The Return

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 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781597482264

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



England, Present Day

Gem stood in her father’s study and tried to make sense of everything he had told her. Henry Word had practically abducted her from two battlefields, brought her back to Earth, and then told her that he was dying. More than that, he had insisted that Gem abstain from the war that was sweeping through her kingdom so that she could set off on a quest to find his chosen successor, the Winter Knight, Devon. With so much going on, it seemed like a huge amount to ask. Gem brushed a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes as she tried to think.

Gem. Her father stood, and that was still odd to Gem, because the Winter Queen had only just given him back his legs. "You need to do this. Recovering Devon is vital. I have allocated so many of my resources to finding the right successor, and now that we are so close, we can’t just let him disappear."

Of course, Gem thought, he had already done exactly that. Even on her dragon, she hadn’t been quick enough to stop Devon and her court wizard Goolrick seeking each other out as the forces of winter assailed her castle. The resulting altercation had seen the magic of the exquisitely handsome fairy knight combine with that of the wizard to whisk the pair of them away as they fought.

Just the thought of the two men fighting was enough to make Gem wince. Goolrick had been a good adviser these past months, and as much as his attempted coup when she first arrived in Anachronia should have made Gem hate him, she still found herself liking the young wizard a lot. As for Devon...

It shouldn’t have been possible to feel so much for someone so quickly, but increasingly, Gem found that she was. The half-Anachronian, half-fairy man was handsome, and quick witted, and honorable, and... and all those things did was to obscure the truth, which was that Gem had felt something for him almost as soon as she had met him. She had to find them and stop them before they killed one another.

Ok, but how do I even locate Devon? With all that magic, he could be anywhere.

"It is a quandary, her father agreed, but I’m sure that, with enough knowledge of the Wordwick games, it should be possible to find him."

Gem shook her head.

"But I don’t have that knowledge, and it’s not like we have time for me to wade through some tome of an operating manual, is it? How can we find him? Gem caught herself. Them."

Henry Word put an arm around her shoulders. Standing, he was taller than her, and more heavily built, the lines of his face worn by years that had included violence and danger. Still, Gem could see the similarities, particularly in the vivid green of their eyes.

Come with me, her father said. He led Gem from his study, on a tortuous route down through the English castle he had adapted to his needs, to the room on the ground floor that ran the Wordwick Games. Where the rest of the castle was decorated in a distinctly medieval style, this room was filled with computers, wires, and flickering screens. Normally, it would have been bustling with technicians and experts, but now the only one there was Dr. Percy Brown, Henry Word’s right hand man and physician. The balding man in tweed looked up as they entered. To Gem, he seemed nervous.

"Hello Henry, Gem. Um... Henry, I trust you are not here to vituperate me for telling Gem where to find you. She can be surprisingly persuasive when vexed."

No, Percy, her father said, we just need the computers for a minute. You are still maintaining full coverage?

Absolutely. Dr. Brown actually sounded slightly annoyed at the implicit suggestion that he might not be, but then grinned. "If we don’t remain vigilant, something fun might happen without me noticing."

Gem’s eyes narrowed slightly at that. There wasn’t anything fun about her friends, or her kingdom, being in danger. Still, she let it go. Dr Brown had done a lot to help her. Her father moved to the center of the room. Around him, images flashed. In some spots, people fought. In others, they talked. One screen held the protean form of the Shadow King, apparently deep in conference with a shadowy spider that served as one of his lieutenants.

Not all of the scenes were ones Gem recognized. In fact, many of them seemed to be from worlds Gem had never seen before. There had to be hundreds of them, if not more. Devon and Goolrick could be anywhere, so how could they possibly search them all?

We’ll never find them, Gem said, the sheer scale of the task making it seem almost hopeless.

Now, Gem, her father reproved her, I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think it could be done.

You’re searching for specific people? Dr Brown asked. Do you have any idea where they are?

Gem shook her head.

‘Then Henry, I must agree. It will be far from easy. The sheer number of variables involved makes it..."

Gem saw her father raise a hand to stop Dr Brown before the flow of technical information could reach its zenith. Left to his own devices, Gem knew that the scientist would have simply kept going, not caring that practically no one but him could understand.

Percy, that isn’t helping. Now, would you please tell my daughter about the biggest weakness of our system here?

Dr. Brown paused, and Gem knew he was running through all the things that were wrong. He never seemed satisfied with how efficiently things were running, wanting to eliminate every vestige of difficulty from the system.

You mean the tendency of the A/B lines to...

Henry Word sighed.

‘Emotion, Percy."

Oh. That.

Gem decided that she had had enough. At this rate, the two men were going to edge around the topic all day.

Will one of you please tell me what is going on? She asked. The longer you delay, the more danger Devon is in... and Goolrick, obviously. Particularly if they have landed somewhere where there is a bizarre time change.

Her father nodded.

"You’re right, Gem, and I’m sorry. The big weakness of the Wordwick Games system is that it is a computer system. It can track for specific events, but it cannot understand emotional considerations, no matter how clearly emoted they are. It is why it must always have someone overseeing its running."

I’m not sure I understand, Gem admitted, and she thought she saw Dr. Brown open his mouth for what was sure to be a more verbose explanation. Thankfully, her father cut him off.

Take what you experienced when Devon was healing you. The computer would never understand that. Nor would it understand the connection that moment created between you. Hopefully though, we can use that connection to track Devon.

Gem felt herself begin to blush. The idea that her father knew about the healing process, and the sheer pleasure that it had entailed was embarrassing in the extreme. The experience of Devon using his magic to heal her had been like a thousand kisses rolled into one, and it definitely wasn’t the kind of thing she liked to think a parent had been watching. Gem sought for some distraction, finding it when she glanced down at the golden armor she still wore after the battle Henry Word had taken her from. There was one issue they still needed to resolve.

What about my friends? she asked. It’s all very well finding Devon, but if I set off after him, aren’t I abandoning them? Maybe it would be better if your game were without emotion. That way, this war between winter and summer would not have them fighting one another.

Actually, Dr. Brown began, mythologically speaking, conflict between winter and summer is a very old theme, which...

He went as Henry Word nodded. Gem looked at her father expectantly.

The system is without emotion, he said, "but people are not. Would you really want them to be? No jubilant moments of joy. No serene afternoons, when the world doesn’t matter? Even if I had that kind of power, and I don’t, I would never dispel emotion from the worlds I watch and mirror in my game. Emotions might lead to chaos sometimes, but can be a beautiful kind of chaos."

Gem wasn’t sure that she was convinced. Her own life would probably have been a lot simpler without quite so many competing emotions, or people competing to excite them.

My friends are still in danger, She settled for saying. Her father nodded.

"Sometimes, there are things we cannot change, Gem. This is a hard way to learn it, certainly not the didactic approach I would have chosen for this lesson, but it is true nonetheless. And, who knows? Maybe you will find Devon and realize that a little help is what you need to deal with situations like this."

That struck Gem as unnecessarily cryptic, but she let it go. She knew that the only thing she could do from here was to do as her father wished, find Devon, and bring him back safe. And if it also happened to be what her heart was telling her to do...

Okay. How do we find him?

Percy, her father called over to where the scientist stood, we will need the Device.

The item that Dr. Brown dragged from a storeroom certainly looked like a Device. Or possibly a Thing, Gem wasn’t sure. She was sure that it definitely deserved the capital letter, if only because it looked like the kind of thing a mad scientist might put together.

It looked... well, mostly, it looked like a confluence of random objects, from an old chair to what looked suspiciously like an upside-down colander perched above it. There were wires, and switches, and at least a couple of bubbling tubes arranged with no real plan around it.

I’m going to have to sit in that, aren’t I? Gem asked. Her father nodded.

In theory, it should let you transmit your emotion to the machines in a way that will let you trace Devon. It should be perfectly safe.

Should?

Almost certainly.

Almost wasn’t very comforting, but Gem lowered herself into the chair anyway, letting Dr. Brown place the colander-like device onto her head. He flicked some switches, and a low hum came from the machine.

Now, if you would just concentrate on the emotional connection you have to the person you want to find...

Gem did her best. She thought back to that moment after Rio had accidentally wounded her, when Devon had held her in his arms, and the handsome fairy had placed his hand so delicately over the wound across her shoulder. She thought of him looking at her earnestly, and of the moment when his wit and eloquence had given way to a simpler declaration that he would protect her utterly.

From somewhere, an image came to Gem. Devon was there, clad in his dark armor and wielding his sword and shield in battering flurries against the gold-robed figure of Goolrick. They stood among trees that Gem recognized, mostly because of the shadows flitting between them, apparently unsure of whether to intervene or not. Flashes of magic came as the two men continued to fight, darting between the trees and searching for an advantage.

They’re in the Wickedly Woods, Gem breathed, hardly believing it. They hadn’t switched worlds at all. And, in the softly red-glowing ring on her left hand, she had the means to get there. She looked up at her father. I’ll be right back.

With a twist of the ring, Gem vanished.



Outside Anachronia’s castle, battle raged half-heartedly. In the absence of any leaders to watch over them, it seemed that the ordinary soldiers fought half-heartedly. In any case, a number of those on the winter side seemed to be holding back...



On Myriad, the armies had finished their work, withdrawing as it became clear that stalemate was the only option. As they did so, Rio was busy arguing.

I don’t care if it is dangerous, Mull. I need to know what happened to Gem’s body.

You think this will appease the summer prince?

It’s not about that. It’s about me. I need to do this.

The older werewolf sighed. Oh, very well, but at least take some of the others...



On Myriad, in the withdrawing army of winter, its queen watched the figures stumbling back in from the stalemate. Jack was there, battered, bruised and cut. Of Katherine though, there was no sign...

Chapter 1



Goolrick spun between the trees, his ostentatious robe becoming a blur of gold as he whirled away from one of Devon’s sword blows. He countered with a swing of his own, but found it parried by the fairy man’s shield. Goolrick dodged another attack, and then another, as Devon launched into a stream of blows that Goolrick could only fall back under, waiting for it to abate .

Well, if Goolrick couldn’t defeat him by orthodox means, he would simply have to try something different. A sidestep behind a tree made him safe long enough to use one of the charms he wore, summoning a mist to drift among the trunks, making Goolrick harder to spot as he maneuvered, looking for an angle from which to strike down his foe.

Devon, of course, had slipped back into the mist as it sprang up. Goolrick should have expected it of such a canny fighter, but even a game of cat and mouse was better than a direct assault on a warrior of such renown. Goolrick slipped off his ornate outer robe, leaving him in a dark tunic and hose that would keep him from being spotted easily. As an afterthought, Goolrick hung the golden robe from a branch. He doubted the feint would work, but he would be remiss if he did not at least try it.

Devon, meanwhile, decided to resort to taunts.

"You, wizard, are an abomination. A traitor who would use magic to usurp a kingdom."

The sound seemed to be coming from the left, though with forests, it was often hard to tell. Goolrick padded in that direction anyway, keeping his sword at shoulder height for a