The Ascension

By Kailin Gow

If you like Harry Potter, Chronicle of Narnia, and Neil Gaiman's fantasies, you will love fantasy YA adventure books from Kailin Gow like this one. This series is appropriate for 16 and up, and has the added bonus of being an SAT study aid.

The Wordwick Games is as deadly as it is exhilarating. Continuing after Book 1, Rise of the Fire Tamer, the five gamers find out more about the truth of Anachronia and Henry Word.

After finding out the truth about Anachronia; Gem, Sparks, Rio, Kat, and Jack returns to Henry Word's castle. Henry Word, the inventor of The Wordwick Games, is missing, and only he can control the portal that leads to all the worlds. The gamers must find him at all costs, but in doing so, it may change everything they know about themselves and their own world. When they learn a war is brewing within the worlds of The Wordwick Games, which will spill out into their own world, and the gamers are pitted against each other in a real fight to the death, dreams become reality...

In this exciting second book of The Wordwick Games Series, the stakes to The Games are higher, and the prize is life.

From the award-winning ALA YALSA author Kailin Gow of the Bitter Frost Series, now being produced as a multi-player, multi-platform game.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sparklesoup Inc.
• Release date: Nov 21, 2010
• ISBN: 9781618140135

Kailin Gow

It's official! Read about Kailin and her books being adapted into films and tv series here: https://filmdaily.co/obsessions/kailin-gow-loving-summer/ FIND OUT MORE ABOUT KAILIN GOW AT: https://linktr.ee/KailinGow including how to get a free book from her! Kailin Gow is a million-selling international and USA Today Bestselling author of over 680 published books! She writes in many genres under her name and other pen names. She has been an invited speaker on Book Expo America, appeared on CBS News about writing books with social issues, and the Top 15 National radio regularly on women's issues, women in film and Hollywood, and leadership. She holds a Masters in Management from USC and degrees in Social Ecology, Criminology, and Filmmaking. She is an author influencer on Instagram, owns a podcast network with multiple channels, is a multi-award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, actress, and host. Her books have been made into games, animated short films, and series. Currently, a number of her book series have been optioned, are in development, or pre-production, including her YA Fantasy Sci Fi Thriller FADE (which has been optioned) and Red Genesis (also optioned) by Netflix producers. Kailin Gow is a regular guest in radio and television on women in Hollywood and filmmaking, naming the top Women Execs to Watch. She is a judge in film festivals, writing contests, and is also a voting member in the Academy Awards. AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL MILLION-SELLING AUTHOR, PRODUCER, AND TV PERSONALITY Kailin Gow is an internationally-recognized multi-award-winning multi-genres USA bestselling Asian American author and woman director/filmmaker who has written and published over 400 books under Kailin Gow and her pen names. She is both traditionally-published as well as indie. Considered a digital publishing pioneer, her books have been downloaded over 10 Million times around the world. She is known as one of the most prolific authors internationally who not only writes novels but screenplays fast, but of world-class quality they win prestigious awards like the ALA YALSA Awards and Los Angeles Film Awards. Besides having gone to law school, she holds a Masters Degree in Communications Management from USC and Drama/Film and Social Ecology Degrees from UC Irvine. She has also been a longtime member of TED Talks. She is the first Asian American author to have sold over 1 million books and to be featured on Amazon.com's homepage as an indie Author Success Story. Her success as an Indie Author and advocate for Indie authors during the early Kindle days has inspired many to take a plunge to become authors. The first Asian American woman who is independently published to appear on Amazon's homepage as an Author Success Story, she also represented Amazon as an author spokesperson during Amazon's Kindle Family Launch press conference in Santa Monica and at Book Expo America where she was an invited speaker. A digital publishing pioneer, she was one of the first authors and publisher to publish digitally back in 2001. Prior to becoming a full-time author and filmmaker, she worked as an Exec in Legal and Production at Walt Disney Company, a writer/producer for Cable Television, an Exec at high tech start ups, and Exec at Fortune 100 Hotel and Travel Corporations where she has managed and trained hundreds of employees on world-class service and operations. She has also been a professional model, a tour director, journalist, re-organization consultant, a secret mystery shopper/consultant for top brands, and professional speaker who has been an invited speaker at Book Expo America, Girl Scouts, Asian America Heritage Week, and more! FUTURIST AND SOCIAL INFLUENCER A social influencer, she has over millions of views on her YouTube channel and her Vimeo channel with over 1.5 million views on her Bitter Frost trailer and award-winning animated short film alone. She is a judge on writing contests for writing incubator social sites, has been a member of TED Talks, and is one of the most quoted modern living authors today. She has also been regularly published as a contributor on Fast Company magazine on articles about publishing, leadership, business, and social issues. https://www.fastcompany.com/1800256/social-media-and-future-publishing-industry

Book preview

dedication

To London, my daughter , who has opened my heart to the full potential of human love.

Prologue

Gem moved closer to the fire in the ruler’s bedroom, her bedroom, seeking respite from the cold that had started to seep through Anachronia’s castle. It was too early for winter, but the land that stretched out before her; especially the crops she had helped meticulously planted showed the withering of frost. The cold left her feeling lethargic and drained. Taking a seat by the window, Gem brushed a strand of blonde hair back from her face, letting her fingers linger for a moment on the crown that sat on her brow. Some days, it still didn’t seem real. Gem certainly hadn’t meant to end up as the ruler of a magical kingdom, though to be fair, very few people do.

She hadn’t even meant to spend the last two months there. When Henry Word had told her the truth; that Gem was his daughter, and that, despite all the pretense, Anachronia was real, Gem didn’t know what to do. She’d half wished that the moment could be taken back, but things like that were irrevocable. She couldn’t go home to face the people she had thought of as her parents, all these years never suspecting they were otherwise, but Gem couldn’t just stand there either. She had run back to the sleep pod leading to Anachronia almost on instinct, hoping for space, or time, or something that would let her make sense of it. If Anachronia was real, then she was needed there. She had, after all, become its ruler.

Once she was here though, there had been so much to do. There had been the settlements out on the fertile land to build, and the dragon to look after, not to mention endless petty disputes between individuals from the Spurious and Perfidious tribes. They might have put aside open warfare, but they seemed to be determined to make up for it with a stream of small complaints for Gem’s arbitration.

A knock on the door announced Goolrick, the court’s wizard. For once, the young man wasn’t dressed in his ostentatious gold robes, but had settled for a simple dark tunic and hose. The gold of his hair spilled over the shoulders. To Gem’s eye, the combination worked far better on him, making him look like the good-looking man in his early twenties he was, rather than someone attempting to appear older and more important. Goolrick had been a big help in the last few weeks, working assiduously and displaying a talent for organizing that had seen things progress at a rapid rate in the Kingdom. And if part of Gem suspected that he had originally honed that talent plotting against her and the others, Goolrick hadn’t shown any sign of going back to it.

Currently though, he looked serious.

Hi Goolrick. What’s wrong?

There is a message, My Queen.

Gem was hardly surprised by that. There were always messages these days. They formed a seemingly interminable stream of things that needed to be attended to. Who would have thought that being in charge of a place like Anachronia would be such hard work?

Come and sit down, Goolrick, then tell me all about it. What can be so sudden that it has you looking so distressed?

Goolrick shuddered as he sat down.

"Please don’t joke about it. I’ve just spent a week going through the castle treasury, checking just how meager our resources are. With this unexpected early frost, the crops we thought would nourish the people of Anachronia, according to your plans, will not be. Unless there is another source, another land where it is possible to plant, our food supply will be depleted. We were counting on the long days of summer and the warmth of autumn, but now, the people of Anachronia may starve if we don’t have a harvest. This though..."

What is it?

Goolrick held up a black envelope, with a familiar red W stenciled across the back.

I do not know the contents of the message, only the way it arrived.

Let me guess, Gem sighed. It was left by a mysterious, grey-cloaked figure?

Goolrick frowned, and shook his head.

No. I’m sure I would have noticed. It just dropped from the air in the middle of breakfast and landed in the middle of a toast rack. Should there have been someone like that?

Gem decided not to mention that toast racks, common in present day, especially England where Word Castle was located, were almost certainly wrong for a medieval kingdom. If you started to complain about the anachronisms here, you would never stop. They called it Anachronia for a reason.

There was last time, she said. The message is from my... from Henry Word.

I had guessed that much, Goolrick admitted. Would you like some privacy to read it?

Gem shook her head. That was the last thing she wanted. Actually, she wasn’t sure she wanted any kind of message at all, but Gem suspected that simply ignoring it wouldn’t do much good.

Just open it and give me the highlights, please, she said, and Goolrick ripped the envelope open. The young wizard examined the contents once, then again. His eyes widened, and Gem felt worry creep through her.

What is it? she asked. Goolrick bit his lip.

I’m not sure if you will like this.

"Goolrick. Gem had spent some time perfecting what she thought of as her I’m the Queen, now please do as you’re told" voice. It wasn’t quite a rebuke, but it was a reminder that one could be on the way. Gem didn’t normally have to use it much, but it came in handy occasionally. Spill, what does it say?

It says... well, it says that Henry Word has gone missing, and that Dr. Brown would like to see you at once.

The words made Gem freeze. She had been expecting... what? Some attempt to persuade her to come back, perhaps. An attempt at reconciliation, not this. The sheer shock of it kept her from thinking as seconds stretched. Finally, it was Goolrick’s polite cough that brought her out of it.

You should go, of course.

Just like that?

The young wizard shrugged.

You have the means.

That was true. Gem raised her left hand so that the red glowing ring on her little finger caught the light. It shone resplendently, but that wasn’t why Gem wore it. It was her connection to her world, or at least to the sleep pod in Word castle.

But there is so much to do here, she tried. There is the food issue here, and there are discussions with the Shadow King coming up, and...

...and none of that is the real reason. Goolrick regarded her levelly. "Go, Gem. It is time you went back, if only briefly. You can’t renounce all connection to your world. This sounds like an emergency, in any case."

He was right, of course. Gem knew that. Besides, she knew Dr. Brown wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble if it weren’t urgent.

"So, Goolrick, promise that you won’t usurp, terrorize, or generally behave like a stereotypical malevolent wizard the moment I’m gone?" Gem smiled jokingly as she said it, but it wasn’t entirely a joke. Goolrick held up one hand.

Of course, though you only have my word as a reformed evil wizard. Goolrick smiled wryly. He had tried making up for his wrong to Gem by being as devoted and loyal to her as he can these past few months in hope that she would forgive him. Although Gem, as kind and trusting as she was, let him stay in Anachronia besides her, Goolrick felt she still had difficulties in completely trusting him. Perhaps that was why he still felt her attraction to him, his sense of danger, and her being so close to it.

Gem supposed that she had asked for that. She started to reach for the ring that would take her back.

One moment, Goolrick said, and then, as soon as Gem paused, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. It was brief, barely more than a brush of lips, but he did it. He took her soft hands in his, how he wanted to keep holding onto them. So you won’t forget me... I mean the Kingdom.

Of course that’s what you mean, Gem said, trying not to show how much she actually liked his kiss and twisted the ring on her finger.

The top of the sleep pod clicked open above her as she woke. Gem clambered out, and briefly looked down. Last time she had come back to the world, she had found herself wearing her own clothes again. This time, though, she seemed to be still wearing a simple, elegant Anachronian dress of blue silk, edged with gold thread. The room was as she remembered it, looking like something genuinely medieval in its tapestries and ornate furniture, with only the futuristic plastic of the sleep pod making it clear that she was back in her own world.

Gem shoved open the dark oak of the door, and found herself face to face with Dr. Percy Brown. He hadn’t changed much in the past two months. He was still balding in a way that made Gem think that sheer effort of thought had burnt off most of the excess hair, while his tweed suit was almost the same. In fact, Gem would not have been surprised if she had discovered that he kept a rack of identically frayed ones somewhere to choose from. Dr. Brown smiled broadly as he saw her.

You came! I wasn’t sure that you would. Not after everything. Thank you.

Do you want to tell me what is going on? Gem asked. Dr. Brown blinked.

Oh yes, of course. He paused as a computer technician wandered past. Um... perhaps it would be best if we did this somewhere more private? Henry’s study, perhaps?

Reluctantly, Gem nodded. She didn’t really want to go back there, but nor did she wish to be overheard discussing magical other worlds. She could just imagine what someone who didn’t know the truth would make of that. She followed Dr. Brown to the small study, then waited while he unlocked it. For the most part, the study was just as Gem remembered it, antique furniture awashed with a chaotic sea of papers that only avoided covering the floor because each stack balanced against another. There was a comfortable chair in front of the desk but not behind, leaving a space that would have been occupied by Henry Word’s wheelchair, had he been there.

Now, a book stand had been set up in the space, and on that stand was a volume, open to a pen and ink sketch. As far as Gem could see, it showed strange people intermingled with hairy, half upright beasts. Above the picture was the single word ‘myriad’.

What’s that? Gem asked. Dr. Brown followed her gaze and nodded.

"As far as I can tell, now that we have calibrated things more closely, added in all the vectors and calculated the resonance from the data we have been able to collect..."

Dr. Brown. Gem knew that if she didn’t interrupt, she probably wouldn’t get an answer any time soon. Or at least not any answer that wasn’t unbelievably tortuous. Could I have the short version, please?

Well...um...yes, of course. Dr. Brown fiddled with the cuffs of his jacket. What I was trying to say is that I think... I think that the world of Myriad might be where Henry has ended up. I can’t be sure, of course, not without calculating the... he obviously caught the look Gem gave him, because he paused, licking his lips. The thing is, if Henry is there, then he could be in a great deal of danger.

Something caught in Gem then, even though she told herself that she shouldn’t care. What sort of danger?

Dr. Brown looked uncomfortable as he searched for the right words for it.

"Myriad is an odd sort of place. It seems to be as much dream as reality, and as much fairy tale as either. Creatures of myth are ubiquitous there. You can understand how awkward that sort of thing is for me to admit, as a man of science, but it seems to be true."

Gem looked at the picture again, then back at Dr. Brown.

"That doesn’t sound too bad."

The scientist raised his eyebrows.

"You think so? But whatever it’s like, we have to get Henry back. You have to get Henry back. Preferably before his presence there starts to distort the fabric of reality so badly that Myriad impinges upon our world."

Gem nodded, because of course she was going to get Henry Word back, but then paused.

Before it what?

Oh, didn’t I mention that? It’s a very simple matter really, and the physics are absolutely fascinating, of course...

Once more, Gem held up a hand to stop Dr. Brown before he could launch into his explanation.

If we are going to get him back, we will need help.

Dr. Brown nodded.

I thought you might say that. That is why I have sent messages to Stieg Sparks, Riordan Roberts, Katherine Kipling and Jackson Zusak. They have accepted, and I have arranged transport.

It took Gem a moment to recognize the full names.

You mean Sparks, Rio, Kat and Jack are coming back here?

That is what I said, I believe.

Gem nodded, considering. It would be so good to see them again, and they would certainly need the