Elliot and the Last Underworld War (11 page)

Elliot looked around carefully for any sign of smoke, which would indicate that the Shadow Men were nearby. But he saw nothing and hadn’t really expected to. Kovol thought he was chasing Elliot across the Underworld, so he had likely called his army of Shadow Men to help him there.

Or most of his army anyway. There were thousands of Shadow Men. It wouldn’t take long before some of them sensed that Elliot was in Demon Territory. If they told Kovol, he’d be all kinds of angry. Especially the bad kinds.

“Mr. Willimaker!” Elliot called.

Mr. Willimaker immediately appeared, holding his hands over his ears. “Your Highness, when you called just now, it was so loud, so different from before. How did you—”

“I’ve got magic,” Elliot said, “from the Pixies.”

“Ah. Well, then, you don’t have to yell anymore to call us. We’ll hear you fine.” Mr. Willimaker pressed his thick eyebrows together. “Be careful about Pixie magic, Elliot. Like Pixies themselves, their magic will sometimes trick you.”

Trick magic was still better than no magic, Elliot figured. But he only said, “I think so far we’re alone here. When other creatures start appearing, I want us to use Kovol’s cave as our defense. It’s the closest thing Kovol has to a home, so I don’t think he’d collapse it, even to fight us. I’ll wait on top of his cave, watching for any sign of trouble. When everyone is ready down there, let me know. We’re going to fight as many Shadow Men as we can before Kovol comes.”

Mr. Willimaker bowed and poofed away. Then Elliot closed his eyes and poofed with the broom to the top of Kovol’s cave. It was higher off the ground than he had expected, but that only gave him a better view. Not that there was much to see. It was as black as midnight in all directions.

That didn’t last for long, though. As the different creatures poofed into Demon Territory, they created enough light to help them see and to help Elliot see them. The Satyrs arrived first. They were as tall as the Elves, each of them with thick fur on the bottom half of their body, the hooves of goats, and a man’s body on top. They had horns on their head and long ears that stuck out sideways. Then several Leprechauns flew in, each on the back of a Pegasus so white it almost created its own light. Elliot wasn’t sure how he could use the Leprechauns (although he had plenty of ideas for how his family could use their gold), but he liked the flying horses. He wondered if the Underworld had any Dragons, because that would be cool too. Then he figured maybe it was better not to ask. Being creatures of fire, they probably had more in common with the Shadow Men than with him.

The Elves arrived next, and near the front of them was Slimmy Tojam. He nodded at Elliot, who only wanted to yell down to him that Minthred’s book had been a huge waste of time. But if a goat herder could defeat Kovol, then surely Elliot could. He was only in fifth grade, but he was positive that was more education than Minthred had ever got.

He realized that several creatures hadn’t come. Agatha wasn’t there. There were several Fairies, but no Pixies. Many Brownies had come, but not the women or children, and Elliot was glad for that. He didn’t want to risk anything happening to Patches.

Then Elliot saw Fudd poof in with a group of familiar creatures. The Goblins had arrived.

Elliot closed his eyes to poof himself down there. The Goblins looked surprised to see him use magic, but not Fudd, who obviously had not seen Elliot do anything at all.

“Well, well. Look at how the human king has grown,” a voice sneered.

Behind all the other Goblins was Grissel. He was the strongest and boniest of all Goblins, and the meanest too. Every other Goblin was literally green with envy at the exact shade of Grissel’s skin, for it was the closest in color to their favorite food, pickles. Grissel was plumper now than he used to be, due to the amount of chocolate cake he had eaten over his last several months inside Brownie jail. He was probably meaner too. “It looks like you’ve learned a few tricks since we last met,” Grissel added.

When they had last met, Grissel and Elliot had tied in a battle to the death. It wasn’t the first time they had fought. In fact, every time Elliot and Grissel met, it always seemed that Grissel was trying to finish him off.

“You’ll fight for me?” Elliot asked Grissel.

Grissel’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll fight for the Underworld. I’ll even fight for the Brownies, if necessary, to defeat Kovol. But I’d never fight for a human.”

As if Elliot cared about a detail like that. “Then fight for the Underworld,” he said. “I need the Goblins in front when the Shadow Men come. Slow them down by blowing things up. We can’t fight all of them at once, but we can fight back if only a few get through at a time.”

With that, Elliot turned to everyone else. He told his magic to make his voice louder, and when he spoke, it was as if he was speaking through a powerful microphone. “The Shadow Men are nothing but fire and darkness that Kovol has cursed. You can’t fight them like a normal army, because they’re not alive or dead. They’re just a curse that will move until it’s stopped. They will act like fire. If they surround you, they will suck air away from you. If they touch you, it will burn.” Elliot looked over at Fudd. “And if they spit on you, it’ll curse you too. But if you can suck the air away from them, you’ll put out their fire. I bet it’s the same if you get water on them.”

“But how do we do that?” an Elf near Elliot said. “Only a few creatures have that power.”

“It was a mistake to come,” a Gnome grumbled. Several creatures muttered their agreement.

Elliot ran to a rock and stood higher up on it. He remembered his broom and held it up. “No, wait! If we try to fight this separately, then we will lose separately. The Underworld must stand together now.”

“What’s the broom for?” a Goblin asked. “Sweeping the Shadow Men out of here?”

“I can use this,” Elliot said. “For when I fight the Shadow Men.”

“What do you know about our fight?” a Centaur said. “You’re not from our world.”

“I’m not,” Elliot agreed. “But I’m a part of it now. I always will be. I’ll help save your world, and you’ll help save mine. If you don’t have power to control the air or water, then you still have something to offer. Light.”

The creatures pressed closer, curious about Elliot’s plan. He continued, “When the Shadow Men attacked Burrowsville earlier today, they couldn’t push through the light. If they tried, they disappeared. So light is your weapon. Get a stick or a wand or whatever you have, and make it as light as you can. A Shadow Man is not only fire, he’s also darkness. But your light is stronger than him. Dark cannot exist in light places. And we claim Demon Territory as a place of light now.”

From his place on the rock, Elliot saw smoke in the distance, but coming closer. “They’re early,” he mumbled. He had hoped they wouldn’t come so soon.

“Everyone find a place to hide,” he called. “Goblins, you go to the border to slow them down. Get ready! The Shadow Men are here!”

The battle of Demon Territory began with an explosion so big it rattled the entire ground. The wind it created rushed across the dark land, shaking the few trees and bushes that had dared to grow there.

Fudd stood on one side of Elliot and said, “That was Grissel. Nobody can blow things up the way he can.” There was a hint of admiration in his voice, and even Elliot was impressed.

Elliot, Fudd, and Mr. Willimaker had returned to their places on top of Kovol’s cave, but even from high up they couldn’t see the Goblins.

The explosion created so much smoke near the border that it was impossible to see the difference between dust from the explosions and the Shadow Men moving deeper into Demon Territory. Elliot planned to keep everyone hidden for as long as possible. He didn’t want the Shadow Men to have any warning in this battle.

But the Shadow Men must have already known something was wrong. Because as they flew close enough to be seen, their flight was swift and direct. They were coming to the cave and coming for a fight. If the heat of their black fire was any clue, this battle wouldn’t be easy.

“Steady,” Elliot whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. “Not yet. Not yet.”

In the darkness, and with the speed of their flight, it was hard to tell how many were coming. Beside him, Elliot heard Mr. Willimaker trying to count them anyway. Fudd wiped sweat from his brow and looked nervous. Elliot wondered what it must feel like to sense the approach of the enemy but not be able to see them. Probably not great.

“How many do you think there are?” Elliot asked.

“At least fifty in the air.” Then Mr. Willimaker pointed to the horizon. “And more are coming. Many more.”

When the first of the Shadow Men was close enough that Elliot saw the fire in his cloak, he stood and yelled, “Underworld creatures, FIGHT!”

Immediately the territory came to life. The creatures focused any light they could into sticks, wands, and some even lit up their shoes for the fight. The Shadow Men swarmed in, and the battle began.

From where Elliot stood, he could see everything. The Brownies and Dwarves were doing their best with water. Their arms were too short to fight the Shadow Men alone, but the Brownies poofed in bucket after bucket of water for the Dwarves to throw on the Shadow Men, who quickly fell like drops of gray mud to the ground.

The Fairies and Pixies were working together to operate a giant fan that seemed to have the exact opposite effect of normal fans. Instead of blowing out cool air, it sucked in hot air. The Shadow Men who had ignored the fan at first were now too close and tried to fly away. But the fan continued pulling them in, and when it did, only ashes came out the other side.

Each Shadow Man destroyed took out another piece of Kovol’s curse. Everything was going exactly the way Elliot had hoped it would.

The rest of Elliot’s army fought one to one. They held off the remaining Shadow Men with their light sticks. None of the Shadow Men wanted to touch those sticks, which was fine with Elliot’s creatures who really didn’t want to get any closer than they had to.

In the distance, the Goblins continued to blow things up as new waves of Shadow Men approached. Every time Elliot heard an explosion, he knew that some had been slowed down and some had gotten through.

Yet so far, Elliot’s side was holding its own.

“We’re winning!” Elliot said excitedly to Fudd and Mr. Willimaker. “I think we’re going to win this!”

Elliot may have spoken too soon. He heard a popping sound beside him and turned. In his human form, Harold was sitting beside Elliot, out of breath and with a very worried look on his face.

“I tried,” Harold panted. “I tried, Elliot.”

“Why are you here?” Elliot asked. “Where’s Kovol?”

“I’m sorry. I made a mistake.”

Elliot shook his head. “Harold, you were supposed to keep him far away from here!”

“I know.” Harold took a deep breath. “I let him chase me everywhere. At one point he got bored and went up to the surface to look for you, but I got him back. But I got confused.” Then his eyebrows pressed together. “I had to run so fast, and I forgot where I was. I led him back here.”

Elliot gestured around them. “Here? You brought Kovol here?”

A deafening screech roared from the edge of Demon Territory. Hearing it, all the Shadow Men left Kovol’s cave and flew away.

“That’s Kovol calling his army back now,” Harold said, burying his face in his hands. “We’re in a lot of trouble, and it’s all my fault.”

Down on the dark ground, the Underworld creatures looked around at one another, confused and alarmed. They had heard the screech too.