In the center of combat, Brent lobbed vast fireballs toward the death-mongers. A dozen of them exploded in a ball of flames. But their attacks kept coming, and as many as he destroyed, there were more to replace them. One death-monger in Brent’s path escaped his firestorm, and charged him. Before Brent could throw a fireball, the death-monger thrust the sole of its heavy black boot against Brent’s chest, sending him flying onto the ground. Brent gasped for air as his eyes widened. The vile creature snorted through its hollow nostrils and raised its sword high.
An arrow struck the creature between its eye sockets.
“Later, sucker,” Brent huffed. He sat up and looked around, patting his chest. His gaze met Gabriel’s, through the chaos. Gabriel threw up his hands, waving him over.
They stood by Piper, who still crouched beside Jasra’s body, tears spilling down her cheeks. Brent pulled her arm gently, but she yanked it back.
Gabriel lifted his head and gazed into the distance. He blinked. Looked again. And saw the most beautiful face—the face of Empress Malina.
“Come here,” she called out to him.
A rush of adrenaline hit Gabriel’s veins. He ran to meet her, leaving Brent to console Piper.
“Empress Malina, we have the Divinities for you!”
“Yes, Gabriel, I have come for them. To set things right again. Thank you, my sweet. Give them to me now, and all will be well.”
Gabriel reached into his pocket. As he pulled out the Divinity, the gruock with the bright red patch of fur on its hind leg glared at him from its perch on top of a moss-covered rock about twenty feet away.
It’s gotta be morning soon.
“Yes, it will be morning soon,” the empress said, reading his thoughts, “but that will not matter after I connect the Divinities. Hurry now, before it is too late.”
Gabriel handed the empress the Divinity from around his neck, while the howls and clashing of spears and swords rang out. A drumming of paws stole Gabriel’s attention away from the empress. Glancing over his shoulder, his gaze dropped on the red-patched gruock, charging toward him.
“Hurry up,” Gabriel snapped, not wanting the burden of them any longer. “I’m sick of this.” He dug a fisted hand into his eye, and shook his head. “Sorry. I’ve been bitten. Just take them already.”
Just as the empress was about to place her hands on top of Gabriel’s, the red-patched gruock leapt through the air. Teeth bared, it flung itself on the empress. Gabriel screamed. Shoving each Divinity into a separate pocket, he grabbed his spear.
The gruock bit her face, while the empress screamed. Rage rushed through his veins. Gabriel figured it was probably the gruock virus, but he didn’t care. As the sun rose above the mountaintop, Gabriel raised the spear above his head. But just as he was about to bring it down on the savage animal attacking the empress, the beauty peeled away from Empress Malina. She shook violently, her face contorting as she transformed into someone else.
Duke Malgor.
Gabriel froze, ice skittering down his spine. He wasn’t sure if he was being tricked, or going crazy from the virus. He became more confused as the gruock continued its attack on Malgor, despite Malgor’s demands for release. Either that gruock is completely insane—or I am, Gabriel decided, but he kept his spear high, ready to strike if the beast turned on him.
Malgor grabbed a dagger from the sheath on his leg. He thrust it at the beast, missed, then sunk it into the beast’s shoulder. He stood, stepped roughly onto its other shoulder, and jerked the dagger out, callously wiping the gruock’s blood on his pant leg. Yelping, it fell to the ground.
Gabriel looked away from the gruock, his anger growing over Malgor’s never-ending deceit. Malgor flicked away the blood from the gruock’s attack, as if it were no more than sweat, then wiped his hand on his pants.
Gabriel pointed his spear at Malgor’s head. “You’re sickening.” Gabriel stared into his icy-cold eyes. “I should kill you now!”
“You are an ignoramus. I am a Zeveron and a shape-shifter. If it weren’t for this mad gruock, victory would already be mine!”
So the attack really did happen. I wasn’t just seeing things from the virus!
The rising sun broke through the orange streaks in the sky. The sudden light made it hard for Gabriel to see. He turned away from its harsh glare, his gaze falling on the red-patched gruock, now panting and whining. In the morning sunlight, its transformation had begun.
As he watched, something in the pit of Gabriel’s stomach squeezed up like a fist, gripping him, and twisting.
He slumped to his knees. Lying there, wounded and curled in a ball, was his mother.
He blinked. “Mom?”
Malgor plunged his sword deep into Gabriel’s stomach, his cold eyes gleaming in the morning sunlight.
Gabriel gasped and clutched at the sword handle. He gaped, staring from Malgor to his mother. His lashes fluttered. He’d never been so tired in his whole life. He tried calling to his friends, but his voice was weak.
“Brent, Piper,” Gabriel whispered. He glanced at Jasra’s dead body, but his friends were gone.
Malgor’s taunting voice brought him back. “You need only to be breathing boy … barely.” Malgor laughed. “While there is still life in you, we will connect the Divinities, once and for all. Then I shall watch you die, Oh Chosen One.”
Gabriel’s mother crawled to him, and stretched out her hand. “Gabriel,” she whimpered, tears streaming down her face. Gabriel reached out his bloodstained hand toward her. The world tilted off its course. His head spun. And, strangely, he felt happy.
I did it. I found mom.
She didn’t leave on purpose.
I found her.
Malgor searched Gabriel’s pockets, and retrieved the Divinities with a menacing laugh. He grabbed Gabriel’s hands, turned them palms up, and placed a Divinity in each.
Everything swirled around too fast. Gabriel’s vision blurred. First there was one duke. Then two. Then three.
“I am the rightful ruler of Valta. Emperor!” cried Malgor. He stared at Gabriel with a crooked grin. “I accept power and control of the Divinities. As the Divinities and I become one, I will be the life force for all of Valta.” He lowered his hands toward the Divinities in Gabriel’s hands.
A fierce wind swept over them, accompanied by a thunderous roar. The death-mongers stood eerily still, looking even more corpse-like than they had before. Eric and the humans from Ericville gazed with amazement at the sky. Gabriel rolled his eyes up.
An army of white tigers soared through the air on massive, white wings. Leading the way flew Andimian, the empress’s great protector with Empress Malina on his back. To her right side and following closely behind flew an equally large and majestic tiger. Prince Oliver sat on its back, shoulders squared, holding the nape of the tiger’s neck. Oliver’s shaggy blond hair blew back from his face. Spread out behind both of them, Andimian’s tiger militia swooped down in an onslaught of assault on Malgor’s army.
Piper called out, “Look—it’s Prince Oliver! When the dome smashed at Malgor’s castle, it must have broken the spell!”
“No!” Malgor leapt to cover his hands over the Divinities.
With the last ounce of strength left in his body, Gabriel twisted his hands away. Pain erupted inside him like a bomb. Malgor’s grasping hands touched nothing but air.
Prince Oliver’s enormous tiger swooped down. Its claws grasped Malgor’s shoulders, digging through Malgor’s already shredded shirt. Oliver yelled a command, and the tiger shot straight into the air with a thunderous roar, its claws hooked deep in Malgor’s flesh.
Gabriel’s limbs grew limp as wet noodles, his arms and legs tingling. Gasping for air, he looked into his mother’s heartbroken face, and drifted off into an abyss of darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Thump … thump … thump …
Gabriel’s heartbeat thudded through his ears. A cool wind swirled around him. Raindrops fell on his face, stirring him into a
blur of half-consciousness.
Another sound rose above his heartbeat—an unmistakable thudding, forceful and rhythmic. He pried his eyes open. The intense blue eyes of Empress Malina stared back. She yelled words Gabriel couldn’t understand. Her long blond hair blew back from her troubled face. Sideways sheets of rain drove into her, and a clash of lightning lit up the sky.
Slowly, painfully, he turned his head. The rhythmic thudding pounded from Andimian’s mighty wings, whipping the air. Oh. He was flying high in the air on a winged tiger with the empress of Valta. Yup, I’m definitely dead. Something pressed on his abdomen. He drifted into oblivion again.
The sound of Piper crying stirred him awake. “He’s dead, isn’t he? Everything we did was for nothing if he’s dead!” she said, sobbing.
Gabriel pried his eyes open. He tried to remember what had happened. Something about the empress and the Divinity. He gave his head an experimental shake, and pain shot out from behind his eyes. Then it all came back.
“Where am I?” He looked from side to side. He was lying in a bed, surrounded by his friends.
Princess Evangeline squealed with happiness. Piper laughed as she squeezed Gabriel in a hug. Brent’s face lit up in a smile.
“Dude!”
“You’re alive!” Piper dipped her face close to Gabriel’s, and peered into his eyes. “Malgor almost killed you.”
Gabriel shuddered as he replayed the horrible moment when Malgor’s sword plunged into him. Groaning, he tapped his belly.
But the wound had disappeared. Reaching under the sheets, he checked his leg for the gruock’s bite, but it, too, had vanished. “But—but—”
Brent pointed toward the window. “Look over there.”
Gabriel turned his head. A tall, skinny man with long, black hair and a gray cloak stood with his back to him. The man stared outside at a troubled, stormy sky. Leejor. And next to him, the empress. She’d saved him!
“Empress Malina!” Gabriel sat up. The room spun, and he slapped a hand to his forehead. “Whoa.”
Empress Malina rushed over. “Lie back down, my love.” She eased him back. “You have to rest. You’ve been through so much, and I regret, I still must request one further thing.”
Leejor turned away from the window and looked at Gabriel with his yellow alien eyes, which seemed much more anxious than they had when Gabriel had first seen them. “Hello, Gabriel,” he said with only a quick glance, then turned his focus on Empress Malina. “You must hasten now, Empress.”
“Thanks, Leejor, for saving me,” Gabriel said. “But you … you mean the Divinities still aren’t connected? But my mother—oh my God. My mom!” He bolted up. “Where is she? I did get them, right?” He rubbed his head. “Seriously, where is she? And why haven’t you connected them yet?” His eyes darted from one face to the next, looking for an answer.
The empress sat on the bed beside him, and grasped his hand. “Listen to me, Gabriel. It was you all along. You who must decide Valta’s fate. Remember, I told you only an innocent finder of the Divinities can connect them? It is you who must connect them. And you who must decide to keep the power, or relinquish it to whomever you choose.”
“Empress Malina, I only ever wanted for things to be right with Valta, and to go home with my friends and Zigzag … and—my mom. Where exactly are my mom and dog, anyway?” He searched the room for any sign of them. Had it been just a dream? Another trick? His stomach churned, threatening to heave.
“I will get you and your friends back home as promised, if that is still your wish. I want you to know you have a choice.” She retrieved a box from the night table, and opened it. Inside sat the brilliant, triangular Divinities, placed side by side. Rays of multi-colored light shone across the room.
With a sigh of relief, Gabriel picked them up, and held them out to the empress. “Empress, I want to return these to you. Please, take them and fix your world.”
Empress Malina smiled. “Very well, Gabriel.” She placed her hands over his, connecting the Divinities by small grooves on the bottom of each. The Divinities formed a beautiful diamond shape. The room ignited in beams of magnificent and brilliant prisms. Two landscapes shimmered in midair. They joined in the middle, a mirror reflection of each other.
Brent gasped. “Awesome!”
“Valta is the mirror image of your home town—and also, its polar opposite, you could say. One Divinity’s light shows Valta. The other, Willow Creek.”
“See? That’s what we figured out with my compass already,” Gabriel said, feeling proud of himself.
The empress nodded. “Each Divinity generates a pure energy, but when joined together, they become infinitely powerful. It is the life force for Valta.”
The earth suddenly rumbled and shook beneath them, and the sky blackened to tar. Piper and Brent fell to the ground, gripping the side of the bed. The only light came from the Divinities’ brilliant hues, which illuminated the room in a dazzling light show.
“What’s going on?” shrieked Piper over the wailing wind.
“It’s not working.” Brent shouted back. “A tornado’s coming!”
Gabriel shifted his gaze from the empress to the angry, black sky. An enormous tornado headed straight for them. What if this is just another trick? What if it’s really Malgor, shape-shifting again?
His palms prickled with sweat. Panicked, he started to release the Divinities as he searched Empress Malina’s face for some sign of genuineness. She gripped his hands until he could see into her thoughts.
Fear not, my dear child. A healing of Valta is taking place. Hold steadfastly now, and do not let go. Embrace your destiny.
Gabriel heard the words, but Empress Malina’s lips hadn’t moved. She just stared into his eyes, and smiled. Gabriel grasped the Divinities again, and pinched his eyes shut. He wanted to believe her. It had to be true. Even though complete chaos surrounded them, a sense of calm rushed through him.
“Hang on,” screamed Piper. “It’s gonna hit us!”
The mattress shifted as Brent and Piper dug their fingers into it, bracing for the worst.
But the tornado never came. Instead, sunlight flooded the room. Piper and Brent ran to look out the window at the bright, sunny sky.
Brent laughed. “You did it, Gabe! I can’t believe it!”
“We did it,” Gabriel said. “All of us, together.” Gabriel released the two Divinities, now combined as one, to the empress, and collapsed back onto the bed. As he lay there, he gazed over at his friends who were looking out the window, and grinning. He could hardly believe it was over. He looked back to where Empress Malina had been sitting beside him. He only caught the tail of her long turquoise dress as it flowed behind her out of the room.
“Empress!” Gabriel called.
But she was gone.
Piper hurried to Gabriel’s side. “Relax. Everything’s okay now.”
“Are you sure everything’s okay?” Gabriel mumbled, feeling uneasy. “I mean, I’m glad Valta’s gonna be okay, but what about us? What about my mom? And Zigzag, and—where’s Malgor?”
Piper looked to Brent with a puzzled expression, then back at Gabriel. “Not sure what you mean about your mother.”
“W-what? But I saw her—with Malgor.”
“You lost a lot of blood.” Piper ruffled the sheet on the bed. “I didn’t see her.”
“You didn’t see her? But she was there. I’m telling you, she was there.” Gabriel slammed his pillow over his face with a groan. He wondered if it had really happened the way he remembered, or if the gruock virus had made him see things. Maybe even the sword to the gut caused it. Or maybe it was only like what happened to him back in Willow Creek when he fell under the ice and thought he saw his mom there. He sighed and swallowed back the lump in his throat.
“You’re lucky to be alive,” Brent said, lifting the pillow away from Gabriel’s face. “You heard Empress Malina. She said she’d send us home. Try not to worry anymore, bro.”
Soon, Princess Evangeline
gathered them for dinner. “A great victory feast has been prepared in your honor. Surely, you must be starving.”
The others helped Gabriel out of bed. They followed Princess Evangeline through the palace halls. Festive music and chattering filled the air, growing louder as they approached the ginormous hall. As they entered, a hush fell over the room. The entire room was full of familiar faces. Everyone turned and cast happy eyes on them.
Then, amazingly, Zigzag burst through the crowd and bounded toward Gabriel, her stumpy tail wagging wildly.
“Ziggy!” He dropped to his knees and happily received a tongue bath from his beloved pet. The crowd erupted in laughter and cheers as Piper and Brent jumped in to hug her, too.
Empress Malina’s voice rose above the crowd. “Our guests of honor: Gabriel Stone, Brent Chapman, and Piper Ramirez! Oh, and Zigzag Stone, of course. Come and eat, children.” She ushered them to their seats at a huge table, set with fancy dishes on top of a burgundy silk tablecloth. Large bowls of steaming mashed potatoes were topped with cream and exotic spices; trays of mixed carrots and sweet candied yams, curried chicken, and lamb with mint jelly made Gabriel’s mouth water.
As they ate, a twisting, burning hole seemed to grow inside Gabriel’s stomach. Piper’s words rang in his ears. Not sure what you mean about your mother. I didn’t see her. The memory of the words stung like an attack of angry hornets.
His gaze shifted around the room, looking at those who’d grown to mean so much to him since his arrival in Valta. Brent sat with Finley and Piper, feeding Zigzag table scraps between his own huge mouthfuls of food. Piper told the citizens of Parma about Jasra’s bravery, convincing them to erect a statue in his honor. Tratta, the chatty cat from Ericville, purred and circled Piper’s leg as Piper fed her bits of chicken. Princess Evangeline, dressed in a flowing, purple party dress, giggled at her brother, who told her stories of the battle. Eric and Flossie helped to serve the food—although Flossie had to keep shooing Eric away from a delicious-looking stew as she ladled huge spoonfuls into everyone’s bowls.
Gabriel Stone and the Divinity of Valta Page 17
