Elliot and the Last Underworld War (Underworld Chronicles 3)

"Are you okay?" Elliot asked.

Reed opened one eye and then the other. "Where are we?"

"Home."

"How did I get here?"

Cami began, "Elliot did some--"

"Really heavy lifting to get you here," Elliot finished.

"I had this horrible dream," Reed said. "I was in the Quack Shack, and this huge purple beast appeared. He asked if I was Penster. I said that I was Reed Penster and asked if he was hungry, because I figured even if he was a horrible beast, he'd probably order a lot of duck burgers. Then he roared and charged toward me. Then you appeared out of nowhere, Elliot, and dared the beast to come back and chase after you. He picked me up and threw me against the wall. The next thing I remember is waking up here."

Beside Elliot, Cami's mouth was hanging open almost to the floor. Elliot could only stare at Reed, relieved things hadn't been worse. Kovol must have lost Harold, who was shapeshifted as Elliot, so he came looking for Elliot in Sprite's Hollow. Luckily, Harold had arrived just in time to save Reed and got Kovol to chase after him again. But the chase could not last much longer. And Elliot could not let Kovol come back to the surface.

He quietly poofed the family's broom into his own closet, then stood and said to Cami, "Wendy will help you take care of Reed. And tell her to get the twins home and make them stay here."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"You know where."

Then he grabbed the broom from his closet, walked into the hallway, and immediately poofed himself to the darkest part of the entire Underworld.

Harold the Shapeshifter had been given only one job that day, which was to turn into Elliot and lead Kovol on a chase anywhere away from Demon Territory. Elliot hoped Harold had led Kovol and all of his army far

away by now. Because if Harold made any mistakes, poofing into Demon Territory wasn't a good idea.

He was kidding himself, of course. It would never be a good idea to poof into Demon Territory.

But Elliot already had a plan in mind. If Kovol was there, he'd just put up a magical shield or something. The only problem with this plan was that he had no idea how to create a magical shield, and he was pretty sure Kovol wouldn't give him any second chances to figure it out. So it wasn't a perfect plan.

It had been a bit of a trick for Elliot to poof himself into Demon Territory, because he had a hard time picturing exactly where he wanted to go. The only places he remembered there were dark enough to make him want to poof anywhere else. Finally he decided to go to the area right outside Kovol's cave. It was very dark there, but better there than inside the cave. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the creepiest place in the known universe, Elliot figured that spot was an easy 10. But it was way better than inside the cave, which was at least a 789.

Once he arrived, Elliot hunched down to the ground. He wasn't sure exactly why he did that, but it seemed like a good idea. Everything was as eerily quiet as it had been four months ago when he had first entered Demon Territory.

Not far from him was a puddle of mud with a brown glow around it. Elliot recognized it as gripping mud. He'd been stuck in it twice and had kept Kovol trapped in some until the solar eclipse earlier that day.

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.