35

We left for the city the next day. One night, before everybody went to sleep, I talked to Mom and Christian. The dwarves were sitting together a few feet away.

    “I wish the ghouls weren’t the smartest species,” Mom said. “The wars wouldn’t have happened.”

    Mom and Christian started talking about the wars. I would have too, but I started thinking about something else. 

    The ghouls didn’t figure out how they were doing the exact opposite of what was best for the kingdom when they were smarter than humans. There were many times when the species of the kingdom tried to make a decision and they went with what the humans suggested. You’d think the ghouls would be right because they were smarter. The human monarchs wanted to keep the alliances with the other species and because of that, the kingdom flourished in a way it wouldn’t have had without these alliances. The ghouls didn’t see the point in alliances. They just wanted to be in charge. They kept putting the kingdom and the people from all of the species in danger, even ghouls.

    Christian had scried to know more about Eileen, but there was a lot of information we had to figure out on our own. I thought the ghouls were smarter, but I figured out a lot and so did Christian, despite the fact that we had less knowledge. An idiot could also memorize a lot of facts.

    Wait a minute!

    There was a difference between knowledge and intelligence.

    I thought about this again and went through all of the facts. I remembered the things Christian and I had figured out.

    I told Mom and Christian what I discovered.

    “What are you saying?” Christian asked.

    “What if we are the smarter species and the ghouls just know more or have better memories?”We kept talking about this for days. We talked to the dwarves. After going over it in my head many times and talking about it, I was more sure of my discovery. I had to tell the royal family because if they saw it the same way, they could talk to the rulers of all of the species of the kingdom and convince everybody that the ghouls were not the smartest species. That meant the ghouls wouldn’t have power over people. Everybody would be able to stand up to them if they attacked again. If the ghouls were convinced they didn’t have power, they would be far less likely to attack again.

    Since knowledge was the only argument that convinced anyone that the ghouls were the smartest species, they couldn’t be smarter after all. All of the species would decide who should be in charge and once someone other than the ghouls was chosen, the ghouls would not be able to start another war because the spell would stop them. Having any of the other species in charge would be better. I thought humans had the best chance, since we usually made the best decisions for the kingdom.