Rise of Allies (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 4)

by E. G. Foley

  Alas, even the sharp eyesight of a Guardian was of little use in a murky river, with nothing but moonlight to illuminate the watery world below.

  Nobody else knew what to do.

  “We have to help Maddox,” Isabelle said in a shaky voice. “We’ve got to find my brother.” She stepped into the water, but Nixie grasped her arm.

  “Wait.” Staring at the current, she remembered something Archie had said in the lab.

  “If belief is what originally brought Jenny Greenteeth into existence, then maybe disbelief is the key to unmaking her.”

  “I don’t believe in you,” Nixie uttered, her voice barely audible. “I don’t believe in you,” she said again, a little more loudly.

  Isabelle turned almost angrily to her. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

  “Do you hear me, Jenny Greenteeth? You’re not real!” Nixie shouted at the water all of a sudden, fists clenched by her sides. “Say it with me—please!” she implored the others.

  “That we don’t believe in her? How absurd! We all just saw her. How much more real can she be?” Jake flung out, tears in his eyes. “She just killed Archie!”

  “No.” Nixie barely had the strength to tell them her idea. “Archie said that since she’s a nursery bogey—created by belief—then maybe disbelief could unmake her. He said it would work.”

  Isabelle flinched. “If my brother said it would work, it’ll work. I don’t believe in you!” she shouted wildly at the river.

  Dani joined in, running back from helping the naiad. “I don’t believe in you, Jenny Greenteeth!”

  The grim look on Jake’s face said that he thought it a pointless exercise, but he was desperate enough to try anything, so he joined in, too.

  When Maddox came up from another fruitless underwater search, his clothes sopping wet, his hair plastered to his forehead, he heard their chant, and though a bit confused, he echoed their refrain.

  “We don’t believe in you!” all the children shouted.

  The river began to churn.

  It seemed their chant had certainly got Jenny Greenteeth’s attention, and this time, when she rose from the river, her wrinkled face was filled with utter malevolence.

  “I don’t believe in you!” Nixie yelled at her.

  “What have you done with my cousin?” Jake shouted.

  “Jake, the chant!” Dani told him.

  “Fine. I don’t believe in you!” he continued, saying it with the others, but everybody knew this was between Nixie and the hag.

  “You are done tormenting me. You are not real,” Nixie vowed.

  “Then why are you so terrified?”

  “I’m not. You’re nothing,” said Nixie. “You don’t even exist. I don’t believe in you!”

  “Stop saying that!” the hag screeched.

  “I don’t believe in you. Children made you, and we can unmake you, too. You’re not real. Go back into the nothing that you came from!” Nixie shouted with all the witching power she possessed.

  Jenny Greenteeth howled, her head thrown back, the moonlight gleaming on her algae-covered fangs. She had already been sorely assaulted by the potion, but this—five strong-willed youngsters denying her existence—was more than she could take.

  The murderous hag began convulsing. Smoke rose in plumes from her body. Her bony hands curled with rage, her face contorted with pain.

  “Nooooo!” she screamed. Then she suddenly exploded, a circular wave of green-tinged magic barreling out in all directions from the point of her destruction. The power of it blowing past them shook the kids off-balance. They had to catch themselves, and then Jenny Greenteeth was no more.

  They stared at the river.

  “We did it,” Dani breathed.

  But any joy Nixie might have felt at this victory was destroyed, for as soon as the hag had vanished, Archie’s body floated up, facedown in the river.

  He wasn’t moving.

  Panicked beyond words, Jake and Isabelle both sprinted into the water to retrieve him as the current started gently carrying him away.

  “No, no, no,” Dani was uttering, while Nixie just stood frozen, too horrified to move.

  Maddox helped them carry Archie up onto the grass, where they turned him on his back. His eyes were closed; his face looked tinged faintly blue in the starlight.

  “Archie!” Isabelle screamed, trying to wake him. “Please, he’s not breathing.”

  Jake started screaming for his Gryphon.

  “Move back, there’s no time!” Maddox pushed everybody out of the way and leaned with both hands on Archie’s chest.

  He started trying to pump the water out of his lungs, but Nixie saw Jake staring at the far bank of the river, his face ashen. He was so still, standing riveted, that she had the awful feeling he was seeing Archie’s ghost.

  “It’s not working!” Isabelle sobbed, watching Maddox try to revive him.

  “Is he really…dead?” Dani whispered in a strangled tone, clinging to Isabelle.

  “No.” Nixie had been standing a few feet away, feeling utterly powerless. But something about that word, with the weight of its terrible finality, galvanized her into motion.

  With jerky steps, heart pounding, she gripped her wand and marched over to Archie’s side, dropping to her knees.

  Holding the wand in both hands, she closed her eyes, searching deep within herself for her power, the deepest source of her magic. At last, amid her panic, she laid hold of it and calmed down enough to start to work.

  She thrust the wand straight up at the dark sky, opened her eyes, rose to her feet, and began murmuring to the elements.

  A strong wind suddenly blew; clouds gathered; thunder rumbled.

  “What are you doing?” Isabelle asked amid her tears.

  Nixie did not break her concentration to answer. Her will, so fierce and focused, dropped down into that place where the rest of the world ceased to exist. There was only her and the inscrutable magic that had somehow poured out of the very core of her from the moment she was born and made her who she was.

  The wind blew stronger, the air shifting at her command; a great thundercloud gathered overhead. Magic thrummed through her veins.

  At the edge of her awareness, Nixie saw the others back away when the first thin, bright, beautiful lightning bolt barreled down to kiss the tip of her wand like a greeting from a friend. It was ready to oblige her.

  The electricity in the air made everybody’s hair stand on end. The gale swayed the trees and made the river froth, and there she was, in the center of the storm.

  “Archie,” she whispered. Lowering herself slowly to her knees again, she lay her left hand on his chest, where his gallant heart had stopped. Her right still clutching her wand, she ignored the fact that she had never attempted anything of this magnitude before. “Listen to me. You are my friend. Please don’t leave. We need you here, so much. You’re not done yet. Think of all the inventions you still have to make.” Her words broke off, but tears streaming down her face, she had so much more to tell him silently.

  I know this world hurts. Especially for people like you and me, who really don’t fit in. It’s dark and it’s full of mean people who don’t understand us, and it must be so tempting to leave and go into the light, but I’m begging you to stay. Jake needs you. I need you. And if anyone can make this awful world a little better, it’s you.

  “Come back, Archie. Now!” She pointed her wand at him and uttered the command, and the dainty lightning bolt she’d captured flew into his chest.

  It jolted him from head to toe. Jake spun around, as though seeing the ghost fly back into the body, and then he cursed in amazement as Archie suddenly coughed.

  Isabelle let out a strangled sound and Dani made the sign of the cross, while Maddox quickly helped him to sit up. Water poured out of his mouth. Coughs racked his shoulders, and his eyes flew open as he took a huge gulp of air.

  “You’re alive,” Jake whispered. Without warning, he lunged at his best mate and cau
ght him up in a bear hug, his eyes squeezed shut. Isabelle put her arms around them both, weeping with astonished joy. Dani, also crying, flung herself into the group hug, while Maddox stared hard at Nixie.

  You just brought that kid back from the dead.

  He didn’t have to say it aloud. Though Nixie was totally drained, the shock of what she had just accomplished with her magic at the tender age of twelve had also shaken her to the core.

  She dropped the wand as though she had been clutching a viper.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Bagpipes at Dawn

  “Now, now, no need to make a fuss,” Archie scolded them all with affection, finally getting a little annoyed with everybody hanging on him so.

  The way they were all staring at him made him feel just a wee bit freakish, and nobody wanted to explain what the deuce had just happened.

  Red was almost as confused as he, apparently having just come running in answer to Jake’s call. The Gryphon had arrived on foot since he could not quite fly yet.

  Having their large, feathered friend on hand was always a comfort in dangerous situations, to be sure. But Archie wondered just how bad the hag’s attack on him had been, because neither Jake nor Dani nor Isabelle would let him walk out of arm’s reach.

  Nixie kept her distance, meanwhile, but watched his every move with wide, haunted eyes, and Maddox was even more taciturn than usual for a Guardian.

  Archie hardly knew what to make of it all. Must’ve passed out or something, he thought. Maybe inhaled a bit of the river. Beyond that, he did not care to think about it. All he remembered was a big, black void around him, and a light in the distance.

  “How did you know to do that with the lightning? How did you know that would work?” Jake asked Nixie.

  “I-I don’t know. I read Frankenstein, you know? With the electric eels? And the mad scientist used lightning to bring the monster to life.”

  “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Archie jested in exhaustion.

  But he was quite sure they were mistaken. There was no way he could have been literally dead. He refused to believe such a thing. His legs still felt a trifle wobbly as he stood up and, rather desperate for a return to normality, went over to check on his ruined experiment.

  Perhaps it could be salvaged, he thought while everyone continued hovering about him.

  “Can you see all right without your glasses?” Dani asked anxiously.

  “Well enough. I’ve got another pair in my room.”

  “Do you want me to go and get them for you?” Isabelle offered.

  “No, sis, I’m fine! Now, everybody, please, let me see to my invention!”

  Just then, they heard galloping hoofbeats coming from across the fields. Everybody tensed.

  “It’s Nuckalavee!” Dani cried. “What do we do?”

  Red growled, the still somewhat scraggly feathers on the back of his neck bristling as he moved to the fore to protect his children.

  “Halloo!” a deep voice rumbled from the darkness.

  “Holy…” Jake uttered.

  Ogden Trumbull waved to them from astride the Nuckalavee’s back, then reined in with a violent tug on the rope from Jake’s broken lasso. “Whoa, boy!”

  “You have got to be joking,” Maddox breathed, staring in disbelief as Nuckalavee obediently slowed.

  Red relaxed a bit, realizing the threat was not quite what he had assumed.

  “Look at me!” Og shouted in triumph. “I got a pony!”

  Archie hooted with laughter as Og made the hideous, skinless beast walk tamely over to them.

  “He did it, he tamed Nuckalavee!” Dani cried in amazement.

  “Do you think Dr. Plantagenet will let me keep him?” Og asked eagerly. “You think he’ll be impressed?”

  “Uh…” Even Jake’s sarcasm failed him.

  “Everybody’s going to be impressed, Og,” Maddox assured him.

  “Well done,” Isabelle murmured, shaking her head in shock.

  “Ain’t he a beauty? First horse that’s ever been strong enough to carry me.” Og gave his skinless mount a proud pat on the neck.

  Everybody winced, but their heads bobbed up and down dazedly. No doubt, as a half-troll, Og had different standards of beauty.

  “And we get along ‘andsomely, too,” Og added. “He tried to throw me for a bit, the old rascal. We had a grand tug of war. But I taught him who was boss, then he settled down, nice and gentle. Well!” Og declared, with a beaming smile that made him considerably less ugly. “Think Nuckie and I’ll go for another gallop. That’s fun, ain’t it, boy? Tallyho!” Og kicked the ghastly water-horse in the sides and rode off on him.

  Everybody looked around at each other and started laughing incredulously.

  “Doesn’t look like Nuckalavee’s going to bother you anymore,” Archie told Nixie.

  “And maybe Og won’t be so mean to everybody, either, now that he’s got a ‘horse’ to keep him busy,” Dani said.

  “All due to my brilliant cousin’s Bully Buzzer,” Jake declared, throwing his arm proudly around Archie’s shoulders. “You tamed Og, and Og tamed Nuckalavee. Which was convenient, considering the beast was trying to kill us.”

  “Well done,” Maddox agreed, nodding at Archie.

  Archie gave a modest shrug but couldn’t help frowning as he looked down at his ruined experiment, hands on hips. “Dash, it really is too bad about the Boneless, though. Can’t deny I’m disappointed.”

  But then a very peculiar thing happened as his friends gathered around to consider the situation.

  Some of the river water still dripping off Archie’s clothes, and Jake’s and Maddox’s and Isabelle’s, trickled across the ground and into the broken pieces of Boneless scattered at their feet. The dried-out bits started swelling like little sponges sucking up water. Puffing up one by one, the pieces started to levitate.

  “Blimey! Just add water,” Jake said.

  Red tilted his head in confusion. “Becaw?”

  Dani gasped. “It’s coming back to life!”

  “Not it,” Archie said, staring. “They!”

  Each new, miniature Boneless had a face.

  And all the little faces were smiling.

  Tittering laughter came from the horde of itty-bitty pranksters as they found themselves not just alive, but in good company, each one surrounded by several dozen copies of itself.

  “Ohhh,” Archie said in belated understanding. “Of course! I should’ve realized!”

  “What?” Jake asked.

  Archie gestured at them. “That’s how amoebas replicate! Cell division. Why didn’t I think of that? Well, you’re pretty clever, aren’t you?”

  The teeny Boneless pranksters flew around, pestering them all just a bit, even Red, before zooming off in a hundred different directions to cause trouble.

  “Come back! Oh, botheration,” Archie huffed.

  “At least at that size, they can’t do too much damage,” Jake offered with a shrug.

  But to Archie’s surprise, one of the diminutive Bonelesses flew back and smiled eagerly at him, bobbing back and forth in the air.

  “What do you want?” he asked it. “Can I help you?”

  It chirped at him in a high-pitched flurry of, well, not quite words, but the tiny Boneless seemed to know exactly what it was saying.

  Archie furrowed his brow. “Why aren’t you flying away?”

  It stayed.

  “Hold on—unless you want to be studied?”

  “Bee-bi-bee-bop,” it replied cheerfully.

  Isabelle cast her brother a wry glance and translated as best she could: “‘You said you wouldn’t hurt us. We believe you.’”

  “I won’t, I promise!” Archie told the tiny thing.

  “Beep-boo!”

  “It agrees,” Isabelle said.

  “Really? Well, all right, then!” Archie exclaimed, brightening. “Maybe my experiment is not a total loss, after all! Come along, little fellow. We’re heading back to Merlin Hall to
regroup now, what?”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Dani said and yawned. “It’s getting really late.”

  “I daresay it’s almost morning,” Isabelle agreed.

  “Help me get this cart up,” Maddox said to Jake, but as the two boys went to push the handcart back up onto its wheels, the mood of joviality faded.

  For a long, lone, ominous note of bagpipe music floated out across the grass from the direction of the black woods.

  It filled them with dread.

  No wonder the bagpipes had been used in warfare for centuries to strike fear in the hearts of enemies, Archie thought. The dire tune sounded like a warning.

  Or a threat.

  # # #

  Jake stared toward the woods, reminded anew that this wasn’t over yet. “Maddox, take everyone inside.”

  They glanced at him, fear on all their faces save the Guardian’s.

  “What are you going to do?” Dani asked anxiously.

  Jake kept his gaze fixed on the forest. “I’m going to finish this. Alone,” he added when Red growled. “The Highlander disappears if more than one person sees him at a time, remember? We’ve got no choice. It has to be one-on-one.”

  “Then let me go. I’ve trained for this,” Maddox said.

  Jake shook his head. “Sorry, not this time, my friend. You may be the Guardian, but I’ve already conquered bigger enemies than this.” And bigger enemies than you have, he did not add aloud.

  Maddox frowned.

  “He did kill Garnock,” Archie pointed out cautiously.

  “It’s too dangerous, Jake,” Isabelle insisted. “After what just happened…”

  “What choice do we have? We have to finish this, or he’ll just keep coming back and haunting Nixie. Look, the Highlander’s an apparition,” he explained, “and I’m the only one out of all of us who can see ghosts. If he tries to play hide-and-seek and attacks while he’s invisible, then none of you stand a chance against him. Not even you, Maddox. He can’t get away with that with me, though, because I can see him. Besides, I can’t risk losing any of you again.” He glanced meaningfully at Archie, but Nixie stepped forward.