The Rise of Greg

by Chris Rylander

  “That’s it?” Froggy said. “I don’t feel any different at all. Are you sure it worked?”

  “Of course you don’t feel different!” Kreych said with a laugh. “You’re still you!”

  “I don’t understand . . .”

  “That was just the oath,” Kreych said. “Your binding pledge to take my place. You won’t actually become the prophet until I die, which won’t be long now. I can feel it happening already; my immortality is fading. Which is also why I must go. Go back to my bed to die alone in peace.”

  “How will I know when the change happens?” Froggy asked, looking scared for the first time.

  “Trust me, you’ll know,” Kreych said ominously. Then perhaps seeing Froggy’s fear and anxiety, he let a smile spread across his face. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

  Froggy nodded, looking reassured.

  “Farewell, then,” Kreych said to us all. “I’m off to die now. Thankfully. Finally. But my last bit of advice: Whatever you’re going to do, you better do it fast. The Verumque Genus are now in Naperville. They will attack the Dwarven front lines gathered there when the full moon is at its peak, which is in just five or six hours. Without the Rune and the Bloodletter, or a unified Dwarven and Elven army, it will almost certainly be a massacre. So don’t dally about here if you really care so much about all these lives that don’t really matter.”

  With that, he began laughing and slowly limped toward the back of the cavern. Blob, who had been remarkably silent all this time, rolled after him.

  “Blob, where are you going?” I called out. “We’re leaving now!”

  “I’m going to stay,” Blob said, causing Kreych to stop and turn back. “I want to die with Master. My first and best master.”

  “I’m not your . . .” Kreych started, but then grinned and sighed. “You may come with me only if you call me by my name for once, and not Master.”

  Blob actually hesitated, his oozing green-brown goo vibrating with emotion.

  “Okay, Rain,” he finally said. “Let me die with you. The Rain and Blob show should end together.”

  “Can you even die?” I asked.

  “Indeed I can!” Blob said. “It’s hard to kill me, but I can choose to cease my bodily functions anytime I please.”

  “Then why on earth did you stay alive in that rock all this time?” Kreych asked. “You must have been going mad! When I sealed you inside, I never thought it would take thousands of years for you to be freed or I wouldn’t have done it!”

  “I was waiting,” Blob said. “For you to come back. For the chance to see you again.”

  For the first time since we got there, perhaps because he was turning Human again, Kreych showed a hint of real feelings. He took a deep, shaking breath, said nothing, and then nodded, once again placing a hand on Blob’s exterior.

  “Thank you, Greggdroule and companions,” Blob said. “For letting me come on your adventures. You were good friends. I will see you again, perhaps, in another life.”

  Most of us said goodbye.

  All I could do was wave, too emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted to even dare try to speak.

  Without another word, Kreych and Blob disappeared out of view, heading somewhere toward the back of the massive vault-like cave.

  The rest of us stood by the cave’s entrance, which had reappeared at some point during all the goodbyes. Froggy stood several feet away, watching us intently, and dare I say, even looking a bit excited. He was, after all, about to acquire all the world’s knowledge and history. There would literally be no mystery he would not know the answer to: Have aliens really visited Earth? Who assassinated JFK? Is the lost city of Atlantis real and where is it? Who built Stonehenge? What killed the dinosaurs? Who shot Tupac? Was Shakespeare a real person? And on and on and on.

  Part of me was even sort of jealous.

  “Go on, you guys,” Froggy finally said. “I’ll be fine. Get out of here. You heard him; you only have hours before the Verumque Genus attack, and you’re still halfway around the world, inside a totally separate magical realm!”

  I nodded and put the Rune, aka Rock One, aka the Corurak, aka the Bloodletter’s power booster, into my pocket.

  We all waved goodbye a final time.

  “For Waldwick the Wizard’s sake, go!” Froggy said with joking impatience. “Go save the day already!”

  CHAPTER 38

  I Make Edwin the Most Powerful Person on the Planet

  I need to find the Bloodletter,” I said to the group once we were back outside.* “That’s obviously my first step.”

  “We don’t have time!” Glam said, her fists becoming boulders. “Besides, we don’t need that stupid ax; you said so yourself back when you threw it away! We can smash the Verumque Genus Elves by ourselves!”

  “She’s right,” Ari said. “We don’t have time. I mean, it took us four weeks to sail here to begin with. And we don’t even have a boat anymore.”

  “Whoa, wait a second!” Edwin said, stepping between us. “You took a boat here?”

  Ari, Glam, Lake, Tiki, and I looked at one another, wondering why this was so shocking. Planes didn’t work anymore. What other way was there to get here?

  “Um, yeah . . .” I said slowly.

  Edwin exchanged a smug grin with Lixi, Wrecking Ball, Foxflame, and Rhistel, all of whom could barely hold back their laughter.

  “Man, that’s so . . . well, Dwarven of you,” Edwin said. “No offense.”

  “No wonder we got here before you guys did,” Foxflame added.

  “Wait, so how in the name of smidgy kunk did you travel here, then?” Tiki demanded, not liking being the butt of a joke.

  The Elves looked at one another as if they were unsure exactly how to respond. As if they’d just been asked to explain computers to a caveman.

  “Can’t Dwarves travel by telemobility spells?” Foxflame finally asked.

  “Tele-what?” Glam said.

  “Traveling from one place to another using magic,” Edwin explained. “There are actually a number of different ways to do it, including the Nym spell, Aymon’s Proxy, and all the various Luvanaar spells in the Joydark branch of Elven magic.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about, but Ari was nodding as he spoke, clearly having done some reading on the topic.

  “We do have travel spells,” she confirmed when he was done. “They’re different from yours, simpler in the same way all Dwarven magic is simpler than Elven magic. But we can travel by magic . . . theoretically.”

  “We can?” I asked.

  “Yeah, how did I not know this?” Glam added.

  “And why did we take a purbogging boat, then?” Tiki demanded.

  Ari held up her hands as if to ward off an attack, then quickly began answering all our questions.

  “Yes,” she said, nodding at me, before turning to Glam. “Because it’s not common knowledge. I only know because Eagan told me the Council had discussed this option during a closed session.” Finally, she faced Tiki. “That’s complicated to answer. For one thing, Dwarves believe that using magic to travel is mystically unethical. It’s considered, well, cheating, in a sense. Sort of like stealing, but obviously not quite exactly the same. Even back in Separate Earth, it was only allowed during life-or-death emergencies, like most Dwarven magic.”

  “That’s so bizarre,” Rhistel said. “If something is available that can make your life better or easier, why not use it? Why not take every advantage you can get in life?”

  “It’s fascinating,” Foxflame added.

  “This is the fundamental difference between us,” Ari said. “Dwarves don’t live for the sole purpose of bettering their own situation as easily as they can. We value hard work and accomplishment and preserving the energies of the world for everyone and everything. We take only what we ne
ed, nothing more. Traditionally.”

  The Elves were about to counter this with some other argument, but I stopped them.

  “Look, just stop, everyone!” I said. “We don’t need to get into another fight right now about whose culture is better. What I still want to know is why the Council didn’t consider our mission a life-or-death emergency. We could have saved so many lives by not taking that boat.”

  “Yes,” Ari said, nodding. “According to Eagan, the Council did consider this. But you’re forgetting a larger complication: Stoney. Even though some spells can include Dwarves without the Ability, our two or three known transportation spells would not transfer to a Rock Troll.”

  I nodded.

  If that was true, then the Council had made the right decision since Stoney had been a vital part of this mission. Poor Stoney. I wondered if he was awake yet and wondering where we were? Even if he was, we’d have to leave him behind for now. But I’d come back for him. If I survived our fight with the Verumque Genus, that is.

  “Either way, we’re wasting more time we don’t have,” Edwin said. “We can help you travel by magic, if you don’t know how. It’s not instantaneous, but it is remarkably fast. Getting back to America will take maybe twenty minutes, at least via Elven spells. Which means you do have time to get back before the Verumque Genus launches their attack. The real question is: What now? What are we doing right now?”

  A moment of silence followed.

  “Well, I need to get the Bloodletter—” I started.

  “Yeah, we know that,” Edwin interrupted. “And we can discuss specifics later. What I meant was: What are we doing together? Elves and Dwarves as a whole? We all came for the amulet. We joined up to retrieve it, but now we know it doesn’t exist. And you have a Rune that when combined with the Bloodletter will be a game changer. And we’re left with . . . well, nothing. Our journey—the people we lost coming here—was all for nothing.”

  Glam stepped forward to argue with him, but he silenced her with a single wave of his hand. “I’m not just being petty,” he said. “It’s not the score of a game, I know that. But I am trying to look out for my people. I am the Elf Lord, responsible for the well-being of millions of Elves globally. Including those who have joined the Verumque Genus. Many of them will return to our ranks eventually. What can I take away from this to ensure we’re protected? Why should I pledge my soldiers to help you battle the Verumque Genus outside Chicago?”

  “He’s right,” Rhistel chimed in. “The smart move for us would be to let you and the Verumque Genus fight it out for a while. Both sides will be weakened, and we would have a much easier time defeating whoever emerges the winner.”

  Edwin shot an annoyed glance at his dad’s old adviser. His colder, shrewder take on the situation was clearly not quite what Edwin wanted vocalized. But at the same time, Edwin said nothing more. He did not correct Rhistel or add anything to his statement. Which meant, though Edwin would have phrased it more diplomatically, what Rhistel had said was technically true.

  “You make a solid point,” I said to them, drawing my new weapon, the legendary Sword of Anduril. The Elves flinched, but the tension eased when I merely rested the sword on my open palms like I was holding a serving tray. “I’d like to offer you this sword as a token of our trust. A peace offering, I guess. It’s useless to me anyway. I don’t see the power in it that you do.”

  Edwin stared at the blade with wide eyes full of awe, wonder, and surprise. He was being offered the most powerful weapon in the history of Elven lore. And a supposed mortal enemy of his race was giving it to him.

  He reached for the sword, but I pulled it back slightly.

  “Wait,” I said. “This isn’t free. There are conditions. Consider my offer of this sword a contract, an unwritten promise that you will help us defeat the Verumque Genus. That you’ll stand alongside us, right now, in the battle at Naperville. Afterward, assuming our side wins, we will do our best to convince the Dwarven Council to open up peace talks with you. To have discussions and not just resume fighting like Elves and Dwarves did the last time magic existed on this planet. And I think, if you help us save our capital city, the Council will agree. They will see your intentions are pure. And your insurance policy is this sword. If it’s as powerful as you say it is . . . well, then even if the Council doesn’t agree to acknowledge or reward your assistance, you’ll have gotten this out of it. A weapon that, if you decide to betray me, could be the end of us all.”

  I held up the sword again.

  Edwin reached for it, knowing he was pledging an oath to help us defeat the Verumque Genus, to defend the Dwarven Capital and home of our Council.

  “We’re in this together now,” Edwin said, nodding, as he took the sword from my hands.

  Once the hilt was in his grasp, I suddenly saw what the Elves had seen all along: the blade lit up, glowing unnaturally purple and sparkling, moving like it was made of liquid and not metal. The sudden infusion of power into the weapon was visceral, almost like you could feel the crackling of electricity coming from it.

  For a brief second, I wondered if I’d perhaps made my biggest mistake yet. Edwin could now easily cut us all down where we stood, take the Rune, find the Bloodletter, and become a force to be reckoned with. He could take over the world here and now if he wanted.

  But I hoped I knew him better than that.

  This was still Edwin, my former best friend. And he was still a good person. He seemed to be past the bitter, corrupting anger of his parents’ death, just like I had finally moved past what had happened to my own dad. I was no longer trying to ascribe blame for it, but rather had merely accepted that it had happened.

  And though I knew my friends Glam, Ari, Lake, and Tiki must have been even more nervous and apprehensive than I was, they surprisingly said nothing. They had not protested when I offered Edwin the most powerful Elven weapon ever made. And I could only assume it was because they trusted me, and by proxy, trusted Edwin.

  “We need all the help we can get to defeat the Verumque Genus,” I said. “You will join us?”

  “Yes,” Edwin said as he replaced his old sword in his sheath with his new one. “We must help you. We will need to work together to defeat them. Though we both wanted slightly different outcomes from the amulet, our one shared goal was stopping the Verumque Genus. And that remains. So we must hurry and leave now. Does everyone agree?”

  All ten of us, five Elves and five Dwarves, nodded.

  “Okay, good,” Edwin said. “Who’s going where?”

  “I need to go find my ax,” I said. “After that, I’ll meet up with you all on the battlefields of Naperville.”

  “I’m going with Greg,” Ari announced. “I helped him dispose of the ax, and so I should help him retrieve it.”

  I shot her a grateful nod.

  “Lake, Tiki, and I will head back to Chicago to get the Council up to speed and help our armies get prepped for battle,” Glam said.

  “I will go with them,” Foxflame announced. “To be the Elven envoy, there to assure the Dwarven Council that we share the same goal: defeating the Verumque Genus and their army of monsters.”

  “Yes, good,” Edwin said. “And Lixi, Wrecking Ball, Rhistel and I will return to our headquarters. We will assemble our own armies and then rendezvous with your Dwarven forces just outside Naperville in a few hours. Greg, hopefully you’ll find your ax in time to return to Illinois early enough to see Elves and Dwarves actually working together!”

  “Yeah, I hope so,” I said. “Now then, who wants to explain to us how we can travel by magic?”

  CHAPTER 39

  There Are No Free Movies When Traveling by Magic

  We crashed down into the San Francisco Bay so hard we’d have broken every bone in our bodies had we been cursed with brittle Human skeletons.

  Traveling by magic was indeed fast, but that didn’t mean it was comfo
rtable. There definitely weren’t flight attendants to bring you pretzels and sodas while you sat back and watched free movies on your phone. Instead, the journey had been loud, cold, scary, and disorienting.

  Perhaps it was better for Elves. It sounded like their travel spells worked a lot differently from our own. The more common Elven travel spells used magical energy to create ripples in the atmosphere, kind of like theoretical wormholes, that transported people from one place to another quickly, safely, and with minimal interaction with the elements.

  But Dwarven magic worked differently, of course. Rather than using energy to create something new, or to totally alter a natural law of physics, our magic could only manipulate the natural elements as they currently existed. Which meant there were two known options for Dwarves. The trickier spell was to pass right through the Earth via a magical tunnel. But it was believed this method could cause rippling disturbances, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, across the globe if not done properly. And so the easiest, simplest, and safest spell was merely a variation of the very same wind spell I had so often used before. The travel version created a sort of wind tunnel, like a long, thin tornado, that carried you from your starting spot to your destination.

  This was how Ari and I traveled from eastern Russia to the San Francisco Bay: twirling, spinning, and hurtling through a cold, harsh, violent tornado that spanned the Pacific Ocean like a huge, gray, hollow spaghetti noodle.

  We were deposited rather rudely (finessing this spell apparently took some practice) into the middle of the San Francisco Bay as if fired from a cannon pointed directly down into the water.

  As we swam desperately back up toward the surface, I was struck by how warm the water felt compared to the sea I’d spent time in the week before while battling sea monsters off the coast of Russia.

  “Well, that was fun,” Ari said, as our heads bobbed on the surface of the relatively calm water.