street, flinging out dough tentacles at the Carex.

Mona tries to stand, but her legs no longer work. She realizes she has used her physical energy to fuel her magic. Mona sees the slug creature is not doing enough damage. She remembers the way her dough bird exploded when she poured too much magic into it and considers sending the slug creature into the Carex camp and blowing it up. She realizes that it will require the last of her strength, including her life.

Unable to walk, she crawls toward the slug creature. Aunt Tabitha tells her to stop but Mona says she is the only wizard left to help. Then, Knackering Molly climbs down from Nag and reminds her that there is one other wizard left.

Molly does something that makes Mona feel like “the world jumped about six inches sideways” (288). A moment later, a thundering sound fills the streets. As they watch, every dead horse in the city rises and stampedes toward the Carex. There are hundreds, every horse that has ever lived in Riverbraid, some dead so long that they are merely clouds of bone dust in the shape of horses. They trample the Carex in the city and rush through the gate. There are more dead horses outside the city, where the rendering yards are, and those rise as well. Hundreds of them hit the Carex “like a hammer” (291). Before long, the entire Carex army is in full retreat.

Later, Mona finds Molly. She is dead, leaning against Nag. Mona realizes she poured all her life force into her magic, just as Mona had planned to do. The Duchess calls her a hero. Spindle says that Molly and Nag should be buried together, but not someplace fancy because she would not want that. The Duchess offers to erect a statue of Molly, and Mona says a statue of Nag would be better because Molly did not want to be a hero. She should not have needed to be. Then, everyone goes home.

The army arrives two days later, too late to help. The army catches straggling Carex, and the Duchess orders them to work rebuilding the farms they destroyed. Except for Molly, only seven people died in the city. Joshua credits the golems for keeping their casualties so low. Lord Ethan offers Mona a post in the army, but Mona declines because she does not want to be “responsible for turning other people into heroes” (296).

After the battle, Oberon was nowhere to be found. Spindle believes he was trampled to death by the horses. Mona fears he has escaped. A few days later, the Duchess holds a ceremony. The Duchess gives Mona three medals for valor, bravery, and service to the crown. She also declares Mona a Royal Wizard, just like Lord Ethan and Master Gildaen. Spindle also receives medals, and even Mona’s main gingerbread man, who is still animated and lively, receives a tiny medal made just for him.

Lord Ethan promises Mona the first such ceremony is the worst, and they get easier after this. Mona does not intend to do anything like this again, but Lord Ethan warns her that “heroism is an unfortunate habit” (299).

Life returns to normal, though Joshua often comes to the bakery for muffins and Mona has tea with the Duchess a few times. Mona has complicated feelings about the Duchess. She is angry with her for not being braver or doing more to stop Oberon sooner. Mona believes that it should not have been up to two children and “a madwoman on a bone horse to fix the mess [she] allowed to happen” (302). However, she also remembers how little power the Duchess has amongst the council and feels uncertain.

The remainder of Bob survived the battle and is back in the cellar of the bakery. Mona’s special gingerbread man is also still around, standing guard on the top shelf of the bakery. One day, Lord Ethan visits Mona. She asks him if Joshua was right that Lord Ethan could not hold off an army by himself, even with all his magic. Lord Ethan confirms this and says that Mona did far better than anyone could have hoped. He adds that Mona will need to be trained to control her ability. Mona does not want to be used by the army or end up like Molly. Lord Ethan admits that they failed Molly and promises not to fail Mona. He adds, again, that heroism is “a bad habit” (304). Once someone has saved people, it becomes expected. The next time something happens everyone will remember how Mona helped last time and come running to her.

Mona angrily asks why the adults did not stop it. She insists that someone in power should have been able to stop it. Lord Ethan agrees and apologizes again. Mona says she never wanted to be a hero and Lord Ethan says: “[N]obody ever does” (305).

When Lord Ethan leaves, Mona supposes she might go to the palace for training eventually, but for now, she is happy at the bakery making the best sourdough in the city. If visitors ask nicely, she may even make the gingerbread men dance.