Gabriel blinked. “Whoa.”
“Wh-what are you doing?” Piper asked.
Intricate netting, made with what looked like metal mesh and attached by a silver rod, slid out from where Brent’s arm had been. “Everyone get together. I’m going to shield us.”
Brent flung out the netting, then lowered it on top of Gabriel. Piper gasped and rolled against Gabriel, squeezing under the netting just before it touched the ground.
“Sick,” Piper said, looking both terrified of the locusts and impressed with Brent at the same time.
“Ssh,” Tahlita whispered, as she huddled with Dane and Prince Oliver.
With his other limbs, Brent created more nets. The hard-wire mesh covered him and the others. “Don’t move,” he whispered.
The buzzing intensified, the noise burning Gabriel’s ears until he thought they’d bleed. He cupped his hands over them again, sweat slicking his skin.
“I can’t hold it much longer,” Brent said through gritted teeth as the locusts swarmed the netting. The net started to shake. “There’s too many of them. I can’t hold it.”
Gabriel’s stomach knotted. In between the mesh of the netting, one of the locust’s wings got caught. It twisted and gyrated inches above Gabriel’s nose. Gabriel’s heart pounded. Long, hairy legs stuck out from its pale-yellow body—only the whole thing looked like it was made of steel, like a robotic-winged creature. Its antennae stretched high over black bulging eyes. The worst part was its teeth. Even though they were small, they creeped Gabriel out. Fangs stuck out from its mouth in a row of jagged, shark-like edges. Piper clasped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
A shrill whistle sounded out in the distance.
The locusts silenced for a split second, then shot off toward the sound. The loud buzzing drifted away … except for the one caught in the mesh above Gabriel’s and Piper’s faces. Its round eyes peered down at them. Gabriel gulped. Piper trembled beside him.
A drop of saliva oozed from its mouth, hanging from a pointy, razor-sharp tooth.
Gabriel remembered the note from Dacho, the leader of the Solarians that Prince Oliver had showed them in their minds.
Poisonous locust.
The saliva dripped, then sizzled against the netting. Gabriel shifted, dodging an inch to the side as it slipped through the small hole of the mesh, barely missing him. The grass singed as the venom hit the earth. A small puff of smoke seeped into the air; the smell of ash and something disgusting hit Gabriel’s nose like a stink bomb.
Prince Oliver shoved Brent’s net off of him, then jumped to his feet. He searched the area, then zoned in on the bug stuck in the mesh above Gabriel and Piper. With a low growl, he dug the tip of his blade into the insect. The blade pierced its hard, artificial shell with a crunch. Prince Oliver tugged his sword back and examined the thing. “These locusts aren’t anything like the ones from your world or mine. They are manufactured in a lab.”
The locust flapped its wings, trying to escape the blade. They beat wildly, then slowed until it stopped, as if dead. “When they land on you,” the prince continued, “one drop of their saliva will immobilize you, temporarily paralysing your limbs. After that, if they bite you, you will die.” He scowled. “Avoid them at all costs.”
“Thanks,” Gabriel said to the prince. “It almost got me.” He snuck a peak at Brent who still pinned them down with the mesh. “Seriously, dude, that was so sick with the netting stuff.”
“Um, thanks, Brent,” Piper added. “That was amazing, but you can let us out now.”
Brent nodded, then retracted the nets and wished his arms and legs back. Everyone stared as Brent’s arms and legs shot back out like water from a hose.
“Perfect. Just perfect,” Brent said, standing with a sigh. “Killer locusts.” He paused, twisting his arms around and shaking his legs as he examined them. “I feel weak, but that was way better than a wimpy fish tail, huh?”
Gabriel jumped to his feet with a shake, thinking he’d be freaked out for the rest of his life. If killer locusts weren’t bad enough, his friend had turned into Octopus Man. Not wanting to freak Brent out, too, Gabriel bumped shoulders with him. “Seriously, you just saved our butts from maniacal, other-planetary bugs!”
Dane stood and brushed himself off. “I knew giving you those powers was smart of me.” Leave it to Dane to take the credit. “But after you use those powers you’ll need to recharge a bit—gather strength—especially since you haven’t gotten accustomed to them yet. It takes some getting used to.”
Brent rubbed his hands up and down his arms. “I can tell. My arms and legs feel like Jell-O.”
Piper shifted across the grass and slumped beside Tahlita. The girl was sitting, staring off into space. “You okay, Tally?” Piper asked. “You looked confused back there at the portal, and you seem upset.”
“I’m okay. It’s just … I had another memory.” Tahlita tugged on a blade of grass, then looked at Piper. “Something about Duke Malgor.”
Prince Oliver spun on his heels. “What do you remember?”
“The portal Duke Malgor pushed me through,” she said, looking dazed. “There were two of them side-by-side.” She pinched her brows together. “Why would that be?”
Prince Oliver seemed to think about her words, but didn’t reply. He tugged his watch out again, checking the time. He must have been worried about getting back to the castle to guard the Divinities.
“Anything else?” Piper asked Tahlita.
“He was with a—a man. A man that looked odd.”
“Odd how?” Dane asked, pulling a canteen from his jacket, then guzzling a mouthful of water. He held it out to Tahlita, but she pushed it away so he tucked it back under his black trench coat.
“I mean he looked like a man, except his skin looked like he had a terrible sunburn.” She kneaded her fingers into her forehead. “It happened close to Ericville.” She glanced at Dane. “I was delivering the letter to the gate in Ericville like you had asked me, Father.”
Dane gave her a quick shake of his head, warning her to zip it.
“What letter?” the prince demanded.
Dane groaned and threw his hands up in the air. “She was to attach a letter to the gate demanding the humans to surrender.”
Gabriel gasped. “What?” Ericville was a place where all the humans lived separated from the rest of Valta. “Father!” Tahlita snapped. “You said the letter was announcing a truce! You lied to me!”
“Duke Malgor made some good points, and when you went missing, the duke was the one who agreed to help find you.” Dane fisted his hands. “Now I know it was all a lie.”
Prince Oliver stepped forward. “The humans were to surrender to whom?”
Dane reached out for Tahlita, but stopped. “I was following Duke Malgor’s orders. Never once did I think you’d be in danger. I only thought you’d pin the note on the gate, then return home. I thought the humans had taken you. But I searched high and low all over Valta with no sign of you. So, when I discovered the other portal hidden near Ericville, I took my chances and decided to search through there …”
“Surrender to whom?” repeated the prince, a scowl on his face.
Dane lifted a shoulder. “The only other species that hates humans more than Duke Malgor—the Solarians. They had promised to help with the duke’s plan.” Dane stabbed at his glasses with his pointer finger, pushing them back on his nose. “To rid Valta of humans.”
Gabriel dropped to his butt, ripped out a handful of grass and threw it with a grunt. Crawling beside Brent, he asked, “This is crazy, right? How can someone hate humans more than the duke?”
“It actually makes sense now,” Tahlita said. “I overheard them saying something about a utopia.”
“A utopia?” Piper repeated. “Is that like a perfect place?”
Tahlita scrunched her shoulders up to her ears. “Yeah, the supposed flawless world.”
“Well that’s dumb. Nothing’s perfect.”
Prince Ol
iver made a rumbling sound in his chest. “If what Dane says is true, and the Solarians hate humans more than the duke, then a perfect world for them would be a world without humans in it.”
Tahlita inhaled a quick breath. “Holy Valta! That was it! Now I remember. Back when I was going to deliver the note to Ericville, I’d come upon the duke with that weird looking guy. Duke Malgor said he wanted to create a supreme race of Zeverons—yes, that was it. The red-skinned guy said he’d help Duke Malgor get rid of humans and half-breeds.” Tahlita glanced at Prince Oliver.
Prince Oliver and Princess Evangeline’s father, Sir Landon Braddock, was human. That made the prince and princess half human, half Zeveron. They believed their father had been killed by Malgor. They had told Gabriel before that Duke Malgor thought Empress Malina had tarnished the throne when she had married a human. Apparently, that’s what had gotten Malgor all steamy in the first place. He definitely wasn’t happy that Prince Oliver, a half-blood, was heir to the throne.
Prince Oliver cursed under his breath, then a crooked grin flicked over his face. “Getting rid of humans and what he calls half-breeds? That will never happen under my watch.”
“That red-skinned man,” Tahlita continued, her eyes glazed over, “Malgor called him Dacho. The same name as on the note you found.” She looked to the grass, her face pale. “I remember now. Duke Malgor pushed me through the portal because they caught me listening.” She paused, then repeated, “Dacho. He said he’d help Duke Malgor rid Valta of humans if Malgor then promised to help rid the universe of them, too. But not before he could finish something—that part I didn’t hear, but—” She hesitated. Gabriel could tell she was deciding whether she should say anything else.
After a moment, she looked at Piper, worry creasing her forehead. “Dacho told Malgor they’d initiate his plan and the elimination of humans starting with … Earth.”
Piper raised her eyebrows. “What?”
“Well that changes things then, doesn’t it?” Prince Oliver cut in. He yanked his watch out for the third time, checked it, then shoved it back inside his pocket.
“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked Prince Oliver.
“Well, I’d planned to have you three go to Duke Malgor’s castle and wait for the Solarians to show up. They’d be expecting Duke Malgor, but instead they’d meet you with your powers along with three of our winged tigers.” He paused, thinking. “But now that we know where the portals are, I think you must go there,” he said as Dane and Tahlita prepared to leave.
“And the locusts?” Dane asked, lifting a brow.
“Hopefully, once my mother and sister are returned, Dacho will stop the locust curse too. I’ll admit, that seems unlikely, so Leejor is working on a potion just in case. And if that doesn’t work ... ” Prince Oliver’s voice trailed off and he shook his head.
As much as the prince seemed older and capable, he wasn’t emperor yet, or as experienced as Empress Malina. Even though he looked as big as Gabriel’s dad and the dude was cool and everything, Prince Oliver was still a teenager. Gabriel realized the prince didn’t have an answer for every problem. Gabriel just hoped that between all of them they could figure it out eventually.
They had to.
The sound of something rustling in the grass beside them made the hair on Gabriel’s arms stand up.
They’d been talking too loud. The locusts were back.
Except this time, Brent was too weak to use his powers to shield them.
Gabriel twisted around, heart hammering. He tugged on Brent’s and Piper’s arms and sprang into a runner’s stance. “The killer locusts,” he whispered. “Run!”
Before Gabriel could move, black, furry fingers reached out between the blades of grass, grabbing his attention.
CHAPTER TEN
A small black monkey jumped in front of them. “Finley ‘orry be late. Bug try get Finley. Me no like new bug.”
“Finley!” Gabriel exclaimed, grabbing his Valtan, monkey buddy. Gabriel threw Finley up in the air and caught the monkey under his arms as he swung down. Finley squealed and wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s neck.
Finley had been the first one to find them when they arrived in Valta the last time. Not only did the talking, tracker monkey help lead them to the empress, but he and his troop of monkeys—the Fegans—had helped fight the war with Malgor and become their friends along the way.
“Hey, little dude,” Brent said, reaching out to fist bump with Finley.
Finley stared at Brent’s outstretched hand, then raised a confused eyebrow.
“Like this,” Piper said with a laugh. She reached out and wrapped her hand around Finley’s. She closed his fingers, then pressed his fist against Brent’s.
They all laughed.
Finley held up a small black whistle that dangled from a thin string around his neck. “Finley blow, then bug fly away from friend.”
Gabriel realized the shrill sound that had distracted the locusts had been the whistle. Finley had saved them.
Piper tugged on the blue scarf tied around Finley’s left bicep. “You rock, Finley.”
Finley squealed and spun around. “Finley be rock!” A grin slid up his furry face.
“That explains why you were late,” Prince Oliver said. “I was wondering.”
It hit Gabriel then that the prince had been checking his watch all that time because he’d been waiting for Finley.
Dane raised his hands, looking confused.
“You didn’t think I’d send them off into Valta alone, now did you?” the prince asked Dane before looking at Finley. “Thanks for helping us. And for coming.” He turned his focus on Gabriel, Brent, and Piper. “Finley here will help lead you to Ericville—”
“What?” Finley tilted his head at the prince. “No go Wood?”
Prince Oliver crouched down. “You must now take them close to Ericville, Finley, not the Tandem Wood. Plans have changed. Tahlita saw two portals near Ericville.”
Finley’s tail swished left to right rustling the grass behind him. “What portal for? Why two?”
“One is obviously the place Duke Malgor pushed Tahlita through to Harmony. The one we never knew about. The other must be a gateway to Solaria. It has to be.”
“Where’s Solaria, anyway?” Brent asked.
“Another planet,” Dane said with a shrug as if he was talking about Manhattan or somewhere totally normal. “It’s unknown to the solar system as Earth knows it. I heard the duke speak about the Solarians briefly. Malgor is very secretive though, even with his council members. All he said was the Solarians were very advanced in their technology.”
“No kidding,” Piper said. “If they can make giant, killer locusts, they must be.”
Prince Oliver waved them forward and they followed him through the grass for several minutes. When they reached a clearing, he turned and said, “It’s here that Dane, Tahlita, and I leave you.”
Gabriel looked out across shorter grass mixed with golden, shimmery soil.
“Tonight Finley will take the three of you to Gunner’s house. He is a kindred spirit to the throne. There you will rest and eat. Many flying tigers are waiting for my safe return home, then I will send three of them to meet you. They will assist you on the rest of your journey. The deadline the Solarians gave to return Duke Malgor is three days. After that, they’ll kill my mother and sister. It’s imperative you ambush them before time runs out. The tigers will make sure of that.” He stared at the floor, then cleared his throat before looking back at them. “A day has passed since I received the note. I know mother said the tigers aren’t to ever leave the castle or their other posts without her command, but I feel this situation takes precedence. Besides, they will get you there faster.” He drove his fingers through his hair with a sigh. “The protection spell is about to expire on the Divinities. I must return to the castle to ensure the safety of all of Valta.”
Prince Oliver nodded to Gabriel, Brent, and Piper, and in return, Gabriel smiled at the prince. He didn�
�t want Prince Oliver to feel worse than he already did. Gabriel swore he would do whatever it took to help save Empress Malina and Princess Evangeline. They were his friends. He totally got that Prince Oliver couldn’t leave the Divinities unprotected. If they were stolen or separated, well, all of Valta could be destroyed. They’d already fixed that problem last time they’d been in Valta.
“I wish I could come and assist you, but I cannot.” Prince Oliver ran his fingers along the hilt of his sword, thinking, his face sad. Gabriel’s body tensed and he clamped down on his back molars, the weight of the situation weighing down on him. “Please save my mother and sister,” Prince Oliver said.
Determination surged through Gabriel’s body. He shoved away thoughts that they were hopelessly outmatched and vowed, “I promise we’ll do everything we can.”
***
After they said their good-byes, Dane and Tahlita headed home and Prince Oliver returned to the castle. As Gabriel, Brent, and Piper walked behind Finley, Gabriel slipped his hands inside the pocket of his hoodie, tossing things around in his mind. The prince had said he was gonna send the flying tigers to take them the rest of the way. But when would he send them? And that meant they were gonna fly on tigers. Seriously cool and everything, but the only time Gabriel had flown on a tiger was when the empress had whisked him out of the Tandem Wood on Andimian. She’d taken him straight to Leejor because he had been badly wounded. So technically, he didn’t really know how to fly a tiger. He just hoped the tigers were good with newbies.
The empress. She had saved him the last time, so Gabriel hoped he and his friends would be able to return the favor. They had to. He especially worried about what the Solarians were doing to Princess Evangeline. She was half-human after all. Gabriel understood why Malgor didn’t like humans, but he didn’t know what was up with the Solarians’ hatred. What was it about humans that they hated so much?
It sucked that Tahlita hadn’t heard the rest of Dacho and Malgor’s conversation. Dacho had told Malgor he needed to finish something before working on the whole “kill humans spree” … but what was the something?
Gabriel Stone and the Wrath of the Solarians Page 6
