Rise of Allies (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 4) Read Online Free

Excitement hummed in the air. The din of countless voices all talking at once echoed under the high, painted ceiling.
    Knowing his Assessment was closer by the minute, he could barely focus amid the noisy hustle-and-bustle all around him. His pulse felt fluttery. His mouth was dry. His palms sweated; he wiped them on his trousers in case Aunt Ramona introduced him to some important person and he had to shake hands.
    To be sure, there were all sorts of strange folk in the busy crowd around them. Robed wizards greeted tall, mysterious wood elves with long, sleek, shining hair.
    Half a dozen dwarves in kilts recounted some recent, merry adventure to a friend they apparently hadn’t seen in a while—a Green Man with a leafy beard and bark-like skin.
    A few ghosts glided over the heads of the people streaming into the next room, some sort of fine art gallery. Jake wondered if the paintings in that collection were magical, as well. Maybe they moved, like the portrait of Queen Elizabeth back at Beacon House, the Order’s base in London.
    Then he forgot all about the paintings when he saw a pair of well-dressed centaurs clip-clopping down the grand, curved staircase. Centaurs, of all things! He stared. Then, whoosh! A djinni went sweeping by on a flying carpet in a great hurry. Jake turned to his friends in astonishment and saw Dani staring at the crowd with her mouth hanging open.
    A giant passed, bending low to fit under the ceiling. Pixies scampered up the bannister of the grand staircase, and an angel leaned casually against the wall some twelve feet off the ground, arms folded, watching over everyone with a slightly bored smile. There were Magic-folk that Jake couldn’t even identify.
    And of course, all races of men visiting from every corner of the earth—even those few parts that did not belong to the British Empire. Jake marveled at them, studying all the strange varieties of foreign dress.
    Archie and his sister knew all sorts of people, human and otherwise, and greeted them politely. They seemed unfazed by all the strangeness—though Isabelle was looking a little overwhelmed.
    The highly sensitive empath avoided crowds whenever she could, but of course, this wasn’t always possible. Fortunately, even as Jake watched her, she seemed to steady herself, shaking off the onslaught, refusing to absorb other people’s emotions.
    He smiled, proud of her.
    Having just turned fifteen, the Keeper of the Unicorns was much stronger now than she used to be. He liked to think he had been a good influence, helping to toughen up the sheltered aristocratic girl; but a lot of the credit had to go to Dani, who was always looking after her.
    Dani O’Dell had no magical powers to speak of, but was blessed with superb common sense, not to mention the most unshakable loyalty. She had been Jake’s friend through thick and thin when he had needed one most—during his years as a penniless orphan in London.
    Once his rich, highborn relatives had found him, Dani had been hired on to serve as a lady’s companion to Isabelle.
    Her rookery toughness balanced out the older girl’s gentle ways. Though the little Irish redhead was even shorter than Archie, she wasn’t afraid of much. Back in the rookery—a place where Archie’s colleague, Mr. Darwin, could have well studied his notions about survival of the fittest—Dani’s wild tribe of brawling elder brothers had taught the wee lass how to defend herself.
    In any case, she was even more protective of the tenderhearted Isabelle than she was of Jake.
    As for Archie, though he shared the same magical bloodlines as his sister, his brilliant scientific mind was all-natural.
    Of course, Archimedes James Bradford had only just turned twelve himself, so it was possible that the Kinderveil might still be on him, masking some dormant magical ability yet to emerge in the boy genius.
    Jake thought that might be pretty funny, especially since Archie wanted no part of magic for himself. He was a